Hey Mom!
I miss you! Thanks for the update. Sounds like all is going pretty well at home. Not much happened this week so I'll just describe some of the people I am working with. My companion and I have been working really hard at trying to build the church in the southern part of the island, especially in a village called Nikumenu. A common problem we are facing is that most people are too scared to lesson with us because of a former Mormon missionary but now KUC minister, who's name is Pastor Tio. Pastor Tio goes in peoples houses and tells our investigators that we are lying to them right after we leave the house, which has been frustrating. Nevertheless we have been super blessed by the faith of some strong members. Ruoi is the rock of Nikumenu. He has a really nice family who always love coming to Church. Ngaan is also a really solid member. She is the nurse stationed in Nikumenu. She has a little three year old daughter named Cecilia that I have a lot of fun playing with. Every Tuesday we have a combined FHE with Ngaan, Cecilia, and Ruoi's family. We also visit a fifteen year old girl named Ioana. We help her with her homework a lot of times and are teaching her little sister Mereka. This past week we also had a family of seven move to Nikunau from another outer island called Abamaemae, which is going to provide a huge boost to our church's morale. In Mwanriki, a small village north of Nikumenu, we are teaching a shy but really nice and welcoming guy named Nikotemo. We set a baptismal date for him this and he seems to be progressing well. We heard about and found him through his son, who comes to our seminary lessons in Rungata each week. Rungata north of Mwanriki and the biggest of all the villages. We have a decent amount of both less actives and investigators here. We teach a separate seminary class to elementary school and middle school aged kids in J.S.S., the most popular school on the island. We set a baptismal date with Temain, son of Teraerae, who lives here in Rungata this week. Tabatoa is a small village north of Rungata. About 95% of the village is KUC I think. We have one teenage girl named Rice that lives in this village. Muribenua is the Mormon stronghold of the entire island. There are a bunch of Mormons here. Everyone in the village comes to the stick shelter next to our house each week on Sunday to have church and on Monday to have FHE. Bwauro, the son of recent converts Rewii and Kateia, lives here and is on track to be baptized in the very near future. We teach seminary here too to elementary aged kids. This week was pretty average for me I guess. We are mostly just trying to work really hard to prepare our area to have enough work for four Elders when the Assistants to the President arrive. Unfortunately, the first counselor in the mission presidency won't be able to come this upcoming week due to schedule conflicts, which means that Nikunau will still be a Unit at the end of this week. But, the APs say that if they find the island is ready for a branch they will tell President Tune and he should be able to come here and establish a branch within the next couple of months. It will be nice for a lot of reasons, including shifting the weight of responsibility to members instead of Elders. This week I paid $25 dollars to have a car to pick everyone up for church, planned and conducted the church service, conducted music, gave a talk, taught Sunday School and taught Primary. That is usually how it goes for Elders now, but we are trying to gradually give members more responsibility. This week my companion spent a lot of time koro ba(cutting sticks) to build houses. We usually go out to the woods to cut the leaves off of coconut leaves, leaving just the stick to use as flooring and walling for houses. We replaced the walls on our own house and helped Titenibo build his house too. We also helped Biri make a cement floor for his house, which he is super happy about. I always like going out to buokonikai(the woods) because we almost always drink and eat lots of coconuts when we are done working. Well I think that's all I've got for this week. I look forward to hearing from you and the family next week too! Tell Maddy, Rebekah, Sarah and Shane I love them so much! With love, 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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