Hey Mom!
Sorry I wasn't able to email you yesterday. Technical difficulties. I have just a little bit of time. Thanks for sending the pictures! They are fun to look at and make me happy that you and the rest of the family are doing well. I've been getting to share the stuff you gave me in the package with the kids. We use the 48 crayon pack for primary and the other ones for whenever kids here just want to draw and stuff. A lot of the kids here are really artistic. I enjoy being back in Nikunau very much. So I mentioned I don't have much time. I am just going to copy and paste the email I sent to Dad for you to see what's been going on this week. I love you so much mom! Make sure to tell the family I love them too! I'm back in Nikunau. The spirits of the people here were surprisingly low, however. Close to half of the members here had pink eye, it hasn't rained in forever, the island has ran out of oil and cargo hasn't came in forever either. We've been working really hard this week to apply what we learned in Tarawa to bring people closer to Christ and have been having lots of success. The problem though is that the greater amount of success we have the greater amount of opposition we have as well. Yesterday after church Elder Baker and I were teaching a lesson to one of our strongest investigators named Meere when a KUC minister had been summoned to come contend with us. She asked what we were teaching and we said the gospel of Jesus Christ. She called us liars and said that we weren't Christians and that we didn't believe in Christ. Elder Baker and I proceeded by sharing a couple of scriptures each in the Bible proclaiming Christ to be the son of God. She then started to attack the Book of Mormon. I showed here the picture of Jesus Christ I had taped on the cover of my BOM and my name tag which said "Ana Ekaretia IESU KRISTO." Elder Baker showed her the cover of his untapped BOM saying "Kakoauan Taekan IESU KRISTO." She told us that she had read all of it and prayed about it and she knew that it didn't teach about Krist and was all lies. We asked her to name one character in the BOM and when she couldn't she got so mad that she accidentally said that she was God but then also said that we were stealing "her" people from her and that Meere (Who is 17) is too young and stupid to make decisions for herself about religion. Realizing the spirit was gone we started to leave when she issued a bubuti(a demand which culturally cannot be ignored) that we meet her and the rest of the KUC ministers at her house and basically Bible bash. We told her that we would come, but only on condition that we could come listen to their beliefs, share ours and then leave without arguing. She agreed and told us to remember that we were enemies. We quoted Matthew 5:44 and left with her screaming that we would go to hell if we prayed for her. Sigh... We still aren't sure how we are going to handle the whole situation. Elder Baker just emailed president about it and we are going to pray about it some more as well. We feel like the Bruce Banner (Hulk) who said that "we need to have the courage to back down from a fight (we) know (we) can win," but we also see this as a great opportunity to represent our Savior Jesus Christ and potentially put an end to some of the persecution the KUC have been inflicting upon the members here. Dallin H. Oaks says something along the lines of "We don't argue to change people's minds, we stand up to show we have an opinion worth fighting for."
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Hey Mom! I just had a chance to read the past couple emails you sent me and enjoyed it very much. It's cool to see all the fun things you all have been doing. Elder Morley was super nice to help out with that blog. If you have a chance could you please tell him for me that he is very much loved and respected among the people of Nikunau. I can tell that their hearts have been deeply affected by his care and hard work. I guess what I mean by D&C times is just that people have their faith with challenges over and over. I know that a kind of vague answer still but want you to know that everything is plenty alright. The other churches there are just trying to find ways to suck away all of the money and food, and hence influence, of the Mormons in Nikunau. Just like D&C times however, God will bless and protect them as they develop their faith through facing challenges. The blog looks great. Maybe you could just tag the link to my facebook page or something... I'm not really sure how the best way to do that would be. I'm cool with whatever you think is best. I am currently still in Tarawa, with a flight scheduled to Nikunau this upcoming Wednesday. This week has been pretty exciting and eventful. I got to hear the good news of a previous investigator I taught here in Tarawa being baptized. The Kiribati companion I've been working with a lot and I set two baptismal dates. I gave a blessing and tried to give blood to a woman in critical condition in a hospital outside of my area. My companion Elder Baker and I accidentally ended up teaching about the Plan of Salvation at a Catholic funeral. I met my Mission President and had an important meeting with him about turning Nikunau into a branch. I met President Haleck(Presidency of the Seventy). I met and ate dinner with the President of the Republic of Kiribati on New Years Eve. During my previous stay here in Tarawa I was able to teach a man who saw Jesus Christ in a vision. The guy who talked about giant flaming coconut balls and stuff. That was going to be the last lesson Elders gave him because he wasn't making any progress. After I left however, the zone leaders were able to meet with him again and help him progress towards baptism. A lot of my time here has been spent with a Kiribati missionary named Elder Toaniuea. He has already been set apart to serve in the Spain Trinedad mission but is waiting for his visa. We taught and set a baptismal date with a 40 year old-ish Catholic Priest and a sixteen year old girl named Ueeny. After one of our dinner appointments, the zone leaders called the district leader Elder Baker and I are staying with and asked us to hurry over to the hospital to give a woman a priesthood blessing. She was in pretty terrible condition, suffering from a pretty intense amount of internal bleeding. I gave one part of the priesthood blessing and Elder Baker gave the other. Afterwards the nurse there asked if we would be willing to donate blood. After clearing the transaction with our mission nurse our District Leader Elder Larsen, Elder Baker and I were each tested for our blood type. The AP's in our mission, one of which is the grandson of President Howard W. Hunter, also came to help out. Only Elder Larsen was able to donate blood. Elder Baker and I were A postive, which did not match what the woman needed. After doing all we could the AP's drove us home at about 1:00. We found out later that she survived and is recovering well. Mom, if you could give a special thanks to Sister Jensen and her seminary class. I got a nice card from them a couple days later than the rest of my cards and letters. I got it during the time of which I did not know whether the woman I have blessing to was dead or alive, and it was really instrumental in lifting my spirits. The next day Elder Baker found ourselves tracting with almost no idea of what to do. We walked for a while and I was about to go knock on a house when I turned around and saw two men struggling to push really big blocks of cement in a wagon. Elder Baker went and helped them take it where they were going. We had thought that the big rocks were for building a house, but realized as we walked into a gathering of about 70+ Catholics that they were going to be used as a tombstone. Suprised we tried leaving as soon as we got the rocks where they needed to be, but the people there were extremely persistent, almost forceful, that we stay and get a drink. We were trying to be respectful and leave the entire time they had us, but they said the person who died would have wanted us to stay and share some of our beliefs, even if they decided not to agree. We got several referrals from the occurrence but didn't go visit them because they were out of our area. On Christmas day I was able to briefly meet my Mission President, President Larkin. The next day I had my first personal interview with him. During my personal interview with him I was able to express the need of a branch in Nikunau. The next day Elder Baker and I had a meeting with him and his counselors concerning the manner. After presenting our information about the Unit there they agreed that Nikunau needed a branch and are hoping to send the 1st counselor in the mission presidency to establish it within the next three months, which I am really hoping to witness. The major reason why all the missionaries came into Tarawa was to participate in a training by our authority from the 1st Quorum of the Seventy, President Haleck. I got to meet him personally and had a great experience with his training and am excited to go back to Nikunau to apply the things I have learned. In Honor of President Haleck's arrival, President Mwaomwao, the President of the entire Republic of Kiribati, invited him, our Mission President, their wives and all of the Elders and sisters to eat dinner and celebrate New Year's eve with him in the State Maneaba, the equivalent of the White House in America. There was a really great group of youth dancers and a special needs choir that sang songs to us, in addition to the really good food. President Mwaomwao, in honor of our church, passed a law with his cabinet(who were also attending along with the ambassador of Taiwan to Kiribati) in which no alcoholic beverages or Nangkona would be served during political gatherings or celebrations in the State Maneaba. I got to bear a short testimony to him and shake his hand twice. So many more things have happened here during my stay that I wish I could tell you about but I am running out of time. I miss you guys, I love you guys and I know you all are doing great things. Ma ngkai, ngai I nung kukurei bwa I kona manga oki nakon Nikunau. Tiabo in te wiki ae bo! Elder Morphonios 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 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
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