Yet Another Update from the Castaways

Bon Jour Tous,

Well, we are on hurricane watch again...torrential rains, winds not as big this time, the storm surging through the ocean right between Reunion and Madagascar and, hopefully, missing a direct hit for both of us.  President and Sister Adams were scheduled to come in tonight (Thursday) for a zone conference on Saturday and several other meetings with priesthood leaders, but, of course, everything had to be cancelled. Our worst day is supposed to be tomorrow, and right now we are only on yellow alert (yellow, orange, red is the progression to indicate seriousness), so, maybe, we will only get wet.  I wish you could see the rain; it is like a fire hose pointed at our sliding glass doors.  Unbelievable!  But, I KNOW, it is warm here and we have NO snow.  What do we have to complain about, right?  We have followed the weather back home closely, heard about it from many of you, and we know it is a good winter to have missed.

On our last post, we talked about some of our areas of focus here in addition to the missionaries.  It is interesting how quickly that can expand, with fingers leading out into other directions.  Last Thanksgiving we helped the missionaries with a fireside...remember the blessing tree?  I had asked them at the time if the branch had a budget for them to work with.  Their response was that no organizations had a budget; there was no money.  "What, that can't be right?"  "No, really, there is no money for anyone."  So Brent had a job to do:  find out how the island finances work, which he has been working on, treading very carefully, but asking questions, talking to branch leaders, checking with President Adams. Why don't the branches have a budget?  Meanwhile, we have both been addressing, with the missionaries, the lack of youth programs here.  Granted, some branches have few youth - one branch has one young woman and one young man, siblings - but there could be combined activities with other branches.  The missionaries are excited to work with the youth and have many good ideas of things to do. We are moving ahead with a plan to implement a Wednesday activity night.  I have been looking for Boy Scout Handbooks and Leaders Manuals in French, with no luck, but we have ordered one of each in English and the elders will translate, one at a time, the sections that the leaders need.  Also, I have talked to the district Young Women's leaders...only a few Personal Progress booklets here, and yes, they would love to be able to work with the program.  I think you can see the problem:  no money, no way to order the materials because the branches don't have ordering accounts, and the mission can't pay for branch supplies.  We did what any of you would have done and the booklets are on their way.  In the mean time, Brent is working with a member who understands church accounts and how they work, to set up bank accounts for the branches so that when they do get money, they will be able to use them to order supplies.  Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of church materials here, just not always the ones they need.  Be grateful that a phone call or a distribution center is so accessible for you.

On 23 January, Brent celebrated his 75th birthday in the middle of the Indian Ocean; what an exciting way to mark a milestone.  We took our Pday on that Wednesday and went (what else) up to the last cirque - Cilaos - which we had never visited and spent the day.  We discovered an interesting fact that you might enjoy.  This island was created by a huge volcanic eruption, and, at one time, was just one big volcano.  After many eruptions, the volcano imploded, creating the three cirques, or bowls,  in the center of the island and leaving one smaller volcano on the south side.  Cilaos is supposed to be the most picturesque, with a beautiful little town, spectacular vistas, and hiking trails for every level of hiker.  We were planning on taking advantage of a good hike that day, but when we arrived, we found, to our disappointment, that the trails were closed due to damage from the last hurricane.  Great, great day anyway and we loved and appreciated every minute!

Lowlight of the week:  When I received my instructions from the former mission presidents wife, she cautioned, "Don't bring circular skirts because the winds here will blow your skirt over your head." Really?  I didn't have any circular skirts, but did have one that was a little flared, not much...but so cool and comfortable to wear.  Monday I had to accompany one of the sister missionaries to the dentist - wisdom tooth problems - walked outside to make a phone call and, all of a sudden, my face was covered with coral.  You guessed it...my skirt!  I really hadn't believed her, but she was right; it blew right in front of my face! (and no slip because it is too hot here) Luckily, I was the only one in the parking lot.  So embarrassing!

Highlight of the week:  The night before Brent's birthday, the doorbell rang.  Four missionaries were standing there with a box of chocolate eclairs, a lighted candle in each one, two containers of ice cream, and sang Happy Birthday to him.  They came in laughing and proud of themselves for the surprise and we all shared the treats.  On Thursday, the day after his birthday, we went to the south of the island for a district meeting and two missionaries there - elders - had baked him a key lime and an apple pie. They were bursting their buttons because the pies were SO GOOD.  Again, we all enjoyed the treats and had a good time together.  Such a great, great experience.

District Young Women's activity.  We had the most wonderful Saturday together and that was when I was able to talk with the leaders about what they needed to begin the Personal Progress program in all the branches.
There are vanilla beans growing on one of the trees behinds us in this picture.

Two Sundays ago when the St Andre "group" was begun.  Interesting sidelight:  Earlier in the week, six missionaries with two branch presidents and the district president met to clean up the small building to be used.  Brent spent several hours on the end of a power hose washing down the outside of the building. The missionaries were cleaning, hanging white boards, etc.  I was inside mopping floors.  It was so hot that the sweat was literally dripping off the end of my nose, and I didn't wipe it off because it appeared again instantly. Anyway, I looked out the window and the three priesthood leaders were standing in front of the building discussing where to put the sign (which hadn't even arrived yet!)  I almost shook my wet, dirty mop out the window on top of them.  "Oh sorry, I didn't see you JUST STANDING THERE!"  I think you get the picture, but they rally did work hard later.

The night we had Cindi, Nicholas, and Chloe, our investigators,  for dinner.  Such a darling family!

Birthday eclairs for Elder Heap!

The Birthday boy in Cilaos.

Birthday pies...the elders you can see were the chefs.  Everyone is clapping after singing Happy Birthday.

Pday hike with the missionaries.  This canyon is just a short distance from our house.  We all felt like mountain goats and had to watch our footing very  carefully.

Just had to share a little of our island beauty.  There is a whole row of these trees blossoming along the roadside.  Our personal favorite so far; we love yellow!

One of our great blessings here is the feeling of connection we have with home, family, and friends.  We may be half way around the world, but Heavenly Father has helped us to still feel a part of everything that has always been so important to us.  One, of many, blessings unique to serving a mission.  Thank you for your love and support; it is what keeps us going.

A Bientot!

The Castaways

In Case You Have Wondered...

Cher famille et amis, (Dear family and friends),

You may have wondered why this blog is not full of experiences we are having teaching the gospel, after all, we are missionaries.  Well, although that does happen occasionally, the major part of our time here is spent in other ways.  Most importantly, we are responsible for the missionaries on La Reunion:  their physical, emotional, and spiritual well being.  There are two districts here with six missionaries in each district.  We meet weekly with both districts, one on Thursday and one on Friday, discussing investigator progress, problems they may be encountering, etc.  There is always a lesson given by one of the missionaries, and when necessary, we take some time to cover items: teaching gospel principles,  helping them understand the "whys and hows" of mission rules,  discussing new teaching ideas and techniques, giving pep talks, or just doing whatever the spirit directs us to do, which is sometimes just  sitting and talking after the meeting to get to know them in new ways and to laugh and joke with them.  We have made quick trips to apartments to help with companionship issues (Brent does all of this in private with each missionary; I sit and talk with the missionary who isn't being interviewed).  Brent counsels them on how to handle issues in the branches, how to work with the branch presidents and mission leaders, helps the elders with personal ups and downs, leaving the sister missionaries' up and downs to me, and generally just helping them with whatever comes up.  We have given advice (whatever it is worth) on a variety of personal challenges:  athletes foot, running out of money before running out of month, always feeling hungry and unsatisfied, broken beds, problems at home, not being able to sleep, problems with feelings of inadequacy...the help we try to give covers a huge spectrum of needs, but the main focus is just being there for them...grandparents away from home.  Our second responsibility is the branches.

We have five branches, and this Sunday a new group is opening up (a group is when there aren't enough members to form a branch, but enough members in a specific area to justify having their own meeting space).  We travel to and visit a different branch each Sunday, attending and participating in the investigator class if there is one, being in Young Women, Primary, everywhere we can to support the members.  Brent will sign temple recommends while we are there if needed, meet with members who ask for time, and just answer questions that the branch presidents may have, i.e. what to do if someone can't find their membership certificates (there is a brother serving as a branch president with no record of ever being baptized or ordained to the priesthood.) The record keeping needs a huge shot in the arm, but the lack of accurate records, or any records at all, is only a minor challenge.

We have a modern-day Korihor here who is causing problems with many of the members, visiting their homes, trying to convince them that the church has lost its authority, trying to pull members away.  Oh, there is never a time when there isn't an issue to deal with.  We spent one whole week translating (Brent translated; I was the scribe) sensitive documents, all hand written in French, that needed to be translated into English so that the First Presidency could read them.  We scanned and sent the originals and the translated letters to President Adams, who then forwarded them to Salt Lake.  THAT was exhausting, and again, wouldn't have been possible without help from our Heavenly Father.  We, gratefully, daily see His hand in the work here, with the missionaries, with the leaders, with the members, and with the investigators.  Speaking of...

We met an exceptional young woman at the bakery where we buy our bread and, as we visited with her, told her what we were doing on La Reunion. She asked about the church, so we sent the missionaries to see her, and then invited her and her family to the St Denis branch Christmas party (remember, where I sang in the choir?)  They came, and we had a great night together.  She expressed an interest in attending some meetings. This Sunday they are coming to church and then to dinner at our apartment along with the missionaries.  Hopefully, we will have a "missionary" experience to share with you after all.

Highlight of the week:  I discovered a wonderful new room freshener:  I take fresh vanilla beans (they look much like a green beans) and put a couple in each room.  The fragrance begins floating immediately through the air.  Just a whiff of fresh vanilla...Ahhh, it is amazing.  Vanilla beans are VERY expensive at home, but I can buy a whole bundle here for just three euros.

Lowlight of the week:  We were at the airport waiting for a new missionary to arrive from Madagascar.  It was a hot, humid night with much airport congestion, both vehicles and humans.  People were irritable.  We, of course, were wearing our missionary attire and name badges.  Four different people came up to Brent demanding that he do something about the nonfunctioning rest rooms.  Some days you just can't win!

Elder Heap talking with the missionaries during a P-day activity.  In 2010, the volcano here had a major eruption and the lava flowed over a huge area and into the ocean.  They are sitting on lava rock.

Three of us arrived at district meeting in pink, so we just had to pose together!

A better picture of the lava flow area.  Can't you just picture molten red lava covering all of this area and stretching as far as you can see on either side.

Our new elder from Madagascar.  When I get discouraged with the language, I will always think of him.  He came to Reunion and had to speak French.  After ten months, he was transferred to Madagascar and had to learn Malagasy, a very difficult language.  Eight months later, he was sent back here and had to start speaking French again.  It has been a challenge for him.  He told us, "I have struggled with language my whole mission".  A great, great elder who keeps moving forward - NO MATTER WHAT - or in which language.  

The Young Women and leaders of Le Port.  Each one has a special gospel history of trial, faith, and testimony.  We wish we could share some with you, but all are uniquely personal.  When we get home...

I think you know these two people.

The entrance to our apartment building.  As you can see, everything here has a security gate and the building has a code for access.  Beautiful island, but no one trusts anyone.

I know this is blurry; the camera couldn't focus, but can you believe that evening sky?

Nous vous aimons tous (we love you all)

The Castaways

Red Alert on La Reunion

Bonne Annee Nos Amis en Amerique!  (Happy New Year Our Friends in America)

Greetings of love for the new year to all those at home.  We understand the weather is frigid there...sorry, but here it is a balmy 85 (don't be too envious; it is also VERY humid).  We celebrated a totally different New Year here on the island as we joined with a group of the members at the pier for a Creole celebration.  Much delicious food (as always), eaten late (as always), great conversations with much animated arm waving and gesturing (as always), and yet another array of memories tucked away in our mental photo album.  We didn't stay to welcome in the new year because we had the sister missionaries with us and they (and I) wanted to be home to see the new year from our apartment which overlooks the whole city of St Denis.  I have to say, it was an AMAZING sight!  The sky, as far as I could see in either direction, literally exploded with dazzling fireworks which lasted for twenty minutes and was followed by the release of floating lanterns...remember in Tangled?  These lanterns are about the size of a 40 gallon drum so their light is very bright and can be seen for a long time.  After all of the excitement, sound, and explosion of the fireworks, the peaceful, glowing lanterns floating upward and upward and upward was an intensely spiritual moment for me.  It was a breathtaking New Year's celebration that, visually, will be difficult to equal and we will never forget the sight.  We will also never forget what followed.

The next day, we heard that there may be a cyclone/hurricane (those words are used interchangeably here) coming toward our island.  We have heard this before, with nothing ever materializing, so we didn't think too much of it.  By Wednesday, however, we were on orange alert, which means "Get Ready" so we contacted all the missionaries and instructed them to have extra food, plenty of bottled water , batteries, candles, a tankful of gas, and anything else that they thought they might need.  The winds were picking up and it had started to rain; we knew that we would experience at least some of the tropical storm.  Wednesday morning we were on red alert, which means NO ONE leaves their dwelling for ANY reason or they will be heavily ticketed.  It was strange looking on the city below with totally empty streets.  All day the winds raged at 80 - 90 m/hr and the rain fell like buckets being dumped from the sky, but the most alarming part of the storm was the ocean.  Usually calm and serene, the surf boiled with waves of about twenty-one to twenty-five feet crashing on the shore; we could hear the sound of it even though we live probably five miles up the mountain.  Our apartment never lost power, but many of our missionaries were without power all day and into the night.  The worst part for me was the late afternoon, about 5:00, when everything just stopped: no wind, no rain, no sound, just the heavy, humid air and the steel-gray skies.  It was eerie and made me very uncomfortable.  The storm site I was following indicated that we were in the eye of the storm, and I thought, "Okay, then what comes next?"  We finally went to bed and during the night could hear the wind and rain picking up, but when we arose the next morning, all was calm and it was over...just like that!  Some parts of the island had many downed trees and, of course, there were broken branches everywhere, but no structural damage anyplace as far as we heard.  The natives here said that it was a "little" storm; they have experienced winds of up to 200 m/hr; I can't even imagine that.  I thought so many times during the day of hurricane Sandy and all the tragedies of New York.  Storms like that are terrifying.  When I alerted the family about what was happening, Tucker said, "I hope you don't get washed up on African shores somewhere!"  At that point you really do feel like, "Hey, we are 500 miles from another major land mass; what do we do out here if things really get bad?"  As it was, Brent and I rather enjoyed a day of catching up, alone, in our apartment once we knew that all of the missionaries were safe in theirs.

Our mission here will be one-third completed next week; we can't believe that.  In some ways it seems like we have been gone from home for such a long time and yet, in other ways, it seems like we just arrived.  I would have thought that I would be babbling along easily in French by now; not so.  The language has been a challenge for me, and for Brent, even though he had spoken it decades ago.  We have decided that the important thing is just to keep praying, studying, talking, not worrying about all the mistakes we make, knowing that we are doing the Lord's work the best we can, and having faith that when it is really important, He will make up the difference.

Highlight of the week:  A humorous anecdote about the storm.  We were so busy taking care of everything here that we were surprised to receive a frantic telephone call from President Adams.  "I hear you are on red alert over there!"  "Yes."  "Well, why didn't you call me?"  "Because everything is under control and we didn't want to bother you."  "Well, there are people in Salt Lake watching this stuff and they are going to be calling me and asking me about the hurricane...I NEED DETAILS! There will be mothers calling Salt Lake checking on their children on La Reunion and I need to have something to tell them!"  We were in big trouble (and we could see why, but we just hadn't thought of calling), but he and Brent had a good laugh, later...much later.

Lowlight of the week:  The morning after the storm, Brent and I needed to stretch our legs, so we went to the workout park early.  As we walked up the ramp, I was delighted to see huge snails, as big as your fist, everywhere.  I said to Brent, "Oh look at....."  CRUNCH!  He hadn't looked soon enough.  We both just let out a little moan as we observed at the crushed shell.  Bad moment.

We had a meeting at the bottom of the island, in St Pierre, and arrived twenty minutes early, so we went down to the beach because we could see that the sunset was going to be spectacular.  It didn't disappoint, and we wanted to share this beautiful part of Heavenly Father's world with you.

Brent LOVES peanut butter and they don't have it here.  One of the elders once found a small jar in a grocery store in St Pierre and Brent was able to buy some, but none of us have ever seen it since.  The day after Christmas, the zone leaders came over to our apartment and said, "We have some good news and some bad news; which do you want first?" The bad news.  "Okay, well one of the elders beds collapsed last night and will have to be replaced.  Now the good news, and you have to just say "Yes."  Okay, what is it?  and the elder rummages in his backpack and pulls out this huge bottle of crunchy Skippy peanut butter, which was obviously part of his Christmas sent from home.  Brent didn't want to accept, but he insisted saying, "You already agreed to just say yes."  Moments like this REALLY touch your heart.

Elder Tema, second from the right, the Tahitian elder who served with us when we first came here , arriving from Madagascar to spend twenty-four hours out of the country to meet Visa requirements.  We SO wanted to keep him but, alas, he had to return.  The other two elders are our zone leaders.

When we have had a tough day and cooking dinner isn't an option, we visit "the mustache man" to purchase one or two of his delicious grilled poulets (whole chickens).  His personality is just as large as his appearance, and we love our visits with him, but we love his chickens more!  As AJ would say, "Delish!"

After the rains.

Now you can see better why he is called "the Mustache man."

My visiting teacher Lorraine Tennant, aka Mrs Cavanaugh, sent me some of her MOST delicious candy in October.  I waited anxiously but by Christmas had decided that it was gone forever.  Two days after Christmas, however, I was surprised and excited to see her package in our mailbox.  I told Brent, "I know the candy will be stale, but I'm eating it anyway.  I can't wait to have something familiar."  I opened the box to find an Arabic newspaper and a Super Mario Bros XBox game, in German!  I have tried to figure it out, but am totally mystified.  If you have an answer, e-mail me. I know I am smiling, but I was REALLY mad all that day!

We stopped at a little roadside stand and Brent bought me these flowers to celebrate the new year.  I know it is winter at home, but the flowers are blooming everywhere here...in the summertime.

May your new year be full of all that you deeply wish for.  You are in our thoughts and prayers daily.

                                                                    A Bientot!