Ramen is Missionary Food Storage

Monday, October 27, 2014

Hey everyone,

Yes I got the package thank you! It has some pretty delicious stuff in there.   More food like that would be awesome.  A camelback backpack would be cool. Like one that can also hold some stuff in it.

They got Airmaybe to work so we now have our correct area.

I don’t need a filtered water bottle. They gave us one but all apartments have a filter so I haven’t used it yet. Maybe a good supply of some water purification tablets would be nice to have before I get sent to an outer island. There is supposed to be filters in outer islands but you never know if it’s ok because people can't really conveniently go check all the time if you get what I’m saying. 

 I should be able to Skype on Christmas or around there I don’t know exactly how it works. I’ll give more information when I find out. The mission president said that this is how he tries to do it, 4 Areas, 8 companions. You will probably be on an outer island only once, and for as close to 4 months as possible. Usually you will be in an area for 6 months so that is why you will only have about 4 areas.

They do give us a debit card, but because it charges you a 3 dollar fee just like my card, we withdraw all of our money and then use it throughout the month.  (Sure hope they don't get robbed or lose their wallets)

The best thing that happened this week was we gave three blessings yesterday and I got to give a haircut and will be practicing more. I want to get my own set of tools so I can get better, you can find some good ones here. It could be my way to find people to teach. Just give haircuts to everybody and then hopefully that breaks the ice and they will take lessons from us.

Ummm nothing really that weird happened this week. Well to you guys it might be weird. Breastfeeding just happens everywhere so you could be in a lesson and they just whip it out. It’s already happened either on the streets or in lessons already so it’s not weird to me anymore.

I have not eaten anything bad yet, but I’ve been eating a lot of ramen because we are waiting for next week to get more money. The problem is the church compensates your monthly payment the first month so I didn’t get the full amount so we are out of money but, we have a crap load of ramen. Ramen for us is our food storage because it is super cheap so we buy a couple boxes of ramen and if we happen to run out of money we have ramen. Good stuff! It’s the best! I get to wake up every morning and make some ramen! I get to sleep in my own bed my entire mission. It’s the best! (Nacho Libre reference for those in that loop)

The kids here are pretty darn cute but then you see what they could grow up into and it sometimes makes you depressed haha. That was kind of mean but it’s true.

 Love you all, got to go.

 Elder Andrew Romney

"Jidik kon Jidik"

Hello,

Right now we have two areas because the other Elders are waiting to get here. We had one Elder who is staying with us because he is waiting to get his companion. Once he gets his companion they will get Rita North and we will have Rita South, so that will be nice.

What I mean by Elders are waiting to get here it's because AirMarshalls (the airline here) always has broken down planes so when they finally fix them they can start to bring the elders back haha. We call the airline here AirMaybe. You would think if the US gave the Marshalls 1.5 billion a year they would use some of it to get either new planes or really fix the planes haha.

So as far as investigators we have like 20 right now and it's a lot of work, and even more walking.

 A lot of the islanders and pretty much everyone tells me that in as soon as like 3 months I could be skinnier and that by the end of my mission I will have lost a lot of weight. So this mission is pretty awesome! Not only do you get to preach the gospel and build character, you also get a free Jenny Craig subscription. The Marshallese program is pretty unorthodox with lots of walking and sweating and low food. So even if you get a lot of food a few times you will sweat or walk it off pretty fast.

This week the electric company did a "routine Check up" where they turn off all the electricity from 10am to 5 pm. but what really happened was it got turned off at 9am and then didn't get turned back on until 10am the next morning! Sucked so bad!

We didn't do service last week so I still don't know about that. I have asked about doing service at the hospital though. There is a man who is LDS, American and served his mission here that is a surgeon here so maybe I can do something I don't know yet. 

The weather is normal like it has been for the week. If there was a hurricane here or Tsunami there probably would be no mas Marshall Islands.

For fruit there is Coconut and Bōb fruit.  Here is a picture of me eating bōb . You don't really eat it, you just chew it and then you suck the juice out. It tastes good but when you chew it it gets really stringy and gets in your teeth haha.   Learn more about Bōb fruit

 

Here is a picture of me eating Bōb

 

The best thing that happened this week was one when the power came back on haha and a couple has committed to getting married. That is a big thing because here people just start families but never get married. So we have to try and get them to do that before they can get baptized, because splitting a family apart would be contradicting to what we want to accomplish as well. I would rather have a family stay together than get a baptism. Which reminds me I need to explain some of the culture.

First, as far as raising children once they get about 7+ the parents don't really care what they do so they just run about the island and do whatever. Which is one reason why teenage pregnancy is a problem! Try convincing a whole culture to do better on certain rules like the law of chastity and word of wisdom, which is a nice challenge haha.

Second, like I said before, marriage is difficult because people will just start a family and not get officially married. It's funny but it can get frustrating when investigators are ready to get baptized but they won't or haven't gotten married.

Third, one year old birthday parties are so big here. It is like a quinceañera with the Hispanic culture. really big. Birthdays in general can be pretty big but the one year old one is huge. And they sing for like half an hour before they do anything else. I told Harris that so far I like American birthdays better because it is one short song and then you can get to the cake/eating part haha.

The kids are in school right now but I feel like all it is is like one big recess. I don't know how good the education system here is. How they do it I don't know yet. But there is a school right next to the chapel or right next to me right now. Maybe all the kids went back inside to do their work now.

If I think of any more I will email them but those are what I can think of currently.

As far as what was hard this week I can't really think of anything. I mean the mission in general can be hard at times and it's never like easy but I guess I'm used to just having hard days? I don't know haha. I want to learn the language like now so I can do better but I have to be patient and learn it. As the Marshallese say "Jidik kon Jidik". Or little by little.

 

love,

Elder Romney

1st Letter from the Marshalls - "sweating all the time is the only problem"

Hey guys! So I am serving in the Rita area, we have one of the nicer apartments, Majuro reminds me of a tropical poorer part of Mexico if that makes it easier to imagine. It's a cool place. It is really hot, but mostly the sweating all the time is the only problem but that will decrease as I get more used to it. Majuro is a pretty interesting and cool looking place. It is funny because their houses aren't that great but they have electricity, at least here on Majuro, and everyone has a cell phone and tablet it seems haha. All companionships have cell phones. I think this mission could have ipads pretty easily at least on Majuro not on the outer islands. (wish for an ipad lately?)

My companion is Elder Brigham Harris from New Zealand. He is awesome. He actually has already been here for like 7 months and he is trainer. A lot of the other missionaries said he is a great missionary and I believe it. He still knows how to have a good time but also works hard and studies hard and is obedient. He has a lot of “Them Some Heavy Words" type of advice from himself or his dad. He's awesome. But we don't have a rugby ball still and it sucks! But we can have one.

Two of the 8 missionaries I travelled with are going to outer islands. One is going to Ebeye and the other one is going to Ebon.

Today is P-Day as well, or our Monday, I don't know what day it is over there.  We are at the church right now because it is free to email. This will probably be around the time I can email on P-day.

It is more humid than Hawaii was, or actually I don't know. Maybe the first day I got here I felt like it was more, but now it is getting bearable.  It rains pretty randomly. Also on rainy days most people stay indoors and sleep more then they usually do. About 1pm-4pm people take naps then go out and socialize then go to sleep at around 8:30 to 9:15pm so we can sometimes get back and plan and finish the day at around 9:15 so we can get ready for bed a little earlier so that is nice when it happens haha.

I am wearing my Tevas, the first 2 days I tried wearing no socks and got some blisters but I just got some moleskin and now am wearing socks so I’m all good there.

The grocery store we went to today was actually pretty close to the prices there. More like a Reams in Springville, around those prices, wasn't too bad there.   It is pretty cheap to eat here though for the most part unless you want to eat really really good.  I have only had one dinner that wasn't our own and it was rice, chicken legs, and some hotdogs. I won't really taste true Marshallese food until I pretty much get to an outer island. Other than that I might have a little food that would be considered true Marshallese food but they eat pretty much like Americans except less or just more simple, heaps more simple but yeah.

I have taught lessons, but I have only said maybe a few sentences. But I can give short testimonies and I can give pretty good prayers.  Church was in Marshallese and my companion had to translate for this white couple so I just sat there and tried to pick out words hahaha.

On Thursday mornings we will do service but because of my intake ( intakes are when groups of missionaries arrive) we missed it.

So I have to go pretty quick here, thank you for everything and all the support. I love you guys so much!

Elder Romney

 

This is me right now

Elder Harris- he has some heavy words

BECAUSE WE ARE GUYS

Elder Andrew Romney leaves for Majuro, Marshall Islands this coming Tuesday October 7, 2014.  He is trunky to leave the MTC and did not seem to want to write too much so I coached some things out of him with some questions.  Here is what I got.

My week was great and it really went by fast which is what I wanted!

What was your favorite thing that happened this week?

-Four square. Four square is like the most important thing other than the spiritual feelings and general authority talks and language and personal study. Foursquare is #bombdiggity. I love playing it and we met these sisters that are super awesome to hang out with at eating time and foursquare. It’s nice to talk to someone other than guys all the time because we are guys so you hardly ever have an intelligent conversation.

What was the most spiritual thing that happened this week?

 -Temple today. I really felt the spirit at the temple today and I believe I had a nice little conversation with Ryker, and it is definitely something I needed.  #RLD33

How do you say “Hello, my name is Elder Romney in Marshallese?”  And Meili wants to know how to say beautiful.

-Iakwe! Eta in Elder Romney. and beautiful I believe is Aiboojoj.

How do you say my family can be together forever?

-good question. I believe it is: Baamle eo am emaron (n should have a line over it making in a ng sound) ippa aolep iien. 

What will you miss the most when you leave the MTC?

-Foursquare and of course personal study. 



My handsome Elder with his MTC District

Elder Pierre

Picture drawn in the classroom last week by Elder Andrew Romney  - Elder Pierre with the Marshallese Bok In Mormon and a moustache'  An empty white board was calling.