Mission Adventures in Vanuatu

Preparing a traditional greeting for Elder Bednar, his wife and the Meurs May through October is winter here in Vanuatu, or as they call it the “dry season”.   That means it is about 82 degrees with 75% humidity instead of 90 degrees with 95% humidity. The summer or “wet season” is November through April. During the summer, “wet season” we get rivers of water/rain on most days, and the winter, “dry season” we still get rain but it’s much less intense. We are grateful for the cooler breeze and cooler days! On our morning walk seeing the beautiful sunrise at the ocean. Things have taken a turn with the construction Joe was originally going to participate in because of some policy changes. His role will be more observatory, as the eyes and ears of the mission regarding the new builds. They are building new missionary quarters as well as chapels. One of the huge struggles here is the maintenance of all existing properties. The humidity, and other harsh conditions coupled with the cultu...

Our trip to Malekula was a little easier this time, but definitely had plenty of adventure and crazy stuff while seeing 8 properties and staying at a bungalow. It’s one of those things that no matter how I try to describe what it’s like, unless you actually experience it, it’s pretty unimaginable.  Malekula is one of the least developed islands in Vanuatu. We have to take a flight on a very tiny propeller plane and then pray, ha ha. There are no hotels, only small stores that sell what they can get or grow. With mostly dirt roads, villages, churches, and schools are sprinkled through out the island. There is massive amounts of rain 7 months of the year, and of course dirt and water make mud…. LOTS of it! Driving in the mud up mountains without addresses or landmarks makes for an extremely bumpy sometimes scary exciting all day ride. Every time we would head out with our driver he would say, “OH, roads, very bad! Will take two hours”. So off we would go with our peanut butter sandwi...