What a week to be talking about food. Before anything else I want to
let you know that yesterday I went fishing and caught four times the average amount of people catch on fishing trips. My Davis blood combined with your prayesrs make a very powerful combo. Mom, I want you to know that I love you so so much and am very safe. Your prayers and hopes protect me and give me strength. I asked Dad in my email to him to make me a skype account to use when I get into Tarawa. I don't know how all that will work but I will hopefully fill you in next week. Sorry I didn't write yesterday. The internet was closed for Human Rights Day. I'll write a little now about some of the highlights of this week. On Tuesday we taught a lesson to a 17 year old girl named Meere who is going to be baptized in January about the power of the Holy Ghost. That night she was hanging out with some friends who she said wanted her to come drink with them, but she heard a voice telling her at about 7:30, about 15 minutes after Elder Baker and I said a prayer for her, to not go with them. That night her five of her friends were put in prison and three of them were beaten by their parents when they got out the next day. Not the happiest of tales but a testament to Meere of the power of the Holy Ghost. For service this week we helped one of are members named Titenibo who is a 14-year old awesome kid build his house. We worked on his flooring by hiking up to the northernmost part of the island and cutting of the dead leaves off of palm leave with machetes. The remaining part of the palm leaf is the part used for the flooring. I found a bunch of black charcoal stuff and put in on my face and arms to look like a native, climbed several coconut trees and ate lots of muimotos, and got last place in a machete and knife throwing contest. We were helping Titenibo because his Mom had been struggling a ton with severe chronic pain. She had been laying on her bed for about two and a half weeks, unable to even sit up. Elder Baker and I gave her a blessing of healing. The next day she ran about 400 meters to our house and started dancing. The next day she climbed on our car to go to the baptismal service and the day after that she was at church for the first time in three weeks. On Saturday we had a baptismal service for two people, whose names are Euneke and Tooki. Euneke is a woman in her mid-20's who had a vision of Elders coming to the island and preaching the true gospel of Christ. Tooki is a 10 year old awesome kid who we teach seminary to and is the brother of a 8 year old girl named Teaua who we are going to baptize in the near future. Our lanlord whose name is Teiaaba baptized them. The spirit of the whole service was immensely strong. We ate food afterwards and played games like sorry and volleyball. I am very proud to say that I have developed into an absolute beast at volleyball since entering the MTC. We have three kids who we are planning on baptizing as soon as a certain woman named Tarawaa arrives in Nikunau from Tarawa. There names are Tiaven, Tauai and Teaua. Tiaven is the son of Tarawaa. Tauai is the younger sister of Teemeri and Tien. Teaua is the sister of Tooki. The problem is that the airplane that was supposed to bring Tarawaa to Nikunau malfunctioned or something. The plane is working now and has two flights scheduled to come here this week. If the Tarawaa comes than we are going to baptize Tiaven, Tauai and Teaua this Saturday. If it doesn't we are going to baptize them when in January. Our District President, named Tongoi, got stuck in Nikunau since the plane malfunctioned and didn't come. He came to our sacrament meeting. I confirmed Euneke a member of the Church and Elder Baker did the same for Tooki. I really enjoy using my priesthood out here because the people have so much faith. On Monday we left on a boat at about five o'clock with a member named Biri. Biri was the character my MTC teacher Brother Farley acted as when Elder Herr and I gave practice lessons in the MTC. In the MTC, Biri(played by Brother Farley) was always talking to us about how busy he was with fishing and how big his fish were. The way we would fish is like this. Biri would steer the motor on the boat towards where there were flocks of birds diving down to eat small fish, with the logic that where there were small fish there were large fish also. Elder Baker and I let out fishing lots of fishing line behind the boat as it was moving with large hooks on the end in the water and the line wrapped around our hand in the other. When a fish would bite, we would jerk our hand, unwrap our hand and pull the fish in. In total we caught eleven fish. I caught seven yellow fin tuna and one blue fin tuna and Elder Baker caught three yellow fin tuna. We ate the smallest yellow fin tuna for breakfast on the boat. My biggest catch was a yellow fin tuna weighing in at 27.5lbs. We hooked several sharks but each time we did they would bite off our line. We came back and shared our fish with members in Muribenua and Rungata, who were all very happy and grateful. We ate the big yellow fin tuna for dinner at FHE last night. I spent a lot of time thinking on the boat about what it meant to be a fisherman of men, like Christ described. There is so much glory in this work. I am so happy to be here amongst these people. All I want to do is bring myself and others closer to Christ. I am going to try to send some pictures, but I'm guessing they won't send because the internet now is pretty bad. Have a great week! Elder Morphonios
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About MeI'm Elder Joseph Morphonios, and I've chosen to serve a 2 year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Join me as I share my adventures about serving the good people of the Marshall Islands, and sharing the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Archives
December 2016
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