End of school term break ... off to Fiji for small break

Hello Family and Friends,

Term 2 school ends – off to Fiji for a small break (July 13 thru 19^th)

Well, we’re still alive and well! Darleen and I recently wrapped up the second school term here in Vanuatu on July 17th. Afterward, we enjoyed a short break and received permission to travel a few hours by plane to Fiji. There we visited the temple and celebrated—just one week late—our 42nd wedding anniversary.

When school is out, much of our work slows down, since so much of what we do focuses on the youth of the Church. Classes resume on August 10th, so we’ll be back in full swing soon. For this letter, Darleen and I decided to share together: I’ll write about some of the things we did before heading to Fiji, and Darleen will add more of the Fiji adventures (with each sharing commentary). To help you follow along, my comments will be highlighted in blue, while Darleen’s remain in black.

Before the break, we finished strong with the Succeed in School (SIS) program. Monday through Friday we had SIS every day: Monday and Friday we taught at the Stake Center, Tuesday and Thursday at the Erakor Branch, and Wednesday at the Etas Ward. On Friday we also dropped off healthy snacks at the Etas Ward SIS class before heading to teach at the Stake Center. It was nice to have both teachers attend the Etas Ward SIS on Friday, which allowed us to teach at the Stake Center, as we are down to only one teacher there. As we have mentioned previously, our objective is to continue to hand off teaching to the local members, so we can just visit both Seminary and SIS classes throughout the week and provide training. We still have some work to do on that.

SIS has been a wonderful opportunity to really get to know the youth and to see lives change as they participate. One of our goals is to help prepare students for the Church’s Fiji school, should they choose to attend. Every time we meet a student who has returned from Fiji, we notice how much more confident, focused, and willing to speak up they are—and how much stronger their testimonies of Jesus Christ have become. Admission requires passing an entrance exam in Reading, Writing, and Math, which aligns perfectly with what we teach in SIS. The program helps them gain confidence in these skills and opens doors to greater opportunities. Darleen will share more about the Fiji school, as we had the chance to walk through it this past Tuesday. Needless to say, it’s an impressive campus, and we captured some photos of the classrooms and grounds.

Tuesday, in addition to SIS, we did some service with one of the sister companionships. Darleen cooked upside-down spaghetti, bread, and dessert, which we delivered to the Sister Training Leaders’ apartment. Two sets of sisters live there, and they seemed to thoroughly enjoy the meal. We’ve decided to continue serving the missionaries here whenever possible—home-cooked meals are one way we can support them. Since missionaries must stay in their assigned areas, it’s not always possible to invite them to our apartment, so we’ll bring the meals to them, just as we did for these sisters.

On Wednesday, July 8th, we visited Momma Ruth’s home to do some service. She runs a small “Kindy school” (kindergarten-aged children) in her humble home in the Eratap area. During a previous visit, she mentioned that the children and youth in the village didn’t have any balls to play with during breaks. So, we purchased a few soccer balls and dropped them off. She was very appreciative.

On Friday, Darleen taught the YSA Institute class, where I served as her assistant. Truthfully, I didn’t do much beyond reading a few quotes—she taught the lesson beautifully. Darleen is a gifted teacher, and she had the YSAs actively participating, which is no small feat given their tendency to stay quiet.

One thing I enjoy doing most weekday mornings is playing pickleball at 6am. Darleen has decided that time is a little too early to rise and go, so I’ve gone alone to meet other senior missionaries at the Stake Center. Early in our mission, we had 6–8 players regularly; now, with some missionaries having returned home, we’re down to 2–3, with 4 on a good day. Still, pickleball has been a great way to get exercise before starting the day—it certainly beats running! With the Lamph’s leaving on Monday to go home, most of the week Elder Meyer and I played against each other. Hopefully, we can get a few more players to join. I may have to change the time a little later and then I’ll get Darleen to join. 😊

On Saturday, July 11th, we flew to Fiji’s Nadi area. I was so excited that I had most of my bags packed by Tuesday. Darleen laughed at me, but I just like to ensure I’m prepared early. We left Port Vila Vanuatu and flew into Nadi Fiji International Airport at around 8pm, so we stayed overnight at a hotel near the airport. The next morning, we flew to Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second-largest island. Originally, we were scheduled to land in Savusavu airport, on this island, but Fiji Airlines canceled that flight and rerouted us to Labasa, about two hours north of Savusavu, on the same island.

The airline promised transportation to our resort, but no one appeared when we landed. After asking at the counter, they arranged a taxi. Two other families had also been diverted and waiting for taxis provided by the airport; one left before us, and we followed in an old taxi driven by a kind young man. He even stopped to show us a pineapple plant along the way, which we had never seen before on Vanuatu. Everyone has described it, but we have never seen one growing until he was so kind to point it out. About an hour into the two-hour drive, however, the radiator blew on top of a mountain, spraying water across the windshield. We tried adding water, but it poured right back out. We weren’t going anywhere.

About ten minutes later, the final family from Labasa passed us in another taxi. The taxi stopped, and the driver agreed to drop them off at the resort, then returned to pick us up. So, we waited over an hour, Darleen was in the back reading a book while enjoying the mountain breeze while I chatted with our stranded driver. About an hour later the second taxi returned. I sat up front with a seatbelt, while Darleen—without one in the back—was tossed around as the driver sped like a race car. Darleen had pants that slide easily on the plastic covered seats. I joked that he must be an ex-race car driver, but he didn’t slow down.

Broken taxi car with our driver

Darleen waiting in the back of the broken taxi
relaxing while reading a book

After about an hour, we finally arrived at our resort—five hours later than planned. I’ll let Darleen describe more about the Koro Sun Resort & Rainforest Spa Hotel, but suffice it to say it was beautiful, nestled in Savusavu harbor. It was the perfect place to relax for seven days before heading to the temple in Suva, Fiji and then back to Vanuatu.

A week of relaxing in Fiji (July 20 thru 27^th)

My friend (Sheldon Smith) served a mission in Fiji. I remember him sharing stories about Fiji with me. Never in my life could I have imagined ever visiting Fiji. I secretly hoped that one day I would. Now I have. From the plane as far as the eye can see are islands. I felt like a little girl sitting against the window discovering a whole new part of the world.

Fiji consists of over 330 islands and more than 500 smaller islets with approximately 110 islands permanently inhabited. The islands are grouped into nine main geographic island groups. The two largest islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu,. Eighty seven percent of Fiji’s population live on these 2 islands. All this is scattered within 1,000,000 square miles. What I did not expect was the mountain ranges. They are absolutely spectacular! I didn’t feel like I was on an island, I felt like I was in the mountains. The islands have tropical rain forests, mangroves, and coral reefs.

Some of the islands below as we flew towards
Fiji main islands (Viti Levu)

Mountain ranges on main island of Fiji (Viti Levu)

It was hard to decide where to stay when we planned our trip. Because of Marks’ love for the ocean, we wanted to go somewhere that he could enjoy diving. I am perfectly ok to snorkel. We decided on a resort in Savusavu called Koro Sun. It is located on Vanua Levu which is the second largest island in the Fiji Islands. Mark shared with you our wild adventure upon arrival, it was an adventure I will not soon forget. We enjoyed a lot of laughs as we experienced our 2-hour ride through the island to South Coast. Koro Sun Resort did not disappoint us. We booked a hut over the water. It had its own private swimming pool and a ladder to climb down into the ocean. Now it’s winter in the Pacific islands so the temperatures are usually in the low 70s at night and the high 70s’ during the day. The water was a little colder than I had hoped. The breeze was spectacular and we often opened up the windows and doors and just let it flow through. Mark enjoyed diving for 5 days in a row while I relaxed and took full advantage of the resort. I visited the spa and read and walked. Mark and I enjoyed kayaking except for the part when the tide was going out, and we were trying to go Inland. It was a fantastic arm workout, and we are better because of it.

Entrance to our bungalow in Koro Sun Resort

Posing in front of the Koro Sun Resort sign
after church

The resort had a 9-hole golf course and from the time of our arrival I told Mark we needed to play. We finally played and felt the challenge was maddening. The 1^st hole was surrounded by Lily ponds. We had to purchase our golf balls and were told we would be refunded when we brought them back. Well, let’s just say the resort makes money off of their course. We both lost our 1^st

Lily pads where our golf balls got lost on the first
tee shot. At least it is a pretty place to land as
their final resting place

balls to the lily ponds. The course was very difficult to follow. We finished 5 holes and the distance from the tee seemed to get further and further away, each hole we played. We could not find Hole 6 and took a detour that led us to hole 9. We finally hiked around the resort and found Hole 6. The tee box, however, was on a hill above the trees. We had no idea how we were going clear our hits over the treetops. Oh, and below the treetops was a creek! Mark just wanted to start from the bottom, but I insisted we follow the course and give it all we had. At this point we each have 1 ball left. Mark goes 1^st and his ball hits the treetops and falls. I go next and my ball also hits the treetops, and I see it fall into the creek. For the next 15 minutes we are hunting for our golf balls. I find mine in the creek and Mark and I find loose tree limbs to push it down the creek bed so we can get it without falling in. Unfortunately, we did not see the exact spot where Mark’s ball went down and after searching, we finally threw in the towel and allowed the course to defeat us. There is nothing like an experience like this that strengthens the bonds of marriage. We handed in our golf clubs for croquet mallets and enjoyed the much smaller organized course.

Throughout the week we enjoyed several cultural events as villages nearby came to visit our resort. We loved the dancing and the singing. There was a song and dance about the journey of a Young Girl becoming a Woman which I really enjoyed, the girls and woman of the Village performed it. The boys and men performed a dance preparing for war. What stood out was a little boy, about 4 years of age.

Young boy dancing at the resort holding
traditional Fiji battle ax.

Young woman dancing a traditional
Fiji dance.

He participated and watched the older boys and following their movements. Mark and I feel more than gratitude for the things we are learning from these beautiful people on the isles of the sea. Another experience that made me feel so special was everywhere I went I was called by my name. They remembered my name! I have to say I learned how wonderful it feels to have someone call you by your name.

Mark and I enjoyed endless games of 3 to 13 (A card game). Although, I thought Mark would stop playing as I seemed to have a lucky streak going on. Darleen is right as we played 20 games and I only won 3 of them!!! One of my favorite things to do after Mark went diving was for him to share what he saw from his videos and pictures he took. I love how much he loves the ocean! Having him share his experience was the best part of each day.

Let me just say something about the diving in Fiji on Vanua Levu Island. It had some of the nicest coral formations I’ve ever seen, with fish absolutely everywhere. Unfortunately, it was fairly windy most mornings, which meant the captains couldn’t get out to some of the best locations — especially the Namena Marine Reserve, where you normally find large numbers of white‑tip and grey‑tip reef sharks, hammerheads, and incredible soft coral.

Even without being able to reach that location, we still enjoyed diving, which offered some of the best marine life I’ve ever seen. We visited sites like Dreamhouse (sometimes home to large schools of hammerheads — not during my dive, though we did see white‑tip reef sharks), Turtle Alley (known for turtles, but didn’t see any), Shark Alley (where I saw several eagle rays and a few sharks), Black Beacon (where I saw a white‑tip shark and turtles), Davis (where we came upon a sleeping turtle that I think we startled it out of its own shell when it woke up), Nugget (beautiful soft and hard coral), and Mystery (the first site they took me to when I arrived).

Turtle sleeping in the coral. They like to wedge themselves
under coral to stay put while they sleep.

On one of the dives, we were greeted by a large pod of dolphins that we followed for a while until we turned toward the site to which we were heading. At that point, they turned and followed us for a bit. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any in the water once the dive began, but the whole time you could hear them communicating all around us. It was pretty amazing.

Picture of some of the dolphins surfacing. Video
was too large to post here, but had them popping up everywhere.

Overall, it was a great week of diving, even with the high winds and occasional rainy mornings. I’ll definitely have to go back and try some other spots in the future.

Colorful clown fish and coral. My photography skills don't do the
colors of the coral justice.

More colors of the coral with starfish attached

We took a taxi into the small town to do some shopping. I have always wanted a Fiji dress, so that was the purpose of our adventure into town. While walking we literally ran into a Senior Missionary. Elder Wood was sent to the store to purchase some bananas as Sister Wood was going to make Banana bread. We absolutely believe we were meant to meet Elder Wood! The Woods are from Australia and are Member Leadership Support Missionaries. They have been serving in Suvasuva for 6 weeks! I felt like we had known them forever! Then on Saturday we went back to town and ran into Elder Wood again in the Market. Again, Sister Wood was not with him. We teased him a bit and said perhaps there was no sister Wood. We had some good laughs about that, and Mark and I had just met a man in the market named Charlie. Charlie asks us to pray for his children. We said we would and took their names. Junior, Save, Rosemary, Alina, Bendin, Marie, May, David and Charles. Charlie gave us his son’s phone number and said we could call him. After running into Elder Wood, we took him over and introduced him to Charlie and passed on the phone number so he could help Charlie after we left. We met several others at the market who were members of the church and even some who are members but not going to church regularly. I bought 2 pair of earrings from one woman, Eleanor. Eleanor is the 1^st counselor to the president of the women’s organization in Suvasuva. She is exceptionally talented and makes beautiful Jewelry that she sells at the market. She wanted to give me the jewelry instead of letting me pay. I insisted she let me pay to help her earn a living. What a heart! I will remember the heart of Eleanor!

Eleanor a member we found
in the downtown Savusavu market

At the resort we met a couple visiting from Idaho Ron and Alice Lee. They had originally paid $35.00 a piece to attend a local village congregation on Sunday. They asked what we were planning to do and we told them we were taking a taxi to the ward in Suvasuva. They asked if they could come along with us and we were glad to have them join us. The meeting started at 10am and in attendance were the HXP (Humanitarian Exchange Program) kids who were there to help build a school during the week. One of the waiters from the resort had promised to attend if we did. Unfortunately, we did not see him there. We ran into Elder Wood again and Sister Wood was not with him. He said she was feeling ill. Again, we had some joyful laughs and told him we were now convinced that there really was no sister wood. We enjoyed meeting together with the saints of Fiji and felt very welcomed. During the week so many of the workers at the resort wanted to make sure we knew there was a local congregation that we could attend on Sunday. We were checked on throughout the whole week to make sure we had transportation to get there. We felt so taken care of.

Ron and Alice Lee from Idaho, who we met at the
resort and ventured off to church together in Savusavu to
attend the branch there.

On Monday, we prepared to leave and this time left from the local airport just 15 minutes from the resort. We arrived about an hour before our flight was to take off. This airport was so small. We got weighed along with all our luggage.

The plane was a 20-passenger plane and there were 4 of us and 2 pilots on board. Prior to taking off, after being weighed we turned around and who did we see? Elder Wood with his beautiful wife Sister Wood. Now it is 7am, and they wanted to see us off! We had not told Elder Wood when we were leaving. He said he could not have us thinking there was no Sister Wood. For an hour we visited together and shared life & missionary experiences and laughed about so many things. I felt like I had known the Wood’s my entire life. I felt a bit sad as we hugged and then boarded the plane. They stood, watched, and waved until we were out of sight. I feel like we experienced a miracle in Fiji! I feel like the Lord allowed us to meet a couple we must have known before and to catch up and share our life experiences with each other. That hour is a sweet tender mercy and will remain with me forever. We don’t know if we will ever run into the Wood’s again, but their love and friendship for even that small moment has left an impression that gives us the strength and example to LOVE our neighbors.

Elder & Sister Wood seeing us off at the
airport in Savusavu ... two fantastic missionaries!

Posing with a scared look on the flight off to Nadi Fiji

Our view right into the cockpit of the plane without
anything to hide what is actually happening in front of us.

To the Big Island and the temple, we go (July 28 thru 29^th)

Next, we were off to the Big Island of Viti Levu (Nadi). There is a temple on the island (located in Suva, a 40 minute airplane ride from Nadi airport) and we had wanted to spend some time in the temple. We also wanted to take a tour of the Fiji School we have heard so much about. In the temple we met another Senior Couple who had been serving for 2 months from Canada. Elder and Sister Owens. They were serving as educational specialist missionaries! Whoa! That’s part of our role also. I’ll come back to the Owens in a minute. After attending the Temple Mark and I wanted to walk around the temple and get a few pictures. We were approached by a security guard who offered to take our picture. We thought he would take one and be done. He preceded to walk us around the whole temple and take tons of pictures of us. I felt like I was taking my marriage pictures all over again. He was the sweetest man and made us feel so special. He was very attentive to us.

Elder and Sister Owens our guides for the day
around the Suva area.

After the photo session we headed across the street to the mission office and church distribution. We met Elder and Sister Owen’s inside, and they asked us what we had planned on doing. We told them we were going to get a taxi to take us around to visit the Church school and then to lunch. They insisted on taking us to lunch and then showing us the school and then taking us by to our hotel. We went to lunch first, as none of us had eaten, having arrived early to the temple that morning.

Fiji Suva Temple

The temple security guard having
us pose behind some flower bushes.

We then went to the school. We could not have asked for a better opportunity to visit. Elder and Sister Owen’s were familiar with the campus and gave us a full tour. Mark and I were so impressed with the school and the many opportunities available to the students for learning. We came to a class being held in a kitchen. They were doing some role play on the importance of washing your hands before preparing food.

Fiji school students doing role play
on how to properly wash your hands.

We were invited to (well I stuck my head in and asked if we could come in and watch the role play.) So, we did! The students were so kind and got up and grabbed chairs for us to sit in. So, that was fun... Then we checked out the wood shop and the Auto shop.

Wood working teacher (right to left), with Elder Owen and Mark

The boys at the Auto shop were so happy to tell us how much they love their class and their teacher. I actually did a quick video of them sharing. They also fix the missionaries bikes. It was super cute to see them riding the bikes after fixing them to make sure they were working properly.

Auto mechanic shop with students working
on a vehicle.

Mark and I were thrilled to see firsthand the educational opportunities that are available to the kids of Vanuatu. We are determined to focus more on helping our kids qualify for this educational blessing. What a great trip!

Fiji school view from some of the
top classrooms... Such a clean school.

Safely back home (July 30^th thru August 2^nd)

Back to Port Vila ... some of the Fiji islands below
as we left the Nadi Fiji airport

We arrived back in Port Vila Vanuatu on Wednesday late afternoon. I taught the Institute class on Friday evening. Our lesson was the Plan of Salvation and Our Divine Role. That lesson could not have come at a better time. Being reminded that God has a plan for each of us and that plan leads us to Salvation. This week my cousin Katrina passed on from this life. Katrina has dwelt with health issues for many years, but her death was unexpected. I never in all my conversations with Katrina heard her say anything negative. She was always positive and happy to hear how I was doing. She stayed in touch with family members. I’m so thankful to know that Gods plan is to keep families together forever. I know I will be reunited with Katrina. I know that Katrina is free from her failing body, and I know she is with the Lord. She leaves behind a sister who lost her husband just 6 months ago. That is a lot to handle in 6 months. Will you pray for my cousin Bonnie? We are so happy to be back in Vanuatu, we have one more week before the kids return to Seminary and SIS. This week we look forward to ministering to some of our teachers and visiting with some of the youth. We want to wish our grandkids in Georgia an amazing 1^st week of school. To the grands who have a few more weeks of summer, enjoy. We love and pray for you all every day! Choose the Right and Choose to Follow Jesus Christ Every day!

Love,

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

Additional Pictures from the past few weeks: