Spencer Marks Kiribati Mission

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Letter of May 31, 2015

All right, so I only have 30 minutes left to email, and a LOT to say,
so this is going to be fast and a lot and I hope you all enjoy it. And
I'm keeping a good journal so we can talk about everything else later.
:)

Life on Tarawa is AMAZING! Legitimately, every day has been a crazy
adventure. We got flown back on Tuesday, I got in to radio and AP
Maisey was sitting there waiting. "Marks, is that you?!" "Ya!" "GO TO
THE AIRFIELD RIGHT NOW, YOUR PLANE IS COMING!" Oh, wow, that's how we
rock transfers. So didn't get to say goodbye to anybody, tiabo Beru.

Flew to Kuria, where there is no internet and Loe has been working for
ten months. He had no idea because the phone has been down too. So he
had to leave, didn't get to say goodbye to anybody. He was pretty
bummed about it. I mean, ten months?! I feel for him.

So then we got to Tarawa, and we're both working Bikenibeu 2nd! Elder
Loe is from my MTC intake, a good ol boy from Delta Utah. He's spent
most of his time on outies, but spent a couple months in Bikenibeu 2nd
back in the day, so he's leading us around. Thank goodness, it would
be rough otherwise. 

It's so great, we're cruising around, everybody
wants to give us referrals and fellowship investigators and talk about
their missions (SO many RMs) and give us DELICIOUS food, it's just
amazing. We're rocking worlds out here, I couldn't pick a better comp
and area to finish in.

On Wednesday, we had my first and last zone conference! So that made
for an interesting closing testimony. "Hi, I know nobody knows me, but
I'm Elder Marks and I'm about to leave." And then bore my testimony.

And then we ate LASAGNA!!! And I didn't even get sick! Which is not
normal, that usually puts Elders in a bad way, even if they've been in
Tarawa. And outie folks get home and have problems anyway, so I
figured that Lasagna combined with just getting back would kill me. NO
problems, so that's awesome. :) 

We had an amazing training on the
Atonement of Christ. Our APs and mission president and his wife are
all hugely inspired people, there was definitely a reason I got pulled
in for that. Heavenly Father knew I needed it. President Weir said
that he'd received revelation that God wanted to give us the message
in Alma 7. And it's a good message! So that was good. :)

While we were out teaching one day, we met a man named Big Eddy. He
claims that God was smoking, and the ash of his cigarrete fell and hit
Eddy on the head, giving him incredible knowledge and now he's
starting a church. Explained their doctrines to us, and I had SUCH a
hard time not just busting out laughing when he talked about the
cigarette. Up to that point I'd been just praying so hard about what
we could say to help this guy, but when he said that I was just trying
to not laugh. Great guy, great guy. :)

And Elder Tarati! My old comp on Beru, two months ago! We were walking
home one night and a car pulls over, guy gets out and addresses us in
perfect American English (He's good) "Hey, where are you guys going?"
TARATI!!! The man is ENGAGED! He didn't even have a crush on anybody
when we were on Beru, and he invited us to his huge engagement party!
Which we got permission to go to on the other side of the island. :)

And there was a huge stake dance party, and Tarawa Ieta came, I didn't
see them but all of a sudden I was mobbed by all those little kids
that I absolutely LOVE! And then got to see them all, and some have
already sent a letter to my house because they thought I was home! :)
So that's where that came from. They all did so good, it was great
seeing my old people, Thomas is still super faithful and led the
dance, Taabita and her husband were there with their kids and looking
good, and Biirati wasn't there but he's working on his mission papers!
:) SO HAPPY!!!!! :)

We need to go! I'll try to email again later! LOVES!!!!!



Letter of May 25, 2015

Well, outer islands are fun! We have NO clue what's going on with my
transfer! The word last week was this Friday, and then internet died,
and it just came back on and saw an email telling me I'll fly
tomorrow! So woohoo! We'll see how this all goes down, especially
because now the APs aren't emailing me back, so they may have
postponed the flight because I hadn't answered. Cell phones are a
magical invention, NEVER take them for granted!

It's been pretty weird this week. Because of how short of a time I'm
going to be in Bikenibeu, this really feels like my last area. I mean,
I'm usually in an area for more than 5 months, now I'm going to be in
one for two and a half weeks. :P So, it's strange. I'm realizing how
much being a missionary has become part of my life. I mean, I am
CONSTANTLY teaching, serving, trying to help people to live a better,
happier life. Nothing I ever do is for me. And now, thinking about
going home, I'm going to have a JOB! I'm going to go to SCHOOL! Why am
I going to do such things? So I can have MONEY. For myself, not for
somebody else! That just seems so dirty and bad! :P I mean, I know
it's not, we have to work so that we can live and such, but I'm just
so used to this way of living, it kind of freaks me out. I mean, my
first day back, I'm going to wake up in the morning, study, and... I
don't know! I'm sure it will be fun, but... I don't know. There's more
to this whole life shin dig than fun.

Don't get me wrong. I am PUMPED to see everybody again. Family,
friends, food, it's going to be glorious. Just strange. But I'm not
the first Elder who's come home, and I won't be the last, I'll figure
it out. I've got a couple more weeks, and Elder Loe and I are going to
rock Bikenibeu like it's never been rocked before. :)

Anyway, Happy Memorial Day! I sang all kinds of patriotic songs to my
companion last night, and I'll sing some more today. America is a
great country, with great people who have defended it! Don't forget
it! I love you all, and I'll see you soon!



Letter of May 17, 2015

SO! Seeing family on skype is about the greatest thing that any
missionary could ever have happen to him! :) And wow we got lucky.
Maybe ten minutes after we got off, internet died and just came back
on today. So, Heavenly Father was watching out for us on that one! :)
So good to see everybody, excited to see you all again in a month!

As for this week, remember how I said that the rainy season was over?
I think Heavenly Father chuckled when I said that, because He then
dumped an entire week of crazy rainfall on us. It has been a VERY
soggy, muddy week! Which filled our rainwater tank right up. And then
it leaked again, but now we knew how to fix it, so we're still a bit
higher than it was last time. We told President about it, hoping he
can fix it somehow. He has his ways. :)

Exciting stuff, I just found out that I'm getting transferred! Who
knows when! This week or next, they told us to just keep checking in.
I'm going to transfer to work Tarawa for the last few weeks! With
Elder Loe, my buddy from the MTC who I love so very much but haven't
seen for the last two years because we've both been outie bushmen! So
pumped, we're going to blow the lid off of Bikinibeu. :) I may get to
ride a charter plane back, which would be exciting. :) But we'll see!
There's a chance the next email you get from me I'll be in Tarawa. But
at this point, really no clue. That's Kiribati. We'll see! :)

A ship just came! So we'll get food again! :) We've been living off of
fish jerky and coconut at our house. And no laundry soap. I'm telling
you, when we do the game at Thanksgiving where we all say things we're
grateful for, I am going to CREAM you ALL! :)

We got general conference talks too! It was such a great conference!
Looking forward to hearing the Sunday session! Priesthood was an
amazing one. I feel like every general conference is more legendary
than the last these days. The savior will probably attend the next one
in person. :)

OH! GOOD THING ABOUT THIS WEEK! SO HAPPY!!! I mean, we also had the
fun stuff where I got in a fight with our branch president because he
was refusing to even try to rescue less actives, saying that it's
better that they're less active, and the normal fun outer island
stuff, but! RAMTEN IS QUITTING SMOKING! Guy who was super faithful in
the church way back in the day, except he could never get over smoking
and hid it. (Normal here. :P ) So then when he was called as group
leader, nobody wanted to come to church if he was in charge, so the
entire church in his village went less active, and he followed. Went
back to the Catholic, and has been ashamed to come back because he was
a HARD CORE smoker. Like, we came to talk, and after 30 minutes he
asked if he could smoke because he was feeling sick without it. Really
bad. So we made a plan with him, and were going to follow up, but
stuff kept happening and we didn't get to follow up for two and a half
weeks. That means that the person fails at quitting smoking. 100% of
the time, no fail. UNTIL RAMTEN! He was down to 2 smokes a day when we
saw him last week, and tomorrow, we're going to have dinner with him
to celebrate him quitting smoking! After we met with him, we were
biking home and I was just praying thanking Father in Heaven. Ramten
is such a good guy, and he's going to be able to come back to church!

So, that pretty much made my entire stay on Beru. :) Especially
because we've been so long without feeling like we were really making
any kind of progress, and that was a miracle that I needed. Made all
the difference for me. Heavenly Father really knows how to make sure
we have what we really need in our lives. :)

Anyway, I'm about to roll, got a gospel to preach. :) But I love you
all! And I'll see you soon! :)

Love,

Elder Marks





Letter of May 3, 2015

This week, I tasted the absolutely number one most scrumptious morsel
of delicious savory joy that I have ever laid my taste buds upon. I
ATE AN APPLE!!! :) My mission president came and visited (more on that
later) and when he saw me, he opened up his bag and pulled out a bag
of apples and oranges. I was a very happy man. :) 

The APs came, one from Kiribati who knows me and one from Marshalls who doesn't, 
and the Kiribati one had to explain to the other why I was freaking out about
a bag of apples and oranges. :) It's been a VERY long time! It was
fast Sunday, so we didn't eat it until that night, and when I tasted
it... OH MY HEAVENS! It was like a whole new rainbow of flavor was
opened upon my senses! Such sweet tanginess, and such a glorious apple
flavor! It tasted like home! To those who are Brian Regan fans, you
know his one on the thousand dollar plate of food? How he described a
thousand dollar plate of food being was EXACTLY how I was with that
apple. Or in another description, Bob with his corn. And President
also brought bread! REAL BREAD! Such a sublime, rich flavor! AH! We
put it with corned beef to have some protein, but most of it I just
ate plain because it was so delicious! I forgot what flavor was like!

I'm going to die when I get home. :)

But yes, it was a glorious week! Our mission president came, which was
grand! It was short, only an hour and a half, because he was just on
his way back from Nikunau and had to be back to Tarawa before dark,
but it was so great. He talked in church, and it was so great to feel
the Spirit! Usually, we're the ones who speak, and when we don't...
It's usually rough, just somebody venting their frustration at
everybody else for not doing what they want. :P 

But that was amazing! And it was just what the people here need to hear. So I was 
really glad to hear that. Really short interview, where he said that I'd
probably be here up to the very end, rather than doing the usual where
they pull us in two weeks to a month early to avoid airplane problems.
But he said not to worry, they'd charter a plane to get me out of here
if they needed to so they can get me on the plane home in time. :)

That would be cool!

Anyway, wanted to share a thought I had this week after a hard day. We
can't do anything great if we don't have anything great to do. You
can't be a hero without a quest to complete! So when things get hard,
we just have to remember that God is in control, and He's giving us a
chance to be heroes. It's a glorious thing! :)

Anyway, love you loads, hope everything goes well back in the States!

:) See you on Skype next week!

Love,

Elder Marks

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