Codeword: Pinapple

Excited to hike!

 I am sore from my head, down to my very toes. We went on a hike today where we saw six waterfalls. It was long, slippery, and very hilly. A path that we took was on the side of a large hill. The path was about a foot wide and not solid. I was the last person to go through and by the time I was going through, the path was all gone. I tried my best to find some type of foot holdings, but finding none, I started to slide down the hill and start to go over the ridge. (the ridge wasn’t too bad but it would be a pretty bad rough and tumble if you fell down it.) Amanda yelled at me to grab hold of the tree next to me and I did. Tony came over and helped pull me back up and pulled me all the way to a solid path. Not the only time he helped my poor crippled self today!

Amanda and I are both pretty broken so we were always farther in the back of the pack. Roy stayed with us for a time and for fun, we decided to create a code word for if we felt like we were falling and needed help or to watch out. Code word? Pineapple. You could hear me or Amanda randomly call out, “PINEAPPLE!” as we slipped and slid down the muddy and rocky pathways. The hike was beautiful and although long, definitely worth it. Six hours later, as we neared the end of the hike, I felt as though my knee could not hold me up anymore. It was really painful, but I made it! During this hike, Amanda and I pondered the reason for moss. We found it quite useless during our hike as it made climbing up and down rocks much harder for us. We have yet to Google the answer.

The 6th and coolest waterfall!

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, I found myself in the back of our school dump truck, getting ready to go with the rest of the student missionaries to celebrate by driving around town. New Year’s is a huge deal here in Pohnpei and something a lot of people do, is drive around, making lots of noise by banging on anything metal, and throwing water balloons at anyone. Apparently you can hit anyone you see! We went all over town and in villages yelling happy New Year, throwing balloons and candy at anyone we saw. We got pretty wet! Definitely a New Year’s celebration that I will never forget.

I can’t believe we start school on Monday… Brendan came on Wednesday! Brendan will be our new high school teacher, teaching Algebra 1, geography, and health classes. We now have 15 SMs here in Pohnpei. Last year they had about 10 more! I’m glad we have a smaller group though. I feel like we’re all pretty close. Jen came back from America on Thursday, and Caleb and Danny should be arriving next week! I’m excited to have everyone back!

I hope all of you have a Happy Sabbath and Happy New Year!