Changing of the Guard and Baptisms

We have had a change in the Branch leadership here on Kosrae.  A couple of weeks ago both of the branch presidents were released and new ones called.  Each of these men had served about 9 years as a Branch President.  These were good men and they have worked long and hard.  This is a difficult position as there are many challenges facing them in the islands, like few active priesthood holders, no phones to get easy communication with members, and lack of transportation(not many have cars).

Two new men, Sasaki George and Ben Alokoa were called as the Branch Presidents.  These men were serving as counselors in to previous presidencies.  President George has been a member less than two years and is well liked and respected by the members of his branch.  President Alokoa is a very humble and well like person also.  Both of these men hold down full-time jobs, one as an attorney and the other as a landscaper and groundskeeper for one of the resorts on the island.  We look forward to working with both of them.

Our first baptisms for this year!  It has been quite some time since we have had any baptisms here. On August 5th  we had two convert baptisms and 3 child of record baptisms.  It was a great day for the members on Kosrae.  We thought that the baptism was going to held in the ocean but we ran out of daylight hours because of the starting time.  The church has a baptismal font in the building which is very lovely.  It had been filled with water from the city, but it came in somewhat dirty and we weren't sure if we wanted to use it.  The baptism went off as scheduled and we used the font anyway and it turned out wonderful.  This will add two new members to the Lelu Branch and three new members to the Utwe Branch.  It is great to see the kingdom grow. 

Senior Couple Conference

Bishop and Sister Nicerio

It has been 6 months since our last couple's conference.  This conference was under the direction of our Seminary and Institute Coordinator for the Micronesia Guam Mission, Freddie Nicerio.  Each day was planned with presentations and instructions.  Since we just got a new mission president the end of June each of the different senior couples gave a presentation on their island, which told about the culture and traditions, the Church, missionary work, seminary and institute programs.  This was so interesting to all of us to learn about the culture of the different islands of Micronesia.  Many of them have the same challenges, but the culture and traditions are all a little different.   Each day we went to a different restaurant for lunch., Tony Roma's, a great Mexican eatery, and Joinus Tepanyaki.    We enjoyed the association with everyone, but also enjoyed eating some food we don't get the opportunity to eat on our islands. I think we all ate more than usual.  We had a great time playing games and laughing at the mission home on Monday for family home evening.  Eating homemade ice cream was an additional pleasure enjoyed by all.  We received so much good information on how to administer the seminary and institute program.  We also heard from President Mecham and his wife.  We are looking forward to serving with them.  They are from Salt Lake City and come with so much enthusiasm and excitement for missionary work.  We are so grateful for this chance to work together serving the Lord and helping to strengthen the members here in Micronesia.  Many more couples are needed throughout the world doing the same or different things.  President Monson has urged all of the senior members to seriously consider serving a mission and we hope that all of our friends will join us in this missionary effort because it is such an awesome experience.

This is all of us serving here in the Micronesia Guam Mission.  There are 9 couples and 1 sister who is our nurse, plus our S&I coordinator and minus our new mission president.

President and Sister Mecham

On the last day of our conference we went to visit some of the historical sites around Guam.  There are many great things to see including the World War II sites and ancient ruins.

These are called Latte Stones.  They were used by the native Chomorros as a pedestal type of foundation to their houses.  They used anywhere from 4 - 8 latte stones depending on how big their house was.

This tower was built after the manner of the Latte Stones and is at the Freedom complex.  We went up inside there and were able to look out over the shoreline of Guam.  It was a breathtaking view.










Here we are outside by one of the many            cannons found on the island.

Cannons, cannons, cannons.

  Next conference we hope to be able to see more of Guam and other sites of interest.  Guam has 180,000 people living there with two major U.S. military bases.  Much larger than our 6,000 population on Kosrae.  We have gotten used to driving around 25 miles per hour and everyone on Guam seems to be speeding.  Elder Wright was our designated driver and we had a fun time finding our way around.  Many laughs were had from the two other couples driving in the van with us.

It's Hard to Say Goodbye

On Monday, June 13, 2011 we had our last zone conference with our mission president.  He has served for three years and will be returning home at the end of the month.  He came with his wife for our final zone conference with him.  It was rather emotional to realize this would be the last tine we would see them.  For us, getting to know him has been short, but oh so rewarding.  For the Elders it was so very hard and one of our Elders here was his assistant for 6 months.  We received excellent counsel and training during this final conference.  President Dowdle instructed us on a concept called the "Fourth Missionary" that was put together from a member of the Quorum of the Seventy.  It is based on the highest level of love of the Savior and service that one can give and to continue living your life doing the things that you have learned as a missionary.  Your testimonies will be strengthened and shared with others and you will find yourself consecrating your life to the Lord.  Because no one goes home from serving on a mission as the same person they were when they left, it should define us for the rest of our lives.

To go along with that we watched a talk given at the MTC by Elder Jeffery L. Holland which was so phenomenal.   It centered around how Preach My Gospel was brought about and how important it is for the missionary to be totally converted on a knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. I just wish that all of you could listen to this talk somehow since it was one of his most emotional and inspirational talks that we have ever heard.

 With the way that air travel is to the islands the President and his wife flew in on Monday afternoon and left Tuesday at noon.  Because of the time constraints we had to have zone conference first and then afterwards the District planned a program and food to honor President and Sister Dowdle.  With everything that needed to be done before hand the program did not get  going until 9:00 pm.  Both branches presented two different musical numbers and then both President and Sister Dowdle gave farewell remarks.  By the time we finished all of the program we did not start the dinner portion until almost 10:00 p.m.  Things run a little different out here on this island than how we are used to doing them at home.  It was a great farewell and the members have been blessed because of the leadership he has given to them.  How everyone will miss them!!

     All lined up to say goodbye

     The members sang a goodbye song in their native language that was so beautiful and touching.

A fond airport farewell!

S & I Closing Social

To end the school year we celebrated with a fun closing social.  We had planned on having a BBQ but due to the lack of meat on the island we had to fore go the BBQ and go to plan B.  We decided to have a pot luck instead for our plan B.  However, three of our teachers did not show up and I thought we would be limited on food, but it all turned out fine.  I ended up making a couple of pots of spaghetti and a large green salad (actually it was Chinese cabbage with some cucumbers).  There was plenty of rice and some hot dogs along with a few other local island dishes.  There was plenty of ice cream, donuts, and local banana pie, not at all like the banana pie we have at home, but very good. 

After eating everyone enjoyed playing volleyball, basketball, ping pong, and Uno.  We invited the Elders to come and eat with us and they were able to stay and enjoy some exciting volleyball games with the youth.  One of the sets of Elders are teaching a family whose daughter wants to join our seminary for next year.  We are excited about that and hope that we can get many others who would like to learn from next years curriculum of the Old Testament.  The pictures represent some of those in attendance participating in the games and activities.

Joab Mongkeya and Paul Nena, two of our seminary teachers for this year. 

Seminary and Institute Concludes

As the school year ends, we bring a close to the seminary and institute program for this year.  It has been a great year studying the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History.  We have held scripture mastery classes each week with the students trying to help them with their memorization of the 25 mastery scriptures for the year.  We have been able to learn most of the scriptures along with them, but they are great and memorize so much faster than us and we have only had half the year to do it in.  More than 2/3 of the students memorized all 25 scriptures and were presented with a certificate at our graduation program on Sunday, May 29th at the Lelu Chapel. We had 4 students who also had 100% attendance for the year. The graduation was presided over by President Jonathan, the Kosrae District President and both Branch Presidents were in attendance to congratulate the students when they received their awards.  We had one student graduate from the institute program.  

Pres. Mongkeya (Lelu), Pres. Hadley (Utwe), Pres. Jonathan (District Pres.)

 We had a good turn out for this graduation with many attending who didn't have someone in their family graduating or getting any certificates, but just came to be supportive of the program.  Following the program we had some great refreshments.  Ice cream is a big hit with everyone here and so we had a line-up of people waiting to get their ice cream cones and a donut.  

Many people brought their entire family and here are just a few of the young ones enjoying an ice cream cone on the steps of the Church.











Even some of the seminary students sat outside enjoying their ice cream cones.

Member Activities

During the last few weeks we have had a number of activities at both of the branches here on the island. The members enjoy getting together and when they have any type of an activity it usually lasts for 2 - 3 hours.  The primary and relief society had a combined activity one Saturday.  Many of the kids came and helped to clean up the church grounds before they started their activity.  So including the activity time, many spend 4 plus hours at the church.  They did an outdoor barbecue and the kids sort of just entertained themselves.  There is a small circular path around the back of the church yard and they used that for many running activities.  The sisters set up under this huge tree all of the things to BBQ.  I am impressed at how the children did not need to be directed on things to do.  The Primary President told me that they are good and don't need to be programmed.  No one complained of being bored, or tired, or hungry.   When the food was ready they all went inside the tiki hut and waited very patiently until they were served, which was after all of the adults.  Do you think the kids at home would act this way?  There was so much food that we had enough for 2 or 3 meals.  Not much was wasted.

                           








   Some of the Primary children who came to the activity day at the branch.




On another weekend there was a youth activity for all the seminary and institute age kids.  We started out in the cultural hall and had a program with some short talks, they asked me to talk about group dating, and a member performed songs on his guitar.  Later we had ice cream cones and the youth played ping pong and volleyball, which are two of the things they love to do most.

 The branch president had this table made so that the youth would have one at the church to use for their activities.


Ice cream is a favorite here on this island.  You can buy ice cream cones at a variety of small stands along the roadside.  The going price is usually 55- 65 cents for a double scoop.  When they run out of ice cream everyone is sad until the next boat comes in with some on it.

I am still teaching keyboard every Tuesday and our numbers have grown.  Although, not everyone comes every time.  They are very good and are able to play by ear.  I am trying to teach them the notes and how to read music so that they can pick out different hymns.  After lessons then they just play songs that they know by heart.  Each person has their own keyboard which was donated by the Church about two years ago when the couple before us were here.  They are so much better than me at being able to figure things out by themselves even though they don't use the correct fingering I am trying  to teach them to do.  It works! 

Making tote bags out of plastic grocery bags has been an activity that we have been doing on Fridays.  When Sister Christofferson was here with her husband, Elder Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve, visiting the mission, she brought the directions on how to do this. So our mission president's wife has given it to all the senior sisters and asked them to get the islanders to make them.  We have had fun doing this.  All of them already know how to crochet and I just had to make sure that they could understand the directions in English.  We took some pictures and
sent them back to Guam to send on to Sister Christofferson showing how we took her idea and had some fun.  It is a little harder to crochet with plastic than it is to use yarn or crochet thread.

 People on this island feel very comfortable sitting or lying on the floor.  Most of the homes have tile or wood floors with no furniture so they are used to sitting on the floor.  This sister said she could crochet better this way while she listened to my church music.  Children are just put to sleep on the floors at the meeting house and they stay that way until time to go.  Do you think this would go over at home??  

Awesome Sites and Friends

We had the privilege of sharing our island with Elder and Sister Peterson, senior couple missionaries, who are doing records preservation for the Family Search division of the Church.  They came here to meet with government officials hoping to gain permission to come and record death, birth, and marriage records.  When we were not involved with our seminary or institute programs and they were not meeting with their contacts, we decided to find some of the different things on the island that we had not see yet.  It is always more fun to do things with someone else.   We found a good friendship with them in January when we attended the senior couples conference.

Not far from our house is a cave that we never knew existed.  It is called the "Wiya Bird Cave." It is a natural cave, home to thousands of resident island swiftlet birds. It was once believed to be the home of a family of real giants, the cave was an entrance to a tunnel that connects it to the other side of the island   The mouth of the cave has a large opening that goes back 60 feet.  Some of the locals go in and collect the droppings to use as a type of fertilizer.   It is against the mountain right off the main road and if you didn't know it was there you would not see it because of all the foliage growing around it and covering it from view.

We then went to visit the Kosrae State History Museum.  It was small, but filled with artifacts from the Lelu ruins which are displayed along with other exhibits on Kosrae's history and culture.  We learned that they have been ruled by many other countries starting with France and ending with Japan during WWII.  At the end of the war the United States took over the islands and removed all of the Japanese soldiers from the island.   Kosrae now is a part of the Federated States of Micronesia and the US has a type of of pact to offer support until around the year 2022.

 

We heard of this great waterfall that was in the southern part of the island so we decided to go and check it out. We had to take this dirt road that went up the mountain in order to get there.  The road was rather rough with lots of chuck holes in it.  It took us quite some time to get there as we could not travel very fast on the road.  We had a great view of the ocean as we traveled up the mountain.  We began to wonder if we would ever reach the falls. It was worth the time as this is a 30 foot sheer waterfall with a small bathing pool at the bottom.  The pool and waterfall were surrounded by thick vegetation as we were in the rainforest area of the island.  We had to cross a wooden bridge and then had an easy 5 minute walk up a shallow creek bed.




   

The next place that we went was to the Lelu Ruins.  This historical site dates back to the 15th century and is considered to be one of the most impressive wonders of the entire Pacific.  Basalt ruins of large walls, channels, streets, tombs, and living areas can be explored amidst the jungle.  This site is extremely important archaeologically in the Pacific region and represents the pinnacle of development in old Kosrae.  The Lelu Ruins, located on Lelu Island, was the capital of Kosrae and the ruling city where the Kings and High Chiefs lived.  We had to be very careful as the rocks were slippery from the moisture and moss covering them.  There were sign posts along the path giving the history of what we were seeing.  We left the ruins just in time as a torrential downpour came as we were entering one of the stores close by.  We enjoyed our time visiting these places and learning more about the culture and beauty of Kosrae.