Mikey asked me to put a shoutout on the blog to Tommy for a Happy 17th Birthday (June 1) and I forgot to but seeing his shoutout to Anna in this letter reminded me. My bad!
Hello everybody I hope you are all having a good week! My week has been probably the most exciting of my mission. I got to the new area on Thursday and did not know what to do. Me and Elder Smith both just got sent here and neither of us speak any Marshallese or know where anybody lives or anything. So we just went out tracting and walking around and meeting the members etc. Everywhere we went we met somebody who wanted us to teach them. It was a great week. This Sunday was very cool and very different. We have a good strong branch of about 100 active members. It was very weird to be in a Sacrament Meeting where I did not speak the language. The ward welcomed us with open arms and I even had the chance to get up and speak to the ward in Sacrament. They did not understand much of what I said though haha. After church our branch president, President Clarence, gave us both blessings in Marshallese which was super cool to receive a blessing in a different language. I have never had that happen before.
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| This cute girl, Destiny, had to be life flighted to Little Rock and was diagnosed with Leukemia. She is doing better now and has started chemo. Mikey said it was a little sketchy that she put her arm around him for the pic haha, but he didn't want to tell her she couldn't! |
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| Mely and half the squad at the Hendy's house. |
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| Mercy, Myle, Mikey, Georce, Lulu and Debrine. |
As far as investigators go! They are going great. It is not rare for Marshallese people to
just bring their friends or family to church and ask to be baptized. We had an awesome kid named Jason just
show up to church and tell us that he hadn’t been baptized yet, as well as
another young woman who we are going to meet with to help her prepare, and then
a woman who I taught in Rogers named Angeleana, showed up to church. It was funny because she missed the
Rogers elders who went with a member to pick her up and then she was all
dressed for church and saw her friend drive up and she asked her friend where
she was going. Her friend said to
the Mormon church haha so she hopped in and came down to Springdale for church!
It was so great.
Another big thing that happened this week was
that I went to my first Kemem which is a Marshallese baby’s first birthday. It is a huuuuugggggeeee deal and it is a
hugge party. It was held at the
church building in Springdale and all the Marshallese members from Rogers were
there and a lot of nonmembers and a lot of the Springdale members. The Kemem was for the Diosimitos baby
named Levi, who I knew from Rogers. At the Kemem they sat us in special seats in the front as the
guests of honor as well as the Branch President and the Rogers Elders (Elder
Leavitt and Degooyer) haha and they fed us a huge feast and gave us gifts and
there was singing and dancing. It
was just soo cool haha. We all ate
their traditional food too which was fish head, with rice and chicken and raw
fish which all was super tasty and we were so grateful for it!
I love where I am at. The language is very hard and I get
frustrated with myself but it is all good and things are still going great!
I have pics that I will send!! Love you all
have a great week!
Happy birthday to Anna this week love ya Anna
Banana
