Sunshine on a Dreary Day

A group of people that I love!

Before I was put in swimming lessons at the age of 10, I was terrified of even getting water on my face. On Sunday as I swam 60 ft. below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, I thought about how ridiculous I was. Being underwater is like being in a whole different world! All is quiet except for the sound of the bubbles from the regulator heading to the surface. The water is a beautiful shade of blue mixed with green, and once in a while, you will see a school of colorful fish passing by. Although this dive session wasn’t at a coral reef and we didn’t see anything really cool except for an old glass coke bottle, the beauty of the ocean still amazed me. The four of us that took the class are going diving on Sunday with our instructor for our first dive not in the class. Hopefully we go somewhere with more ocean life! Being down on the ocean floor reminded me of one of my favorite songs, Indescribable, by Chris Tomlin. Here are some of the lyrics:

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea

Creations’ revealing Your majesty

From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring

Every creature unique in the song that it sings

All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,

You placed the starts in the sky and you know them by name,

You are amazing God

All powerful, untameable,

Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim

You are amazing God

You should definitely listen to the song if you haven’t heard it before!

This week, I have been trying to teach my kids the lesson of patience. Every time one of my kids have a question (Which is about every 10 seconds), they yell “TeachERRR!” or “MS. C! I need HAAAALP!” I’ve had to tell them many, many times that if they have a question, they need to raise their hands and be quiet. Needless to say, this is not an easy thing for them to do! Five years olds just can’t seem to stop talking!

Monday was a hard day for me. None of the kids would listen, they didn’t understand almost anything I was teaching them, and it was just SO HOT outside! I prayed, and asked God for the patience and help that I needed to get through that rough day. God definitely put Summer in my class for the reason of making my day. She is the little sunshine in my classroom. Every recess, she comes and sits on my lap and plays and talks with me. That day, she comes over to my desk and sits on my lap, and just cuddles into me. I hug her and almost start to cry. God always provides some type of comfort in our time of trouble! I think things have improved since then. Even though my kids are constantly causing trouble, I can’t help but love them!

Every day at worship, I ask my kids what they are thankful for. A lot of kids quickly raise their hands and they say that they are thankful for some of the most random things! My Little Pony, sharks, snow, puppies, and one they like to say is you! They love to say that they are thankful for their teachers, which is really sweet. J My quietest kid, EJ has finally started to sing at worship! He has never opened his mouth during worship and this week, he has finally started to sing with us! I didn’t say anything to him but inside, I was jumping around with happiness! He’s finally opening up more!

Every month, we have something called branch Sabbath school. Our SM group is splits into two groups and we head to either Palikir or Kapinga to do a children’s afternoon program. I’ve always gone to Palikir but this last Sabbath, the whole SM group went to Kapinga. Kapinga is a poor village made up of Polynesians. When we got there, we jumped out of the truck and walked around the village inviting kids to come to the program in the big community hut. We started off with singing songs and as the sound of our music spread through the village, more and more children came. We had at least 50 children there of all ages, if not more. After singing, we did a skit of Jonah and gave them all coloring pages and markers to color with. Listening to the kids sing, and seeing them laugh as we acted out our story made my heart so joyful! My flip-flops got taken which irritated me at first, but I realized that someone probably needed them more than me.

The days and weeks are going by very quickly. I can’t believe I only have 4 ½ months left here! Karyn showed me a beautiful picture of mountains and trees and my heart literally ached because I miss it so much! I will be there soon enough though!

Happy Sabbath to all of you! Thank you for all the messages of encouragement I am receiving!