OCTOBER 26, 2014

Months Are Going By So Fast

It's the end of October and we 

can't believe how fast these past

few months have flown by.  We are

still healthy and happy and we love

the work we are doing and the people we are doing it with.  We have made some wonderful friends here in Fiji.  I guess that is another blessing you receive while serving a mission.  

Once a month, President and Sister Layton invite all of the senior couple missionaries into their home for a "Pot Luck" dinner and FHE.  We look forward to this every month and are grateful for a Mission President who loves his Senior Missionary Couples.

 Because the temple has closed for renovation (13-18 months), we have started a new Tuesday activity.  We call it "Lunch and Learn".  We learn something and then have lunch.  The first week we had sloppy jo's and this past week, we had Hawaiian Haystacks.  Remember, "feed them and they will come".

These pictures were taken after mission prep class Thursday.  We said good buy to Aggie Tilley who is going to Hamilton New Zealand to serve in the Vistitor Center.  We will miss her so much but she will be an amazing missionary.  The other girls either have their calls or they are waiting for their calls to come in the next few weeks.  We love our prospective Sister Missionaries.

 It was Diwali this past Thursday.  Diwali is one of the biggest Holidays in Fiji.  It is an Indian Holiday where they celebrate with "Homemade Sweets", lights and fireworks. It was like the 4th of July on steroids.  We were invited over to our cute YSA Rachel Prasad's home where we were served a plate of sweets, rice pudding and then wonderful roti and chutney.  It was so fun to meet Rachel's family.  She has talked about them often.  Rachel's 24 year old brother Rashnel is pretty much supporting the family because of the poor health of her mother and father.  Mr. and Mrs Prasad are amazing parents and have raised 4 incredible children.  

It was Sister Terri's birthday so we were able to take her out for a "girl" lunch.  Sometimes you just have to have some girl time.  Love these ladies.

On Diwali, we were also invited over to our neighbor and landlords home, Shami and Avinish for more fireworks and sweets.  This is our great friends and neighbors the Jackson's with Shami and Avinish.  The had more fireworks than the entire Bountiful 4th of July production.  It was great.  A night we will never forget for sure.

HAPPY DIWALI EVERYONE

Oct. 12,2014

Spiritual experiences, Funeral, More Weddings and Temple Closing

It's been a while since we have updated our blog.  We can't let this happen because it gets to hard to catch up.

We have had a fairly busy month with YSA activities, cooking, lessons and temple work and more lesson and cooking!!!!!!  IF YOU FEED THEM, THEY WILL COME!

Our Activities have included Glow in the Dark Bowling, Speaker (Elder Johannson of the Area Presidency), Sports day, FHE making packages and writing letters to the missionaries, movies night, temple baptisms and lunch, and Endowed YSA session and dinner.  We are still teaching 3 classes a week (anyway, Elder Peterson and Brother Stanford are).  Sister Peterson is working her little fanny off cooking, cooking and more cooking and planning activities.  

We have had some pretty incredible experiences as well.  Let us share one in particular.

On Friday Sept. 11, after just getting over very bad colds that put us down for a few days, we were planning on a pretty quit P-Day.  

Elder Peterson colored my hair (yes he still does that) and just as I was straightening it, our phone rang.  It was the police telling us that Mosese needed our assistance.  Remember Mosese is the cute man that lives in the Nakavika village we love so much and took school supplies to when Heather and Jesse were here.  Anyway, we called him back.  His cute wife Alavina was hemorrhaging really bad and needed to be brought down to the hospital.  He said he had called every ambulance service, in the providence and every other service he could think of to help him, but their policy was not to go to the villages clear up in the mountains.  He was desperate.  This is when he though of us.  

Elder Peterson told him he would call him right back.  We talked about our concerns about going to pick her up.  We were worried about what if she died while on the way down.  We worried about not making it back to the wedding we had committed to attending.  We were just plain scared of what we would find when we got to their house.  With all these concerns, we didn’t even hesitate.  We told Heavenly Father, “We are going so if we shouldn’t, please let us know”.  We packed up some food, blankets and water and off we went.

It was a pretty quiet drive for us.  I think we were both doing a lot of praying.  When we arrived after a  2 hour drive, Mosese was waiting for us.  We went to their home.  It was pretty much what we had worried about.  She looked terrible.  She had about 10 or more of her family (ladies) sitting around her.  They were obviously very worried about her.  She could hardly get up with much assistance. 

We finally got her in the van, but she wouldn’t lie on the seat.  She sat on the floor resting her head in her arms on the seat.  It broke my heart.  Everyone gathered around the van to say goodbye.  We were trying to assure them that we would take good care of her and get her to the hospital to get help.  Mosese and Alavina’s son Mark and little daughter Waganu were really scared.  I hugged them and told them everything was going to be ok.  Just before we got in the car, I had a thought that we needed to say a prayer.  I looked over at Elder Peterson and he agreed.  He came around to my side of the car where everyone was.  I asked if we could kneel.  As Mark and I knelt, everyone followed.  It was a very tender moment as Mark offered a beautiful prayer of hope, peace, love and safety for Alavina and the whole village.  When we opened our eyes, everyone was crying, including us.

The trip down was just as we had worried about.  Bumpy and painful for her.  She was a trooper though.  She kept thanking us for coming to help her.  She hung onto Mosese with every bit of strength she had. We had to stop a few times to grab a drink and sit up but them off we went again.  Again, it was a very quiet drive.  More prayers were being said in our minds and hearts.

We got to Navua to the hospital, got her inside and settled and then hurried to see if we could make it back to the wedding.  Believe it or not, we made it right in time.  Good thing for Fiji Time. 

As I sat in the temple watching these beautiful YSA’s being sealed for time and all eternity and for the love they had for each other and the fun new life they were starting, I couldn’t help think of Mosese and Alavina.  They also loved each other and the experiences they had experienced through their not so new marriage were forever binding, but they didn’t have the eternity ending. 

During the reception, we got another call from Mosese.  Alavina had lost too much blood and needed a transfusion so they transported her to Suva.  She needed a blanket and a cup.  You wouldn’t believe this hospital.  I won’t even go into that subject.  We took them to her and couldn’t believe what we saw when we got there.

She looked 100% better.  She looked like our cute Alavina again.

Mosese went home to Lami to stay with a relative, so we had a great chat with her.  She told us a pretty amazing story.

The Village is pretty much all Catholic.  The chief has never let any other religious practices go on in the village.  Alavina’s brother is the schoolmaster and is the person we gave all the school supplies to when we were there last time.  He was a very appreciative man and has been taking care of Alavina since she has been sick.  He came to see her the morning before we got there and she told him all about the story of no ambulances coming to get her.  He said, “So what are you going to do?”  She told him that the people from the LDS church who brought the school supplies were coming to take her down.  He was amazed and told her this was a miracle.  He said that we really were family and that he hoped we would come visit again any time we wanted.

Also, the Chief was one of the people there at the van when we all knelt down to pray before we started down the mountain, and he knelt down as well.  Alavina said this was a miracle.  She feels like he will now be more willing to let other religions into the village.  We really feel that through the Holy Ghost, and a small act of service and listening and acting to kneel and pray, may be the beginning of the Lord’s work in Nakavika Village. 

How grateful I am for prayer, and for the understanding that when we get over ourselves and serve others, we are also serving our Heavenly Father.   I am grateful for the Holy Ghost and his sometimes very small and quiet whisperings or impressions that bring about small miracles.

The next Sunday, Moses and Alavina came to church with us.  They had their first appointment with the missionaries.  We gave then each a Fijian Book of Mormon.  The only problem is they live so far up in the highlands, that the missionaries cannot get up there.  I am not sure what will happen, but maybe we have planted a seed and maybe someday the gospel will be taken to the village.

Last month our Stake President's wife passed away.  I guess she has been pretty sick for a while but no one knew.  We canceled the Mission Prep class to go to her funeral.  Wow, funerals here are quite a process.  

The family of the deceased builds a funeral pyre (like a covered patio), which is attached to their home.  For around 3-7 days, family, friends and others come to pay their respects.  You are given a time to come because all the family come from their villages and they try to keep order.  First, you sit outside the Pyre, and then they motion you to come in.  Then you sit there until it is time for you to go into the home to talk to the family.  Someone in your group represents the whole group by giving a tribute and an envelope of money or flowers.  Then you go outside and they feed you.  I am not talking about a cookie or something.  I am talking about a huge Fijian Feast. They must go through 8-10 pigs.  This goes on every night until the funeral and most of the time for days after.  I don’t know how they afford this or keep up the cooking for so long. We could never do it. I do know that the responsibility falls on the many close relatives who are around.  It is an amazing thing to watch.

For the Funeral, they carry the body in a simple coffin.  The coffin has a small clear plastic window where you can look in and see the persons face.  

They also carry the casket into the church instead of rolling it in.  It was pretty neat to see the tapas and the mats draped over her casket though.  We have really grown to love the mats and the tapas here.

getting the casket ready for Sister Suru

Waiting to pick up her body from the Hospital

Viewing at the home

going in the Chapel for the funeral

Beautiful tapas and mats to pout the casket on

saying goodbye before the funeral

Final resting place for Sister Suru
On Saturday Oct. 11, 2014 the Fiji Temple closed.  The temple has been such a huge part of our mission and a huge part of the YSA's lives.  We had one final Temple Tuesday and one final YSA Endowment session.  It was emotional and wonderful at the same time.  We had a great turn out.

Thank you Elder and SisterTennis for starting this Temple Tuesday. We will all miss it terribly.

Last Temple Tuesday we had around 34-35 there

We will miss Elder and Sister Christiansen.  They were in charge of the Baptistry.  We love them.

Last night we attended our first Indian Wedding.  It was lovely.  This Groom was a missionary in the Fiji Mission.  He also lives in Fiji.  What a fine young man he is.  We know him by Elder Singh. We don't know his bride, but she is beautiful.  There were beautiful ladies in their Indian dress and 

they were stunning.

The New Brother and Sister Singh

  Beautiful women in beautiful dresses  

                                                                               Elder Peterson in Heaven with this cute little boy                          

Missionary Calls and Missionaries Leaving, Elections and Weddings.  

Sept. 24, 2014

Can’t believe it’s already the end of September.  Where is the time going.  We hit our half way mark this month.  The plan was to burn something but we got to busy and caught up in the craziness of the work so that the day went by without much celebration.  We have learned many things over the past 9 months however, and are so bless to have this experience in our lives.

I remember the first few days after we arrived here in Fiji.  The culture shock, the flat situation, and the not knowing where to start at the institute, just about did us in.  I remember trying to be so brave and positive but being so scared and homesick.  I remembered saying to my boys, “Coming home is no option” so I knew that I had to stay here and stick it out.  I remember calling Karen and crying to her for an hour just to get it all out.  I remember being on my knees more those few weeks than any other time in my life.  I remember feeling the peace come over me from Heavenly Father that I could do this, and that everything was going to be ok.  And now we are half way done and I can’t imagine my life without this experience.

We have been challenged physically, emotionally and spiritually.  We have grown closer to our Heavenly Father through more diligent scripture study and temple attendance. We have learned that we must always be prepared to stand and bear our testimonies or to teach a lesson.  We have learned to love people of a different culture through serving them.  We have learned to depend on each other for support and encouragement.  We have learned that our kids can and will take care of each other in our absence.  We have realized what an incredible family we have and how grateful we are for their faithfulness in doing what is right.  We have realized how bless we are to live where we do and to have what we have.  We have also realized that you don’t have to have things to be happy.  In fact that “stuffs” is sometimes the cause of our unhappiness. 

We know today, that we can and will make it through the next 9 months and we are happy to do so.  We know that when the times comes for us to go home, we will be happy to see our own family, but that we will be so sad to say goodbye to our new family here in Fiji.  But for now, we will just keep going and doing and loving the best we know how and with all the energy and love that is in us. 

We have had several Missionaries leave for their missions which is such a sad but happy time for us.  We are thrilled to watch them prepare, fill out their papers, then receive their calls, and then leave for their MTC experience.  They seem to always face some kind of opposition during this time.  Satan is working on them harder than ever.  Sometimes the challenges come from their own doings, but mostly from the mistakes or oversights of others in preparing their Visas, but they seem to be resilient and continue to endure to the end. 

Here are a few of our Missionaries.

 Our Granddaughter Edwina Bogidua receives her temple endowments  

Saying goodbye to  Anere (Rexx) Going to the Philippines Mission

 I was honored to be asked to put the "Salusalu" on Rexx at church for his farewell

 We went to the temple with Manoa Vuetibau and Tomas Naibalu when  they received their endowments

 Lai Bellenacagi is going to Arizona and Katherine Brown is going to New Zealand

One of our goals is to get these YSA’s married off.  Well, we got to see our 2^nd Fijian Wedding.  Cute Ben and Ana were married for time and all eternity and what a beautiful couple they are. The reception afterwards was simple and classy. One more down and 50000 more to go. 

Vika and Ulita decorated their get-a-way car with colors or their wedding.  Cute girls anyway.

On the 17^th of September, Fiji had it’s first democratic vote in 8 years.  It was a big day for the Fijians.  Every Fijian who is 19 or older is required to vote.  Most of our YSA’s were not real excited to vote but did their duty anyway.  The lines where huge in the early morning, but by the time I took this picture, they were much smaller.  We closed the institute that night because there were rumors or possible riots or disturbances and it was a national holiday.  Nothing happened however, so that was a good thing.