Elder Carson Bowen Kiribati Islands in Marshall Majuro Mission

WEEK 66 No email today....til next week!!!

Few awesome things happened this week! 1) I woke up and found some jelly fish outside our house. I took them to our "grandma" to cook. She said they're edible.  She cooked them and made us eat them. It honestly tasted like very chewy nothing. It's just rubbery and transparent.  But now I can say I've eaten jelly fish! 2) We had the baptism/huge picnic next to our house. Everyone from north came because we hired a car. Super fun: Volleyball. Sorry(the board game) and so much food. Someone brought a huge tuna fish which we cut up and cooked, so good!! 3)This next week transfers will happen. I will probably get a new companion and stay here south. I love it here down south because members are awesome and work is killer. 4)That stinky rotten whale that washed up dried out a little. One member went and cut out some of its teeth. I asked for one and he was like suuurre! So now I have a big whale tooth. It's about 3 or 4 inches. Super cool tho...

Mauri ngkami! What a crazy week! So many cool thinks happened! 1) Every night when we get home from a long bike riding day, the urge to "visit the beach" becomes my first priority. Immediately when I see the house the urge gets 10 times stronger. So I usually rush and set my bike down and run for the beach which is about 10 ft away then I squat down and enjoy the fresh air.. After the business is complete I usually look at the stars, then eventually go back to the house because the mosquitoes come. But in this particular evening I shined my light in the deeper part of the water and I could see these small skinny blue fish. I jabbed my hand in the water and  caught a couple. I brought them back to the house and then realized they were baby sword fish! So I go back to the beach to see if I could get more, but as I shined my light there was a huge eel. So I decided to return to the house. 2) My companion and I were biking one day and smelled somethi...

Mauri ngkami! This week was a pretty crazy week. So many things happened. Here's a couple things. Story:  One of our lessons w our investigator Temwka and Tatauea we/I was teaching questions 1 and 2. Ti roko maiia?(where did we come from) and ibukin Terra te maiu aei?(why/what is the purpose of this life? The lesson went super well and I taught as the spirit guided. The spirit was nice and strong. I bore a sweet testimony and said n aran Iesu Kristo Amen.(in the name of Jesus Christ amen).-my comp doesn't say amen, as usual-  then Temwaka was thinking real long and hard. So I asked iai am titireke ten Temwaka?(do you have a question Mr.Temwaka?) He paused and looked at me and began. " when I was younger I was living on Tarawa(main island). I knew a guy who had this board that had letters on it and had a glass bottle and could communicate with the dead. The glass bottle would slide on the board and spell out letters to them. But he first would do ...

   Mom note:  Since Carson has been out serving well over a year, I asked him to send me his thoughts of his mission life, changes he has made in himself, and what he has ultimately learned.  Wow, what a thoughtful response I have received back!  Love this boy and his acknowledge his Blessings from serving a full time mission: Mauri!        I am a hardworking, happy person and have earned my eagle scout award, had many jobs, played many sports and am currently serving a mission in Kiribati (Gilbertese) Islands as District Leader on an outer island called Abemama. I'm not offended if you need to pull out a map, because I sure did as well. During my time serving these wonderful people on these small islands, isolated from the "outside word" with the Pacific Ocean being on my left and right, my life has changed and has been a humbling experience. Learning to respect a different culture, speak and understand a new language, fi...

Hi Everyone! I am still here on Abemama!  There were originally 6 and then last transfer went down to 4 elders. Transfers happened last week and 2 elders up north were BOTH transferred.  So,  it's just me and my same companion here. I'm district leader. Still riding bikes everywhere.  1 baptism happened this week that was super cool for this 9 year old. But the work is coming because I'm working hard and dragging my companion everywhere talking to everyone. But yes dope week. Also, I got a sickness that made my back way sore that I couldn't get up off the ground, mat, my bed and didn't work that day. Then the next day my stomach was sick. But now I'm all good! And excited to be healthy and work out again. I've been working out hard every morning so I've gotten pretty big.   I am committed to spreading the gospel!  But yes blessing have been coming everyday. The big man upstairs is really preparing people for us. It's very  noti...

Mauri! Not too much happened this week. The baptism is changed to this Saturday because they said "if she gets baptized then someone's gonna say who died?" Hahaha think about it.  She was sick and couldn't make it.  Don't want to scare anyone! So we are going to do it this Saturday! Cool things I ate this week was an eel(a huge one) and a duck egg! The eel was huge!!! I didn't know what to do with it so I just threw it on our roof.  I thought that would be the best spot haha!  But I told a bunch of the members about it and they said bring it and we'll cook it! So good eating an egg and eel! Its been so long since I have eaten egg. You can only eat them out here if you find them!!  We are patiently waiting in central for the AP to tell us about transfers.  Today being Pday we are going to fish off the bridge while we wait the news. I hope I get to watch conference, I didn't get to watch the last one that had all the changes. ...