Foson Charame

10-13-09

Dear Mom and Dad,
Well, you get another double lettered envelope. I hope the increased distance between letters hasn't bothered you.
So how have you both been? Hopefully all is going well with you both still. I haven't heard from you this last week so I assume all is well still. We haven't been to Weno for three weeks now so it is hard to get mail. I did get two boxes from Grandpa Bob and Grandma Helen for my birthday last week which was fortunate. The zone leaders had just picked them up at the post office when they ran into one of the members from Romonnum so they gave them to him and he brought them to me. All the birthday boxes I have been getting are great! Maybe by the time you get this, I will be 20! That's weird!
So this last week has been fun. I tried a new food which was awesome. Turtle eggs! I had two raw and three cooked. One of the members fed us turtle thay had just gotten and it was full of eggs when they killed it. The Chuukese love them. The eggs are really soft so you just tear them and suck out everything inside. They were pretty good. The members gave us some of the turtle meat too and it was sooooo amazing! Turtle meat is one of my top favorites now. At least how it was cooked. I could eat it for the rest of my life. I also had lobster today too which was okay. I bought it for $2. I got it on camera for you. I know mom is jealous!
We also just had a cool drunkard experience too. Two guys were drunk and yelling and were trying to fight. We had to step in and get them apart. The drunks here can get away with almost anything thay want. Rommonum doesn't have nearly as many drunks as Tonoas which is good.
So news on Kantus. He did not pass his baptism interview this last week which stinks. He wasn't completely honest with us this last week and started smoking again. I was really disappointed, but we'll keep working with him. We'll shoot for two weeks. Our other investigators are still doing well. Some of them are still struggling bodily, but we are helping them and praying for them. Please keep them in your prayers as well.
I have started learning a new style of talk here as well called foson charame. (sweet talk) haha. It is awesome. It is used mostly for flirting, but don't worry. I won't use it for that. I like it mostly because there are a lot of deeper words involved. It is like a Chuukese poetry. I've been coming up with a lot of good stuff on my own and people say it is pretty good. The people on Rommunum think the zone leaders are great sweet talkers. They are like professionals. They are better than a lot of the locals. Well, mostly all actually. I want to keep learning the foson anunnon (deep talk) as well. That talk is awesome. It is the old language. When people use it, only a few people can even understand it. People get respected for knowing that stuff.
So our water pump is still broken which stinks. To shower we still have to do our tower showers which is awkward. We attract crowds of Chuukese who watch me climb to the top, pour water down on Ako and then on myself. Yesterday, the Duncans, the senior couple, came for an inspection and they came right as we finished a service project so we had to shower and they got it on camera. You should check their blog and see if you can see me. Elder Duncan was surprised how we shower and couldn't believe it.
The service project was interesting we did yesterday. It gave me a huge appreciation for lawn mowers. We went to an investigator's house who asked us to "ottot" or help him to cut back the grass in his yard. It isn't a lawn but it is a big patch of grass between his house and cooking hut. What did we cut it with you ask? Machetes. Dull ones too. We had to hack at the grass. You hack at it at about a 60 degree angle to cut the grass. It is monotonous and takes forever. It is unproductive as well. We hacked for two hours and it didn't look much better than when we started. We got really dirty doing it all too. The hacks make the dirt fly and we were sitting and kneeling. It was really sunny so we sweat a lot too. It was good though. Anything we can do to help is great and we are willing. Afterwards the investigator invited us to his "interges" which is like a family meeting where big important stuff is talked about. It is a big thing for Chuukese so it was cool we got invited. We haven't decided if we will go or not though.
Well, that is all of my week. I hope that you are both doing great and that all is well.

PS I am enclosing a letter for Sister Wilson's seminary class. Please give it to her to give the students.