January 26, 2014 Letter
Nope, just me and my comp [are moving to the Captain Cook Hotel]
We're moving out there because it's WAY
closer to Banana, only about a half hour bike ride. It's also right
next to JMB, which is pretty close to an American gas station, cause
they get stuff shipped here from Hawaii. :) Excited for that!
As far as this week goes, WAY eventful! I'll take it from least to
most important. First of all, I got my first boil! :) It's on the inside of my ankle,
which is lucky, because it only hurts really bad when I forget about
it and sit cross legged (which we do for lessons) with my other leg on
top of it. I'm lucky that way, Elder Paora's first boil was on the
bottom of his foot so he couldn't walk, and there was one Elder who
had one inside each nostril! Don't worry about me, though, I've got
medicine, and I'm being well taken care of.
Second of all, GOT PACKAGES THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :) It was
GREAT! It was Wednesday, and the day before had been a WAY tough day.
I woke up, we ran, I showered and got ready, and then I was just
laying on my bed feeling sorry for myself (never a good idea for a
missionary.) So I'm sitting there, I don't want to do ANYTHING that
day, when Elder Paora calls my name from the door, "Elda Marks! Iai
ana bai n tangira neiei bukim!" (Elder Marks! This girl has a gift for
you!) What the heck? So I walk outside, and low and behold, the mail
lady with two packages, one from Mom and Dad, one from Grandma and
Grandpa. It was AWESOME! Great food, AWESOME ties, and most
importantly, PICTURES!!!!! Elder Paora says thanks a bunch, he loves
my family, and I say the same thing! :) Totally turned the day around,
and we're still munching on goodies! And I used Grandpa's knife as an
object lesson that very day! :)
Thirdly, and most importantly... ROSARY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! :) :) :)
:) :) !!!!:):) %$"%&*( :{) $£^^%*$
Which is great. :) It's been hard for her, she's had a lot of
challenges, she's been taught for almost a year! She had her family
disown her (even harder in this culture than in ours) she had to ditch
all her friends in her old church, her minister came to her house and
told her she wasn't allowed to go to church with the Mormons (WAY
bigger deal in this culture than ours, there have been baptized
members whose old ministers have come over and scared them into
inactivity) and she's kicked a hard smoking addiction. But she bore
her testimony after the baptism, and she knows that she is SO much
happier, and her home is a happier place because she's made this
change in her life. Pictures next week! I'm so happy for her! :)
Ya, good week. :) Love you lots!
Love,
Elder Marks
January 19, 2014 Letter
This week has quite possibly been one of the best weeks of my mission!
Right now we're waiting for our trainees to come the Wednesday after
next, so Elder Paora and I have been working together, trading off
working both Tabwakea and Banana. And it's been PSYCHO! Paora's the
man, a Maori who just got here from being an AP. We sing together, we
totally mess with each other all the time, and most importantly, we
are devoted to being servants of the Lord together. So we're waking up
on time (actually, half an hour early so we have time to get a good
run in) getting our study, and teaching in a united, spiritually
guided way. And we working our putushkins off! And it's paying off! We
got two new investigators in Tabwakea, got one investigator to come to
church for the first time, got another eternal investigator who always
wanted to hear but not change to commit to coming to church next
sunday in a spiritually CHARGED lesson, and Rosary just passed her
baptismal interview!!! It's really proved to me, when you have two
missionaries who are really devoted to giving it all, are willing to
change, and are willing to follow their mission president's advice
(that sounded crazy to us, but we went for it on faith) MIRACLES
happen! We've been guided by the Spirit (we showed up at one house
where two people were in the process of talking about how they wanted
lessons from us) and we've been filled with Christ's joy. THIS is what
being a missionary is all about! The sad part is, we're only going to
be companions for a week and a half more, until our trainees come, but
I'm learning how it's done, and I can bear testimony to anybody that
miracles happen when two companions are united in exact obedience and
loving the Lord!
January 12, 2014 Letter
We just got a quick one from Spencer, but here it is:
Unfortunately, I'm crunched for time, President Weir is here and we're about to go out to
the Captain Cook and finalize the contract. But, quickness with Toaia!
(guy from last week with the big family)
So we showed up at his house the first time, and there were about 5
people there. It started off with his first question, "Teraa bonganan
Iesu Kristo"? Literally, what was his use Jesus Christ, or why do we
need Jesus? YES!!! NUMBER ONE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE WANT TO SHARE
WITH HIM!!! :) So we went to Alma 7:11-13, and talked about that (that
scripture, along with the 14th verse, are WAY awesome for talking
about our Savior and his gospel! Totally explain it in a way I haven't
really found in the Bible, it's like they expound on John 3:16. Way
good!) He liked it, said my mouth is good (I think that's old school
Kiribati for it was a good answer? This guy talks different than
most.)
So then there were some other questions from him and his
family, sometimes about really trivial things, sometimes about really
important things, but every single question allowed us to highlight an
important part of Christ's gospel! WAY good! And we could go to
scriptures, and have legitimate conversation and discussion about it,
and it was really incredible. Had spiritual afterglow the rest of the
day, and the next day too. :) Then the next time we showed up, it was
just him, and he asked us about the Restoration, because we left a
pamphlet with him, and it wasn't AS good, but really it's hard to have
a killer lesson like that two times in a row. He was busy the rest of
the week, and we're going to be busy until Thursday with Elder Wells
going home, but I'm looking forward to seeing him again!
Anyway, must be off, but I love you! Best of luck on everything!
You're in my prayers!
Love,
Elder Marks
Unfortunately, I'm crunched for time, President Weir is here and we're about to go out to
the Captain Cook and finalize the contract. But, quickness with Toaia!
(guy from last week with the big family)
So we showed up at his house the first time, and there were about 5
people there. It started off with his first question, "Teraa bonganan
Iesu Kristo"? Literally, what was his use Jesus Christ, or why do we
need Jesus? YES!!! NUMBER ONE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE WANT TO SHARE
WITH HIM!!! :) So we went to Alma 7:11-13, and talked about that (that
scripture, along with the 14th verse, are WAY awesome for talking
about our Savior and his gospel! Totally explain it in a way I haven't
really found in the Bible, it's like they expound on John 3:16. Way
good!) He liked it, said my mouth is good (I think that's old school
Kiribati for it was a good answer? This guy talks different than
most.)
So then there were some other questions from him and his
family, sometimes about really trivial things, sometimes about really
important things, but every single question allowed us to highlight an
important part of Christ's gospel! WAY good! And we could go to
scriptures, and have legitimate conversation and discussion about it,
and it was really incredible. Had spiritual afterglow the rest of the
day, and the next day too. :) Then the next time we showed up, it was
just him, and he asked us about the Restoration, because we left a
pamphlet with him, and it wasn't AS good, but really it's hard to have
a killer lesson like that two times in a row. He was busy the rest of
the week, and we're going to be busy until Thursday with Elder Wells
going home, but I'm looking forward to seeing him again!
Anyway, must be off, but I love you! Best of luck on everything!
You're in my prayers!
Love,
Elder Marks
January 5, 2014 Letter
You know, I think that teaching runs in our blood. I asked our DL (District Leader)
if he could give a training on asking Inspired Questions, because I really needed help
on that, and so he assigned me to give a training on it in our next
District Meeting. And it was SUCH a blast! I LOVE teaching, especially
in English! :) So a mission is a good place for me to be. :)
As far as I go... New Year's Eve, I found out that I'm going to be a
trainer! Last Wednesday of the month, an Elder Davis will be setting
down here, straight from the Provo MTC! So I'm going to be teaching
him all about missionary work, and I'm going to have to be able to
pretty much stand on my own while he gets his feet under him. Eh...
Ya. Nervous, because I don't feel like I can hack the language THAT
well yet, and definitely worried that I'm going to mess this kid up,
because I don't really know enough about missionary work, but I'm also
way excited!
We also got the contract from the Captain Cook Hotel, so
we're planning on moving in there at the same time that Elder Davis
comes. So it'll be just me and a brand new missionary! It's scary,
but it's also exciting, because we'll pretty much be able to do
whatever I want (New missionaries tend to go along with whatever the
senior comp says) and I'll be able to work as hard as I want! I'm
going to give him the same treatment Sias gave me, and we're going to
make this area explode. Banana's been having some tough times, and
this is going to be what it needs to make a comeback.
More WAY cool stuff happened this week! When we were on the back of a
truck right home, a man started talking to Elder Wells. (Almost never
happens, people will be friendly if you talk to them, but they're
usually afraid to start a conversation with us.) After they talked for
a bit, Elder Wells asked if he wanted us to come over and teach him,
and the man was very happy to have us do that. We visited him, and it
turns out that he was baptized in Tarawa 30 years ago, but is
inactive. But let me tell you what ELSE is going to happen there!
(bounces up and down in chair a bit with excitement.)
When we came in to meet with him at first, it was like stepping into
old-school Kiribati. Not because of the setting, because we were
actually in a relatively nice government house, but because of how the
meeting was conducted. He offered us every hospitality and respect,
which is Kiribati culture to do for missionaries but often gets
forgotten, but he also required the respect normally due only to a Kiribati
unimwaane (old man, but a much more respectful term in Kiribati than
in English.) It's hard to really describe all the little things, but
essentially, it was very old, very cultural Kiribati.
So we talked for a while, about our hope for him, about his hope for meeting with us,
and what eventually became of it is that today, Monday, he's preparing
questions for us, then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday he's going to
be asking us his questions, and then he's going to talk with his
family about it on Friday. If he likes our answers, then he wants us
to teach his entire family. That's a cool thing, especially after you
know that his entire family includes about 12 adult children and
in-laws, with their children! So if all goes well, the next week will
essentially be the same thing, except the entire family will be asking
us questions! Right now, the entire family is Catholic, (which is WAY
different than catholic elsewhere) but Toaia, this man, said that he wants his
family to grow up in the right way, and he sees us doing that, so he wants for his
family what he sees in us.
So... It's exciting! We're about do be doing something very unlike what missionaries normally do
these days, and we're going to be very outside of our comfort zones, but this has
the potential to almost double the size of Banana Branch, and more
importantly, bring a LOT of people to Christ! If all goes well, me and
my trainee are going to be the busiest missionaries in the mission! :)
So, pray for me and my companion, because this could very well be the
most fruitful week of either of our missions! And heck, pray for me
even more, because pretty quick here, I'm going to be training a new
missionary, AND dealing with that situation, on top of what we're
already doing! It's overwhelming, but at the end of the day, I know
that the Lord will never give us something that's too hard for us to
do, as long as we're trusting in Him and absolutely relying on His
help. So here we go! FOR NARNIA! AND FOR ISRAEL! :)
Elder Marks
Old Letters I moved:
Shark Fishing (posted October 29, 2013)I finally got Spencer's letter to Greg with the shark story. Here it is.
Not many cool stories from this week, but the shark! Here's how it works. You put out a line with a great big hook and some dead fish on it. (We did this from the shore, because we aren't allowed on private boats.) Then you take a bunch of OTHER dead fish, and put it in the water. The shark smells it and comes looking. He munches on various dead fish, enjoying his free meal, when all of a sudden, he sees one slightly bigger than the rest. "Ah, ANNE bon te ika bwa i kan ni kana!" he thinks, being from Kiribati. So, since that's the fish he wants to eat, he grabs it. All of a sudden, he feels a big sharp metal thing in his mouth. "Ngkai, ngkai!" Yells the Kiribati man that is standing in the water, because the Elders aren't allowed. And the Elders pull with all their might, fighting and dragging the shark up the beach. Once it's well out of reach of the water, they drop large rocks on its head until it dies. This shark was about 5 feet long, and when we cut it open, it had four little baby sharks in it! Each about a cubit long, and still very much alive! So we performed a C-section on a dead shark, and set its children free into the ocean! They're tiny, and they could barely make it past the waves, but we gave them a chance! :) Yup, that's shark fishing. Tune in next time for another exciting episode! :) Loves!
If you would like to receive an e-mail when we post a new letter from Elder Marks, send me your e-mail address at smarksbrothers@hotmail.com.
Elder Marks's First LetterJuly 5, 2013
Dear Family and Friends,
Mauri! This is my third day in the MTC, and it's like nothing I've ever experienced. It is SO amazing. the Spirit here is unlike anything outside the temple, and I love it. I feel like that's kind of something that's a bit cliche, but it's absolutely true. This is amazing.
I'm part of a threesome here. My companions are Elder Smith and Elder Kim. They're both from southern California, Clippers fans, and great guys. As it turns out, we all have something awesome about our names in Kiribati. Elder Smith is pronounced "Elda Smees", which turns into "Elda Smeeeees!" My name will be "Elda Mareko", which sounds like Elda 'Merica if you say it fast enough. Elder Kim, well, as it turns out, Kim means "your rear end", but not as polite. We'll see what happens when he meets natives.
Pretty much all the time, we've been studying language. Actually, yesterday was mostly "personal study," because they forgot to get us a teacher. We also watched "17 Miracles" for the 4th, which is AMAZING. Watch it this week! Anyway, back to language. We pretty much only learned stuff today, but we already know so much! We talked to some Tahitian elders, and they were very impressed when they found out it was our second day. We can bear testimony of a few basic t hings, like Iotebra Timiti (Joseph Smith) and Iesu Kristo lives. We can count to seven, introduce ourselves, say hello and goodbye, say a couple other random things, and we're working on basic prayers. The days seem like they last forever, and they are packed non-stop, but it is so satisfying to go to sleep knowing how much we've accomplished. I've never worked this hard in my lfie, and I love it.
I've seen so many people that I know! I've run into the Hiatt sisters, Sister Jacklin, and a ton of other people, it would take way too long to name them all. I see Sister Rasband all the time, and I ran into Elder Reinhardt the other day! I told him that basically everybody in Sandpoint said hi, sorry if anybody doesn't approve.
Oh, important. I get to start emailing next Thursday, but I'm only allowed to email immediate family. So if you want to contact me, use DearElder.com! I'm in unit 117, make sure to leave your address so I can respond. Sorry if leters are short or a long time in coming, it is insanely busy here and I need to get some envelopes and stamps so I can stop mooching off of Sister McBride (who is a saint. Just saying, we have two sisters in our district, and they are both amazing. We're lucky to have them.)
Overall, I'm safe, I'm happy, the food is great (but gives you gas, and our dinner time is 4:30, which is junk.) Other than that, I can't complain! I'm so excited for this opportunity, and I'm loving the MTC. I'll write more home as soon as I can!
Tangira (Love),
Elder Mareko
P.S. Kiribati fact--while most people in Kiribati don't live in huts, the doors will be about waist high on me!
[A picture of a house with the top of a door at the waist level of a stick figure was included, but I can't type that!]
Editors note: We got this letter in the snail mail today (July 8, 2013). Those of you who have tried to read Spencer's writing know that it can be a challenge. I hope I got everything right here. Next time we'll get an e-mail, so it should be all good then. If you know somebody else who might be interested in reading Spencer's letters, you can give them this website's domain name. We're also going to post on his Facebook page when we get a letter.
if he could give a training on asking Inspired Questions, because I really needed help
on that, and so he assigned me to give a training on it in our next
District Meeting. And it was SUCH a blast! I LOVE teaching, especially
in English! :) So a mission is a good place for me to be. :)
As far as I go... New Year's Eve, I found out that I'm going to be a
trainer! Last Wednesday of the month, an Elder Davis will be setting
down here, straight from the Provo MTC! So I'm going to be teaching
him all about missionary work, and I'm going to have to be able to
pretty much stand on my own while he gets his feet under him. Eh...
Ya. Nervous, because I don't feel like I can hack the language THAT
well yet, and definitely worried that I'm going to mess this kid up,
because I don't really know enough about missionary work, but I'm also
way excited!
We also got the contract from the Captain Cook Hotel, so
we're planning on moving in there at the same time that Elder Davis
comes. So it'll be just me and a brand new missionary! It's scary,
but it's also exciting, because we'll pretty much be able to do
whatever I want (New missionaries tend to go along with whatever the
senior comp says) and I'll be able to work as hard as I want! I'm
going to give him the same treatment Sias gave me, and we're going to
make this area explode. Banana's been having some tough times, and
this is going to be what it needs to make a comeback.
More WAY cool stuff happened this week! When we were on the back of a
truck right home, a man started talking to Elder Wells. (Almost never
happens, people will be friendly if you talk to them, but they're
usually afraid to start a conversation with us.) After they talked for
a bit, Elder Wells asked if he wanted us to come over and teach him,
and the man was very happy to have us do that. We visited him, and it
turns out that he was baptized in Tarawa 30 years ago, but is
inactive. But let me tell you what ELSE is going to happen there!
(bounces up and down in chair a bit with excitement.)
When we came in to meet with him at first, it was like stepping into
old-school Kiribati. Not because of the setting, because we were
actually in a relatively nice government house, but because of how the
meeting was conducted. He offered us every hospitality and respect,
which is Kiribati culture to do for missionaries but often gets
forgotten, but he also required the respect normally due only to a Kiribati
unimwaane (old man, but a much more respectful term in Kiribati than
in English.) It's hard to really describe all the little things, but
essentially, it was very old, very cultural Kiribati.
So we talked for a while, about our hope for him, about his hope for meeting with us,
and what eventually became of it is that today, Monday, he's preparing
questions for us, then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday he's going to
be asking us his questions, and then he's going to talk with his
family about it on Friday. If he likes our answers, then he wants us
to teach his entire family. That's a cool thing, especially after you
know that his entire family includes about 12 adult children and
in-laws, with their children! So if all goes well, the next week will
essentially be the same thing, except the entire family will be asking
us questions! Right now, the entire family is Catholic, (which is WAY
different than catholic elsewhere) but Toaia, this man, said that he wants his
family to grow up in the right way, and he sees us doing that, so he wants for his
family what he sees in us.
So... It's exciting! We're about do be doing something very unlike what missionaries normally do
these days, and we're going to be very outside of our comfort zones, but this has
the potential to almost double the size of Banana Branch, and more
importantly, bring a LOT of people to Christ! If all goes well, me and
my trainee are going to be the busiest missionaries in the mission! :)
So, pray for me and my companion, because this could very well be the
most fruitful week of either of our missions! And heck, pray for me
even more, because pretty quick here, I'm going to be training a new
missionary, AND dealing with that situation, on top of what we're
already doing! It's overwhelming, but at the end of the day, I know
that the Lord will never give us something that's too hard for us to
do, as long as we're trusting in Him and absolutely relying on His
help. So here we go! FOR NARNIA! AND FOR ISRAEL! :)
Elder Marks
Old Letters I moved:
Shark Fishing (posted October 29, 2013)I finally got Spencer's letter to Greg with the shark story. Here it is.
Not many cool stories from this week, but the shark! Here's how it works. You put out a line with a great big hook and some dead fish on it. (We did this from the shore, because we aren't allowed on private boats.) Then you take a bunch of OTHER dead fish, and put it in the water. The shark smells it and comes looking. He munches on various dead fish, enjoying his free meal, when all of a sudden, he sees one slightly bigger than the rest. "Ah, ANNE bon te ika bwa i kan ni kana!" he thinks, being from Kiribati. So, since that's the fish he wants to eat, he grabs it. All of a sudden, he feels a big sharp metal thing in his mouth. "Ngkai, ngkai!" Yells the Kiribati man that is standing in the water, because the Elders aren't allowed. And the Elders pull with all their might, fighting and dragging the shark up the beach. Once it's well out of reach of the water, they drop large rocks on its head until it dies. This shark was about 5 feet long, and when we cut it open, it had four little baby sharks in it! Each about a cubit long, and still very much alive! So we performed a C-section on a dead shark, and set its children free into the ocean! They're tiny, and they could barely make it past the waves, but we gave them a chance! :) Yup, that's shark fishing. Tune in next time for another exciting episode! :) Loves!
If you would like to receive an e-mail when we post a new letter from Elder Marks, send me your e-mail address at smarksbrothers@hotmail.com.
Elder Marks's First LetterJuly 5, 2013
Dear Family and Friends,
Mauri! This is my third day in the MTC, and it's like nothing I've ever experienced. It is SO amazing. the Spirit here is unlike anything outside the temple, and I love it. I feel like that's kind of something that's a bit cliche, but it's absolutely true. This is amazing.
I'm part of a threesome here. My companions are Elder Smith and Elder Kim. They're both from southern California, Clippers fans, and great guys. As it turns out, we all have something awesome about our names in Kiribati. Elder Smith is pronounced "Elda Smees", which turns into "Elda Smeeeees!" My name will be "Elda Mareko", which sounds like Elda 'Merica if you say it fast enough. Elder Kim, well, as it turns out, Kim means "your rear end", but not as polite. We'll see what happens when he meets natives.
Pretty much all the time, we've been studying language. Actually, yesterday was mostly "personal study," because they forgot to get us a teacher. We also watched "17 Miracles" for the 4th, which is AMAZING. Watch it this week! Anyway, back to language. We pretty much only learned stuff today, but we already know so much! We talked to some Tahitian elders, and they were very impressed when they found out it was our second day. We can bear testimony of a few basic t hings, like Iotebra Timiti (Joseph Smith) and Iesu Kristo lives. We can count to seven, introduce ourselves, say hello and goodbye, say a couple other random things, and we're working on basic prayers. The days seem like they last forever, and they are packed non-stop, but it is so satisfying to go to sleep knowing how much we've accomplished. I've never worked this hard in my lfie, and I love it.
I've seen so many people that I know! I've run into the Hiatt sisters, Sister Jacklin, and a ton of other people, it would take way too long to name them all. I see Sister Rasband all the time, and I ran into Elder Reinhardt the other day! I told him that basically everybody in Sandpoint said hi, sorry if anybody doesn't approve.
Oh, important. I get to start emailing next Thursday, but I'm only allowed to email immediate family. So if you want to contact me, use DearElder.com! I'm in unit 117, make sure to leave your address so I can respond. Sorry if leters are short or a long time in coming, it is insanely busy here and I need to get some envelopes and stamps so I can stop mooching off of Sister McBride (who is a saint. Just saying, we have two sisters in our district, and they are both amazing. We're lucky to have them.)
Overall, I'm safe, I'm happy, the food is great (but gives you gas, and our dinner time is 4:30, which is junk.) Other than that, I can't complain! I'm so excited for this opportunity, and I'm loving the MTC. I'll write more home as soon as I can!
Tangira (Love),
Elder Mareko
P.S. Kiribati fact--while most people in Kiribati don't live in huts, the doors will be about waist high on me!
[A picture of a house with the top of a door at the waist level of a stick figure was included, but I can't type that!]
Editors note: We got this letter in the snail mail today (July 8, 2013). Those of you who have tried to read Spencer's writing know that it can be a challenge. I hope I got everything right here. Next time we'll get an e-mail, so it should be all good then. If you know somebody else who might be interested in reading Spencer's letters, you can give them this website's domain name. We're also going to post on his Facebook page when we get a letter.