February 2024

This is a scenic Missionary
Haircut

Every month the missionary dinner calendar gets passed around Relief Society. The Mission President has suggested that senior couples shouldn't sign up more than once a month.  We signed up for February 6th, and then learned that the elders were organising exchanges that evening. We invited all involved in the exchanges to join us for dinner. We usually meet at a restaurant because we don't live in the ward boundaries. For this dinner we chose the Fierce Chicken Restaurant in the Flagstaff Plaza. We were also joined by Elder and Sister Boehm. We might have exceeded the one hour allowed for the evening meal.

Dinner at Fierce Chicken with Suva 1st Ward missionaries
and a few others from the Suva district

February 8th was the funeral of Sosefo Farpapa'u. He and his wife, Christi, have served as senior missionaries on the island of Rotuma for over 8 years. They came back to Suva a few months ago due to concerns for President Farpapa'u's health. On the day of the funeral, I became aware that I was the only one of the senior missionaries who was available to attend the funeral (it was a zone conference day). Steve was involved in some meetings, but I felt a strong obligation to represent the mission at the funeral. As I was walking down the hall at the office, I expressed my desire to a good friend, Naomi Volavola Waqanika, She wanted to attend the funeral, but had no transportation. I wanted to attend the funeral, but had no companion. We combined resources, Naomi drove the car, and we made it to both the funeral service and the graveside service.  The Chapel service was lovely, and after the casket had been taken away in the hearse, family members passed out boxed lunches to everyone who attended the funeral (I would estimate 250-300 people). I was pretty impressed. Naomi knew the way to the cemetery, and I was grateful she was willing to drive. We parked on the street and walked quite a distance to the grave site, which was surrounded by a field of very squishy grass, due to all the rain we've had recently. I learned that in an established cemetery, you make an appointment for burial, and plan all your other events around that appointment. The cemetery opens up a long trench, which will accommodate several caskets, and then places them in order of the appointments through the day. They cover and identify each site as it is filled. We had to wait a bit to start the process, because the workers had to bail out the water that collected in the trench. As we waited, we sang hymns, accompanied by a guitar and a ukulele. It was a sweet experience. When we got back to the office, I went out back to the hose spigot and washed my feet and sandals really well!

Pallbearers with the casket

Family members carry all the flowers
from the chapel to the cemetery

Laying the casket on 2 ropes
that the cemetery workers
will use to transport it
to the gravesite

Tucking him in 

Walter

This is Walter. He and his mother  were coming out of the pharmacy one afternoon as I was passing by.  Walter was cruising down the sidewalk while his mother and I talked for a minute. When he was a little way ahead, he looked back and cocked his head in the classic gesture of "hurry up!". I couldn't resist, and with his mother's permission, I took a picture. Isn't he just the cutest Fijian you've ever seen?

On Sunday February 11th, we were asked by the Nausori Stake WSR high council rep to attend a devotional in Korovou for the YSA (Young Single Adult) group in that district. We assumed the stake leaders were going to run the meeting, and we went prepared with a number of handouts. After we got there, we realised there were a lot more people than just YSAs, including several family groups. After a bit of sorting, we ended up with about 20  young people in our section, and Steve turned out to be the main presenter. Unfortunately, we had not prepped a presentation specifically for this group (most of our presentations are to adult leadership councils).  While he paused to search the computer for relevant slides in our different presentations, I stepped up and invited various stake leaders to conduct discussions (in Fijian) on the general preparation this particular age group has for moving into career paths; BYU Pathways, PEF loans, BYU Hawaii applications, etc. That kind of dialogue with an audience  is very hard for us to lead effectively because of the language difference, so we were grateful to have Stake Council members lead the discussions in Fijian. We had several comments from people afterwards that they enjoyed the meeting, but Steve and I went home completely drained! It was a great experience in flying by the seat of your pants!

Sovaia, Mickey, Iyo

Sovaia taking a selfie with the Baivou family 
and others.

Iyo's turn to take the selfie

Megan

I noticed a beautiful young lady at the beginning of the meeting, but she didn't end up in our group, so I wasn't able to figure out who she was until we were outside visiting after the meeting. Her name is Megan and  she is with a group of Peace Corps volunteers who are here in Fiji to help increase literacy levels. She is specifically being trained to help people in the villages with applications, CVs, grants, scholarships and anything to do with getting post-high school education. She had been invited to attend our meeting by the missionaries, and when she heard our topic, she arranged to come. She is from California, and she plans to be here in Fiji for 3 years.We had a delightful conversation and exchanged contact information and pictures. I've seen her in passing a few other times, but have not had a chance to talk with her since that evening. 

February 13th was NOT a good day for me! I started the morning just fine, got a  little work done at the office, but after lunch I wasn't feeling so good, so I came back to the flat early. A little queasy turned to a lot queasy, and I spent most of the night vomiting. I have given hundreds of lectures on what to do in this situation, the remedies that help, the importance of staying hydrated, etc. Well . . . nothing worked. I had Steve take me to the hospital Thursday morning. After a litre of IV fluids, antiemetics, antibiotics, and pain relievers I was feeling well enough to go home. It took me about a week to actually start feeling "normal" again. My appetite was zero for a few days. Poor Steve had to survive on freezer meals and take-away for a few days. The good news is I lost about 5 pounds! And I have such sincere compassion for every missionary experiencing the "Fiji Runny Tummy". The bad news is  . . . .all 5 pounds came back because the following week I was HUNGRY!

We found out that Naikawada Koro (village) needed supplies for their preschool/kindergarten. Villages maintain separate facilities for the 3-5 year old children because the local schools start at Grade 1.  Several of the senior missionary couples donated supplies, and then Steve and I took the trip out there one rainy Friday (16 February) morning. To get to the village we needed to travel over about 5 km of one lane gravel roads after turning off the main highway, but we made the delivery without a problem. As often happens, after we were on the road, we  got a call from  a missionary who needed medication. They were in an area that was right on our route, so we were able to take care of that need as well. The Lord really does direct our paths, because we could never organise that efficiently  ourselves!

Brother Baivou, Steve, Fabby Rawaduba from the 
village council, Sister Baivou at the Naikawada
Koro kindergarten.

The first ever (in Fiji) stage production of Mama Mia has been a project in the works for several months. We've been hearing little snippets of information coming back by way of church members who are involved in the production. The play opened for a 2 week run in the Suva Civic Center theater the first of February. Our mission president's wife, Sister La'ulu got tickets for all the senior missionaries to attend the show on the last night of its run. We had such a delightful evening! The cast and orchestra were all native Fijian, and I'm sure that the Mama Mia story was set in the Fiji islands and not the Greek islands! Steve and I have been in country long enough that we got some of the ad libs and inside jokes! We were utterly charmed!

 

Trying to organise a senior missionary picture is
like herding cats!

Bryan's, Klomp's,Walk's, Sister La'ulu,
Hinkson's, Seeholzer's, Moyes', Gerken's

A Kaivalangi row

First time we've ever been in the Suva Civic
Center Theatre

Sadly, we had another funeral  to attend on February 20th. Sister Juliet Toro passed away unexpectedly after some emergency surgery. She was a teacher at the church primary school, and she had a very large family, both her own children and, as happens in the islands, many children that she took under her wing and nurtured as her own because there was a need. Steve and I have worked closely with one of her sons, Romulus, who is a church employee in the service centre. He has helped us out on many occasions. As is often the case, we learned much about  Sister Toro's life at the funeral that we were never aware of before. It was a beautiful service, and it was the first funeral held in the new Tamavua building on the LDS College (high school) campus. The older children from the Primary school sat in a separate section and sang a beautiful musical number during the service. It was one of the nicest services I have attended anywhere. There must have been at least 500 people there, but it was reverent, respectful and well organised. We felt privileged to be in attendance.

The table where the casket is placed during 
the funeral service

The family organises and transports the flowers

A page in the center of the 
program

Waiting to load the 
casket

Pallbearers transporting the casket

Romulus Toro, finance director
at the Fiji Country Office and 
Executive Secretary for Elder 
Whippy, Area Authority Seventy

February 24th we organised a Welfare Self Reliance (WSR) training meeting, inviting the stake council leadership from all 4 stakes on the main island. Our WSR director, Peniette Seru, financed travel for the Lautoka Stake reps. We arranged for breakfast and lunch. We had 3 hours of content we wanted to get through. Steve prepared flash drives for each stake with all of the WSR support links and all of the PowerPoint slides that we used so the stake reps can go back and train the ward leaders. We felt that it was a very successful event, and we got some great feedback from those who attended. One of our worries in advance of the meeting was that it would be long and boring, but the time just flew by, and we even went over by about 30 minutes (which was fine because the lunch food delivery was delayed!).

I loved the object lesson Peniette used in our WSR training.
She gave each participant an egg on a plate and asked them to
stand it up on end. Of course, so one was successful. Then she added
a teaspoon of table salt to the plate, Magically everyone was able to 
stand the egg upright. The lesson was: It's the many little things we do
that support the individual member. 

Sunday morning, February 25th, I got a call from a missionary in distress. He needed crutches, he needed X-rays (not emergently) and we all needed to go to church. Steve and I drove across town, picked the missionaries up, supplied crutches, and drove back to our ward for Sacrament meeting. We then took the missionaries to Oceania hospital for the necessary treatment. We were really glad we went to our ward because Moroni Kwansing gave his mission report from serving in the Philippines. His  Dad is a long-time friend who works here in Fiji for several months a year, and then spends the rest of his time with his wife and family in St. George, Utah. We feel like we have a double connection. It was the first time we had met Moroni, and it was delightful to see father and son together and note the remarkable resemblance. We took the missionaries home with enough food from our refrigerator to supply their dinner. We couldn't host a meal, because we had other commitments that evening. 

Willie Kwansing and his son Moroni

Elder Fepaluai and
Elder Schwelger

Creative bandaging 

Our last drama of the month was Elder Vakalala taking a fall off a bicycle in Tavuini and injuring his right shoulder. They did X-rays in Somosomo to determine that he had a broken collar bone. He came to Suva on a short inter-island flight. Unfortunately, he arrived with a very inadequate sling, no copies of the X-rays, and in a fair amount of pain. The miracle came when I was able to locate an appropriate sling from our physiotherapist's office on the same day that he came back from Tavuini. It made such a difference in his pain level! When we got repeat X-rays here in Suva it became apparent that surgical repair would be necessary. I'm always so impressed with the church travel office in New Zealand. Once we had the medical report and X-rays, and confirmation from Mission Medical doctors that surgery would be needed, Elder Vakalala was on a plane the next day (February 29th). Fortunately, airline assistance was adequate for his need for help with luggage transfers, customs, etc. and he didn't have to be accompanied back to his  home in Utah (there was no way his surgery could be done in Fiji). It's the first time that I realised that airline assistance isn't just for old people who need wheelchairs!

Elder Vakalala in the right
sling. He rated his pain as
2/10 after about 10 minutes in 
the new sling

Elder Vakalala in the sling
from Somosomo health clinic.
He rated his pain as 5/10

We are very hopeful that Elder Vakalala can return to Fiji to complete his mission. I've heard a rumour that he might be coming back with the April intake. I've learned that once a collar bone gets stabilised, it can heal very quickly.

That wraps up February. We are busy and happy and loving our opportunity to serve here in Fiji!

Love from Steve and Mickey Hinkson