There'd Better Be Coconuts in Heaven!

2nd transfer is over and I'm staying here in Uh with Sister James! We were both so excited and relieved. We both feel that this area needs us, or maybe we just need them. 

My favorite part of the week was walking on Wednesday and getting to meet so many cool people! One woman we ran into when going from house to house is a less active member named Marta. She is smart and knows some English and she let us help her shred coconut that she then juiced for the coconut milk and it was SO COOL. I love coconuts and I'm super interested in the different things they do with them, all based off when you pick them and how big they are. It was fascinating. She also let us eat some of the super sweet crunchy fleshy part that is not in coconuts you get in America and she gave us Uhpw which is the coconut water that you drink. It was like a dream come true:) 

My favorite person right now is our 13 year old investigator named Drisela. She's getting baptized this weekend and she is so excited! She told us she wishes this week could just be over so it could be her baptism already. She loves the Book of Mormon and sharing her testimony with us. She is such a blessing from Heavenly Father because she was so prepared and ready, there really hasn't been a single thing getting in the way of her progression. I know it's because she is so close to a strong member family, members are SO IMPORTANT. 

The rest of our week was fillled with lots of hard work and the same old water problems and car problems. Maybe it was because of the looming transfer calls, but I really enjoyed it all so much. I love Pohnpei, I love these people, I love my Heavenly Father and all that he has blessed me with, I love you all, and I really love coconuts.

Sister MIlne

The Power of the Priesthood

This week started off with us going on exchanges, so I got to hang out at the bottom of the Island with Sister Russell and my favorite Tongan, Sister Taunauta! We were actually where my companion, Sister James is from which was super neat! 

Then this week we had a couple of surprises show up on our front porch. The first was my old pair of Nikes that got stolen two months ago....or I guess just borrowed since they were returned? We were out walking for "walking Wednesday" and we came home at 5 pm and they were just sitting there on our porch. Super weird, but cool! Blessings from the Lord, eh? 

The Second thing that ended up on our porch was a cute little kitten! It was scared and alone so I took care of it for a couple of days. We named it Moroni because it wandered alone for a time, just like Moroni did. 

The rest of the week was just us working hard as usual. Saturday I was pretty sick, and all of our appointments fell through which I took as a sign that Heavenly Father just wanted me to rest. So I went home at dinner time and slept for 13 hours. I was feeling much better when I woke up Sunday morning. I know that I can't help others until I help myself first!

My favorite part of the week was Sunday night. We have a great investigator named Merleen. She lived in the US for a time, so she's super great at English which is fun! She has diabetes ( a ton of pohnpeians have diabetes)  and she has a really bad infection in her foot that has made her unable to walk for over a year. We taught her about the priesthood earlier this week and she desired a priesthood blessing. So Sunday we brought the Elders with us to give her a blessing. After they left we asked her how she felt when they blessed her and she said, "Oh yeah, I was going to ask you about that. What was that?! It was like electricity from my head to my feet. And it was really warm and just filled me up." It gave me so much joy to explain to her that it was the Holy Ghost that she had felt. She was so excited when I told her that she could feel it over and over again if she kept working hard to obey the commandments of God and read her Book of Mormon:)

I know this work is the Lords Work and it will continue to move forward despite opposition. I look forward to that day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. I love my Savior and I love his Gospel. 

Love,

Sister Milne

I Love Island Life

Last monday, Sister James and I decided to reward ourselves for our hard work by buying local clothes and matching rings! It was super fun:) She bought a dress and I bought a skirt.

Our week went by super fast, we are working really hard to help build up the church here. I wish there were more hours in the day so we could help more people! 

We have a lot of investigators and we are trying to help them overcome all their questions, concerns, and live the commandments of God. I know the most important thing is for them to feel the Holy Ghost by praying, reading the scriptures, and going to church. I love these three things! They are what life is all about! or at least what life should be all about! 

I love these people with my whole heart, it makes me so sad when people have been given so much light and knowledge and they don't take it. Its like being offered hot chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream and instead eating beans and spinach. I just want them to eat the cake, but I can't force them, they have to choose for themselves. Except what we are offering is better than hot chocolate lave cake! Its eternal life and peace and joy and happiness with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and our Families!! I just need to work harder to help them see how important and good this gospel is and that its meant for everyone! 

This morning was super fun, we went to some old ruins at the bottom of the Island called Nan Madol. We asked what the history is behind them, but the man there said that people cant talk about it while at the ruins or they will get sick. (people here are very superstitious about stuff, its really interesting) But it was beautiful, and right at the coast and I just love the ocean and the jungle and exploring old run down places! We went with our zone, except none of the other sisters in our zone went so it was just Sister James and I and the Elders. But it was still fun and incredible. I loved it! 

Thanks for all the prayers!

Sister Milne​

Wearing the skirt with a random t shirt is the pohnpeian style:) ​

Seek Ye First The Kingdom Of God

This week feels like so much happened but also like nothing happened! We finally got our water back Tuesday night, so it wasn't too long without water luckily. It was kinda fun fetching water from the local water hose on the side of the road like the locals do.

We had to drive the sister training leaders to the Airport on tuesday to fly to their Missionary Leadership Council (I think thats what MLC stands for), and then pick them on friday. Plus we had to drive into town Thursday for our District meeting so that took up a lot of our usual proselyting time. It was fun getting to go into town and see other missionaries, but just hard scheduling wise. 

We also just had a lot of appointments fall through again this week.

But what has been cool through all of this is seeing Heavenly Father really guide us to where we need to be and when.

On Wednesday we ended up having an unexpected lesson with two sisters that we have been teaching. Their father, who won't let them come to church, decided to join the lesson, because of his friend that was over who it turns out is a member. This man has had a lot of difficulties and has been somewhat less active, but he helped so much with the lesson. He brought up the scripture in Matthew, "Seek ye first thing kingdom of God" which was so inspired. I know that this man needed to be there in that lesson. I will probably never know why, but I think it strengthened him, helped the girls, softened the heart of the father, and taught me! 

I've realized that I need to seek first the kingdom of God more. Instead of stressing over water, food, of other temporal things I need to focus my whole heart, might, mind, and strength on the Lords work and he will provide. 

He provided us with water when we didn't have any. I got 3 packages in the mail this week, all which contained food. (This is a blessing because the grocery stores haven't gotten a shipment in a while, which means today there wasn't a lot to buy and just the fact that we are on a island means food is pretty expensive.) My Heavenly Father is so aware of me and my needs and I know that he will not let me down.

This Sunday we had the opportunity to fast for the Church on Pohnpei. I really saw that as I put aside the physical, food and water, and focused on the spiritual, going to church and studying the scriptures, I was able to feel the spirit so incredibly strong. I sought the kingdom of God and felt the blessing of doing so. I know this truly is the Lords work and no matter what difficulties come, it will continue to progress forward until that day when our Savior Jesus Christ will come again.

A few fun things with the language:

1. As a child my nickname was kam kam and here there is a word kamakam which means to beat up. Ex. I pahn Kamakam uhk. I am going to beat you up. (Pohnpeians love this word)

2. In most languages the Title "Sister" gets translated on name tags such as "Hermana" in spanish. Here however, there really is no word for sister but rather you just say rei seripein which means my(sibling) girl, so i wouldn't make since to just put essentially My Girl Milne on the name tags. Going by Sister Milne makes it still be a formal tittle. 

3. The word for Dog is Kidi which is pronounced like Kitty. The word for Cat is Kat, except in the Pohnpeian language, T's make a "ch" sound, so it is pronounced "Cach"

Peace, Love, and Blessings!

Sister Milne