The first photo is of the Bela family. The Arnolds invited us to go with them to teach this family.  The next photo is of the next to the youngest son, we played peek a boo back and forth all evening.  He was very tired by the time we left.  We all set around their dining room table (which is outside).  Very humble living conditions.  But a very sweet family.  We brought cookies and the Arnolds brought some chips and salsa to share, they made dinner.  We had nims for the first time.  Like an egg roll but they use grated turnip instead of cabbage.  They also made prune cake, meat sandwiches and various kinds of fruit especially bananas.  Which brings us to the banana photo.  Talk about having your year's supply, in various stages of ripeness. And now it is time to get back home.  Yes we traveled around the island, up the mountain thru the woods and forged the stream to get there and now we had to go back in the dark.  We started crossing and yes I had my camera out the window, and then I said, I can finally see land on the other side.  Now down the rough road and around the island back to our apartment.  YEAH!!! Home again.

We would like to introduce you to the couples serving her in Tahiti.  The Petersons are from Canada and are serving as Temple missionaries. The Moodys are from Utah and are serving for three years as the Temple President and Matron.  The Arnolds are also from Utah and are serving a proselyting mission. And the last couple is in the process of relocating to Tahiti, just kidding.

We have decided to change the style of our blog. Instead of doing themes, of which there are very few, we will just post pictures as we take them and include the explanations that go along with them and then, hopefully,we will be able to catch up (with the 2000 pictures Kay has taken & the 14 I've taken.)

Last weekend we were driving around the island, Kay made me turn around because she had to have a photo of this guy and his fishing pole. We think he was out for some serious fishing.  What do you think?

These are two photos of homes at the end of the runway. Yes if you had a good throwing arm you could throw a tahitian mango and hit a plane!  If you click on the photo you can get a closer look at some of the living conditions here.

These five photos are from different ward and stake activities. The first 3 are of a professional drum and dance group.  The young boy is also from another dance group.  All doing traditional Polynesian style dances.  The last photo is of the High Priest Group doing a comical version of these dances.  They were hilarious. 

Several people have asked what our apartment looks like, so today we decided to add some pictures.

This is the back side of our building.

We live on what is called the 1st floor (but it is the 2nd floor because they call the ground floor the first floor.) We are the second balcony from the corner just above the stairs.

Living room / dining room and 1/2 of our laundry room. The dryer has to be next to the sliding glass door to the balconyso we have a place to plug it in and to vent it.

This is our desk, chest of drawers and bookcase all in one. What a space saver.

Dining room looking into the kitchen. We have a microwave, a gas top-electric oven stove. (That blows the fuse if anything else in the apartment is on.) A small fridge.

This is the other half of our laundry room.

Yes, it is small but it does keep things cold.

Close up of our crazy stove. The top folds down for extra counter space.

Our queen size bed and we use the bar stools from the kitchen for night stands, that's all that will fit.

Looking into the bathroom. We can both fit. One in the shower and the other at the sink.

This is the water heater. When you turn on the hot water, it ignites and heats the water. You can't close the door to the bathroom because the fumes will get you.

It is nice to be able to take a shower even though you have to stand real close for the water to hit you.


The apartment building is maintained well and our apartment was pretty clean when we moved in. We do have the occasional bug or many bugs daily, OK many bugs by the minute. I send Terry out and spray the bug killer. He can't stand the smell.

We are working hard to learn the things we need to do in the office. From paying bills to writing accident reports like "The dog attacked the car and scratched it." Medical problems like in-grown toenails and an infected ear for the missionaries. Never a dull moment. Next Sunday we have missionaries arriving from the New Zealand Mission Training Center and Monday from the Provo MTC. We also have missionaries going home. Always a busy place. Orientation and fumigation. New bank accounts and travel arrangements. Transfers and interviews. We have many more photos to post but never enough time.  HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

Wanted to share some of the beautiful flowers we have found as we are out walking around.  I hope that you enjoy the flower show.

 

       

  We we were in between our classes so we thought we would go sit in the sunshine.  This just happened to be the day that the new missionaries arrived.  They just kept coming.  The week that we started our training at the Mission Training Center (MTC), we had 35 senior couples, 10 senior single sisters, and about 180 young missionaries.  The following week there were 95 couples and I don’t remember how many young missionaries.

 We were visiting with a member of the MTC presidency and he said the numbers at the MTC will grow substantially during the summer months after school is out.   The MTC feeds over 2000 people 3 meals per day.   You never have to worry about being hungry.  The food is cafeteria style food but not bad.  Some of the missionaries take full advantage of the all you can eat and drink policy.  We had all the bagels and flavored cream cheese you could ever want to eat.  Cold cereal measured by mountains. There is plenty of fruit, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, donuts, muffins  and much more at breakfast.  Lunch and dinner had various themes.  You might have orange chicken on one end and hamburgers on the other end.  The design your own wrap or salad bar was open both lunch and dinner.  Wednesdays and Sundays are Ice Cream days.  Gallons and gallons with hot fudge, hot caramel, marshmallow cream as well as the nuts, cherries, M & M’s and various other toppings.  Fridays are pizza day.  They order out and bring in hundreds of pizzas from a local Papa Johns.  And one Friday they order in Teriyaki Sticks.  Well back to class we go.

  These 2 ladies are our tutors for French.  They are both return missionaries going to school at BYU.  The Mission Training Center employs hundreds of students.  Positions in the kitchen,  MTC teachers and language tutors, maintenance, security, grounds, audio visual, computers, secretarial, book keeping and every kind of office position.  There are also hundreds of volunteers as well.  This is a very organized and well run facility.  The missionaries also sign up for service opportunities each week.  When we arrived there were a group of Elders just waiting to unload our bags and take them up to our room.  These are photos of the new part just finished at the MTC, senior housing.  We had room that looks like a hotel room.  We did have to bring our own bible. Our room over looked the area where you could pick up your make your own sack lunch if you didn’t want to go into the lunch room area, as well as a mountain and garden view. 

After spending a week studying Preach My Gospel we were immersed into the wonderful world of office management – iMOS (internet missionary office system). Whoa. We had 4 days of intensive training & then we had 2 days off. The first day was a reminder why we’re glad to be in Tahiti.

 Yes we had snow in Provo.  But it only lasted for part of the day.  Since we were free, we went to the Provo Temple. The MTC gives the senior couples rides up there & comes to get you when you are through. Nice service when it is snowing, otherwise just a short walk.

Monday, April 9^th finally arrived and they got us loaded onto a bus.                 

 Not the nice big blue one but the smaller school bus-type bus. I got 3 elders to help me bring our bags to the bus. They were very eager to help.

We flew from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. We checked 4 suitcases, each weighing 50 pounds from Salt Lake all the way through to Papeete Tahiti.  We also got to bring a missionary’s bicycle with us. He forgot it at the MTC. Talk about a hassle at Salt Lake, LA and again in Papeete (customs issues.) We finally got checked in at Air Tahiti Nui. (Nui means big in Tahitian.) 

So here we find 2 eager passengers waiting for their flight to Papeete.   One of them is even carrying her Time Out for Women bag. 

 

 I guess Time Out for Women has a long, long reach.

Da  Plane!   Da  Plane!

Here we have our last look at the United States for 2 years.

 up up and away,

  

 still on our way,

and almost there after 8 hours.

 

We were met at the airport by President and Sister Sinjoux, our mission president & his wife plus the Arnolds, the proselyting couple that has been helping out at the office until we arrived. 

 We also had the Temple President, President Moody and his wife and the Peterson’s who serve in the Temple as well.   Everyone looks perky for 11 pm. 

At this point we had been up for 21 hours give or take a few cat naps on the plane.

Tuesday Morning Kay took these photo’s from our balcony.

This is the mountain on the island of Moorea which is about 20 kilometers west of Tahiti. 

 This photo is looking north at the ocean.

 Tuesday evening we were able to catch our first sunset.  And we plan on watching a few more from our balcony.  

 

The Arnolds were kind enough to take us shopping. We went to the French equivalent of Walmart, which is called Carrefour.  Me & my wares and the crazy shopping cart.  The carts here move forward and sideways with ease.  Thus making it difficult on an incline to keep the cart going the way you want it to go.  Kay was laughing like crazy while trying to take a photo of me and this crazy shopping cart.  When you have a large enough space I think it is easier to hold on to the side of the cart and push it.           

After our shopping experience the Arnolds took us on a drive.   

             

  

 

 

 

Sunday church started at 8:00am.  We have a beautiful building with a wonder breeze way between the chapel and the classrooms.  I think this is traditional design for island settings.  We were told to expect air in the chapel but not in the class rooms.  But so far the rooms we have been in have all had air conditioned.  And as expected the people here are very kind and friendly.  In Relief Society the sisters made sure I knew I had to come to their activity on the 28^th of April.  We are making pearl rings, straw Sunday bags (scripture bags), and flowers made from tapioca and cornstarch. (I am thinking this may be their fondant, I will see).  I am looking forward to getting to know the sisters here.

After Church we went for a walk around our neighborhood.  And as always, Kay had her camera in hand.  We took a few more pictures.    Flowers, flowers and more flowers she can’t get enough.  Oh, and then there is water.   Don’t you just love (hate) those hats, we are still looking for some better ones,  these were some extras at the office. 

     Well as we continue on our walk around the neighborhood.  We found plenty of bananas as well as other fruit.  

 And more flowers.  This tree has been grafted to have 4 or 5 colors of flowers.  Check out the base and you can see where the different plants are woven together.  Sure makes for a beautiful flowering shade tree.  Nice for a little rest out of the warm sun.

    

    

We found a great place to relax out of the sun. Terry thinks that maybe he could enjoy this on a regular basis.  Padded chairs and sofa, table, ocean breeze, palm tree leaves for the roof all we need is some lemonade.  I feel a nap coming on.

 

Well this is the end of the first week.  We hope to get caught up on the photos’ and the posting to the blog soon.  We may even find / take some more photos and make comments later today.  We do not have an internet connection at the apartment so we are hoping to cut and paste this from a word document.  It may come out as a mess and we will have to start all over but we thought we would try it this anyway.