Zone Conference!

​This week President and Sister Poston flew to our Island for a zone conference! It was so fun to be with all the other missionaries and to be filled with the spirit. It was the closest I've felt to being in the temple since coming out here. The zone conference really motivated us all to put in even more effort to increase the work here on Pohnpei. There's a lot of things that we cant control, but we dont want to be the limiting factor! We will be having a Pohnpei wide fast this next Sunday to strengthen the members and hasten the missionary work, and I'm very excited for it! I know that uniting together in fasting and prayer is seen throughout the Book of Mormon and I have faith that we will see miracles!

Sister James and I were so excited to get to work after the conference, and then so many of our appointments fell through.....But we aren't discouraged because we know the blessings come after the trial of our faith:)

Sunday we did feel blessed as one of our investigators, a young mom named Ronia, came to church with us! The members just loved her and her baby and I was so grateful to them for being so welcoming. Also, there was finally working water at the church building so we were able to have a full 3 hours of church for the first time in 3 weeks! Now the only water issue is that we woke up this morning with no running water, we went outside to fix the pipe which we have to do every day, but this time there was no water coming through at the break either....Hopefully we will figure that out by tomorrow, but if not I know that this is the Lords work and it will move forward. 

I experienced "muching" for the first time this week when we went and served our investigator named Sehpe. Its essentially just weeding/clearing out all jungle vegetation. Pohnpeians consider anything from nature or the jungle to be samin (dirty).The calmness and the smell of dirt reminded me of weeding our garden back home and it was probably the first time in my life that I enjoyed weeding. Also it changed things up, I love breaking up the normal routine. 

Also we hiked to a waterfall in our area this morning with some missionaries from our zone! It was super nifty. 

A lot of people here believe that as long as they believe in God and are a part of some church, they are doing enough. This week we had to work really hard to help our investigators understand that just like there was one True Church of Christ in the Bible, there is one true Church today and it is the exact same Church that Christ led when he was alive. And just like in the Bible, our words are not enough. We must actually do those things that God has commanded and that Christ taught. My testimony on this grows stronger every time I testify about it.

I ese me mwomwodisohwet mehlel oh I ese me Joseph Smith Wia emen sohkoup en Koht. I ese me kitail koaros serien Samatial Nanleng oh I ese me Sapwellime Poakong emenemen kitail.

I know that this church is true and I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. I know that we are all Children of Heavenly Father and I know that He loves each and every one of us. 

Sister Milne

Surprise Pics!

I love when I get surprise pics of Kamry on Facebook.  There is a wonderful Missionary couple that serves on the same island as Kamry.  The wonderful Sister Fulton posts pictures from the mission and I love when I get a glimpse of Kamry!

I love the picture below of the boys playing checkers.  Very clever.

The Gospel is Simple

This week I learned a lot about the simplicity of the Gospel. I have a goal to not speak any English during lessons which means right now I can pretty much just bear my testimony on whatever is it Sister James Teaches about. But its really helped me see that what is most important is the spirit. Sometimes I forget that the warm, peaceful, happy feelings of the spirit are something that most people have never felt before. My companion, who is a convert to the church, says that for her it was like coming from darkness into light, as if she had been lost and she didn't even know it until she was found. I love that, and I love the Holy Ghost so much. It fills me up with a calm confidence and assurance that this is the only church with the fullness of Christ's teachings. How blessed I am to have it!

This week an 8 year old boy who comes from a part member family was baptized. We have been teaching him at the request of the Branch President just to make sure he was ready for baptism. He is so cute and it was so fun to hear sister James really break the lessons down for him. It made it even easier to follow along word for word to what was happening! He always gives the best prayers, he prays for his dogs and his mom and school and for his baptism. He was baptized in the ocean off the side of a road that goes out to a little island that is part of our area. It was so pretty! 

A few fun things that happenend this week was: 

1. Waking up to the loudest thunder I've ever heard in my entire life.

2. Teaching a woman that has a legit mustache. Its like the old Chinease man style, long and thick on the sides with some wispies on the chin. 

3. A little boy giving me a surprise haircut in the middle of a lesson (the damage isn't noticeable)

4. Getting soaking wet scrubbing the cement floors of our investigators house.

5. Our water pipe breaking and us having even dirtier water than usual. We had to hike uphill until we found the break and the held the pipes together with a rock. 

6. Giving my first full length talk in pohnpeian in church yesterday. It was also the boldest talk I've ever given. I was so scared and I totally just read off my paper the whole time, but I did it!

This morning a few of us Sisters hiked up to some WW2 ruins and it was awesome! There were some cool stuff to climb in and under and there were some pretty views of the ocean. Every day I love to see what color the ocean is, sometimes its blue or green or gray. I'm truly living in paradise. Except for the mud and germs....but the pretty stuff makes the bad stuff not as bad:) 

Thanks for the prayers! 

Sister Milne

First Transfer Done (Kamry is staying with current Companion...trainer)

This week was so good! It started out with Christmas as a package from my Mom and Grandma Doyle came in. It was so nice to finally have Nikes to run in again! My feet were singing praises! And American snacks and treats were a welcome sight!!

Also, we got lots of local food from people this week: Guava, the pohnpei version of limes, breadfruit, and a fish! We fried the fish up and it was so good! Turns out I really like fish eyeball!

It was so nice to have our car back this week because we were able to visit more people. We had some really amazing lessons and found a couple very prepared investigators. We also visited with more less active people this week. We tried taking our portable DVD player with us and showed videos of Christ's Atonement to all the members we taught. It was awesome because every single less active person that we visited came to church yesterday! Going to church is so important for conversion, and the friendship of members is so important. Unfortunately none of our investigators came to church because there hasn't been any transportation and they don't want to wake up early and walk. It takes a lot of faith to walk that far to church, but it's worth it! The past couple weeks church hasnt been all 3 hours because the water has been out and its a health/safety hazard. So we are hoping the water will come back on and we will be able to have all 3 hours of church again!

Its so fun getting closer to the branch and to all the people in general, we never drive down the road without seeing someone we know. It just brightens my day, I love them all so much. 

Everyday is a new adventure: using the jungle as a bathroom like the locals do, breaking into the church building through a window because we didn't have our keys, almost getting killed by falling mai (breadfruit), people laughing at my language, scary dogs, giant spiders, lots of rain, and lots of dirt. Its hard and fun and exciting and I just love doing God's work:)

Sister Milne

How Beautiful Are The Feet Of A Missionary

Kamry's feet are always dirty as she walks through mud day after day. She said that she wonders if they will ever be clean again.  She sent us a picture of her feet and it reminded her dad of this scripture....Isaiah 52:7.