September...

Two of the wonderful Mamas in our branch.

Cruise ships have started coming back to Port Vila as of a couple of weeks ago for the first time since the earthquake last December. It has been an interesting experience seeing people get ferried from the ship to the water front... All of the Mamas with their home made goods were ready and waiting for the cruisers to stop, take a look, and hopefully buy souvenirs to take home. I was talking with one of the other senior missionaries and she said, "I looked at the ship and realized I was actually living in the excursion." It made us both laugh at that thought. Visiting a location and seeing the parts of a country and culture that is for tourism, verses how things work day to day and learning to work within the system are two completely different thing

Looking out realizing you are living in the excursion...

A mama pig and her baby. 

A lot of really good things are happening here on the island of Efate where we live. There is one stake on this island, which is a group of 9 congregations that includes 5 wards and 4 branches of the church. In the past, the highest baptismal number for a month had been 49 people. For the month of August the baptismal number was 109! Our small branch alone had 15-20 of them. Everyone is amazed at the growth!

New Branch Presidency.

Not only is our little branch growing, but all of the leadership has been changed out. That always breathes new life into a congregation. Our new branch president was a past missionary serving here in Vanuatu only 4 years ago and is from Tahiti. After his mission he came back and married a girl that is from Vanuatu and actually served a mission here on one of the other islands. He is only about 25 years old and they are the cutest couple and just had a baby girl. He is driven and has a good sense of leadership and is willing to delegate and always turns to the official handbook. He is fantastic and we are excited to see how this branch will grow.

What hasn't changed is the four dogs that enjoy attending church. It sounds cute to see dogs in church, but they are mangy, not healthy, and shouldn't really be touched because of disease. The leadership is trying to stop this practice but it has been a tradition in this branch for over a decade. This is one of the many unique things that is totally normal here, ha ha.

Dogs napping in church in front of us.

I've mentioned in the past that one of the big issues here is power and water. Having enough usable/drinkable water is a huge problem. There are two properties where there is a church as well as a house for missionaries. Water tanks are on the properties and they have rain gutters to collect the water to then use for cooking and drinking. So that means, the rain water runs over the roof with dirt, dead birds, or whatever into the water supply. (Not good) The other issue is, people from the rest of the village come and take the water during the dry season. We have two areas where we get calls every week about tanks being empty. If there isn't enough rain and the water is gone, we have to order a load of water and then the trucks have to come and fill the tanks.

To solve this problem we are going to put a solar powered well in each of these two locations here on Efate island and it will solve the water problem forever. CLEAN water flowing from the earth with an unlimited supply. As this project evolves, I will update with pictures and more information. This is exciting for us because it is something that we can do to actually solve a problem from beginning to end, which most of the stuff we do is not that.... It's managing issues, or trying to just "move the needle" of change as best we can while we are here. SO many things we take for granted back home that are normal for us, are mostly nonexistent here.

Elder and Sister Meurs :)

A few weeks ago we had a "mission tour" which means Elder and Sister Meurs, the Pacific Area President and his wife came and visited a lot of the areas of our mission. We had a meeting called a Zone Conference, and received instruction from both of them as well as the mission leaders. All of those meetings were in english which was wonderful! We knew the Meurs from our Hong Kong/Mongolia mission from 2018-2019. We love them and they are amazing people. Because of our assignments here, we see a lot of the dark and dirty and sometimes it's easy to forget the big picture and all of the miraculous things that are happening. Elder Meurs has this incredible ability to put things in perspective and balancing the whole picture. 

Some mamas making traditional Ni-Van food with a pig that had been roaming around. They use pork, cassava, other root vegetables, and wrap it in banana leaves to put in the ground with hot coral rocks.

The truth is, yes life here is very difficult and there are dark and crazy things within the culture etc. AND at the same time there is this amazing transformation going on with people being awakened to the truth of who they are as God's children. They are learning. The tribal culture is a huge problem and it may take several generations to weed that stuff out, but it is happening. In a general meeting here last May when Elder Bednar of the twelve came, he actually said over the pulpit, "The tribal culture has to go. There are many things about it that are not consistent with living Gods laws and covenants". He went on to say, "If you don't like change, join another church. The whole purpose is for us to change. The Savior doesn't want to just prune us, He wants us to become new IN Him." Gotta love Elder Bednar.

Beautiful few hours on a little island called Moso. Stunning waters and very peaceful. We saw a huge turtle that popped his head out of the water while there. 

These principles apply to all of us. What traditions are we holding on to that we need to let go of? The gospel of Jesus Christ really is about transformation and usually it's not comfortable. That being said, I have to say that the "fruit" of choosing to let go of certain things and do our best to walk the covenant path brings a lot more joy and peace than not. 

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27

It is hard to put into words the things both Joe and I are learning about ourselves, God, people, each other, and increasing our individual faith. We are still pretty "deep" in it, as we have two months left and A LOT to do. We pray every day for direction and clarity for how to handle situations, and the best way moving forward with our assignments. Miracles are real, and God is truly in the details.

We love and miss you all,

The Kwans

Fish heads

Supplies being put on a ferry to the island of Malakula.