Vince and I traveled together to the Cook Islands where we both served as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I remember well flying from Apia, Western Samoa on a DC-47 operated by Polynesian Airlines out of Western Samoa, in January of 1966. We sat over the wings and I remember watching screws on the engine cowlings vibrate in and out and in and out. As we approached the Cook Islands the sky was overcast and the pilot couldn't find the island so we circled for a while hoping for the clouds to break. It seems that around this time Vince needed the air sickness bag. Finally the clouds parted and we landed on this beautiful green field. It turned out that since the plane only came to Rarotonga once each week the rest of the time the airfield was used as the only golf course on the island. When we deplaned, the folks in Raro were expecting Vince to be (I think) Samoan because they all thought his name was Falioli, not Faggioli. I was fortunate enough to serve with Vince on the little island of Atiu for several months before I was transferred to New Zealand shortly after the Rarotonga, Cook Island mission was dissolved and became a district of the New Zealand North mission. We lived in a shack with a cement slab for a floor, cinder block walls with no glass in the window openings (only wooden shutters), I don't think we had any doors that I can remember, the ceiling joists were 2x4 set on edge and a corrugated tin roof. There were gaps between the walls and the roof where mynah birds could come in and check out our living quarters. The single room was divided by a partition of split bamboo lashed together. We slept on bunk beds with mosquito nets hanging down. No running water and no electricity. On the same lot, there was a small chapel with a thatched roof and gravel floor. Our toilet was a pit with a cement throne and a split bamboo screen around it for privacy (I don't recall any of the other pit toilets on the island having privacy screens. I remember reading the Church News while sitting on that throne and finding a small notice therein that our mission had recently been dissolved - that was how we found out. Vince was the most dedicated and conscientious companion with which I served. And he sincerely and deeply loved the people of the Cook Islands. We kept in touch over the years via emails (mostly in Rarotongan). He will be sorely missed in this veil of tears while he will, undoubtedly, continue his missionary work and service in the Spirit World. Aera ra ki to tatou Metua i te Ao Ra, e taeake e tuakana. Ka tangi atu matou ia koe! Aroa nui ki toou koputangata e toou vaine, Karen.
