What
up Fam and Friends!
Happy Birthday Mal! Love having u in the fam. Wish i could send
you a dope #ghettomirrorpic snapchat that says Happy Bday Mal
How are ya'lls vacations?! I miss vacations. But its all good
because this week was basically my vacation hahaa. Literally no work.
Let me.explain, July 12th is Kiribati Independance Day. And if
you cant tell from my.past letters that Kiribati people love to party, so
obviously this was a huuuuuuge party! This was a party from Saturday to Saturday.
We attended the party from Tuesday to Saturday. The parties are just a one day
event or one party in a day, its 3 parties in one day, for a week. So every
morning we had to ride our bikes 20 minutes to the huge Manieba for Maiana (big
building with no walls, meant for parties ans meetjngs) and the party started
at 7:30am and would end at 10:30 am then we had a 2 hour break and it would
start again at 12:30 in the afternoon and it would go till like 5 sometimes
6:00pm and then the night portion would start at 7:30pm and go till like 9:30
or 10:00pm. That was are schedule from Tuesday-Saturday. Each party there was
tons of food, dancing, and speeches,and sometimes skits/games. Its soooooo fun,
but soooo tiring. If we didnt attend each party we would be fined a bunch of
money ans everyone on the island would hate us. So we attended every party,
sometimes they would go later than we wanted, my comp didnt like that at all,
but i was like bro if we leave early it would be soooo disrespectful
and.evrryone would hate us. We were dead tired.everyday especially because.we
sit on the concrete floor, criss cross applesauce style for like the whole day
haha.
My favorite part of.the Botaki (party) was by far the dancing
haha. A ton of old grannies asked me to dance and they would get crazy! Hahaha,
the MC of the party (every party always has an MC) called ua elders out to get
up and dance in front of everybody, it was so fun but my comp is sooo shy hahaha. They gave us bais (lavalavas) for doing it haha.
So speeches are very important in Kiribati party culture so i
gave two speeches, one actually on Kiribati Independance Day and one on the
last day. Heck ya i stood up in front of everybody on Maiana and gave two
speeches in Kiribati! Aint nobody got time for shyness (my comp would kill me
if i made him give a speech even though he has beeen here in Kiribati for 10
months). After i gave my first speech, one of the members who works in the gov
came up to me and was like, "all of us members were very surprised you
stood up, you are the first Elder to ever stand up and give a speech here in
the Maiana government Manieba" i was super surprised i was the first one
hahaha, but its pretty cool that i can say that now haha.
In the party we always sat next to the ministers for the
Protestant church, and now i am best friends with the head minister here on
Maiana. He is like 60something years old and is honestly one of my best friends
here on Maiana. He helped me a lot with culture stuff and if i didnt understand
something they said he would explain it in simpler kiribati. Gotta love that
guy, he would always share his food too (because ministers get treated like
kings by there members). Anyway all around it was super fun, im blessed to be
in Kiribati at this time to see all these cool cultural things.
Now onto church stuff. Sundays were rough because everyone was
busy with the party. But we actually had 60 people at church! In between
parties all are investigators were busy with the party and we couldnt go far
because of little time, but we did contact a referral and have a lesson with
her this wednesday. Her husband recently died so Plan of Salvation should be a
solid lesson! Also we got a new family this week as well that just came from
Tarawa. They studied with the elders in Tarawa but they havent been married and
baptized yet but they were begging me to get them to church somehow. They live
in a village where we dont do church and its too far to walk. So as Branch
President here on Maiana i had to beg some members to help me out with this
family who was begging me to get them to church. After a couple minutes of
forceful asking two members went and picked ul this young family on their
motorcycles. I was sooo happy. This couple is young and they have 3 cute
children. It was awesome to see them at church! We have FHE with them tomorrow
night.
On Sunday we gave the priesthood to one of our recent converts
ans that was cool.
This week i also called a Relief Society Presidency so im super
excited about that! I have a lot of training to do. Lets just say working as
Bishop in Mesa, AZ is a bit different than being Branch President on an island
where im still new in the language, i ride a bike everywhere, and i dont have a
phone or any resources to help me train and teach the members hahah (shots
fired at Bishop Fletcher hahahhaa jk) im very tired but props to all Bishops
and stake presidents everywhere.
My spiritual message for you all: Humility (something im still
working on) Jesus Christ was our greatest example of Humility: he was born in a
stable, welcomed by poor shepherds, performed miracles but never got prideful,
washed apostles feet, took upon our sins, did the Fathers will, and was hung on
a cross for all men to see. This is humility. The Savior of the World, or Lord,
a humble man. And if we humble ourselves, we will submit OUR WILL to the
FATHERS WILL. It will take sacrafice and likely some suffering.
Love you all, my health is getting better, i think this week is
the first week i wasnt homesick or marshall islands homesick haha.
Be safe, and God Be With You 'till We Meet Again
Much love,
Elder Tingey
No comments:
Post a Comment