December 2016

Zone Conference with Pres & Sis Granger, AP's Elder Maughan & Elder Jensen December 1-2

     

Yummm

dessert

Yummy food

District Conference Elder Dudfield December 3-4

Utah Elder's Jensen & Rhodes

     

Christmas Iniative

Elder's bow ties choir

Sister Granger, Elder Dudfield

Us and Elder Dudfield

Elder Dudfield, Simon Peter, Pres. Maseru lunch Tetere

Lunch at Fuimaono's

Seminary & Institute Coordinator David Lakisa December 6-9

Fun & Food with David Lakisa

David Lakista is so fun.  We pick him up at the airport, take him to his hotel, take him to rent a car.  He takes us to dinner to talk about seminary and institute.  He is in and out of the office during his stay.

Major Earthquake December 9

We had a 7.8 earthquake 68 kms from here at 4:45 in the morning.  It was pretty shaky and seemed to last longer than normal.  We received a phone call from welfare missionaries at 5:15, checking on us.  The Church is pretty on top of these  things AMAZING.  There were several aftershocks and another 6.7 earthquake that didn't seem too bad.  The only place that received damage was near the epicenter...KiraKira.

Returning Missionary Sister Tangini December 9

Newest RM...Sister Tangini

Airport to meet Returning SOCS students (school in Samoa) December 10

The flight was supposed to be there by 2 p.m. but nothing.  Finally found out that the flight didn't leave Fiji.  We called Renee Solomon and she was able to let us know that the flight would be in at 8 p.m.  It finally landed at 8:30.  Most of the students had family to pick them up.  We took two home, Rose and Jeremy.  Thank goodness their homes were in the Green Valley area and we didn't have trouble getting in and out of their places.

Maclean is accepted to BYUH

Maclean finally received the news that he has been accepted to BYUH to start Feb. 27.  He is so excited.  Now he has to get some vaccinations and TB test and he is working on his USA Visa and has to go to Port Moresby for the interview for it.  He will leave January 30 for that and stay with a missionary companion and probably will just leave from there for Hawaii.  We are really going to miss him.  He is like the guidance counselor for the students and helps them with enrollment and all.  We need to learn from him.  He is quite an organizer and got all the RM's together for an activity.  He will truly be a great leader and will be missed by all.

  

Training December 13-15

       Brother Romulus from Fiji came to train the clerks.  It ended up being Elder Sanders and Brother Tui (assistant district clerk).  Lincoln, the District Clerk, headed to family in Western Province and will be gone at least 3 weeks.  True commitment.  The next night Bro. Romulus worked with the only branch clerk, Clifton.  Bro. Romulus and Bro. Tui were friends from high school.  It was fun for them to have time to visit.

Truck Repairs December 12

       We took our truck in to get the body work done from the previous missionary.  The Elder's Land Cruiser had been there for a few weeks waiting for parts so we took it to drive instead of  renting a car.  There is no air-conditioning, water drips in the front passenger seat but it is transportation.  Ela motors said it would take 8 days for our truck repairs.  We called on Dec. 22 to see if  it was ready and this was their reply...Your little boy wants to spend time with his buddies so he won't be going home for Christmas!  We replied that we needed him home by New Year's.  On Dec. 30, Ela Motors called and said the truck wouldn't be ready until Tuesday Jan 3!!!

White River Branch Christmas Party December 17 Our 45th wedding anniversary

      We were entertained with hulu dancing by several groups, and the YM did a funny skit (not that we could understand it but because everyone was laughing).   The food was pretty good--rice, curry chicken legs, chow mein.  We did get a spoon to help us eat it but most everyone ate with their hands.  And there were no napkins.  We can't quite get used to this kind of eating.  I was so happy to wash my hands.  We took about 20 people home (one good thing about the Land Cruiser).  We took two older gentlemen home, F M and David but didn't realized how interesting that would be.  David lived up farther on the hill than FM so he was the last one out.  The road was so narrow and it was dark so that there was no way we could turn around.  Thank goodness for the Elders.  They climbed out and talked us down the road until we could turn around.

kitchen

Hula dancers

dancers

Elder's & members eating

Christmas Devotional with Elder and Sister Champlin December 21-27

       We picked them up in the Land Cruiser.  To get into the back takes a big step and I wished we had the truck.  They didn't seem to mind.  We took them to Heritage Hotel and visited for a few minutes.  We picked them up the next morning, so we could all help decorate for the Christmas Devotional.  It was kind of hard because the tape wasn't sticking and some of the ideas Sister Fuimaono wanted just didn't work.  We and the Champlins left so Elder Champlin could write his story.  We went to the office. Sister Champlin came down to our house and we started sewing tableclothes.  She would iron and would sew the ends.  The internet wasn't working too good so we took them back to the hotel and waited for them to work on the story then had dinner.  It rained later that night.  The devotional was rained out and we were going to move inside but the power went out.  As we moved chairs under the balcony, the power came on and we went into the chapel.  There were about 200 people there.  

      The Champlin's stayed until Tuesday.  After the Friday devotional, we took them to the baptism and then they stayed with us during the fun and games, even making two games for the Elder's.  On Sunday, they went to Sacrament meeting with us then we took back to the hotel so they could call family.  Monday, we went for a little drive so they could see the island.  It was pretty hot so we went swimming with them.  Tuesday we took them to the airport.  It was so fun to have them here for Christmas.  

Baptism December 24

      We took the Champlin's to the baptism.  Our friend Ronald was baptized and gave a beautiful testimony, some of  which we understood.

Ronald is on the right of the pole.

Christmas Eve and Day with Elder's December 24-25

     Some of  the Elder's were scraping coconuts as we were leaving to pick up the Champlin's.  Our food is going to be all traditional and cooked on rocks covered with banana leaves.  After they scrap the coconut out, they squeeze it to get the milk.  Then they made something in foil with slippery cabbage and coconut milk and meat and it was put on the rock along with taro that they had prepared.  As the food was cooking, we enjoyed time with them as they played some games.  Champlin's had made a jeopardy game (which no one had heard of), they had several relay games, we did a scavenger hunt.  At the end of the games, we ate.  Sister Fuimaono had prepared curry chicken and corned beef with cabbage.  It was all YUMMY.  Then we passed out the presents that Pres. & Sis. Granger brought for everyone.

starting fire

preparing fire

receiving presents

jeopardy

  

https://youtu.be/T3iXabqyV0c  The Elder's sang us a song for Christmas...

   Christmas day, we took Champlin's to Sacrament meeting at White River.  They then wanted to spend the afternoon talking to their family.  The Elders came to the mission home and we each bore testimony of the gospel.  We had the Elders open the big present from the Pres....a guitar.  We ate again...chow mein and leftovers.  Then the Elder's started trying to make their phone calls.  It was pretty hard to get online but they were patient and most of them were able to enjoy their calls.  It was a great Christmas day.

      

Missionary leaving Frederick "Freddie" Simou(?) December 27

Freddie

     Freddie was set apart Dec 26 and spent the night with the Elders.  Pres. Sauseru took him to the airport.  And we went to see him off.  Trevor Lasau was there and Freddies' aunt and two children and that was all.  I felt kind of bad.  We need to do a better job of getting the word out to support these missionary's whose families aren't members.

Honiara Branch Christmas Party December 27

     This was to start at 1 p.m and eat about 3 p.m.   We had to take the Champlin's to the airport at 2 p.m. so didn't know if we would make it back for this.  We made it about 3:30 and found that nothing had happened yet.  So we visted and sat and waited.  Sister Fuimano was having the nativity scene put on which was rained out on Friday.  So it was taking awhile to get the costumes on and everyone ready.  It took awhile to settle everyone down.  We just thought we were going to have the little drama but there ended up being several dances, too.   Finally, the kids were getting pretty restless, we were able to eat.  We had rice, curry chicken legs, BBQ fish, pork(we found out that some Elders helped them kill, clean and cook it), BBQ chicken thighs, raw fish salad (didn't try it). It was all finger food--no utensils, no napkins. Again, I don't think I can get used to this.  We finally asked about a fork and were given a spoon but no napkins.  I was so happy to wash my hands even though they were still greasy feeling.

The Nativity

R S Sisters that did the cooking

 Update on the dig

       We just found out that the group doing the dig did find some bones and dog tags, which have been exported.  The group has left but said they would be returning, which probably means they didn't find all of the remains.

More WWII

      Clifton needed us to take him to his brother's house so he could get some stuff that his family had left there when they had to evacuate their home due to flooding.  We didn't quite understand how far away that was.  On the way, we stopped at the area known as the "Black Ridge".  During WWII, both the Japanese and American's had headquarters here (not at the same time) and there was a landing area for helicopters.

Black Ridge

Black Ridge road

Black Ridge

Black Ridge monument