Journal Entry

We have 16 days left in Taveuni.  At this point in our mission experience, we feel we’ve accomplished about all we’re going to do.  We had hoped for one more baptism of a stellar 65 year-old woman  (Elena Maitatoga), but her husband is causing problems and for now her plans for joining the Church are on hold.  So we will teach another new-member lesson or two to Ela and Rosana, take one more trip to Rabi Island, have a couple more administrative meetings with the District Presidency, and then spend the rest of the time visiting our beloved members.  Hopefully, as a crowning event, we will participate in the organization of Vuna as a fully established branch and also see Somosomo get a new branch president (President Mohammed has moved south to Vuna).

Last night we met with the Ranama and Qima families (same house) in Somosomo village, and introduced them to the card game, Phase 10.  There is no electricity in most of Taveuni so we sat in the dark with a kerosene lantern on a beautiful big mat and played (with some assistance from a couple flashlights).  It was so fun and they have invited us up to their little farm shack where they normally live, to have dinner next Monday.  This Saturday we have a big going-away party in Vuna that we are really looking forward to, and Annie has traded her sandals to Sister Jale in return for her making two small mats for us to take home and place under a nativity set we plan to make from materials gathered here on the island. 

Living here has largely become an exercise in frustration and subsistence.  We have had it with “paradise.”  Last night we had a new infestation of rats in our kitchen, we are fighting off another infestation of scabies on both of us (origin unknown), insects are a constant irritant though we’ve both grown partially immune to the mosquitos, and there is little fresh food on the island just now so we’ve barely had any vegetables for a couple months.  We eat to live but often don’t enjoy it.  In these regards, we are more than ready to go home.

With regard to our efforts to help local leaders learn how to lead, and especially to learn how the sacred funds of the Church should be handled, we are leaving in significant defeat and discouragement.  The more we look into financial matters, the more frustrating it becomes and most leaders here would be released from their callings and likely have serious disciplinary action taken against them if they lived in the States.  They have never had money, don’t know how to manage it, and see the Church as an endless money tree for which they have a personal responsibility to distribute the perceived “unlimited” funds to any and everyone who asks – and for any reason.  Truly, money seems to somewhat ruin the church here, and in our opinion (and that of other missionary couples), they would have been much better off if they had simply had the Church and its programs brought to them with no money associated with it whatever.  Third-world people are ingenious at making do in life and getting their bare necessities through a hundred schemes and associations – even if some are deceitful. All this “skill” is transferred into Church leadership when they become members and seemingly without any conscience that certain behaviors are wrong (and prohibited), they proceed to become full-time distributors of Church money while making sure they get their share.  They do not see anything wrong with this and when we try to explain and train them differently, we fear they just bide their time ‘til we leave and a new uneducated couple comes who will not discover all these things for a few months.  It is more than discouraging.

But with all the frustration, these are beautiful people who have so many good things about them.  We love spending time with them in their simple ways of living and making do.  Village life has so many wonderful aspects and much from which our hectic and materialistic “first world” countries could learn from.  We will treasure these associations and always be grateful we had the opportunity to serve the Lord and loving the people of Fiji.