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.