Touch Down!

We survived! We have arrived!!!

We touched down here on the beautiful island of Viti Levu (translated as Fiji Big) at 5:05 am on Wednesday, August 12th after a very surprisingly pleasant 10 1/2 hour flight from LAX to Nadi, Fiji.

We were so blessed all along the way. Beginning with our curbside check in at Delta Airlines in SLC. It took us ALL DAY Monday to pack our suitcases. We were allowed 2 fifty pounds bags each but if we went over that amount we would be charged $150. All day Monday we packed and unpacked and added and deleted until we were as close as we felt confident we could get away with (or without). I was stunned when at our curbside check in, the Sky Cap didn't even weigh our bags!!! I was kind of disappointed and relieved all at the same time! We had also expected that we would get the first bag free but the second bag would cost $50 and once again, he didn't even charge us for our 2nd bags. What a relief!

When we got to LAX we had to change terminals and we were amazed at a few more blessings that come our way specifically because we were wearing our missionary badges. When we checked in with Air Pacific for our 11:30 pm International flight, we casually asked the agent how much it would cost to upgrade to first class. When she told us it would be $750 a person we quickly humbled ourselves back into reality and she printed out our boarding passes. As we headed away from the counter to proceed to our departure gate another agent from behind the counter called out to us. She asked where we were flying to and when we told her Fiji she asked for our boarding passes back. She told us the flight was not full at all and she wanted to assign us each a separate row so that when the plane took off we could spread out and not be restricted to just one seat. She told us she was a convert to the Church from Samoa and had served her mission in Alabama. What a blessing!

Next as we headed to the security line the woman who was directing passengers to specific lines opened an access to an extremely short line and moved us to the front of the crowd. She didn't say anything, she just moved the rope and pointed us ahead. Wow! That has never happened before! Finally as we were exiting the x-ray area there were several TSA agents standing together chatting with each other and as we approached one man started singing "put your shoulder to the wheel push along, do you duty with a heartful of of song, we all have work, let no one shirk, put your shoulder to the wheel". Now that was about the last thing I could have ever imagined to have happened to us in that environment. I stopped and sang along with him and we had a pleasant handshake and laugh together. You can imagine we were on "cloud 9" before we even got on the plane.

As a result of all of these "coincidences", we truly had the most pleasant flight we have ever had. As soon as our plane took off, I took a little 1/2 ambien, laid down on my own private row of seats and sleep for a complete 8 of our 10 1/2 hour flight! Paul rested well though he didn't sleep like I did. We arrived rested and ready to get going!

Our flight arrived at 5am and a wonderful brother from our Service Center was there to pick us up. Originally we were to have about a 2 hour layover and then catch a 30 minute flight from Nadi to Suva. He took us to a hotel about 5 minutes away from the airport, checked us into a room and let us sleep for about another 3 hours, take a shower, change our clothes and took us to a delicious Fijian buffet breakfast and then proceeded to give us a very scenic 4 hour Welcome to Fiji drive across the island instead. What a wonderful opportunity to experience our new environment up close and personal.

Fiji is beautiful! It is so lush and green and a lot more mountainous that we had expected. They do drive on the opposite side of the road over here as a result of their British background so that has been an adjustment. Just wait until we get behind the steering wheel...yikes!

The highlight of the whole day was driving into the Service Center where we will be working for the next 18 months and being reunited with our good friends, Pat & Ted Stagg who we will be replacing. Yes, it truly has been another day in Paradise!