2015-06-27

this past week we taught Togeg, Ali, francella and keioni, arvin and
linda, mike flowath, kayleen, maia, rita, carl, megan, yanrow, yinmed,
maria, wilma, shelma, velma, justina, jim, and.... I think thats
it...? Before every lesson we pray to invite the spirit. It's
interesting I've noticed that when I feel the spirit I get chills that
wrap around me from my spine to my extremities. It's kinda cool. I can
feel when I teach if it's just me trying to spit out words, and when
it's the holy ghost. When it is the holy ghost I can feel authority
behind my words. I don't need to stop and think of what I'm gonna say
next because it just comes I try to always teach this way because
well, it's the most effective way. If i was a pagan missionary... man
life would be rough.
hmmm answers to my prayers? well I think my biggest answer was the
language. In the packet it says to always pray in yapese, but it felt
empty to me I didn't feel like I was talking to God, plus the locals
always pray in their native language (woliean, chuukese, palaun...etc)
so i thought they would think I was fake if I prayed in Yapese. one
night I was super frustrated (sister T kinda nagged me about my
praying) so I went out on the tiny back balcony alone and prayed in
yapese that God would help me with the language. slowly as time passed
I learned. I can now understand people well enough to reply in short
sentences but thats all I need to share the gospel. :)
next question, I may not ever go to Guam again :/ they pulled sisters
off Saipan so now were the only island with no STL and they will
probably just skip over us :P no Fro yo for us :[
next I can't really pin point one BOM story. but often times we relate
ourselves to Alma and Amulek  because Alma was a totally foreign
missionary and Amulek was a local. They were together for a long time
and they suffered together. Finding the "isles of the sea" scripture
was cool we used that in a lot of lessons. Abinidi  was a power house
missionary Gotta look up to that guy. Ammon was pretty good with
knives I can relate to that ;)
well I hope this answers your questions kafel!

Dad's Facebook entry April 2, 2015

For those who are wondering how it all played out with my daughterMoranne Calder in the pacific "super storm" Maysak. We received word from her mission president that she has been accounted for and now they are seeking members and other islanders to help them recover from this storm. It was a category 4 typhoon when it slammed into her island. Reported that sustainable winds of 140 mph. My faith is truly being tested like the disciples of old in Matthew 8 when storm tossed sea rocked the boat they woke Christ and he rebuked them saying "Oh ye of little faith". Those who think a life of faith is not high adventure have never sent a son or daughter away on a mission. This has been one of the most faith building and trying things to give up my role as protector and literally trust in God. This is a picture of Maysak from outer-space. That big round eye grazed her island of Yap.

Facebook entry March 29, 2015

Dear Friends and family,
My daughter Moranne Calder is serving a mission for my church on a tiny island called Yap. She is going to be enduring typhoon Maysik tomorrow, please pray for her and those good people on Yap. They expect gust up to 130mph. We trust in God and know she is in good hands. I will sing hymn #105 "Master the tempest is raging" with gusto in class on Tuesday, and exercise faith in his mercy and goodness to me.

2015-03-23

Dad, I'm sorry I usually email mom because she worries the most...
Psych! not his week Muahahahah!!!!!! I have an interesting tale to
tell. So as I've said everything on these islands is like triple the
price it is in the states. When sister T and I were in Guam we bought
all our soap and razors and girl things and perfume and makeup because
for the most part you cant find that stuff on yap. Well. we returned
to our island and realized we are pretty much broke. We talked about
how we would find healthy things so we wouldn't get sick. we were kind
of at a loss. (our remaining food is oatmeal, pasta, 2 cans of tuna,
and sauces {bbq katsup mustard etc.})  last week when we went shopping
we looked at our groceries and realized it wasn't enough for the week.
when we walked to our front porch our land lady had put a bunch of
coconuts on our door step. last saturday we were doing service and
juanita, (young womans leader R.m. from the Philippines)  Offered us a
heaping plate of good local food. Sister T and I ate taro and tapioca
till our hearts content. We know that God is watching out for us.
There is a scripture that says "take no thought of where with ye shall
eat or find rest" I don't know the scripture exactly but I know that
it is saying God will provide. If I ever find myself discouraged I
just think on your quote, " Suck deep from coconuts and don't get
discouraged"

2015-03-15

 Well, yesterday was interesting, Sister T and I woke up with puffy throats and pounding headaches. We went to sacrament and I had to give a talk luckily we had 13 less actives at church and 2 investigators :) YAY FOR REALS!!!! Lately we have been trying to teach more basically with all our investigators.For example instead of teaching lesson one right away we try to teach a lesson on faith (as an action word) That lesson is the one that pushed one of our investigators (andrew) to come to church yesterday.Just as sister T and I are one up-ing our game, Satan is one up-ing his. On Saturday we stopped by a local fruit stand to get mango's and bananas as we were pulling away some dude runs out of nowhere and yells for us to stop. We did and I rolled down my window. He says " I hear you two preach the word of God" he said he wanted an "appointment" and so sister T pulled over. Before we got out of the car I told her I didn't feel good about this. She said we would be fine if we were by a public road. well. The guy wanted to meet then and there and he was flippen wasted. the guy wanted to tell us his life story then he practically proposed to me and told me " I don't know what state your from but Some day I will come find you."( for some stupid reason Island men are obsessed with white women) I was pissed and so was sister T. I told him if he came to church we would talk then sister T straight up said " Are you drunk?" and he looked at me and said "I am so sorry... Yes." We left and got in the car only to realize we didn't have the keys. Sister t told me to stay in the car
so she could go look over by the drunk dude. She got back in the car and said she still didn't find the keys and that she told the drunk dude she was looking for an earring. Suddenly there's a knock on my window and the drunk dude is right there. In some weird trying to be seductive but failing miserably voice he said " I know, it's not the earring she was looking for!" then he handed us our keys and we peeled out of there.  when we told the zone leaders they laughed super hard apparently they had an interesting experience with alcohol as well. There's a young man that they always take teaching named Mickey. Awesome kid, always comes to church and young mens activities. Well,he was doing the finale for the local dance on Saturday and apparently there was a ton of drinking happening there. Because of this he got a soda so he could be drinking something but not beer. after the dance the Chief of his village walked up, took his soda and said, you are a man now and handed him a beer and said Drink with me. ( in Yapese culture the chief is a big deal. If he told you to murder someone you would have to do it or face severe punishments) so mickey drank his first Beer. Seconds later the elders came to pick him up to go teaching. When he got in the elders truck, the alcohol still hadn't taken effect as they kept driving he got crazier and crazier then elder mackie said " MICKEY! are you drunk?" and mickey paused then said " YAAAAHAHAHA!!!" needless to say, they didn't take him teaching that day. The Elders also say that in the new bar that opened up ( in
our area) you are allowed to do whatever you want and the cops won't stop you unless you leave the bar. So now Satan has strategically found a way to ruin the work in the heart of Colonia. Kamagar ko Dairy Mo'oniyan! (thanks for nothing satan) well I miss all of you! I did the math and when I skype home I will almost be halfway done with my mission. July is my halfway mark. Time flies!

2015-02-28

Family,

so... the good news is, I'm emailing you from guam and the computers here are super fast. the bad news is... none :) I'm still serving in Yap I'm just here for a meeting. Elder Waimila was moved to guam and he is being replaced by a philipino named elder roque. since the explosion of drama last week everything has settled down. We actually had some super good lessons last week. One was with a guy named Alex. He has probably tried every drug known to man and he sleeps around. he told us when he turned 13 his father told him he was free to do whatever he wanted and pretty much gave up as a parent. since then his life just got worse and worse. He told us he wanted to change and come back to church. He has been coming and we have been teaching him. two lessons ago we read him the story of alma the younger and tried to liken that story to him. Our next visit he was super excited. he opened his book of Mormon and started telling us all about alma and continued to talk about stuff that was in the following chapters. i said i was impressed by his understanding. (most yapese have trouble reading English let alone book of Mormon english) he said he would read english B.O.M. then if he was confused he would compare it to the yapese version. the other awesome lesson was with moobpin (of course :)  )   sister T. asked her bow her book of mormon reading was going and she said. "It's really good. I'm a history buff and I just can't believe it! There's another book! " I'm pretty sure I was smiling like an idiot then she said " My father will be here on the weekend and I think he would really like it to. I think I'm gonna give him one!" She still won't attend church because she's scared of people judging her but dang she has a testimony. though I love Yap i'm super stoked to eat panda express later today. The mission health couple gave a training on healthy eating and most of it was about not eating at restaurants Me and sister T. just laughed (the only resturants on Yap are A. for the tourists B. super nasty and C. super expensive) lifes good out here :) I will keep grandpa in my prayers and all of you. I will send a flash drive soon 

p.s. that is a turtle. It laid there, alive on its back out side our house the neighbors are outer island and ate it for dinner :p

p.p.s. we found sister T.'s moms house in the village of mabu we also found out that lady is her aunt

2015-02-08

#local dance #nature #Almost got in trouble with the chief because sister T is yapese and she wore makeup thus disrespecting the chief for which the punishment is having your hands tied up and being sent off island.  we went to see this dance with Moobpin. She told me I had to tie my hair in a low bun and not lift my knees off the ground when I sit or I was disrespecting the high class. whoo so much "local culture" to learn