Filipinos in Greece!

One of my cousins lives in Greece.  When the family decided they wanted to go visit, my mom asked me if I'd like to join. UH...YES! What a cool place to visit.  Spending time with my family was fun! Cracked me up how the moms couldn't go a day without eating rice, and missing Filipino food.  But I certainly enjoyed the adventure.  Thanks Alfred and Maggie for being such great host! Love you!

That's me on Alfred's finger! Hehe.

My mom and Aunt wanted to be like Kim Kardashian 

and get fish pedicures. Oh brother!

Bat Brigade!

We have bats in Kosrae! 

We were told that there is a giant mango tree here that has hundreds of bats in it.  When the DeBeques, and Daryl were here, we all wanted to see it for ourselves.  We went and it is true. Hundreds of them.  They are huge too! They are the size of chickens.  At first when you get to the tree, you can hear them, but can't really see them.  Then when you look carefully in the tree, you can see them all hanging upside down.  They were pretty high up, so I didn't get any great shots with my iPad, but you can see some to the left. Thanks guys for braving this with me.

K+K in KOSRAE

Kathy and Kina in Kosrae!

My sister Kina came for a visit to check out our beautiful island here.  Kina is apart of the Lee Family. Her parents are my "Guam parents." So happy to have her come. It was great to have a fun, youthful, encouraging friend around. Thanks Kina for the dinners, and leaving me that HUGE jar of peanut butter! You can come share my room anytime! Love you!

Popped over to Pohnpei

 On the way back to Kosrae from Guam, I thought it'd be very encouraging for me to meet my brothers and sisters in Pohnpei. That being the next island over, I hear all the time all of the wonderful things our brothers are accomplishing over there. So I had to visit!

Mike and Auralee- thanks for opening up your home.  The fresh fish, and coffee on the porch was amazing.

My dear Sisi- You are probably the sweetest person I know! And a fantastic cook! I can't wait for you to come here.

Audrey- You know how to show someone a good time! Thank you for making my trip special.

The hike to the Antenna was super steep- but the view was awesome!

Service, fresh doughnuts, waterfalls, ancient ruins- Great Day!

Party for the Sisters!

Its been awhile...since I've been to Guam

It was nice to see some special people. My Guam parents, Duane and Jackie. My BFFs Damali and Kristin. (Congrats on your new assisignent!) I also got to spend some time with uncle Barak.

It was very fun to see some old friends, and make some new...

Some from the North congregation threw a fun tail-gate party for Sherwin!

Some Pioneer sisters took me out in service to search for Kosraeans in Guam.  We found a bunch, and it was great getting to share the truth with them.

Fun, Loving, and "Strong"

The Strong sisters came out to visit our congreagation here in Kosrae.  So encouraging for us to see some sisters who are looking for ways to do more for Jehovah.  We wanted to show them a good time in hopes they'll return.  We miss you already, and hope to see you again!  Love you!

Rock Hopper Run in Kosrae

With the goal to encourage islanders to exercise more and to promote Kosrae tourism, for the first time ever a run was sponsored here on Kosrae. It was a 6 mile trail run that went up into jungle, then finished with a nice stretch along the beach. We all finished with smiling faces-but don't ask us how we felt the following day.

Gifts from above for our little ones...

BSB-Bible Studies on the Beach

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Missionary couple here in Kosrae went off island for a few weeks to attend to Pioneer school in Guam. This left our congregation without an Elder, and modified meetings.  This also meant that us sisters would have responsibilities ( eg. roving mics, sound booth, reading, accounts) that sister don't normally get a share in.  Here are some photos of us in action...

No Cows, but there are MOOMOOs

Moomoos are a local dress here in Kosrae.  A bible student so kindly gave Kayla and I a couple moomoos of our own. This is us sporting our new dresses at meeting. (Check out the flip flops too!)

Kosrae's water free...

Water is not metered here, so it's free. This is how we get our drinking water in Kosrae. Water from the sink faucet is not clean, so we go to areas that collect rain water and fill up our water bottles. Some people have rain water catchment tanks; we don't, so we have to go to a public one.  It's clean, and it's free. 

Cups. Yes we're playing with cups. =)

Julie, Mary and I were playing around. We've been practicing this cup routine- we still need work, but here is a sample.

That's Mora in the back washing dishes, while we're playing around. hehe.

This is not goodbye...

Dale and Joe are two wonderful brothers who came to live in Kosrae to help where there is a need.  And they did the what they came to do!  We have been so encouraged by their sacrifices, and encouraging example. We will miss them dearly.  This is not goodbye, because as long as we are in Jehovah's organization our friendships will never end.

We found another one! Sipyen Falls

We found out that there a are a few waterfalls here in Kosrae.  This one is in the village of Utwe.

We had heard that we would need a four wheel drive to get to it.  We decided to walk.

We drove my car as far as we could, then walked the 2 miles to the waterfall.  It was Beautiful!

See for yourself...

After swimming,we weren't looking forward to the walk back to the car. But we were happy to have had a fun day with friends.

A good problem to have...

Here in Kosrae we have more Bible studies then we can handle.  Finding time to do territory is a challenge, but this a good problem to have.

A typical mid-week service day for me:

-Meeting for field service 8:30am

-Start out with 1 hour of house to house (but only get to 4 houses because everyone was home)

-Conduct 3 Bible studies the rest of the morning 

-Get home almost at 1pm, lunch

-Back out in service at 2pm and conduct another 3 Bible studies. 

-Finish service about 5pm

Many times I'm amazed how this gets done, but I'm so excited to be apart of this most important work!

This is one of my Students Mary. She was a student of mine for about 6 months, then she moved. I had been asking about her and trying to figure out where on the island she had moved to.  A couple months had gone by and I finally found her!  When I showed up, she grabbed her book and Bible and was ready to have her study, just picking up where we left off. I was so happy to see that her love for her study continued, and has rubbed off on her family. Now when I go to visit Mary for her Bible study, we have had up to 8 other people sitting in and participating.

This is Naemon.  She is a new student of mine. A brother found her doing door to door, and told me about this interested woman. She seemed a little embarrassed about her living situation, but was willing to talk.  I think after hearing me me speak Kosraean and pronouncing a couple words incorrectly, she was put as ease.  Our studies have been going great.
Naemon had a 16 year old son who died about a year ago.  He had cancer and had to go to another island for some medical care.  During the last months of her son's life, Naemon went to that island to be with him.  When she got there she had found out that a man had been visiting her son and talking to him about the Bible. This was one of our brothers. The son expressed to his mother how much he enjoyed those discussions.  That moved Naemon to go to a meeting on that island.  After her son had passed Naemon moved back to Kosrae. Naemon thought about how much her son enjoyed those Bible discussions and that moved her to want to know more.  I have the privilege of helping her learn about the wonderful time when she can be with her son again. 

Kosrae S.A.D. 2013

Here are a few pictures from the assembly.

Brother Kono from Pohnpei was our visiting speaker.  He also happens to be Kosrae's RTO overseer.  This is a nice picture of the whole team.  

Wicked Awesome!

Kayla is a sister from Massachusetts that wanted to serve where the need is greater.  She heard about Kosrae, and wanted to help.  She worked really hard and made many sacrifices and is now here!

Kayla will be here for at least 5 months.  She's staying with me and Anna Belle.

She's learning the language and of course already has a few Bible students of her own-all in just a couple weeks!!!

We are happy she's here and appreciate the loving support.



This is Julie, welcoming Kayla at the airport.

Anna Belle took Kayla with her on one of her Bible studies.  When Kayla saw where it was she said, "I can't believe I'm here!"

Leave it to me to focus on the food!

I showed Kayla where to get local popsicles.  These popsicles are called ice "srimet" (pronounced shimet) and are made of coconut, milk and sugar.

This was about 10:30am.  It was hot! But it's never too early for a popsicle break, right.



Bread or Fruit? Breadfruit.  This is what it looks like.  It grows on a tree and taste kind of like a sweet potato.

Our sister Evelyn kindly gave us a couple for Kayla to try.  These ones were not quite ripe yet, so they were perfect for making breadfruit chips!

Surprise!

Sean and Kathy just celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. Sean asked if we would help him 

surprise Kathy at the restaurant that he was taking her to.  We showed up with a cake, Sean sang songs, and Kathy even danced- all at the restaurant! Congratulations!

What Da Fall? oh, WATERFALL!

Finally after being here for two years, we finally decided to do a little sight seeing.  Thanks to Joe getting a group together, we were able to go on a little adventure.  This is what we found.

Kosrae Cuties!

These girls wanted to show off their new dresses that were sent from some friends in the states.  Connie is on the left, and Mimi on the right.  Don't you just want to squeeze them- they are so cute!

This is how we do it in Kosrae.

Yes, they were here for three weeks, but it didn't seem long enough.  It certainly was three weeks of activity.  We had two other visitors here during that time.  Chiara, and Sierra came to visit from Pohnpei. Anna Belle and I had to move out of our house and into a new place. I just want to thank everyone for their help and loving support. 

The guys LOVE eating sashimi. So we went to one of the marina docks and got some tuna. We brought it to the Millers place.  Samurai Sean showed us how to slice, dice and even "spoon" a fish. Kathy showed us how to to make rolls, and we showed them how to eat! YUMERS!

Cali Boys made it to Kosrae

 After a week in Saipan, we made it to Kosrae.  The brothers will be here for 3 weeks to help us in the territory, congregation, and to have a little island fun.

Ahoy Matey!

Bruce invited us to join him on a little sailing adventure.  We sailed from Saipan to the little island of Tinian.  It was my first time on a sailboat.  It was going to be a 5 hour ride.  We left as the sun was coming up...

We each got a turn at the wheel.  Some got into it more than others.  When we caught the wind just right, it was quite a ride! 

Just before we arrived in Tinian we wanted to take a little break from sailing and enjoy the water. We let down the anchor and all jumped in.

  We arrived at the dock in Tinian and some Brothers picked us up. We hopped in the back of a pick-up and went straight to the Kingdom Hall.  We met up with Bob and Lolly, the Special Pioneers there. We went to lunch, had the best fried chicken I've ever had, then went to Taga Beach!

The ride home was Beautiful! We didn't arrive in Saipan until almost midnight. All of us were tired, but it was a BLAST!