July 28, 2014, I'm Going To Miss These Sorts of Evenings

Greetings,

This last week was pretty eventful.  The best part is that we were able to move into the elders' old apartment.  After the first five minutes of being there I thought it was a bad idea because of how dirty it was.  We ended up throwing away boxes and bags of stuff elders had left in the apartment.  It was gross.  But now that it's all nice and clean, it really is a much nicer apartment.  I think the highlight is the shower head.  I think I missed real showers.  And the water is warm.  It's really nice.

Okay, that's not completely true.  The best part was being able to go on a exchange with Sister Tafili.  It was the best day I've had since being back on Majuro.  We had so much fun and got a lot of good work done too.  It was great teaching lessons with her...it was just like the good, old days in Ebeye.  She's always so happy and optimistic about the work, and she knows Marshallese and it was just really refreshing.  It doesn't matter how hot it is outside when we work together.  She was with me when we moved into the new apartment, and she helped me clean the place out and throw away all the stuff. 

I finally feel like we have some good people to teach.  One is a woman named Cindy and she genuinely wants to study and know if the church is true.  She's really good at english and she asks questions.  You know you've found someone that wants to study when before you can ask to set up a time to come back, they suggest times for the next two lessons.  She's great.  We're also studying with a man that the elders studied with before.  He's SDA and has a lot of questions, especially about unclean and clean foods.  The elders taught him all the lessons so now we're just trying to tie up loose ends, answer his questions, and get him to come to church.

I found a store that a Chinese woman owns that sells buns with red bean paste in them.  Mmm.  It's become my afternoon snack when we're out. 

I think working with Sister Tafili helped me be less stressed.  It's just hard having a companion that doesn't understand English very well and doesn't really talk much.

The power always seems to be off every Thursday on this island.  Normally it's back on by 5 pm, but they announced on the radio that it wouldn't be back on until Friday.  We ate our dinner, sashimi and rice (cooked on a tiny propane stove), by candle light at the Kiribati family's house.  We stuffed ourselves with raw fish and then lay down and listened to the rain hit the metal roof.  I'm going to miss these sorts of evenings.

Another evening when we stopped at the Reiher's house (the kiribati family...they've got german blood in them, hence the last name) I sat and watched a rat run into the bathroom.  Sister Boutu came by to use the bathroom and I informed her that it was currently occupied but that in a few minutes he'd probably be done using the bathroom.  She didn't seem to mind, and she was happy to use the bathroom with no light. 

I love you all.  Tootles,

Sister Ellen