Taveuni

                     Sister Watikini

We were scheduled to go to Taveuni to the Chapel Dedication.  It was Wednesday night, our bags were packed and we were ready to go when we got a call from Sister Erickson telling us  that Sister Watikini had a terrible pain in her abdomen.  She was crouched over in the driveway and couldn't stand up.  We were in our PJ's doing last minute preparations for our 5 day trip beginning Thursday Morning.  I put on my clothes, went to pick up Sister Watikini and then off to the Hospital.  It was determined that she had appendicitis and she needed to be admitted to the hospital with surgery scheduled for early Thursday Morning.   We unpacked our bags and spent the weekend at the Hospital with Sister Watikini.   The surgery went better than expected and she recovered quickly.  At first we felt a little cheated that we missed our trip but then Sister Watikini wrote us the most precious Thank You Card with her picture included.
It read;

"Dear Elder and Sister Seare,
How priveledged and blessed I am to be serving with you in this mission.  I just want to say my big Vinaka Vaka Levu for taking good care of me the whole of the last weekend.  I really do appreciate it because I know that you really do care a lot about us missionaries.  You play a very important part on my mission to full fill my purpose on my mission.  I guess all the other missionaries would feel the same way as I do.  I know that Heavenly Father will richly bless you for serving us missionaries.  Both of you are great examples to all of us especially me.  I really do care a lot about you and I always thought to myself, if Fiji is really treating yous OK because if not they would have to answer me.  I love you both so much and your dedicated service and cheerful heart has strengthened and boosted my desire to serve my guts out.  Once again Thank You for the best weekend on my entire mission.
Love you tons,
Sis.  Watikini"

Nothing we could have experienced in Taveuni could have meant as much to us as this note from Sister Watikini.  By the way she is from Taveuni.  I guess we had the BEST part of Taveuni with us.

We are blessed to be here and we are grateful for the experiences we are having!