thursday april 7, 2011 - experiences!

us hula girls at the wedding-my mom-in- law, my mom,my aunt kin & my aunt mim

mt. haleakala sunrise in maui!

danicing at our 3rd reception in guam

rehearsal

my whole family

the bridal party - janeiyah (josh's niece),alashia, me,josh, jo (josh's cuz) & his wife rizza 

maui

our beautiful flower girl janeiyah

Hafa adai!  (That’s Guam’s hello)

 So this weekend was the beginning of our zone visit from a brother in bethel in New York. Sunday we met at the university’s field house (where they now hold all the assemblies and conventions).  To start it off they had a nice talk/interview conducted by Brother Bowman (one of the branch overseers here), letting us know what exactly is going on in the islands in Micronesia and how it is all progressing.

We currently have 26 missionaries – the number being reduced from 50 since the congregations are up and running. So to assist them we have 12 special pioneers and 88 need greaters. Some of these need greaters are on Guam. The special pioneers and need greaters are helping further train those in the growing congregations and also help in the ministry work.

 There are 6 languages in Micronesia that is being translated, now all on their respective islands.  The feedback that is coming in from the translation shows how grateful the people are that the literature is available in their language and showing us how much there is a need for it. For example, a sister wrote in about an article that was published in her language about incest and it included how to talk with your family about the topic . This is something that is a problem but no publication has ever published anything on it. This sister was able to explain to her daughter about the matter, which served as a great protection since a cousin tried to rape her shortly after they had talked. But because the girl had been explained on what to do and how to talk about it, she was able to save herself.

In the field of construction in the islands, currently they are working on projects in ebeye (marshell islands), and chuuk. The locals have been given a great witness to the point that in ebeye they asked,” well why can’t we do that to our church?” The result – they tore down their church and that is as far as they have gotten, so stay tuned!

 They interviewed 3 brothers that are currently serving on 3 of the islands in different capacities. 

The first brother is Jeff, who is serving in chuuk in the ministry (I believe he is from the states). He said that you can really see the progress in the congregations, that the friends are really taking a stand for the truth. He gave an example of how the work is still going strong in the ministry. Jeff started a study with a young man, but one week when he went the young men had 9 friends with him. Thinking he might have to return another time, the young man surprised him and grabbed his books and started to lead him away to study in peace.  As they were walking away the group of friends told them to stay so they could hear what Jeff had to say. The study went very well. The following week, 7 of the 9 were there to join in the study again!  Currently 4 of the original 9 are regularly studying. The young man also had been sharing the magazines with his father, so he introduced his dad to Jeff and the father is also regularly studying with many questions. The father it turned out was the local chief and he was sharing what he was learning with the religious leaders in that village, who did not like it. But he continued to do so, asking why they were doing things that the bible clearly said you were not supposed to do. He has not let their responses deter him.

The second brother is Tony, who is serving in his home islands in the marshells as a translator.  Recently his translation team was moved back to marshells from Hawaii. This change has had many good benefits. For example, they have found that many words that they had used previously are not what is being spoken or written. Being back on the island they are able to ask the publishers, and those in their ministry, so that the translation is as accurate and easy to understand as possible.  They have been given the great blessing from the society of the network of translators around the world, so when they have a problem it might have been one another group had, making the answer easier to get.  One of his favorite experiences since being back was of a night at the meeting. It had been a long day and he was tired and had to pray to Jehovah to give him strength to get to the meeting. Upon arriving one of the little boys looked really excited and wanting to talk to him. So Tony went over to him and asked what was on his mind. The little boy handed him a quarter and said “my mom gave me this to put in the contribution box. But I want to give it to you, so you can buy some candy and become a better translator!” 

The third brother is Matt (who also I believe is from the states), is serving in construction –currently working on the project in ebeye.   Even the locals have been rearranging their schedules to be able to help work on the project. One sister changed to working the night shift so she could spend her days on the project. He said one of the biggest obstacles with the projects is getting supplies brought in. it tends to be very expensive. Being that they use a lot of concrete they need much sand and rock. They also had a problem of the young ones in the local congregation wanting to help so badly, but they did not want them on the site because of safety reasons. So they came up with a solution to benefit everyone. They took the young ones to the beach and had them fill the trucks with rock and sand. The young ones were so overjoyed with this that they would whisper during the meetings to make sure all are going to be there to help that weekend. So far they have done this 3 Saturdays in a row, each Saturday they have dug up 5 tons of sand!  Now if they had that sand brought in from off island it would have cost them $200.00 per ton of sand! These young ones don’t even realize how much a contribution their hard work is, but it certainly a blessing!

All 3 of these brothers really stressed how even though they have given up things for the sake of Jehovah’s service it has rewarded them some many times over.  Also you can see by the stories given that the growth is here as well as the need.  Both by their examples and the ones of the locals, really gives us something to think about what our attitude in Jehovah’s service is.

The talk from Brother Sinclair (who is I believe from Brooklyn bethel), spoke of what I just mentioned-our attitude. The theme was – Do we really need to live under God’s kingdom? He gave many examples of ones around the world who have displayed that they do, it was very encouraging! He also gave us 6 points or ways that we can show we are living under God’s kingdom. All left with smiles on their faces.

This month has been so full of activity, including so many especially couples joining the ranks to axillary pioneer. In our congregation (North Guam), there are many couples, some serving at bethel and a few that have moved here to help out. Since I left they have also rearranged the congregations so you are now able to get to know ones better that you may have only seen a few times.  For example this past Saturday Josh and I worked in service with a couple that serves at the branch as bethelites. When I was here before they were serving in the south congregation so I rarely saw them except at bethel.  In working in service with them we were able to really get to know them,  learning how they have been in Micronesia for 10 years, half of it being on 2 other islands – siapan and chuuk.  It’s fun to hear their experiences and learn from them. I look forward to spending more time with them.

I also this week got to work in service with a sister that is in translation in palau, I had met her when I was here before. She and another sister came for the zone visit which also included the missionary dinner for them.  It was nice to see ones on the other islands and find out how things are going, especially from young ones like them.

These next two weeks of activity are very busy but I look forward to sending more experiences. Also if there are more pictures you want to see, email me or look at my flickr account – sometimes it is hard to load a lot of pictures onto the blog. As for wedding pictures, we are in the process of getting those, so please be patient. Love to you all. Until next time.