Bula Vinaka!
22 Aug 2022
Steve and I have been called to once again serve in the Fiji, Suva Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints for 23 months. Many people have requested to be on our "letter list" so I decided to try a blog format to simplify that process. As with anything new, this comes with a learning curve, but several kind people have helped me to this point, and I'm sure I will continue to learn!
We enjoyed the Mission Training Center (MTC) in Provo. We got to know 3 other couples and a sister very well as they were all called to self-reliance or MLS assignments.
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| Andersons (New York City) Steve and I, Tidwells (Philippines), Hall (Southern Texas) |
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| Sister Abeyta (Vanuatu) |
We enjoyed a weekend in Idaho, especially being able to attend the Rexburg Temple when our granddaughter Katelyn went through for the first time.
We had a great time exploring the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot. I bought a baked potato with butter. It tasted like a potato!
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| Steve found a friend |
Our last 2 days of training in Provo were very enjoyable, as they were completely focused on self-reliance. Our presenters were from church headquarters in Salt Lake. They showed us lots of bells and whistles. Not many of them are operational in Fiji! They brought great snacks . . .
While we were at the MTC we got word that my work visa has been approved. The Fiji immigration office also let the mission president know that if immigration papers have been submitted, the candidate can come to Fiji on a 21 day temporary business visa, renewable every 21 days until the work visa is granted. That change got us travel documents, and we were able to fly on Saturday Sept. 3rd.
5 Sept 2022
Fiji welcomed us with a week of sunshine and tropical breezes! President and Sister Marcus and the Ropers were at the airport to greet us. All our bags arrived safely. We are in the same flat that we used last time. The flat was beautifully clean and empty (except for 4 boxes of stuff they packed up for us and put into storage). The first thing Sister Roper did was bring in my sewing machine. The Ropers live next door and had taken the sewing machine to their place for safe-keeping. We spent our first week unpacking, organizing, stocking the pantry and refrigerator, meeting the other senior couples that are serving here, getting our driver’s licenses, figuring out phones, devices and WiFi, and various other chores.
On Thursday, we were in the Vodafone parking lot and discovered that the truck battery was dead. A very kind man stopped (as we did have jumper cables) and helped us get going again. Thursday evening we tried to do a practice Zoom meeting with our BYU Pathways group and it was a total fail. Earlier in the day, Steve had been making a right hand turn (think USA left) and made the rookie mistake of looking in the wrong place to clear himself for the turn, and barely missed getting us killed by a very big, very fast truck. When we were unable to make connections on Zoom (although we could see our group) we decided that 3 doses of bad luck in one day were enough, and packed it in for the evening!
Renewing the driver’s licenses was interesting. We went to the LTA (think DMV) and the gentleman put my information into the computer first. He asked my age, and I told him (its under 70). I paid the money for renewal from the expiration date, and decided to go bold and get the 6 year license. No problem. Took about 15 minutes. We were thrilled and comparing Fiji LTA favorably to Utah/Cali DMV. Then it was Steve's turn. When he stated his age (over 70), the process took a radical left turn. If you are over 70 in Fiji, you have to renew your license yearly. But wait, there’s more. You also need a physical exam by a physician, an eye test, a road test, and then it’s only renewed until February, which is one year from the time the old license expired. Because of the way the dates fall, he gets to do that 2 more times while we are here.
11 Sept 2022
President Marcus assigned us to attend the Verata branch on Sundays. There is another senior missionary couple, Elder and Sister Patton, who have been attending there since April. The branch meets in the Branch President’s home in Naloto village. We stopped to pick up a family on the way to church and crammed an additional 10 people into our 2 vehicles. We realized how necessary that was when we arrived, because we brought half the congregation! We’ve been out there 2 Sundays now, and I’m beginning to like sitting on a low sofa (all the Fijians sit on the floor) with a beautifully woven mat under my bare feet, while we have a Sunday School “Come Follow Me” lesson in Fijian, Sacrament service with one tray of bread and one tray of water (last week Elder Hinkson fixed the wobbly water tray because he has the good sense to carry a tool kit). Hymns are sung a’cappella, and when the members sing the melodies and harmonies, I hear angels. It’s so beautiful! Steve and I were asked to speak the first week, and Pattons organized an assigned testimony meeting last week, because the branch president wasn’t there. There is one elder who attends, and 2 deacons, one of which was ordained our first week and passed sacrament for the first time on our second week. We are having a district conference this Sunday in Korovou, and everyone is expecting changes. We’re looking forward to it because Korovou chapel is on a hill with an amazing view of villages, jungle, and ocean. Missionaries and members from the northeast side of the island will be there, so I’m expecting to meet people we haven’t seen in a long time!
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| This is where we pick up our family. It is about 15 km from the village where we meet. |
The first week, all these old tires were right in front of the branch president's house. They are in preparation for building a protecting wall where some of the beach was eroding behind the house. Cyclone season is coming (October to April)
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| The next week, the tires were organized into stacks and filled with sand, dirt, and chunks of concrete. They will pour more concrete down the centers to reinforce the wall. |
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| Verata Branch Sacrament meeting |
13 Sept 2022
Starting on Tuesday of our second week here, there was an Area Welfare/Self-Reliance conference here is Suva. It involved several people who work here in the service center (including our boss) the other senior couple, Elder and Sister Walker, who are here for Welfare/Humanitarian, and us! We had representatives from the Area office in New Zealand and Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Kiribati area managers. BYU Pathways reps from Salt Lake, and 2 people from the BYU Hawaii admissions office. We got some great information and several new friends and contacts in high places! On Wednesday evening there was a multi-stake BYU Pathways devotional for high school and YSA kids. It was a wonderful meeting. Thursday afternoon we did a temple session with the whole group, and Friday night we were treated to a native Fijian experience in the Colo-I-Suva village, and a Lovo dinner at a restaurant afterwards. Lovo is traditional Fijian pit barbecue. After our humble little village Sunday, it was a high-end, big city week. Quite a contrast.
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| Walter led our morning devotional with a hymn and accompanied us on the ukulele |
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| The Fiji LDS Church College school choir at the YSA devotional |
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| Our Area Conference group |
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| The two folks in red are the BYU admissions team, LaVern and Maurice. The man on the far left in aqua is Uriah, the Welfare Self-Reliance (WSR) manager here in Fiji and our "boss". |
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We feel we were witness to a miracle. We have been acquainted with a young man (Soko) who served his mission here in Fiji during Covid, and had applied to BYU Hawaii in January. He also made application to the iWork program (which is a very generous grant available to Pacific Islanders). He has been waiting for several months to hear if he has been accepted. We were starting to encourage him to continue in the Pathways degree program as a fall-back. When he went to the devotional, another couple who has been working closely with him since before covid encouraged him to talk with the BYU admissions people who presented at the devotional. They contacted him via ZOOM for his interviews on Friday, and Saturday he got word that he has been accepted for the winter term with an iWork grant. We are so excited for him, but not half as excited as he is!
19 Sept 2022
Dr. Dean Clark and his wife served a Humanitarian mission here in 2016. He is a podiatrist, and they worked extensively with the medical community and the NGO groups that focus on diabetic complications. They developed a great love for Fiji, and a commitment to the programs they developed, so they come back pretty frequently and bring lots of supplies with them. They arrived last week, for the first time since covid, and came to us to help set up a service project to unload a cargo container the size of a railroad car containing crutches, wheel chairs, and prosthetic devices for the physical therapy hospital in Tamavua, which is up the road from the temple about 10 km. We referred it back to the Assistants to the President (APs), and they organized about 12 young missionaries, MP and MPW, and 2 senior couples on Monday morning (P-day) to unload the supplies and put them in a few rooms in the clinic. It was an amazing experience!
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| President and Sister Marcus are back center (in blue) Sister Clark is far left (in aqua) The Walkers are center right (in blue shirts) Steve and I (in light shirts) and the missionaries of the Suva North district. |
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| I watched, took pictures, and provided water and cookies as needed. |
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| We used a few abandoned beds and gurneys as box transports |
Loloma levu
