Happy Thanksgiving!

Mauri Everyone!

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving! I had an amazing Thanksgiving out here in Kiribati. Our district (consisting of missionaries serving from the town of Ambo to the town of Bairiki) came together Thursday evening for a Thanksgiving dinner together. Everyone pitched in food and it turned out great. We had gone on a hunt on Tarawa trying to find as much Thanksgivingy white people food on Tarawa as we could, and we managed to have turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, watermelon, stuffing, Oreos, apple cobbler, and spaghetti. It was sooo good!

I also had a great birthday. The other elders in my apartment got a white people cake for me and some ice cream.

Also rather random, but while we were out working, a member who just got back from Fiji was driving by and gave Elder Rowsell and I cheeseburgers to sample. He's starting up a cheeseburger shop in Bairiki, so that's way exciting.

Work has been going well here in Ambo. Just got word that my companion Elder Rowsell will be getting transferred to Abemama this Friday and Elder Dale will be my new companion and the new District Leader.

Not much else to report for now. Thank you all so much for everything! I tatangiringkami!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 Birthday breakfast of grilled nutella sandwiches

 Me with my birthday cake

 Our thanksgiving dinner

The cheeseburger

Thank you everyone!

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! It's hard to believe I'm no longer a teenager. Where has the time gone?

This past week has been good. Extremely busy, especially since we decided to start packing in our days more with lessons. The only problem was my bicycle got a flat tire and we had no wrench in the house to fix it. Let me just say we did a lot of walking. Luckily our area isn't too large, so it wasn't too bad. Everything worked out otherwise. We got one wrench that was a cheap chinese product and bent. We finally got a big sturdy wrench from a member yesterday and were able to patch up my tire yesterday. Unfortunately, now both of our bikes have flat tires again, so we might have to wait for new tubes this time. No worries, though. The work will always continue on.

Thanksgiving is coming up and I bet you're all excited. Our district is have a Thanksgiving dinner together and we're all pitching in for food. We're bringing as much good I-Matang (white people) food as we can, so it's going to be way good.

Not much else to report on. Have a happy Thanksgiving. I guess next week Christmas season will be starting for some people (I'm one of those people). Crazy.

Thank you so much for everything! I tatangiringkami!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 Our dinner with one of our investigators. Little did she know it's set up a lot like a date

Rain cloud by the shore

Mission Tour

Mauri kain Amerika!

It's been a great week as always. It was especially great having a mission tour this past Thursday. All the missionaries from Christmas and Outer Islands came out for it. Elder Ardern of the Area Seventy and his wife came for the mission tour. We all came together for a conference where they taught us. They did an excellent job and gave some very insightful advice for working as a missionary.

At one point, while teaching about the importance of the Book of Mormon as a conversion tool, he asked the Assistants to pick to 'seasoned' missionaries to come up. Of course Elder Miller and Elder Barker picked Elder Rowsell and I (we all live in the same house, along with the West Zone Leaders; it's a lot of fun). We ended up having to teach about the Book of Mormon to Elder Ardern in front of all the other missionaries. It was a little rough having to do it in English, since I of course have never taught in that language before. It went pretty well though, and it was kind of fun getting put on the spot like that.

Something really sad happened a week or so ago. One of our investigators, Taani, passed away after overexerting himself at a ward exercise activity. He had been taking lessons with the missionaries for a while. He had just had a big change of heart, too, a week before passing away. No doubt he is being taught on the other side. We were able to help decorate his grave with flowers for a service.

We also had another baptism this past week. He's a 13-year old boy named Kansam. He and his brother (who is a fully active return missionary) live with their aunt and uncle's family. It was great to be able to see him make his baptismal covenant with his Heavenly Father.

Not much else to report on. Hope everything is going well out there in America. Don't forget your daily scripture study in the Book of Mormon! It really makes a difference.

Thank you all for everything! I tatangiringkami!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 Taani's grave

 Intake picture after the mission tour conference

 Us with Kansam and his brother who performed the baptism

Clouds

Mission Tour Coming Up!

Mauri Everyone!

This past week has been a very busy but awesome week. One of our investigators, Tokataake, got baptized this past Saturday, which was way exciting. His wife was less-active before, but they're now both way strong in the church. Tokataake will be a great addition to the ward.

We've also go a Mission Tour coming up this Thursday. An area seventy will be coming out for it. Everyone from Kiritimati and outer islands are coming in, so it should be a lot of fun. What'll be interesting, though, is that the area 70 is supposed to be checking all of our apartments, and with 12 elders staying in our house right now, it'll be a miracle if the apartment is still standing by the time he checks it.

Not much else to report on. We have some more baptisms scheduled for this month, so hopefully all goes well with that.

I tatangiringkami! Thank you for everything!

Pictures

 Was a witness for the marriage of one of Tokataake with his wife (they had been living together but never married. An extremely common problem in Kiribati)

 Tokataake's baptism (the one in the baptismal suit on the right is Tokataake)

Our daily commute going from our house in Banraeba to our area of Ambo