The photo is of people eating lunch at District Conference.

Well, we just checked our blog and saw it has been over a month since we posted anything. We have been very busy, but that is not the excuse I will use. Our excuse is that we each want the other to do the write up. So we wait, and wait.
I’ll first tell a bit about our District Conference. On Saturday, Sue helped teach the sisters and I attended the Priesthood Session in the 1 PM session of District Conference. The talks and training were on Fast Offerings and the role of the Branch President and Relief Society President.
After that session, we each got a pre-made plastic container with rice, a hotdog and a small chunk of chicken along with a can of soda pop that was purchased by the District. We attended the Adult Session from 4 to 6 PM. They had head phones for the English speakers and Elder Wells translated what the Chuukese were saying in their talks. It was the first time I got concepts from Chuukese speakers, (but I was getting it in English). I took one ear phone off so I could hear the Chuukese words and try to associate them together. Sister Marsine Joseph spoke on what they were doing to raise a righteous family. Most of the things she mentioned were things that Sister Duncan and she talked about while they were doing Genealogy; like FHE, Family Prayers, Scripture Study, etc.
We were invited to attend the Family Home Evening with the Elders in the evening. Elder Wells conducted and we had an opening song in English and a prayer. Then we had a scripture by Elder South about the Lord using the weak things of the world to save souls. President Dowdle spoke of Joseph Smith not telling all he knew. Some things he knew were not published; like the 110th section of the D&C, till after the Saints were in Salt Lake Valley.
Then Elder Wells had a closing hymn and prayer again in English and turned the time over to Sister Duncan and me for the Scripture Chase. We used all 4 years of Seminary Scripture Mastery. We gave out mini marshmallows, M&Ms, raisins, and small candies to those that got it in time. It was fun and I was surprised at how well they all did and how much they enjoyed it.
Next we played a game that our family has loved for years and years. We call it The Dice Game. We had asked each of the Elders to bring some kind of treat. We put them out on the floor in the middle of the circle and used 3 dice. Each die is started at the same time in a different spot around the circle. Sue set the timer for 4 minutes and every time an Elder rolled a 6 or a 1 he got to trade his treat for one he wanted that someone else had. It got very wild; just like it did at home for our kids. But here they had to get up and walk to exchange treats so there were Elders in the middle of the circle all the time. At one point I went to exchange for the Nutter Butters and before I got back to my chair Elder Ako exchanged with me. At the end it was so loud that I never heard the alarm go off. Sue had to shout that it was over. President Dowdle ended up with the Nutter Butters and did a victory dance. The Elders loved it. It was a great night and a lot of fun for the Elders as well.
We attended Sunday Session of District Conference and Elder Sorensen translated for us over the head sets; we understood what the Chuukese were saying. It was wonderful and I really appreciated it. Bill Davis, Sister Dowdle and Pres. Dowdle were the closing speakers. All of the talks were very inspiring.
We ate with them again; rice, chunk of chicken and a hot dog. We stayed and visited till 1:30 when the Youth Meeting started. Sister Dowdle talked about skiing and they have no word in Chuukese for ‘snow’ so they called it ‘ice’. The other talks to the Youth were just excellent. As more and more of these youth grasp the concepts of the Church, they will be great leaders in the future. We love these youth. Most of them are great young people, especially the ones that attend their meetings and they really want to live their lives as the Church teaches.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with 12 Elders here at the apartment with us for a great meal of Turkey and all the trimming. We baked a 23 pound bird in a roaster bag in a high sided cookie sheet this year. We had never done that before. Sister Duncan made 5 different kinds of pies so that they could all have something that really appealed to them. We had apple, banana with native bananas in it, Cherry-O-Cream Cheese, Chocolate Cream, and a Jell-O no bake Cream Cheese. The Elders had all they wanted to eat and then some.
We played some LDS games while the meal settled and before we ate pie. We played Scripture Chasing, Scattergories (using such things as names in the Old Testament, modern day prophets, women in the scriptures, etc), and Zion (like Seek), and "Name that Hymn". It was a lot of fun.
Some of our missionaries had never had pie, or turkey. So it was new for them. The most popular pies were apple, banana cream (I made that one) and choc cream. I’ll say this, “They are good eaters!” No one complained about anything. This time we made assignments for the clean up and everyone helped. They were also doing laundry down stairs in the Laundromat as well.
Something you might find interesting is that Sue reads to us right now from the book True to the Faith and Ensign with the General Conference talks in it, just before we go to bed. I am so tired by the time we go to bed I go to sleep many times. The other night was no exception; I fell asleep. But it was my turn to be the spokesman for our Couple’s Prayer. I really struggled. My mind would just go to sleep right in the middle of a sentence while I was trying to translate from English to Chuukese. When I would ‘come to’ I couldn’t even remember what I was trying to say in Chuukese. So I just switched and started new sentences. Sister Duncan was very patient with me.
Oh, we are coming up on our half way mark on the 12th of December. Time has just flown by. When we are this busy, we are always trying to get more done in a day and so the days just fly by. When I was a young missionary in Texas, we always talked about the second half of a mission went faster then the first half. It that is the case again, we better hurry because we have a lot to do before we complete this mission.