Margery is Baptized!

The picture above shows the food that was served at a church conference dinner on Weno this fall.

February 16, 2009
Dear Mom and Dad,
Hi! I hope all is well back at home for you both. I have some fun stuff to tell you about this week.
First of all, life on Rommanum as a threesome is going well. We are all having a lot of fun and getting along well. We are having a really hard time believing that it is already week 3. Time has been flying by. We are hoping that when President Dowdle comes for zone conference next week that he will let us stay out here together until the end of the transfer. Keep your fingers crossed for us.
This week had its crazy days like always too. On Friday morning we were sitting down to our weekly planning session and the zone leaders showed up unannounced. They said we were going to be having an exchange. I ended up going to Weno with Elder Kuss. I had such a blast with him. We spoke in Chuukese the whole time and had some really good lessons. The Mwan area is doing so well right now and is going to be having so many baptisms. The new church building is drawing a lot of attention and interest in Mwan. There should be an open house around in May. I really hope I will still be in Chuuk for that. I'll be sad if I am in Guam. While on the exchange in Weno I was also put in charge of getting stuff for the baptism. We needed the baptism clothes, food and gas. The missionaries are relied on really heavily here to make things run smoothly.
On Saturday we went back out to Rommanum about 12 and got started on work for the baptisms. Margery was interviewed by Elder Kuss and I worked on finding a fill in speaker as our speaker cancelled. I found one who agreed to speak if I wrote the talk. I worked on the program, gathered materials and worked on the food. Everyone was very excited that we were having candy, drinks and hot dogs. I felt very happy as we loaded into boats and left to go to a small nearby island. We had a really good attendance which is super awesome! The service was held just above the beach and the baptism was in the ocean. Elder Kuss performed the baptism and I got to go out in the water as a witness. It was so beautiful on the island and it was so awesome to see Margery baptised and start her new life. On Sunday she asked me to confirm her and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. That went really good as well. we are excited to get Margery and her husband, Atti, preparing to go to the temple when the time comes so they can be sealed together. They have the potential to be really strong members of the branch who do everything they can to magnify their callings. I am super excited for them.
Apart from the baptism last week we have a lot of other good stuff going on. We have another guy scheduled to get baptized on the 27th. He is a guy who we were teaching when I first got here but then he decided to stop taking lessons. He wants to be taught again and baptized on the 27th. It may take one more week after that. We also picked up some other new investigators who are showing promising signs. It may take overcoming some family struggles to help them though. For now we will just try really hard.
I have some other exciting news about our recent convert, Fais. He is the older guy who was baptized the second week I came to Rommanum. We have been meeting with him occasionally and he is a super stud. He has read almost the entire Book of Mormon in a month and has signed up to go to the temple next year! We are helping him to receive the Melchizedek priesthood and he will have it really really really soon. I am so excited for him and the things he is preparing for. He has also been a huge help to our work here. He goes out of his way to fellowship our investigators and make them feel welcome. What a stud! I wish all members here could be as willing to work as him.
I got a letter from dad this week while I was in Weno for the exchange. It's good to hear everything is going well. All of the stuff on BYU basketball was awesome too. They sound like such a good team right now. There are so many studs and it sounds like they all work together really well. I hope they finish out the season as strong as they started. I would hate to see another one and done year.
Dad asked a couple of questions so I will answer those now. No, Chuukese music is not anything like you would hear in the states. I am probably willing to put money on it that both of you would hate the music too. I have learned to like it and I really like their religious songs.
As for the baptisms in 2009, our original goal was 72. We pushed it further though and tried for 82. The final number for the year was 78. We tied with the Pohnpei zone overall, but they have more missionaries than us so haha! We won! I know it isn't a competition, but it is hilarious because Pohnpei elders really thought they were going to beat us. We showed them.
This week I also got to celebrate Valentine's Day. I got the present with the ties which was awesome. I love getting new ties. I am now known as the elder with the huge tie collection. Thank you so much for those. I still have not seen the other box you mentioned with the Valentine treats. Hopefully they show up soon.
Well that covers my week here. I'm sure I will have some exciting stuff to report on next week. The work is starting to practically explode here. Take Care!
Love Always,
Elder Kevin South