Liz and I travel to Saipan

Liz and I decided to travel to Saipan to go to church on Sunday. The Branch President of the Mormon Church on Saipan, Del Benson, is a photographer, like Liz, and it was discovered that the film processing company Liz works for also works with Del.

For those who many not know, Mormon clergy are not paid for their services. The Mormon Church is run entirely by a lay clergy. Heads of local congregations (like Priests), heads of local areas (like Catholic Dioseses), heads of regional areas (like Cardinals), are all lay ministers that are required to work for a living as well as complete their church service (this includes their staff and their church councils). The only paid ministers of the church are the Church President and General Authorities in Salt Lake, and they are not paid from the tithing of the church--the church owns profit-making businesses that pay the salaries of any full-time minister and their staffs. The tithing of the church goes to building chapels and temples, in upkeep of these buildings, and for humanitarian purposes.

Liz and Del 'talked shop' for a while, then in the afternoon Liz and I went on a tour of the Island so Liz could take some pictures. I became Liz's mule...carrying her heavy camera bag as she wended her way among the sites we visited.

Photographic artists are a strange breed: as we stood in front of a large Japanese bunker, the first thing Liz saw, and the first pictures she took, were of the interesting rock formations around the site! Oh well, they do live in another world...