WEEK 9 baby blessing-drinking ants-dog fight

Hey Hey! Another week went by. This week was nuts. I finally had my interview with President Larkin! He's a very smart Australian that is strict and gets stuff done. He's a nice guy though. Anyways we have to email him every week and he responded to mine saying that I'm ahead of everyone else by being organized and using my planner, so in other words I'm on his good side which is awesome.

A few super cool/exciting things happened this week:

1) I gave a blessing to this baby that was like super sick and had this terrible cough(I gave it in English) and then we visited them like a day later and the baby was basically all better.

2) We had a fire lesson and I bore my testimony in Kiribati and it made her cry because the spirit was so strong.. not because of my beka language speaking skills.

3) Everyday you like die of thirst and hunger. Yesterday/Sunday I was dying so we went to a members house(we call her mom) and asked for a drink. She got us a drink and on the cup was like 20 ants. She poured the glass and there was a bunch of ants floating. Then I began drinking trying to avoid the ants, then she caught on. She said "is there something in your drink?" and in the culture it's super rude not to drink or eat what they give you, and I said "nope", and drank all the ants.

4) The language is still super rough.. we sit on the ground in pretzel mode and teach for like an hour. I basically just sit there in pain and not know what is being said which can be hard sometimes..

5) I know I've said this before, but at church we sing in Kiribati of course. The culture in Kiribati they sing very very slow and high. Sounds sooo funny and its very hard not to laugh.

6) Last night we were having a lesson with this one leg dude who spoke a little bit of English. (some people here know a little English). We were in a hut by the beach and all of a sudden like 15 dogs like right under me start going insane on this one dog. It was freakin scary because they were all literally right under me. Right where they were fighting was where I put my flip flops. Then after the lesson we get off of the hut and my flip flops were gone and it was pitch black outside.. then luckily after looking for like 10 min we found them.

7) The other day I was super hungry so at that dinner that night I ate sooo much and drank so much. After we were done eating, I realized this food was not gonna stay down there.. so during the lesson I tell my trainer I need a bathroom now.. then said yea and this one dude got up and I started following/running. Then I threw up right as I left the the big hut/house in my hands because I was still on their cement thingy and I ran and barely made it. Luckily only a little bit fell out of my hands as I was running which I was easy to cover up.. but yea it was a close one..

8) During lessons pigs, chickens, and naked kids run everywhere. The pigs like to itch themselves on trees and stuff. We eat mostly pic and chicken here.

9) There is so much history here. You can be walking and can find like a super old bullet or bullet shell.

Anyways I'm hanging in there. This is definitely an adventure.. I miss all of you. Be greatful for everything that you have like running water, or a toilet, or food or somin to sit on..!

Love u all, Elder Bowen