2019 Week 40 (30 sep-6 oct)
Elders Palei and Fonokalafi
Elder Gaulden
This week we welcomed two missionaries who were visa waiting in Tonga. We had orientation with them and they flew out to Solomon Islands with us. We also said goodbye to one missionary who served for a long time in the office. He started his mission in the office, then we arrived in the mission field and he stayed a little longer to help us. He served in Malekula for 6 months before he left. We are excited for him and his plans for the future. The missionaries in the Vanuatu Port Vila Mission now have access to the My Plan program on their missionary portal 10 weeks before they return home. We also have a meeting with the missionaries departing at their last zone conference with My Plan. It is really a great tool to help the missionaries make the transition back home.
We have been in Solomon Islands since Wednesday. After zone conference we went with the humanitarian missionaries, Elder and Sister Goodin to visit a school where they had just completed a project of installing more water tanks. The previous ones were small and did not provide enough water for their needs. The people of this community worked for 4 days with the Goodins to demolish the previous installation, clean the existing water tanks ( 4 silver tanks containing 1,000 liters each) set up all that was needed to install the bigger water tanks (5 blue tanks containing 5,000 liters each). Around one hundred twenty students attend this school not counting kindergarten children. The teachers live on the school ground with their families.
It brought much joy to my heart to see how this project has blessed the lives of the people of this village. I also enjoyed seeing another corner of the island and see some beauty away from the main street that we usually travel on. The road was pretty rough and the school is on top of the hill. It is impossible to get there when it rains.
The school house
Two new tanks next to the school
The principal's office
The teachers' houses
more classrooms
Toilets
One toilet for the girls and one for the boys
Revamped silver water tanks and new blue tanks and the gutters to collect the rain water.
water spicket
School bell A peak inside the school
Housing for teachers and their families
Another building for classrooms
Classrooms
Children of teachers playing outside
What a cutie
Going down the stairs, you have the washing area
Superintendant of the school who worked on the project with Elder and Sister Goodin
Friday, papa/grand-papa had some district business to attend in the morning, and I worked on preparing the next zone conference series that will start the last week of October. When he came back from his interviews, we worked the rest of the day to get it all together. I really like it when we clearly see what needs to be taught and how. It usually happens in a day which is such a blessing because we do not have a lot of time to plan for zone and district conferences. Like we heard during General Conference on Saturday at the women’s session: Revelation is real! We experience it all the time in our responsibilities. How wonderful to work with the Lord. It brings me so much joy to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands.
Saturday we attended the baptism of two young man and three 8-9 year old children in Honiara. It is always a sweet and spiritual experience to attend a baptismal service. I always remember when I was baptized (it will be 45 years ago this December), the joy that I felt then comes back to me again. I rejoice at all the blessings that will be theirs like the ones I am still enjoying now for becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It truly is Christ’s church.
Today, we listened to the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference. It was 7:00 am for us on Sunday. I watched the women's session which was at 11:00 am here. We hope tomorrow the internet will cooperate with us like today so we can watch the Sunday afternoon session. I tried in
April 2019 to watch the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions, but it is 3:00 AM here and it was not a good idea. I kept dozing off. So next week we will watch the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions at the mission home. I was edified by all the talks and I am looking forward to study and reread all of them. What a wonderful blessing to have living prophets today and to know that they speak the will of the Lord. He is watching over us. It is up to us to receive His blessings.
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