Baptisms and boils...

Moriann's baptism

Iakwe!

Another week in the kingdom of Ebeye. Not much happened this week but I will give you a quick rundown.

On Thursday Elder Nelson and I went around to all of the members and investigators and told them that he was leaving and that I would be getting a new companion. We had a dinner that night with the Stephens and it was a good time.

On Friday Elder Garr, Thomson, Fitts, Jormeia, Nelson, and I went to Kwaj. We went super early because their flight was supposed to leave early in the morning. Their flight was delayed for so long and we didn't even know if their flight was coming. It showed up and we said our goodbyes. We waited another hour or so for our new companions to show up. My new companion is Elder Wright. He was previously training my intake brother, Elder Halliday, in Majuro. When we got to Ebeye we unpacked and went and visited Moriann to make sure everything was ready for the baptism. After that I just showed him around the area.

Saturday was a solid day. We woke up and Elder Ence was sick. So me and Elder Jepsen went on a split. Two missionaries who have only been out a transfer who don't really know the language walking around and trying to teach people. Hahah it was a great time. We went and visited this lady and we were talking to her and she asked us a question. I had no idea what she said and still have no idea. Elder Jepsen looked at me and asked if I knew what she was saying. Hahah we were so lost. We told her that we didn't really know and she didn't seem upset so that's good. After that, Elder Wright and I went to visit Moriann and make sure she was ready. She was excited and her husband Dixon was excited to baptize her. So we had the baptism and it was awesome. After the baptism Dixon told us that he wanted us to study with his kids so that they could be baptized, so we are working on that. 

Sunday was just a normal day. After church we just went around to every single investigator and planned lessons. We went to Peter and he wanted to study right then. We shared with him Ether 12:27 and the Spirit was so strong. It was such a cool experience. 

Monday was a good day of work. We taught a lesson to one of our new investigators Beltina. She is the Ward clerk's daughter and he referred us to her. She seems really receptive so that is awesome. We went to Luann's house after that and she told us that someone in her family died so she couldn't study until next week. Hopefully everything works out and we can study with her soon. 

Earlier last week Elder Thomson stepped on a nail and it went into his foot. He thought he would be okay because it healed and didn't hurt. Then on Thursday he had a huge boil on the bottom of his foot and he said it hurt so bad. He couldn't sleep and had a fever because it was infected. A bunch of the natives told him he just needed to cut it off. So on Friday he went with his brand new trainee to the hospital to check it out. The doctor said he needed to do a little cutting and without any numbing just went to town on it. Elder Thomson said it hurt so bad but he is doing good now. Just a quick story of how missionary life is here in Ebeye. If it rains and you have an open wound on your feet then it's over.. hahah. But don't worry all is well here.

I love you all and hope you have a great week. Thank you for all the support and emails! Here are some pictures from the baptism and a picture of a sunset. Majol definitely gives Utah sunsets a run for its money!

-Elder Hanson

Majol definitely gives Utah sunsets a run for it's money!

Transfer's Baby!

Iakwe!

Well I made it through my first transfer in Majol. It's crazy here. I'm on an island less than a square mile and 15,000 people live here. I'm surrounded by the ocean and by people who speak a language that I barely know. People here don't really have anything. A lot of people live together in small plywood shacks with tin roofs. Something I  have noticed though is that they are always so happy and love to see the Elders. Whenever we are walking around on the street kids will come up to us and ask us to play a game with them or to do a magic trick. Most people really respect and love the Elders.

This week we taught a bunch of lessons. One of my favorite lessons we taught was with 2 of our investigators, Luann and James. Luann and James are dating and we have been studying with Luann for a while now, but we recently started studying with James. We taught Luann about the sacrament and James about the Book of Mormon. During the lesson the Spirit was so strong so I decided to talk about how if we read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true He will answer our prayers. It was super spiritual and I was able to bear my testimony in almost perfect Marshallese. 

Another cool experience from this week is that me and Elder Nelson had the opportunity to give a blessing to a member who was sick. I was able to anoint in Marshallese which was super cool. The Spirit was so strong and I know that the member will be blessed. 

On Friday our investigator Moriann had her baptismal interview. She passed so she will be baptized on Saturday! I am super excited about it because her husband is an RM and he really wants to get sealed in the temple so now they will have that opportunity.

Saturday it rained all day. We had some lessons and then went to a baptism that the South Elders had. Whenever it rains here the streets flood. After the baptism we were on our way to a members birthday party and we were walking in water that was up to our shins. Me and Elder Jepsen were walking together and he stepped into a hole, lost his balance, and fell into the water. I just started to die laughing. It was so freaking funny. He had to go home shower and change before we could go to the dinner haha.

I think that is about it from this week. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Thanks for all the emails and support!

-Elder Hanson

One Month in Ebeye

Elder Hanson and Elder Nelson

This week was good. President came to Ebeye so this was the first time I got to meet him. He is a great guy. We taught a lot of good lessons this week, and Louanne and Morianne came to church. A funny experience from this week was last night we had a family home evening and we were singing the closing hymn and two of the members (Pedro and Marlene) just started laughing so hard because one of the elders is kinda tone deaf haha. Pedro and Marlene would just look at me and start laughing so hard. Some Marshallese people are just brutally honest so after the song they told this Elder that he sucked at singing but he just played it off and told them that he knew. It was kinda sad but pretty funny. Then everyone just started joking around. People here don't really understand American humor but there are some RM's who do. One of the Rm's was at dinner last night and just started roasting everyone in English and it was so freaking funny. A lot of people here understand English but they don't understand sarcasm. So the Rm was being so sarcastic and the missionaries were just dying because all of the Marshallese had no idea what was going on. Also it rained super hard on Thursday night and our house started to flood so we had to put out 13 buckets to collect the rain. Then in the morning we got a call from the District Leader. The church had flooded so we spent 3 hours cleaning out the water that was in the church. Overall it was a good week. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Hanson

The King's Funeral

Iakwe aolep!

This week was crazy. The iroojlaplap or king died so this week was basically just a funeral with little work. It started on Thursday. His body came to Ebeye and there was a parade. Then everyone went to the protestant church for his funeral. Every church on Ebeye has a funeral service for him and ours was last. On Friday we went finding but no one wanted to study because of the funeral. On Saturday it was the burial. So no one wanted to study on Saturday. Sunday morning we woke up at 4 and watched the Saturday morning session of conference and then we had church. People don't usually like to study on Sundays. Yesterday was a solid work day. We had some good lessons. One of the main people we are studying with is just gone. He went to an outer island to jambo. I have no idea when he will be back. Today is the last part of the funeral. I'm not really sure what it is but i guess I'll find out. On Saturday we had a great kajota. We got steak and it was amazing. Overall this week was good! I love you all and hope all is well! 

-Elder Hanson