The Twins

Twina, Elder Davis & Twine

    We had an amazing set of twins that Elder Davis and Elder Madill have been teaching and for the longest time, their parents would not give permission for them to get baptized. I thought Elder Davis could tell it better, so here is the story in his words and pictures.

 Twina and Twine Sihmon

Twina and Twine Sihmon are twins (they just turned 16) that have been taught for a number of months and have been ready to be baptized for some time but their father had never given permission. They were going to church every week , attending seminary, and they’ve both read the Book of Mormon front to back. The only thing holding them back was parental permission. The following story was written in first person by Elder Davis about a recent experience relating to those girls.

Saturday, February 16, 2013, Elder Madill and I went on splits. After a few hours we were to meet at the church building. After Terrance Jim (16) and I finished our lessons we went to the church and didn't see them their so we decided that, as we had the truck, we'd go to the area we knew they would be working in and look for them to give them a ride back to the church so that we could move on with the next part of our schedule. We went to Paies and went to Fransiska's house to see if someone there could tell us where they had gone off to. When we got there a young man at her house told us that they had gone to visit Twina and Twine. Well I was admittedly surprised cause we weren't supposed to meet with them until much later that night. But, assuming something had come up and they felt to go there we decided to take the trek up there ourselves to see if we could be of service. We took the 10 minute hike up the jungle covered mountain (the hike to their house rivals anything I did in Boy Scouts) and finally reached the house. When we got there Elder Madill, Patterson and Fransiska were nowhere to be seen. But Twina and Twine's parents were there dozing in their sweet local house. They awoke at our greeting and invited us in. I felt the Spirit very strongly at that moment testify to me that I had been brought there at that specific time and I needed to meet with their father right then. 

We went into the house and sat down with the father. We talked for some time about this and that and gently I brought the topic around to the gospel. I was unusually nervous as before this time gospel topics were not generally friendly territory with this man and I knew that my interaction with him at that time might be the deciding factor on Twina and Twine's baptism. If I offended him or if I wasn't able to provide satisfactory answers he was liable to forbid them from being baptized for a long time. I wasn't nervous about the doctrine, I know that what we teach is the truth and I'd be happy to proclaim that with boldness anywhere the Lord wants it, but during the course of my discussion with this man I felt like I was tip-toeing through a mine-field. Thanks Heaven I had the Spirit to guide me. I felt like I was being lead, blindfolded, one step at a time through our discussion. There were some concerns that I was able to address with a scripture or an analogy. There were some concerns that he brought up that I was prompted to laugh and make a joke about, and then he would laugh as well and see the ridiculousness of a point he had just brought up; and his worry would melt away. He brought up one concern about the kind of opposition that his daughters would face, especially in the area where they live. I was guided to turn to the young man I had brought with me, who was actually a friend of the two girls, went to the same school, and was their same age. I asked him to share a testimony about how he dealt with the opposition that is so common on this island. He bore a beautiful testimony and I finally asked the father (Brother Sihmon) "We talked a little bit about agency when we first came in and how our Father in Heaven gives us agency to make our own choices. So will you please allow your daughters to make their own choice in relation to baptism and the church?" He took a second and then said "Let's see what the want."

We called the girls down, they were a little ways off in the jungle, and he asked them "What do you want to do?"

"Want to do about what?"

"About baptism."

Twine answered right away "I want to be baptized."

Twina followed "Me too."

Brother Sihmon asked them about how they would face the opposition. Twine said "Diparail, kaiden aht dihp." Which means, basically, "That's their sin, not ours."

He took that as a good answer and said "Alright, that's enough. We're done."

I was a bit confused and asked "So you allow them to be baptized?"

"Yup. It's their birthday today so happy birthday. But you'd better get them baptized tomorrow so I don't change my mind."

After that I was on cloud nine. We were there for another 45 minutes or so cause he didn't want us to go (had just a touch of alcohol in him so he was kinda talkative) and even after that it was still touch and go for a while. He almost revoked his permission a couple of times, but I was lead, just as before, tip-toeing through a previously impassible area of this man's heart. 

Twina and Twine Sihmon were interviewed before church and baptized after church yesterday. They were happier than I've ever seen them. Both were touched by the Spirit and were in tears by the end of the service, as was I. I know that this experience was an answer to many prayers and fasting. I know that God cares for us and is aware of our needs. He has His own timing on things, but if we do our best it will come together. I was lead to the house at an odd time of day, the member with me was able to ease a concern with a powerful and simple testimony of his own experience and I was lead with what to say and what to do, not to in any way remove this man's agency, but to be able to touch his heart and secure permission for baptism for two wonderful girls.

I know this is God's work. May you all live with the Spirit guiding you constantly.

Twina, Francisca & Twine

Elder Davis & Elder Madill with the Twins and Francisca

District Meeting

   We had a great district meeting today. Elder Cook is our new District leader, and he did a great object lesson. We were all blind folded at first and had to sit and listen to music while we waited for our turn. Then we were led into the church and our blind fold was taken off  and then we had to follow this path where we were reminded of all the struggles we have as missionaries, at each stop we had to pick up a chair and carry it to the next stop, where there would be another struggle listed and we would pick up another chair. We did this 5 times, so we had 5 chairs and then we had to carry them down this long hallway, through obstacle, until we got to a room where there was a picture of Christ and a big sign that said "we can not do this a lone, we have to have help, lay your burdens at His feet" We then laid down our chairs and picked up a piece of paper and wrote a letter to the Savior. It was great and really brought the spirit.

Elder Cook, our new District leader

Elder Vause, our newest missionary

Sis. Varea & Elder Rice

Elder LeFevre, Elder Holt, Elder Petersen, Elder Vause, Elder Lyman

Elder Lyman, Elder Peterson, Sis. Kjar

Sis. Kjar, Elder Kjar, Yuri ( our little missionary from Chuuk,
 she is with us for a week , while we do Visa stuff for her) & Meagan

Yuri, Meagan, Sis. Beutler

Elder Davis(Zone Leader)

Elder Rice, Elder Hanson, & Elder Davis

Yuri, Meagan, Sis. Beutler, & Sis. Varea

Elder LeFevre, Elder Holt, Elder Petersen

Elder Rice & Elder Hanson

Elder Petersen, Elder Vause, Elder Lyman, & Elder Peterson

Our AMAZING Zone leaders
Elder Davie & Elder Madill

Elder Cook

Good Job, Elder Cook

Fun with the Elders & Our pretty Island

 We were out,with the Zone leaders, inspecting a new apartment for the Roy Elders, and on our way back we found a place that actually had shaved Ice, man oh man, what a treat.

Elder Madill & Elder Davis, enjoying a cool treat

Who Knew snow cones could taste so good !!!!!!!

These are our gas prices, so next time your at the pump, DON'T COMPLAIN !!!!!!!!

 

Monthly Firesides

     We decided to start something new with our Institute and Young Adults on the Island.  Many that were attending Institute are not this semester, because they are done with school or preparing to leave on missions, so we wanted to take Institute to them, but time wise, we can not do a separate institute class each week in each branch. So we prayed and pondered what to do, so these young adults still felt a part of things and we got our answer in Firesides. We started Firesides in each branch. Every branch will have a fireside once each month. Most Sundays, we will do 2 Firesides, one after church and one in the evening and 2 of the branches are going to have theirs on Tuesdays.
    Well we started this week and so far we have had a great response. Kolonia Branch was Sunday evening and we had 5 in attendance, which was great, we know that as the word gets out, more will come.  UH branch had theirs on Tuesday and we had 18 in attendance, about 3 or 4 were non-members, who have been coming to activities and are now being taught by the Elders.
    This next Sunday will be Sapwalap at 1:00 and Sekerra at 6:30. Hopefully they will be excited to come.

UH Branch Fireside, at the beginning

UH Branch fireside, at the end, when you bring out the cake
everyone comes !!!!!!!!!

     We do have to give a BIG THANK YOU to Elder Bunn, we finished our fireside in UH and were loading up the car to head home, it was late and we had about a 30 minute drive and we noticed we had a flat tire. Well Elder Bunn, jumped right in to help and in no time at all we had the tire changed and were on our way. Thank You to Elder Bunn.

2 River Baptisms

Sunrise, as we pick up the Uh Branch for the ride to Nett

     We also got to have 2 river baptisms yesterday, the first was at 8:00 a.m. in the Nett river, these 3 were from the Uh branch, but the Uh Branch and the Nett Branch were having a combined activity all day on Saturday, so they had the baptisms in the morning in the Nett river and then went on to the party. I just have to say, THANK YOU, SAM, Sam Bailey always lets his truck be used to transport different branches to their activities, Sam usually drives, but Sam has been on Yap for the last 2 weeks, so we have had his truck. We sent him a quick e-mail and as usual he said yes, so we were able to help get the Uh branch to Nett and back

Our Baptismal Font, the Nett River, underneath the
WWII Bridge, built by the Japenese before the war,
when they occupied this Island

Our own "Waters of Mormon", we will call it "Waters of Nett"

Elder Madill's Baptism 

Elder Bunn's Baptism

Pres. Alex's Baptism, this was the first time Pres. Alex
 has ever baptised someone.

Our Nett Font

.
     Then in the afternoon we were off to Kitti for another baptism, in the Kitti River.

Cesar & Roxanne, first time Cesar has ever baptized someone.

A hug after

Elder Vause, Roxanne, Cesar & Elder Petersen

Jeanette and I

Sis. Jonathan, next to the river

Sis. Conrad, Roxanne, Roxanne's Mom, Sis. Jonathan
& Cesar

   To best describe how sweet it is to have the baptisms in the rivers and the ocean, think in your mind of the picture in the Book of Mormon called the "Waters of Mormon", that is what it is like. Hope you enjoy the picture, they really don't do justice to the spirit and surroundings.