Hello from Paradise!!

Picture of the island from our boat ride last P-day. I can't believe I am on the ocean while serving my mission! What a wonderful time in my life :) I absolutely LOVE it here and LOVE the people I am serving and those that I am serving with!

First off, I finally got all of the letters and packages that everyone has sent to me. Thanks for the letters and the box for St. Patrick's Day. I got the "greeny" package from Grandma and Grandpa Losee, too. Thank you . . . Thank you . . . Thank you to everyone! I love letters because I can read them every night instead of just on P-day. They help me sooo much! I'm so glad to have an awesome family backing me up when I'm out here.

As far as where I think Garrett is going to go, I say that he is going to Argentina, and Elder O'bray says that he is going to Mexico, and Elder Huppe says that he is going to Brazil. Keep me posted on that!

I don't think they celebrate Easter the way we celebrate, just because they are very religious in Protestant and Catholic beliefs, but I know the little kids would appreciate the candy and eggs that you sent. In answer to your question, I don't think we celebrate St. Patrick's day in Mechitiw, but we do celebrate Valentines day.

I am down one towel right now because I think someone stole it. Also, when I was in Guam, I lost the new pair of glasses that I had when I stayed in the AP's house. I have been trying to get a hold of them to have them send them to me, but if you guys have any ideas about what to do, that would be greatly appreciated. My alarm clock was broken when I got out here because I don't think the airport people were very careful with my bags. A note on that, when you send a package, or when anyone sends a package to me, make sure the word "FRAGILE" is written on it.

Things are going good here, we finally had a lot of people come to sacrament meeting yesterday. Up to yesterday, we had been having low numbers of members attending and not a whole lot of investigators, but God provided us with a blessing yesterday and we are so very glad that He did. We are currently meeting with two sweet investigators, Pwas and Rescue. Both are super smart, and humble too. We've been meeting with them for about 3 weeks I think, and Pwas has come to church once and Rescue has been twice. One more time for Rescue, and he will be eligible for baptism. Oh plus, Elder O'bray had me teach Rescue about Ewe Kapasen Mirit (The Word of Wisdom) on Saturday, and when we were done, he told me that I did a good job. I hope he was being honest, because I still don't have the language completely down yet. I'm to the point where I'm understanding a lot, I just can't say anything back. But I'm studying everyday and trying to use the language when and where I can, and I know that if I work hard and leave the rest to my Father in Heaven, I will learn it.

 

So big news. We just had 3 more missionaries from Chuuk go to the MTC last night. We went to the airport to see them off, and it was really cool to think about all of the youth that are wanting to go serve missions from Chuuk. 

 

We find out transfers this week as well. We already know who the trainers are, but on Wednesday or Thursday I believe, they'll let us know where we are going. I think I will still be in Mechitiw, seeing as I'm still in my 12-week training, which means that Elder O'bray and I have a little while longer together. Along with finding out trainers, I also found out that Elder Richardson (who has been serving as the AP) is going home this week, which means that President Mecham has extended that assignment to another missionary, that missionary being my district leader, Elder Allen. It's really sad, because we all love him and think he is super great, but we know that this is what he is supposed to do.

 

So, crazy thing. We have been without power in our house for the last two weeks because the box that we input the number into to get power has not been working. So, when that happens, we can't shower, we can't use our water, we can't wash dishes. So we walk down the road to a member's house and we shower, and hope that we get invited to eat when we go teaching, cause that's a big thing here. If someone is eating and they see you walk by, they all say "Sa monge" which is "We eat". I still haven't had dog yet, because we don't have the money to go and buy one and have it killed, but hopefully in the coming months I will try it. We also just had a huge funeral in our village for the wife of the chief, and unfortunately that shut us down for a few days, the reason for that being that EVERYONE comes and shows their respect for the person who has died. Culture and tradition are very big here. It's really fun to be a part of it, and to know how other people do things.

 

I love you guys, I miss you so much, and I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Elder McEwan