Settling in in New Caledonia

After much talk and travel, we are finally here.  Here are our first impressions of the country, living here, our great new friends, and the missionaries.

The contrast between Fiji where we spent two days, and New Caledonia are stark and enormous. Fiji is 3rd world. We landed at the airport in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) and had a 4-hour bus ride to the other side of the island. We were met and then sent off again by a team of missionaries who spend much of their time helping poor strangers like us get to where they need to be. 

Then two days with our mission president and his wife being oriented, going to the Temple in Fiji which was just like going home, and then off again. Bumpy roads with lots of holes in them. A national speed limit of 50 mph, or 80 km per hour. Pictures nearby will show you a view of the country from the veranda where we bought them lunch just before leaving Fiji.

We landed in NC after dark but the contrast was immediate. A freeway, divided even, with cars cruising like the autobahn. Again the airport in NC is a distance from Noumea but the trip was quick and comfortable. The zone leaders met us. They have responsibility for directing the missionary work in NC and are very capable young men. Our apartment was waiting for us as previously arranged. We are grateful for those who have come before and prepared us a bit. It is winter here with days shortening, counter intuitive we know. and yes the sun still does rise in the east in the southern hemisphere!  The temperatures are in the 80's.

The apartment is furnished in the basics. But the views of this topical island are spectacular from the 10th floor. Again the pictures are attached. And now a week later and with good maps, we can find grocery stores, two of the church buildings as well as our office. we have shopped a little, managed to do laundry in our own apartment, have eaten a few meals here and enjoyed morning walks along the beach.

Much of our responsibilities will include helping the young missionaries with whatever they need. They have done this a long time without any help. So they are teaching us how to pay their bills, oversee the car fleets, help with visas and carte de sejours and administer the work. We have also had the opportunity already to help a young elder who is a little discouraged. As he works hard to meet people, share his beliefs and learn a new language. And coach another on beginning to form some plans for the rest of his life using principles he has been using on his mission to plan his time, set objectives and move forward in them. We attended our first meeting with our zone leadership team. Together we are going to learn to use agendas, followup on items from the previous week,  use  the valuable stats gathered each week and reported to headquarters in Suva and make assignments.  Much has already changed for this week's meeting which will take place Friday. Teachable young men, with little experience but eager to learn.  They quickly see what can be done. We hope we can make them more effective in helping their fellow missionaries carry out their important work.

We attended our first Church meetings yesterday, Sunday. A new building with ac. Two different branches or congregations. The members greet us eagerly. Shirley has been patient as I interact with them in French sometimes turning to her and continuing right on in French, other times at least trying to remember to shift language. As I have to sit with the leaders on the stand, she has had either a missionary or another member sitting with her to translate. French is clearly the language spoken here, everywhere. I am enlarging my vocabulary everyday dealing with internet connectivity, a broken down car, shopping for lamps and fan, etc. 

The branches are run entirely by the local members and the church is quite well established. 

In one of the Sacrament services, (the main worship service of the day), the youth of the Branch and the full time missionaries presented their testimonies in gratitude for the Savior in music and talks.  It was a delightful meeting with a strong witness of the Spirit of the truthfulness of what they were saying.

Reverse the order of pictures

Still learning on this blog.  The pictures I posted first are last on the posting.  I'll know better next time.

Love to all,

Carl and Shirley

We Fly Today

We survived the second week being trained for our service in the office.  We each had different reactions to the training.  One of us really enjoyed it and the other not so much.  Can you guess which one?  What I hadn't counted on was that we would develop such good friends and that it would be just as hard to say goodbye to them as it was to say goodbye to our children and grandchildren.  

Last Saturday was our P-day and we experienced doing our laundry at the MTC, shipped some very heavy books to New Caledonia to lighten our suitcase load, and met some friends of the Mautz family, Glade and Judy Hunsaker, from Champaign days, at the temple.  One of the couples that we got to know well is the brother of Judy so after we got finished at the temple we went to dinner and got caught up on each other.  As we were leaving the resturant, Glade suggested that we another old friend as well.  Shauna Larson was the wife of our former Stake President in Champaign.  She was quite pleased to see us and we visited too long, but we are glad to have done it.

Sunday was Easter at the MTC.  No Easter bunny, but our good friend Mima Kearl sent us a care package.  We shared the treats in our office classes and so everyone says thanks, Mima.  

We attended Sacrament meeting in one of the Branches, then listened to "Music and the Spoken Word" before Priesthood and Relief Society.  The meetings weren't quite like we have at home as in Relief Society we had a member of the Relief Society General Board.  I'm sorry to say that I can't recall her name without going to my journal but she is the daughter of Elder Wirthlin.  We had a relaxing afternoon and then went to a Fireside in the evening.

We had two more French lessons and had to say goodbye to our instructors.  They were very helpful to us both and it was like saying goodbye to our sons when we left them on Wednesday night.

In the course of the week on one of our breaks, Carl and I went out to get some air and walk about a little.  We were somewhat startled when we heard someone call us from the ramp of the mailroom.  It was Fred Axelgard.  He is the son of some friends from Virginia and he had seen us out the window and hurried out to say hello.  Freddie served in New Caledonia and returned home last August.  We set up a time to meet on Thursday for lunch to get more of the scoop about our our area.

Thursday finished up our week with a simulation of office work in the field.  This is where we applied what we had learned.  It was a little scary for Carl and me when we started to make transfers.  I opened up the page to do it and realized that I had not seen that page at all.  Panic.  I asked the teacher about it and was told I wasn't crazy because I had not done that exercise.  Carl and I and two other couples were getting trained in something else when it was taught.  Three of the couples, including us are going to be doing a new system called IMOS which stands for Internet Missionary Operating System.  This will be implemented in the Fiji Mission in June.  Carl hopes we don't have to spend too much time doing office work because there is so much to do with the church members there.  

Thursday morning we woke up to about four inches of snow on the ground.  It was fun watching the missionaries from other parts of the world who had never seen snow before.  Two days before, we were walking around with light sweaters in warm sunny weather.  We think we will like the weather in New Caledonia just fine.

To prove it is a small world, we met some other old friends at the MTC.  I was getting some more water when I turned and saw our friend Kathy Hinckley who was there with her husband, Clark.  He has been called to be a Mission President in Barcelona, Spain. (Don't tell.)  I'm not sure she remembered us until we started talking a bit.  They were in our ward in Bloomfield Hills and I was their son Spencer's CTR teacher.  He and Chris were in the same class.  Yes, it is President Hinckley's son.

Thursday as we were having our last meal at the MTC, Carl looked up and saw a former Stake Presidnet from our days in Naperville, Il.  They did remember us.  He is a counselor in one of the Branch Presidencies at the MTC.  When we told Chris about meeting them, he remembered their name.  He say he remembers praying for them.  The funny thing about that is that Chris was five when we moved 

Well, this is too long.  Sorry.  I don't know when the next post will be.  We leave in about two hours for the airport.  We fly to LA and have a layover of a few hours flying out of LA at 11:30 PM.  We skip Sunday altogether arriving at 5:30 in the morning on Monday.  Our mission President told us we would be met by some missionaries and will ride in an autobus for 4 hours before we reach the Mission office.  I don't want to think about that trip.  

We are excited though to finally get our adventure really started.  Keep us in your prayers and tell us if you get tired of our blog.    I will let Carl read this and add his own comments.  We love you all and will be thinking of you.  Just as a side note.  I've written so much this week that this will be my letter to the family.  Hope you don't mind.  

Pictures are #1 our district, #2 us with Fred Axelgard, #3 statue on the grounds, #4 our French tutor, Guillaume Bergeron.  At least I hope that is the order.  Once you upload, you don't see them again.

Au Revoir

End of the first week

We have come to the end of our fist week at the MTC. All of the senior couples (try getting used to that) spend the first week together preparing to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. So the 26 couples in our group have been a tight group. the only time we are not together is when the language training is going on in the evenings after classes. the training has been intense, well prepared and well delivered. Of a very high professional quality compared to the professional facilitators I have seen in business. And of course, everyone is quite engaged. Of the 26 couples, we were the only ones not from the inter-mountain West or California. We began to understand the fundemental strength of the Church here as it sends missionaries all over the world.

The physical plant is also impressive. Dorm facilities for almost 3000 people, some 300 classrooms, large meeting rooms and chapels, a significant exercise facility with 8 b-ball courts (would you believe) walking paths and exercise machines etc. 

But the most impressive part of all this is the wonderful people. Scores of volunteers, Skilled language instructors spending countless hours in individual instruction in dozens of languages, carefully planned lessons and presenters in teaching techniques, and scriptural presentations. It is very clear that our Heavenly Father takes the proclaiming of His Gospel very seriously and wants the Word to go forth.

We have had wonderful experiences meeting people. Shirley has already mentioned the son of dear friends. One morning while I stood in line, I heard French spoken behind me and turned to greet the speakers. There I met two young sisters who will come to New Caledonia in 8 weeks. And we will already be there to greet them. They were eager to meet Sister Mautz and already feel they have a 'mother' waiting for them as only Sister Mautz can be. 

We have met Hannah Mautz's cousin, also a friend of ours from several years together at Farrell family Christmas Eve parties.

But most of all, we have met wonderful couples responding to their Heavenly Father's call to serve. And they go to all corners of the world: Nepal, Hong Kong, Grenada, Philippines, Mexico Brazil  and all over the US.

Next week starts new training for our little mission office. We know from correspondence with our Mission Presdient that we will serve as counselor in the Mission Presidency, take care of the 25-30 missionaries in New Caledonia who only see their Mission President every 8 weeks and who is 1000 miles away. We expect to do some leadership training and whatever else the local district president might need of us. That is when the real adventure will begin.

First two days

Hello dear family and friends,

We have completed the first two days in the MTC.  What an experience.  Yesterday was checking in and a basic orientation and get to know you sort of thing.  We learned what we would be doing for the rest of the week and enjoyed some great meals.  I suppose one might get tired of them but hey, I didn't have to prepare them.

The first part of the day was a presentation for us on how to present a discussion.  After lunch we met in our group and the instructor had us make an outline of what we would present to an investigator.  Oh yes the lesson was on the Restoration of the Gospel.  We worked on that a bit before and after lunch actually then we went back to our rooms and waited for our investigator to arrive then proceeded to present our lesson to them.  I was a little shaky but it seemed to work out okay and they committed to read the Book of Mormon.  I felt somewhat overwhelmed with the exercise because for the past 2 1/2 months I have been studying French and Carl was studying the lessons.  We got through it okay and tomorrow we will present the lesson on the plan of happiness.

Tonight we will go to a devotional where we will hear from Elder Featherstone.  They tell the Seniors who the speaker is but not the Elders so mum is the word.  We will look forward to that and another one on Sunday evening.

We learned when we arrived three valuable things.  #1 I could wear my comfortable walking shoes.  #2 We have internet access, and #3 we can use our cell phones.  Other things we learned is that we left a couple of things home that we will have to have sent to us, the remote control for our sound system and the suit pants to Carl's summer weight suit.  Fortunately, for him, he bought another suit last week so he should be okay until Aaron can send it.  Thanks Aaron.

We have a couple of friends who have children here in the MTC.  One is the son of our dear friends, Gary and Mima Kearl and the other is the cousin of our daughter in law, Hannah.  We found this morning through a tender mercy of the Lord that if we sit near the entrance of the cafeteria, the Lord brings them to us so that we can sent pictures to their families.  He works in many ways to make things happen.

We are really learning a lot, have a comfortable room and bed and feel the Lord's love in this experience.  

P.S. Carl found the pants under his ties! :)

Tomorrow's the day

Carl and I are actually going to enter the MTC tomorrow morning!  We are excited and ready to go.  We aren't sure what to expect but we know it will be the adventure of a lifetime for us.

We know that the Visa came through and that we are booked on a plane to LA and on to Fiji on the 18th of April.  It has been a long time coming which makes leaving much easier than expected.

We hope that we can set up a system of communication ASAP so we can keep you all posted on what we are doing.  In the mean time "Au revoir".