The alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m.. Is it really that time? It seems
we just closed our eyes. We lay there for 10 minutes trying to respond
to the call of a new day. Finally, we muster our bodies into the
kneeling position and give Heavenly Father thanks for this mission, then
petition His help in this very important work of teaching and
testifying of Jesus Christ to His children on the island of Pohnpei, asking for a special blessing to be with our families while we are serving our mission. We
climb into our workout clothes and warm up for our cross-fit workout of
the day. One such workout is 25 Burpees, 50 pushups, 75 air squats, and 100
jumping jacks. It is one of our least favorite, but we only get the
opportunity once a month to do it. Just think only 15 more times to do
that workout!! Then we cool off with a 2 1/2 mile walk to the airport with a run up Kasalahie hill just before we get back to the apartment. Elder Chandler calls it Beneficial hill. Beneficial is who we have our life insurance with and he is sure I am trying to collect on his. Now our day can really begin. Shower, eat breakfast, do laundry, clean a little, put finishing touches on our Seminary lesson, and leave to go to the High School. We have around 25-30 who come each day. We love these kids with all of our hearts! We teach during their lunch hour from 11:20 to 12:20. Teaching youth the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a wonderful experience. We feel so blessed to be here. We stop at the grocery store (actually you have to stop at several to find only a couple of things) on our way home, for a few things to restock the refrigerator. After lunch we start getting our lesson ready for the next day. Around 4:00 we start around the island to visit the Home-Study seminaries that are meeting that day. We arrive back home from 7:30 to 9:30 depending on which Branch we go to. Friday's are our biggest days not getting back home until 9:30ish. Most weeks we have the blessing of teaching with the Elders or Sisters 4 nights a week. We LOVE teaching with them. We can not even express how much we enjoy our time with these missionaries. Baptisms are usually on Saturdays, but some weeks they occur at different days, times, and at different spots on the island. We have had baptisms in the ocean, the rivers, and at the churchs. It is so rewarding to watch our Brothers and Sisters enter the waters of Baptism and covenant with Heavenly Father and their Savior. Sunday's all meetings on the island start at 9:00. It takes two months to get to each Branch. Because we have two seminaries that meet on Sunday we do not get back home until around 6:30. We have activities, inservice meetings, and firesides intermingled with the week. Needless to say we do not have trouble falling asleep at nights. We are loving these people with all of our hearts. We are trying to learn their language to communicate with them better. It is coming so slowly. We just do not have enough time to focus on language. Next week we are asking one of our Seminary Teachers to teach us 3 times a week for an hour or so. We just have to make time to learn! This mission is an amazing experience for us. Hard work and yet so rewarding. Thank you, Heavenly Father for the call to testify of our Savior Jesus Christ, Your plan for us here on earth, of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. We love our work.
