Thursday, September 27, 2012

September 27

It rained again today.  I am anxious to see the sun.

I fixed peanut butter cookies, the kind that have no flour.  They were so easy.  I made over 65 of them thinking that everyone would be able to have two.  I also made tuna sandwiches again only this time I used regular sliced bread (3 long loaves).  I used 5 cans of tuna, two grated carrots, and three cucumbers diced.  None of it was enough.  Even though we had only 24 in Mission Prep, there were another 8 waiting outside of the classroom so they could play before the P of GP class and by the time I got the sandwiches into the classroom 2 young adults that usually attend Mission Prep had shown up.  How does one feed only some of those present.  Hmmmm.  Five cans of tuna divided by 35 people (add Scott) equals seven servings per can.  I was praying for a fishes and loaves experience.  I fed the class students first, and told the other kids they would have to wait to see if there was any left.  There was.  Everyone got one sandwich (even me which makes 36) and some got another half.  When the tuna ran out, I just passed out the left over slices of bread.

Scott taught both lessons and did an absolutely marvelous job.  He had the mission prep students fighting to give him the answers and then giving each other high fives when they got them right.  It is harder to teach P of GP because 34 is too many in the room we have.  He adjusted his lesson and it went perfectly.  He gets such good participation, and is a master at getting discussion.

Had an interesting experience before P of GP class.  We have two wonderful rolling overstuffed desk chairs that we kept when they took our desks out of the classroom.  During Mission Prep one of the young ladies,Vani, sat in one of those chairs and I sat in the other.  When P of GP started she was sitting in a hard chair next to the soft chair in which sat one of the young men.  I asked him how he got the chair and he said, "I asked for it."  Oops wrong answer!  My Miss Manners came screaming to the forefront. I politely told him to give the chair back to Vani.  "But she said I could have it!" was the reply.  "Well," I said, "As a gentlemen you should never have asked for it.  A gentlemen always gives the lady the best chair."  "But I want it," came the reply.  "It's OK, Sister Tennis, I said he could have it." added Vani.  I just looked at the young man and told him to get out of the chair.  He did.  Smart move.  I left to get some stuff for Scott and when I came back, the young man was back in the soft chair.  Stupid!!!!  I marched over (on purpose and for effect), stood right in front of him, put my hands on my hips, leaned into his face, and very quietly said, "GET OUT OF THAT CHAIR."  When he had moved I again leaned in and said, "You will always use your best manners in the Church." I patted him on the arm, and thanked him.  He was quaking when I turned to walk back to my chair.  When I looked up our boss, the stake president, was standing in the doorway watching and his eyes were huge.  It will be interesting to discuss this in our Monday meeting.

Many men in Fiji do not treat woman the way they should.  Old customs die hard.

September 26

As you can tell I just discovered the text background color button.  It was one of those "well, duh" moments.  Dare I go back and fix the other posts in this blog?  I have long felt that my blog looked boring.  Hopefully by the time I am finished with this mission, I will have figured out all the bells and whistles and it will not be boring anymore.

Tonight the lesson in Preparing for an Eternal Marriage was on the differences between woman and men; how each gender should be proud of the differences and accepting of the other gender's differences; and how these differences came with us from our previous home with God.  The way it was written in the manuel was so boring.  Read this quote and discuss it.  Read this next quote and discuss it.  Read...  You get the idea.  I so wanted it to be fun, informative and spiritual.  

I am a witness that Heavenly Father loves the young adults in our class.  I wrote a lesson and read it to Scott who kindly pointed out that it was not much better than the one in the manuel.  We brainstormed ideas and came up with a more interesting lesson.  I was so grateful to Scott and Heavenly Father for helping me.  However, Heavenly Father was not done.  I got into the lesson and as we were discussing different points, words I had not planned and had not given much thought to came out of my mouth.  The spirit was so strong.  I found myself testifying that I would not trade carrying a living soul and giving that soul life for one minute of holding the priesthood with all its power, and that I felt sorry for men who would never have that experience and the resulting bond that gave me with my children.  It was obvious that several of the young men and woman had never realized the great honor and blessing it is to be a mother.  Heavenly Father taught us all a wonderful lesson.

After the lesson we were taking one of the students and her friend from Tonga (returned missionary) back to her home.  As we got into the van the young missionary gave me a hug and said, "Sister Tennis, that was the best lesson I have ever had in the church."  I told him to thank Heavenly Father because it was not me teaching.   All glory goes to Him whose work I am doing. 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

September 25


Tonight I only had two of my piano students show up.  One called in sick.  The other did not and did not answer her phone or my text.  It was the worst time to miss.  We covered notes on the staff lines.  The piano class moves really fast.  It actually wanted me to teach all lines, and spaces on one class.  Overload!!!  I covered just the lines and both student did not get it.  It was tough for them to see that lines next to each other were not keys next to each other and what surprised me the most was they had no concept of where on the keyboard the staff lines were.  If it was an f on the staff then it must be the f below middle C every time.  I certainly was not prepared for the problems I encountered.  The students were really good about sticking with it and not getting discouraged, but we all left the lesson exhausted.

I am not sure how to catch up the students who missed and allow the other two students to move on.  I lean to letting the students who missed struggle and just move on.  We will see what happens between now and next week.  In the meantime I will be praying for inspiration on how to handle it all.

September 24

It was the senior couples FHE tonight.  It was held at the Whiteheads.  Walked in and guess what?  She fixed ika lolo.  I was so bummed.  I have the name of a wonderful caterer and had planned on having her making ika lolo along with two other Fijian entrees next month when it is our turn to host.  I do not think I can get away with serving it again.  Sister Whitehead had done a wonderful fixing it.  It is really delicious.  Lolo just means in coconut milk not the stuff that is in the coconut when one cracks it open.  To make lolo, one grates the coconut and then squeezes it till all the moisture is gone.  Voila! Lolo.  I have been so relaxed about hosting until now.   STRESS!!!!


September 23

Do you ever have Sunday mornings when you just barely make it out of bed let alone get to church?  Well this morning was one of those for me.  I am quite proud that I not only made it, but we were early.  Not bad for an 8:00 a.m. meeting.

We went to Sacrament Meeting in our ward, and then went to the Suva Stake Center which houses three wards to pass out flyers for our Single Adult Activity on the 5th.  We left there and went to the Church College to pass out the flyers to the two Tamavua wards.  As we were leaving there, Scott asked me where I thought we should go next, Suva 1st or out to the Lami Chapel.  As we were discussing it, we both felt strongly that we should go out to Lami even though it is a ways out and the single adults there would most likely not attend the activity, but those at the Suva 1st Ward would.  When we got to Lami, we ask a young man to take us to Bishop Titoko as his ward was not in Sacrament Meeting.  We knocked and the Bishop opened his door, grinned, and asked us in.  We told him that we would not bother him; our errand was a quick one.  He insisted.  He told us that he had been praying for weeks to know what training should happen during the 5th Sunday Combined Meeting.  "You are the answer to my prayers."  We are teaching the class next Sunday on rescuing their Young Adults, getting them back to church, and ready to enter the temple.  Amazing.  It is so nice to be the answer to someone's prayer.  I am grateful that Heavenly Father knows that we will listen and obey; that He trusts us.

Went to a Missionary Fireside at the Nausori Stake Center.  President and Sister Klinger are wonderful, strong, and kind.    Both spoke and it was inspirational.  During the fireside a missionary quartet sang.  WOW!  Two tenors and two basses and they sang a cappella.  It was amazing.  The missionary that pitched it had the most beautiful tenor voice.  I generally like basses better, but not this time.  Wow.  He is about to be released.  He is from the Marshall Islands.  His parents moved to Enid Oklahoma while he was on his mission; he is really going to have adjustment issues.  Poor guy.


September 22

I was so tired this morning.  We have not been home one night this week.  I needed a people break, however, Scott insisted that we go with the senior couples on their outing today.  We were late, because I just could not move fast enough.  We always meet in the temple parking lot.  Scott always drives as we have the van and can take six beside us with ease.  We have had as much as nine which is a little tight.

We met at 8:30 a.m. to go hiking is a forest near Suva.  It is called Colo I Suva.  I have not idea what that means.  We paid our fee at the forestry office and took two university student with us to the car park at the beginning of the trail to the upper pool.  The university students were our car security.  They volunteer to do this because it gets them internship hours.
At Colo I Suva
Us, Wells, Jacksons, Elder Whitehead, Jarmans,
Whitings,  Forestry Student
They suggested that we walk to the upper pool come back to the car park, and then drive to the lower pool.  We wanted to see the forest as well as the pools so we did not take their suggestion.  It was an easy but brutal walk.  All rough stair steps some so tall that my 5'3" legs had a hard time.  Several times I just jumped down from one step to the next.  The forest was beautiful and the pools with their little waterfalls were lovely.
Waterfall into the Upper Pool

The Upper Pool from the trail

Along the way we say this on the trail.  

Look carefully!  Talk about ugly.
Not sure what this is--a hard shelled centipede?  but it is huge.  The students at USP say there is an even bigger one on campus.  The tale is that if it spits in one's eye, the eye will go blind.  Wish I knew a  biologist.  

When we got to the lower pool, two of the men walked up to the car park to get the girls and the cars.  Scott, Pat Whitehead, Connie Whiting, and Elder Wells took advantage of the rope swing.  The drop from the swing to the water was about ten to fifteen feet.  After I took pictures, I took the book I was only ten pages from finishing and walked a little ways away for some quite reading.  Doesn't get better than this.  Aaaaaah.


Scott's first swing.

Check the face and he says its fun!


Best swing of the day.  
We were supposed to eat at a restaurant just a little ways away, but the walk and swinging had taken too much time, so we had Elder Whiting drive us back to our house.  Even Scott needed some time before we had game night at the Institute.

Game night was so much fun.  We had 30+ show up.  The boys had moved the pool table from the entry way to the lounge (waiting room for the Stake President), put the ping pong table in the entry way, and we put all the games in the classroom.  I taught some of the young adults how to play Yahtzee which they did not particularly like, and Uno which they did.  It is amazing how much a person will tell you when they are concentrating on something else.  I heard some interesting stuff that will help us provide better lessons and activities for these kids.  Scott taught some other young adults how to play Chinese Checkers which they really loved.  After he went on to another activity many of them played again.  Of course, we had about eight of them in the kitchen playing cranboard (spelling?)  I think I have already explained this game, but I am going to do it again.  The "board" is about 3' X 3' and has 3" holes in each corner.  There is a circle in the middle of the board where all the taws are placed.  Each player gets one taw which is wood and is the shape and size of a checker piece.  The object it to flip your taw with your index finger and move the taws in the center into a corner hole.  The person who flips the most taws into the holes wins.  I was shocked when Scott said it was time to clean up.  Three and a half hours went by so fast.  It was raining pretty heavily so we had mostly men.

I was glad for my soft bed tonight.

September 20

Had a whole passel of young adults in class today.  As usual,  Scott's mission prep class was wonderful.  He just loves missionary work, and the kids can feel it.  He even has returned missionaries in his class.  I taught Pearl of Great of Price.  We have 37 students and some of them came from Nausori which is a long and expensive bus ride.  About ten minutes into the class the power went out.  Suva reminds me of Lehi when I was little.  If the wind blew the power went out.  If it rained the power went out.  It is the same here in Suva.  So here we are in a huge storm at 5:45 p.m.  We continues until we absolutely could not see.  Scott, wonderful man that he is, left and asked if we could move our class to the primary school/chapel which has a generator.  It was being used, but the guard, Abraham our friend, said he would open a classroom.  All of us grabbed our stuff, we locked the institute and trudged over to the primary school.  It was inconvenient, but really fun.  By the time I had finished the class at 7 o'clock, the power was back on.  All of the young adults came back to the institute for treats.  I love these kids!!!!!

Friday, September 21, 2012

September 19

Had some excitement last night.  About 11:30 p.m. I awoke to the sound of breaking glass.  My first thought was that someone downstairs had dropped a glass.  When I was fully awake I realized that would not be as their kitchen is not under our bedroom.  Just as I was drifting off I heard wood ripping. I got up and looked out our bedroom window towards the house next door.  I could not see anything, but as I was looking I again heard ripping wood so I looked more carefully.  On the stairs to the back door of the house next door was a man.  I watched for a few minutes until I realized that he had a crowbar and was trying to break into the house.  I softly called Scott who, of course, did not hear.  I walked over to the bed and touched his foot as I said, "Scott, there is someone trying to break into" and before I could finish he was up out of the bed looking around wildly.  I am sure his adrenaline was pumping.  I restate the first of my sentence and ended with "next door."  We walked to the window but because the moon was in the wrong place Scott could not see him.  The burglar then tried to beat the door or the window next to it with the crowbar.  I can not imagine how he thought he could make that kind of a racket and not wake us up.  Anyway, Scott leaned into our screen and in the deepest, loudest voice he said, "What are you doing?"  The burglar stopped moving for a moment so Scott yelled at him again.  This time the burglar turned, raced down the stairs, threw the crowbar into the bushes and ran into our backyard which combines with the house next door's yard and is dense in undergrowth and goes a long way before it hits the street.  I then heard someone yelling from the apartment below us, so we went out to see who it was only to be met by our landlady, her mother, and son.  They, too, had been awakened by the breaking glass. They had called the police.  In about four or five minutes, five or six police drove up in a white sedan driven by some guy who was driving past the police station in his private car.  When our landlady told them where the burglar had gone they took off again in the civilian's car to meet him on the street behind us.  I really did not expect to see them again until they had searched the back yard.  It was just a few minutes before they returned, got out of the car, and came into our yard to see.  They looked and left.  Not one went into the other yard.  No one asked us any questions.  Only one had a weapon.  A nightstick.  We went back to bed. 

I laid awake until 3 o'clock feeling very vulnerable.  I was not afraid.  I just realized how little protection we had.  The Samabula police do not have cars.  They had to stop the civilian and tell him to drive them to our house.  They are not allowed to carry any weapons only night sticks.  It is illegal for everyone in Fiji to have a gun except the military who are at the present time also the running the government.  Help here is not readily available, not very competent.  Scott has decided we need a baseball bat under the bed.  He will not find a baseball bat in Fiji.  I am not afraid.  Heavenly Father will take care of us, but I can not imagine living where real help is not quickly available.

Along this same line, five convicts escape prison and robbed an ATM machine yesterday.  The military has set up road blocks on all the major roads looking for them.  It will be interesting to see if they catch them.

September 17

The Jackson's invited us over for dinner week ago tonight--Monday night.  It was delicious.  Sister Jackson only used ingredients that are readily available in Fiji.  She did this amazing thing with eggplant which is in abundance right now.  Using eggplant that was the size of a really fat cucumber, she cut it in half and roasted it in the oven.  She then put hoisin sauce on the cut side and broiled it.  Delicious!!!  I am not a fan of eggplant but I went right out and bought some hoisin sauce and eggplant and cooked it again for Scott.  Mine was not as good, because my broiler does not work.  I am, however, determined to get around the broiler.  I am also determined to learn to cook with only those ingredients that are available in Suva.  No more Campbells soup.

It is amazing to me that some cooks are just naturally better than others.  I think I am an above average cook, but I have always stuck to American recipes or American variations of foreign foods.  I am not a really adventuresome cook, nor am I able to just make recipes up.  If you want a good down-home meal, I am your girl, but if you want gourmet I am at a loss.  Sister Jackson is a gourmet.  I think I am going to ask for lessons, recipes, etc., from her.

Speaking of food.  This week Scott and I stopped at a little roadside market on our way to someplace else.  We needed everything.  As Scott was dickering over the price increase of pineapple, I walked to the carrots. They come in bags of four generally.  When the salesman told me the carrots were $4 for four, I protested.  He then told me that carrots are out of season.  "Yah, right." I thought  "You just want more money. Carrots are never out of season."  It was not until we had driven off, that I realized that, indeed, carrots have a season.  As an American, I forget that because carrots are always available---always.  Pineapple is also out of season thus the higher price.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

September 16

I hate to admit it, but I really, really do not like having to be to church at 8 o'clock.  I love a leisurely morning on Sundays.  I do not want to sleep in; I just do not want to rush which happens when church is at 8.  I probably ought to be thankful that we are not attending one of the wards that begin at 7 o'clock.

We went to the CES broadcast tonight.  Elder Holland spoke.  What an amazing talk.  I need to remember that all CES talks are found at ces.lds.org  I am going to copy this talk, and reread it until I know it.

President Seru had us stand up again in front of all the YSAs after the fireside.  He talked about us being sent to Fiji to the Suva North Stake to help them stay strong.  He admonished them to get to know us, to avail themselves of our services and the offerings at the institute.  He could be bitter since we are basically booting him out of his offices, but he is not.  He champions us at every opportunity.  Great men of God can be found even in Fiji, or maybe especially in Fiji.  We are blessed to associate with him.

September 15

Over thirty in the institute for movie night.  More new faces.  What a blessing.

September 14

Today we went to the temple at 8.  We had decided to do a session before we went to the Primary School guard's family sealing.  As we walked in we met Abraham and his wife walking in to meet with the Temple President.  It was not until we were sitting in the session that I realized that once again we had not understood.  Communication among the Fijians is not good, but between the Fijians and foreigners it is awful.  When Abraham told us to be in the temple at 10, it was for the endowment session not for the sealing which is what we heard.  So, we just did another session with Abraham and then went to the sealing after at 12.

Watching a family be sealed for all eternity is a very spiritually, emotional thing.  After the marriage Abraham's five children came in looking like angels in white.  The youngest boy (3 or 4) just stole my heart.  He was grinning from ear to ear.  He had on a white shirt, a white bow tie, and a little white sulu.  The other children were very solemn and it was obvious that they understood the gravity of the occasion, but not the little one.  He was on an adventure.  He was excited, and pleased with it all.  He never quit smiling, and his eyes just sparkled.  At the alter, he was so short that he had to stand.  From the moment the children walked in, I was emotionally caught up.  When they stood in front of the mirrors as an eternal family, I just sobbed.  This is why we are here!  This is why we live the way we live.  This is what it is all about.

After the sealing we grabbed our camera and took pictures for the family outside the temple.
What an honor to be included in this amazing event.  Just as an aside, Scott was one of the witnesses.  Later I ask why and he explained that the wife's father was doing the sealing.

Another amazing thing happened today in the temple.  Our MTC Fijian Tutor's mother and father were in both temple sessions and the sealing.  As I walked into the sealing room, I walked over to greet Sister Vuikadavu (voo ee kan da voo).  She reminded me that Lakote was getting married in Utah tomorrow.  I told her how sorry I was that she could not be there for the wedding.  Her reply was, "That is why we are in the temple all day today, so we can feel a part of his life."  It is times like this I wish I were wealthy.  I would fly them to Utah.  She is a wonderful woman.  I told her how much I admired her children as we also had her recently returned-missionary daughter in our Wednesday class.  "It is all their father," she replied.  I told her I was sure that he had not done it alone.  

September 13

WHOA!  We need a bigger institute building.  Remember I talked to Scott about not recruiting for the Pearl of Great Price class.  Well he was good not to all week and yet we had 38 students in class tonight.  We also had 24 in Mission Prep up again from last week.

All this creates a wonderful problem for me.  I can't fix unlimited snacks and treats; time and money preclude it.  Today I figured if I made 22 cream buns (more on this later) which was three more than we needed last week, I would be OK.  Nope two short which makes me feel sad and guilty at the same time.  Last night when we got home, I made two banana cakes (9X13 pans) from a recipe Sister Dakunimata (nda coon ee mata) had given me.  Surely 30 pieces of cake would be enough.  How do you get 38 pieces out of just two cakes without them looking minuscule?  Our students are so darling about it.  One girl came looking for a piece after we had distributed all the banana cake.  When I apologized she just laughed and said that really she did not need more cake on her hips.  I have no idea how to fix this wonderful problem.  I only have two 9X13 pans.  I hate baking cookies because they are so labor intensive and here they are really expensive to make.  I wish someone would come up with a solution.

The other problem is that we have only 34 chairs.  Tonight we had students sitting on the coffee table from the lounge area, and two sitting on the floor.  Scott had no room to move in the front of the class.
I hate having them sit on the floor, and resist moving the table out.  How does one write notes in one's scriptures, and take notes in the student manual without a writing surface.  Oh for 10 more two person tables (we would put three at each) which would work well in our space, but which cost the earth here. $189F

OK to the cream buns.  I believe in one of my earlier posts I mentioned that we had gone to a bakery that does relatively good fancy baked goods, one of which is a cream bun.  I thought they were huge cream puffs when I first looked at them, but at closer inspection they are regular bread buns with what looks like whipped cream in them.  We bought one which Scott liked and I thought was not so good because the cream? filling was gritty.  Well they are cheap and the kids seem to like them.  I got wondering if I could make them cheaper than the bakery price, so I got on line for a recipe.  Sure enough some Aussie had a blog where she was bemoaning the loss of the wonderful cream buns from home.  Some one shared a recipe with the lady from Australia.  It looked easy.  We bought some regular buns (I made the mistake of asking for rolls at the bakery which confused the sales person. Say buns, LaNae, buns) and went home to make cream buns.  Well the filling is just sugar water and butter.  Really.  Not to brag too much, mine were much better than the ones at the bakery and cost just a bit more than half the bakery price.  They will be the snack after Mission Prep again I am sure.

September 12

Our lesson tonight in Preparing for Eternal Marriage was on temporally preparing for marriage.  I was so excited for the lesson.  I had created a little budgeting assignment using a real life situation here.  When we got to the Suva Stake Center, no one was there.  We had to wait for Sister Inoke to get there and then when we went to class, it was just Scott, me and two students.  Two weeks ago I had 14 students.  I hate to say it, but I was disappointed.  I had set the lesson up so that a man and a woman would work on the budget together.  The entire lesson depended on a classroom full of students.  No such luck.  The class starts at 5:30.  At 6:30 two more students showed up---both women.  We have no way to remind these YSAs.  I have decided that I will ask for phone numbers and text them all before next class.  

We always go out to eat after our Wednesday class as I am too hammered to cook after.   It is a nice thing to sit across the table from the man I love, eat and have wonderful conversation.  Just the two of us.  I am grateful to have the money to do it.  

September 11

I am not sure where the time goes.  Someone asked me today what the date was.  I had absolutely no idea.  I knew it was Tuesday because I have music classes today, and I knew it was September.  I had no idea we were into the second week of the month.  Time is moving too fast!

I am such a mouse.  Today I had another student show up for conducting class.  I had determined that once the music classes started I would not allow anyone else to start.  Music is like math if you miss the basics it is tough to catch up.  So the new student tells me that he is leaving on a mission to the Marshall  Islands and needs to know how to lead music.  Of course, I give right in and say yes. 

I love teaching these music classes.  They are low energy.  Fun.  And the students are really motivated. I am hoping that I can teach one session of classes right after another.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

September 7

Scott spent the night walking the floor and trying to sleep.  We need to find some antihistamine.  I am pretty sure we won't find any.  He is at home trying to sleep.  I am praying he gets better soon, and that I will not get this.  There is no time to be sick.

Got up this morning at 6:15 and practiced the piano.  I am so rusty.  I was looking for an easy hymn to assign the keyboard students on Tuesday.  All four of them reported yesterday that they had been practicing.  Timoci (Timothy) said he has practiced all the way to the next song in the student manual.  He is particularly motivated as he leaves for a mission in Canada the end of November.  He wants to be able to play all the simplified hymns by then.  I am considering having him come for an extra lesson once a week.

Speaking of Timoci.  Tuesday night it was raining hard when we finished piano class.  Since our students were carrying their keyboards home, we decided to take them so the keyboards would be protected from the rain.  Timoci and his sister Elenoa come to both classes on Thursday, and Timoci also comes on Tuesday for piano.  We drove Timoci to a bus stop about two miles from the institute and dropped him off.  Because Scott had taken him home once before, he knew where to go and where to stop.  After Timoci got out, he walked through the bus stop to a path that went into dense foliage.  I ask Scott where Timoci's house was and his reply was "about six blocks along that path."  I wondered out loud why we were not taking him to his house.  "There is no road into his house.  This is as close as we can get." was Scott's reply.  Two miles + six blocks.  It takes commitment to walk that several times a week.  They never miss.  And they do it on Sunday as their ward house is behind the institute.

I wonder how many of our USA young adults are committed enough to make that journey for an institute class.  I wonder if I would be.

September 6

Scott woke up this morning with a sinus infection.  His head was killing him.  Nonetheless we had classes to teach, so he got up and got moving.

Because of the other lessons, all three of them, I had not spent adequate time on the Pearl of Great Price lesson for today.  I thought I had a direction for it, but as I put pencil to paper it did not feel right.  I spent until 2 o'clock looking for inspiration.  It was awful.  By the time I got home it was 2:30.  Scott had already left to open the institute and prepare the classroom.  Because the stake also uses this building, we never know in what condition we will find the classroom.  I had made cupcakes after teaching institute on Wednesday night, so I only had to ice them.  I am so grateful that store bought icing is available here.  I also had to make the sandwiches for after Mission Prep.  I decided that PJ sandwiches would have to do.  I had everything done and was over to the institute before Scott started his class.  I spent his class praying for inspiration for my class----and trying to put something on paper.  

One of the young adults that attends both classes came yesterday with her niece and nephew.  They had to be not more than 3 and 4.  They played in the lounge while we taught.  She stayed for both classes and those kids never caused a minute's trouble.  I felt sorry for them, so when I went back to our flat to make more sandwiches for the class since I had made only 17 and there were 19 in attendance, I ask if they could go with me.  Neither of the kids speak English.  Dreke told them to go with me and I would give them a treat.  So when we got to the flat, I sat them at the  table and gave them three peanut M&Ms.  Neither knew what they were or what to do with them, so I took an M&M and with great aplomb plopped it into my mouth.  The little girl (3) laughed and put one in her mouth.  It was immediately obvious that she did not like it!  Both she and the little boy had the two remaining M&Ms in their hand when we got back to the institute.  I have no idea what happened to those M&Ms.  They did not much like the PJ sandwich I made for them either.  I think they are ruined by the blandness of cassava and dalo.  Of course, maybe I am ruined by too much sugar, and rich flavors.  Nahhh!

So Scott's Mission Prep class was up to 19 students today.  We had 28 students in Pearl of Great Price.  The room was packed.  I had made 24 cupcakes sure in the knowledge that I would not need more.  So much for receiving inspiration.  After I told Scott he could not continue to recruit for P of GP.  I do not want to teach without desks, or tables.  Suluiete Kama who is in the office next to ours does all the visa work for the kids here who are going on missions outside of Fiji.  She has ask us if we would give her little cards with the time and place of the Mission Prep class.  She wants to hand them out to the future missionaries she sees.

If things continue as they have been going, Suva will need another Institute/YAC.  We feel like we need to recruit a senior couple to come replace us.  I would hate this to fall apart after we leave like it did before when the senior couple left.

September 5

The weather has been cold here.  Tuesday as I caught up on this blog, I was sitting on our bed working with a blanket around me and I was still really warm.  I had previously shut all the windows, but the house was cold.  We have no way to heat the house, unless I turn on the oven and open the door.  I decided to see what the temperature was.  It was 68 degrees.  How could I be so cold at 68 degrees?  My favorite Utah weather is between 60 and 72.

Tonight all the S&I guys came to the Suva Stakes Institute class at the stake building.  That is where I teach Prepare for Eternal Marriage.  When some of them walked into my class I was teaching to two students.  Everyone else had stayed home because of the rain and the cold.  FYI, I had worn my warmest outfit, a cotton T under a polyester 3/4 length jacket.  I was even wishing for nylons which I did not bring to Fiji.  After class we walked out with the S&I men.  During the conversation I said something about them being mad that they had come to Fiji for the warm weather and had been met by the cold and the rain.  Wayne from New Zealand wanted to know what I was talking about.  "This isn't cold", he said.  
I held up my arm and said, "Even with this jacket on, I am freezing."  
"You are from Utah.  This is just like your weather at home.  How can you be cold?  You must have adjusted."  I really had not thought about it, but I guess I have, because I am cold.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

September 4

At three today I was ready and waiting for the chorister class to begin.  I had three students already at the institute which meant that nine more were to show up.  We waited until 3:30.  None came.  The ones that were there decided that we would go ahead and those not there would have to wait eight weeks for the next class to start.  Like everywhere else in the world, young adults refuse to be pushed into anything.

I had so much fun teaching the class.  Three was perfect and they are so eager.

At about 5:00 the piano students showed up for their class at 6 and brought a bunch of other YSAs with them to play pool.  One was a young man who Susana had just happened upon at the bus stop.  They had gone to high school together.  She started to walk past him (he had not seen her), but then turned and spoke to him.  In the conversation she asked him if he was still going to church.  He was not.  She asked him if he wanted to get active.  He did.  She told him to come with her to the institute, but he said he was too embarrassed.  She told him that he would love Elder and Sister Tennis and to just come.  When she got there she asked me to speak to him, but I turned him over to Scott as I was as the moment being a Martha--when will I learn.  Scott, of course, charmed him, welcomed him, and then listened.  He told us (when I came to my senses and joined the conversation) that when he had walked through the gates of the institute it felt like he was "home".  He is coming to institute on Thursday, and will be in church with us on Sunday.  He asked if he might still be able to serve a mission.
Our first reactivation!!!!!!!!  This is what I came to do.  I pray it is the first of many.

Piano was so fun.  The four students; Dan Aushia (Azeea), Timoci (Timothy), and Susana were so excited to open the keyboards.  They just petted and petted those keyboards.  The lesson actually went for 75 minutes because they did not want to quit.  We got to the place where they play There is a Green  Hill Far Away.  After they played it the first time they were all beaming! Fun to watch.  Next lesson is only 45 minutes and then 30 minutes worth of practice.  I am going to love teaching these kids.

September 3

Last week our boss, President Sefeti, told us that our bigger boss, Ngatai Smith was coming into Suva on Saturday.  I have been asking Scott to set some time aside to 'fix up' (I use that term very loosely) our part of the institute.  He decided last Friday that that might be a good idea.  In the middle of the night I woke up with this great idea.  We can't get poster paper here, but the bulletin boards are in desperate need.  We don't have money to change them, so I get this great idea.  Go buy sulus ($5) and cut them to fit the bulletin boards.  Scott already had one we used for our dance (see picture), so we just bought two lime green plain ones.  We had decided that we would attend the temple at 8 and then spend the morning in the institute; however, we were late getting to the temple, so we rearranged our plans.  We went over to the institute at 8 and started.  The first sulu I tried did not fit the board.  I wrangled, stretched, and wrangled but I could not get it to look good.  Finally I just ripped it off the board.  I then tried Scott's orange sulu with the Fiji Islands printed on the bottom.  It fit perfectly.  By the time I got to stapling, Abraham, the primary school guard, had seen the back door to the institute open and had come over to see what was going on.  He really got into helping me.  We got the one in the classroom finished and were just about finished with the one in the lounge when we realized that we would miss the temple 10 o'clock session if we did get out of there.  Abraham, who is Scott's friend, said he would finish as he didn't think the job I had done was good enough.  Cute.

Well, when we showed up for our nine o'clock meeting this morning we were met not only by our boss, Ngatai, but by our bigger boss, Wayne who is over all CES for the Pacific, and by the new S&I coordinator for Vanuatu.  So much for good communication.  Nice to have the rooms looking sort-of good, however.  They wanted to use our institute for their area coordinators meetings this week.  Too bad we are using the institute Tuesday afternoon/evening, Thursday afternoon/evening, and Saturday night.  They will have to hold their meetings at the college.


September 2

Biship Titoko of the Lami 1st Ward had ask us to come speak with his Young Adult Sunday School Class.  We decided to go to their sacrament meeting so we would not be late.  We had not realized that it was a Fijian speaking ward.  Some sweet sister loaned us her song book, so we could sing with them.  I can sing in Fijian mostly.  It was interesting that all of the testimonies were born in Fijian except for the one young adult who bore her testimony.  She did it in English.

Scott ask me to do the speaking.  I stood up to speak, took one look at those beautiful, spiritual young adults and started to cry.  I hate it when that happens.  I talked about what was happening at the institute and invited them to come join us.  It is quite a long and expensive bus ride for them.  I think we did not understand what Bishop Titoko wanted, because when I sat down, the girl who had conducted the meeting looked around wide eyed and then asked one of the YA to teach the lesson.  I noticed he looked pretty shocked, but he got up, someone handed him those little booklets we all get as class members, asked what lesson (someone gave him a number) and began to teach.  Of course, we didn't get any of it, but the class was engaged and the Spirit was there.  My guess it that the Bishop thought we would take the whole class time.  Oops.

Fed the APs dinner.  They stayed until almost nine.  Next week I am for sure getting some alone time.  Really!!!

September 1, 2012

Saw a great rugby match today.  It was the semifinals for club rugby for the under 20 age division.  We sat right on the grass next to the edge of the field.  It was exciting.  The Raiwaqa team, who we were rooting for, won by three with a successful try just as the whistle was blown for the end of the game.

August 31

Well today was not one of our better days.  I woke up this morning and just fell apart.  I was teary as soon as I opened my eyes.  I made Scott have one of our 'talks' that he loves so much.  He is so patient with me.  He just listens, commiserates, and lets me find solutions.  There was really nothing wrong; I was just tired.  We have been working 10 to 12 hour days.  We are at the Service Center by 8:30 and this week we were with the young adults until at least 7 every night except Monday.  Everyone thinks I am such an extrovert, but I am not.  Extroverts are energized by people and crowds.  I love people, but I am not energized by them, and crowds just drain me.  I had had no alone time to re energize and it showed on Friday morning.  One of my favorite things to do is lay in bed and talk with Scott in the early mornings.  Most of the time I think he likes it too, but this morning wasn't one of those days.

We made it to the office by about 9:15.  We had been there less than thirty minutes when Scott stands up, looks at me and says, "I am going home."  "What?"  "I am going home; I have had it"  He just picked up and left.  Guess he needs alone time sometimes too.  How do men do it?  They can't cry.
He felt much better after about two hours some of which was a nice nap.

My husband is a great companion.

As we were about to leave the office Sister Whitehead was working on a booklet she needed to get ready for the primary school teachers.  She was a little frustrated, so I stayed to help her finish. It was after 6 when we got home.  About ten minutes after we got home our phone rang and it was Sister Whitehead seeing if we wanted to go out to eat.  I had already put on some leftover stew, so I just told her to get some rolls and come over.  We ate stew, a wonderful fruit salad made from papaya, mango, pineapple, and bananas, and the rolls.  We watched a movie afterwards.  It was a lovely evening.  The Whiteheads are a lovely couple.  I especially enjoy Elder Whiteheads sense of humor.

August 30

Thursdays are always our longest and busiest days.  We have two lessons to give plus some kind of food for between classes and a treat for after the last class.  I generally cook in the mornings because our fridge is not large enough to hold much, and one can not leave food out for very long.  We and this little tiny ants here.  Really little.  They are everywhere.  We have ant traps in the pantry and all over the kitchen.  I can not imagine what it would be like without them, because we still have them everywhere.  I sprayed and sprayed when we got here, but I have given up.  I just cook and then put everything in closed containers and/or ziploc plastic bags.  And yes we have ziploc bags here.

In the midst of baking today, I took some stuff out to the little (bigger than the one in the house) garbage can that sits in the corner in the carport.  I looked up on my way back into the house and noticed some man waving at me across the street.  As I didn't have my glasses on I had no idea who it was.  Not wanting to be unfriendly I walked down to the gate to see.  It was Dan, one of the young adults in our old Samabula ward.  He came in and talked while I worked.  I could tell he wanted to eat, so I told him to go get Scott at the service center and I would have lunch ready when he got back.  He stayed until we left to start classes at three.  There is no rest for the wicked or for the friendly.

For the food today, I concocted a tuna sandwich.  Took a whole loaf of bread and split it in two across, tore out some of the soft bread in the bottom half and then stuffed it with a tuna mixture made up of tuna, grated carrots, cucumber, and tomato.  The young adults loved it.  We had wonderful brownies for the treat.  I love the internet.  It is so nice to be able to find recipes that have been tried and rated.  These brownies were so good, so easy, and wonder of wonders I can get all of the ingredients.

Scott's lesson in Pearl of Great Price was so good tonight.  He is always a power house in Mission Prep, because he loves missionary work so much, but tonight his best lesson was P of GP.  We had 15 students in Mission Prep (up 3) and 19 in P of GP (up 4).  One of the new students won't be here long; he is from Papau New Guinea, living in Suva, and leaving on his mission in the end of September.  It is interesting that he has been called to serve in Suva.  The church was sending him to the NZ MTC.  His stake president here had to call the church and explain that he is from PNG where they speak Pigeon English.  He doesn't speak Fijian.  He is now going to Provo.  It will be a whole new world there for him.  Coming to Fiji from PNG is a whole new world.

Heavenly Father is blessing our work.  Every week we have new students.  The word is spreading that we are here and kids are coming.  Soon we will have to establish hours for the institute building, so they can come and just hang out together and with us.

August 29

Taught Preparing for Eternal Marriage class tonight.  Two of the classes stalwart members are leaving on Friday for BYU-Hawaii.  We will miss them.  Fiji will miss them.  Neither Joni (chony =johnny) Isaki nor Asanathe Vuikadavu (voo ee kan da voo) will ever come back to live in Fiji.  It is such a tragic loss for the church and for Fiji as a whole.

August 28

Tonight was to be our pre meeting for the music classes.  We actually sent texts to all 30 young adults who said they either wanted to learn to lead music or play the piano.  Of course, most wanted the piano lessons, but it is best if they start with the conducting lessons with they have never had them.  I had made treats for 35 people.  We opened the institute at 5 p.m. in case anyone came early.  At 5:30 no one had come.  At 5:36 (who says I was watching the clock!) one young woman showed up.  I ask if she would mind if we waited for 15 minutes to start; she didn't.  At 5:51 she was still the only one there.   I explained about the conducting class; she had already taken it.  I had her sign up for the piano class and got a time on Tuesdays that would be best for her.  Scott and I were just about finished putting the room back to classroom mode when one other young man showed up.  As I was talking to him another young man showed up and then a young woman showed up.  All over 1/2 hour late.  All of them wanted piano, so I gave them the little test I had devised to see if they really knew how to conduct music.  They did.  I will start piano with four students next week at 6 p.m.

Shortly after we got home Sister Maiwiriwiri, the YSA adviser in one of the Tamavua wards called to see how many of her YSAs showed up.  None.  She was ticked.  "I will call each of them and see what happened and get back to you."  By nine o'clock she was back.  "You will have 13 at your conducting class on Tuesday afternoon."  Wow!  I was impressed.  Is it here that I tell you that she is the vice principal at the LDS College?  No wonder she is so forceful.

August 27

We had our monthly senior couples' FHE tonight at the home of President and Sister Davis.  They are the temple president and matron.  There home is lovely.  When the church builds it is always lovely.  We look forward to these monthly get-togethers as it gives us a chance to learn what the other seniors are doing.  Our speaker was a Bro. McGoon who spoke about the church here in Fiji.  He looks like he is about 45, but after listening to him it is obvious that he is way older.  His experience in the church represents, I would guess, the experience of many of the first members here.  The church is much newer here that it is in Samoa or Tonga.  Most of the people we meet are first generation, although many of our young adults are second generation.  I have met no one who is third.

The first Fijians who were members (a family I believe) were converted in Tonga in the early 1920s.   Fiji was officially made part of the New Zealand mission in 1953 although no missionaries were ever sent here.  In 1954 Fiji was reassigned to the Samoan mission and several months later two missionaries were sent to Fiji from the Samoan mission.  At that time the church was only allowed two visas at a time for Fiji. It must have been tough then because people in Fiji spoke Fijian, Hindi, and village dialects.  In 1958 Fiji was again reassigned to the Tongan mission and more missionaries were able to serve here.  It was not until 1971 that the Fiji Suva Mission was created.  President and Sister Davis served as mission president's here in the 70s.  I believe that President Davis was the second Fiji Suva Mission President.  It wasn't until 1980 that the Book of Mormon was translated into Fijian.  Just under 2% of the population here is LDS.

Speaking of translation.  Our office in the Service Center is just two doors away from the translation department.  I ask Pres. Seru who works there what he was working on the other day and he said, "General Conference Talks."  Wow.  It is August and he is translating some General Authorities talk already.  I was unaware that they were written so far in advance.  I will ask him how early they are sent to be translated.


August 26

We are again visiting YSA Sunday School classes hoping to get students for the chorister classes and the piano classes.  Just like at home, some wards have very active YSA advisers and some do not even have any advisers.  Either way we always enjoy meeting the young adults.  There is real strength here is Fiji.

August 25

For our lunch today with those of us who use Saturday as our P-day, we went to eat at a restaurant out of the city past Tamavua.  It is actually on the road to Nausori where the airport for Suva is.  The restaurant was chosen because it is close to a Fiji forest area that has a lovely hike to two waterfalls.  We started late as we were waiting for the temple couples who do not finish at the temple until 1 p.m.
It took forever for our food to come, so by the time we got to the forest service office, the forest service had closed the trail.  It was just about 3 p.m.  "Come early" next week was the reply to when does the trail close.  What had really happened is that the two forest service workers, who are "guards" at the waterfalls, had decided sometime earlier that they were done for the day, so they just arbitrarily walk up to the trail head and closed the gate.  The sign of the office clearly stated that the trail stayed open until 5 p.m.  Some of us were glad, and some were sad.  I needed the walk and the calming influence of nature.  

Sunday, September 2, 2012

August 21


Our care package came from Utah on Thursday of last week.  We had to wait till Friday to pick it up as one can only pick up overseas packages from 11 to 2.  It was a different experience.  After we showed our ID we waited for the packages to be brought up front.  When they came, I had to open them up.  I started to take what was inside out, but I must not have been doing it fast enough as the postal employee began to help me.  We took out the clothes, uno cards, more clothes, metamucil before he got bored.  I then opened the other package which was filled with the same stuff all of which was listed on the manifest.  After two skirts came out, he just waved me away and began to close up the last box while I stuffed our stuff back into the other box.  We were charged $3F per box for the inspection.  Not bad, and the packages got here in exactly two week.  They were hammered, but intact.

The postal employee might have thought it was boring, but I was so excited I could hardly stand myself.  I rushed home and hung up each item of apparel the girls had sent me.  Admiring as I went.  I didn't try any on; I just wanted to look at the new possibilities.  I am not sure why I am so uptight about not having enough clothes.  At home, I wear the same three or four outfits over and over and yet here it is really bugging me that I do not have more choices.  Buying here is tough.  So many of the senior sisters have had clothes they bought here fall apart, shrink, bleed, etc.  So I just admired my new clothes hanging all over the room for a day or two.  One blouse in particular amazed me.  I have a cute skirt that only has two blouses that match it.  I love wearing it, so I had asked the girls to buy me a blouse to match.  "Could they find me a maroony/red blouse?"  As soon as I found the blouse, I ran to get the skirt.  It was an exact match. One would think I had purchased them together.  Looking at it, I realized that it was raspberry colored; however, maroony/red worked beautifully.  I have wonderful daughters.

On Monday I tried everything on.  Everything fit although none of the skirts are the same size.  I wore the first outfit today, and got lots of compliments.   It was a great day.

August 20

This week is Fiji Youth Conference week.  The schools in Fiji are on a two week break, so all the LDS youth (14-18) are coming to Suva.  It starts Wednesday afternoon, but the kids from Taveuni are already here (Monday), because the boat comes only once a week and goes back once a week.  They are staying in the LDS Primary School classrooms.  Scott met the District President and after telling him about our calling the President asked if we could show a movie to his kids in the institute to keep them busy.  He actually wondered if we could just show movies continually today.  It is not a good idea to open the Institute and not be there, so we declined.  We did, however, offer to show a movie at 6 pm.  So tonight we showed over 40 kids and the leaders that came a movie.  To get everyone in our classroom, we had to move the long tables back to our desks and put them on top of each other.  We still had kids sitting on top of the upside down table.  It was a good experience as it showed us that the room is not big enough to show movies in with our desks there.  We are going to ask the Facilities Management team to take them back.  We will have to wait until the stake moves out of our space to move our office there.  Sad, but worth it.

Not sure the kids got the movie, but they were respectful and appreciative.

Because the universities are also out, we have YSAs coming everyday to the institute to play volleyball.
I am amazed that they played practically all day today.