Our Fiji Adventure

Our Fiji adventure last weekend was one of those life changing experiences we get every once-in-a-while. We will never forget the friendly people, the humbling spirit, or the panorama of pictures. We were on assignment to attend the first planning meeting of the Suva Fiji Temple Re-dedication Committee. And WHAT a planning meeting it was!!

We arrived in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) Friday around noon, rented a car, and drove east along the southern coast of this small island nation (approx. 7,000 sq. miles compared to Utah’s approx. 85,000). We passed through many of the island villages (as they call them) where you see small houses tucked among the tropical foliage. They are made of a variety of materials…wood, corrugated tin, plastic tarps, and concrete blocks…sometimes all on one house. Some have electricity, some do not. Some have piped-in water, some do not. Most of the cooking is done outside over a fire, the smoke wafting through the air as you drive by. Life is definitely simpler, without all the “necessities” we are accustomed to.

 After three hours of driving we found ourselves in Suva, the capital city of Fiji, with modern buildings, hotels, and houses and all the hustle and bustle of 74,400 people.The open market stalls were colorful and crazy. Our Holiday Inn oceanfront accommodations were lovely, but it was the friendliness of the staff that was truly remarkable. Everyone greeted us with big smiles and hellos (bulavinaka in Fijian), offers to help, taking every opportunity to make our stay enjoyable. (They don’t have tipping, either!) They are just generally happy, friendly, helpful people (at least all that we met). Some even commented on how that is especially interesting given their cannibalistic history (yikes!). ;)

Early Saturday morning we could hear children singing and walked out on our patio to hear them. A group of about 12 middle-schoolers were standing by the pool singing a cappella (as is the custom) and sounding so sweet. As we were finishing breakfast and getting acquainted with our cute waitress she pointed outside and said, “There is our Prime Minister [of Fiji] coming in to speak at the education conference here this morning.” Of course, that caught our interest so we slipped in behind his contingent and were ushered to our seats as if we were expected and welcome! (We later learned that church LDS Charities has been helpful in various causes and our missionary tags “made us VIPs”!) It was a fairly small audience of educators and government leaders with a nice buffet (of which we didn’t partake).

The meeting was the formal ceremony for the “Launch of the National Framework of Digital Literacy for Fijian Schools Programme”. It is a partnership with Reach 4 Your Future Foundation (Intel, HP, and Microsoft) that donates all the technology. After the “Garlanding of Chief Guest” (the PM) we got to hear the children’s choir again and a few speakers talking about this great initiative to bring their kids into the 21^st century. It only lasted an hour and then we had a chance to visit with the HP (Hewlett Packard) Global Director and of course introduce him to Imagine Learning. (Still selling!)

We then drove to the Suva Temple to see how it was progressing. It is still four months from completion date, and we were fortunate to arrive just in time to join the planning committee on a hardhat tour. It was heartwarming to see the fruits of our son-in-law Kyle’s labors as we viewed the baptismal font which he and his team built last spring. It is just now being tiled so we could still see his concrete foundation! We could also see that the temple is going to be beautiful.

That evening we joined our Fiji Public Affairs Director in a small group for dinner. The conversion stories we hear over dinner are simply amazing and faith-building. We then met with her committee where they received instructions from Salt Lake regarding their part in the upcoming temple activities. We were very impressed with both the quality of instruction and the humble willingness and skills present in the committee members called to be photographer, social media, opinion leaders or interfaith outreach, finance, etc. Pretty eye-opening to see what goes into these events.

Sunday was The Day To Remember. We were invited to join Elder Adolph Johansson, Area Seventy, (Tongan) and President Qaqa (say Gonga) of the Suva Fiji North Stake, along with members of the temple committee from Salt Lake to travel “into the bush” to attend church there. We jumped at the opportunity, though with some trepidation, not knowing what we would encounter. Words really can’t convey the many feelings, impressions, sights, and sounds of this very spiritual and sacred experience. But we will do our best to describe what we can.

We set off in three four-wheel drive vehicles. Our journey took us close to two hours, with the last hour on dirt/gravel roads through scenic tropical forests up into the mountains of Fiji. We saw many rivers and waterfalls, crops being cultivated, animals grazing without fences, and waving villagers as we passed by. When we reached our destination we were greeted warmly by a few local saints and a pair of young elderswho led us down a narrow red dirt path to what at first appeared to be an animal shelter of corrugated metal, but became to us like the humble stable where the Christ child lay. Truly, it was a sacred place.

 We left our shoes outside the door and were invited to sit on the large woven mats that covered the floor. There were no inner walls in this home, only a light fabric curtain hung in one corner to conceal the family’s belongings.

A priesthood brother was quietly preparing the sacrament on a small tabledraped with a white cloth. There were a few sisters sitting against the back wall with several children surrounding them.

They didn’t seem to speak English, but I imagine they were the home’s occupants. The little children surrounded us, sitting cross-legged on the mats, a few eager to share their hymnbooks with us as we began to sing. We arrived half an hour early, so we filled the time singing the songs we love, in common. I noticed that the vigor and volume of this “choir” was larger than our whole congregations at home. Only the language was different and we did our best to sing out in Fijian!

 Other Saints filtered in until there was a congregation of forty to fifty filling the room. The meeting was conducted in Fijian but two of the Salt Lake visitors were invited to speak with the aid of a translator. Elder Johansson also spoke in English with a translator. The spirit was so strong throughout the meeting, and at times we wept. The messages delivered were inspired and tailored specifically for those saints in that far-removed, humble setting. How can they have a sense of belonging to this world-wide, fast-moving, modern-day church? How can they reconcile their traditions with the principles of the gospel? How can they participate in missionary work, genealogy, and temple ordinances? Those who spoke to these sweet saints answered those questions in profound and moving ways.

Later that night we met a young mother (now an accountant) who told us she had grown up near there. At the time, they didn’t have a unit (what they call this smaller-than-a-branch group) and her father was the bishop of the ward they attended. It was a three hour walk each way to church every Sunday. (THREE HOURS!!) She recalled, as a child, walking sometimes just with her brother as her father had gone ahead for meetings and her pregnant mother stayed home with the younger children. Can you even imagine that kind of courage, faith and dedication?! Are we so spoiled, or what?! We complain when we have to go a few blocks to church in the rain or snow. It was indeed a humbling experience.

 As we were leaving, the youth surrounded us, and we women dug through our purses to find any treats we could leave with them…gum, candies, the small lotions, shampoos, and soaps we had snatched from our hotel room, anticipating this. We so wished we would have known the day before and been better prepared to share. But they seemed thrilled with everything we handed out and loved posing for pictures. We left there richly blessed and changed forever.

That night we met with the Temple Re-dedication Committee for four hours to discuss every small detail that goes into making each of the events the super-special events they are. Each member has a specific assignment: parking, security, food, cultural event, ushers, historian, music, dedication service, tickets, finance, etc.

 It was impressive to see the organization, level of detail, and order in all the planning. More impressive was to see the strength, faith, and willingness of each committee member as they were instructed on the very large responsibility that will be theirs over the next five months. Our small part is to help our Public Affairs committee member with the VIP and interfaith invitations and open houses, which take place the first three days before the public open houses.

Most touching was the tone of those from the temple committee who have done this so many times. They spoke of the care, tenderness, and courtesy each member was to show in all their interactions and manner of speaking as they share their temple with the guests, never speaking sharply, even if children begin climbing over the altar!

Monday, we returned to our now luxurious-appearing flat in Auckland, having experienced one of the most special weekends of our lives. We hope to never forget what we felt and our love for the good people we met.