2020 Semaines 10-11 (2-15 mars)
Week 10 was relatively quiet because we stayed in Port Vila until Friday. That is when we left for New Caledonia for the start of the mission tour. We did have some interesting calls. Monday night, one missionary serving in Malekula was feeling quite sick and his companion called as I was slumbering slowly to la-la land. The missionary wanted to go to a hospital, he was feeling so bad. So I called the sister who takes care of our flights so she could, first thing the next morning, try to get the missionary to Port Vila so he could see the doctor. He had been to see the doctor in Malekula, but I am not sure if he is a doctor or not. I received a phone call yesterday from another missionary who was in Malekula a few weeks ago and went to see the doctor for a sore on his ankle. He gave him some bandaids. Now this missionary has been transferred to Santo and the sore is much worst so he went to see the doctor in Santo who gave him some antibiotics because it has developed into a boil and His ankle is swollen and infected.😳. All is now well with the first missionary who went back a week later to his area. The second one will see the doctor again tomorrow. To be continued.
The second phone call came also on Monday. One of the senior couples serving in Solomon Islands, they are from Tennessee, were quite distraught, especially the sister, by what the missionaries were doing at the mission compound. They had killed a dog and were preparing it to eat it at the conclusion of their fast.🤢 Benoit called the zone leader who was the one preparing the dog, he is from Tonga, and asked if that was a common practice in Solomon. He said some do it but not a lot. In Tonga though, they do it every preparation day for the white missionaries who want to try it. It is quite common over there. 🤭. They were informed that this was not acceptable and should not happen in our mission. We do have an interesting mission!
Tuesday I had the “Think positive” song in my head and I needed it. A lot of little hurdles came at once. The song reminded me not to panic because if I work on one at a time, it always works out at the end of the day. I can’t let myself be overwhelmed.
Wednesday, I started the day by receiving a gift for March 4th (march forth). I love that tradition Sister Ormsby has with her daughters. How about it girls should we start something like that?
We looked at the result of the latest survey the missionaries take twice a year. It can be a bit discouraging but this time I felt we should use it to see what else we can do to help the missionaries and what we should continue to do or focus on more. This attitude helped us a lot this time. I read later in Alma 26:3 “...And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been instruments in the hand of God to bring about this great work.” If we concentrate on being good instruments in the Lord’s hands we do receive revelation to help us.
Friday we arrived in New Caledonia to start the Mission Tour with Elder Ian S. Ardern of the Seventy and President of the Pacific Area. It was a spiritual feast and a great training for us and the missionaries!
The missionaries all through the mission are struggling with a major distraction called: a personal phone (which they should not have) Elder Scruggs in New Caledonia gave President a toy phone (all done in good humor). Sometimes we have to laugh. Crying gives us a headache.
We always enjoy the good French food when we are there. We do go back with our clothes fitting a little snug. Probably because of the washer/dryer unit. (See adventure below)
😉
We stayed at a different hotel and these pictures are the view from the hotel and our room. It was very nice!
One of the many roundabouts in New Caledonia
Luckily in that nice hotel, there was a washing machine and I thought it would be a good idea to do a little load of white. It was not a fun experience. It is a washer/dryer unit. In the instructions it said to program the drying before you start your load. What happened is it was washing and drying at the same time.
Not a good idea. I was getting nervous because I had programmed the 35 minute wash and it had been going on for 90 minutes. Finally it stopped and the door unlocked. The clothes were hot and wet. I had to rinse and wring everything and luckily it dried out before we had to leave the next day. Memo to self: never use the washer/dryer unit again.
While we were in New Caledonia we went with the Stake President and Elder Ardern to see the site that was bought over 20 years ago for a temple. It is a choice site with quite a view. No temple has been announced in New Caledonia, but when it is there is a beautiful spot for it.
Week 11
We came back to Port Vila Monday because our flight was cancelled on Sunday. We got to the airport and they could not find grand-papa's reservation. While we were waiting for them to sort it out, they asked us to step aside for a little bit. This man put on the counter 20 passports. A group of men were checking in for the flight to Vanuatu. 😨 We were relieved when the lady told us before she took care of the group that all was taken cared of and she gave us our boarding passes. We were not sitting next to each other but that's okay we were just grateful we could all get back together.
As soon as we landed in Vila, we drove directly to the chapel to meet the missionaries of the Efate and Tanna Zones. We then went to a Public Affairs Event with some leaders of the community and pastors of different churches. Elder Ardern had a small presentation on the restoration and first vision. It was a nice opportunity for these leaders to understand us a bit better.
Our bed felt really nice that night!😌
Tuesday we left for Santo to meet the missionaries of the Santo and Malekula Zones and we flew back that same day. We were in a small propeller plane. Elder Ardern's seat was the first one. As a general authority he flies first class. 😉 He said to the pilots as he sat down that he was here to help them...with a prayer.
It was almost 9:00 pm when we got back to the mission home. Elder Ardern’s favorite quick meal when it is late is hot chocolate and toasts. That is what we had. It was perfect.
Early the next morning we flew to the Solomon Islands. One part of the conference was to have a few missionaries come and share a scripture and what they had learned from it during their scriptures study. Elder Ardern would also shared why he liked their scripture. It was great.
The sea was rough this week. A cyclone was passing south of New Caledonia. It caused a lot of rain in Solomon and Vanuatu. The island we could see from our hotel room in Solomon, reminded me of Mount Timpanogos. It is its twin sister who preferred the Pacific to the desert.
I took these pictures from the building where a branch meets in Solomon Islands. Notice the barb wires and the trash on the roof of these kiosks. It has a scary atmosphere to see all the barb wires. It is sad to see the filth also.
It was quite a conclusion to the week with the announcements from the Church because of the Coronavirus! What a blessing to have a living prophet. For our area, I see this as a great opportunity for the members here to grow in studying the gospel as a family, helping the youth develop a strong testimony and to use and grow in ministering. It has been a slow start to implement all this.
I pray it will open for the leaders and members the vision of our prophet from the Lord for his children.
Sunday we received the notice that the volcano Yasur in Tanna was spitting a lot of ashes. We contacted the missionaries who live quite close to the volcano. Upon more questioning we found out their house was covered with ashes last Friday. We told them to move with the Zone Leaders who live in town further away.
All in all, it has been two great weeks
Mifala lavem yufala tumas
The second phone call came also on Monday. One of the senior couples serving in Solomon Islands, they are from Tennessee, were quite distraught, especially the sister, by what the missionaries were doing at the mission compound. They had killed a dog and were preparing it to eat it at the conclusion of their fast.🤢 Benoit called the zone leader who was the one preparing the dog, he is from Tonga, and asked if that was a common practice in Solomon. He said some do it but not a lot. In Tonga though, they do it every preparation day for the white missionaries who want to try it. It is quite common over there. 🤭. They were informed that this was not acceptable and should not happen in our mission. We do have an interesting mission!
Tuesday I had the “Think positive” song in my head and I needed it. A lot of little hurdles came at once. The song reminded me not to panic because if I work on one at a time, it always works out at the end of the day. I can’t let myself be overwhelmed.
Wednesday, I started the day by receiving a gift for March 4th (march forth). I love that tradition Sister Ormsby has with her daughters. How about it girls should we start something like that?
We looked at the result of the latest survey the missionaries take twice a year. It can be a bit discouraging but this time I felt we should use it to see what else we can do to help the missionaries and what we should continue to do or focus on more. This attitude helped us a lot this time. I read later in Alma 26:3 “...And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been instruments in the hand of God to bring about this great work.” If we concentrate on being good instruments in the Lord’s hands we do receive revelation to help us.
Friday we arrived in New Caledonia to start the Mission Tour with Elder Ian S. Ardern of the Seventy and President of the Pacific Area. It was a spiritual feast and a great training for us and the missionaries!
The missionaries all through the mission are struggling with a major distraction called: a personal phone (which they should not have) Elder Scruggs in New Caledonia gave President a toy phone (all done in good humor). Sometimes we have to laugh. Crying gives us a headache.
😉
We stayed at a different hotel and these pictures are the view from the hotel and our room. It was very nice!
One of the many roundabouts in New Caledonia
Luckily in that nice hotel, there was a washing machine and I thought it would be a good idea to do a little load of white. It was not a fun experience. It is a washer/dryer unit. In the instructions it said to program the drying before you start your load. What happened is it was washing and drying at the same time.
Not a good idea. I was getting nervous because I had programmed the 35 minute wash and it had been going on for 90 minutes. Finally it stopped and the door unlocked. The clothes were hot and wet. I had to rinse and wring everything and luckily it dried out before we had to leave the next day. Memo to self: never use the washer/dryer unit again.While we were in New Caledonia we went with the Stake President and Elder Ardern to see the site that was bought over 20 years ago for a temple. It is a choice site with quite a view. No temple has been announced in New Caledonia, but when it is there is a beautiful spot for it.
Week 11
We came back to Port Vila Monday because our flight was cancelled on Sunday. We got to the airport and they could not find grand-papa's reservation. While we were waiting for them to sort it out, they asked us to step aside for a little bit. This man put on the counter 20 passports. A group of men were checking in for the flight to Vanuatu. 😨 We were relieved when the lady told us before she took care of the group that all was taken cared of and she gave us our boarding passes. We were not sitting next to each other but that's okay we were just grateful we could all get back together.
As soon as we landed in Vila, we drove directly to the chapel to meet the missionaries of the Efate and Tanna Zones. We then went to a Public Affairs Event with some leaders of the community and pastors of different churches. Elder Ardern had a small presentation on the restoration and first vision. It was a nice opportunity for these leaders to understand us a bit better.
Our bed felt really nice that night!😌
Tuesday we left for Santo to meet the missionaries of the Santo and Malekula Zones and we flew back that same day. We were in a small propeller plane. Elder Ardern's seat was the first one. As a general authority he flies first class. 😉 He said to the pilots as he sat down that he was here to help them...with a prayer.
Way up in the sky, this view of Efate reminded me of a show for kids called "Bibi et Genevieve" Bibi was an alien from Planet XY1000Z! It looks like it is part of our mission.
While in Santo we visited the Teproma branch. This is a picture of their chapel. Elder Ardern has already initiated the process to get better and adequate quarters for them to meet.
It was almost 9:00 pm when we got back to the mission home. Elder Ardern’s favorite quick meal when it is late is hot chocolate and toasts. That is what we had. It was perfect.
Early the next morning we flew to the Solomon Islands. One part of the conference was to have a few missionaries come and share a scripture and what they had learned from it during their scriptures study. Elder Ardern would also shared why he liked their scripture. It was great.
The sea was rough this week. A cyclone was passing south of New Caledonia. It caused a lot of rain in Solomon and Vanuatu. The island we could see from our hotel room in Solomon, reminded me of Mount Timpanogos. It is its twin sister who preferred the Pacific to the desert.
I took these pictures from the building where a branch meets in Solomon Islands. Notice the barb wires and the trash on the roof of these kiosks. It has a scary atmosphere to see all the barb wires. It is sad to see the filth also.
Branch Offices inside the building has a very different feel than outside
At the hotel, I treated myself with this cup of hot chocolate (two mornings in a row😁)
Because of the Coronavirus, we are being careful with avoiding handshakes and bises. So the Elders in Solomon Island came up with this: the foot shake
It was quite a conclusion to the week with the announcements from the Church because of the Coronavirus! What a blessing to have a living prophet. For our area, I see this as a great opportunity for the members here to grow in studying the gospel as a family, helping the youth develop a strong testimony and to use and grow in ministering. It has been a slow start to implement all this.
I pray it will open for the leaders and members the vision of our prophet from the Lord for his children.
Sunday we received the notice that the volcano Yasur in Tanna was spitting a lot of ashes. We contacted the missionaries who live quite close to the volcano. Upon more questioning we found out their house was covered with ashes last Friday. We told them to move with the Zone Leaders who live in town further away.
All in all, it has been two great weeks
Mifala lavem yufala tumas
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