2019 Week 14 (1-7April)

I had to start the blog this week with the view we have as we are going to the mission office.  We are thankful for this beautiful corner of the earth where we can serve.  We love the people and the missionaries.

These two senior sister missionaries, Sister Ucunibaravi and Sister Talataina, are working to help the stake in Port Vila to go to the rescue of those who have been away from the Church.  They work with the members of a unit in the stake for a set time and go with them to find and invite back these children of our Heavenly father.  Last Sunday we were in the Erakor Branch and it was their last Sunday to work with that branch.  They bring so much love and receive much love and gratitude from the members in return. After Sunday school they received these leis and flowers as a testimony of the members' appreciation.  They have helped many people come back to Church.  This little branch has grown so much that another chapel is being built to accommodate everybody.  I do not know if you can see the big speaker behind one of the sisters.  These 2 speakers were at the mission home and we had no use for them, so the branch president and another brother from FM group came to get them and brought them to that branch.  The problem is the only one who was willing to use the microphone was the branch president.  All the other members who participated while we were there did not want to use it. Microphone shy, I guess. So we could barely hear them.  As we were leaving, I thanked the sisters for the wonderful work they are doing and Sister Talataina put her flowers in my hands to take.  She said they had the other bouquet for the two of them.  I told her I was afraid it would offend the sisters who had just offered them to her and she kept them in my hands saying no it won't.  It was quite hard to hide them next to me and I made the quickest exit I could do.

After a week, they are still as gorgeous.

We started our zone conferences of this transfer cycle with the Solomon Islands.  My heart is sad when I see how the people treat the main island.  There is full of trash everywhere.  On our ride from the airport to the mission compound, I saw a woman riding at the back of a pick up truck with other people (the taxis) lean over the side of the truck and spit this big glob of red out of her mouth.  It looked like she was sick and spitting blood, but it is the juice of the betel nut.  The consumption of this nut has many harmful effects on the health and causes cancer.  But most of people use it, even small children  It is a drug very addictive and also is part of the culture.  When we fly to the Solomon Islands, not only does the flight attendant remind the people that smoking in the plane is illegal but also chewing betel nut and both are prohibited.

Some members of the Church also struggle with it. I pray Heavenly father for all these people and I also prayed that He would let me see the Solomon Islands like He does.  I still felt sad at seeing the filth and the spitting but I could feel also His love for them and the importance of sharing the gospel with them.  It gave me hope that they could receive all of Heavenly father's blessings and get them out of darkness.

This was the view from our hotel room as the sun was setting.

This is the view on the grounds of the mission compound.

I had to take a picture of the shoes of "the feet " of them "that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" Isaiah 52:7

And here they are.

We had a good conference.  We followed up on the instructions received at our mission tour last month with Elder Haleck.  He invited the missionaries to make their mission personal with Jesus Christ.  So we discussed how praying with faith could help us achieve that goal.

We also talked about the importance of budget in using their support money as sacred funds. I taught them how to keep a budget then gave them the assignment to get with their companion and plan and keep a budget.  I wish I could say that by next zone conference everyone will have experienced the blessings of budgeting.  But I know it is a hard habit to acquire so we will be encouraging again and again and again.  When I told grand-mamie I was going to present that at our next zone conference, she said that I was going to bless generations.  If they do it I believe it will.

Grand-papa talked about how we come unto Christ by receiving the Holy Ghost.  The Holy Ghost is light and it guides us out of darkness.  He also talked about the words of the Savior to Peter when He asked him: " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?"  And He asked him three times.

Do we love Him more than these?  Replace the word "these" by anything; these habits, these disobediences, these fears, these popular philosophies, these comforts,... anything that takes us away from Him or that would stop us from serving Him.

We always conclude the conference with What Now?  What are we going to do with the instructions we have discussed.  One missionary said:"Stop what needs to be stopped and start what needs to be started."  I liked that.

Elder Nzanzu does not receive letters or e-mails from his family.  We have some missionaries in that situation.  At the beginning of February I received a text from Aaron Johnston who now works for the Ensign magazine as the assistant managing editor, asking if we had missionaries who did not receive letters.  I shared with him the names of the ones we knew about and three of them actually serve in the Solomon Islands.  I happened to be standing next to Elder Nzanzu when he received first one, then two, then three letters.  You should have seen his face.  First surprised, then his smile got bigger and bigger.  Thank you Aaron and his team of writers.  You brought much joy not only to this missionary but to the others.

In order to be back from the Solomon Islands before the next flight to Port Vila on Monday, we have to take a flight, on Friday, that goes through Fiji.  Since it is not in our mission we have obtained permission to do so.  It makes our life easier.  Our assistants were pretty excited to set foot in Fiji only if it is at the airport.  Their joy was increased when they saw they could eat at Burger King.

I like the little details that makes a place like a public bathroom look for example Fijian.

You are probably wondering who is this lady that I took a picture of in the said public bathroom.  I only know that she is the cleaning lady and I was telling her that I liked the technology of the washing area.  You put your hands under the icon water and water comes out, same for the soap and the dryer.  I told her I am going to take a picture of this.  I then mentioned that she was going to be in the picture because of the mirror.  She just stood there watching me, so I guess she didn't mind being in the picture and I told her as I was leaving the bathroom that I had a souvenir of her and she smiled.

The guy that fixes the pool said that this weekend we could go in the pool.  It is Sunday,  I'm in the pool… We are getting closer. Maybe next week we will have some water in there.


Well, that's it for this week!  Next week we will have our zone conference on Efate in Vanuatu  see map below) and in New Caledonia  (see above map).

Passez une belle semaine.  Nous vous aimons tous tellement.  Have a great week.  We love you so much.  Yufala gat wan bigfala wik,  Mifala lavem yufala tumas.

Lukum you neks wik!

See you next week!

À la semaine prochaine!