It is always summer here!

This is the way to play and get a bath all at once.  We are in a land of perpetual summer with little variation in the temperature.  It's funny how we feel like we are on a different planet sometimes.  It is a fabulous experience for us to really live in and contribute to a whole different culture.

I have been taking Marshallese language lessons from two sweet 24 year old girls.  One of them is a member and one of them isn't.  I was able to sit in and contribute to a missionary lesson when we first got here for Nosie the non member. She took the missionary lessons for a while and then quit.  I asked her to tutor me each week and we have developed a friendship.  She teaches me and I teach her the gospel.  She is reading the Book of Mormon and helping me to read it in Marshallese.  Since we have been working together, she has started working with the young missionaries and has shown a great interest in the church.  She asks questions like "Did Jesus ever come and visit the people in America/"  and "How do you know what it feels like to receive an answer?" We have had some great discussions and I show her the answers from the Book of Mormon.
Yesterday the sister missionaries came into the office and told me that Nosie called them the night after our last session at 10:30 at night.  She was all excited and said she wanted to be baptized!  I am thrilled to be able to do real missionary work besides all of the office stuff we do.  Nosie is an exceptional girl who just graduated from college and has applied to be a teacher here in Majuro.  She will be a great force for good in the church here.  She told the sister missionaries that she wants to go on a mission someday just like Sister Badger.  What greater compliment could I get?  It looks like her baptism date will be sometime in October if all goes well.

We have received some fabulous blessings since we have been here in the Marshall Islands.  Our family is doing well and we can see the Lord's hand in the lives of our children.  In the D&C 31:6 it says"Go from them only for a little time, and declare my word, and I will prepare a place for them."  We are thilled to see the progress of our children and grandchildren.  Now we are anxiously waiting for the arrival of Lance and Lindsey's baby.  Nothing is more important than our family and we are so thankful that the Lord is watching over them.