July 24th, 2016: Bamboo Crutches

This week was an interesting week. On Monday we finally went to the Hospital for Elder Woodland's ankle and got told it was in between a type 2 and 3 sprain. Luckily it wasn’t torn or broken so they told us to rest and to do minimal walking for 4-6 weeks.  
One thing that I don't think doctors realize is that we aren't just your regular white people. We are in God's Army and we don't take breaks! On Tuesday we decided that we would find a way to rest his ankle to help it heal faster and still serve our missions to the fullest. As we were walking next door to a neighbor’s house to set up a Family Home Evening I noticed a thicket of bamboo, not something you usually see walking to your neighbor’s house ;),  I knew exactly what to do. After about 4 hours later of trial and error I had successfully made crutches from bamboo! Because we are on an island what better way to make them than by using a machete. A couple locals walked by and were like, "you're a true Pohnpeian now!" and things like that and it made me pretty happy. 
Elder Woodland seemed to like them, even though they are obviously not aluminum crutches from America, but they seemed to work ok. After that, off to work we went!
We had an ok week because we had to stay in for a couple days to rest and recover from walking a bit, but still finished the week strong. Probably the highlight of the week was asking Desiucky's niece to be baptized. After she was hesitant to answer, we asked if there was a problem and she told us it was because her parent's. They are living in America, where she is from, and she didn't know if they would say yes. We asked if they said yes if she would get baptized and she said "Yes!" We asked her why she wanted to be baptized and she paused, thought for a second and then in her 11 year old voice said, "Because I know that it will help me in my life". Baby, that's her name, is seriously the most awesome 11 year old ever. Though it's obvious that religion is not a big part in her life and she doesn't have the biggest interest in it, she still wants to be baptized to show that she wants to follow the Savior. We truly must humble ourselves as children if we wish to enter the kingdom of God. Sometimes I feel like we get too embarrassed or think we need and should complicate things because we are older and smarter. That is absolutely not the case, in the words of President Uchtdorf, what we really need to do is "simplify our discipleship". Simplify your lives and see the beauty that is hidden behind the haze of and hustle of the world today. Simplify your days and realize how many hours we have that are free. Make time for God and He will make time for you. I hope you all realize the blessings that God is just anxiously waiting to give us. I love you all and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
-Elder Hanson