Our first week in Tarawa

Today is Saturday, September 20th, 2014.  It's nearly the Autumnal Equinox, and we've been in Tarawa nearly a week.  This week has flown by because we've been so busy.  We've attended our first faculty meeting (which started with a song and a prayer!), our first student assembly (at which we were given beautiful leis and asked to introduce ourselves), our first shopping trip (can of Spam $8.50, eggs, $7.20 a dozen, you get the idea), and began our first lesson preparation (Special Ed 200 BYUH course) for our first teaching experience next Tuesday.



We had an interesting experience in Fiji on our way here to Tarawa.  We planned to catch the 5:30 a.m. shuttle to the airport for our 8:00 a.m. flight, but just missed it.  We caught the 6:00 a.m. shuttle and still made it to the Nadi airport with plenty of time to spare.  We nearly had a major glitch when the airline clerk noticed that Elder Sumner's passport number did not match the passport number on the Visa permit. I explained that I had renewed my passport after applying for the visa so it wouldn't expire during our mission.  After escalating the issue up through 3 levels of management, we were allowed to proceed.  While waiting for all this, we met a Sister Tebao, who was returning to Tarawa from her mission in Manchester, England. She was still checking in when our problem was resolved.  We hadn't gone more than a few yards from the check-in gate when she came running up to us in a panic.  Her luggage was overweight and she didn't have enough money to pay for it.  She wanted to borrow some from us, but all we had were U.S. dollars. We told her we wouldn't loan it to her, but would gladly give it to her.  She was able to change the $20 bill for Fiji dollars at the airport and pay the luggage fee. We were both impressed at the time that it was not a coincidence that we were there at just the right time to help her out.  In the Lord's service, there are no coincidences.

We thought we would mention that we update our Facebook page more frequently than our blog because it is so much easier. You are always welcome there as well.  We will continue to save our longer posts for this blog.