Dear Family,
I decided that I will send you a letter
at least once a month! So here we go... Its kinda hard to think of what
to write because I will email you to. So I think that in my email I
will tell you about my week and in this letter I will tell you about the
people I have been teaching.
We have been teaching a lot of
lessons and a lot of people, I don't know where to start. Ok so we have
been meeting with our recent converts BigMan and Atong almost every day,
they are awesome. Atong goes teaching with us a lot in Wichap, and
BigMan goes with us down by his house in Epidupe. BigMan is awesome he
loves to have us over, we always help him out with stuff. His family
makes us food. This week we helped him and his cousin plant a bunch of
banana trees, and he gave me a tree of my own to plant. It is going to
be cool to watch it grow.
We have been teaching these two sisters
Ke and Mixi, they are awesome, they really want to learn. We gave them a
book of Mormon last week and now their whole family is reading it. It
is really awesome. I can already see them changing. One of these days
you will get an email or letter telling you about their whole family
being baptized!! That is going to be an amazing day. I believe that it
can happen.
There is this little boy I think he is 11 or 12 his
name is A-Chuk he is a punk, he reminds me a lot of Landon, haha. I
think that he will be the next one baptized, he knows everything super
good and he knows that the church is true, he is just a wild man. haha
He is a really good kid though.
There are a bunch of little girls
that we go see all the time. I have a bunch of pictures with them that
you have probably seen. One of them is named Keonin and she is almost
ready to be baptized. Her mom and dad are both members but they don't
usually come to church because there is a big osukisuk. Her mom attends
sometimes but it is usually just her. She always comes with the girl
that I baptized Narcian, they are super cute and way funny. The kids
here are so funny. They jump and run and play all over me. They want me
to lift them up and hold them every second that I am with them haha.
"upwe mogno okasi" they always say that. That means I will eat your
candy! haha! there are the cutest kids here. haha mom you would love it
here because all of the little kids and babies never ever wear clothes.
haha its super funny. Most of the time guys aren't wearing a shirt at
their house. When we teach them and when we pray they always put a
shirt on or wrap them selves up in a towel. haha Another awkward thing,
whenever their babies are hungry the moms just whip it out and feed
their babies. Right in the middle of a lesson, when ever they want haha.
That was weird at first, but I have gotten used to it. But the first
time it happened, I was just like what!! Woooo!! and was super surprised
and just looked the other way the whole time. Now it is not even weird
it is just their culture.
There is a lot of weird things about
Chuukese culture, not weird just different. One thing is when you eat,
if you slurp your food a lot that means that it is something that you
really like. It is bad to do like yard work and stuff after 2:00pm Idk
why. I think its just because that is when the sun is the hottest,
that's why everyone gets up way early. It is bad to puff up your cheeks,
that is pretty much like flipping someone off. haha It is bad to
sharpen your knife after it gets dark!? Because that means that you are
going to chop someone. You always have to take off your shoes when you
go into someones house, even if their floor is just dirt, and most of
the time it is.
There is like ten different ways to shake someones
hand. You can just shake it, you can shake their hand and put your
other hand over theirs that is like a sign of pwi pwi like
brothers/really good friends. Then you can shake your hand and put your
other hand under your wrist, and that is a sign of respect. And you can
just keep moving your hand up closer to your elbow the more respect you
have for them, and putting it under your elbow is the most respectful
thing that you can do. You would do it to people in high positions,
religious leaders, the president, old people, people do it to us all the
time.
Oh I got my first Chuukese haircut, and it was awesome. I
look just like dad in his missionary picture. Really short on the sides
and long on top. It was a scary experience at first. So I go up to this
guy's house Tpays, he is like the Mob Boss of Wichap. He is super buff
and he grows tons of weed. He is also the young men's and young women's
president! He is like 27 years old. He is super awesome. He told me that
he was super good at cutting hair for all of his cousin and stuff that
he cut their hair and it looked really good. All these crazy designs and
stuff. So I'm up there and he comes out with a pair of scissors and a
comb. I thought he would have a pair of buzzers. So I was a little
nervous. He tells me to sit on a cinder block, I told him what I wanted
and then he went to town. Just sitting on a cinder block out side next
to a fotong - a cook house. And I couldn't see anything that was
happening, so when he was done I told him Kiblsou - thank you and walked
all the way home to see what I looked like. I was covered in hair and
just feeling my head. It felt really short. Got home looked in the
mirror and it was awesome.
I am getting really strong!! haha I
have been doing a ton of pull ups and push ups. I do 150 pull ups and
400 push ups every day except Sunday. The boys here call me Kechof
Kechof or Jaiwalk a wak which just means ripped or really strong.
I
think that the rainy season is coming, it has been raining quite a lot,
I try to shower out side when ever it rains, it is the best.
I love you all so much!!
Some
of the boys here have been helping me make Landon's Birthday present,
and I realized that I couldn't leave all the bros out. I know they will
all love these things we are making.
Love, Elder Hunter
