Black Magic

Customs and Culture

While we were in the mission office the other day,  I met an elder who had just transferred from Santo to Port Vila.  He is from Centerville, Utah. There are alot of missionaries here from Utah.  As I visited with this very sweet elder, I asked him if he had any black magic stories to tell, and he did.  He said while he was in Santo, he and his companion lived in a missionary house that was located on the same property that one of the branches of the church is on.  The property is owned by the branch president's family.  We have been to that property and it's a good size piece of property.  This elder said he decided this might be a good place to do a little jogging for exercise.  He said that he had bad ankles, and decided to walk the property carefully to check for holes.   Well, later that night there was a knock at their door.  It was the branch president.  He told this elder that someone had seen him walking around the property in a suspicious manner.  He then asked the elders to hold their hands out.  When they did so, he poked each hand with a needle.  Both elders reacted to the pokes like anyone would, by pulling away.  The branch president then said, since you reacted, you aren't possessed.  The president then said, I don't really believe in this anymore.  Maybe he did it so that he could report to the people that he did something about it.  Who knows.  These are deeply engrained beliefs that will take time for members to give up.  The Elders tell them that believing in the Holy Ghost is the way to go. 

Sister Granger was telling me that a member asked her if it was okay to eat the pig after a blood sacrifice? He had repented from sin, and was doing what he thought needed to be done to atone for his sins.  She explained that the Saviors atonement has taken the place of blood sacrafice.  When you talk to t new members of the church here, they are so humble and are trying hard to learn new ways.  Before we came out here, I was reading about Vanuatu, and it said that the people here were some of the friendliest people in the world.  Well, it's true!  Mifala lovem tomus!  (we love them so much).

We went to the beach on Saturday afternoon.  The snorkeling wasn't very good, so of course, we looked for shells.  Remember the little purple shell that I found that was so special, well we found brown ones just like it.  It's so strange, depending on the beach we go to, we sometimes find a lot of the same type of shell.  It's like they hang out in groups, in different parts of the ocean.  I'm sure that's not the case, it just seems like it.  We found a whole bunch of star fish.  Elder Lindeman picked one up in each hand and had his wife take a picture.  When he put them back down in the water, one of them landed up on two legs and  started to walk away.  It was the funniest thing you've ever seen.  We bent down to get a better look at it and it went into the defense position.  It was so interesting.  I felt bad, we seemed to be stressing it out!  "Mi lovem" the beautiful creations from the ocean. 

Greg and I are off to the island of Malekula on Tuesday to wrap the audits up for this cycle.  I love Malekula, it's a little more primitive, but a quiet, comfortable island to be on.  We'll be staying in a bungalow by the ocean.  It will be hot and humid with no A/C.  The Granger's stay at this particular place,  they say the ocean breeze helps a little.   We'll I'll close for now, but I'll get back to you when we return next week.  We love you all.  Take care and be safe.   Love, Greg and Ann