On Our Way to Guam

The yellow hair must be a reflection from these lovely seats

Our flight left at 8:25 am on the first leg to Seattle, Washington.  The only problem was that a dense fog settled in and it delayed our flight.  We had to have the wings de-iced before taking off and then wait for clearance on the fog.  We were one hour and forty minutes late in taking off.  Because Seattle is an hour earlier than Salt Lake we made our next connection but we were a little concerned for awhile.  When we got off the plane our next gate to leave from was just one down from where we were.  That is good because we started to board for Osaka after about 15 or 20 minutes.  This flight was supposed to take 11 hours and it did.  We sat in the very back of the plane on row 42.  It actually turned out to be great because it was in the middle where we had three seats, but we did not have the third person.  We were able to spread out and actually put our feet up.  When we got to Osaka we had a 4 hour layover.  The airport was very sterile looking.  After getting off the plane we took an airport tram that traveled on the outside of the building and took us to the area where we were to board for Guam.  It was all glass and steel with no décor of any kind in the building.  It was good that we had another couple traveling with us, the Crittendens, so that we had someone to talk to during this 4 hour period.  At one point we were the only ones in the area waiting for our plane.  Just before take off it filled up pretty fast and lots of people showed up.  The trip to Guam took about 3 ½ hours.  We arrived at 1:30 am Saturday morning.  It was exactly 24 hours from the time that we got on the plane in Salt Lake to when we got off in Guam.  Plus we also lost one whole day when we crossed the International Date Line. We stayed at the Sheraton Laguna Resort Hotel while we were in Guam.

Outside hotel in Guam where it was always windy

On Sunday we attended the Barrigada Branch.  They are in the process of changing from a branch to a ward since the Guam Stake was organized about 3 weeks ago.  There were a fair amount of people attending.  It was just like being at home because everything seemed the same.  Sacrament meeting was good and so was Relief Society.  The people were very friendly to us. During the afternoon we did some sight seeing in Guam.  We went to a lookout point called Two Lovers Point.  In the evening we we went out to dinner with all of the other senior couples.  We found a Chinese restaurant to go to and it was great to get acquainted with all of the other couples that have now arrived for the conference that starts in the morning.

Beach and Bay area at the hotel

   The next morning was spent in getting some great counsel from our mission president, President Dowdle.  He talked about building a foundation on Jesus Christ and the atonement.  Then he went into the foundational principles in  missionary work.  For the next three days we had some great instruction on how we do things in the islands.  

Each day we had lunch at a different hotel buffet.  The food was always good and we enjoyed it all so much.  I think that we have gained a little weight with all of this eating out. After meetings one day we went to an Underwater World attraction.  The fish were unbelievable and we took some great pictures.  Watching the divers feed them was a real treat.



The entire area was a huge tunnel of heavy plastic so that it looked like we were right in the ocean with the fish.  We were told that it wouldn't look any better even if we had been scuba diving.  There were a number of sting rays, grooper, and sharks along with the turtles.  Many little colorful fish were swimming everywhere.

 Five different divers came down to feel the fish.  They started with the sting rays and then fed the sharks.  The fish certainly knew when it was feeding time because they all started to gather together in one area.  Not one of them even appeared to be aggressive.

Here we are with all of the senior couples that are serving at this time in the Micronesia Guam Mission.  We had a very enjoyable time getting to know them and learning all about the things that each of them were doing on their various islands.  There are 8 couples all together.   From left to right we start with our mission president, President Dowdle, E/S Crittenden from Chuuk, E/S Holloway from Pohnpei, E/S Hansen from Palau, E/S Wright (us)  serving from Kosrae,behind us are E/S Peterson from Chuuk, E/S Clarke from Guam, E/S Sheppard from Yap, E/S Hertzberg from Guam, and Sister Miyazaki the mission nurse.

Friday morning we left for our island of Kosrae.  Eleven of us were on the same flight.  The plane had to stop at two other islands before we could get to ours.   We were flying over the vast Pacific Ocean and all of a sudden an island would come into view. Chuuk was the first island stop and 6 missionaries and a family history coordinator from Japan got off. There were some fascinating cloud formations. As we arrived at each island half the plane had to get off so that they could do a security check.    Once they were done we were able to board and leave.  This took about 45 minutes each time. We were the last missionary couple left going to our island after leaving the island of Pohnpei.  It took about 6 hours to finally arrived in Kosrae.  Wow!  We are finally here.

This is Kosrae International Airport, not quite like those back home.