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| My favourite hibiscus plant. The flowers greet us every time we walk to our flat! |
The first of April brought us 14 young missionaries, fresh from the MTC. The problem was, it was the day after Easter, and in Fiji that is a public holiday. All the shops were closed until noon, and the catered lunch never arrived because the order was "forgotten". Threw a bit of a monkey wrench into the intake schedule! After all the emphasis our leaders in Utah put on making Easter just as important as Christmas in our holiday lives, I was pretty impressed that Fiji gives Easter equal holiday status (the day after Christmas is also a public holiday here). I guess there is a down-side to everything.
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| A Fijian hospitality greeting at the resort on Bega island |
In December 2019, Steve and I took a few days during Christmas to go to a dive resort on Bega Island. The resort is a beautiful, quiet spot because the only access is by boat, and there are no cars on the island. Upon arrival, we were invited to participate in an open air foot bath and massage. It was a lovely greeting.
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Sunday, April 7 was General Conference weekend. With the time delays, and the need for translation, the church units in Fiji usually watch conference on the week following the live broadcast. Due to some stake conference scheduling, we knew that for the ward we usually attend, conference would be delayed for two weeks. Steve and I decided to have our own "stay home" conference day. We managed to watch 3 sessions, and quite enjoyed a quiet Sunday morning.
Sunday afternoon we were invited to present a devotional in Navatuyaba (Na va te yamba), about an hour's drive, close to Nausori. The meeting was scheduled for 5 pm, but Steve wanted to make sure all the electronic devices were working properly, so we were on the road about 3. As we drove, we got a call from Brother Nasilisili, the organiser of the event, to let us know that power was out at the chapel. "Did we still want to come?" We were already on the road, and there is always the possibility that power will be restored by the time the meeting starts, so, "Of course we'll still come!" We were so glad we did, because there was quite a large group there to meet with us. Self-reliance principles become so much more pertinent when the grid is down! The YWYM group had prepared a wonderful musical number, and a very substantial refreshment was served after the meeting. We were well rewarded for our trip. And we passed the EFL (Energy Fiji, Limited) repair van on our way out of the village.
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| Brother and Sister Nasilisili |
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| Refreshments on the veranda |
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| The Kitchen Crew |
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| The temple was closed for cleaning for 2 weeks. There was some work done on the exterior lighting, so for a few evenings, Moroni appeared to be floating! |
April is flu shot month, since June is the beginning of the flu season in the southern hemisphere. Our medical insurance coverage provides excellent service for vaccinating all the missionaries. President La'ulu was willing to have the medical providers set up during the April zone conferences. We managed the process in 3 sessions. One in Lautoka for about 30 missionaries, one in Savusavu with 20 missionaries, and a big tri-zone conference in Suva with over 90 missionaries. I was personally present for the Suva zone, and we shepherded 90 missionaries through the impromptu "shot clinic" that we set up in the kitchen, in just over an hour. Everything went smoothly. Nobody fainted!
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| Group picture from April Tri-Zone conference at Suva Stake Center |
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| Steve and Mickey with Lionel Lui |
April 11th Steve and I arranged to have dinner with a young man, Lionel Lui, who has been one of our BYU Pathway students from Vanautu. When he finished Pathway Connect he became a service missionary and shepherded a group, while still pursuing his own online education. His goal was to get to BYU Hawaii, and he has been accepted for the spring term. He came to Fiji to accomplish the Visa requirements, so we were able to meet him in person. We had a delightful dinner meeting. He is motivated and organised, and very focused on his goals. I'm sure he will do well.
The first week of April, I walked into the Mission Office to be greeted by a familiar smiling face. Akanisi Vuiyasawa, who has been a friend since our first Fiji mission. She is doing a Service Mission in our office. It's so lovely to have a closer association with her.
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| Steve, Mickey and Akanisi Vuiyasawa |
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| Fiji Country Office staff with Elder and Sister McKay, and a couple of sets of senior missionaries |
April 15th the Fiji Country Office had the privilege of hosting Elder and Sister McKay for a devotional. Elder McKay is the church historian, and he shared some of the projects going on in the church historical department, including a few of the events related to the recent acquisition of the Kirkland Temple and other historical buildings and documents. It was a fascinating presentation, followed by lunch. The McKay's were on a tight time schedule, and Elder McKay hesitated a moment when a group picture was mentioned. I told him that our office cohort is expert at setting up
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| Elder and Sister McKay They got the coconut water treat with their lunch! |
Last month Steve and I were invited to the Nasinu ward council meeting by Elder Whippy, area seventy. I was sitting across the room from the stake president, President Ratuvukivuki, and I kept thinking that he reminded me of someone, but I couldn't place it at the time. When I saw Ana Tabakisuva a few days later in the translation office, the light bulb went on. They are siblings! President R. assured me the she is his "oldest" sister. Ana and I giggled together later about "cheeky" little brothers!
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| President Ratuvukivuki and his sister, Ana Tabakisuva. |
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| Ana is wearing one of the most beautiful Fijian dresses I've seen. She told me it was her mother's, and all the red designs are hand appliqué |
April was a notable month for the fact that we had 3 missionaries hospitalised. The first was Elder Rios. He battled nausea/vomiting/diarrhea symptoms for over a week, was evaluated in one of the out-lying clinics and given medication, but was still not doing well and showing signs of dehydration on April 4th, when I sent him in to Oceania hospital for evaluation. I was able to meet him there for the doctor consult. The doctor wanted to prescribe medication and release him, but I gently convinced her to start IV fluids and do some lab tests. Elder R. was diagnosed with leptospirosis, and ended up spending the next week in the hospital on IV antibiotics. The ED doctor came to me later and thanked me for being persistent about treatment. I appreciated her acknowledgment.
The next hospital adventure started with a phone call on the evening of April 19th from Sister Jessop. She reported that her companion was having the second asthma attack of the afternoon, and was struggling to breath in spite of using her rescue inhaler. I was alone in the flat and Steve was at the office with the car. In the process of figuring out how to get Sister Kiwa to the hospital (taxi?), the member they were visiting said she could drive and she knew how to get to the hospital--Miracle #1. I found out later that the car had air conditioning and they cranked it up high for the drive--Miracle #2.
(For those of you who live in the 1st world and are shouting "Call an ambulance!"-- my sad experience here in Suva is that an ambulance will take hours to arrive, if one is available at all--and then will often not be equipped with things like medications and oxygen and medics that know how to use them)
I got to the hospital about 5 minutes after the sisters arrived and was allowed into the treatment room--Miracle #3--to observe Sister Kiwa in extreme respiratory distress, and all the preparations for intubation being organised. The doctor shoved a clipboard with a "permission to treat" paper at me for my signature, briefly explained what they were about to do, then invited me to leave the room while they proceeded with the intubation. I'm still good enough at reading a monitor to know that Sister K. was crashing. Five minutes later the airway was in place, and all her vital signs had stabilised--Miracle #4. While we were in the waiting area, we called the Suva 4th Elders, and before Sister K. was transported to the High Dependency Unit (the ICU in the USA), the staff allowed the missionaries to give her a blessing--Miracle #5.
Sister Kiwa is from Papua New Guinea (PNG) and had only been in Fiji for a week when her struggle with asthma started. PNG weather and general conditions are not that much different than Fiji, so it was a little puzzling to figure out why she had such a crises. After the drama, I found out that 1) she was not using her preventer (corticosteroid) inhaler daily, 2) she was upset because her mother's phone had been shut off, and she didn't have a way to contact her, 3) the flat they were living in was at the bottom of a hill, and they had walked up it three times that day in the rain, 4) it was one of our hottest, most humid, rainy days and 5) she got the flu shot the day before. What a recipe for disaster!
Fortunately, Sister K. was stable enough after 15 hours on the ventilator that she was able to come off it, and recovered rapidly. She was released 2 days later with a bag full of new medications, and has continued to do very well. By the end of April she was back up to speed, and able to stay on her mission--Miracle #6.
Hospitalisation #3 was Elder Aiolupotea. He also struggled for a week with flu-like symptoms and diarrhoea. He and his companion, Elder Eberhardt were based in Saioko, about a 4 hour drive from Suva over some pretty rough roads. I sent Elder A. down to the Korovou hospital to get checked out, but a few days later he was still not doing well on the meds he was given there. This happened the same weekend Steve and I were in Sigatoka for a couple of days, so I asked Elder and Sister Gerken to meet them at the hospital and make sure all went well. After blood test results, he was admitted with a serious strep infection and stayed for a few days of IV antibiotics and further testing. His case will be treated as Rheumatic Heart Disease for the next year, but he will be able to remain on his mission in Fiji while being monitored every 3 weeks.
All photos used with permission!
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| Elder Rios April 4, 2024 |
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| Sister Kiwa. Mickey, Sister Jessop |
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| Sister Kiwa April 19, 2024 |
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| Elder Aiolupotea (Elder Lupo to his friends and the mission nurse) April 26,2024 |
April 17th was the last opportunity that Sister La'ulu and I had to consult about missionary health. She will call me and say "When can I put on the jug?" That means--when can we get together and have a chat over herbal tea and biscuits (cookies?)--in Australian. She left on the 18th to go to Sydney for some surgery. I sure have missed her! The surgery went very well, and we expect her back about the middle of May. I am most grateful to Sister Cook, who is the mission nurse in Sydney. She has gone out of her way to make sure that all the appointments for procedures have gone smoothly for Sister La'ulu.
The weekend of April 20-21 we went to Sigatoka and stayed at a lovely little hotel right across the road from the beach, the Bandera. We really needed a bit of R&R, so instead of just spending one night to avoid driving in the dark, we stayed for 2 nights. The Sigatoka branch was having a district conference in the morning and a WSR presentation in the afternoon. Since the hotel was so close, Steve and I were able to slip away after the morning session and catch a nap in our room before going back for the afternoon session. We spent about 20 minutes doing our presentation, and left the remainder of the time for Walter Aitu, the family services director. He spoke for over an hour, mostly in Fijian, but with enough handouts, English phrases, and body language for us to follow the conversation.
Walter is a native Fijian from Rotuma. He went to the US and got a university degree at BYU Hawaii, then joined the military for awhile, got married, had a family, pursued a graduate degree, and came back to Fiji for a job as the Family Services director (mental health and counselling). He tackles the tough
subjects during his presentations, including suicide and domestic abuse. I'm sure he didn't plan to spend more than 20 minutes in this particular meeting, but he was willing to stay the course as long as the questions were coming, and he was talking for more than an hour. It was an amazing experience to watch him serve that group.
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| This was the afternoon group in Sigatoka. The morning meeting was completely full, with most of the children sitting on adult laps, and several adults standing at the sides and back. It got a little warm, in spite of the air conditioning. |
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| Our new stove has the modern convenience of electric sparkers to light the burners and the oven element. No more matches or lighters needed! |
I got a new stove/oven for our flat! The one that has been here since our first mission had several idiosyncratic behaviours, which was OK because we could get along, and the oven baked beautifully. But about the middle of March, the oven started behaving badly by shutting off the gas in the middle of a project. I was baking a pan of cinnamon rolls, and had to relight the gas in the middle of the baking time (with a lighter, removing the rack for access, reaching back into a hot oven box, and ultimately burning the rolls!) I was a little irritated, and I threw a temper tantrum! I sent a long text to the landlord, explaining that I was in danger of burning myself if we didn't replace the oven. Bless his heart, he responded immediately, and within a week we had the new oven installed in our flat, as well as a new unit in the flat next door, which hadn't worked well for a few years. I'm sad that it took drama, but I'm so happy to be leaving the flat a better place for the next missionaries coming.
Steve and I have been involved in BYU Pathways for our whole mission, but this month we added a new dimension. English Connect 3, also an on-line program, has been offered to the seniors at the LDS College (high school). They wanted a face-to-face gathering for the students who signed up (rather than virtual), so we have become the gathering missionaries for about 14 students on Thursday afternoons. I felt kind of bad at our first session because they all came in chattering and laughing, and I announced that our gathering language would be English only. That really quieted them down! However, one of the things we notice across all age groups is that social interaction is done in Fijian, and so English skills in that area need a little work. We have fallen in love with all of them, but our "old" brains are sure struggling to remember all their names and use them with the correct student!
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| The Seminary Room at LDS Collage |
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| We gather on Thursday from 5-6:30 |
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| And we try to make it fun!? |
One of the medical clinics I use the most here in Suva is the TappooCity clinic. The head doctor is Dr. Krupali Tappoo. She has been very gracious and helpful with the medical needs of our missionaries, both young and senior. Dr. Krupali has been instrumental in starting a paediatric facility to provide services to the children of the Pacific Islands who would not be able to access treatment otherwise. Her staff arranges for medical teams skilled in various specialties (heart, orthopaedic, plastics, etc.) to come to Suva and perform corrective interventions. She has wanted to give me a tour of the hospital several times, but it has always had to be postponed. For the fund-raising Gala event on April 27, Steve and I got a personal invitation. When we arrived at the conference center, we were greeted and escorted to front row seats. It was a very interesting event, and we learned much about charitable medical treatment in the southern hemisphere. I'm sure our welcome was riding on the coat-tails of the wonderful work our humanitarian missionaries do in this area. The full color brochure on the table had 2 pictures of hand-off events from LDS Charities to the hospital. The event exposed us to a slice of Fijian social life that we have never been involved with. We had a fun evening, a great meal, and learned a new Fijian word, Talanoa (story, sharing information, gossip).
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| Dr. Krupali Tappoo with Sri Madhusudan Sai sharing a Talanoa with the assembled guests |
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| The brochure page highlighting the LDS Charities donations to the hospital |
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| Brochure for the Children's Hospital |
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| Mickey with Rosy Seru |
Our WSR leader here in the office is Peniette Seru, who went out on maternity leave the last week of March. We sure have missed her here in the office, but we were able to go visit new little Rosy in person on April 29th. She has our seal of approval!
Lots of Love from Fiji
Steve and Mickey Hinkson
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