Gecko’s In the Sink – And, A Weekend in Sigatoka

We took a little break from the action this weekend to do some scouting for activities and places to visit when the first wave of kids come in on May 1.    It turned out to be a pretty relaxing weekend.   The most stressful part was being asked to speak in sacrament meeting in this small branch at the last minute.    We have come to realize that we always need to have 2 or 3 messages ready just in case.   This weekend was one of them.    But we know this is what we signed up for so we always try to be ready to teach a lesson or speak in sacrament meeting. 

Future Missionaries and One Senior Geezer Missionary

This past week, our supervisors from Auckland, New Zealand were in town to review all of the seminaries and institutes.    We garnered TWO visits from them.   The first seemed to be kind of an eye opener as the ageing and crowded condition of the institute.  Our Institute building was not originally designed to facilitate our type of activities.   Originally, it was a residence and has since, been modified to be utilized by the YSA Institute and the Suva North Stake Offices.   The Stake offices have been determined to be unhealthy for use due to mold and all the stuff that goes along with being wet and humid all the time.   We occupy the whole upstairs.   It is great to have an institute center but - I believe when they saw how crowded it becomes, we are hoping they realize that it would be wise to either start over or expand. 

Anyway, they come back for a second look and to take photos before returning to New Zealand.    In my humble opinion, this area could use a second senior couple to start up another university and college institute and do some “lost sheep” work.    I proposed that they consider this.   We will see where it goes.  

Crowed conditions for Mission Prep Class - Love it!!

It hard to believe that the first semester of classes are more than one half over.   We are learning much as we prepare and teach these YSA’s.   

Our first baptism is scheduled for this Tuesday.    We are super excited to be a part of the growth of the Church in a very direct way.     Teaching investigators brings back a flood of memories from 40 years ago.   The means and methods used today are so much more effective than the memorized “Brother and Sister Brown” discussions.    It just keeps getting better and better.   I wonder what methods our grandchildren will use as they serve full time missions?   

Janice (L) and Leya (R)   Leya will be baptised this coming Tuesday.   She is a basketball player and an all around good girl.   Janice introduced her to our Institute.   Love them all!   

All is well here.   We are happy in this work and find it life changing and testimony building.   Time really fly’s on wings of lightening and we cannot call it back.   Let us all stay anxiously engaged in doing the Lord’s will and serving one another.

Lo Lo Ma

Elder and Sister Pete

Elder Singh - whom we met in the MTC is serving in Sigatoka after recuperating from a fractured ankle.  

Looking Down Form the Hill Above Sigatoka

Our Room at the Outrigger Resort and Hotel - an Ocean Front Berri!

The Ceiling is a Beautiful work of art in Tapa Clothe

Our View At Sunrise form our Porch

The Sea was like glass it was so calm

No oven to bake in - time for a break from all the cooking and treat making . . .

We love our Geckos!   Even in the sink.   They eat the awful little sugar ants that pop up  everywhere!

Where did these past 2 weeks go?  I never knew it would be so hard to find time to update a simple blog.  Wow, was I wrong.

It’s Wed. afternoon and we have no YSA’s here at the Institute.  WHAT?  Where the heck are they all?  At least this gives me a few minutes to update the blog.

We have had a pretty regular schedule the past 2 weeks.  Nothing out of the ordinary. 

We do have some fun news however.  Leah the darling girl who has been taking the missionary lessons for the past 6 weeks is being baptized next Tuesday.  We are so excited.  She is wonderful and I know that this decision will be a life changer for her.  She has accepted everything the Sisters have asked her to do without question.  

She has asked Elder Peterson to baptize her and she asked me if I would give a talk on the Holy Ghost.  We are so happy for her and feel so blessed to be a little part of her conversion.

Some other fun news.  Three of our YSA’s got their mission calls this week.  Marica is going to Canada, Paula is going to Philippines, and Willie is going to Tacoma Washington.  We still have several more waiting for their calls.  It is a bitter-sweet time because we have fallen so in love with these kids and they are like our own family, so seeing them leave is sad since we will probably never see them again, but so happy for them to be serving our Father in Heaven and we know what a life changing experience it will be for them. Here is a picture of our Missionary board.  Pretty amazing for sure.

 

The weather here is starting to cool off a bit.  It is nice to open the windows once in a while and not die from the humidity.  Looking forward to winter here in Fiji. 

We were up at the temple last week and the sunset was beautiful.  I just had to take a picture of it.  We don’t see the sunset very often.

 On Thursday we took the YSA returned Missionaries and the YSA’s who will be leaving on their missions soon to the temple for a session and then out for pizza.  We had such a fun time.  There were 24 of us.  We piled most of them in our van and sent the others to town in a taxi.

We ordered 10 huge pizzas thinking we would have some leftovers.  WRONG!!!!  They ate every bite.  It was fun to finally fill them up.  We love these kids so much.  They laughed and ate and laughed and ate till they couldn’t laugh and eat any more.

We will defiantly do this again.

We got a fun box of St. Patrick’s Day goodies from the Kurtz family.  We had totally forgotten about this holiday.  We loved it and the licorice didn’t last very long thanks to Papa. The YSA’s had never heard of St. Patrick’s Day so they thought we were crazy when we dressed up in all of our green garb.  It was fun though.  Lot’s of laughs

.

We had a day off on Friday, so we decided to go see a movie with a couple of the Senior Couples.  The move was OK, but the seating was FABULOUS.  It’s the most comfortable we have been since we got here.  I would go see any movie there just to take a nap.

Saturday morning we went to Pacific Harbor and went golfing with the Jacksons.  We love them so much.  Anything we do with them is fun. The course was so soggy and wet and had frogs everywhere.  We had to chase them off to hit our balls.  The golf was crappy, but the company was great and it was nice to get out for a while.

How do you like this sand rake.  Love it and we used it way to much.

Sunday the Stake had a RS Birthday Fireside.  Each ward took 5-7 minutes and spoke on a assigned topics about the RS and then performed a song.  When I suggested the chimes for our ward, they were so excited.  Most of them hadn't heard them before but had YSA's who had played them.  It was so fun.  The first Sunday that we practiced in RS, they didn't want to stop singing and playing so we spent the whole hour going through all my songs.  It was GREAT.  Now they are planning a ward RS birthday party for the 28th and they want to play the chimes for their families. I can't tell you how much I love these ladies.  I love the Lami Ward.

This Tuesday the temple was closed for cleaning, so we took 24 YSA’s to do service in cleaning the inside of the temple.  They were so excited to do this.  We had a signup sheet and they filled it up in no time.  These kids love the temple.  I don’t know what they are going to do when it closes down for renovation.  It will very sad for them.

Well I guess that is our last 2 weeks.  We stay really busy cooking, studying, teaching, playing with the YSA’s, cooking again, counseling, taxiing, cooking, and loving them.  We fall into bed every night exhausted but so grateful for this wonderful experience.  Our testimony of missionary work has grown so much and we see the huge need there is for Senior Couple Missionaries.  We know we are in the right place at the right time.

We thank all our family and friends for your support and help you have given us  so we can be here and not worry about what is going on at home.  It is such a blessing to us.

We love you all.

Welcome to the beginning of our 4-month mark of our mission.  Can you believe that.  Wow, and we are still kicking.

We have had an eventful week to say the least.  Bus ride (bone shaker is what the senior missionaries call it) to town, hair cut, pedicure, rain, classes, cooking, temple, more cooking, more classes, cyclone, flooding, no power, no water, YSA dance and that’s just naming a few of the exciting things.  Let’s start at the beginning.

Saturday it was Sister Wells’s 70^th birthday so Sister Terri and I took her to town on the bus to get a pedicure.  I have been wanting to do this ever since we got here and Mark has had no interest in this experience, so decided to go have a ladies adventure.  It was great fun.  We caught the bus by the temple.  When we got on the bus everyone was looking straight ahead and not talking or looking at each other.  I couldn’t help myself and I stood up and told the whole bus that it was Sista Wells’s birthday and we were going to sing happy birthday to her.  Some of them looked at me like I was crazy, and others smiled and sang with me.  I think I embarrassed her a little, but after all 70 is an important Birthday.

   

                                          Pedicure was great.  It has been a long long time and my toes and feet really appreciated it.

Our husbands met us after and we had a great lunch.  These are wonderful people.

Went to the temple again for Tuesday Temple and then fed about 22 YSA’s after.  They always hang out for the day so I put them to work on our Missionary Board.  They had a great time and it kept them busy for a little while.

Thursday it started to rain and thunder and lightening like I had never seen it before.  We got a couple of calls from people telling us we better cancel Mission Prep because of the storm.  They were predicting flooding in many parts of Suva.  We tried to get ahold of all of our YSA’s but not all of them have phones.  I thought for sure no one would come out on a day like this and didn’t go over to the center to check and see if they showed up.  Well about 2:00 we decided to venture out to the store and to see what was going on around us.  HOLY COW, there were waterfalls where they shouldn’t have been waterfalls.  It was a mess.  Mud slides, water everywhere and concrete from the roads was crazy.  We stopped by the service center and guess who was there.  Our YSA!  Nothing keeps these kids home.  It’s great.

Friday night there was a Stake YSA’s dance.  You would have thought because of the flood it would have been canceled.  NO WAY.  It went on as scheduled and we all had a great time.  They can really dance and love love love it.  Mark helped take the sound system home and the kids loved his shirt he was wearing.  He's becoming the fashion king.

 

                      Saturday we went to lunch with the seniors.  Mark ordered a fish dish.  Looks pretty yucky to me but he quite liked it.

  Saturday night we had activity night and we had 40-45 show up.  Another record breaker.  We had a fun game night and had tournament going on all over the building.  We played pool, ping-pong, jenga, the Fijian version of pool and sequence.  We had prizes for the winners and they had a great time.

We are doing great.  We are tired but that is part of the missionary life I guess.  I was studying for a lesson and I guess I fell asleep.  Those of you who know me, know that I can’t even fall asleep in bed without a sleeping pill so I must really be tired. 

Life is great.  We are happy and healthy.  These people are making such an impact in our lives.  Their desire to do what is right and the trials they face in doing so is inspiring.  We found out today at church that 2/3 of our wards homes were affected by the flood.  We called some of our YSA’s to see if they were ok and they said “Sista Peterson we are doing good, no worries” and then we hear the real story.  They say “this is the Fijian way.  We just keep smiling and moving on.”  I love them all so much.  I will never be the same after this mission. 

Love to you all until next week.