Hot pads

I've been doing a little bit of sewing these past few days. As I've mentioned before, Sister Tucker is the mission nurse.  She also inspects the young missionaries apartments for cleanliness.  She was finding during the inspections that they needed hot pads.  They have these big iron kettles that they use to warm water on their stoves.  Many of them don't  have hot water (yikes!), and they don't sell hot pads here.  So, we decided to make hot pads.  We just took a piece of an old towel, sewed it between two pieces of fabric and sewed a big X in the middle to keep the fabric from bunching up.  They turned out quite nicely.  I'm a quilter, and it felt good to get back at the sewing machine again.  Before we came here, Sister Davidson sent us emails about things to bring with us, and that was one of the things.   I wish I would have brought my spices too.  They're really hard to find, plus they cost (you guessed it) a fortune.  I have spices that I am picturing right now, sitting in my kitchen cabinet at home.  I could have the spices sent to me, but it's not worth the $95.00 it would cost to send them.  Isn't that crazy?!

Last Saturday we went to a private beach to swim and snorkel.  The area was managed by Elder Rices' apartment manager.  It was beautiful, I'll attach a picture.  I dropped our beach bag down on the sand, not paying attention to the tide, and in it came.  I learned my lesson on that one, I ruined my camera.  Luckily, I take most of my pictures with my phone.  It was such a beautiful beach, where ever we go, we love to collect shells.  We all have baskets with our shells in them on display in our apartments.  It's a fun hobby to have here.

Today, we all went to the airport to welcome our newest senior couple, the Collette's.  They are from New Mexico, and will be working in education.  They will be setting up english and math classes.  They are a really nice couple and will be fun to associate with.  We had a welcome dinner at the mission home for them, and had a really nice time.

Elder Robison and I are leaving tomorrow for the island of Malekula to do some training for the upcoming audit season. We will be there from the 15 - 17 July.   It's one of the four major islands in Vanuatu that we will be traveling to.  The District President will be meeting us and taking us to the church where we will do the training.  I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.  We've been told that the island is a little primative, not sure exactly what that means, but we're going to find out.  Our mission president and his wife are also going.  They will be visiting and doing training with the missionaries that are there.  I'll close for now so that we can get a good nights sleep.  I don't think they have the internet there, so I'll check back with you all when we get back.  We love you all very much, and of course you're always in our prayers.  

Love, Elda and Sista Robison XOXOXOXO