YOUR MISSION WON'T BE ANYTHING LIKE YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD BE

A former mission president's wife told me that no matter how I imagined my mission would be, it wouldn't be anything like that.  I'm learning the wisdom and truthfulness of her words. The first few days of our mission that we spent in Vanuatu felt more like a tropical vacation. We did receive training and got a feel for that area of our mission. We also got acquainted with the senior couples  in our mission (except for the couple in the Solomon Islands) and some of the younger missionaries.  I think one of President Granger's goals was for us to feel a part of the larger mission and we do.

Here we are blessed with a local, live at home, fullltime missionary couple--the Gurrera's who have been helping us.  I don't know what we would have done without them.  We are trying to learn all that we can because they will be released the end of May. Now that we are in New Caledonia these are some of the things we have been doing.  Elder Glade has been learning how to file gazillions of reports.  He has set things up so that we can handle the finances of this part of the mission when the Gurrera's are released.  He has set up bank accounts, gotten credit cards, gotten WiFi in the office. (This was a small miracle. No one in the past had been able to convince the people in charge of New Caledonia IT, who were in Tahiti, that we even needed it. When Elder Glade was giving it a shot he learned that the Tahitian IT brother was actually on the island.  He was in the office within an hour of when the call was placed to see what was needed and why.  He said that he would have to order a specific router that the church uses. Others cause problems with the church's system; this would take weeks to months.  A couple of days later he had found a router on the island and was back to install it.  There was still time before he returned to Tahiti to come back to the office a couple of times and work some bugs out.  Voila!  We had WiFi for the office elders and me!) 

Our office--Magenta Bureau, Port Vila,
Vanuatu Mission

Elder Glade has gotten various repairs (broken windows) and improvements made to the office, participated with Elder Gurrera in a monthly inspection of the mission cars, and accompanied him on an apartment inspection.  He has learned where to go to buy bus tickets for the missionaries and that he has to be there between 4 a.m. and 2 p.m. with a checkbook (which he couldn't use until that was set up). He is learning how to take care of various missionary needs from buying phones to helping set up a booth in a local market so they can talk to people and pass out information.  He still hasn't figured out how to get copies of the Book of Mormon in French.  They supposedly were ordered quite a while ago, should be here, and aren't.  How can we operate without copies of the Book of Mormon to give people!?!  

I have searched the internet for hours looking for apartments, given countless numbers to Sister Gurrera to phone, visited lots of apartments, and finally decided on one in a quiet area. We let the real estate agent know we wanted it.  He then needed approval from the agency director.  Each day we called; each time he said, "Tomorrow for sure."  One week later he left a voice mail that it was ours.  Now who knows how long it will take to actually sign a lease. We were supposed to meet with him yesterday.  He tells us he will call, but never does. In New Caledonia people have a way of doing things; if you don't like it, they aren't at all concerned.  They are very kind, not at all rude, but truly not concerned. 

What is a sommier? 

Is this a good brand, a good deal?

125,000 for a couch?!

Sister Gurrera has taken me for hours to look for furniture. We were unable to find a furnished apartment.  I'm learning vocabulary for features and qualities of everything from apartments to refrigerators. I'm trying to determine what brands are good quality when I'm not familiar with any of them. I'm learning how to use the French keyboard on the office computer. Learning where to buy what we need.  Getting acquainted with grocery stores. Learning how to cook and eat where groceries are not the same and are very expensive. I'm learning to read store labels and cooking instructions in French. I'm learning how to apply for local visas, "Cartes de Sejours," which need to be gotten shortly after arriving and renewed a year later.  I have brought a bougainvillea back to life and it is blooming already.  President Granger asked me to plant a planter in front of the office and get pictures for the office.  That will be enjoyable, but first things first.

  It was a stick with a few wilted leaves.  A little water and love. Look at it now!

We have both gone to doctors visits with the missionaries and communicated with the mission nurse in Vanuatu about plans for their care.  I have been helping missionaries with budgeting and grocery shopping. We have gone to the city for visas for ourselves and other missionaries.  We are learning our way around the island.  We are adapting to the fact that stores and businesses open early and close early. Some businesses I thought had gone out of business still are in operation.  It's just that they are open so few and such random hours that they appear to no longer be in business. If we stay too late at the office we are out of luck if we thought we'd run an errand after.  We are adjusting to very tight parking spaces and very different ways of doing business.  We are trying to explain to local leaders why President Granger has made they changes he has made in some of the procedures in the mission. When we are not in the office--most of the time we can do with our time what we choose.  Our mission is definitely different from a young person's mission.

We didn't expect a brand new Nissan.  We didn't expect to stay in such a nice hotel for so long. When we have attended church, conference, and a couple of baptisms it seems more like what I expected a mission to be.  We expected to face challenges, and we do.  They aren't necessarily the type of challenges we expected.  We expected to be glad we are missionaries and grateful to be involved in building the kingdom in this part of the vineyard. We are. The people here are as wonderful as we expected.  The city of Noumea isn't as pretty as we expected, but the beauty of New Caledonia exceeds all expectations.  By next month, when we are more settled, our mission will be a different one than it has been this month.  We are beginning to understand that the statement, that our mission won't be what we expected, will continue to be true as we move forward.

WE'RE HERE

We landed in New Caledonia just as the sun was setting on Sunday, March 20, 2016.  The clouds were very pink as we descended through them.  The sky was brilliantly colored as we walked into the airport.  What a great welcome to the country we will be living in for the next 18 months.  

Missionaries picked us up.  Before we went to the hotel we visited the Magenta Bureau--our office. Grangers worked hard to get the office ready for us and were anxious to show it to us.  They had locked my side of the office so that the missionaries couldn't go in there so that it would be perfect when we got there.  It was after dark when we checked into the hotel where we have been living until we find and move into our apartment.  

This is what we saw when we stepped out on our terrace the next morning.

These are our neighbors.

While the Grangers and Elder Stevens were with us here we met with the Gurreras--a live at home full-time couple who have been doing everything here that needed to be done. President Granger gave us some assignments to help them.  President Granger took us and the office elders to dinner.

The next day we had a meeting and met  most of the full-time missionaries who are serving in New Caledonia. 

After that Elder Glade received more training and President Granger bought a few more things for the office to help get it in operating condition. We said good night and goodbye to the Grangers and Elder Stevens. They left early the next morning and we were on our own--feeling a little like we'd just been dropped off at camp or school.

VANUATU

We finally arrived in Vanuatu on Wednesday (3/16/16) afternoon and were greeted  by President and Sister Granger and some of the missionaries.  We went to the office where we were given root beer floats--a treat reserved for incoming missionaries.  It was a hot day and they tasted good. President Granger gave me a big bouquet of red torch ginger the next day.

We will always feel a bond with our traveling companions

Our first night we had dinner with the senior missionaries and the Grangers at the mission home. Next day we drove around the beautiful island of Efate visiting the building sites of the humanitarian couple who are building homes since the devastation of cyclone Pam.  

Met this young man and later took a few minutes
to wade in the ocean.  We had some training and instruction at the office Thursday afternoon and Friday. 

We had our first P-day on Saturday. We took a boat to Hideaway Island with another couple and went snorkeling. 

Pictures courtesy of Elder Glade

After all that snorkeling we were very hungry.  Vanuatu is known for having very good beef.We decided to try a hamburger.  It came with beets on it.  A new way to eat our vegetables. We only had ice water to drink--I promise.

The senior couples in Port Vila go out to dinner together many Saturday nights and watch a movie at one of their apartments. We had dinner at a very nice resort.  There was Ni-Van (Vanuatuan or born in Vanuatu) dancing at the restaurant.  

(Elder Glade and I had already seen some dancing when we ate "Curries from Around the World" at our hotel restaurant. Because so many Ni-Van villages were so isolated for centuries each village developed its own language and culture.  Vanuatu is the most language dense country in the world with the highest number of languages per population and geographic area.  Most Ni-Vans can speak Bislama which is a pidgin English that came about as masters tried to communicate with Ni-Vans who had so many different languages. I gathered that something that sounded like "He no talk talk" means "He doesn't speak Bislama." "Pickaninny" is the word for "child." One of the missionary couples in Port Vila has learned it and said that, even though they were sad that the people speak a language that came out of a period of slavery on European plantations, it is a very rich language. Until Vanuatu gained its independence in 1980 it was ruled by France and England together. Most people learned either French or English depending on what school system they attended.  I think today more people learn English.) 

We were at dinner longer than we planned because we watched the dancing.  We didn't watch a movie, but we did visit the apartment complex where the senior missionaries live.

They have studio apartments and are quite crowded.  President Granger has told them to look for new apartments, but they don't want to give up being neighbors, having a pool, and having a balcony over the lagoon.  While we were there we saw bioluminescence which is when little tiny creatures in the water light up for a minute when the water is disturbed. We saw it a little bit, but one night there was so much that the missionaries decided to go swimming at night and they said it was like swimming in milk the water was so white and alight. 

Sunday we decided to go to church right by our hotel instead of with the other senior missionaries. We got to church a little before it started at 8 a.m. only to find out that the President of the country was visiting church that day.  Church ended up starting at nearly 9:30.  President Lonsdale was an Anglican minister and talked about the importance of Vanuatu remaining a Christian country and being united as Christians and citizens of Vanuatu.  He is visiting all of the different denominations in Vanuatu.  An Area Seventy from Fiji flew over for the occasion and also gave a very powerful address. For some reason none of the missionaries seemed to know--not even Grangers.  We didn't get a picture of the president, but we did of his car.

As we were checking out of the hotel a man was checking in who told us he was one of the four original missionaries in Vanuatu.  He has done a lot over the years to try to help this country.  We felt fortunate to run in to him and learn more about the history of this mission.

After a delayed flight and a long wait in a hot airport with the Grangers and Elder Stevens, the mission finance missionary, we were finally on the last leg of our journey to New Cal.

Our stay in Vanuatu gave us a chance to get some guidance and get acquainted with and be inspired by the other senior couples.  Our impression:  it's hot, it's beautiful, the food is good, the people are extremely friendly and kind, and the church is thriving.  

  

ON OUR WAY

ON OUR WAY

This looks like a video, but is doesn't work.

      Pulling out of our driveway on Monday, March 14, 2016, and heading to the airport.

These three handsome young men gave us a great sendoff. . .

and we collected these three handsome young men on our way.  (Two at the airport in Salt Lake and a visa waiter, who had spent a transfer in Mesa, Arizona, when we got to San Francisco.)  

When we went through immigration and customs in New Zealand; they wouldn't let us all stay together because New Zealand doesn't treat Filipino passport holders the same as American ones.  Our Philippine elder had to stay in a holding area, but they wouldn't let us join him until we checked in again at the ticket counter.  No one was there to help us at 5 a.m. so we had to wait for hours for someone to come.  We were worried about the Elder being by himself all that time. We picked up his luggage because we were told to and then we couldn't check it back in if we told them it was someone else's luggage.  If we checked it in as ours we would have had to pay a small fortune in extra baggage charges. Elder Glade and I stood in various lines and talked to numerous people.  No one could help us.  Finally one employee told us to take it outside to a place to return baggage.  That worked.  The Elder was reunited with his luggage and seemed fine when we were finally reunited with him.  He was a little hungry since he didn't have any New Zealand currency and no credit card.  Elder Glade quickly remedied that.  We were finally on our way to mission headquarters in Port Vila, Vanuatu.