Our Penultimate Week in Kosrae

Its hard to believe that the Celebration is almost here.  Preparations are in full swing.  

Sisters Daniel, Lowary and Alokoa and others have been collecting shells on the beach and in the ocean to make beautiful necklaces.  They work while others practice the "skit."

Sisters Nena and Phillip are making more scariris from the bark of the wild hibiscus tree.

Elder and Sister Batty, from Lake City, Utah, arrived on Monday to serve as CES missionaries on Kosrae.  Sister Batty helped sew children's costumes for the skit.  Kellly Ann Lowary helped too.  

Brother Likaska Sigrah along with Elders Amato and Johnson help prepare props.

We had District Meeting at the senior couple's house on Thursday with the Battys.  They are great.

The children in Utwe Branch enjoyed the Book of Mormon Readers that Elder Hurst gave them.  

Our Relief Society lesson in Utwe was about family history.  The sisters were finding ancestors in the Kosrae Elak Sra Onak Book.

Sunday evening we had a Temple and Family History fireside at the Lelu Chapel.  

Permides Mongkeya explained how to use the My Family booklet.

Binton and Sepe Lowary and their extended family work on the their family history.

Likiaksa Tony Sigrah found his family in the Kosrae Elak Sra Onak book.

Moulton Monkeya and Mitichigo Tolenoa 

These young men from the Lelu Branch are enjoyed filling out the My Family booklet.

Mr. Paliknoa I. Sigrah, author if the Korae Elak Sra Onak Book.  

Thursday night Lelu Branch members assembled 500 hygiene kits to be donated to the Kosrae hospital as part of the Book of Mormon Celebration.

Elder Batty, Eric Mongkeya, Sister Batty, Benkin Daniel, Sarlynn Monkeya and Sister Alokoa along with other members of the Lelu Branch helped with the project.

Jay-ann Mongkeya,Leilyn Henry, Bradley, Permides Mondeya, Sepe Daniel, Mitichigo Tolenoa.

Serlyn Mongkeya, Sister Alokoa, Sister Batty, Molton Mongkeya, Jay-an Amngkeya and Sepe Daniel help assemble the kits.  Other donations to the hospital include 500 pairs of eye glasses.  The Church is also donating 50 soccer balls for the public schools. 

We look forward to a busy week as we work toward the Book of Mormon Celebration on July 25.

Friday morning we walked out early and met Justlina Lowary with her net.  She was out fishing.

Our Last Week in Guam

Its hard to believe that we have spent our last week in Guam!  We arrived July 4 for our annual CES Couple's Conference.  Its a miracle we made it as tropical storm Chan-Hom sifted slightly north that morning and gave us a chance to slip in before coming back down on Guam with a vengeance.  Our experiences with the weather out here in the Pacific have made me realize that we live in a fantasy world  most of the time, created by wealth and technology, where we think that we have control over our circumstances.  We were glad to make it, not only for the conference but also for a much needed root canal and the chance to wrap us our Family Search Support Office and pack and clean up our apartment.  It turned out to be an impossibly busy week.

Sunday we attended church in the Barrigada Ward for the last time.  We both bore our testimonies and said our good-byes to the delightful people we have come to know and love there.  I ended up spending the second two hours of the block in the Family History Center with Tami Burton helping members prepare names for an upcoming temple trip.  A record 30 are participating.  Grant spent the last two hours of the block with Elder and Sister Hardy working on the soundtrack for the Book of Mormon Pageant for Kosrae. 

 After church all the senior couples gathered at the mission home for FHE.  Because we have traveled so much with our family history assignment, we have gotten to know the couples in the islands and it was really fun to see them again.  They are all strong, adventuresome and hardworking folks.

Tuesday through Thursday were filled with stewardship reports, instruction and socializing.  Wednesday we all went to lunch at Pizza Hut.  These are the BEST people and we feel like we are in our own little Zion when we are gathered with them.  Standing at the end of  the table is Brother Freddie Nicerio, the CES director for Micronesia.  We were also instructed by Elder Tae Gul Jung of the Eighth Quorum of the Seventy and Asia North Area director of Seminaries and Institutes.  

I just have to name all these great folks!  Center:  Elder Jung and Brother Nicerio.  Behind them, left to right:  Elder and Sister Hardy (CES, Chuuk), Elder and Sister Hedgepeth (CES, Pohnpei), Elder and Sister Thomas (Military Relations, Anderson Air Force Base and Navy Base), Elder and Sister Brimhall (CES, Yap), Elder and Sister Guercio (Mission Nurse), Elder and Sister Reed (Self-Reliance, Chuuk), us, Elder and Sister Proffit (CES, Palau), Elder and Sister Martin (Mission Office), Elder (Dr.) and Sister Eliason (Medical, Chuuk), Elder and Sister Furstenau (MLS, Pohnpei), President and Sister Zarbock.  We really love and admire these magnificent people!

We were so busy with so many things that we were not able to attend all of the Conference. One of them was a meeting with Governor Eddie Baza Calvo.  On Wednesday morning we slipped away to meet with  Barrigada Stake Family History Center Director, Tami Burton, to present some family history to him.  He is an avid history buff and knows a lot about Guam and his family's history.  He was so excited and interesting to talk to I think we all came away wishing we had more time to just sit and share.

We met with the governor several months ago to try to start the process of digitizing Guam's vital records.  At that time he expressed interest in knowing more about his great great great grandfather's sister, Carmen Olivares Calvo, who married an American whaler and eventually ended up in Alameda, California in the 1870s.  We decided to follow this question and in our research ran across a distant relative (by marriage) who has been interested in Carmen's family for a while.  He had done some excellent research and was willing to share it with us to share with the governor.  We printed a very nice book from a PDF file he sent.  For our part, we entered and sourced all the information we could find about Carmen and her descendants in FamilySearch and then generated family group records with sources.  We printed this also and created a second book.  Here you can see the governor holding both volumes.

The digitizing project is still in the approval stages, but the governor is squarely behind it and has asked that it be a priority.  Hopefully it will happen soon!

Preparing for the Book of Mormon Celebration

Branch members are starting to prepare for the Book of Mormon Celebration scheduled for July 25.  

Sister Daniel and others are making scariris from hibiscus bark.  They strip it, bleach it, dry it and then pull it apart into thin strands that they tie onto a waistband to make a skirt to wear for traditional dancing.

Tying the hibiscus bark strips onto the waistband. 

     Elder and Sister Hardy came from Chuuk to help. They helped build a stage and block the pageant.

Sister Nena is making flower holders from palm leaves to decorate the stage.

We attended the baptism of two cousins performed at a beautiful waterfall.

The Zarbocks also came to Kosrae for Zone Conference and left Kosrae together on the same flight.

With typical Kosraean generosity Brother Daniel brought us a gift of breadfruit and steamed crabs.

Guam, June 2-15

From this point on we are splitting our time between Guam and Kosrae.  Its a crazy way to end our mission but it has sure kept us from getting trunky.  We haven't had time!!

On June 2 we left, with Elder Blackwell for Guam.  Sister Nena made his this beautiful lei.  He has been a great missionary.

Back on Guam we met up with Keiji Sugimoto and Jun who went right to work setting up the FamilySearch camera at MARC to photograph the Jane H. Underwood Guam Population Cards.  Ralph has been hired to do the job. The cards are a great source of Chamorro genealogy.

We had a fun opportunity to meet with the Talisay YW for a "Meet my Grandpa" night (in anticipation of Father's Day).  We had a great time sharing stories about ancestors and we helped one young woman find the names of her grandparents using Pohnpei records online at FamilySearch.

Jim  and Rose Marie Cruz took us out to lunch at Mescla and we tried Manahak, fried juvenile rabbit fish, a seasonal Chamorro specialty.  They are harvested on the beach by the bucketful and then fried until crisp.  Not bad.

On the way home from Merizo one Thursday evening we stopped to enjoy another beautiful sunset at Umatc .  We are going to miss the skies of Micronesia!

Susana Sam and James Gogue check out the FamilySearch website at the Micronesia Island Fair FamillySearch booth.  The Fair ran from Friday, June 12 through Sunday, June 14.  

June, Jeanette and Keiji Sugimoto in front of our booth.  Note Jamiliz Remarii being herself in the background and the cool banners that Tokyo made for us.

Here Jamieliz helps a visitor from Palau.  The booth was a great way to introduce people to the FamilySearch website and the Barrigada Family History Center

Another great consultant, Krisitan Dana, helps out at the booth.  

We enjoyed a lovely Chinese dinner on Sunday evening with Julie and Richard Fee and the Martins.  Its so sad to be leaving all these wonderful people! We flew to Kosrae the next day.

Week Two in Kosrae

 Monday the Elders took us along on a hike up Mt. Mutante, at 1,923 feet, the third highest peak on Kosrae . We thought we were in for a 2 to 3 hour walk but it ended up being a seven hour ordeal, straight up and straight down.  The scenery was well worth the pain, however.

 

The day was beautiful and we hiked in the shade of the jungle most of the way which kept us cool.  Here we are taking a much needed break with Elders Ferguson, Blackwell, Conk, Amato, Johnson and   Gibb.

   As we neared the summit we began to get glimpses of the densely forested hills and coastline below.

Our guide, Ned, although barefoot, set a brisk pace.  The Elders were kind enough to slacken it a bit for us.  It was still an aerobic challenge to keep scrambling up and up.  The trail was barely discernible and followed narrow ridges, climbed steep, muddy hillsides and passed through the roots of giant trees.  It looked and felt like an enchanted forest from Middle Earth.

From the top we could see much of the north and east of the 43 square mile island.  The population is concentrated in villages along the coast.  The main road runs part way around the island but there are no roads into the interior which is covered by dense jungle and uninhabited.  Beyond the beaches, a shallow reef rings the island. Beyond the reef, where the surf was breaking, we could see a school of large fish churning up the sea.

 

At the top we rested on a narrow ridge, cushioned by thick moss covered with ferns.  We were too tired to make the final push to the summit as it involved using a rope and we weren't sure we could trust our legs at that point.  We enjoyed watching the Elders who, as you can see behind Grant, did make it to the very top.  As we rested, a cloud formed around us, cooling us with its moisture.

The trip down was treacherous.  Gravity and tired muscles made it hard to control our descent and by the time we reached the bottom, we were straining to put one foot in front of the other.  Again, the young Elders were very kind to slacken the pace for our sakes.  Although it took several days to work out the aches and pains, the hike was well worth it.  We are now reputed to be the oldest people to have ever climbed Mt. Mutante!

Tuesday we bid farewell to Elder Ferguson at the Kosrae Interanational Airport.  His departure brought the number of Elders on Kosrae down to five. (Elders Amato, Gibb, Conk, Ferguson, Balckwell and Johnson)

On Friday night the Lelu Branch had a farewell party for Elder Blackwell who will leave next Tuesday.  Some of the Branch members sang "The Spirit of God" in beautiful unaccompanied harmony.  The Kosraeans are the best singers in all of Micronesia.

Saturday afternoon we participated in a service activity with the Elders and helped clean the Utwe chapel.  Here Elders Conk and Johnson wipe down the glass louvers.  They and Elder Amato and Milson Albert, President George and his daughter Sina also helped.

After several months of hard work, Grant was able to record the spoken part of the soundtrack for the Book of Mormon pageant on Sunday afternoon after Church--something of a miracle in our estimation.  These members from the Utwe and Lelu Branches each had a part.  

Here is Grant with Brother Kosmaru Jonathan our "sound engineer."  Brother Jonathan works at the local radio station where we had hoped to be able to do the recording but the sound booth has been eaten up by termites.  Never to be deterred, Grant created this recording studio in the district President's office using a bedspread and sofa covers from the Senior Missionaries house.

First Week in Kosrae!

In anticipation of the Book of Mormon celebration in Kosrae, we had Sepe Charley, a member of the Barrigada Ward, translate the script that Elder Hurst, the Hardys  and President Zarbock have been working so hard on.  

Sepe spent two entire days in our office and time at home completing the translation.

The day before we left, we enjoyed a lovely dinner at the mission home with the the Zarbocks and the Guam missionaries, thankful that we were spared the full impact of Typhoon Dolphin.  

More great missionaries from the Guam Zone.

We left Monday morning for Kosrae.  That evening we joined President Zarbock and the Kosrae Zone missionaries for dinner.  We are excited to be assigned to Kosrae to help the members here plan and present a celebration of the Book of Mormon which has just been translated into their language.  This beautiful island is 43 square miles in size and has a population of about 6,650 people which is about what it was before European and American whalers arrived ca. 1824.  When American Board Missionaries arrived and established the Congregationalist Church on the island in 1852 the population was in a freefall.  By 1880 disease had reduced the number of Kosraeans to under 200.  The demographic crisis plus the success of the missionaries undermined the chiefly cast system and destroyed the indigenous culture. This is the smallest island in the mission and the most remote.  There are now six (soon to be only four) elders serving in two branches here.

Gas is distributed like this all over the island.  Needless to say, it is expensive, like everything else that has to be brought here by boat.  Luckily, we don't have far to drive.

Kosrae is a "high" Micronesian island.  The rugged interior is uninhabited and covered with dense jungle.  This is the famous "Sleeping Lady" of Kosrae, as seen from the Lelu dock.  Her head is on the right

This little boy is about 4 or 5 and lives with his parents and two brothers across the street from our house.  We see the boys pass by our front door nearly every day on their way to the ocean.  Noticing him collecting something out on the reef at low tide one day, we stopped him to see what it was.  He had a bucket of sea cucumbers.  Some people eat them and others use them for fertilizer. 

The children here find interesting things to play with.  This little guy has a collection of hermit crabs, some in the blue box to the right and others scattered on the steps below him.  

We have enjoyed getting to know the six missionaries on the island.  The zone leaders, Elders Gibb (above) and Blackwell (below), live just down the street from us.  We found them one morning while on our walk, working out on the beach.

Elder Blackwell leaves next week to return to Alberta, Canada.  He will be missed!

We hold district meetings at our house on Thursdays which include a meal.  Its a challenge to figure out what to fix with what is available.  The selection at the little ACE grocery store depends on how recently the last boat arrived and the local produce is limited to what happens to be on hand the day you stop by the stands.

These large land crabs are everywhere at night.  We found this fellow on our doorstep one evening. They are supposed to be pretty good to eat too.

The chapel in Lelu will be the site of our celebration.  It is one of the nicest buildings on the island but like everything else here, requires a tremendous amount of upkeep.  Some minor repairs and renovations are underway which we hope will be completed by July 25.