On the same day that we skyped David, we also received this letter.
Monday Nov. 30, 2015
Hey Folks!
So, ah, funny story.... Last week, Wednesday night, um, the internet place burned down. There's only 1 spot on the island with internet and well, it went up in smoke. Thursday, (Thanksgiving) we went into town to do service for a member who lives by the government office. We biked past and, to our surprise, where there used to be 4 buildings, now there was only 3. The Protestant church in Kiribati is really big into fundraising. There was a group renting the government's oven to make scones. Well, they chose to do it into the middle of the night and while their last batch was cooking they left to take a break leaving the kerosene stove untended. To their disappointment they came back at 2am to find their scones burnt and coincidentally the entire office in flames. That office stored all the birth, death and marriage records that haven't entered into the computer, the fund raising efforts for women and youth, 2 generators, 3 laptops, a printer, a modem and a satellite dish. All gone. So it looks like we're back to letters her on out.
Due to time change, looks like this may be a good time to say "Merry Christmas!" or maybe Happy New Year! as long as we're not at Have a Jolly Groundhog's day we are doing all right.
Whenever this gets to you I want to make sure to say Congrats to the Beautiful Mrs. Rachael Ann Quinn! I hope you had a wonderful day. I sure did. I decided that you would probably get married right around noon on the 28th. So Sunday morning when I first woke up I decided to celebrate with you. I can't be in the temple with you just yet, but I can join in prayer and scripture study. I woke up and studied about the New and Everlasting covenant, about Temples and about marriage. You did a beautiful thing. The sealing is my favorite part of temple work. Such amazing promises are made and there is always a wonderful spirit there. In church I taught the members about Temples. All the members in Nikunau send their Congrats and Good luck.
At our second session of church (one up North in Monubenua, one down South in Nikumanu) there were 13 natives there. That might sound lame, but it was a miracle. My first week, there were 4 kids, then 6, then 7, and this week 13 with adults. A miracle. Ironically this miracle was provided by a KUC Minister name Tio. He is an RM that is the strongest oppose of our church on the island. Whenever we do something he fins a way to combat it. We hold church in a member's house in Nikumanu, unfortunately the members are in Tarawa. We can still use the house, but the people watching the house are KUC. This week Tio scheduled a pot luck lunch with them at the exact same time as our church. So their house was busy with a whole bunch of guests coming over. We found out on Saturday and quickly asked an investigator if we could borrow his house. This investigator, Ruoi and his wife maomao were progressing great, but I think he got discouraged going to church with only 4 kids so stopped progressing. We've started holding FHE in his house on Tuesdays so he was chill to let us borrow it again. Why is this another great example of the Lord's timing? The Lord is so good at turning weaknesses into strengths. We have 1 golden investigator, Tabeti. We invited her to church for the 1 st time this week. She accepted, but we were kind of embarrassed to have her come to church to see a bunch of kids there. ("oh the Mormon is a church for children ' is not an idea we wanted to get started. So basically in the ministers attempt to mess up our church, he helped 3 investigators all see that this is a church for adults. I think we'll have a lot of investigators coming in no time. Next week is combined Fast Sunday up North, so I think a lot will get on the car and see how big this church really is!
After church we went on splits from about 330 - 4pm or your time, 8:30 - 9pm Sat.. 28) I was working with Teiaaba, the Dad at the house I live in. The whole time I was just so filled with happiness. I just loved sharing the gospel with a good friend of mine who is kind of like a dad. I just couldn't stop telling him how I have the greatest job in the world and talking up our work. I was so overjoyed. At one point, biking a long a thought popped in my head. It said, "I am the most blessed person in the world." Rachael I hope that is how you and our whole family felt on that great day. We are truly blessed and watched over every day of our lives.
New from here. Since I first got here we found 30 new investigators, 2 are Golden and are leading their families, lots are making amazing progression and almost all keep letting us come back. We'll go tracting on Wednesday, so hopefully that will increase. Max church in my time, 35. Max lessons in 1 week 37, average 32. Our current goal is 40 church and 42 lessons, so a few more investigators will make that comfortably possible. Transfers on Thursday.
Merry Christmas
Love,
Elder Morley
No comments:
Post a Comment