A Christmas Project

My daughter Erin works in the Young Women
in her ward in Bountiful. They decided that for
Christmas they would do a service project for
the Hilton House here in Suva. Children with
special needs live at the Hilton House so they
can attend school at the School for the Handi-
capped. These children are from villages and
without this "home away from home", they
would never have the opportunity to go to
school. It was started by a Mr. Hilton who came
to Fiji 35 years ago from Australia to teach
special education to teachers here....he never
went home . He is in his 90's now and is still involved
in fund raising for the Home and School.
The youth in Bountiful made folder learning
games for the children, sent soap and tooth
paste and tooth brushes, socks, blankets, treats
and love to the children here. The children and
staff were so very appreciative! Thank you
to these wonderful young men and young
women. Here are some pictures of the kids
using these fun games.


Josuah is 6 years old. He is can't walk, or talk
and is blind. He loves this soft beautiful blanket
they sent especially for him.



Jonny and Jotika enjoying their soft blankets!




They all love these games. They kept trading
back and forth as they would complete one and
wanted to go right on to another.

Jackie is a wonderful, dedicated staff member.

This girl is a volunteer from Australia who will

work at the home for 9 months.

I gave a few of the folders to a family in our

ward. They are from Kiribati, a small country

here in the South Pacific. Their father stayed

in Kiribati to work while the mother brought

her 5 children to Suva to attend school. They

have few material things and I knew the

children would love the folders. Erin, thank

you for putting this project together.

Elder Christofferson Visits Fiji

In January, Elder and Sister Christofferson came
to Fiji. I don't know why we are being so blessed
to have so many wonderful Church leaders visit
our mission. President Ostler says it is either that
we are really good...or really bad. I'm sure it is
the first! Once again, I was involved in a dinner
for the Christofferesons, the Jensens, and Elder
Hamula. I think Elder and Sister Seare and I
are getting pretty good at it....at least we are having
lots of fun!


Elder and Sister Jensen, of the Pres. of the Seventy,
and Elder Hamula, 1st Counselor in the Pacific Area
Presidency.



After Elder Christofferson spoke to the mission,
I took this great picture of Sister Kant and Sister
Childs, the missionaries in my ward. A few days
after this picture was taken, Sister Kant was
transferred to Labasa (on another island) and
Sister Mailo came back to our ward.




The sister missionaries. L-R. Me, Sister Kant,
Sister Childs, Sister J Nair, Sister Watikini,
Sister Mailo, Sister Bakaua, Sister R Nair,
Sister Reeves, Sister Logo...and up front, Sister
Soli. I consider it a great privilege to work with
these wonderful women!





When we have a zone conferene our flat is where
the sister missionaries that don't live around Suva
stay. Sister R Nair and Sister Bakaua stayed with
us during Elder Christofferson's visit. The big
bowl in the middle of the table is full of the potatoes
I had just washed for Elder Christofferson's dinner.

Signs of Suva

This is one of my favorite signs that you see
all over Suva...The girl, Noula Sefiti, is in my
ward. I wish you could see her face! This is
an advertisement for Vodafone....a cell phone
company. Noula was one of the runner-ups
on the Fijian version of American Idol. She can
REALLY sing!


opps......how did I do that twice??????



These next signs are all up by the public
hospital, The Colonial War Memorial Hospital.
A dental office.




The Hospital





OBGYN office.....






Dr. offices







You come to this sign right after all the medical
signs. I am not sure how much confidence
this gives me in the medical help here! (if you
are having a hard time reading it....click on it to
make it bigger!)

Christmas on Denarau

I spent 5 days over Christmas with the Stenlunds,
Seares and Kastelers on Denarau on the
west side of the island. We stayed at the Radison
Resort and it was fabulous! I had a hard time
believing it was Christmas, even with the decorations
that were there. That, however, was ok with me as
I think I would have felt a bit homesick if it had
really felt like Christmas.



This was the first time I had seen the Fiji that
you see on the travel posters....white sand &
turquoise water!



I had to take a picture of this because it is so
"Fiji"........an Emergency Phone....with no phone!


This little bird on the black pole is called a kula
bird. They are beautiful. I have seen a few
here in Suva, but there were many more on
the other side of the island. They never get any
bigger than this one.


This guy lit all the torches every evening at the
resort.....definitely not as scary as he looks!


It was fun eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was
as close to American food as you get here in Fiji.
Even at that, it was the fijian version of American
food.


These beautiful trees are covered with red
blossoms just in time for Christmas!


Next to the Hard Rock Cafe they had island
dancers. It just seems so strange to see a
Christmas tree behind these islanders!


Here are a few pictures of this beautiful resort.
It had three swimming pools, but better than
that, it is right on a beautiful beach.

The cyclone hit Denarau harder than it did

Suva and they were still cleaning up the

aftermath. There were many tree uprooted

around the resort...especially on the golf course.

The Cyclone

A few weeks before Christmas I experienced my
first hurricane. Apparently a cyclone is a tropical
hurricane. It was officially called Cyclone Nick.
The outer edge of the storm hit Suva, so even
though I thought it was EXTREMELY windy, we
didn't get the worst of it. The storm went right
down the middle of the island and many homes
were destroyed and filled with mud and water.
It was amazing that only two people were killed.
Our flat, and the mission office, were without
power for two days. Many areas didn't have
water or power for over a week. I feel very
lucky, as I love electricity! We used every
towel in the flat to mop up the water that came
through the doors and windows. Things got wet,
but nothing was damaged....another blessing.

I kept looking out my window during the storm

because there is a big palm tree a few feet

from the window. I convinced myself during

the night that palm trees are very strong and

probably very flexible and probably don't blow

down. The next morning when I went outside,

I discovered that our neighbor's palm tree had

indeed blown over. Oh well that little bit of self

talk helped me sleep that night!

I live in a very nice flat.....but not a very "tight"

flat. The rain poured in from under the doors

and through the windows.

December Zone Conference and Christmas Celebration

During the first week in December all the missionaries
serving here in Fiji came into Suva for Zone Conference
and a Christmas celebration. They were here 5 days.
Sister Seare and I were in charge of feeding the "5000".
(I think it was more like 90) We prepared two lunches
and one Christmas dinner. Here we are getting ready
to serve the Zone Conference lunch....sloppy joes with
vegetable sticks and chips and homemade cookies.
We have learned that most of the missionaries are more
interested in quantity over quality. I think we pulled
off both! All the work is worth it when those big
handsome missionaries, with big smiles, thank us when
they hear they can have a second sloppy joe!


Elder and Sister Seare and I getting ready
to serve the Christmas dinner. We had
chicken breasts cooked in sour cream and
cheese over rice, two salads, rolls and then
brownie sundaes with crushed candy canes
sprinkled on top.



After the Christmas dinner they missionaries
had a talent show. This is Sister Logo (her real
name is Aumoeualogo) from Anchorage Alaska.




Sister Mailo from New Zealand. She taught
some of the sisters a Mauri "slap" dance and
she accompanied them on the drum.


The "slap" dance.



Sister Reeves...the only sr proselyting missionary.
She is such a good sport to do whatever the
younger missionaries do!


Some of the elders doing a war dance.


This was such a funny skit where the elders
got President Ostler to participate. They were
all pretending to jump rope. The elder on the
right of President Ostler is Elder Zeyer from
Melba, ID.


More fijian dancing.


Sister Tiraim from Kiribati doing a beautiful
island dance. I think all island girls are born
graceful!


Sister Soli and Sister Nair. Sister Soli is from
Hawaii and Sister Nair is from Fiji. She has
a twin sister also serving here.


More crazy elders!



These are the Zone leaders doing their "talent".
This is Elder Lloyd. He leaves to go home next
week....what a "truncky" guy!!!!


Elder Tavo and Elder Nay.


After the talent show Elder Nay asked President
and Sister Ostler, Elder and Sister Seare and
me to come up front. He told us how much
all the missionaries appreciate all the work
that went into the fun "weekend" etc etc.
He then presented us with a fijian plaque
with a picture of the mission and President
Uchtdorf. So thoughtful!!!



Getting out gift!


The plaque.




Sister Seare and I made 150 pillowcases for
Christmas gifts for the missionaries. These are
the ones the sister missionaries received. In the
middle is the mission logo....There is a man
on the other side of the island that stamped them for us.
We wrapped them each up with a ribbon and a candy
cane. It was fun!