Hi Mom!
Thanks for the email. I was able to read your email from last week as well. I had typed up my letter but by the time I had tried to send it the internet had died. Hopefully this one will make it to you. Know that I will always do my best to contact you guys on a consistent basis. Things here in Nikunau are going really great! Food here has been really fun recently. Fisherman here haven't had much luck catching yellow fin tuna, the fish we normally eat, so have resorted to catching barracuda, which is tasty to me but in much less supply. Some kids we live with had found a couple of jelly fish that they were going to give to my companion and I, but flies swarmed all over them when the jellyfish were laid on rocks to dry. Our "food storage" are chickens that we catch and kill for meat. The chickens here have so much muscle that they can essentially fly, which makes them harder to catch and eat but more fun to try and catch. Most of them don't lay eggs, but when they do I like to poke a hole in the top and drink the yolk. Not quite orange juluis but the closest I can get. We've got to do lots of fun service activities the past couple weeks. We've been working some more on helping one of our youth named Titenibo build his new house. Titenibo is a super cool kid with a really strong testimony. One time we took our machetes out into the woods to cut down palm leaves from the top of coconut trees for a family to weave into mats. Several other times my companion and I ran through back roads to a village called Rungata to oro bin(cut coconuts I guess). Coconuts is the main source of income for people here. They get them from the woods, take an axe and split each one in two, use to water that spills out for pig food and scoop out white stuff inside to sell. This past weekend we had a baptismal service for five people: Tiaven, Tauai, Teaua, Rewii and Kateia. Tiaven is eight years old and the son of an awesome man named Teiaaba and woman nemed Tarawaa, on whose land Elder Baker and I live on. Tauai is nine years old, the younger sister of Teemeri and Tien, the first two girls I baptized. Tauai, Tien and Teemeri and their mother live with us because the father of the family and the oldest girl in the family have been unable to get a flight to Nikunau from Tarawa. Teaua is eight years old, the younger sister of Tooki, who was baptized last transfer. Teaua and Tooki live with their grandfather Tabaoa, who always welcomes in his home and has a strong testimony, yet is really scared of coming to church. Rewii is a forty-ish year old man who lives the farthest north of anyone on the island. He enjoys bringing his family to all of our church activities throughout the week. We hope to give him the Aaronic Priesthood soon. Kateia is the wife of Rewii. Both her and Rewii had a hard time with smoking when we first met them, but through much fasting and prayer were able to quit. Rewii and Kateia were baptized by a really funny member named Tanintoa, who is a great friend and strength to them. The three kids were baptized by Teiaaba. The day after Teiaaba confirmed his son Tiaven, I confirmed Tauai and Teaua and Elder Baker confirmed Rewii and Kateia. I feel really blessed to have been able to witness their conversion and feelings of greater happiness and joy. They have been a great strength to my testimony and happiness as well. We have three people progressing towards their baptismal dates in February I'll have to write about in a future email. Meere's father died this past week. Thank you for praying for her. She really needs them. Now we are trying to work really hard on finding new investigators and reaching out to less actives. A couple of members are going on splits with us each week on what we call "rescues." Rescues are designed to help less actives come back to church. I have a million more things I would love to tell you about but am out of time. I feel so much joy and happiness in representing Jesus Christ here in Nikunau. These people here have and continue to change my perspective and life for the better. Hopefully this will send. I love you so much Mom. I feel very close to God here. I am trying my best to apply what you have taught me towards helping these people. Tell the family I love them so much! 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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