6 Months WHERE DID YOU GO?!

January 31, 2016

Hello everyone!

First of all.... You are reading an email from a missionary who has
been in the field for 6 months. Every day life off this island seems
to get a little more distant. Island fever should kick in within a
couple months from what I've heard :') Also, when everyone says there
was a "worldwide mission broadcast that EVERY MISSIONARY heard", I'm
assuming that doesn't include me right?! I just found out there was
one... Haha maybe next year <3

As for the big news about the transfer.... I have NO news! Elder
Johnson (my new comp.) has safely gotten to Tarawa. At this point the
plan is to charter another flight from Tarawa to here. As for a date
when that will actually happen, we have no clue. In other words, Elder
Musser and I are basically engaged. Next week (if he's not gone), we will
hit 4 months together! I'd say that's a longggg time but you can come
live here if you wanna try it for yourself! Maybe next weekkkk. 

This week we were able to work hard after the disappointing
non-transfer. We were actually able to hit our highest lesson total
since working together <3 We were able to round off the week with a
solid 30 lessons. The hardest part right now is the things we can't
control-- Commandments. "Sorry investigators, I didn't set Heavenly
Fathers commandments. YES investigators, you MUST keep these if you
want to get baptized." Marriages and the Word of Wisdom are keeping us
from about 7 times swimming in the ocean ;/ We will keep working and
doing what we can.... It also shakes you when 2 of your RC's haven't
come to church since the day they were given the HG... 1 of them was
drunk at 5 in the afternoon yesterday when we went to visit him.
Agency is an interesting thing...

Quick humbling story: 

 Teariki (THE MAN-- he hunts sharks etc.) is a member and we had lesson
with his 9 year old son. He told us that he had just quit his job
because he was making $7 a day and he was working 8 hours a day doing
hard physical labor. He thought it wasn't worth his time (I don't
blame him). To make a long story short, the next time we came to
lesson, he had a lunch with a can of pork and spaghetti prepared for
us. The total of those 2 cans put together from the store is $7.30...
Teariki worked an ENTIRE day for 1 of our lunches that he didn't have
to give us.. What more do I need to say?

I hope to hear from all of you next week!

Elder Parrish

P.S. I had dog, turtle, and eel all in the SAME dinner this week.
There's a reason we don't eat dogs in America <3