Big Babies

This little baby, Ann Marie, also my name, is 2 months old!  UNBELIEVABLE!  

Farewell

The past few days we have been bidding farewell to the Davidsons.  On Saturday evening we all met at the mission home for a farewell dinner with President and Sister Granger.  She prepared a delicious roast that went nicely with the salads, potatos, green beans, and rolls that we all brought.  I was assigned the dessert.  I asked sister Davidson what she would like me to make.  She wanted a dessert that sister Granger makes for the missionaries when they leave the mission to return home.  She calls it "chocolate leavers dessert."  I'm going to describe how it's made because it's unbelievable!  The only manageable way to make it is to build it in one of those plastic 9X13X3 inch plastic containers.  The first thing is to make the chocolate cake in a 9X13 pan. I had to trim the cake down a bit so that it would fit in the plastic container.   I will never make a box chocolate cake again, the cake recipe is delicious.  It works better if you freeze the cake before you start putting it together.  Next, you beat a quart of heavy cream and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk until it forms stiff peaks.  Set aside.  You can't buy heavy cream here, so we use whipping cream at $12.95 a liter (little more than a quart).  It's the heaviest cream I've ever used!  It comes from New Zealand. You will need a package of oreo cookies, and a bowl of any kind of juice (I used orange juice).  Now, you spread a 1/3rd layer of cream over the cake that is in the plastic container.  Then, take one oreo at a time, dip it in the juice quickly, shake it off (you don't want the cookie to get soggy) and lay it on top of the cake. Do this until the cake if filled with rows of cookies.  Next, put half of the cream you have left, over the cookie layer.   Add another later of oreos, dipped in juice and placed on top of the cream.  Add the rest of the cream over those oreos.  Now, make a ganache to put on as the final layer of yummy.   I heated equal parts of cream and chocolate.  Since we can't always get chocolate chips, I buy dark chocolate candy bars and chop them up.  I used two cups of chopped chocolate and two cups of cream.  I put the chopped chocolate in a bowl, heated the cream in a pan until bubbles start to form the pour over the chocolate bits.  Let it sit for 5 minutes then combine together.  If it hasn't melted, give it 10-15 second shots in the microwave until melted.  Becareful not to let it get too hot.  When the chocolate is cooled off, carefully spread over the cream.  Refridgerate at least 24 hours if you can, or over night.   It is such a rich dessert that you only need a small piece.  It is soooooooooo good!  The sister missionaries are fabulous cooks!  We made a mission cook book with all the recipes we use here. 

The next evening, Sunday, we decided to have dinner for the Davidsons again since they were leaving early Monday morning and probably didn't have much food left in their apartment.  We decided to have a pasta bar.  Sister Lindeman assigned a few of us to make the different sauces.  I made a tomato, olive, caper sauce (FABULOUS!!!).  We also had a lemon/mussel sauce, and an alfredo sauce.  They were all really good.  Lindeman's made home made bread and we had salad and dessert.  It was all so delicious.  We all said our goodbyes that evening.  We're all planning to meet up again in SLC for April 2019 conference.  The next morning we were at it again playing pickleball, short two players :(   Their plane was suppose to take off at 7:00 a.m.  Pretty soon, here it came overhead.  We all waived just in case they could see us!  We miss them!  We will be the next senior couple to leave the mission in October.  Three other couples will leave with in two months after us.  I can't believe how time flies.  I remember mom saying to me at times, "time sure does fly," and wondering why she said that!   She's right!  I sure miss her.  

Last week we drove to Etas with the Roundy's where we teach a few english/math classes.  The Collette's teach a math class, and their kids showed up, but none of ours did.  It seemed really strange that none of them were there.  Come to find out, they let some guy out of prison early, and he raped and murdered a little six year old girl.  She happened to live in a village near where we teach.  They hadn't caught him yet, so I'm sure they were keeping their little ones in.  When someone dies, the people will go into mourning for about a month.  So so sad. 

Greg's been working on a few humanitarian projects with Elder Collette.  They have been patching the roof of a school that is run by Sister Veronica, a sweet, sweet woman.  She runs this school for orphan children.   She is a member of the church and is like a Mother Teresa.  She is passionate about what she does and loves those little pikininis.  We went to visit her school last year with the Sackley's.  Sister Roundy (humanitarian), has these sheer curtains, and I'm helping her get them to fit the windows of the school, hoping they will help keep the mosquitos out, but still let light in.  I will also be helping to make little skirts for the kids as part of a school uniform.  Even the smallest of changes can help.  We like having extra projects in between audits.  Our next and last audit cycle is July thru September.  We're out of the cyclone season, so the weather should be good less active!

If you remember, clear back in February we took our truck in to the shop to have our transmission worked on.  Well, we picked it up yesterday, 27 April.  However, it isn't finished yet, they still had to order one more part.  Good Grief!   It was driveable so we took it, even for a few days until the part gets here.  I'm not confident at all that we will have a fully operation truck any time soon.  In the mean time we share the Roundy's truck.  Oh well, "it's island time."  We're glad to hear that things are going well at home.  Things are going well here, and we're happy to be here.  I'll close for now, we love you all.  Love, Greg and Ann

Sisters:  back row

L to R Sis Collette, me, Tucker, Granger

Front row L to R. Sis Davidson, Roundy, Lindeman

Elders: back row

L to R.  Pres Granger, Elder Davidson, Greg

Front row L to R. Roundly, Lindeman, Collette

Zone Conference

We had a great zone conference last week.  President Granger is closing in on his 3 year committment as our mission president.  He talked to the elders and sisters about the transfer of the keys that he holds as the current mission president, that will be transfered to the new mission president in July.  He explained to them that there will be changes made by the new president and that they must abide by those changes.   He told them how much he and sister Granger loved them and that he would never forget them.  I haven't seen any other mission president in action other than President Granger, but I will say that he and sister Granger give their ALL.  They work tirelessly to make this the great mission that it is.  They have three countries to cover and it seems like they are alway gone to a zone conference or on a mission tour somewhere.  The new mission president might be a little overwhelmed at first with all the traveling involved, but he'll have some good assistants to help him out.  We will be starting our last audit cycle when they arrive, and will be traveling ourselves.  We'll be happy to help out too.  As I sat there listening at the meeting, I looked over and saw a cute sister that we were with in the MTC.  Her name is sister Koroso.  She is from Port Vila, and just got transferred here from Santo.  It was so good to see her.  It's amazing to see her a year later, and know how shy she was then, but to see how outgoing and confident she is now.  I asked her if she sees her family now that she's here in Port Vila, she said that she sees her mother in the market once in a while.   It's not uncommon to see Nivans (people from Vanuatu) serve their mission here.  It seems like they serve here or in Papua New Guinea.

As I mentioned before, elder and sister Davidson are leaving on April 23rd.  Sister Granger asked me to make arrangements for their farewell dinner with the other couples.  We always have the dinners at the misson home.  Sister Granger takes care of the meat and we do all the side dishes and dessert.  We're going to have roast beef, augrautin potatoes, green salad/fruit, rolls, and carrot cake.  Doesn't that sound yummy?  I went with sister Davidson to the mamas handicraft market the other day to help  her look for souvenirs to take home to family and friends.  I've already started accumulating those things.  Australian Aid built a new handicraft market building in town.  It's perfect for when cruise ships come in, they support the local mamas by purchasing their crafts.  I noticed that the rental spaces weren't filling up very fast.  Apparently the rental fees are too high for most of them.  The government is so corrupt here.    They just make sure they get their cut.  Hopefully they will soften so the people can afford to sell their goods.

Last week Prince Charles came to Port Vila for a brief visit.  Up until 1980, Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides) was a colony jointly administered by England and France.  It was a real big deal while he was here, they love him.  He met with the chiefs of Vanuatu and was given priceless gifts.  Prince Charles brought gifts to them also.  They dressed him in their ornate custom dress, (however, they let him keep his clothes on), and during a lavish ceremony made him an honorary chief and gave him the name of Mal Menaringmanu. The name was chosen to reflect his high rank in the world.  They presented him with a nalnal, a customary club, and sign of authority.  Normally, a newly designated chief would be expected to use the club to kill at least one pig.  The pigs were present at the ceremony, but their sacrifice was omitted in recognition of the Prince's stance against animal cruelty.  Chief Tirsupe and the Prince shared a coconut shell filled with kava, an intoxicating, hullucinogenic beverage made from a plant grown in Vanuatu.  The people drink this stuff every night.  They have kava bars all over in the villages.   It used to be that it was used only during custom ceremony with the chiefs, sadly it is in the regular population now.  He was then led in a procession to a near by park where crowds of thousands stood by to welcome the Prince.  The park is by one of our chapels.  He was treated to custom dancers from the island of Tanna.   Sister Collette happened to be there at the chapel and walked over to watch the festivities.  She said the people started hugging and kissing her and pushing her out in front of the festivities.  I guess maybe they thought she was from England or because she is white??? She didn't know why they were doing this!!  So funny.  She told us all about it later that evening.  She said it was so embarrassing!  The rest of us had gone snorkeling that day.  The people are still talking about it.  It's fun for them to have special events like this.

The education couple, the Collette's, are teaching older kids an english/math class out in an area called Etas.  After a while younger kids started showing up wanting to learn.  The Roundy's, the humanitarian couple, volunteered to teach some of them.   Soon they had more coming, so I told them I would help teach.  There are planned lessons ready to go for these classes.  I just hand out the lessons and help them if they have questions.  There is always a picture for them to color and they love that.  It's obvious who attends school and who doesn't.  The kids are not required to attend school at any age.  I was watching them as they did their math problems, they were using their fingers and their toes to count.  They are such sweet girls.  It takes about 40 minutes to get there, and by the time we leave to go back home it's starting to get dark.  We drive on a bumpy, dirt road to get there.  It is literally through the jungle.  The Roundy's  don't see well at night, so Greg comes as our driver.  I wouldn't go if he didn't drive!  The weather here is starting to get really nice.  We don't even need our sweat rags!  We hope all is well with you at home.  We love and miss you!  Take care.   Love Greg and Ann

Harmony

In zone conference, President Granger was talking about being in harmony with your companion.  We have many different nationality's and culture in the mission.  There are problems from time to time so Pres. Granger is calling a companionship in from time to time.  As he was talking about it, this elder put his arm around his companion.  Isn't that a sweet picture?

Happy Birthday!

Last Sunday, 25 March, was my Birthday.  The big 60th!   That evening, Greg went next door to the Roundy's to get my birthday present.  When he returned, he handed me a gift bag.  When I opened it, there it was, a "mama dress"!  Oh boy!  I think I have commented before about how "attractive" mama dresses are.   He said, "why don't you go put it on?"  It was kinda like the movie a Christmas Story when dad opens up the box that's delivered to him and it's a leg lamp.  Ha Ha!  It was a little on the large side.  Mamas usually wear a bigger size than they normally would, but this was really big!  But, I was a good sport and  went in and modeled it for him.   About two minutes later there was a knock at the door.  It was all the other missionary couples with a birthday cake and ice cream.  Here I stood in my mama dress!!  I didn't change, we all got a kick out of it.  Elder Collette said he'd never seen a missionary name tag on a mama dress, so I put mine on!   It was a really fun surprise!  We all sat around and had cake and icecream for my birthday!  I will not be attaching a picture!  I'll show it to you when we get home.

Elder Collette brought us a box of Liahona magazines (just like the Ensign) only for the pacific islands, to take to our ward and give out.  They were extra from the last conference issue.  As I passed them out, the people were  excited to get one.  I know some of them can't read, but they know who President Monson is.  Some are able to read, they just have a hard time comprehending what they've read.  It's just like us, we can read a little bit of Bislama, but usually only understand a fraction of what we've read. 

On Saturday, 31 March,  after pickleball, we all went half way around the island to Havannah beach for a BBQ.  It was so fun, we all brought the meat we wanted to BBQ, and a dish to share.  We all enjoy getting together for outings.  The islands are the perfect setting and had a great time.  I found some really nice shells too!   

On Easter Sunday the primary kids sang the sweet little song, Gethsemane, in sacrament meeting, and did a pretty good job.  Sister Tucker and I worked hard during sharing time so that they would be able sing it.  We also decided to each have a lesson ready to go in case a teacher doesn't show up.  They don't have separate teachers for each class, there's just one  for older kids and one for the younger.  I ended up teaching the older kids because the teacher didn't show up.  We found out later that the teacher went to Australia to pick fruit.  The kids are so out of control, it's hard to get them settled down.   I had a class of about 15 boys and girls.  When they finally settled down,  I started by asking them what Gethsemane was.  They either didn't want to say, or they didn't know.  I think they didn't know.  So, we talked about its meaning and what happened there.... Then we talked about the crucifixion of Christ, same thing, they weren't sure exactly what it was all about. Then we talked about the resurrection of Christ and what it means to us.  They were surprisingly good, most of them were listening.  I sure hope the spirit was able get through to them.  It's hard to tell sometimes, you don't always know if they understand what you are saying.  I'm beginning to think that we assume they know more than they do.  After all, they are converts and it takes a while before you comprehend and understand.  After primary, the bishop gave us a bag of chocolate easter eggs for the kids.  We started out handing them out to those that were being quite.  It soon erupted into mayhem!  Boy, did they want those Easter eggs!  What a hoot.  I'll attach a little video.  I put my bag of eggs down so that I could video Sister Tucker handing them out!  We got mobbed! 

Monday morning here, is Sunday afternoon at home.  So, Monday morning we were listening to the Sunday afternoon conference session over the internet with you.  It's nice to have the internet to stay connected a little bit.  Next week the stake will be able to watch conference at the stake center and some ward houses.  There are members here that translate conference so that the people can listen to it.   They usually set up a room for those that want to listen in English.  We heard many of the fabulous changes that were made, and how exciting to have 7 new temples announced!   WOW!   We haven't had a chance to hear all of conference, but we look forward to it.  Later on that day we went to  Mele Cascade Falls.  The Roundy's and Collette's have not been there yet, and the Davidson's wanted to go one more time before they go home.  That was one of the first adventures we went on when we got here.  I think I posted pictures of the rushing waterfalls.  The first time we went I couldn't get to the top to see the waterfall, and swim in the pool at the base of it.  The water was running hard because of all the rainfall they had.  Essentially, we were walking up a waterfall because it was spilling over the trail.  There were ropes to hang onto, but it was still dangerous.  This time, there wasn't near the water running down, so you could walk on the trail to get up to the fall instead of walking through the waterfall itself. The hike up was beautiful.  When we got there we jumped into the pool at the base and swam under the waterfall.  You had to get under the fall quick because the water was smacking you on the head pretty hard and you felt like you were going to drown!  I wasn't sure I wanted to do it, but Greg helped me to get under it and it was fun.  The water was so clear and beautiful!  On our way back down, we saw a rock slippery slide that had  water running down it into a pool of water below.  It was probably about 20 feet high.  Everyone was sliding down it multiple times.  Sister Lindeman and I were chickening out, but decided to do it!  It was sooo fun!  There is NO WAY kids in American would be allowed to do what we did.  

Well dear family and friends, I'll close for now.  We love you all so much and miss you even more.  

Enjoy the beautiful weather!  LUCKY DUCKS!  Love you, Greg and Ann