New Year Blessings

Dear family and friends,

As the 2017 is rapidly moving towards a vivid stop, do we still have time to make a difference?  Not sure!  I just know that this year has gone too fast.

Here is a glimmer of the young missionaries as they gathered on Christmas Eve for food, movie, and eventually the gifts that all of us senior couples delivered to their flats while they were watching a Christmas movie. 

It is hard to capture all of them.

One of our new elders poised for the picture:)

Here is a small view of the Christmas Day Feast that the senior couples prepared for our young missionaries.

Lots of decisions by yours truly.

The young missionaries have their
first plate, so the seniors start.

Some need bigger plates.

This tree in the mission home has a picture
of each of the missionaries.  The seniors
decorated the house after Thanksgiving, so
it would be ready.

Christmas Day in the Majuro Islands shares its special traditions from a different angle.  Many people spend the day gathered in many different churches around the island and perform their 20 minutes of dancing and singing in celebration.  Our five wards performed at the Long Island Stake House.  Besides our seven wards, there were others who joined, too.  The Japanese group performed after us. 

We senior couples danced with all of our young missionaries as the first performance for the day.  Our young missionaries did a wonderful job and we added the comic relief for all the onlookers.

Elder Joseph from Ebeye was our leader, whistle blower, and a might fine dancer.  I don't know what he really could have accomplished since we only had one (yes - one) practice, but he tried.

Our Biit Dance/Song leader.

With his companion from Tennesse.

Along with these activities, Elder Preston spent the day in the Mission Office directing the young missionaries, so that communications could be made with their families throughout the Pacific Islands as well as in the US. I dropped by a few times, but my day was spent preparing more food for the luncheon, serving food, and of course the fun clean-up.  I'm so grateful to work along side of the Doigs and Seagers.  They are such positive outstanding senior couples.  We are truly blessed to serve with them as well as thoroughly enjoy their friendship.

We were happy when we finally had time to sit down and open our gifts on the evening of Christmas Day.  It was quiet and enjoyable.  We really didn't expect anything, since we only have three months left on our mission, but we still received some surprises.  

Elder Preston particularly enjoyed his newly arranged Twinkies.  It seems that the can of hard candy, one of my favorite, turned into a rolling pin.  

Carefully removing the Twinkie from the
wrapper.

Tastes like a Twinkie, just somewhat
condensed.

We thank you for your generosity and your thoughtfulness through your gifts, e-mails, phone calls, Skype moments, and particularly your prayers.

After the last of the Christmas communications were completed on Tuesday (unfortunately the internet and all phone were down from midnight on Christmas Day until noon on the day after Christmas), we took time to walk along a few areas in Majuro to capture some of the Christmas lights.  

Capitol Building Decorations.

Part 2.

ICC Building where we have many of our
big Diabetes Conferences.
The two people are E/S Doig.

As we close this year, let us all remember how fragile life is and that people are more important than all the worldly items that can be purchased.

Thank you for your support and love.  You daily make a difference in our lives.

We love you,

Elder and Sister Preston

Merry Christmas with love.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

On Monday evening, we experienced such a affirmative moment as we saw the anticipation of a single lady and a family from our Delap Ward, who are going to fly to Honolulu to attend the temple.  This will be one many firsts for all of them: leaving the Marshall Islands; traveling on a plane;  being in a big airport; riding on an escalator; eating in an American cafeteria; being on an island that has rivers, lakes, and mountains, street lights; and being gone for six days.

 

Sweet family: father, mother, two daughters,
and son. Single sister to the far back right.
Matching dresses for this important
trip.

Bishop Ned, those going to the temple;
Bro. & Sis. Winchester - who planned the
trip for them; and E/S Preston.

To watch them as they were wide-eyed looking in the very small craft and food marts at the one gate airport in Majuro, made us wonder what they will be their countenance when they experience Honolulu.

Another moment of excitement:  Three elders and one sister arrived from the MTC today.  What a beautiful bright intelligent group.  We feel that they will definitely lift the bar.  Elder Erikson is a darling red headed young man from Colorado. (We quickly gave him the sunscreen lesson.  So many of our fair missionaries arrive and forget to wear sunscreen their first day, because they just feel that they are only getting in and out of cars.  Every one of them became so sunburned.) Sister Maka is from Tonga. She is a beautiful young lady, who is grounded in the gospel and speaks Tonga, very good English, and already has a handle on Marshallese. Elder Ete is from SLC, Holiday area - an Olympus HS graduate - made Elder Preston's day. He seems very confident and it is evident that he has been a leader. The buff Elder is from NZ.  He was an incredible rugby player.  When he went to Australia to play, he learned about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and became a member.  At the age of 25, he chose to quit his rugby career and go on a mission.  Unknown to him, his younger brother living in Brisbane, Australia, was also taking the missionary lessons and had joined the church.  Since he entered the MTC, his entire family has joined the church. 

Elder Erekson, Sister Maka, Elders Ete & Tuilagi.
New missionaries - Dec. 18, 2017.

AP's, SLT, and new trainers are
part of the welcoming group.

These are four really dedicated young people who are ready to serve the Lord. 

Thursday, we spent the morning doing apartment checks.  Wow!  We have a lot of work to talk to some of the landowners concerning the safety of apartments.  Also the furniture has a few needs.  Living in a third world country does have its challenges.  Still these needful apartments are so much better than where most of the Majuro residents live.  Here's hoping for the best.  

 

Humidity and poorly built
walls not helpful.

Not sure how walls received new holes.
Leaking AC doesn't help.

Fragile chairs and 250 pound missionaries
are not a good match.

Sofa has a few needs.

Do you think that we need to look for some new ones? We would close some of them, but it is hard because there are no other apartments to rent.  The price is ridiculous and the quality is so sad.

Even though the apartments are a challenge, we have many missionaries who are crowded in small places and still try to be organized and orderly.  

Four of the finest!

These two sisters have one of the nicest flats,
even though the AC, the shower, and the
toilet have challenges or might not be
working.

These three elders live in an 12 x 10 apartment at the
back of the Stake House.

Marvin, who is a smart 31 year old PII employee, arrived today to look at our dryer. It stopped working the day after our water damaged from the exploded water heater in the apartment above us.  After completing a thorough check with the support of his helper, he was trying to pull the vent hose up to establish a better connection.  Surprised by the weight, he moved it again.  Long story shortened - the dryer hose was full of water.

Men at work.

Drain that vent!

Lovely colored dirty water in the dryer vent.

Marvin and his helper.

 It works much better when it does not contain water.  

Of course a baggie of homemade Christmas cookies and bottles of cold water will remind them that helping in our apartment is a plus.

Senior couples are investing a lot of time in trying to provide a meaningful Christmas for our young missionaries. Since they come from so many areas of the Pacific, plus the states, their Christmas traditions vary. I am very pleased that our baking was done in advanced and frozen.  With all the other preparations, it made our lives much better. 

We attended a baptism in the Jenrok Ward which was to start at 6:00PM.  It did finally start at 7:20PM. We are stilled challenged by the mindset that time is a non item.  Everything went well the sister missionaries who taught the missionary lessons were very in high spirits about this important moment in time for this young priesthood aged boy. 

Two sister missionaries on each of
the newest member and the
Bishop's son who did the honors.

Traveling home was between the speeds of 5-15 miles an hour through the middle of "town."  We were cheerier when we got to the bridge on the other end of town and were able to travel our noted 25 miles per hour.

We took a short break from everything and headed for the ocean during low tide to see if Craig could get a picture/proof of the blue starfish. He actually picked them off their shelves in the ocean and I was able to snap photos. I'm sure that he will write it up, so watch for the real pictures. 

Our young missionaries are so animated about the calls and/or Skype to families or someone in their home communities during December 23-26, 2017.  Since we are a day ahead of the states, we have to get creative.  Craig and I are in charge of all of these communications - one down and many to go over these three days.

Today, Sunday, December 24, we senior missionaries are preparing a feast for 6:00PM.  After the eating marathon, the missionaries will be taught by our Mission President and then they will get to relax in front of a sweet Christmas movie.  While President and Sister Larkin and all the young missionaries do so, the three senior couples will be delivering packages to the many missionary flats as a surprise when they return after the Christmas Eve Festivities. 

Packages are labeled, organized by flat, and ready to
deliver.

Craig and I have fewer deliveries, because we are to return and serve the pumpkin pies, brownies and ice cream at the end of the movie.  The other two couples will be traveling to the opposite ends of our island.  The traffic has been really slow lately, so they might not make it back before the event has ended.

Our little Christmas tree is decorated with one strand of lights; limbs sprinkled with red bows and two glass Christmas ornaments, an incased snowflake and a dolphin.  (I am very partial to glass ornaments particularly clear glass that reflects the Christmas lights.) 

 

2nd year for our little tree.

It looks as though we have big gifts around the tree, but most of the items tucked inside are small.  These are the only sized boxes that we have available so that one is not able to guess the contents immediately. 

On Christmas Day, the various church congregations across the country perform the Biit in each of the churches, which is a dance with singing and a lot of whistle blowing to change directions or steps.  Our seven LDS Wards will perform in our Long Island Stake House starting at 10:00AM.  This is the kicker:  All the missionaries plus the senior missionaries will be performing first.  We have practiced once for our 20 minute performance.  We will certainly be comic relief for many.

Even though we have asked many people how the Biit connects to celebrating the birth of Christ, we still have not received a real answer. We recognize that it does connect all ages as they perform in their congregations. The dance movements are to represent and tell a story about the Marshallese people in earlier years.  When I asked our instructor (one of our Marshallese missionaries) about what story our dance relates, he didn't know and neither did anyone else.

The people start practicing in October and during the two weeks before their performances on Christmas Day, they practice 5-6 times a day starting at dusk and often going until midnight.  We'll have pictures next week to show the thrill that they seem to experience.

We are thoroughly grateful that we do understand why we celebrate Christmas.  Even though the gifts, food, and surprises are eventful, there is nothing as important as having the knowledge of the birth of our Savior and what His resurrection and atonement means for each of us.

As you enjoy the Christmas music, please listen to a favorite from childhood - Away In A Manger.  The last verse always makes us fondly think of all of you, whom we love so much.

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask thee to stay

Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,

And fit us for heaven to live with thee there.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas.

We love you,

Elder & Sister Preston

Countdown

We have been able to put stickers on some of the furniture that was recently delivered from NZ for the public schools here through our LDS Charities. 

Cassiano and his crew who helped deliver the furniture.

Plenty to label.

It brings good feelings for us and for those who are receiving the furniture.  We just wish that we had more to give. Unfortunately school is out for the Christmas Season, so we have been unable to visit many of the schools and there are not children to photo.  We were able to go to the Marshall Islands High School, because Rubida, the LDS assistant principal works there.

Rubida listing the furniture that the high school received.

Putting labels, "Donated by LDS
Charities" on each piece of
furniture.

Display case for the library.

Tables for the computer lab/staff room.

Good signs in the Math Classroom.

Second meaningful sign.

Cassiano added the Special Education Center to the list.  As we visited, it was evident that they really needed the furniture.  We had a day filled with good service.

Special Education Center

Special ED. Director; Deaf teacher holding her baby
(she lives in our same apartment complex) and me.
Tables and chairs were donated to them.

It was my turn to teach the institute class on Wednesday.  It poured all day, so I had unsure feelings that anyone would show.  Life just keeps getting better.  We did have five students and they did participate in the lesson.  I gave each attendee a little bag of homemade cookies with a bow on the top.  Most of them started eating the cookies immediately. Cheryl, Jons' wife, is from the Philippines.  She was amazed by the cookies.  It seems that she has never had an oven, so that really eliminates baking. She kept saying, "You really made these yourself?"

Our health screening at the Rita Christian School on Monday went well.  We had three teams so we were done in about two hours.  Here is Elder Preston and Shra from MoH with a group of upper graders.  Students love having their picture taken.

Elder Preston and Shra after the health screening
for these 6th graders.

Our Follow-up health clinic at Tieti on Friday was not what we expected.  Shra had set up the time for 9:00AM.  It is suppose to be a wonderful gathering where people would be able to receive prizes for losing weight, lowering blood pressure, and lowering blood sugar levels.  We had a mere six people attend and four of them were first time participants. 

We think that it might have produced less people because it was raining so hard. It was hard to see through our car window as we drove home.  Many of the areas along the single street were flooded.

Lots of rain.

  As soon as we arrived home, Elder Preston, decided to wipe down our car, since the rain really helps remove on the collected dirt.

I hurried into our apartment to check our apartment office that often ends up with a flooded carpeted floor after a heavy rain when severe wind is also hitting that side of our building.  As soon as I looked into our office, I saw water all the way to our kitchen.  I thought, "Oh no. The room must be completed drenched."  Weird - The water was three feet into the room from the kitchen tile.  No water was coming from the exterior wall. I immediately started soaking up the water.  Then rapidly went on the other side of the wall and opened the closet where our washer and dryer are established. I flipped on the light and saw water slowly running down the wall next to our office.  I finally looked up to see that the water was dripping rapidly out of the light bulbs.  TURNED OFF ELECTRICITY RIGHT THEN!  Got a deep cooking pot to collect the water.

Water coming from the office.

Clean up office and pot catching water dripping
from light bulb over washer/dryer.

Water dripping from light above our
washer/dryer.

  When Craig returned he went and found two PII workers and brought them home to see what was happening.  This is what they found:

The people who rent above us have been off island for the last three month (it has been wonderful, because they are SO noisy).  They arrived on Tuesday (we know because the noise returned).  The hose behind their wash machine had broken and water was flooding their apartment, but they were not home at the time.  Plus - their water heater exploded.  Guess where the water decided to flow - down to our apartment.

We dried up as much water as possible.  I was busy when I heard a loud noise from Craig.  From the AC vent above his desk, a heavy amount of water dropped on him and his belongings.  He grabbed his computer and tried to save his papers while I grabbed two more cooking pots to catch the water. We cleaned up that mess and retrieved the workers again.

Craig's desk with added water collectors.

We had talked about leaving after the first amount of water and decided to stay home and do a few things to make sure that our apartment was safe.  If we had left, Craig's desk and all his important papers would have been destroyed.

We had deliveries to make, so I encourage Craig to run the errands and I would stay in case of another flow of water.  After he left I needed to put a bucket in our kitchen because the water found another weak ceiling area, plus an area of our ceiling had a water spot that continued to grow. 

More water coming to visit us.

Ceiling vents can't hold water.

Grateful we have lots of pots.

We seriously considering moving to the third floor into the apartment that had been vacated by the Coombs, when they left to serve in Tonga, but we thought about it over night and we are staying.  Hopefully it is the correct decision.

Friday evening we attended the Assumption School Christmas Pageant.  We all know how enjoyable it is to watch children perform from kindergarten age through high school.  The high school band played; each elementary grade performed a Christmas song; and the high school students performed the Nativity.  (The show was organized by Jon Overy, an LDS music teacher from the states who has a two year contract with the Catholic School. He is a very dedicated young man.  We thoroughly enjoy him and his wife.)

Christmas Pageant!

Listen to their sweet voices.
Lead by Jon Overy.

Children performing are the best!

This was a new experience for us.  The actors spent quite a long time expressing the joy of Mary when she became engaged to Joseph.  Admiring her engagement ring brought sounds of excitement. The story of the birth of Christ took on a complete new version. 

As the shepherds were the stable and manger area, a cute little puppy stole the show. The little black and white pup should have been covered with cotton balls and then he could have been a lamb resting near the Christ child.  (The little dog had to be removed more than once.  He didn't realize that he was not part of the script.)

Please watch for the puppy.

The four young missionaries and we were asked to speak about our Savior in Delap Ward Sacrament Meeting on Sunday by Bishop Ned.  It went well and the young missionaries performed a beautiful Christmas Hymn.  The view of a meeting, when sitting on the stage behind the pulpit, is usually quite different than when sitting with the congregation.  The second counselor walked to his seat next to the Bishop holding the hand of his girl followed by his dog.  His little girl spent the meeting running around the church and running to sit with her dad behind the pulpit.  The dog was a terrible nuisance for the entire meeting.  I was disappointed that the counselor didn't have the common sense to remove the dog.  There were people who were afraid of it.  The dog kept trying to return to the stage to be with its owner, but we wouldn't let it.

The dog did some very inappropriate things.  We haven't had a dog attend church for a year.  Doesn't do much to keep the spirit in the meeting! Very distracting for most people, but also rather funny.

We have continued to read and study about the birth of Christ, but even more important is what His birth and life did for each of us.  We are so blessed to have this knowledge.  

We love you and appreciate your ongoing goodness, prayers, and support.

Elder & Sister Preston