A VERY Busy Week

Friday the 13th. Now, since Wayne and I were married on a Friday the 13th, we always celebrate when one comes along. This month we had some conflicts though. The Ward had a Relief Society activity and the men had the Father's and Sons. Wayne does not have sons here but he and Elder Hertzberg decided that they would go just for dinner. So Sister Hertzberg and I went to the RS activity.

Unfortunately, there were not too many ladies in attendance. We were small in numbers but big in the fun department. It was an enjoyable evening.

The next day there was a baptism. Two primary age girls were baptized. Their mother brought a cake to celebrate Sister Koivi's birthday afterwards.

Monday was the start of another Leadership Training. This meant lunches for 32 missionaries for four days straight. That added a little bit more work than usual but Monday was also the first day with no Office Elders. They have been transferred out and the Senior Couple is the entire staff in the office now. We still were not sure about what and how to do all the extra jobs so this first week a few things got put on the back burner.

This is what the mothers of most of our missionaries can expect when they go home. They are so used to sitting on the floor with the islanders that it is what they prefer now. It is somewhat gratifying that when I went in to take the picture you could almost hear a pin drop. They were all concentrating on their food so much they were not even talking.

I was so lucky that Karen Knowles wanted to help me. She moved from Arizona to live with a son who is in the navy. Her husband is the one who plays the bagpipes. She is used to being very active with church, etc. Here in Guam she is not too busy. She has been put in the Primary Presidency and it is interesting to watch her efforts to tame the masses. The kids here run wild during meetings and it took weeks before this new presidency was able to corral the kids and get them to go sit in the Primary room. I think that they have had a lot of improvement.

We had a little bit of unexpected activity at the beginning of the week. One of the Sisters was showering Sunday night and saw a man looking in the bathroom window. Monday morning we were told that the Sisters had to move out of their apartment. The only option we had was to put them in the apartment that we had prepared for the arrival of the Andersons. Wayne moved their beds and dresser over on Monday and left the heavy stuff for later in the week. I went over and packed up all of the kitchen goods, etc., that we had gathered for the Andersons.
With the Sisters now living in the new apartment that only left their old apartment for the Andersons.

We were expecting the Andersons to come on the 24th but I got an email from them letting us know that they were coming on the 21st instead. We spent most of Saturday cleaning and getting the "new" apartment ready for them.

President Dowdle was in Pohnpei so we made the midnight run to the airport to greet our replacements and take them to their new abode.

I hope that the next two months go by quickly - for their sake. The following pictures will show how small the apartment is. It is a step up from a studio. I would guess that it has 300 sq ft. After cleaning and moving the furniture in, we decided that it is a COZY place. When we heard from the Sisters that they had killed 30 cockroaches in their new apartment the first day they were there, we decided that the Andersons may by lucky that we had to change housing for them.


This is taken from the entrance to the bedroom. There is just enough room to walk around the bed. It reminds me of the bedroom in one of my brothers first homes.

I was standing in the very corner of the living area to take this picture. The front door is about 2 feet from the edge of the futon. The wall you see is the back of the closet in the bedroom.

This is looking in from the front door. There are no drawers in the kitchen and very little cupboard space. One of the cupboards has the hot water heater which is about 3 feet high.

This is taken standing at the door to the bathroom. As you can see, part of the window looks right into the shower. A small pedestal sink is to the left. The shower is about 3 feet square. We know that the Andersons are going to feel like they have died and gone to heaven when we leave and they are able to move into our apartment.


Speaking of our apartment, there is a painting project going on here. We had a note left under the door saying that all plants, chairs, etc., had to be taken off the walkways starting on the 16th. Wayne moved his papaya tree into the apartment and it has been in here ever since then. In the picture you can see the old color on the right. It was kinda white with green trim. Where you see the burnt orange now it used to be green. They have now finished painting all the walls and railings. We saw a door upstairs that they had painted red. Maybe by the end of the week they will finish our building. For the sake of the papaya tree I hope they finish soon. It needs to be taken back outside. We are waiting to see if they are going to raise the rent after all the work is done.

The last couple of days we have had a lot of intermittent rain. Yesterday was P-day and we actually had one set of Elders who came to wash their car at the Mission Office. The skies opened up in the middle of the job and the Elders were as wet as the car. They were soaked through and through.


The count down has begun. We have 57 days left. Our task is to get the Andersons oriented to the ways of the office. Sister Anderson is trying to get us to extend and work along with them but I don't think that will happen. We are getting excited to see our grandkids!!!!!!!!