Hey Ma!
What a crazy week! Lets start with the stories:
So our house is about a 10 minute walk from our area... it is on the second floor of a small town diner. There really aren't any perks to the house, because there is one bed and three of us (I get the floor :) and the toilet is broken so you have to bucket flush:). But it is the ONLY house in the whole mission with a small patch of carpet. The exhilarating feeling was tremendous as we all took our flip flops off and felt that carpet, as rough and as small as it is (not very thick) I believe I almost have tears in my eyes. Over carpet. Yeah its been a while haha. buttttt the down side to this week was just one day the water shut off for no reason. It was the worst! Found out that our house does that sometimes. So we went almost 3 days with no shower and we were suffering! haha an outer island in Majuro haha. but anyway we decided on the second day that we would try to go to the Rita Elders house and shower there (about a 30 minute walk) and when we got there the power went out! We went out of our house at 9am and the power went out at 9:20 and didn't come back on until 5! We were miserable but it was nice to chat with the Rita Elders for a little bit, Elder Namak from Vanuatu who is almost done with his mission and Elder Miva from Papua New Guinea and just got here last week! I will talk about Miva later in my email that guy is a stud.
Also we have a bit of a roach problem in our house. They only come out at night though which is good. I am the designated roach hunter. I right now have killed about 14. and the smallest one was about 1.5 inches! They are disgustingly huge here but you gotta torture them by putting them in the toilet and making them suffer for existing :).
So Elder Peterson is a huge example to me. He is the most obedient and kind person I have known and reminds me of Cullen so much and he worked in Uliga for almost 7 months! Part of Jenrok was open to Uliga Elders because there used to be no elders there. Peterson worked so hard but never saw any reward for his efforts. But the true builder was one of his investigators we picked up named Randy. He lives in our area and no Elders have visited him since Elder Peterson. Since that time, he changed his work schedule so he can go to church and stopped smoking and got married. Elder Peterson's example was huge on this guy. Needless to say all we had to do was check up on him and he will be baptised on the 1st of April! It is great to see some success finally even in a small area.
So the sport of Volleyball has really grown on me. Like REALLY. I love playing it especially with all the Polys because they are pros. I know how to spike the ball now (which is A LOT harder than it looks) but I love playing it is super fun and I hope to play it when I get back. Also the Marshallese kids taught me how to handstand so I can do that now too! The kids here love my name because when they want to get someones attention they say "AH" after calling their name! So mine is Elder JohnsonAH, which when they say it it sounds like John Cena so I am Elder John Cena. The kids love it and they laugh so I am popular among the children haha.
The Area of Jenrok is like taking all the houses in Ajeltake and smashing them together in a half mile radius. There are a LOT of people in such a small area. The good thing is no hostile dogs so I am unafraid when we go out. I love this area and it will take some time to get used to it but at least we are busy. I usually take 15 minutes to do a lesson but I have been pushing myself and with the witnesses of three mouths it takes about 45 minutes to do a lesson. The Bishop is such a great bishop and is so focused on missionary work he is the best. The wife takes a little getting used to and I was warned about that coming in so I decided to strike a convo with her. 1 hour later she invited us to stay for dinner. Needless to say, it was a great time haha.
So Elder Miva. He is a freakin stud. He is a funny guy. He is also FREAKING TALENTED. He has one of those talents where he sits on a piano and if you start humming or singing a song he can play it PERFECTLY. We had fun with that on Saturday as we were cleaning up the church for sunday. Also he is a pancake flipping champion. That man flips the pancakes. I guess my only culinary talent is making toast, given that a toaster is provided haha.
So this weeks learning came from one day we had as we went out to work. We had all these lessons planned and it looked like a busy day, but one by one each lesson fell through. WE were getting discouraged when we got a text from the sisters and they asked us to come to this old ladys house and give her a blessing. So we did and the spirit was so strong there. I gave my first marshallese blessing. It was really nice. Then as we were exiting, Koleni said "That was why we had to get out today. To bless that one lady" The Spirit testified that this was true and I testify that it is true. God's will is not always our own but he will always send answers and help to ONE of his children.
We also had an activity with the ward on Friday night where we went to the chapel and watched 17 miracles and danced. I was asked to explain the movie 17 miracles. I stood up and said "We are about to watch the movie 17 miracles. and just like the title says, we are gonna see 17 miracles" i figured that explained the plot haha.
So my comps: Elder Scott is from Brigham City and is a ginger. He is dubbed "Red Hot Scott" because when he loses his temper, NO ONE is safe haha. He loves ultimate frisbee and eating food. He is my brother and will be attending BYU when he gets home
Elder Koleni is from SAAAAAMOA. he is huge and can easily kill us. He loves his sleep and food. mostly Tuna.
Answering Questions:
I am busy, I am healthy, I am happy. My Blistered feet have healed up a lot and no issues yet. I haven't really gotten sick on my mission so I say I am blessed. So Elder Hansen's COUSIN is married to Chris Redfern. That is probably why he is unknown to them because I don't know much haha.
I am glad work is well. A lot of marshallese are missing teeth and it is very hard for me not to stare.
I sure do love ya mom
Elder JohnCEna
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