Last Week in Onotoa

Mauri everyone!

Hope everyone's doing well! Not really much happened this past week. A
lot of our lessons fell through because of some big bootaki's
(Kiribati parties), none of which we got invited to, so we didn't
really do much. This evening we're having a karaure (farewell
bootaki), so hopefully that'll be fun.

We'll be finding out later this afternoon from the flight agent if the
plane will actually be coming tomorrow to pick us up from Onotoa. I'll
let you all know next week if I made it to Tarawa.

Thank you all for everything! I tangiringkami!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 Scraping the hair off after being burned

  Me with some Tiiben we got for $10 (bread with coconut 

mixed in, it's really dense)

Toromon burning the hair off of a pig to be prepared for a bootaki

Baptism and Big News

Email from last week (14 May 2018) that didn't send:

Mauri everyone!

Hope everything is going well on the other side of the globe. Things are going pretty well out here in Onotoa. We just had a baptism last Saturday! Onotoa hasn't had a baptism in over a year, so the members were pretty excited as well. We hired a truck and brought all the members together for a picnic followed by the baptism. Rootia got baptized, a teenage girl who is the younger sister of Toromon, a recently returned missionary from the Philippines. He had the opportunity to baptize his sister.

Also, speaking of big news, we just got word last week that both Elder Payne and I are getting transferred from Onotoa...that was a shock. We're pretty positive it's because of the plane situation in Kiribati right now. Right now 3 out of Air Kiribati's 4 airplanes are broken down. The only flights now to Onotoa are on Tuesdays, and they're not even consistent each week, only coming every 2-3 weeks. We're also not the only outer island getting closed.

We also don't have a flight time set in stone. Our leaders told us that they'd tell us when we have a firm date, but it's looking to not be until the beginning of June. The flights are pretty backed up because of all the missed days. I'll let you know when we have a set date. Hopefully I can get as much time as I can out of Onotoa before I have to leave.

That's all for this week. Thank you all so much for all the prayers and support! I tangiringkami!

Mauri kain Amerika!

Sorry, last week's email refused to send, so I included it in this email.

We got a set flight date for leaving Onotoa: 29 May. We'll see if that happens, because if the plane doesn't show up, it'll get moved to the week after.

Not much happened this week. We've been trying to help prepare the members and our investigators for when there aren't any elders on Onotoa. No unit leader has been called, so we've assigned someone to temporarily lead church while elders are gone.

We also went to a kabotaeka this past Saturday evening. It's basically the same as an LDS stake dance, but with Kiribati culture mixed in. The girls always ask, and there's never any slow songs. They also have what's called te buti bwaitika. Everyone sits in a big circle and one person dances up to someone else to pass the dance to them, and then they pass it to someone else, and so on.

Thank you all for everything! I tangiringkami!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 Te Kabotaeka

 Rootia's baptism (left to right: Me, Rootia, Toromon, Elder Payne)

The members in Tabuarorae (left to right, front row: Iabeta, Tekobei, 

Me, Tekoba; back row: Ene, Taneaa, Maara, Eetau)

E Kamaiu Te Mwakuri

Mauri tariu ao mwaneu n te bwakantaai aei!

This past week was pretty good. We had combined church yesterday down in Tabuarorae. It was fun getting to see all the members of Onotoa together for a single meeting and the unity they had.

I also had a cool experience at a dinner with members. We were eating with a father and two of his kids, the mother being in Tarawa with their sick baby. Though we had a shortage of time, I felt prompted to read an entire chapter with them, Mosiah 24, about the people of Alma and their miraculous deliverance from the Lamanites. The father afterwards told us of a difficult situation his wife was in in Tarawa. He said he felt like that story was meant for him and he knew that, like the people of Alma, he needn't lose hope, that God would deliver in His own time.

We also had a fun service finding ben (ripe coconut) with Taniera, a young married adult male who lives next to our house. We didn't actually find that much, but we got rained on, so that was nice.

Oh, and about the oven, we're pretty sure it was just the actual owners of the house that took it. Who knows? Maybe it'll turn up in couple weeks.

Thank you all so much for everything! I tangiringkami! Tekeraoi n ami waaki ni kabane!

Elder Schoeny

Pictures

 Riding back north on the truck after church

Biking back from collecting ben