This week was great. We had a picnic with the members and everybody and went down and played volleyball and soccer and ate fish and stuff. Elder Breckenridge came and Elder brinkworth is coming on the 31st of may we think.

Things are going great. We found an investigator named tekaura. She seems interested in lessons and wants to learn more about the lds church. 

Me and Elder Lomaloma went karaun fishing with a member. It's where you have a net and you reel it out into a n shape and you splash the other side to make an o and you close it off and look for the fishes that are asleep. It is really fun. You have to look hard because they are covered in sand to hide from sharks and stuff. 

I'm doing good. Our kiribati house is almost finished. Just one more wall and it will be done. I sleep in it everynight. 

Love you all and tia manga boo n te wiki ae boo!!

Mauri O utu!!! Kam uara? It has been a while since i sent pictures to you all but here are some of us in our house. Check out how long my hair is. My comp was In the southern part of the island on splits and he couldn't cut it til he got back. But this week was a fun one. I got to work with elder Hoggan again!! It was super fun. We rode up and down the island a lot. It was super fun just getting to think about stuff as you bike for a few hours. Our kiribati house is all done. It consists of a stick door made of sticks and te kora. which is the coconut fibres rubbed together. After its been soaking under mud for like 2 months. Then they put up te rau which is pandanus leaves for the roof. It is big enough for the 4 of us elders. So we can all sleep out on the buia. The buia is just a raised platform waist high in the room. Then there are coral rocks we got from the beach which we put for the ground in there. We had a baptism this past Saturday. Her name is Temoaniti. She is literally 1 year younger than me but she does nooooot look it. haha 

My companion elder lomaloma leaves this thursday and my comp elder brinkworth comes out. So now there will be 4 of us on tabiteuea maiang. Elder Hoggan and Breckenridge are working from takabwibwi the northern most kawa. town to terikiai. and me and elder brinkworth are going to be working from in eita to kabuna and tab south as well. We will be flying down there in about 2 weeks. I don't know we still haven't decided yet. 

Me and elder Hoggan did lessons at some schools for teenagers and little kids. They didn't listen to a word we said. But after we played ping pong and we found like 20 super rare kiribati dictionaries to english which are super rare and only printed like forever ago by the catholic church. I bubuti'd for 2. one for me and one for elder hoggan. but I already have one so now I have a gift for my new companion coming out. I can't wait to work with elder brinkworth. We were in the MTC at the same time. Us and elder hoggan. 

Me and elder hoggan got invited to a 1 year old bootaki(party) for a kid. Every minister from every religion went. It was super fun. They made us dance and everyone loved elder hoggans dance moves. The old women all wanted to dance with us. We busted some nice moves but elder hoggan totally showed me up. We ate some lobster and sad on the guest kie with the other ministers right front and center. It was really wierd. I felt like the bootaki was held more for us. The mother held her child the entire time. The speakers were unbelievably loud. We had to stand up and give maroro's which are just speeches about the kid and giving gratitude and respect. Mine and elder hoggan's were both like 5 minutes long but then the kpc minister, Kiribati protestant church, stood up for like 15-20 minutes and gave an intense speech and used a tons of crazy words ive never heard before. but i recorded it so we can get way good now at giving these speeches. the people are going to be amazed. 

Bootaki's are huge parties to where the entire villages are invited. most of which have multiple villages invited to. There were about like 200 people at this one. They were all suprised to see us speak in kiribati and that we could give maroro's! it was super funny. The old women played a joke on elder hoggan and made him dance in front of everyone on his own. it was so funny. It was with an ataein aine(teenager about 17) it was soooooo funny. Her friend was supposed to come get me to dance with her but she flaked out and they danced up there alone. Everyone was dying laughing. 

This week I also made a sorry board for one of the members here in tab north. She is a super nice woman named karati. but when we showed up to give it to her, she wasn't even there. She had to go to the main island because she had to help her daughter. So we don't know when she will be getting back. But we gave it to her daughter and said it was a gift from us. And when we gave it to her daughter her daughter told us she loves sorry. I was so sad i couldn't give it to her myself but i was not about to bike that huge sorry board 2 hours back up the island and then another 2 back down again. haha It is a 23 inch piece of wood that was so hard to carry. haha but it was so worth it.

I love the moimoto's. the green coconuts that are filled with delicious liquid. I ask people for some a ton out here. They think it's so funny that i love them so much. so they always give me a ton. Anyways i love you family keep up the keikeiaki ao n na manga nooringkami n teuana te ririki!