I call it coust you more -its like k mart.
.
We have not written in quite a while it seems, sorry. Things are very, very slow. It is cold here=78 and everyone is sick with the flu or a cold. For the past 2 weeks we have had a light turn out every day. We hope to start this next week off a little better. The Wells had their 50th wedding anniversary last night at the temple. They asked members to join them on the 4 o clock session or the 6 o clock session and had light refreshments afterwards. We [ all missionaries ] brought tons of food , other workers brought some and the Wells bought the smallest, no super tiny, no what kind of chicken did they find with such tinny weeny wings? Was this a rare bird only found in Fiji? Can they shrink things in the rare Fiji air? Could it be because of the tons of diesel fumes in the air? Now I am shrinking-my brain, Byron is quite sure of that. Ok I’ll take that as a compliment, Just about anything that is getting smaller on a women is good- right girls? We made quite a mess and the Wells are making a suggestion - no wedding receptions, no, no 50th wedding receptions in the Temple after they are gone!!! We all commented on the oddity of having a reception of 50 years in Fiji, of all places. Who would have thought…? Where will we all be in 50 years from our wedding dates? Who would have thought to have an anniversary at all in… well .. how about ..Nigeria, some where in Mexico, or London, Washington D C or my favorite Fiji??? The funny thing about serving a mission is what friends or just plain confused friends say about their serving a mission themselves. It always is this “ I would for sure serve right there with you, IF, I could go to Fiji”. I know few if any would say that of Nigeria or of a few other far flung places in the pacific or asia. We have both settled down into our jobs and are finding more and more joy and personal satisfaction in serving. I know this is true of all missionaries.
A small sad story. Last month we had friends [the Staggs] who were allowed [amazingly] to find a grief stricken man who [just?] happened to be walking on the street called Victoria Parade. Victoria Parade is named for Queen Victoria of England. It is a grand street with great old trees and is on the strand with a sea wall. A beautiful sidewalk goes on for at least 5 miles on this sea wall. Back to my story. This poor grief stricken man is found, by the grace of God, by the missionaries, the Staggs. He claims his wife is in the hospital –dying and has twin daughters at home in the village. This is a Fiji pearls before swine story. I must digress a moment and state a known fact in Fiji- all of the Mormons are blessed and are rich! And all couple missionaries are double, double rich and stupid. I have been asked this silly question more times than I have freckles [not really that many –who knows?] what happened to the golden [solid gold, folks] Jesus [ we all know it is really Jesus and not some funny, named angel] on the top of your temple? Why does he have only ..one.. leg.?? We know that some one has climbed up and broken off a leg [solid gold, remember] and is so rich he has left Fiji. We all know that this is true. The funny truth is that the president has a extra one in his garage. Our poor ol Moroni has a sun burned head [white] and face. Moroni was not made for the tropics. SLC said that we could spray paint the pale fellow – but who would do it. So the new one will be rotated up and the old one will be repainted in the garage. Back to my story. The Staggs met him at the hospital and were told she had died at 4:00 that morning. The Staggs were just bawling their eyes out and he pulled out the receipt for a coffin. What did he need? Just some cash to go and get the twins- 90 dollars would do. And they paid. They had called his ward on the other side of the island. The name was familiar but no cigar. Still he was a returned missionary and so had been his wife. The Staggs left to make arrangements of their own-to be available to help him. And then they called the temple pres. and found out that he was a fraud. All of this before 9:00 in the morning!!! The reason I tell you this is because the guy was at the bus stop at the temple last night!! We walked past the bus stop on our way home and waved to all of the members waiting there for the last transport of the night. We saw him [ me] in the group. He then followed us and started sobbing and calling out brother can you help me I am from the Racky Racky ward and am a member of the bishopric- etc… ect… I stopped him with ..We know the Staggs and the Wells. Brother Wettstein stepped forward and in doing so scared the ever living poo out of him. Br. Wettstein is rather tall , large and very imposing , in the dark. Something was said and he rather quickly turned and started walking back to the bus stop. And then came the Neilsons. He said he was in the bishopric in Rakiraki [spoken as rackyracky]. Pres. Said he had just been to Rakiraki and he wasn’t. Then came Br. Wettstein back to all of them with a grim face and the dude left. We are telling all of the missionaries at our monthly home evening to be on the look out. But the sad part is that the guy has been doing this for at least 3 years.!! So remember to tell all incoming missionaries to think twice and to call around, when faced with such a situation. It wasn’t the money [90] it was the loss of trust. The Staggs just couldn’t bring themselves to tell of the whole deal - so I have.
I am starting to get sick. I thought how did this happen? And then asked the mission nurse “what’s up with all of the crud in my lungs?” “ Diesel fumes, honey. “ You are feeling just like the poor Fijians feel everyday. Yesterday Byron cleaned out our water filters-we have the 3 container kind I guess all missionaries have and the water here is horrible. These filters were just brown and gunky and gooey. Same for all of you? Then he cleaned our little air conditioner in the bedroom and it was just plain black. I almost gagged!!! These poor saints are sick all of the time and I am sure that your members are just as ill. We do have some with good “Fiji” water- really from a spring on their land, but not many. Most have brown river water if they are in the village or out in the bush areas. Byron is a cleaning “fool” and I love him for it, too. He even cleans our concrete walls and that is again black water. We have a sweet sister who comes twice a month and sorta cleans. We have funny stains that come out in the clean laundry-what’s up with that??? I washed my temple skirts today and then had to take them to the dry cleaners for the funny stains everywhere. I am sure you have funny requests of patrons but this is my favorite. “Sister Wettstein when you leave for America may have your cotton temple dress? How about your shoes and I need those new slippers , too. These skirts need to make it until I go- unless they are just too expensive to keep wearing. I have a general laundry question. Do socks just vanish in London? I have added at least 25 pairs and just now have hidden another dozen. And specially marked them, just to see if we can see where they are going. Just last week President Wells donated “ under duress] 4 pairs, Byron 3 pairs, and pres. Nelson gave me 5 pairs and his were so ratty that I threw away 2 pairs just so he can buy some decent white socks. For goodness sake they cost a whole 95 fijian cents!!!! The other missionary Br. Howard only keeps one pair at a time in his locker-just so I can’t get any more of his, too. We have patrons come from everywhere and often socks travel with ease with them. Sister Wells just says, ” they need them more than I do.” [laundry, that is]. So now I have a secret sock stash!! Any more confessions of laundresses out there???
I haven’t heard from London and the Hobbs. Last I heard they had purchased a little sports car to tour around during break to see a bit of jolly ol England . Please give me a little up date on how you two are doing. Please!!!
We had this cute spiritual thought about laundry last week and no, I didn’t do this myself.
Monday: WASH DAY Lord help me wash away all of my selfishness and vanity; so I may serve you with perfect humility.
Tuesday: IRONING DAY Lord help me iron out all the wrinkles of prejudice I have collected throughout the years, so that I may see the beauty in others.
Wednesday: MENDING DAY Lord Help me to mend my ways so that I may not set a bad example for others.
Thursday: CLEANING DAY Lord help me to dust out the many faults that I have been hiding in the secret corners of my heart.
Friday: SHOPPING DAY Lord give me the grace to shop wisely so I may purchase eternal happiness for myself and all others in need of love.
Saturday: COOKING DAY Lord help me to brew a big kettle of brotherly love and serve it with the sweet bread of human kindness.
Sunday: THE LORDS DAY Lord I have to prepare my house for you to come into my house and heart so that I may spend today and the rest of my life in your presence. Alma 34-32 For behold, this is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
All of our love and best wishes in laundry. The Wettsteins in Fiji
