Zone Conference

Elder Haas and Elder Carlson (Zone Leaders)
Preparing for Zone Conference

Preparing for Zone Conference

Our Zone (Pohnpei)
Top Row Elders Loveless, Cole, Carlson, Haas, Stewart
2nd Row :  Elders Crapo, Pierson, Gasu, Dalmer, Davis
3rd Row : Sisters Kennech, Salaiau, Varia, Sister Mecham, President Mecham, Sister Kjar
Elder Kjar, Elder LeFevre, Sister LeFevre

The Sister Missionaries and Sis. Mecham

     We had Zone Conference this week, Pres. Mecham and Sis. Mecham came on Wednesday, we learned alot about how to be better missionaries. One of the best ways is to open our mouths and not be afraid to share the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. There are so many scriptures that promise that if we will not fear, but open our mouths, that the Lord will bless us to know what to say. I have a hard time with this, but I am going to work at over coming my fear of opening my mouth.

Pictures

Scrubing the Cement to keep the mold off

tT

The View from our back window

Murder Mystery Dinner (Elder Kjar aka Rick, Janice aka E C
Sam aka Cal)

Let me tell you about some really great people we have met and have dinner with every Sunday evening. The Call's, Jeremy, Kjirsti, and their 2 children, Janice, and Sam.  Kjirsti is a Doctor, who has put her practice on hold for a little while, she is raising her 2 sweet children and helping in the church and community, while her husband Jeremy works in the courts. (he is a lawyer)  Janice, also works in the courts (she is also a lawyer) and Sam also a lawyer.  They all work here, both for the government and in the different branches in the church.  All give so much to the branch they are in. We get to have dinner with them each Sunday with the Kjars.  Janice and Kjirsti organized a Murder Mystery dinner for us all. We had a great date night out. It was so much fun.And yes, Senior  Missionaries are suppose to have a date night each week.

Elder Kjar  aka  Rick

Sis. Kjar  aka  Pris

Sam  aka  Cal

fFF

Elder LeFevre  aka  Joe

Jeremy  aka Dell

Elders Dalmer and Cole  with some less active members they are teaching

Elder Dalmr in the library of the local Mand (Mont)
Elementry School.  Yes, that is the whole library

A new classroom

A local drinking water sourse

baby bird, just outside of where we live in a tree

Shirsti  aka  Dee      , Sis LeFevre  aka Penny

Miracles

     If you think that miracles don't happen anymore, you are wrong. We just aren't watching for them.  Wednesday evening after Zone Conference, Pres. Mecham had a lot of interviews he had to do for various reasons, plus he needed to interview each missionary and with time running out before his flight left, he had no time left.
     Marlene is a pohnpein girl who has had her mission papers finished for over 6 months, all she has been lacking was her interview with the mission president for her final signature. There was no way to get a hold of Marlene in time for her to get to Kolonia where the mission president was and he had no time to get out to UH where she lives.
     Here is where the miracle happened. We had all been trying as missionaries to make sure that Marlene got her interview, so her mission papers could finally go in, but with no means of communication (no phones) and not knowing the exact time the President would be in for interviews( flights are never when they say they are) we could not set up a time for her before he got here.
     We all said a prayer that somehow Marlene would know to come to Kolonia, and then we did our best to get word to her.
     Margarita is Marlene's friend and a former missionary herself.  Wednesday evening about 7:00 p,m, she had a prompting to go and get Marlene and get her to Kolonia. I still am not sure exactly how they got there, because neither one has a car and none of there families do either. but at 7:45 p.m. in walked Marlene and Margarita, hoping that the mission president was there. Marlene got her interview, with Margaretta as her interpreter. Her papers are going in to the church as I write this.
     There are no coincidences, The Lord knew where Marlene was and Margarita was in tune with the spirit enough to listen when He prompted her to go and get Marlene. I don't know if I will ever know how they got there, because I know they could not have walked, it is a 45 minute drive  and about a 3 hour walk from UH to Kolonia. It was a Miracle, because the Lord loves ALL His children and knows where each of us are and what we need in our lives. He knows when we need help and He sends it, usually through other people.
     Look for the Miracles in your lives, no matter how small or insignificant you may think they are, they are still miracles and then give Thanks to a Heavenly Father who loves us and knows what we need.

Oreo cookies and bugs

     Good to know that my children still have a great sense of humor.  About 2 weeks ago, we had an experience with some fig newton cookies we had bought here.  I was so excited to find Fig Newtons, that we bought a small package. Well of course as soon as we were in the car, we opened them and dug in. ( word to the wise, look before eating anything that is not in a can on Pohnpei) Well, Elder LeFevre ate the first one and enjoyed it and them I started to eat one, I had taken one bite, when I happened to glance down at the package and saw hundreds of small black bugs crawling through the cookies, I couldn't get my window down fast enough to spit them out and missed , so the bite that I had in my mouth landed on the inside of the car, Elder Lefevre was laughing so hard, I thought he was going to wreck us, and as soon as we found a garbage can We through the whole package out. then we cleaned up the car. I am not sure I will ever eat another Fig Newton again.

Bugs and Oreo Cookies

    Now I am sure you are all wondering what that has to do with Oreo cookies and bugs, well we received a package from our oldest son Ben and his family, actually it was mostly from Kammie and  2 of our sweet granddaughters, Sophia and Maggie, and tucked neatly inside was a sealed (or so I thought) package of double stuff Oreo's, well we put them in the freezer and were saving them for a special occasion, well just yesterday, some of the Elders stopped by our apartment to get some information, so we thought we would offer them some Oreo cookies, I got them out of the freezer and opened them up and about jumped right out of the room and dropped the package. There inside were 2 big plastic bugs, that looked very realistic. When the Elders and Elder LeFevre saw what it was they were having a great laugh, so did I when I realized they were fake.  So today I say Thank You to Kammie, Sophia, Maggie and of course Ben ( because I know deep down you had something to do with this) for giving us a bonus in our Oreo cookies, you made us all laugh. As soon as I get the camera I will post pictures.  P.S.  the cookies are great, they are almost gone.

We're Back

We finally are back, at least for now.  So much has happened in the last 2 weeks, I hope I can remember it all.
     The Elders and Sisters are working like crazy teaching the gospel and we have had quit a few baptisms in the last 3 weeks.  As soon as the Elders and Sisters get me there pictures I will post them for you. We can't get to all the baptisms, so we have only got pictures from some of them.
     We have officially started Piano lessons and music lessons in 6 of the 8 branches. We have 8 keyboards that Elder and Sister Kjar and us take around to the 6 branches. in the Uh branch we have 6 students, In Mond (Mont) we have 4, in Kitti (Kitchi) we have 6 students, In Palikir we have 15 Students, (2 classes, 1 of adults that we do during seminary, and another one after seminary that is seminary students.) Then in Kolinia we are just getting started, and in Sekerra we have 8 students.  Because none of the students have keyboards or pianos at home, we made paper keyboards and glued them on poster board, so they would be a little more sturdy for them. They love them and they love the music. We are teaching a lot of adults, so hopefully when we leave in 2 years, they will be able to continue to teach the rising generation.
     While all of the paino lessons are going on Elder Lefevre is teaching an English class in one of the branches and in the other branches he is either helping out or going to do the GPS tracking, or teaching with the elders in that branch where we are at.
     Starting next week, we will go out early to the branch where we have lessons and go teaching with the Elders and Sisters to some of the less-active families. We are seeing success with this, most just want to be invited to come back. It has really brought home to me the importance of member missionary work, especially with the less active members.many times they just need to be reminded how much the branch or ward needs them.
     To help with our work with the less actives, we have given all the piano students an additional assignment to go with there piano assignments. The additional assignment is to go and find a less active member and invite them back to church. most were pretty excited about it, so we will see how they do.
     To all you parents out there of missionary's, I just want to tell you , You have amazing young men and women out here. The love they have for the gospel and this work inspires me, the love they have for the wonderful Pohnpien people would make you proud. They are doing a great job and we could not do our job without them. My hat in off to all you parents and I am honored to serve with your kids and to the Kjars children, You can be just has proud of your Mom and Dad, they are amazing missionaries, WE LOVE ALL OUR MISSIONARIES ON POHNPEI. They do great work for the Lord.

This is one of our local Centipedes, you do NOT want to get bit by one of these, extremely  Poisson's

How come whenever there is a bug, crab, lizard, etc. to be found, Elder Carlson is there?

I sure hope Elder Carlson's mom isn't looking at this.

Sis. Kennech, Sis. Salaiau, & Sis. Varia
With there soon to be baptised kids.

Preparation Day Flag Football Game

Some of the beautiful native plants we see everyday

One of my favorite landmarks ( just because of it's name)
Chicken ( @#$%^&*) Mountain
The legend says that a great big chicken flew over Pohnpei and pooped on the top
 of the mountain.

Tony, our Pohnpein language teacher

Liliann and Leila, our other 2 language teachers

Between the 3 of them and Tony's other 2 daughters, Janea and Michelle
We may eventually speak Pohnpein

We Love our Teachers !!!!!!!

Piano Lessons in Palikir

    Here are all the pictures we have been waiting to post, lets see how this new Internet works.

Technical Difficulties

     Sorry, we on the island of Pohnpei are experiencing technical difficulties lately, for about the last 3 weeks we have been having rolling power outages, each group has there power off for approximately 4 hours, but sometimes it is longer and lately the power has been going off all hours of the day.  I am told this is normal, so that is one of the reasons you have not seen much of the blog lately.
     also we have finally moved into a apartment and because of the power problems, we have not been able to get the Internet yet, so as soon as we are hooked back up I will catch you up with all the pictures and news of life on Pohnpei.
     don't worry, the power may be out alot, but the missionary work is still going strong.