Waterfalls, Windows, and Wastebaskets (#64)

Monday was our preparation day, and  Karen’s last day in Palau—a perfect time for a zone outing to the waterfall at Ngardmau.  Even though Elder and Sister Johnsen had recently taken a group of single adults and CES directors there they were still excited to go again. Two of our Elders (Fullmer and Pauga) plus Karen had never seen the highest waterfall in Micronesia.  It was a great day to be at the falls.  The Elders worked on a dam to make the water under the falls a little deeper.  Several of our group stood under the heaviest flow of the falls and got the most vigorous water massage that you’ve ever seen.  The water was coming down so hard that Elder Pauga’s neck was red and he’s Samoan!

We even got to explore the upper part of the falls which is rarely seen by tourists because it is protected by a sign that says danger.  This last picture of Elder Fullmer shows that the danger was greatly exaggerated.  Elder Johnsen’s mother would always say that the forbidden fruit tastes best—we don’t know about that but it was fun visiting the top of the Ngardmau waterfall.

Our next stop on our Zone P-Day activity was to stop out at Toby’s beach—the elder’s threw the football around while Elder Johnsen got a little shut-eye.  Hey, that’s what you’re supposed to do on your P day right?  That night we stayed up late to take Karen to the airport. It was hard to see her go. See you in 16 weeks, Karen.

Tuesday was our service project and it also had a lot to do with water.  We washed windows at the church—the chapel windows were not so bad but we’re not sure that the family history center, library and the branch president’s windows had ever been cleaned—that’s not possible, of course, but they were super dirty.  But all it took was a couple of hours and some elbow grease and they are squeaky clean.  

Tuesday was also our Priesthood Service night in the state of Koror.  Elder Johnsen has put together 7 geographic routes totaling 140 households—in one single night we attempt to visit them all and leave first presidency messages or Liahona magazines with the family.   On the previous Sunday night Elder Johnsen made visits in the state of Airai where 18 households reside—for the first time ever all 18 families were home—not bad for one night of home teaching!  The elder’s quorum president and his son who accompanied Elder Johnsen couldn’t believe it!  Tuesday night was also the night that we received some alarming news—a storm was brewing and was headed for Palau—most of the families that we visited hadn’t heard the news and we’re glad we notified them.

The remainder of our week has been consumed with preparation activities associated with the typhoon Bopha bearing down on Palau—as we write this Advisory 25 has been released showing that the storm will arrive at about 4:00 a.m. Monday morning with 145 mile per hour winds.  The center of the storm is projected to pass over Peleliu about 20 miles south.  The system is so large that Typhoon force winds will buffet all of Koror as well as the entire “Big Island” of Babeldaob where we just played on the beach last Monday.  As we write this all our windows are boarded up, we’ve stocked our shelves with canned food, we have 20 gallons of filtered drinking water on hand, and we’ve even filled a 33 gallon wastebasket with water tap water to insure that we’ll have water to flush the toilet and wash ourselves and our dishes.

The car is filled with gasoline.  Elder Johnsen even purchased an inverter for the car so we can charge our cell phone and laptop computer.  When a storm half as powerful as this one passed through Houston, our power was out for a week.  We are expecting and have prepared for a much worse result with Bopha.  We’re much better off than over 90% of our members—we live in a concrete apartment building (although it has only a steel roof).  Most of our members live in wooden frame houses covered with galvanized corrugated steel.  The trees here are very tall, it’s been 22 years since the last typhoon brushed these islands—we foresee widespread damage caused by the combination of wind, rising water, and falling trees.  Assuming that power, water and internet access are restored by next week we’ll try to  include some before and after pictures—we took the “before” pictures today while we were on our usual morning walk.  

Tonight we had our 12th baptism of the year, a young woman, Keisy, with whom we have had the opportunity to work in the Meyuns spelling bee, piano lessons, family home evenings, summer game nights at our apartment, and other activities, was baptized.

We are reminded that water can be beautiful when it falls from a high rock cliff, it can be helpful when cleaning building windows, it can be lifesaving when it filtered and used as drinking water, can help with sanitation when we use it to flush or clean our bodies and it also has powerful symbolic meaning when we participate in ordinances such as baptism and the sacrament.  “And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son.  And also, the voice of the Son same unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do”. 2 Nephi 31:11-12 We express our gratitude for the “living water” provided by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Who is on the Lord’s Side? (#57)

During a baptism this week Elder Johnsen was asked to give the brief talk to welcome the new member, Jonathan Tamangmow, into the branch.  He chose for his topic the question Moses posed to rebellious Israel after he “…cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount” upon returning to camp finding Israel worshiping a golden calf.  Moses asked them, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” (Exodus 32:26) Elder Johnsen said to Jonathan that by being baptized he had stepped over the line onto the Lord’s side.  Now he was under covenant to stay on the Lord’s side.  He mentioned that Jonathan might be tempted by tobacco, betel nut, or to sleep in on Sunday rather than go to church. He told him that he might want to drop out of school, or be dishonest, but whatever the challenge he should remember to stay on the Lord’s side of the line and that he would enjoy a more abundant life than if he gave in to the enticements represented by the golden calf.  Elder Johnsen read the first 3 verses of Hymn 260 as he concluded his welcome talk, but the second verse seems to be especially pertinent to our little branch in Palau, it reads, “We serve the living God, and want his foes to know that, if but few, we’re great; Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?  We’re going on to win; No fear must blanch the brow.  The Lord of Hosts is ours; Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?”

Speaking of the Lord’s side, we were so happy that the bugs in the LDS mapping tool were corrected this week.  On three separate days Elder Johnsen has spent 2-3 hours each day recording the member locations using the church’s on-line mapping tool.  Since the google map for a given area takes so long to load using dial-up what he uses as his go-by is our priesthood service night member maps that he created.  Those paper maps have the member names and locations by geographic location.  It is much easier to keep the computer google map for an area open and then just jump to the various member names in the directory who live in that area than to try to mark the locations alphabetically. In some cases the area where the member lives was under cloud cover, but since we have GPS locations for most of our members we still can mark them with precision (after he converts the degree, minute, second coordinates into decimal, which is what the church marking tool uses)  So far this week he recorded exact locations for all the members in Airai, Meyuns 1 and Meyuns 2, plus a few members in some outlying areas that we just visited on Saturday (we visit members who live too far out to be visited during priesthood service night).  In addition to locations we’ve also been working on loading member pictures.  So far Elder Johnsen has created and loaded 201 head shots of our member’s. He has only 90 more go and we’ll have a picture of every member in our branch directory.  During our spare time each week we’re working to track down those members and take their picture.   We’re hoping that this effort will make it easier for subsequent missionaries, and also persons called into the branch leadership, to find and come to know the members in their watch care.

We held a CES fireside this past Sunday in our apartment.  Elder Holland entitled his fireside address “Israel, Israel, God Is Calling.”  He is such a passionate speaker.  He very powerfully challenged listeners by saying “We never leave our religion at the door,” which seemed to us to be just another way of saying, “Stay on the Lord’s side, no matter what.”    

Eli McCann from Salt Lake City spoke in church on Sunday. He’s a new branch member who is working in Palau for a year as council for the Supreme Court chief justice.  He mentioned in his talk that he had served in Ukraine on his mission.  In one very small branch where he served there was a little girl named Yana. She was about 9 years old but she would walk all alone to church every Sunday. (as Eli was telling this part of the story, Elder Johnsen caught 9 year old Carein’s eye who had, as usual, walked to church all alone as she does every week; she gave him a knowing glance). Eli said that they had no other children that attended, nevertheless, little Yana would stay for the entire 3 hour block by attending adult gospel doctrine class and then stay with the Relief Society during the 3rd hour.  The elders told Yana that they couldn’t have a Primary because she was the only child there.  The next Sunday she brought with her 6 non-member friends so that they could have a Primary. The Elders helped them get it going. Yana was later baptized, and was thrilled to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  When Elder McCann leaned that he was being transferred from that area he purchased 7 CTR rings; one for Yana and her 6 friends.  When he gave the ring to Yana he asked if she knew why he was giving her that particular gift.  She had put it on her finger and looked down at her hand and thought for a while. Then she asked, “It is so that I’ll remember you?”  Elder McCann said that was part of it. Then he asked her if she knew what CTR stands for. He told her it stood for “Choose The Right.” Then he said he was also giving her the ring so she would remember to always choose the right. Yana looked down at her finger again and thought. Then she looked up and said to Elder McCann, “But I don’t need a ring to remember to choose the right, I have the Holy Ghost.”  Elder McCann then said, “That’s right, you just keep the ring to remember me then.”  The story brought a powerful feeling into our meeting.  I think we were not only touched by the faithfulness of this little 9 year old girl, but also touched by her insight.  She knew how to stay on the Lord’s side. The spirit bore witness that we must all do likewise!  

Rising to New Heights in Palau (#48)

Our Tuesday morning service projects have become part of our weekly routine. We get to the church about 7:30 A.M. and paint until about 10:00. The church is looking better in so many ways, and in so many places. We are very pleased with the work that we have done. This Tuesday after the Elders left, we just planned to work a little longer, but we didn’t get back to the apartment until 12:50. Sister Johnsen was doing some touch-up work on the fascia and had a little more paint in her bucket so since the ladder was leaning up against our class room building she thought she’d climb up and paint the peak.  The only problem is getting up to the peak is a lot easier than getting down.  Elder Johnsen tried to talk her down in imitation of Amalickiah trying to get Lehonti down from the mount Antipas, but finally had to go up the ladder and guide her down.   We are rising to new heights in our service!

On Wednesday the Young Women came to our apartment to learn how to cook something.  Sister Johnsen showed them how to make simple yeast dinner rolls. They all loved it, and each girl helped with one part. While our rolls were rising to new heights, they learned how to make a poke and pour cake (the cake was baked in advance.)  Then we went out on our patio and ate. Evangeline, the YW president, had gotten some other food and we had a little feast. By the time we were done with that, our dough was ready to form into rolls; this was so much fun for the girls. They didn’t get to stay to see them bake, but they ate them on Saturday night during our CES Kick-off event.

Before we could do our CES event on Saturday, we went to the church for a baptism for Herry Frank. This is Palau’s 8th baptism this year. We were very excited for Herry, and Sister Johnsen’s chocolate chip cookies were gobbled up as they usually are.  

Our CES kick-off event was held at the very end of the village of Nermid, at the dock area on Neco Bay. There is a covered waiting area there, and also lots of water. This year’s course of study for Seminary and Institute is the New Testament. We started the evening with an opening song, “Master the Tempest is Raging” and then had an opening prayer. We had arranged to have a boat there to take our kids out on the water. Since the boat operator was ready to go, out we went.  When we got out in the middle of the bay, Joni, our seminary teacher, talked about the scriptures in Matthew 14 where the Savior came walking on the water and Peter said to him “bid me come unto thee on the water”. Then Peter lost his faith and began to sink into the water. He called out, “Lord, save me.”  The Savior took his hand and raising him out of the water, saved him.

We know that sometimes no matter how strong or committed we are, or how much faith we have, we still sometimes call out, “Lord, save me.” And he takes us by the hand and helps us rise to new heights. It is one of the great miracles of our lives!

After our boat ride, we ate our dinner of tropical chicken, rice, jello with tropical fruit, corn and (the young women’s ) homemade rolls. We served brownies for dessert.  

We have a finicky oven and so when we put four casserole dishes containing our tropical chicken into the oven, two on the top and two on the bottom, we just had to hope they would cook correctly while we were at the baptism. Unfortunately, the baptismal service ran a little long and when we came home to get them and go to our Seminary Kick-off, the bottom two looked kind of crispy. Everything in our oven burns if it is not on the top. Fortunately all the kids liked the look and taste of the caramelized chicken the best. It went first and fast. Who knew?

After dinner, Sister Johnsen continued the program and talked about how the Savior had to get into a boat to teach the people because they were pressing, or trying to get nearer to him, to touch him. (Luke 5). After teaching, he talked to Peter and told him to launch out into the deep and let down his nets. Peter told the Savior that they had been fishing all night and had not caught any fish, but that he would do as the Savior suggested. When the net was rising out of the water it began to break because of the large catch of fish. Partners were called to share the fish, and their boats began to sink because there were so many fish. We know that following the Savior will lead to huge blessing beyond our ability to contain them, and that we will be able to share those blessing with others.

Elder Johnsen (borrowing an idea used by S Michael Wilcox) concluded the meeting by going back to the story that Joni told, only he described how the disciples had been toiling all night in rowing and had only gone 25 furloughs (about 3 miles) because of the contrary winds and high sea. Their 6 miles trip, which should have taken about 2 hours was now in it’s 9th hour (the forth watch is from 3:00 a.m. – 6:00 a.m.) and they’d only made it ½ way. Then the Savior came “in the 4th watch” and calmed the storm.  He shared from Joseph Smith First Vision how the Lord didn’t come to save until “this moment of great alarm” and also how the widow of Zarephath was fixing her last meal for herself and son when Elijah commanded the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil to fail not.  The Savior is a first watch God when we are repenting, but sometimes when we are facing adversity and trials we just need to “keep on swimming” (Finding Nemo) or keep on rowing even when the wind is contrary and the sea (of life) is threatening to swamp our boat.  Sometimes our hands are blistered on the oars—the attendees laughed when Elder Johnsen suggested that when we reach the end of our rope, tie a knot and hang on a little longer—the Savior will come in the 4th watch and lift us to new heights.  
We’ve had a memorable week!  

Always in the Middle (#43)

In President Uchtdorf’s July first presidency message he observed, “By many world calendars, July marks the middle of the year. While the beginnings and endings of things are celebrated and remembered, the middle of things often goes unnoticed.

Beginnings are times for making resolutions, for creating plans, for bursts of energy. Endings are times for winding down and may involve feelings of completion or loss. But with the proper outlook, considering ourselves as in the middle of things can help us not only to understand life a little better but also to live it a little more meaningfully.”  

Well, it’s July, and we are actually right in the middle of our mission in Micronesia Guam.  July 3rd was our “hump” day.   We have been in the mission field for 9 months, and we have 9 months to go. As we think back over the last 9 months we find that we have been blessed with good health, lots of energy, and the ability to see what needs to be done here in Palau.

Is the “hump day” the high point of the mission with everything else just falling action, or is it just the middle as President Uchtdorf says? Whichever it may be, we plan to keep working like we have in the past 9 months, and finding the joy of service here.

We have been grateful for the opportunity to get to know, work with, and pray for the members here. We love being able to associate with the elders, and to have been a part of their missions.

Last Sunday we attended a baptism and had to wait 30 minutes while the person doing the baptism tried to locate some white pants to wear. Sister Johnsen took a look at the baptismal clothes and decided to wash, reorganize, and inventory them so that each organization would have a list of what was available, and in what sizes.

We also found out this week that we might be able to assist President Kesolei in his branch office by organizing some of his files. We hope that when we are finished it will be a good thing, and that we won’t have completely messed up his system. We have been going through old records and have actually found some baptismal information that no one knew was there. Even the office in Guam didn’t have the information, so it is a huge blessing to have started this project. We plan to work on it pretty hard this week, and take records to Guam that we can’t identity.

We had a branch cleanup day on Saturday and we learned that the 25 gallons of paint that is stored at the back of the shed would not be used as part of the repainting done next year. We decided to open it up this week and see if it is any good and try to do some touch up on the building where the paint is peeling—walls and doors, inside and out.  Apparently they are hoping to get some new paint on the building that does better than this paint.

On Saturday night we got a call to ask us to speak in Sacrament meeting on missionary work. Sister Johnsen spoke about the importance of missionary work and quoted Elder Holland in his talk, “We Are All Enlisted,” in the October 2011 conference. He said, “What greater gift could grandparents give their posterity than to say by deed as well as by word, “In this family we serve missions.” Sister Johnsen related a story that Jocelyn told her recently about how Maddie was asking when grandma and grandpa were going to be home. Jocelyn explained to her about missions and how important they were and expressed some of the ideas from Elder Holland’s talk. After that Maddie told her, “When I grow up, I want to serve a mission!”

We have another busy week ahead, but we wanted to pause and thank everyone who has prayed for us, and stayed with us during the first half of our mission! Sulang!

Bon Appetit! (#37)

Poke and Pour Cake:  After their preparation Day, Elder and Sister Johnsen were invited to President Kesolie’s house with the other Elders for fish and rice on Elder Adams LAST Monday. Elder Gubler ate the eye socket on the fish, but President Kesolie couldn’t talk him into eating the eye. Sister Johnsen brought a…poke and pour cake.  

Peanut Butter Cookies:  Sister Johnsen had 3 visiting teaching appointments on Tuesday, and she always tries to bring something with her for her sisters. After teaching Elysia and Eleanor Antonia a piano lesson, she set out to deliver the peanut butter cookies, and left Elder Johnsen at the church to make copies of the Race for Life for the upcoming Priesthood service night. Unfortunately the printer broke shortly after he got started.

When Sister Johnsen stopped at one of her sister’s houses, Tessy, to deliver the cookies, she found it was Tessy’s birthday. The Meyuns Elders were already there, and Tessy gave us all dinner to take home.

We stayed up late to help the Elders remain awake so that they could take Elder Gubler to the airport. He had to go to Guam to train for a new missionary. We got to bed around midnight.

Red Rooster for dinner: Sister Johnsen was supposed to have a piano lesson but the student didn’t come, and Elder Johnsen was also at the church waiting for the copier repairman who didn’t come. Then we met all the Elders for dinner at the Red Rooster. It was Elder Adams LAST dinner in Palau. We ate on the balcony, and saw the best sunset we’ve seen since we have been here in Palau.

We decided to actually go to the airport with the Elders to see Elder Adams off. Sister Johnsen made him a sign and filled his “Elder Adams” plastic cup up with candy for the trip. Each Elder has their own plastic cup at our apartment, and they have written their names on the cups. We let Elder Adams take his cup with some treats inside. We got in bed at 1:15 A.M! (We don’t even stay up that late on New Year’s Eve).

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread: Someone gave us a ton of bananas that were going bad fast. On Thursday Sister Johnsen made 6 loaves of banana bread and there were still some bananas left over, so Elder Johnsen made a huge bowl of banana and strawberry jello with lots of bananas. Tessy had asked for Sister Johnsen’s recipe for banana bread so Elder Johnsen delivered two loaves of banana bread to her, and then Elder and Sister Johnsen gave the other three loaves away.  There was only one left and Elder Johnsen thought he should have at least one because it was his idea to make the banana bread in the first place.

The copier repairman came and explained what the printer problem could be and said we could get a part from the USA which “might” fix it. We just need to order it and wait until it comes!

Chocolate Cake with White Mountain Frosting: Elder Johnsen tried to fix the copier himself but to no avail. You should have seen him, he looked just like the Xerox repair men he remembers from his old days at ExxonMobil—they would come and work on the copiers all dressed up in a white shirt and tie.  He pulled the automatic document feeder and the scanning bed off the copier to see if the repairman might have overlooked something easy to fix, like a broken belt or so other problems. He learned from the internet that these were common problem for our copier, but everything looked fine; he decided that  maybe the repairman knew what he was talking about after all.   Elder Johnsen still needed about 130 copies of the 4 page talk by President Monson. This would cost about $48 to copy at the local copy shops and it isn’t in the branch budget.

Sister Johnsen made a layered chocolate cake with White Mountain frosting to welcome our new missionary to the island. He and Elder Gubler arrived on Friday night about 8:45. We all went out to meet them. Then we brought the elders to our apartment for cake and to get a little bit better acquainted with our new missionary. His name is Elder Pauga and he is from Hawaii. He has a firm handshake and broad shoulders. Elder Johnsen guessed on the way home from the airport that Elder Pauga was a rugby player, and he guessed right. Elder Pauga has moved around a lot and seems very comfortable in new situations. We are really happy to welcome him to Palau.

Apple Crisp & Brownies: Sister Johnsen had two piano lessons on Saturday morning and then she and Elder Johnsen went out to visit members. They were back in the afternoon so Elder Johnsen could be Elder Wright’s companion while he filled the font for the baptism that night. Elder Early took Elders Gubler and Pauga and introduced them to their investigators—not only did Elder Gubler get a new companion but he also is getting a new area as they are now working in Meyuns.  

Sister Johnsen stayed home and….you guessed it…cooked!  The Elder said they needed some desserts for the baptism that evening. Sister Johnsen decided to make apple crisp because she hadn’t made that one while on Palau.  Elder Johnsen was helping peel, core, and cut up the apples but then he had to go. Sister Johnsen had to take over that job and didn’t think about the fact that the butter that was mixed with oats and flour was supposed to be cold. By the time she got the apples ready the butter had melted. But that was only part of the problem. The recipe called for ½ stick of butter and she added ½ cup of butter. Now she had to decide what to do, so she double that part of the recipe and globbed it on the apples instead of sprinkling it on.

The plan was to next make a mango crisp, but after that crisp catastrophe, her cooking confidence cratered, Sister Johnsen made brownies from a box. The apple crisp and brownies must have tasted OK because we didn’t bring anything home with us after the baptism.

The Elders have been teaching one of the high ranking members of the Seventh Day Adventist church here in Palau, and he came to the baptism.  Sister Johnsen was asked to lead the music for the evening. While Jacquline was dressing after her baptism the Elders asked Sister Johnsen to lead the group in a few hymns. They suggested two, but when they were almost over Sister Johnsen didn’t know what to sing next. It came very clearly to her that we should sing, “I Believe in Christ.” We are always thankful to Elder McConkie for writing the lyrics to a song that expresses to our non-member friends our strong belief in the Savior. Elder Johnsen said later that this was the very best song we could have picked. That is because Sister Johnsen didn’t pick it, the Spirit did.

Roast, Carrots, Potatoes and finally, the Mango Crisp: Sunday is our day to have the Elders to dinner and we have never had a roast here, so we made our pot roast with carrots and potatoes like we do at home.  Elder Johnsen was determined to use the mangoes that a member had given us, so we made the dessert on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately no one, except for Elder Johnsen and Gubler, liked it that well. It will not enjoy a repeat performance.  (Elder Gubler is like Mikey in that old Life cereal commercial, he will eat anything!)

Chocolate Chips Cookies and Popcorn: When the Elders came back on Sunday evening Sister Johnsen had made some cookies and even though Elder Johnsen had just finished a long YM planning meeting in our living room he was willing to make some of his famous popcorn (because no one wanted any more Mango surprise).

What a delicious week!

Pigs and Poke & Pour Cake (#33)

Pig #2: I thought it was hot in the courtroom, but this room is like an oven.

Pig #3:  Do I small bacon? Oh wait—that’s just me.

Yes, our Koror sixth graders are still working on “real drama.” We’re down to the last week of rehearsals for “12 Angry Pigs” and our other plays, choral readings, skits, and individual poems which will be performed during the second week of May.  The students really look forward to having Elder and Sister Johnsen come and teach their class—for some reason they would rather work on drama than math problems . . . what a surprise!

Speaking of Pigs . . . no one on Palau is permitted to own a firearm of any kind, except the police.  However, as we delivered a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies to a less active sister and her non-member husband this week, we learned that there’s more than one way to keep the Palau Pig Population under control.  As we chatted with the couple, he brought out his pellet gun.  It had a HUGE scope, wooden stock, and a heavy barrel.  It looked like a firearm to Elder Johnsen, except for a cylinder under the barrel that was about the same size as you might see on a pump shotgun.  There was a fitting where he hooks the gun’s pressure chamber to compressed air; he says that he can get the pressure up to 3000 psi.   He’s killed lots of wild pigs at considerable distance.  Now that WOULD make a pig angry!  

No one was angry at our baptism this past Sunday, but maybe a little nervous. First of all, the water in Koror has been going off at 11:00 A. M. every day, so the Elders went over at 7 A.M.  to start the water running in the font. But when they came back at 9, just before church, the water was barely dripping from the faucet, because the water pressure was already too low. The water was only about a foot deep.  Sister Johnsen wondered if anyone has ever been knocked out by having their head hit the bottom of the baptismal font.

It was finally decided that the baptism would be performed in the ocean. The baptismal program was held at the church, and then we were all supposed to get in our cars and drive to the location where the baptism would take place. During the last talk, it started to pour outside.  Sister Johnsen started to pray that it would clear so we could perform the baptism. (Later she asked the Elders if they had started to pray; they all said they had been praying too.) Shortly after the service ended, we got in our cars and it was now just sprinkling. By the time we got the ocean, the sun was out. It was beautiful. However now Maylyne, who was being baptized, was nervous (she was shaking and kept saying, “Ok. Ok.”)  Cullen Carlson, who is her boyfriend, and was performing his first baptism, was pretty nervous too because he couldn’t remember the words of the prayer.

Then Cullen made everyone there nervous because someone had instructed him to make sure that Maylyne was fully immersed, and so he put her down in the water and didn’t bring her up until he had looked over to make sure she was fully immersed. The whole group laughed nervously when he finally brought her up.  It was only a second, but it seemed like forever.

Cullen’s mother, the branch Relief Society President, gave a beautiful baptismal talk.  In it she described an experience she had after she was converted, and then baptized and confirmed a member of the church.  She said that people were trying to get her to look up so they could take her picture, but she kept looking down at her feet—she said that she had the strangest feeling that she was floating about a foot above the ground, and kept looking down to make sure she really was firmly on mother earth.  

Besides the excitement of plays and pigs, and making lots and lots of chocolate chip cookies to take the inactive members, Sister Johnsen has been making different kinds of Poke and Pour cake for the Elders who come to dinner every Sunday night. We started out with the traditional cake: yellow with lime Jell-O and vanilla pudding on top. Then we tried the same thing only with strawberry Jell-O.  Elder Early started wondering what it would be like if we made a chocolate cake with raspberry Jell-O and chocolate pudding. Everyone liked that pretty well. This week we tried yellow cake, with lime Jell-O and pistachio pudding. This was the favorite so far. Who knows where our imaginations will take us next week.

 

(Elder Early and the newest Poke & Pour creation)

We think maybe our poke and pour cake is a little symbolic of our work here. We “poke” the people by reminding them that they are members of the church, and then we try to “pour” the gospel into them by means of 17 points of the true church, the restoration pamphlet, showing them videos, reviewing the plan of salvation, and bearing our testimonies.  We always feel thankful that we have this opportunity to come to Palau and experience these amazing adventures.

Bring on the pigs and the poke and pour!

Modern Day Miracles (#31)

What is the definition of a miracle? How do you know when you have seen one? Sometimes they are described as wonders, or marvels. If someone from even 10 years ago was to view our modern life they would definitely feel that they had seen a miracle. We had an experience that reminded us what a miraculous age we live it.

We have been working with the 66 Koror Elementary kids on 3 plays, but one of the plays was not working. Wednesday morning we knew we had to do something but we couldn’t figure out what to do since Sister J had already spent countless hours on the computer looking for a replacement play and hadn’t found one.

During the morning walk (7:30 a.m. Palau time) Elder Johnsen remembered a melodrama he had been in when he was high school called, “Flora of the Flower Shop.” (Miracle #1) Then he went online and found it in a book (Miracle #2). Sister Johnsen decided to look at the online catalog for the Barbara Bush library in Houston and the book was there and checked in (Miracle #3 and #4). Scott and Theresa Ricker agreed to run to the library at 8:30 p.m. (Houston time) and got the book before the library closed (Miracle #5). They copied and scanned it (Miracle #6) and emailed it to us (Miracle #7-even though this technology is not new, it is still so amazing; we live in Palau!) We received the play and were able to make copies and arrived at the school (1:00 p.m. Palau time) with 3 minutes to spare (Miracle #8). We couldn’t have imagined this kind of thing when we were in college and still typing our papers on typewriters and making copies with carbon paper. (I know-we are old!). We live in a modern, miraculous age!

On Wednesday the Young Women came to our apartment because they wanted to learn to bake. Sister Johnsen realized that most of them do not have ovens. She was happy and excited to have them come. However, she was surprised to learn that only one of them had ever baked and none of them had ever made cookies from “scratch”. Several of them were asked to use the mix master and they were really scared. They had never measured ingredients or mixed up cookies or used the oven. Sister Johnsen thought that most of our Young Women in the United States take for granted what was just miraculous to these Young Women. The snickerdoodle cookies they baked were the hit of the potluck luncheon held between conference sessions on Sunday. Don’t we just get so used to all the miracles in our lives?

Because we have the internet we read a story this week about a miracle in a family whose baby died and later was found alive in the morgue. Now that is a miracle! We try to take care of our 4 babies (Elders) and make sure that they have plenty to eat, etc. We have been trying to help Elder Adams gain a few pounds before he goes home. So when Elder Johnsen recently said that the Elders were as hungry as a baby in a morgue, you will understand the illusion.

Elder’s Wright and Gubler had a miraculous amount of lessons taught this week considering that they took 12 hours out to watch conference. (We get the DVD’s two weeks after conference) and also had to fill up the fount for a baptism, which takes about 3 hours. Even with those time consuming activities they taught over 35 lessons this week. It was an incredible teaching week.

Emily Antonio was baptized this week by her brother, Tally, who was baptized last summer. It was a special event and seemed miraculous to us to see the way Emily has changed and grown as she has accepted the gospel. Sister Johnsen delivered a great talk at the baptism on Friday night. Elder Johnsen had been asked to give the talk and was consulting Sister Johnsen about what she thought he should talk about and before they knew it, Sister Johnsen had a talk all composed, so Elder Wright let her give the talk. She was supposed to be in charge of light refreshments after the baptism, so Elder Johnsen stepped in and helped her with that. Team work is also miraculous! In her talk she had written that if Emily would keep the commandments and baptismal covenants that the Lord would bless her with a life so different from what she thought she would have. However, at the last minute she got nervous about making such an unusual promise so she didn’t say it. However, when Elder Early confirmed Emily a member of the church he used those exact words in his blessing. It’s a miracle when the Lord makes sure His word is delivered exactly as He wants it.

Elder Johnsen was surprised and impressed by the fact that Elder Adams took the sheets right off his bed to hang in the chapel to darken the room so we could actually see the conference videos. No one asked him to do that. He just remembered how hard it was to see the conference images in broad daylight with so much light streaming into the chapel, so he and Elder Early got to the church and had navy blue sheets hung by the time the rest of us arrived to set up the projector and sound system. We’re not sure what he slept on Saturday night because he didn’t take them down until the Sunday session was over. Isn’t it a miracle to watch these young men become unselfish and service oriented as they mature and become even better servants of the Lord? D&C 58:27

Isn’t every day and every hour of our lives somewhat miraculous, really, if we stop and think about it?