I Love To See The Temple

 

I never imagined that I would live closer to a Temple than I have all my life in Salt Lake City! Where we live at home we are so spoiled to live close to 4 Temples now that the Draper and Oquirrah Temples have been built along with the Jordan River and the Salt Lake Temples but here I am living next to this beautiful Temple which is just 50 yards from our temporary apartment. When we move into the Staggs apartment we will be within 1/2 mile still!

Suva City is quite hilly (which surprised us) and the Temple sits right at the top of a promenient hilltop. It is stunningly white both day and night. When people see our badges they will ask if we are members of the Church with the big white Temple. The Temple is open several hours every day except Sundays and Mondays and they seem to keep quite busy. We haven't been to a session yet but are looking forward to attending one next Wednesday probably.

 

Do we look like "deers in the headlights"? Here we are just minutes after arriving. These darling children quickly came to our aid and helped us get all of our luggage into our flat. There is a Church sponsored school just down the street from the Temple and these children had just come home from school. All schools over here have their children wear uniforms. Every school wears something different but they all look clean and sharp. All the boys (and lots of the men) wear the traditional sulasula which are the "pants skirts". It is perfect for this climate. I think Paul will be joining in the style before too long.

Here we are with our dear friends Elder Ted and Sister Pat Stagg who have been serving here for almost 18 months and are the couple that we will be replacing. They have done a fabulous job and they know everyone! They have been so kind and nurturing to us ever since we arrived. It will be really hard to see them leave and then for us to try to take over will be a huge responsibility! Elder Stagg gave Paul the chance to get behind the steering wheel yesterday which was an intense adventure. Did I mention they drive on the left-hand side of the road over here? For such a laid back culture, they sure drive like they are in a rush! Paul did great! It will be a while before I'm ready to tackle that.

 

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!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Hello, Hello again... Yes it is really me. I know I have been so AWOL (absent without leave) for sooooooooo long but I have survived my chaotic summer of mission preparation and TODAY is THE day that Paul and I fly away to FIJI! We are sooooo ready to go ----- just still not soooooo actually ready. We still have lots to do in the next few hours but I couldn't leave without connecting with my blogger friends and letting you know that I intend to keep you posted on our many experiences and adventures for the next 18 months!

Last week, Paul and I went to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) from Monday through Friday. We had the most wonderful, inspiring, uplifting and exhausting experience! It was intense but so worth it. There were about 35 other Senior Couples there that week and it was very humbling to hear where everyone was going and what they would be doing. There were couples going to Russia, Philippines, Greece, Czech Republic, Samoa, Kiribiti (formerly known as the Gilbert Islands and extremely remote, by the way), Puerto Rico, Milan, Finland, St. Louis, Georgia, Oklahoma -- literally, going to the four corners of the globe! There were quite a few couples lots older than us too. It made us very grateful for our assignment.

We have been taking some over-the-phone tutoring in Fijian for the past 3 weeks. It is a super simple language. They don't even use all the letters of the alphabet but they have thrown in some tricks just to keep it interesting like g and q are pronounced as ng and c is pronounced as th and you add a m sound before b letters and an n sound before d so that has been very entertaining. Paul has a real talent and a gift for picking up new languages. His brain just works that was. I can hear and pronounce it somewhat but I have trouble retaining it all. But we have learned to say hello -- Bula Vinaka -- and goodbye -- moce and where is the bathroom --
evei nu valeleilei -- so we should be set for a couple hours! Many of the other Senior Couples were also having language training at the MTC in Greek and Russian and Italian and Tagalog and it made our Fijian language look like a piece of cake. The last night we were there we participated in a precious and tender experience where every foreign language learning missionary bore their testimony in their new language. Even though I couldn't understand any of those other languages, I received their heartfelt messages straight to my heart by the beautiful, sweet spirit that was so strong.

Another highlight of the week was when we attended the much-anticipated weekly Devotional and participated in singing "Called to Serve" with the other 2200 missionaries in the auditorium. What power and conviction. To be in the presence of so many young men and women willing to devote 18 months to 2 years of their lives to serving their Heavenly Father and their savior Jesus Christ, was truly a once in a lifetime experience!

We are so grateful for this opportunity to go forward now and share our testimonies of the message of the Gospel and serve the people of Fiji however we can. I am so appreciative of the kindness and support we have received from our friends and family. Our children have just gone over and above all expectations to help us in our preparations. We have had nonstop fun and family-together events all summer long but especially the last 3 weeks and we have wonderful memories and feelings to accompany us as we depart.

Feel free to check back here once in a while and hopefully you can get a sense of our new life and share in our new cultural experiences! We'll just take it one day at a time and give you reports on "another day in Paradise"! (keep us in your prayers!)

Annual Cabin Cleaning PARTY 2009!

Yes it is that special time of year again...Spring! Which also includes that much anticipated (and somewhat dreaded) family cabin cleaning get-together that is disguised as a party. I think I have mentioned before that my father's family motto is "First We Work, Then We Play". This is the exact source of it's creation and I found myself "quoting" it over and over to Aspen and Collin all day when they kept pleading for Grandma to come outside and do the usual "fun" cabin activities like swinging and ATV riding and river-rock throwing.

We did had a super, terrific participant turnout! There were 22 adults, including Grandpa AND Grandma (she doesn't usually come anymore) and 12 children. There was a lot to do this year besides just de-winterizing the inside of the cabin. We decided to bring up a wood chipper along with the usual chain saws and get a lot of the outside fallen trees and branches and over grown underbrush cleaned up as well. Things don't always go as planned. The Chipper looked like it could shred a tree in just a few minutes but it didn't perform as well as we expected and after some glitches including an unexpected little fire that started with some of the chips lying under the hot machine, we got some of the wood cleaned up but not what we had hoped to accomplish. It means someone (or two or three) will have to come back up and bring a better machine and still finish up that project.

Inside the cabin went really smoothly until the shower faucet valve decided it had put in enough years and was done holding back the water. After a quick 45 minute trip to the nearest Home Depot (which is about 20 miles away near Park City) it still didn't work and we had to shut down the water which ultimately shut down the rest of the cleaning too. Oh well, we got most of what needed to be done, done. My brother and I actually went back up on Weds and kind of pulled it all together except for the wood issue so the cabin is officially "Open for FUN"! Thanks to everyone that came and helped out!

PS: Thanks Katie for taking the photos and putting together the slideshow for me!