The Sunday before Christmas, we visited Nakawakawa and spoke a few minutes on Christ and Christmas in Sacrament Meeting. It is such an honor to visit this faithful branch. It is hard to imagine that two years ago, the only members were Pita (Peter) Vakalala, his wife, and his baby daughter. His story of how he took the words to heart from his patriarchal blessing and brought the Gospel to his village is inspirational. His dedication and commitment and that of the congregation is unbelievable. They consecrate themselves and all they have to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They fast and pray every week for the members, the investigators, and more people to teach. The attendance level is near 100%. Even though living conditions are hard, the Elders cry when they are transferred from this area, and members cry when they leave. There is such a close bond here as everyone helps and loves one another. As is expected each time we come, we had two big cookie sheets of brownies to share.

From there, we drove to Savusavu where we stayed Sunday through Wednesday with President and Sister Harward. They are the best people ever, solid in the Gospel, quick to share their testimonies, and always happy and caring for the missionaries and the people. President Harward is full of wisdom. He taught seminary and institute for about 35 years, and is always sharing his knowledge and training those around him, along with his jolly spirit and quick wit. Sister Harward is dripping with talent and creativity. She is incredible at anything that goes with homemaking, crafts, and interior design. To make her flat more enjoyable, she cleaned it to perfection, reupholstered the couches, and made all new curtains. Everything is lovely and perfectly coordinated. In her spare time, she made pillowcases for almost 200 missionaries, including the Senior Couples for Sister Layton to present as a gift on the Mission tour. We played games Sunday night and were joined by the other missionary couples, the Roths and the Vermeerens on Monday. The Harwards and the Roths had orchestrated a Service Project to give huge baskets of food and supplies to the people of Savusavu. The Roth’s children had all donated money for the project, over $1000 US dollars. We helped put the baskets together, and they got others to distribute them anonymously to needy families. It felt good to help. We also went out to eat and went shopping with the couples and played games. The last night, we had a Christmas Program with the Christmas Story and other talks and tributes. We even had a surprise visit from Santa Claus. Sister Harward had brought some canned snow from the US so we even had snow in Fiji for Christmas. We had amazing food, company, games and entertainment. We couldn’t have asked for more. We are grateful to everyone for making our Christmas away from home a happy one.

Hope you are all enjoying the Holidays!

We love you!

Sister and Elder Roth. Each of these baskets had over 50 pounds valued at over $60 US dollars besides the basket made and donated by a member.

Rex gave me the perfect job sorting toothbrushes by color so they each got a different one.

Sister Roth was so excited about this project.
At the end, they also added lots of small bags of chips, etc.

Elder Woodward, President Harward, Sister Roth, Elder Roth

We wrapped them with ribbon so they wouldn't think someone had dumped off a bag of garbage.

Betty & Santa. What fun!
Notice the Christmas tree on the wall with strings of garland and a string of lights on each one.