Calm before the storm of Seminary & Institute pick up again.

I wouldn’t say this past week was easy, but it was a bit less rigorous than the previous months — a welcome break before January 26 when school resumes and seminary, institute, and Succeed in School all start back up. So, we enjoyed a quieter week while we could.

Momma Ruth's activity -
Making baskets

Monday began with our regular Seminary & Institute leader meeting. Afterward Darleen went to support a sister in our ward, “Momma Ruth,” who had a mom’s education event she’d been planning for months. Momma Ruth invited several of the mothers in her small community to come and learn different crafts (e.g. Sewing, weaving, painting, etc.) that they could potential use to earn money to support their families. Our humanitarian senior couple, the Meyers, were instrumental in securing funding and helping with publicity and logistics; Sister Meyer even accompanied Momma Ruth to the ministry of education and helped with pre-event work. Darleen has visited Momma Ruth a few times and wanted to be there for the kick-off.

Darleen with the little
pikininis (small children) at
Momma Ruth's

A lot of children of the mommas showed up to the event and were fascinated by Darleen’s light hair — they kept reaching out to touch it, which she joked made her feel a bit like a pet. She enjoyed helping with crafts and seeing the moms learning new trades. While Darleen volunteered, I stayed home and did some missionary apartment repairs, a role I’ve taken on since the housing missionaries left Efate a few months back.

Tuesday, we prepared for Wednesday’s Institute class and tackled items on our “To Do” whiteboard. We spent much of the day making calls — checking on apartment issues and contacting landlords, as well as some Seminary & Institute contacting. One landlord in Teouma informed us of a 31% rent increase set for March; I called to press for an explanation and learned the bank was forcing the increase because their loan wasn’t being paid down fast enough. I can only assume they were being forthright with us. Given the magnitude of the increase, we are going to look to see if we can find something more reasonable in the area. That sounds easy to do, but finding apartments in this “bush” type area is harder than it would seem.

While I was discussing the rent increase with the landlord, Darleen had spoken with the Seminary & Institute Supervisor on Santo Island about some training we wanted to conduct with the teachers and “lead teachers”. She informed her that she had already just given the training we had given her and the rest of the supervisors before the holidays. Since she already delivered basically what we were planning to come do, we decided to postpone our trip until April. By day’s end our whiteboard was in great shape, as we had tackled a lot of the items.

Wednesday morning I prepared for teaching Missionary Institute, which is held each week two Pathway education sessions (Pathway 102 & Pathway 103) for missionaries preparing to return home in the next 6–8 months. Most attendees come from Africa and nearby islands (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu). Pathway offers a valuable chance for education, and I enjoyed teaching the institute lesson. Darleen was not going to be able to assist with the lesson, as she would be attended a Stake Education Specialist meeting. This meeting talked more about the Succeed in School program, trying to get more local teachers to teach (versus having full-time missionaries who come and go every year or so), and their desire to start it across all the locations on the islands as they find more teachers. It was good to teach the Missionary Institute class, but I missed Darleen’s energy and the way she sparks discussion. It is never the same without her there. 😊

Thursday our car went in for routine service and possible tire replacement at the local Toyota dealer. I dropped it off around 8 a.m. and walked home (about 1.2 miles), expecting it to take a few hours. By noon they still hadn’t started the tires and were finishing the oil change and filter. When I asked what type of new tires they would put on, they said “the same ones on the truck” and I insisted on choosing new ones because the old tires were soft and shredded by volcanic rock. I walked back and forth three times before they finally finished around 4:30 p.m., then waited another 30 minutes while they washed the truck — not exactly speedy service, but it is done and our truck was the cleanest it has been since we have been here on the island. That lasted about 1 day!!! 😊 Darleen said, going back and forth between the apartment and the dealership gave me something to keep me busy. She know when I sit too long I get a little antsy.

We had planned to meet that afternoon with all the Seminary and Institute teachers, but the meeting was moved to the following Tuesday due to a last-minute Stake meeting with the ward/branch councils.

On Friday, we prepared for our evening YSA Institute class at the Etas Ward, the unit we have been assigned to attend. Darleen baked cinnamon buns, and while she was busy in the kitchen, I headed over to the Lycée school (where we had just held the YSA Convention) to build volleyball poles for them. Earlier in the week, after dropping off the final payment for the convention, the principal had asked if we could make similar poles for the school. She liked the ones we had brought from our Stake Center because they could be rolled onto the basketball court and easily moved out of the way.

The poles are made using old tires filled with concrete, galvanized poles, and hooks to hang the nets. I told her I would be happy to do this as a service to the school. Of course, it turned out to be the hottest day we’d had in several weeks when I started working on them. While they aren’t difficult to build, they do take some effort. I put the old tires from our Toyota truck that I had just replaced with new ones the day before and picked up the remaining supplies from a nearby hardware store. The end volleyball stanchions turned out better than the ones we had brought over from the Stake Center. I know the school will put them to good use.

That evening, we went to the YSA Institute class meeting. We arrived right at 6:00 p.m., the scheduled start time, but no one was there yet. We waited for a while, and eventually one of the YSAs arrived with a 14-year-old friend. We explained that we were waiting for more attendees, as well as someone with a key to let us into the building. Unfortunately, as the clock kept ticking, nearly an hour passed and no one else showed up.

With the long summer break (we are currently between school terms, with about a two-month break, which is similar to what we have in the States except their break is more in June thru August), it seems the YSAs may have grown accustomed to not attending. It was disappointing to have only one YSA show up. Still, Darleen shared her homemade cinnamon rolls with both of them, and we drove them back to their village several miles up the road. Hopefully, this coming Friday will go better.

Saturday turned into a fun, relaxed day. I played pickleball with several of our senior couples (something I do almost every day except Sunday). Afterward, Darleen and I decided to drive to the other side of the island to check out a place called the Blue Lagoon. We had heard it was beautiful and that it was near some of the volcanic rock beaches on the more exposed east side of the island.

Cutting down the hala fruit ... Darleen
foraging for plants!!!

When we arrived, we quickly realized that the Blue Lagoon was better suited for rope swings and jumping off small ledges. Quite a few younger people were there doing just that, and we decided we were really looking for something a little more peaceful—a place where we could simply float around and relax rather than climb and jump. We explored some nearby beaches, but the shorelines were mostly volcanic rock and not very easy to navigate.

Rip picture of the hala fruit from online photos.
Give's you and idea what a rip one looks like.
One besides it in green is like what Darleen
cut down.

One memorable thing we did discover, though, was a tree with some very strange-looking fruit. Darleen immediately dubbed it “brain fruit” because its surface looked surprisingly like a human brain. In true Darleen fashion, and eager to put her machete to use, she decided to cut one down to see what it looked like inside. Unfortunately, it wasn’t ripe and turned out to be hard as a rock, but it was still entertaining to watch her try to whack it off the tree. Later, Darleen did a bit of research and learned that the fruit is called hala. It’s also known as the “exploding planet” fruit and is said to taste like a blend of pineapple and mango with a hint of banana. We’ll definitely need to try it when it’s ripe, and now we know exactly where to find it.

Roughing it on the beach.

After driving an hour out to these beaches, we decided to head back to our favorite beach just a few minutes from our apartment 😊. All the way back to where we started!!! We spent the afternoon at the Erakor Island Beach Resort, enjoyed a fried seafood lunch, and relaxed near the water. We also took a tandem ocean kayaking ride around part of the island. The water was an incredible shade of blue, and the area was filled with thousands of starfish. Darleen even picked one up when we got back to the beach, and we were able to take a picture of it underwater. It was a wonderfully relaxing afternoon and a much-needed boost going into the coming week.

One of thousands of star fish. She kept it under
water to protect it.

As we’ve mentioned before, the Etas Ward is made up of several locations, including an affiliated unit called Eton. Eton is about 35-40 minutes away from the actual Etas Ward, so these individuals are far from the main building (and with most without cars, it isn’t feasible for them to make it to the Ward building weekly). This unit has a leader who conducts the sacrament meeting each Sunday, though he is not part of the bishopric. He ensures the meeting runs smoothly and that speakers and music are arranged. We’ve decided to attend this unit once or twice a month to offer support. There are about 75–80 active attendees, and for now they hold a sacrament meeting with talks only.

This Sunday’s meeting started a few minutes late and ended about 15 minutes early. It was our second time attending, and just like the first visit, members ran to their nearby huts after the meeting to bring us fruit. This time it was a bunch of bananas, and we were deeply touched by their generosity even if we knew they could use the food more than us.

After the meeting, we drove back to the Etas Ward building to drop off seminary manuals for the teachers there, as seminary resumes on January 26th. The Etas Ward holds two sacrament meetings each Sunday—one at 9:00 a.m. and another at 11:30 a.m.—serving different parts of the ward and featuring different speakers. The earlier meeting includes Sunday School or priesthood/Relief Society, depending on the week.

Instead of just dropping off the manuals, we decided to stay for the second sacrament meeting, which didn’t begin until noon—about 30 minutes late. Needless to say, I struggled to stay awake. It’s challenging to remain focused when you don’t understand the language, even when you’re trying your best. Darleen did much better by quietly reading from the Come, Follow Me lesson for the week as the speakers spoke.

We hope we didn’t bore you with the details of our simple week. We truly appreciate you taking the time to read about our missionary experiences. If there’s ever something you’d like to know more about that we haven’t addressed, please feel free to ask, we’d be happy to share.

Much love,
Darleen & Mark
aka Nana and Papa, Mom and Dad

More Pictures from the week: