Greetings,
It's been a good week. I think I'm finally starting to feel more comfortable in Majuro and Jenrok. This island is just too westernized. I guess it does have its perks (like yogurt and...yep, that's about it). I'm enjoying working with Sister Boutu because she never gets upset about anything and she's learning really quickly too. I think she'll be leaving Jenrok in a couple of weeks (I guess it's already time for transfers again) and I don't know who I'll be working with. I think there's only one new sister coming in July (from Fiji) and I've heard I might train her...but those things always change.
We've taken taxis a few times this last week and it's weird. It's only when we're in Uliga and we need to get to Rita to the church building. It's a little bit of a walk, and it's so hot so sometimes a 75 cent taxi ride is worth it. Sometimes it's 50 cents...I think it changes every day.
We're teaching a girl that lives in Rita-- she wanted to study with sisters-- that's part Marshallese but she doesn't know any Marshallese because she grew up in the US. It's weird teaching in English, but it's fun because she actually listens, understands, and responds to our questions. Marshallese people are so shy and they barely talk in lessons, even when we really try to get them to open up. It's always a struggle to see if they really understand. It's so much easier to teach when the person responds. It's also fun because we get an RM to help teach the lessons and we teach outside in the evenings...which is just the best time to be outside. Think about having summer evenings for a year straight. It's pretty nice. I wish we only worked in the evenings anyway, because no one wants to study in the afternoon when it's hot. Afternoon is the time for sleeping here.
Happy birthday to Leans and Eliot! Are 4 year olds supposed to be more behaved than 3 year olds? Hopefully.
I think I'm starting to get a boil on my elbow because it's really warm and hurts. I asked a Marshallese person what to do, and they said to put coconut oil on it...their answer for everything. I talked to a senior missionary and she said to put a hot washcloth on it a few times a day to get the gunk to come to the surface and form a boil. One of the sisters has four huge boils right now...I don't want that to happen to me. I've heard they hurt like the devil too.
I cleaned our kitchen this week. I put the microwave in the other bedroom because we never use it and it's just a place for cockroaches to hide. There are still bugs but it's a lot better. In the process of cleaning I found a blender so I'm going to get some tasty bananas and yogurt and make some smoothies this week.
On Saturday two 16 yr old girls got baptized. They mostly studied with the sisters before I came to Jenrok. They're both part member families, which is good. I don't like when missionaries teach teenagers that aren't part member families because the kids aren't going to have support if they get baptized. The rita chapel has a baptismal font and that is just weird. Not half as exciting as baptisms in the iar (lagoon).
I don't know what else there is to tell. We're trying to find new investigators because we don't have that many that want to study, and some have gone to outer islands for the summer. The members are nice, and the bishop has asked us that we have FHEs with all the members because very few do it here-- which is weird because in all the other wards/branches I've worked in they love doing FHE. The bishop asked us to fellowship an old jimma (grandpa) and bubu (grandma) and we try to go over to their house often. The bubu leads the music at church and it's so off beat it's funny. The jimma is from Cosrae and he's lived on almost every island in the Pacific at some point. He speaks Kiribati with Boutu sometimes and then he only prays in Cosrae...whatever language they speak there. He's sick and doesn't come to church. We asked him what we could do to help and he said he wants a big ship so he can go back to Cosrae. That's not really funny in English but it's funny in Marshallese somehow. I think I'm going to come back and think everything's funny. Marshallese people will laugh at anything.
Okay, I think that's it for this week. I hope you're all doing well. Go swimming for me! It's taking all the willpower I have to not go jump in the lagoon and go swimming. It's so hot.
tootles.
Sister Ellen Butler
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