A Man is Like a Horse (Cubby letter 01/21/2019)

So great week this week. We don't have to work the sister's area anymore,  so we decided to concentrate on just the North end of the island this week. It's a lot of biking everyday. Some tourists came and stayed in the hotel with us, so we were  able to figure out how long the island is on some guys iPhone X. Turns out the place we bike to just about everyday is 13 miles away, making it so we usually bike about 26 miles round trip everyday.  Pretty neat stuff.  Other things of note,  we started opening up a new city,  Takarano,  it hasn't had elders in a while,  there's only one family there that are members,  and they do church by themselves. We ate rabono, or eel,  which was interesting. The bekanako hasn't stopped since then. We got a text from the Zone Leaders saying that we weren't coming for Zone conference. So we think we're both staying on Abaiang,  so it looks like Elder Wright will be my companion for 3 transfers,  which almost never happens. We just got back from boating to a small islet,  which was alright. We also saw a guy without a nose  on the road this week,  which was slightly shocking. No I did not take a picture. 

Anyways for a spiritual thought,  we were 1 Nephi chapter 2 with an investigator, and we read the part that basically explains that Laman and Lemuel thought Lehi was a huge idiot (it actually uses the word for idiot in the Kiribati version). They complained against him for hit,  because they thought journeying in the wilderness was too hard. But Nephi took a different approach and prayed about it. Today,  we also have a prophet,  same as Lehi. And sometimes he might ask is to did some crazy stuff (using full name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints?) And rather than think he's crazy, we should pray about it,  or at least reason through it in our minds,  and not be afraid of the results. Anyways,  I'm not sure if that makes sense,  the way I would say it in Kiribati is more articulate some how. 

I'm doing great,   I tangirngkami

Elder Cubby

 

 

Why didn't he have a nose?

 

we talked to some people about it and I think he has leprosy

 

What was at the islet?

 

we just checked it out and fished on the way back

 

The rest of our conversation was about Borat and Richland Football and who will win, Sam or Cubby, when they wrestle again.
 

My Mouth is Glued Shut (Cubby letter 1/14/19)

Mauri

So it was another great week. We switched days working in Tuarabu and Borotiam, basically teaching tons of lessons in Tuarabu, and basically reopening Borotiam. So really the best of both worlds. Funny story, we are trying to lesson with this guy, but he canceled one of the lessons because he broke his foot. He said he broke it falling off a coconut tree while he was doing korokarewe. We were talking about it later with the unit leader, and he told us that he broke it while he was drunk. And also he wasn't climbing a tree at the time, he was mad at his sister and kicked her in the knee, and subsequently broke his foot. Looking back at it, he didn't seem like the brightest guy during our first lesson either. A lot of cities on Abaiang ban alcohol so we don't always see drunk people, but I think it's open in Borotiam, because we tracted a group of drunk dudes as well. Elder Wright was slightly disgusted. We split some coconuts for service again this week, and we finally found out the stage of a coconut that actually tastes like coconut candy. The Sisters came back on Sunday, but our house in Tebero isn't done yet, so we're sleeping in the hotel right now. We wake up earlier than the staff there, so we had to find some leaves instead of toilet paper this morning because they hadn't put out the toilet paper yet. Fun stuff. Our house is probably gonna be done in a week we've been told. We're kinda sad to stop working in Tuarabu, the people here are awesome, and a lot of them were just starting to keep commitments and stuff. All is well, if they're ready, the sisters will do a good job. 

Anyways for a spiritual thought, I've been sharing Alma 41:10 (or eight, I can't remember) about how wickedness never was happiness (direct translation from Ana Boki Mooman: from the way of evil, you can't receive happiness). People here are always focused on how hard it is to keep commandments, and how this is the life of struggle. But what I was thinking is that we need to focus also on how living the gospel brings true and everlasting joy, and the things we are resisting, despite what we think, do not bring joy. 

Anyways I'm doing fine, I'm very healthy

Elder Cubby

What is korokarewe?

Uuh let's see if I can explain. So men climb a coconut tree and cut one of the branches with a knife. They hang a bottle from the branch and Jerry rig some leaves so the liquid from the tree goes into a bottle. The stuff in the bottle is called Karewe (kah-re(Spanish r)- veh). They boil it and drink it. It's pretty good, but if it's not great, the after taste kinda tastes like vomit.

How is Elder Write handling you being a newbie?

Wright does not complain about me. And I've experienced the being new part all over again this past week, we hit the phase in the standardized training where I take the lead on basically everything which is fun. 

Have you learned to climb a coconut tree yet?

I would love to start climbing coconut trees, but it is very against the rules right now. Apparently some Elder in the Marshalls climbed a huge one and fell off a long time ago. 

What hotel?

We are staying at the resort cabins. The buias are over the water. And yeah the people here have crazy callouses

He sent this before, but this is his hotel. Those cabins are completely empty.

What the heck is going on (Cubby letter 1/7/19)

 A lot of mission firsts this week. First time an investigator came to church (8). First time not having at least half of our lessons fall through. First baptismal dater. All sorts of stuff. Tuarabu is really strange. We had about 75 people at church yesterday, which felt odd after having about 10 the week before in Tabontebike. It's weird that the two cities are on the main island. Well anyways, a good week. It rained pretty hard for about 3 days in a row after pday, when we got home those nights we were soaking wet, and there was no way to get the clothes to dry. So the one shirt and one pair of pants I had left got pretty dirty. I think we really tore up the island during those days, we took all the sisters investigators, which was a lot, but we decided to really start working in Borotiam (other end of the island from Tabontebike) and we picked up a couple new ones there too. They haven't really had elders there for about twelve weeks now, so they were pretty happy to see us. Also the branch president's son pooped on our porch, which was an interesting way to start Thursday. I've started getting my stomach practiced in milk again, I eat this weird Aussie stuff called Weet Bix every morning with water and milk powder. It was rough at first, but I'm good now. Anyways I can't really think of much more, besides that we finally got permission to move into that house they're building us, and it's almost done. 

I tangirngkami 

Elder Cubby

 

I told him I was sending a package and about Ben giving his farewell talk on sacrifice next sunday. His response...

 

For then package, what I said last week and maybe another one of those camping towels, get one for Ben too. I thought about Ben and Tyler today, it's a bit funny to me that they are all alone now. As for sacrifice, all I can think of is time preference combined with it being putting others above yourself. I started sleeping on the ground again because my back was starting to hurt during lessons and I couldn't focus, but the bed is more comfortable. Lame example, but it's what I could think of. 
 

Things of note I just thought of

We met this American tourist who somehow made his way to Abaiang from the Marshall Islands. He was an International relations major in college and apparently he went backpacking in Moldova once. I'm assuming one of the few people in the world to have been to both places. 

Me and Elder Wright just found a guy with clippers in the island, so we just got some sweet islander haircuts. Pretty sick

 

 Isaac saw an article that a cyclone had hit and many of the moms had not heard from their sons today. An island named Tamana was hit hardest.

Tamana is actually an interesting place, there are no missionaries there, because everyone belongs to the KUC there ( Kiribati United Church) and they basically try to kill anyone who doesn't belong to it. The mission president before Larkin went there to try and open relations but was thrown in jail for two days. And some elders in Tarawa just emailed me and said that the causeway between Betio (population 30,000) and the rest of Tarawa is flooded, and a couple houses were knocked down.

 

Talking about pictures...

 

the people here are obsessed with pictures, they basically expect you to bring pictures of you and your family to church, so the picture book I have has been well used.
they were very interested in the fact that Sam is so big. And some of the women here were talking me that I should tell Sam and Chancho that they will come back here and get engaged. They like bigger guys sometimes. More fit for the work here I guess. And Chancho didn't have a shirt in one picture, and a younger girl was nearby.

 

Of clothes pins and flies and music...

 

I gave a bunch of those clips to Nei Temouti, she used them for our clothes. You guys are lucky you have no flies, we have to stay on top of putting band aids on our wounds, the flies eat at them and they get bigger if we don't.
They really like upbeat music here. They are really bored all the time, so they like to feel something when they listen to music I think. Some old country songs get kinda popular here oddly enough. If you want examples of what they listen to, Elijah L is the most popular artist here.