Ebon Week 3: March 2, 2015

The month of March means I have been serving for over six months. Quite crazy because I still feel as if it has only been a month or two.

P-days are pretty dull; most of the time is just spent laying around kind of studying. I am basically constantly sweating. Luckily, Ebon is significantly cooler than most islands because we get a lot of rain. However it is hard to sleep at night just because it's too hot. It really sucks because I'm tired the whole day. Waking up at 6:30 is hard to do, especially since the sun is not up and there is nothing to do. Basically, just laying there before starting studies. I am a little homesick and it's hard not being able to communicate. The food situation is not that great. A ship brings food to the island every 3 months. Right now we are in the 3rd month so the island doesn't sell anymore food. There not really a store you just buy it from on of two guys who sell in build from their homes. It's not very fun to eat the same thing. It makes me so grateful for just food and how nice everything is in America. It's sad to see basically what a lot of families eat is just straight up breadfruit and that's their dinner a lot of times.

This week we found out about 8 people who are less active. Missionary work is hard here just because it's so different from what you would think of. The whole island has been traced and door to door doesn't work. Mostly, it's a lot of serving people and trying to befriend them and then starting to share the gospel and teach them.

It's cool-most people here are really hard workers. Living on an outer island is hard so if people have a change them emigrate to Majuro, Ebey, or the States. Apparently, there are large Marshallese populations in Arkansas and many work on chicken farms. Since most people are busy during the week a lot of lessons we teach are on Sunday after church. Most of the people here are busy during the week harvesting coconut, breadfruit, and sea cucumber.

I am reading the Book of Mormon in Marshallese and besides a few words, I understand most of it. One really cool thing here is how they celebrate birthdays. A group of friends will go serenade a person on their birthday. The group sings a few songs-one where everyone will take turns dancing and another where they give the person a dollar. Afterwards, the person whose birthday it is will but coconut oil on everyone. It was fun. Elder W and I got to do it with a few members to an older lady; she was really excited.

Work out here is hard but I try to stay positive and keep working. I've been reading from the books I got for Christmas. The Power to Become is especially helping me as I read and think about the hard experiences I am enduring. I am grateful because through them I am strengthened.

Love,

Elder Weenig

P.S. I have been taking lots of photos