Fiji: Private Island - Day 6

One of the activities we could choose was to have a boat take us to a private island - drop us off with a picnic lunch and come back and pick us up 2 hours later.  We loved the idea!  This seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity - be totally isolated on a desert island in the middle of the pacific ocean.  It seemed kind of strange at first thought though - we were already "alone" most of  the time on this trip - did we need to be more alone?  But we wanted to go anyways.

The little beach was beautiful.  

We did, however share our island with this adorable crab!

They left us with snorkeling gear, lounge chairs, a little picnic lunch and instead of a bottle of wine - I talked them into packing us chocolate cake instead! :)

This may have been 2 of my most treasured memories of our trip.  I hadn't had the chance (or hadn't taken the chance) to share with Jason all my notes from Women's Conference - so I brought my notebook to the island and I shared with him every detail of every talk I heard.  Jason built a sandcastle while I shared with him (in honor of Megan).  We talked about our favorite gospel principles and our children, and our goals, and our marriage, our challenges and struggles, our blessings, and hopes and dreams.  My favorite thing about Jason is that he loves to hear my ramblings about Women's Conference (and all other things) and shares with me all of his thoughts as well.  2 hours went by way too fast - being that alone seemed to bring holiness and an opportunity to open our hearts a little more to each other.

I also brought a parenting book and Jason read it to me while I took a break from the notes to eat cake!!

Fiji: Taviuni Coastal Walk - Day 5

Our boat ride over to Taviuni.

We went on this activity mainly becasue we were going to a "water slide" (made out of rocks and a waterfall) and a waterfall you could jump off of.  The coastal walk was just a bonus - it was looong - but beautiful.  It took us through several villages and random homes deep in the jungle.  

I loved seeing all the wild fruit growing everywhere.  Our guide told us that no one goes hungry in Fiji - it just isn't a problem - there is food everywhere and anyone can pick it (or catch it) - nothing is regulated.

We saw women out at low tide catching stuff for dinner - they do this everyday - the children played in the tidal pools and on the beach while their mom's "fished".

Our first waterfall - we didn't have to hike to this - we took a little motor boat up this river to the river.

We sent this picture back to our kids.  We missed them like crazy.  Everything we did all I could think was "the kids would love this" or "I wish ____ was here".  Don't get me wrong - I didn't miss them THAT much and am so glad I was there just with Jason - I just want to go back with them.

This is our second waterfall.  This came with a funny story - we had to swim up to this river to this lagoon with the waterfalls.  Jason did not think that sounded interested - so he stayed back (nice and dry) while the rest of our group swam up the river to the falls.  I went down the water slide (on the left) - it was really fun and our guide jumped off the falls.  Once we were all done we swam back down the river.  When we found Jason again he told us he wanted to jump off the falls but didn't know this was the fall that we could jump off of.  So we all swam back up the river and Jason jumped off the falls - go babe.

You can see Jason at the top.

And the jump

I was so proud of him - Jason doesn't typically do things like that.  He is afraid of heights and doesn't like to get wet - so who would have thought he would jump off a waterfall!?!

Fiji: Church - Day 4

As soon as we had picked our island I went onto the churches website to see if there was a local branch we could go to.  I have never been to a church service outside of the United States - and actually I have never been to a branch - only normal, large wards.  There wasn't one on our island - but there was one over on the bigger island, Taviuni.  I was practically giddy at the thought of taking a boat ride to church and spending 3 hours with Fijian Saints.  This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip!!

I love how Jason had to roll up his suit pants while waiting for and getting on the boat - it felt just like "The Other Side of Heaven"

The Branch was pretty tiny - but did have a nice building.  It was this one big room - with 2 tiny rooms behind those closed doors.  This was the sacrament table.  The service was in Fijian - but it wasn't hard to know what they were saying.  Actually they sing their hymns and read their scriptures in English - so that was fun.

The hymns were awesome.  It was all acappella and with their accents and not really knowing the tunes everything was sung just a little off - they emphasized and held different words than we do - so it was beautiful - I couldn't stop smiling.

This was our Relief Society meeting.  This room was TINY and HOT and STUFFY.  But none of them seemed to mind and were so loving and sweet.  Our closing hymn was "As Sister's In Zion"  - which of course made me cry and feel so connected to these women.  I love that I can feel connected to these women who I don't know and have almost nothing in common with  accept for that I feel like I have everything in common with them and that I felt like I knew them and they knew me.  I loved them instantly.

After the 3 hour block they held a meeting to talk about an upcoming area conference.  They had to travel by boat for 2 days to get there and pay 40 dollars a ticket (which is a lot!).  Many have had to prepare for months to go to the conference and some members couldn't go because of the cost.

This is their branch president.

How CUTE are these kids!?!

For the record the church correlation department works beautifully - we were on the EXACT same lessons in both Sunday School and Relief Society. 

I love this gospel.  I love my husband in sharing my passion and love for the gospel and that we made this a priority on our vacation.