Samoan LDS missionaries happy to finally return home
Annalisi Tauti, Roseta Faafetai and Savelina Tamotu were ecstatic after they departed in a Fiji Airways 1255 chartered flight to Apia, Samoa, yesterday. They were among the 37 passengers, who boarded the plane at the Nadi International Airport, while 35 passengers arrived from Apia.
The three young women came as volunteering missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have been serving in the country for more than 18 months.
Ms Faafetai said they were grateful to serve the people of Fiji and looked forward to returning to their homes.
“We love the people of Fiji and they have a beautiful heart. We visited many places here in Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. We not only share the teaching of Jesus Christ, but we also learn from the Fijian people, their language and their way of life,” she said.
“We thank the airline for providing us this flight. We are excited to go back home, but at the same time we miss Fiji.”
LDS Suva Mission President John Higgins, who came with his wife, Naomi Higgins, to farewell the missionaries, said the trio had shown their dedication to their service in Fiji. “We are so excited for them that they need to go home and see their families. They were supposed to go home about a month ago but they locked down. We were with them the whole time they were here and we are going to miss them,” Mr Higgins said.
“They came as volunteers to serve the people here in Fiji. They share about the teaching of Jesus Christ and we are so grateful for their dedication.”
FJ1254 departed Apia at 2.40pm and arrived in Nadi at 4:45pm carrying 35 passengers.
Edited Ivamere Nataro