really great week this week, a few things happened that are worth noting, mothers day is really big here so we made a bunch of cookies and went and gave them to members and investigators, it was a success and everyone loved it.

the second thing worth nothing is that as me and elder tune were in a house an old lady has a huge beam and is saying for us to go and talk to her as she is threatening to hit us with it, so we talk to her and she  pushes tune, as we are being pleasant she  is bible bashing and is saying how we arent christians and saying we are destorying the peace. so an old woman was yelling at us threating us to beat us with a fence beam, we also heard she does black magic as well.

we also encountered a jehova witness that is american, and as he was trying to preach to us we just gave him scriptures from the bible that totally disproved what he was saying but was saying thats not what it actually means. very interesting week

Pictures!!

Great week this week. I am sending a lot of pictures because I haven't been able to for awhile. I have been speaking only Marshallese all day and it is fun to have an islander companion. Americans are a lot different than islanders. In the pictures below I am holding a sea urchin with a machete. Elder Orton leaving. A Marshallese kid reading the Book of Mormon. A baptism. A peek into the wildlife of the ocean. Hope all of you enjoy and keep doing good in the world.

Surprise

Some crazy things happened this week. First, I thought Elder Orton and I were staying together. Last second, Orton is getting pulled off of Ebeye to go to the main island. I got a new companion, Elder Tune from Kiribati. He doesn't know English. He has been out just over a year. He learned Marshallese for his mission. It is hard to communicate what you are feeling with him. Lots of hard work ahead. We had a baptism this past Saturday. Love you all!

Transfer Week

Looks like I will be staying here for 6 more weeks. We should have about 6 baptisms this transfer if it all goes well. Who knows what will happen. Looks like I am staying with Elder ORton a little longer as well.

One thing that happened was we had a dinner with members and they had really good food from the army base. Pizza, Subway, chicken wings and ice cream. We got food and then they gave us more and more and more until Elder Orton and I were so full. Then they kept giving us more water at the same time. We thought it was done and over, all though it is good food - your stomach only gets so big before you have to put it somewhere, usually the body prefers throwing it up. Anyway, then they say, "who wants dessert?" We thought "crap" - then they plopped this huge 5 gallon tub of ice cream in front of us. Luckily they didn't make us eat all of it because it was too frozen. After that we went back to the house and almost died. I also looked 3 months pregnant. All around good week.

Events in Ebeye

This week flew by. I got a little sick, but I am fine now. On Saturday, we had a baptism. It was stressful because at first it was in the morning because he works in the night. Then he was trying to get off work because he wanted to get baptized in the night. On Friday, he still didn't know if he had work off. We woke up early to try to contact him before the baptism and fill the font before 9 am. We figured out that he doesn't work, so it is in the night. It was crazy, but we got it organized while it was happening, always on our toes. Elder Orton baptized him.

We had a lot of commitments come out of 4 people to choose a marriage date and or a baptismal date. Next month is looking awesome. Also - I only wore one outfit this week. Livin' the island life.

Another good week

This week we learned that our house was cursed with black magic because someone hated the missionaries previously. They cursed ti with cockroaches that eat humans, but it doesn't work because we have the power of God with us. We just have a lot of cockroaches in the house.

I also found a book of Marshallese stories and creation legends. These are really fun to read. The origin of the coconut is a woman gave birth to a coconut. They weren't sure what it was. It had 2 eyes and a mouth (the 3 holes you see on the coconut). Time went on and he said to bury him under the window. They did and then the coconut grew into a tree. That spread to a bunch of trees. That is the shortened version, but it is crazy some of the things they say to justify the origins of something.

2 baptismal dates

The best part of my week was that we got two more baptismal dates. One of them we think will get baptized at the end of the month and one will get baptized next Saturday. One of the baptism candidates does everything possible with the word of wisdom and isn't married. He decided that he was going to stop and then get married because his wife won't marry him until he is clean. Really showed true love. Had a lot of fun this week.

Another great week!

Transfers are coming up and I am staying in Ebeye. The work is really starting to pick up and it is a lot of fun.

This week was a big holiday for this atoll. The Memorial Day or something. They had a huge basketball tournament, a big meeting with the president and the land chiefs. It was big so being there showed that the white missionaries respect the culture. Also they built a new basketball court for the final game. It was super nice. We went and watched and the whole island was there. They also did a canoe race that we got to watch. It was cool.

Right now Elder Peterson's comp, Elder Christensen, left and we are in a trio over two areas, with a total of 60 people to teach for a few days. It is crazy.

No Power Once Again

Crazy week. The power was out so we couldn't email last week. Last pday we went to an outer island on the atol that I am on. No one lives there so it was a free for all, climbing trees with a machete to get some coconuts or fishing to catch some food. All an adventure.

Lots of finding new people to teach and lots of lessons, really busy week. The assistants came out here and gave us some trainings and a lot of mail. It was like Christmas, especially the American food.

The work here has picked up a lot. When we went to a member's house, we asked for some referrals and she went outside and told 3 people to come teach with us. She is a legend and a great member. It is good taking members on splits because they can walk in the house and wake up the person we are teaching.

There is a basketball tournament going on and it is big here. We go cheer at the games, feels like high school. Then we also find at the same time. It is a lot of fun. Had a great Sunday, lots of people came and we also had a lesson with one of our investigators. He said he knew this church is true. he is a great guy and he lives with members. Some of my favorite members.

Hey!

Hey Y'all. How y'all doin? This week was another week on the smallest land mass on this earth.

We started out the week with a crazy turn of events. We planned on going to a family home evening. Instead, they told us to teach with the husband and the rest of the family disappeared. The we taught English at a school. It was 4th and 5th grade. The teacher tells us to do something and then leaves and doesn't come back. We play games and teach them good English and then math. They are all really interested in videoing with my camera, also they all believe I am 100 years old.

One experience that happened this week was we were teaching with this older couple and at the end he mentioned he likes the Bible, but doesn't want to change religions. He wants to follow his wife. There were so many things I wanted to say, but the spirit said shut up. So we did. All I said was I know our church is true and left.

Then we got subway from a member that works on the US Army base. SO GOOD.

It is also really not fun when you have 2 dinners right in a row after each other and they both decide to give you 5 lbs of rice. It is so hard to stuff it down, but you have to or it is really rude. Then Elder Orton and I went out on the reef before we went in. It was super low tide that you could walk all the way out to the wave break. We found some sea cucumbers and sea urchins

Don't worry everyone, just a flesh wound

Great week. It has been a long time. I got transferred to Ebeye. I am with Elder Orton, someone I was in the MTC with. Love the guy. We have lots of fun. Ebeye is part of the atol of Kwajelein. The island with the US military base on it. There are about 15,000 people on this island of 80 acres of land. Crazy packed.

THe storm was supposed to hit, but we dodges it like a wrench. Also my Christmas call was great. Got to see the family. The whole island is shut down because of the holidays, so that was tough.

Recently I have been learning a lot about Marshallese culture. They have proverbs, but also they have good luck chants called Roro. They use them while sailing or they are just funny.

Kamakutut nejin jimem ke ar tou em enar kake - this is chanted when doing something difficult or lifting a lot of weight. It literally means "give strength to the man that almost killed his mom during birth." Really cool.

Limaro rej tarto lik to ak rejjab lo lepako ej pijak im kwir kon deka - this one is a funny one. It means "the girls are coming from the ocean and don't see the shark pooping and wiping with rocks." People think this one is so funny.

Anyway - until next week.....

No word from the Marshall Islands

No email from Elder Underwood today. Transfers were Thursday, but we don't know where he was transferred. I posted on the mission facebook page asking where he was transferred. Many comments from parents that they haven't heard from their elder either. Comments that a typhoon hit the islands and there was flooding, then Sister Larkin (mission president's wife) commented that he was transferred to Ebeye and their pday is Tuesday. We will hope for an email today. These pics were posted on the facebook page on transfer day. District Conference.