Weekly Tender Mercies . . .

Things are moving right along here. We are coming to the end of our mission and Chuuk has become a second home to us and we love our Chuukese friends dearly. Many of them have come to mean very much to us. Since beginning our mission we have completed the GPS tracking throughout Chuuk state, although that doesn't really mean anything because the Chuukese people are always moving around from island to island. Even if the next couple does exactly what we did this year, next year it will all be different. However we do have to say that it is, without a doubt, a divine calling. Doing the GPS has taught us many things. It has been the finest Home & Visiting teaching experience possible. As missionary work, it’s golden. We kid you not, it has been amazing. We have seen many wonderful blessings come from taking our missionaries and branch President with us to locate people. It is true everyone wants to know someone cares about them and loves them.

We have also taught many classes on the Temple and the blessings we can receive when we go there. This coming June, Chuuk will have 31 people going through the temple for the first time to become Families for Time and All Eternity. We are so excited for them all. We are in the process of getting another group prepared to go in November,  after we are gone home. That will fall into the hands of the Chuukese members that have been sealed in June to teach them and help them finish preparing. 
We have been working on winding things down here on our mission but we felt prompted to teach more classes. We weren't sure why or what we needed to teach. We prayed together asking what we should do. Our answer came back to teach them how to build relationships, not just for the active person, but inactive, investigators and all adults wanting and having the desire to learn. We still were not sure how this was going to work out but we knew it had to be different than the other classes. We looked over manuals in the library and saw many, many different ones - all in English and the majority of people don't read English and won't touch them. They just sit there collecting dust and the people have no idea what they are for because the church is still relatively new here. 

We were still lost as to what we needed to teach, but we knew we needed to teach. We continued to read and study. We felt we had an answer and decided upon teaching a compilation from several manuals ~ from Family History, Temple, Marriage & Family Relationships, and No Greater call, Strength of Youth pamplet. (all of these manuals are in English-not Chuukese) That in itself presents a difficult lesson, but we have learned the spirit speaks all languages. No worries! If we were in the states we wouldn't consider using all of these manuals but the key is to share what they have available and show & teach them how to use it. On the first day we were to teach we still didn't know what we should be teaching. 

We prayed asking that we might teach what He wanted us to teach. We started the first class with about 7 people; we set up tables like a round table discussion instead of a teacher student classroom. 

Then we introduced the manuals and said we would learn from all of them. The gospel is a full circle so it will all come together. We began with talking about the Proclamation for the family and The Plan of Salvation and what it meant. We discussed a parents duties and what the Lord expected from us as parents. Nothing we were talking about was a new tropic, but we all know we continue to learn each day line upon line. 
The discussion was very good; still we were not sure how the class was going to go. Well, it turns out if you are wiling to teach what the Lord wants you to teach you truly can help people. Sometimes He answers prayers through other people. Our Area Authority, President Ringwood, once told us that if we do all we can do we can be an answer to someones prayer. But we needed to make ourselves available. We have often pondered what that meant while on our mission.

We didn’t know how the class was going to go but one of the ladies had been struggling with letting her brother in-law adopt one of her sons. She is a widow and she has several other children, her son is already living with his Aunt and Uncle in the states, because we don’t have the correct medicine here in Chuuk. He has arthritis and the humidity here is really hard on him. Turns out she has been really torn about this and was not sure what she should do. 
We told her that we could not advise her, that she needed to take it to the Lord and maybe even her priesthood leaders. 

It turns out the District President was in the class, he normally does not come to our classes. He taught her very well, he used examples and lessons from the scriptures. He told the group that people have told him he should give his kids away to those who can’t have them also. He has 11 ranging from 18 to 1 month. We don't believe in coincidence, we believe he was there for her. It was a wonderful tender mercy and we feel blessed to be part of it. No one knew what she was going through; we just followed the spirit and let the Lord do the rest. 

Chuuk has some very different culture differences and we have learned to adjust to them –  a little… You know everyone here is so innocent – well maybe not the government officials but the people are. They would give you everything and anything they have and the truth is they have nothing. But it’s yours. They don’t know they are poor, everyone is poor but they are happy. They always help each other and you never have to worry about your child because everyone is watching out for it. It is everyone's job to take care of each other. We are excited to teach the next class and pray for more tender mercies.