October 23

Talanoa is a returned missionary from Lami and a student at USP.  We have repeatedly invited Talanoa to the Eternal Marriage Class.  He has been an occasional attendee.  In one class he let it slip that he was in a very serious relationship.  We asked him to bring his girlfriend.  She refused to attend.

It is Talanoa that asked if we could start a Family Home Evening Group at USP.  Both Talanoa and his girlfriend, Sariah, faithfully attended FHE.  Sariah also attended several of the Eternal Marriage classes.
After one class she asked if we could talk.  I shut the door and she told me her problem.  She has dated the same guy at home for six years.  For eighteen months of those six years, she served a mission and is now here to Fiji attending USP.  While here she met Talanoa and fell in love.  She told the boy back home that she was no longer interested in him and therein lies the problem.  She wanted advise on what she should do.

He will not let go.  She has continued to email him (and would I guess talk to him on the phone).  When I ask her why she had continued the correspondence, her reasoning was "to help him" because he still loves me and is having trouble getting over the relationship.  He has also threatened suicide.

By the end of our conversation, she had decided to end all communication with the young man, ask her brother back home to be his friend and watch out for him, and to alert the old boyfriend's parents.

I can not help but feel sorry for the young man.  He has spent six years waiting.  What a waste.  But I do have to say, that these long relationships are very common in the South Pacific.  We have a sister missionary who has dated the same guy for five years.  He proposed, but she refused so she could serve a mission.  He is home waiting.  Jimmy and Lillian have dated since high school.  He has served a mission and she has served a mission.  He is now waiting for her to finish at BYU-Hawaii.