Getting to know each other as Senior Couples

As senior missionaries we do alot together.  On Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday we play pickel ball on a court at the church.  Saturday was our first intro to pickleball.  It is definately  a workout, but it's a serious work out when you first learn because you are chasing the ball all other the place!  pant! pant! It's really fun though and we plan to keep it up.  The afternoon is when we all go snorkeling.    On Monday evenings we have family home evening at one our homes, that couple is responsible for a treat.  One couple gives the lesson, and another has a game planned.  During the week everyone is off doing their individual responsibilities.

The Davidson's work in the mission office doing administrative duties for the mission president, as well as finances.

The Sackley's have humanitarian duties, such as working in the villages to get homes built, water tanks put in and such.

The Lindeman's work with education. They have been getting the churches   "pathway program" started.  They assist students in getting higher education.

Sister Hill is the nurse that takes care of any medical issues.

Elder Rice takes care of housing and vehicles.

We are assistant area auditors.  We are responsible for providing training on audit and financial policies and procedures to priesthood leaders, clerks, and stake auditors as needed.  We also ensure that stakes conduct thorough and complete audits.  The church here is in the infant stage.  The training we will be providing will be in very simple terms.  This is all so new to them.  We can't be to technical with anything. It will be very basic.  It's a good thing, because this is all new to us too.  We know that the Lord will bless us, because we will be helping to move His work forward.  We will also teach them the importance of the Church safeguards for tithing and fast offerings.

Elder Robison has his first assignment this Saturday.  He is to provide a 10 minute presentation to the Coordinating Council of Stake and District Presidents. The Mission President and the Area Seventy, Elder Johanssen will also be present.

On Saturday afternoon, after playing pickle ball, we all went snorkeling.  Apparently there is amazing snorkeling only 15 minutes away, but it was decidejd that we would all go to the other side of the island.   The country of Vanuatu is made up of about 85 islands, we live on one of the larger islands called Efate in the town of Port Vila.  Anyway, as we traveled around the island, the scenery changed.  We were now in the open, away from the city.  Vast jungles opened up on both sides of the road.  It was beautiful.  Within those jungles are villages of people who were all out and about.  They smiled and waived as we passed by.  I felt like I was in a parade!  If you are a fan of the TV show Survivor, my friend Carol pointed out that they filmed an episode here on one of the outer islands. It is so amazing!  I need to get some pictures downloaded for you to see.  As we got to the top of this hill, you could now look out to the south pacific ocean. It's hard to explain the beauty.  You go from this thick, lush, jungle to a big, blue ocean!!  So Awesome.  Gods creations here are so AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL.   We are so blessed to be here.  When we got to the boat dock, we loaded on to this little motor boat.  We filled the whole boat.  Elder Robison looked around and said to the boat driver, "now, we do have the official required coast guard life jackets don't we?"  What a crack up.  He pointed to about three life jackets.  He was worried about me, cuz I can't swim.  It took us about 20 minutes to get to the island.  When we got there, we had our lunch.  Then you could walk along this beautiful white sands beach, or snorkel.  There was a village there on the island too.  We walked through the village and visited with the people along the way.  There are lots of dogs running loose around the island, many are wild, some are pets.  One came up to Greg, be bent down and scratched is nose.  He thought he found his new master, he followed us all the way back to our site.  Poor thing finally went away.  Now, I haven't been snorkeling since we used to go to Hawaii in the Guard.  We used to go on weekend deployments and go snorkeling in Hanama Bay, on the island of Oahu,  but that was 25 years ago so I was a little nervous.  We don't have our own equipment yet, so we borrowed some from one of the Elders that had extra.  I was getting a little nervous.  Greg helped me put it on and then coaxed me into the water.  I didn't venture out very far, I justed wanted to get used to the idea again.  We had fun though, so we will be getting our own.  As we packed up to go back, we noticed it was getting cloudy.  It was kind of scarey looking.  On our way back, it was getting a little turbulant and Sister Davidson and I kept grabbing each others leg.  It was good to finally come ashore.  What a fun day!