We traveled two hours to Los
Angeles and then waited seven hours in the airport during which time we met
several interesting people: a young physics teacher from Australia who had just
left Fiji and gave us his travel book; an LDS missionary returning from Alaska and
going home for a short stay in Samoa before heading off to school at BYU—Hawaii;
and an Indian Fijian woman named Nalini who lives in Oregon and was going home for a
visit to Fiji. This is a photo of her and her cousin with whom we had lunch in
Suva one day during her stay.
At about 11:00 p.m. we flew from
LA to Nadi (pronounced Nandy) in Fiji.
The flight lasted about 12 hours.
Our airplane was decorated with a
tapa cloth design as can be seen the next day when we landed.
We were greeted by singing
musicians.
The Fijian people have beautiful voices and they seem to
effortlessly sing in harmony.
We were also greeted by the “Airport
Elders,” Elder Gadd and Elder Spackman. They helped us recheck our baggage, pay
our fees, and visited with us while we waited for our flight to the Nausori
airport which is near Suva. The missionary we met who was going home to Samoa had a very long
layover in Nadi and so he was going to help the Fiji Elders do their missionary
work. He didn’t want his mission to end! All the elders wear sulus—the traditional
menswear in Fiji. These are dress sulus. There are also very colorful sulus for casual wear.
They definitely are cooler and the missionaries all love them. I enjoy wearing
skirts in Fiji for the same reason. So far, my grandsons have all rejected my
offers to bring them home a sulu.
So let me
add it up. We had been traveling (flying, layovers, and driving to and from
airports) for 26 hours—and, did I mention, I had a head cold. We arrived Friday
around 9 a.m., but it was Thursday back home about 2 p.m. We lost a day due to
the International Dateline. We were immediately
put to work preparing a luncheon for the zone leaders. Sisters Klingler,
Whiting, and Hogge (also from Mesa) are pictured.
Then I
learned about entering financial transactions on the church software until 4:30
p.m. from my trainer, Sister Whiting, who I would be replacing. She and her
husband took us to a nice hotel for our first night and then we went out to
dinner with the mission president and his wife. It was a very long “day,” but I survived and
am alive to tell the tale. The Lord is blessing me already. Here is the patio
style eating area of the hotel.
It looks out
on a serene view.
Here is a
photo of President and Sister Klingler, Sister Limburg, and me. The Klinglers are from Mesa, Arizona and live
near Val Vista and McKellips, but we had to go to Fiji before we met.
Here is the
front of my office building. In addition to the Fiji Suva Mission Office, it
houses a distribution center for church supplies, a patron housing center for
people coming to the temple from far away or from other islands and for
missionaries waiting to leave Fiji on their missions, a family history center,
and a service center which handles the business transactions for the Church in
Fiji.
I have a beautiful view from my office window.
Every day
when I come out of the office, I get to see the Fiji Suva Temple. My companion
and I attend a session there once a week. The clouds are beautiful in Fiji—always
gathering for the next gentle, or not so gentle, rain.
The Mission
President’s home, Temple President’s home, and Temple Missionary Apartments
form the bottom of the “U.” The Mission President’s home is lovely and big and
is used extensively for Zone Conferences, Zone Leader Training Meetings,
welcome dinners, and going away dinners. I don’t know how the mission president
and his wife do all they have to do. He is also the president of the district
(all the branches that are not part of a stake). Pictured here is the side of
the mission president’s home.
We stayed in
the Temple Patron Housing for the first two weeks while we waited for our
apartment to be vacated by another missionary couple. Here are some photos of
the kitchen, living room (I slept on the couch), and dining room (where I
studied). It was very comfortable and very handy since it was in the same
building as our office.
We
attended church that first Sunday in Samabula. There were people of all
cultural backgrounds: Fijian, Tongan, Indian Fijian, Korean, Samoan, etc. A
little 10-year-old girl played a simple accompaniment for two of the hymns and
did very well. She just beamed when we complimented her. There were not many
hymn books available, but everyone sang with gusto and seemed to know all the
words. The talks were all well-prepared, doctrinally sound, and given by the
Spirit.
While living
there, two of our young missionaries had completed their missions and we gave
them a farewell dinner and had a lovely testimony meeting with them. Elder
Olson’s parents had come to visit all the villages where their son had taught the
gospel.
Sister Khattri was a convert from India. She had a Christian
grandmother, but grew up in a non-Christian home. She studied the Bible
diligently and she prayed to find the church described in the New Testament
with prophets and the authority to baptize and bestow the Holy Ghost. She got
very discouraged as she went from church to church until the elders came to her
door after she offered another desperate prayer. Prior to coming on her
mission, she helped about 30 people come into the Church. She was an effective
missionary in Fiji, especially among those who spoke Hindi Fijian, whose
ancestors had been indentured servants on sugar cane plantations. Over 40
percent of the population in Fiji is of Indian descent.
The next
week was intense. Sister Whiting taught me non-stop and I took notes
voraciously and typed them up in the evenings—17 single-spaced typewritten
pages. My head was swimming. How was I going to remember it all? This is the
Lord’s work for God trusts old women like me who have no accounting background
to handle the finances for a whole mission! Amazing! To add to my challenges,
this is a cash society. I am almost daily going to the bank to get more cash
for the mission. Then I send (telegraphic money order—TMO) it to the
missionaries who need it for boat fare, truck hire, utility bills, etc.
Here are
Elder and Sister Whiting at their going away dinner and testimony meeting. Now
my “final exam” begins—when I am on my own to do the work. They are pictured
with the Assistants to the President (AP’s), Elders Palmer and LeDoux, also
wearing the typical sulu.
While we stayed at Temple Patron
Housing we got to meet Brother Joeli Kalougata and his story is in the
October 2004 Ensign called "The Last Survivor". Go to lds.organd read it. It tells of his father’s conversion to the church, his family all
drowning on the way to their baptism, and his struggle as a teenager to find
out about the church his father wanted his family to join. He was staying at
Temple Patron Housing with his wife and daughter who was departing for the Utah
South Mission. She is their fourth child to go on a mission. They have two left
at home. He is a branch president where they live. This is so typical of the
Fijian members: every child going on a mission.
The
people are very friendly and warm. Wherever we go, people greet us cheerfully. They
say, “Morning, morning” or Good Morning, or Bulabula with big beaming smiles.
No one looks away to avoid eye contact. Even when we don’t see them, they catch
our attention with their cheery hellos.
I
am learning to drive on the left side of the road—like in England. It is a bit
unnerving. I sit on the right to drive. Right turns are like left turns—across a
moving lane. Left turns are the easy ones. There are lots of roundabouts which work
very efficiently. Sometimes they are no more than a four-foot wide raised circle
in the middle of an intersection. Most streets are just two lanes with the
usual dividing lines down the middle. I feel like I am driving about a foot
away from oncoming traffic. If I brake or hesitate to figure out my direction,
I am sure to hear a honk. The general mode of transportation is by foot, bus
(open air generally) and taxi. Since most people do not drive, pedestrians cross
anywhere and often don’t look for cars. At night it is very hard to see them if
they have dark shoes and clothing on. Here is our little car that we rent from
the church. It is a Toyota Yaris. I don’t think they have that model in the
states.
I
love it here and I encourage everyone to go on a mission when they retire. The
need is great. I also encourage single sisters to go with someone they know
like I did. Otherwise they might be alone a lot and it would not be as
satisfying an experience. My companion is the mission nurse and there is a
great need for nurses in the mission field. There are quite a few senior
missionaries in this mission—many on little islands surrounding Fiji. In our
mission, there are four senior office workers, lots of Missionary Leadership
Support couples (out on the islands), a perpetual education couple who give out
scholarships to young adults, a couple to work with the seminaries that goes
from island country to island country, a couple teaching school teachers at the
LDS school, a couple who serve as internal auditors, a couple over Temple
Patron housing, a Temple President and his wife, couples who are temple
workers, and a couple who work with Young Adults. That is nearly 30 seniors.
Amazing.
