I've learned a lot from him which is awesome

Wow that's pretty cool about the blessing. I've heard and seen lots of
very cool stories as well about priesthood blessings here on my
mission. It's so awesome that Heavenly Father literally can bring
about any miracle just so long as we have faith. That's a cool story.
The family really is a very awesome and genius unit. Everyone grows,
and everyone can give service and benefit. It's amazing how you and
dad raised children who can now turn to serve you guys, using the
gifts they've been given from Heavenly Father.
Soooo, this week has been good. I'm in Betio 2nd. The first ward I've
been in on my mission. All else has just been branches and units. My
companion is pretty awesome as well haha. Elder P. He really takes
personally responsibility for the work and tries his best. Even though
he's newish and the junior comp. He's also really smart, which is
cool. he knows a lot about religion, and doctrine, and religious
history. We get together for companion study every morning and he
tells me the things he studied during personal study and I'm just
like.... wooow! I've learned a lot from him which is awesome. Yeah
we've got some great investigators in our ward right now. Also some
great fellowshippers. We've got a guy who comes to many of our lessons
named Ueyn. He's preparing to be a missionary. Sunday was awesome. us
four missionaries had the chance to speak in sacrament meeting. There
were some way good discussions going on in Sunday school and elder's
quorum. Any way, our house is gonna make me feel old again. The old
people apart from me are 4 transfers out now, on to their 5th.
Alright sorry I'll have to find time to write something for the ward
sometime sorry my time has been so short. Well, ti a bO!!!!! - Elder
SEffker Love you all!!

Nervous a bit, but excited a little bit too

Mauri!
Thanks for the letter!!!!
Wow that's cool about the guy who went home and did translation work.
I wonder as well if I'll  ever be able to be of service there. Cause
yeah kiribati is kind of an obscure language as well. But yeah, thanks
for the prays for our investigators. yeah T seems to be
continuing to progress fast, same as Na. yeah the two seventh
day adventist people are doing pretty good. We're trying to determine
what to do with them though. They were doing really good at reading
the Book of Mormon originally but now they've been kind not really
doing it. We're trying to schedule some member present lessons with
them and hopefully that will help them to be able to progress.
Any way, wow, that's a cool idea j had, quite the engineer.
Nice quotes! it's so true. yeah i've seen that a lot with missionary
work. it really humbles you, cause yeah, you really can't do the work,
nor will you enjoy it, without the Lord and His help. If we do have if
help though, then we can use our efforts and gifts to try to be of
service and move the work forward.
Well, this week has been good a well. Tranfers came! i'm moving to
Betio. Ahhhh! Nervous a bit, but excited a little bit too. T said
she's got a few siblings that live there that are less active so
that's awesome! We can go try to help them. I'm sure there's tons of
other good work there. we'll have to see. yeah, I've never worked on
the West side of the island. It should be interesting. Apparently it's
a little more modern. They also have more high quality grocery items
and stuff. Well. it should be good. Thanks for all you guys prayers!
prayer is so powerful! Well. yeah, I'm not yet sure who my companion
is.
hey mom, by the way. My mission president said that we might consider
extending 30 days if we can, that's the amount that he's allowed to
without the first presidency's permission. So yeah, i just wanted to
see what you and dad thought about it! I tried to think it out. I
think when I get home i'll just be working for a while anyway, so I
don't think it would be bad with school or work. I understand that
it's another months worth of mission price, would it be possible
though? I'm not aware of any plans you guys have made either so yeah
just let me know if you guys think that would be a good thing or not.
I feel good about it. But yeah just let me know what you think!!!
Thanks again! Well, love you!!! Thanks for everything! Love ya
family!!!! Ti a bO!!!! - Elder SEffker

Language

Hey Mom and Dad!!!! Wow! hahaha, the pictures all look so great!!! i
can't believe how much everyone is changing! Even you guys, mom and
dad, I see you're clothes styles are changing a bit, dad's got new
glasses, and stuff like that!! Sharp! I can't believe how much we all
change. Even I myself, I know, have changed a lot too! Crazy..
Thanks for all the updates etc about the family! Nate's getting
married soon! Hope it all goes well!! Should be good!
That's cool about your guys marriage get away! Sounds like it went
good! Hopefully you guys learned a lot and had a great time!
Wow, I didn't know about Gazelem either! Interesting! Wait a minute,
brad wilcox..... did you guys already know him?
That's good to hear that Scott and melissa's dance went well. Yeah,
they're growing way fast. Wow, Scott ought to be able to send in his
papers soon, eh? I think it was march when I sent mine in, and I think
I got it at the first of april or something. Whenever we did that big
party at Loy Blake park with rotary and interact.
Well, yea. Kiribati's grammar is soooooo easy. But yeah, the
pronounciation is way different. To the point where you ask a person
to say a word slowly, and you hear the different sounds. Then they say
it normally, and you literally can't pick out certain sounds. Just
because of the nature of the way vowels are spoken. They kind of speak
out of a different part of their throat that you speak english in.
It's interesting. It's easier once you get the accent down though.
Gift of tongues is definitely a necessity. Especially in order to be
able to learn the language quickly enough in the short period of two
years that we have to serve in.
This week has been good! We've worked hard, seen lots of blessings!
Seen improvement! We've had a lot of good referrals lately. I think I
might have already mentioned Tebaakaro. But I'll explain his situation
a little bit. He randomly came back from Butaritari to live with his
parents here. His parents got baptized about a month ago. He's in a
really good situation to be taught. Elder Hanks is also growing a lot,
he taught pretty much the entire lesson to Tebaakaro the other day on
Plan of Salvation premortal life through till The Atonement. We got a
random referral for this one girl named Beiaa. She's very prepared,
she's been to church multiple times. She kind of lost contact with
missionaries somehow after having moved around a bit but got back with
em right before moving to our area. So, we contacted her on Saturday
and she came to church on Sunday, she's doing awesome, the ward
welcomed her in really good. She went into the chapel, sat down by no
one. We saw her a few minutes later and she had two other members of
the YSA sitting by her (she's 18). She said she really loved church
later that day. We're trying to get Nei Baroia to lesson with us with
her, Nei baroia is a member, 19 years old also. Elder Hanks and I have
been studying chapter 13 a bit this week as part of 12 week program.
It's so true, every new member needs a friend. Chapter 13 is awesome,
lots of good stuff in it. yeah we're trying to use a few more of the
ideas in that chapter right now in our work. It's so true, joining the
church is a big sacrifice. It's important that we support new members
and try to help join them into the social circle of the ward or
branch. Those were just a few of the things we learned from the
chapter.
We've also had many chances this week to search the scriptures for
more support on the doctrines of the Gospel. We've been teaching two
houses from the 7th day adventists. They always want multiple
scriptural support on the doctrines we teach. We've found a lot of way
good scriptures in peter, job, hebrews, alma and many other books.
It's been pretty cool, way fun too!
Well, I gotta go soon!! Love you all!! Thanks for everything!!! have a
good week!!! Love ya! - ELder SEffker