Kasalel Pohnpei

Kasalehlie, Mainko!!

Transfer call.... 

So just one hour before we got the transfer call, I read the scripture to our investigator (Mulden, he is soooo awesome!! I'll tell you bout him in a minute): "Trust in the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths."

This is so true. Now, more than ever, I need to remember this. 

I'm no longer serving on Pohnpei. I have been transfered to Saipan. Sisters haven't served on the island for a couple years. I will be training, and learning Mandarin Chinese. We won't have an area, we'll get any referrals for Chinese speakers and go teach them. Saipan is 20% Chinese.... So TONS of people to teach. I left Pohnpei less than 3 hours after I got the call. Talk about packing FAST! 

This is the last thing I expected. I LOVE Pohnpei, and I am going to miss it sooo much. I feel like I was just getting a hold of the language, and the culture, and the people. Sister Fehoko and I had so many investigators on date. Sister Fehoko also left Sekere: She's going to Mesihsou with Sister Russell. I hope the Elders take care of our investigators!!

Sister Pokipala is also going to open an island to sisters: Kosrae. Sister's have never served there before.

This transfer is totally crazy. But I know that it's what the Lord wants. I'm not going to sugar coat it: I'm nervous. It's going to be hard. I just barely finished training. I don't know Saipan, I don't know the people. But what I do know, is that I went to Pohnpei for 12 weeks for a reason. I learned a little bit of Pohnpeian for a reason. And now I am going to Saipan for a reason. All I can do is hope and pray Heavenly Father will give me the strength, knowledge, and faith I need to be a tool in his hands.

So here I am on Guam, got here at 4am this morning. My new trainee flies it tomorrow night. We fly out to Saipan on Thursday. Then we dive in and get to work. 

Ok, enough of the transfer call. Sooo much happened this week, and I'm afraid I don't have time to explain it all. So I'll try to sum it up best I can.

Mulden is super cool. I think I mentioned him in my last email. If I didn't, someone tell me. But he's been reading all the stuff we give him and if he could, he would baptize right now. He said (two days ago? I dunno, they all blur together) that he is ready right now to take the Gospel to his home island, Mortlock, which is an outer island of Chuuk. They don't have any missionaries there right now, so that's super cool. Hopefully the Elders will get him pamphlets and Book of Mormons to take to him.

Cartwright wants to be baptized SO bad!! He has done a complete 180 turn around. President wants the mission to memorize 2 Nephi 31. So one day I was reading through it, and felt impressed to give it to Cartwright to read. He read it, and when we came back, that's the answer he said he was looking for. Part of the chapter that talks about the straight and narrow path is part of a song he made up when he was really low years ago. He said, "Lord, please take my hand and show me the straight and narrow path to return to thee" Or something like that. He stopped drinking Sakau and stopped smoking weed. He is so ready to be baptized. I really hope the Elders keep up with him. He needs the strength and support, because I know Satan will work really hard on him. Sunday he said he almost didn't come to church because his brother offered him weed, and it was raining a lot. But then he remembered that he wants and needs to be around good people, who will support him. And so he kept walking, and came to church. Super cool. 

Another big thing that happened this week is Elder Holland came. I wish I had more time, but it was really cool to hear from him. He pounded the pulpit a bit though, told the mission that just because we are spread across 1.5 million square miles apart, doesn't give us the liberty to be disobedient. We have to be self-sufficient. The Lord trusted us to come to this mission, and so we have to show that His trust was well placed.

Forgot to tell you that this week I was focusing on Faith. Good thing too, that's what I needed. If I had to say one thing about faith, it'd be faith is trusting in the Lord. It is so important. I can't begin to say how important it is. It's so hard, but, just like Nephi said, "I have trusted in my God, and I will trust in Him forever". I know He will not let us down.

This week I will focus on Faith again. I think I'm gonna need it :)

All is well. I am going to miss Pohnpei, so much. Some day I will go back and visit. 

Saipan, here I come.

I poakepoakekumwail. Ya'll are in my prayers.

Sister Springer

Mie Sakau Wasa Koaros

Soutik Mwahu, Maing Koaros!

This week was pretty good. Sorry I didn't take any pictures this week. Next week I'll get some! 

So to translate... Mie sakau wasa koaros means there is sakau everywhere. Sakau en Wai is Alcohol, and just sakau is the alcohol-like drink that the locals make from a root here. Pretty much the same thing. Drinking is a real struggle here. This week I feel like it's been really prominent though. Maybe it's because of all the mehla recently (funerals/deaths). But one day we were driving through Sokehs, coming back from teaching Marlene, and there was this guy walking/stumbling down the middle of the road. We slowed down, then had to stop because he wasn't  getting out of the way. When we got close, he was obviously really drunk. And he had blood splattered all over him. It was kinda freaky, because his eyes wouldn't focus. He moved out of the way and we slowly moved on. We looked back at him and he was all dirty too. We think he fell and maybe cut his head or something. It was freaky. 

Then last night we were dropping off our member present and there was another drunk guy that two guys were holding up, maybe holding back from fighting someone. When we drove past again, there was a lady screaming at him and he was yelling back. No idea what they were saying. It was crazy. Oh! And that same day, we were waiting outside the chapel for people so we could have English class (we do it every Sunday night) a whole bunch of boys were gathered on the road in front of the church and two of them got into a fight. They eventually broke it up and one left. It was crazy though. We almost called the cops. 

On a more positive note, there's this little girl named Mesiana. She's super cute. We were at the chapel and she started climbing the coconut tree next to our car. She's like 8 years old and was scaling it like it was nothing! It was crazy. Sometimes I wish we could climb coconut trees, but we aren't allowed. Plus it'd be hard in a skirt haha. 

Sooo.... Haven't followed up on obedience yet. To be honest, I got caught up studying lots of other things that I forgot for a bit. But! I learned a lot, and know I will continue to learn more. Joseph Smith said that any time you receive any blessing, it's because you were obedient to the laws of God. I know that's true. If we want blessings, we have to obey God's commandments to receive them.

I was talking to our bishop yesterday (I understood almost everything he said! It was really cool!). He thanked me and Sister Fehoko for our hard work. He said attendance in Sacrament has gone way up. I know it's true: I remember when we first got here, there was maybe 50-60 people coming to church. Last Sunday we had 111! That's double! There were 6 Less Actives and 5 investigators. Really cool to see. One of the investigators was Loid. He stayed outside and listened through the window, then disappeared after Sacrament. We've put him on the shelf because we see him drinking a lot. I keep praying that we will be able to teach him again, and he will understand the importance of obeying the Word of Wisdom. We've taught him countless times that he can't feel the Spirit if he's drinking or smoking, but until he believes it himself, he won't change. 

We went to go see Cartwright the other night, and he said, "Maybe you can come back later, because I'm a little drunk right now." It was kind of funny. But then he was saying stuff like, "I don't want to be a burden. It's been awhile since you guys came." We told him it's not a burden at all. Then he said if he knows we are coming, he won't drink and stuff. So we sent an appointment for yesterday.... and he wasn't there. A little kid (I think his nephew) said he was drinking. Ekis kapwung >.< But that's ok! We are going to go see him again, hopefully tonight or tomorrow. We'll try to help him pull through. 

Satan is working so hard to keep people from repenting and coming to Christ. I see it every day. Sometimes it's a little discouraging, but as I keep working and loving the people, I feel supported from my Father in Heaven. All will be well! Even though it seems like we aren't making a lot of progress, I know we must be because attendance at church is going back up. 

Read 2 Nephi 31. It's a super good chapter. President Zarbock told us to memorize it, haha. It really is good though. It talks about the Doctrine of Christ. It's what this Gospel is all about. 

That's it for this week. I poakepoake kumwail! Chin up, life is great! (Not just saying that cuz I'm on a island. Life really is great, no matter where you are, when you are on the Lord's side ^^)

Sister Springer 

Udahn Karakar!

It was so hot this week!! One day was 100 degrees, and 100% humidity. At least it wasn't walking Wednesday though. Sister Behling (from Kolonia, which is where all the stores and stuff is) said it gets hotter during the full moon. That's probably why.

This week was kind of crazy. Last weekend I went to Mesihsou with Sister Pokipala again while Sister Fehoko and Sister Russell went to Guam. We were teaching a lesson at a bus stop on the side of the road, and it started out well. Then a father started beating his daughter across the street and yelling really loud. You could hear the stick hitting her and her crying.... There went the Spirit... It was so hard to listen to and not be able to do anything. He was beating her because she slept over at a friends house or something. Apparently beatings happen frequently here, especially beating children. Super sad. 

I won't lie. Sekere has been really hard. Trying to learn Pohnpeian where everyone speaks Mortlockese is not easy. But it's coming. I notice on the days when we don't do language study (like P-days and Sundays), my Pohnpeian isn't as good. But I am finding ways that work better for learning the language for me. Having a language book and writing things down really helps. 

Learning a lot about being bold, too, especially when extending commitments. Yesterday we were teaching Cartwright, and he brought up baptism. He said that his family said he is crazy for wanting to listen to "the Mormons", and he was so mad at them, that he wanted to be baptised right then just to spite them. He also mentioned he was talking to someone he met on the street about the scripture in the bible that says don't hide your candle under a bushel: let it shine for the world to see. He said he wants to share the light he is receiving from others with the Gospel. He has come so far already. It's really cool to see.

Saturday we were supposed to have a baptism (Kefty), but when the time came we couldn't find him. We finally found him by his dads house, and he said his dad wouldn't let him be baptised. Then he said, I don't care, it's my faith that matters. Let's go, I'm getting baptised. Of course, we couldn't do that. Kefty's dad wants to talk to us, but they went to a funeral yesterday so we haven't had the chance. We will try to see him this week. Sister Fehoko was really discouraged by it. I know there has to be a reason though. Maybe the whole family needs to hear this message first, and they will all get baptised. We have been teaching Kefty, his cousins, and aunts, but not his mom and dad because they live in different places. It'll all work out though. I know God has a plan for them. 

Loid, our other investigator that is on date, was drinking all week. It was really frustrating because he didn't have a problem with that before: just coffee and smoking (not even betel nut!!). And he had gone a couple days without drinking coffee, and was working on not smoking. But every day when we saw him he was drinking or drunk. We finally saw him when he wasn't drunk, and set an appointment. But then we had to go to Mand on Sunday because of the problem with the Sisters there (story of my life being companions with a Sister Training Leader... haha). Hoping to see him this week and see if we can figure out what is going on. I think we might have to put him on the shelf for a bit.... Which is sad, because he read the whole Book of Mormon and believes all of it. 

This morning because of the schedule change we got to start our P-Day at 8AM!!! Yay!!! So we went to a waterfall in Mand. Mand is like an hour drive away (you wouldn't think you could drive an hour on this little rock in the middle of the ocean, but you gotta keep in mind this little rock doesn't have a straight road on it. The roads follow the coast a lot, so they weave in and out. Plus the speed limit never goes over 25) So it took most of the morning. But it was worth it!

Anyway.... That's all for this week. Miss you all! I hope all is well back home! Stay warm, stay safe. I poakepoake kumwail!

Sister Springer

PS, Yes, they have fries here, and yes, I made my own fry sauce. Not gonna go crazy without fry sauce after all ;)

No time... Pictures speak louder than words, right?

Here's a bunch of pics, cuz I have no time this week.

Summary: finally went to a waterfall last week, it was awesome. 

Most women wear something like that pohnpeian skirt and tshirts.

Went to an outter Island called Parem (sounds like bottom) for a baptism. That was really cool.

Life is good here on Pohnpei! Love and miss you all!

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Sister Springer