June 26, 2023

Bula Everyone,

Hope all is going well for everyone.  I can't believe that it is almost the 4th of July.  We will miss it, but we are loving it here too.  Can't believe we've been here 4 weeks already.  
Had a good week at the temple.  No groups from any of the islands this week so it was a little slower.  Saturday was busy for here.  We had a couple of live endowments and sealings and a lot of baptisms.  The kids here are just as faithful as the ones at home.  

We have noticed that the people here make so many sacrifices that we totally take for granted.  There is a sister here that has been serving in the temple.  She is from a small island quite a ways away and is furthering her nursing education.  She is here with one son and her husband is back on the island with another son.  She is finished and is going home this week, but her son will stay here with friends to finish school.  Another sister just had her daughter come home from a mission.  She then left for UVU in Orem for five years.  There is no money for the mom to go over and visit, so she won't see her daughter for five more years.  It seems so hard to me, but they know they are doing what is best for their family.  We are pretty spoiled back home.

Lynn is doing so much better driving and finding our way around.  We finally went back to the open market and were able to find a parking spot!  It's quite the place.  We shopped around and I bought a Fijian dress.  We've found some places to walk--Albert Park and the sea wall.  They are both such pretty places.  We have a fun group of senior couples.  We went to dinner on Saturday night and on Sunday evening we went to see the bats.  Down at the sea wall there are these trees and you can see the bats hanging from them.  When it gets dusk, they start flying.  I don't know how many there were, but there were a lot and they are huge!  It was a beautiful night with the sunset over the ocean.  Another strange thing here is the moon.  It was a crescent moon, but it was turned differently.  It was turned so it looked like a smile!

Today we took a tour.  We rode up the river on long boats to the Magical Waterfall.  It was in a secluded spot we walked to.  You could swim in the pool and get under the falls.  Some even climbed the walls and dove in.  The water was a little too cold for me to do that, but I did get in the water.  We then came back down the river.  Part of the way we rode on bamboo rafts.  So beautiful. We then went to their village for a show, lunch, and some history.  There were some items to buy that the ladies of the village had made.  Pretty meager circumstances, but they are so happy. It was such a fun day.

We had a great lesson in relief society on President Nielsen's talk "Peacemakers Needed".  I wanted to share a thought the teacher mentioned that I really liked.  She said that contention has its roots in selfishness.  She said that those that respond with anger when they are frustrated or annoyed are saying that their feelings and opinions are more important than those of others.  I couldn't help but think how true that is in our world today.

Love you all and hope you're having a wonderful summer,
Lynn and Kay

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