PICTURES! (Cubby 12/24)

Cubby was finally able to send pictures while he was on Tarawa for Chirstmas.

Enjoy!

 

Eating at the 'american' burger joint on Tarawa. He was sick...

Fishing

From his first week when he fell out of the netting while he slept

From his flight from Abaiang to Tarawa

Check out the Eel

Where Cubby sleeps. His bed is on the left. Their bikes in the back

View from inside the Chapel

The 'hotel resort' on Abaiang. Just cabins, not much inside.

Missing Nei Temouti (Cubby letter 12/31)

Cubby's letter on New Years Eve 2018

First of all thanks for all the packages, all the stufd is way useful, already eaten or currently in use. In terms of things, I haven't been this excited during Christmas for awhile

Even though a bunch of this last week was spent in Tarawa, it was quite an eventful one. So we took an airplane to Tarawa on Sunday, but they didn't have any of our tickets, so I had to drop like 200 big ones for us and the sisters to get on the plane. Good thing I hardly ever even use money out here in Abaiang I guess. It was a cool flight, but it was literally ten minutes long, Abaiang is pretty close to Tarawa. We stayed with the Elders in Buota that night, and surprisingly most of them had worked in Abaiang before. Basically they related to us how there is hardly any work... which we didn't need them to tell us that. They did give us some good tips and surprising information about the people though, so that was good. The next day was combined pday, which was alright, I played rugby for maybe the first time, and we watched 17 miracles. We realized at the end of the day that our Christmas calls were way early in the morning and Buota is on the other side of Tarawa from Moronai Highschool, were we would be calling. So we stayed in the Eita house that night with like none of our stuff, which we had brought over from Abaiang in cracker buckets. We woke up on Christmas and did our calls and yadda yadda, which was way fun, I just wish they were a little longer. But after that we had a huge lunch and they had all sorts of food, mashed potatoes, turkey, ham, an Australian rendition of stuffing, and ginger bread. It was really good, and I found out that they don't usually eat turkey in Australia and New Zealand. Poor guys. Anyways that night we were staying in Eita again, and the elders there invited us to their district Christmas party. That was way fun, the food was different though, all we could buy was Kiribati food, so that is what we had. Very different from the party President Larkin put on. Somewhere in all of this fancy food eating, my stomach got destroyed, but that's a story for another time. Before our flight the next day we figured out that our big suitcases were actually being stored in the Eita house, so we grabbed a bunch of stuff which was nice. On the way back we had way to much stuff, but we were way determined to bring it all back, so we used the duct tape I got for Christmas and did some ghetto packing. Air Kiribati is pretty lax on their restrictions on what you can take on the airplane so we were all good. Fast forward a couple days and we were just getting back into the normal schedule, and we get a call saying that the sisters in Tuarabu (1 hour away from Tabontebike via bike) were moving to Tarawa for a week or two and that they wanted us to move into there house. So we packed up all of our stuff and moved down the next day, which included bringing a bunch of our stuff down in the morning, helping the sisters all that day, returning, tying up some loose ends in Tabontebike, and returning with our suitcases on our bikes in the dark, which was fun. So the last couple days we've been picking up some of the Sister's people, who are way more solid than any of our people, and basically figuring out that everything is way better and easier here. They have like seventy people that come to church and their Branch Presidency doesn't smoke and drink so that is cool. We got final approvals to move into the newly built house near Tuarabu, so it looks like we might never stay in the chapel again, which is weird. Feels like I've been transferred almost.

Anyways, tekeraoi te waaki

Elder Cubby

In our phone call we learned that he buys soap for the village to do laundry and in return they do his laundry. I asked who was going to do it if they moved....

I had to do all my laundry today, Nei Temouti is the lady who used to do it. I tangirngkami and have a happy new year!
 

Did you play tackle rugby?

no, it was just touch rugby. A bunch of guys from Samoa and Tonga were playing and I think one guy was kinda frustrated that he couldn't outrun me.

  

Ben asked if he was able to bring his new football to Abaiang

I did bring it. Sometimes we do sport based workouts so it'll be used. And the little kids will be shocked to see a brown rugby ball 

Do the mosquitoes bite the natives and what do people do for money?
 

The mosquitoes do bite the natives yes. They just don't have crazy reactions to the bites, and they use bungas as well. And the people collect coconuts and split them and dry them out. They then sell them to some sort of factory for a standardized price per pound. We help them split sometimes for service, it's like cutting wood. 

Are you doing anything for new years?
 

Mauri kain abau!

And we're having just a big dinner with the branch later tonight. Also I realized that I'll beat y'all to the new year and that on my Birthday I won't be 19 years old. 

We sent a christmas box that included a small air bed. We asked about it...

 I could not fit that bed in my bucket or get it on with duct tape, so I left it in Tarawa. A lot of the Elders there sleep on the ground, so it will be well used eventually. As for stuff... I'm not sure, I got all the stuff I've ever wanted here and more for Christmas. Me and Elder Wright have already eaten all the cheese plate stuff, I'm not sure he's eaten cheese as good as that even in America. I think the cheese plate actually made me miss you guys more than the call did, which was an odd feeling. Yesterday we biked back to Tabontebike for church because the Stake President was coming,  and we wanted to finish up the Temple Class. We're going to this other branch this week I think though

To my Fans (Cubby letter 12/17)

So an interesting week I suppose. On Tuesday, they picked us up on a boat to go to zone conference on Tarawa. They were supposed to come at four in the afternoon, so we planned a couple lessons before we left, but they came just before ten in the morning, so we missed them, which I was a little sour about, but not outwardly. Tarawa was pretty interesting, it is far more advanced than Abaiang, but definitely third world. Elder Wright insists that it is just like America, but I have to remind him that it is not. We stayed in Teorereke for two nights, Elder Gurr and Elder Patterson from the MTC stay there so that was pretty fun to see how they were doing. The first night we got there, they took us to this member's house who is trying to open up a Kiribati burger shop, so we got to taste exactly what that is. There were cooked onions, some canned ham, and egg, and some meat sauce on it. All on a donut bun. A lot of flavor was there, it was pretty good. I also bought chocolate milk at one of the stores, it's called Indomilk, it's actually a very high percent cream, it was pretty good. Only problem is that I haven't had dairy products in over a month and it really hurt my stomach. Sleeping in the house was pretty rough too, it was so cold. I also think I got a fever the second night there. As soon as we got back to Abaiang and spent the night though, i was all better. I think it was just something about Tarawa, it was odd. As for the rest of the week, we had two people literally ask us to be baptized, which was nice for a change. One of them lives way down in Borotiam at the other end of the island, so we had to bike down there. We went past it to the very tip of the island just to say that we did. Took us 2 hours and 22 minutes. The only other good thing I guess is that I've become better at throwing rocks at dogs. They wake me up at night so I'm teaching them to fear me. 

Elder Cubby

True Religion Genes (Cubby letter 12/10)

kam na bane ni mauri I suppose

Sorry for the weeklong delay, the internet didn't work last week. It was a pretty good two weeks though. The work has picked up a little, we've more than doubled our teaching pool, not bragging about that, our teaching pool before was two. Elder Wright had been pretty unmotivated for the past week or so, mostly because our work has come with little to no success. But through some subliminal messaging I think I've helped him overcome some of that. I feel like I could communicate more clearly, but this is more effective and way more fun. I'll just go through some highlights, on Monday last week we went fishing from the beach. The funny thing about Kiribati fishing is that they use basically all the stuff we do, except for the pole. So you just kinda throw the bait with the fishing line on it. The fish are so easy to catch that it really doesn't matter. All we caught were kinda small okoaka, which I think might be sea bass. I almost got this enormous fish, probably the length of my arm, but it broke the hook off the line. I was actually pretty upset about that. Me and Elder Wright took the branch to Takerano, the other tip of the island, for a picnic. It was pretty successful, more people came than usually come to church. Apparently most of kids and a bunch of the adults had never been to the other side of the island. I know for a fact that Ben couldn't rest until he had been to both ends, so that kinda confused me a bit. We picked up some new investigators who seem solid, which was good, because we have not been teaching very many lessons. We learned how to make a sweet soup made out of breadfruit, which was easily the most organic thing I've ever done. We found a coconut, and scraped the inside of it out and squeezed the coconut milk out of it. We were about to use some sugar cane to put in it, but the guy who was teaching us found some sugar at the last second. It's still raw sugar, so still organic. Y'all from Portland can be jealous. We fixed Elder Wright's bike through hammering, which was satisfying, albeit unorthodox. We only had five people take the sacrament yesterday because our branch president started us on time and everyone was out late on Saturday, but a bunch of people showed up for our temple lesson, which went well I think. 

Anyway for the spiritual thought, I just have something simple. We've been getting in the habit of baring our testimonies at the end of the first lesson, and I usually go after elder Wright. I always end by saying that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that the people we are teaching can know this is true it by reading and asking God through prayer. It's just a constant reminder to me that this is the Lord's Church, and I can bare testimony of it with confidence, because it is. It reminds me of how great it is to do the Lord's work, and excited for those who are about to begin doing so as well.

I tangirngkami

Elder Cubby

What are you doing for excercise? What's the recipe for that soup?

Elder Wright is actually very into fitness, so we work out for about am hour everyone morning starting at 7. We would start at 6:30, but it usually takes about a half am hour for the dinner from the night before to finish its course through the both of us. And the recipe is about 2-3 ripe breadfruit, 2 coconuts worth of coconut milk, and sugar to taste. Boil in a pot until soupy and eat over rice. The soup itself can have some... interesting textures, but you don't notice them with the rice.

We do plyos, runs, abs, push ups, sprints, the works. Elder wright saw that I looked athletic and decided that I would be good to work out with. And we use these big buckets for dumbbells most of the time actually.

Clear coconut water or with the fat?

It for sure isn't clear. It is white. We make the coconut flakes with this weird metal thingy and then put them in a thin cloth and squeeze out the milk. So whatever you think that would be.

I am just really interested in what the Okoaka is in English, if there is a name for it. We eat it for dinner almost every night. Apparently Elder Wright ate bone fish every night in Abamama, and was surprised to know that it is actually quite sought after in the first world.

We can't find a translation for Okoaka fish....

Slovina (Cubby letter 11/26)

Not too much time left so I'll be brief. Highlights are that we went to an Aorakinaine botaki (sickness of girls party) and they hired some bina Bina aines from Tarawa to come and dance, which was... Interesting. Reminded me that this is the third world, if that. We met a couple that parked their yacht here, man from Slovenia, woman from China. They've been sailing for 5 years now. They invited us on for dinner on Sunday, Elder Wright was very quick to accept. We ended up actually sharing a spiritual thought (in English) and it went pretty well. I actually talked most of the discussion, opposite of the usual. 

For the spiritual thought:

There was about an 18 year old kid that talked to us about turning his life around because he realized his lifestyle was just kind of empty. Drinking, smoking and whatnot weren't cutting it anymore I guess. He said he noticed that we're always happy and just wanted to know how. I can testify that this gospel brings joy to life. It may be hard sometimes, but Heavenly Father can direct us, and His commandments do help us. 

I tangirkngkami,

Elder Cubby

More info....

A reply to my email....I had asked if they have any thanksgiving like celebrations.

Sorry, we just got started emailing, we went fishing today and had to fix my bike, and the service is down on most of the island and it took us awhile to find this spot. And they celebrate all kinds of stuff, like the anniversaries of mwameabas, and the parties can last for weeks......Speaking of food, I'm not quite starving, but this last week we didn't have a lot of dinners, so that was rough. There was peanut butter in one of the stores, so we bought a lot of that. It isn't very high quality though, and I have to take the  ants out of it every time I want some. Based on my belt, I think I have lost some weight here. And I've been keeping my nutrition in, Elder Wright has actually been surprised on how tough my stomach is....... And we got a ton of fish, and most of them were Okoka, not sure of the English name. And I'm glad Dad introduced me to peanut butter as well, we've eaten a lot. That's my Thanksgiving thankful by the way.

Ben asked about their politics, what church is like and told him he was praying for him to have a White Christmas!

The politics in Kiribati? There is none really, technically there are policeman but they're really just people dressed like policeman. I'm not sure what the president does, I think just random stuff like making appearances at mwaneaba anniversary parties. And a white Christmas would be welcome, we went fishing on a boat today and now I'm sunburned, so the snow doesn't sound terrible. And our sacrament meetings are usually about 45 minutes long, me and Elder Wright always bless the sacrament and the Branch president always gives a fifteen minute talk. And he talks really fast during then so I usually don't understand much.

Are you having fun? are you miserable? or somewhere in between? How do they celebrate Christmas?

I'm having tons of fun actually. It doesn't really feel like Christmas time though because of the heat. And we're coming to Tarawa on the 23rd and returning on the 26, so we'll probably miss it, but I heard they do a white elephant type thing.

P.s. please find out if huntsman spiders can come to Kiribati, I think one was on my bunga this week, very big

​If you chose to google a Huntsman spider, be prepared! and they do have them on many tropical islands

 12/31/2018 update. During our call with Cubby on Christmas he told us more about the party he attended. It's a celebration they have for a girl when she starts menstruating. She dresses in all red. The dancers were hired from Tarawa and were gay men who dressed as women. Evidently they make really good dancers?? Anyways, Cubby said it was...well interesting and uncomfortable. haha!

St Patricks Day in China Town (Cubby letter 11/19)

Not actually a super eventful week. Few highlights. On Monday we had this thing called Kain Utu (by interpretation from the family) which is the Kiribati version of family home evening, which is actually just a big party. We held it at our house/the chapel, and people didn't really leave until 11 o'clock, so we didn't get as much sleep that night. During the week, the work was quite slow. Everyone in Tabontebike was building a mwaneaba all day every day, so we didn't have access to them. And the next city over, Taniau, some old dude died and someone had an anniversary, so they were all at a botaki for the entire week as well. So we did a lot of studying to say the least. Elder Wright got pretty frustrated a couple times because of the slow work, he just came off the best area in the mission. We figured out through tracting that about 65-70% of Tabontebike is just less active members, so our efforts are kinda focused on that right now. We are also trying to figure out how to get the active members excited about the church again, most of them have kind of gotten tired of the grind. So we decided to try to get them working towards something again, so we're gonna start teaching and English Class and a Temple class. We also taught about family history on Sunday. We're also just trying to get the people to start liking missionaries again, so we've been playing a lot of cards, then sharing spiritual thoughts. 

Which reminds me that I probably should share a spiritual thought. So I'm still pretty bad at talking to people, so I don't contribute a lot in conversations. But now that I think of it, I think teaching about the temple and Family history were both my ideas, and it seems like they might work pretty well. And I thought of both of those during my personal study. I think that it is true that despite our weaknesses and flaws, if we work hard in the way that the Lord wants, He will bless us. He truly provides us with a way to follow His commandments.

That's all for right now I suppose, I'm doing great

I tangiringkami

Elder Cubby

When he emails, we know he is online and can respond to questions. Here is more information from our online conversations...

Ben asked if he plays poker?

I play no poker, but they do play an advanced version of sorry here. Also I was thinking of something you wanted to know all week, and I thought you would be interested in the fact that the bugs here are insanely fast. Like probably four or five times as fast. It is a rare occasion that I can actually kill a mosquito, and I don't think I've gotten any flies. The spiders are huge and somehow can predict when I am about to swat at them. I just wonder if you could catch the flies here like you could back home

what is a mwaneaba?

It's basically a permanent tent I guess. They use coconut trees for beams, and some random sticks that they find in the Forest. They tie everything together which is why I'm assuming it takes so long. The roofs are just leaves basically, but really good leaves I guess. The people use them for parties and just chilling basically. 

A small example. I think that's him in there

 

are the spiders big? are they web makers?

They are both, but both are big. I think the wandering ones might eat the smaller lizards. There are geckos and I think some sort of small skink here

How is the bathroom? And what does the email subject mean?

We have a toilet, bucket flush system. We ate canned corned beef and ramen (their instant noodles are actually way better, the YUM YUM brand comes with veggie oil to put in it) and that's what I called it.

All black Everythang (Cubby letter 11/12)

So I suppose I'll start with Monday last week. This guy started building us a new house, so after awhile we're gonna move from the chapel I think. We've been working the south end of the island so far, but the new house is in the middlish. Then we're gonna start working more northern, but we're probably gonna have to start biking 1-1 1/2 hours everyday or every other day. Good news is that the house will be way better. On Tuesday we had a lesson to start the day, but it fell through. So we just talked to some random people and found some people we are lessoning with now, Tebou and Motu. We also lessoned with a girl which had already taken some lessons, she accepted the initial invitation to be baptized. The lady we were having dinner with that night said I was better than the last new elder at Kiribati, so at least I'm better that someone I suppose. On Wednesday we went to a botaki, a party basically, I had to sit cross legged for like five hours, it was the worst. The party itself was good though, just the sitting was bad. At dinner that night we ate mantis shrimp. Elder Wright was quite surprised when I already new what they were. The people at dinner were confused when I tried to explain that they can see in a broader spectrum of light as well. I think I bit off more than I could chew with that conversation. The next day was pretty average. Elder Wright got pretty fired up because our branch president, Iotebwa, likes us better than the last elders. Friday we made cakes (yeah even Elder Wright was surprised, apparently you can substitute eggs with vinegar and extra oil) with a less active lady, who is the elementary school teacher in Tabontebike basically. She doesn't come to church because she's afraid of her husband, but she really likes us I think, and I think the branch could really use someone Like her. We also met some people from Norway who have been traveling the world on a sailboat, and have been to the outer islands in places like Samoa and whatnot. We also met the head of the Kiribati Navy (a boat). On Sunday the only thing that really happened is that we lessoned with Tebou and Motu about the BOM and the  word of wisdom, and Tebou already could see that smoking made him worse at volleyball, so he seemed eager to accept. Also we got much needed new bungas today, so I'm excited. 

Love you all

Elder Cubby

Mantis Shrimp

Not too much bekanako (Cubby letter 11/5)

So this has definitely been an interesting week. We took the flight to LA on Tuesday, then had a seven hour layover. Then the flight to Fiji left at eleven thirty. I saw Darla Johnson on the flight, someone I worked with at ENW. Twas a long flight, and I didn't get much sleep. In Fiji, our flight to Tarawa got canceled so we had to wait the night in s Fijian hotel, which was owned by Indians. Apparently there are a lot if Hindi people there. Anyway when we got to Tarawa, we went straight to a meetinghouse and got assigned areas. Everyone else in the intake is working in Tarawa, but I am in Abaiang. We took a boat the next morning, so that night Me and Elder Wright kinda  explored Tarawa. We had dinner with this guy named Tetabo, who brother Lutz would act as when we did mock lessons in the MTC. So we took the boat the next day, and we dropped off some sisters in Tarawa I eta, we had to walk through  bit of water to drop of their luggage. It was like waist deep in some parts. When we got to Abaiang, Me and Elder Wright spent awhile unpacking and meeting members, because we are both new to Abaiang. So yesterday, we justvhad a fast Sunday meeting. And all we had to eat after the fast were these crackers and some nutella we bought on Tarawa. But today some members fed us some fish, and it was the best fish I've ever had. Also the first night I kinda fell outside the bunga and now I legit have 150 mosquito bites. But besides that, I love it here so much, it's so cool. I can't really send pictures from here, so I will so that when I get back to Tarawa for Christmastime.

I'm doing great, love you guys

Elder Cubby

 

 

 

 

Also I will add some other things I found out during our conversation:

Elder Wright is from Utah, has been out 42 weeks and "He's a pretty solid guy, we get along well"

He uses a hot spot on a phone with really bad reception to email. These pics were taken by the senior couple that greeted them and helped arrange their transportation. They posted them on a mission facebook page.

"in terms of land area, I think we have the most to cover in the whole mission". It is them and a sister missionary couple.

They sleep in the chapel which is "basically just a really nice raised mwaneaba. we sleep on woven mats on the wooden floor."

 

2 Brothers, 2 Missions, 2 Stories

2 Brothers, 2 Missions, 2 Stories

This is a story about Ben and Cubby.

They were born 17 months apart and have been best friends their whole lives. The following blog will be about their experiences as they serve as missionaries on opposite sides of the world for the next two years.

Cubby was assigned to the nation of Kiribati; a country of atolls on the equator in the Pacific Ocean. He is speaking Kiribati and left for his mission September 19.

Ben has been called to the Ukraine/Moldova mission, speaking Romanian. He will primarily serve in the country of Moldova . He leaves January 30th.