How is everyone? Life is great, life is confusing, life is wananavoo!

Mary is in our flat cooking for some senior couples, and I already made the cake for dessert (I'm pretty good at making cake from a box, with frosting from Pillsbury), so here I am doing our blog.  I got a few laughs this week, especially from an Elder who is Fijian who is serving in Labasa.  He called on the phone, and you know how difficult it is for me to understand the language, so he proceeded to ask me a question,  "Are we take care of ...."   I tried to figure out what he was asking, flat, badges, tires, car, bike, phone, feet, sandals, hair, etc.  I finally was laughing so hard he put his American companion on the phone who immediately said "grass".  I never would have thought of that because the missionaries are not to do landscaping unless in a service project.  I think I laughed about that all day.

We traveled to Nadi this week to rent another apartment for the Sisters who were scared because they lived in a flood zone (which happens only about every 10 years when a cyclone comes through). While we were there we invited the Elders to lunch-there were four due to transfers-and the sisters were in Suva at training.  Anyway, we went to a chicken place, kind of like KFC.  Two Elders ate a bucket each by themselves (20 pieces each) with a drink and a sub sandwich afterwards.  The other two Elders ate two chicken sandwiches and half a pizza each!  I made the mistake of saying that I would buy them lunch, not remembering it was the month end, and they hadn't received their monthly allotment.  $127.00 and an hour later we were out the door.  One of the Elders is a 440 lb 6'7" Fijian who has a football scholarship after his mission, the others were just normal size guys.  Do you remember those days when we were younger and could eat and not gain a pound?

We got 3 new Elders in yesterday, all from Fiji.  Two are headed to Papua, New Guinea but can't get  their visas yet--some government hang up.  We will have them for two weeks or up to 8 months, after that time they may be reassigned to Fiji or Vanuatu.  Great young men willing to serve anywhere.  Mary was over at the mission home helping to cook for them and other stake leaders three out of five days this week.  The other two days, she went to Nadi with me on one day, and was sick in bed the other.  She had a looooooong week!.  She's much better now.

You know how much Mary loves flower gardens

 

AP's moving beds for the Elders

Beverly Hillbillies

An Elder who got a boil, drained for two days, his third

A Pumpkin cared at a FHE dinner for old people like us

Boy, I love Fiji

Mary loves coral on the beach

Coral beach

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This tree will soon be covered with vines, and look alive again

Nadi, it looks like Brigham City

These are roots of a tree turned upside down,and plants start togrown in them

Our flat has become a temporary storage area for the mission including bikes

and old washers that still work for Elders

The Taylors are at the end of the table, the rest are senior couples 

Mary laughs at the chicken vendors every time we past them going to church, someday she may want to buy one and start our own chicken farm

We as senior missionaries get together every Sat. for lunch and different places in the surrounding area.  This week we had visitors from Rexburg, Idaho who came here to attend the Fiji temple.  They are younger and made it a goal in their lives to visit all the temples in the world, and Fiji was number 72 for them.  They just schedule a week vacation and attend as many as possible during that week.  They had visited the south pacific area and our temple was the first on their agenda.  Good people having a good vacation ( left six children at home) by themselves.

This is the end, my friend.  Hope you have a blessed week, we will! Love, Bubu and Tutu

Bula Vinaka every one!  It's been crazy busy week but we've enjoyed every minute. We had 6 Elders leave this week. Elder Myer (far left) has served as an Assistant to President Klingler and will be sorely missed.  His challenge is to return home to a new state (Reno Nevada)  his parents moved from Idaho this year. The second Elder Kaneko is from the Marshall Islands, but his parents moved to Oklahoma and his father is ill,so he headed to Oklahoma and this will be his first visit to the United States.  Next is Elder Walton, who had an accent that made him sound like an Austrailian, but he's from Texas!, Last is Elder Hawk the new AP in the office.  He was here last week for a zone meeting,  flew back to the island where he was serving and returned back to Suva on a boat that took 12 hours.  He gets our patience award this week.. 

On the left is Elder Tareti (pronounced Taress the T in their language has an S sound)  He lives on an Island Kiribati (pronounced Kiribiss) On the right is Elder Seila who is from Lami, Fiji.  It must have been hard for him to watch the other 5 leave for their flight to the States.  He is 30 years old and it took him a year and a half to get his paperwork and special permission to serve, after the 26 age limit.  He was a great asset in our mission.

Elder Estill  is on the Left, he will be heading home in Dec.  He asked me again this week if I had his flight yet and when I emailed Don who arranges for flights and he said he was still waiting on Elder Estill's parents who are still trying to decided whether or not to fly out and see his mission.

President Klingler, Elder Myer, Sister Klingler  Sister Klingler dropped by the office on Friday to let me know about the help she will need next week.  Our menu says it all.  Monday FHE dinner with the Sisters we're making 2 kinds of soup + homemade rolls.  Tues special training with the sisters.  Thur special training with the elders we'll prepare bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes, & juice for 20 each day.  Friday dinner for 40 (Lautoka Stake Leadership Meeting).  Saturday we'll serve the leftovers from Fri for 3 new missionaries that will be arriving. Sister Whiting and I have been asked to do the shopping for food, I'm hoping they will have the 180  hash brown patties at Cost U Less we need because it means a lot less work for us. 

We took pictures for the Klingler's because their camera was on the fritz. Elder Hogge was teasing Elder Kaneko about his height and said "David and Goliath" Elder Kaneko is pointing at Goliath.  Just kidding President Klingler!

Friday night we had a stake social event where each ward prepared some dances. The sister's from our ward did a beautiful Fijian dance.  They had live green plants on their wrists as part of their costume and the hand movements were    beautiful and very expressive.

Some of the Indian sisters taught the young women a Hindi dance . Their arm and hand movements were also very exprerssive and flirtacious.

They had a wide variety of ages for the boys and I loved watching the shortest boy in this picture because he had such an infectious smile as he tried to keep up with the movements and follow the lead of the older boys

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Hunter, knowing how much you love bugs, especially big fat juicy ones, this is for you and all our other grandkids who like gross things. This millipede or centepede (I'm not sure which it is) was found squished on our driveway.  It was the length of my hand from my wrist to my finger tips and as big a round as a hot dog...yuck.... but better squished outside then alive and crawling in our flat, right?

We were waiting for the 3 sisters who attend our church and needed a ride so I took this cat's picture. We see a few cats on the island, but there are far more dogs, but I didn't have a chance to take any pictures of them.   

This is a common site in Fiji, it's a rack where people stack their garbage, and most Fijian's bag their garbage in the plastic bags they haul their food from the store in.  I think they try to have the rack high enough to keep dogs and cats from rummaging in the garbaqe, but the cat was eyeing it when I took it's picture.

Elder Hogge and I were asked to fill a speaking assignment this Sunday,  that President Klingler couldn't do, due to his needing to be at a meeting one the other side of the island. We  both spoke in Stake Conference today (a first for us both).  After speaking in church last week, we're both hoping to move on to new challenges.

Tuesday morning we will be leaving early, 6 am for a drive to the other side of the island (4 hour drive) to try to lease a new flat for the sisters. They have been told by members of their ward that their current flat is in a bad area and the Stake President is pretty insistant  about their moving.  After finding some nice flats over there and their only living in it a month, we were disappointed to hear that we need to find them another flat.  We will also be driving back to Suva the same day, so I've bought some snacks for our trip because unlike the USA,  it's difficult to find any kind of convenience store along the way here.
Sometimes I have to sit and wait for Richard when we're out doing errands and we both came up with a few terms that are unique for Fiji:  Lay by=law a way,take away=take out food,  car box=glove compartment overtaking lane=passing lane, lift=elevator, flat=apartment, palangi=white person, boss=friendly endearment Indian people use to address an old guy like Elder Hogge.  ahrei (pronounced R-A) Indian term meaning whatever, watanavu (sounds like wan navoo)=awesome in Fijian.
We went to the Post office the other day to mail a letter.  The Indian man who was helping us said something so fast to us that we couldn't understand what he was saying.  I leaned in and finally understood that he was telling us the cost for a "fast post"  but by then Richard  had pulled out the copy of his passport !   It often takes two of us to try and understand what people are saying.  My phone has been on loan to some elders who needed a phone until Elder Hogge could get them a new one.  When I got it back I stuck it in my purse and forgot about it because I use it so seldom.   As I was getting dressed one morning I heard a phone ringing and thought it must be the gaurd outside who often walks around the outside of our flat complex.  When it started ringing for the second time, I thought why don't you pick that up? then realized it was my phone ringing,  and when I picked it up it was some elders trying to get a hold of the elders who had borrowed my phone and didn't know their  number had changed.  At our Saturday lunch yesterday we heard a loud sound that seemed to be outside of the restaurant we were eating at.  It sounded like a fire truck honking, and we thought there must be an emergency near by.  It was Richard's phone!  He explained that he gets different signals from each set of missionaries that call him multiple times during the day and evening so as you can see, we're still dealing with getting older and often get the giggles when we finally figure out what's going onl

We drove to the Nausori airport early Monday morning to drop off  Elder Trent  for his flight to another island where he has been transfered .  He was wearing some flip flops, but I didn't say anything thinking he was just bending the rules while he flew to his new destination.  After several days of doing some serious walking out in the bush, he realized the wisdom of the mission rule not to wear flip flops and  called and pleaded with Elder Whiting to buy him some decent sandals and ship them to him because his feet were getting sores on them.  He has been serving in Suva for the last 5 months but didn't get around to buying some decent shoes.   Elder Hogge and I are dealing with similar situations with these young missionaries, they are doing well preaching the gospel, but we are often reminded that they are still young and experienced in many ways.  I'd better close we hope all of you are doing well and hope you have a good week.  Mothe  Elder and Sister Hogge

Hi everyone,
     Well we went onto Fiji daylight savings time, set our clocks ahead one hour, and it's only for the next four months, and then returns to normal time in February.  We spoke in church today, and I was going to us the excuse of changing times, and show up an hour late, but Mary wouldn't let me out of the assignment!  I guess I should thank her.   In two weeks we will be speaking in Stake Conference as representatives of the mission, and our topic is "save the one", so I'm going to talk about myself.  Do you have any suggestions that I can use?  I know that Mary has been working all our married life to save me, so I hope I can pull this off.
     We have been working 8-5 M-F as our callings have evolved.  Now a lot of Sat. are used for some details that are not completed during the week.  Even some evenings are being used too.  The interesting thing about doing all this work, is the blessings we get.  I've been happy to do the extra work because associating with the missionaries has given me much joy.  The harder the work and longer the day, the better I feel.  As long as Mary can have a lunch and dinner on time, she goes right along with me, a real trooper.  Elder Bednar said it well,  The Lord walks beside the missionaries, and angels are round about them bearing them up.  Often I see this happening throughout the day.  The Lord has His hand in all that goes on with the missionaries.
      I was set apart as a veil worker on Thurs.  Each week we go and do a session in the temple, and often there isn't enough workers to help, so they need temporary help whenever we attend.  I can only do the part in English, so they are kind enough to make sure I don't have to do Fijian.  It would probably take me the rest of my mission just to learn the necessary Fijian to get through the first sentence.  Mary waits in the Celestial room for me to finish.  The temple president, Elder Davis, set me apart and his blessing was beautiful.  This only adds to how great a mission we're having.
      We are losing one of our Assistants to the president, he's leaving for home this next week. He is originally from Idaho, but now his parents live in Reno.  I think he's in for a shock about life styles.He is a very talented and friendly Elder, and all the missionaries respect him.  He plans on attending BYU-Idaho, but I won't hold that against him.  I told him a solid education is found at the U of U or Weber State, but he won't listen to an old man like me--to many jokes played on him.  We are going to miss him.  The new AP is Elder Hawk from Gilbert, AZ.  so I get to harass him a little about High Schools.
       I've got to find a new flat for the Sisters nearby in Nasinu.  The flat they are in right now has been rented by missionaries for over 10 years and the neighborhood is changing enough to make the Sisters feel unsafe when the sun goes down.  So this week is a move week for furniture and stuff.  The ZL's and DL's are getting great experience preparing them for being part of an Elders Quorum.  "Have truck will travel" is their motto.

This young man helped us at Chicken express and followed us out to our car. We gave him two pieces of chicken he we had leftover and he told us he didn't go to school this week because his dad left.  There are many challenges of poverty and single parents here in Fiji.

A president and his wife from one of the outlying areas on this island

I bought a coconut and cracked it open to find a seed pod in it. Our guide on the village tour said the seed pushes out of the 1 soft eye of the coconut shell and sprouts leaves and that's how you get a new coconut tree!

these are sections of a long narrow tapa cloth I bought from our village visit. the figure that looks like a curvy T is a depiction of a neck breaker used in earlier times when cannibalism was a common practice.

Many of the fans people take to church look like this

This represents the houses in the village

A local artist who is a member came in the office and I bought this tapa cloth depicting some ofthe animal life here.

We had a young Indian woman approach us and beg for us to buy this rug she had made. She was a single mother of 4 and trying to feed her family.  I liked the orange colors in it because it goes with the color of our wall.  We had another smaller black and white carpet that I didn't care for because of it's colors so we donated it to the Sisters to use in their flat.

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This is the ice cream boxes we use for everything from storing food, to sending home leftover with elders, sisters or senior couples.

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Our neighbor's empty yard.  It once had lush bird of paradise plants, trees etc I guess it was time to really give the yard a good trim.  The large heart leafed plants are Dalo a dense starchy root plant that is a real staple food in the Fijian Diet.

river that runs through downtown Suva

A big cruise ship stopped in town on Saturday and there were tourists everywhere for a good part of the day.

What we call Fragi Pani but in Hawaii it's known as Plumeria. It smells heavenly, doesn't have many leaves and comes in several colors here.  

The beautiful Fragi Pani growing in a parking lot next to a dark and dingy building covered in mold. 

I had to capture the crazy stairs to the Elders flat. One stair is about 9'' tall the next 7" and the last about 12" it makes for strong leg muscles after you climb a few.

The beautiful flowers growing in the front yard of the Elder's flat.

The dump pile in the back yard that will be lit and burned that creates a very unpleasant smell. When our neighbors burn, we close all our shutters to try and keep our clothes and flat from smelling.

I had Elder Hogge stop at one of the many fresh produce stands so I could buy some fruit and veggies for the week. Each stack is called a heap and cost $2.00 each.  The pineapple was $4.00 Fijian.

        Give our love to everyone, hugs and kisses to the grand kids.  Loloma, Dad and Mom