Today I was exposed to a different way to make a difference. I spent much of the morning preparing a submission to request help for a young sister in Fiji who is 20 years old, has been a member since she was 8 and finds herself on the verge of going blind in both eyes unless she undergoes a cornea transplant. We’ll see what we can do to help. I finished preparing a request for some additional cars for the mission and sent that to the Area Presidency for approval. We tried to find a way to get our sisters to Vanuatu, but it appears they will be stuck here in Fiji for another week while they wait for a confirmed spot on an airplane. We drove downtown to get some electronics and some plastic tubs around noon. I am still not at all used to driving on the left side of the road! It truly feels like I’m driving into a mirror! I only turned the windshield wipers on twice when trying to turn on the blinkers on this trip. I’m getting better. The roads in Suva are spaghetti! There are also very few street signs. The combination makes for some very difficult navigation. We made it there and back and I finished up some more work in the office this afternoon. I was able to complete another missionary recommendation package and submit it to the Area for processing. I have six more to do and I think I’ve got everything I need on four of them so I’ll do them first thing in the morning. I finished up my Leadership Training slides on the new missionary training program that is just being rolled out. This training for new missionaries is a coordinated program throughout the Church and I think it will give us a must more uniform experience for new missionaries going forward.
This evening I got the following message from my counselor in Vanuatu that touched me. As a preface, I would say that Ambae is a fairly remote island in Vanuatu. If you want to go there you are committing to be there for at least 3 days. There are several branches on the island. However, there is a southern piece of the island that has not had missionaries there and does not have a branch. None of the other branches can get there without taking a substantial boat ride and the airport to that area is currently non-functional. Elder Warner had gone there recently with the Elders on Ambae due to a report by some members that there were as many as 40 people there who were just waiting for the missionaries to come so they could join the Church. He wrote the following:
“I just talked with the Ambae Elders and they got back from South Ambae yesterday after spending two nights there. They reported teaching 4 discussions to a total of about 40 people. Two other families came to them afterwards and said they didn’t know they were coming and asked if they would teach them on their next trip. They also held a couple of Family House Nights. The chief, Erick, reported that they have had a Sunday School every Sunday since we were there and they are using the Book of Mormon as their text. The Elders left 3 Gospel Essentials books with them (English). I have talked with Elder Albrecht about getting some Bislama manuals over to South Ambae and I’m trying to get the Luganville District more involved in this developing group. They would like Hymn Books and CD’s with the Church music on them…”
It thrills me to hear of the excitement being generated on Vanuatu. The Church is growing very fast there. We just need to be careful we can support them with leadership training and grow their leaders quickly enough to keep up with the growth in general. Jan and I are planning to visit 4 of the islands while we are there at the end of the month. Unfortunately, we don’t have 3 days to commit to going to Ambae.
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