SI Graduation May 14, 2016

 Seminary and Institute classes for 2015-16 was held at the Panasang Chapel.  Above is Renster Kalio giving his testimony of seminary.  He is a senior and is putting in his mission papers.  Below are

 

  some of the many students who have bonded with Sister Hedgpeth.

 These students are from our seminary class at PICS high school.  They are a great bunch of kids and all of them are planning missions and some have already received their mission calls.

This Graduation Day represented a culmination of 18 months of serving the Lord, gathering in countless numbers of people we have grown to truly love and sadly saying good-bye yet looking forward to returning home to those we love there.

We are so fortunate to have been chosen to serve our mission with these amazing students and teachers. We have been changed because of them.

Palikir Going Away Party

The Palikir Ward had a small party for us before we leave for home tomorrow.  The little girl below is the Bishop Ongesel's daughter.  We attended her baptism when she turned 8 and now she is 9 so we have been here a while.  She is quite the hugger.  We can always expect lots of hugs whenever she is around.

 Of course Pohnpeians can't get together without food.  My kind of people.  We had a feast of mostly "local" food.

 They set up tents in the parking lot in front of the church doors.  It was a fairly pleasant night for here.  We had a great time socializing with the many friends we have made in this ward.  It feels very strange and sad to say good bye.

 The primary children sang to us as a parting gift.  The teacher, Leah Ongesel has been one of our seminary teachers and does a great job with the kids.

Apartment Inspections West Side

Elder Lee and Elder Christensen always have a clean and organized house. They are in the Wone Branch.

 Elders Woodland and Takau showed us the Kitti house, even though Elder Takau is a Zone Leader and is usually in the Palikir house.

 In the Palikir house we found Elders Fiscus and Hanson and just for fun, Elder Hedgpeth found a huge fake spider and almost caused Sisters Furstenau and Hedgpeth to have a heart attack! Thanks a lot.

 You can almost see the ping pong table that takes up the entire living room for the Sekere Elders- Clarke and Pond. They convinced us it was only for physical fitness.

 Here we are in the Panasang house with Sister Kalio (who is being trained by Sister Welch) and one of our Sister leaders- Sister Welch. She will be going home to Nebraska in just a few days. She has been an exceptional missionary.

 These are our Kolonia sisters, who don't have a car. They walk everywhere and because of that, they are able to teach more people. We have Sisters Rock and Kaato who are willing to work very hard.

Apartment inspection East Side

Tuesday, May 10, 2016 was Constitution Day on Pohnpei so there was no school  It seemed like a good day to conduct our last apartment inspections with Elder and Sister Furstenau.  We started at the Awak apartment.  The missionaries are a bit mixed up in companionships as they conduct exchanges periodically.  Below are Elders McCluskey and Hurst.

 Below is the Uh Branch house with Sisters Wahlquist and Bulewa.

 This is the Mesihsou house with Elders Paewai and Olsen.  They serve the Sapwalap Ward.

 These are the Sapwalap Sisters George and Latu.

 The furthest unit on the East Side is the Mand house with Sisters Misa'alefua and Fehoko.

 The Nett or Eirike Ward has two sets of Elders Bisschop, Jenkins, Pakoa and Slack.

Missionaries phone home on Mother's Day

Missionaries came to our apartment to call home on Mother's Day.  Some came on Sunday and the rest on Monday.  Sister Hedgpeth and Sister Furstenau fixed taco soup for them on Sunday and breakfast on Monday morning.  Shown below are sisters Feholo, Bulewa, Kalio, Park, George and Latu.

Seated below are Elders Clarke  and Pond and Sisters Latu and Park.

More missionaries chowing down on breakfast. 



Sister Rock is happily washing some dishes while Elder Hurst is getting his gravy.

 Elders Fiscus and Takau are also taking their turn at the dishes.  It was P Day so Elder Fiscus is ready for some basketball.

I did manage to catch Sister Welch skyping her parents from our bedroom.  The miracle of modern communications is that she was able to also speak with her brother at the same time from his mission in Brazil.  Amazing!  Let's see: Pohnpei to Omaha, Nebraska to Brazil.

Last Awak Sacrament Meeting

We attended our last sacrament meeting at the Awak group this Sunday.  Yet another great experience! 

 Below on the left is Hadley Joshua who was recently called as the Uh branch clerk.  The Awak group is part of Uh.  On his right is Wallace Primo who is the group leader.  Both are juniors in our PICS seminary class.  The two smaller boys are Wallace's brothers.

 Elder Hurst got his finger in this group shot but just adds a little uniqueness.  The man who is second on the left is being baptized on Saturday.

Four new missionaries called

 We are so excited to have 4 of our Seminary students receive their mission calls all together.
What a wonderful Mother's Day this was ( a day early) since I feel like these boys are part of my family.

 We have a special place in our hearts for each of them and they will be great missionaries.

 Vince, on the left is going to the Philippines, Narson next to him going to Guam-Micronesia, Trellison next is also going to the Philippines and Branson will go to Vanuatu.
The Sister missionaries have been working in their area and they are cheering each one of these great young men on.

COM-FSM Fun Run/Walk

COM-FSM Fun Run/Walk was held on Saturday, May 7, 2016.  We started in a typical tropical pouring rain.  Streets were had rivers of water to negotiate.  But we had fun and got a little exercise.  Plus for five dollars each we got a nice T-shirt to take home.

Wone Family Home Evening

 This family( The Hebel's and Herman's)  invited us to Family Home Evening to have our farewell party with them. This was the very first place we came to on the same night we arrived in Pohnpei. The first picture shows their new Nas ( open air building) that was recently built. It makes up their kitchen and the picture below shows their family room.
They have treated us like family from the very first day. We will miss them.

 Right by the "living room" was a new litter of puppies.  They are hard to see but there were six of them.  I asked Rockson if he was going to eat them.  He said, "only when they are bad."  Morale: Doggie be good!

 This hand woven basket is where the chickens sit on the eggs until the chicks are hatched. These people are so creative in the way they make baskets in many sizes for several purposes.

In-service with Bro. Wilde

This is our last In-Service Meeting with our teachers, Brother Nicerio and Scott Wilde from Salt Lake City. It was nice to have someone else do the instructing for a change, especially a professional like him.

 Here we all are for a group photo shoot. The Sister Missionaries house is in the background.
We will miss all these dedicated teachers.

CES Fireside April 29, 2016

What a night to remember. We had a Seminary/ Institute Fireside to welcome Scott Wilde, Assistant Director of CES. The students, teachers, bishops and families filled the Stake Center. Standing next to Elder Hedgpeth on the left is Jack Yakanna, our Patriarch and Institute teacher. Scott Wilde is on the right with Brother Nicerio (our boss from Guam) sandwiched between some of our students who really wanted to get in the middle of all this "power".

 Some of our students after the Fireside loving to pose for the camera.

 Hadley Joshua, on the left was one of our amazing speakers. Milean next to him has her mission
papers in.

 Four more Seminary students hamming it up. Love them so much.

 These boys are amazing and will all be on a mission soon. They call us their parents or grandparents and that is fine with us.

Scripture Bowl 2016

Scripture Mastery Bowl is a BIG deal here in Pohnpei. Months of practice, memorizing and strategy goes into a "WIN". Palikir Ward won it last year and the competition was on.

 This game was to see how many baskets one group could make before the other group wrote their scripture.

 The Seminary and Institute teachers are ready for the students to race to them and break a balloon with a scripture inside.

 The students are busily trying to solve the scripture which they found in the balloon.
Panasang Ward won the Scripture Bowl and already the students are preparing for next year's competition.