Wedding Bells

It's a been a little slow lately, that's why I haven't written.  The other day though, we went to a wedding.  One of the young men, William, who was in our returned missionary class, got married.  You might recall me telling you about "bride price" here in the Pacific.  That is where the groom has to pay the brides father a grundle of money, or animals, to marry his daughter.  William took care of the bride price by marrying a white girl.  Asha was born and raised here in Port Vila.  Her family has lived here for 30 years.  Her father is in the construction business.  They have a nice place here  in Port Vila, high up on the hill.  It's actually a compound that also has a small home for each of there three daughters, and their families.  The ceremony started on island time, which was an hour late.  The bishop of his ward performed the ceremony.  William is a member of the church, and his wife  becomes a member in two weeks when he baptizes her.  We were there about four hours visiting with the people and having a good time.  I was able to get a beautiful picture of the sunset that night that I will attach.

Elder and Sister Lindeman had a funny thing happen the other day.  They got a call from the manager of our building.  They said he was acting a bit odd and beating around the bush, but finally asked them if they were performing "black magic."  They said, what do you mean?  He said, "the gardner saw you outside digging, and that you buried something."  Well, what happened was, they had gone to the beach and  found some beautiful shells with the critters still alive in them.  Someone told them that if they bury them for about three months, the bugs would clean the shells out.  So, when they got home,  they buried them.  Apparently, you can bury shells in your yard if you want to perform "black magic" and put a curse on someone.  When the gardner saw them burying the shells, he dug them up.  Once they told them that was not their intent, the gardner  buried them again.  I probably shouldn't make light of black magic, because it is a real thing for them.  It goes on in the islands with devastating effects.  Even the members of the church struggle with it.  They are trying to leave some of these beliefs behind.  It's hard when you've been raised with it.

We've been helping the Granger's with a few projects. I think I mentioned that I've been trying to collect names of people that hold callings in the different branches.  It's so hard for these branch presidents to do administrative things like this.  Computers are so hard for them.  I'm just going to do what I can without stressing them out too much.  Greg's working on taking two branches and turning them into five branches on the island of Tanna.  President Morgan (District Pres. on Tanna) is hoping that this can be done.  The people have to travel too far to get to church.  There's a computer program that's suppose to help in drawing up new boundries.  Not sure it's going to work on these islands.  There is an application process that he's working on.  I hope it can be done, we've seen the territory these people have to travel.  It would be a real blessing for them. 

Today we attended  zone conference.  It's really for the young missionaries, but it's fun to be in their training.  As I've said before, President and Sister Granger make it really fun. We learn alot too.   Greg likes to go because they put bowls of candy on the tables for you to snack on.  I guess if I'm being honest, I like it too!  As we sat listening, we had a small earth quake.  YIKERS!  We have them all the time, you just don't always feel them.  The mission has been blessed with 40 new missionaries in the islands of Vanuatu in the last few months. 

Sunday, I had the opportunity to teach the  young women.  As I mentioned, the bishop asked me to help out, because their President went to Australia to pick fruit for the summer.  They ended up calling a new presidency.  The girls did a great job conducting, taking care of the music, prayers, reading the YW theme...they are very organized.  I was glad to see that.  Here is a picture of them, aren't they beautiful?  I think they will do just fine without much help from me.  That is what we want for the people here.  We want them to be self reliant.  The lesson was on "How do I know if I'm becoming converted?"  I chose to go over the young women values with them.  We read and discussed each one, and how each one  can help us become converted to the Lord. 

Greg and I leave for Suva, Fiji, next Sunday, for an auditing conference.  We are super excited!  We'll be there four days.  We're hoping to be able to attend the Fiji temple.  I'll be sure to tell you all about it.  The area auditor, Glen Reid, who trained us in New Zealand, is being released.  We will miss working with Glen, he is a good man.

The holidays are fast approaching.  Though Thanksgiving is not celebrated here, we are all getting together for a Thanksgiving feast at the Collette's apartment.  We've heard that there are turkeys available, so hopefully we'll have a turkey instead of chicken.  We all have assignments, mine is to make the dressing.  It was fun to plan it all out.  We'll miss being home with our family though.  Christmas is celebrated here though, the Bon (grocery store) has been Christmas music playing, and has the store all decorated up.  I stayed in the store extra long the other day to hear Harry Connick Jr. singing my favorite Christmas music.   It's just plain weird to have Christmas in summer weather! On a serious note, let's not forget to take time during the holidays to express gratitude for the MANY blessings we ALL have.  If the people here can express gratitude, we surely can.   

We love you all.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  XOXO