Summer update

The Young Women here wove little flowers as a return gift for the South Jordan Young Women.  I also included a shell for each one that I picked up on the beach at Laura.  We are enjoying the Ward in Laura very much; there are some incredible people here, filled with faith and willing to sacrifice so much.  They express such gratitude to the missionaries for leaving their families and homes to bring them the restored Gospel.   I am finally starting to understand what is being said in church.  I work on learning Marshallese every day and it is paying off.  This has been such a fun thing for me to learn this language.  I have a tutor once a week and I also attend the district language meetings once a week.  Each night I spend one or two hours working on reading the Book of Mormon in Marshallese.  It is slow going because I have to use the dictionary quite a bit.  I use both English and Marshallese Books of Mormon, but since the languages are so different, it is often still unclear what a word means.  I have made it to the 18^th chapter of  1^st Nephi.  And I pick the young missionaries’ brains here whenever they come through the office.  They are all impressed that a “SENIOR” missionary is learning the language.

                We are now living in a dry apartment, and the roof on the building is being repaired.  The ceiling was starting to fall in plaster blobs by the time we left.  It also smelled like a dirty dishrag where the water got to the bedroom carpet.  We had buckets and pans around to catch the water, but it just got to be too big a job.   Our new apartment is just next door, but there is no leaking problem there.  We actually solved several issues by moving next door and we are glad we made the move.  The only thing we didn’t like, was a bug infestation in the kitchen.  We have pulled everything out of the cupboards three times now and sprayed with Permethrin.  We have made progress, but still are bopping little bugs that come up and run across the counters and cupboards.  The people around here wonder why we give any concern to bugs; they are just a fact of life here, but we haven’t taken that attitude.  At least ,we don’t have any of the giant cockroaches that we had when we first moved in.

                Time is flying by so fast we can’t believe it!  I guess that is because we are so busy.  Right now we are the only two manning the office.  The other couple who has been with us is now in Tarawa so we are taking on all of the responsibilities.  It is a good thing that Elder Badger is so competent with computers, printers etc., because he is literally keeping things running here.  We are enjoying this work and feel like we are making a big contribution.

                Each morning we go out and walk just before the sun comes up.  This is truly a beautiful place with the rolling ocean, and palm trees.  I love the white birds that catch the first rays of the sun against the blue sky, and the morning breeze.  Even when it rains, it is hot here, but we are adjusting to the heat.  The sun sets and it gets dark fast; it is the same every day-dark at 7:10 p.m. just like someone turned a switch to turn off the lights.  Since it is summer now, the days are longer; it gets dark at 7:14 p.m. .  That shows how close we are to the equator.    

We get together for Family Home Evening Soup night and read scriptures together.  We all take turns hosting the meal.  This one was in the Mission Home.