Fiji

Fiji

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Good Times....Fiji Mission, May 2015

          Saying Goodbye to this great S&I couple, Elder Mark and Sister Paula Peterson
                           Just 3 couples left in the "Twilight Zone" until June!
 A life time scouter at the Fiji Scout office!
               Nothing more beautiful than sunrise and rainbows over the Fiji Suva Temple!
                         

Mother's Day weekend at our favorite Fiji Resort!
Celebrated with the Knights and the Deckers.
 
For our warwick visit this time,  David got just what he wanted! 
The GM upgraded our room, gave him a Warwick cap and a plate of cookies was waiting for us!
We had a great time with the Knights and the Deckers (the remaining Twilight Zone)!
 Great rice catch!  Dinner at the Warwick Japaneese restaurant.





We finally tried the warwick kayaks.....someone got real comfortable!
 Where else but Fiji can you get Hibiscus painted on your toes at the village by the Warwick!

 We served with Elder Painter for 7 months in the office.  Great AP!


May departing missionaries:  Front  Sisters Itea, Kaititi, Eneri, Uate, and Alaga
Back:  Elders Peery, Tafuna'i, Moantewa, Saumaki, Moran, Moka, Motuliki, and Tenney
Suva 1st ward beach party at Pacific Harbor.  First time we got to eat a lovo meal hot...pretty yummy!  Top left:  Preparing dalo and leaves for the roro,  Bottom:  scraping coconut, preparing fire for the lovo oven, setting the dalo in the lovo.  Top right: carrying the chickens to the lovo.

     The pink cloth is filled with coconut and twisted to squeeze the coconut milk out for the roro,    and preparing the roro in the coconot shells.Top right:  Weaving the whole chickens in the palm leaves for the lovo, 
An hour and a half later, ready to eat!

Some of the cute kids in my primary class!

Just chillin' in the breeze on the beach with Sister Husain!

Some of the ward members enjoying the beach
  Ant invasion in our new flat across the street from the temple :(













Monday, May 25, 2015

April Market/Farewell to the Wells


 A fun day at the market with the Wells for their last P-Day
            Sister Wells and I love the Fiji flowers!
Plentiful fruits and veggies.....David especially loves the plate full of mandarins!

 Fiji brooms sold right along with the squid! lots of fish, crab and lobster at the fish market!

 Baskets of casava and bunches of pineapple, holding tight to the bag of mandarins!
 

                              Shopping done..... all washed and ready to eat!

 Those mandarins make the best juice!Last walk at the sea wall with Elder and sister Wells :(
 
Girlfriend lunch for Sister Wells Departure
Sisters Decker, Karen(Sister Peterson's Friend) Peterson, Me, Wells, Smith, Knight 
    Elder Terry and Elder Wells......Partners in crime!  They are going to miss each others company!


FAREWELL, ELDER AND SISTER WELLS....APRIL 30, 2015


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

March/April Comings and Goings

MLS missionary couple seminar.  Some great missionary couples from the outer areas
 that we don't get to see very often.
Back: Elder and Sister Woodward (Labasa), Vermeeren (Taveuni),Smith (Nausori),
 Tanner, (Lautoka)
Front:  President and Sister Vuataki (a local counselor in mission presidency),
 President and Sister Layton, and Elder and Sister Harward (Savusavu)

After the seminar, all the mission couples were invited to have dinner together at Eden Bistro
From Left:  Terry, Wells, Smith, Woodward, Decket, Vermeeren  Stanford (guests), Knights, Harwards, Laytons, Vuatakis, and Tanners....just missing the Petersons,

Oh the many excursions of the AP van between a rock and a hard spot! 
 Left:  The van slid down this muddy hill!  Thank goodness there was a rock barrier to stop it and some strong Fijians near by to push it back on track!
Right:  It took a whole zone to "lift" the van to safety...silly APs trying to turn it around in a 
very sight spot! You can tell Elder Terry and his side kick  Elder Wells did all the hard work with a lot of help from Elder Rainsdon and the whole Suva Zone while Elder Painter sits int he driver seat! Great late night rescue!

My cute little Suva 1st Ward CTR PrimaryClass.
Going outside for a picture was one way to settle them for a minute!
Relief Society Birthday Party...cutting the cake.
Sister Hussain on the left is the Relief Society President. 
 She is in her 70s and also serves as a member locator missionary.
Sister Manuele, her mother and daughter sing a Rotuman song
Some of the ward sisters doing a Rotuman dance.

March zone conference tour...with the Taveuni Zone in Labasa.
We took part in March zone conferences to remind the missionaries how successful
they can be by doing "Small and Simple Things"  Of course it was pertaining to temporal things like house cleaning and safety tips, teaching them if temporal things are taken care of, missionary success and the spiritual things will fall into place!
Below:  This is what we fly to Labasa on!
Our favorite meals in Fiji at Cafe 30..Lemon Chicken Schnitzel.  
David has his with fries, Linda chooses the yummy steamed carrots, pumpkin, and green beans!


April Departing Missionaries
Back:  Elders Kaipuke, Hancock, Spackman, Webster, Rainsdon, and Magalogo.
Front: Elder Nawahine, Sisters Fassalafa, Bauro, Au, and Elder Tebetanga
Good bye to Elder Adam Rainsdon (Idaho Falls)  We enjoyed working closely with him as he
served as an AP.  We will miss his desire to always be of service.


Elder Ethan Webster of Calgary Canada fame! Zone leader and great missionary!

Sweet Sister Bauro (Kiribiti)  Served as a Sister Training Leader.  We will miss her!
She always has a smile even when Elder Terry gives her a hard time 
because he had to rescue her in a few car situations!!

Elder Kevin Hancock with his Dad and Step Mom who is a sister to Jonell Jensen!

A nice visit from Elder Jackson Irish, one of our missionaries in Ecuador. 
 He works for the government-living in Thailand with his family. 
 He had work in Fiji so spent some time with us!

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Finishing up February 2015

February Departing Missionaries
Elder Pence (Idaho) Sisters Manusavaii and Utai (Samoa) and
Sister Laru, Sister Training Leader from Fiji
Love these beautiful sisters!

Happy Birthday to Sister Wells!
Final senior P-Day with the Collins.  A beach day at the Pearl Resort on Pacific Harbor
A couple of beached whales, Elder Terry and Elder Wells!
The rains came so Sister Wells, Sister Russell, and Elder Terry Took cover!
The rest of us enjoyed a beach walk in the rain!
Parting is such sweet sorrow ....  saying goodbye to this wonder couple, Ed and Joyce Collins.
They were our upstairs neighbors in our house on Kanavi Street, and took us under their wing
when we first arrived in Fiji.  We will miss them!
Front:  Petersons, Left around: Deckers, Collins, Stanfords, Wells, Terry, Russells, Elder Knight

Beautiful Fijian Sunset taken the night of the Collins Senior Departing Dinner at Novotel