Ral and Don Moving On: January 2018

Once upon a time, the Thomsen's came to the Area Office from Tahiti.

We were friends from the start! Steve is a professor of International Media Studies at BYU.
(Yes, we know . . . University of Utah "Diehard Don", has forgiven him!)
Steve has taken a year off teaching to serve a mission with his wife, Dorie.
They invited us to visit them in Tahiti for New Year's and, of course, we jumped at the chance!

The "full-time" Church employees working in the Area Office usually take a "Holiday" for two weeks after Christmas. At this time, Senior Missionaries are free to take a "break" and this is the time that many family members of missionaries come for a visit. (Being a Senior Missionary is quite different than being a young, "junior" missionary!)

A few days after Christmas, we hopped on board a plane for the 5 1/2 hour flight to Tahiti.

We arrived in Papeete at 1:30 in the morning and Steve and Dorie were there to great us with flower leis!

We were up early the next morning to check out our hotel - well, it was kind of a resort! Not too shabby!

The view outside our door!

Does Ral look just a little like a "tourist"? She is wearing her "big" top because it is the coolest thing she has! It is VERY hot and humid in Tahiti and Ral threatened to cut her hair "like a boy"!

Papeete

Steve and Dorie took us around the town. French is spoken here and Steve speaks fluent French - nice! We especially loved the artwork on the buildings and the "Marche"(with an accent on the e!) - the big enclosed market in the center of town.

The "Bubble Gum Church"

In the Marche, you see gorgeous flowers that don't look real; but are . . . and . . . there is Fish!

Don even found his Diet Coke!

This is the oldest church in Tahiti located at mile mark "0" in town.

The beautiful carved wooden Madonna and Child (holding a breadfruit)
was still decorated for Christmas.

Pere Christophe and the Mercy Truck

This is the church of Pere Christophe. Here he is (in the middle) with Elder Stevenson accepting a donation for his "Mercy Truck" from the Church.

We were able to do some Humanitarian work while we were in Tahiti. We met Pere Christophe and gave him more food for his truck. He was delightful and very grateful. He also cautioned us that we had best brush up on our French because the Lord speaks French!

When we were visiting Pere Christophe's church, we found this donation box with this sign on it -
Don figured it was really for him - haha!

The Roulottes

On our first evening in Tahiti, we discovered the "Roulottes" - Food Trucks where the community "hangs out"! The trucks have very reasonably priced and delicious food. The roulottes just "pop" up around dinner time in various parking lots in town. Ral tried "poisson cru" - the "national dish" of Tahiti - raw tuna and diced vegetables soaked in coconut milk and marinated briefly with lime juice. Don had steak and fries.

On the way home, Don found a grocery store that was just for him - the University of Utah fan!

Our first evening ended with a beautiful sunset and a walk on the beach!

Papeete Temple

The Temple here is lovely and has a blue tile roof which sets it apart from other temples. Unlike other temples, this one is not up on a hill or in a nicer area of town. In the complex, there is a stake center, temple housing, a distribution center and the country service center. The missionaries, Temple President, Mission President, and a few others, live up the hill next door to the Temple complex.

This is a plaque on the stake center grounds in both French and Tahitian, commemorating the 150 years that the Church has been in French Polynesia. Interesting that "Elder" Russell M. Nelson was the apostle that was here.

Up the hill to the left of the temple complex - Steve and Dorie live in the first house you see on the left.

We were able to attend a Temple Endowment Session - One of our goals while we are here in the Pacific, is to attend all the temples in the area!

We went on a wonderful drive around the entire island of Tahiti.

We saw neighborhoods and missionaries walking by an ice cream store, of course!

An LDS chapel with it's "signature" basketball court and outdoor baptismal font.

We saw amazing scenery, "Snacks" (the little shops on the side of the road), pineapple and fruit stands, and one of the BEST (and most dangerous) surfing spots in the whole world - Teahupo'o - located on the mile mark "0" on the total OTHER side of the island!

We visited the location where the ship, Bounty ("Mutiny on the Bounty") landed in 1788.

This is the Tahiti McDonalds.

How many McDonalds do you know with its own BEACH?!

Free cookies, a wedding at the Drive-thru, and a sign about not feeding the wildlife!

A "chat" is a cat - obviously, there is a problem! haha!

SOS Children's Village

In Papeete, we visited the offices of the SOS Children's Village, a non-profit, charitable organization that provides homes for children taken away from their families by the courts for reasons like physical or sexual abuse, drug-use, neglect, or incarceration of the parents. The children who are brothers and sisters are kept together and put into "families" with a single woman or "mother" at the head, who takes care of them in the homes in the village. We were impressed with the work that this organization does, and when we found out that they needed help - LDS Charities came to the rescue! 11 of the 12 homes in the village had terrible problems with leaking roofs and interior water damage. We put together a "project" where LDS Charities would provide materials and the Children's Village would provide all labor and maintenance to repair the roofs. We're happy to say that the project was approved in the January AWCM by Elder Cardon and the village will have their new roofs! The people at the village told us that they had been praying for an answer to their problem . . . you see, the Lord knows all things . . . We weren't in Tahiti for JUST a little "get away"! We needed to come to help these people!

*Note: We don't have "Humanitarian Missionaries" in French Polynesia, so projects don't happen very often here!

The Island of Moorea

We took the ferry over to the beautiful island of Moorea and spent a day there.

Looking at Moorea from Tahiti.

Ferrying over.

The view from the top.

The location where the picture above was taken would be on the ridge
below the second "o" on the map.

The beaches were the BEST!

Don loved all the different kinds of palm trees.

Ral like the tree they called the "WALKING tree"!

We saw dolphins and sea turtles and a beautiful pineapple field -
We didn't know that pineapples grew like this!

A great group of Friends! Fun Times and Precious Memories!

A view of Tahiti from Moorea.

The Last Day of 2017

Looking back, this year was indeed a milestone for us:

Don finally retired.
We sold our "dream" home of 15 years.
We became Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We had the Provo MTC experience.
We left our family, friends, children and grandchildren behind.We moved to Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand.
We have had amazing experiences with amazing people.
We have learned more than we thought our old brains could handle.
We have felt the Lord's Spirit guiding us everyday.
We are "making a difference".
We are happy.

Flowers at church on Sunday, December 31, 2017.

Ral actually spoke for a few minutes during Sunday School, using the French she learned from high school over 50 years ago!
She did pretty well, considering!

New Year's Eve

We spent the evening with all the temple missionaries and the Tahiti Mission President, President Fox, and his wife and son. We ended up watching fireworks lighting up the Temple and the Angel Moroni!

We know this picture is fuzzy, but it's the only one we have

of the four of us "toasting" the New Year with our sparkling cider!

On New Year's Day we visited our favorite places and ended up back at the roulottes with President Fox and his family. One of the trucks was using a real "brick oven" to cook its pizza, and we must say, it was the BEST pizza EVER!