Maria here...I included part of my letter, so that joeys response would make sense...the super cool thing is that he sends his pictures first..and sometimes his letter is an hour later arriving , so I have a chance to ask about the pictures, and then he can usually answer.
Dear joey, Every week you blow my mind. These pictures are outrageously cool and creeepy!! Can't wait to hear the stories!! Just unbelievable!!! We love and miss you so much! We know you're doing great things, and truly being a wonderful representative of or Savior . I know he sustains and blesses you. So I have a dozen questions about the fishing .... number one who's in charge of the boat? Does a member ever go with you? Two. How far away from the shore do you get? Number three how deep is the water? Number four where the heck is your life jacket? Five. how tall is that coconut tree that you climb? Seven somebody told me that jellyfish are still poisonous after their dead ? Is that true? I know you don't have time to answer all those but you know sometimes a mother has too much time to think and I'll start wondered about things that I probably shouldn't. Hey Mom! I love you so much too! I miss you guys! 1. A experienced fisherman named Biri. He's a member. 2. Not super far. 3. Don't ask. 4. Thunder and Lightning 5. Not exactly sure. Maybe like 30 feet I guess. 6. Their legs are poisonous. We just ate the heads. I'll try telling you some about my week now. The work has been a little bit slow due to a few various detrimental factors, but is still going well overall. We've had a especially good amount of success in reviving less actives in the southern village Nikumanu. My companion Elder Baker and I strive to always strive to remember our missionary purpose, which is to invite others to come unto Christ. We just found out that the Assistants to the President and the first counselor and the mission presidency are coming to establish a branch here in Nikunau and I'm so crazy excited!!! Cargo still hasn't arrived, and at this point I doubt that it will ever come during my time here. The people here don't really mind, however. In fact, they seem to enjoy being forced to find creative ways to get and make food. On one such opportunity Elder Baker and I went with Teeaba and Biri to retrieve a vegetable called bwabwai. We traveled to some swampy man dug trenchers in the northern part of the islnad to dig out these giant plants. We cut off the roots to eat and replanted each branch. A boat filled with Chinese seamen came to buy everyone's bin here, which has been really piling up. The boat was the subject of a lot of excitement during the first half of the week. The Kiribati men were particularly impressed at how fast the Chinese could cut open the muimotos they were offered. The Kiribati men accredited their speed to their extra sharp machetes. School started up for the Elementary and middle school aged kids. That has opened opportunities for Elder Baker and I to start teaching a couple of seminary lessons each week and tutor kids who need help with their homework, particularly in English and Math. We are finding that in general the kids here have a hard time understanding their assignments because they are not taught fundamentals properly. For example, a girl named Emili I tried to help out had to distinguish between nouns and pronouns but didn't know the English alphabet. A girl named Ioana had to plot slopes on a graph but struggled with the most basic of addition problems. Seminary and tutoring has been a fun way for us to show kids we love them. This week a guy named Tiote who lives in our house arrived with his new wife from Tarawa. To celebrate Kaaro's(Tiote's wife) arrival, there was a week long botaki held in honor of her at our house. It built up day after day until there were about 100-150 people in our house. Culture basically dictated everyone on the island who considered themselves important to come. I got to help kill a pig for the botaki. The men burned off all its hair and took out its insides and gave it to the women to prepare. Biri and his fishing buddies caught some decent sized sharks that ended up being pretty tasty. I ate swordfish for the first time this week. They are a little bit harder to catch because they will cut through your line if you don't use wire. It tasted like salty ocean-flavored bacon. I got to take some pictures with a dead eel that washed up on shore, but didn't get a chance to eat it. From what I hear from Elder Baker though, is that if a 10 is yellow fin tuna and a 1 is what too much octopus does to my stomach, eel rates at a bout a 1.5. I'd say jellyfish is about a 5 and right now shark and swordfish are tied for me at about a 7.5. I put some thought into sampling a small scorpion crawling in my house, but eventually considered action in such a manner to be less than wise... I have lots more to say but no time to write it. What is your mailing address??? I want to work on sending the family some letters. I love you Mom! 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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