Sister Koger: 4/18/22

 

Rurutu

I would like to begin with an apology for dropping off of the face of the planet for the last few months. Now that I have moved even further away from home, I thought it was time for an update. I was transferred to a little island named rurutu:)) it's in a completely separate island chain from Tahiti, called the Australes. There are about 2000 people that live here and a more horses, dogs, and pigs than people. When you imagined the other side of Heaven and jungle rural Polynesia when I said any of this, yes that is correct. 

A few months ago I wrote an email about laughing at myself and shaking off my imperfections. It's something that has transformed my mission and made it easier coming here when I needed to transition laughing at myself, to laughing at absolutely everything that goes wrong. There is almost nothing to gain from stressing about things out of my control. 

With that note, I would love to share a list of things that I do not have here in rurutu and then explain why it's funny:)

With a little background, we are the first missionaries here since covid 2 years ago, and we've been here for two weeks now 

We do not currently have...

- a functioning water filter which did make for some confusing stomach issues the first few days. We couldn't open the filter for multiple days to check it to see if it was clean because it was rusted shut. That probably should have been a good indicator lol

- a toilet... anyways we have chapel keys and the only working drain in our house belongs to the shower.... so yeah ( this is me being open and honest OK?)

-a fridge:) this makes storing food out here really hard. Because we would like to eat more than just our member meals some nights out of the week, we have a lot of crackers stored in our microwave( which does function!) I also have eaten an unholy amount of canned corn cause the only canned food available are beans and corn and once you open a can, you have to finish it- no fridge to store it in, remember? 

- bikes:(( our kind branch president lent us his e bikes and we didn't have the heart to tell him we aren't allowed to use electric bikes, so if you see two sister missionaries absolutely cruising around on ebikes with two baguettes in hand, no you didn't 

-an updated church manual: 1

So apparently the branch is using a three year old guidelines manual and we have indeed run into some issues. "I promise I'm not asking to hold the priesthood. I'm just saying we are allowed to witness a baptism now" 

- lettuce. This is kind of obvious but I just would like to throw in the fact that vegetables are actually not sold on this island. Like it is just not a thing. I do eat the equivalent of an entire baguette everyday tho so don't worry. NUTRIENTS:)) 

OK OK I'm done now I think:) the list goes on and on, but the crazy part is, I am so happy. Yeah it's a little nuts and I might have a meltdown when I get home in a little over 2 months (whhaaaat nooooo) and see Costco again, but I am HAPPY. This is the kind of happy that comes from knowing I'm a part of something so much bigger than me. The Atonement isn't something just to help us repent from sins, but something if used with all of the faith we can muster will transform us into beings that can picture the eternities. This silly little list that shows off my lack of necessities will hopefully help me to 1. Cry for help, if you have Gatorade powder pls send, and 2. Tell you how grateful I am for my savior and this chance I have to be a missionary full time. The people out here in rurutu love God more than anything and it's something I want to show more. You learn something from the people anywhere you go! someone out in the middle of the ocean loves you:)

Sr Koger

hehe also send me a funny story from your week I wanna hear