Whenever There Are Rainbows

The skies in Pohnpei are beautiful, beyond description.  The clouds are of various formations, some of which I do not think I have ever noticed before in America.  They are thick and full.  Some look like a volcano, many like rolls and rolls of cotton, thick and majestic.   The moon and stars, especially Venus, are such that you feel you can reach up and touch them.  They appear so close to us.  On occasion there are rainbows that surpass the beauty of any rainbow I have ever seen.  How could our Creator have been any more loving to us than He was when He created this beautiful world in which we live?

Missionary work in the Kingdom of our Father is much like the beautiful and majestic skies we see.  So full and rich, so close we can reach out and touch a bit of Heaven.  Yet, there are days of billowing clouds of opposition from the Adversary that are keenly felt by the workers in God’s army.  A war rages in the hearts of men and women.  A war between good and evil, with Heavenly Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost leading the righteous; with Satan and his many minions fighting on the side of evil and wickedness.  We fight in this battle every day on this island saving souls from the dark side.  What a courageous battle it is!  Discouragement is not an option!  The Lord will give us in the very hour we are in need, what to say! It is a promise. 

We have been most grateful on our mission for the continuous workings of the spirit in discussions and in class teaching the youth.  There are times we leave our discussions or lessons we have taught, knowing we were not the teachers.  The Lord was the spokesman as He filled our minds and hearts in what to say.  We were only instruments in His hands.  What a blessing in our lives!  And we pause to give thanks.  

How blessed we are to be on this mission, feeling so frequently the closeness of the Savior to us.  We continue to stand in awe of the Sisters and Elders serving full time missions here. This island is a tough mission and these young adults are steadfast and immoveable in their work for their Savior.   How grateful we are to be associated with them. 

Normal Day of Missionary Life

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.

Wish You Were here!

What another amazing three weeks.  Sorry it has taken so long to update the blog.  We are busier than we ever imagined.  We teach with the Elders and Sisters about 4 nights a week.  Last month we had 40 baptisms on the island.  Among those baptized were Karleen and Soukaru.  Elder Chandler baptized Karleen in Pohnpein language.  A first for him.  He did great.  One Sunday we were invited to their wedding and the next Saturday they were baptized.  They have a wonderful family and we were so blessed to be a part of teaching them each week.  Nixon is the other baptism we posted.  He has been taught off and on for 23 years.  Something always seemed to keep him from taking the final step.  He would get depressed and would be having a hard time, when his wife would say, "Nixon, you need to pray!"  So he did and without fail every time he prayed the next day the Elders showed up at his door.  It was such an exciting day on the island when Nixon and his wife were baptized.  She waited to be baptized many years wanting them to go together.  When he was baptized she clapped her hands and squealed.  It was so wonderful to watch.  He opened his daughters mission call for her a month ago.  We thought then he was close.  We loved teaching with the Elders this family!  Their daughter, Ivonlia, is the most amazing member missionary on the island.  She is the President of our Seminary class at the PIC's High School.  One week a little 10 year old boy was baptized and then afterward he gave his testimony.  His little chin quivered and tears began to roll down his checks and he taught us about Jesus Christ, the prophet Joseph Smith and what it meant for him to be a member. 
We started teaching seminary at PIC's high school during their lunch hour.  We have about 30 come each day.  It is a great experience with wonderful youth!  The spirit is strong and testimonies are growing.  Fast Sunday Sister Chandler gave her testimony in Pohnpein for the first time.  The members of the Sekere Branch were very happy to think she would be learning the language for them.  We love our mission, the people on this island, and our wonderful Sisters and Elders.  Please know of our love for all of you. 

What an Adventure!

As the sun sets, 12 baptisms on the island!!

Wedding Day for Karleen and Soukaru

President Agrippa marries the happy couple!

Pohnpein reception line!

Happy Day

Nixon and Wife.  She waited 23 years!!

The happy Aldon family

Many Elders had taught Nixon

W

What an amazing couple of weeks on the island of Pohnpei.  We have had the blessing of going to all the branches to introduce the Book of Mormon as our study this year.  We have played games, sang songs, and talked about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon, another witness to our Beloved Savior, that He lives and loves us.  Over half the verses in the Book of Mormon testifying of Jesus Christ!  We feel it such a blessing to be on the island during the year we are teaching from the Book of Mormon.  The youth are so amazing and so fun to be with.  We have loved training our home-study teachers in all eight branches.  They are wonderful women in the gospel, dedicated to helping the youth to know and love their Savior.  We were ask to do youth conference in Sapwalap with the theme, "Hold to the Rod".  It was a great morning, even with the power out.  The youth loved the colorful blindfolds we used to blindfold them as they held to the rod and went through life trying to say no to the Tempters. They learned the rod was the scriptures and the tree of life was Love of God and Eternal Life.  They learned from reading scriptures the promises given by God to those who read and study His word. The blindfolds afterwards were sweat bands, head bands, arm bands, leg bands and about everything else.   After youth conference their were six or seven baptisms.  One older couple who have been investigators for many months.  They wanted to be sure this is what Heavenly Father wanted them to do.  What an exciting day for them to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized.  We did splits with the Sisters and Elders three times this week.  We love that time to be able to join in teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the island of Pohnpei.  The work is rolling forward with great success here.  Thank you for all your prayers for us.  The last picture on the post was Scotty and one of the rattlesnakes he killed the past couple of weekend overnight campouts with the boys.  We pray so fervently for our children's protection physically and spiritually.  Our prayers were certainly answered.  Thank you, Heavenly Father. 

Sapwalap's Youth Conference and Seminary Gatherings

Sapwalap's "Hold to the Rod" Youth Conference

Trying to get back to the "Tree of Life"

We lost five to the tempters

Kitti's Welcome to the Elder and Sister Chandler

Patrick and Friends at Kitti, so happy to see us!

Simply games they giggle and giggle!

I love this work!

A gift to "Hold to the Rod" the scriptures!

Prayed for protection for our family!!

Elder Chandler's 1st Baptism (Jilla George)