May- A time for fall weather

We have had more rain than most years in the last week, it is still very warm, though the Fijians are cold.  They look ready for a ski trip in the mornings.

Loading a fridge while battling the 78 F cold snap.

Bro. Vuikadavu in the patron house kitchen.

We went to a restaurant last week with Elder and Sr Robert Smith, they were heading home to Idaho Falls. It is the Rain Forest at Cola i Suva Park.  The company was good, the service not.  We did throw some bread to the small pond for a fish feeding frenzy.

Cola i Suva restaurant.

Routine Activities

We are alive and well, our routine activities keep us busy enough.  The Temple has some slow days and then a busy day, no true pattern there yet.  We are going to get busy the next week or two, related to out-islanders coming over school breaks.

We help to settle patrons into the Temple housing when they come.  Patron Housing has two dorms with 18 beds each and 8 rooms with 4 or 6 beds.  Next week on Monday night we have a group from Taveuni (third largest island in Fiji) and our Temple worker group is coming to be ready for Tuesday 5 am session.  So the dorm is over-booked, we have mattresses for the floor.  The rooms are also filling up, some families of workers will come to do early baptisms before school.  I am looking forward to having everyone, it lets us get to know the people better.

Flowers are pretty here, we walk along the the protected bay in the mornings, Monday and Thursday.

These blossoms fall off a tree, too fragile to pick up.
I haven't looked up the name yet.

Monday morning this week

We went to a restaurant for the university of the South Pacific's cuisine and restaurant management school, the students prepare a meal and then we make a critique at the end.  The presentation and courses were very good.

Taro greens soup, and dalo chips.

Chicken pave skewers.

Lamb shank and roasted Signa Toka vegetables.

Basil/ginger ice cream, beet syrup and lemon
tart

We have been eating a lot of roasted vegetables at home,
They are very good, Pumpkin or other squash, potatoes and carrots.

Our family picture wall in our apartment keeps me
 looking forward to home, eye on the prize.

Port Denarau near Nadi

We had Saturday off for conference so we "reserved" the van, made reservations through Worldmark at the Wyndham in Port Denarau, and headed west and north on the Queen's highway for the Nadi area.  It was an interesting 3 1/2 hour drive, with sea views and some winding through the hills around Signa Toka.

The Wyndham was nice, the pool was recovering from the huge rains of Tropical Cycone Zena and looked good on Sunday and Monday.  We went to Port Denarau Marina, to check out the island day trips and cruises for the future.  We ate Saturday dinner at an excellent restaurant in Nadi, Tu's Place. On Monday we checked out, sadly, at noon and did a few stops in Nadi area to look for other hotels.  Finally, we ate lunch at Burger King where the Whoppers and fries were good.  We had a good drive back to Suva, very little traffic.  It was good to be back in the Temple yesterday, but the break from routine was stimulating.

Wyndham pool area from the beach.

Reading conference talks.

Beach with the tide out. There were paddle boards and
kayaks, with jet skis and parasailing just up the beach.

Port Denarau Marina:
Many day trips and multi-day cruises leave from here. There are big homes on canals with big boats too.

Only two months from home, but this still looked and was very good

Pink Eye

A pink eye epidemic has been moving through Fiji.  Kids, adults, and no one of our Temple Missionaries even has it, not me or Cindy, thankfully.  For awhile all anti-biotic drops were sold out, I did buy some and gave one bottle to a Patron House cleaning staff member, and kept one just in case.  The Pink eye causes lots of redness and more swelling than I usually see in the kids back home.

Pink eye isn't much too worry about though, the islands where sanitation systems were damaged and destroyed by Cyclone Winston have been getting cases of Typhoid fever.

The Temple this week wasn't very busy, we had another Cyclone scare with Zena moving through, that caused some drop early in the week and the re-broadcast of Conference sessions this week had the Temple closed on Saturday.  I'll have some good pictures of what having a Saturday off meant for us...

Conference weekend and "Boy's Camp' in the Patron Housing

The first weekend in April is always General Conference, when we pause to listen to speakers from Salt Lake.  Because of the time difference the conference will be re-broadcast next weekend in the buildings here.  We were able to get up early, 4 am,and watch the sessions streaming on the internet.  It was fun to gather with our family, remotely, and listen all together.  Our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson looked well, though he didn't speak long.  We liked to hear everyone taught about the importance of Temple work, there are now 150 working Temples around the world.

We have a 5 am session in the Temple on the first Tuesday each month.  So we were up early, again.  Some of the Temple workers got together and stayed in Temple housing on Monday night.  The public transportation makes it difficult for them to get to the Temple so early.  We had families and single older workers, all together for FHE.  They played a bible trivia game, too hard a set of questions for me.  Then we ate together, Fijian food with an excellent stew, taro, and rice.  We had noodle salad, taro greens salad and ice cream.  Cindy made a triple batch of brownies to share.

Our three Temple missionary apartments.

Ours on the end.

Our door sign so security knows which door to
knock on when we get late arrivals,

Ceguadrau teaches, Naivalu, Petero, Cava and Young listen.

Uwe Davuke, Senikuraciri and friends.

Our First Trip to a Beach!

We have been along the coast, walking, looking,and anticipating. Saturday we got to go to an actual beach, and to a really nice lunch in a restaurant afterwards.  This beach is about 40 minutes from us, in the area of where we went to the Village, just north of Suva past the Nausori airport.  An MLS missionary couple, the Smiths, met a group of us out there, and led the final drive onto the beach.  It is very isolated, and undeveloped.  Lots of seaweed piled up but very nice sand and warm water.

Paying to park on "his" beach.

We took a long walk  and saw no one and no buildings.

I was able to get out and body surf a few waves. 

Navatuyaba Village and Chapel, Relief Society Birthday Celebration 25 Mar 2016

This weekend was busy, we were fortunate to be invited, with the Andersons, to visit a village to have a tour and attend the Ward Relief Society anniversary celebration.  Village life is the old way, historically clans have lived together with an hereditary chief.  The clan and chiefs decide things in council, final say to the chief.  Land is owned by the clans, new couples can get permission to build a home on a clan lot. They live with relatives at first.  A bus usually serves each village to take workers to jobs.  Some men stay in the village and farm, selling their crops to retailers.  The villages near Suva were not damaged much by the storm.  They have water and usually electricity.  Navatuyaba is on a small stream so there are some fish, and fresh water mussels.

Some Fijians now have left the village behind to live in towns, some return often to the village and some do not return at all.  Movement of people between islands, and to other countries, is common for economic opportunity.  In addition to not having many jobs the villages have other traditions, like kava ceremonies, that are contrary to wise living.

The chapel in this village is awesome, the jewel of all surrounding structures.  The ground was raised up about 4 feet and the chapel is very well kept.

Random pictures from drive, these give a feel for the green countryside and the homes. 

Rainy season muddy water. 

   
























The village and chapel:

Alice and Elders Vanroosendaal and Ransom outside their
apartment.

The Methodist chapel, and village houses.

Village boys playing ball,that is a white rugby ball.

The Methodist ministers child, a candid camera shot.

Bugs swarm the light as we are ready to leave.

The Relief Society celebration was fun.  The sisters sat at the front and each husband came forward to say what he valued about his wife. Almost all is Fijian so I missed the words but not the spirit of love.  I was even encouraged forward to share my thoughts.

Bishop Savu,before he changedfor the meeting, the
Andersons, Cindy and I.

Alice and Cindy.

Sr Tukana and two of her children, sealed
this week.

Almost a grandchild.

Getting set to sing happy birthday.

Links to amateur video of these activities on you tube:Singing Happy Birthday to Relief Society
children dancing          More children dancing