2019 Week 31 (29 juillet-4 août)

We started the week with this visitor in the bathroom Monday morning.  A pretty big butterfly…

It was a grandiose week with the celebrations of Vanuatu Independence (39 years) on July 30th.  There was a lot of traffic and it gave me time to snap some pictures of the people in their colorful clothes, flag in their hair, on trucks and buses, even some dresses were made with the flag colors.  I loved watching families walking together to the Independence park for activities. A lot of smiling (or not) people in the streets.

 We were saying our goodbyes to 7 missionaries returning home.  One of them being our first assistant in the mission field, Elder LaMont (standing immediately to my left).  His companion left two transfers ago.  We have three more transfers this year and a lot of our missionaries will be returning home, 37 of them actually.  It is hard to imagine the mission without them. So far we have served with 5 assistants to the President.  Two are already home and the three others will be home by January 15th.  😞😊 I wish we could keep them longer but we know they have to return and we are very excited for them for the rest of their journey. We are thankful for the bonds of love we have and still are developing with all our missionaries.

We are thankful for Elder Wilson who took care of the grill for us on Tuesday.  First cleaning the rust on it (because we do not use it very often)  then cooking the hot dogs and cleaning the grill again.
That explains the two different aprons I made him wear.

We need 4 people to take care of the grill.  One who cleans, two who supervise and one taking the picture. 😁


A lot are leaving and a lot are coming in.  We were expecting twenty missionaries this transfer and because of visas 14 made it.  So far I am counting 43 missionaries arriving from now until the end of the year.😁 The mission will have many new faces in 2020. 

We have a different idea now of a shopping center

We were relaxing on Saturday after a busy week...but not for long.

I received a phone call from a missionary we flew in from the island of Tanna to see a doctor on Monday for some wounds that are not healing (he hurt himself with small branches that poke his ankle and foot).  He said that after going to the baptismal service in Port Vila, his wounds were bleeding.  We decided we would go see him and see what we could do.  As we were getting ready to leave, we get another phone call.  A set of missionaries, here on the island of Efate, were just in a wreck.  They hit a telephone pole (probably the only one on Efate, well, one of the very few)  The missionaries are okay.  The missionary driving has a bruise and a cut on his nose.  The other one is fine, the airbag deployed on the passenger side. The truck is totaled.  We were planning to send that truck on another island next month.  😅😌😒😞😤😠😥😩😵😐 Lots of emotions here.  Mostly relieved that the missionaries and no one else were injured.  Annoyed that they were not in their area for the second day and that they were not driving carefully... Okay, more than annoyed.

We just got some devices used all over the missions called TrakPro where we can track speed, where the vehicles are, parked or on the road etc.  So we know exactly how fast they were going, where and when.  

 We needed to unwind and we decided to
celebrate our wedding anniversary for a second Saturday.  We enjoyed a nicer meal than last week at a restaurant we were trying for the first time.

I had Lamb shank and it was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S   Grand-papa had a seafood crêpe which was very good also.

In closing, we have been watching some youth video found in Gospel Library under Youth.  I invite you to watch those with your families.  They are uplifting and very instructive.  We have been sharing some of them during our zone conferences.  It is a must see.

I have been struggling with the computer, internet for awhile so before this is completely erased and I cry, I will say goodbye.

Mifala lavem yufala tumas.