Here's how Elder Hogge's week began.  The Elders brought in this tire..do you think someone can  repair it?

This is an example of one of the better roads in Suva we take to  go to the Nasinu  sister's new  flat . We had  some help  this week as we were trying to figure out how we would ever find time to make drapes for all the windows in their flat.  We washed the old drapes from their last flat and hung the 12 panels in the 3 bedrooms. Then Elder Hogge saw a big box downstairs in the storage room and pulled it down.  Inside were 24 beautiful drape panels and half of them even had the rings we needed to hang them.  They were some drapes that had hung in the last mission president's home, but had been stuck in storage for the last 18 months after  new drapes had been hung.  Heavenly Father really sent us a tender mercy, knowing how impossible it would have been for me to sew the needed 29 drape panels to furnish the flat.

This last week was an Indian holiday called Diwali.  The women buy new clothes  and the  life  of  Rama (a diety in their religion) is celebrated.  The loud fireworks started a week before and we had noisy fireworks every night.  The night of the celebration everywhere in Suva people were doing fireworks and many hung lights on their houses. 

Our landloard and his wife brought each of his three renters  a  dinner.  We had potatoe and peas curry, little 4" type tortillas (called something else) pumpkin curry, and a tomatoe and onion salsa type dish

We went over to his house and saw 2 beautiful rice artwork on the porch .  His daughter took rice and dyed it different colors using ground up colored chalk and water.

This second one was interesting, I asked about the patterns in the corner, and she said that the  "swastikas" are a religious symbol meaning light in their religion.  I thought how interesting that Satan took a symbol that was positive and used it to represent such evil when Hitler used it. 

The girl in the right of the picture is about 12 and all dressed up for  Diwali

This is our landlord and his wife, with elder Hogge

This little girl is dressed in the traditional clothing that many  of the women  were  wearing on the day  of the celebration, we've been told that some of these type outfits cost $200.00 dollars Fijian.

The lights that some of the homes were decorated with.

The treats they brought us, some were sweet, and some were  spicy  and  made  of  vegetables

Elder Hogge and I took a trip up to Nadi and Lautoka this weekend to check of several Sister's flats and take them needed supplies. I had him stop  by the wter for a picture and  when I went to take the picture a guy in the boat stood up and yelled Bula!  Fijian's are happy fun loving people and friendly even to strangers.

We had two spots where we had to wait while the traffic came through one lane and then we took our  turn  so we could all get to where we were going to.

This is hard to see but it's a track where small trains come and pick up the sugar cane that is loaded on small flatbeds.

This is downtown Nadi, and the tree is one of the biggest Fragi Pani  trees I've seen thus far.

This is the huge mango tree by the Sister's flat, and  they gave us a few  to take home.  I love to make crepes and  put the cut up mango with some whipped cream over it.

A beautiful flowering tree across from the sister's flat

We had a little free time today and drove around an area called Denarau, which  caters to the  rich tourists who visit .  This is the golf course, and for the first time we actually saw 2 sets of golfers.  The last time we came it was raining hard and there were no golfers to be found.

This was a beautiful spot on the side of the road, that had a stream and small  grave yard  for a small  village nearby,  it looked so peaceful.

There were workers in this field and many flatbeds loaded with  sugar cane

This is what the coconuts look like here.  First they are green, then turn a golden yellow

Elder Hogge is thoroughly enjoying a day he can wear his shorts and bula shirt.  He worked hard at the Lautoka  sisters  jummy rigging a small faucet to a large adapter hose for their washing machine.  He was able to cut the ill fitting washer down until it created a seal, he amazes me with his ability to fix things.

This is a place where we do a pit stop (ie the only decent bathroom for miles)  Younger people take an  hour hike to see a dig sight where human remains, pottery etc were found and is believed to be one of the first people who inhabited this island.

I know my family members will laugh, but I made Richard stop and let me walk along the  beach to look for shells.  The joke was on me, when I discovered mostly broken pieces of coral and very few shellls

Some swimmers who were taking a swim, I think I've mentioned before, Fijians don't wear  swim suits, they just jump in with the clothing they're wearing, which is more modest anyway.

The bounties we received from our trip.  The landlady for the Lautoka sisters insisted we sit and rest on her porch while we waited for the sisters to come.  She gave us the item on the plated called evi.  It has the texture of a chestnut, is a starchy food and tasted okay.  When we about to leave, she insisted we take the rest of the evi, which I did knowing I wouldn't be eating it, but in an effort to not offend her generous hospitality.  We saw this coconut lying on the road by the golf course at Denarau.  I decided to take it home and see if I can take a hammer to it and crack it open.  The husk turned from a golden color to brown and if I can peel it off, it should have a brown coconut shell underneath the husk.  There were a bout 15 other coconuts all over the grass where we drove around so I figured they wouldn't miss this one coconut and would appreciate  my saving this coconut from becoming road kill! The last two are the beautiful mangos the Nadi sisters gave us.

I've got to go cook some dinner for my tired hungry husband,  and get some sleep before it's Monday morning and life gets crazy busy again, Bula Vinaka Everyone love Sister and Elder Hogge