A Dip in the Ocean

We have the most beautiful crystal clear water here in this part of the ocean.  You can actually see through the waves when they come in, many times they look transparent.  Now you are probably wondering if maybe we have broken mission rules and took a swim in the ocean.  We have not--- although we sure would like to do as the locals, and ride on a styrofoam raft and let the waves float us in to shore.  This is a different sort of a dip.

The water we use in our house comes from the rain barrels except for our toilet which has city water piped into it.  When it rains very often the city plumbing backs up and we have a bucket which we fill and dump into the toilet tank so it will flush; we get that water from the bathtub.  Usually within in a short time, less than a day, it works again even though the water is a little brown for the next few times that we flush.  A few days ago we found that there was no water in the toilet so we started our procedure of filling up the tank.  We were somewhat surprised as it has not been raining for a few days, but we took our buckets and filled that tank and it went on for 2 or 3 days.  We were finally able to get a member to talk to the local water office and see what the problem was and then learned that there was something wrong with the pipes.   They were aware of the problem and said they were working on it.

By this time we realized that we had not had any significant rainfall and looked in our barrels to discover that they were exceptionally low and we could not use that water to fill the toilet or we would run out for our other needs.  We took one look around and said now what will we do.  It didn't take long to realize that we had  this huge ocean right in our backyard with all the water you would ever need.  So this morning, I rolled up my pants and waded out to get some water in the ocean.

 
Elder Wright thought that this was rather entertaining watching me do this.  It worked well, but was sure a lot more effort and sandy to say the least, but it felt so good to walk in that ocean water and that will probably be the closest that I will come to taking my own dip in the ocean. We would never have experienced this if we were still in Mesa and not here.  Later that night the city water line was fixed and we were back to our normal routine of living.  Our water barrels are full again as rain descended  upon us the next morning.

Roofing Repairs

Having a home with beach front property is an added blessing living here on Kosrae.  Needless to say we have enjoyed every moment witnessing beautiful sunrises, hearing the waves lap against the shore and feeling the breeze brought by the trade winds.  Along with all of this wonderfulness there is some problems that do occur which can cause damage.  The main one is that things rust very easily because of the moisture and the salt air.  Our roof is out of corrugated tin and one day we discovered that on the ocean side of our house some of the edges of the roof were looking a little rusty.  It didn't take long before it became worse and with the wind some pieces of the tin were found lying in our driveway.

 When it rained the water was not flowing into the rain gutters since they no longer reached out to the gutters.  We depend on rain water for our source of water here.  We have two 500 gallon rain barrels that hold the water that flows down these gutters and keeps them filled.  Now we had one side of our house not contributing to our water supply.

We have a facilities manager for the Church who came over and estimated what it would take to fix the roof, but before we could get the supplies we woke up the next morning to discover that water was running down the wall in our bathroom and then began dripping from the ceiling and also our light fixture.  Our neighbor happened to come over shortly thereafter so he climbed on the roof to see what was the matter and found that the tin had rusted away over our bathroom and now there were two good sized holes.  Naturally, all this occurred when we were having major rainstorms.  Thank goodness our FM man, Kaston, was free and he came right away and went with Elder Wright to get some roofing supplies to fix that hole.  The Lord was looking out for us as the rain stopped just long enough for them to pull the old tin roof off and put up the new piece in its place.  Then it poured again making it difficult to totally finish the job, but it was enough until the next day when they could come and finish it up. When that hole was patched, we ordered all the supplies to fix the rest of the roof which has taken some time considering it is difficult to do it when it rains hard.

  The tin comes in 10 and 12 foot length sections and has to be cut to fit where they need it.  First the old tin is cut back to where it is no longer rusted and then a new piece is slid under it and brought out to the correct edge of the roof. It looks good now and we are getting water in our gutters.  It has taken quite some time to complete this job and there are still two small pieces that need to be put up over our door and then we can say it is finished!








         Kaston and our neighbor Eric working on
               our roof

                                                                 New Tin Roof 

We also did some roof repairs to our tiki hut a few months ago where parts of the thatched roof was worn out and holes were showing up.  We had a man make 20, four foot sections to replace the disintegrating ones. Two local men came and did the repair. Each section is on a round pole and then tied with a nylon type cord on the inside of the roof. It took them about half a day.

 

      Now all is well and we can sit again in our tiki hut in the rain and not get wet.

A Relief Society Celebration

On Saturday, March 17th we had the birthday party for the Relief Society. I thought that it was great that we had it on the very day that it was originally organized in 1842. They were able to rent a van so that sisters who lived a long distance from the church could be picked up and brought to the activity. It started at 10:00 a.m. or at least it was supposed to start then.  Most of the people arrived somewhat after that time and it really got officially started closer to 11:00--Kosrae Time.    A spiritual program was held in the Chapel where we heard four different talks relating to our theme "Charity Never Faileth" and some of the purposes of Relief Society.  In between some of the talks each of the branches sang a hymn. 

Afterwards we had lunch which included barbecued chicken and rice, along with local food which included taro, breadfruit, cooked bananas, crab, and  kool-aid to drink.   All of the eating and afternoon activities were held on the grounds behind the Church.  It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon with only a light rain at one point lasting for just about 8 minutes.

Many people found some shade under the trees and then there was sweet Sister Angie who sat in the Sun because she was cold and needed to get warm.  I have a hard time imagining that as I have not been cold one day since we arrived here 14 months ago. 

The afternoon activities were learning how to make a weaving that is used in their local houses as part of a wall.  It was made from branches that were pounded with a mallet and then opened flat.  There was a definite pattern to the weaving and after it got started it took at least two or three people to do the weaving.  Some lifted up the branches while another would slide a new branch into place.  We had about three different mats being woven so that many got the opportunity to work on them.  Some of the men living in the houses nearby came out to help work on one of these mats.



Tapping the branches to make a tight fit

















The pattern now begins to show.

Another craft was the making of a flower to be worn in the hair.  It looked so easy but it took some practice to make it.  What a fun day for those who came.  We all enjoyed each other and spending time together just as many sisters all around to world celebrated the Relief Society's birthday.

Here I am 5 hours later at the end of a fun day wearing my woven hat, a flower over my ear and my local skirt and posing with Sister Nena who was in charge of all the wonderful activities.

Baptisms for the New Year

In January we had the baptism of Ned Gallen Jack.  He had been taught by Elders Rufus and Madsen.  President Ben Alokoa baptized him.  He is a  young man in his twenties and will be a great addition to the Lelu Branch.  He has a strong testimony and desire to do those things that are right. He now goes with the Elders as they teach others who want to hear the Gospel. 

February saw the baptism of three people.  We started out the month with the baptism of Milson Albert.  He had been taught for quite some time by Elders Rufus and Madsen and was very excited for his baptism.  His wife was already a member and now they attend each Sunday together.  Milson was baptize by Brother Paul Nena.



A couple of weeks later we had the baptism of Divinson George.  He is a 12 year old boy who is handicapped and does not have the use of his legs.  He uses a wheelchair to get around.  He is very intelligent and speaks excellent English as well as his own native language.  This was the first baptism that we have been able to attend where it was held in the ocean.  We held the service at the home of Divinson and then went out to the ocean that is located directly behind his house. 

 Our Branch President carried him out into the water while two of the Elders, Coffey and Agalzoff, looked for a spot deep enough to immerse him.  When they found it, Elder Conejero held onto Divinson and baptized him.  Divinson wanted the baptism here so that his entire family could be present for it.  He is the first person in his family to be baptized.  It was a very special service and the family seemed to be excited for him. 

This was a great experience for us to witness a baptism in the ocean.  Divinson was taught by Elder Coffey and Conejero.

 

The last weekend in the month we held the baptism of Sammy Miklos.  He is an 8 year old boy in the Lelu Branch.  He was baptized by his father Ken who has only been a member himself for about 18 months.  This also was a very excited young boy who looked forward to his baptism.  We have had the privilege of home teaching this family.

A Month of Conferences

It all started with a Senior Couple Conference on January 16-17th.  We flew into Guam on the Saturday before the Conference and were able to attend the Barrigada Ward on Sunday.  We stayed at the Marriott Hotel in Guam with 9 other senior couples.  Since our last conference in July, we have had four couples return home who have been replaced and the mission has added an additional four couples, so we met 8 new couples in the mission.  Three of the couples plus our nurse live in Guam. We had 25 senior missionaries to the conference.  Each of the couples presented a stewardship report of what they have been doing since we last met.  Some are involved in Seminary and Institute, Humanitarian--medical, family history, member support and leadership, office work, and mission nurse. They are very talented and bring many gifts with them to do the Lord's work here in Micronesia.  We were were instructed by President Mecham, our Mission President.  He helped us to set goals for member reactivation.  He has a great vision on how to build the Church here in this mission.  Each island has its own goal and ours is 17 members to be reactivated.  The total for the entire mission for this year is 348. We came away inspired and ready to do all we can to move the work forward.   Besides all the great instructions we also had fun eating and doing things together.

   Here we are at the mission home enjoying a Sunday afternoon dinner together.  This is a beautiful and spacious house with enough room for all of us.  The President cooked a great BBQ and it was wonderful to eat all the things that we do not usually get to eat. 

One week after we returned from Guam we held our Zone Conference under the direction of our Mission President.  It was great to have him and his wife on the island.  We actually were able to spend some extra time with them as the plane going back to Guam did not stop at our island the day they were scheduled to leave.  The next plane was not for three more days.  It was a great treat and blessing for us, but he had to cancel the zone conferences on two other islands because of this delay.  We have 6 great Elders serving here with us and they each took part in the conference.  We met for two hours and then had dinner, which I prepared with very limited supplies as we have not had a boat coming here for more than a month.  Then we met for a couple more hours and ended up with each person having an individual interview with the President.  These conferences are so great and our zone leaders do most of the work for them.   We have one of them every quarter so it will be about 3 more months before we have another zone conference.

One week later we had the Kosrae District Conference and the Mission President and his wife returned along with Elder Michael Ringwood, of the First Quorum of the Seventy, and his wife,  He is 1st counselor in the Asia North Area and lives in Tokyo.  Meetings were held on both Saturday and Sunday.  It was somewhat warm as our air conditioning was not working in the building.  Extra floor fans were purchased to help circulate and cool the air.  While the men were being instructed in a Priesthood session on Saturday afternoon, the women held an auxiliary meeting.  It was so great to be a part of this.  Instruction was given on how to prepare physically and spiritually for your calling and how to minister to those you serve. One of the things that Elder Ringwood counseled the members on was that the Gospel is simple and we need to do three things;  Believe in Heavenly Father, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and to keep the commandments.

On Monday, we held a missionary conference in the morning with Elder Ringwood.  May I say that it is such an honor and great blessing to be instructed by a General Authority.  What makes it even more special is that the Church sent him to an island with only about 300 members and to meet with 6 Elders and one senior couple on a very small scale.  That does not happen very often and all of us that had this privilege felt so blessed to be a recipient.  We were able to ask questions of him and learned much about how the Quorum of Seventy functions.  He then taught us many great principles and attributes that missionaries need.  We also learned more about Nephi's faith and obedience and how we need to implement the same things in our own lives.  I was able to serve dinner to Elder and Sister Ringwood and President and Sister Mecham on Sunday in our home.  A never to be forgotten event.

Inspections, Inspections!!

One of our privileges is to help take care of the    Elders here on the island.  Every transfer time (6 weeks) we do apartment and vehicle                  inspections.   On our island we have three          companionships with separate living                   accomodations and two different vehicles.  We   have a form that is to be filled out each time we go to inspect their apartments.  Not only do we   check for neatness and cleanliness, but we also   check to see if their sheets are being washed,     they are spraying to keep the insect population    under control, the 72 hour backpack is filled and   ready for use, and the fire alarms have batteries   and are working properly.                                                                                                               

It started out white!

 Every apartment here on the island, including our home, has a water filter system that is used for drinking water.  Some of the apartments have city water (which is not fit to drink) plumbed into their apartments for use in showers and and washing machines.  Some of the apartments, like ours, have rain barrel water plumbed into the house which is better, but best if not used for drinking.  So we also have a water filter system to use for our drinking water.  We check these filters on a regular basis and insist that everyone change the main filter each month or at least every 6 weeks.  Sometimes we cannot believe how horrible the filter looks after only a month or 6 weeks of usage.

 Elder Wright does the vehicle inspection on the cars each time.  He checks the tire pressure and treads, all fluids including oil, transmission, windshield, power steering, and brake.  He makes sure all the safety features are working like the windshield wipers, since they are used everyday here, and all lights, turn signals, etc.  He also checks for cleanliness which is a major issue  trying to keep a car clean with the rain, mud, and sand that is constantly tracked into the interior of the car as the Elders get in and out often all day long.


We have learned much about our terrific Elders,who work hard each day to serve the Lord and teach the gospel, as we go from one apartment to the next.  Each companionship is unique and special.

Which tie shall I choose today???  The Elders never seem to be in short supply of ties.  Family and friends send them, and they trade with other Elders, and are the recipient of many more when they have a companion who is transferred or goes home.








Do you think there might be room for one more picture??  All these pictures seem to help keep them focused on the reason they are here.

Some Elders have a parking lot view from their apartment or maybe a view of local banana trees, but then there are those who can do their daily studying on a lovely wide balcony overlooking the harbor. A marvelous  way to start out each day!

GPS TRACKING

Our handy dandy GPS Tracker

Going up to Morsal

Starting in October of last year we were given a GPS tracking device to locate members using North and East coordinates.  Our assignment was to get a copy of the members living in each of the two different branches, find their home, and record coordinates for their location.  It has taken us about 3 months to complete this for all of the members who live here on Kosrae.  No one has an address here such as a house number or even a street name.  There are 4 main municipalities on the island and numberous smaller areas associated with each municipality.  Each smaller cluster of homes has its own name.  The people living here on the island know all of these smaller groups and their names, but for us it took a lot more figuring out. 

We took a member of each of the different branches with us as we went out searching for homes.  Without them I don't think we would have found everyone.  Some of them lived off the main road and back in against the mountain.  I didn't even know some of these roads existed.  We traveled down some very small narrow roadways covered with lots of green over growth and when we went after rainy days it was even more muddy than usual.  A nice 4 wheel drive vehicle would have been better than our Yaris that scraped bottom more than once.

Elder Wright recording the location of our house.

We found many wonderful people as we have been doing this and everyone that we met was very friendly as are most of the people living on this island.  We tracked all members; those who are very active and those who are less active.  This was our first time meeting many of them. 
Elder Wright liked driving the car and taking pictures so there are not as many pictures of him doing this, but he was very involved also.  He talked to the members as I recorded the readings.

Now that we are finished, this information will be given to our Mission President.  This will be helpful as they plan for building locations and even smaller groups that can meet together more often.  With transportation being one of the major challenges on the island this will allow them to start some smaller Church groups where there are a concentration of members living.