Recently Elder Scott Lieber returned to Palau with his wife Kristin where Elder Lieber had served as a young missionary 40 years previously. Following is their reflective story of the joy they are experiencing as they reconnect with old friends and continue to share the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in a place that they love.
Thoughts are racing and my heart rate is rising as my mind returns to the day I left Palau in 1984. It was one of the hardest days of a 20-year old’s life, leaving the people, language, and culture I came to love and had been adopted into as a missionary.
Download PhotoI was never homesick while on Palau, but I very much missed my best friend, Kristin. Seeing Kristin and my family again was the salve to help my heart. We were married 10 months after I came home and have had a beautiful life together with our 3 children.
Now with the reality looming of returning to Palau 40 years later, my heart is racing again. The thought of going back to Palau with Kristin and sharing with her the people, places, and feeling of a place she only experienced through letters was overwhelming. We had written many letters about one day returning as senior missionaries. Would she feel and love it like I did? Would anyone remember me? How could I possibly regain the difficult language I once was fluent in 40 years later?
Tears flowed from both Kristin and I as our mission call came to serve again in the Micronesia Guam Mission, specifically the Palau Islands. At this point the miracles we had already experienced began to accelerate.
I remembered I had written a Palauan language guide decades ago, and it dawned on me I would get the rust off the language from my own writings that the Church Library in Salt Lake City has in a collection.
Then a young Boy Scout of mine in 1984 named Harvey Olsingch visited us at our Utah home during the October 2024 General Conference. He shared how being involved in the Boy Scout Troop I started and watching me play in the Palau National Basketball League was the spark that led to his conversion to the church. Many more wonderful missionaries helped Harvey and baptized him after I left Palau. We cried and hugged as he heard “Ungil Kebesengei” (good evening) in his native language.
Harvey was in town as part of the translation team, making the conference talks in Palauan available to the entire island. He shared his testimony that “he was the one I was sent to
find” so many years ago in Palau. He then told Kristin and I that “not only will many remember you, but they will also be overjoyed that you came back as senior missionaries.”
I didn’t quite believe him, but our reunion was sacred and joyous. With the help of Harvey, the Carlsons who are a beautiful Palauan couple, and my language guide, the language came back fast. Kristin had typed the language guide all those years ago and now was witness to a miraculous gift of tongues experience that we both were humbled by.
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When we touched down in Palau in January of 2025 the memories came flooding back. There was the exact same PO Box, number 551, I had 40 years earlier and through which hundreds of letters had arrived from Kristin, supporting “our” mission in Palau.
On the first day we drove to find my old house in the village of Ngerebeched. We saw some older, tough men sitting outside a house. I told my beautiful companion Kristin, “I am going to pull over and talk to them in Palauan.” Within five minutes and their incredulous looks of an outsider speaking their language, one man said, “I was a Boy Scout in the 80’s. My name is Hansen.” He then saw our nametags and exclaimed, “Olek! You are Lieber!” We both then had the sweetest, manliest hug in history as my companion watching was crying her own tears of joy. Hansen related how much he loved scouts, remembered the Scout Oath, and remembered my girlfriend Kristin from photos I had of her in 1984.
Within just a day we had a miraculous reunion and yet there were still many more to come. We stopped in at my old house, and Burton, another scout who also was a neighbor, said, “I heard a missionary had returned from the 80’s and I KNEW it was you. More hugs, tears, and joy followed.
Burton shared stories of his life, and we met his beautiful family. He then asked us to leave a special prayer of blessing on his household, as he remembered the power he felt from young missionaries as a boy. He too remembered Kristin and remembers me sharing her care packages of brownies with him. As we stood in a circle, I left a prayer in Palauan and we all felt the spirit of true light.
Now the miracles and coincidental reunions became almost too much to believe. Sebangiol Sakuma, the son of the first Palauan family baptized in 1979 who I was close with, also a scout, “happened” to be our guide as we visited a beautiful resort area. Darius also worked there and was a student of mine at Meyuns Elementary School in 1984.
It’s been just over a month since we arrived, and every day we make new friends and reconnect with previous ones. Word travels fast on small islands and now people pull over to talk to the Palauan-speaking American rubak and mechas (older man and woman).
One young man was watching an old football highlight clip and asked us as we walked by, “Is this you?” He had dug up an old University of Utah game-winning field goal clip from my time as a college football kicker. When I said yes, he said, “The younger generation of Palauans will relate to this. Would you be willing to share your thoughts and feelings about Palau and its culture with the younger people?” We felt the power of this miracle as we had prayed to somehow connect with the new generation as well, as I did before.
The first Sunday that we spoke in Sacrament Meeting we were so surprised that little Burton, now a man, came to church. He said he wanted to support his old friends, and it was the first time in 40 years he had sat in our church. Tears rolled down his cheeks as Sister Lieber read her testimony in the Palauan language. He whispered to me, “I didn’t realize how big the sacrifice you had to make was, leaving Kristin behind to come here.” Every day we feel such joy in serving again with our Palauan family.
A sweet moment when we met with Brother John Ngiraked, who for many years has been an anchor for the church in Palau. We shared with him a 40-year-old journal entry of mine regarding a blessing young Elder Lieber had given his mother before she was a member. She said it was the first time she felt "God talking to her in her heart.” She was later baptized, and her son has been a stalwart church member for decades, also serving as branch president multiple times.
We were asked to visit Palau High School and give a football clinic to the boys. So many kids were there, laughing, having fun, and marveling at the couple who’s “heart is half Palauan” speak their language. As the clinic ended one of the boys said, “I think we should end this with a prayer”. As we circled in prayer, listening to this young Palauan boy pray, similar to a few days before when I prayed at Burton’s house, the sweet feeling of love and power entered the circle. It represented the full circle moment 40 years in the making. A true love story of a missionary, a people, and his best friend, all finally merging in a complete circle of light in Palau itself.
That is the power of Palau.