Hello again my dearies,
It has been a good week. Today is my one month anniversary in Pohnpei!
Congratulations to Aaron and Aneesa on their new baby. He sounds like quite the chunk. I want to see a picture.
Last
week we went on exchanges after p-day so I was in Kolonia with the
other Sister Varea. From that day on I have no longer been teaching with
notes. I just use the words I know and the investigators and Sister
Varea help me along when I'm stuck on a word. It's amazing how much you
can say with only a vocabulary of about 200 words. Anyway, while we were
on exchanges a man came up to us while we were walking to a lesson and
what I got out of the conversation is that he was telling us to come
teach him. As I started to follow him Sister R. Varea told him "Soh
Mwahw (no we're good)" then took me by the arm and led me away. She then
told me he was drunk and was telling her to leave so I could go teach
him by myself. We got a good laugh out of that.
I recently found out that there are kings on
Pohnpei. I guess each clan has one and they go to all the funerals and
important events but none of the other sisters have ever met one as far
as they know.
For service this week we helped a family weed their
taro. Weeding is much different here. The roots hardly even go into the
ground because it rains so much. They put all the weeds in a wheelbarrow
and then dumped them in the river. I don't know how much good that
really does to prevent them from spreading.
On Thursday we had a couple appointments fall
through so we went to a member family to teach them the restoration and
how to do their own missionary work. There were lots of aunts and
cousins there so we were teaching about 7 adults and 20 children. When
we finished we asked if they knew anyone who wanted to hear the gospel.
Two of the children (a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old) piped up and said
they wanted to be baptized. They go to church every week with their
cousins and we didn't even know they weren't members. Their mothers said
it would be fine if they got baptized and they are really excited to
take the discussions and become part of the church.
I've gotten to where I hate the word pwetepwet (pronounced: pwech-a-pwech). It means white. At first I thought it sounded fun but people usually use it when they aren't saying very nice things about me. It isn't a fun word anymore.
I have recently found that I need to repent and
shave my legs more than once a week. A couple nights ago during a lesson
I had my legs extended out because they had fallen asleep while I was
sitting cross-legged. One of the little girls put her hand on my legs
and then excitedly exclaimed how poky they were. All the kids then had
to come rub my legs to feel for themselves. I don't think it helped the
spirit of the lesson much.
Jared asked about the raw fish and in my letter I
didn't explain it very well so I will do it now for all to hear. They
serve all the fish here with the head and everything. They only eat
certain kinds raw. They cut slices in the sides and then massage lemon
juice and salt into the meat. When I ate it, it felt a little bit like I
would imagine biting though someone's flesh and tearing the meat off
their skin with my teeth. I don't know that I enjoyed the experience
that much.
Mom wanted to know more about my living situation so
here it is. We live in a one room house about the size of my bedroom at
college. We have electricity but it usually turns off for a few hours
every morning so we need make sure to charge things when we do have it.
The water in the tap is rain water so on P-day we fill our blue jugs
with filtered water in Kolonia and use that for drinking water. It is
only $1.50 for 5-gallons. There are ants everywhere so we keep anything
they could get into either in the fridge or freezer. The other night I
was drying myself off and saw I was covered in ants. I guess they
thought my towel would make a good home. We do have a washer and dryer
in a little section behind our house so that is really nice.
Love you all,
Sister Beutler
P.S. The picture is of me and the other sisters along with a member (Sister Calio).
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