February 24, 2013

dear family,

hahaha im glad the letters made it home;)

so i got bitten by a dog this week. i've been bitten before, but this one was the first one that hurt. as a member of the church, i believe in proxy work; therefore, i have been vindictively whacking any dog that dares come near us since:)

fun kosraean word of the week: "pihtuhtuh." this means either "potato," or "pregnant." elder jeppeson (from rexburg) told me that he once told somebody "Nga mwet acn pihtuhtuh," which, being interpreted, could mean "I'm from the land of potatoes," OR, "I'm from the land of the pregnant people." he said that the person he said that to looked sorry for him until he explained that he meant "land of the potatoes." yeah, that's fun.

mom, you will be pleased to know that a member here told me yesterday at church that i am getting fat (please know that in kosraean, "fat" means "big" while "fattoro" means the american meaning of "fat"). who knew that working out every morning made you stronger? i didnt until pres mecham emphasized the need to excercise.

about the fishing, from about 45 B.P.M. to 0 P.M. (before pres. mecham and pres. mecham time), missionaries were allowed to get in the ocean up to their knees as well. but pres. mecham has given the rule that we are not to touch the water at all. so, all of our fishing is from the docks. we do see a lot of people spear-fishing though. i think i might try it when i come home. maybe in a swimming pool with goldfish.

we are teaching a family here and they're getting ready for baptism this Sat. we have been working with them for a while and are really excited for them. there are 5 of them that can get baptized now, and then 4 other kids that will be baptized when they turn 8. We are really happy for them and have been trying to see them every day for the last week or so. we have really seen miracles with this family.

dad, i want to ask if there was any betlenut(?) in tahiti. it grows on an absolutely beautiful tree--perfectly straight, grows in perfect segments, and has a bright green trunk. it is used like chewing tobacco and i guess has a similar effect. it is against the word of wisdom and is one of the main problems investigators (and members) have to overcome. the nut itself looks a little like a tiny coconut.

in reference to all the new missionaries, toyota is to the last of the little guys as i am to the last of the old guys. i am really excited for everyone who received or is waiting for their mission call. we need them. actually, our mission is expecting an extra 18 of them this next transfer, and anywhere from 2 to 4 of them should be coming to Kosrae. we have been told to look for new areas to open and we have decided on splitting the lelu area into a lelu area and a tafunsak area (these names should be on any map of kosrae) also, we are looking at opening waclucng (also on a map). we are all pretty excited to see what's gonna happen.

we all try extremely hard here not to get sick for 2 reasons: 1) because there is nothing really worse than sitting at home all day knowing that satan isn't taking a rest on our investigators; and 2) because we really don't want to go to the hospital here. it's a scary place.

anyway, i'm doing well and am happy. thank you all for everything. you are all quite amazing and i realize that the more i interact with other people and other cultures.

i hope everyone is happy and safe and healing (andy).

love,
Elder Gerber

February 18, 2013

dear family:)

so let's see, the baptism last saturday went really well and now her little sister is getting ready to be baptized on march 2. we are seeing incredible progress in the people we are working with and are excited to see what else God has in store for these people.

hahahaha oh so funny story:
during district meeting on thursday, we found out that the reason we hadn't gotten mail for a couple of days was that we hadn't repaid the fee for the mail box. I have never seen 20 dollars thrown together so fast in my life. :)

we went fishing this morning and i think that im getting better at it. ;) we use the string-on the-bottle local fishing gear and im getting pretty durned good at throwing the hook out, but the whole catching-the-fish part is still pretty tough.

elder despain just told me that his sister is marissa despain and does, in fact, work at the libraries. if you ever talk to her, tell her that elder despain says hello.  :)

so in response to your question concerning elder conejero, yes, he does. he lives in a completely different world, though. his mother owns a successful company and his dad got a lot of money for something else, so the packages they send to him are full of 150 dollar shoes, and other such unbelievable things. i didnt think that those people really existed... hahaha

so the boy that we blessed who had small-pox has completely recovered. we were able to teach a powerful lesson about the restoration of the priesthood and the family is preparing to be baptized this coming saturday. we are really trying hard with them and are really hopeful.

ah, owen, you are enjoying shakespear? grandpa will be so proud of your culture;)

that reminds dad, did you get a chance to read the book i got you yet?

i love you guys a whole lot. i think that one of my most powerful testimonies is of how much the gospel blesses families because of my personal experience. thank you all so much.

love,
Elder Gerber
ps, i tried using the cookbook that gma sent me and it was pretty good. i think i'll keep trying things out with it.

February 10, 2013

thanks for the pun, dad:)

so the tsunami warning was fun;) what happened was the police came around and told everybody on the road about it, so we heard about it 10 minutes before it was supposed to hit kosrae. then, the mission office called and told us we needed to find all the other elders, but the senior couple doesn't have a phone, so we started driving around the island looking for them, but the only road to get from place to place is right there along the beach, so it was kind of eerie just waiting for a giant wave to kill us. the locals, however, dont believe in the warnings and a lot of them just stayed at home. if there had been a tsunami, it would have been disastrous. but there wasn't one and we are all safe and happy:) it did mess up our proselyting schedule though:(

anyway, so if you remember the last email i sent where i said i was going fishing? oh yeah, i caught a shark. no big deal.

so andy and owen are braced? pahkomuhtacltal. don't worry guys, it goes by faster than you realize. just remember not to complain about them. think about it, you guys are getting perfect teeth. someday, it will all be worth it. :)

i got the package and thank you soo much for the stuff:) we have been loving it. also, on the back of the brownie boxes, there were cut-out valentines that i am giving to the other elders (they will be so pleased). haha

so elder conejero and i have been focusing on sacrificing for our investigators, and we have fasted every sunday for the last 3 weeks. and then, two days ago, we had a 16 year old girl (whom we thought was already a member because she comes to church every week and lives the commandments) come up to us and ask if she could be baptized... .  .   .uhhh, yeah. so we are planning a baptism with her for this saturday and are meeting with her everyday to make sure everything is good to go. miracle pa ingacn (pa ingacn is hard to translate, but it basically means "that's it").

something else that is fun is i bought a kosraean bible for 5 dollars and have been trying to read it and surprisingly has helped a lot in learning how to say some words. go figger.

oh, our mission president gave us a book of mormon challenge. we are supposed to read one of the blue book of mormons we give out, marking every verse on the 1) atonement, 2) gathering of israel, 3) Holy Ghost, 4) gospel or plan of salvation. we are supposed to finish by the end of the transfer (6 weeks) and then give it to an investigator. it has been super good:)

also, we have been recipients of miracle after miracle; but one i want to talk about happened yesterday:

We had an appointment with an investigator family who didn't come to church that day. we were pretty disappointed because they have normally been extremely good and are almost ready for baptism. anyway, we got there and found out that they hadnt come because their two year old son had small-pox. we asked if there was anything we could do and they said pray. we asked if we could give him a blessing and they gave us permission. the poor kid was crying and writhing when we got there, but as soon as we started to bless him, he went right to sleep and we felt an extremely good spirit. when we finished, we could see that the parents were really moved and i know that this specific instance was prepared by the Lord to help this family progress.

i am so glad that the memory card made it home to you guys! i was really worried that it never would.

oh, something i have started doing is i am using a lot of object lessons here (thank you dad for reminding me). kosraeans love object lessons, and i have been having a lot of fun with them. it is crazy to me that every lesson we teach by way of object lesson, people remember what it was about. we've been burning things, throwing things, tying things, untying things, getting wet, and having a lot of spiritual fun. and yet, the people listen and learn. who knew that object lessons were so effective? i didnt until sister mecham told us to use them more.

love,
Elder Gerber

February 3, 2013

dear fam:)
things are good. i am still in lelu with elder conejero.
fun kosraean word for the week is: pihtuhtuh. it means "pregnant" as well as "potato."

we have been really struggling here on kosrae with getting investigators to church. but, elder conejero and i remembered that Pres. Mecham told us that this year would be a year of miracles and sacrifice. so, we have been trying to sacrifice. and after 4 straight weeks of not having a single investigator at church, we have had 3 investigators attend. sacrifice works.

andy, it sounds like you look a little funny right now. have fun and stay happy about it.
owen, be happy you don't look funny right now. ;);) thanks for your letters, i loved them:)

i know this will sound frustrating, but i dont really have a lot to say right now. im still a little exhausted from yesterday (sunday on a mission is not a day of rest as im sure you all know).

so i tried to send home a memory card last week, but they changed policy on me without telling me, so it made it to hawaii, then they sent it back because it didn't have enough postage...and so i tried again a few days ago, but im not sure if it will make it or not. we'll see in a few days.

i got grandma's cookbook and i hope they are ok in nicaragua(?)

even here in kosrae, the super bowl is being watched.

im going fishing today, and i'll try to get elder conejero to take pictures of the fish we catch, because they're pretty goofy looking:)

im sorry that i didnt write more, i promise i'll do better next week.
love,
Elder Gerber

January 27, 2013 (sorry for the delay)

Dear family:)

sounds like it is cold back there. bundle up:)

it is extremely comforting to know that when God promises us something, he will follow through. thank you for sharing that experience, dad.

what a small world, you meeting a guy who has worked with kosrae he is right, the people want to give you stuff all the time, and yet you know how expensive things are and see how little they have. they really are an incredible people with a lot of respect for God. Actually, they always insist that they put on a shirt of some sort before we start teaching. They are usually willing to pray, and understand a lot of good things. you know how monks were respected back in the day? yeah, that's kind of how most people treat us.

i got a little glimpse of what the 2nd coming is going to be like. when pres. mecham came, i will be completely honest and say that i was decently nervous. i wasn't doing anything wrong, but for some reason, i was apprehensive. and then the entire interview was along the lines of, "Oh you're doing great. Keep going. Be patient with yourself. There are big things happening in Kosrae this year." he is a wonderful human being.

there have been a lot of little miracles that probably only seem miraculous to me. we have been trying so hard to get people to come to church to help them progress, but for the longest time, nobody came. we fasted and prayed and worked as hard as we could, and we finally got a couple of investigators at church yesterday. also, we are trying really hard to teach only member-present lessons, especially to families and part-member families. we have seen miracles as members show up right before a lesson begins and joins us.

transfers are this week and im getting a little curious about whats gonna happen. we will all find out later:)

so in our mission we have language mastery packets that we are supposed to pass off. the recommended time is 4 transfers. however, due to the need to accelerate the pace of the work here on Kosrae, Heavenly Father has blessed me to get it passed off in two. actually, i pretty much had it passed off by the first transfer, i just needed local signatures; we were too busy to stop and ask, "hey, can you pass off my 'common phrases?'" so it has taken me a little longer than i think God wanted, but hopefully He will forgive me.

it is getting harder and harder to write to you guys, because my sentence structure is getting really confused and i have to go back and fix my grammatical errors. i keep writing things as yoda would. that it probably the hardest part of learning kosraean (and probably any other language): re-learning grammar.

we are teaching some really good investigators and have been able to be really bold with them. it is a really incredible experience to testify of something that, in any another context would probably sound crazy, and see the Holy Ghost touch the people's hearts. working with the Holy Ghost isn't really work. it is The Work. i dont know if the english language has the word that im looking for.

i love you all very much.

love,
elder gerber

ps, if you could send me one of the mem. cards back with the classical music on it, that would be great. through technical glitches, i accidentally erased it (except for the 4 seasons).