Rex Wrote:  

The house we are building is to replace this bamboo house that was blown down by Cyclone Winston, much as the house made out of sticks in the story of the Three Little Pigs was blown down by the Big Bad Wolf!

Strong and fearless in their labors

Framing the house 12 x 24 feet

Siding cut, loaded, and ready to go

Carrying boards from the truck up the hill a short way to the building site

As soon as the roof was on, the family moved in, making it harder to build. They just couldn't wait!

One side built --In the foreground is their Dalo, a root plant the storm has probably been ruined

Blood, sweat and tears went into this project. Tom, who I call the sawmill, cut himself with the chain saw. This needed stitches, but his coveralls saved him from much worse damage. (He is getting better and walking okay.)

Elder Foeva carrying ironwood

Ironwood bridge across the ditch 

Assembly line using ironwood bridge. All our young missionaries came to help for two days. (The Sisters are proselyting with Pita's wife and will help clean up around the chapel.)

Let's clear this tree off the road!

He makes carrying ironwood look like child's play. These people are strong!

Elders Foeva, Talamai, Luatua, and Hariprasad with Pita and his priesthood. Job well done!

No easy task to cut straight boards with a chain saw!

They do an amazing job!

Break time!

They put a little hut together out front to use for the kitchen. This blew Betty's mind that they have the cooking fire in the corner right next to stacked wood and bamboo walls. They control it so perfectly that there is no need to fear.

This little boy and his family have a new home!

House all done with shutters and doors locked to go to church.  They will take a week's break to replant their crops and then start building the next house!

Rex Wrote:

Pita and I bought supplies in bulk in Labasa to take to the people of Nakawakawa

These two loved to stack the tuna cans. I chased them around growling, "Feed the monster!" They ran to their mothers for safety and came out later for me to do it again.

Fijian dish drainer while tin was down

Dividing the food for members

Packaged food in boxes ready to be delivered

The Church sent more building tools

Toolbox of quality supplies

Along with the new tool box, the Church sent two new chain saws, complete with fuel and bar oil. Added to the one from the district and Pita's chain saw, we're ready to go work!

Pita's roof was folded back over exposing his bedroom.

Pita's house fixed

This time with hurricane ties!

Fixing the missionary's roof

Same supplies we use

Washing out the rain gutter that brings in the rain water for drinking and personal use.

Pita and Ezekiah

Rebuilding the outdoor church bathroom enclosure

Happy to be working

Mission Pickup used for hauling lumber from cutting site to building site.

Even using a level!

Digging holes for ironwood posts that hold the house up

Ironwood is heavy and about as strong as cement, used as the foundation

Leveling posts

Starting floorboards

The branch priesthood works well together

Before Rex convinced them to use the pickup, men would carry boards one at a time over a half mile to the building site. It looked like ants hauling food. It was a slow, tedious process!

The sawmill, using a chainsaw to cut the boards. Instead of a chalk line, they used a string dipped in oil and flipped it.

Fijian culvert -- They dug a trench laid three tree trunks across the road, and covered it with dirt.
As the dirt fell back in with the first big rain, they added more dirt to make it level.

Nakawakawa Damage

Rex wrote:
After Cyclone Winston, I went to Nakawakawa with food and supplies. These are a few of my favorite pictures of the damage:

House leveled

Cassava, front and center, stripped

Tall Bamboo Raggedy Anned (Elder Sievert's description)

Damage near port

Tin off missionary flat attached to church in Nakawakawa

Another view of tin off missionary's flat

Trees down and across road

Natural braiding of big vines

Solar Unit on roof of Chapel still in tact and working perfectly. While most affected areas were out of power, there was still power in Nakawakawa in more ways than one!

New Assembly of God Church leveled

Cassava crop ruined

This palm tree had one frond left to wave goodbye to Cyclone Winston,
"Ha, ha, you forgot one! I'm still alive!"

Outdoor toilet by Chapel of Nakawakawa broken & stripped of its privacy

The lady of this house was in Labasa when she heard her roof was gone.
She was so grateful that her kitchen was still covered.

In the middle, my beautiful fern palms stripped. We have heard people say this is "Nature's Pruning" (Last time we passed new fronds were growing back. Green and perfect!)

When we first heard that Nakawakawa, a branch near the southern end of Vanua Levu, had been hit hard, our first thought was the members. Then we remembered many of the members were safe in Suva and most of the rest of the members were safe at the chapel in Labasa where they had gone to view the rededication ceremony. Our second thought was, “Oh, no! The solar unit! Rex had just installed a solar unit on the roof of the church to give them electricity in the chapel and missionary flat! Hearing that at least 5 homes were flattened and that tin was off many of the others, we feared the solar unit was destroyed. When Rex went down to assess the damage, the missionary apartment connected to the chapel had tin off its roof, but the chapel roof and solar unit were untouched. When most areas hit by the cyclone were without power, Nakawakawa still had power in more ways than one. The very name Nakawakawa means power, and the members are strong in the power of the priesthood. These are resilient, grateful, and faithful people. They still laugh and smile in the midst of a storm and are working hard as a team to rebuild. 

New Solar System Unharmed

On March 8, 2016, we are both here in Nakawakawa with all the young missionaries to help with the clean up.

On the way down, the closer we got to the port, the more damage from Cyclone Winston we saw. So many trees down, power lines down, houses totally leveled or without roofs. Rex had already helped repair the tin on the roof of the missionary apartment. As I stood by the church and looked downward, a vast amount of trees that had once been beautiful and green were stripped bare.

Lepa, Pita’s wife, came and stood beside me. She said, “So much damage.”

I asked, "How with all this terrible damage could the chapel not be harmed.”

She stated resolutely, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” She had said enough.

For service I picked up all the pieces of garbage around the church. Then Sister Elias tried her hand at weed eating the grass. She did a little and left the rest to Lepa, the master. Then the girls helped rake up around the church.

Lepa cutting the lawn

Kids playing with legos in the church

Elias Raking up the grass

The Elders went out with Rex and the priesthood brethren to haul ironwood from the sites where they cut it to the houses where it will be used. As the missionaries arrived on the scene and saw them carrying logs on their shoulders, they thought, “That looks easy!” Rex loved their reactions when they tried to lift it for the first time. Rex hauled the logs to the sites where houses will be built. Pita said it would have cost $150 to hire a truck. He loves Elder Woodward and appreciated the missionaries coming to help.

Before we left Labasa, we bought 4 chickens and other ingredients for Lepa to cook us dinner. When Elder Sieverts asked if he could help, she asked him to cut up the frozen chicken. I said, “Have her show you how.” She took the big clever and smacked the chicken, cutting it halfway down the middle. Turned it over and did the same thing. His eyes were big and his smile wide, as always, but this time in surprise as he watched her make quick work of the chicken. He did a good job following her example. I helped cut up the carrots, cucumbers, onions and smash the garlic, peppers, and fresh ginger. It was dark when we finished up. She cooked the rice in the Elder’s apartment and cooked the Chili Chicken over an open fire. It was quite romantic.

While the chicken cooked, we had Family Home Evening. Pita had invited a few other branch members, and they had invited one nonmember. There were 20 of us. Pita asked Rex to take charge and give the lesson on Pioneers. He did a great job. He told of selected pioneers through the ages and related it to Nakawakawa’s being pioneers. He asked for comments. Many were shared. It was amazing and the Spirit was strong. Then they had a game. The chairs were in a circle with one person in the middle and one empty chair. It was like a human wave with everyone moving to the empty chair and the one in the middle trying to sit down. It was crazy! They loved it!

We didn’t get to eat until 9:30 PM. Lepa did an excellent job. The Chili Chicken was cooked to perfection.

Rex used our battery operated pump to blow up our air mattress, but, with all it could do, it was still way too flat.

I said, “That’s why I wanted you to buy a foot pump. I wish you had just bought one. A flat air mattress is worse than no air mattress.”

He saw my concern for a restless night and started blowing it up the rest of the way with his mouth. That melted my heart. He tries so hard to please me. Even though we ate too late, I slept well on our air mattress, thanks to him.

     Rex is gone to Nakawakawa for the third time in two weeks. He loves the people there and wants to help in any way he can. He comes home for a day of rest and to get clothes washed and leaves again to take more food and supplies. He went down this time to finish building a house he had helped them start; but he spent most of his time yesterday delivering food, driving an hour to the port and waiting for another about 2 hours for two chainsaws the church sent to help with the cleanup efforts in Nakawakawa. Then they went on a wild goose chase trying to locate a gauge they had been offered to use to cut the boards to exact width.

     In the meantime, here in Labasa, my Internet was working, but Facetime wouldn't work. When Rex called, he said to do the hard turn off and turn it on again. It worked like magic! He is so good!

     The Seaqaqa Elders are looking forward to 9 baptisms today, 6 they have been teaching in a little group down towards Nakawakawa, and 3 in Seaqaqa. That is unreal! They used our church computer and our baptismal template to make a program for the 3 and asked me to print it out at the church and send it with the other missionaries who will be attending. I loved how they put the picture of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the river Jordon on the front cover because they will be baptizing the 3 in the river in Seaqaqa. We attended one there before, and my heart was full of joy.

     About two hours before I was to go to the church, I got a call. Family History Specialists were here from Suva to help members with Temple Ready. They called to ask who would pay for a new ink cartridge for the printer. It wouldn’t work. That meant I couldn’t print the programs there either. I put the program on a flash drive and transferred  it to my computer to print it out here. It didn’t work. My printer was evidently out of ink, too. I was feeling a little desperate, and my hands were shaking. The boys had put so much effort into this program, and without Rex here to make it work, it just wasn’t happening. I just barely got ready in time for the taxi. Before I went out the door, I saw a text from the Seaqaqa Elders. They needed me to fix the program before printing.  Sister Petero, who was listed to bear her testimony, needed to be deleted; and the 3 getting baptized needed to be added to bear their testimonies. If I would have printed it earlier, it would have been majorly wrong. However, even if I fixed it, the church printer wasn’t working. I hurriedly found the hidden key to let myself back in the house and had it handy for my return. The taxi was late, and I knew Kellie would be waiting for her piano lesson or leave thinking I wasn’t coming.

     When I got to the church, a few youth were waiting there, but Kellie was not one of them. (I called her later and found that she had a painful boil on her back, and she hadn’t even gone to school.) Nameeta came and opened the gate, but she didn’t have a key for the Family History Center. Finally the Elders came and let me in. They would be in charge of the youth activity with Rex gone. I told them about the printer. Elder Hariprasad said, “Do you need my help?” He is amazing at fixing things!

     I was so relieved and grateful he was there! I said, “Yes!”

    The printer said it was low in ink. I asked him to take the ink cartridge out and rock it a bit, as Rex always did. It still wouldn’t print. We worked together and found that a sheet of paper was stuck in the printer. Once he removed that, and we got the church computer hooked up, we were able to print the revised programs. I was so happy and felt blessed that it had worked, plus we had the printer fixed for the Family History people to use. They came soon after, and I was able to help and tend them a little. They were grateful. They also work in the Suva temple and said they might be able to help us arrange to go through a session when the girls are here.

     I helped Burnadet and Lucy with keyboarding and visited with Sister Rakuita when she arrived. I am also helping the Labasa 7 prepare applications for their missions. I informed them that if they could have everything done and handed in before next Saturday, President Layton will be here to interview them. They are all trying hard. Most of them will be able to make that happen.

     I was just trying to get up the courage to call a taxi when Hariprasad brought a beautiful less active girl in and said, “She wants to learn piano.”

     We have less than a month and a half before our three daughters come to Fiji. I almost said, “No, there’s just not enough time!” but he had just saved me so I took her to the keyboard and started with my script: “The piano knows the ABC’s, but it’s not as smart as you are. It just knows them up to G. ABCDEFG, ABCDEFG, ABCDEFG, over and over again.” I showed her the location of each of the keys and had her practice. Then I taught her “Peter, Peter, Pumkin Eater” on the black keys which I had learned when I was young. She was ecstatic! I just smiled and praised her for learning the song so quickly.

     Naomi, one of the missionary candidates came in and talked with me. She is waiting for some dental work and for her physical. I told her not to stress if she couldn’t get it together in time for the interview here on March 12. We would still help her make it happen. She threw her arms around me and said, “Sister Woodward, you make me so happy!” I love these people!

     It was dark outside when I went out to try to get a taxi. I was a little scared, not only of the dark, but also of getting inside a car with someone I don’t know. Just then Brother and Sister Naidu drove up and stopped at the store in front of me. I went to visit them. When I told them I was waiting for a taxi, they said, “No! No! Get in. We will take you home!” More blessings! I was so grateful! As I was opening the big gate, Sister Naidu said, “Are you sure you’re okay here all alone. Would you like to come stay at our home with us?” That was so sweet, but I assured her I would be just fine.

     Just as I got inside the house, Rex called. It was so wonderful to hear his voice, and report, and hear of his day. He will be home late tonight. I am just not complete without him by my side. He means the world to me!

    I hope all is well for you!

    Take care of yourselves!

    I love you forever!