Línella Forever (Ben letter 7/15/2019)

This week was very good, and a little different. I am writing this email from a smartphone, so that's a big change for us. We keep forgetting that we can look up almost everything and find a reasonable answer, so it's been so far so good. 

We also had zone conference this week, so President Kumferman came down to Moldova from Kiev, as well as his wife and daughter. Apparently they had to drive down for some reason, which is 11 hours. But from what I hear in Carl's driving adventures, that's nothing. Also Cubby did travel like 1000 miles, or some crazy thing, just for 1 transfer so I think he has got everyone beat.

This week has been another "normal" week, but what was normal today is not the same thing that was normal yesterday. For example sometimes when I am talking to people on the street, it is extremely common for some random man to just interrupt our conversation and tell me to go back to America, and how our church sucks and we worship satan. But today was way cooler because this old orthodox guy tried to tell the gentleman I was speaking with, that our church was just a false sect of the orthodox church. But little did this guy know that the man I was speaking with was a Jehovah's Witness. So I got to witness a small Bible bash, in which I was not a part of. But really it was fun.

 

Also this week we were teaching this guy a lesson, and right in the middle of it this drunk pilot comes up and rants about planes while flicking his neck (flicking the neck means drunk here). Anyway elder cromar had to take him away so I could proceed with the lesson. Things like this happen daily. Just random stuff, but those are just a few examples. 

 

 As for a spiritual thought, I just want to emphasize the simplicity of the complexity of the Gospel. In Alma it says "but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise". Sometimes things are so simple it's hard to do. For example, if you want to lose weight, then have a good diet and be physically active. If you want to have the spirit with you, pray and read the scriptures. Just doing an action because, as John Bytheway puts it, " we are supposed to" does not make it good. We need to "obtain the word" first. We must remember why we are keeping the law, and not forget the spirit of it. Please make and have a personal relationship with God. Remember why you are on earth, and what we a destined to become. To become gods! And how? Through the power of Jesus Christ! Study it, pray about it, go to church and learn about it,  but always remember why. It's just so simple. I love Jesus and His sacrifice for me to be able to become perfect. I love this chance I have in Moldova to teach this to others. I plead with you not to forget your potential, to become a celestial being. 

Hit me up with questions.

Vă iubim

Vârstnicul Stanfield

 

I believe this is a man that they visit once a week. He's a member but he is a 'shut-in', meaning he can't make it to church for health reasons. So they bring him the sacrament and visit with him.

They play soccer almost every pday

This is Ben's favorite. It's a market in the city that sells all kinds of things including knock-offs. Sam is begging for a gucci belt

Add caption

 

Where do? (Cubby letter 7/15/2019)

Salut!

At least I think that is something in Ben's mission language. I tried.

This week was pretty slow, they had Kiribati's 40th Independence day on the 12th, so nobody was really available until it was over. We had fun anyway. One highlight of the week, I found two different translations of the Bible than what we currently use, so I've been studying them. That might sound boring to some, but it is interesting to me. I suppose you can add that to the list of my boring interests; birding, geography, and now bible translations and how they compare. I met a dude from Germany, he was just visiting from Munich. It kinda freaked me out because he had never ever seen missionaries before. He saw us and asked us very straight-forwardly what in the world we were doing there, so we, for the first time, explained in depth what a mission is. I mean it makes sense, if you think about it. He was all the way across the world, in a place he considered very remote, he saw two young men wearing shirts and ties and slacks. I would be confused too. Anyways, Kiribati is still hot, and I'm still doing fine.

For a spiritual thought, I would just like to invite everyone to really ponder the term 'improvement' and what it's significance is in the eternal perspective of things.

I tangiringkami,

Elder Cubby

 

 

Remains of a Centipede

District in Bikenbeu

Eating Mantis Shrimp

The long and dreary night (Ben letter 7/8/2019)

Its also a long and winding road. 

Hello yall, this is Ben here in Moldova. My mom says my weeklys are not good enough recently, so I will try harder. The main problem is that I can't remember what I wrote last week, if I have told a story or not. Also, I cant remember if the story happened a month ago or in the past week because time is starting to blend together. It is actually odd. Time is going by so fast that I cant keep track.

So my typical day goes somewhat like this:

Actually I don't have typical days so scratch that. But I usually have some interesting convos with people on the street about God and about other random things. Also I have lessons, which most are really good, and others not so well. I see about 10 J dubs per day, and sometimes they wanna bash, but most of the time just say hi. Also, I talk with at least one drunk guy per day, which is actually good language study. Fun fact, when Moldovans are drunk they only speak Russian. Also I might possibly get crossed once a day. This means when I try to speak to someone, they ignore me and proceed to make the orthodox cross with their hand to get rid of our evil spirits. I'm not sure why they do that actually but I do like it, and I think we should adopt it into our religion. But the people here are different, but so awesome and I love them. It is great to speak with people and get to know their concerns and life better. Moldovans are just pretty awesome all around.

Bur yeah it is not super hot here, but quite humid, and so contacting is always very sweaty which is ok with me. They sell a lot of fruit on the streets, and its fun to talk with the street vendors. Also Elder Smith, who is about 40 mins away from Chisinau in Orhei, found me a "dope gold rope and any variety of cross to go with it". So on my next trip to Orhei I'm fitting to get a dope gold chain and the best Orthodox cruce I can find.

As for a spiritual thought, life is crazy. Lots of people doing bad things, and good people doing good things. The thing that will help people in general and personally is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People make the government their God, and they think its so important, and it can solve all our problems. But I have been thinking, and you can disagree, but the government is not what makes a nation great or bad, its the people. Kenny and I were talking about this and he proceeded to talk about how lucky we are in America with all the things we have. Seeing another country not as well off, definitely makes you thankful for what you have at home. 

But anyway he went on to say, "But remember, that the gospel is how you fix countries, not bloody revolutions and a powerful military/police force. Police throw people in jail punishing dishonesty and theft, but the missionaries attempt to teach them honesty before the crime is committed. Government has to deal with foster kids, domestic violence, and crime after it happens, while the missionaries attempt to make the home a happy and sacred place before all that happens, really getting at the root of the problem. Can’t blame government though, they can’t endorse a religion or tell you how to think, and can’t blame the people because for all they know the missionaries just want their money. Many types of government have been tried but at the root you need honest and upstanding citizens for any system to work and I think that missionary work is really the most helpful and holy thing you can do in an area." 

I truly know that when Jesus Christ established His church and came to earth, He gave us the path to happiness. He showed us the path that we must live to gain this happiness. Missionaries and our church have this message, and we know the path. And essentially its this, that Christ died for our sins, and for our bodies, and through Him we can become better. If we rely on His Atonement, that is how we will be the happiest. Nothing else can fix the worlds problems better then the King and Savior of this world, Jesus Christ. Follow Him!

va iubim

Varstnicul Stanfield

Cubby Pictures 7/8/2019

A cool kie I saw

Some fish we saw

Some more fish we saw

A centipede I killed, not too big

typical Kiritimati

A shipwreck we visited

A cool bird we saw

A beehive we visited

An addition to my wardrobe

36 Chambers of Jazz (Cubby letter 7/8/2019)

Kam na mauri.

This week was another exciting week, per the usual. It was very hot. I think rainy season is finally over, so now is the time I get to be tanned. And this is also the hottest island according to the locals, so that is fun. We had some really good lessons this week, which was good, because the work isn't the best here compared to other areas, so it's been awhile since we've had one. We did a bunch of contacting this week, and now I can say with pride that I have tracted a coconut tree. Some guy was doing his korokarewe (cutting toddy as you white people would say), and we just decided to talk to him. I think he lied about where he lived, but hey we tried. We went to an engagement party for a little bit yesterday, which was pretty cool. Well I guess the only really cool part about it is that they have a meal every single hour of the day for like 6 hours. That's a cultural thing I'm really thinking about adopting. 

For a spiritual thought, I thought I'd share a story. We had a fireside yesterday, apparently they do one every month here, put on by the missionaries. But the usual policy is that we find members to speak, so it's not just foreigners running the whole thing all the time. Me and Elder Geertsen were assigned to find someone to talk, which we did. The only problem is that he didn't come. So anyway, we needed a speaker. I felt responsible for the whole thing so I volunteered myself to give this 15 minute talk about how the Atonement of Jesus Christ relates to missionary work. Anyway, I went up there not knowing what to say and my talk ended 15 minutes later. I'm not really sure what I said. I'm proficient at this language at this point, but I usually couldn't do that in english. So anyways it just showed to me that through Christ, we can do all things, if we have Faith in him. He understood this problem and knew that it needed to be solved, and helped me accomplish it. I would urge everyone to strengthen their faith, because if you do this, life is a lot easier.

Anyways, Love you all 

As always, send questions

Elder Cubby 

A Singular Other Person East some Rust (Cubby letter 7/1/2019)

So a good week in short summary

We killed another centipede outside of our house, my estimate about 6 inches long. We had some lessons, but didn't get too much progress with any of our friends. We got slow roasted in the sun a little bit more. we visited a shipwreck for Pday so that was cool. for all you new bird watchers (Uncle Ben), I identified some new bird species that can't be found in the Gilbert Island chain, so I'm glad I'm oer here in the Line Island group.

Anyways, love you all, I'm healthy

Elder Cubby

You have been attacked by a Wild Pokemon! (Ben letter 6/24/2019)

A wild Bidoof appeared. 

So anyway ANOTHER great week here in Moldova. Honestly the time is flying by right now, it just feels like yesterday I was writing another weekly.

 

This week has been great, Elder Cromar and I are working very hard and finding people to teach. Meeting lots of people in the street. However, Elder Cromar thinks I attract tourists too easily. For example, today I talked to 3 people that were not from Moldova, but just on vacation. Its really cool though because I still challenge them and make them promise me that they will talk to the missionaries back in their home country. Its great that us missionaries are over the whole world. So yeah, things are going great and I am working as hard as I can. Something my mission President likes to quote is " there is no traffic on the extra mile". Gotta love it.

 

Every time I have a crazy thing happen to me, I always think that I should put it in my weekly. But then the time comes and I will have forgotten. But anyway, this place is super awesome, and I meet the coolest people and some angry people.

 

As for a spiritual thought, follow your spiritual promptings. I have had some pretty cool experiences following the spirit. If you let the Spirit guide your life, you can never go wrong.

 

va iubim

Virstnicul Stanfield

Placed by the Gideons (Cubby letter 6/17/2019)

So a fantastic week I suppose.

So me and Elder Geertsen are getting a better handle on things currently. We found a bunch of people and handed out a bunch of Ana Booki Moomon. So progress. We've been walking around a lot recently, because we don't really have a place to sit down, so we've been fairly scorched by the sun. Sorry mom, te mwakuri moa. On top of that, I've cut down on my snickers consumption which is good for health and budget. Which reminds me, due to the close location of Kiritimati Island to the state of Hawaii, there is some good cargo here, such as Kool-aid, snickers, etc. But no rice or flour right now. Go figure. 

For a fun story, we saw a giant centipede, maybe over 6 inches long. It was on my arm as well, so that kept me up for the rest of the night. Apparently the bite of a centipede here can cause pretty bad pain for about 24 hours, so thank goodness it didn't bite me. It took about 30 minutes to kill it all the way, using sandals and rocks. 

for a Scripture, a good one is 3 Nephi 9:20. It talks about the need of giving an offering to God of a broken hart and a contrite spirit. It got me on a train of thought that led me to think that everything we give to God, was originally his. So is it really an offering? Yeah kinda, but what God really wants is our souls, because that is the only thing he doesn't personally own, because we have agency. Just seems like a good thing to bring up.

Shoot me some questions

I tangiringkami

Elder Cubby