That's Guam Baby: May 2009

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Let me show you what I can do!

This is our Project Overseer. "I think I pulled something."

"Can someone help me down?"

Here is a member of the branch committee demonstrating some of his natural abilities.

Everybody hang on!

This is an acceptable form of transportation here. There are only 6 in the back of this truck.

Here is Mik on a call. This turned out to be an amazing experience. Arrangements were made to come back the following weekend but the householder asked if they could come back within 2 days. Hopefully Mik can post more info about this call later.

Forget about the snakes!

Try double clicking on the picture and check this puppy out.

On our way down to the waterfall.

I thought these guys were gonna have to carry me down the mountain. Note to self: Don't get old. Wait a sec, isn't talking to ones self a sign of old age?

Girl power!

Hiking, swimming and rock climbing, all in a normal day for these girls.

White men can jump!

I was going for a belly flop but chickened out

The Crew.

Our life here in Guam would not be the same without these guys. They are always looking for some place for us to hike. This one led us down a very steep mountain side, through the jungle and a river and we ended up at this waterfall and swimming hole.

What snakes?

This is the only "brown tree snake" that we have seen here in Guam. So to all you people so worried for us, you now can rest knowing that we are safe.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

After a little hike through the jungle we came to this.

Hiking Through the Jungle

The best thing about Guam...no poison oak.

Ernie Holding Jack Fruit

These fruit taste amazing. Here is Ernie, our missionary roommate, holding these enormous things. They tell us that in the Philippines they are twice as big.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

We love demolition days!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

These are all of the internationals serving here in Guam. As you can see, we were hanging out at the beach.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Double click on this pic to see a close up of all the languages that are printed in Micronesia.

Hungry?

Here are some of the guys that are here at the branch.

The guy on the far left is one of our new brothers. He was the only one baptized Saturday so the talk and prayer were all for him...they even used his name. It was cool.

This is a picture of the couple from Kentucky that we live with, Erin and Jeremy Topping.

Change

One thing I have learned by being here is that I really, really do not like change. Once it is done and over with, I do alright. But the process is painful. And here, because our Bethel family is small, any changes affect us greatly. And there have been SO many changes. I know there are people out there that thrive on change, and I am not one of them. I love to change things up, but that is different from a change that will be permanent. I guess I am learning a lot about how to love people that move away. And that, in the big picture, they will always be there.

We just want everyone to know what a great time we had on our vacation with all of you. One thing we really regret is not taking any pictures. Almost every picture posted from our trip are pictures that were taken by other people. If you do not see a picture of the time we spent with you, please know that we apologize for being so absent minded. We really have no idea why we were not going crazy with the camera. Overwhelmed, I guess. So we promise next time to take many more pictures. Memories are the important thing anyway, right? Not some silly blog...

Funny facts about Guam...

There are no Starbucks here.

Ross has a moomoo isle.

No matter what day or time you go to Ross, it will be packed. It is the highest selling Ross in the world.

If you are out in service and want to have someone in the car group get out with you at the next door you say "Want to get down with me?" Sounds like they want to dance, right?

And everyone says the expression "I have" in reference to I have something, I have it, I have them. For instance, "Do you have the keys?...I have."

You could drive around the whole island in one hour.

We can be on the beach in 15 minutes.

We can be sitting in a Kingdom Hall in 2 minutes. We live above the hall.

Fresh coconut tastes nothing like sweetened shredded coconut.

It will rain...it will be sunny...everyday.

At a gathering there will almost always be karaoke.

All the children call us auntie and uncle.

It is customary to take your shoes off before entering anyone's home.

When the light turns green, always wait. Two more cars will run the red light guaranteed.

At weddings they typically have a talent show arranged. Many friends and family will put on different acts for the bride and groom. That replaces dancing.

When greeting others, you lean in with a kiss on the cheek. But you never really make contact, it is more a kissing face and your cheeks touch.

If an older person comes into an establishment where there is a line, like at the DMV, you have to let the older individual go straight to the front of the line.

Whenever you enter stores they greet you with "Hafa Adai", pronounced half a day. It is like saying good morning or just hello.

They use MSG at almost EVERY restaurant. Even if you go out for Italian, you need to request no MSG. Pounding headache, here we come.

The fastest speed limit on island is 45 mph.

This is no joke. Superbowl Sunday, in the states, of course, is on Sunday. Well, here in Guam, because we are a day ahead, Superbowl is on Monday. The schools had so much trouble getting children to attend on Superbowl Monday that they deemed it a holiday. Now, all the kids have Superbowl off school...no joke.

Just for your info...

Maybe you are wondering, where is Palau? And how far is it from Guam? Even though Guam is a U.S. territory, it is part of Micronesia. Micronesia encompasses many different island groups. They span a distance that is the equivalent of going from L.A. to New York. Only the distance is made up of 95% water. Anyway, Palau is about an hour plane ride from Guam. It too, is part of Micronesia. And although it is relatively close, it is a completely different world, both culturally and under the water. You will notice a huge difference in water color and sea life in our Palau pictures compared to the pictures we have taken in Guam waters.

What do we do all week?

We get asked this question a lot. What is our schedule?

Jay
Monday-Cooks in the kitchen-8am to 5pm
Tues-Makes breakfast for the whole family, office work-6am to 4pm
Wed-Cooks breakfast again, office work-6am to 4pm
Thurs-Grocery shops for the coming week-8am to 5pm
Friday-Office work, menus, meeting with his department-8am to 5pm

(Can you believe he does all the grocery shopping?)

Miki
Monday-Housekeeping-8am to 5pm
Tuesday-Laundry-8am to 5pm
Wednesday-Kitchen helper with Jay (to get the tables set up and cleaned up for each meal), housekeeping-6:30am to 3:30pm
Thursday-Housekeeping-8am to 5pm
Friday-Maintenance-8am to 5pm

Somewhere in there are Morning Worship (with Morning Worship comments every two weeks), meetings, Family Worship, family watchtower study with the branch, Bible reading, personal study, weekend kitchen duties, meeting parts, service, workouts and chill outs. But we don't have to grocery shop, clean, do yard work, cook, or wash our clothes on our own time. Unless, of course, you're picky-then you are cooking and washing on the weekends.

How many times in the day do you change clothes?

Here at bethel, one of the phenomenons is that we end up changing our clothes like crazy. Here is a typical Monday...Wake up and change into workout clothes (1), shower and change into breakfast clothes (2), eat and then change into work clothes (3), change into dress clothes for lunch (4), change back into work clothes (5), change into dress clothes to give a tour (6), change back into work clothes (7), change into dress clothes for family Watchtower study (8), change into pjs (9). And then we do it all over again. Are you tired from just reading about changing all those times?

That's Guam Baby