Week 18
Valiant Souls In Vanuatu
A Week to Remember
December 14, 2024
It is going to be very hard to express our thoughts and feeling about our week in Vanuatu. This post may be longer than most. It was a week of beauty, poverty, extreme heat, joy, spiritual feelings, tears, youthful activities, gobs of food, and love. All those things happen when you bring 1000 youth together from 4 different islands for their first ever FSY. They anticipated 800 and 1000 came. (In some places, that 200 would be a complete FSY.) The leaders and cooks adjusted and made do. (Some whole families arrived not understanding the purpose of the event.) When the Vanuatu government heard about the activity, the deputy prime minister showed up and presented Elder and Sister Payne with a bag of rice and some root vegetables.
Ni Vans (people from Vanuatu) are gentle, humble, soft spoken, and kind. I don't understand the process, but I feel the Lord's love for the people here. I feel like I'm a spectator of this love as we visit with and serve them. They are so accepting of the gospel, so humble and teachable.
I had a great time taking pictures. The youth were beautiful in their colorful traditional dress. The girls didn't mind getting their picture taken but I had a hard time interviewing them.
We love Elder and Sister Payne. They were called as institute/seminary missionaries in Vanuatu and were assigned to oversee this FSY. They are going to heaven for what they accomplished in an under-developed country and with the resources they had. They worked a miracle. Not without some bumps and bruises but a miracle non-the-less. We have said this before but we will say it again, one of the un-anticipated joys of a senior mission is the other senior missionaries. They are inspiring.
This picture needs explaining. Vanuatu has a Temple under construction and the church has stateside and Australian employees that have relocated their families to Vanuatu to oversee the building of the Temple. The sacrifices entire families make is often over-looked.
These darling YA helped me interview some of the youth. They would select who they thought would speak boldly and bring them to a quiet side of the campus so I could talk to them. We were asked by an employee in SLC with the FSY magazine to ask the question: "Tell me about a time when you had to look unto Christ." (I think that is the theme for next year.) It was so sweet listening to their feelings. They talked of final exams, sports injuries, moving from family, peer pressure. All the things that every youth around the world feels and works through. I just wanted to hug each one as they finished. The girls, I did.
This is Pauline. She was in charge of it all.
I know, it looks like I am eating tin-foil. It is actually the best pineapple I have ever eaten (Norene that comment is for you). We stopped at the local grocery story called a mama-market to check out the food and the pineapple was amazing.
You all cannot image how hot it is. OK, maybe Stan and Michelle can in the Phillipines, but after spending a couple of hours taking pictures and talking with people we would climb in our car and driving around to cool down.
This is the editor of the Vanuatu newspaper on the left. On the right is the national communication director for Vanuatu. We arranged a meeting with her to discuss the temple under construction in her country, the Church's humanitarian work in Vanuatu, and to invite her to Auckland to come to the temple open house. There will be a media day during the Auckland Temple open house. We are trying to get an newspaper editor or T.V. person from every country in the Pacific that has a temple under construction (10 temples announced or under construction) to come to the open house. This will be a lot of work but will be well worth the effort preparing them for their open houses.
I spent quite a bit of time getting this billboard approved and financed, so when I saw it in a prefect location, it made me happy.
This is the Joe and Jennifer Kwan and they are doing amazing work in Vanuatu. We set up lunch with them to lift and support them and they ended up lifting and supporting us. They have a story that makes Launette cry every time. They were absolute angels sent from heaven for two missionaries on an outer island. Here is the brief story. Their assignment is to help build outdoor chapels on the outer islands of Vanuatu. These islands are often very primitive. They have been in Vanuatu for about 4 weeks now and we met them when they came through Auckland for some training. So we arranged a lunch with them while in Vanuatu. They told us of the first trip to check on a project in one of the outer islands. The local members told them to take their own food and water as they may not be able to get it on the island. The flight in was an adventure. They stayed at a small guest house on the island. Conditions were very tough and it was so hot and humid and they were struggling. After two days they went to the landing strip to fly home and were told the plane was broken and it would be two days before they could get the part to fix it and leave the island. They didn't know what to do or why the Lord was making it so difficult. They walked back to the branch presidents house where they found two elders staying with the branch president. They were sleeping on the dirt floor in the corner of the branch presidents house. One elder was from Washington and the other from Fiji. They were both using a bucket to shower and their clothes were dirty as they didn't have a washer. Their previous landlord of their flat kicked them out without notice because he has a sick daughter that wanted to come home. The Kwans knew immediately why the plane was broken. They got a call into the mission president who told them to find them housing. They had no idea how to do it. They started walking around the village and calling out (knocking on doors). About the fourth place they stopped the owner said he had a guest quarters out in back of his house. They went around to find a small apartment with cement floors, a shower, a sink, a toilet and running water. He wanted more than they could pay, so they prayed and explained why the elders were on the island. The Landlord softened by the spirit accepted what they could pay. They made the arrangements and paid the first month rent. They went back to get the elders and when they brought them to their new place the elder from Washington began to cry. Through is tears he said, "I didn't know if I could make it another day. This is a miracle, the Lord heard my prayers." With tears in their eyes the Kwans gave them a hug, set them up in their new place, and flew home the next day. The Lords' hand was in the broken plane, the softening of a landlord and life-saving gift of a place to stay for two elders. There are angels among us. Needless to say, our lunch with the Kwans was inspiring and a great reminder of the miracles that happen on a daily basis.
This is our new communications director for the island of Vanuatu, Antoine Malsungai and his wife. They spoke Bishlama and we spoke English. They also speak French. Between the three languages we figured out how to communicate. Their English was pretty good but the woman didn't have the courage or confidence to speak to us directly, so she said everything to her husband and he interpreted. When she got excited about a conversation she spoke English to us. :) Very reserved women. Launette: I wonder what Antoine thought of me asking him to work with his stake president to form a committee to help him with his assignment. He just kind of looked at me for a long time and then said OK.
Kelly: I want to share a thought I had this week. It was impressed on my mind this week about being a FULL-TIME missionary. We wake up and put on a badge and spend our entire day figuring out how to best serve the Lord and his children. It becomes a way of life and brings with it a spirit that is tangible. You see the world differently. What a gift. Don't get me wrong, it isn't Shangri-La, there are lots of adjustments and hard things, but in the end, we know we are small tools serving and loving God's children.
We love you all. We are really missing you during the holiday season!!!
With love,
Elder and Sister Shaw
P.S. We write these letter together, both editing back and forth. We don't want you to know who it writing. We are working on being unified in our work.:)
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