Saturday, October 5, 2019

When it Has Human Teeth (Cubby letter 10/1/2019)

Cubby didn't technically write a letter, just his journal entries.
 
Tuesday September 24
A bit of a rough start to the day. Apparently as I was leaving the house to work out or go to the bathroom or something, Elder Bartley went to look at me and something popped in his neck. So that disabled him for most of the morning, so I got in a very large amount of personal and language study done today. I played doctor a bit, I boiled some water and put it in a cup and had him heat his neck, then I gave him 4 ibuprofen (he's a big guy--6'5--so I'm trusting it wasn't too much). I was told later that the real way to fix a sore neck was with matches. I'm not sure how to apply matches to a neck, so we didn't try that one. We missed our first lesson, but necessity called that we pick up the Menzies from their return flight from Fanning island. They generously gifted me with a Kiribati knife, probably because I got shafted by getting transferred, and it's pretty cool, it was very nice of them.That trip got Elder Bartley loosened up a little bit, so we could execute the rest of the day as planned. We got a rat trap today, I'm pretty excited to get this rat tonight, it's been keeping me up when it's chewing on things and whatnot. 

Wednesday September 25
Just another day. Woke up to see that the rat trap had been sprung, and the peanut butter was gone, but there was no rat. Sad morning. Had some eggs though in the morning, in contrast to the usual peanut butter and crackers. We had district council. Also fun fact, there are 3500+ species of mosquitoes in this world. Afterward we took Elder Bartley down to the Kiritimati equivalent of the town hall and got his license. So I taught him a bit about how to drive a stick (because I am so experienced). At the end of the day we went and picked up Elder Reddy to come and work with me in Banana. And when we came home, there was a pleasant surprise waiting for us, because the rat trap caught the rat! 

 We had a lesson today on Jacob chapter 3 in Ana Boki Moomon. I had a specific verse in mind when we first gave it to this lady, but when we read it together, I thought another verse was good for her as well. And after she read that verse, she told us that the reading we gave was perfect for her.

Thursday September 26
A good day as well. Woke up and worked out, and got in some good studies with Elder Reddy, he isn't very good at the language yet, so I had a lot of teaching opportunities as well, just during studies. When we went out to go teach, our first couple lessons fell through, so we made 3 or 4 good contacts and scheduled 2 or 3 lessons with new people. Don't get those kinds of percentages in Moldova. We also picked up someone's house and put it on the back of a truck, which I'm also assuming that can't be gotten in Moldova. We had a lesson with Teretia, the same lady from yesterday, and Elder Reddy had the idea to share Ether 12:27. I thought it was kind of random, but it's a great doctrine, so we just sent it. So long story short, Teretia just ended up asking us why is it that every time she reads Ana Boki Moomon with us, she feels like it's directly applicable to her life. Coincidence?

Friday September 27
The day started out normal, but before we were about to leave the house, we locked our keys inside. Good news is, however, no matter where we leave our keys in the house, we can always grab them with a stick. We had an alright day after that, tried to make some new contacts, but they weren't really turning out today, but that's okay. We did pick up a new investigator though, which was good (I realize that the difference between meeting somebody for the first time and a new investigator might not make sense to some of you at home, but for the missionaries out there reading this, y'all know). It was good because this whitewash has had us meeting people who are used to other elders, and meeting members of the church, so finding new people has been kinda difficult. Dinner was good, it was the Branch President's father in law's 53 birthday. They demanded I give a speech at the end and tell the story of when I closed a botaki in Abaiang. 

Saturday September 28
A great start to the day. We had an early lesson in the morning, in which we had our first lesson with a family of 5. And that pretty much took us through the morning. We came back and ate lunch after that, the typical noodles with egg. So apparently during our split on Thursday, Elder Bartley learned a dance for today's good bye botaki for the Menzies. So he had a practice just past noon. We had to take missionary needs down to Tabwakea anyways, so we went. After doing needs, we set up for the botaki, and that took us to the end of the day. It was a fun botaki, even though I was the only missionary who didn't dance. I did get tricked into the London Branch's kamataku (to make watch... performance maybe?) which just included sitting and clapping and singing. I faked knowing the songs pretty well I think.

Sunday September 30
A pretty good Sunday. Woke up and studied or whatever, then we had church. There was an unusually large amount of people there. We got a new Branch Presidency, and they bore testimony so that made for a lively sacrament meeting. We also had some investigators come that hadn't really ever come before. And for some reason somebody brought ice cream for after church. We took the only young man in our branch to take the sacrament to people. 

So lately there has been a focus in the mission to extend Spirit lead invitations rather just giving out readings to people. So I've been really focusing on it and seeing real results. Today we had a lesson with somebody who read Ether 12. Looking at him after he read verse 12, it looked like the secrets of life were unleashed to him 
 
 

 

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