MTC and Arriving in Fiji

 

Great time in the MTC studying Preach My Gospel for five days and then attending Church Education Classes for two and one-half days.  We stayed right on the campus and enjoyed the food; we loved it!
After the first week in the MTC, we were able to spend some time with some of the family and attend Jennica’s farewell. Back to the MTC on Monday for 2 ½ days of CES (Church Education System) training on how to teach the gospel; excellent!

Thanks to Cherene, Bindy and Skylee for picking us up; and Tab, Cherene and Cortney putting us up for the farewell weekend.Then at the end, thanks to Chad for picking us up from the MTC for a day and a half visit with his cute familA fun supper get-together with our three Salt Lake Kids and their families. And thanks to Cortney for taking us to the airport. It was good to be able to have those visits with the family! 

Due to the masses of missionaries coming into the MTC, we were unable to welcome Jennica into the MTC on our way out. 

Thursday evening, September 12, 2013, we flew to L.A. to start our journey. After about 3 ½ hours of waiting, we boarded a New Zealand Air flight for an all-nighter.

We landed in Auckland, N.Z. about 6:00 AM Saturday – 12 ½ hours of flight time (due to crossing the International Date Line we skipped Friday). Joyce was able to get a little sleep, but Ed was unable to close his eyes! We had individual movie screens.He watched 4 movies! 

Elder Jacobson picked us up and took us straight to a very nice hotel suite. We rested until noon, but sleeping very little. We went to lunch with Elder and Sister Jacobson and Brother Yerman, then to the Area Office for a couple hours of training and orientation by them.  Attended church there in New Zealand; gorgeous country!

Monday morning at 6:00 AM we left for Fiji, landing here at almost noon. Flying over several little islands. They were beautiful – surrounded by turquoise water inside the reefs, and covered in lush greenery! When we got off the plane it felt warm and muggy.
 It took us about 1 ½ hours to clear customs. They were going through everyone’s bags, but when we stepped up with our 4 - 50# bags and two carry-ons, the lady just ask what we were going to be doing, then just waved us through – those wonderful name tags perform miracles! 

We were picked up here by Sister 
Whitehead. She and Elder Whitehead live on the ground floor of the house; we live above them. We have a three bedroom, one bath “flat”. It has a nice size kitchen, dining area, and living room. When we arrived, we had a bed, a love seat, a table and 4 chairs, and a folding table for our office. The refrigerator, stove, and washer and dryer were in boxes in the living room.Ed quickly uncrated and installed the refrigerator, and the water filter system. We then went shopping for a few groceries, towels and other essentials. We still have no curtains (and the neighbors on both sides are slightly higher than our flat)…”like living in a fish bowl”…

Tuesday morning we received some small appliances, silverware, dishes, cleaning supplies, etc. Because we were not replacing another couple, we had to establish new living quarters. Saturday morning we finally got the stove hooked up with electricity (gas was hooked up on Thursday); and we had our first stove cooked meal!

Also when we moved in, we became acquainted with the other “residences” of the flat – the ants and cockroaches! We saddled the roaches and trained them to move our luggage. With the ants, we reached an agreement that they could have the leftovers if they would leave the rest of the food to us. We were provided with a strong insecticide, and after four days of spraying, we now only see them occasionally, making sure to leave no food or crumbs out as an invitation for a return visit! We “enjoyed” their company on our last mission as well.

We are “sharing” the car with the Whiteheads. Until Thursday we were passengers. That day we drove them to the school and then picked them up at 4:30. We still needed to do some serious grocery shopping, pick up the phone from the mission office, get it activated, arrange for internet, and get a few other essentials. Sister Whitehead was concerned as to Elder Collins' readiness to drive here on the wrong side of the road and in this traffic. Ed wasn't concerned as he had driven for two years on the left, and on roads and traffic that was far worse than anything we had seen here! It came back rather natural.