November 2023

This design is made of coloured rice. I spotted it at 
our local market. It is laid out directly on the floor.

 The main day of the Diwali celebration this year was on November 13th (a Monday). The week before, our neighbour and landlord, Shammie, saw me out in the yard and told me not to cook on Diwali. She said she and her husband would bring dinner for us, and also our neighbours, Elder and Sister Thevenin. From past experience we knew that there would be PLENTY of food, so we combined the meal at our flat and invited the Boehm's to join us. We had potato lentil curry, pumpkin curry, chilli sauce, and a wonderful array of savoury and sweet baked treats. I know that each one has a name, but I sure haven't learned them all! The fireworks started at 6:30 pm and lasted far into the night. Fortunately, our flat is at the back of the property, so there wasn't anything that kept us awake. 

     Avinish and Shammie Prasad.
Our next door neighbours,
our landlord, and provider of
wonderful Diwali treats.
             

Elder & Sister Klomps (left)
Elder & Sister Thevenin(right)

Elder Gerken (front right) and many of our 
office buddies at the "First Friday" potluck
lunch. Elder Gerken is the financial secretary for
the FSM, and he was invited to talk about organising
family finances. He did an excellent job, and clearly 
illustrated why children should be trained in the home
to manage money. It was pertinent, funny, and very
entertaining.

The Klomps are the newest senior couple. They are on a "Human Rights" mission, and will be working closely with the schools and the government ministries. We don't see much of them around the office. The Patton's finished their mission in November (they were ITEP and worked closely with the LDS schools here in Suva). They were also our "MLS"* buddies when we were working with the Verata Branch.  We sure miss them!

Elder & Sister Patton with Brother & Sister
Baivou in the back.

On  the 4th of November, an eagerly awaited event took place. A new chapel built right next to the LDS College (high school) campus was ready for the "hand over". Sunday November 5th was the first day that services were held in the building. As I understand it, dedication will follow sometime after the first of the year. Steve and I decided to go to one of the wards that meet there for Sunday services. It is a very beautiful building, and will be a great addition to the facilities in this area. 

Tamavua Chapel

Tamavua Chapel 
Each ward in the building (3)  contributed flowers

This multipurpose area is useful as a gym, but will 
also accommodate about 500 chairs for big meetings.

During November we seemed to have an unusual number of young missionaries needing dental care. Of  course, the dentist I have worked with in the past (before Elder Hatch!) was out of the country on holiday. I started using a clinic that had been recommended to me, Grace Dentistry. Fortunately they have a very spacious waiting room, because when transportation is involved, missionaries travel in groups. 

The Grace Dentistry waiting room. 2 missionaries
were being treated that day. I believe more than
one nap happened while we waited!

A successful dental visit for Sister
Lagilagi. She had a filling fall out 
that was right between her two top 
front teeth. It's sure good to see them
smile!

The week of November 13th was the first cyclone of the season (Nov-April). We had travel plans starting on the 15th to go to the west and do some self-reliance (SR) training with several ward councils and new SR specialists. We were watching conditions closely, and by Tuesday evening it was pretty clear that the storm was being downgraded enough that we could safely be on the road. 

We started the trip late morning on Wednesday, heading for Nadi. It was actually a wonderful drive, because there was very little rain, very little traffic, and the main road was clear of flooding and downed trees. 

After we checked into our hotel in Nadi, we started making phone calls to confirm the meeting we had scheduled for Wednesday evening and discovered that most of our group were very involved in storm clean-up. They were willing to postpone SR to Friday, so we quickly arranged with the hotel to stay an additional night. 

Thursday was sunny and clear! We were able to do a very successful training with the new Lautoka Stake SR rep, Sister Qaqa (pronounced gonga). 

We had a meeting scheduled Thursday evening in Lautoka, which is about an hour's drive from Nadi, but we arrived to find the building empty and locked. We quickly drove to the other building in Lautoka, and met up with our area SR team who were training on wheelchair distribution. It's always good to see how the rest of the team handles presentations! (Steve found out later that the bishop was called out of town and cancelled our meeting. We were the last to know!) 

We were able to meet with a couple of missionaries in Lautoka who had receipts for medical bills. They were sure glad to get their cash back when I reimbursed them. No trip is ever wasted!

This was the clean-up crew that greeted us
at the  Nawaka building
Wednesday afternoon

Follow Me, Boys!

I thought this palm frond had 
sprouted legs!

Elder Hinkson had candy
bars to share

Getting his proper Homage!

Since we had unplanned time on Friday, we booked a day trip to a little island right off the coast that is totally set up for tourist fun. The trip was scheduled from 9 am to 3 pm, which was perfect for us to get back to the hotel in time to shower and change for our 6 pm meeting. 

I always throw my "beach bag" into the car on any trip we take. Steve decided to travel light and had not included any swim gear because our original schedule was pretty tight. So you know what that means--SHOPPING!  He now owns new trunks, tee shirt, and Bula shirt (and I might have picked up a couple of extra items). 

The weather was absolutely glorious, one of the nicest days we've experienced in the islands. I'll let the pictures tell the story. 

Photo-op on the beach after
a wonderful swim. I was able
to walk the beach and go 
around the entire island
in about 30 minutes.

This is a high-speed catamaran 
that services all of the resorts 
off Denerau Island. It was very 
crowded on the way out. Fortunately,
our excursion island was the first
stop.

This little boat ferries passengers from the main ship to the
beach. I'm always so happy to have a couple
of strong Fijian men to help steady
me on and off the boats.

Lunch was a buffet barbecue, and we were entertained
by traditional Fijian dance and music.

We were really amazed at the 
photo session when the young 
man in the back managed to leap
into the picture. Elder Hinkson
forked over a good tip for that one!

Back in port after a wonderful
day

After such a beautiful day, I was a little worried that our presentation might not be well attended, but Steve and I were both very pleased to get good representation from 2 ward councils.

Nawaka ward and Nadi ward counsel members.

We try to keep our meetings informal, so people are
willing to participate in discussion.

Steve is getting very good at this presentation!

One day in mid November, we were heading home in the early afternoon and we saw this strange procession coming down the road. A flat-bed truck, a water tanker, and a transport truck with banners and signs, and a whole procession of people following along behind them. We were very curious, and snapped a couple of pictures before our light changed. After we negotiated turning the corner, I looked back and  all the people had disappeared! It turned out that the trucks had all moved forward with the traffic, and the people had turned into a gate we couldn't see and walked up the hill to the mosque. It was a 100 year celebration of that mosque (we presume), because never saw any unusual activity at any of the other mosques that we had passed that day.

Our view of the procession from across the
intersection

The mosque is in the red circle

Thanksgiving dinner with the senior couples and
President and Sister La'ulu

Steve with his dessert 
selections

All the trimmings

A restaurant at a resort about 1 hour's drive out of Suva promoted a Thanksgiving dinner buffet on the appropriate Thursday in November (it's just a regular work/school day in Fiji). The senior couples decided to take advantage, and yes, there was a real turkey with gravy! We had lovely  music provided by a soloist who accompanied himself on the guitar and sang a selection of "oldies". He received several tips from our group. I found out later that he is a member of the church who lives in the Nausori Stake.

Our family gave us a great gift during the Thanksgiving weekend. They posted many family videos of their holiday preparations and gatherings on MarcoPolo for us to enjoy vicariously. It was such a treasure for us to have that little piece of a traditional holiday. It also helped me to explain to a few Fijian friends some of the great things about the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Thank you so much to all who contributed!

That wraps up November. I'm leaving you with a picture of the blue, blue Pacific!

Love Mickey and Steve

* MLS= Mission Leader Support