"The Empty Pot" & Going to Urdaneta Mission

Sister Zarred from Pohnpei came to our mission office. She said she is going to the "Urdaneta Philippines Mission". This is where my sister, Sister Beth Roberts and Elder Dennis Roberts, my brother-in-law are serving their mission. I asked her to give my sister a hug for me after finishing at the MTC. She said she would. She said Sister Chandler was her other mom on the island of Pohnpei.

Micronesia Guam Mission Office, The popular hang-out

So, I emailed the Chandlers (the senior couple on Pohnpei) and asked about Sister Zarred. Sister Chandler answered that she was from Sekere town and then said, "Tiny little thing, huh".

It's exciting to see so many young missionaries going on missions from these islands. We've seen young missionaries from our mission recently called to South Africa, Australia, Philippines, Micronesia, etc. We also have a few missionaries in our Mission from the Philippines. 12 new missionaries from the United States and Canada just arrived a few days ago.

Sister Martin and I have been working on setting up an apartment for Elder and Sister Reed, the new "Self Reliance" senior couple coming to Guam. One real estate agent I was emailing addressed me as "Elderly Martin". Is 52 really that old?

So, in our spare time, ha, ha, Sister Martin and I have been looking at apartments, looking at furniture, used and new, and buying various apartment necessities.

Sister Martin was looking on Craig's list and saw some couches available on the same street where we do our walk/jog down by the ocean. It's the one side-street in Guam that we actually know. After looking at the furniture and deciding it was way too "ghetto", the young man saw our name tags and asked us if we had a religious message. He said he had looked at different religions and hadn't found one that suited him. We said "Yes" and gave the referral to Sister Vave, one of the Sister Missionaries in our area to follow up on.

These pictures are from a restaurant that we went to recently with President and Sister Zarbock near the airport. Good food..I had a "Rib Eye" hamburger and Sister Martin had Salmon. The manager, Brother Frank Toves introduced himself as a member of the Yigo ward in Guam. Some how we connected that we knew the family of his best friend by the last name of Leddy. I mentioned that Rachel Leddy lived in our home in Heber City for a few weeks, years ago. He said he knew her. The Leddy's were in the Heber 8th ward. Small world.

Great views.

Beautiful views of Guam lights and the sunset 

Today in church, Chloe Hague, a young woman, gave a great talk where she quoted a story we had never heard before. Elder Jeffery R. Holland used the story, "The Empty Pot", in a talk given at West Point on Integrity:

"A storybook emperor called all the young people in his kingdom together one day. He said, “It has come time for me to step down and to choose the next emperor. It will be one of you. In making that selection, I am going to give each one of you a seed today. Come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed.”

A young boy named Ling was in the crowd of children. He went home and excitedly told his mother the whole story. She helped him get a pot and some planting soil. He planted the seed given him. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.

After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his pot, but nothing ever grew in it.

Eventually all the others were talking about their plants. Ling was apparently the only failure. Everyone else spoke of small trees and tall plants, but he had nothing.

Finally a year went by, and all the youths brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she encouraged him to go, report how hard he had tried, and be honest about what happened. Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace.

Ling put his empty pot on the floor a midst beautiful plants and flowers of all shapes and sizes. When the emperor arrived, Ling tried to hide in the back of the room. But the emperor spotted Ling—empty pot and all. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front, where the leader said, “Behold your new emperor!”

To a now very quiet audience, the older man said, “One year ago today I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds, which would not grow. Yet all of you, except one, have brought me magnificent trees and plants and flowers. Obviously, when you found that the seed I gave you would not grow, you substituted another. Apparently only one young man among you had the integrity to abide by the rules I gave you. I can trust him to take my place and lead my people.”

I suppose I was only six or seven years of age when I first heard that story read to me by my mother. Forgive me for such a homely example, but the fact of the matter is its meaning has stayed with me for more than 60 years." Here's the link to his full talk

We were greatly uplifted by the other talks that were given as well. Another great Sunday meeting.