We had the chance to speak at the MTC on Tuesday so we were able to visit with President and Sister Tarawhiti who is the president there. They have been in full-time service to the church for a long time. He served as mission president in PNG and then they served a mission there as well. He had some great stories that I thought I would share.
President T said that when they would baptize they would baptize entire villages. There is nothing to do in a village so when the missionaries would came everyone would stop and listen to what they were teaching. And so when they would have a baptism they would baptize almost the entire village. It was not unusual to have 40-50 people baptized at the same day. I think I told you about baptisms among the crocodiles not too long after we got here. I will check and if it is not posted here I will post it. It would have been early in our mission. Anyway, because almost everyone in a village were members they would all rejoice and celebrate when they had a visitor from the church.
Elder Collister who is a member of the presidency of the Seventy and who was Andrew's mission president was the area president here and went on a mission tour in PNG. They were visiting several of the small villages. In one village the entire population turned out to welcome him and to honor him as best they could. They all dressed in their best costumes to show their respect. When the ceremony to welcome began, all the women, from young girls to the very oldest grandmas greeted him...all topless. President T said: Elder Collister did not even blink an eye but leaned over to me and said "We have some teaching to do here."
He said that another time they were in some training meetings and a member of the area presidency was there as well as an area seventy. The man who said the opening prayer said: we are grateful for our visitors and pray that thou will bless the Seventies, and the Eighties and the Nineties.
Elder and Sister Anderson did a tour there for the area presidency. They said the hardest think to get used to was the body odor of the people. They seem to never shower. Sister A said that when the girl came in to turn down the bed they had to leave the room because it was so awful. I know when President Bleake was at the MTC he made the missionaries from PNG shower twice a day for the first week they were there.
President T said that there would still maybe be some cannibalism in the most remote villages but it did not happen much any more. Comforting thought huh? He did say that all the missionaries do have what they call a cane knife in their flats. We wouid call them machetes. They use them for service when they help clear land. Or maybe it is to kill the rats!
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