Giving Thanks (#63)

Now that we’ve completed our second Thanksgiving in the Republic of Palau, we thought it would be a good time to enumerate some of the many things for which we are thankful.  

First, we are thankful for Humor.  Almost daily we’ll find something “lost in translation” about which we get a good laugh.  The best gem from our week was a menu at the Rip Tide restaurant—lots of things here are decorated with flowers, but we don’t really believe that they intended to say that their sweet and sour chicken was “cooked in flower and fried . . .”

Secondly, we are thankful for sunsets.  Usually we miss them because we are back in our apartment at dinner time and our western view is obscured by trees, but occasionally we are out and about and are treated to some of the most colorful evening skies.  

Third, we are thankful for generous friends.  This week while our daughter, Karen, was visiting us from the states, President Kesolei and his daughter, Kali, took us all out in his boat where we cruised through the Rock Islands and visited all the usual tourist sites up the east side and back down on the west side.  Elder Johnsen was reminded once again of why he said 12 years ago, when he visited Palau on a business trip while we worked for ExxonMobil, that Palau was the most beautiful place God caused to be created.  

Fourth, we are thankful for people to serve and the elders with whom we serve.  On Tuesday we did our usual weekly service project.  This week we were back at widow Paz’s home and filled up the back of the Elder’s new Tacoma with trash that we collected from around her house.  We also completed the base board project that we began several weeks ago.  Not only was Sister Paz grateful for our help, but we all felt such a sense of friendship and camaraderie for each other while we worked together.  

Fifth, we are thankful for good food and good people with whom to share it.  This week we had two Thanksgiving feasts. On Thursday Sister Johnsen set a fine table decorated with local “flowers” not flour.

At 2:00 p.m. the Elders joined Karen, Eli, and Daniel and us in our apartment for a meal to remember.   Getting our big 22 lb. turkey stuffed and in the oven seemed easier than usual.  The turkey was reportedly the best we’ve ever made.  Was it the coating of olive oil and sea salt, or the fact that the power was on all day this year as compared to last Thanksgiving?  Dinner was very delicious.  Eli and Daniel actually prepared a good amount of the food; they brought a cherry pie, mashed red potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots, gravy and a yam soufflé.  That coupled with our turkey, dressing, rolls, pumpkin pie,Johnsen’s famous Jell-O salad, celery sticks w/peanut butter and raisins made the perfect meal.  After the dinner was over we cleared the table, rinsed some of the dishes, and played “Oh Heck” and several other games which were very fun.  But the big Thanksgiving feasts were not over.  On Saturday evening we had a baptism at the church followed by our branch pot luck Thanksgiving dinner.

We had a huge crowd, thanks to fliers made by Elder J and delivered by the Elders, and also about 30 text message reminders sent out by Elder J on Saturday morning.  Perhaps most gratifying was that the next day in Sacrament meeting, we had one of our largest congregations of the year attend our meetings.  

Sixth, we’re thankful for Family and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   We feel so blessed to have had Karen make the trip from the states to make a brief visit in Palau.  As we have taken her to see many of the places where we’ve worked and served during these past 14 months, we were reminded of how much we love her and how we’ve grown to love the people we’ve served here in Palau. 

This week also saw the passing of our brother-in-law, Jerry Hitchcock.  There were also deaths and serious injury in our extended church family back in Texas—all these incidents remind us that the certain door of death lies ahead for all of us, but because of the Savior, Jesus Christ, that door can lead to limitless possibilities together with our loved ones forever.  We truly have so much for which to be thankful!   

Down the Via Dolorosa: Our Own Little Miracle! (#62)

It’s been quite an eventful, inspiring, and fun week. We had a visit from the Freddie Nicero who is our CES leader, and he brought Brother Kinjo with him, who is the head of CES for the entire region. Karen Johnsen, our daughter and stateside missionary facilitator/companion, arrived for a brief visit. We had an inspiring district meeting, and Melody was baptized. 

So let’s start with the last first. Melody is a Filipina in her early 40s.  She is the house keeper for one of our less active members.  Saturday night was her baptism.  Her conversion has been marked by inspired teachings of Elders Gubler and Fullmer, and frequent stories related by them of her amazing progression.  We have followed her progress from hiding from the missionaries to become a member and fellow citizen with the saints with awe and wonder.  Sister Johnsen had the privilege to sing Via Dolorosa at her baptism.

Two weeks ago Melody had a dream, and in the dream she heard beautiful singing by a large group. She was enchanted by the song that they were singing, but she’d never heard the song before so she asked (in her dream) one of the singers the name of the song.  They told her it was Via Dolorosa.  She promptly awoke, and later told Elder Gubler and Fullmer about the dream.  So when Elder Gubler told us that story he asked us if we knew what the Via Dolorosa was.  Of course we knew not only about the place, but also about the song.  We got a copy of the sheet music over the internet, but we couldn’t find a minus track so Elder Johnsen played the melody while Sister J sang the song as a surprise to her at the baptism.  As Sister J was singing during the baptism, we noticed that Melody leaned over to Elder Gubler and excitedly said something to him.  Later we learned that this WAS the beautiful song that she heard in her dream.  Melody is such great convert that her boss Rinehart Silas attended the baptismal service with his wife (a nonmember).  Rinehart is such a quality educated man and he seemed touched by the story Elder Johnsen related in his baptism talk (Scott Anderson’s story about the 74 year old 3 PhD professor who converted to the church in Germany). Nevertheless, Elder Johnsen was surprised and happy when Rinehart came to Sacrament meeting the next day, stayed for Sunday school, and participated in Priesthood meeting on Sunday.

Here are the words to this beautiful song about the Savior:

Down the Vía Dolorosa in Jerusalem that day
The soldiers tried to clear the narrow street,
But the crowd pressed in to see
The Man condemned to die on Calvary.

He was bleeding from a beating, there were stripes upon His back;
And He wore a crown of thorns upon His head.
And He bore with every step
The scorn of those who cried out for His death.

The blood that would cleanse the souls of all men
Made it's way through the heart of Jerusalem.

Down the Vía Dolorosa called the way of suffering
Like a lamb came the Messiah, Christ the King
But He chose to walk that road out of His love for you and me
Down the Vía Dolorosa, all the way to Calvary.

On Wednesday our fearless CES leaders came to visit us. In the morning we talked about the work, and then went to Kramer’s for lunch. We sat outside so we could see the beautiful view of the ocean. It was a lovely day. We all really enjoyed our food.  We found an interesting sign hanging near the door as we left. (This person has interesting priorities).

Then we lent both men exercise clothes and tennis shoes and we took them and five institute age young adults to the waterfall at Ngardmau. It was fun and a great hike. We got some outstanding pictures.

On the hike back up, Sister Johnsen was determined to beat the tram that was carrying our visitors to the top. She had to hustle because there are over 250 steps from the bottom to the top. But she beat the tram by about 5 minutes. Both Freddie and Brother Kinjo called her Iron Woman for her climbing feat.

On Wednesday night we ran out the airport to get Karen who we decided to bring to Palau on impulse decision. She has helped us so much on our mission with errands, packages, shopping etc., that we thought it would be nice to have her come. Sister Johnsen was nervous all day about having Karen make her connections in Hawaii and Guam because they were pretty close, but she made every one of them. We were so excited to see her.

Karen came with us on Thursday to our district meeting. Elder Gubler asked each one of us to talk about a different Christlike characteristic that are mentioned in Preach My Gospel. After the meeting we showed Karen Koror High School where we taught the drama class, and Meyuns Elementary where we did our spelling bee. We took her out to Palau Pacific Resort where Elder Johnsen stayed when he was working in Guam and on a business trip to Palau.

We have had a wonderful and miraculous week here in Palau.

Rodents of Unusual Size (#61)

This past Wednesday Elder’s Fullmer, Gubler, and Johnsen worked at Sister Paz’s home cutting and installing six inch baseboards around the edge of her bedroom and her living room.  She had been having problems with rodents (of unusual size) entering her house and making themselves at home.  After we put up the baseboards, Sister Paz called us the next morning and said that she got her first good night sleep in over a year because she knew she had no worries about the rodents.

That got us thinking about movie quotes from the Princess Bride.

Inconceivable! (You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means) But Elder Early made his departure from Palau and safely boarded the plane for Guam with his final destination in California.  His Micronesia Guam mission has come to an end, but with his amazing knowledge of the scriptures, his leadership abilities, and his testimony we know he will have many more opportunities for service.  Because the flights leave at 2:10 A.M. we all stay up and take the departing missionary to the airport. We didn’t get to bed until 1:30 A.M that night!

As we were leaving to take Elder Early to the airport, Sister Johnsen saw an apparition in the heavens that night—there was an unusually bright object near the constellation of Orion. While the rest of the missionaries only saw a bright white light, she saw a pulsing red ball surrounded by green rectangular rays. Later that night when we arrived back at the apartment, she again spotted the object and also found six more similarly bright and colorful orbs in the midnight sky.  Since none of the Elders could discern what she clearly reported, all that they could say was: “Inconceivable!”

Thursday we got a lot of extra work done because we didn’t have our regular district meeting. We visited Malee so Elder Johnsen could ask her to speak in church next week. We got to see her new baby fruit bat that was hanging on an old diaper, and sucking food from a cotton ball. (Sister Johnsen is not that comfortable around bats, babies or not).

But Sister Johnsen was happy to finally see the twins girls that our member, Pauline Jerry, had a few months ago. Here she is pictured with one of them. Pauline was grateful for the box of baby clothes that Jocelyn shared from our storage area at home and had mailed to Palau. 

We also managed to hand out balloons to some cute little girls in a neighborhood where we were searching for a branch member. They were just too cute not to get a picture. 

Later on Thursday the elders got a call that Elder Marshall was indeed returning to Palau after being away for 8 months. We also found out that he would be our new Zone Leader.  The elders went to the airport at 8:30 P.M and then found out that the flights now come in at 9:10 P.M. Then they found out the flight had been delayed and it was around 11: 00 PM when it finally arrive. By the time Elder Marshall had collected his bags and come out it was about 11:30, and the elders had been at the airport for three hours.  We have a tradition of welcoming the new elder to Palau, but it was so late, and we already knew Elder Marshall, so we had to decide whether to have the elders stop up at our apartment for a few minutes when they dropped Elder Marshall and Elder Pauga off. We thought we better stick with tradition and we since also had some left over poke and pour cake (Elder Early’s favorite-from the night before) we had then come up and we visited for a few minutes and then said goodnight. We got to bed at 12:30 that night!

Sunday morning the branch had their annual primary program. President Kesolie leaned over and suggested that Elder Johnsen be prepared to speak because they had always needed to speak at these programs. Elder Johnsen assured President Kesolie that neither one of them would have to speak because Sister Johnsen had helped the primary write the program, and it was long enough this year. It was so long that 3 of the scheduled adults didn’t even speak. The children (about 8 of them) loved singing the songs and doing their parts. We were very proud of the entire effort.

After the program Elder and Sister Johnsen parted ways to teach the gospel doctrine lesson to their respective classes.  The lesson this week was “How could you have departed from the ways of the Lord?” and has the quote by Mormon, “O ye fair ones…” Sister Johnsen got a particularly interesting insight as she retired to bed the night before with the question on her mind, “Why would the Lord require two righteous men, Mormon and Moroni, to live in such a wicked environment. Why didn’t he protect them? Why did they have to see the entire destruction of their civilization? “  She awoke feeling like she may have the answer:  “The Lord needed witnesses to testify of what they had seen.”  It’s interesting how some of our best insights come in answer to questions.

Elder Johnsen got some good discussion as his youth SS class discussed Mormon 5: 18 “But now, behold they are led about by Satan, even as chaff is driven before the wind, or as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they.”  Our students in Palau know quite a bit about boats and wind, having power or being adrift in rough sea without an anchor.  For example, the students knew that boats drift sideways and can be in danger of swamping in heavy sea but a sea anchor will cause the bow to swing into the wind greatly lessening the danger of capsizing.  So it is in life we are much safer sailing in the turbulent sea of life under power (with sail) and able seaman at the helm (steering) and with an anchor handy if power and steering are lost.  Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me over life’s tempestuous seas!  

Inigo Montoya: You know, Fezzik, you finally did something right!
Fezzik:  Don’t worry. I won’t let it go to my head.

We feel like we might have done something right this week too, and we promise, we won’t let it go to our heads either!

Kia Kaha (#60)

In the movie Forever Strong, during an intense conversation with his dad, the reformed Rick Penning passionately says, “ I don't do anything to embarrass myself, my team, or my family; not anymore, Highland Rugby Kia Kaha.”  We had our biggest crowd to date when we showed “Forever Strong” this week during First Friday Flicks. (By the way, when President Mecham was here he mentioned that Highland Rugby coach Larry Gilwicks was called as a mission president  the same time as the Mechams were).  We also have stayed strong this week as we’ve continued our efforts to provide both physical and spiritual service.

Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. all the missionaries gathered at the church to prepare for another morning of service.  Our project was directed to one of our less active members who lives at the end of a long and usually muddy trail that Elder and Sister Johnsen affectionately call “Dead Dog Road”.  The day we found Diane’s home tucked back in the jungle there was a dead dog lying on the trail.   About 100 feet before the home there is a sharp 8 foot rise in elevation where prior to our service project there were only muddy steps (barely toe holes) carved into the clay hill.  We thought it would be fun to create something more durable and impervious to the 160 inches of annual rainfall.  As you can see the project was masterfully completed with member donated materials, and tools from the church.  The only thing we needed but didn’t have was a hack saw to cut the rebar.  Sister Johnsen made a quick trip to Mason’s hardware and scored a deal of the century, she purchased 3 hacksaw blades and saw handles for $1 each.  Unfortunately, the blades were not filled with the spirit of Kia Kaha and quickly broke in pieces. But no worries, the elders just hammered the rebar a little deeper into the clay.  Kia Kaha!

After the project on Tuesday the elders helped Elder Johnsen finish cutting our 4x8 foot sheet of galvanized steel flashing into 1x8 foot strips.  On Wednesday, the Koror Elders along with Elder Johnsen were hard at it again, this time on the top of the roof at Sister Paz’s dwelling installing the flashing along the drip line of her current roof.  The runoff from the roof was actually running down the side of house and rotting out the windows—the Elder’s pulled the roofing nails which held down the steel roofing material, slid about 6 inches of the flashing under the steel and then re-nailed thru the roofing and flashing to extend the drip line and keep the water off the house.  You would be surprised how hard it was to pull the nails out of the old roofing and the underlying wood—Elder Johnsen thought they’d be done in 30 minutes but the job took 2 hours.  But they persisted until they succeeded, Kia Kaha!

Tuesday night was also our Priesthood Service Night.  Elder Johnsen prepares Liahona’s and first presidency messages for each of 7 different routes for members living in Koror.  On Tuesday we were able to cover 6 of our 7 routes—each companionship visits about 20 families.  We’ve been doing PH service night for 9 consecutive months now—sometimes you don’t know if that regular contact with the church priesthood holders makes any difference but this past Sunday one of the members on Elder Johnsen’s Meyuns 1 route actually came to church, brought her non-member son who the elders have begun teaching, and she actually bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting.  Kia Kaha!

This Sunday also was Elder Early’s last Sunday in Palau.  He has reached the end of his two years of missionary service.  He says that his mission has been “everything that he needed but nothing that he wanted.”  Elder Early converted to the church in his late teens.  Despite his family’s opposition he decided to serve a mission. He just recently learned that he has been accepted as a student at BYU-Idaho.  As is our tradition with departing missionaries, Elder Early sat in the hot seat and answered our version of 20 questions—all having to do with his mission.

He is one of the most thoughtful and articulate departing missionaries; so his answers were very insightful.  He noted that one of his greatest desires was to come back to civilian life the different  person than the one that left for the mission field.  What Elder Johnsen likes best about Elder Early is his ability to extemporaneously discuss any subject with passion and insight.  He was always the go to guy when no one had prepared a priesthood lesson.  Elder Early has the gift of spending 60 seconds looking at material and then presenting a lesson that seems like he spent a week preparing it.  We think Elder Early is well on the road to staying strong.  Kia Kaha!   

When life presents us with obstacles or problems, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional, we need to be forever strong, Kia Kaha to all of our faithful readers!

First Observe, Then Serve (#59)

Linda K Burton, the General Relief Society President, quoted words from President Monson in her Sunday Morning conference address: “We are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness.  We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.”

She went on to say, “Did you hear it—the invitation to love one another? For some, serving or ministering one by one, following the Savior’s example doesn’t come easily. But with practice, each of us can become more like the Savior as we serve God’s children. To help us better love one another, I would like to suggest four words to remember: “First observe, then serve.”  We found that this was definitely a observe and serve week!

Last Sunday we listened to conference in the Koror Branch. We had special visitors from Lehi, Utah with us,  Rob and Cindy Andra.  After the meeting was over they talked to President Kesolei and said that they had reserved a little time and money from their vacation in Palau to do a little service.  President Kesolei asked Elder Johnsen to work with them and come up with a project.  Elder and Sister Johnsen quickly thought of a widow in the branch rearing two young sons, with a daughter who just returned home from a mission to Australia.  We knew that their kitchen floor was on the verge of caving in.  After clearing the project with the family Elder Johnsen contacted Rob and Cindy and made final arrangements for the project.  On Wednesday we inspected the job site, acquired and delivered the materials, and made arrangements for the tools.  Meanwhile, the family began the arduous process of obtaining a permit for us to do the work.

On Friday, our work day, the sky was cloud free; it was a perfect day for our project.  Of course, rather than just overlay the kitchen floor our project expanded to also include replacing the siding on the back of the kitchen and replacing the cabinet doors.   At 8:00 all the full-time missionaries as well as Rob and Cindy were in place, and you should have seen the sawdust fly.  By 1:00 we were done with as much as we could do, and were eating a celebratory pizza with the family.  As we dropped Rob and Cindy off at their hotel we felt so blessed to have been a part of their commitment to first observe, then serve.   Incidentally, the arduous permit still hadn’t been issued by the time we drove away.  

That wasn’t the only service in which we were engaged; on Tuesday, we were at the church with the Elders painting exterior doors and the bathrooms of our building.  With the parking lot lines finished the week before, the building is looking very fresh and nice.  

On Wednesday Elder Johnsen and Brother Thing spent all morning gathering materials for a roofing project for another one of our widow women in the branch.  We hope to have time to actually do the work on her house later this week.  By the end of the week Elder Johnsen thought he’d spent more time in his work clothes than he had spent wearing his white shirt.  

We were all back in missionary attire on Saturday morning for our Zone conference with President and Sister Mecham who had come to visit us from Guam.  We learned some great new phrases like “Bust the crust” off  our investigators, and “revelations come with role playing”.  We were there until 4 p.m. and then came home and began some of our preparations for feeding 9 people on Sunday.

The Elders Role-Playing

For Sacrament meeting our little choir of 8 sang, “Let Virtue Garnish All My Thoughts Unceasingly” and it was our best performance so far.  Both Elder and Sister Johnsen had to teach Sunday School, one to the adults and one to the youth. Then Elder Johnsen had to stay to help with other responsibilities, and Sister Johnsen went home to eat lunch and work on dinner.

We had the best time during dinner with all four Elders and President and Sister Mecham. President Mecham told us several stories about his very cold mission in Quebec, Canada; hearing that made us so happy to be in Micronesia. He also told us that the new office couple, the Princes from St. George Utah listened to Elder Bednar speak while they were in the MTC, and he said the new policies for missionaries have definitely occurred because the Lord is hastening his work.

Elder Johnsen still wasn’t done when everyone left at 6:00 P.M. He had to go out to Airai and see how many families he could home teach.  He and Rodney visited 13 families who were home, and left a message for 4 others—not a bad night home teaching.

We feel that we have tried to observe and serve A LOT this week; we definitely were ready for our day off on Monday!

Contention, Conference, CES and Calophyllum (#58)

Elder Gubler told a great story at district meeting last week that reminded us that contention is not part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Gubler and Fullmer were teaching a man who belongs to the Church of Christ, and who is very familiar with the Bible.  As they prepared for the lesson Elder Gubler said that he was actually apprehensive about teaching a man who knew bible scriptures possibly better than he did.  He said that he prayed and thought hard on what they should teach, and the spirit seemed to ratify their decision to show the restoration video.  During the video the Elders were praying that the investigator would feel the spirit and his heart would be softened.  After the video was over, the investigator said that he had a couple of scriptures in Isaiah that he wanted to review with them.  Elder Gubler used that as a smooth introduction to Isaiah 29 where he taught the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.  When the investigator had his turn in Isaiah the scripture which he wanted to point out had no meaning in the context of their ongoing discussion.  He basically had a stupor of thought on the point he wanted to make.  The investigator then commented that he would like to have the Elders meet with his pastor.  The Elders politely pointed out that their calling was to contend with no man, but to proclaim the restoration and invite all to come unto the Savior’s true church through baptism and receipt of the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Elder Gubler strongly felt the spirit as they testified to him of the restoration and the coming forth of additional scripture which testifies of Christ.  It was evident that the investigator felt the spirit of their message for as the meeting concluded the investigator had them turn to John 21:35 which reads, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”  We are reminded of the Lord’s reasoning in D&C section 50:21-22 where it is written that “he that receiveth the word by the Spirit of truth receiveth it as it is preached by the Spirit of truth.  Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together.”

This past weekend was our general conference (we view conference a couple weeks after it airs live in the states, we receive it on DVDs).  We were in-charge of providing sandwiches between conference sessions on Saturday and a pineapple chicken topping for rice between the Sunday sessions.  Other members brought additional food for the pot luck luncheons—the Sunday meal was quite the feast.  In addition to the chicken, Sister Johnsen made cookies, two batches of rice crispy squares, a batch of brownies, two batches of rolls and a jello salad.   We always come away from conference restored and rejuvenated (and in Palau, well fed both spiritually and physically).  On Sunday evening before the Elders went home for the night (after eating Johnsen’s famous popcorn and lemon bars) each person took turns telling something from conference that stood out to them.  We really enjoyed Elder’s Fullmer’s comment.  He and Elder Gubler had a very choice investigator with them at both Sunday sessions, Elder Fullmer commented that it was so fun to be sitting with a beloved investigator and listen to the conference and in effect hear it through her ears and see it through her eyes.  His countenance just radiated the love he felt for the gospel truths taught.   

This week we also had Brother Nicerio, the head of the Church Education System in this area come for a visit.  He was able to attend our seminary, and  institute, conduct training with us and our teachers, and also make a presentation to our students about BYU-Hawaii. 

After he departed he left us with the following words. “I am so grateful for the tremendous work you are doing in Palau. You may not always realize how far your influence reaches into the lives of those you teach and your positive impact might not be readily apparent to you but don’t underestimate what the Lord is doing through you. The Lord loves you and He is aware of the challenges you are facing. Your continued guidance will help many of our Palauan brothers and sisters get the best of their spiritual education. Your work in Palau reminds me of what we have been talking about the past two days I was there, and let me share that again with you…at this time the whole story. I hope it will inspire you.”

P.U.S.H. = Pray Until Something Happens!

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with a bright light, and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man He had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This, the man did, day after day.

For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down with his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.

Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man’s weary mind: “You’ve been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn’t budged. Why kill yourself over this? You’re never going to move it” —thus, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.

“Why kill myself over this?” he thought. “I’ll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that’ll be good enough.”

And that’s just what he planned to do— until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

“Lord” he said, “I’ve labored long and hard in Your service, putting all my strength to do that which You’ve asked. Yet, after all this time, I haven’t even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What’s wrong? Why am I failing?”

The Lord responded compassionately,

“My friend, when I asked you to serve Me— you accepted. I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength— which you’ve done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me— with your strength spent, thinking that you’ve failed. But is that really so?”

“Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscular. Your back sinew is mighty. Your hands are callused from the constant pressure; and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you’ve grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven’t moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you’ve done. I, my friend, will now move the rock.”

At times, when we hear from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants. What God ACTUALLY wants is just simple OBEDIENCE and FAITH IN HIM.

By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it’s still God who moves the mountains.

P.U.S.H. = Pray Until Something Happens!

When everything seems to go wrong,
just P.U.S.H.

When the job gets you down,P.U.S.H.

When people don’t react the way you think they should,P.U.S.H.

When your money looks funny and the bills are due,P.U.S.H.

When people just don’t understand you,
just P.U.S.H.!!!

Elder Early is just a couple of weeks away from going home so we decided to go spend our Monday at Toby’s beach which we did when Elder Adams was going home. Elder Fullmer had never been there.

While the elders played football and went hiking E/S Johnsen walked along the beach, sat on a palm tree (which was growing out over the water) and talked with our feet dangling in the warm ocean water and spent about 60 minutes in a hammock (built for two) under a big shade tree right on the beach.  It was a totally relaxing and restoring afternoon!  We ate raw fish that Toby caught about 60 minutes before we arrived, and Sister J brought some lemon bars and brownies along for a treat.  It was a GREAT day.

While on our walk down the beach we met a woman with a pail pulling sap off the trees. She told us that she was collecting it because of its many healing properties. She wrote the name in the sand for us, calophyllum.

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The oil is analgesic and is used for sciatica, shingles, neuritis, leprous neuritis and rheumatism. The pulverized seeds have been used to cure ulcers and bad wounds. Bark also has medicinal uses as an infusion or in other herbal remedies. Calophyllum oil has been an important part of Pacific Island folk medicine for a wide range of skin disorders and conditions, from superficial burns and scrapes to neuralgia and fissures. Polynesian woman have used Calophyllum oil to promote healthy, blemish-free skin. It is also used on babies for diaper rash and skin eruptions.

We know that the gospel also has many healing properties; unlike the woman who was collecting, we are happy to be taking from our gospel bucket and sharing its healing properties with the people in Palau.  

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!