What follows is Tom's first Journal Entry from October 11, 2011. It will have some overlap with the next blog, but does relay a more complete picture of the beginning of our Fiji adventure:
We completed a whirlwind 5 days at the MTC on October 7th. It was an overwhelming, inspiring, and packed
daily schedule experience. We joined the
largest group of seniors (102) that have left the MTC and were amazed at the
worldwide assignments the couples and 4 single sisters had – it opened our eyes to the vastness of the work being done through aging and yet dedicated members. We also had our 3 introduction language lessons in Fijian from Brother Vuikadavu, a native Fijian. We started each day at 6am and fell into bed about
10pm. Exhausted but well instructed, we
feel blessed to be entrusted by the Lord to do His work.
A quick
recap of travel: We were released from
the Mission Training Center in Provo at 7:30pm on Friday night, October 8th. Leah picked us up and we went directly to an outdoor
concert by the group Lower Lights, who put on a fabulous concert of revival
style hymns and spiritual music. We just
loved that concert and stayed toasty warm with clothes Leah had brought for us
along with hot chocolate, and blankets (temperature was about 40 degrees
F). We slept over at the Wrights' in Mapleton
and had a frenzied morning doing our final packing before a wonderful luncheon with Matt & Jessica and girls, Virginia and Rudy, and Luke. It was a
perfect send off and then Matt & Jessica took us to the SLC airport at 3pm
for our 5pm flight.
While at the airport, we had what was for us, a significant experience. We were feeling emotional about our departure into the unknown for such a long time, and the finality of missing our family ~ it was a difficult and tearful moment. As we sat waiting for our departure we noticed a very put-together -woman walking towards us with a familiar missionary name badge. We visited with her and learned that she and her husband were presiding over a mission in the Midwest. She was accompanying a young sister missionary back home who had a health issue and wanted to be sure all was well with her. She lovingly gave us hugs and reassured us that all would be well for us as we left our family to serve the Lord. She definitely understood what we were going through as she had and was doing the same when they left all behind to fulfill their call to serve. It lifted our spirits and was truly a tender mercy
The flight
from SLC to Los Angeles was quick and comfortable aboard Delta Airlines. We arrived about 6:30 pm Pacific Time and
waited until 10pm to board an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland (13 hours). ANZ is a fantastic airline with superb
service (better than we’ve ever experienced) and a very large plane. We had a wonderful dinner about midnight then
slept fairly well until about 6am when we awoke and had breakfast before
landing at Auckland, New Zealand. There
we waited about 8 hours for a connecting flight to Nadi, Fiji (pronounced,
Nandi). As we walked down the runway into the airport, 3 Fijian men were playing guitars and singing so beautifully ~ it made us feel welcome.
We were soon greeted by two elders, an islander and an American who apparently has been here
just long enough to have melted into the Fijian culture, speaking English only
in clipped terms with Fijian words mixed in. Young missionaries so fall in
love with their assignment that they take on the mannerisms of the local
people, which works fine in the field but is a little odd when they get home.
Anyway,
they said to us: “The plane to Suva does not allow any baggage over 14 kilos so
the Mission President wants you to leave your things with us and take just what
you need for a few days because you’ll be coming back to this side of the
island and can get your stuff from our flat then.” Do you have any idea how hard it is to take 4
bags, weighing 50 pounds each and create one bag weighing 14 kilos (31 lbs.)?
We were a bit stunned but obediently opened our bags to rearrange, only
to find that one of them contained a 1000 vitamin/calcium pills spilled
everywhere and liberally mixed in with bath gel from another broken
container. It was soon obvious that this
wasn’t going to work so we just stuffed in 2 pair of garments each, a couple
shirts, and our toilet kits and off we flew to Suva, just 30 minutes to the
east on the other side of the main island. We had spent a total of about 32
hours in transit.
In Suva, we
were greeted by the mission president, Kenneth Klingler and an office couple (Sister Klingler was in the states for her father’s funeral so we didn’t
meet her). They drove us the 20 minutes or so from the airport to the Suva
temple grounds that also contain the mission office, temple patron housing, a
home for the mission president as well as one for the temple president, and 3
condominiums for temple missionary couples.
We arrived about 10pm and took a shower, crashed and slept wonderfully
until 6am this morning.
We are
being temporarily housed in the temple patron apartments until we leave for our
new assignment in Ba, which is on the Northwest side of the main island of Viti
Levu. This morning, President Klingler
spent about 10 minutes with us before flying off to another island for mission
business. He spoke of meeting with the
Area president and Stake president of the Lautoka stake that includes all the
towns on the eastern side of the island.
During the meeting, he felt that the Lord wanted strong missionaries on
that side of the island and committed to the stake president to send us to one
of the towns where they have a ward that has been without a bishop for 16
months. Lot’s of inactivity and
struggling leadership in the town of Ba led the President to assign us there
and to have an additional assignment to go to many of the neighboring towns and
villages to also work on reactivation.
When we tell other Fijians at the temple complex that we are going to
Ba, they just smile and say, “Oh, very hot and difficult.” So we are getting a feeling that things will
be challenging (we’re already hot and sweaty in Suva so going to a hotter place
didn’t seem too cheery). We note that it
is about 10-15 degrees hotter in that area than on the east side of the island
and is a very poor area with 80% of the population being from India (having
descended from indentured workers in the sugar cane industry).
We are
spending the next few days here in Suva getting trained, qualifying for a
driver’s license (yep, they drive on the opposite side of the road!), and
waiting for a new 4-wheel drive truck they are providing us. The roads are very rough and it’s slow going
(best travel is about 10-20 miles/hour).
Suva is the capitol but you can readily see that there’s not much money
for upkeep on roads and buildings. The
people are smiley and happy and a mix of Fijian, Indians, and other
internationals from all over.
All of the
talk about serving a mission, having faith, and “I’ll go where you want me to
go, dear Lord,” is finally coming home to reality. We are quietly listening, watching, and
preparing to work hard and pray for the Lord to strengthen us in our weakness
and inabilities in so many areas. We
want to love the people and know that only the Holy Spirit can bridge the many
gaps between us. We trust God to keep
His promises and strengthen us to keep our covenant of service to his children
in Fiji.
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