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)