Goodbye Nikunau. You will always be in my song.Hey Mom!
Thanks so much for the letter! I miss and love you guys. Right now I am in Tarawa. This past week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Leaving the people of NIkunau was really hard, but I've been blessed with a special feeling of peace in knowing that through living the principles of the gospel I can meet with them again. My new area is just about the complete opposite of what I have been used to for about the past six months. I'm working in Eita, Tarawa. I just had a dentist appointment in a building with a fridge! I'm excited because it is largely coveted for being the most productive area in the entire mission. Moroni High School, the undoubtedly best school in the country, is in my area. Missionaries from all over Tarawa come to Eita every P-day to Moroni for different activities. My new companion is Elder Hunter, who has just finished being AP for the past 8 months and is now District Leader. He is the grandson of President Hunter. My house is really nice and I Elder Hunter and I live with two other super awesome hard working missionaries. Anywho, I want to spend my time uploading pictures from Beru and Nikunau. Next week I should have a lot more time to tell you about all my experiences. Send my love to the family! Elder Morphonios
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Hi Mom! I am sitting at a computer at Hiram Bingham High School, Aoniman, a northern village in the outer island Beru. My companion Elder Baker and I flew to Beru this past Wednesday. The primary purposes of us Elders coming to Beru has been to perform an audit and strengthen a largely fragmented and decentralized Branch. Along the way have already or look forward to experiencing fun things like scouting out a place to live/sleep, having a baptismal service, getting yelled at by an angry minister, and eating oysters, turtle, bokaboka(mud), and lots of tasty coconuts. The opportunity to bear special witness of Jesus Christ among Heavenly Father's children in Beru has been a huge blessing and aid to my own personal testimony of enduring through trials with hope. This upcoming Wednesday I will fly back to Nikunau to finish my time there, and on the following Monday(March 27th) I will fly to Tarawa to receive my new area assignment. I expect to be able to send my next email then and hopefully send lots of pictures. I love hearing about how the family is doing each week. I pray for you and everyone at home! With Love, Elder Joseph H.Morphonios Maria here...I flipped a little when I saw he was eating mud. Luckily a sweet RM named David Morley has come to my rescue more than once..this time to clarify the mud situation a little. Beru (the island that he went) is famous for its mud. Many years ago there was a famine in Beru. No one had anything to eat and everyone was starting to starve to death. Then this old woman had a dream. She dreamt that if she and others ate the fungus that grows on top of the mud they would be saved. Somehow it had the right vitamins that the island survived the famine. As a result, Beru is now famous for eating mud (they don't have a word for strange red fungus that grows on mud). So it's sorta mud. They usually boil it then bake it with flour and sugar. It tastes alright and has a pinkish color. Preparing to say goodbye to my Nikunau FamilyHi Mom! Yep you called it! I just got the news that I am being transferred in two weeks. I am really sad right now. I don't want to leave, but what is more important than my selfish desires is following the will of God, who I guess now has plans for me somewhere else. In a couple of weeks I am going to fly into Tarawa, receive my new area and fly/boat/drive there depending on where it is. I've developed so much love for the people of Nikunau. They have come to mean everything to me. I imagine the five and-a-half months or so I have spent with the people of Nikunau will leave me forever changed. The people here and my experiences with them have strengthened my resolve and testimony of the sacred divinity of families, of sacrifice, service, of pure Christ-like love and of Heavenly Father's intended purposes in sending us to be tested and tried here in His Earth. Words will never be enough to describe what joy I have felt at serving here in Nikunau. Mom, I have a real, sincere desire to obey the commandments and be the best missionary and disciple of Christ I can be. I appreciate and look forward to each of your love-packed emails every week. I know that Heavenly Father gave you to me as my Mom for more reasons than I can even begin to comprehend. I love you so much Mom. I miss and think about you and the rest of the family a lot. Please send my love to them and let them know you all are in my most happy and sincere prayers. Ngai I nanokawaki teutana ngkai bwa e tibwa bana au tai ikai inanon te aba aio. E bon au kantaninga bwa aomata aika a mena ikai na karekea te ataibwai bwa te Atua bon Tamara are I-Karawa, ao rinanon ara Tia Kamaiu ti kona rairanano ao koroi bwai ni kabane ngkana ti bubuti ibukin ana buobouki te Tamnei ae Raoroi. I kakoaua bwa e weteai ikai ni abau te Atua bwa I kona reirei ma aia akoi aomata ikai ao riki bwa Atuara. E nung uarereki au tai ikai, ma I ataia bwa n na uringa au namakin ni kabane ikai n aki toki. Taioka n uringa bwa I tatangiringkami ao I bon mitiningami, ma e nung baiti au mwakuri ao e bon iaonikawaina n reke ara kaitibo! Elder Morphonios I also forgot to mention that Elder Baker and I have been assigned by
leadership in Tarawa to take the boat in this picture over to Beru. I think we are leaving right after we teach seminary and are taking a plane back here to Nikunau on Wedensday. With Love, Elder Morphonios Hi Mom!
I’m excited to tell you about this past week or so. The work here in Nikunau where I am has been going really great. I think that Heavenly Father is truly smiling down upon his pioneer children here in this choice part of His vineyard. This past week Bwauro was baptized. He is thirteen years old and the son of recent converts Rewii and Kateia. It has beena huge blessing to me to watch him progress and find greater meaning and happiness in learning and applying the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is very much like a little brother to me and I know he has a bright future ahead of him. The Assistants to the President came to Nikunau on Monday(Which is why my P-day was switched to today) and stayed until Wednesday. Their main purpose in coming was to help our members prepare for the branch that is going to be established in April, news of which created a lot of excitement. We had a botaki both nights the Assistants were here with lots of good food, Kiribati dance performances and everyone from the church. The church effort has gained a lot of momentum recently. This past week there were more people at church than any other church service in the island’s two year history. Also, a cargo ship came yesterday, bearing noodles, sugar, some canned meats but more importantly former branch President Tanaua and his family along with Kateinang and Taakie. Kateinang is the father of recent converts Teemeri, Tien and Tauai and Taakie is their sister. Taakie already has a baptismal date for April 1st. We gained 18 new investigators this week and our goal is to have 5 investigators at church with 75 people total on Sunday. My companion and I are working on making arrangements to fly to Beru this upcoming Wednesday. It is another outer island close to Nikunau. Elder Baker spent the first six months of his mission there. Beru already has a branch but Elders were taken off the island just because the branch was kind of fragmented and the work was really slow. We have been assigned to go there so we can do an audit and determine whether the island is prepared to have Elders return and work there. It should be a fun adventure. I love the people here so much. I think that God called me to these awesome people so that I could have the opportunity to learn from their Christ-like characters. I’ve found so much happiness in living and learning along my Kiribati family. I love you so so much Mom! Please send my love to the family! Elder Morphonios 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 Hey Mom!
Sounds like things are pretty crazy at home as usual. I miss you guys a lot! Tell Shane I said Happy Birthday! Tell the family I said Happy Valentines Day as well! I didn't realize that was this past week. Not much news on the whole Branch thing yet. My understanding is that the Assistants to the President in our mission along with the first counselor in the mission presidency are coming to the island from March 1st-March 6th to see how the work is going and determine if the island is ready for a branch, which would have a ton of benefits for people here. They will probably ordain some of our Aaronic Priesthood holders to the Melchizekek Priesthood, scout out land for a nicer church building, stuff like that. I don't have much out of the ordinary to report on from this past week. My companion Elder Baker and I have mostly been trying to hasten the work by reactivating less actives and teaching new investigators. We started teaching a Catholic Unimwaane and his family. We also started teaching a shy but friendly and welcoming Bahai family. Teraerae's on started sitting in on our lessons with her, and we re-scheduled Teraerae's baptismal date for March 18th due to the time we need to get her divorced from her previous spouse and married to her current spouse. We re-scheduled Bwauro's baptismal date for March 4th. One evening while we were walking north from our house to teach a lesson a drunk guy stopped us on the road demanding that we bow down to him and admit we were lying to the people of his church. When we didn't bow he tried getting pretty physical with both Elder Baker and I, but just ended up embarrassing himself and damaging his reputation because a lot of people were watching. Even though the patriarch of our household banned him from coming back to our house he sent someone to apologize to us on his behalf when he was sober again, so that was nice I guess. Simple moral of the story though-keep the commandments and these kinds of things don't happen. In one of our services Elder Baker and I helped Tementio and her husband Taaboi clean out their well because they found a dead rat in it. We basically just formed an assembly line and scooped out buckets of water until all the water was gone. There were a bunch of crabs in the well which would have been fun to catch, cook and eat if they were just a little bit bigger. For another service everyone from the church came up to help burn away brush and plant banana tress right next to the maneaba where we have church each week. We all hung out during a small dinner afterwards. We've found out this week that pretty much everyone blew the last of their food reserves on the botaki I wrote about some last week. Luckily Biri and his fishing partner have been catching a decent amount of fish this week. They definitely don't have enough to make everyone happy, though. People now a lot of times just run out into the ocean as the boat is coming in, grab the fish they want, run back to pay for it and leave before anyone else can get angry that they took more than their fair share. Biri thinks its pretty funny. He said he made like $700 this week plus a bonus of his own free food, which is a nicer salary than KPC minister Pastor Teeto or KUC minister Pastor Tio probably made this week. Elder Baker and I have a bucket of stale crackers that we can still use for sacrament instead of bin or something like that. Not having much cargo has been ironically nice for us Elders, because everyone loves to feed us but have nothing besides fish and coconuts, whereas before they would want to feed us unhealthy stuff like rice or sugar water. I've had Ingimaa(yellow fin tuna) everyday this week and it has been awesome. At this point I enjoy eating octopus as well because my stomach has gotten pretty used to it. I guess that's about everything for this week. I love you so much Mom! I think about and pray for the family every day. I really appreciate all your love, care and support. Elder Morphonios 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 Hey Mom!
Yep, It's my house! Its a three walled stick shack. I love it and have made lots of fun memories during my time within it's borders. So you heard transfers are happening? Luckily, I'm not getting transferred this go around. If I had to guess, I'll probably end up leaving the next transfer in six weeks, making for a total of six months on the island, though I know I will want to stay longer. Sorry this email is a little bit late. This morning Elder Baker and I went fishing to get some fish for members. It was a crazy trip. Though we didn't catch them, we hooked a few barracudas, saw some sea turtles and manta rays, caught some regular fish and got pushed around a lot by some really big currents. Concerning the currents, the wind picked up and created some huge waves that threatened to throw us out of the boat. We were bouncing, free-falling in the boat at times five to ten feet. It felt like a roller coaster without seat belts. In truth, it was a scary trial of faith that I never wish to repeat. It reminded me of the experience of Christ's apostles: "But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves:for the wind was contrary...And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me"(Matthew 14:24,28-30). My mission experience here in Nikunau has taught me to be wholly reliant upon Jesus Christ. Though Satan may send his winds, and his waves may threaten to render me helpless to the ocean's will, I've learned that If I do my part, Christ will always have his hand outstreched, ready to pull me up my moment of greatest desperation. Nothing much happened out of the ordinary this week. It was half moon though, so we were able to get and eat some bwaitaari(jellyfish). If I could describe how they taste...uh...take a rubber latex glove and stick it in the ocean for two weeks, I guess. Other than that we just taught a bunch of lessons, picked up a couple of investigators, reactivated a less active, had some pretty good productive studies and a really spiritual fast and testimony meeting. I love Nikunau. Every day is an adventure. My love for the people here is indescribeable. They teach me each and everyday what true Christ-like charity and the resulting joy looks like. Thanks for the email and constant support. I love and appreciate you so much Mom. Tell the family I love them too! Have a great week! Elder Morphonios Hey Mom!
Thanks for the update. I really enjoy hearing all the things that happen at home each week. It helps me a lot here to know that things are going well back at home. It's just the outer layer of skin on the fish. It's kind of gross. And Congrats on the new nephew. Wohoo! A plane came for the first time in about a month. It came with a Christmas package from Uncle David, Aunt Michelle and Wesley. It had a Christmas card, a letter from Wesley, a stocking with candy and lots of fun miscellaneous things. Besides the card and letter from Wesley, my favorite thing in it was the pack of tissues. It has provided a nice break from water and leaves if you know what I mean...Tell them I said thanks and that I love them!!! My week has been good! My love for the people here continues to develop as Heavenly Father helps me try to serve will all of my heart might mind and strength. I'll write about some of the more interesting things that happened this week. We are teaching a woman named Teraerae who has a daughter serving as a missionary in Fiji. When we first visited her, she was struggling really hard with alcohol, tobacco, and nankona(a kiribati drug). She quickly expressed a desire to change, however, and no longer has any Word of Wisdom problems. She has a baptismal date, but before she is baptized she needs to be married to the man she currently lives with. The previous spouse she lived with is still technically her husband and lives in Bikenibu, the area I worked in for two weeks during Christmas time in Tarawa. Last week my companion and I sent the Elders working in Bikenibu instructions to make a divorce happen and are sending in a request for a marriage license. Elder Baker and I are planning to marry Taraerae to her current LDS spouse before baptizing her in the near future, which should be a fun experience. This past Wednesday we were invited to a huge botaki(a party I guess) in which we were featured as honored guests. We were given woven flower crowns and lava-lavas before some performers danced for us. We were presented with enough fish and crackers to feed the five thousand. We danced for them as well. We were pretty akward and goofy but they thought it was hilarious. Those attending were in total about 75-100 Catholics. Before leaving we got to thank them and bear our testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of my best friends left on a boat today to start school in Tabiteuea North. Her name is Nouoo. She fell inactive during my first transfer for guilt of having been raped by a KUC minister. The island is pretty small however, so I have had lots of chances to express my love to her. She came to our game night, which was a pretty big deal, and volunteered to close in prayer. I woke up yesterday morning with a letter on my bunga from her, in which she expressed her desire to endure in the truth and thanked me for still being kind to her where others were more hesitant to do so. An important precept that I really try to emphasize to those in my Sunday School class is that all of us are children of God, who commands us to love both the saint and the sinner. Meere's condition is improving. Before her father died she lived with her brother. I don't know anything about her mother. When things died down with her Father's death she moved up to Muribenua to a member's house temporarily. We got to meet with her and she expressed a desire to continue lessoning with us and to be baptized. She was noticeably happier in Muribenua. She back down to Rungata, however, but now she is living with the person in who's house we had the giant bootaki, who doesn't have any problems with us coming in her house and teaching Meere. We gave to priesthood blessings this week. We gave a blessing of healing to a catholic woman who has previously been pretty hostile towards us and a blessing of comfort and counsel to one of our members who has been struggling with some family relationships. The sick catholic woman isn't perfect but is doing better and we just gave the blessing of comfort and counsel yesterday so I don't know exactly how things are going with here, but she has a very pure heart and I have faith that things will be getting better for her soon. We had two service opportunities this week, both of which we just koroi te oro bin(cut coconuts). We are hoping to help one of our youth out some more this week in building his house. The work here is coming a long pretty well. In an average week we can usually expect to teach somewhere from 45-60 lessons. We picked up a few investigators this week, including a KUC deacon. A common problem we are having with most everyone is that they are so afraid to make any commitments due to the fear of what would happen if their local minister found out. We are trying to lovingly convey to people here that "...We ought to obey God rather than men"(Acts 5:29). The KUC Deacon we taught seemed pretty impressed at our understanding and insights of doctrine in the Bible. The Deacon had us right down all the scriptures we used and is going to show them to Pastor Teto, the one who we met with but couldn't come to any agreement. The Deacon is probably going to bring Pastor Teto to our next lesson tomorrow, which I'm not really looking forward to, but hope to use the lesson as a way to represent Jesus Christ. I feel as if my testimony and understanding of things that really matter in life are really developing. I love the people here so much and want to do everything I can to do what is right. Thank you so much for the constant love and support. I am so blessed to be your son, Mom. Tell the family of my love for them. Hopefully this sends. I've been sitting here for over an hour reading scriptures trying to get internet. With Love, Elder Morphonios 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 |
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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