August 31

August was a busy month for us. We had our regional convention on the first weekend. All of the publishers in the Ponapean group were either regular pioneering or auxiliary pioneering during August. Then, for the last week of the month, we enjoyed a fantastic visit from our circuit overseer and his wife. And on the last day of the month, we had a public talk and Watchtower study. We all loved every minute of it!!

JW.org

On Saturday, while John was at a door starting a study (that's the way our territory is!), Billy got in the car with Haruko and me. A brother and sister in an English congregation have been studying with him, but a sister in the Ponapean group has been visiting his mom. Since Billy's family lives in a very rural setting, they have no access to the internet, so we showed him several videos.

We think he liked what he saw! 

This week, his mom is supposed to come to the Kingdom Hall for the first time with us! Billy can hardly believe she said yes. Isn't it beautiful when people can hear the truth in their own language?!

A Few Highlights from this Month

NEW RELEASE!! This month, we received the Family Happiness book in Ponapean. When we brought it to Kathleen, she asked how we knew that she and Kulian had decided to marry after 19 years together? She said they would start reading it together that night!! You will be seeing more of them and their very cute (that's not even a good description of her..we just want to eat her up!) baby girl, LoriAnn. 

Kathleen started studying earlier in the year. Then, a lot of unavoidable circumstances has caused a long break in her studies. Meanwhile, she reads to Kulian every night. You can see the  literature she has in her hand is well worn. Because of this reading together, Kulian wants to study now. We love these two so much! 

Last Monday, Robyn took Gloria to meet a lady that had taken every tract Robyn had all at once. She and her daughter came outside, sat down and wanted to study.  

Linda and Jonsper live with his uncle. We met the uncle first and visited with him a few times. Now, everyone is studying together. We all watched the video together about Jehovah's Witnesses in the Ponapean language. Jonsper's relative is the narrator, so they were pretty excited to see it! Linda used to study in English and attended meetings at the Kingdom Hall in the past. She is happy to be hearing the same things in her language. We're looking forward to having her join us at the meetings soon.

We're meeting others who studied in English in the past and are now thrilled to be learning in their own language. One lady cried when I showed her the Bible Teach book in her language! 

Saturday service with the ladies

And now for some English updates...

During the first Saturday of May, we were focusing on using the Why Study the Bible? video to start Bible studies. Here we see Louise showing the video two times to the same people. 

The young girl on the right, Leena, is a high school student. Kayelani, used the back of the Watchtower for the month to spark her interest. She has since moved her study to the Good News brochure. Kayelani showed Leena how to prepare ahead, which she does each time! 

One Month Later...

July 6

Only one person is missing from the photo. Sorry Kenny!

Seven in the photo are students or children of students.

One student used to study in English. She started her study again last week in Ponapean and has now attended two Sunday meetings. Both of her daughters came with her today.

June 17--First Meeting of Guam Ponapean Group

John conducted the Congregation Bible Study. We're following the same schedule that the Pohnpei congregation is using. This week we began Chapter 4, 'Why Respect Authority' in the God's Love book. We sang Song 12, prayed, studied the lesson, then joined the rest of the congregation for the Theocratic Ministry School and Service Meeting. 

We all participated in the study. As you can see, we're all pretty excited!!

What a fun night--one that none of us will soon forget!

First Saturday of June

First Saturday of the month

Goal--start studies

Goal--accomplished x 7!!

Then we all got together this evening to eat pizza and practice the song for the first meeting June 17. 

And then there was the second meeting for service!

Two language learners together equals very patient householders!

While we were looking for one lady, that we never found, we found a new (to us) family from Pohnpei. They are from Kolonia. To give directions to where they used to live, they started with. "We lived near the Jehovah's Witness church." At one point in the conversation, Sylvia said, "I think it's because of (and pointed to heaven) that you and I are here together. I don't live here. I just came to see my mom." She then told us where she lived and took this month's Watchtower and May's and April's. 

Two weeks ago, while looking for another sister's return visit, we located a student that had moved. At the same door, I noticed another lady. She looked very familiar. I asked if I looked familiar to her. She said that we met each other in Pohnpei. (for about 10 minutes) This is her from a year ago. I had taken photos of her son living here in Guam to her. We also gave her the Great Teacher and Bible Teach books in Ponapean. Now the whole family is here in Guam, including the little one she is pregnant with in this photo. We have studied twice now. This is who Mandy read her first scripture with! 

There was a lady visiting her when we came. She joined the study and told us she'd been to a meeting at the Kingdom Hall before. She made sure we knew where she lived.

And finally, we found Senda. She studied years ago with Mandy's mom, Kym. She told us that she just couldn't believe that Kym was as nice as she seemed. Then, over time, she knew that she was. She's not working now and will be studying next Tuesday. Thanks, Kym!

June 2--First Meeting for Service

Today, we had our first meeting for field service for the Ponapean language group!!

What a day!

We started new studies and found people that had studied in the past in English, even attending meetings at the Kingdom Hall. They want to study in their own language now and are excited to know their will be a meeting every week in their language. For example, in the evening, John and I went to see a man that I met briefly two weeks ago. He invited us in. Then his nephew, his nephew's wife and their daughter joined our discussion. The wife said, "This is from the church in Barrigada, right?" Yes. "I went before" and named the sister she'd been with. She was thrilled to read in her own language and wants to attend the first meeting in Ponapean.

Sometimes, we're looking for someone and find another interested person along the way. That's how we met Agnes. This very nice lady and her lively little boy are moving to the States next week. They were supposed to leave last week, but she was sick. We had a nice study in the beginning of the Good News brochure. We are hoping to see her on Friday too. 

A Few Highlights from Graduation

This is Sister Castro and her son, Andrew. Her family was among the early Witnesses in Saipan. She was present to see her daughter graduate!

Luis manned the tie-in to the adjoining Kingdom Hall so that 350 could be in attendance.

Brother Schafer from NY Bethel was our chairman and guest speaker. 

Each of our instructors and Brother Schafer gave a talk. 

They were so encouraging and motivated everyone to be busy in the ministry.

Brother Azar, one of our instructors, interviewed two of our branch committee members.

So much work went into having this school.

We appreciate it so much and feel very loved.

Brother Woodin, one of our instructors, conducted the Watchtower study. Each of us had a comment prepared. John and I commented on what the two groups are in 'this generation'.

Then, there were re-enactments of experiences in the field ministry. 

I was asked to share an experience I had witnessing informally.

Other classmates were interviewed about their impressions of the class and how they were able to attend.

This is Sister Castro's daughter and son-in-law, Arlette and Kondo. 

It's official!! 

Oh Happy Day!

We are so happy to be assigned to our current congregation in Guam, but our focus will be on the Ponapean language field. The Ponapean language group starts June 1. We'll still be with those we've come to know and love for the past six years and continue learning the language we enjoy too. We don't think it can get any better than that!!

Classmates