Letter 2/14/11

In this letter Spencer says that he is doing well except that he did discover an allergy that he didn't know that he had before. They were eating some kika (octopus), he said they were quite large so he didn't really want any but it was Elder Coles favorite so he tred it. He started chewing on a big tentacle and it tasted surpisingly good but about halfway through his lips started feeling funny and the ended up swelling up really big and his throat started to feel weird. It never got hard to breathe but it was hard to swallow. He said they were back to normal in about half an hour. He said he hasn't had any reactions since but he has had some regular seasonal allergies.
He said that things are going well for them. The most exciting thing was that Tebantaake got baptized and her husband was able to baptize her. They did the baptism in the ocean and the waves were so big that he said he and his companion were soaked up to their shoulders just being witnesses.
They are working with some really good investigators and a few less actives. Inactivity is a big problem in Marakei. A lot of the less actives seem to want to come back but are shy or scared of what their family members and friend who are not members will think. There is one village, Norauea, where the missionaries lived years ago and during that time there were quitea few members but when the missionaries left everything just stopped. They are working with some families there and they have been able to start having sacrament meeting there. They already had three other villages they were taking the sacrament to that were to far away from Rawanawi where the chapel is to come to church. They were not sure how they would be able to manage another but they talked to the Branch President and worked it out. Now him and Elder cole go one way and take the sacrament to two of the villages and the Branch President and someone else go the other way and take it to the other two villages.
They should be having another baptism of a 15 year old boy named Teberia. Also, President Shaw is planning on coming to visit them on Marakei while he is in Tarawa for Zone conference.