Elder Watson Visit

October 15, 2011

Elder F. Michael Watson of the Seventy is here for stake conference in the Tarawa North Stake.  He is staying in housing on the Moroni High Campus.  Elder Watson grew up in Spring City, Utah and was secretary to the First Presidency under 6 Prophets.  His father Frank and step mother Valene were in our ward when I served as Bishop in the Mt. Pleasant 3rd Ward.  He spoke Wednesday to the study body of Moroni High along with Sister Watson.  They have 12 children and met at Snow College after he returned from his mission in England.  Elder Watson and I were both at Snow College during our Freshman year in 1961.  Saturday we drove to the other stake center and attended Stake Priesthood Meeting while the sisters attended Relief Society and heard Sister Watson speak.  We returned and attended a baptism for two young ladies, one is a student dent at Moroni.  It was a very enjoyable and uplifting day.

Today is Sunday and I am teaching the Gospel Doctrine class and then the senior couples will be meeting with Elder and Sister Watson this afternoon.  The meeting was very enjoyable as Elder Watson quizzed us about the work and any problems or concern we were having.  The Ogborn's had run into some issues working on water projects and other projects with a limited budget and getting approval.  Elder Watson works with welfare in the Pacific and he knows how to shake a few trees to get things accomplished.  It was a very worth while and productive meeting.  We attended a single adult and high school age fireside this evening.  Three returned missionaries spoke in Kiribati and then Sister Watson followed by Elder Watson. Elder Watson started his talk showing a cell phone and a Book of Mormon.  Then asked what if the Book of Mormon was as important to us as our cell phone.  Would we carry it in our purse.  Then he had fun asking what if we could call heaven with it for blessings.  It was a fun analogy but really had the young adults paying attention.  He finished his talk using part of Hugh B. Brown's talk on "A Profile of a Prophet".   It was a very spiritual evening and Sabbath day.

Elder and Sister Erekson are working in Public Relations and are traveling with Elder Watson, they are taking pictures and gathering stories for the Liahona and other media. They were telling us about their visit to a Catholic Church and meeting the head Nun.  She showed them the actual document of the surrender of Tarawa to the Japanese in 1941.  As battleships in the harbor had guns pointed toward the community.  As the nuns were evacuated one of them rolled the treaty up and hid it and thus it was preserved.  The Smithsonian and the Japanese have both tried to purchase it, but they were told no, it belongs in Tarawa.

A few weeks ago we picked some coconuts from the tree in our front yard.  The picture shows the size of the outer part of the coconut and after using a butcher knife and a couple of screw drivers to part the out shell.  The cocoa nut we buy in the store finally emerged but much smaller that the ones you buy at home.  Many of native islanders pick them green and cut the end off with a u for the juice.  We enjoy eating the cocoa nut inside

  

Musical Chairs with the older sisters - started out fairly calm

The cocoanut that grows on the tree yields the smaller one you see  in stores back home

But the ones we grow are much smaller

Sun set view from the front of our house

Another day another sunset

But, then it go very competitive with chairs and bodies flying everywhere

The kids love to climb trees

Yesterday (Saturday was a missionary day celebration for our stake. It was to raise funds to help support local missionaries from the stake currently serving and those who will serve in the future. Each family was asked to donate $50.00 to the missionary fund. Many families came and played games on the Moroni soccer field, they sang, danced, ran relays and many other activities. The funnest event was watching the older sisters play musical chairs. As each chair was removed things got very competitive. Chairs were pulled away as people tried to sit. They were sitting on each other and playing tug-a-war with chairs. Every one was laughing so hard it was hard to breath. Young and old love to sing and have fun.Their smiles are contagious. Every meeting the speaker starts out "Good morning dear Brothers and Sisters and the audience replies 'Good Morning'. Even at Sacrament meeting. Every class at school including the University t start with a devotional (a song, prayer and spiritual thought

Another beautiful sun setThe sunsets continue to be spectacular most evenings. The pink against the clouds with coconut trees and other trees along the horizon make for an absolutely beautiful view. This evening after we returned from a single adult fireside in the Tarawa North Stake, it was a clear night so the stars and the milky-way were very bright and clear. So I got my IPad with the application Star Walk and the other two missionary couples scanned the horizon while the IPad identified the constellations and the planets. It was the first time I had used that app. and it was truly amazing to see the stars and planets and have it identify exactly what we were looking at.