The latest happenings - without pictures, sorry.

OKAY, I AM FRUSTRATED - I am trying to add pictures and aftter Nicole spending a ton of time with me before we left, teaching me how to do it, and I wrote it down step-by-step, now we get here and of course it is a completely different format and nothing is the same.  Some one tried to figure it out and was unable to do so.

SO.................................... I tried to put pictures into an email and that did not work either.
SO...................................  Okay, I am sorry!!*?#*

Well, to put it in a nutshell - things are going wonderful and we are so excited about how the people are accepting our program.  They are very excited to learn this simple, but new information that will help them in preventing tooth decay.  Up to now,  we have personally taught 3800 people who will turn around and have the opportunity to teach those in their wards reaching 10,000 people.  THAT IS A "WOW" TO US!!!!

So, we will continue to teach 6 nights a week, reaching a new Stake about each week,  We are also trying to reach the government officials during the day and have been quite successful.  Their question has been "why can't we do that?"  "How do you get so many people to come that are interested in dental care?"  We have to just smile and we think to ourselves, the real reason is that your people have to have a love for their fellow man and be willing to serve them in a way that will help and to do it without pay, you have to have a love for your Heavenly Father and His plan for all of us.  But, what we do say is that we are going through the church priesthood line and then we offer to help them in anyway that we can.  So......for the last 2 weeks, Dr. Tomiki (nonmember) who is the head of the dental clinic at the hospital, has been coming to our meetings and is so excited about what is happening, he sits there and takes notes.  He is onboard now and we think that he will be able to help with the gov. now.  So we will just keep blugging.  We offered to train their Public Health Nurses who go into the villages and do new-born and well baby training and teaching.  They would be perfect to get into the families with small children.  The answer that we got back was "they said they have too much on their plate already".  ZSsurprise, surprise.

Another exciting thing is happening.  We can see that we will have the program completely implemented by the middle of Sept.  In the mean time, Karen HoChing from Am. Samoa has called us and wants to know what needs to be done to get this program over in Samoa.  So we told her what we were doing and who we were meeting with.  She hung up from talking with us and talked with those people there in Samoa, and the next thing we are getting a call from them asking for information.

Dick emailed New Zealand, Area Welfare Director, and told them what was happening and that we were available to go to Samoa for the last 5 weeks of our mission and implement it there if they want us to.  So, yesterday he had a conference call with New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga.  Samoa felt like they were doing okay with implementation.  Dick told them they are doing what we did 2 years ago and the results was very minimal - no follow up with the government in charge.  So when Dick asked a few important questions of him and it helped him realize that maybe they are not doing as well as they thought, his feelings were different.  So now it is in their hands and we will wait and see what they decide.

During this whole thing with Samoa, we were told that the South Pacific Area Pres. 1st Counselor is good friends with a Sr. Missionary that just went home and he is one that really started the dialog with Dick.  These two were together in South Africa and both felt that this program needs to go there.  Yeh............  that is what Dick visioned in the very beginning, it could go anywhere it is needed with simple translation and following the implementation model that we have developed following the steps of the Welfare Program - self reliance, participation/work, leadership and sustainability.  This will be fun to follow.

We have also recieved an email from SLC Director of Short Term Welfare Projects, Ferron Squires, and he says that they are now looking at our model to be used in other welfare and humanitarian projects.  What a thrill this is to hear.  From the very beginning we have felt the hand of the Lord leading and guilding us, and even now as we implement it, we know that He is with us.  What joy it brings to both of us to be a very small part, an instrument in the Lord's hand, in this great effort.

We love you all and I apologize for my lack of technical knowledge that eliminates pictures from this. (Where is Aaron, Trevin, Nicole, Dawn etc........... even the grandchildren could probably help us with this)

All our love,

Elder and Sister Oyler (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)

The start of the journey at the MTC.



this is the skyline of Auckland New Zealand



Malo...........................

Yes, we are here and all is well.  It only took us 3 weeks to get the computer and phone up and running and now we feel like we are in touch with the world again, and mostly our family. 
Yehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

So our story picks up where we left of from our last visit.  We were met at the airport by all of the Sr. Couples (which is a tradition when ever someone new arrives or someone is going home).

We have returned to the very same house that we were in when we left 2 years ago, which made us really happy, like coming home (sort of).  We are very grateful that we are here in the islands again during their cool season, which means it rains a lot, temperature is usually in the high 70's or low 80's and the humidity comes down to a tolerable reading, somewhere around 80%.  So we open all the window loovers and let the trade winds blow through - actually it is very pleasant at times.

We were in hopes that when we arrived on the island that someone would have made some appointments for us so that we could begin within a couple of days to meet with the people.  Well................. it was more than we could have hoped for.  A wonderful woman by the name of Mele Nau is over the Welfare Program on the island and she was given the assignment and boy did she do us a good job.  We started our meetings 2 days after we arrived and are scheduled every Tues. thru Sat and sometimes Sun. evenings until the 2nd week in Aug.!!!!!

Mele is Tongan, but has gone to BYU and has a palangi (whiteman's mind).  She thinks this is the best compliment we can give to her.  Her English is perfect and we have a great time with her.  And she can handle all the problems we run into, because she knows all the Stake Pres. and Bishops on the island.  We have 18 Stakes with 160 Wards.  We meet with the leadership one night then the wards, and then we are calling Trainers from each ward to actually go into the homes of the families in their wards and do the teaching - one on one.  Of course we train the Trainers and they are so excited about what they are learning.  It is a JOY to us to see their faces light up as they learn these new ideas and concepts.  At this point we have taught over 1600 people in 3 Stakes.  Dad is doing a great job teaching these beautiful people.

We traveled to one island, Eua, last week, and had a wonderful time with the members there.  Our flight was 7 minutes in a small 7 passenger plane and I found out that I can hold my breath for 7 minutes.  The plane was so small that the trade winds were blowing us to and fro like we were a little paper plane (like the grandsons make and fly in their yards).  I was a bit nervous, but we landed well and there were no chickens or pigs on the runway so that made for a smooth landing.

We have had doors (meetings) open up to us already where we have had the opportunity to meet with leaders of the church and the country to show what we are doing, and without exception they all see the need and are anxious to be involved and want to see their people helped.  We know that what we are doing is important and that the Lord in involved with us. 

Dad and I walk every morning as the sun is coming up- and the sunrise (and the sunsets) are beautiful.  We are taking pictures, but our blog is now different and I have not been able to figure it out (surprise, surpris) Nicole where are you when I need you.  Ha, ha. We have someone coming to day that knows about these things and maybe she can help while she is here.

We have not gotten killed driving on the left side of the road yet, but we have been banged into by one of our Stake Presidents.  He was very embarrassed.  The roads here are so full of holes ( about 6 inched deep) that we have to go very slow and weave all over the road to try to miss some of them.  It is really a funny site to look down the road ahead of us and see cars on both sides of the road, weaving and bouncing.  The young people ride in the back of pickups and trucks, sometimes a dozen of them and they never fall out.  We have not figured that one out yet.  Seat belts are not required.

Well I will sign off for now and hope that I can figure out the picture technique soon.

We love you all and miss you tons,  Elder and Sister Oyler (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)

We're back...........

We are back......................

Our story from Tonga that ended in August 2010, when we came home, now has another chapter.

In December, 2011, we received a call from the South Pacific Area President to ask if Dick would accept, if he were called as a dental specialist, a return to Tonga and implement the program that he put together while we were there before. Of course he said he would be happy to. What an exciting opportunity for him to implement, critique, and evaluate his program that was definitely given to him through divine intervention.

Since we came home from Tonga, 1 1/2 years ago, Dick has had the opportunity to present this Preventative Dental Initiative to the heads of the Welfare and Humanitarian Departments of the church, as well as the president of the International Dental Group and the LDS Dental Academy. They were all very impressed with what he had accomplished. They said many dentist had come home from different areas and had seen the same problems he had. They all had good ideas of things to do that would help, but no one had ever come home with a program, a step 1, 2, 3, etc of how to begin to teach and help the people gain knowledge of how to prevent the dental problems that they had. Dick's mind just works that way; he sees a problem, and his mind analysis it and he will soon have the solution in a very logical order. The Lord used his skills and his willingness to follow, to create a simple to follow program that will be taken into the villages and there teach the families the basic skills of dental hygiene and proper nutrition.

Dick's long range vision of this program is that it can easily be translated into any language and then taken anywhere in the world where it will help the people to better care for themselves and their families and thus become more self reliant and healthy. Interestingly, over the last few months, Dick has had continued correspondence that had led to the translation and use of the DVD into 3 more languages, Samoan, Tongan and Spanish. Lawrence Porter, who did the DVD for us in Tonga, is soon to be in Samoa to do filming for another DVD to be used there.

This is exactly what Dick envisioned would happen.

In addition to the countries that will be helped, there is more good news. The church asked the the president of the LDS Academy of Dentist, Dr. Roundy, to provide a dental segment on the church's Provident Living Web Site, that could be used by anyone, anywhere, anytime. Dr. Roundy has talked with Dick about using his program. Of course, Dick is very excited about this.

So...................... as we have now received our mission call and will be entering the MTC on April 23, we are very excited about this wonderful opportunity that has been given to us to continue to serve in a way that will be helpful to many people, and to us as well, as we learn from the example of the beautiful people in the South Pacific.

This could be a very interesting time to be in Tonga and experience the change of leadership, especially after the rioting of 2006, and the "election" that they held last year, 2011. There are changes happening, but not necessarily like what we are reading in the news. Is that a surprise????

This week we have heard of the death of the King of Tonga. This will be a time of great mourning on the island, and most of the family will be wearing black for 1 year to show their sadness. This will be the typical dress, and even the men will dress this way. Their funeral will be for several days and sometimes weeks. The people will gather, have the funeral and then stay for days and the family will have to feed and care for them. The men do the cooking, outside (of course), and will be cooking for hundred of people. The church is trying to get them to change this tradition, because it is such a financial drain on the family. But as we all know "tradition" or "habit" is not always easy to change.