Another Mission Already?! Post

Good, rainy, morning to you all.  It's been raining like crazy this morning, but we are loving it because it's also cool.  I actually have a blanket on my lap!  It is winter here though, so it will be much nicer.  I've been waiting for things to write to you about.  Things are a little slow.

Last week we all went to this place called the garden of eden.  It's a little park that some of the locals have really put some work into.  It's a nature trail that has been groomed beautifully, that leads to a fun place to swim.  It also has a place to have a BBQ, so we're looking forward to doing that sometime.  The water was as clear as glass, because it's fresh water.  Elder Collette found some worms and threw them in the water to see if the fish would bite, and boy did they.  We saw some amazing plants that you would only see in the jungle.  It felt so good to be there in the peace and quiet.  This is one of the places that people go to when they come off the cruise ships. When we got back, we met out by the pool and had lunch that we all pitched in on to make.  When it's fast sunday weekend, we usually have a Saturday morning activity and an early lunch because of fast sunday being the next day. 

The Lindeman's told us they looked on the church website to see if any of our positions were advertised.  They said, that they were the only ones not listed.  We decided to go online and see for ourselves, and sure enough there was the assistant area auditor listed.  Out of curiosity, Greg wanted to look at what was available on the military missionary side of things.  When he got to military service opportunities, he hit a key that then generated the message that said something like, " your bishop has been notified of your willingness to serve a mission!"   WHAT?  OH NO!  We're not even home from this one!   We hurried and emailed Bishop Taylor and told him  it was obviously a mistake.  He emailed back and said something like," I was wondering what you were doing."   How embarrassing!

President Granger called yesterday wondering if I would prepare new file folders for his files, so we went to the office.  I'm so glad we went, because some of the missionaries were leaving for the airport to go home.  Two of my favorites were on their way, so it was nice to see them and say good bye.  Elder Piohl was going home to the Philippines, and Elder Villinueva to Tonga. Before missionaries return home to a foreign country, they can take an English test, administered by the Lindeman's. The test lets them know how well they are doing in the English language, so that when they go home, and want to enroll in college programs offered by the church, they will know if they need to learn better English first.

I've become the seamstress for the mission. I've moved on to making little black shorts for the little boys, instead of skirts, for the orphan pikinini school.  They are the cutest little things and pretty easy to make.  Sister Roundy made the  pattern up.  Though I am making some of the uniforms, she has taught the mama's how to sew them also.  She was able to buy a few hand crank sewing machines (no electricity) where they live, and fabric.  It's all part of the humanitarian services.  The kids are suppose to do a march from one park to another next week, so we're hoping to  get their uniforms finished for that.  I'll try to get pictures.  I'm so glad to have these projects in between audits!  Greg will be attending a meeting this weekend with all the district presidents from the other islands in Vanuatu, New Caledonian and Solomon Islands.  He'll be doing some training with them and maybe scheduling audits.  It's hard to believe this is our last audit cycle. 

You're probably wondering what's going on with our "move in" bugs.  We told Stephen, the apartment manager, that we don't see any signs of the "official" bed bug.  Those creepy little things are red (from sucking blood out of you), and you are able to see them.  They leave a red, itchy welt on your skin.  We have looked very carefully in places where they would be, but no sign of them.  Stephen doesn't think it's the "bed bug."  He thinks it's something else.  He's going to get something to put on our mattress.  As far as the couch goes, which is black leather,  I think I explained that when you sit on it, you can feel something crawling on you, but you can't see it.  Stephen says that it's ants.  They are so tiny that you can't see them.  I got desperate and googled remedies for crawley things you can't see.  Some lady said she wipes her couch down with windex.  Remember the father in the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding?  He used windex for everything!  So funny.  She thought maybe it was the ammonia that worked.   I have been doing that, and it seems to help.  Stephen is going to have the cleaners go through all of our apartments and clean our floors with bleach.  I have to keep reminding myself that "it's a jungle out here"!  We're also wondering if we may have brought critters back in our luggage for Malekula after the cyclone!!  Yikes!  Who knows?  Well, I'll close for now, hope you're all enjoyed the beautiful weather at home.  

We love you all!   Love, Greg and Ann