Stayin’ Alive (#77)

With less than two weeks left here in the mission, we are continuing our work here in Palau. There is always so much to do.  This past Wednesday we had our combined YM/YW Joint Activity.  The young men leaders were in charge, and Daniel taught the attendees CPR.  We had a really fun time watching the procedure, and then some of us actually practiced on the “dummies.”

We learned that when you are giving the chest compression, you can count quickly: one and two and three and…etc. Or you can to keep the appropriate speed and pace, by using the mnemonic technique of singing "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. Just match the chest compressions to the pace of the song. This particular disco classic has 103 beats per minutes and can stay in your head easily as you perform CPR.  

We are doing just that in our missionary work –Stayin' Alive. This week we’ve been trying to find a new apartment or house to rent in Airai for new Elders or Sisters that will be arriving at the end of the month.  Lowering the age of the young missionaries has resulted in a surge of missionaries coming into the Micronesia Guam Mission; new areas are being opened up.  We also did service at the church this week which involved weeding, patching cracks in damaged walls and spraying for bugs.

Elder Johnsen was heavily involved in priesthood service night visits. In addition to organizing 140 visits this past Tuesday night, he personally visited more than 40 families. On Friday we hosted our final “First Friday Flicks” night. We popped our final 5 pound batch of popcorn, and mixed our final 3 gallon cooler of Kool-Aid.  We enjoyed our biggest turn-out of members and friends who watched the hockey movie, “Miracle.”

For Seminary and Institute we not only attended class and provided refreshments, but also updated CSTAR for attendance and reported scripture reading.  We stayed up past MIDNIGHT on TWO consecutive evenings this week and played games and provided treats to the elders who had 2 a.m. flight departures from the airport.  The first night we stayed up because the visiting AP’s had to go to the airport, and the next night because Elder Gubler had to go to Guam for the monthly Zone Leader’s meeting. Coming and going on Palau is complicated by the fact that all the flights leave in the middle of the night!

On Saturday our month long marketing efforts paid off as we opened bids for two old mission cars offered for sale and received record amounts.  Elder Johnsen also spent several hours with Line, from the Guam Service Center, touring our building and noting not only the work that we’ve done to improve the building, but also listing the items that still need to be corrected. On Sunday we cooked a turkey dinner for the Elders with homemade rolls, baked potatoes, fruit salad, vegetables, frosted brownies and chocolate tapioca pudding.

This past Sunday was a payday! We had 79 people in our Koror Branch Sacrament meeting.  At least 10 of those were people that have been visited for 17 months but have never come to church.   We’ve felt the Lord’s guiding hand in those we’ve found and visited. We’ve felt urgency in the work, and have been blessed to not only know what to do, but also find ways to DO IT NOW.  

There is a rumor going around that Sister Johnsen is trunky, but we don’t know how that got started!

We know that the real reason we are able to stay alive both physically and spiritually is because of the Savior. He blesses us and the work, and we will continue to the beat of “Stayin Alive” during the final weeks in the mission.