Elder Jared Schoeny: First Week in Butaritari!

Mauri!

Sorry about last week. We were in the middle of doing emails when we were
asked to leave. It turned out we were there after hours, and that we had
been borrowing personal computers. That shouldn't happen anymore.

So about two weeks ago, on our flight from LA to Fiji, someone had a stroke
2.5 hours in, so the plane turned around. Our flight was rescheduled to
that evening, but it also meant we missed our flight to Tarawa. We got to
stay in Fiji for a few days in a hotel until our flight to Tarawa. There
wasn't much do to other than studying. A member who was helping us out also
gave us a tour of Fiji.

When we finally got to Tarawa on Monday (we were originally supposed to get
there the Friday before) we had our missionary orientation and found out
where our first areas would be. My flight to Butaritari wasn't until Sunday
morning, so I went on splits with the district leaders.

I met my companion Elder Osborne the Friday before we flew out. He's really
awesome and knows how to work hard. We get along really well and he's said
he loves hearing my past experiences from home and about how awesome you
all are.

I feel like I've been adjusting to the culture fairly quickly. A popular
drink they give us is karewe, which is the sap from a coconut tree.
Apparently most elders can't get it down the first week or so drinking it,
but I've been able to drink with just a slight urge to gag. It's gotten
easier the more I drink it.

There's also a lot of wild dogs, but they're usually pretty timid around
humans. Kiribati people hate them though. They basically see dogs like
pigs, but a lot more obnoxious and with less meat.

For our home situation, we have a two-level hut, the top level for sleeping
and the bottom for eating and studying. We have a separate bathroom with a
stone toilet and bucket shower. Everything is built out of sticks. We have
two bikes for transportation and we bike to another members house to fill
our bucket with clean drinking rainwater. We have a solar panel to charge
lights and anything USB.

Mission work has been going well. My companion and I whitewashed the area,
so were both new to the island. This past week we generally went around
finding members' homes and previous investigators.

This past Sunday we had about 40 attend sacrament meeting which is
apparently pretty good for an outer island. There are a few families that
live farther out, so we bike over to them with the sacrament and bless it
for them. There is no branch yet in Butaritari, only a unit. They do have a
unit leader though, so were not running everything for church.

I have also gained a new appreciation for washing machines. I hand washed
my own clothes for the first time today, and I'll be doing that every week
while in Butaritari.

Thanks for all your support. I tangiringkami!

Elder Schoeny