Today, While the Sun Shines (#75)

We had an interesting reminder this week of an experience that we had more than 35 years ago.   Saturday afternoon we were out trying to take pictures of members. Having already captured 267 photos you can well imagine that all the low hanging fruit has been gathered, but we figure it’s like eating an elephant,  you just keep at it one bite at a time. On Saturday we finally caught Michelle at home and had a pleasant visit with her. We have never seen her at home but have given her cookies and Liahona’s for nearly 16 months at her work. During one of our first visits to her, Sister Johnsen asked if we could take her picture, but she politely declined.  On Saturday her response to this same question was, “Not today.” It reminded us of an earlier event that Sister Johnsen was able to have published in MormonTimes. Here is the story:  

“During our first Christmas together, my husband, Gary, and I did what many BYU students do, we piled into the car with siblings and drove home. Home for my husband is Minnesota, and it is a long and sometimes treacherous drive in the winter.

We had been traveling for hours when Gary’s sister, Connie, took over the driving at about 2:00 A.M. None of us thought to check the gas gauge. When she did finally notice, the gauge registered empty. Connie woke us all up, and we tried to decide what to do. We didn’t think we had enough gas to make it to the next service station so we exited the freeway, but all the stations in the nearby town were closed.

The country lane we drove down to the next town was very dark and deserted. The temperature in Nebraska that night was frigid--double digits below zero. And then, we ran out of gas, and the car stopped. What would we do now? Gary and his brother, Lee, got out of the car and walked toward some lights they saw down the road. Connie and I stayed in the car and prayed. I was 6 months pregnant with our first child.  I was cold and scared.

Gary and Lee came to a farmhouse about one mile away. They woke up the resident of the house, and told him our situation.  They asked him to sell them just enough gas to get to a station.  

His response was surprising:  “Not today.”  Not today??  The brothers went back on the road and walked two more miles to the next farmhouse, and were able to buy gas. It was enough to get us to a gas station. Thirty seven years have passed since we asked that farmer for gas. We have never been back to ask if is “today” might be the right day.

At the time, we were disappointed and couldn’t believe that this farmer wasn’t willing to help us.  Over the years, though, I have realized that often we are also like that farmer—waiting for convenient moments to serve.

My husband and I have found that there will always be opportunities in our lives to perform service, but certain moments in time, and various kinds of service only come along once in a lifetime.

We have also learned that service often requires sacrifice, and I truly believe that this is the best kind of service because it brings with it the blessings of heaven. Elder Dallin H. Oaks reminds us, “Our Savior teaches us to follow Him by making the sacrifices necessary to lose ourselves in unselfish service to others. If we do, He promises us eternal life, “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7)” (Ensign, May 2009)”

Since we’re down to our last 5 weeks in Palau, we probably won’t have a chance to contact Michelle again before we leave.  In the grand scheme of things whether her picture is in LDS tools directory probably doesn’t matter, but the idea that sticks with us is that Today, While the Sun Shines we must work with a will, today, all our duties with patience we fulfill (see Hymn 229).

We had a good example of working with a will on Tuesday while we were moving dirt from one side of Diane’s house to the other side as a service project (that seems to have no end in sight).  There’s no way to get any heavy equipment in to do the work, so all the elders just pretended they were human backhoes. Using picks, shovels and wheelbarrows they moved dirt until hands were too blistered to continue.  They have probably completed 10% of the dirt moving task. It definitely won’t be done in the foreseeable future, but the plan is just to keep pecking away, one bite at a time while the sun shines.

We can definitely say that the Elder’s are continuing to work with a will. This past week Elder Gubler and Dopp taught 62 lessons, and Fullmer and Pauga taught 37.  In total they were just one lesson shy of 100.  

Another person this week who was willing to keep going was Barbara Gilson. She came to Palau to visit her husband, Larry, who is working here for the next year. Barbara arrived in Palau at 4:30 A. M., but came to Sacrament meeting at 9:00 A.M. and was our concluding speaker. She told about their long marriage, and how Larry stood by her after a car accident that left her with a serious brain injury. It took four years to recover. It was during those years that she joined the church (Larry has yet to join). She also told of her love for the gospel. Her husband was definitely an example of both work and love, as he cared for her and stayed with her while she healed.   

Our “work” is winding down here in Palau as we continue to take member’s pictures, create a “Welcome to Palau” transition booklet, prepare member thumbnail sketches and continue to do all the regular work that occurs weekly.  We know that that the sun (metaphorically) in Palau will continue to shine on the work we do here in Palau for the remaining days of our mission.

Making the Leap of Faith (#74)

This week at seminary we were studying John 10 in which Jesus is spoken of as the good Shepherd.  While we discussed verse 4 where the sheep know His voice, we heard a unique story told by Eli about the value of knowing the voice to follow. During WWII, a ship was sinking and another ship was alongside to remove the men from the sinking ship. The ships were both rocking furiously, but at exact opposite frequency—that is, at one point their sides would be together and the other point their sides would be far apart.  The rocking frequency was such that in order to make the jump from one ship to the other the seaman would have to make his jump when the vessels sides were farthest apart; then while the person was in the air the vessels sides would rock together and he would safely land on the deck of the rescue ship.  If they jumped when the vessels sides were next to each other the gap between the ships would open while the seaman was in midair, and he would fall in between the ships and be crushed and drowned in the ocean below.  Many of the men being rescued knew and trusted the man who was commanding them when to jump.  While it was difficult to implicitly trust his command to jump when the ships sides were farthest apart, those that did so were saved.  So it is with our faith in the good shepherd, we make the leap of faith at the command of the good shepherd trusting that the outcome is according to his will.  Sister Johnsen likes the saying she found in the book The Artist’s Way which says, “Leap and the net will appear.”

We had one of those trusting experiences on Tuesday night when we opened up our CES inservice lesson to all the branch leaders and teachers.  Elder Johnsen’s lesson was about teaching after the manner of the spirit.    After laying the groundwork by reading D&C 50: 13-22 and using Matthew O. Richardson’s October 2011 conference talk on the subject of “teaching after the manner of the spirit”, not in front of, not behind, but BY the spirit, we divided the attendees into teams of two.  Each team used Teaching No Greater Call (teaching by the spirit section) to create a list of things we can do to teach by the spirit. After their reports EJ concluded with ideas from Richardson’s talk where he suggested that we must teach as the Holy Ghost teaches. He “teaches what we must know and do so we may become what we must be” and secondly “the Holy Ghost teaches by inviting, prompting, encouraging and inspiring us to act.  Christ assured us that we come to the truth when we live doctrine and act accordingly.” Our final section was to have each person individually answer out loud the question, “How can you use this material to teach by the spirit.” Each person found at least one thing (from our long list on the board) that they committed to do so their teaching would be BY the spirit.   Sister J made rice crispy squares for a treat—the meeting couldn’t have gone better.  After it was over EJ received a text from the Elder’s Quorum President, “I really enjoyed attending in-service.  I learned a lot and felt the spirit. Thanks.”  For us it was a leap of faith to invite the busiest people in the branch to ANOTHER meeting, but it was gratifying that the good Shepherd would send the comforter so the instruction would model the lesson we were trying to teach.  

On Tuesday morning we were up at the church doing service. We actually had two project choices. We could put a second coat of paint on the new doors on the BP and FHC (which some of you will remember were destroyed during our church break-in about a month ago), paint the back of the shed, and do some other deep cleaning work, or we could go and move some dirt at Diane’s place on Dead Dog road. (That’s our name for the road that Diane lives on because the day we found her house there was a dead dog on the road). We finally decided to split up and do both. We feel very happy that we made that decision. As we were concluding our work and the Koror elders had come back to the church, a guy from the Czech Republic stopped by the church and visited for a while with EJ. He was just walking to the crocodile farm, saw our church sign which said that visitors were welcome, and just stopped in to see what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was all about. He was actually surprised to learn that the church has a presence in the Czech Republic (which we knew because of our friends, the Hrncirik's served a mission there).

Elder Fullmer and Gubler actually had a “real” discussion with him, gave him a Book of Mormon and later that day had a follow-up meeting where they gave him more church literature.  Talk about divine positioning.  He’s been here in Palau for a month. This is the first time he’s stopped at the church, and this is the only Tuesday we’ve been at the church doing service this month.  He took the leap of faith as prompted by the spirit, and missionaries were at the church to answer his questions.  Coincidence?  We don’t think so!   

We just can’t stop bragging on our awesome Palau missionaries.  This week the elders in Meyuns, Elder Fullmer and Pauga taught 51 lessons and Elder’s Gubler and Dopp taught 61.  These are not just lessons for the sake of numbers, these are lessons taught to real people who are making and keeping commitments.  The elders have taken the leap of faith which resulted from recent training, and we are astounded by the way the work of the Good Shepherd is going forward.  Elder Gubler also celebrated his 20th birthday this past week, but he was in Guam on his actual birthday, so we celebrated it a week late.  When we asked him what he wanted he said, a German chocolate cake. We were impressed to find the cake and the frosting in the store here…it’s the little miracles! 

We’ve also continued our work this week with our 5 bright and dedicated Koror Elementary spelling bee students.  Since we were only called in to help beginning January 24, and the island wide Spelling Bee is this coming Saturday (February 16th) our students have had much less preparation than did our Meyuns students last year.  Nevertheless, they’ve been working hard and also taking a leap of faith that the extra hour they spend with us each day after school will pay dividends in a better spelling bee performance.  

Ralph Waldo Emerson says, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us.” As we look inside of ourselves for our own faith, we are able to move forward in ways that we didn’t previously think possible. Every day we can practice our own special “leap” of faith!

What is the definition of Success? (#73)

While we were serving on our first mission in the California North Mission 42 years ago, both Elder and Sister Johnsen became acquainted with a definition of success that has remained with them:  Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.  This week we’ve seen numerous examples that reminded us and verified the correctness of that definition.  

First, we must discuss the completion of a successful mission by Elder Marshall who departed Palau early Thursday morning.   By 9:30 p.m. Wednesday the elders had finished their night’s work, and as is our tradition when an Elder leaves Palau, we stay up with them until they have to go to the airport.  On this night we played a rousing game of Mexican Train, and at 10 minutes to midnight broke out the sparkling cider which had been chilling in the freezer.  We toasted Elder Marshall, and then climbed in the truck to take him to the airport where we presented him with his plastic drinking cup (on which he had written his name) filled with candy.

We took our customary picture with him in holding the sign that Sister Johnsen made nearly 16 months ago with some Palauan farewell phrases.

As we watched him climb the stairs to pass through security, we were reminded of how much growth we’ve seen in Elder Marshall over the year+ that we’ve known him.  Naturally quiet and reserved, we’ve seen him blossom into a testifying and challenging missionary.  In his final talk in Sacrament meeting he made the comment that two years is “not long enough”.  He went home wishing he could have stayed longer—he loved the people he taught! 

 

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, Garland and Charity, two of our young women were at our apartment frantically using our dial-up internet connection to complete their BYU-H college application before the February 1 deadline.  Their work got pushed to the last minute because they had it in their minds that the application deadline was April 1. It was only divine intervention that brought the actual February 1 deadline to their attention.  We are glad to report that they were able to complete their applications, had an interview with President Kesolie, came back to our apartment the next day for a Skype call/interview with the Mission president, and are all done with the whole thing.

Speaking of the sign that Elder Marshall held in his farewell picture at the airport, we were also successful in giving both girls a serious laugh.   While they were here waiting to Skype the Mission President for their second and final interview, they happened to see our well used farewell sign and were reading it. They both said, “We’re done?” And Sister Johnsen said, “We’re done, as in finished with our mission.” They started laughing so hard.   We asked them what was so funny.  It turns out one of the Palauan phrases that we thought means “I’m Finished” actually means, “I’m full” or “I’m finished eating.”  The girls just roared with laughter.  

On Sunday night we had Elder Marshall read and answer all the questions in the bowl (another tradition with our departing missionaries). One of those questions is “Describe your worst language faux pas.”  Elder Marshall didn’t have a funny language mistake to share, but now we do!  But after all was said and done though, it was great for us to be able to help these two fine young women progressively realize their worthy ideal.  

We’ve also started working with five 6th grade students at Koror Elementary School for the island wide Spelling Bee which is coming up at the end of March.   We were surprised that we received help from the Holy Ghost this week to make our bee preparation run more smoothly.  EJ had an idea pop into his head that he should bring his lap top computer to our Tuesday – Thursday classes so that when the students ask, “Definition Please” he can quickly type the word into his dictionary look-up program and be able to give them an accurate, precise, and concise definition, rather than just giving them something he makes up.  SJ got some inspiration on how to manage our practice sessions so that every student is continuously engaged and involved on every word, not just on the words where they are the speller.  It surprises us that the Holy Ghost would be interested in the Koror Elementary Student Spelling Bee, but we guess we shouldn’t be surprised because He’s helped us in every aspect of our work here in Palau, why not spelling?  We love seeing our bright students progressively improve—all of us feel successful!

With Elder Marshall’s departure, Elder Gubler has been named the new Zone Leader in Palau.  Early Saturday morning he headed off to Guam for the monthly zone leader training meeting that’s held at the mission office.  We have been so impressed with the work that he and Elder Fullmer have been doing in Meyuns. They have another baptism lined up for this coming Saturday.  It is no surprise to us that the mission president appointed Elder Gubler as Zone Leader and Elder Fullmer as District Leader.  Their work has helped to transform Meyuns back into some of its former glory when it was called Mormon Town.  Progressively they have been accomplishing much good together. Now with Elder Dopp joining us, Elder Gubler will move back to Koror where he originally began, and serve with Elder Dopp, and Elder Fullmer will stay in Meyuns with Elder Pauga.  We foresee good things ahead in both areas as the elders begin this new assignment.  

Today was fast and testimony Sunday.  Melody, a recent convert bore her testimony and told of a recent telephone conversation that she had with her daughter.  During the conversation Melody’s teenage daughter was complaining about a neighbor.  Melody advised her to handle it in a very kind and Christian way. After that comment her daughter exclaimed, “Is this really my mother?  What has happened to you?”   We know what has happened.  Melody has become a light, not a judge. She is filled with the spirit, and it just oozes from her in every way imaginable.  The contrast is obvious.  Sister Johnsen has been working with Melody the last couple of weeks on learning to lead music and to play the piano, and Melody has made quick progress.  She led the music today in Sacrament meeting today for the first time and we all enjoyed the feeling of her success as she develops her talents.

Later on during our 3 hour block Timothy, an Elder, who has recently returned to activity, described in Priesthood the change that has come into his life since he started meeting with the Meyun’s missionaries.  He said that he has started reading the scriptures every day, and stopped drinking and chewing.  He says that the men who live around him have greater respect for him, and his mother is proud of him. He says his children are showing love, rather than fear toward him, and he’s happier with himself than he has felt at any time in recent memory.   He said that AA meetings (which he tried and failed at many times in the past) didn’t help, but prayers and daily reading of the Book of Mormon has transformed his life.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ, when acted upon does change people lives for the better, and isn’t that what success in life is all about:  the progressive realization of a worthy ideal-progressively becoming more like Savior!  

Twenty Years in the Making! (#72)

On Saturday we were able to witness a very special baptism. After twenty years and numerous sets of missionaries, “Grandma” was finally baptized. Elder Fullmer and Elder Gubler were the right missionaries, at the right time, with the right message. Now in her 70’s and crippled, she was carried into the water by the two missionaries.  Because they had carried her into the water and had to hold her in their arms, it took three attempts to finally make sure she was completely buried in the water. On the first attempt she had her hand on Elder Gubler’s back so that didn’t go under. The next time both elders tried to kneel down and get her covered, but they couldn’t make a space between them. Finally they figured out a way to baptize her. As she was wheeled back into the chapel after her baptism, she was glowing. There was a noticeable difference in her countenance.  It doesn’t surprise us that they are having success for the past 3 weeks they’ve averaged 40 lessons taught each week!  

We talked today in Sunday School about the lost 116 pages of the Book of Mormon which Martin Harris convinced Joseph Smith to give to him. But the Lord, who knows the beginning from the end, had prepared the Book of Mormon to be complete by inspiring prophets thousands of years in advance to include portions that needed to be there.  The Lord knows that some things take thousands of years and some take only twenty, but the Lord knows how to get his work done.  We read that, “The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they be come to naught…remember, that is it not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men” (D & C 3:1, 3).

We found ourselves perfect examples of that principle of the work of men being frustrated this week because we forgot to prepare someone to take Karen’s place to post our blog. It was pretty frustrating! Now our last two blogs are back to back because we did not find anyone to help us. Karen has been out on a cruise with our son, Clay, and she is the one who helps us. We appreciate how the Lord’s work is always accomplished.

This week Sister Johnsen went out to give our newly baptized member, Melody, an orientation for her calling as branch music leader. With a name like Melody, it is the perfect calling. She loves music, but it turns out that she can’t read music at all. So now, Sister J has to go back and start teaching her from the church’s keyboard workbook and see if we can help her. Because she loves music so much and enjoyed Sister Johnsen’s musical number in Sacrament meeting when she sang Sally DeFord’s song, "Whole Again," Elder Johnsen burned her 10 songs from the Sally DeFord collection with both the vocal and the minus track, and Sister Johsen printed all the music. Melody was thrilled to have that music, and wants to learn all the songs.

We also started working with the kids at Koror Elementary on the Spelling Bee. It is kind of late, because last year Meyun’s Elementary started before Christmas and it is the end of January. We will just have to do whatever we can to prepare them the upcoming Spelling Bee in late March.

We continued our “new” tradition of having a picnic on the last Thursday before the end of the transfer which occurs on Sunday, the 27th. We found a new location, and it was so beautiful. The boats streaming by, the Rock Islands, the beautiful blues in the water created a pleasant atmosphere for our meal together.  There was plenty of good food prepared by Sister Johnsen, and all of it was free (to the Elders). Elder Johnsen is always reminding us that this is the BEST kind of food-free food!

Our lovely day was especially appreciated because we have had rain every day this week. SJ mentioned to EJ on Sunday afternoon that we hadn’t had rain for a while, and it started raining Sunday evening. We walked in rain almost every day, and one day it was like a monsoon. We were super wet walkers!

We also had another police experience this week because we found on Monday that the lock on the church gate was broken. EJ and Brother Thing went out and bought a new lock which wasn’t too expensive, but they had to purchase gate keys for the leaders and this cost an additional $18.  Unfortunately on Wednesday when Brother Thing came back to the church, the lock had been broken again, so they had to go an buy another lock after contacting the police and filing another report. Elder Johnsen is going to be on a first name basis with the policemen soon!

Baptism, broken gates locks, beautiful district lunches, and Spelling Bees. Kind of a mixed bag, but making a memorable week for the Palau missionaries!

Tender Mercies of the Lord (#71)

This past week Elder Johnsen had a unique experience.  It all began on Tuesday when we were on our usual early morning walk. A woman suddenly drove in front of us, stopped her car and pulled over and got out of her car.   The young mother introduced herself and  commented on how healthy and thin we both looked—she said that she has watched us over the months we’ve been on Palau, and was happy to get to know us.  While we were chatting she gave us an invitation to a spiritual revival to be held each night at the SDA church.  Elder Johnsen was already scheduled to teach first aid at the Relief Society meeting on Tuesday evening, Wednesday is his branch presidency meeting, seminary, YM/YW and Sister Johnsen’s birthday dinner and on Thursday we have institute, but we decided that on Thursday we’d just divide and conquer. Sister Johnsen handled institute and Elder Johnsen would attend the spiritual revival.  Paul Brace, from Boston, was the guest revivalist.  Elder Johnsen was seated next to Paul and his wife on the flight from Guam to Palau as we returned from the senior conference.   He carried on a lively conversation with them on that plane flight.  When Elder Johnsen walked into the SDA church building on Thursday he was surprised to see how many people he knew, so as he walked in he went over and said hi to them.  When the Brace’s spotted him they both came over and warmly greeted him and Elder Johnsen was seated next to Mrs. Brace.  During Pastor Brace’s opening remarks he had Elder Johnsen stand and introduced him to the congregation.   It was the warmest possible greeting anyone could have received.  Pastor Brace comments were about preparing for the Lord’s second coming, and Elder J didn’t hear any doctrinal differences that made him uncomfortable.  

After the meeting the local pastor, translator and many other members warmly thanked Elder Johnsen for coming.  It is easy to see why the SDA church in Palau is flourishing if all visitors are treated as warmly as Elder Johnsen was.  When he returned home Sister Johnsen asked him what he felt about the meeting.  EJ commented about the warmth of his greeting and farewell, but sadly noted the lack of the spirit present.

Elder Johnsen contrasted that lack with what he felt the next morning as we opened our little zone conference meeting. There were just 8 of us present, the mission president and the 6 missionaries. As we sang the opening song he felt the spirit so strongly come into the room, tears came to his eyes.  Just as Elder Bednar said in April 2005 conference talk called, “The Tender Mercies of the Lord.” To Elder Johnsen’s mind came this verse from the Book of Mormon: “But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.” Like Elder Bednar, Elder Johnsen knew that he was experiencing just such a tender mercy.  A loving Savior was sending him a most personal and timely message of comfort and reassurance.  This IS God’s work and we are in His service.  Elder Johnsen was first on the zone conference program. In his talk he quoted Alma 33:22-23 where Alma told the Zoramite poor what the seed was they should plant—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his atonement.  He also related that teaching to Alma’s great Chiasmus in Alma 36 where the turning point of the chiasmus is when Alma the Younger’s mind caught hold upon the thought of Jesus Christ—that He could deliver him from the pain he was experiencing.  Alma deliberately is using the focusing power of the Chiasmus to direct our attention to the central message of the importance to him of the Savior and His atonement—as it should be to each of us.  

After his talk EJ sat down but immediately had to get up he felt like throwing up—so he went home and slept for the next 4 hours straight and missed the rest of the Zone Conference and spent all the next day in bed.  

Zone Conference Role-Playing

It was another tender mercy that Sister Johnsen was NOT incapacitated by the flu.  On Saturday she continued her work with Pam Tervet who was scheduled to sing, “I Have Not Seen but I Believe” (which she performed beautifully on Sunday)  For the past 16 months that Sister J’s been serving as branch music leader we’ve had a special musical number almost every available week.  Every week she works with a solo or ensemble group to prepare for an upcoming performance in addition to insuring that our branch choir performs monthly.  Music has continued to be a big part of our service in Palau and while we have both occasionally performed, 95% of the music has been performed by locals who we have found to be very happy and excited to share their talents.

Speaking of tender mercies we served taco’s for Sunday dinner to the elders.  Now to those people who live in the USA, tacos doesn’t seem like much of a miracle Sunday dinner, but on Palau it takes about 3 separate miracles to happen at the same time—we NEVER (except for this one time) have fresh good iceberg lettuce, we rarely have tomatoes, nor sour cream. No one sells taco seasoning (Sister Johnsen got some from the states), only about ½ the time we can get flour tortillas but on this one week all the tumblers aligned in an improbable jackpot of tacos.  

While President Mecham was here for Zone conference we also were able to confirm with him our departure date so we can begin to make our arrangements for returning home to Texas.  We have a backlog of doctor and dental appointments to line up.  We feel that it is also a tender mercy that we’ve been sustained physically during these past 16 months.  

Sister Johnsen celebrated her second birthday in the mission field. We went out to dinner at Sarah’s Yum Yum which was reported to be good and where we have never been before. We won’t go there again; did Elder Johnsen’s flu come from the grilled salmon?  Sometime a restaurant gets a bad rap from coincidence.    

It week of little blessings and mercies and we were glad to be able to experience them.

Under His Wings (#70)

All the senior missionaries were gathered together under the wing of President and Sister Mecham this week in Guam for our semiannual “Senior Missionary Conference”.  Elder Olsen shared the following story as a spiritual thought during the conference:

“After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage.  One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree.

Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick.  When he struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother’s wings.  The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise.  She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies.  Then the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast . . . . because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.  

In singing praises to God, King David wrote, “He will cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:4).

The Savior mourned over Jerusalem, “ . . .how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37) see also: 3 Ne. 10:4-6; and several others --Topical Guide – Wings

The scriptural references to “a hen gathering her chicks” will have new meaning if we remember the mother bird in the Yellowstone National Park fire.  

Let us have the Faith of little chicks.  Even though the storms (or fires) of life may rage about us, we must trust in the love and safety of the Savior.  Remember, He died that we might live.”

During our trip we also fell under the wings of Hollywood—on Saturday afternoon.   E/S Johnsen went to Les Miserables which was a touching and wonderful movie.  Tuesday evening after dinner with other seniors  we saw Lincoln (which we understand has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards).  One of the many things that we miss on Palau is a movie theater with current releases.  Although there is one Palauan advantage, we can usually purchase current DVD releases for $3.  

Speaking of birds--Monday was an eventful day for us in Guam.  In the morning Elder Johnsen got his golf need satisfied—a foursome of seniors headed to Anderson AFB to play on their 18 hole golf course.  Elder J had the hot hand on the front nine—you should have heard the “Oohs” and “Awes” when he knocked a 5 wood 195 yards to within 4 feet of the pin on the par 3 8th hole.  Of course he missed the birdy putt on the high side a sliding side hill putt—it was close— the ball made a complete 360 around the hole before popping out, but that’s golf!   He doesn’t want to talk about the back nine, we’ll let you draw your own conclusion, but one par 5 tells the whole story—after two brilliant shots he was in the greenside bunker 10 yards away from the pin after 4 more strokes he was finally out of the bunker but now 20 yards from the pin down a steep embankment—it was a miracle that he only recorded a triple.   He found every sand trap on the back nine and didn’t have one clean hit out.  Nevertheless, it was so much fun for him.  

Monday afternoon we both got our teeth cleaned and later that evening we were at the Mecham’s with all the seniors for a great meal and family home evening.  The spiritual activity was to make a one word sermon.  Both Elder Johnsen and Sister Johnsen were chosen by their group to deliver the sermon—SJ discoursed on the word GO and EJ talked about BEHOLD.  It was a fun exercise.  After that we played a jeopardy game composed of questions about individual seniors present.  EJs group did well because they won the daily double and got the question right.  After that we played four on a couch.  That was super fun and funny. (everyone takes a new name of another person in the group--object of the game is to remember the new name of every person and get 4 people of the same sex on the couch).  You have never seen so many “senior” moments!  The women won!  

On Tuesday the conference began, President and Sister Mecham spoke and wowed us with their enthusiasm. For the first time in many years the mission beat the baptismal goal—the Lord is clearly accelerating the work in Micronesia.  We heard also from our seminary/institute director and from the office and service center staff.

On Wednesday each senior couple made a report of things they had been doing.  E/S Johnsen reported on their work to update and use the new LDS on-line tools, priesthood service night, our transition plan, and also some things that we really enjoy about serving in Palau.

EJ was very excited to update LDS tools while he was in Guam and actually get on his iphone the complete Palau branch directory, with pictures and locations all of our members.  He just thinks it’s way cool to see all our work so concisely accessible. Thursday was the concluding day of the conference, it consisted of a hike to a beautiful island location where we had a great breakfast followed by a testimony meeting.

It was a lovely way to end the conference sheltered under the outstretched limbs of trees less than 50 feet from the ocean.  While the weather threatened we were able to complete the program without disruption.   By Friday night we were back in Palau, back in the saddle again.  

We now have only a few more weeks before we are sheltered back under the wings of the Klein Ward.  We have lots of work to do before we leave Palau and come home!

Be Prepared (#69)

Monday is usually our preparation day, but this past Monday was New Year Eve and Sister Johnsen was in charge of games and also prepared a large supply of snacks and treats for the big event at the church. Instead of personal preparation, we were preparing in another way.  The party was set to begin at 8:30 p.m. and go until mid-night.  At 7:30 we began loading our car with 4 gallons of purified ice water, 40 frosted cupcakes, a tray of brownies, a tray of rice crispy treats and about 5 gallons of Johnsen famous popcorn.  The loading continued with two trash bags filled with Palauan snowballs (crumbled up paper surrounded by a white piece of paper securely fastenened with wide cellophane tape), Sequence, 3 decks of cards, old maid cards, dice, beans, straws, Banana Grams, balloons and a host of other supplies.  Upon arriving at the church we hauled all our supplies indoors and set up game tables, the food table, the drink dispenser, and then got the volleyball net up in the parking lot.  By 8:30 all was ready.

With volleyball going on outside and board games happening inside everyone was able to find something fun to do.  At 10:00 we stopped all the play, moved the volley ball nets and got set up for Palau’s second official annual snowball fight.  For those of you that have never had a snow ball fight with wadded up paper snowballs here’s how it’s done. The court is divided in half; the snowballs are dumped in the middle of the court along the center line.  Two teams of equal ability are chosen; all players line up on the back line of the court and at the sound of GO run to the center, grab snow balls and start pelting members of the other team, like dodge ball.  The only difference is that when you get hit instead of leaving the playing court you just switch sides and become a member of the other team.  It gets pretty wild—our game had about 20 contestants on each team.  Play continues until everyone is on one side or the other—however, after 30 minutes of hard charging play the Second annual Palauan snowball fight ended due to exhaustion of the players.  We have never seen so many smiles—the smaller children love trying to pelt the adults with snowballs.  In fact one little boy who didn’t quite understand that he was supposed to stay on his side of the court basically circled President Kesolei and pelted him nonstop with “snowballs.” It was the most intense barrage we’ve ever witnessed.  Both participants and watchers on the sideline were literally laughing out loud. 

After the snowball fight ended, we played some outdoor tag games which we very fun.  About 11:00 the teens got a game of basketball going while most of the crowd went back inside to continue their board games, play musical chairs, and balloon volleyball.  Elder Johnsen and 3 of the teenagers had an intense game of sequence going when the clock struck midnight. It was an amazing way to welcome in the New Year.  We felt so blessed to have a perfect night. The moon (on the breast of the new fallen snow-- balls) was nearly full, no rain, just enough of the breeze to keep the outdoor pleasant.  We got to bed at 1:00 and enjoyed our preparation day on Tuesday which was a very rainy day followed by a very rainy night.

We moved our service project to Wednesday because of New Year’s day. We found that the lights, air conditioner filters and ceiling fan blades were much dirtier than we had expected.  It took a couple of hours for four of us to clean them.

Elder Johnsen and Elder Fullmer worked on replacing the ceiling tiles in the Young Women’s room. The tiles were ruined by a water leak (which we repaired earlier). When we were finished all the Elders stopped at Sister Paz’s house to see what they could do about her roof. Bopha had blown off one of her corrugated sheets of roofing so we found and reattached it.  

On Thursday Sister Johnsen delivered her spiritual thought in district meeting which was based on the parable of the sower (or better named the parable of the different types of soil) she made the point that you don’t know the quality of the soil until you sow the seed.  So it is with missionary work, we prepare and then try to share the gospel with everyone—as Peter taught, “ . . .and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you “ 1 Peter 3:15

We were heading for the church on Friday morning to do our usual weeding when we got a call from Brother John Thing. He said that there was something wrong at the church. He asked us to come over. We were not prepared for what we saw. The church had been broken into. There was broken glass and torn door frames.  An attempt on the Branch Presidents office yielded no treasures so the family history center was tried. There a laptop was stolen. We were grateful that the other three computers were not disturbed.  Here’s how Elder Johnsen described what happened:  “Sometime between 3:30 p.m. 1/3/13 and 9:30 a.m. 1/4/13 the church building in Koror was broken into and the branch president’s office and the family history center doors were forced open and the FHC laptop was stolen. Thankfully the data projector was still at our apartment (we used it during the Christmas party which was held here) and thus it was not taken from its usual storage spot in the branch president’s office.  As far as we can tell nothing else is missing. The bad guys entered the building by breaking a louvered window by the side door (between the chapel and the aux class room building) reaching around and through the broken window pane and unlocking the door lock and the dead bolt lock.  We met with the police shortly after 9:30 and at 9:45 I filed a statement with the police.  We’ve replaced the glass panel, cleaned up the glass debris and also the debris around the forced doors.  The door into the BP office and the FHC will need to be replaced and the trim replaced and repainted.”  This was sent to both President Kesolie and to church leaders in Guam. It wasn’t the morning that we expected. We learned that that the extra glass in the shed does come in handy another example of being prepared!  

We are showing The Wizard of Oz for First Friday Flicks before we take off to Guam for our Senior conference. Our suitcases and those of Elder Marshall contain the equivalent of 9 large flat rate boxes worth of contents to mail home, all addressed to Karen Johnsen. Thanks, Krn.  We only have 10 weeks left and we thought this was our best chance to get our things home with less expense.  (All mail goes out of Palau at $.46 per ounce.  Do the math that’s $7/lb.   We literally have 130 lbs to bring to Guam that we’ll be shipping in 9 separate boxes.  From Guam we can use flat rate boxes and we will spend about $1/lb.  Now that’s being prepared to live providently!  

Bon Voyage to us! We are prepared for our trip to Guam!