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.

The Fruits of Teaching and Preaching



Behold These Little Ones

As this year comes to a close and a new one is about to begin, I would like to share some year end treasures for diligence and faithfulness on the part of both missionaries and members.  Both of our Branches put on a very fine Primary Sacrament meeting presentation.   The children worked hard on their parts and learning the songs they would sing. Our two Primary Presidents did an outstanding job on writing the program and coordinating the music.  I am sorry that I did not take the camera to church on the day of Utwe's program.  The children were all dressed in white and said their parts both in Kosraen and English.  Since there is no choir loft in that Branch, they used the first two rows of seats and would stand up and turn and face the congregation when they sang and came to the podium to say their parts.  My part was helping them to learn the songs during primary time and they did all the rest.  Not one child forgot their part.  In the Lelu Branch the children did an outstanding job.  I also helped with learning the songs during regular primary time, but they wanted me to conduct them during the program which I was happy to do.  There were about 32 children in the Lelu Branch and 24 children in the Utwe Branch.  It certainly brought tears to your eyes as the Spirit was strong.

The Utwe Branch is now seeing the fruits of keyboard instruction.  Sepe Charley is here practicing for the upcoming Sunday services.  She has been coming to keyboarding classes on Tuesday mornings, and along with her natural ability to play by ear and consistent practicing of reading music she is now able to play on Sundays.  Each week she will accompany at least two different songs.  When she can come early, then she will also do prelude music.  She is so excited about doing this.

What better way to celebrate Christmas than to have people come unto Christ and be baptized.  On Christmas Eve we had three convert baptisms due to the diligent teaching and preaching of the Elders here on Kosrae.  We also had one special child of the George family baptized who had just turned eight recently.  Burney Nena, Sepe Permudes, and Tadao Nena were taught by the Elders and Kimchee James was baptized by Elder Madsen.

Burney was taught by Elders Rufus and Madsen


Sepe and Tadao were taught by Elders Conejero and Coffey

James and his family



Parties and More Parties

The children who came were put to work helping with the cleanup.

December has been a month for parties for both Branches and the District.  The members really know how to have a good time with eating and programs. We started the month with a Relief Society and Young Women combined activity at the Utwe Branch.  They planned on doing a deep clean of the building and church yard along with a BBQ.  Of course, we had to wait for more than an hour for someone to come with the BBQ equipment.  When the wood was chopped and the fire built then the food could be cooked.  It had been raining so much that it took a while to get everything to burn for the fire.

 When you do not have any tongs to use for cooking the chicken, you use a machete to get a branch from the tree and use it as your turner.

The next  weekend the Priesthood men had an activity where they built a covering to be used for protection from the rain whenever they would do their BBQ's.  The Branch President and his sons along with Elder Wright and four of the young missionaries, Elders Coffey, Conejero, Agalzoff and Andrew came to help with this project.  A little bit of a disappointment that others could not come but they got some things accomplished and had a meeting.  They saved the food that they planned on cooking to use for the next weeks Christmas Party. Instead they did some physical exercises and went ahead with the program they had planned.  It was successful for those that came.

 Lelu Branch had their Christmas Party on December 23rd.  There was a good program planned and lots and lots of food.  It  started about 3 hours later than they told everyone but we are getting used to that now.  We had a good program and then ate outside. It had been raining so much lately and this day was no exception.  Canopies were brought in to put the tables with the food on dry.  About the time we were to start eating we had quite the downpour.
They took the left over food to those members who were unable to come.

You need a good strong fire to use in cooking your rice.

A great Christmas party was held at the Utwe Branch.  They had a tremendous turnout of about 150 people.  This party started arround 10:30 a.m. gathering together and bringing food to be cooked.   Most of the food preparation was done outside at the Church; cleaning fish, grilling chicken, ribs, and hot dogs, making their famous Kosraen soup and cooking the rice (3 large pots full). There was a program later in the afternoon with songs, stories, speakers, and even Santa Claus bring treats to the kids.  We had such a fun time and it was 8:00 p.m. before we left for home.  It was an all day party to remember!!

Here are some of the men grilling the chicken and ribs underneath the newly constructed canopy.

Sister Hadley is preparing the fish for use in the soup and also for making sashimi.  I learned a lot about cleaning and removing the scales from fish.  The soup is made by cooking a whole fish in boiling water and then when it is cooked removing it from the pot and taking all the bones out and returning the fish in small bite size pieces to the soup pot.  Rice is also added along with salt and pepper.

The last ingredient to go into this soup is coconut cream (or milk).  The bowl is full of freshly shredded coconut and she is putting some in a cloth and squeezing it to make the cream.  When it has all been turned into cream then it will be added to the soup.  This is a very YUMMY soup. 

A District Party is planned to celebrate this holiday season on Friday and then a New Year's Eve party will be on Saturday to round out the month.  It has been a month full of fun activities with the members here on Kosrae.

Institute Fun and Games

We had a great activity with the students in our Lelu Institute class.  The night was actually planned for the showing of the latest CES Fireside for young adults, but due to some delays in getting the DVD ready to be sent out to our island, we had to come up with an alternative plan.  Most of the activities that we have done so far usually include the seminary class also.  It was pure fun to do something that only involved the institute age youth along with a couple of older members who joined with us. We started the evening off by showing the DVD  of "Joy to the World."  With Christmas just around the corner this was a perfect DVD to watch.

 When we finished watching this we taught them how to play a game that we called the "M&M game."  This is a very active dice game where everyone takes turns rolling two dice and when you get a double you try to suck up m&ms from a larger bowl using a straw and putting them in your own personal container.  All this is done while the dice is rolled by the other players and if anyone gets a double then whoever is in the process of sucking up m&ms has to stop and give the bowl to the person that just rolled doubles.  The play continues until all the m&ms from the large bowl are gone.

The faster the dice are rolled the quicker doubles are found and everyone tries to prevent any one player from getting too many m&ms.  They got laughing so hard that they could not suck up the m&ms at one point in the game.  When we exhausted this game we then played another dice game.

This time is was "Farkle".  No one had played this before so we had to teach them and they really enjoyed playing it also.  It was not quite as rowdy a game as the other one.  I think everyone had a great time.  We ended up eating cinnamon rolls when we were finished.  What a great way to end this first semester of Institute!