Pioneers, Birthdays and Anniversary

Last week in Institute our lesson was about the pioneer trek west so our activity was to find the best pioneer in our group. On paper, we made the trek. Each person started out with a wagon, a pair of oxen and $170. They had a list of supplies that they could buy with their money. There were 15 campsites along the way and at each stop I read actual experiences of the original pioneers. The students then wrote down A,B or C. Depending on what letter they chose there were rewards or bad things that happened like losing a horse or blankets, etc. I was surprised at how much they got into it. We learned a little about the conditions and experiences the early pioneers had and we had a little fun along the way. Even Elder Clarke got into it!

April 8th our Mission Nurse, Sister Miyazaki, celebrated her 70th birthday .

The Hertzbergs and the Clarke's decided to treat her to a birthday dinner so we took her to Gyoza, a Chinese? Japanese? restaurant. Their specialty is gyoza which is pretty much the same thing as a pot sticker. The dinner was good and before we finished Sister Miyazaki told us that it was the first time in 12 years that she had celebrated her birthday with anyone but herself. After dinner we went for desert at Yogurtland.

Because of the time difference, we have General Conference rebroadcast a week later so this past weekend we enjoyed watching Conference. We had actually watched the Saturday sessions on TV on Sunday the 3rd so we did not go to the church on Saturday but we did go on Sunday. It was interesting that they broadcast the sessions at all three of the meetinghouses and each Ward had a potluck in between sessions. This was great for our missionaries because I remember last October having all these Elders hanging around the Mission Office between sessions asking if there was anything they could eat. I think we came up with candy but no food. This time, they were both spiritually and physically fed.

The missionaries had a Zone sport day at the church on Monday and Elder Abubo took advantage of the opportunity to have barber Iglesia cut his hair.

That night the Seniors had decided to have a picnic dinner at the park and enjoy the sunset. Unfortunately, it was a very overcast day and we really did not see much of the sun. I did manage to get a picture of some of it peeking through the clouds though and we did have a good time just sitting and visiting.



We were at the park where the mini statue of Liberty is so we all had to have our pictures taken with her. Here is Sister Miyazaki.

Wednesday was our 38th Anniversary. For months we have talked about going to a dinner show at one of the hotels. When the time actually arrived we took a completely different route. We both have decided we need to lose weight before we go home and so this was the week that I for one started seriously watching what I am eating. We just could not bring ourselves to pay $60 a person for a dinner we did not want to eat. So we did the next best thing. We went for the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday's -my favorite.

After dinner we went to Chamorro Village to watch the show and do a little shopping. As we drove into the parking lot we saw this.

This is the husband of a member of our Ward. She had recently told me her husband played the bagpipes so I figured it had to be him. According to him, he is the only person on the island who plays. He is trying to earn money to go to a big bagpipe competition in Scotland. He has a band that he plays with in the States.

The show at the Village tonight was the same group of kids that we had seen perform at the Mall last month. They did a really good job, as usual.

Then it was on to the shopping. I had wanted to pick up some more of the Pohnpeian ornaments. This is the lady that makes the ornaments I like to buy. We talked to her quite a while. She let us know that she has an auntie in Pohnpei who is a member of the church and then she tried to give me some tracts from her church and a DVD.

We ended up at Yogurtland for desert. No picture from there but you can see that we are collecting spoons from there. Yogurtland is a Yo-Diggity for those of you in Fresno area. They have self serve machines with about 16 different flavors of yogurt and then at least 30 different toppings. You help yourself and then get the sticker shock when they weigh it and you pay $ .45 an ounce. We never get out of there paying less than $8.oo. I will say that the majority of that money is for Elder Clarke's though.