Post-Christmas Recovery

We were able to email with Dallin the p-day after Christmas.  We were kind of worried about him after being so disappointed.  He was still feeling a little down, but they were allowed to email for a long time.  I think it helped him to just be able to chat back and forth.  Part of the problem for them right now is that there is no one to teach because all the potential investigators are still "partying" at their churches. So weird. His mission has so many physical challenges and emotional adjustments, BUT they are always teaching and baptizing and that keeps them going. When the teaching is taken away, all the other inconveniences and discomforts seem more pronounced.  He is learning lots of patience right now.  Here are a few things from our back and forth.

(The senior couple tried to make some food for the missionaries.  It's hard to come by a lot of things, so I really appreciate their effort!)  For dinner the Seamons made potatoes and stuffing and corn, but there was no chicken or turkey so we made a bunch of lobster. Bettencourt hated the lobster - still trying to get used to it. 
(We reminded him of the story Bro. Hopkins tells about throwing out his lobster claw everyday on the way to school because it wasn't cool)  I do remember Bro Hopkins story about the lobster, that's too funny. These lobsters here are a different species, they don't have claws actually.

(The senior couple is relatively new and we asked how they were holding up.)  Seamons are just as frustrated. They're more worried about flights and things. We have two sisters coming in on Wednesday and elder Tarati is leaving - the first move of the January transfer. 

(We asked about the work.)  No new investigators. No one is home. We taught 5 lessons and our two investigators we do have access to are progressing a little. They are cutting down on smoking and the husband came to church. Christmas parties are not over. They won't be over til next Sunday, because they carry through New Years and then through for one more church all together in the cathedral on Sunday. Monday everyone should go home. 

(We asked about cultural traditions around Christmas.) No real traditions, some people believe in Santa, most don't. Really it's just a normal day for them, it's kind of sad actually. We keep teaching about why it's important and most people have no idea. Christmas is just an excuse to party and it's kind of just a sad/cheap feeling. Everything about Christmastime here is off, even the weather. The cops hate Christmas because they have to do so much overtime to deal with drunks. 

(We asked about the transfers and living arrangements.) New sisters will take Tabwakea 2, Tarati's old area. We're still in the stick house. I'm not sure if I will move from the top bunk or not. I want to. The roof is decaying, so like random debris and leaf matter rains on me all night. I'm like a roof for Sion so he doesn't get any stuff on his bed. But if I move someone else will go up to the top bunk and I don't know how that would go, so I'll probably just stay and deal with it.

(Ed suggested that he take all the missionaries for a meal at the hotel restuarant.  It would be like a belated Christmas present and we offered to pay for it.)  The restaurant is a great idea and I really did think about it earlier this week, but the restaurant is in the KPC hotel, and its closed because all the workers are at the bootaki. The Wells Fargo card works on the ATM here so I could get money out.  I think everyone would really enjoy that!

 (He left to try to get money our of the ATM...) We'll go to dinner, but the ATM is broken again. Only 1 ATM on the island and we can't get money til it's up again hahaha terrible. I just went to check it two minutes ago.  

*It seems like it is just not possible to do anything nice for the missionaries on Christmas island right now.  Oh well, this will all be funny someday in retrospect :)  Overall he was sounding better, so hopefully this week will go more smoothly.

Christmas

Well, things didn't exactly go as we hoped on Christmas.  On Dallin's Christmas day and our Christmas eve they traveled to the hotel on the other side of the island hoping to skype.  Unfortunately a fishing boat had come into port and there were dozens of drunk El Salvadorian sailors trying to call their families.  The situation was not good and there was not enough internet speed for anything to work.  After a good deal of frustration they gave up and said they would try again tomorrow.  The next day was just as frustrating.  They tried to use another internet spot, but there was just not enough speed to run any of the programs.  There is no way to make phone calls from the island to America, so they decided to try to email for a while.

I was really sad to miss talking to him, but I know he really needed to talk to all of us more.  I felt terrible for all the missionaries on the island.  The mission home was not able to ship any Christmas packages, none of the letters we sent arrived, they couldn't get any turkey or chicken to make for a dinner, and the one thing they really wanted didn't work.  He sent an email titled "Sad Christmas" and it said, "Worst. Christmas. Ever.  I love you all and I'm sorry I ruined your day."

Yeah.  And that's all I have to say about that.

Short Message

Dallin was online just long enough to tell us that his branch had a Pre-Christmas party where they made delicious crab.  Their lessons were way down due to everyone getting ready for Christmas.  Apparently other church congregations just kind of move in to their chapels during the holidays and have one big party for about 2 weeks. Crazy. Then the internet died.  I always try to be grateful for any message because I know that many missionaries in Kiribati don't have internet and their moms don't hear from them for months at a time.  I'll take it.

Found a Picture!

Another mom posted a picture from President Weir's visit last week!  YAY!!!

Back to Work!

Great week. So fun to hang out with Pres Weir all week. He was here Wednesday to Wednesday and from Sunday until he left, he was with me and Sion. It was so fun to hang out with him for so long. He's a great guy.  We just became his drivers basically. He had meetings and emails and stuff to do, so we drove him around all day. If he had a break he would teach a lesson with us. We didn't do a lot of lessons, but it was fun to be with him. He said that me and Sion would be together for a long time. I had my "one year" interview and he basically prophesied about my life. I told him about my school and career plans and he said he had some very strong promptings about a few of those things for me. It was kind of crazy, but really good.

In his district meeting last Thursday President Weir talked about when he got set apart as a mission president. He said that Elder Oaks set him apart, and Elder Oaks said that missionaries are never ever assigned to a place for any reason. They are assigned to a mission president for a reason, and the mission president has a stewardship over his missionaries forever. It was really cool to think about. I really do like Pres. 

We have no investigators. We baptized them all. Literally zero investigators. We taught 10 lessons this week and it's been really hard. We're just strengthening our recent converts and tracting and it's tough. We have a couple really good potentials though! We just got referrals last night and we'll contact them tomorrow. One of my favorite recent converts Bwateriki (Patrick) got the priesthood and the calling of YSA advisor on Sunday. We met with him yesterday and he told us he's super excited, and he'll work with them to get their mission papers all filled out. Absolutely legendary recent convert! His wife also got a primary calling and she's happy as could be. They are my favorite investigator's ever I think. We have dinner with them every Thursday now. 

*It looks like Dallin and Sion will be staying together on Christmas for a little longer.  He absolutely loved getting to spend time with the President and is so happy to get to stay with Sion.  As a mom I am so grateful for the love he feels from his mission president.  In Elder Eyring's most recent talk titled Continuing Revelation he says that the feeling of love we have for the Prophet is a gift from God.  Our missionaries in Kiribati don't get to see their mission president very often, but I know that the love they feel for him is also a gift from God.  It's clear that they know how much he loves them as well.

A Week With The President

We got another quick email from Dallin yesterday.  Ed is in Europe right now and 6 hours ahead, so he happened to be online when Dallin went to the internet cafe with President.  I'm so happy he was able to get this update. He has had a great week with President Weir!

Hey Dad! I'm online for a bit. We're at the Internet cafe with President (and it's not pday!). Super fun. We've had a pretty good busy week. It's been crazy but really awesome too. President showed up on Wednesday and then had an awesome district meeting with us on Thursday.  Friday we had a ward Christmas party with the YSA and that was fun too.  Saturday we had a baptism, and it was great! Two of our investigators, Kaite and Arinete got baptized. Kaite has struggled for a long time, but he finally decided to make a decision to change his life. He is a great kid. Arinete is also great. She is so nice and just genuinely looking for the truth. She had her dad pass away about a year ago and it's been hard on her, but taking the lessons and trying to find her faith has really helped her out. Sunday was awesome and President came and had church in London with us. After we had a stake fireside about families by President and Sister Weir.  Monday we went fishing alllllll day with President Weir, Elder Seamons, and a couple members from London. President caught a SHARK. Cool stuff. Today, we're working with president all day again. Looks like he'll be around to visit less actives and prospective missionaries with us. He's excited to work with us and we planned a couple sweet lessons. Tomorrow Pres goes down to Tarawa. It's been an exhausting week. And I am so badly sunburned from yesterday you wouldn't believe it. But its been fun!

Love, Dal

Fishing With the President

Hi Family!  Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday to Dad!

No big news here, only 4/6 for baptisms this week :( Two kids got forbidden by their Baha'i Fijian dad... situation was really sad. But they both came to church! So we're still working on it. It was really sad for them, but I think they'll be able to make it. We'll go back to them this week too and just keep trying to keep them on track. No new investigators. We are struggling really bad to find people. No one wants to give us referrals. Baptisms we had were good, 2 in YW and 2 in Rs. Their lessons went super well and they're really solid members. We're trying to teach their families but they don't seem receptive. Branch is good, but the cultural disregard for time and appointments means it's hard to get people (even leadership) to come to baptisms.

We'll be in a new house in January, we're waiting for the current tenant's contract to finish up. No transfers in December :( When January comes around, I'll have been on Christmas for like a third of my entire mission. It's our own fault too, Sion emailed the AP and he said were not being moved because we're doing too good of work. I should be happy, but I am getting bored of Christmas!

Awesome to see the gang! (Dallin's friends dropped by) Too bad that they're all split up a little bit now. But still good to see them. 

I think next p-day were going fishing with president, so we'll see how that goes :)  We won't be on a boat or anything, we'll probably just stand on the beach, and fish out to the ocean. 

We had thanksgiving here Thursday and we had chicken, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, corn, and rolls. It was legit and it cost way too much. Our senior couple made it for us and it was so good. SO GOOD. American food is going to be so nice when I get home!

I'm excited for President to come.  I'll try and take this week on with a fresh look. Hopefully we can keep it all working and under control. I love you guys, thanks for keeping me in your thoughts. I have to go now, we have a lesson at 2 and 4 hours of finding afterwards to try to fill our planners. Hopefully we can get some new investigators. Thanks for everything, have a good week! Happy Thanksgiving again! 

Love Dal

Thanksgiving

My week was Great! We had lots of fun. Lots of lessons and 2 baptisms. We had 6 pass interviews, so we're looking at 6 baptisms this week! So much fun.  We try to visit our people every day. We just constantly run out of investigator's. Our teaching pool is getting turned around so fast we always have to be on a finding grind. 

One Investigator is a little girl named Vicky. She's 8. Her aunt is a member and we teach her and her brother Karaiti. Super sad story, one of her older sisters is a member of a different church, and she told Vicky that if she got baptized she was sinning. But, she decided that she was going to pray about it, and she decided that she wanted to be baptized. She also said that she wants to help her older sister too. Great little kid. 

The work is going great, but well digging is terrible. I'm exhausted. We dug a well this week, it was so deep and it was tiring. We had it to the point we filled buckets at the bottom and lifted them out. So. Much. Work. 

Bad news - our house was awful and we left after two days. We're back in the Tabwakea house. The house was inside a compound, and the other compound inhabitants were pretty heavy drinkers. So we got out ASAP.

Transfers are December 17th.  We have no idea still where we are going and it's killing us. Sion is going to email the AP and president is coming in on December 3rd, so hopefully he'll fill us in then.  We're hoping to leave together. We'll see though. 

New senior couple is great! Elder and Sister Seamons. He worked for CES and he's a gospel prodigy. He is giving district meeting on Thursday and I'm stoked.

(We asked about Thanksgiving plans) I think we'll probably get to eat turtle, which is close to turkey when you say it out loud. Yeah. Just Kidding, we don't eat turtle ;)

(Elder Smith from Dallin's district is in a new video about bullying.  Dallin told the girls to watch it and to quit being bullies - of course just giving them a hard time.) An elder in my district is in a Mormon message about bullying! He's the main guy hahahaha we just watched it, it's funny. It's a pretty new Mormon message about bullying and it's like 10 minutes long you guys should watch it. 

That's all for this week!  Have a great week and talk to you soon!  Love you all!

Dal

Best Week Yet... and a Birthday Cake for Mom!

Hi Mom and Dad and Taylor and Cami!

I'm currently waiting for the email counter to open here at the Linnix office (Christmas island is the biggest island in the Line and Phoenix island chains, so they're clever and they call their government offices the Linnix), and it should have opened about 35 minutes ago, but the lady is not here yet, so I'm just writing a big long email before we can chat. It's probably good I've go some time this morning because this was a crazy week! SO busy. But honestly, probably the best week of my mission so far- so, so fun. Just to make sure I don't miss anything and since I've got time, I'll do a day by day thing again:

Monday: Pday! Pretty great pday. We had some Internet struggles but it was still nice to hear from everybody back home. After we internetted, we went back home, did some wash, and then we made a cake in the microwave since we don't have an oven. Not necessarily proud of it, but it was pretty good given the circumstances. Then we drove up to Banana and we played frisbee on the beach for a while! Really fun day. For dinner, we went to our investigator's house for a surprise birthday party- for Mom! I told them last Friday it was Mom's birthday. Thy had set a dinner with us a while back, but they changed it around a little and we showed up and there was a super delicious cake and all kinds of food. They are awesome investigators- Bwateriki (Patrick) and his wife Teburea. They'll be baptized this Saturday. 

Tuesday: Really draining day, busy in a lot of ways that are hard to measure. We only taught two lessons, but essentially we spent 6 hours finding referrals, contacting houses and tracting. Busy. We had a lot of great investigators, but they're all so great that they'll be baptized really soon and then we'll be out of people again!  It was tough, a lot of the referrals weren't around or anything so it was a frustrating day. But I think the success was that we left the house at 10:30 and didn't come back til 9, even though we really, really were tired and bored. Tuesday night we had a farewell party for Ueata, the first investigator I ever baptized. He has been here on Christmas away from his family for 20 years running the airport. He's finally retiring and going back to Tarawa, and it was great to have a little party with him before he left. Great guy!

Wednesday: Another crazy day. This week, 2 elders from our district have been gone on Fanning Island, Christmas's outer island. There's a branch out there, but no runway for planes and a normal small boat can't make it. So every 4 months the elders catch a ride out and back on the cargo boat that comes from Honolulu to just check up on the branch and stuff. Anyway, while they were doing that, we had to run their area here on Christmas, in addition to our own. So Wednesday morning we skipped studies and worked from 9-1 in Tabwakea, and 1-7 in our own area. Lots of lessons, lots of people we got to visit. Way busy, way exhausting and really fun too. At 7 we got to go to a huge party at our Branch President's house, for his daughter Taakenteiti. She turned 13 so she's a woman now I guess. Anyways there was tons of food and it was awesome!

Thursday: Same busy day, working Tabwakea in the morning and then working London the rest of the day. Busyness! But afterwards, we went to dinner at Nakala's house. Nakala and his family were basically my family when I was here the first time around. I really love them, and it was awesome to see them again. 

Friday: Same busyness, but we had lots of extra stuff to do to prep for our baptism. I'm running out of steam on this email. 

Saturday: Really great day! We had lessons in the morning, and our baptism at 5! Two of our favorite investigators got baptized. Tawataake is a 13 year old girl who just decided to come to church on her own and has been super faithful throughout the whole lessons. She's super goofy, but really smart too. Our other investigator is named Timon. He's a stud. He has a mental disability a little bit, but he really, really focused during our lessons and would always memorize a kind of 1 sentence main point, and he never forgot it. Really cool guy. He's buff too, because he works on the fishing boats. Their baptism was great. Unfortunately, no one came :( just us, these two, and our branch mission leader - but still, it was really awesome. We did it in the ocean, and the tide was out so Elder Sion kneeled and the baptizees just sat and then laid down hahaha!  It was too funny. Timon tried to go forward, and we had to do it a couple times for him to finally get all the way under water haha. When we came back from the ocean, Bwateriki and Teburea were there! They were really late, but they were still there. Great investigators. Since it was only us 7, we just had a tiny testimony meeting after everyone had showered and cleaned up. It was awesome to hear such pure simple testimonies from all 4 of our investigators, and I was really proud of them all. Afterwards, we had a GIGANTIC farewell party for the Andersons in the chapel. Like, probably 160 people showed up. There was so much food, like a whole pig and everything. Afterwards there was all kinds of cultural dances and stuff for the Anderson's from every auxiliary in the branch. Tawataake danced with the YW, and Timon with the YSA. Believe it or not, me and Sion danced with the Elders Quorum. It was so funny. Sister Anderson did a lot of crying. They sure are loved and they really will be missed. 

Sunday: We had an awesome time at church. On the way though, my bike got broken, but some random drunk guy happened to be walking with a wrench, so he helped us fix it. He also said he would fix his life, which was hilarious. He used the bike in a huge extended metaphor for himself hahaha! Afterwards, we had 11 investigators at church! And we have plans for all of them to be baptized in the next 3 weeks or so. Really awesome. 

Fantastic week, I love the area here, I love Elder Sion, I love the work, and I love all of you back home!

I Found Two Pictures!

I found these two pictures on another missionary's blog.  Dallin hasn't sent home any pictures in months, so I'll take what I can get :)  There are no haircuts on outer islands, so when they come in to Tarawa for transfers they get their hair buzzed.  I don't know if I have ever seen him with such short hair!  It's sad that I am excited to post a picture of him photo-bombing the other missionary :)

Letter to Grammy

Our emailing with Dallin was really choppy this week.  Due to the time change he emailed just as sacrament meeting was ending and I was trying to respond occasionally while teaching my class - didn't work well.  He also kept getting kicked off the internet and there were long gaps in response.  We finally got a little bit of information from him and my mom forwarded a letter she received this week.  Dallin is close with all his grandparents, but he has a very special relationship with Grammy.  Here's are parts of that letter:

Hi Gram! So great to hear from you :) I sure do love you! Thanks so much for your email. It's always nice to catch a little update on home. 

I am doing fantastic! Thank you so much for your prayers and love and concern. We have a funny joke in our family that if we really want or need something to happen, all we have to do is ask Grammy to pray for it. Usually we just are joking around about a test or a game or something, but I really do hope you know I can feel your prayers even all the way out here. You are such an example of faith and I am so grateful to be a blessed beneficiary. 

I'll just take a little time to respond to some of your email: First of all, I am SO glad you got to meet Kalani! She's something special for sure. I'm also so glad you had fun with Justy at BYU. It's such a different kind of place to be, hopefully Justin is excited about potentially heading there. I also loved General Conference! It was quite an experience to watch it in the Kiribati translation, but it was a real testimony that the message and spirit are always the same regardless of how obscure the language is. 

Great to hear that Ben is having fun in Uruguay still! I certainly feel for him- having a struggling branch that is dependent is tough. It'll be a great experience for him though! I'm lucky right now, for the first time in my mission we have an absolutely fantastic branch. Nice little break :) 

So awesome to hear about all of busyness you and Papa are up to! You guys sure are staying active. I am sure that the stake is so grateful for your help and leadership. More than that, I bet the storehouse is so grateful to have such helpful volunteers who are very well experienced. I am also quite jealous of those good temple construction workers who get cookies from you each week! That must be a treat for them I'm sure :)

I am so happy to have gotten your email! I know you're busy, and it's great to hear from you. I'm sorry I'm not as good about responding as I should be, but I do hope you know an email from you always brings a smile to my face. Love ya Gram! Have a fantastic week. 

Love Dal

*Here is a little from our email:

I'm good. Good busy week. We had a lot of work and it was fun.  8 baptisms these next three weeks, and pres is coming to visit the 3rd of December and new senior couple comes next Wednesday, Anderson's leave the 26th. Also on the 26th we get two more elders - we'll be a district of 8 elders aka the most fun district on the mission! So that's exciting.

About our investigators... we are pretty well rounded.  One girl in primary, her brother in young men's, 3 girls in young women's, 3 guys in elders quorum, 1 relief society woman. Pretty well split from tracting and referrals. One of them is a couple and that's always good. 

We got the house, we'll move in this week sometime. New house is awesome. It's pretty big, has a second story even. We will sleep upstairs because it's cold. House is right on the beach and has an awesome wind, so we shouldn't ever be hot. Does have electricity. Not using the solar panel as much anymore, but it is still good to have since I'll most likely head back out sometime. Food is great on Christmas. Lots of good stuff. I'm liking Christmas a lot more the second time around. Sion is the man and our area is awesome. 

On a sad note, the missionary who was upset about us taking over the area left for SLC Wednesday. (See previous week for explanation) It was really hard. The missionary spent Tuesday in London visiting people and telling them I was a terrible elder. Honestly, it made me more sad than irritated, which is a sign of the mission changing me. I imagine (blank) is really sad, and I guess if (blank) needs to take that out by blaming me that's okay. I'm fine. All the members asked me about it on Sunday. Thankfully most of them said something like, we think you work hard, or we don't really believe that. So that was encouraging. It was rough. I don't really get it to be honest. 

*That was all we got before being cut off again, but it sounds like he is happy and healthy and doing great.  I'm grateful that he has another chance on Christmas Island while healthy to enjoy the people and the experience.  It's amazing how different a place can seem based on your situation and perspective :)

Reaching Goals - Little by Little!

Hi Family!

It has been a CRAZY, CRAZY week!

Amazingly, we have been blessed with some AMAZING successes! I'll start from the beginning: President gave us a goal before we came here. 15 baptisms before Jan 1st.  In the past 4 months they've had 6, but President said that he fully expected us to be able to perform. So 15 has been burned into our minds and our planners. We went from 0 investigators last Monday to 14 this Monday. Moreover, 8 came to church after just a week of lessons. We're totally changing our styles- its new for both of us. We visit all of our people every day, and teach little bits in depth. Every lesson focuses on the gospel, and drawing nearer to Christ through our actions and such. We essentially are on track to hit 14 baptisms between now and the end of the month. Which will give us another whole month to smash President's goal. We're so excited. I LOVE teaching with Sion. We just get such
great flow and I can really see the results in our people's lives. it's amazing. We got 7 people just from tracting and we got the rest from referrals. it's awesome. We're hoping London doesn't get slowed down too much by us being in Tabwakea as well for the next few weeks. We're essentially working 3 branches. And, we only have bikes. We're going to ask President Anderson to let us use the car to make this feasible.

Best teaching experience: BANABA.

Banaba is the husband of a less active member named Friday (yes, literally). He's shy. Like, debilitatingly shy. But he's a great guy. We just had been talking with him for a long time while trying to reactivate his wife. Sisters told us he was a waste of time, but he actually started to open up to us. We finally set a time with him! And he ran away. But we reset it with his wife. He ran away from that one too. But, we reset it a third time and we finally got him! We had an AWESOME lesson. We just essentially asked him why he thought we were there, why we were so persistent about wanting to sit down with him. We explained that we wanted him to be happy and blessed and we had the gospel and that we knew that if he had the gospel he could be happy too. It went amazingly- we both said it was the best lesson we've ever given. Specifically because it was EXACTLY what he needed, not a lesson from the book. We've had two lessons since on the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He's awesome. Great questions and very willing to pray and read. He's the man. So is Sion, it's great to have
a companion I can count on to say the right thing at the right time.

Every time we come out of a lesson with him we both are just exhausted. It's hard to teach like that, we're like on top of our game for 40 minutes straight, and we've done it 3 times in a row. It's crazy and it would be impossible on our own for sure. But I'm so happy it's working.

(Ed commented that it was a unique approach to teach a very small amount each day) It's going so well; neither of us has ever taught investigators every day. It makes it way more flexible. We still have had time for tracting and contacting. So essentially we've just been machines this week. We don't have to do 12 weeks studies or anything so we leave the house between 10:30 and 11:00 and we work up until dinner at 7:00. It's so
fulfilling. 

(How are you studying language right now?) We study language mostly in reading the Book of Mormon and just talking to people. I haven't come up with anything organized other than reading and getting back into the habit of writing words down. Gospel study is one chapter in the Book of Mormon, then I kind of figure out lessons for our
people, from PMG or wherever else is applicable for the day.

A lot of the craziness this week had to do with a very delicate situation.  You know how we took over______'s area? London? Well it became dramatic. One of the missionaries who we just took over for happens to be one of the missionaries I took over Abaiang from. So _______ made it abundantly clear that _____ is angry at me and Elder Sion. Then in district meeting on Thursday I really messed up - I mentioned just casually as a part of our area update section that we had dropped a few people. ______ asked who it was and when I said their names ___ started freaking out and stuff about how they were good and it was CRAZY. Then ______ left district meeting, went straight to the Andersons house and slammed the door. _____ QUIT THEIR MISSION. _____ was finishing in December and just decided to go home. It was so weird. So _____ is flying to America on Wednesday, and the companion is going to Tarawa.

To make matters worse, Elder Tarati and Elder Ward, (one from Tabwakea 2 and one from banana) are going to visit Fanning, Christmas' outer Island. They'll be gone for two weeks. So essentially, we're left with 4 missionaries to cover 4 branches. Me and Sion are going to work all of Tabwakea ( my old area) and London until President can save us. Banana is going to be worked by Smith and Aru, who are both out like 2.5 months. It's an ABSOLUTE mess. But, if we weren't here right now, the island would essentially shut down for two weeks. On top of that, the Andersons have 3 weeks left. CRAZY!

(We asked why Kiribati missionary numbers seem to be declining.) It's the end of the surge I think. The big wave is all going home now, and it's not being replaced as efficiently. Only one comes in November and 3 leave, only 5 in December and 7 leave. We're going to be stretched pretty thin. President just replied, he told me he still hasn't even gotten word back from the area presidency on his original request to open Nikunau. He also gave us the instruction to focus on our own goals in London and to just "hold down the fort" in Tabwakea. It's gonna be a big change for the rest of us who stay behind.  This mission especially. We only have half a missions's worth of elders in Kiribati anyways, and we have 26 on outies, plus 6 here, 8 as dl's and companions on Tarawa, 4 zl's, and one ap. there's only one spare companionship of elders on Tarawa right now, so I have no idea what president is going to do. 

(We told him a little about what we were doing in Barcelona.) Sounds like Barcelona is so fun! Speaking of Spanish, Elder Sion is obviously fluent. His family speaks Spanish at home. But he got to talk to one of the workers on the big fishing boats in Spanish and it was so fun to listen. I understood everything they said, I remembered all the words and stuff. I could not for the life of me make my brain put it together in any logical way to speak it. I just spoke Kiribati haha it was funny though. Hopefully you're remembering the promise to not have
too much fun while you're there.

So excited to be here. Next few weeks will be exhausting. Hopefully it will work of alright! I love you all, thanks for the prayers. Thanks for staying up so late too! Have a fun time in Spain :) talk to you all next week! 

Love Dal

Serving in London... Kiritimati

We are living in the stick house with two other elders - It's really, really tight. We need our own house.  We got here Wednesday at 6;15 after a red eye. I didn't sleep, it was a really rough flight for whatever reason. Lots of turbulence. But we slept on Wednesday. Sisters came with us Thursday to show us all our people. Same situation as Abaiang, we're essentially starting over.  They had a big baptism last week with a bunch of their people, so it's a clean slate I guess. We got fifteen lessons Friday to Sunday, mostly just tracting and finding. 

The house we are looking at is a members guest house for when scientists come to study the fish here. But the scientists come once every two years for two weeks, so we could live there because no one is in it the rest of the time. It's also a stick house, but it's right on the beach, like literally. So it's got an awesome breeze and it's really cool. Hopefully Pres approves it.  President Anderson will probably go take a look with sister Anderson this week sometime. I imagine we'll know this week or next week.

I left the day our branch split, so I know every one in our branch. It's just now the London members are separate. I see all kinds of people I know, lots of them. We essentially will never not have a dinner, all the people in my old area are happy to feed us if I were to ask. 

 Sion is the man. Or lessons are super "flowy". He's easy to teach with and easy to get along with. East coast vibe is definitely a good thing for both of us. Sion is a legend. His parents were born and raised in Honduras, but they moved to Michigan so his dad could work as an engineer for Ford. He was born and raised in Detroit and he is the man. He's been out 6 months longer than me, and he's killer at the language. 

I'm exhausted. I went 27 hours without sleeping Tuesday into Wednesday. Ouch. Fiji is always rough. Honestly, the country is kind of gross. And I feel bad for the airport elders there, because they want to try to work, but it's just not reasonable with so many people. They took all of us transits to a lesson, so it was 2 Fijian speakers, us Kiribati elders, 2 sisters straight from the MTC heading to New Caledonia French speaking, and a guy headed to Vanuatu. We tried to teach a lesson in Fijian. So. That went about as well as you imagine it did hahaha!  But... we got pizza afterwards and it was pretty delicious. I also bought some sweet Nikes at the airport- American money equivalent of 35$ and they're sweet. Good deal. I needed new p-day shoes anyways. My vans got retired on Abaiang :(

Other elders are Elder Tarati (from Kiribati, former zone leader, awesome guy) and Elder Aru ( from Vanuatu).  Anderson's are still here, they leave in less than a month, mid-November. And no more cats :( they all left I guess. I don't want to ask, I'm worried they were possibly evicted.

One good story was from last night. We had a district (think stake) fireside for all the elders on the island. We had like 50 something Melchizedek priesthood holders come! It was so encouraging, I saw a man named Baibuke. He was really less active when I first got here, but we went back to his house and we taught lessons with his daughter Kabikea and he came back to church :) He's super active!  He has a calling in the Sunday school now and it was great to shake his hand again. Great guy. 

We have fun plans this afternoon. 8 of us should make it better. Sion has been on outies almost 10 months, with a 2 month break on Tarawa in the middle  he just got back from Mwakin and he's sick I having lame p-days. So we'll play games or something for sure. And a washing machine is literally a gift from heaven. I hate hand washing. 

(Ed reminded him of the quote "Work like it all depends on you, Pray like it all depends on the Lord.")  That quote is a good one, it's in the talk I told you guys to read from Elder Gene R. Cook that Kalani sent me about exercising faith. I wrote the 6 steps he lists in the back of my planner just to remind me of them. Good talk. 

Love you guys. Thanks so much! Have a great week!

Love, Dal

Back To Christmas For The Holidays!

Dallin was able to email quickly before catching a flight yesterday.  He is headed back to Kiritimati, or Christmas Island, for the next few months until they can open Nikunau.

"The Area Presidency was at General Conference, then they'll be training because Elder Pearson is new, replacing Elder Hamula. So they'll be in America 2-3 months. And they're holding off opening anywhere because we have to have their authorization, and they wont authorize it from America. So, we're getting added on as the 7/8th missionaries on Christmas. I'm really, really disappointed."

I'm living in the same stick house as before. But president authorized us to find housing in our new area, London. Sion is still my comp. We're working London now, the sisters' area. It's fallen apart since the branches split. My old area, Tabwakea, is getting split into two areas, and the sisters and the Tabwakea elders will each take a half. We're flying to Fiji at noon. We'll be there for about a day and a half, and we'll leave Tuesday night at midnight, get in to Christmas at 6:30 Wednesday morning."

There are no packages shipped to Christmas, but at least there is reliable internet and we should get to Skype for Christmas.  He sounded really disappointed.  I know weeks without structure are hard for him.  He gets frustrated when he feels like they aren't accomplishing anything or working toward any goals.  He only got to do "missionary" work two days last week and the rest of the time he was running around doing things for the new elders.  I'm sure he will be fine once he gets settled into a routine again.  He did say that he was excited to see some of the members again and is glad that he knows the area already.  Hopefully they will find a nicer hut to live in in London - or should I call it a flat.  Just kidding.

Hopefully we will get more information next week after he is settled on Christmas.

Transfers!

We finally heard from Dallin last night!  He is back on the main island in Tarawa until transfers are sorted out.  Apparently there is some confusion about whether or not they will be able to go to Nikunau after all.  President Weir is flying in on Sunday to sort it all out.  In the mean time, Dallin and Elder Sion are with one of the Zone Leaders driving new missionaries around and dropping them off.  Dallin is super excited to get to drive a real car with a/c.  He is the only one of the group who can drive a stick, so he gets the job.  Here's what he had to say about his last week on Abaiang:

"My last week was so fun.  Monday stunk - it poured all day and the internet was broken and I had the
flu. I was also informed I would be leaving Thursday! Talk about short notice. Tuesday we worked a normal day in TTB, said goodbye to the members there.  Wednesday morning I did all my wash, and finished some
important paper work. Then Wednesday night we had a huge "Karaure" party, which is like a goodbye send off. It was so fun! They had this guy from the branch do some crazy Fijian dancing, and then some Kiribati dancing, then they had SO much good food. After the food its like cultural that everyone gets up and dances, so that all the food settles and they can eat more (gross), so we did that and it was so funny. I danced, be proud. Then we ate some more, and I had to give a speech, then we had a flower-crown-placing ceremony thing for me and for Pulu. Thursday we got up and I packed and got all ready, then Raika called and told me President is closing Nikunau and I can't get on the plane. Then the other 3 ZLs all called me individually and told me to get on the plane haha! So we went to the airport at 2 for check-in, then the plane went to Marakei first, so it didn't pick us up 'til 5. Then I said goodbye to Pulu and Teraoi (2nd counselor, absolute favorite guy, his whole family came to send me off), shook hands with a VERY green Elder Miller who was wide-eyed getting off the plane, got on the plane and was in Tarawa ten minutes later. Tarawa is a mess right now, and has lots of issues right now. Very very crazy."

That was about all the time he had.  We should hear from him again in a few days on his normal p-day.  So glad to know he is doing well and healthy!  That's right - no new infections since he got the medicine from the area medical adviser!  Also, we all agreed that we would have paid big bucks to see Dallin dancing at the Karaure.  He. Doesn't. Dance.  Glad to see he is finally embracing the culture :)

Things are looking up!

 (This is the largest KPC church built on Nikunau in the 1800s) 

We had a great week. Right after email last week we got a call from the Walls that they had sent packages! So we got our pump and I got a package from you, Kalani, and President Weir! So fun. Thanks for the Legos and he food. (We sent him a few small Lego action figures.  It seemed like a good thing for him to carry around and show to little kids.  There are no toys on these islands and since legos were Dallin's childhood we thought he would enjoy sharing them.  They were Star Wars, of course.)  I love cliff bars. Kalani sen me a tie and some junk food and some really awesome BYU devotionals she found. I'll recommend you read them actually: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by Elder Gene R. Cook.  It's awesome. Really perfect for missionaries. President sent me medicine from Marshall's and a copy of The Liahona from Sept and Oct.  This medicine is literally magic. I had one on my arm and it was gone in a day. We didn't clean the well, our pump got fixed and it rained for 4 days do our tank is full again. (Yay for fresh rain water and new medicine!)  Everything in the package was perfect. I also love the watch. Perfect for here. 

(We asked if the rain made teaching and getting around difficult. On Christmas Island no one would let the wet missionaries in when it rained.)  Rain does not mess up our teaching. It POURED for literally all day yesterday. So dark and rainy or solar didn't even charge. We still biked 40 miles, did 2 confirmations, and taught 10 lessons. Rain is inconvenient, but we still work. If we're 10 miles away and it starts raining we just do things normally, we just get really wet. 

2 baptisms! There was progress with the mean grandma, we baptized 2/3 of the kids on a compromise. We'll still keep after the other one. We are at the house a lot because this is Etuati 's house, the guy with no leg. It's his mom who is the mean grandma, and his kids who were baptized, and his niece who is forbidden to be baptized. 

Looks like I will be opening Nikunau with Elder Sion. Sometime in October. Missionaries have never worked on Nikunau, so I have zero information for you about it!  But Elder Sion is fun. He was my District Leader in Betio, he's Hispanic and he's from Detroit. Great guy. So looks like that will be quite an adventure.  Hopefully it's a great place. It can't be bigger than Abaiang, so it will be less biking and that will be nice. Let me know anything you find out, I know just as little as you. We'll most likely just get off the plane and try to find somewhere to live first. It will be really basic for a long while. I have no idea honestly haha I don't know if I'll even have a house!

New intake comes in October 9th, so transfers will start around then. I have to go to Tarawa first for sure. All flights go through there. We should have a pretty good set of supplies and such as 4 of us will be making the initial trip out. Me, Sion, Maisey and Grover. Maisey and Grover are the outer island ZL's. It's basically their job to visit struggling outies and help out. So they'll stick with us for a while to smooth the transition.  I'll take plenty of supplies. I can handle staying healthy, I promise.  I am sure Nikunau will be one of those crazy experiences that'll stick with me forever. Hopefully I can work hard enough to make it a good experience.

(Here is some basic information we googled quickly about the island and sent to Dallin.  It's hilarious how the 2005 census notes that there is 1 Mormon on the island.)

"Just around 2,000 people. Northern part has main offices, etc with 4 villages and the southern has 2 villages.

The Nikunauans are fortunate in their island being wide and pride themselves in the growth of coconuts on the island for it is said that the coconut trees on the island rarely suffer the effects of drought and will continue to produce coconuts thus copra, during periods of famine. A favorite local term on the island is ‘te kataang’ (spreading across an area to collect coconuts or fish etc). This term is generally used on the island when collecting coconuts across a span of land. 

Visitors residing on the island are highly commiserated with, and for consumption needs, a yard on both sides and including the road itself is generally allowed for them to collect coconuts from thus it is quite common to see teachers, council workers or medical officers hire a truck for a round trip of the island just to collect coconuts for their own consumption. This custom has however been misused by the islanders themselves to the effect that the ‘unimwane’ now deem it a waste of time and to be stopped. 

All guests staying at the Council rest-house in Rungataa are always booked for the first four nights of their stay on the island to visit four different ‘mwaneabas’ in the early evening for general introduction and discussion of island visit objectives. The bookings for the different four ‘mwaneabas’ are however restricted only to visitors in the council rest-house. Every time a guest is called to such gatherings, a new ‘nangoa’ (lavalava/sarong) is provided to highlight the importance of the guest(s) and to bring good luck to the visitors during their time of visit to the island. The provision of ‘nangoa’ is not limited to guests at the rest-house but generally to any visitor to the island invited to similar gatherings. This custom was introduced in the 1920-1930s (Timeon pers. comm.) during the phosphate mining years of Banaba and Nauru when excess rolls of materials were sent back to the village of Tabomatang for the opening of either a ‘mwaneaba’ or a church. Though the materials were meant to be used that one time only, the people found that the materials had been excessively sent whence the custom of providing guests with the ‘nango’ was born. The excess materials were then used to dress initially the unimwane, 

guests and later anyone deemed a guest (a foreigner or from Nikunau). 

The Nikunauans are generally like those in the rest of the country – friendly, hospitable, religious and like Beru, have a similar accent with the end of their sentences always ending in a high pitch.

The 2005 census showed that out of the 1912 Nikunauans, 986 (51.6%) are Protestant, 870 (45.5%) are Roman Catholic followers, 8 (0.4%) belong to the Seventh Adventist Church, 39 (2%) are Baha’is, 7 (0.4%) belong to some other unstated church while one does not have religion and the other is a Mormon." 

I'm just really happy that we taught lessons this week. I taught a lesson in priesthood about praying in faith, and it was really good. I read that verse in Alma 31 that talks about how the Lord prepared the way because Alma prayed in faith. The Lord didn't do everything, but he did make it possible for Alma and company to do what they needed to do. I really enjoyed it. Made me look forward to Nikunau and think about the kind of prayers I'm gonna need out there!

(A KPC church next to a traditional mwaneabas in one of the villages on Nikunau)

Dallin has to stop in Tarawa on his way to the next transfer, so he promised to go to Moroni High where the internet is faster and send home some pictures!!  He also promised to get a haircut.  Missionaries don't get haircuts the entire time they are on an outer island. He said some missionaries come back in with beards and crazy hair.  He said I would be proud of the fact that he is shaving every day and keeping his shirts spotless white.

He is hopeful that because there is a council office on Nikunau that there will be internet.  Unfortunately, we won't know if we are going to hear from him on this island until after he gets there.  Fingers crossed!