Not even Close Encounters (Cubby letter 1/28/2019)

Well an exciting week as always. We heard about transfers mid week, apparently a bunch of new outer islands got opened, so there's a better chance I can go to one down the road I guess. We moved into our new house from the hotel, which is great. The toilet isn't finished yet though. The tips of the island ran out of flour so for service we brought a 55 pound bag to a family in Takarano, the northernmost city. They made a ton of donuts with it (well basically just rolls that are cooked in cooking oil instead of in an oven). The lady up there, Taate, takes pride in making the best donuts on Abaiang. I have to admit, they are the softest. Apparently her secret is only kneading the dough in one direction, I'm not sure if there's actually anything to that, but it seems to work. In terms of the work, we found a bunch of new investigators in the neighboring cities of Aonobuaka, Borotiam, and Tebunginako. One old guy we started teaching actually had legitimate questions about the Book of Mormon and whether or not the line of authority was actually lost after Peter. I think he caught Elder Wright a little off guard, but we answered him pretty well. We found this one girl who had a baptismal date in Tarawa, but left the day before. She's pretty excited to be lessoning again. My language is having ups and downs, but I can say that I'm definitely getting the hang of it. We also found a store that sells a Thai brand of jam, the lettering on the cap was pretty interesting, making the jam look more high quality than it actually was. 

Now for a spiritual thought. So the old guy we are teaching asks pretty good questions, mostly about secular history, basically seeing if we're legit. But one day we returned and asked if he had any questions and he just looked at us and asked if he was going to be able to be with his family after he died. It caught me a little off guard. But we were able to answer that yes he would be able to. It was a good intro into the Plan of Salvation. It just reminded me that through the Book of Mormon, and through modern revelation through latter day prophets, we can receive answers to the questions of our soul, and also just have peace in our lives.

I'm healthy, I tangirngkami

Elder Cubby

How did you get the flour up there?

 And we just put the bag of flour on our bikes and rode, it wasn't too hard. 

What is the house like?

Our house is basically just one big room, Kiribati style roofing and walls, just with a shower that uses well water and a toilet

What have you been doing for church?

for church, ever since we've been going to Borotiam, we've been giving talks and lessons every week. I gave the lesson in Alma 4 just yesterday. And I conducted church in the Takarano unit as well, but it was just us and a family of four. We always bless and pass the sacrament

asked about politics...

And I havent really had any political discussions thus far, maybe because there is hardly a government here. People are actually really scared to talk about it as well.