Dearest Family and Friends,

  See our blog and facebook. I have posted on both. I can not believe that we have been on our mission almost one month. The time is flying.

  We enjoyed another busy week of learning and doing. We feel more settled and not so overwhelmed. My brain felt like it was on overload. 

  The people here, are accepting us with loving hearts, open arms and hugs with kisses on the cheek. We love the Suva 3rd Ward that we are assigned to.

   Oct. 10 we will be hosting the Willis' a sr. missionary couple from Fruit Heights, for 6 days until their apartment becomes available. I feel bad for them. The first week is hard enough. We do have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

   Sat. we attended a Tri-Stake Cluster meeting with all stake auxiliary leaders (about 350 people) at our Stake Center which is also our assigned ward building(Suva 3rd). The Pacific Area Stake Conf. theme is: Keep the Sabbath Day Holy (giving the Sabbath back to the Lord) and Becoming Self Reliance. Elder Johansson, Area Seventy, conducted and was the speaker at the meeting. He said this subject is not going away anytime soon. Implementing will help solve many of life's challenges. His closing remarks summed up: Education is the fruit of learning. Grow a spirit unto Eternal Life. Become scholars in the Doctrine of Jesus Christ.  

  We have been very blessed to be able to view over the internet Sat. Aft. Conf. and the Priesthood Mtg. today between our meetings. Elder Hales talk was powerful, stressing the importance of holding tighter to the Iron Rod. The Adversary is trying even harder to pull us away from gaining eternal life with his many deceitful tactics.  

  Tonight Dad and I viewed the Women's Conf. at the Stake Center filled with youth, women and priesthood leaders. All the talks have been very inspiring. Pres. Monson's priesthood mtg. talk left no questions about the challenges of the world and how to handle them.   

  For us it was Fast Sunday today. Next week is our Stake Conf. and the next week we view Gen. Conf. at the church for our meetings.   

   We have had 2 days of beautiful blue skies. It has been wonderful to look out over the island and be able to see the blue ocean. After our morning meeting yesterday and a Fijian lunch, the Greenburgs from NV had invited us to go to the Suva Park that is next to the ocean and has a lovely walkway. The park is beautifully gorgeous and was a nice day to walk. Many people were there also groups of people playing volleyball on several different courts.

      I better get to bed we have to be at our Monday devotional at 8am. I have been asked to lead a song by Ned. We will post his picture later and tell you more about him. He is quite incredible. He is the manager of Self Reliance in Fiji and 5 other Islands. He is who we work with. We went to dinner with their family last week. We plan to have them at our flat soon.

     We love you all and appreciate your prayers. We are also remembering you in  our prayers.   Much love to all, DAD and MOM (Elder and Sister Smith)

Our Mission in Fiji: End of Sept and First Week of Oct. 2015

 These 3 wonderful people are Self Reliance leaders in each of their stakes (3 stakes and districts).

 A beautiful Suva water front park. I have never seen a park this beautiful! It is huge. A great place to take a walk on a beautiful sunny day like yesterday (Sat.) with the Greenburgs that we met while at the MTC. The came a week + before us. They serve at the college and live very near us. I wish I could post many more pictures. I will put some on facebook. It is much easier to post there.

A Fijian woman took a taxi with her friend to gather seaweed to make Fiji Pie. She shared how she makes it. I didn't post the picture with her friend and her BIG knife. We saw her out in the ocean cutting and gather this as we walked shoreline sidewalk in the park.

A Fijian Bowery in the middle of the park. I know they have a better name for it. People are there with their food and music having a wonderful time.

 I scene of the path by the park. I loved this picture. It tells a story of the peoples.

 After Women's Conf. at the Church. Malika, Ned's wife and our Self Reliance manager, 2 of their beautiful daughters by their mother and the rest are cousins. The Taito's are a wonderful family. She is our Stake RS Pres. Ned is a man of all seasons. I will take a picture of him and tell more later.

 Bishop Solanki and his wife Charlene. He joined the Church in 2007. They were sealed in the temple in 2010. She was not active when she married him. They are both very educated people. The India people and the Fijians serve side by side in the church. Fiji is ethnically very diverse.

The stake RS Pres., Malika, and our ward RS Pres., Sister Sefeti. Beautiful Fijian people!