Christmas in Ebeye!

Merry Christmas!

Iakwe aolep! 

It's been a while! Let me get you all caught up.

Wanda and Bilton got baptized! It was an awesome experience. I am super happy for them and their family.

Christmas season is crazy here. Everyone is running around trying to prepare for the holidays. 

Christmas was crazy. We woke up and opened presents then headed over to the church. We were at the church from 10 to 9:30 watching biit. I have some videos and I will try and send them. It was a long day but a super fun one.

The day after christmas I got to call my family. It was a great time. Shout out to the fam. I love them so much. 

Then it was back to normal missionary work. Everyone was so tired from Christmas that they didn't want to study. It was pretty rough. We had a couple good lessons but nothing special. Apparently other churches here biit for 3 days so the streets were empty and it was so weird. 

On Sunday it rained so no one showed up to church it was a bummer. We had a dinner and gift exchange with one of the families in our ward and it was so fun. They are definitely one of my favorite families.

Yesterday we had such a good and spiritual lesson with Ali. I have been studying with Ali for 3 transfers and she is finally ready to be baptized. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and yesterday we asked her if she was ready. She was so happy and said that she was ready, so in the next couple of weeks she will be baptized. We also had a ward family home evening. I ate some pig heart, liver, and kidney cooked in pigs blood with cabbage and onion. Oh man it was so good. It tasted like steak that my parents used to make me.

Today is New Year's Eve which is crazy! It's almost 2020. To you seniors out there... These next 6 months will fly by so enjoy it! I hope you all had a great Christmas that was filled with love and joy. Most of all I hope you all remembered Christ. I love you all! Happy New Year!

-Elder Hanson

pics!

Wanda and Bilton got baptized!

Ebeje

Iakwe aolep!

This week was a pretty good week! The work has been slow the past couple of weeks because everyone is just trying to prepare for Christmas. Everyone is trying to learn biit so whenever we go to study with someone, they are usually gone.

Wednesday was a good day. We had some solid lessons with Peter, Ali, Wanda, and Bilton. Wanda and Bilton are going to be baptized on Saturday so that is good! We had a super spiritual lesson with Peter. He told us he was going to throw away cigarettes, and that he knew this church was true and he wanted to get baptized. He is a stud. He went from 8 to 2 cigarettes in a week and then he told us he was gonna throw it away this week. 

Thursday was a pretty long day. Not much happened. We had a few lessons but most of them fell through.

Friday was a pretty rough day. Most of our lessons fell through so we were out finding. Some members invited us in for lunch and asked us if we knew how to eat fish. I thought I did so I said yes. They brought out a freshly caught fish, scaled and gut it and just put it on my plate. Hahah they thought it was so funny because I had no idea how to eat it. They just told me to pick it up and bite into it. Good times. 

Saturday it rained so nothing really happened again. We just had a lesson with Ali and read Lehi's dream.  It continued to rain all night.

Sunday it was raining so hard so no one showed up to church. Not even members. Everything seems to shut down when it rains. 

Yesterday was an okay day of work. We went to Wanda and Bilton and filled out their baptismal records and then had a good lesson with junior. Junior told us that he teaches 3 biits and that he is always so busy, but if we came to where he was teaching he would just leave and come study with us, so we will see this week. 

Every night at 8 we go and practice biit. It is so much fun. I love it. You could say I'm pretty good. Shout out coach Bullett for all the footwork drills.. hahah. 

I hope you all remember the true meaning of CHRISTmas and don't forget Christ. Please go watch the Christ Child video. It is so good! I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

-Elder Hanson

Gospel Day in Ebeye

Iakwe Aolep!

All is well here in Ebeye! This week was pretty good. The work is starting to slow down because of the Holidays but I guess that's just how it is.

On Thursday the School we teach at had a big party because they are about to start Christmas break. They don't have school until January so I won't be able to teach until then. The new Elders also came on Thursday so there were 13 Elders on Ebeye. I'm pretty sure that's a mission record haha. 

Friday was a super stormy day so not much happened. Elder Garr, Strong, and Ence left to Majuro so that was sad. We went and dropped them off at the dock. Then we went home and basically did studies all day. 

Saturday was a pretty good day. We had a great lesson with Peter. Wanda and Bilton passed their baptismal interview so they will be baptized on the 21. We had just finished the interview with Elder Taua and Driggs and some people called us over. This guy's wife was super sick and said that she needed our help. We went and gave a blessing to her, and then to him because he was sick as well. They are both less active and said that they would come back to church. They didn't show up on Sunday though.. So we will see.

Sunday we had church. We had a lesson with Ali after church and it was rough. Elder Wright told me I was leading the lesson and he wouldn't bail me out when I didn't know what to say. It was rough and Ali thought it was so funny. Oh well haha. After that nothing really happened.

Yesterday we had so many lessons planned but they all fell through. So we went finding and there was no success. It was super hot yesterday so we were walking around and trying to talk to people but nothing was happening. We had a family home evening yesterday. We ended up giving a blessing to the girl who was having us over. She was super sick so it was a good opportunity. The spirit was so strong during the blessing. It was a super cool experience. After the family home evening we went to biit. During biit there was a huge parade going around for gospel day. They were throwing out candy, but whenever they saw the Elders they would call us over and just give us handfuls of candy. It was super funny. I'm not sure what day gospel day is but it is in celebration of the first protestant missionaries.

That's about it from this week. Not much happened. Just a week of hard work! I love you all and hope you are all doing well!

Shout out to the fam for the christmas decorations!

-Elder Hanson

Typhoons and transfers

The Stake President & Family with the Ebeye Elders

Iakwe aolep!

This week was a crazy one!

On Wednesday we had District council. We were walking to the church and it was raining so hard and the wind was so strong. We were soaked by the time we got to the church. After district council we tried to go out and teach some lessons, but no one wanted to study because of the rain. That night it kind of calmed down so we went to teach Bilton and Wanda. Well they told us that we were in a typhoon but that it wasn't that big. That night I woke up at 2 in the morning because water was dripping on my face. It was raining so hard. 

On Thursday it was even worse. We went to the school to teach english and no one was there because of the storm. We decided to go and try to teach people again but it was just raining so hard and the wind was crazy so no one wanted to study again. We got fed a "Thanksgiving" dinner. We ate some chicken sashimi and rice. It was pretty good. That night our roof was leaking in 11 spots. I woke up again at around 12 because the rain and wind were so crazy that it sounded like someone was throwing rocks at my window. Then I noticed that my bed was soaked from all of the water that was coming through the roof. It was crazy. We set up some buckets then went to bed.

Friday the Typhoon was over and we had some solid lessons. That night we had a stake Nativity. It was super fun. All of the missionaries took a picture with the stake president and his family, so I will send that.

Saturday I went on a split with elder Thomson. It was fun to be able to work in South. We had a super spiritual lesson with one of his investigators. We asked him what he wanted to do with his life, and he said that he wanted to become "christian" which means converted to christ here in the Marshall islands. We told him that through the gospel of Jesus Christ he could become converted. The spirit was so strong and it was an awesome lesson. We got fed another thanksgiving dinner by some members and we got Turkey this time. It was so good.

Sunday was a typical Sunday here in Ebeye. Not much happened but we did get a solid lesson with Lloyd, one of our new investigators.

Elder Wright's toe got infected so we had to do splits on Monday. I went with the ZL's. It was the first time I had to lead a lesson and I thought I did pretty good. We taught Peter on the importance and power of prayer. It was a super good lesson and Peter is doing great with his goals and commitments.

We also started learning biit this week. Biit is a traditional Marshallese dance that they do at Christmas. Man it is so cool and I am trying my best to get good at it haha. It's kinda hard but I think I will get it down. 

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

Jerramman!

Elder Hanson

Typhoon!