November 11, 2014: Dealing with racism

Wow this week was a bit intense. I found out that my companion absolutely hated me, the only reason he hated me was that I was white. I am in a new area with a new companion now. I will start from the beginning of the week. My companion wanted to do transfers and would not tell me why; I have done three transfers in a week so basically every other day I was working in a new area with a new companion. Finau would not communicate with me, he would just expect me to follow and do what he told me and would not even answer questions I asked him, it has been a really tough, stressful time filled with a lot of silence. He was not really training me and although he has been here for a year his language skills were not very great. We are in the middle of a lesson when he shows me this text how we will be doing a transfer that night at 6, and we had already done one yesterday. So after the lesson I was trying to ask him why we were doing so much transfers and how it is really annoying to switch areas every other day. He just says “we go home” and would not talk to me. I was trying to ask him what was up and he finally said “I don’t like white people.” The last thing that I thought I would be dealing with on my mission was racism. It is so weird to see how someone can just totally judge someone because of the color of their skin or where they are from. It was tough and he wouldn’t talk to me, I have been trying to ask him and talk to him for weeks and he would never tell me what’s wrong. Whenever I would ask him like I would just be like if you don’t like you me you can tell me, if you have a problem you can tell me and we can work it out. He would just respond with is I am fine. He then punched the mirror in our living room and locked himself in the room. I called the district leader and he came over and was trying to talk to him, which didn’t help too much because he is also white. He has serious anger issues and does not make sense. We did an emergency transfer right then and I had went back to get my things later that night. I now work in Delap, which is still in the same district. I am not entirely sure how long I will be working here though. I am with Elder Hix from Wyoming; he is way chill and easy to get along with. The days go by a lot faster with him and he actually communicates with me. My new area in Delap is a lot bigger; I believe it is the biggest part of the Majuro Island, so it may be a mile wide. The whole incident with my companion was at the beginning of the week and it is over now so it is all good. I am doing much better and my time here in the Marshall Islands is going much faster and much better. In our ward we have started “Beat” practice. It is basically a talent show that happens in the Stake Center on Christmas Day. We perform a song and a dance and the islanders really get into here. It will be pretty legit if we are practicing a whole two months before. The islanders are great the members are really strong. They have seminary every evening at 5 and then now they are doing beat practice. They spent a lot of time at church activities and doing things for the Church. I absolutely love Marshallese people they are so funny and just great people. Most of the guys have fades in their hair and the girls all wear islander dresses all the time. My language skills are coming along and I am beginning to be able to follow along in church and understand what the Marshallese people are saying. The rest of the week after the incident has been really good and will continue to get better. I miss my investigators in my old area, but I know they will do well. I hope everyone is doing well. My new companion showed me how to safe minutes on emailing so I will have more time to email. Please let me know how you are doing, I really enjoy getting emails and letters and it really makes my day.  Love Elder Weenig