The ITEP Program in 1998 :
On November 25, 1997, Elder Hanks, the CES Missionary Coordinator for the Pacific in Salt Lake City, sent a memo informing Elder Walton that three new TDC missionary couples had been called to serve in the Pacific. They were as follows:
Dale and Olene LeFevre, from Ellensburg Wash, to serve in Tonga. William and Bonnie Rodgers from St. George, Utah, to serve in Fiji. Cyril and Mary Louise Van Orden from Pangee, Idaho, to serve in Samoa.
Sister Van Orden was to act as a TDC missionary in Samoa and work with Elder Sucher who was to return in December, 1998.
Since these three new couples, along with Elder Sucher and his wife, were coming through. Hawaii the early part of January it was recommended to John Jeffrey that an orientation meeting be held in Hawaii and that Elder and Sister May would come from Kiribati to join in that orientation meeting. Brother John Jeffrey approved the meeting and it was held January 9th through 12th. (See appendix # 8 for outline of the agenda for the January 1998 orientation meeting). Once all TDC missionaries had returned to their assigned island, the ITEP program got under way in full force with Educational courses being taught on all four islands.
On March 16, 1998, an ITEP meeting was held at BYU-Hawaii. Many of the CES leaders in the Pacific were in Hawaii for their semiannual CES meeting and one day was set aside to meet on the progress of the ITEP program. Those in attendance were Dan Andersen, John Jeffrey, Roy Winstead, Bill Phillips, Bill Walton, and Winn Egan. (See appendix # 9 for agenda of this meeting). At this meeting a rough draft of the ITEP Memorandum and Agreement document was presented with requests for recommendations for changes that needed to be made. Other items discussed were replacement of TDC missionaries, ITEP budget, future seminars by BYU-Hawaii faculty, Articulation agreement being made by BYU-Hawaii with other educational institutions in the Pacific, Fiji correlation meeting in April, etc. The meeting was most helpful in moving the ITEP program along.
