December 9th, 2012

dear family,
haha yeah the machete is fun. we just got them sharpened yesterday, so we had freshly cut open coconuts for breakfast this morning:)
the schedule is as follows:
-6:00 we get up and exercise
-7:00 breakfast and shower/get dressed for the day
-8:00 personal study (mainly BoM and PMG)
-9:00 companionship study
-10:00 12 week training
-11:00 language study
-12:00 Lunch
-12:30 Proselyting time
actually, i think the main reason i lost so much weight is that we don't eat dinner that often. we usually just work through it. but thank you so much for the recipes! i've made a personal goal to cook more and make more food that we can take with us to snack on in the truck.

the members here vary in strength, as do all wards. so there are a few members that will be able to help harry progress. however, there is a tendency on the island to get offended easily. it is a problem that has caused a lot of inactivity in the church here. we are working with a lot of less actives and there needs to be an attitude adjustment as well as deeper conversion for the church to really grow here. we are seeing higher church attendance since we've been here though so that has been nice to see some results of our efforts.

the christmas season is hard because everybody is out and about and so about all of our appointments fall through (normally we are able to keep 2 or 3 out of about 5 appointments). So we haven't been able to see all of the people we want to. However, we have been teaching a filipino lady. she and elder conejero chatter in tagolog, while i try my hardest to follow the spirit and say simple truths in english when i need to;) she is really progressing well and has a baptismal date for the end of Jan. she is doing all that she needs to do to become converted to the gospel, so we are having a great time teaching her and are excited for her progression.

language study is me and elder conejero. there is a kosraean-english dictionary, but let me explain a little more about the language. there aren't a whole lot of kosraean words. however, that means each word has anywhere from 2 to 5 different meanings (this means that any sentence i say could mean different things based on context). kosraean is also very simply put together. this means it is easy to translate into english, but really hard to translate english into kosraean. for example, to say the premortal existence, we say moul lasr tuhkun kuht isusla or our lives before we were born. in other words, we just kind of describe simply what the complex english words are. this has pros and cons. also, something that is causing me some grief is that there is no tense. everything we say is in a present tense. joseph smith is prophet. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear to him. and so on and so forth. but, i am getting it. i have found that i do a lot better when i am humble and ask God for help and recognize the help when it comes than when i think that i am really learning the language well and good for me. humility is the key to the gift of tongues.

our scripture study is incredible. we are constantly interrupting each other's study with exclamations of excitement:)

also, little miracles happen every day. for example, i was teaching a less active while on a split with a member who comes with us quite often. it was going fine when my member companion turned to me and said share that scripture with him in the d&c about repentance. i had no idea where that verse was. so i said a very quick prayer and got the impression of 58. so i flipped to section 58 and right there in the middle of the page on verse 42 was the one he asked me for. God is definitely a God of Miracles:):):)

i may have gone a little overboard with the christmas season. i have discovered that i need to decorate for christmas. i found a little tree in the house and set that up, and the eldredges gave us a bag of christmas decorations when they heard i love christmas. so our house is sufficiently decorated:) i have missed the snow, though so will you please enjoy it for me? thanks. also, we have been playing the motab christmas concerts music all the time so i am excited for you guys to go to that:)

ooh, fun kosraean phrase of the week: nga luhngse in srosro fin oom lome, or, i want to jump on your oom (an oom is a type of oven used by the locals). if you say it to someone, it means "i want to marry your daughter." if you specify how many times you want to jump on it, it means the number of daughter (first daughter, second daughter, etc.) i haven't found a time to use this phrase yet.

thank you so much for the advice and the news. i love you guys very much and pray for you everyday. i feel your prayers throughout the day and am very grateful for them.
i love you guys:)
love,
Elder Gerber