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."