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!