Upon the isles of the sea: Chuuk and Kosrae

We arrived in Chuuk on Wednesday, the first stop in a two week, three island trip to the Eastern Carolines.  On Thursday Grant traveled with Elder and Sister Hardy out to the island of Pata where the Hardies, with the help of Elders Paulis and Hakao, presented an Easter program to some of the members there.

   Grant also followed up with some of the members on Pata and helped others start their family history.

I spent the day with Elder and Sister Eliason who are serving a medical mission to Chuuk.  We drove out to the village of Sapuk to visit some ailing members there.

They were kind enough to share fresh coconuts with us.  From Sapuk we drove back to Moen where the Eliasons gave me a tour of the hospital.  Pretty scary.

We enjoyed dinner at the Truk Stop with both the Hardies (at the back) and the Eliasons (in the front) on Wednesday and Thursday evening.  After dinner we had a good meeting with President Wainis. On Friday we flew to Kosrae and spotted this lone poster in the baggage claim.  Texas seems like a galaxy away.

Our quarters on Kosrae are the senior couple's house, currently vacant, situated right on the beach. We also have use of the senior couple's car.

                      You can see the large tanks used to collect rain water to the left of the house.

Here is the view from the back of the house.  We enjoy walking along the beach and exploring the reef when the tide is out.

Many people farm and have gardens on Kosrae and local fruits and vegetables are abundant.  Here Sister Hadley and AJ stand in front of her beautiful garden which includes tapioca, papaya and sugarcane.  The poles she had cut and tied the sugarcane to were even sprouting leaves!

On Sunday morning we enjoyed meeting with the members of the Lelu Branch.  Permides Mongkeya, the branch family history consultant,  greeted us as the truck pulled away headed for Utwe.

Brother Paul Nena enjoyed seeing the Book of Mormon online in Kosraen.  We are told that the hard copy is currently at the press and may be ready by July.

We drove from Lelu down to the Utwe Branch where we caught the end of Sacrament meeting.  We stayed for the remaining two meetings.  I enjoyed attending Relief Society with these lovely sisters and their children.

After the block of meetings some of us went to visit a sick member at her home.  We sat with her for over a hour singing LDS and protestant hymns.  The Kosraens are beautiful part singers, a legacy of their early and continuous exposure to New England Protestantism.  We will be here on Kosrae until next Saturday when we go on to Pohnpei.