SatMap of Kiribati

There is surprising quality on this island, so zoom on in and check it out.

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Fiji, a Happy Accident October, 08

Side trip to Fiji.....The way to get to Kiribati is by flying to Fiji then connecting to Kiribati. While we were in Kiribati we were asked to provide some training and assistance to the Fiji Service Center. So, we landed in Nadi, Fiji..spent the night and caught a domestic flight across the island to Suva where we were picked up by Sia, an employee of the Suva Fiji Service Center. The plan was to work Wednesday-Friday at the Service Center. After settling into the hotel I left Miriam to wander around the city alone while I went into the Service Center. We were working on better defining the HR role of the employees in the Service Center and strengthening their “service relationship” with the management of S&I. So Paul and Mele and Sia and I worked on understanding HR and our role to the customers. On Friday we met with the salary survey providers to help them better understand our organization in hopes of ensuring the salary data we use makes sense and relates to our organization. The first night in Suva we were able to have dinner with President Ostler and his wife. They are serving in Suva as the Mission President. President Ostler’s wife is Brad Jensen's (my brother in law’s )sister. We had a great visit with them and enjoyed hearing of their great experiences. Thursday afternoon we went on a tour of the new Service Center that is being built next to the temple. They are building a Service Center, Mission President’s home, patron housing & distribution center. Paul Whippy was responsible for the dedication arrangements of the temple. Right before the dedication, there was a big political coup in the country so the government was not allowing any large gatherings. Because of this the dedication was changed to 60 people only. Paul shared with us many faith promoting experiences about the purchasing, building, and dedicating of the Temple. We toured the school campuses and met many wonderful people.Thursday evening we were fortunate to do a session in the Fiji temple. It was wonderful as you can imagine. Friday night was a stake music festival and dance. The saints of Fiji love to dance and sing. Miriam and a Fijian with great rhythm were one of the first couples on the dance floor. (much to her dismay!) A good time was had by all.. I even danced.Saturday the flights were full so we HAD to stay in Fiji one more day. We woke up to torrential rain and it rained alllllll day long. However we were determined to have a fun day in Fiji. We found a place called ZIP FIJI. The same company that built the zip line in Park City has built a zip line experience through the rain forest of Fiji. They said it would even be more fun in the rain so we went for it. So, suspended about 50 feet off the ground we zipped over rivers, through the canopy of the rain forest. Our guides were young Fijian men that looked like they could be return missionaries…and they were! After doing a lap of zip lines they offered us another lap, and we couldn't refuse. The second lap was more fun than the first because you are more comfortable. Things like hanging upside down, etc. The rain was torrential. We were soaked to the bone but had a wonderful time. We had brought a change of clothes but forgot a towel. We still had a fire walking demonstration to see. We changed in the car and used the heater to dry out Miriam’s un-mentionable’s ! We were back in the bush so there were not too many people to avoid. Off to the tourist trap place to enjoy fire walking and Fijian dancing. The torrential rain made the fire walking not to impressive. That night we took Elder Ramisima out for dinner. He was a full time missionary in New Zealand and we got to know him very well. He taught many discussions in our home here. He had to take a bus and taxi to get to us in Fiji. The buses are packed with people and he described his experience of getting to us. He said the doors were broken so everyone had to exit out the back of the bus. So when one person wanted off everyone had to get out then get back in. Quite a chore! The next morning we headed for the airport, flew to Nadi on the other side of the island then off to New Zealand. Flying in to New Zealand is wonderful. It is so green and pretty. We made it safely home but loved the experience. Enjoy the pics on the Album.

Kiribati, October 2008

Version 1 of our trip to Kiribati (Kiribus) The romantic version....
We flew from Auckland New Zealand to Nadi Fiji. We spent a lovely night in a beautiful room at the Tanoa International Hotel. The next day we boarded a plane to the country of Kiribati. Kiribati is a collection of long narrow islands. We noticed on the plane that we were definitely in the minority. White man and woman, man dressed in white shirt. We were greeted by beautiful people with huge smiles saying Maouri, which means “hello”. Everywhere we went the people went out of their way to greet us. We stayed at the Otientii Hotel. At high tide the beautiful lagoon was literally just a few feet away from our balcony. We ate a classic continental breakfast in a open air restaurant each morning. There is only one road in Kiribati, it goes straight through the island to each quaint little village.
We had our management training on Friday and Monday at the Service Center. One of our participants was Brother Tune. He is the pioneer of the Church in Kiribati. He is a Stake President now but in the 1970’s he was converted to the Church in Tonga. He returned to Kiribati as the first member and now there are two Stakes, and over 10,000 members. Missionaries are there and are very busy teaching and baptizing.
In the mornings Miriam would take nice long walks through the little thatched home villages looking for little kids on the beaches and in the trees. Every school on the island has their own uniform, including Moroni High. The kids looked very sharp in their bright uniforms walking bare foot to school each day.
On our flight was Brother Wall from SLC. His job was to continue working on the translation of the scriptures into the Kiribati language. He is a great guy. He can speak, read, and converse in over 8 languages. He was there to hire contractors to translate the Book of Mormon, D&C and Pearl of Great Price.
We met President Bleak, the Mission President and Senior Missionaries, etc. All tirelessly working to bring the gospel to the people. It can be very challenging because of communication and transportation issues between the islands. A nice Senior Couple fed us a great meal one evening.
We went to a celebration for Fiji’s independence. It was at our hotel and the President of the Country and his wife were there. We had a great conversation with the first lady. Her and the president have great respect for the Church. They have their children enrolled at Moroni High.
Miriam spent one day serving the students at the school and helped them learn how to read and understand what they were reading. We had an island tour of the WW2 relics. On the tour we walked the beaches, saw Japanese bunkers, large gun placements, visited markets, memorials, etc. The government has taken the position that they are being consumed by the sea due to global warming. Other opininions are that they are sinking due to geological plate shifting.
On Tuesday we returned to the airport to catch our plane back to Nadi Fiji. While waiting there a New Zealand sister missionary that returned to her home in Kiribati came to say goodby to Miriam.
Though poor the people of Kiribati are blessed and happy. The Church is an incredible blessing for them.
…..Now some people have accused us of being on one long vacation so we want you to now read the OTHER version of “our trip to Kiribati”. Everything contained in the description happened and is just another way for you to experience what we experienced.

The "other" version of Kiribati.

Yes we ate in our hotel restaurant ... a pig walked in and sniffed us. Not to mention the cats, dogs and birds inside the buildings.A nice missionary couple invited us over for dinner..they threw it out after all the weevil floated to the top.Miriam's nice walks to the beach? Every time she went, there was someone taking a dump. Miriam got sick for two days, still thinks she has worms. I woke up in the middle of the night with heart attack symptoms...it was just gas.The cute kids are running around naked on the island mugging for a picture. There is a tradition that if you burn a diaper it will burn the baby so EVERYWHERE there are used disposable diapers -on the beach, side of the road, in the bush, everywhere. But all the babies we saw were naked, so go figure. Out for a walk we accidently wandered into the mental hospital village. Two ladies followed us and wanted us to take them back to America. Miriam tried hard to teach in the school.. very frustrating because they can read but they don't know what they are saying.
We didn't buy any food... we packed in our food (tuna, noodles, rice). We boiled all of our water each morning. We had a extra bucket of water sitting in the shower because we were warned that the water goes out with no notice. The homes were little more that sheds, most people live in very poor conditions. You don't swim in the lagoon because it is well known that it is the sewage pond for the island.
We had a grand time.
Now you know the "other " version of Kiribati. Does that sound like a island vacation to you?

Coast to Coast Walk-Oct. 4, 2008

We took a bus ride into Auckland and got off on the east side at the harbour. This is the Pacific Ocean. That was our starting point for our 16 Km. 10 mile walk to the Tasman Sea on the south west side. With map in hand we walked down busy city streets, quiet neighborhoods, through parks, rainforests, up and down volcanoes and finally to our destination which was the west coast. Our friend Mark Pugh picked us up. It surprised us all how close we were to the route we take to the airport. Along the way we visited visitor centers, enjoyed high action lawn bowling , croquet and swinging from a long tree swing. We found large groups of Hindus dressed in their beautiful tradional clothing having a grand day in the park. We need to mention the sheep. Many, many, many sheep in the green, lovely parks around the volcanos. Enjoy the pictorial tour on the album page on the picture link at the right. p.s. The first 55 pictures are not the walk. We need to get rid of them. We will do it at a later date. It is late and we are going to Kiribati tomorrow. You will want to google that one.

Easton Davis Langford makes a grand entrance!

Easton Davis Langford became our 9th grandchild on September 25th. Even though the little bugger joined the human race some 60 days before he was supposed to, he is doing very well. He has graduated from the oxygen and the lights and his nurses are trying to fatten him up. He is gaining about 10 grams a day and we hope and pray he continues to gain and grow and develop. We are so sad that we cannot be in Utah to hug him and love him. Our congratulations go out to Scott and Teisha for being wonderful parents. Little Easton gets to stay in the NICU hotel for about 6 weeks. We hope Teisha enjoys the rest and maybe she can ask the nurses to try and have him trained to sleep through the night by time he gets home! Go to Scott and
Teisha's blog on the right to see many more pics.

August and September 2008

It has been three weeks since Bob has been home. (NZ) In August he was gone 19 out of 26 days. In the past I have had a tendency to get down. Being here alone and my family all in America for the last 11 months, I was at greater risk. The Lord has really taken care of me. I was very busy and actually did very well. I kept busy with lots of things happening in the mission. New missionaries coming in and old going home, zone conferences, projects, new Australia Sr. Missionaries and new area presidency devotionals. One Sat. a bunch of them called me and we went into Auckland to see the sites together. I was the lone duck but they made me feel welcome. I always had at least one day off in the week. I walked to see Dorace in Bayswater and found some fun take away places I hadn't used before. Being with Agnes and her family was the greatest treat. One really nice day I had Sushi with my new Japanese friend looking over Rangitoto on Takapuna beach. I did that to commemorate the day Bob was actually in Japan on business. Sundays would have been the hardest but not after Gurneys and Rodings invited me over for dinner and to go to a fireside of the Brown's Kirtland Restoration project. I had nice walks with Pauline, Allyson, Dianne and Pamela. We taught a couple of lessons to Antoni in our home (with missionaries). How could anyone possibly be lonely after all this and the Holy Ghost buoying me up (after prayer) when I might start to slide. It was noticeable. I am so grateful.

Since Bob has been home we have been really busy. We celebrated our 31st anniversary with the Pres. and Sister Porter. It was their 30th. We went to Stake temple day with the Nalley's. There were 225 in our temple session. The balcony was full. Afterward we went to visit the MTC Pres., we went into Hamilton for dinner. Elder Nally left his glasses in the MTC. As we were driving back the Pres told us he was holding them hostage so we would all speak to his missionaries at a devotional. It actually was really fun. It was great to be in the MTC. The Christensen's were here checking out NZ because they will be moving here. We had them to dinner and to see the gannets on the west coast. He is the new area lawyer. We wish we would be here at the same time but will be leaving before they come. We had 8 senior missionaries over for games at our flat. Ours is the largest. It was funny for Bob and I when we realized we were not just listening to conversations about food (the usual) but also about hearing aids and colonoscopies. We laughed that maybe we needed younger friends. But we are kidding. We love our good Sr. Miss. friends. We hope to be as faithful and diligent as they are when we are on our mission in 10 years or so. Last Sunday we noticed Susan Shea was back in town from Taiwan. She actually had Joey give her friend 2 lessons while in Taipei. She was born there and has been gone for 6 months. She came to dinner at our house and we had fun hearing about how wonderful our son is. She is pretty wonderful herself.

Two Saturdays ago Bob and I took a bus into Auckland and roamed around for 5.5 hours. We had a great time. Found some fun finger puppets to share with our kids when we get home. They are all forest creatures (mostly birds) from New Zealand. We found them in a street market. Then we found hundreds of people walking the beaches. This was our first real good Saturday in about 4 months of almost solid rain. It was wonderful. Opposition helps you to appreciate. Here is another example of that. Yesterday we took a tramp on the Okura Bush Walkway. We renamed it the Okura Mudslide. It was so so muddy. We were on it for 3 hours. Well we ran into 2 men from South Africa. They were ecstatic with joy of the trail and this country. It is so different than South Africa. So so beautiful they said. The one man said that he has traveled all his life and never been to such a beautiful country. The other was most impressed with the way of life. He told me he saw women walking the streets by themselves. He also told me he was at the beach watching the sunset last night. He is 35 years old and these are firsts for him. It is too unsafe for those things in South Africa. They were so grateful. So as we were sloshing around and thinking we wished it would have been drier, they were just in heaven.

Look at the two new picture albums "Okura bush walk" and "Temple, MTC, friends etc..)

Quick trip home

I had the opportunity to return to Utah for some training. While there I was able to visit all the kids, friends in the neighborhood, Miriams family, and a surprise visit with mom. She wasn't aware of my visit and we surprised her at a restaurant. She was VERY surprised and we all shared some hugs and tears, even the waitress cried!

The picture album shows some pics of the family and grandchildren, Temple Square, co-workers, etc. My apologies that their are no pics of the Crookston FHE. My camera was not working. ENJOY!

Korea Trip

I had the opportunity to go to Korea for a week to work on a compensation project. LaMont (my boss from SLC) flew in from the states and we met up in Seoul. It was very hot, humid and crowded. When I landed I took a bus to the hotel for 14,000 won. (trivia..how much did I spend for my ticket?). On Saturday I walked around (not far from the hotel) just to see what I could see. LaMont landed early Sunday morning and we were able to make it to the Korean sacrament meeting. When we got there we were given little translation headsets. A translator sat in the back of the room and translated the meeting for us. Sunday afternoon we strolled through a park not far from the hotel. Monday morning we went to work in the Korean office. We had meetings with consultants and worked on the Korean pay line. On Tuesday LaMont and I were asked to speak in the devotional. Either they all understood English or they didn't want to hear what we had to say. Each day the HR Manager took us out for a great Korean lunch. I actually got pretty good with my chopsticks. However I was never able to "catch a fly". On Tuesday evening we were invited to play volleyball. After a nice basketball warm up they put up the net. But something was a little strange...the net was up as high as a tennis net. We were playing a Korean game called foot volleyball. You can only use your head or your feet. The ball can bounce once between each hit. These guys are so good at this that they can actually set up a spiker and these guys can spike the ball over the net! We looked pretty silly trying to do it but eventually were able to hit the ball and we had a pretty good time. I was a little nervous about by past foot injury but everything went ok. It has healed nicely and it only hurt a little when I landed on another guy. We ended the evening with real volleyball and take out noodles. After finishing our project we got a little tour of the city from our good friend and visited the Korean palace and museum. They are celebrating their 60th anniversary of independence from Japan. We flew to Japan for a day of work then home to New Zealand by way of Brisbane Australia.

Visit the Cook Islands Yourself

This is Roratonga. Get close to see the magnificient peaks. (put mouse over it and roll it). Aitutaki is north 40 min. by plane. Go there and see the terrific lagoon. Hey, you really can! Just scroll 22 lengths of the screen north. You will go through non imagery till you get to the best place. Let me know if you found it. We snorkeled on the south western most little island area. We ate at one foot island on the east that looks like a foot. We stopped at several other islands, including the survivor islands. (Thanks to Dan for helping me put this on)


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Roratonga & Aitutaki

Well Bob "had" to meet with a couple of employees in the Cook Islands. We don't have schools or a service center there so there are only 3 employees that sometimes get neglected. Miriam came so we took a couple of extra days to do it up right. It was a four hour flight there from Auckland. It was almost 2 of their movies. (Need to see "Lars and the Real Girl"). First highlight was flying over the gorgeous island and seeing the impressive mountain peaks and ridges. Very green and very sharp peaks. That is not common on the islands that we have seen so far, Tahiti was second to it. We wanted to do the cross island trek but chose not to because of the weather. It was a good choice because someone we talked with took 7 hours and it should have been 3 hours. They felt like you needed ropes. It would have been very slippery with the rain.

Oh, maybe we need to talk about Bob's work here first. That is why we came. Bob met with the government agency regarding their retirement plan. Then met with the employees and went over contracts and enrollment forms. Everything went well. Now they are all legal and properly enrolled in their benefit plans. We had a very lovely dinner with them that night where we got to know them and their spouses better. While Bob was in meetings, Miriam had a great time wandering the town, looking at museums, shops, following the beat of the drummers (literally) and have a wonderful morning. (check out the photos for more info)

David Akinoa was kind of our host on this trip. He drove us to and from the airport numerous times. He loaned us his scooter to get around the island. He took us to his home and introduced us to star fruit.(love it) We learned about coconuts, bananas, palm trees and his star fruit. The amazing thing is that all these plants can be planted, grow to maturity and bear fruit in 6 months to a year. We saw lots of pictures of his wonderful family and heard their conversion stories and temple trips. His son is the champion fire dancer several times of the polynesian island games.

The third day we flew to Aitutaki. As you fly in you see numerous small islands surrounded by the most beautiful Lagoon you have seen in your life. Here is where most of "The Other Side of Heaven", "Johnny Lingo" and Survivor were filmed. We were told to get of the plane and ask for Tom. "Everyone knows Tom". We did and found out he was not there but his daughter was. She took us to our cottage on the beach and to our day tour of the Lagoon and other islands. The first island was Honeymoon Island. There we had morning tea consisting of fresh lemonade, homemade doughnuts (scones) and various island fruits. Most of the time when you "have tea" you really don't have tea. We went snorkeling in a wonderful spot. More fish and clams than youhave ever seen. White sandy bottom ocean floor surrounded by the corral. (see pics) We spent a lot of time on the island that survivor was filmed on. Puna (tour guide) wanted to explain what a wonderful financial blessing it was for the whole island. Although now they are in a slump again. We then went to One Foot Island, where we could send postcard and we had a superb meal. Puna's wife and son really had it all for us. (Notice the outhouse with a view in the pics)

Tareta and her four children took us on a tour of the island. Puffy picked us up to take us to her parent's restarant for a traditional meal and island dance show. Boy, do those girls know how to swing their hips. We enjoyed our meal with Repeta (the church employee) and her husband who is a 24 year old branch president. Great fun! After being awoken at 4:30 AM (again) by all the roosters we were greeted by fresh donuts from Repeta. She also gave us 8 pareu. (like sarangs). Here is a great story about Repeta's father and uncle. The island constitution requires that the sabbath be observed. Due to the poor economy the government started allowing Sunday flights to come into the island. The island people were so upset by this that they protested at the airport. Repeta's father and uncle ran out on the runway as the first plane came in. They also placed logs and wood on the runway to prevent planes from landing. They are now banned from flying the only airline that comes onto the island. (Do you think the Ensign would like this story?) Many of the locals feel that their economy is so bad now because of the planes flying on the Sabbath all the time now. Boy did we feel guilty flyiing home to Auckland on their Sunday. By doing so we were able to attend church. NZ is over the time line and our Sunday was the day before (their Saturday) so we got home on our Monday. (can you follow that?)

Back to Roratonga. Cruising around the island on David's scooter was a blast. It rained most days a bit. You would just keep going and in a bit you had dried off. (My hair was a sight though) We saw a wedding taking place on a little island across a lagoon. The bride and her maids were ferried across in a fun decorated boat. We called the Sr. Missionary couple and asked if we could come and visit them in the evening. Because of night blindness they don't drive after 6 pm. They live in the Black Rock Mission Home. We had such a wonderful visit. They are like our heros. They work so very hard. This is their fourth sr. couple mission. They have always been proselyting and loved it. They said that their island was kind of dead because they couldn't get anyting going with the members and the work. But his wife told us that in the last 7 months he has baptized 10 people. He will talk to eveyone and tract all the time. It works for them. Even though they are Senior Missionaries they keep the rules in the white handbook. This has given them success.

We enjoyed the Roratonga market on Sat. morning where we shopped and ate lunch. On Sunday David picked up our bags and had us ride the scooter to church. It started raining on us but we were dry when we got there. (Hair was great again) We followed a scooter to church that had his young child strapped to his back with a sash. When he pulled up to the church we could see that the child was asleep. They aren't really into safety here. No helmets anywhere either. Church was lovely. Going to the airport he invited us to get into the back of his truck and sit on his garden chairs. It was a wonderful trip. Next stop is Korea and Japan for Bob in 3 days. (look at pictures)