Life can be hard

Sister Tucker and I went visiting teaching the other day with Elsie, our visiting teaching companion.  We first went to see Daisy, who was also going to go visiting with us.  When we got to her place, we found that she was not feeling well.  Sister Tucker, being a nurse, diagnosed her the best she could.  She thought we had better take her to see a  doctor.   I'm wondering if she has walking pneumonia.  As I've said before, you can't always drive close enough to get to where people live, so sometimes you have to do a little hiking to get there.  We had to hold on to her and walk her up a hill that was a bit rugged, she was having a hard time breathing.  When we got to the hospital, Elsie took right over.  She went in the room with her to get checked out, then down to get an xray, and talked with the doctor.  We let her do whatever she could without our help.  She really is quite self reliant.   They decided to admit her for two or three days.  I'm glad they did, she didn't seem well at all.  Daisy is about fifty years old (best guess).  She never married, but helps take care of all of these children, plus her father.  Families take care of each other, so you don't always know who belongs to who.  I'm attaching a picture of Elsie and Daisys father (amazing picture).  The other picture is of the children that she also helps to care for. 

On Saturday night, the seniors went to Sister Tuckers apartment for a Halloween Party.  It was really fun.  She had it all decorated with Halloween stuff.  They don't celebrate Halloween here, but Uncle Bills, a variety store, gets in all kinds of holiday stuff for the Americans and Australians.  Here is what she had for us:

- She had a menu for us to choose from.  You got to choose 6 items.  The items consisted of things that you would not be able to figure out like; lizzard lips, ghost guts...I can't remember what all they were, but it was funny.  She put the items on your plate that you ordered and served it to you.  Some of my items were ghost guts (spagetti sauce), lizzard lips  (a serrated knife) to eat with, witches blood (drink).  In the end, we eventually all ate spagetti, garlic bread, and salad. 

- We played halloween bingo.

-  We had a mummy wrapping contest.  Each couple got one roll of white toilet paper.  One of you had to be the mummy, and the other one got to be the wrapper upper!  It was funny because the paper kept tearing, so it  became quite comical.  Elder Lindeman was the winning mummy.

On Sunday,  Bishop Mahit asked me if I would help out in the Young Women's organization.   Nellie, the YWs president went to Australia to pick fruit for six months.  She is trying to earn money for school.  Recruiters from Austrailia come through the islands in the summer looking for people to pick their fruit.  They pay them $10,000 Austrailian dollars for 6 months of hard work.   So people will leave their families to make money that is desperately needed.   I haven't been in YW for many years, but I told him that I would do my best.  He talked to Sister Tucker too, and asked her to help out in the Primary.  They want her to do the sharing time. The Primary is very disorganized, she'll do alot more than sharing time, I'm sure. Greg teaches in the High Priest Quorum.   We're happy to help, but the ultimate goal is to help them develop the skills to do it on their own.  We love our ward and are happy to serve.

Yesterday, we picked the Anderson's up from the airport.  They are the senior couple that was serving on the island of Santo.  They will be returning home to Genola, Utah, next week.  They had family home evening with us last night. They will truly be missed.   The next day, Greg and I took them back to the airport for a short trip to Tanna before they go home.  If you come to Vanuatu, you have to go to Tanna and see the active volcano.  We've been to the base of the volcano, but not to the top to look inside yet!  We'll do that on our next audit cycle in January.  They will return to Port Vila on Friday.  That night we will have a going away party for them at the mission home with Pres. and Sister Granger.  They also told us of some really crummy news. You know the Ipson's, the new couple that replaced them?  They got robbed!  Someone slit the screen of a window and was able to reach in an unlock the door.  They took a couple of computers and a projector.  This happened while they were at home, in probably the early morning hours.   They've only been there three days.  Sometimes bad things happen don't they?  You just have to move forward and look forward to brighter days.  I'll check in again soon! 

Love you all.  Elda and Sis Robison XOXO