RAROTONGA

What am I doing living in Arizona????? Teresa and I went and visited her dad and step-mom on their mission in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. It is a small island near New Zealand. The island is 5 X 10 miles. We stayed a week since the flights to and from are once a week. We had a terrible time. The ocean was great, crystal clear. We went snorkeling. We walked out to the reef which completely surrounds the island. We walked "hand in hand" along the beach looking for shells and just smelled the salty air. The air temperature was nearly perfect with the highs around 78 and the lows around 70. Very low humidity since it is their winter down there. The island was very green and more green and very pretty. There were flowers everywhere. We ate fresh fruit like pineapple, mango, papyia, passion fruit, star fruit, coconut, and bananas. I didn't know there are several varitys of bananas. We had some small ones that were very, very good. We went on a jeep tour of the island that was great. Saw our tour guide shuck a coconut in about 20 seconds. Fresh coconut tastes great. Later, I went out in Teresa's dads backyard and picked up a coconut that had just fallen off the tree . I tried to shuck it and it took me about 5 minutes. Not bad for a rookie. We went to 2 different cultural shows. Teresa's dad said they were similar to the PCC in Hawaii. They were really good. I don't see how they swing their hips like that. Their house is called "the mission home." The mission president used to stay there, but now he is on a different island. The house is very nice and backs right up to the beach. Walk out the back door and walk about 40 yards and your standing in the ocean. The people are very poor and humble but happy as can be. They grow gardens and have some farm animals. Chickens run wild. I bet we saw 500 chickens everyday while we drove around. Everything that is shipped in is very expensive. The gas is sold by the liter and was $2.60, so that's about $10 a gallon. They mostly drove motorcycles. We went in several stores, oil for your car was $12.00 a quart. Mayonnaise was $14.00 for a quart. They rely alot on tourism. Alot of tourist come from Australia and New Zealand. Her parents are regular missionaries. But they have different rules than Elders do. They can swim, have visitors. They are having alot of success. There are about 10,000 people on the island with about 1,000 members. 3 Branches. The 3 church buildings are open air buildings. No AC. Lots of windows to open up to get a breeze blowing through. Lots of ceiling fans. It rained a little on 2 different days. We also went to a Rugby football game. That was crazy. What are we doing living in Dry, Hot, Brown, ARIZONA!!!