Tanna

Gud Moning ol Brutas mo Sistas, 

We're back from the island of Tanna and what a great adventure that was.  We traveled with the Grangers once again.  They are so amazing, not only do they teach and train the missionaries, they also take every opportunity to spread the good word.  When we got to Tanna, picked up our luggage and tossed it into the back of the usual transport, a pickup truck, and BUMPED on down the road to the White Grass branch, where we would attend church that day.  On the way there, President Granger started talking to the driver about the church.  He is a great missionary and knows how to approach people without being overbearing, yet powerfully testify at the same time .   As we traveled down the road,  we saw these huge natives with long braided hair, faces painted, both carrying big bush knives, and on horse back.  They were scary looking, and glared at us as we passed by.  I wanted so badly to stop and take a picture.   Later, I thought about what a great picture it would have been of me handing them a pass along card.  On the other hand, I value my arms too much, so I'm glad I didn't do it.  It was definitely a National Geographic moment.  Sooo cool.

When we got to the church you could hear the saints singing.  They were waiting for us. They were looking out of the windows and waiving.   I immediately got a kleenex out of my purse, (which I know is no surprise to those who know me well), I was so overcome with emotion.  It's even hard to write about.  President Morgan, the District President, met us outside, with this big smile on his face.  One of the senior missionaries refers to him as the Sidney Poitier of Vanuatu ( from the movie, To Sir With Love).  He is a nice looking man, and does look a bit like Sidney.  He informed us that we were the program.  President Granger,  Sister Granger and Greg were to be the speakers, and I would give the closing prayer.  We then went inside and sat on the stand. They know many of the hymns, and memorize them in English.  There isn't a hymn book in Bislama, and I wonder how much they understand.  I'm sure they don't see to many white faces, especially the little pikininis (children).  Of course the meeting was conducted in bislama, but when it was time for the  speakers, President Morgan translated for them.  I recorded Greg's talk.  I also recorded them singing.  They don't have a piano, so its all acapella.  They have beautiful voices and harmonize quite well.  

After sacrament meeting sister Granger and I went to relief society.  The sisters are so shy, but so sweet.  They gave a lesson and I could even understand a little bit of what they were saying.  They asked sister Granger and I to say a few words.  I told them how wonderful it was to meet my sisters in the South Pacific, and how lovely they are.  It's amazing when you are doing the Lords work, the spirit is so strong.  We love the people here in Vanuatu and will never forget our experiences with the people.  I guess they have sunday school "sometimes." It depends on if the teacher shows up or not.  We didn't have it that day.

Sister Granger asked me to sit with her as she talked with the prospective missionaries and reviewed their applications.  The health questions portion wasn't filled out on any of them.  It's no wonder, I could bearly understand some of the questions!  I can't imagine what they were thinking.  She just told them to do the best they could.  She also goes through some of the other questions to evaluate their English.  Not only can they speak pretty good English, but some can speak French.  They also have their native tounge.  The Granger's have talked to us about helping the members prepare to go to the temple as we travel to the different islands.  We are going to talk to them about what documents they need to gather together to be able to attend the temple in Fiji.  They want the people to not only get married in the temple , but have their children sealed to them.  The family is responsible for getting passports for everyone in their family that's eligible to go.  The church will pay for airfare and a place to stay.  It sounds like there are many that are preparing to go. 

The mama's and their little pikininis were sitting out on the grass visiting and eating lunch that they had brought.  Like I said, some come a long way and start out early to get there.  Sister Granger brought a bag of suckers and taffy with her.  She gave them to me and had me pass them out to the kids.  I guess they haven't had suckers before because they were sucking on them with the wrapper on, so I took the wrappers off for them.     We just sat around on the lawn with them and visited.  Like I said, we can understand enough to communicate with each other.  It was so lovely.  

After visiting for a while we said farewell.  Several members climbed in the bed of the truck and off we went to take them home.  The terrain here is different than Port Vila.  Port Vila is developed and has lots of Chinese shops, banks and markets.  It's developed because it has a little bit of tourism.  Cruise ships make stops there from Australia.   The people in Vila live in shacks of tin and wood. They tend to have junk piles around.  In Tanna, there aren't a lot of shops.  It's really green, lots of trees and the people live in thatched huts and  keep their property very clean and tidy.  It's like night and day.  The only tourists Tanna sees are individuals or groups that fly in to see the active volcano that is there.  There are a few resorts around for those people.  That's where we stay.  They are really nice places.  The vacationers are usually from New Zealand or Austrailia.  We do see a lot of Chinese traveling as well.  When we got to the resort it was about 6:00 pm.  We met the Granger's for dinner.  They were leaving to go back to Port Vila the next day, we were staying until Wednesday.

Monday morning we met them for breakfast and said good bye.  Our driver, John, picked us up at 8:00 to go back to the church, on those nasty roads, to do two audits.  As I sat and waited, a couple of guys who were returned missionaries came by.   One of them, Sam Matsu, had only been home for a couple of weeks.  He served in Provo, Utah.  He knew our bislama tutor from the MTC in Provo.  Jansen, if you're reading this, he really thought a lot of you.  Sam is a sweetheart, he had a saying that he kept using, "amazing grace."  While I was waiting for Greg to do audits, I visited with different people that came by.  President Morgan unlocked the door to the chapel so that I could get in out of the sun.  When I went inside, I was followed by a couple of little boys.  I'm sure they don't see too many white faces and were probably curious.  I pulled out my Apple Ipad and opened it to the computer game, "angry birds."  They quickly sat down by me and watched as I played.  I handed it to them and they took turns playing.  You should have seen their faces!  One of the boys reached up and touched my hair, he could see that it was a different texture than his was.  Pretty soon, three other little boys showed up and they all took turns playing this fun game.  They were having a BLAST! It was so fun to see the joy in their little faces.  I wanted to talk with them, but they spoke French and didn't seem to know any English.   I will always remember those cute little guys.  You can see a picture of me and two of the little boys on the post before this one. 

When Greg finished the audits there at White Grass, we all got back in the truck and headed to a branch called Green Point.  John and President Morgan sat up front, and Greg and I sat in the back with one of the counselors of the district presidency, who was also the chairman of the audit committee.  He was asking me if I knew the hymn, "Come of Thou King of Kings?"  I didn't know it by heart, but was familiar with it.  He was pretty easy to communicate with, but there was still a little bit of a barrier.  He wanted to know if  I would sing it for him!!!  What?!  I told him I was sorry, but ("luckily") I didn't know most of the words.  Sam and the other missionary, who was also training to be an auditor, hopped in the back of the truck and came with us.  After an hour of BUMPY roads later, we arrived.  I thought my teeth would shake out of my head by the time we got there!   The Chinese are there on Tanna as well as Port Vila.  They are paving a few of the roads for them as well.  Sure hope they're finished with this road the next time we go back, in six months.  

We were met by two branch presidents and their auditors at a bush chapel.  It was on a really nice piece of property, you could see  beautiful view of the ocean.  

Sam and I sat around and talked while the audits were being done.  There was a family that lived right next door to the chapel.  I noticed they were building a fire.  We walked over to see what they were doing.  They were preparing to bake their "lap lap."  We've not had it yet, but everyone makes it here in the islands.  It is made by pounding breadfruit, taro or yam roots into a dough.  The dough is then cooked in an underground oven, with fresh coconut cream and and some pork, beef or chicken.   Some say it's nasty tasting, while others love it.  We'll have to find out sometime.  If you go on line, you can see how they make it.  They wrap it in big palm leaves, put it on hot coals, put leaves on top and a cloth, followed by more hot coals and leaves and let it go for a couple of hours.  It was fun to watch them prepare it. 

On the way back, we came to a piece of road where a bull dozer was rebuilding the road.  We had to stop and wait before we could proceed.  The counselor was still wanting to have me sing that song for him.  YIKES!  I remembered that we have the hymn book downloaded on the ipad, so I pulled it up.  The two of us were the only ones in the car at that time,  everyone else was out looking at the construction on the road.  We just sat their and sang the song together.  It was so sweet.  Pretty soon Greg came back to the truck.  He wanted all three of us to sing the song again.  So we did.  He was so thrilled to have the three of us singing that song together.   The bulldozer wasn't finished with the mound of dirt he was moving, but he let us climb over it in the truck.  SCARY! The dirt was loose, and they were working by the side of a cliff SHESH!  It becomes a long day when the roads are as bad as these were!  We were ready for bed that night!   

They picked us up again the next morning.  Sister Morgan came with us that morning.  She knows very little English, so it was hard to visit with her.  We drove out to a branch that was located at the base of an active volcano.  It's a big tourist draw for them.  They take tours to the top that let you get right up close to the mouth. You can see the red burning lava.  We're going to go on the tour the next time we're there.  In order to see it in all its glory, you need to go in the evening.  You can feel it rumbling though.  The last two audits were done that day.  While we waited for one of the branch presidents to come, I went inside the church.  I walked into one of the unfinished rooms and there on the wall was a hand made poster of the young womens theme and moto.  Talk about a "kleenex moment."  It definitely brought tears to my eyes.  It was the sweetest thing.   

When the audits were finished, we got back in the truck to take some of our travelers home.  We drove through the jungle toward the base of the volcano and all of the sudden the scenery changed DRAMATICALLY!  Not a stitch of green to be found.  It was just volcanic ash.  It looked like a shot of the moon.  As we drove across this desolate land on the volcanic powder, it was hard to see where the road was.  Then, all of the sudden, we were back in the green, green jungle again.  AWESOME!  We drove a little longer and stopped at the side of the road.  The travelers that we had in the back of the truck hopped out.  Sam was one of them. He was traveling with us these few days in order to get a ride back to his village. They still had about an hour hike to their village. These are hardy people! 

As we traveled along, we came to a town that had a school.  There was a  bunch of kids out on the field running relay races, and many people from the town were sitting on the grass watching the games.  There isn't a lot going on so any excitement draws them together.  President Morgan pulled over.   We all got out and walked over to a little stand that had island food prepared by the locals.  He asked us what we would like to eat.  Since we didn't have a clue of what most of it was, we had him choose for us.  We each had a chunk of TARO (ick), a chicken wing, slice of  papaya and this square brown thing that we had no idea what it was.  Before we took a nibble we asked what it was.  It was intestine!! We were all of the sudden too "full up" and gave it away. PHEWWW! Soon, we left the festivities and headed back to our hotel.  It was quite the experience here on the island of Tanna.  

President Morgan and all of the church leaders here were so good to us.  We told them how much we appreciated all of their help. They took us back to our hotel and we said our good byes.

We were finished with the audits, but weren't leaving until the next day at 4:00, there is only one flight a day; so we had a little time to kill.   We weren't sure how long the audits would take.  We now have a good idea.  The manager at the resort let us hang out there until it was time to go to the airport.  When we got to the airport, there was a group of people with WELCOME HOME ELDER signs.  President Morgan was there also.   They were welcoming two elders back from Papua New Guinea.  They were both very shy and seemed very serious.  Papua New Guinea is a dangerous country to be in.  They don't let white elders and especially sister missionaries serve there.  We are witnessing first hand that the church is world wide and so wonderful.  

Again, we love and miss you all!  We are having an amazing experience here and wouldn't trade it for anything.  We're glad you are enjoying the adventures with us through our blog.  Again, we love you.  

May the good, good Lord bless you all.  Love, Elda and Sista Robison XOXOXOXO!