February

February started out with zone leader council. All the zone leaders gather in the mission home for instruction. They counsel together on how to be better missionary leaders. They come up with many inspired ideas to take back to their various zones and islands. President Dowdle taught the missionaries the training entitled: We Invite, They commit, We Follow Up. These lessons teach the missionaries how to be more effective teachers.

The next week we left for zone conference in Chuuk. We were blessed to travel with the area medical team. Elder and Sister Goth answer all our area medical questions and Elder and Sister Gibson answer all our mental health questions. They were able to inspire the missionaries during zone conference. The missionaries learned how to treat everything from boils, the "fungus among us", ingrown toenails, diarrhea, back pain, ways to overcome discouragement, ways to be a better companion and every other imaginable problem the missionaries suffer from.

At most zone conference the missionaries will prepare and present a musical number. It's one of our favorite parts of zone conference. Music always brings a special spirit to the meeting.

Elder and Sister Crittenden are our new senior couple in Chuuk. We love them already. They will do great things in Chuuk and we are so blessed to serve with them.

After zone conference we always have to say good-bye to our Elders as they head back out on the boat to their various islands. They wanted to make sure we saw the box of "raman noodles" in the picture. They love that food!

Saying good-bye to them until we see them again next zone conference. The missionaries use this boat to come and go from the main island. They use it rain or shine. On the way in to the main island they said they were drenched from head to toe from a rain storm. Our Chuuk Elders are a pretty hardy bunch!

For Valentines Day Sister Dowdle had the sisters for lunch and an afternoon of cooking. Sister's Anitema and Koivi made granola bars and Sister Smibert and To'a made Valentine sugar cookies to take to less actives or investigators Then we all decorated them. The sisters get hungry while they are working hard outside. They said that they will carry the bars in their bags to snack on. It's always fun to be with the sisters. Some of our sisters are serving on other islands and can't get to Guam. Sister Dowdle wishes we could have them all together at once.
We'll take what ever we can get.

Sister Smibert and Sister To'a