We celebrated Tokah's 19th birthday party here at the house. She is the one front center in the red. I guess we started something because now all of the girls want that same treatment.
These pictures were taken at the airport welcoming Sister Motete home from her mission. We served with her in Majuro and were very happy to see her again. She is the girl in the black blouse. She is experiencing the returned missionary blues just a little. For 18 months she lived in a nice apartment, ate well and had a monthly stipend while she was on her mission. She comes home to a simple hut that the family can't even sleep in. The rest of the family is Catholic so they sleep in the Catholic maneaba along with 50 plus other families. We let her come and wash her clothes at our place. Her mother tells her every day that she belongs to an "evil church" and her mother and the nuns want her to teach at the Catholic High School. Jobs are almost non existant and we worry about her. We are trying to get her into BYUHawaii. She will probably be able to go to BYU with a Sponsor scholarship but will have to go to Fiji to get a visa and then on to Hawaii. That will cost about $2500 and the family is so poor they won't be any help. The non member parents love to let the Church educate their children and send them on missions all the while telling all who will listen about the "evil church" The ironic thing is that if you ask most of them what they believe they have no clue. A wonderful friend that we love emailed us last week and said that she had been talking to her cousin who isn't a member about the Church. She sent us a list of questions that she wanted answered so she could help her cousin understand about the church. The standard questions, Why did Heavenly Father withhold the priesthood from the blacks until 1978, Is Revalations really the last book of the New Testiment, Why did Heavenly Father o.k. polygamy, etc. I wrote back and gave her my answer to her questions. "In the early spring of 1820 a simple, uneducated farm boy knelt in prayer and ask for an answer to a question. In answer to his simple prayer the heavens were opened and he saw God, our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. In that moment the world was changed forever." I don't know why Heavenly Father withheld the priesthood from the blacks until 1978, I don't know why the book of Revelation shows up as the last book in the New Testament and I don't know why Heavenly Father authorized polygamy as he had done at times throughout the ages and then withdrew the practice of it. What I know in my heart is that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and if that is true then everything else doesn't matter. This church is the Church of the Restoration. We belong to the restored Church that Christ established when he lived upon this earth. We teach our people on Christmas Island that all of the other churches are good and do good works and we should never say unkind things about others but we belong to the Lord's true church here upon the earth and we are grateful for that knowledge. David's son Matt just received his mission call to the Nevada Las Vegas West mission. We are so pleased that he has chosen to serve a mission. We just returned from an Elder's quorum get together. Speaking for myself, the octypus and raw and cooked wahoo was wonderful. The canned corned beef and tomato soup over rice didn't especially hit the spot. We love these people.
We celebrated Tokah's 19th birthday party here at the house. She is the one front center in the red. I guess we started something because now all of the girls want that same treatment.
These pictures were taken at the airport welcoming Sister Motete home from her mission. We served with her in Majuro and were very happy to see her again. She is the girl in the black blouse. She is experiencing the returned missionary blues just a little. For 18 months she lived in a nice apartment, ate well and had a monthly stipend while she was on her mission. She comes home to a simple hut that the family can't even sleep in. The rest of the family is Catholic so they sleep in the Catholic maneaba along with 50 plus other families. We let her come and wash her clothes at our place. Her mother tells her every day that she belongs to an "evil church" and her mother and the nuns want her to teach at the Catholic High School. Jobs are almost non existant and we worry about her. We are trying to get her into BYUHawaii. She will probably be able to go to BYU with a Sponsor scholarship but will have to go to Fiji to get a visa and then on to Hawaii. That will cost about $2500 and the family is so poor they won't be any help. The non member parents love to let the Church educate their children and send them on missions all the while telling all who will listen about the "evil church" The ironic thing is that if you ask most of them what they believe they have no clue. A wonderful friend that we love emailed us last week and said that she had been talking to her cousin who isn't a member about the Church. She sent us a list of questions that she wanted answered so she could help her cousin understand about the church. The standard questions, Why did Heavenly Father withhold the priesthood from the blacks until 1978, Is Revalations really the last book of the New Testiment, Why did Heavenly Father o.k. polygamy, etc. I wrote back and gave her my answer to her questions. "In the early spring of 1820 a simple, uneducated farm boy knelt in prayer and ask for an answer to a question. In answer to his simple prayer the heavens were opened and he saw God, our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. In that moment the world was changed forever." I don't know why Heavenly Father withheld the priesthood from the blacks until 1978, I don't know why the book of Revelation shows up as the last book in the New Testament and I don't know why Heavenly Father authorized polygamy as he had done at times throughout the ages and then withdrew the practice of it. What I know in my heart is that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and if that is true then everything else doesn't matter. This church is the Church of the Restoration. We belong to the restored Church that Christ established when he lived upon this earth. We teach our people on Christmas Island that all of the other churches are good and do good works and we should never say unkind things about others but we belong to the Lord's true church here upon the earth and we are grateful for that knowledge. David's son Matt just received his mission call to the Nevada Las Vegas West mission. We are so pleased that he has chosen to serve a mission. We just returned from an Elder's quorum get together. Speaking for myself, the octypus and raw and cooked wahoo was wonderful. The canned corned beef and tomato soup over rice didn't especially hit the spot. We love these people.
No comments:
Post a Comment