Don't Let Life's Distractions Eclipse Heaven's Light

Look through a gospel lens and be vigilant not to allow insignificant and inconsequential matters in life to obscure your view.

As I read this quote by Elder Gary E. Stevenson, I thought how often I let the inconveniences of living in another country bug me.  I need to STOP!  Fiji is beautiful, the people are beautiful, it's just the taxi and bus drivers are a little CRAZY! 

We've moved from our first flat because it was not a clean place and a lot of creepy bugs.  We'd made arrangements to stay until the humanitarian couple left on the 17th of November and then we would move into their flat.  Everything was fine until the landlord asked us to move because she went ahead and rented it so we had to find a place for about 2.5 weeks.  We've been living in the temple presidency housing.  It's been amazing to walk out the front door every morning and see  this. . . .

Fiji Suva Temple


The last couple of weeks has been a beautiful blessing, to rub shoulders with the Twilight Missionaries who work at the temple and to get to see this beautiful sight.  We will be moving to the other flat next Tuesday, not too far away.  Yeah!!!  But I will be vigilant not to let the insignificant things obscure my view of this beautiful country.

Waterfall on the Navua River

The Twilight Missionaries (Senior missionaries) took a trip on the Navua River a couple of weeks ago.  It rained and rained and rained, but we were prepared, it was warm and we had a great time.

We're off

It was definitely wet

When we got to the falls those who wanted to could swim, I was so
wet that I figured as Sister Eliason said, "when in Fiji....."

When we got to the village, they welcomed us with the lali drums and coconut milk

Meke Fiji Dance

 

They fed us a traditional Fiji lunch, which was pretty good and then some of the village children sang to us.   It was a fun day.

The last couple of weeks of school have been a little crazy.  Last Saturday our humanitarian missionaries asked us to attend Diabetes Day.  The kids at the Secondary school were marching and singing.  This humanitarian couple were asked to come to Fiji and work with Diabetes.  He is a podiatrist and diabetes, prosthetics and wound care and amputations are his area of expertise.  In Fiji they do not know how to take care of wounds, and there are a lot of wounds to the feet here, because they don't wear shoes and the humidity is so high.  When a foot is infected, because it hasn't been treated properly, even by the doctors, they just amputate the leg.  Dr./Elder Clark has been working in the hospitals and teaching them how to care for wounds so that they aren't doing so many amputations. One of our senior missionaries was telling us about someone they knew who had sprained his ankle and eventually it was amputated.  Anyway so we went to the Diabetes Day Parade.

Students from Fiji LDS Church College

We met the President of Fiji
(It's always hot and very humid - makes for many bad hair days)

One of the teachers brought in some fresh warm (he called it bread).  Its grated casava, coconut milk and something else.  It was okay.  They'll eat it for breakfast but I think I'll stick to my oatmeal.

                            

 We were just assigned to a new branch, a new district, to see if we can help them learn and organize their branches and auxiliaries.  Most are new converts and don't feel they can be good teachers.  They come from churches that have paid ministries where pastors and such have been to school.  This may be a new challenge for us.  This church is in the village of Korovou, a little over an hour from Suva.  It's a beautiful drive.  The last 1.5 miles we drive on a dirt road and come to the beautiful white chapel on the hill.  They had their first district conference last Sunday, our first time there.

View of the chapel coming up the hill

President and Sister Yee (Temple President) President and Sister Higgins (Mission President) President Tagidugu (Mission Counselor)

The chapel on the hill

 This last week I was asked to speak at the Primary School graduation, just grades Kindy - 3rd.  There was a few more people than I was expecting. But this is the garlands that Kent and I were given.  Before we leave I'm sure I'll know the different names of these different garlands.

The College (high school) had their prom and dinner.  It was quite an event.  Here are a few
pictures of the kids and the decorated gym.  The theme - A Night in Paris

There were boys there- most came with
dates, the girls were just more excited to get their pictures taken.









We have more adventures coming up.  Next week the teachers have a retreat at the Warick Resort that we understand is pretty nice.We also have some visitors from New Zealand coming who will be doing some training with the teachers. Also starting on Monday and going through December 22nd, the Fiji Technical College is coming to the church campus and holding some classes that we've been asked by the office in New Zealand to attend and give feedback and just monitor what's happening.  We were hoping for long break but it looks like now we'll only have about 3 weeks.

Unlike Nepal, Christmas is a big deal here in Fiji, the shops and malls are all decorated for Christmas, the kids at school have been singing Christmas songs, it just doesn't  feel like the holidays.  The missionaries will be celebrating Thanksgiving but that's when we go on the retreat with the teachers, and there is definitely no snow and no cold.  So I'll be looking through those lenses to find the Christmas spirit a  little different than I'm used to, knowing Christmas has really nothing to do with snow. I will be vigilant in letting the insignificant obscure my view of what really matters and what's truly important. 

The Glory of God Is Intelligence

We have been in Fiji for 5 weeks now and haven't seen much sun yet.  Lots of blustery days and lots of rain,  It's coming to the end of winter here and we're told that things will be changing.  The temperature has stayed in the 70's for the most part which is real nice being winter, and in the summer it warms up a little, in the 80's.  However it is very humid.

Our days are pretty much spent at the college preparing the course work for the teachers.  We haven't done any sight seeing yet but school is out for the year in November so we will get a chance to check out the island of Fiji, and by then there should be blue skies and beautiful ocean.

I mentioned in my last past how nice the college campus is.  It is really set up like a college campus with different buildings.  This school houses grades 7 - 13 and there are around 400 students, 90% are LDS.

                                                          Blustery Fijian Weather

We attend the Samabula 1st ward.  Our chapel is attached to the primary school and it's a fairly good size ward.  It is an English speaking ward.  The 2nd ward is Fijian speaking.  Last week we had an awesome sacrament meeting.  I learned a new word 'Nikauwa', not sure if I've spelled it right, but it means small but significant.  It's actually a Tongan word.  I'm learning that Nikauwa is exactly what Fiji is, small but significant.  Alma 37:6, Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
The missionaries are seeing pretty significant success in Fiji.  There are 19,737 members, 9 family history centers, 49 congregations and 1 temple.
Fiji is a very Christian country, most things are shut down on Sundays, and you see lots of people walking to church with their bibles. LDS  Missionaries first came to Fiji in 1843.


We are teaching our class 2 nights a week, when I say we, I mean Kent is teaching 2 nights a week.  I sit at the computer and push the button for the power point, and that's only because the remote's not working.  I was told I needed to bring treats to class because the teachers will be hungry after a long day at school.  So I make treats, take the roll, keep track of grades, and communicate with our directors in New Zealand.  Kent is teaching SPED200, which he is very knowledgeable about since Special Education is where his career began.  And he loves Special Ed. and he's good at it, really good.
We have 8 teachers taking this course. The hard part of getting this going has been finding enough days to teach before the school years ends in November, so we've had to jump right in and get things moving.

Two weeks ago, we were asked to be the guest speakers at the Primary School for their conclusion of Library Week.  Yeah!  Something different.  It was very fun.  They had a character parade where all the children all dressed up as their favorite character, lots of superman, spiderman and princesses.                                        Sort of like the Halloween parade in the elementaries.

                                                                       Let the parade begin!

                             
                                                       Lots of Spidermen and Supermen

Kent telling  story to the children

The 3 Questions?

The Program

I guess I was introducing the guest speaker (Kent)

The Primary School students, teachers and parents!

This is how we spend our Saturdays.

Kent working, working, working, while I clean our flat and iron white shirts for the week and figure out what treats to make for class  next week.

This is our flat and our car.  Our landlords live below us.  I've even been driving this week, a big out of  the comfort zone for me.

Last Sunday we had our monthly family home evening with all the "twilight" missionaries at the mission home.  We had a few brothers from Salt Lake come and speak to us about their review of what's happening in Fiji.  On Tuesday we had the Area President , Elder Halleck and his wife come fix the senior missionaries dinner and speak to us, he was here for a mission tour.   

This mission is so different than the last two.  I love having other missionaries to associate with.  It's exciting to see the young elders and sisters out working hard and sharing the gospel and loving the people here.  Today we met a brother who carves Fiji nativities.  He's Indian, from Fiji, and served a mission in Nepal in the 90's when missionaries were allowed to serve in Nepal.  One of his companions at the time is a good friend of ours who worked at the American Embassy when we were in Nepal.  They would invite the 2 missionary couples to dinner for Christmas and Thanksgiving, which was such a blessing to us. It is amazing how very small the world is when it comes to the gospel, to acknowledge and really understand that we all our brothers and sisters.

    Fijian Nativity

This last week we have had our directors here from New Zealand and have been meeting, meeting and more meeting with them and teachers and administration from both the Primary School and FLDSCC , the FLDS throws you off a little but it stands for Fiji Latter-Day Saint Church College.  It's been a good learning experience and spending and getting to know Bryce and Sherrie Holbrook even better, but it has been a very busy week.

These are pictures of the last few weeks:

Our Samabula Ward Building

Kent at the Temple

Temple at Night

We have had the blessing and opportunity of attending the temple a few times.  Wednesday nights are usually when the "twilight" missionaries attend.  This last week it was such a blessing to be in the temple with a group of brothers and sisters who had come from Papua New Guinea to receive their temple ordinances.  They were so humble and I was humbled to be with them for a few hours.

Church College

These girls brought us treats from the cooking class, trifle and berry smoothie

A couple of weeks ago the school had a TVET fair or a vocational fair presenting the things that they were learning about and had worked on during the school year :

Sisters Ward and Felsman at the Self Reliance Display (these are our Self Reliance Missionaries, there husbands were around also).

Cooking Class

Kent is with a tall Fijian young man, the crutches were built in the shop class for our Humanitarian Missionaries who work with people who have diabetes.  60 pairs of crutches were built and distributed to some of the villages

 A door that was built in the shop class

Self Reliance is a program the church is really advocating throughout the world

 

Doesn't quite look like my dad's Food 4 Less Stores

When we were driving home last week we saw this carnival being set up at a school near by our flat,  I don't think I'd be letting my grandchildren ride this ferris wheel.

Graduation is being held in 2 weeks and I'm excited because we hopefully get to go to the Prom.  Their trying something new this year, graduation before their final exams, which seems a little backward to me but then I remember, "my solution to your problem will always be wrong."
We'll see how that turns out.  We are continuing our first class until the middle of November, it will be nice to have 1 class finished.  It has been quite the learning curve for both of us to get back into a daily job and lots of studying and just the daily learning to live in a foreign country.  As the weeks go on we're starting to "get it" and hopefully not only getting but being able to "give" a little.  We love the people we're meeting and once again building eternal relationships in a new country. 

I know the Lord does truly know and love me as he calms my troubled heart sometimes.  I miss our family but I know the Lord will bless and watch over them and that brings me much peace.  I am finding joy in the journey and always remember "because I have been given much I too must give."