2 for one week - Letters that is!

Monday, November 17, 2014

Dear Family,

This week was filled with a lot of lows. It has been probably one of the hardest I will probably have on my mission. There were a few things that really made it hard.

   One is I haven’t been able to get the language down very well and teach very well as a result. I have been learning and progressing but I think it is just my patience. I have always been able to grasp onto things and learn quickly throughout my life. Sports, education, etc (Math is still stupid no matter how much I learn), for the most part I have never had to learn or do something that will take a good amount of time to learn no matter how hard I try. So that has been really hard for me. But I know this is a lesson for me to learn and God is blessing me with a challenge. Like Moses, Jonah, Daniel, Job their lives had trials and struggles but because they endured, because they got through them, they were blessed. In the Book of Mormon there is never an extended amount of time where the righteous people are without wars, contentions, or struggles. But when they are faithful and keep the commandments they are blessed and are helped. Reading and thinking about those stories have helped me maintain motivation to not give up.

 

    Another hard thing for me was trying to know why I was sent here. Like I said before, the language is hard which has prevented me from being the best missionary I can be. Part of your first 12 weeks you have a program to follow and part of that is watching "The District". When I watch it sometimes I have thought, why am I here, if I was in the United States I could be teaching people and going hard as a missionary. Even if I went somewhere Spanish speaking it would be easier because I am so familiar with the language and can understand it better. But the Lord would not have sent me here if I could not handle it and if I could not help preach the gospel and help the people here. Sometime on my mission I will understand my purpose here in the Marshall Islands. So I know that if I endure it and push through, I will be blessed and will become the missionary I want to become and more importantly the missionary that the Lord not only wants but needs me to become to be a successful missionary.

 

   Along with that last Wednesday I had put my bag down to play volleyball at the chapel (all courts are outside here, no inside court) and the Bishop ran over my bag before I could stop him, breaking my camera and memory cards with all my photos and busting a buckle on my bag that holds the shoulder strap on. Let's just say that I was tempted and thought about taking a boat out in the middle of the lagoon and creating a temporary no spirit zone (as Brother Earls calls it) and yell my frustrations out for like 10 minutes. But I have no boat, and there is no private place to go rampage except our apartment, and I like having a nice apartment, so I was stuck with myself and my thoughts and just sat down in the elementary school field by the chapel and took some deep breathes, calmed down and went to go do missionary work because we still had a few lessons left during the day and you can't teach people the gospel being full of anger. I did not want my investigators to not have the opportunity to hear the words of the gospel because I was having a really bad day.

 

   So overall this has been a big learning experience for me but it is good for me. I know if I endure the hard things the blessings will come soon after. After all there are still a lot of blessings I have to be thankful for. I love you guys and hope you are doing well.

-Elder Romney

 

 

Monday, November 24, 2014

 

Dear Family,

 

    This week was much better. We were able to get a little more lessons this week than last so that was nice. I feel that we have a few investigators that are just really close to getting baptized. The one couple that was supposed to get married hasn't yet because they were trying to wait for some grandparents to get here from outer islands and its been taking forever so we just asked do you really need to wait and she said no. So they should be getting married soon and that is exciting. We also found a really cool guy that wants to change from being an alcoholic because he really loves his family and wants to be the same person he was when he first got married. But he is having a hard time so we are trying hard to work with him so that he can eventually give up drinking and also become a great member of the church. So as far as missionary work goes I am excited because we might finally have some success for all the work we are putting in.

 

    Last week there was an elder that went home from my trainer’s intake and that was really sad. I had gotten to know him and did a split with him so it was sad to see him have to go home so early. He only made it 8 months. Anytime you hear about a missionary going home it is really sad. You want all the missionaries you see and get to know to return with honor and feel the way Alma felt when he met up with the sons of Mosiah, feeling that joy that your peers and friends are also strong in the gospel. But that is just life and you got to learn from it and use that experience to motivate you to strive to always be obedient. Last week I was in a "Glass case of Emotion!"

 

    This week should be really good. The missionary work should progress more and I’m going to be taught how to play the yu-gi-oh card game so I can play with all the other elders that know how to play. In the wise words of Ron Burgandy: "And in no way is that sad." Love you all and if you need life advice always refer to the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness. 

 

Elder Romney

 

I was not able to get Elder Romney's letter posted last week as I was out of town so it is a 2 for one week!  Happy Thanksgiving to all.  We are very Thankful this year to have our son on a mission learning and growing.

ALL PLANNED

Monday, November 10, 2014

 

Dear Family,

This week went by pretty quickly it seems. I hope I get heaps of weeks like that. Anyways the baptism was last Saturday and yes I did baptize the girl. Her name is Norlina. I started it and then like half way through it like totally spaced it and had this dramatic pause in the middle of it and then finished it, all in Marshallese. So luckily I completed it, but I added this long dramatic pause in the middle, you know, ALL PLANNED! Made it heaps better as a baptism right!

I think the couple is getting married this week. I think we are getting close to getting more baptisms but we have to make sure a few things are cleared up and stuff before that happens. Hopefully we can get them baptized.

We had a quick transfer this week and another elder from Elder Harris' intake came, he is also from New Zealand and he is pretty awesome, really funny as well.

We got to play rugby last week for combined P-Day and it was glorious. It was awesome to play with a bunch of kiwis and run around playing touch. By the time I get home I will probably get better because of the chance to get to have a bunch of polys and kiwis teaching me more and more about the game and getting to play with them. It's really fun. 

Ioue is like a fleshy meat that can be found inside a cocoanut. 

I had to buy a machete and my companion needed one too, but he paid me back already.   The machete was needed for service projects and cutting down bananas and opening coconuts and stuff.  It was my mom’s machete!  (Nacho Libre reference) We did some bush trimming and cut the grass.

Love you guys and hope you have a good week.

 

Elder Romney

 

 

(since Elder Romney did not send any new photos this week, here is a nice one of Chancho's mom's machete ;-) )

Ioue (said like "you") eeeew

Monday, November 3, 2014

Dear Family,

The Marshall Islands is a really cool place. The people are really nice, I've never had a door slammed in my face. Probably never will haha. The people that don't want to study with you will just keep scheduling with you, but then try to get out of it, and keep rescheduling because they don't want be rude. It's kinda funny, sometimes a little frustrating because you have to walk everywhere and sometimes it's a pain to have to walk around all over the place only to keep having to reschedule. But it's all good, part of the lord's weight loss program.

We just baptized a little girl named Karalein but her whole family is members and we were just supposed to prepare her to be baptized. We could have a baptism coming up with a less active guy’s wife. We have been working with Richie for awhile to get him back to church and get him married to his wife, and then baptize his wife. They are getting married this Saturday so that is exciting. Also I could be performing, like actually baptizing someone this week; it is one of the sister's investigators and for some reason the girl picked me to do it. I don't know why she picked me I haven’t even met her yet. So this week I will have to practice and memorize the baptismal prayer, I don't know if that's how you say it. So that's been on my mind for a few days already and wondering how I am going to do this.

I am still very much trying to learn the language, it's hard but I have to be patient. I have taught a little bit in Marshallese but only a few sentences. I can share an ok testimony and say a prayer in Marshallese ok, but that's about where I am at. I can start a conversation and speak a little bit but that's about it. Still learning!

My companion and I are rolling along; we haven’t really had a companion inventory because there hasn't been anything we have found that we need to resolve between us. He's funny and we have been quoting movies like Nacho Libre, Monty Python, Anchorman, you know all the good stuff. Also a lot of Key and Peele and Ryan Higa.

Last week, Elder Harris made some Takakau Bread and we were eating it with some butter and jam and I was trying to grab the jam to put it away and fumbled it in my hands and dropped it. It was in a glass jar but luckily the jam kept the glass stuck in it so there wasn't a lot of glass to clean up. Today is a combined P-Day and it looks like we will finally play some rugby. Hopefully my ball comes soon so we don't have to wait until Combined P-Days to play it.

This week were walking around trying to find someone and came to this house where someone was shredding some Ioue (said like "you") and she gave us some chunks and I took a bite and swallowed it but almost barfed in the inside. Luckily I kept my face straight and we walked away and I gave the rest to some dog. I have tasted Ioue before and it was good but this one for some reason tasted bad. I felt like Nacho when he's talking about the food he makes in the beginning and he tastes some and spits it up. That's exactly how I felt.

We were able to get our money on Saturday and went grocery shopping. That's another thing I need to make a shout out for, is for my parents always taking me grocery shopping so I know how to do it well. It was a glorious sight to see a stocked fridge.  Sunday for some reason just felt like a really long day and was some hard work walking around and finding or trying to get some lessons, but we made it. Me and my companion are doing well and working hard. It is such a blessing and great opportunity to be a Missionary.

Elder Romney