August 18

We had so much fun last night.  For the party we met in the cultural hall at our church which as a reminder is part of the LDS Primary School.  Spouses had been invited so there was a possibility of 164 in attendance.  I would guess that there were more than 100.  Each department/group of employees had been asked to prepare some kind of entertainment.  Our dance was to be last.  In between the acts three employees sang western, classic rock, and Fijian numbers.  They were fabulous.  The upper primary school teachers did a line dance to Achey Breaky Heart and were dressed up in western gear.  It was so cute to see these Fijian and Indian woman doing a western line dance.  Grades kindy through 3rd did a Hawaii dance.  The LDS College (high school) did an olympic skit that was so funny I laughed so hard I had tears.  One half of the Facilities Management Staff (men) had recruited some kids to help them do some dance.  I am not sure what it was.  There was another skit entitled "How Johnny really won Mahonah.  Again, I laughed until I cried.  This went on for almost two hours.  These people know how to have a good time.  Half way through they did two ice-breakers that were mega fun.  So at the end we did our dance.  We all walked out onto the stage.  The men stood in the back and the woman sat in a line in the front of the stage.  We had practiced just singing two verses and two choruses and doing the hand movements, but the group that had been entertaining between acts wanted to accompany us and their rhythm wasn't our rhythm and where we had decided to sing two verses, they kept playing through six verses.  What a hoot!  My Fijian cheat sheet only worked for the first two verses, so I sang only the chorus after that.  Then the men did their war club dance while we women clapped to the rhythm.  They cheated, however, as they had a video showing on the back of the front stage wall.
(Did that make sense?)  It worked until the guy in the video began to count the movements about half way through the dance.  The audience went crazy laughing when they could hear, "one...two...three...four...one...two...three...four"  The guys didn't care.

As a side note they gave prizes for the best dancer, singer or actor in each group that performed.  Yours truly, yup me, won the prize for our Fijian dancers.  I was so excited until I got the prize--a baseball cap with Yamaha written on the front.  I really wanted one of the pens that the emcee kept saying was just five clicks away from a car.

The Dancers!
Notice the leaf leis that Diana made fore everyone.

I'm not even watching Salote to see if I am doing it right.

Thank heaven we didn't have any foot work!

Our men standing around while we do our part

Clapping to the beginning of the men's dance.
Even the Fijian needed cheat sheets!

They fed us a light meal after, but Naomi Waka was here from New Zealand and we had asked if we could take her to dinner after as a thank you for how nice she had been to us when we were in New Zealand.  We ate at Cafe Thirty although we did eat dessert at the party before we left.  A perfect meal always starts with dessert!

Naomi Waka and Us

August 17

Today was a long day and we were tired after opening the institute.  We had decided that we would go to the ten o'clock session at the temple, but first we had to buy yellow sulus for the get together for all church employees including the church school teachers that was to begin at five o'clock tonight.  All week we have been practicing for two dances that we were to do at the get together.  The men were doing a Fijian war club dance and the woman were doing a dance about a little flower.  We needed yellow sulus to dance.  So early we went down to the flea market to buy.  When we got there we could find no yellow sulus, only orangey-yellow ones.  While we were looking a sister came up and said she was also looking, so since we were buying two and she was buying four we decided the orangey-yellow would work.  As a side note, orangey-yellow is yellow; ours were the same color as everyone else's.

We got back from shopping just in time for the temple session.  I love the attitude in our temple and I am sure it works because we are so small.  One waits for the session to start in the ordinance room and we do not start until the last person comes out of the dressing room.  It is so much more relaxing for me than worrying about making the session.  As I walked into the woman's dressing room one of the ordinance workers said, "Ah here comes our witness couple!"  I wondered how she knew as we had been asked at the recommend desk.  When I went in to sit down, our cute little neighbor was in the chair next to mine.  She leaned in and said, "Thank you for serving us today, for making this session possible."  I was overcome by such a love for this woman.  Her accent is so heavy when she speaks English that I have limited our conversations.  It is awkward when one has to say "I did not understand" "Would you say that again" "I am sorry?" too many times and really embarrassing when after all that one still does not understand what has been said.  But here she was being so kind.  I gave her a hug and asked her if she came to the temple everyday it was open.  She just nodded her head.

I did not think much about what she had said until after the session and I had time to think.  I put the statements from the two sisters together and wondered, so I asked one of the senior sisters who serves in the Temple about it.  It seems that most Fijian couples can not come to the temple together which causes a real problem.  Sister Browne explained that most of the time when Scott and I came we would be asked to do the job and that when no couples came one of the senior temple couples had to fill in.  Our neighbor had meant her comment literally.  Her gratitude has forever changed the way I feel about serving as a witness couple and about those who do it for me.

August 16

WAHOO!  We have begun.

I think--I don't read my own blog--that I explained that over the past two weeks we have visited Young Adult Sunday Schools classes drumming up business for the classes we wanted to teach in the institute.  Although we had a goodly number sign up, we figured that not many would come as most are already attending institute classes in their own stakes.  So today was it.  The first classes in the institute for over three years.

At five minutes before the first class was to start there were four of us in the institute; Scott, me, and two students.  I had prayed all day that Heavenly Father would inspire those who had signed up to come.  By the time we started, there were eight YA and by the time we had finished the devotional we had 12 students.  Only three who signed up did not come.  It was a miracle.  Scott taught the lesson and he did a marvelous job.  He is so passionate about missionary work that teaching the Mission Preparation lessons is easy for him, and his passion comes through.   He was so cute with the YSAs.  The custom here is to show respect by speaking softly.  He told them at the first of the lesson that as future missionaries that they needed to proclaim the gospel with conviction which includes a voice loud enough for others to hear.  When the first class member read a scripture softly Scott put his hand to his ear and said, "I can't hear you" in a singsongy voice.   The class laughed and laughed, so then he said, "When we can't hear someone in this class on the count of three we are going to say together, 'We can't hear you.'"  After several practice sessions, the class was ready, however, no one spoke too softly after that.  Fun.

At 5:15 we were again on pins and needles wondering if anyone would show up.  They did. Sixteen of them.  We then proceeded to teach together the Pearl of Great Price.  It was a wonderful experience.

Our dear friend, boss (S&I Fiji coordinator), and stake president came to both lessons and stayed to help us clean up.  He also was surprised at the numbers we had.  We are now praying that they will want to come again next week.  They tell me that in Fiji if you feed them they will come.  I had baked nine dozen oatmeal cookies for after the lessons and none were left, so hopefully they will want to come again.

We are so stoked! And grateful!!!  And excited to do it again next week.

August 9

Today we went to a Fijian wake.  Here they call it a "reguregu"  I have always thought that funeral traditions were so interesting.  Yesterday confirmed it.  This is a warning that this is really long, so if you don't have time, just look at the pictures.  I, however, want to remember everything.

So let me begin.

One of our Institute Council members, Maggie, lost her mother Monday.  Because Maggie had also worked in the Distribution Center, the staff in the Service Center felt they should attend the reguregu.   Scott and I asked if we could accompany them.  Money was gathered to help the family with expenses.  This afternoon when we climbed into the van, one of the sisters had made cinnamon rolls, and muffins to add to the gift.  The drive out to the village which was at the end of the road--literally--was about 25 minutes.  We parked the van, and began our walk through the village towards the home where the family lives.

Our van is parked just behind the photographer.

Through the village to the family home
with our service center friends.

It has rained here for the last three days more on than off.  We were very grateful for the cement walkway as everything was very wet, however after walking about 3 blocks the cement walkway ended.

Past the cement walkway
Walking along the river (on right).
It is muddier than it looks.

A home along the way.

Carefully picking our way along as we try to miss
the wettest, slickest, worst mud.

It got muddier and slipperier as we walked the remaining 1/4 mile to the family home.  All the way I am thinking I have on my only pair of black sandals, the ones that go to church most Sundays while my  cute MaryJane crocs are sitting safely in my closet at the flat avoiding the very purpose for which they were purchased, but I was determined to express my love and sorrow to Maggie's family.  By the time we reached where the condolence gathering (Fijian expression) was being held, we were slipping and sliding on what had become known as Fijian snow, because Scott told the sisters that after this experience they should come to Utah and we would put snow skis on them and they would be experts.

The village had erected a "shed" for the reguregu which was really a tin roof held up by poles that were obviously just made from newly cut down trees.  Woven mats made by family members and village members some of which had been taken right out of homes had been put down on the dirt under the shed roof.

The shed.

We took off our shoes before entering the shed.
I am standing in the back with  Milika

Notice in these pictures that there are only men sitting in the shed.  When we sat down, Peni Balemaivavalagi, who is a Service Center employee and a stake patriarch sat up near the men while the rest of us sat at the back of the shed.  After sitting for about 5 minutes, I noticed that our gifts were on the mat next to Peni. One of the village men (probably the village chief) began to speak.  After he had finished Peni spoke.  Then all of the men chanted something as they clapped to the rhythm of what they were saying.  Peni spoke again, then the chief spoke, followed by the men chanting and clapping.  This was repeated several times. It seems that the gifts had to be presented to the village and by a man which was what Peni was doing.

Peni presenting our gifts.
Notice the woven mats.

After the presentation, we sat for a moment and then other sisters got up.  "Do want to come, Sister Tennis?  Maggie will be there."  So I went.  We put on our shoes and slipped and slid around the shed, across what was once a lawn but was now mud with narrow boards across it.  Thank goodness for good balance.  We were walking towards Maggie's home, but when we got to what I thought was just a big wooden shed with two door-like openings, the other sisters took off their shoes and climbed the six steps up to an opening, so I did also.  We entered what I learned later was an auntie's house that had been emptied for the vigil.  Inside sat five women on absolutely beautiful woven mats.  The walls had been draped with long fabric swatches in various colors.  The far wall was draped with white fabric overlaid with purple fabric that had been swaged from the corners into the middle and then tied into a huge bow.  On the wall was a picture of Maggie's mom.  A small table covered with a white cloth sat below the picture with picture of Maggie's mom on it; it was the same one as on the wall above.  We filed into the room and sat down.  We sat and sat and sat and finally one of the woman started speaking.  After a while Maggie came in and sat by the woman speaking.  It seems that only woman can be in the vigil house.  Before the death is announced on the radio and TV the family prepares a place for the vigil and the village prepares a place for the reguregu, because once the announcement is made everyone who know the deceased, the family, etc., descend on the village and stay until the funeral.  In this case it was announced on Tuesday and the funeral is Friday.  For all of these days, the woman who sit vigil stay in the house.  They don't come out except for necessities like bathroom breaks.  The women in the vigil house were relatives of Maggie's mom and the woman who spoke was Maggie's mom's mom.  Even though I didn't know what she was saying I could hear the grief in her voice.  Sad to bury a child.

As we were leaving, I knelt down in front of the Grandma and expressed my condolences, hugged/kissed Maggie, and was glad I had come.

We put our shoes back on and board walked our way back to the shed.  Along the way we passed the kitchen the village women were using for the funeral and they insisted that we eat something.

The kitchen where the women prepare food for the reguregu.
Notice the beef carcass behind the woman.

In fact, when we reached the shed, a long strip of bula fabric had been laid out and dishes and food were waiting for us.

This is what was waiting for us after we sat vigil.
Waiting for water to wash our hands.
White stuff is cassava (potato like)

Sulu holding bowl for washing hands.
Spoon is in a cabbage and huge hunks of beef.
Notice no spoons!  I was sad when the Fijian sisters ask for spoons!

Diana and Sister Kelemati with more cabbage and beef.

Sia is spooning up beef stew with carrots and potatoes.  Yummy!
This made me happy for a spoon.

Although the village helps prepare it, the family pays for all the food that the mourners eat for the four days.  Many times it costs the family their entire live stock heard.  Funerals bankrupt Fijian often.

Some of these people will eat every meal here for the
next four days.

Scott and the men also got to eat, but since Scott took the pictures he isn't in any of them.  After we ate we made the long trek back to the van though all the mud.

These children are coming home from school.
The bus lets them off on the road to another village and they
use the  boat to cross the river that separates the village from the road.

Notice that they pole the boat across the river.
We considered using the boat and making the men walk to the van.
Reconsidered when we couldn't figure out where to sit.

On the way back.
Notice Diana has finally taken her shoes off.

This is a pig pen with the cutest little pigs.

This is a where the woman of this house cooks.

Another village home

In all of the sadness we felt for Maggie and her family, this made us smile.

These two little girls followed us from the village sign
all the way to the reguregu.

Typical boys! with very cut faces!

The funeral at the church will be on Friday, and then they will bury her in the village and the wake will end Friday night.

We pray that the peace only Heavenly Father can give comes to this family.

August 7

Today I get to do something different.  Here in the Fiji, Suva mission the senior sisters who are assigned to the Mission Office, are also assigned to help the mission president's wife.  Well, one of those sisters is sick today, so I volunteered to help.  Tonight the President and Sister Klinger are hosting a huge dinner for the stake presidency, the bishops in the stake and all their wives.  It comes to over 30 people.  Obviously Sister Klinger needs help with the cooking, serving, and cleaning up.  I get to be part of that and I am excited to do it.  We start at 3 o'clock for the dinner at 6.  I am going to wear the cute chef's apron that the kids made for me before we left Utah.  It has a hand print for all of my grandkids on it.  I will wear it proudly.

Scott has given another B of M away.  Honestly, he should just do a proselyting mission, but he has a wife that really really does not want to knock on doors.  Do they send senior couples on proselyting mission anymore?  

August 5

Today we went to four young adult Sunday School classes with our sign-up sheets for
institute classes.  We have decided to teach a Mission Preparation class and a Pearl of Great
Price class.  It was a little tricky getting the correct meeting times for the classes.  The Suva North Stake
has Sacrament Meeting first and the Suva Stake had Sacrament Meeting last.  We ended up visiting
the Jacksons and calling the Whiteheads, and a Brother Lawry to get the correct times.

This morning I woke up and smacked myself.  How could I forget the music classes?  Why not have
a place on the sheets for learning to lead or learning to play the piano?  So just before we left, we added it.

We were overwhelmed with the response.  Each stake here teaches their own institute classes mostly
on Wednesday nights.  So all of these young adults have already been asked to sign up for institute.
In just four wards we had 15 sign up for Mission Prep. at 2 and 25 sign up for P of GP at 5:30 on Thursdays.  What a response and we still have four more wards to go to this Sunday.  Of course, not
all will come, but we will still have good sized classes.  Scott was especially pleased with the Mission Prep. class interest.

This whole process has created a wonderful dilemma, however.  There were 34 who signed up for leading/piano. Now I can teach leading to 34, but certainly not piano.  As per the recommendation of the Church's Music Department, I will require all of them to take the leading class unless they have already taken it. By the time we have completed that the keyboards will be here from SLC and I will have time to figure out how I am going to teach the piano part.  I am sure just like institute classes not everyone will start nor will everyone who starts complete.  We will see.

We decided to get started at the institute although we have no internet, no data projector, no way to bake treats, and no supplies. For us it was a step forward in faith.  Heavenly Father is so wonderful.  He loves us so much.  When we step our in faith even in such a small way, He blesses us in huge ways.  About 8 o'clock this evening our phone rang.  Scott had taken the van up to the car park, so I answered.  It was President Sefeti.  He asked if we were home; and when I replied that I was, he asked me to come out as he was just outside our locked gate.  When I got out there, he was standing outside his car with a big black case which he began to lift over the gate to me.  I knew immediately what it was.  A data projector!!!  "Where did this come from?" I asked.  It seems that Brother Smith (Auckland S & I) had a layover in Nadi on his way to the Marshall Islands and had brought it from New Zealand hoping that someone would be there who could bring it the 31/2 hours to Suva.  Well, it just so happened that President Sefeti was in Lautoka, a city near Suva.  He was able to get it from Brother Smith and bring it to us.  Amazing.  Our budget has not been approved yet, and we had been told that even when it was approved, it would take a minimum of two weeks for the data projector to get here after we ordered it from NZ.  Not when God is in charge!  We are so grateful.

August 3

Gecko alert.
I knew it was too good to be true.  However, I didn't realize how bad it was going to get.  I am so worried that the geckos we threw out were a he and a she.  Scott caught a little gecko that was about an inch and a half long on Tuesday.  Today I caught one in the bathroom that at first I thought was a spider.  Just a baby.  Do geckos reproduce like rabbits?  mice?  How old does a gecko have to be to understand that when I announce myself as I walk into the room he/she is supposed to hide?  He? She? Yikes, how old do they have to be to reproduce???

Scott and I are done.  We refuse to wait any longer.  We are opening the institute.  We don't have computers/internet, no projectors, no supplies, nothing.  But we are going to open.  We have decided to teach two institute classes on Thursdays starting on the 16th.  We will teach Mission Prep at 2:00 and Pearl of Great Price at 5:30.  I am not sure how we are going to prepare three lessons every week; we are just going to do it.  That means that we must visit all of the Young Adult Sunday School Classes with the announcement and a sign up sheet before then.  Pray for us!

August 1, 2012

Taught a lesson on chastity tonight.  I was worried about it, but Heavenly Father blessed me.  At the last moment I changed the whole beginning and the ending, and it made all the difference.  I told the class that I had two questions to asked them.  The first was: did they 'know' that Thomas S. Monson was a prophet who spoke for God;  did they know that those prophets who preceded him spoke for God; and did they know that the Twelve also spoke for God?  Then I asked them if they believe that God was the same yesterday as He is today and as He will be in the future.  Then I paused and said, "If you answered no to any of these questions then I have no lesson for you tonight.  I waited a moment and then I told them that what we would speak about in the lesson came from God through His prophets and that it was in direct opposition to what the world teaches. The Spirit came and the rest of the lesson just flowed.  As with the rest of the world Fiji has a problem with moral purity.

I ended the lesson reading the account of Lot in Genesis.  I focused on Lot pitching his tent facing Sodom and what his fascination with the moral degradation that was happening there cost him.  Then I bore testimony that to be morally safe in today's world, we must not 'look to' the world, but keep our eyes on Heavenly Father.

When inspiration comes like this, I know that someone in the class has a need that Heavenly Father wants met.  I pray that I did it well enough that they heard.

July 31

The Service Center had an employee training session today.  We and the Jacksons were invited to attend.  Salote gave us a copy of a book late Monday afternoon and ask us to skim it before the training session today.  We didn't and I was really sorry.  It sounds like a fabulous book and I have decided that I will put down the novel I am slowly creeping through and read this book instead.  I was really uplifted just listening.  The point was that the way we see people--as people or objects--affects how we feel about them and ourselves.  I kept thinking of the Primary song, "I am a child of God" with the substitution of she, he, they instead of I.  

Today I ate my first truly Fijian food.  After the training we all ate a catered lunch which was really a banquet.  I have said before the Fijians know how to eat.  Well it is because they know how to cook.  The menu consisted of:

rourou balls in coconut sauce = cooked dalo leaves (looks like spinach) stuffed in a soft shell

                                                  Scott's favorite

Apricot chicken = bone-in small pieces (wings) of chicken in the best sauce I have ever eaten

                              It was a little tricky getting the bones out of my mouth, but none of the Fijians   

                              seemed to be bothered by it.

Kokoda = raw, diced fish (wahoo) in coconut milk   

                 my favorite

Garlic prawns 

Seafood salad = cold crab and veggies

Vudi = little banana slices which were really good  

Dalo = this is what the Hawaiians call taro.  It was sliced on the diagonal and cooked twice 

            I actually liked this although it is kind of bland

Lote = a dessert made from pumpkin (which I think is really squash).  They cook it, mash it, and wring                                          

            all the moisture out.  Then take the moisture/juice and add sugar and starch.  One eats it with

            milk

Lote is wonderful.  I took just a small portion, poured milk on it and went to heaven with the first bite.  So I went back for seconds.  I am eating the seconds when I asked one of the sisters, "Is this fattening?"  She and every other woman in the room laughed.  OK, so I didn't take thirds.  Then as I was helping clean up, I picked up the milk carton and noticed that it said full cream milk.  Uh huh!

I am so grateful for the experiences we are having in the Service Center.  We have made friends, learned much, and experienced parts of Fiji we would never have if we had been sitting in the institute by ourselves. 

July 27-29

I am so ticked at myself.  I thought about Marsha all day on Fiji's 27th, but did not write her a birthday email because I wanted to do it on her birth day, and then I missed it.  RATS.  It really is a hassle that we are a day ahead of everything at home.

Was dizzy this weekend off and on.  Tried lazing around for most of Friday which generally fixes the problem, but it did not.  Was dizzy on Saturday and again on Sunday.  I did discover on Sunday that it got better when we had the AC on.  Hmmm.

No Gecko.  Is he/she really gone for good?  Could I be so lucky?

July 26

Wow!  What a fun lesson we had last night.  After listening to the advice I got, I adjusted the lesson.  I started out talking about rugby.  Had one of the students draw a rugby field on the board and then we talked about the point of the game (score more trys than the other team), the rules of the game, and the skills necessary to play the game.  Then I said, "Dating is a game; it has a point, rules, and one needs skills to be good at it."  Then I let the class fill in the point, the rules and the skills.  We laughed from the beginning of class to the end--well except the part where I bore my testimony.  The church where I teach is built so all the classrooms open onto a courtyard.  I sat with the students to teach this class, and every time we would get laughing students in the classroom across the courtyard would look out their door/windows to see what was going on.  One of the cutest things that happened was when I made a huge deal that kisses are special and should not be given out like pretzels.  The YSA that was writing all the stuff on the board wrote "no kissing" under the rules.  I said, "No, No. that is not right." So he then he wrote under "no kissing" "get skills" as a joke.  I laughed and laughed and then shook my finger at him.  Every YSA in the class was watching to see what I would do.  Cute.  After class one YSA from another class told one of the YSAs in my class, "I am in the wrong class." Because these kids really don't date at all, I am thinking of having a date night at our house.  I think I want to put the girls names in a hat and have the boys draw out who they will bring to our "date night".  We will see.

Institute class minus three girls
The girl in the front is a former Viking who was visiting

No Gecko yet.  Am tired of the rain.  I can tell that I am becoming acclimated as I don't put up my umbrella when it is just sprinkling--to much hassle.