I am in Tarawa!
Elder Zamora and I arrived here about an hour ago. It was pretty crazy getting here, but we are now safe and accounted for. I have already met my new companion, Elder Baker. He is from Golden, Colorado and seems like a pretty fun Elder and hard worker. I think it's ironic that Eli is serving from an Elder from the Marshall Islands and I'll be serving with one from Colorado. My new companion and I will travel back to Nikunau this Wednesday. Our Zone Conference that I had mentioned we were going to be having is actually during Christmas, so I guess I'll be coming back to Tarawa again next month. I've only been away for a couple of hours but I miss the people of Nikunau so much already. I have grown to love the people of this island like no other. I am learning just as much or more from them about how to be truly Christ-like than they are from me. I have been praying and seeking lots of revelation this week about how to best meet the needs of the people here and am excited to tryout some ideas I've gained from the promptings of the spirit. To be the chief of a tribe just means that I get to serve the people I love with all my heart, might, mind and strength. Hearing about the well being of the family is a huge blessing of comfort and joy for me. Please tell Bishop Spalding(and Shane too!) thank you so much for their love and willingness to help me. If Bishop is unable to help, however, it is absolutely no big deal at all. I don't want him or anyone else feeling obligated to help me financially. The efforts of Bishop Spalding and the rest of that ward really means a lot to me. I want you and the family to know that I love you all so so much and am grateful for all of your care and support! My foot is completely healed. It has rained for a super long time, so a lot of flies that were eating and pooping on my cut are at the Nikunau lakes eating and pooping on dried up dead fish. There's still a lot of flies, but not enough to be a big problem for any open wounds I may get. Sorry this letters shorter than normal. I found out when weighing myself to get on the plane that I have lost 21 lbs since leaving the MTC. I'mma go eat a burger. I tangirikngkami! Tekeroi te mwakuri! Elder Morphonios My foot is almost completely healed! I remember my foot surgery you
gave me, it brings back good memories. It's so great to me to hear that your hip is healing. I will continue to pray for you and the rest of the family with all of my heart. This week has been a pretty crazy week. Our baptismal date with Tiaven and Tooki was disrupted by news from my Mission President President Larkin. There is a zone conference happening in Tarawa next week, and President Larkin is bringing in all the outer island missionaries to be a part of it. Outer island missionaries have never been part of a zone conference in the entire history of the mission. This news is especially huge for people like Elder Zamora, who has been serving on outer islands and not seen more than one missionary at a time for over a year. President has also decided to go ahead and transfer Elder Zamora off of Nikunau and keep me here with a new companion. We've been starting to have record breaking amounts of success on the island, and our trip to Tarawa will probably slow down the momentum of Nikunau's progress, unfortunately. I've been struggling some at the thought of Elder Zamora leaving so soon. In reality I am just an ignorant 18 year old kid who likes to play Mario Kart and eat the ramen and fruit shakes my little siblings make for me, but am now expected to act and serve as Branch President and on top of that chief of the Muribenuia village tribe at the end of the month when I return to Nikunau from Tarawa. I think the next couple of months are going to be extremely humbling. I've been praying and studying extra hard this week. My first main goal is to be able to help the members become less reliant upon Elders and teach them to become good missionaries themselves. I love these people so much, and hope with all of my heart that I can help them in whatever way God intends. We've been having lots of success this week. We have lots of people now who are not members coming to our house each night to participate in games and activities we having , before which we always try to share some spiritual thought or gospel principal. The partriarch named Uee of one such family of nonmembers came this past Thursday morning told Elder Zamora and I that he and his wife wanted to start coming to our church. We have them the missionary lessons and they came to Church this Sunday. Uneke is still progressing super well. We taught her almost every day this past week and were going to set a baptismal date with her until we received the news of our flight to Tarawa. During a lesson with Tameri and Tien's mom we found out her youngest daughter named Tauai was actually eight and not six years old like she had previously thought. No one celebrates birthdays out here, so a lot of times kids have no idea how old they are. I've been having lots of fun this week teaching Tauai for about 15-30 minutes each day how to read, during which we practice out of the Book of Mormon. We've started lessoning with Tooki's sister, Teaua. Both Tooki and his sister were really shy at first, but have become much more comfortable around us. As our influence grows, so does our opposition. I have some crazy KUC minister stories since arriving here that I'll have to share later because I'm running out of time. I don't know how emails will work next week, because Monday is the day that Elder Zamora and I fly to Tarawa. If I don't get a chance to email next week, tell Sarah happy Birthday and that I miss her so much!!! I want to repent and become a better, more Christ-like person. I feel like I'm in some fantasy storybook. I find more and more that the secret to real happiness and joy is loving and trying to strengthen and edify others. I'm so grateful for all of the support and prayers I receive from all of the family! Elder Morphonios Sorry this email is coming a little later than usual. The workers at
the internet station where I am at forgot to put oil into our generator this past weekend, so we have had a big delay in addition to our internet that is extra slow this week. I have some really fun pictures that I would like to share, but it is unlikely that I will end up being able to this week. Glad to hear the family is doing well and that you are getting to participate in lots of fun church activities, I like hearing about all the things going on at home. I can see in my inbox that you have sent me some more emails, but I may or may not be able to open them. Either way, tell Maddie and the rest of the family that I love them so much. I guess I'll just talk a little about life here in Nikunau. Elder Zamora and I live in a section of a village called Muribenuia, which is the farthest north of all five villages of Nikunau. We live in our own hut, but we live in a community setting with about ten other people. Each morning we start a fire on which a 56 year old lady usually cooks our fish and rice and boils our water to filter it. We eat a lot rice and fish. A picture that I had wanted to send you this week was of me holding a fish about 30 pounds and about three feet long. The names of the most common fish that we eat are the blue-fin tuna, the yellow-fin tuna, the flying fish, squid, te kamea(don't know what it's called in English), shark, turtle. Sometimes when cargo is running low like this past week we eat some really weird stuff like sea worms and oysters. This week a less active family we had dinner with fed us an expired can of goose meat from China. We usually don't have to cook our own food. Tameri and Tien's sister hasn't arrived in Nikunau yet, though she was supposed to. I'm finding more and more that people are very lax about getting around, even and maybe especially pilots. Tameri and Tien are doing great though. They are very close the members of the ward and are continuing to lesson with us and progress. Tameri reminds me way too much of Sarah and makes me miss her like crazy. I beat her up, joke with and play with her in almost the exact way I did with Sarah. The cuts I have been dealing with on my right foot are healing, which is great news, especially because I found out this past week that If one of them had gotten any worse I would need a nurse to flatten out a fishing hook, tie some fishing line to it and stitch my foot up. This week I got a bunch of penny/dime sized boils running down my left arm from a small weird bug that must of gotten through my mosquito net and secreted it's liquid on me while I was sleeping. The locals say that if they pop it will leave a permanent scar. I had one pop, but I am thinking it won't scar because it was very close to completely healing. Elder Zamora and I are getting along great. His knowledge and skill sets combined with my greenie fire are helping us to great things. We were going to baptize Tiaven this upcoming Saturday, November 13th, which would be the same time as Mema's Birthday(Which by the way tell her I said Happy Birthday), but we have another kid named Tooki who we have prepared for baptism. We are planning to baptize the two on November 20th. We picked up a super golden investigator named Uneke this yesterday. She is in her upper 20's/lower 30's with a one year child named Marboko(Mark). During our lesson yesterday she told us about a dream she had in which she was standing alone on the beach by herself and saw two angel messengers dressed in slacks and white shirts teaching the true gospel of Christ. She told her KUC minister about her experience, and was publically shamed and declared a liar amongst all of those of which she knew and loved. She is now very much a part of the Mormon community, coming to game nights every Friday night and hopefully to FHE tonight, and wants to lesson most every day. The intense amount of faith and hope and charity of these people have changed my perspective and continually makes me want to be a better person. Well Mom, that's about all I have time for this week. Know that I love you and the rest of the family like crazy. Elder Morphonios |
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
Categories |