2/28/2016

Hello All!
This has been a great week full of new investigators and more! But
first new investigators. We have a few that could be considered
'Golden'. The first is a 14 year old boy named Ate (It looks like a
word we know, but don't be fooled! say aah-tay). We got his family as
a referral in our bipolar town. It is full of either strong Mormons,
or strong Protestants. However, it sounds like the strong protestants
are starting to come around. Anyhow, the parents want their kids to
get baptized because they figure we can 'fix' their awful disobedient
children. The parents enjoy listening and are curious but have thus
far denied any attachment (don't worry, all in time). Any how this
kid, Ate, has been doing all sorts of drugs and alcohol but one day
got it in his head that he wanted to be Mormon. So now he's come to
church twice and while at church saw a Book of Mormon and asked for
one because he had seen members with it and wanted to read it. He is
the most excited kid I have ever met, and he's only excited because he
thinks this church and anything to do with it. On our 3rd meeting with
him he said that he had prayed about our Church and new it was true!
Another new investigator we got on Saturday. Her name is Abinoa (like
Abby + Noah = this 12 year old girl). She had a few lessons a few
years ago, but then moved and was forced to stop. But since then she
has had a testimony. She recently moved to the island and has come to
Every single activity that we have had since she got here. She will
probably be baptized in a few weeks. The last super cool one is a guy
name Teema (Tay -May). His wife is a RM that works as a school
teacher. The way that teachers work here is that ever 3-4 years they
are told to move to a new location and are provided housing there. So
for the past 8ish years he has lived on an island that only recognizes
the Protestant Church as a religion. Any other is not allowed. But
there he met his wife, and at the beginning of this school year they
moved here. Now that they are here and settled he and his wife, Maua,
come to church together. yesterday at church she told us that she
wants her husband to have lessons. We asked if he wants lessons, and
he nodded. Then she said that it would be good if we came over every
day so he could be baptized fast. We looked questioningly at him and
he gave us a double thumbs up and a grin. We haven't taught him yet,
but I don't think it'll take long before he will be baptized too. We
also had 2 guys that showed up at our house one day with broken bikes.
As they were fixing their bikes they casually asked for lessons.
They're pretty cool too. So as far as work, it's going well! The
branch is also doing well in the midst of opposition. We are excited
for the things that are going to happen here. All is well!
I love you all!
Elder Morley

02/21/2016

Hello Everyone!
How are you all this week. This week has been full of miracles and
blessings of the Spirit. We have been getting new investigators that
are really solid and we are very excited to start working with them.
Also the Branch in the town where we live in is progressing very well
and I joy in their successes. However, unfortunately even as we have
been trying even harder to help the church in the second town where we
have church, our members have been faltering. However, that is not the
purpose of this email. I want to testify that the Holy Ghost is real
and can guide us to fulfil the Father's Will. Last Saturday and a few
other days this week, have started poorly. People not living up to
their potential or being bullied from the truth by leaders of other
faiths. We have wanted so badly to help those who have faltered to
come back to the truth. One example is an investigator named Tabeti.
She received a testimony of this church very early on in her lessons.
I even looked at her as a Golden Investigator. But then we went to
Tarawa. When we came back, she still had the feeling that the Church
was true, but the things of this world had pulled her away from it and
made her Afraid. Since then, giving her a new baptisimal date has been
tough. She didn't want to accept one. We thought about it and felt
that we should ask her if she still wanted to have lessons. When we
got there however I felt that I should give the time to Elder Tonini.
He asked her about smoking and then gave a perfect lesson exactly to
her needs. While we were teaching I had the thought, 'I am greatful
for a companion that can speak by the power of the Holy Ghost.' By the
end of his brief lesson she was almost in tears and the Spirit was
strong. He ran out of things to say, so I took the time and felt that
I should extend to her a baptismal date, and was led to know how best to
extend it. She accepted. The same thing happened earlier that day,
when we extended a date to a lady who refused to progress or accept
any commitments just a few weeks earlier. I led a lesson about faith
and small and simple means and  then we extended her the same date.
She accepted. The same happened that night. We have been struggling to
connect with the youth of that town and on our way home were planning
to remind one lady about church when I was almost literally directed
to a different house. The only one home was one of our young men that
turned 14 in January and I have wanted to get him the Priesthood ever
since. He has been going less active, but invited us in. We had a
beautiful lesson with him and invited him to receive the Priesthood.
He accepted and came to church the next day (I'll interview him and
he'll probably become a Teacher this week). We just felt so blessed to
be able to be guided to a few souls that day who needed our help, then
to be guided to how we could best help them. I love this Church and
this Work so much. I know it is true.
Love
Elder Morley

2/14/2016

I am currently in Rungata, which is close to the really big  church . 

The 'big grass roof building' is a perfect example of a Mwaneaba, but it is broken now. The pic is kind of old. 

So as far as member attendance it increased by 3! We had the daughter and grandson of a less active member (possibly a melchezidek priesthood holder), and a woman who is both deaf and dumb  baptized. It was a good day. I still have the baptismal pants we bought, but since E Tonini has lost at least 70 pounds on his mission, his baptismal pants didn't fit. So he asked sister Waldron to make him a new one that was a Sulu (I think that is what Americans call them). She made 2 because she wan't sure how big he was. One was too small but fit me perfectly so we got a matching set! Kiki just happened to have a white one too, so we made him a tie so that we would all be matching! That kid is so cool.

Have I told you that I ate octopus? I had never eaten it in my whole mission, but always wanted to, and now I've eaten it  like 5 times. If you cook it right it is really tender and tastes like chicken with suction cups. Yum!
Last week we had the highest church and Mel Priesthood att since my 2nd week. We had 42 present and 4 mel. We had 3 investigators confirmed and 3 other investigators in attendance. 1 is a solid man who is more active than a lot of our members, but he isn't married yet. Another was an investigator of Elder Farley's that has come to church twice in a row now, but had never come for 6 months before that. The last was a referral who we had contacted his parents but not him, but he came to church just because. It was a greatday!

Nikunau is one of the few if the only island here with natural lakes. It is pretty much the only one wide enough for it because it has no lagoon. Bill, the man on the far right has been asking us on and off for months, literally since I first got here, if I wanted to go see them. He always asks, but we didn't want to do something so touristy on a Sunday.  But Every Single Time we have rescheduled something goes wrong, so we can never go. So this time we decided to go for it. In that picture there is me (with my fancy homemade camera case, Tanentoa (on his first week back for a month), Elder Tonini (so cool), Taboi (the man that was less active until I came back with E ToninI) with his son, and Bill (a prospective Elder). It was so much fun. The only problem was that after we had left our house for 2 min it started pouring. We were soaked! The lakes were really pretty though. Life is good!

Elder Tonini loves those type of church pants. As Missionaries we are not allowed to wear them to work in, but we may have purchased a matching set for 'non working' times, just in case. 

The only other cool story this week is that since Elder Tonini and I work so well together everything else is going well. As you know there is a lot of persecution on this island. The biggest/most vocal opponent of the church is an RM minister named Tio (so_) He makes all of his people too scared to even be in the same room as us. So to combat that we started teaching seminary in the Primary ion the town where he has authority. Now all of the kids of the town love us. They are afraid of him, but they love us. Last week we had 8ish kids in the class, but there were loads of kids watching at the windows. So we told them that it was against the rules for them to watch like that. If thyey wanted to watch they will have to do it inside, sitting down. So a FLOOD of kids ran in. We had 30+ primary kids of all religions. We had been teaching for about 5 minutes when Tio walked in. He boldly interrupted our teaching and tolds rthe kids  that it was only ok of Mormon kids to be ibn a Mormon class. They all got afraid and ran away. But within 5 most of them came back and either said sorry for being afraid and running away, or quietly watched at the window because they still wanted to listen. Then as always there was a lunch for all seminary teachers. We made it our goal to make Tio smile. So Elder Tonini and I put on some of our comedy routines and got Tioo to openly laugh. Nobody can hate a companionship this unified! The work is great and life is awesome!.

2/7/2016 Teaching to all Languages

Last week we had nothing planned for pday.
To make it worse it was raining. I was going stir crazy, so we grabbed
the slingshot that E Farley left and sneaked into the forest to make
some trouble. Lots of trees definitely died in our target practice.
Hehe. But since it was raining we got covered in mud running down the
forest paths, so ran into the ocean to wash up. We did not swim, but
we did get some nice Little Mermaid pics. We got back, it was now
dark, but we wanted to wash the salt water off. So we decided that the
fastest way would be just to splash each other with buckets. A wet
exchange later we retired to our buia with everyone laughing. Good
random fun.

Hello,
Sorry no letter last week. I wrote a super quality one, but for some
reason the internet died on the split second that I sent it, and I
lost everything... This week I want to write about language wonders.
The First is my comp Elder Tonini. He had no MTC training, he had no
nothn. He came off of the airplane with 2 words Mauri- Hello, and
Tiabo- goodbye. That was November 29. Now it is just starting into
February and his language is almost better than mine. last week he
taught an amazing sunday school lesson in any language, let alone one
that he has had very under qualified teachers for. So yeah, that is
the first language wonder of the world.

The second is our investigator Nei Bao. She is a 60+ year old woman
that is deaf and dumb. While we were exiled to Tarawa for a month,
back in December, she was invited to church and decided to come. She
loves the church and the members love her. She has been keeping all of
the commandments since she was a kid and loves coming to all
activities. A week or so ago we decided that we should start teaching
her, because she is practically a member as it is. We asked President
Weir and he told us that she still needed the lessons and an interview
before baptism. We have taught her the basic gospel lessons, and her
baptism is scheduled for Saturday! the language wonder is that we have
been able to teach her anything. We teach full lessons using made up
sign language and mouthing the words so that hopefully she'll lip read
them. A special shout out to the Gospel Art book! That thing is a
miracle. Nei Bao's family says that she understands us perfectly. I
love this work and the Gift of Tongues, for it is definitely true,
even if we are using a very different way to speak. I am happy and
healthy as always and am in the best place on earth! (second to the
temple).

Other news. We bought a very large pig, and may start raising a
chicken for food. We are preparing for the March 30 1 year mark party
and all is well.<
Love,
Elder Morley

Will you kill and cook the pig or let the locals do it?  (mike)

Naw, the pig is already 4 feet long give or take, but we'll raise the
chicken

Um, we will need 4+ strong men to kill it, but I'm good at preparing
it for cooking. The actual cooking is womens work.<

It took us ages to get that picture. It was so much fun!<

No letters yet. But They are bound to be close. I love you both so
much. Have a great week!

Love to read your notes.  I can sense your fun happy attitude.  Keep it up.  I love you very much,  (mike)