Week 49
Island of Paradise
19 July 2025
There are some beautiful places in our mission. As most of you know, my brother K.C. and his wife Judy are serving at the same time and place that we serve. We promised each other that we would take a trip prior to them going home and they only have 7 weeks left, so we decided to go to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands for a couple of days. With the permission of the mission president, we we able to find the time to visit paradise. Aitutaki is one of Heavenly Fathers most beautiful creations.
Getting to the Aitutaki is a bit of an adventure. This was the outdoor check-in counter.
This was our boarding pass after we gave them our name. Nothing else, no ID, no passport, nothing, just a name and then they print this for your boarding pass.
Luggage collection on a tiny truck.
The best way to explore the island is by scooter. Renting the scooter was an experience. No helmets or waiver. I'm glad Kelly was a good and safe driver.
We happened to drive by the Church branch. It is a beautiful building. Up until about 6 weeks ago, two missionaries were on the island, but they just pulled them off and put them back on the main island.
The Baldwins from Ohio and Judy and KC Shaw.
This is the scene outside our room on Aitutaki.
I drank coconut water every day. They had it on every sitting table.
Meet Captain T and his sea vessel. We took a 5 hour lagoon tour. Good thing it wasn't a "3 hour tour"! We kept singing that. (I'm sure we saw the island where Gilligan's Island was filmed.) Our tour consisted of 3 snorkeling spots in the middle of the lagoon and 2 deserted island stops. There are 15 islands in the Cook Islands. They all vary in size and shape. The snorkeling was amazing. One stop had giant clams and another had 4 feet black fish. Captain T tossed out cheese and they swarmed around us. It freaked me out at first. Captain T thought that was hilarious.
Everywhere you look is a postcard picture.
The stay wouldn't be complete (or worth while) without some missionary work. This is Luke from Fiji on a small island near Taviani We became good friends. His uncle is a member of the Church and Luke promises to look into the church and talk to his uncle when he returns. They earn $5 an hour in Fiji and $12 an hour in Cook. There are many hospitality workers here from Fiji.
Elder Shaw looks like life couldn't be better.
And close up...it's his happy face.
Meet Thomas and Kayla Willie. (The couple in the center) He is the District President and works for the government and Kayla is the communication director for the Cook Islands. We work with Kayla. She is a very good writer and writes for the news once a month in the religious column. These two are so young for their responsibilities. They met at BYU Hawaii and decided to go back to their island to help the community and church.
Happy Birthday to Sister Barton and Elder Yarbrough. Good people, working hard. Sister Barton is a Chruch legal missionary and Elder Yarbrough is the infield rep for this Area. Elder Yarbrough has the hardest mission of anyone here. He is the first contact for 24 mission leaders in the Pacific/Asia area. His phone rings all day for 24 hours a day and none of the calls are good news. Despite all of that, he is always smiling, kind, and happy. He and his wife are wonderful people.
We are anticipating a busy week getting ready for our UNICEF dinner coming up next week. We will tell you about that next report. We are doing a mini service project with our interfaith dinner group of assembling hygiene kits. I can't find zip bags big enough to put everything in.
We love you and we miss you!!
Elder and Sister Shaw
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