The Beginning

 this is my first missionary bed

 At the top of Diamondhead

 Waikiki beach

 Arriving in the Hawaii airport

    Since I left working at summer camp I felt like all I kept doing was saying good-bye to people; I was getting quit tired of it. The day had finally come for me to actually leave and the only people left to say good-bye were my mom and sis. I knew these would be the hardest of them all. As I gave them last minute hugs the the airport I did not cry even though on the inside my heart was aching. I walked to my gate and just sat there. After about an hour the boarding for my plane began and is I walked the little hall I all of a sudden got a surge of energy and excitement I almost yelled "I'm going to Pohnpei", but I didn't instead I whispered it to myself with a small giggle.
         On the plane I sat beside a man who only looked up from his paper to say good morning. I had to stop myself from interrupting him to tell him how excited I was ; so i waited patiently for him to get tired of my squirming and ask me on his own...he never did. lol. When I got to Texas I was greeted by two other Southern students. We all chattered in excitement; it was nice to just say hi to friendly and understanding faces.  As we boarded our plane for Hawaii my one friend Sean was making his last good-bye phone call; I overheard him say, " This is it I'm boarding the plane. No turning back now!" I realized that he was right; there was no turning back. This was the beginning of the Adventure of my life!
      For those of you who have never been to Hawaii IT IS BEAUTIFUL. We were greeted in the airport with hugs and leys( the leys were very exciting because I had been holding my breath for one). On monday morning I woke up at 5 30 to go to the waikiki beach. I was alot of fun the water was amazing. On tuesday morning I woke up once again at 5 30 to go to Diamondhead for a hike. Diamondhead is an old volcano that is no longer active. It's alot of fun two. There is tunnel that you have to walk through on the hike; it wasn't my favorite part because it felt like there should be bats in it. My least favorite part about that tunnel though was the end. As soon as you exit the 'bat tunnel' you are standing at the bottom of 99 stairs lol. All the island SM's meet in Hawaii; they are all really great people. Please keep us all in your prayers.
    On Wednesday we headed for Pohnpei, but because Pohnpei is across the international date line we arrived on thursday afternoon. I'm not going to lie it was the longest day ever (we were up for 22 hours). That brings us to now =) I am in Pohnpei safe and sound. My appartment is a descent size. It has 2 bedrooms and thankfully there are only four of us living in it. We don't have everything we want or the luxuries we are use to but we do have everything we need. This afternoon we went to a waterfall 20 minutes away. As we drove deeper into the country of the island the house changed from simple homes with garages to tin, sometimes hut homes. I even saw a home that had only 3 walls. It really made me realize how blessed I am to have my apartment. Also as we were walking around we couldn't help but notice how people stare at us. My housemate Christina asked a local boy who was with us, " why is everyone looking at us like that?". He said they were looking at our fancy clothes, ( we were wearing t-shirts and boys swimming trunks from wal-mart) I have never felt so vain in my life. I thought all my close were unfashionable and cheap, but to the locals I'm fancy. Think about that when you get dressed in the morning or wake up in your enclosed house. Lesson Learned.
I know this post was supper long ( mama, I know you read the whole thing hahaha) hopefully my future posts will be smaller. =) Please continue to pray for me, I really want to be effective here. There is so much to do.
Love you all,
Nikkie