Marshallese Militia

Jen and I moved to Salt Lake City this last weekend, which was a pretty wild ordeal considering I’m in my finals period of law school. We had so many interesting miracles happen which helped make the move easier for us.

The plan was to load up a moving van on Friday night and then drive it to SLC the next morning to complete the move. The move was very difficult because of the steep hill in our backyard that we had to climb on the way up. We were blessed with help from my brother and his fiancé, as well as some neighbors from the ward, but it was still a grueling experience and we were up late moving heavy boxes of law books.

Saturday morning, I woke up all sore and tired. Reflecting on our move the night before, I was not excited to move everything all over again.

And then a miracle happened. Just as Jen and I got our new key to our apartment, Batrick Boaz (older brother of one of my mission companions and president of the Utah Marshallese Association - UMA) and Rick Nang (a brother I baptized on my mission) showed up with two vans full of ten other Marshallese young men. Their Marshallese Militia organized themselves, grabbed our stuff in the van, and moved it up three flights of stairs as if it was nothing. One teenager even carried up our 80 lbs punching bag by himself with no difficulty.

It took the Marshallese Militia in 40 minutes to empty the van, which had taken us six hours to fill up the night before. They finished just when John, Melinda and my dad arrived with the pizza to help. It was amazing, and Jen and I even got to have an unexpected nap in our new place because we finished so quickly. In a way, it was a miracle to help give me strength when I didn’t think I could keep going like we had the night before.

So I’ve learned my lesson. If I ever need to move again, I’m definitely calling that Marshallese Militia again.