FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Sunday, Feb 8, 2015                                     First Impressions

After a very long journey found ourselves with a six-hour layover in Aukland, where we were met by Elder and Sister Spencer, who are our supervisors from the Pacific Area.  We had a great visit with them and were able to receive some valuable instruction.  We finally landed in Port Vila on the afternoon of Feb. 4^th and were met at the airport by Elder and Sister Duke.  They are a wonderful couple and spent a lot of time showing us around and tried very hard to get us oriented before they left for home on Friday.  (It didn’t work, we still get lost)  Thursday afternoon, Elder Duke gave us the keys to our truck and said “good luck”.  We spent a few hours being lost, but were always able to find our way back.

On Friday evening, we were invited to have dinner with President and Sister Brewer.  It was a wonderful experience to be able to get to know them and receive some much needed insight and encouragement.  We feel quite inadequate in this calling and were starting to feel somewhat overwhelmed. 

On Sunday, we met with one of the Branch Presidencies and with a number of the members who will be working with us and helping us get our feet on the ground.  They are wonderful people, and we can’t wait to get to know them.  One thing that really impressed us was the singing during the services.  We’re not sure we’ve ever heard such beautiful voices and harmonies.

When we landed, the first thing we noticed was how green everything is.  Not just green, but GREEN.  There truly is “beauty all around”, and everywhere we go it’s a new adventure.

Our bungalow is small with a small refrigerator and almost no pantry space, so we are having a lot of fun learning how to live in each other’s space.  Any inconvenience if any is overshadowed a hundred times over by the beauty of our surroundings and the people we find ourselves interacting with.  Below is a picture of our “Backyard”.  You can’t see our place in this picture, but it is just behind the one you can see.  The other picture is of the Branch Chapel where we will be attending our meetings.  The small building behind is a restroom and cleaning area and the building behind that is where the missionaries live.