Octopus Hunting Video

Jared shared with us today a video of his octopus hunting adventure on Nikunau that he described last week.  Enjoy!

Sorry, not much time...

Mauri!

Sorry, I don't have much time today since we watched a bunch of missionaries head home today at the airport. I'm doing great and am enjoying my time in Buota, Tarawa! I hope you all are doing great as well. Forgot to mention last week, but we had a baptism my first Saturday in Buota. I meant to sent more pictures last week, but time got away from me. I'll try to get more pictures out next week.

I tangiringkami!

Elder Schoeny

Excerpt from letters to us.

"Yeah, it's been a big change being on the morer modern island. Air conditioning was freezing to me for a little while. I really enjoyed living the outer island life. It makes me want to build a hut in our backyard so I can live there haha. I remember that time we went fishing. That's the story I would tell people as the only time I've ever really gone fishing. For octupus hunting, you just use long metal sticks with a hook on the end, and you poke around in the hole until they come out enough to where you can pull them out. The only way to kill them after that is to bite their eyes, and you have to be quick about it, too."

"Thanks, I've had a great week. I'm currently still in Buota, but transfers are coming up in a couple weeks, so we'll see what happens then. Yeah, we all got to see the missionaries leave today. Elder Osborne was one of them, as well as Elder Hoskins, who stayed in our house at Buota. (Side note, Elder Hoskins, Elder Baker, and Elder Lutz are all convinced that Dad actually works for the FBI and that he's too ripped to be a sales rep for a company that sells adult absorbant heigene products.) I don't have a lot of time today to tell any stories just because we were all at the airpor for a while. Hopefully next week I can share something."

I'm Alive!

It's been a long time but I'm back with internet again! It was down for a long time in Nikunau and I'm pretty sure is still down. But I've been transferred to Tarawa, so I'll be able to email every Monday! Sorry, I meant to send an email last week, but time got away from me with so many emails to catch up on.

So last week, I was working in Eita with Elder Gilbert (from Australia) as my companion, but because an elder working in Buota just finished his time, I got moved there to fill his spot. I'm now companions with Elder Lutz, but I could possibly get moved again in a couple weeks, so we'll see what happens

The past two months were amazing! I'm so sad I had to leave Nikunau. The members there are amazing and so strong. They were truly family. I honestly feel like if just left home. We had a lot of great work and had a lot of way strong investigators that were really close to baptism before I left. I was able to attend at least one baptism before I left, Momo, and 9-year old boy in a fully-active member family, who, for whatever reason, hadn't been baptized yet.

But basically, to sum the last two months up, we went fishing a lot, octopus hunting, helped cleaned an extremely deep well, helped build a house, attended several island bootakis, and basically just had an overall incredible time. Elder Jubeck was an incredible companion and I had a ton of fun with him.

Though it's way sad having to leave Nikunau, I'm also excited to continue the work here in Tarawa. It's way different here than the outer island life. Actual toilets and running water, ice cream, cell phones, and actual branch president. Crazy. It's much nicer not having to lead church anymore.

Anyways, it's nice to be able to email again. It seems like everything is going great back home. Time has flown by so fast, especially during that time without internet. I know this church is true and I'm excited to continue serving the Lord here on Tarawa. God lives.

I tatangiringkami ni kabene! (I love all of you all!)

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 Us with David Morley and Tiaon, return missionaries who had 

worked in Nikunau together and came to visit

 A fish I caught that I forgot to take a picture of before I started eating

 Playing a Kiribati game involving a ball, cans, and sticks

Me making a mat out of a coconut tree leaf