Juxtaposition (#14)

We have been able to do some singing this week because Jon Hulme made some recordings for us. Karen “ripped” them and then emailed them to us. After the download was complete we burned a CD and took the CD player and the music in the car with us on our way to visit a couple of members who live about 45 minutes away. Sister Johnsen and I practiced a couple of them. Just before we got to Sister Vicenta’s house we felt like we should sing to her. This Sister is so sweet and faithful in the church but she is 70 and it is too far to come to church every week. Sister Johnsen sang “Shine for Me Again, Star of Bethlehem”. It was touching and beautiful and brought such a feeling of peace and love of the Savior into each of our hearts. When Sister Johnsen finished singing Sister Vicenta said, with tears in her eyes, “Thank you, Lord.” Her inactive son who avoids missionaries at all costs happened to pull up in his truck with the window open just as Sister Johnsen began to sing. He sat there and listened until she finished. Usually he runs from the missionaries but I walked over, introduced myself, got to know him and took his picture for our file. Only after our visit did he drive away. There is power in music, thanks to Jon Hulme for making that power a part of our mission in Palau!

Sister Johnsen and I sang in sacrament meeting on Sunday. It was “Who would send a baby. ” Almost everyone in the congregation came up to me after the meeting and complimented us on how good it sounded. Sister Johnsen didn’t get to hear many compliments because she went up to the other church unit which is just getting started, (they still sit on the floor) and sang “Star of Bethlehem.” I taught Sunday school today, (with no preparation of course) as the regular teacher didn’t show up.

We have two sets of missionaries and one of them had a tire go flat last Sunday and Elder Johnsen drove 30 minutes one way to help them. They put their spare on and it went flat so he took them ours. Then on Friday they limped into town because their fan blades broke off and one of them punctured their radiator. The brackets on the radiator are also broken off. We were down to two cars for three sets of missionaries.

But the Lord was watching over us, because we found we couldn’t rent a car for a reasonable price and we were going to try to share or something and on Saturday night after the branch Christmas party we were delivering food baskets and we rode with Batil who decided to drive his sister’s car. He said that he was going to sell it, and we asked if we could rent it for a week. So it has been a huge help. It’s a little different since the steering wheel is on the wrong, I mean, the right side of the car. We are having the same trouble we had when we drove in Australia. When we want to turn a corner we accidently turn on the windshield wipers. They are reversed. You can always tell a tourist because their wipers are on when they turn a corner!

We have been in Palau for 2 whole months now and we feel that the vegetation is the most beautiful we have ever seen. It is breathtaking. On the other hand, there is so much poverty. The two juxtapositoned creates an interesting feeling as one drives around the island.

Here are examples of what we mean:

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