STORMS OF FAITH

 Oh Kaselehlie Maing Ko!

This week has been super crazy. We have had so much rain. One night we had a typhoon and the wind and rain was really bad. A coconut tree almost fell on our roof but I'm grateful Heavenly Father was watching out for us and it fell just a few feet away from our house. The typhoon knocked trees and power out island-wide. This week everyone on Pohnpei has had to overcome this storm but the people and missionaries here have super strong faith, so we've been able to.

Our landlord also had a family member pass away this week so there was a funeral right outside of our house and funerals on Pohnpei are a big thing. As part of the Pohnpeian traditions the family who hosts the funeral provides a few pigs to eat and the community provides their pigs as well. It was so funny but also a little traumatizing because one day we were just chilling in our house having lunch and doing studies when they started stabbing like 5 or 6 pigs that were tied to logs. The screeching was unholy. They also were pounding Sakau (Pohnpeian Kaava) at like 1 am. Anyways, that was fun. This week I gave my first baptismal interview, and it was done in Pohnpeian so that's epic. 

On Saturday we did service for this one family and 2 of the brothers took us up to their land and it was a full hike up a literal mountain and we helped chop plants with machetes and pull weeds. It was super cool, and we were able to start teaching all the brothers in the fam (there's like 10 of 'em).

Overall, this week has been udahn mwahu! I hope y'all have a great and safe week. Also do something Christ-like for one person this week. It can make a big difference in their life and yours. As usual I poakpoake emenemen kumwail! 

-Elder Eubanks

Here are some snazzy pics from da week

1. Some pretty scenery from our area

2. A pine tree that seems out of place

3. Me and my comp

4. Our water Buffalo friend

5. A funny snack I saw on the ground

6. A bridge we crossed

Missionaries can't Swim but we almost had to ...

 Kaselehlie Maing Ko!

This week has been udahn mwahu! We have been grinding in our new area. We have been walking all over the place so it's been really tiring but really rewarding. We have been able to meet lots of new peeps and have had a ton of fun. Our bishop gave us a ride home one night so we got to ride in the back of his flatbed truck so that was cool. I had my first district council this week as a district leader, and it was a lot of fun. 

This week my comp and I gave talks in church so that was epic. We also had the chance to teach the Youngs men's class in church as well. It was cool because we were able to teach them more about the priesthood, and the importance of and different duties of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood. Overall, it's been really fun working in our new area and meeting the people of Eirike. 

I can't wait for y'all to hear more about my fun and spiritual adventures in my new area this transfer. I want to leave y'all with a scripture from last week's come follow me. It reads in Matthew 16:25 "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." I love this verse because it shows how important selflessness is and how we should all strive to let go of our own wants and desires and turn our focus to the needs of others. I testify that when we do these things we will slowly become more like Christ, and we will see that change in our day-to-day lives. 

As usual I poakpoake emenemen kumwail!

-Elder Eubanks

*Funny/Crazy Stories*

1. A sister in my district got bit by a dog this week 

2. We got DRENCHED by rain one day and I took a video of a river that was raging and almost flooded the road, and we would've had to swim through the road if it had flooded.

Here's some pics for this week

1. Some epic house pics

2. Some scenery of our area

3. Ice pops some members gave us

4. A cool Audi I saw

Walking with faith...and lots of sweat!

 Oh Kaselehlie Maing Ko!

This week was very fun and busy so that was awesome! We have started work in our new area (called Eirike), now and we are walking a ton. It's been really hot recently so that's not ideal ahpw kiht nantihong (but we press forward). 

My new comp Elder Tangi, who is from New Zealand, and I call little kids here goblins or gremlins and there are a ton of them in our new area and as Elder Tangi and I were walking to a lesson they all ran up to us and I think about 10 or 11 of these goblins wanted to hi-five us so my comp and I raised our arms to give em a challenge and every single one jumped up to hi-five us so that was super funny. 

Also, after we were walking back that way to our house, we helped some kids who were racing some bikes and one of their bike chains fell off so my comp and I stopped and did some quick lil service for them so that was super cool. There was a family we met that asked us to give their grandma a blessing because she was sick so after we blessed her the daughter asked if she could get a blessing as well. We were like "uh, sure!" So, we blessed the grandma and the mom so that was cool.

On Easter Sunday we did gospel jeopardy after church as a ward and the primary kids did an Easter egg hunt. It was super fun and it allowed us to meet a lot of the members in the Eirike ward. Today for Pday all the missionaries did our own "scripture" egg hunt. We also went to get haircuts, but the power went out and I joked with my comp how it would suck if we were mid haircut, and the power went out, so the barber is just like "welp you get half a haircut so it's half off price." 

Anyway, sorry this week's email is ekis reirei (a little long). Love y'all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Eubanks 

Here's the pics from this week

1. Some cool trees in our area

2. A Texas oil barrel

3. Me by the sea

4. Me looking like a gremlin

5.  My epic companion 

New Assignment, New Area, New Adventures!

 Kaselehlie Maing Ko!

Well, this week has been super awesome! We've been very busy, and I have had some fun experiences this week. First off, let me just say general conference was EPIC! The messages that were shared were super powerful and spiritually uplifting. We also had an Elder in our district finish his mission this week so that was sad but cool to see him go. 

I went on exchanges this week with the ZL's and it was pretty cool. We also got our friend Reagan to come watch general conference with us so that was a major highlight. We also had transfer calls this week and guess who's going to a new area and going to be District Leader? Yessir it's this guy! I was a little nervous at first being assigned District Leader because this is only my 4th transfer but I'm still pretty excited. I'm also in a biking area now (the only bike area on the mission so far) so I'm interested to see how that goes. 

Overall, I'm beyond nervous while at the same time beyond excited for this transfer! I'm super grateful for general conference and the chance we get to receive guidance and counsel from our Prophet and Apostles.

I love y'all and hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Week! I poakpoake kumwail!

-Elder Eubanks

*Funny Story*

We Blew a Tire (again) but luckily it was right as we were pulling into the parking spot but what was so funny is that when we popped the tire it was so loud and noticeable that one of the caretakers who was weed wacking stopped and turned to look and as soon as they saw our deflated dead-fish lookin tire they burst out laughing and Elder Sewell and I also couldn't contain our laughter.

Here's the pics for the week (sorry there's not that many)

1. Our "Elders quorum" district

2. One of the dogs that hangs out around the church. The sisters named him Bear