A little routine week ... no trips to other islands this week!

 

Hello Family and Friends!

I love that Mark and I take turns writing this letter each week.  Although, he seems to get the weeks when we are very busy; and there is plenty to talk about.  I have to say this week was pretty routine.

We began our week with our Seminary & Institute team meeting with Katimal our Coordinator, and Vicky, his assistant.  This week was Vicky's last full week with Seminary & Institute.  She has been in this role for 8 years. She has taken a full-time position as administrative assistant in the Facility Management (FM) team for the church across Vanuatu.  We will miss serving with Vicky. Our Loss is the FM group’s dream come true!  

The work must move forward and that is what we are here to do.  In our meeting we had a chance to report back on the success of our trip to Santo; which we shared with yo last week.

On Monday Mark and I had the chance to make some phone calls and follow up with some of our other units on starting the Succeed in School (SIS) program in their units.  We are waiting for the units to give us specific days they want to hold classes on.  I have to say I am a patience person, but this is testing me.  We have had registrations forms from students now for 2 plus months and have submitted names for teachers for the same period.  I am praying that within the next 2 weeks we can move forward.    Mark was given the opportunity to teach the SIS math class in the Port Vila 2/Blacksand Wards again as Tania was not feeling well.  That’s always fun! 

Mark has been checking on a sea container that we have been waiting for the past 4-months to be set up at the Mele Branch building to store our supplies that the church purchased for the January Young Single Adult Convention (we don’t want to have them having to re-buy things the next time they do a conference).  We have most of the things stored in one of the empty apartments and hope to get everything into the container soon. The container was delivered but not placed on top of the poured foundation, as the field was too wet and the truck I guess was having difficulty.  They were able to drive it right to the cement platform but somehow couldn’t lift it onto the foundation.  So, he was informed they were letting the field dry and then they would place it on the platform.  Two weeks since it was put there, it is still there.   He’s continuing to follow-up on it.  

Mark also finally submitted the historical report of this YSA Convention to the Area Authorities.  He had been waiting for others to submit any additional information and since he had no one submitted anything he moved forward.  He did an amazing job on that report!  I wish I could share it with you.  I am pretty impressed with the detailed information he shared.  He covered the programs, the attendance, the budget, suggestions for future events, the Facility, the food, and travel.  He included comments from the singles on how they felt about the event.  Truly, a service of love.  Thank you for handling that boyfriend!

Mark has been working with a S&I Supervisor in Australia area that has been putting together make-up work for our seminary students.  Some students, because of the distance to travel to class, can only make it to class once or twice a week.  Other students attend boarding schools during the week and need the make-up work to achieve the requirements to get a certificate of completion.  They are building the content for the Make-up work, along with using AI to translate it into Bislama.   He was given the assignment to distribute the make-up work to our four supervisors across the Vanuatu islands.  The supervisors would then make the work available to the teachers, as needed.

Right after our Eton seminary class
this family came by the church building
with their firewood for their cooking fires.
A family affair.   

Later that day we headed out to Eton for seminary class.  We were hoping to observe the teacher this time.  Unfortunately, the teacher did not show up.  The students were there and ready for class.  So, we gladly gathered the students together and taught the lesson.  The lesson was on Remembering the Lord.  The children of Israel have wandering for 40 years, being prepared to enter the Land promised to them.  Moses teaches 3 last discourses.  I won’t go through the whole lesson, but I will share a scripture that stood out to me.

Deuteronomy 8:4: “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.”

I love how the Lord through Moses reminds them of what he has done for them.  Their clothes never got old and their feet didn’t swell.  When you get to this land where you’ll have access to everything, remember me, choose me- Having this opportunity to teach has given me time this week to remember how merciful and kind the Lord is to me every day.  It has also reminded me of how important it is to Remember the Lord in our lives.

I remembered a conversation I had with my mom when her time to leave this life was coming to an end.  She said to me, “The Lord has always been with me.”

We worship a God who cares about our clothes and our feet among so many other facets of our lives.  He is in the details.  I had the chance to listen to a talk by Camille N Johnson this week; entitled Invite Christ to Author your Story.  I’ll put the link to the talk if you want to listen to it. Invite Christ to Author Your Story . 

Along with the Lesson we taught and then this talk I spent a lot of time this week Remembering.  In April of 2021, President Russell M. Nelson ask us to consider what we could do if we had more faith in Jesus Christ.  That is a question I hope you’ll consider this week.

We concluded seminary with the students teaching us a song entitled Father Abraham.

I had never heard it, Mark remembered it from when he would attend summer vacation Bible school in his home town as a boy. Check it out here: Father Abraham ⭐ Kids Songs ⭐ Hi Heaven and yes, we did the movements.  It was a lot of fun!

One of my favorite places to stop and just watch and listen to
the waves crash onto the shoreline.

It is a long ride home from Eton and the roads get so dark.   The roads are dark and narrow, and people are often walking home on the sides of the road.   Its’s hard to see anyone, especially dark complexion people, wearing dark clothing, in the dark.  I love going out to Eton, but the ride home rattles my nerves.  We stopped at the beach and ate a peanut butter sandwich as we had Ward council to attend in Etas.  I always have Mark stop so we can enjoy a few minutes of wave watching before continuing our journey to Etas.  This week’s agenda for Ward Council was on the Young single adults in that unit and how to help strengthen them.  We had a very productive meeting and came up with some good plans.  Since the stake moved institute to be all centralized at the Stake Center we have had very few attend from our Ward.  We are hoping to bring it back to our ward.  It was suggested that a couple be called as advisors to oversee Institute, Activities and Sunday School.  Being consistent and showing up for them and supporting them.  The ward will have an activity this Thursday following the mission prep class.  I think Mark and I may have to go out to the ward and do some inviting before then.  I love our Bishop.  Bishop Jack loves the people of our ward.  He is an example of serving with all his heart, might, mind

Every Wednesday we teach Institute by Zoom to the missionaries enrolled in the BYU pathway program.  This term we have 11 attending.   We spent the morning reviewing our lesson for that evening.  Mark and I have been concerned about SIS in Etas.  We decided to go to the classes and help get things going again.  Since February they have not met regularly.   We sent word through Facebook Messenger (tool most use on this island to communicate) that we would be at the church for SIS.  We got there, set up all the tables and chairs, and waited.   No one showed up.  Later, the Bishop let us know that a young man was there.  We saw him and asked him if he was there for SIS but didn’t realize that he was.  We thought he was just using the church internet services, which isn’t unusual.   Miscommunication.  No worries, we said we’d be back again on Friday.  Because we thought we might play volleyball after the SIS class we decided to take our computer and teach institute from there.  But, since no one showed up we headed back home and did it in our apartment.

One of my favorite parts of the lesson was when we ask the students to share one of their favorite titles of Jesus Christ and tell us why it was one of their favorites.  I LOVED hearing what they had to say about Him.  Each Title testifies of the nature and attributes of Jesus Christ.  As I listened to our students share their thoughts my testimony in Jesus Christ was strengthen through their personal experiences with him!!  I LOVE MY JOB!!!

The Title that I shared was Counselor – Why? Through Life experiences and prayer, the Lord has found ways to communicate with me.   That has strengthened my Testimony in him.

Thursday was a BLAH DAY FOR ME – I woke up not feeling well.  I just took the day easy.  We planned to go out to Eton that afternoon.  We also did not realize it was a national holiday.  Accension day!  The Day the Lord Ascended to Heaven.  Almost everything was closed.  That morning we discussed whether or not to go out to Eton.  In the end we went since we had told the kids we would be there.  We left the apartment and got about halfway there when the full-time younger missionaries called and said not to come as everyone had taken the day as a holiday.  So, we headed home.

On Friday we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Rossi (A waterfront restaurant) celebrating Vickys last day on TEAM S&I. Mark, Katimal, Vicky and I had a great time.  We all shared how we had met our spouses. We enjoy our work with these amazing people.  I’m not sure how Katimal will get along without Vicky. 

Our 2 students in our SIS class

We headed to Etas for SIS and 1 teacher and 2 students were there!  Yeah! Success! Small success but we are moving in the right direction.  I taught the reading and Mark taught the Math to our Foundation Student Kalo and the other teacher taught the intermediate student, Roderick.

From SIS we headed to the Stake Center for Institute.  I attended the Eternal Family class; The lesson was “Nurturing the Marriage Relationship”.  The teacher divided us into 2 groups.  1^st group studied the section entitled “How can my spouse and I build a joyful eternal marriage?”.  The 2^nd group studied “How can following the example of Jesus Christ help me nurture my marriage?”.

They had to read the lesson material and then report to the class.  It was a great discussion, and it was fun and inciteful.  I remember taking this course in my 1^st year of college.

I think this course would help anyone prepare for marriage one day and I believe it could help anyone who is struggling in their marriage.  We are so blessed to have access to such wonderful teachings.

Institute class I attended on the Nurturing the Marriage
Relationship.

Mark attended Foundations of the Restoration class.  Their lesson was on the Gathering of Israel.  The teacher is our devoted Pauline!  Pauline teaches our foundation SIS class on Mondays and Fridays.  She is an amazing teacher.  She has recently volunteered to teach this class at Institute and wasn’t sure if she was teaching.  She saw us there and thought maybe we would be teaching.  She had just stepped in to teach the missionary prep class right after teaching SIS class as the mission prep teacher had not shown up.  When she asked if we were teaching Mark told her he had not planned too.  Mark said Pauline did a great job teaching that night.   That woman will have blessings through her many hours devoted to teaching!

Institute class Mark attended (9 YM, 2 YW)

I forgot to mention that earlier in the week Mark and I went to Cellovila, which is a grocery store that sells some products from America.  We brought Skippy peanut butter and some Chicago popcorn (The cheese and caramel mix) Its’ nice to have some things from home.

Speaking of home, Stephanie, our daughter sent us a voltage converter!  Mark had purchased from Amazon so I could use my USA hair tools with 110 voltage, versus the 220 volt standard out of the wall sockets.  Well, it arrived!!!!!! The little things brings such joy!  It’s actually pretty big!

Mark scheduled a dive for Saturday. I was still not feeling fantastic, so I worked on somethings around the house and enjoyed the day listening to talks, podcast and gospel music and also prepared our Sunday school lesson.  That night we joined all the senior missionaries at the Thai restaurant across the street from our apartment for a welcome dinner for the new senior couple that just arrived.  The Hoggarts are from Kaysville, Utah and will replace the Lamphs, who work in the mission office as they go home in July.

Mark used Microsoft Copilot to create this for the PowerPoint 
deck he helped put together for our Sunday Devotional.  He just
asked it to draw a picture of the scripture in Malachi on the
"blessings poured out like the windows of Heaven".   Pretty cool!

Today we enjoyed teaching 4 girls in our Sunday school class.  We talked about our hearts and the hearts of the children of Israel. Specially we talked about one of the last discourses Moses gave to the children of Israel.  What he wanted them to have in their heart as they moved forward into their land of promise.  Following Sunday School, we had a devotional on tithing and fast offerings.  Mark had been asked on Tuesday to create the PowerPoint slides that the bishop could show during the devotional.  He was given a few high-level ideas, but beyond that he put together the basic content and flow.  He sent it to him Wednesday afternoon for his review.  With a few adjustments, it was what the bishop wanted.    Mark helped to run the presentation while the bishop led the discussion.  A lot of great questions and I think a well-needed discussion as many questions and answers to questions were given.  This was arranged by the RS and the Elders Quorum, and our Bishop did some training, and we were blessed to have a member of our Stake presidency in attendance along with a high councilor from the stake to help answer questions.  It was fantastic!  I love Sundays! 

Sunday evening we have some kittens that are
taking up residence on a chair that has been left outside
our apartment.  When I opened the door they scattered!!!!
Here kitty, kitty, kitty... 

We headed home, unfortunately it was later and too late to connect to family in the United States.  So, I took a nap while Mark did some items. I woke up to find him just waking up from a nap on the couch.

We are excited for yet another week.  We hope you all know how much you mean to us.  We feel so very blessed each day to wake up and to serve.  We are Happy and we hope each of you feel happiness and joy this week. 

Love you!

Nana & Papa, Mom & Dad, Darleen & Mark, Sista & Elda Lovelace