nanobwi

Mauri ngkami 

Kam na tekeraoi n te Kiritimati!!

This last week one of our progressing investigators' husband came back to the island so we can finally teach them as a couple next week. We also had cake at a Christmas party we held in Rawannawi in the chapel.

Oh and I got to Skype my family!! It was awesome to see you all, obviously I am sad its over but the work must continue. Baby Bianca was very cute, Genna you look great for 7 months pregnant (the Kiribati lady on the call called you botonaine- beautiful), Seattle and KJ it was good to see you and hear your voices, Nairne get a haircut (kiss, keep it simple stupid. Hurts my feelings every time), Mom and Dad I miss you, Addison keep on keeping on. Grandpa and Grandma keep it up you both are legendary - Great to see you Hunter family it was a nice surprise.

Mosiah 14:6 - All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

Word of the week: nanobwi- competitive (shocking that that word came up....)

Tiabo ngkami,

Elder Farner

Hey everyone!

6 months out and that was quick. Hopefully I will get to skype this week. Our branch had its Christmas party on last Friday because there will be a lot going on the coming weekend in the villages. We got on the car at 3:45 and ended up picking everyone up and getting back at 6 ish.... it ran pretty late.. Elder Scholle and I opened up the dancing by freestyling, then doing the dance where one person fishes for the other. Then I did the classic canoeing on the ground. Everyone was laughing pretty good I think, not too sure because I was in the zone.

Moral:  Don't take life too seriously- otherwise you'll just be stressed.

That doesn't mean, however, that we can be lax in our obedience to our covenants, but it does mean we can choose how we feel about keeping them. Our attitude is our choice- are we going to complain or are we going to be grateful for the opportunity to grow. Something i have been subconciously learning I think.

Anyway, enjoy your Christmas Eve and Happy Birthday MOM!!!!!

Elder Farner

kuia

Mauri ngkami!

This last week was awesome! We got to do service twice! So usually when we offer service to people they reject, I am pretty sure its because in the culture we are guests on the island so they don't want to make us do work but finally someone accepted! We helped split coconuts open. I am way out of shape.

Moving on, we also had a pretty cool small miracle. We were biking back at night to come home and my comp's bike tire just popped or something because his tire was very flat. So we walked back for a while then got home. Turns out, the ward secretary for some odd reason just left his bike at the chapel, so we borrowed it the next morning to buy a new inner tube, and then the secretary just let us borrow his bike the whole day. Nothing huge, but just a small little gift that the bike was there, because I don't think the secretary has ever done that before.

Scripture for you all:

Alma 25:17- And now behold, Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and Himni, and their brethren did rejoice exceedingly, for the success which they had had among the Lamanites, seeing that the Lord had granted unto them according to their prayers, and that he had also verified his word unto them in every particular.

The Lord will, in His own time, fulfill every promise in every particular. We just need the patience and perseverance to hold on until that time.

Miss you all, have a great week!

Elder Farner

P.S. word of the week: kuia, which means driftwood

Taneti Mwamwau

Mauri ngkami!

This last week the Marakei Island Council turned 50 years old! It was a big deal, the President of Kiribati, Taneti Mwamwau, came to the island for a day. We had a huge party and there was some traditional Kiribati dances which were pretty crazy. There were probably like 2000 people in attendance, which is like 2/3rds of the island's population. I shook hands with the president of Kiribati.

Last night a member's son returned home from serving his mission in Papua New Guinea, we were able to have dinner with them and talk to the Elder about his mission. He got back the day after the President left and we told him that he missed Taneti Mwamwau but he thought we said Thomas Monson. He put his hands to his head and said "What? Really?" and he looked sad that he missed him. We corrected him and laughed but the message from that was that we should really be more grateful that we have a Prophet on the earth today. We are guided and corrected by God, our Father, through his Prophet.  That's a pretty cool fact that we take for granted I think.

I hope you all have a great Christmas season and that you are all healthy and well. I am still alive and we should start teaching a really cool family this week so there is the Christmas gift!

Alma 7:11-12: 

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

Love,

Elder Farner

karinea

This past week was an interesting one for sure. In the culture here, at any significant party (bootaki), all of the religious ministers are invited to attend. And in this last week, there were 3 parties: 2 graduation/moving up ceremonies for students and one for raising awareness for and opposing abuse. So that was interesting.
In this upcoming week the President of Kiribati is coming to the island. His name is Taneti Maumau.
We are going to be doing a service project this week to clean up the government buildings before his arrival.

The new word for the week is "karinea" which means "respect". Mosiah 3:19

Tiabo ngkami
Elder Farner

matintin

* Elder Farner hasn't had access to a computer for the last 2 weeks, so here is a compilation of his experiences taken from what he sent via an old cell phone!

Another difficult week to email so I will keep it short.. So last week was crazy, a lot of traveling. We only stayed in Tarawa for 5 days and my comp changed to Elder Scholle not Elder Bataua. I stayed in a super dirty house with 11 other elders . I'm glad I'm back in Marakei. My new companion is way better at the language. The mission tour was one day long of training about using the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel. Elder Ardern of the seventy came (he spoke in the last General Conference). I was washing my hands in the water fountain when he came up and started talking to me. He used to be the mission president over this mission when it was a part of the Fiji mission. He told me it was a privilege to build up the kingdom of God. True.

This last week was weird. But I'm sure more will come.

Word for the week: matintin means thick

Elder Farner

From 11-5-2017

Well we haven't actually done the mission tour. And to be completely honest I don't know the full plan for it. We were told 1 week ago that we would be coming in to Tarawa to hear Elder Ardern speak;  he is a seventy. But as to what that entails I have little idea. Then we were told that we were going to be flying on the 5th (fast Sunday) which was not cool... so we went to the airport yesterday and weighed our stuff at noon, and then we were told at 2 that our plane was cancelled. So we were going to try to get on the 2nd one and after waiting an hour for it we were told we couldn't get on it, and then after another hour we finally got our overweight luggage fees back... then we walked back to our house in the rain for a mile. Then this morning we had to bike 3 miles in the pouring rain to get a phone to email, and my bike chain was super loose so it fell off like 6 times.... Patience. Haha just a crazy day. Not sure if I will ever get on another bike again after this mission.

Also we were told that my comp is going to stay in Tarawa and I am going to get a new comp after the tour is over. His name is Elder Bataua, and he is a native of Nauru but he grew up speaking Kiribati and English so he should be a very helpful comp for learning Kiribati. He has already worked for 1 year and a couple of months so he should be good. I haven't met him yet as I am currently sitting in Marakei. We leave today at 2.

tauannene

Mauri ngkami!

This past week was an interesting one. I ate turtle (which may be illegal, but I was tracting so I will blame the culture) and also lobster. Then I ate dog as well (on my brother's birthday, Happy Birthday Nairne!).

Got some news that we will all be going to a mission tour in a week so I will be leaving Marakei, only for a short time hopefully! Not even sure if I will come back or be transferred so that's a little worrisome.

The message this week: God is our loving Heavenly Father. We are all children of God and he loves us all perfectly and equally. Equally. So it is important to remember that we serve God to show our love Him and not to try to top our neighbor to be the favorite child or whatnot. We are given various callings as well to help people know of Gods love for them through our ministry. Callings are important, although some require extensive effort (right Dad?) I  am grateful for all of those faithful members who fulfilled their callings to help me become a better person and to manifest that there

is a loving Father in Heaven.

Thanks for all of the support! 

Elder Farner

(Word of the week: tauannene, it is a word to describe someone who doesn't want their family or friends to leave their proverbial fold, but usually in a forceful way)

korobun

Mauringkami!

The word of the week should be one that you all can use because there really isn't a word for it in English. The word is "korobun"; It describes the feeling you get when you eat too much  and it gets stuck in your chest and you need water to wash it down. Pretty cool.

This past week and really past transfer has really been about church attendance and what we mean by enduring to the end. Why do we attend church? Why is it a "primary answer"? Well let's look at Jesus Christ's gospel. He preached faith on His name and power to save, repentance, baptism by immersion and the proper authority, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands and lastly enduring to the end.  So we show our faith by choosing to repent, and we know that the "firstfruits of repentace is baptism" and that baptism isnt complete unless it is by water and spirit, or fire and water, so that means we need the Holy Ghost too. Once the first 4 "steps" are done, what do we do? We endure to the end. Jesus Christ said "Look unto me and endure to the end and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will i give eternal life" (3 Nephi 15:9)

I will take a break from the previous lecture with the story of a recent investigator. Her name is Tekunrerei and she is 75 years old. She started lessons with missionaries 3 months ago and has been frequently attending church and Family Home Evenings. Last Thursday we were teaching her about the Book of Mormon and she told us she believed it was true. So we invited her to be baptized at which point she told us that she was already baptized 30 years ago.....the point is that church attendance and church activities helped this lady remember her testimony. She is very strong in the church right now. 

When we go to church, we show our faith, we receive cleanliness from the Sacrament and renew all of our covenants and thus repent and are "rebaptized" and also are promised the Holy Ghost in our lives. In other words, when we go to church we actually are living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore I encourage all of those who read this to evaluate how important church attendance is on your list of priorities and maybe readjust. Is it more important to watch a football game than stay for the full three hours established by prophets of God? Is it really that bad of a stomach/head ache to ignore the need for spiritual healing? Is it really that difficult to get up at 7:30am on the Lord's day? 

You all are awesome! Keep it up! 

Miss you all,

Elder Farner

mwakerukeru

This week was a quick one. We had another bootaki (party) for Teachers' day and that was a pretty cool experience. They do a dance every time where they basically have one person stand up and dance until they pass the dance on to the next person who stands up and passes it and so on. So of course, the third person to get asked to dance was myself so I got up and everyone thought it was hilarious. If a foreigner tries anything in the culture it usually makes people laugh.  

 

bootaki

We have a few solid investigators but there always is a problem it seems that comes up when trying to keep a commitment. But then again, its not just the investigators that have a hard time keeping commitments but also myself and members of the church as a whole. Sometimes we focus on the mote in the other's eye and forget the beam or don't even notice it in our own eye. Or in Elder Holland's talk, we accept the release of our 10000 talent debt but don't forgive others their 10 pence debt. And so on.

We are told to lose ourselves in the service of others, which also includes losing our personal opinions on how people should act or personal desires on how we want things to go. We are supposed to serve, not command.

D&C 6:36:  "Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not"

We never know what might happen as we continue to work diligently in our respective callings, things can change very quickly in peoples lives, although the build-up to that change can seem very slow.

Word for the week: mwakerukeru (mah kiddu kiddu):  Means crunchy.

There is a sister in our ward who feeds us a lot and this one time she made a peanut brittle thing. It was really good and I was calling it cake and the sister, named Totite, said that it wasn't cake but " the crunchy mena" (mena just means "thing"). The crunchy thing. It was pretty funny because she was speaking half English half Kiribati. 

Anyway keep on moving forward.

Miss you all 

Tiabo

Elder Farner 

ingainga

Well there goes September. Started it off on Tarawa and finished it here in Marakei. It is weird how essentially you just live a completely different life in such a short amount of time.

Anyway, we set a goal about 2 or 3 weeks ago to get 80 people at church and then have a picnic to celebrate. The first Sunday we had 60 people at church, the next Sunday we had 62; the following we had 66 and then this last week, according to the count by the branch presidency, we had 78 people. So close!   We also had a service project last week and about 25 people showed up which was cool too.

There are also 7 families that will potentially be going to the temple in the next couple of weeks so that is cool too.

Some information about Marakei that I have yet to share- 

Population: about 2800-3000

Villages: 7: Rawannawi, Raweai, Tekarakan, Bwainuna, Noorauea, Tekuanga and Antai

I would guess that most people here are Catholic,- then Protestant and then LDS. There are also some seventh day adventists too.

Marakei is shaped like a circle and I think it is about 18 miles around. There are a couple things Marakei is known for and being good at dancing is one of them

There is also something about some people randomly having really fair complexions sometimes, something about a recessive gene but I haven't seen it.

And the food it is known for: bwabwai which to me tastes a little like chalk and elmers glue mixed together.... haha But I will get used to it, everyone loves it here.

That's a little bit about Marakei. It is a pretty cool place, I figure I might be out here for a several more months but you never know. The Elder I replaced was only here for 6 weeks and he thought he would be here for months.

Another thing that's pretty cool is that I baptized someone, a child of record who turned 8.  The water in the font was too low so I had to do it a second time and kneel and he also knelt so I could get him under the water.

Word of the week: ingainga - Means "excited" as in we were excited for our Fast Sunday yesterday because everyone could come to church together, as we rented a car.

So that's about it. 

Miss you all, keep on keeping on,

Elder Farner

ngaia anne

Today I will talk about the basics. Sometimes the basics are treated as what they sound like; boring, menial and a waste of time. For example: brushing teeth is basic to good health, and very easy to do, but also easy to overlook. Another one, practicing before playing any sport can be boring or difficult. But there is a reason for them. If you haven't practiced your dribbling skills in basketball, you will lose the ball every time (speaking from experience). If you brush your teeth halfheartedly, you will lose your teeth (don't worry, not speaking from experience). If you haven't read the scriptures daily, your testimony will weaken. If you pray halfheartedly, you will lose the power promised from it.

We invite people every day to read, pray, and keep the commandments. If they haven't read and haven't prayed, you can see a trend on how they are keeping the commandments as well.  I guess that we can see this in our own lives as well. I know that my prayers need improvement, that in the past I have skipped reading or done it unwillingly. But that is where the gift of repentance comes in to help us change. I invite all of you (as I will invite myself) to look at the basics and how strong they really are. Also read 2 Nephi 4 and think of all the good that Nephi did and how he still felt that he really was a fallen soul. Should help to know that prophets feel inadequate too (President Hinckley often spoke of how he felt unfit to be the prophet also)

Kiribati phrase: "ngaia anne" which basically means "that's it".  There is this old lady named Tekunrerei that is very catholic that says that phrase when we teach. Basically the Kiribati version of a mini "hallelujah" which is awesome to hear when you teach.

Miss you all, God knows all of us perfectly and what we need, and will often tell us through the Spirit what we can do to feel a greater measure of peace in this life.

-Elder Farner

P.S. We went to this giant party for the mwaneaba which is like a big covered patio. I have a video but I can;t really load it, but just know that it was pretty cool! 

Marakei II

The new island is a lot different from Tarawa. Most of our efforts seem to be reactivation instead of teaching. We work a lot with the branch president to try and get people to go to church. Plus we have 20 miles to cover on half broken bikes.... So much biking!  We have a couple of families and a lot of older people we teach which is a cool change, just the progress is a little slow. We have about 62 people going to church, but probably could have 300 if all the people went to church. Another thing is about 3000 people live on the island and missionaries were first on the island 40 years ago... So tracting usually leads to less actives or people who have already been taught but are very Catholic. Some pretty great people here, very funny. One guy is just always laughing, he was really cool to talk to. Also we had 4 church services on Sunday.... I led one of them, pretty interesting, also I talked in 3 of them...

In won't be able to write too much again, but next week I will. The person whose laptop we use is on the main island right now but she gets back next week.

Have a good week,

-Elder Farner

Marakei

Mauri!

Here in Marakei, they have airplanes that go here every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and it's only a 20 min flight, thank goodness. It was so hot in that plane!

My new comp is good, likes to be obedient. He hasn't been out for a year yet. He is trying his best.

Right after I landed we rested a little and then we went all the way around the island once to give an offering to these shrines they have for these 4 ghosts - it's part of the culture of the island. It's also a 18 mile bike ride.

The church out here is pretty small. One branch, average of about 60 a week, with mostly young kids and that is with us doing three separate sacrament meetings. I also have to do an audit with the branch president...

Right now I am emailing on a phone so I can't write a ton, it'll be the same next week too; but the week after will be good.

Alma 34:32: "For behold, this ^alife is the time for men to ^bprepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of ^cthis life is the day for men to perform their ^dlabors."

Have a great week!

Elder Farner 

Mimitong

Mauri Ngkami!

I am going to go to an outer island (ibuki). The name of the island is Marakei and it is located north of Tarawa. Should be a cool experience. But I haven't left Bikenibeu yet, so let me update you on that. We have 3 people with baptismal dates, and 2 more investigators who should accept a date this week. This area has good potential, just sometimes the work progresses slowly. So it is in our lives- we all have potential and the work of changing and growing sometimes is slow, confusing, maybe even discouraging IF we try to work it out by ourselves. God has given us so many things to help us with times of difficulty; to name a few: prayer, covenants, parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, scriptures, Church services, service opportunites, modern amenities and most of all, His Son. To know that there is someone who literally know everything that you are going through at all times (see Alma 7: 11-12) should bring great comfort to us all. Even more amazing, Christ willingly "chose to descend from His throne divine" to save people like us, because He loves us perfectly.

So remember to pray, and instead of waiting for the blessings, look for them, because they are already there.

A funny experience: we were teaching our lesson, and our investigator turned to sneeze, and then he sneezed again, and then 5 more times. While he was sneezing I was counting them on my fingers and I almost busted out laughing. The funniest part is that this has happened before with a completely different investigator- when the sneeze, they don't mess around.

And a good word for you all from Kiribati: mimitong, which means "glory".

Have a great week you all! There is a plan for each of us!
-Elder Farner

---

uanao

Mauri,

The word in Kiribati this week is 'uanao" which means 'multitude". As in, there is a multitude of people that we talked with yesterday. Because we tracted/contacted referrals for about 5 hours! It was good. In district meeting each Wednesday we tell everyone our stats for the week. The week before this last Wednesday we had 0 new investigators, so Tui put a 1 in front of it and said we would have 10 new investigators by Sunday (we report our numbers Sunday night and then share them on Wednesday). So we had 5 days to find 10 people, and by Sunday we only had 4... So we were trying to get 10... Unfortunately Sunday is a family/church day for everyone so we didn't hit our goal. But I think if we hadn't had such a high goal, we would have just returned earlier to our flat and done something else because we have been kind of sick the past couple of days.

So the message here is the purpose of goal-setting. Although is is good to reach your goals, it is better just to have goals in the first place. If we don't have goals, our days are "tossed to and fro" by the winds of the trials and setbacks of the day. For example, broken bikes, missing investigators, people not being in their home for us to talk to them, etc.

That's not to say we should set absurdly high goals and say, 'hey I at least I had a goal!'  A better way to look at it is this- instead of just asking the Lord for help in life, we can ask him for help with a specific point in our lives. The Lord tells us:

“Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.”D&C 9: 7-8

When we set goals, ask for confirmation and then go forth with faith we are more likely to access the powers of heaven than when we figuratively 'float' with our plans for our life. Additionally when we have specific goals, it is easier to avoid idleness as we always have something meaningful we are working toward. This is something I need to apply more fully in my missionary service and something I invite all those who are reading to do as well.

Now that I have stepped off my soap box, this past week the investigator that told me he believed the Book of Mormon was true agreed to be baptized, and he is really looking forward to it. So that is cool.

I won two games of the Kiribati Sorry board game back to back- finally starting to get good.

Not much else, have a great week you all!

tekeraoi!

Elder Farner

Mauri ngkami

Mauri ngkami!

The weeks are already starting to go by quick, I hit a month in Kiribati on Thursday! The theme of this past week I will label as "perspective". There are a lot things that happen in our lives that if we look at them with a different perspective, they take on new meaning. For example, playing the game "Sorry!" in Kiribati is way different than playing it in America (the game is really popular here, and there are some people who can count the cards, it is crazy. this old-timer would show me the cards he would use to knock me out with right before he played them and then just laugh). another example: the brand Abercrombie and Fitch has a knockoff called "Abckokoiee and Fifoe" here- no joke.

But in a more spiritual sense, sometimes people do things, that, from our perspective, don't make too much sense. Sometimes we maybe think 100% we are right (if you knew me well before I left, you probably recognized that I thought that a lot) and that because we are sure we are correct, it gives us the right to pass judgment/override the agency of someone else. But that is not the way the Lord works- after all, if I, an imperfect person, believe that I am 100% right about a certain thing- think about how certain Heavenly Father and Christ are that they are 100% correct when they tell us to live the Gospel. The Lord doesn;t force us however, because he respects our agency lets us make our own decisions. So, for us, when someone does something we don't understand, try first to see it from their perspective, and then afterward choose to help them with the consequences, rather than judge them for it. There is something I need to work on

Have a great week,

Elder Farner

Kekeaki II

Hey everyone!

This past week had its ups and downs for sure. But it all works out in the end. We had an investigator come and watch a baptism and we had 2 investigators, 1 recent convert, and 1 less-active member show up to church.
I got to go on a split with a member and I didn't absolutely fail, so it was all good. In fact, in one of the lessons, the investigator straight up said he believed the Book of Mormon is true. I wasn't sure I understood him correctly, but the member explained it to my comp later and it was confirmed. The truth is, when my comp and I had finished teaching the lesson on the Book Of Mormon (which was
the lesson before) we both felt it didn't go very well. Luckily this isn't the work of men, but of God, so our weaknesses and shortcomings don't really matter in the long run. Read the Book of Mormon!

Time is short right now, but the word of the week is one that I have heard/used quite a bit again this week- "kekeaki" which means "endure". Just remember that the Lord promises that He will consecrate our afflictions for our gain (2 Nephi  2:1-2)

Miss you all!

Have a good week!
Elder Farner

kekeaki

So one of our investigators got baptized and another 4 have baptismal dates. The people here are really humble and already believe in Christ, it is just a matter of teaching the Restoration and Book of Mormon, from what I can tell so far. The work is good here, there are a couple of members who do great missionary work, so much so that my comp accidentally calls one of them Elder half the time. Another thing about the baptism, they hadn't assigned anyone to speak about baptism so they asked me like 5 minutes before it started to speak... so I did for maybe 2 minutes but the people are nice and said I did a good job, which is probably an overstatement.

I have been reading a lot in Gordon B Hinckley's Teachings of the Presidents book and it is very good. A lot of just pure simple doctrine explained in the pages. GBH talks about cultivating a spirit of happiness and optimism in one of the chapters and it really boils down to a choice. We can either choose to be hopeless, depressed, worried, anxious, etc. Or we can choose to be happy, hopeful, excited and confident. The power of agency is real- lets not "choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil" but rather "liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men" as it says in 2 Nephi 2:27.

For all those who have served missions, they know it is very easy to give in to those first set of attitudes and feelings (especially in the first couple of months) but the sun always breaks through the clouds, so why not choose to enjoy the rain while it lasts. I am not saying I have done a great job at this, but it is something that a Prophet of the Lord thought was important to share so it is important to try to get better at it.

Thank you all for your support, it is tough to serve but easier knowing there are people praying for you and thinking about you.

Have a good week,

-Elder Farner

(Word: kekeaki, meaning endure.... heard it a lot)

Imwaain I waaki, Kam na Mauri Moa

That phrase is said literally every time you are introducing yourself, giving a talk in church, or about to talk in a semi-formal setting...
Culture shock is a real thing, I am still trying to settle in. Everyone here is very nice. Oh and it is SO HOT!!!  The people are very nice and helpful and happy, which is a miracle considering how little they have. It is weird though, because I am on Tarawa and it is the nicest of all the islands. The houses are terrible- straw-thatched roof or corrugated metal sometimes with concrete walls, but there are also nice computers or TVs and they have movies- I saw some kids watching Power Rangers (the new movie) the other day. So it is split between poverty and material things, very weird.  But it is good, there are some places with air conditioning and fans in most places, which is nice.

Just want to encourage all of us to look at the modern conveniences we enjoy, especially in America, and just have a spirit of gratitude. I know I took so much for granted, and that I never was thankful enough for what I had. But I hope that throughout my mission and after I get home I can be thankful for the life I have had so far and the little blessings every day.
Comp is good- his name is Elder Tuikolovatu, Tui for short (keep getting stuck with theses comps with impossible last names). He is from Cali (San Diego) and is half-tongan, 1/4 japanese and 1/4 white. He is pretty good at teaching lessons and the language.  There are two others in my flat- Tomlinson (from Ogden, leaves in a few weeks), Ntiua (from the Marshall islands).

My bike is trash, every time I try to bike fast to catch up the chain skips so it makes a popping noise. And the chain has fallen off like 5 times. One of the members is going to try to fix it- he has already pumped the tire for me (all day Sunday my front tire was completely flat, I worked up a good sweat).
They have these giant vans that citizens drive back and forth and people hop on- pretty interesting experience, ridden it like 4 times so far.
Out of time, but there is much I have yet to learn, and therefore I don't feel qualified to speak much about Kiribati until I have experienced more.

Photos flying in:

From the President of the Marshall Islands/Kiribati Mission

Brother and Sister Farner,

Your wonderful son, Elder Farner, arrived safely in Kiribati today with three other new missionaries - and we have just had a welcome dinner and orientation for them. Elder Farner is serving in Bikenibeu 2nd ward on Tarawa with Elder Tuikolovatu as his Trainer.   

We are very grateful to have Elder Farner serving in our mission and we are confident he will have a great experience serving as one of the Lord's missionaries here in Kiribati.      

Kind regards, 

President and Sister Larkin

Marshall Islands / Kiribati Mission  

N te wiiki ae nako, iai akea te bwai ae riki nakoiu

Mauri! N te wiiki ae nako, iai akea te bwai ae riki nakoiu. Translation: not much happened this past week. Just a lot of excitement about leaving the MTC to go to the field. 

There were two cool things that happened: first we got to help out with some trial MTC tours and we got to get out of the MTC on the bus to go pick up the visitors at Lavell Edwards stadium. I ran into Becca (Folsom) Hadfield who was helping out with the loading of the buses. 

The tour was pretty nice, we took them throughout most of the buildings- the new buildings are very nice and have some awesome art hanging on each floor. My favorite so far is this one of Saul on the road to Damascus- it is really awesome.

Second cool thing; we were trying to skype-teach a volunteer from Kiribati but the call wouldn't work. We had planned on teaching her the Book Of Mormon to remind her about the importance of reading it for enduring to the end. I had also lost the page where I had written down scripture references and we showed up late in the first place- so all in all we were not in a great place. But then our teacher managed to find someone from Kiribati who lives in Utah and we got to teach her instead (she kept speaking English because she said "I have been here too long") but we asked her if she had been reading the Book of Mormon every day and she said she had kind of been slacking. So we got to share a message with her and then she said at the end that we helped to encourage her to read the Book of Mormon every day. So all in all, one of our best lessons we have taught in a while.

Next week we are scheduled to leave the MTC at 1:50 PM on Tuesday. The total travel time will be about 23 total hours not including the 15 hour time zone change....

Read Alma 36 and 38 with the topic of "finding peace" in mind.  Verse 5 in chapter 38 reads:

"that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day. "

I kokoaua bwa e tangiria te Atua

Hey everyone,

This week went by pretty quick, but not fast enough. Almost out of the MTC- should be getting the flight plans today. We taught a member from Kiribati in a Skype call! The connection was awful, but still pretty cool to see an actual person from Kiribati!

I loved the devotional on Tuesday by Bruce C. Hafen about how we should approach questions we have about the Church. very similar to what President Uchtdorf advises: Doubt you doubts before you doubt your faith! Facing questions is something we all will have to do- our attitude when searching for answers, or even choosing to search in the first place, is entirely on us. We need to strengthen out testimonies in these latter days. Faith is a principle of action, and sometimes requires us to take a couple of steps onto the water first before we receive assurance that we will be able to stand.

Ether 12:6 - I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

I would really quickly like to thank all of the Sunday School and Priesthood teachers - I have been blessed to have great teachers, and have been able to share the knowledge I have gained with my district. It has been a blessing.

If you can find Day by Day (a Swedish hymn translated to English) then I would recommend listening to it - great message.

I kokoaua bwa e tangiria te Atua. Rinanon Ana mwakuri ni Kamaiu Iesu Kristo ti kona ni maeka me te Atua manga. Ngkana ti ongeaba ti kona ni karekea kaeka nakon ara tataro ao ta rau inanon maium.

N aran Iesu Kristo, Amen

Te Mwakuri Korakora

(That means "diligence".)

This past week was again not as eventful as my first week, but I don't think I will ever be able to top two visits outside the MTC walls in the first 5 days. 

Something cool. Yesterday we taught two members who speaks Kiribati at TRC (which stands for Teaching Resource Center- just where missionaries teach actual members rather than investigators). So Sister Paletua and I finished teaching the first lesson, and the member we taught was a translator who worked at the MTC so he spoke English. And then I found out that the other member was Porter Openshaw! It was cool to try to speak some Kiribati with someone I knew before getting into the MTC (Porter is the son of my Dad's good friends).

Also cool- we got to watch the fireworks at the stadium of fire from the new buildings at the MTC.

We also hosted new missionaries on Wednesday- there were 700 new ones so that meant most hosts had to help 6 missionaries over a two-hour period. It was also about 103 degrees. Good prep for Kiribati.

Message for the week: the First Presidency Message by President Eyring about Enduring Well. Read it! It talks about how God doesn't want us to endure trials, he wants us to endure them well so that we can improve. 

Apologies for the short letter, I will have more next week as I will probably have my flight plans for Kiribati!

Tia bo!

Elder Farner 

Hello everyone!

This week wasn't quite as crazy as last week but it was still pretty interesting. On Saturday, my comp got his flight plans to leave Sunday afternoon to go back to Tonga. So on Sunday he went to all of the church meetings to say goodbye to everyone- so we were wheeling him around in the wheelchair (it was like an XL size). So we had to ride the elevator, and 2 other elders from my district and 2 more from my zone went on the elevator. Two missionaries thought it would be funny to jump a little bit- it wasn't really too funny when we got stuck - 6 missionaries, one of which was sick and sitting in a giant wheelchair. And apparently not too happy to be stuck for about 15 minutes- he actually started tearing up the carpet and punching the walls- he also hit the call button like 3 times even though we had already called them. It was pretty intense- I would not recommend it for a Sabbath day activity.

On Tuesday we had a devotional where Elder Bednar spoke and 9 other apostles sat on the stand! It was pretty cool. He talked about how we need to plant in our hearts the word of God, and the Word of God actually is Jesus Christ, which he proved using like 10 different scripture references. Just a cool experience.

MTC class

Probably the most spiritual thing that happened for me this week was when we went to teach the member at TRC and the TRC coordinator informed us that he had accidentally requested Marshallese speaking members rather than Kiribati speaking members. So we got to teach in English! And it was kind of weird to be honest- but I talked so much because I could actually answer the questions- when we started talking about the Book of Mormon, I could really feel the Spirit and it was pretty cool.

Read the Book of Mormon every day! It is the word of God, and He wants to answer your prayers!

Other than that, no ER trips and no surgeries.

-Elder Farner

Mauri!

This week has been one of the longest and strangest of my life. After my last email not much happened until Sunday when we had our devotional, when Donny Osmond spoke...To quote Elder Mann (who I have been able to talk to quite a bit which has been cool) "he talked about missionary work, the Gospel and Donny Osmond" and the order is not indicative of the amount of time he spent on each.

So I have my companion who doesn't speak much English, and I was feeling pretty selfish and asking why no one seemed to understand that I don't speak Tongan so companion study is pretty much impossible, especially because he doesn't seem to like doing it. And then we watched Elder Bednar's "character of Christ"devotional where he said pretty bluntly to stop whining and asking for pity,and then said "who cares what you want for your mission", its not about what I want,but what the Lord wants for it. So that was pretty straightforward... I'm still not fully following that counsel, I am still selfish, but we can chalk that up to being human and this being the first week in the MTC. 

and now to the strange part:

A sister in our zone who has been here for about 4 weeks has been sick the entire time with some stomach issues that the doctors can't figure out.And she is from Tonga. So you guessed it, about Monday morning, my companion's stomach started to hurt,and on Tuesday night, we were in the ER because his stomach hurt so bad- for 5 hours. We brought the other sister who has the same sickness to translate and her companion, who is actually from Kiribati, so I talked to her about Kiribati, and she knows Elder Openshaw (her name is Sister Beria). So they did a CT scan and an ultrasound and found nothing wrong, just like the sister with the same stomach problems. So we went back to the MTC, and my comp said he was too sick to go to class, so we stayed in the room until exercise time, at which point he said he wanted to go watch volleyball. So his idea of watching is playing, I learned. I then told him that if he would play volleyball he could go to class, but we haven't been to class since or volleyball because he threw up blood that night,and then again the following night. So he had a procedure to check his stomach, involving him drinking a large cleansing solution the night before (like 2 gallons)- that was fun tottry to get him to drink it- he got pretty mad at one point- luckily some elders had received some packages and they came back to put them away so they helped me.

Anyway, he is still sick, and they found nothing during the procedure which was yesterday (which is why I am emailing today).

We still made it to the temple while Elder Ma was recovering in sick bay. But all in all I think I have missed like 5 classes (15 hours) and at least one investigator lesson. 

Now Elder Ma will be going home and getting better, at which point he will be recommended to return on his mission once he is better by his stake president.  He is pretty bummed and still in pain.

I don't know what the record is for the fastest a missionary has managed to lose his companion, but I think I am in the running. He says there is a Tongan traditional medicine that will cure him, so hopefully he gets better.

That's been my week.

Tia bo!

Elder Farner  

First days in the MTC

The MTC drop off

Things are going pretty well but it has been a little difficult because my companion is from Tonga and doesn't really speak too much English, at least I think or he might just be quiet. It is a struggle to communicate, so we just keep repeating the same phrases we have been learning in Kiribati:

ko uara? (how are you)

I marurung (I am well (healthy) Ao ngkoe? (and you?)

I marurung. Karabwa (thanks)

We are a district of only 5! We are the smallest one in our branch. Our district leader is Elder Ferguson (from Alabama), his companion is Elder Rogovakalali (from Fiji, his name literally means "sounds like a drum"), and my companion is Elder Ma.  We have a solo sister, Sister Paletua, who is also from Tonga which has been a blessing because she can translate for Elder Ma. I don't have a picture with me but will have one next week.
We have our first lesson on Saturday with Biiri who doesn't speak English... Elder Ma has missed both of our language classes so far because he was late the first day and then getting immunizations. He also has been getting bloody noses because of the dry air and I think he thought he had TB or something because he was filling out a form for the triage unit. But instead, I told the nurse that he actually had bloody noses and that's why he was coughing up blood, so they gave us a humidifier instead. He is a very humble person, and so it will all be good once we both can speak Kiribati together and actually communicate. I am pretty sure I have one of five companions in the entire MTC who doesn't speak English enough to communicate very well. So I am a little worried about the lesson, especially since Elder Ma has missed the lessons about the investigator. 

Talk about a small world, I have run into so many people from my BYU YSA ward, Washington, etc. Crazy. It's kind of stressful to have p-day already because I would rather have everyone just tell me what to do, because I think I am doing it wrong. It's tough to do companion study especially.

I have some improvements to make, but I have definitely felt the Spirit here, so things are looking up.

Ti abo!

Elder Farner