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.