Tuvalu Trip July 22-24, 2014

Arrival at our hotel...the only hotel in Funafuti
on the island country of Tuvalu

View From our hotel room

View In our hotel room!

Nice outdoor dining at the hotel
The Menu was Fish and Rice for lunch
and Rice and Fish for dinner!


The supermarket where we bought our bottled water

The mode of transportation in Tuvalu is a motor scooter.

Our mode of transportation was our feet!

Beautiful, but very hot and humid walk to the missionary's house.

Sights along the way to the missionary's house.

The people have very poor homes, but they have

very nice places to bury their loved ones right in the front yard!

This is a home, a motorcycle shop, and a cemetery!

Another home front burial ground!



Lots of out door living in Tuvalu!
It's just too hot to live  indoors!

Notice the 2 stalks of finger bananas above us.

Tuvalan garbage truck!

We asked these ladies what they were making.
It was a flour out of the coconut they were shaving
mixed with an oil from the coconut tree.

The missionary flat to move out of......

Let's get this place packed up!

With Elder Webster and Elder Vole.

New Missionary Flat....Much nicer!

The church in Tuvalu.

Meeting with the branch presidency.

The sisters that Sister Wells and I did auxillary training with.
I taught piano to the 2 ladies standing next to me.
The church received a beautiful new keyboard
so now they need someone to learn to play it!
52 pages of the church piano course in one night and
they did not want to quit!

 

Enjoying an afternoon drink in the sea breese.

We talked the restaurant into making ice for our drinks.

That is something they don't normally have in Tuvalu!

David had to join the locals and get his own transportation!

He wanted to tour the island so he rented a scooter.

You could drive the length of the island in about 20 minutes!

Riding sidesaddle

Of course, Linda needed an island tour also!

David could not resist the beautiful, warm water!

A view from behind the church where they do baptisms in the ocean!

The branch members came to bid us good-by at the airport!
The airport is quite a place.
The runway is the gathering place for the island people,
but when the flights come in (just 3 per week)
they clean it up with the fire truck and ring a siren to
scare the dogs off!

July 2014

 4th of July Dinner with the McFaddens and the Wells

We improvised with Sloppy Joes, Potato salad, and watermelon!

 It must be orange blossom time!  As we traveled around the island

the hillside trees were full of orange flowers.

It's cane season in the West.

The sugar cane trains were full in Lautoka!

 Fiji's version of a houseboat!

This was originally a boat and someone actually lives here!

We drive by this boathouse on the way to a missionary flat!

We finally won the cup!  1st place at game night.

2nd place is medals (Collins)

3rd place is garland (Deckers)

and the booby prize is the spotted hats (Wells)

 Suva North Zone pancake breakfast.

Jut a bribe for yard work and window washing at our new flat!

Yes it took 2 to clean the lights...

Yes it broke!

Yes there was blood!

Elder Spackman and Elder Talamai make a great team!

Ramdom Photos June 2014

David finally figured out how to open a coconut!

Goodbye to Elder Rees Checketts-AP

We enjoyed working with him in the office.

Nate baptized the family of the mother

 when she was a young girl-The Matanasiga family.

The little girl in front likes to follow me around on 

Sunday when she sees me at church!

Her name is Waya.

A visit to the Fiji Museum

downtown Suva.

Adarsh Pillai and Geraldine Steven

my first two piano students!

When we thought we were being transferred to Labasa,

the ward Primary held a surprise going away party for me!

They made a family tree with all the primary kids pictures on it

and presented me with a beautiful lei!

Lahavoni is not crying!  she is blind and always

likes to touch her eyes! She is the best

singer in primary!

Another farewell party was help for us...

just before we found out we were staying!

Senior Lunch at Chi Wai's!

Starting from us going left are the Wells,

Collins, Christiansens, Limburg, Decker, Roth,

Stanfords, and Petersons!

Three of the happiest (and successful) sisters in the mission!

Sisters Nakette, Mauga, and Bauro.

They are always smiling!

The beautiful view as you drive in to Savusavu!

Some sights in Savusavu

We visited Savusavu to inspect flats and to

move the sister missionaries into the house that was

rented for us to move into!

David and his sugarcane on the porch

of the house rented for us.

Sugar Cane Season in Fiji!
Trucks loaded with sugarcane lined up
to go to the cane factory!

Farewell party for President and Sister Klingler!

The office staff....

Sister Newsom (finance), Sister Limburg (Nurse), Terrys

Klinglers.