Geography lesson

On Friday, our mission president and his wife took us sisters from the mission out to lunch. Sisters' night! Okay, it wasn't actually nighttime, but we got the essential down: no boys (except president, of course, but you can't even tell since he took the picture!). For some reason, we only ever have mini mission reunions at the Brick Oven. I'm not complaining, especially since they messed up on my pizza and gave me an entire second one for free. Score.

Going down-up, left to right: Kalli (served in Vanuatu), Harmony, Holli (served in Fiji), me, Sari, Sister Ostler, Laurel

President started off by asking us, "So how does it feel having served in the Vanuatu Port Vila mission?" After a few confused looks, we realized what that meant: the mission finally split! It was rumored to do so about a year and a half ago as we were leaving, so I guess they finally got around to doing it. This change will take place in July. The current mission president (Pres. Klingler, who I worked with in the MTC) will stay in Fiji (even though he speaks French), and the new president will be over the Vanuatu mission. (I wonder where they'll live?) It kind of makes me sad, though, knowing that even though I can still say that I served in the Fiji Suva mission (since that will always be my mission), it's kind of not true anymore.

President asked Kalli to say the prayer on the food in Bislama, the pidgin language they speak in Vanuatu. It's just beautiful. And it makes me laugh. At their homecoming, Sister Ostler talked about how much she loves the simplicity of the language, especially the translation of "endure to the end." In Bislama, you say, "Stand Up Strong." I love that too. And I think it's a great way to describe the people and the missionaries in this new mission. And, as we said, now we'll just have to take a little trip to Vanuatu so that we can say that we've actually been there.

As if the explanation weren't confusing enough . . . (an example of how the explanation usually goes:)

Person: So where did you serve your mission?

Me: Uh . . . just this little French island in the South Pacific.

Person: (as if they have any clue of the geography down there) Oh, what's it called?

Me: New Caledonia. It's in the Fiji mission, but it's not a part of Fiji, it just happened to be included in the mission.

Person: So, it's like one of the outer islands of Fiji?

Me: No. It's in between Fiji and Australia, just north of New Zealand. The Fiji mission is made

up of three countries. So if you get called Fijian speaking, you go to Fiji; if you get called English speaking, you go to Vanuatu and learn a pidgin language when you get there; and if you get called French speaking, you go to New Caledonia.

And they get waaay more information than they wanted. And they still have no idea where New Caledonia is. (How, oh how will I explain it now?!)

So here's the new dealio with the mish:

The Fiji Suva Mission . . . before. Included Fiji Islands, New Caledonia (just ignore those islands on the left side of the New Caledonia box--they aren't really a part of New Cal), Vanuatu, Tuvalu, and Wallis & Futuna (even though there aren't any missionaries in Wallis & Futuna . . . yet.)

And here is the newly divided mission: the Fiji Suva mission and Vanuatu Port Vila mission. You'll notice that Fiji is now by itself (well, with Tuvalu), and the new mission includes New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands (taken from the Papua New Guinea mission), and Wallis & Futuna. Apparently the new mission follows the flight paths pretty well, so that'll be good for cutting down on travel time for the new pres.

Now our mission is even MORE obscure than it was before!

So hopefully this map helps you understand better what's going on down there in the South Pacific! A very sincere Good Luck ("Bon Courage!") goes out to the missionaries and the new mission president who will be affected by this change. It'll be great. One day New Cal will be its own mission, temple and all. We can hope, right?

P.S. Here's a better picture of the new mission. You can check it on the Church News here.