Good Week

Every morning this week, I have tried to quietly exit our bedroom to do my walking just after 4:30AM.  That way, I am done  early and can get ready for the day.  The challenge is not disturbing Craig.  It never works.  He likes to go after six, but he goes early because of me.  We walk in different areas.  I stay close to our apartment complex, because I do NOT like the dogs, cars, and trying to get around puddles of water.

As I walked my 3-3.4 miles, I practiced the talk that I have been asked to give for our RS 175 birthday celebration which will be attended by our entire Stake, plus the guest speaker Elder Adolf Johansson, Area Seventy.  I needed to get it down to 10 minutes, because my translator needs the my other allotted 10 minutes.  It was such a challenge.  It took a tremendous amount of preparation, prayer, and practice.  The 3 "P's" usually help.  So glad.  

Isn't it incredible that the Relief Society of the Church of Latter-day Saints is 7.1 million women strong!  One of the largest women's organizations in the world.  We are so blessed.

The night of our RS Birthday Celebration finally came, and our Stake RS president arrived 45 minutes late.  We all sat and waited quietly listening to the prelude music until her arrival, but it did give many others time to arrive, too.  Being very late is a common happening here.

After the devotional, we ate and were entertained by the women in each of the seven wards. They either performed a dance, much like the Christmas Day event or sang. These beautiful people know how to enjoy the moment!

Small part of the women patiently waiting for dinner.

The women in each of the seven wards provided a basket for any disabled sisters in their ward during the evening.  Both of the RS presidents in the two wards, where we serve, made a great tribute to the lovely sisters who received the baskets.

Uliga RS President

Stake & Delap Ward RS President

Our young sister missionaries did a wonderful performance. 

 

Young sister missionaries ready to perform
Wish I could have sent a video.
They were so graceful.
Have amazing rhythm.

Some of the dances got hysterical. Women would come out of the audience and start to spray the dancers with cheap perfume, and then laughed and tagged each other as they bumped into one another.

Rebecca Winchester, US judges' wife got involved.  She really became a part of the group. The crowd loved her.  She is the seated lady in the white top in bottom left hand part of picture.

Sisters from two of the wards threw sealed bags of yummy fruit into the audience and at the dancers, while performing.  The sisters loved the fruit and were very competitive in obtaining it.

One of my favorite senior missionaries
 on the far left joining her ward.

Had our Zone Conference this week.  

Elder Preston was to present on water conservation, but we had the CLP mtg, too. His presentation did not arrive before he had to leave, so I did his part. When we were previously discussing the water issue, (Please remember that we only have rain water, for there are no creeks, streams, rivers, lakes, or snow capped mountains.) I remembered how we used to tell our boys when they were young, "We need to hurry.  Take a Navy Shower. I shared the term with Elder Preston and he worked out a great presentation.  Do you remember the term?

NAVY SHOWER

When taking a shower

get in,

turn water on,

get wet,

turn water off,

lather, shampoo,

turn water on,

rinse, get out.

Then we told the missionaries that each flat should have 1 gallon of drinking water per missionary and 2 gallons of tap water to use when the water is turned off or the pontoon is empty.

Let's see how they do.

As I clicked save on the message about the water, the same 3 sisters that run out of water every other week knocked on our door to say - "We are out of water."  Quite the timing!  We have shared the water storage program with them for many weeks.  The one sister stated:  "I used our only gallon of drinking water to wash my face and brush my teeth this morning." They have been out since yesterday afternoon, but decided to let us know at 8:00P on Saturday evening.  So much for understanding!

E Preston taught a good institute lesson on Wednesday evening, and then we hurried to the one and only cultural event on this island per year.  The Marshallese young people presented OKLAHOMA under a director that comes to Majuro do just this.  So unique to see islanders singing the songs in English and then 99% of the speaking parts were in Marshallese.  Watching them dance to the western music of the early 1900's was delightful.  It was evident that they loved what they were doing.

It has been so many years since I have seen the musical that I had forgotten the script, but remembered the songs.

IPADs don't take great pictures in the dark.
Wish you could see their beautiful olive skin
and full smiles.

This has been a wonderful week filled with many humanitarian projects, spiritual highs, and moments of trying hard to stay positive.  We are grateful that we know the difference and how to stay happy work to walk with the spirit.  It is always our decision.

Your love, prayers, and communications always rejuvenate us. 

Love to all of you.