Friends and Family,
It has been so long since we last
blogged. Life never slows down in the
mission field. I have been wanting to
blog for weeks now, but did not make the time to do so. Teaching seminary at
PIC’s this year is so different. We
teach 3 hours now (3 different lunch periods) each school day. We love our youth and are so eternally
grateful for this opportunity that has been ours to share the teachings of
Jesus Christ with them. We continue to
have 4-6 non-members attending each day.
However, they are not the same six each day, but I guess we are planting
seeds.
We are still busy preparing local
youth to serve missions. What excitement
these youth have just thinking about serving a mission. They absolutely love the gospel and have made
major changes in their lives to live as the Savior has taught. It is indeed a blessing to be able to be an
instrument in the Lord’s hands in preparing them for the sacred call of full-time missionary service.
We continue to have fun youth activities. We had almost 150 at our Halloween
Party. The youth had so much fun doing
the most simple games. They had never
thrown darts at balloons and they loved it.
They played pin the nose on the Boo (ghost) blindfolded and laughed and
laughed. Pictures, face painting, stomp
your neighbors balloon, minute to win it games, favorite Book of Mormon story
sidewalk chalk drawing, finding the gummy worms in the cool whip, snatch the
doughnut from the string etc. It was
just such a fun activity. I hope you
enjoy the pictures.
We love the young missionaries we
serve with so much. They are like our
own kids. Some walk in the door without
knocking and go to the cupboards. I know
they won’t do this to the new couple, but they have needed a touch of a Nono and
Papa! We have included some pictures of zone
activities and some dinners we have shared with the companionships around
Kolonia.
Bishop Nicerio (our S&I boss)
came to Island the first of the month.
He is always so loved here by our teachers. We have seen such growth on the island with
our teachers. Their ability to teach by
the spirit is amazing. We love being
students in their classrooms. The youth
here are in good hands!!
We will always be eternally
grateful for our dream coming true of serving a mission. Our mission on this Island has
been incredible. The workings of the
Spirit, on a mission are immediate and constant. We have experience too many miracles with the
workings of the Spirit to even count. I’ll
send you a sentence I wrote to our granddaughter, Monica, currently serving her
mission in Orlando Florida. Quote. “Oh, how I have loved our mission.
Teaching, loving, learning, feeling the Spirit every single day, miracles by the
dozens, sadness, irritation, colds, flu, exhaustion, aches & pains and
loving every single day!! I think that sums it up for Grandma!” Unquote. That
seems to be a good description in my eyes.
We love these people with all our hearts and we will leave a part of
our hearts with them. I am so grateful
for the Savior’s Atonement in my behalf.
I am so grateful to be living in this final dispensation of time, when
the Gospel has been restored in its fullness to all of God’s children on
earth. Restored especially to those
children on the Isles of the Sea.
We will miss the night skies, the
beautiful sunrises and sunsets. We will
miss the sudden rainstorms that cool the air in only a few minutes. But most of all we will miss these beautiful
people. We love them with all of our
hearts. We will leave part of our heart
here and take a little piece of their hearts home with us. “God be with you till we meet again.”
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Sister Mataitonga and our new Sister Welch |
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Jeanette Raymond's Nono & Papa with President and Sister Kalio |
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Jersen Elies leaves for his mission in Australia |
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Jersen and his Bishop |
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Treats for Halloween |
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Sister Havea in charge of Photo Booth |
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Sapwalap Teachers |
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Explanation Time |
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Fun in the Photo Booth |
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Fun in the Photo Booth |
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Yikes! They are a scarey group |
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Having fun Pinning the Nose on the Boo! |
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Face Painting |
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So much Fun!! |
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Roxen teacher in Wena!! |
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Don't you dare pop my balloon |
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Chalk drawings: Favorite Book of Mormon Story |
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Help your companion find the worms |
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Our crew of helpers |
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Keep your Ghost on your spoon |
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I've got this!! |
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Lalisa's Baptism |
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Steven baptizing his daughter |
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Breakfast anyone |
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Pohnpein Youth learning to make wheat bread |
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Combined Zone Character Building |
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Pull Elder Chandler and Elder T |
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Unity on the Island |
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Learning to stay away from the enemy |
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Our beautiful Sister Missionaries on P-Day hike |
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Our 1st grandchild to serve a mission in Orlando Florida |
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In-service Bishop Nicerio |
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S&I priorities |
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A few of our grandchildren on Halloween |
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In-service set up |
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So that's why they all come to In-service meetings |
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Sister Trainers invading In-service before leaving for Guam for training |
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Another great baptism on the Island |
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Happy Anniversary! With Sisters Ioane and Sister Finau |
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Happy Anniversary! With Sisters Mataitonga & Sister Havae |
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Happy Anniversary! With Sister Komra and Sister Kosam |
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Happy Anniversary! With Sister Orrock and Sister Pahulu |
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Peter and Elder Chandler (Best Friends) |
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Carleen and Sister Chandler (Family away from home) |
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They love feeding us! |
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Jerry Jim opening his mission call |
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Happy Birthday to ME!! What a sweet surprise |
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Another fun transfer dinner |
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Anginette going to the Philippines on her mission |
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Saying good-bye to Elder Hansen (Sisters) |
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Saying goodbye (Elders) |
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Good-bye to Elder Lyman and Elder Hansen |
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Andrus opening his mission call |
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J-Marr opening his mission call |
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Megan and Irene returning home from their missions in Fiji |
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Sister Orrock leaving for Guam |
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We miss you Sister Orrock! |