Elder Hunter Jeppson: Marshall Islands/Kiribati Mission & New Jersey Morristown : Always Crash Catholic Parties!

Mauri Everyone! What is going on in the massive land of the United States. This week was a pretty good week except for what happened to my foot, but you will have to keep reading to find out what happened. Here's the rundown for the week:

Monday: We went back down to Te Runga (Kiribati Olympics) and watched some more sports. There is this one game called Te Oreano where there is a log with a team on both sides of it, -one team has this super heavy rock wrapped in rope which is then soaked in water for a couple days so its extra solid- then the team with this huge rock ball runs and throws it at the other team. The other teams goal is to catch it hahaha so funny and so dumb. We also watched some more soccer. After we went back to Moroni highschool and played games with all the other missionaries.

Tuesday: Today was my first Zone Conference on the mission. It was so much fun and we had some quality homemade food that the senior couples made. Also the elders and sisters in each district try and match with each other, i dont know why but its fun. Usually the sisters make dresses and ties for the elders because there way good at it. So that was pretty fun. President Foster and His wife are so awesome! They gave some awesome training and advice for us. He also introduced the new missionary handbook to us, and its way awesome. We were the first mission in the world to recieve copies of it. It was getting released online a couple days later to everyone, but since the missionaries don't have phones yet, we wouldn't be able to recieve it. So the Church sent us them early which was sweet all by itself haha. One of the best parts of zone conference is when tranfers get announced. Everyone goes crazy when people get transfered out to the outer islands hahah. Its so awesome.

Wednesday: Today was our last day down south for a couple weeks, so We spent the morning buying food to take back out to our area because all we eat out here is crackers, peanut butter and fried dough haha. At least thats all that were able to buy for our house, so we filled our bags with good food. The afternoon was spent on the boat coming back up to Abaokoro. When we got back it was about 5 pm and we didnt have a dinner, so that meant rice, noodles, and crackers with peanut butter haha.

Friday: We started off the morning with a solid study session. After our studies we were planning on visiting a non member family, but we were told by our neighbor they were going to a big Catholic Botaki (party) So us being missionaries went to crash this catholic party because there was gping to be a lot of people to talk to. Even though it was invite only, we got into the party because Kiribati people think parties are more fun with white people. There was tons of food, dancing, and talking. When the dancing starts, it is usually just one person dancing at a time in front of everyone. So when the dancing gets past off to you (its not like you can say no because its bad manners) you have to go all out and have no fear haha. Especially since we are white people, were basically forced to dance a ton.So much fun!! And guess what, we got a family to teach! Thats what happens when you crash catholic parties.

Sunday: First off on the way to church, we were riding our bikes dodging puddles and branches when there was this one tree i had to dodge with a 3 foot hole on the other side that i didnt see. I went striaght over the front of my bike haha so funny. Also Elder Wright and I had to give talks in all of our meetings again today. It is actually way helpful for me because it allows me to practice the language. It was also dumping rain all day which kind of stunk. Because it was Sunday and it was raining all day, everyone was asleep. There was probably 10 people in the whole village who were awake. Way crazy!. So we played card games with 1 person who was awake haha. On our way back from dinner we only had 1 small light because mine died, so it was pretty hard to see. Elder Wright was in front of me since he was holding the light and i was following behind him. When we reached the last turn before our house there was this fence sticking out and since i could barely see I got a little to close to it and it grabbed on to my foot a cut it open. Luckily it wasnt deep and luckily I watched people close up cuts for me, i got it all cleaned up and stuck together. But man it stung haha.

Well that was my week! Hope you all are doing great!

Love Elder Jeppson