12/28/2014 Happy New Year

Yep, I'll be in the first country to welcome the new year, ya'll shold be jealous. Except that it will probably feel the same, and be before I wake up anyways.

Before I start I want to say sorry for last week's email.  I forgot that poop is a very not allowed subject in America. Here it is just very casual. Members ask me all the time if I have bekanako or not. Bekanako literally means 'poop go' so basically it's no big deal if your poo goes and you have diareah. Sorry. The important part of that email was the last paragraph. read it again, it is still so true.

Oh my this week has been crazy. So first off I'm not in Abaiang. I was supposed to get transfered there last Saturday. Check in to the Airport was at 3:40pm. So we got there at 2:50 and they told us that the airplane had just left 10 minutes before.... Oh I was so sad. But as of friday there is a new transfer so they switched stuff around and the only one without a companion was Elder Fausett the Zone Leader, so now I'm with him and am a sorta zone leader. I'll be going to Abaiang on Thursday if all goes well. That is the soonest flight. I say I'm an almost zone leader because usually ZL's get to drive and stuff, but since I'm just a filler for a few days I have been denied the privlege of getting a drivers license. Which I complain about but really it should be nice because the roads here are aweful. Usually they're alright, but it's sorta rain season right now so they have more potholes than usual and a lot of the road workers are from Australia and they went home for the holidays. But it should still be fun.

Ah stink. My computer was broken so I was delayed an hour behind everybody else and the new intake just came in four days early, so I, the Zone leader, have to go pick them up. SO lets see how much I can say about last week in my last few minutes. So um actually, I had to write president instead. SO I'm sorry, but I had a wonderful christmas! I hope you guys did too!

Love

Elder Morley

Dec. 21, 2014 Merry Christmas Tikiraoi Kiritimati!

So last monday I got to see the President of Kiribati. I forgot my camera but there should be a picture on the Waldron's Blog (supposing they have one). It was cool, but sorta boring. It was just a dinner (do they call it a cocktail dinner?) with The President  and the American Ambassador speaking. He is very passionate about global warming and said that unless they do something Kiribati will be under water in 30 years. Personally I don't know what 'they' could do, and believes that God loves The people here to much to let them drown. After we got to talk to the imatongs (White people). But for a Kiribati party it was pretty lame. No dancing, no pig, not even any cake. It was a good time, but I missed being able to go to dinner with some of my kiribati families (I have 2 and they both had a botaki (party) on the same night). Ah well, it was good all the same.

Here are some funnies from the life of Elder Morley. This week was the first time I cut my self while shaving, but I never guessed that I would cut my finger! I have so little hair on my face that there is never a chance of injury there, but I guess it had to happen somewhere. I was grabbing my razor out of my bag but for whatever reason I tried to slide it out with my finger, right on the blades... Sometimes i'm not very smart. But it is healing quickly and probably won't even scab, it was just funny.

  The food is just so different and not always healthy so diarrhea is common. I've been amazingly healthy, I think the most healthy of anyone in my intake (the group that came in at the same time as me).  This one is more cool then funny.

There are certain words that don't have to be translated over from kiribati to English in my brain. Some examples are hello, how are you, then some words in lessons like life and happiness then some casual words like, oh you're really good at that. It just makes it really interesting when talking with people that speak english.For example in this letter I have had to stop and erase what I was writing because you guys wouldn't be able to understand. Or when I talk to some of the white people that live here I have to be very careful. For example one day I was talking with a guy from Australia and all the things he said translated perfectly to Kiribati. He said 'take care' and so I said 'thanks take care naba' I tried so hard to speak english but I slipped. Naba is like also. So, take care too. It works better in Kiribati. The white elder next to me burst out laughing because couldn't quite stick to one language. Now I'm sorta worried about when I get to talk to my family. When I translated for the mission president I had to translate their words and then my words. It is always an adventure here!

Probably the coolest thing I've learned on my mission is that the lord is always there for me. He always gives me just enough for me to stay happy and well. And it is always when I need it most. The lord's timing is simply miraculous. For example, last friday was super rough for me emotionally. And we'll leave it at that, but on Saturday morning the Zone Leaders came and delivered 5 letters from my mom. I read the first one and it was so perfectly what I needed that I stopped there to spread out the joy. It was so simple to, a taste of mom's day and some of her adventures with the neighbor kids so I got a great taste of home. Then there was a Talk by Elder Holland called Lessons From Liberty Jail that was spot on for what I was feeling. There are too many examples of the Lords tender mercies to count or share here. Sometime it is with a letter, sometimes with a scripture, sometimes with somebody coming and helping me, sometimes it's just somebody to talk to, etc. The lord is always right by our side. For me I always see him in the little things more than the big. Oh, being a missionary is so great!

Dec. 14, 2014

This has been a crazy week.

First off I love the simple faith of the people here. One day this week, while on splits, we went to a house to confirm our dinner for the next day. While there they offered us a drink (and pretty much it would be super rude to say no). But then they realised that they didn't have any preboiled water. My companions said, that's fine we'll just bless it! So that's what we did. They gave us a nice jug of sugar water (side note, that's the most common drink we get here. It's not bad, the only sugar they have is closer to brown sugar than our white granulated stuff, but diabetes is a problem...) and we said a fervent blessing it and my imatong (white man) bowels. They were absolutely sure that there would be no problem. Which there wasn't. I had super bad diarrhea, and some stomach fun (see Jeremiah 4:19) but it stopped as soon as we went out to work. When ever I was with people teachin there was not a problem. Their faith is so great.

A couple of days ago I got an invitation to go to a dinner with the President of Kiribati. Aparently every year or so and American ambassador comes and all of the americans on the island (probably only 10 actually on Tarawa) get to go and have dinner with him. So tonight I get to go to the State House and meet the president. That should be cool. Maybe I'll get a new investigator too!

Last night we had a Stake Priesthood meeting and since I was the only white missionary in the room, Pres. Weir asked me to translate for him. I told him that I am probably the least qualified person in the room, but he said that we would just struggle together. And struggle we did. It was hard because for some of the talks I literally only understood words here and there, so I had a general idea of what was going on, but no idea how to put that into english words. Plus everytime I would restructure the words to english I would have to disconnect from what was said so that by the time I figured out what to tell pres...  (Pres. Weir).

I translated, and as time went on it got better. I learned that I have progressed lots with the language and it was lots of fun. My language is coming and the Lord helps me lots every day.

I love you all!
Elder David Morley

(To Mike and I)

I get mail slowly but surely. This week I got 3 packages from you guys. One with presents, one with stockings, and one with headlights. 2 had a big notes on them that no more mail will be sent from the Marshalls which you know. Am I allowed to open anything yet? I opened the small 3" pictures and the candy canes. Thanks! now I have a perfect small gift to give to those around me. Everyone loves american candy and Christ!

I also got a package from Mason and Sarah that somehow had three letters from mom in it all postmarked SLC on the 12 of November I think...   I am very aware that I don't have many physical trials right now, more the emotional type. But God only gives me what I can handle. I firmly believe that I was given an easy spot to live so that I wouldn't break down with a tough companion. God loves me, probably more than I deserve!
  Transfers is on Thursday, but I don't know who my companion is. But I am 85% sure that I will stay in Betio! We'll see, I'm sorta scared, but excited at the same time. We'll see how it goes...

The Walls are in charge of all packages. They don't live in the town with the post office, and they are in a different zone from me. So delays are to be expected, but like everything else I have complete faith that they will get to me when I need it and can use it.

The Walls are pretty much the Mission President while he's on a different island/country. They take care of most everything.

Do you have any ideas for the celery or the spaghetti sauce? They don't have spaghetti noodles (though I might start using ramen noodles)

Do you pray for my teeth, I have never brushed or flossed so consistently in my life!

I got everything from Sarah that was on the customs paper. Tell people I'm sorry about my time cutting out. I really don't have any time now.
I love you all so much, and if the 3:00pm time on christmas works somebody will probably let you know.

Dec. 7, 2014

Ok!

It's been a great week. Here are the answers to some questions.

The stake leadership is great, they seem to do lots of great things. The Bishopric of this ward seems to be a little weaker, but we do what we can to help!

I'll send pictures of my chapel (if it ever loads). Stake conference was attended by around a hundred in a large chapel.

Inside Beito Chapel

Outside Beito Chapel

I supposedly have one hour for personal study a day, so I study one chapter in the Book of Mormon. I read it once through, then again taking time to mark things that stand out. I really love the second time through, I always get more out of it. That usually takes around a half hour, so I spend the rest studying specifically for my investigators. Then we are supposed to have companionship study, but that usually doesn't happen. So, really I study for about 2 hours, then language study with a variety of sources. My favorite is chatting with Claude the security guard at the chapel that we live at. But I still really only have time for one chapter which is sad.

I go to bed almost exactly at 10:30 every day, because I am so tired that I can't stay up any later. Sometimes I slip up and fall asleep lots earlier. It's only happened twice, but it feels so good afterwards. Then some  days my companion wants to run early so he'll wake me up at 5:30 (it's so early, but it beats the heat), some days he forgets to wake up to run, but I wake up automatically around 6 or 6:15, then some days I'm exhausted, so I sleep in to 6:30-45. You never know, but it's always pretty early. The sun comes up at about 6am, with the sky just barely starting to get bright at 5:30. I copied in a pretty standard sunrise from the corner of the property we live on. Oh it's always so beautiful. The sun goes down at about 6:30pm, but there are trees so it could be + or - 15 min.

Elder Carrington and most of my intake is on the same island as me (Tarawa) it's the main one, so there are 2 zones. He's on the other side so I don't see him very often. We don't do very much work after dark, it's weird culturally I'm told. But we go to dinner around 7:30, and get back to the house around 9. There are a fair number of chickens around my house, but only rarely do they wake me up. I'm always pretty pooped.

This week I Korokarewe (I cut karewe). Karewe is the sap of the coconut tree that is a really common native drink. Usually they boil it and add water, some times I drink it straight. It's definitely an acquired taste, and at first the only way I could get it down was with a big scoop of rice right after, but now I don't mind it. SO this picture was taken by one of my Kiribati family members. He put the bai (bay, like a lava lava) on me, then showed me how to climb up into the tree. Right then we were both in the tree and he would circle around it showing me where to go and how to place my body to best cut the karewe. It was so much fun! But relatively sketchy, cause you know, we're in a tree hopping around on the coconut leaves (which are so strong that they function like branches, but it's still sorta scary). But all of the people here were super impressed, because It's about as native of a Kiribati thing as you can do. Ah it's a good time in the islands.

Hope you guys enjoy the snow!

Climbing a coconut tree.  Picture taken from above.

Sunrise from his house.

Love, Elder Morley

questions:  Have you climbed other trees?  The trees around our house are fun. I use steps cut into the tree for easier climbing, it's super hard without.

There are steps cut into almost every tree on the island already. Climbing with steps is super easy, you can pretty much just run up the tree, but getting into the top part is sketchy.

I ate the shellfish (the stuff that I ate on my 2nd day) again. Now that i'm used to the Kiribati food it really wasn't bad. Definitely not the worst thing served at that meal.

Have you received any of my letters yet?  (7 weeks) 

I have recieved letters from Oct. 23 and 24th and November 3rd.

I loved your scripture study. On it's way is a letter about Nephi from me. He is my favorite. I love the thought that he prayed for me. Also I love that we are connected in our love for Nephi.

How are you feeling?  Do you have any stomach problems or anything?
I am surprisingly healthy. I have not gotten sick at all, the last time I remember my stomach hurting was about a month ago. Usually I only feel yucky when I eat too much (which is really often, because they give me so much food and then expect me to eat it all)

  Do you have a refrigerator? We have a fridge, but it's pretty pathetic, but I think that they will try to fix it this week. Bread is easy to get here.

Do you know about skyping yet?  The plan is for me to skype on the 26th. Which by the mysteries of time change happens to be your Christmas!!! That's all I know, but I'm excited!

Do you see any rats?

I've seen a couple rats, but only far away.

I got the 2 part nephi study (it was so awesome). It was perfect for what I needed.

The problem with this companionship is that he rarely welcomes advice or differing opinions. He almost got angry with me for suggesting a faster way to get to the baptismal interviews that we were late for. I would need to be incredibly brave to challenge his disobedience and lack of work. Usually It only feels safe to offer wishy washy side comments about different ideas. I usually feel that it is better to keep both of us relatively happy so that we can invite the spirit.

I have lots of friends. One of them took that picture in my email. Yes just about every one is full of love and wants to help us as much as they can. That's one of the reasons that I wouldn't be sur prised if I start getting fat...

Nov. 30, 2014 Seeing a friend from home via a Mormon message in Kiribati

(Today Mike and I were privledged to be online at the right time and to get a bit more info than usual.)

    

 The 90 degree days are pretty awesome, but it hurts my mind to think that is is winter there. I loved your emails. I'm sorta jealous of the traditional Thanksgiving Meal and all of the family. I play with the little kids here, but it's not even close to the same. I cried a little when I read that Mason did my job, but remembered me. I guess I'm more homesick for the little things. (Christmas is his all time favorite season.  Mason took his place in decorating the tree.)

       This week I have a goal to take a picture with a Christmas Tree and Santa Claus (there's only like one on the island, but it should be fun). The island is beautiful, so those pictures that you saw are probably very accurate for my life here.

I sent Elder Birrell the picture, and he's pretty excited (but maybe not as excited as I am) his email is birrell.jackson@gmail.com.  Things are usually good with Elder Kareketaake. Transfers... well nobody really know when those are. I know that Elder Aliksa from my intake is going outie today (I just found out 2 min ago). I also know that before next year there will be a big transfer with lots of shuffling. Lots of people have been on outies for a long time, so lots of moving around will happen. When? I don't really know. People don't get shipped in for Christmas, but if I'm on Tarawa you can probably expect a Skype, but it might not be on the actual christmas. I haven't heard anything though.

I didn't do anything special for thanksgiving on the actual day, but on Saturday we went to a restaurant. I had a quiet Thanksgiving meal of Chop Suey Fish and rice, and we tried to order the most american thing on the menu (Apple Pie and Ice Cream) but they were out of Ice Cream... and probably apples too. So not really... but it was fun anyways.

I heard Christmas music on the radio this morning which was weird. It was a really groovy silent night

 No letters yet, but there is a plane tomorrow so maybe.  (It's been 6 weeks now since I mailed the first one.)

The airport isn't in my zone, so I don't know much about it, but I just know that when I flew in there was a gajillion people (kids mostly) crammed against the fence watching us come in and shouting Imatong Imatong!

I understand more of the language now. I will have days where I can understand most everything, then days where I have no idea what is going on. I think of myself as similar to a genious goldfish. I'm a genius, so I can do alright, but a goldfish nonetheless, so the geniusness doesn't last long. My goldfish days are getting less and less though!

 

It is becoming a home here. I love being out with the people and have a couple of families that call themselves my parents (it is so cool) There is 2 and maybe Rotan will be a third. I love having lots of families, but I can't stay with them for very long. There's always more to do. Don't worry, you'll never be replaced.

I'm excited for the pistachio pudding!  (I'm sending him the ingredients to make his favorite Christmas salad.)

I saw Elder Carrington this morning. I didn't have time to talk, but today is a combined P-day, so we will chat then. (he looks the same and smiles a lot, so I know he's doing all right). I'm sending a letter to Elder Buhler. I don't know how or when it will get to him, but it is fun.

I can still see Mars, and I found another planet maybe. Since I can look at the same stars every night I will start tracking it. We'll see. I can see the pleides and orion now. It is always hazy around the horizon, so I probably won't see the big dipper till spring.

Dear Friends and Family,

Life is great. I love the missionary perspective and that I can see miracles from it. There are miracles everyday.

There  are no seasons here, and the sun comes up at the same time so it's hard to imagine that it is changing out in the rest of the world. Last night I was looking at the stars (they are soooooo clear) and admiring Orion. I thought to myself. It's cool that I can see this now, usually I only see it in the winter time. Then I remembered, it is winter. Weird.

The other day we were out working and our investigator (Erema) wasn't quite ready for us to come to her house so we waited next door at bishops house). Ok, get the image of house out of your mind. Think of a tin roof and a table beneath. There are walls made from those big metal barrels, so they are only 3 or so feet high. Electricity comes through an extension cord from somewhere. Probably not the safest thing... (This is not always the case, but the house that we were at is like this). They were watching videos from the church on a little laptop (that is pretty rare). They showed me a Mormon Message. It had a map and zoomed in on Utah, then Logan and I said Woah, I'm from there. Then it started talking about this family and introduced every one. One of them was Jane, from Encore! How crazy is that! I'm in a shack in a tiny forgotten island in the sea watching a video about a freind of mine that I danced with. Boy the church is cool.

Yesterday was a Special Sacrament meeting. At the beginning of the month there was an area wide fast and one of the things that we fasted for was help in knowing who we could invite to this special meeting. Enough people came that they had to bless and use a bottle of Fiji Water. SO cool. It was great because a ton of less actives and investigators came to church. They decorated the church with leaves and flowers from the plants around. If we were having a tropical party we might do the same sort of thing, but here every thing was natural, not plastic. Soo cool. Then there was refreshments which is always nice.

I love being able to share the gospel and be friends with the people of this tiny beautiful land. THE church is true. Have a great week.

I love you all!

Elder Morley

Nov. 23, 2014 Giving Thanks

Mom and Dad,

Thank you guys for all of the help that you give me,  physically and through prayers. The things that you are thankful for, dad, are pretty much the same as I am. I am thankful for Jesus Christ everyday. Whenever I introduce mom to people I say that she is a saint, and if we didn't need her so much she'd probably have been translated already. I totally believe that is true. And I've noticed that too, I can grasp certain things and learn a lot easier than some others. I was thinking about that when I was hanging my laundry this morning, and a bunch of other times too. I'm thankful that I can learn, because this would be so much harder if I couldn't. Also I see the world differently than others sometimes so that's interesting too. I am also thankful for the Book of Mormon. It is what gives me the strength to be happy everyday. Nephi and I are becoming buds, and I am sad that I will finish his books tomorrow. It teaches me so many things. (I've included some in your letter and one to Steve. So when he gets his (delayed by a week) you can ask him). What day is thanks giving?

 

I can honestly say that I haven't gagged on food since my first week even though I've eaten fish cooked in a multitude of ways (raw fish is actually pretty good), I've eaten worms (way to chewy to be worth it) and pigs blood soup (If you can get past the fact that it is blood it is really tasty). Really except that one meal,  and sometimes the karewe (the stuff from the coconut tree that they cut and drip from a rope) all the food is good.

I think your scripture study wasn't because I had a super bad day, but more to stock up blessings, study and prayer, for the days that would come. Most days are good, but some have some dark spots. However I am blessed so that there are always bright spots in every day.

I don't know all of the senior couples on the island. One couple just got here a couple weeks ago. There is a single lady nurse here that helps out a bunch. And the Walls are basically the President and wife over Tarawa while President Weir  is away.

Right now I'm using the personal computer of the lady that owns this internet cafe, so I'm going to wrap up and hopefully write a mass email later.

I love you so much!
from Elder Morley

Dear Friends and family,

This week was a record week for church attendance in Betio 3! I've been tracking how many people come by the amount of sacrament is gone. The first week there was 67, then 50 something then the low 40s. But yesterday there was 75! We needed to bless a new tray! And Saturday night I gave a kid my pants (the ones I bought forever ago with my suit) so I really hoped he would come. AND he did! Oh it was a good church meeting!

And the day before we had baptisms (hopefully the picture will come). There were 13 or so baptised. 3 that we taught. I Baptised 5 people all on my first try (even though the names here are really hard). Baptisms are so cool. The spirit is always so strong at a baptism service. I loved being able to do  that work for them and the Lord.

In the MTC our teachers pretended to be the investigators that they taught and loved. We taught Rootan and Fred  at the MTC and then I found out that they are both in my ward. Well I just found out that Fred moved, but I included a picture of Rotan!

I love you all.  Elder Morley

Oct. 15, 2014 A letter to Justin

Mauri!
from Beito Tarawa

Dear Justin,
I wonder how long this will take to get to you.  My guess is 2 weeks.  (Reality was 4 weeks)

I want to tell you about how much perspective can change everything.  When I was in America and I was in a poorer house that was unkept, I would think,  "Wow, That is pretty sketchy."  But, if I were to go into that same house here, I would be so impressed.  I would say, Wow, this guy has a garage!  And a door!  Not just one, but several!  He has walls!  and furniture.  It would be the nicest house I have gone into, by far.  What kind of house that people live in doesn't matter.  The people matter.  We teach one investigator that has a car and a house with doors, and another one whose house is smaller than your bedroom and doesn't have walls.  But they both are accepting the truth and are close to getting baptized.  What people have is much less important than what people are.

On a similar note, the food here is pretty bad.  If I was in America, I would not eat most of it.  But, the flavor doesn't matter as much here.  I was thinking about this the other day, while eating some food that was prepared for me.  It was in my mouth and I was chewing it, and it dawned on me, "Hmm, this isnt very good."  It wasn't my first reaction at all.  I've kind of been disconnected from flavor.  One reason is again, the people.  They make this food just for you, so it is the least you can do to enjoy it.  But the bigger reason, I think, is believe it or not,  a blessing of reading the Book of Mormon.  It's not a very common blessing that we think of.  But, I think that it is true.

Remember the summer before last when I would work all day on the Munk's Farm.  Most people would think that would be one of the worst summers of my life ie. getting covered in manure every day, literally head to toe, getting sunburned, staying up really late and getting up really early to do jobs that are uncomfortable, that include getting pooped on and attacked by cows.  But, my memory of that summer is quite positive.  The only thing that I can think of that changed my perspective is that every morning and every night I would spend at least a 1/2 hour reading the Book of Mormon so that I could meet my goal to finish it over the summer.

Now I am still working up to reading it that much, but even though to America's standard, what I am doing is hard and uncomfortable, every day I am happy.  Every day I get up excited to go to work and am sad when I don't get the chance to.  But I don't stay sad for long because there are always more ways that I can help people.  Read the Book of Mormon.  It works!  If you are ever having a down day,  make it your first remedy to read it for a little while.  If you want every day to be good/better read it in the morning.  I know that this is true.

So, I tell you these things or a few reasons.  1.  To lift you up and to show you that even i you don't go to a 'civilized' country you will still be alright.  2.  When I write, I learn things, so writing this down helps me to understand it.  3.  The spirit plays a big factor in what a missionary does too.

President Packer said, "that a testimony is found in the bearing of it."  This is true, but confusing because it seems backwards.  When you give something away freely it is only then that you get it back. (Matt16:25)  In the MTC everyone is encouraged to watch the talk, "Character of Christ by Elder Bednar.  It talks about how Christ, when he was at his lowest would 'turn outwards to others' instead of turning inwards to himself.  When Christ was down he would help others.  I know that when we do that we will be blessed.

One more thing,  when people here see pictures of our home in UT they say,  "You are a millionaire!"  Compared to what they have we are incredibly wealthy.  So next time someone has nicer stuff than you, just smile and think,  "You may be rich,  but I am a millionaire!"
  Love Elder Morley