We served our mission in Vanuatu.  Vanuatu is a country of 83 islands in the South Pacific.  It was formerly known as New Hebrides, and won its independence from England and France 35 years ago.  The people are very proud of their independence.

Vanuatu is a Christian nation.  The churches are full every Sunday.  It wasn’t always that way.  I’ve hesitated to use this word because it’s so repulsive to me, but the grandparents of these people were cannibals.

I’ve heard people complain that religion is the source of all contention and the cause of all the world’s wars.  They claim that people need to just do what is right for themselves, and to mind their own business.

But I’m here to tell you that there are absolute truths.  When truth isn’t present, people are governed by superstition, fear, and greed.

Every family has stories about cannibalism in their background.  When I asked them how that was overcome and put behind them, the answer has always been, “It was when the gospel came to us.  It was when Christianity came.”

Christianity has made all the difference among these people.  Every gathering starts with prayer.  Every school begins the day with prayer.  Incorrect traditions have been discarded.

Our friend Marius has a brother, John—an adopted brother—about 25 years old.  John’s mother died when he was born.  As they prepared the mother’s body for burial, they also prepared to bury the baby by washing him with leaves.  This was the tradition.  A motherless baby was just too hard to care for.  A woman notified the Catholic priest about what was about to happen.  He told the people that what they were going to do was not right, and asked for the baby.  He took the baby to a couple who couldn’t have children, and that tradition came to an end.  It was because of Christianity.

On Good Friday, which is commemorated as the day Christ died, Romain, one of our Young Single Adults, called us.  He wanted to know if it would be all right if he built a new kitchen for his mother that day.  We told him, “Sure, it’s not the Sabbath, so go ahead.”

When we went out that day we were shocked to not see a soul on the streets.  The town was empty.  Everyone was home honoring the day that Jesus died for them.

We told Romain that it was all right to work that day, but ultimately he couldn’t make himself do it.

When I think of Romain, I think of D&C 76:5-6:  “For thus saith the Lord—I the Lord am merciful and gracious unto those who fear (reverence) me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.  Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory.’

And it wasn’t just Romain that day.  There were no children out.

There is another scripture that I pair up with another of our Vanuatu friends.  Whenever I think of D&C 58:26-28 I will think of Madlen Tarivuhavuha.

For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things:  for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness:

For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves.  And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. (D&C 58:26-28)

Madlen did everything.  She taught seminary.  She taught Relief Society.  She took in abandoned women and children.  She had nothing, but she shared whatever she had.  She lived in a cement house with a tin roof; but when you looked up at her ceiling, you saw more daylight than tin.  I don’t know how she stood it in the deluges that happen in Vanuatu.  I don’t know where she put the people.  But she kept them, and fed them.  She fed the hungry, and she cooked for people that had family in the hospital.  She went to the market late on Fridays, and women would give her their vegetables that hadn’t sold.  She had boundless energy, and was everywhere present.  Her husband, the branch president, died while we were there, but she got a new roof on her house through the generosity of an Australian, and through the work of the senior couple we served with.

1 Nephi 3:7 says, “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”

That was Judy Mark.  Judy was a girl who grew up ‘way out in the bush.  She started following the missionaries around, and was soon baptized.  More than anything she wanted to be a missionary herself.  She talked to everyone about the Church.  One man hated the Church.  She told him, “Well, just come once.  Come see what it’s like.  Two years later when she left on her mission, he was the branch president who submitted her application.

Judy was called to go to the Marshall Islands.  She was sent to the Mission Training Center in Provo to learn the language.  We got an email from her when she was in the Los Angeles International Airport.  She said, “This airport is so huge!  I don’t know where to go, but I know God will send someone to help me.”—And He did.  An older man came along who had actually been a missionary in Vanuatu.  He showed her where to go, and gave her money to buy some boots.

Judy had faith.  These Vanuatu missionaries would go off on 18-month or 2-year missions, and never once get a letter from home.  James took it upon himself to set up an email account for each one, and showed them how to use it.  From then on the missionaries would send emails to him.  He’d take the letters to their families, and make them write a letter back again.

Helaman 10:5 talks about how Nephi did things with such unwearyingness.  When I think of that word I think of Sister Tivles.  Sister Tivles lived an hour and a half away over the worst roads you can imagine.  The pickup would crawl down into one hole and up out of another.  And then we’d reach the mountain.  She lived up on the mountain.  The road became a 4-wheel-drive wheel track as we climbed up to her village.

About 12 years ago the missionaries found their way to the village.  The Tivles family was baptized.  Going to church involved a three-hour walk down the mountain.  Sister Tivles had a baby in each arm as the family began the trek each Sunday.  They’d leave home in the dark, hike down to the Tanavoli Branch, attend the meetings, sit around in the shade to wait for the temperature to cool down a little, and then begin the return hike home.  They’d leave in the dark, and arrive home in the dark.  They did that for years.

But their diligence and unwearyingness paid off.  Because of their example many people in the two villages up on the mountain began joining the Church.  James helped to build a bush chapel last year in the Tivles yard, and Sister Tivles’ husband was sustained as the branch president the Sunday after we left Vanuatu.  120 people are now attending church where there used to be just one family.

The Church is growing rapidly in Vanuatu.  Most of the islands still haven’t been touched by the missionaries.  Centers of strength have to be built up first.  A family like the Tivleses will join the Church somewhere out on the fringes, they’ll turn into a branch, and then the Church will leapfrog to other areas.

A chief on Pentacost Island periodically came to our island to beg for the Church to come to Pentacost.  He’d tell us that he has 5,000 people ready to be taught, but the mission president told him, “Not yet.  Maybe in another generation, but we have to build up centers of strength first, and train some leadership.”

I took care of all the baptismal clothes, so I know how many baptisms we had.  There may have been three Saturdays that we didn’t baptize someone.  There was always at least one baptism, and often as many as 12 or more.

On June 21st (yesterday) Vanuatu got its first stake.  It was formed in the capital, Port Vila.  Luganville, where we served, will be next, in about two years.

The leadership that’s being trained to run these branches and future wards and stakes is the young people who go off to serve missions.  The branch presidencies in Port Vila were all returned missionaries.

Sister Tivles’ son, Dack, left on his mission a year ago in May.  He was called to serve in Paris, France of all places!  Can you imagine a black boy from the bush going to a sophisticated place like Paris, France?

Dack didn’t have any suitable clothes, so James took him downtown and bought him a pair of trousers and 2 white shirts.  The trousers were too long, so I said, “Dack, let me alter those.”

“Oh, they’re all right,” he said.  “I’ll just roll the pants legs up.”

Well, I couldn’t see that being acceptable in Paris, so I altered his pants.

It will be young men like Dack who will come back from their missions, and serve as the bishops and elders quorum presidents and stake presidents, and who will enable the Church to expand and fill the country.

Dack sent an email back to his family which shows his wisdom and maturity and what a good missionary he is. He says:

“I was so happy to see your letter, and to hear about your happy hearts, and that you’re praying for me.  I promise you that I see answers to your prayers every day on my mission.  I know that Papa God chose this mission for me to serve in, and now because of this mission I begin to understand the potential for my life in this world.

“My beloved family, I know that we have a great work to accomplish in this world.  So now we will ask how can I know my potential and how can I accomplish it?  My family, the answer will only come when you do your part, and the Lord will show you the rest.  So now we will ask again, why didn’t he show me before?

“The answer is that He wants to see our desire, and if we are willing to do His will.  My family, I am able to promise you that if we have the desire to do His work, then we will hardly be able to understand the happiness that will come from doing His work.

“Now on my mission I have been called to become the district leader in a sector of Paris.  It’s one bigfella blessing.  It was a bigfella surprise to me.  I remember hunting wild fowl and pigeons in Vanuatu, carrying a knife, and cleaning kava; and I wonder how that qualified me to give training to men who have diplomas and degrees from school?

“Now, Papa and Mama, I feel capable to give training to them.  I know that God sent me to this place to do what He asks, and has given me the capacity to do His work.  Now I know that with Him nothing is impossible.  Thank you for your help.  I’m glad you’re praying for me every day.”