Jurassic Park, Traditional Crafts, Tallest Mountain Peak on Earth

 With the help of a vintage Japanese tank we were able to get the recently escaped tyrannosaurus rex under control.

 . . . just as another emerged from the depths of the jungle!

Our Kosrean, Yapese and Chuukese friends showing their stuff at a Relief Society activity.

Shirely from Satawal - far out island in State of Yap making a lei.

 

Jeanette enjoyed learning how to make a mwarmwar Angie from Faraulep Atoll, State of Yap of the Federated States of Micronesia. 

 

Sister Thomas received the prize - she and Elder Thomas are the newly arrived Military Relations Couple.

 

 

Saturday Jeanette hiked to the top of the tallest mountain on earth (if you begin measuring at its base from the bottom of the Marianas Trench) - Mount Lamlam.  Grant was home in bed with a bad cold.

 

They saw one of the infamous brown snakes which are more talked about than seen on Guam these days.

 

Hiked through pandanus forests . . . 

 

And arrived at the top of the tallest mountain on Earth without oxygen, Sherpas or even winter coats . . . 

 

The conqueror.

Stations of the cross marked part of the path . . . could be a metaphor here.

And wild orchids blazed in all their glory.

And the week ended with a successful family history consultant (over half of whom are youth) training at the Barrigada FHC.

Is it Fall yet?

On Thursday night we held the first monthly family history class in the Barrigada Family History Center.  Brother Richard Fee taught us how Ancestry.com and FamilySearch can work together.  Attendance was good and the presentation was great!

Friday I split the day between MARC and the FHC.  In the afternoon Berlyn, Anges and Angie came by to pick up coconuts trimmed by the grounds keepers.  They husked (you can see the contraption behind Berlyn and Agnes) and cut open two young coconuts for Grant and I to drink.  Great ladies!

We attended a rebroadcast of General Conference on Saturday down at the Talisay Ward and afterwards drove further south to Agat and Ga'an Beach.  There we met a ranger from the War in the Pacific National Park who explained the role of Chuuk in the "island hopping" American liberation of Micronesia in WWII.  He is from Lamotrek, an outer island of Yap State, and we had a good time talking about family history with him.  This is a Japanese pillbox that once held a large gun. 

To the left of the entrance, a Japanese soldier left a message some seventy years ag

Ga'an or "Second Beach" was one of two landing spots of the invading American forces in 1944.  The other was Asan Beach, further north up the coast.  We drove up there and checked out more caves and pill boxes built into Asan Ridge.  A huge breadfruit forest covers the foot of the ridge.  Unfortunately, the fruit was too high to reach or we would have taken some home for supper.. 

We followed a steep trail up to the top of the hill and walked along the ridge with Elder and Sister Guercio, the mission nurse and his wife. That is Asan Beach, once a rice paddy, behind & below us

That evening we Senior sisters got together at our apartment to work on Family History while the men went to the rebroadcast of General Priesthood Meeting.Clockwise from the left are Sister Martin (Office), Sister Guercio (Medical), Sister Reed (Self-Reliance--from Manassa, CO) and Sister Thomas (Military Relations).  More great ladies!