Run cockroaches are all over the place!!!

Our new addition to our Tam-Tam
carvings.  He's called the "Advisor".
He advises the Chief.

Hello again, it’s my turn to write this week’s letter. Darleen’s updates are usually much more exciting, but I’ll do my best to give you a sense of what we’ve been up to. I suppose I could sum it all up by saying we spent the week juggling Seminary and Institute, Succeed in School, and missionary housing responsibilities and leave it at that. That would probably be our shortest letter yet, but I’m fairly certain Darleen wouldn’t let me get away with that. So, here you go.

We started Monday with missionary housing visits at two locations, one near our apartment and another across town. Our first stop was Pango, a few miles away, and home to one of our “bush” houses. This particular home has no indoor plumbing; instead, there’s an outdoor faucet used for drinking water and dishwashing, along with an outdoor toilet and shower area, all cold water. Despite the simplicity of their living conditions, the missionaries had done an excellent job cleaning their small home. It was obvious they’d been hard at work, as the scent of recently removed trash was still lingering in the air.  We then headed up to the Beverly Hills apartment.  Yes, they actually have a location named Beverly Hills.   All good at their apartment.

More bread for the young missionaries.

One thing Darleen decided to do during our missionary house checks was to give each companionship a loaf of her homemade banana, chocolate chip, peanut butter bread. It’s always fun to see how excited the missionaries get when they receive it. At several locations, they could hardly wait for us to leave before slicing into the bread. She also wanted to give them something enjoyable, and useful, so she put together a small “grab bag” of cleaning supplies. Each companionship closed their eyes and picked out an item such as Ajax cleanser, laundry detergent, toilet cleaner, or floor cleaner. They really seemed to enjoy it. Darleen loves finding simple ways to serve the missionaries and make their time on the island a little brighter.

Our Seminary & Institute Staff meeting with
Katimal, Vicky, and us.  

After finishing our house visits, we attended our regular weekly Seminary & Institute staff meeting with our supervisor. He mentioned that we might be able to travel with him to Tanna this coming week, but later in the week he let us know that he wasn’t able to find available seats for us. We had been a bit excited at the prospect of seeing the island, so that was disappointing, but we will most likely go in April or May on another visit. We then spent several hours making phone calls related to housing, seminary, and institute needs.

SIS Math Class in Stake Center.  Playing some
games with our 7-12 graders.  Most are in 6-8th.

That afternoon, we had the opportunity to teach Succeed in School (SIS) math to the 14–17-year-olds at the Stake Center. We had three students in attendance, all of whom had recently moved up from the younger class. As we worked with them, we realized that many were still struggling with basic multiplication and division skills. With students at such different ability levels, we’ll need to be thoughtful about how to teach them together with those that had attending the prior year. We’re considering having Darleen focus on the entry-level students while I work with those who have more advanced skills.

Tuesday was a little lazy other than the four missionary houses we visited in the morning.   Most of the house checks went well, but the one of the apartments was not ready for our visit.  When we knocked on the door it took a long time to come and answer it.   Then we noticed food and dirty dishes on the counter and table.  Plus wet clothing in the washing machine, and other items all over the place.  We told the missionaries that we would do another visit this week, without letting them know when, so we expected them to keep their apartment better than what we saw.    The rest of the day we spent doing some follow-up on a several things we hadn't been able to get to.     

On Wednesday, I went back to fix the sink from our Tuesday visit to the missionaries in Erakor Village.  These missionaries live out in what I consider the "bush".  Their apartment doesn't have any hot water, and they typically just leave their door open and a local dog and cat will wonder in and out of their apartment.   When we visited on Tuesday they had let me know that their kitchen sink had stopped turning on.  I tried it, and found it needed to be changed.   Typically a lot of the hardware here is made in China, and not all of it is great quality, so the insides typically break.   I decided this was an urgent issue to fix, as they could only wash their dishes in a bucket, so I went back the next day to get it functioning.

What I thought would be a simple kitchen faucet replacement quickly turned into a full-blown adventure. Once I got a closer look, it became clear the faucet wasn’t going to come off without removing the sink itself, as the faucet screw that held it fast was impossible to get to. The sink had been set directly into a cement countertop, which meant there was no easy access underneath. So, one of the missionaries jumped in to help, and together we started carefully working the sink loose from the concrete and the caulking that held it fast.

Just as we finally managed to pry it free, chaos erupted. From beneath the sink, somewhere between twenty and thirty cockroaches exploded outward in every direction. The missionary helping me let out a screech, immediately echoed by the other 3 missionaries standing behind us. It was one of those moments where time slows down just long enough for you to realize how bad the situation really is.

Instinct kicked in. I reached down into my work bag, grabbed the bug spray that I keep in it, and started spraying everywhere, walls, floor, cabinets, while also doing my best to stomp anything that moved. These weren’t small bugs, either. They were over an inch long, thick and fast, and far more terrifying than I was prepared for. A few of them even started flapping their wings, and for a brief, horrifying moment, I was convinced they were about to take flight and swarm me.

Needless to say, the shock of the whole ordeal took the wind out of my sails. Between the screeching missionaries, the oversized cockroaches, and the lingering fear that more might appear at any moment, my enthusiasm for finishing the sink replacement dropped off dramatically. The faucet still needed to be changed, but suddenly it felt a lot less urgent than getting out of that kitchen alive.

Well I finally did get over the cockroach adventure and was able to remove the old faucet, put a new one in its place, re-attach the cold water, and get the sink fastened back into place.   Next time I do this, I will be prepared with the bug spray and missionaries behind me ready to squash them.  :-)  The District Leader in the apartment, Elder Bomsta, summed it up as the events were unfolding when he said, "yuck, those bugs are walking all over our dishes when we aren't looking".   To that I just said, "yep, you are right"!  It was actually kind of funny, and I wish I had videoed the adventure, but in the heat of the moment I wasn't thinking about videos.  

We had planned on going out to our Etas Ward building to bring healthy snacks for the Succeed in School (SIS) Reading and Writing classes, but we found out they were not starting their lessons until Friday.  So we did some calls and preparing for our evening Institute class for the missionaries that attend Pathway 102 and 103.   We teach in between these two classes.   Our lesson for the week was about "Finding Pure Truth in the Teachings of Jesus Christ".   We enjoyed helping these young missionaries to understand better why Jesus is the greatest teacher that ever lived, or would live as we talked about how he taught and lived.   

Each week in our Institute class we give them an assignment to complete for the following week.  Our last week challenge was for them to think of someone that they could reach out and bless their lives by serving them.  They were to act out on those impressions during the week and come back and share.  They also were to consider the influence of Christ's teachings, and to email me a paragraph that tells about where they have seen lessons of His teachings in their lives.  One of the Elder's wrote this to me:  "As we were going about doing our missionary work  we get to experience some discomfort due to miscommunication with my companion because my companion wanted to teach a different topic than we had originally planned. I felt betrayed and unprepared but then l remembered that sometimes it's spiritual promptings that lead us and we sometimes need to follow those promptings.  After that l just went with what my companion wanted and l felt the Spirit lead us. This reminded me that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to help us and to guide us in this life so we must listen to it and follow in the footsteps of Jesus."   Some great insights from this missionary.  Darleen and I love to interact with the missionaries, who truly are trying to represent the Lord, even as they are still growing in their testimonies.   We get to be a small part in seeing them grow!!

Thursday brought another round of missionary house checks, and we invited the new senior couple, the Beck's, to join us as we visited three apartments. The Beck's come to us from Texas, and had already served an 18 month mission on New Zealand, having only been home for about 1 year.   Elder Meurs, a General Authority Seventy in the Pacific Area Presidency, had reached out to them to see if they would consider serving again, this time on Vanuatu.  They had met him in the Area office in New Zealand when serving there.  They agreed to serve, and here they are.   Eventually, the Beck's will take over Housing and Fleet (cars) for the mission. For now, however, our mission president has asked them to focus their efforts on the island of Tanna, where some new missionary quarters are being built and several issues need attention. We’re happy to continue overseeing housing on our little island, especially since we’ve really have come to enjoy working with, and interacting with, the young missionaries.

As we visit missionary living quarters, we often find laundry hanging on clotheslines—and many times it looks like it’s been there for weeks. At one location, I glanced at the line behind the small house and noticed the white baptismal clothing beginning to grow mold from being left out too long. We gently reminded the missionaries to take clothing down once it’s dry and asked them to soak and rewash the baptismal clothes. It’s a good reminder that many of them are still learning the basics of living on their own, including how to do laundry.

The "Smart electric meter" out at the road
where we had all the fun trying to re-fill it
with time so electricity wasn't shut off.

After a nice lunch with the Becks, Darleen and I headed out to tackle a new challenge: figuring out how to add credit to an electric meter at one of the missionary apartments. Here, electricity billing can work a few different ways. Most times it’s handled like in the U.S., with a monthly bill. In other cases, especially rental units, the landlord may have a meter installed outside that uses a special reloadable card you fill with cash credit that can determine how long your electricity remains on depending on how much you put on it.   Sort of like putting gas in the car, one time you may only have a few bucks, so that's all that you put in your car, the other time you fill it up full. We had never done this before, but another missionary couple gave us instructions. In theory, it sounded simple: locate the meter, insert the reload card, go to a kiosk to add money to the card, then return to the meter and load the credit.

The first two steps went smoothly. After that, things unraveled. For the next two hours, we drove all over trying to find a working reload kiosk. The first one we were told about was broken. Several shops sent us to different locations, each pointing us somewhere else. These supposed kiosks were no were to be found.   We even went to the electric company’s headquarters, thinking they have to reload their own cards they distribute. Darleen went inside and found a room full of people sitting in chairs. When she asked if it was for reload cards, she was told yes, and that the wait would be “long-long.”  Nope, she wasn't going to wait for hours to load a card.

We happened to stop by the Stake Center and found Elder and Sister Meyer's, who had done this process before, and they suggested there was a reload location up the road from our apartment. Off we went once more. After some wandering and a bit of help from a young girl who pointed us in the right direction when we pulled up near her house, we finally found it and got the meter reloaded. Definitely not an easy process, but another lesson learned in how things work here.   

My plastic protection to ensure
the weeping ceiling didn't leak
on dishes below until it was fixed!!

Darleen mentioned in her letter last week that we developed a water leak in the ceiling above our kitchen sink and countertop. After several visits from the apartment owner, plumbers, and various workers, they finally traced the problem to the apartment above us. A leaking pipe inside their kitchen sink cabinet was dripping into their floor and, in turn, causing our ceiling to “weep” in several spots. The photos of my makeshift plastic patch, rigged to funnel the water into a bucket we had to empty at least once a day to prevent overflow, tell the story of what we had to deal with for the full week.   Unfortunately, the tape wasn't holding the plastic perfectly, and a few mornings we woke up to water that was dripping again on our countertop due to parts of the plastic falling off the ceiling. Thankfully, after an entire week, the leak was finally repaired.  Sometimes things just take a little longer in Vanuatu to get repaired, but we are grateful the buckets and plastic sheathing is off our ceiling.

SIS Students in Stake Center with Sister Taravaki 
preparing to teach Reading & Writing.

On Friday, we spent the afternoon visiting SIS classes, first at the Stake Center and then at our ward building.  We also brought healthy snacks for each class, which is something they want to try and provide to these classes as it may be the only one they get all day.  It is a little challenging to do, as the classes are at the same time, and about 30 minutes between each building with traffic.  Attendance hasn’t yet returned to where it was last year, but we’re encouraged to see numbers slowly increasing since classes resumed a few weeks ago. Darleen made a small poster and hung it at the Stake Center to help promote the program, and we also plan to meet with the bishops to encourage parents to have their youth participate. The SIS program provides such an important opportunity for these youth to strengthen their math, reading, and writing skills, areas of real need on the island.

We wrapped up the evening playing volleyball with some of the young single adults and youth who had attended the earlier SIS class. Later, we met for Institute with the YSAs in the Etas Ward. Although only three were able to attend, Darleen’s banana, chocolate chip, peanut butter bread was a definite success, one young man managed to eat eight slices by himself.  He told Darleen he loved it, which brought a big smile to her face.  We told all of the YSA's that if each person brought a friend next week, we’d upgrade from bread to a full meal. They all agreed to do that, so now we’ll see if we can double our attendance.

Darleen and Sister Meyer during their walk
 on the beach this Saturday.

  

Saturday, beyond our usual 6:45 a.m. Etas Ward Council meeting, was spent preparing for the coming week, relaxing, and enjoying time with fellow senior missionaries. We went to our favorite local resort just a few minutes from home for lunch, a lazy afternoon on the beach, and good company with Elder and Sister Meyer. Earlier, Darleen had given Sister Meyer a birthday gift card promising a long walk and conversation together. Sister Meyer happily redeemed that gift, and the two of them walked more than a mile up the beach, talking and enjoying the scenery, while Elder Meyer and I relaxed in lounge chairs.

The Eton Unit looking from back to front.

Views from our truck looking out on Eton
beach after stopping to listen to a devotional 
and enjoy some of God's beauties.

Sunday included a beautiful drive out to the Eton unit, which we’ve mentioned before. Although this branch is part of the Etas Ward, they meet separately because they are about 45 minutes from the ward building and roughly an hour and fifteen minutes from our apartment. The building itself is very simple, with a dirt floor, wooden pews and chairs, a basic podium, and a sacrament table. There is no electricity, no toilets, and no running water. The Church has installed a well that serves both the meetinghouse and the surrounding community. When we arrived early, members were already singing hymns in preparation for the sacrament meeting. Music truly invites the Spirit, and rather than gathering and visiting beforehand, the congregation spent nearly twenty minutes singing reverently together. More than 75 percent of the attendees were present well before the meeting began.

After the meeting, we spent time visiting with the seminary and SIS teachers—some of whom teach both programs. We talked about their needs and how we can better support them in this very remote part of the island. They are in need of basic English reading books, especially at the kindergarten and first-grade levels, as well as new SIS manuals. We will be able to provide the manuals, and we’re also considering reaching out to friends back in the U.S. to see if they might help gather children’s reading books. These resources simply aren’t available on the island, and the teachers are eager to help their students improve their reading skills. The biggest challenge will be shipping—there’s no guarantee items will arrive—but it feels worth trying.

Another view of Eton beach.

On the drive home, we stopped to watch the waves crashing against the volcanic rock formations along the shoreline. As we took in the scenery, we listened to portions of Elder Kearon and his wife’s recent Young Single Adult devotional. It was a peaceful and meaningful way to enjoy God’s creation while listening to one of His leaders speak to the YSAs.

We were also able to spend some time talking with our children back in the U.S., which is always a highlight of our Sundays. Our oldest son, Nicholas, took Lincoln, Alysse, Luke, and Jacob out on their new boat. He said they were freezing, and he nearly crashed while trying to get the boat back on the trailer in the waves—but they still had a fun afternoon. Stephanie was watching Gracie play basketball against their youth leader, and Patrick was at the hardware store trying to buy copper piping to repair damage caused by recently frozen pipes. We truly love our family.

Even as we miss our family and friends, we continue to love our mission. It has been a wonderful place to learn how to serve others and to grow even closer together as a couple.

With Love,

Mark & Darleen, 

Aka:  Dad and Mom, Papa and Nana

Additional pictures:

Darleen relaxing at 
the beach.

Hala fruit tree.  We talked about this fruit in 
an earlier letter where Darleen chopped into
it.  We wanted to see how close it was to being
rip.  Not yet!

Us relaxing on the beach (Darleen's taking picture).
Right after this picture I believe I feel right asleep.

View from our chairs.  Really rough to look at.  :-)