Trip to Pohnpei

We had the privilege of spending one week on the island of Pohnpei which is 344 miles and just one hour flying time from our island of Kosrae.  All of the missionaries along with us were attending a joint zone conference with the missionaries on Pohnpei.  We never thought we would have the opportunity to visit any of the other islands in our mission.  So this was a real treat.

A picture of an atoll taken from the airplane

 Pohnpei island is the largest island in the Federated States of Micronesia with a land area of 344 km. It is a deeply indented and jagged circle that has on outer barrier reef, an intertidal lagoon, mangrove forests, and a central mountain rain forest.  It is known as the "Garden Island" and is very lush and green.  They have a population of around 34,000, just about 6  times as many as we have on Kosrae.  There are 25 smaller widely scattered coral atolls which lie outside the barrier reef, but most of the people live on the main island.  They do not have any sandy beaches on the main island only Mangrove forests.

Because this island is so much larger it has 12
missionaries serving there along with one senior
couple.  There are about 1600 members of the Church and 7 branches.  The weekend that we were there they dedicated a new chapel in Palikir.  It is very beautiful and we had Elder Gary Stevenson of the 70 there for the dedication.  Termites are a major problem here on these islands and so they used a special wood brought in from New Zealand that is supposed to be termite proof.  It was used inside the chapel and other parts of the church as part of the decor.


On Saturday they had a celebration where each of the branches performed a local native dance and some did special singing groups.  It was delightful and many people attended.  After the program there was a large dinner served.  All of this was done outside and they brought in huge tent type awnings for us to sit under. 

Hundreds of people were in attendance and now waiting to eat.  

We stayed with the senior couple serving on Pohnpei.  It was great to get to know them better and spend some time going around with them to their seminary and institute classes. 
The Kjars have been here since the beginning of May and they are from Aurora, Utah.  They hold a daily early morning seminary class at the high school.  Most of the students ride a bus to high school and one of the teachers lets them use her classroom before school to have seminary. Most of the time they have around 18 attending class.  They hold a home-study type of program at 6 of the other branches where they meet just one day a week for two hours and then the students have some assignments that they are supposed to do for the other four days.  They turn them in each week so that they can get credit.  I am thinking that something like home-study would work well here in one of our branches where it is hard to get students out because of transportation.

Each of the branches that we attended were different in the amount of people attending and size.  At one of the branches they had an outdoor baptismal  font. We have never seen anything like that.  After traveling to all of these different chapels we got a little bit of a feel of their island.  It is a lot bigger and requires more traveling to get around than we are used to.




The main purpose for us going to Pohnpei was to participate in the zone conference.  With only two flights leaving our island each week, it made it necessary to leave a few days before the conference and that is why we were there for 6 days.  The conference was under the direction of Elder Stevenson with  President Mecham assisting him.  We had great instruction and were spiritually uplifted after two days of meetings.  We spent one day going over 2 Nephi 31.  We heard about ways to use the scriptures more as we teach and have a vision of what we want to achieve and then set our goals to help us achieve that vision.  Great advice for no matter what you are doing and would work well with families in having a vision and setting goals.  Especially eternal goals that matter the most.  I helped Sister Kjar with preparing and serving lunch to all 26 missionaries and leaders. 

Before we left to go back to Kosrae we were able to visit some handicraft shops down in the village.  We went to one place that had a number of men carving a variety of different types of fish, turtles, sharks, and other sea life.  All of these carvings were done out of mangrove wood.  It is a very hard wood that they use and has lots of color variations in it.  We took some great pictures of the men working at their craft.  We also went to some of the markets where they were selling other handcrafts.  I was able to pick up a few lovely items.

As with any trip that we have been on, it is so wonderful, but then it is always good to get back home again.  We were happy to return to our home on Kosrae, we really missed it.

A Liberation Celebration

The week of September 8th is a time for the people of Kosrae to celebrate their liberation from Japanese rule.  It is something like our Fourth of July celebration.  Kosrae has had many different countries who were in control here.  After the Germans had been here for some time the Japanese took over this island during WW1 and stayed in control until the end of WWII when they surrendered to the United States.  The Japanese were in the process of getting rid of all the islanders near the end of WWII  and had rounded up many people to be imprisoned.  In 1945, when the U.S. came and took over all of the islands that had been held by the Japanese, they freed the people and set up the Trust Treaty of the Pacific Islands (TTPI).  The Japanese soldiers were removed from the island. There are still some Kosraens living who can remember what happened at this time.  We have 3 members in our branch who were children at the time the U.S. came and freed them.  The four different municipalities all planned many activities from sports games, canoe races, BBQs, and programs to celebrate this day.  Thursday, Friday and Saturday were set aside for these activities.  



Watching activities and visiting



Our two branches decided that they wanted to also have a celebration of their own.  So on Saturday everyone got together at the Lelu Church where we had a short program, games and activities and plenty of local food to eat.  Pahpah Kurr, who was alive at the time of the liberation, talked  about what he remembered and we were reminded that we should not forget this event in the history of Kosrae.  President Jonathan called upon Elder Wright to see if he wanted to add anything that he could remember about WWII, but he informed him that he was born at the end of WII and didn't participate or remember from first hand any experiences.  





Women serving food in outdoor kitchen



We had a large turn out for this celebration and everyone had a great time.  Many of the ladies worked in the outdoor kitchen of the family who live behind the church preparing and serving the food.  We had local greens, taro, cooked bananas, rice and a vegetable chicken stir fry, and their version of banana pie(yummy).

It was dished up on paper plates and covered with aluminum foil and then carried to those waiting to eat. Every one here eats with their hands because they never use utensils.  We are getting used to eating like the locals. All of the eating and activities were done outside in the back of the church.




Pres. Hadley and his family



Some of the activities that we did were a contest to see who could shell or husk a coconut the fastest.  What a riot it was!  Then they brought out the stools used for shredding coconut.  They are about the size of the old fashioned shoe shine boxes.  Then another contest was held on seeing who could shred coconut the fastest.  We have one of those shredding boxes at our house, well we actually loaned it to one of the Elders, so we have not tried to shred coconut as of yet, but after watching this I think we need to try as that is the only way I will get shredded coconut because it is not sold in stores here.





Molton and Sasaki husking coconuts



Eric Abraham shredding coconut



Games were enjoyed by the young as well. Fun relays were held where they had to run down to where a pole was located and run around it with their head down10 times and then run back and tag the next person.  They were a little dizzy and it was fun to see them try and run back and tag the next person. 

The relays were interupted by a heavy torrential downpour that lasted for about 45 minutes. We all ran to the Church for protection from the storm.  Some of us were inside and others went under the roof overhangs.  I imagine that we must have gotten about two inches of rain in that downpour.  While we were waiting we had a great game of ping pong going.  Lots of the youth and some of the adults took turns trying to beat the branch champion.  As the rain let up some, many decided it would be okay to start a volleyball game.  It continuted to rain for the rest of the evening but no one was going to let a little rain get in the way of having some fun.  A celebration wouldn't be a celebration without a little music and singing.

Paul Nena and ukulele

Fun and Games . . . S & I Enjoyment

We have had a great start to the school year in our seminary and institute programs.  We have actually had more young single adults attend so far this year compared with last year.  After two weeks of classes we are excited for what is happening in each of our classes.  Our goal is to still get more to come out in all of the different classes, especially seminary.  The youth are the future of the Church and we have some very faithful and diligent youth on this island.

We held a fun opening social for the youth and the teachers. We thought that we were going to start around 4:00 pm, but however, true to their island customs they did not show up until about 5:30.  You just never know when they will come, but they do eventually come.   I had a dice game set up to play as they were arriving and some did come early so that was a good thing.  We laughed and enjoyed teaching how to play Farkel, or some call it Zilch. 

We started out with some dancing demonstrations which were very good, although I thought that they were going to teach some of those dances to everyone so that all would be involved.   We also did the limbo and musical chairs.










We got some great videos of them participating in these activities but I do not know how to put them on this blog but here are some of the pictures we took.

A party would not be a party without ice cream.  We just served ice cream and local donuts.  Then everyone enjoy playing volleyball and ping pong.  It is great that we have a volleyball court on the back property of the Church.  It serves for both a volleyball and basketball court.  Everyone stayed until about 9:00 pm.    A GREAT TIME!!