Aboriginal Fijianreligion could be classified in modern terms as forms of animism or shamanism, traditions utilizing various systems ofdivination which strongly affected every aspect of life. Fiji was Christianized in the 19th century. Today there are various Christian denominations in Fiji, the majority being Methodist. There are also a number of Eastern religions present: Hindu, Islam and Sikhismamong others. Fiji has many public holidays as it acknowledges the special days held by the various belief systems, such as Easter andChristmas for the Christians, Deepavali for the Hindus, and Eid for the Muslims. From the beginning the old Fijian religion was the Majority, but after the British deported Hindus to Fiji, the majority became Hindus. Later, Hindus started immigrating for a better life. Then Christianity became the majority and it still is.
We picked up
the Senekuriciris at the service center in Suva and headed out for the west
side of the island. After a week of
working together our trust and affection for each other was well
established. We had a long drive which
was spent getting even better acquainted.
We had a great visit as we watched the countryside go by.
We passed
through Nadi and went on to Lautoka. We
stayed at the Tanoa Waterfront Hotel. It was
nothing like Holiday Inn, but only a fraction of the cost. The rooms were clean and it met our
needs. With no breakfast included we
simply went to a local grocery store to buy cereal and milk which was fine with
us.
Lautokais the second largestcity of
Fiji and very much an industrial center for the island of Viti Levu. In the heart of the sugar cane region, the
sugar processing plant there is a major employer and cane trucks and trains are
frequent sights.
According to Wikipedia, other industries in the area include timber
milling,garment
manufacturing, distillery, brewery, jewelry, blending, steelworks, fishing,
hatchery, domestic items, paints, and construction. The wharf is a busy place
in Lautoka and there is a lot of business going on downtown.
While many in Fiji still live a traditional rural village life there is also high tech communication
and increasing national investment in newly paved 4 lane roads, sidewalks, streetlights
and other infrastructure in the populated cities.
Downtown Latoka
Tuesday – 21 July
On Tuesday morning we
trained a group of consultants from
Lautoka ward and one of the priesthood leaders (I believe he was the High Council advisor, but I don't recall his name.)
That evening we did
the full stake leadership training. In addition to priesthood leaders there were
consultants from several different wards and branches from all over the west,
some travelling for several hours to get there.
Lautoka ward consultants
Stake President Solomoni Kaumaitotoya
Lautoka stake leadership training - full group
Stake Priesthood leaders
Ba Branch Consultants
Senikuaciris with Nadi Ward FH leaders
Nawaka Ward
Rakiraki Branch
Tavau Ward
Lautoka Second Ward
The training went
well and there was much fellowshipping and laughter afterward as people came
together who generally saw each other infrequently due to long distances and
limited transportation. A group of women
had prepared sandwiches and pizza to feed the group after the meeting. There was a gorgeous sunset that night. It was a very memorable evening.
Wednesday – 22 July
On Wednesday we
travelled to the FHC in Tauvua for another skills
training for consultants. We we were
starting to move through our days on auto-pilot as we were not sleeping well
and the pain and frustration of my broken hand was wearing me down. Still, when we were teaching we would feel
the spirit of Elijah kick in and we were grateful to be there.
Thursday – 23 July NADI
On Thursday we
checked out of the Waterfront and travelled back to Nadi. The Senikuraciris showed us how to find the
FHC there and then we took them to the bus station so they could return to
Suva. Our parting was bittersweet. They were eager to get back to their family
and we were feeling very ready to wind up the last of the assignment so we
could get back to New Zealand. Still, it
was sad to say goodbye to our new friends, not knowing when we would see them
again.
We checked into the
Raffles Gateway Hotel and then went out exploring to familiarize ourselves with
Nadi. We saw many brightly colored
houses and a bustling downtown area.
There were frequent sugar cane trucks and trains moving this dominant crop from fields to processing plant.:
Cane trucks were a frequent sight
cow in a cane field
The loud horns of the trains that move the cut sugar cane woke us in the early morning.
We visited the Hindu
temple in Nadi and took photos of other houses of worship we saw as we
travelled around. We were very impressed
by the way it seemed the people of Fiji were able to live peacefully with their
different religions. It reminded us of
the 11th article of faith: “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the
dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them
worship how, where, or what they may.”
We stopped at a small shop in Nadi to buy some cold drinks. We met a sweet lady there who we struck up a
conversation with. We gave her a
MyFamily book and spent some time showing her ours. We were not sure if she could read Fijian, (she
spoke good English but her native language was probably Hindi). Still, we felt
prompted to talk with her about preserving family stories and we trusted that
something valuable might come of the time we shared with her.
Friday
– 24 July
Friday morning we went
to the Nadi FHC for our usual consultant skills training. There were some newly called consultants who
had never been on FamilySearch who were very apprehensive about using the computer at all. However, there were also others who were very
capable and showed a real aptitude for guiding their peers.
That night we held
our last leadership training. By then we
were dragging, nearly out of voice and out of steam. But again, once we started teaching we felt
supported by the spirit. After we went
through the PowerPoint presentation
explaining the My Family 15 in 15 program,
the Stake President gave a very powerful testimony about the importance
of Family History work in which he relayed a dream he had about his deceased mother urging him to complete the temple work for his ancestors. The group was very moved by his words.
We were so
exhausted by the end of that night we didn’t get any more group photos. We were very ready to go back to our room and
collapse.
Saturday- 25 July
Saturday was our P-day. We were all done teaching, so we took a bus
out to Denarau island where we relaxed on the beach and had a nice lunch. Denarau is the resort area where there are several
5 star hotels and upscale time shares, luxury condos and retreats for the rich. As we saw the golf course, high price boats
in the harbor, and spacious vacation homes we could not help but notice the extreme difference from the very
modest village homes where often families of ten or more people would live in a single room.
On the way into Denarau we met
a lovely family on the bus who we talked to and gave a My Family book. We also gave one to a taxi driver we met in
Denarau. Everywhere we went we found opportunities to strike up conversation, savoring the open friendliness of the people. Even though it was our “day
off” we continued to share messages
about the importance of preserving family stories every chance we could.
People would notice my cast and say things like “Oh you poor thing. What happened to you?”That would lead to us introducing ourselves as missionaries and asking them about their families.We will never know in this life if any of those one time conversations made a difference, but we felt we were planting seeds that could possibly lead to people connecting with their family in new ways or having a better understanding of the importance of writing stories down.
We saw wonderful beaches at Denarau and enjoyed taking the “Bula Bus” to shuttle between the various beautiful resorts.But the images that captivated us the most was not the fancy hotels or resort attractions.It was the every day people of Fiji we met and the conversations we had from chance encounters along the way.
Sunday – 26 July
We attended church
in the Nadi ward, and as usual we were asked to speak in Sacrament. Larry talked about family history and the My
Family 15 in 15 goal for the pacific. I
talked about coping with adversity and used my broken wrist as an example. I stressed that when we write our personal
or family histories we should not “sugar coat” the stories, limiting them only
to the accomplishments and blessings. I
explained we should also record the challenges we or our ancestors have and how
we overcame them.
After the meeting
we had a very powerful experience talking with a woman in her 70's who shared
her life story with us. It was one more
confirmation that we were exactly where we needed to be and that we were being
guided in what to say and do.
Members and missionaries from Nadi Ward
With that our
service assignment to Fiji was done. The
following day was spent preparing to return and waiting around in the
airport. We had a smooth flight home
(this time on Air New Zealand, so it was a much more comfortable flight than coming
out had been). Fiji was an amazing
experience, but we were glad to get back to “Base Camp”, our temporary Kiwi home. Every time we take a trip it feels strange
to come “home” and not really be home.
Our hearts still miss our family and friends and familiar surroundings
of Boise, Idaho. But there is no doubt
in our minds that right now we are doing exactly what our Father in Heaven
wants and that we will remember and savor these experiences as long as we live.
Dallas Olsen is one of the employees working in the Pacific Area Office. He's a great guy who we have enjoyed getting to know. He was born in Fiji, but his family emigrated to New Zealand when he was a small child. For various reasons he lost touch with his extended family after they moved. So now that he is interested in working on his family history he has no one to ask about the holes and brick walls in his family tree.
Dallas knew who his paternal grandmother was. But he had no idea who her parents were and no idea how to find out. He had written letters to the Fiji government, made phone calls and checked every record he could think of. No luck. So when he learned we would be traveling to Fiji, he asked us to see if we could turn anything up.
We had two problems with trying to find out any meaningful family information for our friend. First, he had already tried contracting various official channels with no luck. So we were not sure where to even begin. Secondly, our schedule of teaching assignments was quite busy. Even if we had known where to go look, we were not sure when we could fit it in. However, when we found we did have a couple hours open on Friday afternoon, we decided to give it our best shot. Not at all certain where to begin, we asked at the hotel desk where the government records were kept for birth and death. It just so happened that at the EXACT moment that I was asking that question, one of the hospitality workers in the hotel walked by and heard us. He stepped forward to say he had a sister who worked in the building we were asking about He wrote down her name and told us how to find her office, assuring us she would help. As it turned out, when Fijians refer to a "sister" that can mean any sort of female relative, not necessarily an actual sibling. But we were in luck that the building this woman worked in was within walking distance and we were able to find her without a hitch. We found that not only did this woman (who as far as we could surmise was actually some relation by marriage), indeed work there, she held an important position as the principal administrative secretary for the ministry of justice. She invited us into her private office and interrupted her work for about an hour to help us. She had several other people looking in various records and came back with some key information.
Because the grandmother was born on one of the other islands in the Fiji chain, there was no record of her birth here, so we still did not have her parents’ names. We did get documentation about marriage and death. The secretary gave us “unofficial” copies so there would be no cost.
Now, in a city of of this size, how we “just happened” to be staying at the one hotel where a relative of this woman worked and he “just happened” to be walking across the lobby at the precise moment we were asking for directions to the government building is too much to call coincidence for me.
But it doesn’t end there. On Saturday we did a training in Suva Stake that went exceptionally well. The spirit was very strong and everyone there was feeling surrounded by the presence of ancestors. Knowing of our search the previous day, our friend Brother Senikuraciri felt prompted to ask the Stake president if he knew of the Olsen family. THIS MAN KNEW THEM WELL. In fact, his wife had babysat for Dallas Olsen when he was an infant and her brother had lived with the Olsen family for a time. This good Stake president was thrilled to learn where Dallas was and now is looking forward to helping him reconnect with his extended family.
It is experiences like this which assure me we are exactly where we need to be right now, and that this truly is Heavenly Father’s work.
