All is well that ends well

In which is told and shown the tale of the purchase of 3 cars, explosions and tear gas and the trip to Bourail

At our last posting, we were learning how to purchase cars and feeling like the more we learned the more was yet to go. As of today we have completed the registration with the local government authorities. It turns out that mere volume of paper was the trick. In that world, 10 sheets of 'information' is better than one. Magically over last weekend, all was well.  The purchase orders sent us from Fiji drew chuckles from the dealers, but we have proceeded anyway with their interest. duh, they are selling cars after all. So on Wednesday, when we could get time to get there, we brought the bleu clair Renault home. A picture of Sister Mautz with Heavenly Father's new car is adjacent. She thought bleu clair was much nicer that battleship gris, the color of the last car. What we didn't know until we got it was the double sun roofs and the automatic transmission which allows Sister Mautz to drive now. As soon as she gets up courage to navigate a 'rond point' or I dent the car. Whichever comes first.

The second and third cars are Berlingos also pictured adjacent with Elders Livingston and Manning, both of machete fame. These are utilitarian cars with firm springs, modest creature comforts although with ac, and designed to handle much of what a missionary can give them. They are reasonably economical and are good for the bush country up north. A couple of them were pretty well worn out by the time we got here. The two we have just purchased were due in February when we were to have originally arrived. So the missionaries are glad to have them. We had to replace the old ones traded in with newer ones that lived nearby so that we could get them to the dealer without stopping the work. that meant that some sisters inherited cars driven by elders. 'Humph, smelled like elders' from one of the sisters. 'That car was so dirty we tried not to touch anything,' from another. We will have to learn to do better. 

We are now helping Fiji get through international money transfers. I can always cut a check if  I have to. (Not from our funds!)

So, on Thursday morning we are on the way to a doctor for a 7a appointment. (And no, I don't know who makes appointments for that hour of the morning or another doctor that takes them) We have picked up the missionaries needing to go to the doctor and are about 15 minutes away from our destination when our cell phone beeps, 'elder Mautz, we just heard some explosions and there is a lot of smoke rising from the airport near the mission office. We went outside to see what was going on and there were bonfires in the street and tear gas.' 'Well, Elder, go back inside your apartment and close the windows and door and stay there until we can get you out of there. And thanks for keeping us up to date. A call to the zone leaders got us help in evacuating the Elders and on getting a radio report as to what was going on.

This will be very familiar to those who have lived in France. Seems that the local airport workers of one of the unions was unhappy so they tried to take control of the local airport. Our office and one of the chapels is just across the street. ( and yes, it does make Sunday meetings a little noisy from time to time) so the professional military were out in force. there was some concern that one of the planes, perhaps with passengers aboard, might be the target of a potential high jacking so the gendarmes did a tour de force setting off explosives and tear gas. Hence the noise and odor our elders were encountering who live just a block away. Roads were barricaded and there were several truck loads of military in the area. The rest of Noumea was quite calm. We saw no evidence of anything until we tired to get to our offices a couple hours later and encountered blockades.  The zone leaders drove as close as they could get, walked in the rest of the way, got our two elders out of there and off to work elsewhere. So by the time we were done at the doctor, we had elders safely out of the way.  A quick call to the mission president kept him informed earned us instructions to keep the missionaries safe and away from trying to take pictures. By mid-afternoon, it was all cleared away. All that was left was the slight aroma of tear gas and the black stains of ash on the pavement where several bonfires had been built. Vive la Republique!  There are mornings, once in a while, when the day looks pretty clear. We always wonder what might happen.  Always does! Later that day we retrieved the aforementioned Berlingos. A happy ending to the day. The bed felt great that night!

Last Sunday we traveled north 2 hours to the northern most point in which we have missionaries, Bourail. The small branch is held together by two very faithful families with returned missionaries as parents and both fluent English speaking natives. And with two great missionaries, one of whom arrived with us.  The meeting location, also shown adjacent, reminds me of some of the small rented meeting places we had 40 years ago in the France Paris Mission.  The plan for the day was to attend church in the morning starting at 9a, dinner with the Branch president and his family and then a reactivation activity.

The President's wife is a returned missionary who lived in the US for 12+ years and only returned home when her job was terminated. She came home single and worried how she would ever marry. Reactivated her husband as part of a biking group, fell in love, he launched a successful business and here we are. She teaches English locally and is a delightful as is her husband. Faithful souls doing whatever it takes to bless their children with the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We ate outside in the shade of a covered veranda while the breeze blew through and an occasional rain shower blew by. Very comfortable but certainly a long way from what she might have gotten used to in the US.   The second family is headed by a returned missionary.  A handsome native fellow with completely western features and skin as black as you could imagine. A striking man also a fluent English speaker who met his wife, from southern Utah, at BYU Hawaii. She moved to Bourail sight unseen with her new husband and has adapted.

After the meetings and dinner, we visited the family of the RS president. Very humble circumstances. She is a dear soul. Sister Mautz found the RS meeting, albeit small with 3 other sisters, had a great spirit about it with a well prepare lesson. (And she would know!) Her husband, also a member, has had trouble leaving his cigarettes behind to the point of virtually giving up. The effect on her grown children, some of whom are still at home, has been to be disrespectful of  their mother's Church and their father. So the two Elders, we, and the Branch President went for a visit. I felt strongly impressed to push hard on obeying the Word of Wisdom. All that is keeping him from the Temple and binding his family together forever. I am grateful for that guidance. He responded well. I offered him a Priesthood blessing from his Branch President which he accepted. We got a report 3 days after from the elders, who came down to take care of visa registration issues, that he was excited to be through the first 3 days, was already feeling better, and was anxious to move forward. I came to understand our Heavenly Father's love for each of his children a little better and to know that the worth of a souls is great.  It is humbling to know that He will respond to each, as they show love by keeping his commandments. We sat under a thatched roof next to a tin building with a plywood door and a mud floor. Warm embraces as we left. We are grateful to be here.

And as a side note, at dinner during conversation, we learned that one of the elders is the grandson of friends from our Bloomfield Hills, Michigan days, a great grandson of George and Lenore Romney. We enjoyed reminiscing just a little. His grandmother still lives in that ward.

By the time we inspected the elders' apartment, which was clean, and learned they need a stove with a working oven, it was later than we would have liked. We arrived home 2 1/2 hours later pretty tired from the day that started at 5a. Righteous weariness is a blessing.

And P-day news to end this entry. When we arrived here, we knew that part of the country's history was tied closely to the Allies'  war effort in the Pacific. I was curious to see just what might be left. A little more than I had thought. As the slide show adjacent shows, atop the highest hill in the City are some remnants of the Allied artillery that protected the harbor here. Apparently Noumea itself was hardly on the map before the war. The Allies drained swamps, built roads, airport and  11 hospitals on the island including one clinic still in use that is just down the street along the beach from where we are living. The island was apparently used as an r&r and recovery area for the troops in the Pacific. The artillery you see in the pictures covered the harbor and islands below. There are also remains of foundations for other guns with circle foundations 25 feet across with a steel rail running around the edge and a concrete/brick center which look like they might have been the base of a large gun that could rotate through 360 degrees. Only the foundation remains now.

The small clinic which by today' standards looks quite primitive is a series of several small metal-walled and roofed buildings. Still used as a clinic today. The allies built the hospitals, provided free medical care to the inhabitants of the island during the war and then left it all operational for them after the war.  Two of my uncles fought in the Pacific, and a 3rd, a doctor, was actually stationed here. 

Here are some random pictures taken of the missionaries on P-day giving each other haircuts.  There are also some pictures of island from the hillside where the cannons were.  If you are still reading, we hope you enjoy this update