November 3, 2013
[I asked Spencer to tell us about how a typical day goes in Kiribati, so here's what he wrote]
November 24 Letter:
And now, Ladies and Jellybeans...
A Day on Kiritimati
At about 3:30, the roosters go off. Before my mission, I always
thought of the rooster as this noble creature, waking up at the crack
of dawn to awake the farm and welcome the new day. Maybe it's
different in America, but here, that couldn't be farther from the
truth. The roosters all start going crazy, trying to outdo each other,
calling back and forth, all with the same "ca KA, cruOOOwww!" There's
the occasional one that's still going through puberty, "koooooraaoo!"
and the occasional drunk one that just goes all night. But that's
before the day.
6:30, on the dot (or as on the dot as you can be here, nobody really
knows what time it is, I've got it within half an hour) our alarm
clocks go off. Depending on how bad my diahrea is, I either say my
prayer or rush to the bathroom. After the bathroom, it's back to the
bed for prayers, because that's where the bunga (mosquito net) is, and
to pray anywhere else is to ask to be eaten alive.
After that, I do some excersises under the bunga, pushups and situps and planks. and
then go outside to do some stuff with the exercise bands. Then it's
breakfast, which usually consists of Milo (which is basically
Ovaltine, hot chocolate that you put your own sugar in) and either
granola bars, crackers, or Krusteaz pancakes. Then I shower, trying
not to hit my head on the shower head or ceiling, and sometimes
shooing out the cat that comes in the hole in the wall. Then I get all
dressed up in my missionary getup!
At 8:00 (sometimes a bit after, we have 4 elders trying to use the
shower at once) I start personal study. I've finished Jesus the Christ
by Talmadge, which is an absolutely INCREDIBLE book and has greatly
enriched my Bible reading and understanding, as well as True to the
Faith and Our Search for Happiness. Right now I'm reading in Luke in
the Bible, and Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, and every day I read a
bit in Preach My Gospel.
Personal Study is one of the most important parts of the day, it helps
me bring the Spirit into my day and strengthens me for the day.
After that, it's Companionship Study at 9. We talk about who we're
going to teach and what we're going to teach them. We also are trying
to do the training program for new missionaries. It's supposed to last
12 weeks, but I'm still on Week 6 because of the craziness of this
mission, it's hard to have a "typical day". We'll see if I ever
actually finish it. :)
At 11, we grab something really quick to eat (or sometimes we don't
eat, if it's the end of the month and we don't have something quick)
and head out to the bus stop. And sit, and wait. You get to know your
comp really well working in Banana, because sometimes you'll wait as
long as 2 or 3 hours at that bus stop. But usually it only takes an
hour, and either a bus, or more likely, some nice truck going to
Banana will stop and we can hop on. I've ridden in the backs of trucks
filled with coconuts, hung on to great big cargo things, hitched rides
on "school buses", which is just a truck with a bunch of kids in the
back, and pretty much anything else that would stop for Mormon
missionaries. Sometimes, a car will even stop that lets us into the
passenger area! But that's only happened a few times.
It's about a half hour drive to Banana, if a Kiribati person drives
(they drive way slow, I can make it in 15 minutes easy.)
So we usually get there at around 1 o'clock. We do language study up there (reading
the Book of Mormon in Kiribati, because the Bible translation is
terrible and there really aren't any good resources for learning
Kiribati) and usually start teaching at 2.
We do a LOT of walking around, because our bikes are pretty much constantly broken, and a lot
of people really never have a clue what time it is, beyond te ingabong
(morning) or te bwakantai (afternoon). So we end up walking to a
house, nobody will be home, walking to another house, and another
house, teaching a lesson, going back to the first house, teaching,
walking around some more... I remember that for the physical before
the mission, they asked if I was capable of walking five miles in a
day. Five miles ain't NOTHIN! I've had days where I walked around all
day, and only got a half hour break to teach one lesson. In blazing
hot sun. Without clean water (and you don't drink the not clean
water.)
Anyway, we do that for the rest of the day, until 7 o'clock,
when we have dinner (ya, seems way late for us, but that's actually a
pretty early dinner in this culture.) DInners in Banana (it's the
poorest area on Kiritimati) range from rice, fish soup, and hot dogs,
to rice with a can of cold corned beef plopped on the side. And
Karewe, watered down coconut sap, to drink. Sometimes we get chicken,
and if there's a great big bootaki (party) we'll even have pork, but
those don't happen as much in banana. It's a great day when we get
invited to dinner in Tabwakea or London, those dinners are DANG good.
Sometimes there will be cole slaw, there's often chicken, sometimes
there's soda, last night we even had cinnamon rolls! Holy crud, I'm
getting hungry now.
At this juncture, I'd like to interject that it is VERY rude to send
pictures of food from home. Elder Puleiku just got a picture from an
Elder that just went home of a Subway sandwich, Doritos, and a soda.
Not okay.
After dinner, we usually share a spiritual message and then try to hit
the road by 8. We hitchike home. Usually walk out from town a bit so
we don't see anybody we know, and then just lay down on the road. When
we see lights coming, we stand up and try to wave them down. Worst
thing in the world there is motorcycles, and there are way more
motorcycles than cars here.
If we can't hitch a ride, we text the Andersons, our AWESOME Senior Couple missionaries, and they'll come
pick us up. If there's no service, which is the case about as often as
not, and we aren't home by 9, they come out looking for us,
Hitchhiking is exciting, just saying. Two night ago, got to ride home
with some ex-Mormons who were talking about how they believed the
church, and how they were glad they could repent and stuff. The bed of
the pickup truck was soaked with alcohol, and they were too. Very
interesting to talk to them. :)
So ya! Get home, talk with the other missionaries about how the day
went, plan a bit for the next day, and then climb under the bunga!
Write in the journal, say my prayers, and boom, I'm out. The bed is
actually a bunch of sticks bound together with a coconut leaf mat over
them, but I'm tired enough at night that I don't really care.
I say goodnight to the drunk rooster that just started singing, and pretty
quick I'm out, resting up to do it all again tomorrow! It's a great
life, and I'm loving it. :)
Hope that sheds a little bit of light on how life is out here. I'm
kind of starting to forget a bit about what's weird and what's not, so
you can be sure I'll have more once I get back to America. Thanks for
the prayers, and thanks for the updates! It's good to hear about
everything going on back there. You're in my prayers, and I love you
loads! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Marks
[Here's part of Spencer's latest e-mail]
Dear Friends and Family,
Speaking of standing tall... I realized the other day just how much
taller I am than other people here. Holy crud! You don't really think
about it because you get used to just looking down, but man! It's
crazy. :)
Been a bit of a rough week. My comp has been sick so we haven't done
much work, and two star investigators missed church for the second
week in a row. We went home right after church, though, so I didn't
get to visit them and find out why. The member we had matched up with
one of them thinks that she's a liar. But I know that she knows that
it's true. So we'll see what happens there.
On the plus side, one of our investigators adopted me this week! :)
She told me that I was her kid now. So... I guess I have a Kiribati
mom now? Not as good as my American one, but she's all right, I guess.
:)
Funny story, ran into a drunk guy on Saturday. My comp and I were
walking down the street, and this really old dude ambles out from the
police station. He asked "How do you do?" (They talk a lot more
English when they're drunk, because then they aren't shy about it.) I
replied in Kiribati, saying I was great, and asked where he was
heading. He told us he was coming with us, and then grabbed my hand.
So there I am, walking down the main road in Banana, holding this tiny
little old drunk man's hand. He told me we were on a date, that he
loved me, and asked if we were going to England or the New World. I
told him the New World, and he said, "Good. I went there once, and we
drank rum like water! Rum rum rum rum..." Luckily, we got to the house
where we were teaching a lesson, and I told him we had to teach, so we
had to go. He was fine with it, finally let go of my hand, and said
"See you around." Oh gosh, I sure hope not! :)
Anyway, work goes on. The thing about missionary work is that the very
same people who give you so much joy as they progress give you so much
pain when they fall. Just gotta pick up and keep on going, I guess.
And thus we carry on! :)
Love,
Elder Marks
November 24 Letter:
And now, Ladies and Jellybeans...
A Day on Kiritimati
At about 3:30, the roosters go off. Before my mission, I always
thought of the rooster as this noble creature, waking up at the crack
of dawn to awake the farm and welcome the new day. Maybe it's
different in America, but here, that couldn't be farther from the
truth. The roosters all start going crazy, trying to outdo each other,
calling back and forth, all with the same "ca KA, cruOOOwww!" There's
the occasional one that's still going through puberty, "koooooraaoo!"
and the occasional drunk one that just goes all night. But that's
before the day.
6:30, on the dot (or as on the dot as you can be here, nobody really
knows what time it is, I've got it within half an hour) our alarm
clocks go off. Depending on how bad my diahrea is, I either say my
prayer or rush to the bathroom. After the bathroom, it's back to the
bed for prayers, because that's where the bunga (mosquito net) is, and
to pray anywhere else is to ask to be eaten alive.
After that, I do some excersises under the bunga, pushups and situps and planks. and
then go outside to do some stuff with the exercise bands. Then it's
breakfast, which usually consists of Milo (which is basically
Ovaltine, hot chocolate that you put your own sugar in) and either
granola bars, crackers, or Krusteaz pancakes. Then I shower, trying
not to hit my head on the shower head or ceiling, and sometimes
shooing out the cat that comes in the hole in the wall. Then I get all
dressed up in my missionary getup!
At 8:00 (sometimes a bit after, we have 4 elders trying to use the
shower at once) I start personal study. I've finished Jesus the Christ
by Talmadge, which is an absolutely INCREDIBLE book and has greatly
enriched my Bible reading and understanding, as well as True to the
Faith and Our Search for Happiness. Right now I'm reading in Luke in
the Bible, and Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, and every day I read a
bit in Preach My Gospel.
Personal Study is one of the most important parts of the day, it helps
me bring the Spirit into my day and strengthens me for the day.
After that, it's Companionship Study at 9. We talk about who we're
going to teach and what we're going to teach them. We also are trying
to do the training program for new missionaries. It's supposed to last
12 weeks, but I'm still on Week 6 because of the craziness of this
mission, it's hard to have a "typical day". We'll see if I ever
actually finish it. :)
At 11, we grab something really quick to eat (or sometimes we don't
eat, if it's the end of the month and we don't have something quick)
and head out to the bus stop. And sit, and wait. You get to know your
comp really well working in Banana, because sometimes you'll wait as
long as 2 or 3 hours at that bus stop. But usually it only takes an
hour, and either a bus, or more likely, some nice truck going to
Banana will stop and we can hop on. I've ridden in the backs of trucks
filled with coconuts, hung on to great big cargo things, hitched rides
on "school buses", which is just a truck with a bunch of kids in the
back, and pretty much anything else that would stop for Mormon
missionaries. Sometimes, a car will even stop that lets us into the
passenger area! But that's only happened a few times.
It's about a half hour drive to Banana, if a Kiribati person drives
(they drive way slow, I can make it in 15 minutes easy.)
So we usually get there at around 1 o'clock. We do language study up there (reading
the Book of Mormon in Kiribati, because the Bible translation is
terrible and there really aren't any good resources for learning
Kiribati) and usually start teaching at 2.
We do a LOT of walking around, because our bikes are pretty much constantly broken, and a lot
of people really never have a clue what time it is, beyond te ingabong
(morning) or te bwakantai (afternoon). So we end up walking to a
house, nobody will be home, walking to another house, and another
house, teaching a lesson, going back to the first house, teaching,
walking around some more... I remember that for the physical before
the mission, they asked if I was capable of walking five miles in a
day. Five miles ain't NOTHIN! I've had days where I walked around all
day, and only got a half hour break to teach one lesson. In blazing
hot sun. Without clean water (and you don't drink the not clean
water.)
Anyway, we do that for the rest of the day, until 7 o'clock,
when we have dinner (ya, seems way late for us, but that's actually a
pretty early dinner in this culture.) DInners in Banana (it's the
poorest area on Kiritimati) range from rice, fish soup, and hot dogs,
to rice with a can of cold corned beef plopped on the side. And
Karewe, watered down coconut sap, to drink. Sometimes we get chicken,
and if there's a great big bootaki (party) we'll even have pork, but
those don't happen as much in banana. It's a great day when we get
invited to dinner in Tabwakea or London, those dinners are DANG good.
Sometimes there will be cole slaw, there's often chicken, sometimes
there's soda, last night we even had cinnamon rolls! Holy crud, I'm
getting hungry now.
At this juncture, I'd like to interject that it is VERY rude to send
pictures of food from home. Elder Puleiku just got a picture from an
Elder that just went home of a Subway sandwich, Doritos, and a soda.
Not okay.
After dinner, we usually share a spiritual message and then try to hit
the road by 8. We hitchike home. Usually walk out from town a bit so
we don't see anybody we know, and then just lay down on the road. When
we see lights coming, we stand up and try to wave them down. Worst
thing in the world there is motorcycles, and there are way more
motorcycles than cars here.
If we can't hitch a ride, we text the Andersons, our AWESOME Senior Couple missionaries, and they'll come
pick us up. If there's no service, which is the case about as often as
not, and we aren't home by 9, they come out looking for us,
Hitchhiking is exciting, just saying. Two night ago, got to ride home
with some ex-Mormons who were talking about how they believed the
church, and how they were glad they could repent and stuff. The bed of
the pickup truck was soaked with alcohol, and they were too. Very
interesting to talk to them. :)
So ya! Get home, talk with the other missionaries about how the day
went, plan a bit for the next day, and then climb under the bunga!
Write in the journal, say my prayers, and boom, I'm out. The bed is
actually a bunch of sticks bound together with a coconut leaf mat over
them, but I'm tired enough at night that I don't really care.
I say goodnight to the drunk rooster that just started singing, and pretty
quick I'm out, resting up to do it all again tomorrow! It's a great
life, and I'm loving it. :)
Hope that sheds a little bit of light on how life is out here. I'm
kind of starting to forget a bit about what's weird and what's not, so
you can be sure I'll have more once I get back to America. Thanks for
the prayers, and thanks for the updates! It's good to hear about
everything going on back there. You're in my prayers, and I love you
loads! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Marks
[Here's part of Spencer's latest e-mail]
Dear Friends and Family,
Speaking of standing tall... I realized the other day just how much
taller I am than other people here. Holy crud! You don't really think
about it because you get used to just looking down, but man! It's
crazy. :)
Been a bit of a rough week. My comp has been sick so we haven't done
much work, and two star investigators missed church for the second
week in a row. We went home right after church, though, so I didn't
get to visit them and find out why. The member we had matched up with
one of them thinks that she's a liar. But I know that she knows that
it's true. So we'll see what happens there.
On the plus side, one of our investigators adopted me this week! :)
She told me that I was her kid now. So... I guess I have a Kiribati
mom now? Not as good as my American one, but she's all right, I guess.
:)
Funny story, ran into a drunk guy on Saturday. My comp and I were
walking down the street, and this really old dude ambles out from the
police station. He asked "How do you do?" (They talk a lot more
English when they're drunk, because then they aren't shy about it.) I
replied in Kiribati, saying I was great, and asked where he was
heading. He told us he was coming with us, and then grabbed my hand.
So there I am, walking down the main road in Banana, holding this tiny
little old drunk man's hand. He told me we were on a date, that he
loved me, and asked if we were going to England or the New World. I
told him the New World, and he said, "Good. I went there once, and we
drank rum like water! Rum rum rum rum..." Luckily, we got to the house
where we were teaching a lesson, and I told him we had to teach, so we
had to go. He was fine with it, finally let go of my hand, and said
"See you around." Oh gosh, I sure hope not! :)
Anyway, work goes on. The thing about missionary work is that the very
same people who give you so much joy as they progress give you so much
pain when they fall. Just gotta pick up and keep on going, I guess.
And thus we carry on! :)
Love,
Elder Marks