Saipan Reunion

We LOVE our Saipan friends, and it was SO GOOD to get to see some of them again in UT on our way home from AZ.

Marystar, Lance, Taylor, Madison, Elisa, Kim, Tikla, Sam, Jake, me, E, Katy & Joe (At The Pie Pizzeria in SLC)

These pizzas were massive! 

Marystar

Madison & Joe

Love you Madison!

Saipan: The good and the bad

During the past few months, Eric and I have discovered a few things we really miss about dear ol' Saipan. But, there are also a few things we've survived without. See table below. :)

MISS	DON'T MISS
The people/branch Obviously, our favorite part of Saipan was the sweet, accepting, loving, humble, non-judgemental people of the island. Especially those from the Saipan branch. They were quite possibly the easiest group of people to join and the hardest to walk away from. And I REALLY love the youth! I can't even express how much I love and respect those kids.	The customer service This was weird to me because everyone on the island was so nice - except when it came to their customer service. If I tried to approach someone at the store to ask them a question, they would literally start speed walking in the opposite direction. Maybe it was me. Being at church for 10 hours on Sunday. Planning Girls Camps and Youth Conferences.
The beach White sand and crystal clear, WARM! ocean water Snorkeling/discovering all sorts of beautiful sea life Beach combing There was even a beach within walking distance of our house.	Discovering sand in every crevice (of car, home & body) Eric throwing/squishing sea cucumbers at me. Yes, "squishing". When you squeeze a sea cucumber it squirts out a liquid (hopefully, water), and a pretty good distance too.
The weather Always 85 degrees. Guinness lists Saipan as having the most equable temperatures in the world.	The humidity. The sticky clothes. The worthless hair staightening and instant frizz.
The sky/sunsets/sunrises The sunsets in Saipan are unlike anything else. Vibrant colors, huge fluffy, dense clouds, and the reflection on the water.	The short days It was a tragedy to live on such a gorgeous island but have the sun go down before Eric even got home from work (around 6:30)
The jungle Lots of luscious green EVERYWHERE. Our incredible view...	The jungle overtaking our car We literally had plants growing out of our trunk at one point.
Having few shopping options. Makes decision-making easy. When I say "shopping", I mostly mean grocery shopping because we were (and still are) too broke to shop for clothes. During our 2 years on Saipan, Eric and I did both go on one big shopping spree at ROSS (!) when we visited Guam. I wasn't tempted by home decor either b/c 1. I knew our stay their was temporary, 2. The humidity tends to destroy things, and 3. If it didn't fit in the 2 pcs of luggage that I arrived on Saipan with, then there was no point.	Having few shopping options Sometimes it’s nice to have selection. It’s especially nice to not have to go to 6 stores looking for cottage cheese and still not find it, and in fact, no one's even heard of the stuff! Everything’s more expensive. Although, a good friend once put it this way – “Getting frozen ice cream, transported by a ship and across the ocean – that’s not expensive, that’s magic!”
Having few restaurant options Again, easier to choose. And, we did have a handful of places that we loved - Teppanyaki's, Bobby Cadillac's pizza, Happy Hour smoothies, vegetable lumpia and hot wings on the beach at the Pacific Island's Club (while watching the sunset).	Having few restaurant options Because groceries were so expensive, we often had an empty fridge so we ate out a lot (which saved us a ton of money I'm sure!). Subway almost every day. As for American chains, they also had a McDonalds, Pizza Hut and a KFC. While we were there, they even got a Taco Bell which was a huge deal. The first few days they had a line out the door.
Diversity Surrounded by people from the Philippines, Japan, China, Russia, Chuk, Yap, Palau, Marshal Islands, Gilbert Islands, etc. Fun to be a minority for a change	Being mistaken for a Russian ("dancer")
Fun cultural experiences Food Traditions Dancing Thur. night street markets	Not-so-fun “cultural” experiences. Cock fighting Betel nut (the locals are constantly chewing/spitting betel nut)
Easy access to travel We were in close proximity to so many cool new places.	Constant temptation to travel BUT, just because we were close to these places didn't necessarily mean cheaper airfare. Flying from a small island is never cheap.
Living in the jungle and feeling very secluded	Living with lizards, massive wolf spiders, ants and, worst of all, shrews. Waking up to mysteriously half-eaten bagels, etc. Having lizards fall in my lap while I worked.
Our boonie dog "Skinny" Skinny was the sweetest thing. She only came around some of the time, but she was always happy to see us.	The boonie dogs It was pretty heart-breaking to see the dozens of malnourished dogs all over the streets in Saipan.
	Having a PO Box instead of an address Having to pay for that PO Box that was only available 9-5pm. Having to travel 15-20min to check that often empty mailbox
Fun island adventures	Not-so-fun island incompetence that led to a summer of island-wide dark and sweaty power outages.

Hard Goodbye

Hands down, the hardest move yet. We left behind, not only the ocean and sunshine, but also the best friends we've ever had & certainly, the best branch we have ever and will ever be a part of.

We made a very last-minute decision to move so we only had one Sunday to say goodbye to the branch that we loved so much. I was resistant to give a full-blown talk that Sunday because, in addition to only having a few short hours to prepare, I just knew I would be an emotional wreck. And I was, but I'm glad I had the chance to express my gratitude to all of the members that had made such a huge impact on my life over the course of 2 years. Then, during the 3rd hr, the YW gave me an incredible gift when they decided to cancel their individual classes and share their testimonies instead. I can't quite explain how significant that was for me.


And the outpouring of love continued on through the evening when the branch threw us a last-minute going away party at the Conner's home. It was humbling to see all of the people who came to share their love. During the course of the night, we were given dozens of thoughtful gifts and letters. The most touching part, however, was when they all sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again."

Sarah & Lisa's Visit

I have to confess, I am a little burnt out on the blogging (my job probably doesn't help) so I'm going to cheat a little on this one and, rather than upload an obnoxious amount of pictures to the blog, I'm just going to give you this link to our Picasa Album. By the way, I should give credit to Sarah for all of the pictures...I had to steal them from her after our beloved camera suffered an unfortunate death shortly after their arrival.

I will say, however, that it was fun to have Sarah & Lisa here. We did all of the typical touristy stuff - Banzai, Suicide, Bird Island, Forbidden, Grotto, Hidden Beach, King Fisher, American Memorial, etc. We did do a couple of things that we didn't do with previous guests though. We got to climb into a scary, dark cave with human skeleton remains. Sarah and Lisa camped out on Managaha one night. And, they were fortunate enough to help me chaperone the Youth/Single Adult "Prance" which, by the way, the youth absolutely love those girls and are trying desperately to get them to move out here.

Thanks for coming Sarah & Lisa. I hope you enjoyed it!

Big Kahuna

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I've been struggling to find the time/motivation to blog these days so I was thinking about just copying a lengthy email that Eric just sent out to the family detailing the events but decided against it since it's probably not the type of content you want to post for the world to see.

So I'll just keep this post short and sweet. If you're really curious, shoot me an email, and I'll respond with Eric's much more detailed message.

The abridged version: Eric Frank Nelson, at the ripe age of 28-years-old, is now the Branch President of the Saipan Branch in the Guam District.

Matt Smith (1st Counselor), E.N., Eddie Tamayo (2nd counselor)

E.N., President Marshall, President Brown

Patalie's Visit + Guam

I'm so glad that Patrick and Natalie decided to make the trip out here to Saipan. The flight is long and expensive and, with Natalie 5 months pregnant, I was worried that they would regret coming, but we're certainly glad they did; we had a blast!

See posts below for the play-by-play...

Day 1

Patrick & Natalie flew in at about 3:30 A.M. on Monday, after almost 24 hours of travelling, but that didn't seem to slow them down.

I know I've posted pictures of all of the main Saipan tourist spots about 100 times, but the difference is Patrick and Natalie are in the pictures this time!

On our deck

Wing Beach

Banzai Cliffs

Patrick using his brute strength to hoist Bird Island...& with a smile on his face!

These pictures are classic!

Giddyup!

Patrick having a superhero moment on Suicide Cliff

Pat getting a tat. The chinese symbol for "strong" (I think?).

Day 2

MANAGAHA

Justice Castro was kind enough to offer us a boat ride over to Managaha (with Eric's 3 co-clerks).

Patrick & Natalie's first time snorkeling

Up...and down. Tough life.

Smelling fresh Patrick?