Hello hot showers!

Transfers! I will be heading to Sapwalap which is the area right next to Uh, a little further away from town, on the back side of the island. I will be training and whitewashing and I'm flying out today to Guam to pick up my trainee! I'm super excited and a tad bit nervous, but I know that God has a plan. If He trusts me then I can trust Him. 

I had a feeling that I would be leaving Uh, so I spent a lot of this week tying up loose ends. Picking up investigators that I loved but that we had to drop and having some last lessons with less actives that I'm close to. It is hard leaving them! Especially those investigators that have really begun to progress and that I have come so close to. I love them so much and I hope that they will continue to progress and soon be baptized so they can receive the full blessings and joy of this gospel. 

High lights this week: 

-We went on the outer island that is connected to Uh by a little road. We walked around it for an hour to have a lesson with a really less active girl. Her house is over the ocean and we had the lesson right there on the sea and it was way pretty. Plus she was super cute and glad we came. 

-We found out that one of our investigators is apparently a witch. SUPER strange. And funny. 

-Also found out that one of our long time investigators who ran away then came back was actually baptized in 1996. She didn't want to tell us cuz she was afraid we'd stop visiting her if we knew. 

-Also I spent the beginning part of the week on exchanges, so I was back in Kitti with Sister Felt. It was a blast as always, meeting new people is probably one of my favorite parts of missionary work. 

Thanks for all the emails and prayers! Keep them all coming, menlau:)

Limpoak sang, 

Sister Milne 

I finally ate DOG! Udah I iouki kidi!

This week was a blur! We have a ton of awesome investigators right now, but there was a funeral which lasts for several days here, so we weren't able to see a lot of our investigators. This means we got to spend a lot of time finding and we had a lot of success! We now have even more super awesome investigators! A few highlights from the week:

-Going on exchanges with Sister Behling who leaves in one transfer. It was so nice to have someone who is fluent in the language! I learned a lot:)

-Climbing into our rain water tank and finally cleaning it out! Its already dirty again so thats a bummer......but all is well.

-Walking around on wednesday which was the first sunny day in a very long time! We met a ton of cool people and ate our favorite "Koko" which is kinda like pickled under ripe papaya. And we added Koolaid to make it even yummier. 

-I finally got to eat dog! We were at a members house one night when her daughter walked in carrying a big dog leg from a party. It wasn't all the way cooked yet, but they gave it to me cuz they knew I hadn't tried it yet. Sister Taunauta taught me how to cook it up! I got to skin it, cut out the fat, cut it, then cook it. It was super yummy and didn't even make me as sick as some of the bananas do! It reminded me a lot of beef, but definitely had its own flavor. 

-On Sunday, the branch got to open a big package that Sister Bowers had sent them! It was filled with  magazines, candy, and play-dough. The funny part is that they had NO CLUE what play-dough is and they thought it was candy and so they all tried biting it and licking it. Once they realized it was certainly not food, they thought it was pretty funny too. 

-Today we got to go to possibly the prettiest waterfall on the island. The pictures do not do it justice, but it looks man made and like it should belong in Disney land. Sitting in front with the mist on my face was incredibly nice and relaxing. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you all try a little harder to learn about and become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. This week I learned even more about His life and His death. I can really see that the more we learn about HIm and what He did for us, the better we want to be, the more we want to give, and the harder we want to work. I feel His love and help in every aspect of this work. 

Love,

Sister Milne

Peace In Christ

This week was filled with peace in Christ. Especially as my companion and I listened to the 2018 mutual theme song "Peace in Christ" on repeat! 

This week was also filled with lots of miracles and lots of rain. And many miracles had to do with the rain. My favorite was in the middle of a lesson with our branch presidents mother, who when I first met her told me her name was Sakau (the pohnpein alcohol drink). We have been teaching her very slowly and she has been listening and changing! She puts up a lot of walls but though our love and service, they are coming down. We were in a lesson this week with her and it started pouring down rain, and I just prayed that it would stop (because we were in her hut which has a metal roof so it was LOUD). Well I finally got to teaching the restoration, and as I shared the first vision account with her, the rain stopped, everything got quite. Her eyes did not leave mine the entire time. It was powerful and both of us had tears in our eyes by the end. 

I really have seen that this is Gods work and not mine. He has repeatedly put the right people in our paths at the right time. He is so involved with the details and the intricacies of  the work. It is incredible to me, he truly "opens doors we cannot open and performs miracles we can scarcely imagine". (Thomas S. Monson) 

Also, this week we had an awesome zone conference and the mission Health, Professional Elder Beaumont, and his wife, Sister Beaumont, came and they helped us up our shower conditions! We got new buckets with lids and screens to filter out the worms and we will now be doing chlorine treatments to the rain water we catch!! This is an answer to so many prayers! 

I love this work and these people. I love bringing the Gospel to the lives of people who never before knew where to find true peace and joy. I know that this Church alone can bring us true peace in Christ. 

Love, 

Sister Milne

Picture in the rain was on the wettest walking Wednesday of my life. It was a thunder storm and we were soaked and a river flooded up over the road and kids were swimming in it. It was so FUN! 

The Other Side of The Island Had Sunsets

This week the Sister training leaders and zone leaders flew out to MLC again, which means I got to spend 3 days with Sister Felt in the Kitti/Pehleng area on the other side of the island! Although it was all still the same work, it felt like a little mini vacation. I had a comfy bed, clean shower water, the house was newer and cleaner, plus also safer, and there was SUNSETS! Plus this is side is a bit more middle class country which was quite enjoyable. We had so much fun meeting so many new people. Even though this Island is small, the west side actually has a completely different accent then the east side. Its kinda like an Australian accent, except speaking pohnpeian...

We had some awesome lessons, my favorite one was at dusk on the last night. We were under a public hut, with chairs and tables, teaching two investigators about the book of mormon, but people just kept coming and listening and so we had to get louder. By the end we were preaching to a group of maybe 12-15 people. They were all listening so well, and the spirit was so strong as we taught and testified. I felt like a missionary from the olden days and it was way fun. We went around and met everyone after wards and one lady told us "Kauno mihmih rehmwa" Which means "Christ is with you two". Also, for the first time I had someone else give me a book of mormon. It was our 16 year old member present that we brought a long. She wrote me a sweet note on the inside cover. Its crazy how fast you can come to love people! 

Coming back to Uh, we are so ready to get to work. Church on Sunday went pretty well. I started teaching a mission prep class for the youth, because none of them have been staying for Sunday school, and it went super well! Testimony meeting was also super powerful, these peoples testimonies of the atonement is pretty darn strong.

 My heart is full. Its not easy but it is so worth it!

Love,

Sister Milne

Parakapw! (New year)

Christmas and talking with my family was such a blessing! But also way too distracting! 

When we watched Moana for Christmas, I really connected with her. Not just because I'm on an Island, but there's that part where she hands the heart of the sea back to the ocean and tells it that it picked wrong, she couldn't do it, it was too important and she needed someone else who could do it better to take her place. I feel like that with my lovely little Uh Branch sometimes! They are so important and I often feel like I can't be everything they need. I wonder why did God pick me to be here and sometimes I even feel like he picked wrong. BUT I know that God has a plan, and hopefully I will triumph in the end like Moana does. Maybe I'll even sing a dance while I'm doing it as well. 

The whole middle of the week just felt super slow, especially as my companion was sick again. But Thursday we did exchanges so Sister felt came back to Uh with me and it was a super good time. We got to join a member families Christmas dinner and they gave us so soap. We joked that maybe it was because we are always so dirty, but its actually a very common, practical gift here. 

Saturday, we got a message from our branch president that an older lady in the branch was in the hospital an in severe need of A+ blood. So we spent a large part of the day visiting members and asking for their blood. (The hospitals don't have enough blood so if you need blood you gotta get it yourself). Heavenly Father led us right to all the A+ blood type members! But they all said no. They seem to believe that blood is not a renewable resource so if they've donated once before, they can't do it again. But we finally found a less active man who said he would! Hopefully he can just keep off the drugs long enough to donate his blood to her. 

Sunday was a rough one at church. The new year is crazy here, entirely focused on getting super drunk and partying all night. I have never been so heart broken over the sins of others before, but it helped me realize that if this is how I feel, I can't even imagine what our Heavenly Father must feel when we sin. He loves us so much and just wants to help us get home to Him. But I also know that God is full of mercy. Without the full translation of the Book of Mormon, these people do not have the fullness of the gospel. BUT one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Jesus is the Christ. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sister Milne