Definitely learned a lot, grown a lot

Well, this week has been pretty good. Definitely learned a lot, grown
a lot. I've learned how great studies can be. It's hard at times to
get in a good study in just one hour. That's how I was at home. If it
wasn't at least like 2 hours it wasn't really an actual study. But,
study is important cause if you study, you'll know what to do as a
missionary, and it will be easier to do, and funner. My comp. was sick
so I got like a 6 hour personal study on like Thursday or something.
Any way, we've got this elder living in our house who just came in
from an outer island. His name is Elder S. He's got some
pretty good stories haha, about different investigators and also just
like things he's heard and read in books. He's got like a full 2 pages
of really small print handwritten scripture references that support
the different doctrines in this church. and answers to different
questions that some people have.
He's a really experienced missionary. And really hard working. He
originally worked in the Ms but then came here after 8 months.
and has been here since. His time ends in one month.
I got news that I'm transfering. It's so crazy how the time flies, I
felt like I was just emailing you guys about how I just got here. It's
sad to leave a bit, but I'm grateful for the opportunity I've had to
work here. I've learned so much and grown so much. Legit. It's been
such a blessing. Some days it's been hard, yet I've been blessed with
so much joy as I've served the people here. There are some really cool
members of the church here. It feels short, but looking back, so much
has changed and I'm grateful for the opportunities I've been given and
also for the major growth I've had.
Church was good this week. There was also a fireside after ward.
Sisters put it on. They're way awesome. There was a great show, like
over 100 people. I had the opportunity to speak. As well as another
missionary. haha, his name is Elder S, he also just randomly
volunteered to sing a solo. I don't think he's ever sang a solo before
in front of any group of people let alone over 100. Haha, I was
talking to him before the thing, I'm like "you're singing a solo eh?"
He talked about how he was trying to build up his courage before he
sang. maybe he didn't anticipate 100 people coming, haha jk. He's a
really willing Elder. nonetheless, he did a really good job. I was
pretty amazed. It was definitely a blessing from willingness.
The work is going great in B, in B 2 Ai was baptized,
his 8 year old son K was as well. Elder S also had a couple
who got baptized, ka and A in B 1. The work is going
great here, we've seen tons of blessings, even amidst trials.
Well, thanks for all you do! Love you mom! Also, happy birthday to
all this month. Anyway, love
you all! Bye! - Elder SEffker

Heavenly Father does give us the help we need to overcome problems

Hey Mom and family!!!!

No problem! I'm kind of short on time as well :/ Plans have gone a little wacky this morning so that's why we don't have that much time to email :/

But hope everyone is doing good! Thank you so much!!!! Honestly I'm not sure if there's anything I specifically need in the package. Thank you so much, Just send whatever you guys want!

Well, this week has been pretty cool. T, T, J, and Ts, a family of four, were able to prepare and make it to the waters of baptism. They're way faithful. Such a good family. Ta's testimony touched me at the service. It was something I didn't even completely know. he said "I was up at night, my wife and kids were all asleep. I was just praying that I'd be able to stop smoking", he explained that it was something that he'd had a hard time with for a long time, felt he just couldn't stop, he wasn't satisfied or completely helped with the church he was in before either. Well, I testify that it really is true that if we really plead with Heavenly Father, He really does give us the help we need to overcome problems. That's what T experienced. He woke up the next morning, and in his words he simply didn't want to smoke any more. T was extrememly touched by this experience as he shared it, and I imagine he gained a firm testimony of God's love for him, and also the power of prayer. Any way, I as well was surprised a bit to hear it, cause I didn't know he stayed up in the night praying hard, really just pleading. Anyway, his wife also shared a good testimony. She read 3 Nephi 27 with the intent to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It turns out that she was indeed able to gain a testimony from that chapter! I know that if we truly read, we truly study it out in our mind, and we try to find answers to our questions. And then we truly ask God where it is that He wants us to be, whether or not the book is true. I know that we really will have our prayers answered and that we'll be able to know if the church is true and also the Book of Mormon.

Gotta go bye love yous!!!  Elder SEffker

as faithful as ever

Hey mom! and family! Wow that's so cool to hear about Scott! Wow, I
hope he does good! That'll be cool cause he's got a phone you guys'll
be able to keep in touch. I hope you enjoy all the pictures I sent!
I'll try to take even more. So, the couple there is Eena and
Tebwebweia that I've been talking about for a while. That's Elder Gila
my comp. as well. The little baby is some lady in our ward's baby
that's really cute. The resturant looking picture is a dinner we had
with members, we went to a resturant, it reminded me of the times we
used to eat at resturants cause they also have a fairly big family,
fun times!!!
Well, this week was good, thanks btw for the packages and letters,
they're really fun to read, thanks as well for all the money, it's
really useful because then I can buy stuff that I can take home like
lavalava's, shirts, and woven kiribati goods. Yeah, thanks again for
everything! I'm glad you guys enjoyed the letters! Yeah I'm totally
proud of Scott, and everyone, that's cool Scott got to be ordained as
an Elder. If you prepare yourself, the Lord will give you a witness by
the Spirit that the ordinances are His as you receive them, it's
really cool, we've seen that a lot as well on the mission as people
have received ordinances such as baptism. i read it as well in a book
teachings of the prophets one of them, how as we're baptized the Lord
will show us that it really is His will through His Spirit. Nice
pictures by the way. Man everyone looks wayyyy sharp. Legit. Well,
looks like everyone is changing little by little, it's cool, even mom
and dad. Cool cool. Hi dad! have fun driving. Haha, btw I got your
guys recent letter, so Becca asked which books I would reccommend to
her.... well, I personally enjoyed novels written in the 1800's and
early 1900's just because authors of that era seem to chose their
words more carefully which is a style that appeals to me. But, find
books that you like. I liked neverending story. Withering Heights was
alright, I just didn't finish it. Pride and Prejudice. Some random
book I found on Google library: a romance of dots and dashes, or
something like that (it's about a lady who meets a guy using the
telegram thing or something like that). At your age I enjoyed,
honestly I really wasn't reading that much at your age, but percy
jackson, fable haven, harry potter, they're all good! You talked a bit
about Mr. W mom! Yeah he was a really awesome teacher! Yeah
he was really funny, really good english teacher, I really enjoyed his
class. He was cool, his class was really enjoyable because he pushed
us to do good, but he didn't push us too hard, and he also made class
and assignments really interesting and useful. His class is the one I
presented the rubik's cube video in, it was our project. If I could
give any advice to Scott I'd say try to contact a missionary serving
in Surinam, an RM would be best that he could talk to, but emailing a
missionary works as well. Unless he already has a good idea of what
the mission is like.
Well, this week has been pretty good! We got to see E and
T baptized! It's so cool, sometimes there are stresses in
preparing for the service, and the interviews and stuff, but I've
noticed that everything generally goes surprisingly smoothly which has
shown me that this really is His work and that He really does want
these people to be baptized whom He's been watching and helping every
step of their lives. Their baptism went well, there were a few things
that happened that we didn't plan for but all in all everything worked
out, and it turned out to be a great baptism. There was a good show of
people, and there were people who gave talks and everything.
Bo has gone through some hard times but it turns out it all worked
out for his good. He came to church again this week and is as faithful
as ever. Now they're just gonna get married and we'll give them a
baptismal date and stuff.
Well, thanks again for all the prayers! They're so helpful! I pray for
you guys as well! Hope everyone is good and stuff! Well love you
all!!! Thanks for everything mom! love you! - ELder SEffker

the gospel has helped their little baby as well

Mauri mauri!
So this week has been good also, me and my comp had a bit of sickness,
but only for a few days. And we also weren't sick for district
meeting, which was a blessing. This week I worked with Elder Gila, and
also Elder Tiakia a little bit. Elder Gila is my comp., and when he
was sick, I worked with Elder Tiakia. Elder Tiakia is awesome, he goes
home this thursday. He's really good at speaking gilbertese, he's an
awesome teacher, friendly, he's really cool. He's from new zealand,
part samoan. He's really funny as well. But yeah he'll be leaving our
house this thursday. Meaning there will only be 3 elders for one of
our areas, meaning we're gonna try to line up a lot of splits,
especially because one of them is sick, so if we don't get a split
none of them can leave, cause someone's got to stay in the house with
the sick Elder. We asked a few YSA on Sunday, hopefully it should be
good. So we were gonna do a marriage this week with a couple who their
marriage paper just came. We were gonna have bishop do the marriage.
Unfortunately it fell through at the very end, the wife wasn't quite
ready, were not quite sure what her problem was. We were suprised a
bit because they asked us to line up their marriage and then they
weren't ready but it's not too much of a problem. Hopefully they get
married later on, they're gonna talk to us this week. But so we went
to bishop after that explained the situation to him, it went well. His
son is coming back from his mission as well this teusday. He told us a
story of how his son just recently got in a car crash, 8 missionaries
in a van. their car rolled 3 times. But, no one even had hardly a
scratch. The only thing that happened was their son had a little
scratch from glass on his eyebrow. So yeah, that was pretty
miraculous. But then he told a story he'd heard also about
missionaries who were driving and they got in a crash and there were
tons of injuries and stuff, even deaths. It's way sad. He attributed
it to his son and them wearing seat belts, as he thinks was the case.
It's way to bad to hear about sad stories, cool though how his son and
them seemed to all have been wearing seat belts, obedience definitely
is important, even the small rules. Well, sacrament meeting was way
awesome! We haven't seen Bwatio in a while because he had a few
problems happen and he was in a different city for a while. But he
randomly showed up to church, which was sooo awesome! It was so cool
to see him, he's got a way good heart, man, he apparently has faith
that this church is where he needs to be, so now we've got a time with
him for this teusday. Eena and Tebwebweia and their little baby came.
I think part of their testimony is how much the gospel has helped
their little baby as well. It's definitely part of Eena's, he shared
that ever since they started learning the gospel, their baby hasn't
really had bad fevers as was the case before that. It's so true what
mom always says when she's like "Heavenly Father is so good", we heard
tons of way awesome testimonies in testimony meeting about tender
mercies, and truths the people shared that definitely testify of this.
It was a way great testimony meeting. The sickness has been rough this
week a bit, but I really didn't want to be sick and I was blessed only
to have been sick for not even two days! Elder Gila had really short
time being sick as well. A mwaiti kakabwaia iaora! So how is Scott's
language learning coming along? haha, No questions yet as far as
mission prep? How's the working out mom and dad? You guys run a lot?
Still go to the junior high? Well, love ya guys!!! Thanks so much for
all the prayers, they are very effective! Well, ti a bo! - Elder
Seffker