The Blessings Of Being A Missionary

Mauri Ingkami, Kam uara? This past week was filled with teaching people, finding people, and realizing how awesome it is to be a missionary. Although my companion and I are still fairly new in the language and sometimes have a hard time saying what we want to say, we have recognized that all we need is the Spirit with us to teach the people. Here are a couple highlights from this week:

One big highlight from this week is we have 2 people we have been teaching that are sisters that told us they want to get baptized this Saturday. The older sister was supposed to get baptized last Saturday but she went to visit her sibling in another village. So it was kind of a blessing in disguise because now she can get baptized with her sister which is awesome. Also, their parents are super excited that they are getting baptized. When we asked them if it was alright if the younger daughter could be baptized they got all excited and said yes. The father is a long time less active and the mom isn't a member. There marriage papers are getting finished this week so that means the wife can get baptized. The father told us he is going to start coming back to church which is awesome because now the whole family will be coming to church together. 

One of the big things I've realized since being on the mission that when love the people and focus on making strong relationships with them you start to forget about yourself and only want to serve the people. The quote President Hinkley shared that states, " Forget yourself and Go To Work" is so awesome. When you forget yourself everything goes a lot better.

Here is a funny thing that happened this week. Yesterday in church The Stewart's (senior couple) came to our church and asked me to translate for them, so of course I was like ya of course i will translate for you. I was able to translate pretty everything the first speaker shared but then the Branch President got up to speak. A little background on this guy is he is probably the fastest speaker you will ever hear in your life haha. And man when he started talking my brain couldn't process what he was saying. So I just started making up things even though it was completely not what he was saying haha. Sister Stewart told me after that I did a great job translating. I told here that most of the stuff I said the President did not say and she started laughing hahaha. You got to love moments like this.

Well that's pretty much it for this week!

I tangiringkami!

Elder Jeppson

Filipe getting us Coconuts 

Even little kids love Coconuts 

Our little neighbor 

Filipe on splits with us.  He is 17 and is getting ready to serve a mission 

Bubu posing for a picture.  He is also getting ready to serve a mission. 

Part of our area

Dentist Appointments and Mowing Lawns (not with a lawn mower)

Mauri Ingkami, Kam Uara?! I'm doing great right now. My hand is almost healed, I don't have a eye infection anymore and I'm healthy.This week was pretty awesome, we had lots of great things happen. One of those being a baptism. Here is the highlights from the week:

We have been teaching this 9 year old boy named Joeamy whose brother is a member but the rest of his family is from the catholic church. Every time we go over to teach him he gets super excited and drops whatever he's doing to lesson with us. One of the coolest things happened when we went over one time to teach him a lesson. We started teaching the Plan of Salvation when he stopped us and told us he was going to teach us about it. We of course let him because My companion and I were very exhausted from speaking haha, and to our surprise he pretty much knew everything about it. On Saturday he got baptized and let me tell you that I have never seen a kid smile so big before. It was awesome.

All of the friends we are teaching right now are super solid and love the  lessons. It's super awesome to be teaching a lot of lessons because it helps me grow in how to teach them, and it's a lot of fun. This couple we are teaching right now are probably are most solid friends right now. They are totally focused in on the lessons when we teach them, and keep all the commitments. We had a lesson with them on Friday and as we were leaving they told us that they would see us at church. That was so awesome because we didn't even have to remind them to come to church, they just wanted to. 

On Thursday Morning we got a call saying we had to go to the dentist. We were all a little worried because we thought we were about to get worked on by an unqualified Kiribati dentist in a sketchy looking hospital haha. But when we figured out that this American group came to work on missionaries teeth we calmed down. It was very nice being able to talk to other Americans that weren't missionaries, and very nice to find out that I don't have any cavities from all the sugar and diabetes water I drink haha. It was funny watching some of the missionaries from the Pacific and PNG go into the dentist because they have never been to a dentist before. One Papua missionary was in there for about 2 hours because his teeth were so gross. That man came out in pain haha.

Also on Saturday before the baptism we had a pretty awesome service activity. There were a couple pretty large fields of weeds and grass that the village councilor wanted cleared, so we grabbed our machetes and went to work. I dont think I have ever been more exhausted after doing yard work in my entire life. Your arm gets so sore because your swinging a machete back and forth through kind of thick weeds for a long period of time. That was a workout haha. Of course it was no problem for Elder Qarase from Fiji because he told us when they would get in trouble by their parents or by the school they would get sent out into the field and would have to clear the whole field by themselves. That was probably one of the most fun services I have done since I have been here though. 

I have recently started reading the book "Saints" put out by the church a little bit back, I have have learned so much more about Joseph Smith and the Restoration just from the first couple chapters. If you guys remember Russell M. Nelson's challenge to study about Joseph Smith before the next general conference, well this is one good way to do so.

Well that's is for this week. 

I Tangiringkami!

Elder Jeppson

Me and my lawn mower

On our way to church

Our house

The Buota Chapel 

Joeamy's Baptism 

At the Dentist

Kiribati kid at church 

This is how Kiribati kids get home from school

This is how packed the buses can get 

Tiabo Abaokoro...Mauri Buota/South Tarawa

Hello Everybody! How's it going out there? This past week a lot has happened, I moved areas, got a new companion, and  cut open my hand and have an eye infection haha. 

I'm now serving in Buota which is in south Tarawa (the main part of Kiribati) and it is pretty awesome. We can bike our whole area in about 8 minutes so that's a change but there are lot of people. My new companion is Elder Aiu from Hawaii. He's way awesome and is one transfer younger than me. All I can say is this is going to be a fun transfer. It has a lot more work than my last area because 1 there are a lot more people and 2 there are just a lot more people here haha. From Wednesday to Saturday we have had 12 lessons and have gotten 2 baptismal dates. So the work here is awesome but as a result very tiring haha.

Friday night was very awesome. I had just got done showering and was putting on my clothes when all the sudden Boom cut open hand. I totally forgot that there was a metal fan about a foot and a half above my head so my hand went up perfectly fine and it came down bleeding. Sister Kirk the Mission nurse came over cleaned it and closed it up. But I woke up the next morning with an infected/swollen hand because no matter what you do in this country everything will get infected. I also got an eye infection so double the fun haha.

Well that's pretty much all that has happened this week. Area and companion are awesome and so is the mission. Love you all

I Tangiringkami

Elder Jeppson

Elder Johnsen and I 

Elder Aiu

Our Backyard

Kiribati Beach 

Inside tour of a more well off Kiribati House 

Sunken Car 

Awesome dinner with the Walkers

side note Mom:  Hunter shook someones hand while he was talking to us and I saw his arm!!! He told  us about his hand and his eye but didn't mention his arm so I asked him to show me his arm and he didn't seem to think the way it looks was a big deal because this is normal for Kiribati!!!