Just Pictures, of paradise

President Hinckley's tree that he planted at the church.

Jim gave these little girls a sucker, and they loved hamming it up for the camera.

A cruise ship in the bay by the church.

A buffet for about 20 people--they ate nearly all of it.

They would put their produce in these woven baskets and give them to us after looking at projects.

This is a lousy picture, but China built this road for them--there are many Chinese workers here on the islands.

Cargo ships are always in the bay delivering containers of goods needed on the islands.

Some pump houses are pretty cute, some not so much...

Ana Ika, Sister Murdock and the Edwards' about to leave on our island trek.

Sister Lata and me on the island.

Vava'u eating near the water.

Hotel pool, Vava'u

Liahona House, our bedroom.

Liahona House, the family room.

Liahona House, the kitchen.

Liahona House, the dining room.

Liahona House, the living room.

Liahona House, master bedroom, for special visitors like the prophet. 

We see many ancient boats around these islands.

They say that coconuts have eyes--this one sure does.  They also say because they have eyes they won't fall on your head (one of the locals said that he knows of someone that got bonked--there goes that theory).

This tree grows the stuff you find in your pillows and some blankets.

A budget ride between islands.

The resort where we checked out a project request, without bathing suits or snorkels--pure torture.

I've never seen so many huge clam shells; they have a clam farm out by the reef where they snorkel.

The resort; cruise ships keep this place alive.

They have the most beautiful shells here--we found some too, just not quite as large!

Our first boat ride--it was a bit slow loaded down with a man and his 3 sons.

Just another beach.

Squid anyone?

Do you think they ought to clean this up?

The Tonga Temple

Our hotel in Vava'u.  We heard that they are in arrears.  

Vava'u hotel--the furniture was pretty.

Largest tanks we ever saw on main island of Vava'u.

We see Japan donations signs everywhere.

We saw one of our very large church buildings on this island; it even had a basketball court.  They said that it was 40 years old but that it had recently been renovated.  It was immaculately clean.

This is the church's boat out to the islands but it was broken at the moment so we had to hire another boat.

From our hotel room on Vava'u.  It was a beautiful, calm day.

We worked on these two islands, the third obscured by the clouds.  I wouldn't have known this until I saw a map.  There was one project request on the furthest island and two on the one closest in the picture.  We had to take a boat from one part of the island to another.

A group of islands and reefs that I thought looked like a whale.

These are the graves of the poorer people.  I wonder how they take care of them when it rains.

A cute young and friendly girl who came out to talk to me while we were checking out a project.

As we traveled about we saw many beautiful sightss.

Just pretty...

I have never seen so many pigs--there are so many that they run all over the place like doggies. 

Above and below: this is not typical of the islands, and in fact about 99% of them were Western toilets with TP and clean--there is always one exception though...

This is the ramp built by this village with donated materials from India.  This is from the top looking towards the dock.  It was quite a feat. 

This dock was made with cement bags that were also stuffed with rocks and covered in burlap--get them wet--it becomes a dock. 

Can't help myself...I just keep taking pictures.

Do the beautiful spots ever end?  The water is so clear. 

An island water source...

And island fisherman.

This is a paddle board on our boat; the kid did not know that you could surf behind a boat so Jim showed him pictures.  He said that he'd take Jim surfing if we came out again.

The water turns turquoise as it gets close to shore--the water in the bay is a deep blue.

Swallow Cave.

Swallow Cave.

Sister Murdock took this picture of the Swallow Cave.  It was so beautiful that none of us felt we had captured the beauty that we saw.  Too bad they have spoiled this beautiful cave with their graffiti.