I am on Abaiang with Elder Miller, also from Utah. We are
great friends and have lots of fun sharing stories and preaching the
gospel. The island is long
and it has 2 branches and a unit. Everyday we take turns going to
different parts of the island to teach. Tuesdays and Saturdays at
Tabuntebike (means end of the beach) then Borotiam (pronounced Bro-sum)
is on Thursdays and sundays, We live on a compound with the chapel in
Tuarabu and work there on Wednesdays and Fridays. Each is about an hours
bike ride away. Our
goal for everyday is to teach 5 lessons. Borotiam, the unit, is really
doing well so some days we get 9 lessons (we would most days but people
usually like to talk too much which takes up time). Then the other two
areas are slowly improving. Even with this email time we should hopefully
be able to get our 5 today.
My
language has come a long way since Christmas, my companion is a good
teacher and pushes me hard. I have eaten eel (looks as creepy as the
ones in the Little Mermaid) and Mantaray, plus the usual shark and cool
shellfish and lots of fish. It all tastes pretty good.
We
are blessed right now with a Golden Investigator. His name is Tiiwini
which is a Kiribati approximation of the name Steven, and sometimes when
they say it it sounds like Stevie. He was a refferal and we contacted
him in my first week. He was a very strong Protestant and so on our
first meeting shared with us Galations 1:6-10. Basically saying that
anybody that gives religion different from what he's heard is
'accursed'. The kiribati bible is super had to understand so we didn't
actually know what he told us until we went home. We were super scared
and spent hours preparing him a lesson. He then accepted it with no
problem. I am not sure where the change came from but he is so ready for
the truth. One time we met with him he told us how he suddenly decided
that smoking and alcohol were bad after doing them for 40 years. We were
like 'Oh really, we'll teach you the Word of Wisdom on Thursday on the
day that we were going to give him the Book of Mormon we saw the one
that we gave his daughter weeks before lying next to him with a bookmark
in it. He was on chapter 10 before we asked him to start.
That lesson
he also told us that he wanted to come to church with us. We were like,
'oops, we're sorry that we haven't had the chance to invite you yet,
it's down the road and starts at 10. Every lesson he asks us some sort
of question that leads us into teaching the answer for our next lesson.
One day, shortly after we started right after we closed in prayer he
said, 'Ok, you've had your time, now it's my turn' We were so scared,
but it turned out that his wife made a huge and rather fancy meal for
us. Last lesson he straight up asked us, 'Ok, I'm taking the lessons,
what else do I need to do to get baptized?" We were just like 'who are
you and how are we worthy enough to teach you?' Most people here are
uneducated and just accept everything with out comment (which is kind of a
pain). We just feel so blessed to be teaching someone who not only
understands how important this is, but is totally excited to accept it.
He is now softening the hearts of his family as well. His wife who
refused to shake our hands on our first meeting now sits in with us and
listens.
Life here is great and I love you all
Love
Elder Morley
P.S. Sorry for what my english has degraded to. It will probably only get worse
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