Finally in Tarawa, Kiribati!

(Dallin left SLC on Monday the 27th and flew to Honolulu.  He spent the night and then flew all the way to Fiji on Tuesday.  Wednesday they flew only 3 hours to Tarawa where he found out he was assigned 2,000 miles away to Christmas Island for his first area.  Crazy!  We are really grateful that he at least got to let us know he was safe, happy, and healthy.  He had a terrible cold when we spoke to him in the airport for a few minutes and that made me worry with such a grueling travel schedule.  So excited for his adventures!)

Hi Mom Dad Taylor and Cami!

I'm currently sitting at the computer at the Senior Couple's house on Tarawa here in Kiribari. So fun. We finally made it! It's 1:00 here in the afternoon my time, on the 30th of January. I've been awake for 12 hours already, and I have 9 more until I get to sleep. And last night in FIji, we slept for 3 hours. Long day for sure. We left Provo on Monday, got to Salt Lake, flew to Hawaii, spent the night in a hotel there, then we flew to Fiji and spent a night (or part of one) there. After that we flew on out to Tarawa!

However, lucky me, I get to go back on a plane on Sunday! I've been assigned to Christmas Island as my first area. That means that I have to fly back to Fiji, and then back to Christmas Island. Very very very long days again. I'm really excited though. My companion will be a cool guy from New Zealand, and for now I'm with the Zone leaders here on Tarawa. Very cool. 

I miss you all so much! I'm really excited to be here. Unfortunately, I don't have very much time. I'll write a good long letter next Monday, which will be my p-day. I'll unfortunately miss my fist potential p-day in travel, so it'll be about ten days until you get a real report. Sorry about that! Don't worry though, I'm happy and I'm healthy. There's no need to worry about that! I think my first impressions of the island are positive and I'm really excited. And I'm understanding more than I originally anticipated, so I'm really excited.

Sorry I can't write more, we've got lots to do today! I love you all so much, wish me lots of luck!

Love, Dallin

MTC - Week 5 (Final Week!)

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami!

I hope all is well. I am so jealous that you guys are in Puerto Rico right now... good thing I'll be able to one-up that with Fiji in a few days! Very excited to get out of the MTC at this point.

Not very excited to hear that the 49ers lost. I hate the Seahawks, and I hope Peyton just flat out embarrasses them. Go Broncos.

Preparations to leave are kind of picking up. Today is my one day to pack all my bags, and then to mail home everything I don't need. Unfortunately I think I brought a lot of things I won't end up needing, so I'll probably send a lot of packages home. That's okay though, just don't be too excited when you open a box and it's full of sweaters or something boring like that. (He obviously only has summer clothes for Kiribati, but had to take a lot of warm clothes to the MTC to survive the last 5 weeks of cold he will see for 2 years!)

Officially, I leave on Monday! Just 3 days, counting today even (considering I got up at 5:30 today to do laundry, and it's only 6:05 now, I think today deserves to be counted still). We're all very excited and very nervous. We were walking behind these two sisters in the hallway who were totally animatedly speaking and being loud and funny and such, but then they turned to us and said something at us. Turns out they were from Kiribati, and I didn't catch a word. Oops. If people talk slow for me when I get there then it'll be easier. Otherwise, I'm essentially done for. 

But really, I do feel like I'm getting a good handle on the language. We teach lessons every day here at the MTC, sometimes twice a day, and this whole week all of the lessons I've taught have been close to 40 minutes long. I'm really good with church vocabulary. The vernacular of everyday conversation isn't as strong though. I think I can confidently discuss animals, days of the week, the months of the year, numbers through 100, and then also describe food as delicious or awful. That, plus teaching lessons, and I think I'll be fine. (We totally cracked up at this!)

I got the calling card in a package you sent yesterday! It had sheets, my shoes, and a flashlight as well. Thanks so much! And thank you to Campbell for a little note. That was very nice. I heard from Mom and Dad about your story at Holicong. Sorry to hear you were sick, that's never fun. Hopefully you won't be sick for a long time now!

 A big thank you to Aunt Trish and family! They sent me a box of Krispy Kreme donuts, and they were delicious.

 

This was a really good week for devotionals. We had some great speakers. Sister Sheri Dew gave our Sunday devotional. She talked about focusing on what matters, and being able to discern what we need to do right now, in this moment, instead of being overwhelmed by everything that we could do. It was excellent. Then, on Sundays after the live speaker we get to go watch a taped general authority film. We picked one by Elder Holland called "Missions are Forever." It's not a conference talk, but it was a taped MTC devotional from about 6 years ago. He talked about how much he loved his mission, and he dared every missionary to love their mission as much as he did. He also talked about how important it is that we do everything we can while we're missionaries to be the best we can. I wish I could send you the link, but for some reason I can't find it. Maybe Dad has some magical Bishop powers that will let him find it? Who knows. Our Tuesday Devotional was by Bishop Gerald Causse, the 1st counselor in the presiding bishopric (the guy from conference with the French accent who told the story from Les Mis). He was awesome. Him and his wife talked a lot about love, and why we're on a mission (which turned out to mostly be the same topic). Anyways, I'm feeling very happy, and I think I can make it to the islands at this point. Very exciting. I'll write more this afternoon, we have to go finish laundry!

Love you all!

Here's a picture of this morning's early laundry adventure. I'm cold and tired in this shot. Yup.

(Have I mentioned that he is terrible about taking pictures?  He realized he didn't have any to send me and so decided to take one quickly before getting online.  Sigh.  I hope he is inspired when he gets to the islands.  At least he is in the picture... I'm always happy to see his face!)

MTC - Week 4

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami!

Since by this time it is already January 18th in Kiribati, I feel justified in saying happy one-month anniversary! I hope it's seemed as fast for you as it has for me, it's flying by. Two years will be over before you even know. 

I hope you guys have had an awesome week. It's been really busy for me, but also really good!   Thanks for the care package with the trail mix and the cookies! They're great. Also be sure to thank Zoey and Kaia for their beautiful drawings. I loved them.

I'll start off with the big news: we got our flight itineraries from the travel office! It's official, we're leaving on the 27th, for real. We fly from SLC to Honolulu, and then from Honolulu to Fiji. We spend a night in both Hawaii and Fiji, and then fly from Fiji to Kiribati. 10 more days, it hardly seems real! So excited.

I'll go through and recap this week:

We're adjusting to being Elder Singh's companions. He is very heavy and I am always very tired after a walk anywhere. You don't realize how much of a slope the MTC is built on until you have to push Elder Singh up a massive hill. Very hard work.

On Tuesday, we had our devotional from someone extra special: Elder Bednar came to talk to us AGAIN! They were holding a conference for all of the new MTC Presidencies here at the Provo MTC, and so Elder Bednar decided that he would give the devotional since he was here anyways. It was great. He just continued the same thing he gave on Christmas! He told us that altogether he got around 1000 questions from the various MTC's, and so he just picked his favorites out of the pool. It was almost better, just because he actually had taken time to prepare for them instead of just off the spur. Off the spur was cooler, because he was still so eloquent and it was "live" but I also liked seeing how he prepared and kind of created a theme out of the questions he chose. He really focused on faith, and I liked it a lot. My favorite thing he talked about was the concept of not receiving a witness until after the trial of our faith. He redefined "witness" and "trial of our faith" in ways I had never thought about before, and it was great. He told us that sometimes the witness we're looking for can end up being nothing more than just the strength to make it one more day, or one more hour. And similarly, he told us that the concept of the "trial of our faith" is not at all what it sounds like. It's not a huge trial necessarily. Usually the trials of our faith that are the most difficult are the smallest, things like reading our scriptures every day; praying morning and night; and for missionaries, following the rules in the white handbook 100% of the time. It was interesting perspective for sure. He also gave an awesome testimony about the Book of Mormon, and it was very powerful. What a cool guy. I'm very grateful I got to see him twice, I know that's rare.

Also on Tuesday we picked up the international Elders for our zone. They're replacing the Fijians who just left, but they're all speaking Tongan. They're all from Australia and New Zealand. It was fun. It's hard to get to know them though, Elder Davis and I had to move down to the first floor with Elder Singh, but the rest of our zone lives on the third floor. It's kind of sad actually, we hardly see anyone at night anymore. Oh well. We get to bed on time more often now which is a definite plus. 

On Wednesday we got to pick up the rest of the new Elders coming into our zones, the ones coming from the states. It was cool though, because now that we've been here for a month we're allowed to participate as hosts and help with luggage/orientation for the Elders when they get dropped off. It was so fun. We got out of a whole block of class, and it was really nice to see how excited everyone was. It was however, very very sad to see all of the crying parents. That part I wasn't too keen on. It was alright though. It just made me excited to call in ten days!

Another really fun thing! We teach lessons to our teachers like they were investigators. We've been teaching one of our investigators for like a week, and we were able to go through the lessons effectively enough in Kiribati (no notes by the way) so we were able to have our investigator/teacher agree to be baptized! Obviously it's not real, but I felt really happy about it.

In terms of other mundane things, I have not gained weight here at the MTC, I've stayed at 158. Some Elders have literally gained 15 pounds this month... so there's that. Other than that, I'm just doing lots of language and lots of class!

I love you all! Hopefully things are going well. Reply with any pressing questions and I'll work on getting them answered. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be on a mission. Every day is hard, but every day is great. I really love the work, and I know I'm doing the right thing. Thanks for being willing to give me up for a while. I'll see you all in 23 months! (and I'll talk to you all in 10 DAYS!)

Love Dallin

Here are answers to a few more questions we emailed him.  I think because his district is only 4 people they allow a little more time and freedom with email.  He is allowed to let us know he is online and then we go back and forth until his time runs out.  Too bad that luxury will end in one week ;)

*How is the language coming with one week to go?  Are you able to hear native speakers?  I'm sure that sounds really different than your teachers and fellow missionaries.

I turned a corner. I'm at least as effective at communicating in Kiribati as I ever was in Spanish. At least in gospel contexts. I'm fully confident in that translation I sent you last week too now by the way, I was right. I hear native speakers rarely, but when I do I catch it pretty well. Our teachers are really good actually, one is native from Kiribati, one just got back and one is a pronunciation nazi, so I think we're doing alright. I'm starting to like it. And my English is starting to deteriorate. Sorry if things are phrased weird, I sound like an idiot when I try to have a normal conversation.

*Can you translate the phrase: "Come what may and love it"

How about something more terrestrial like: "I love watching football.  The 49ers are my favorite team.  They will win the Super Bowl"

The 49ers play the Seahawks Sunday night and it's literally THE GAME.  Ticket prices are sky high.  The last time they played in Candlestick Seahawks fans paid to have a plane fly a banner that referenced the "12th Man" crowd in Seattle.  This time 49ers fans are paying to have a billboard put up in Seattle that shows the 5 Super Bowl trophies the 49ers have won and asks - "How many do you have?"  FUNNY

Here's my best shot - hypothetical tenses are hard haha

Come What May and Love it - Ngkana bwa e tao roko, tangiria. 

I love watching football.  The 49ers are my favorite team.  They will win the Super Bowl - 

I tangiria n noora te football. I tatangiriia te naan 49ers. A na tokanikai te Super Bowl.

*Any other thoughts from Elder Bednar?

Elder Bednar also talked about spiritual gifts a little bit, he mentioned that the only reason you can ask for a spiritual gift and expect to receive it is if your primary motivation is so that you can act as a conduit through that gift, so that others can receive blessings. It was awesome. 

*We (as in Mom) asked for pictures last week and even sent a list of ideas because he says nothing new is happening and therefore there is no need to take pictures.  When pressed he sent this:

Not sure who is in this picture, I'm stealing some from Elder Davis because I'm a slacker.

Umm - I don't know if a random picture of someone you don't even know is going to make it onto Mom's blog.  You might have to try harder this coming week.

Just kidding, I looked at it, that's in fact Elder Davis. My companion. And he's sleeping on a kie, which is the mats we sleep on in Kiribati. Some apartments have beds, but only those on church property - like attached to chapels kind of. On the outer islands, you live in huts pretty much.  That's a decent enough story to make the blog I think. I will try harder. Nothing new is happening here though.

Here's our contraband fridge. Our former zone leaders gave it to us when they left. We have no idea how long is has been at the MTC or where it originally came from. We're excited to perpetuate it and give it to some other people when we go.

*The contraband fridge is great.  We actually left special "notes" to future missionaries - kind of like geocaches.  We would put them inside vents around the various buildings, in little cracks/crevices, wrap them on the backside of the bunk bed supports.  I'm sure you can think of other creative places.  Just be careful where you stick your hands, though, if you decide to look.

Our zone does that too. We call them Narnia Holes. We found a soccer ball in one, candy in another, a treasure trove of nickels in one, and a bar of soap in another. It's a tradition to replace them with random useless things. Elder Davis filled a few with those small green army guys.

Here's my Ana Boki Moomon. I turned it into a hardback and waterproofed the cover/spine with laminating sheets. It's cool I put pictures of the fam and Kalani in a pocket I put on the inside cover.

Here's Elder Ayala and Elder Singh. Singh is grumpy right now, he doesn't like his haircut so I'm sneaking pictures. 

Here's a bad picture of me from Ayala, and a better one I took myself.

(Closing words from Dad:)

While I'm certainly happy you are where you are, and know you're doing what's right, I can't help but have a few tears as I think of all that lies before you and what you are becoming.  Enjoy every day - literally EVERY SINGLE DAY on your mission.  It's not accurate to say it is the best 2 years of your life - there will be other days/times that are happy and enjoyable; but the sentiment of it being a life changing and uplifting time are real.  Enjoy it and look forward to each new day/challenge/experience.

It was on my mission that I started thinking about hard days as "memories".  After we would have an especially hard or trying day I'd think about that as a new "Memory" that I now got to have and tomorrow would be another day.

I am so proud of you!

Dad

It's good to hear I'm doing the right thing. I'm enjoying every day, for sure, and I'll continue to do my best as it goes on. Every day as a challenge is something I can handle for sure. I like that attitude. Thanks so much Dad. I wrote a reply letter to your big letter you sent earlier this week, hopefully you get it soon. Love you Dad, talk to you in ten days!

We can't wait to talk to him when he is at the airport in 10 days!!  Only one more full week in the MTC!

MTC - Week 3

Dear Mom, Dad, Cami and Taylor,

Happy third p-day! It has been an amazingly busy week, extra long too because our schedule and our p-day got entirely switched around. Just when we were getting settled into a routine, everything got switched! Thank you so much for your package that you guys did with the Hammonds. It sounds like you guys had a really fun time. I'm jealous. Thanks so much for the watch and the flashlight, they're both great. The watch especially. I was getting very nervous, I really didn't want to ruin the one Kalani gave me. 

Special thank you shoutouts to the Olsons, Sister Meise, Grammy, Tom and Heather (& Shelby and Cameron!), Dan and Tricia and Courtney and Carter and Jonah and Izze, and the Nielsons too! Your letters mean so much, thank you again!

This was a very crazy week, more so than usual I think. Our class time is now taught almost exclusively in Kiribati, and I am able to effectively communicate nearly anything I need to (very slowly/brokenly). We are no longer allowed to teach our investigators with notes, and that makes lessons interesting. 

Funny story from the Fijian Districts: Elders Parritt and Gunderson were teaching a lesson about prayer. They were attempting to say "When I pray and when you pray, there is no difference, it's the same." But they had forgotten the word for difference. So in an attempt to get their investigator to give them the word "difference", they pointed at their pants, back and forth, because they were different colors. The investigator however did not tell them the word difference from the gesturing, but instead told them the word for pants. So they thanked him and restated their sentence, which now expressed, "When I pray, no pants. When you pray, no pants. When we pray, no pants. Let's pray." Too funny. In an attempt to rebound the lesson, they decided to say God loves his children, but actually declared that bats (like the flying mammal creatures) are the literal children of God created in his image. No notes is really hurting us badly. But it's making us laugh I suppose!

I'm starting to like being able to speak in the language. Pretty fun. Send me something to translate, I'll give it my best shot. 

So our zone has two Fijian districts that had been here for three weeks when my group got here, and they all get to leave on Saturday. But since they had all been here, they were all of our Zone's leadership. So since they're leaving, we had to reorganize everything. My district, Kiribati, has 4 elders or two companionships. And Elder McCormick was our district leader. However, him and his companion Elder Mattison were asked to become our Zone Leaders! Which left a vacancy in Kiribati District Leader which I was asked to fill. It's not that big of a deal, but I do have to attend a lot more meetings on Sunday. My only real responsibility is checking the mail, which I'm fine with because I get to go get my own letters now. Still, it's a step and I'm excited to be the district leader and see what it's all about! 

Even more random news: So the Fijian Districts are leaving, right? Well one of the Elders going to Fiji recently broke his leg at gym. He's a huge guy named Elder Singh, probably 6'3" and maybe 350-400 pounds. BIG guy. Anyways he got tripped in four square and he fell on his leg and it broke. So he's in a wheelchair right now, and he unfortunately has to stay at the MTC another 6 weeks. BUT his companions are leaving to go to Fiji without him. So President Rogers reassigned Elder Davis and I to be companions with Elder Singh! He's a giant teddy bear, and his voice is super high. I'll be sure to send a picture of the new compadre when I get the chance. Being with a wheelchair companion gives us some extra leeway and things. We have to take him to the clinic every day, and we have to go to all the meals early to get him food and things. So that'll be nice to not have to be in the class as long every day. However it will probably take all of Elder Davis' and my leg muscles to push Singh around, a lot of the walkways are slightly ramped, so that'll be interesting. 

I have to go fold laundry, but I'll be back on in an hour or so! I miss you all, hopefully this is enough to keep you busy while I'm on break!

Love Dallin

Send questions I can answer when I get back, that makes my emails more structured :)

He had a little more time after returning from his laundry and answered a few more of our questions:

I'm back! My laundry is all folded. I hate doing laundry. (I reminded him to enjoy having washing machines and dryers... he will be washing by hand and hanging laundry once he gets to Kiribati :)

On to your questions: 

(We asked him how they would say his name since many of the letters don't exist in their language.) Name Pronunciation: They'll try and say it American, but it'll be realllllly accented. They don't have s's or g's, so my name in Kiribati would probably end up being written as Tiikuaine. It's obviously not printed like that on my tag, but I think that's how they'll pronounce/think about it. Who knows though!

(We asked him to translate our Family Values so I can get a plaque made in his new language to go next to the English one.) Family Values: Work Hard, Do Your Best, Respect Others. To the best of my knowledge the best way to translate that is the following: Mwakurimwaaka, Karaoia am Kona, Karinerineia. Literally translated what that means is Work Strong, Do all you(r) can, and Respect them. That's as close as it'll get though, I think. 

I am a Child of God: I bon natina te Atua. Literal - I am/is his child God.

I did get the Cinnamon Rolls! They were super delicious. We had a birthday party for Elder Mattison last night and we ate them then, it was great. 

I have not yet gotten a package with pictures from Zoey and Kaia which included trail mix. I'll certainly be looking forward to that though!

(We were feeling bad for poor Elder Singh being stuck in the MTC for 12 weeks!)  Definitely sad for poor Singh. He's very very good-natured about it though. He's taking it all in stride. We were talking about how he'll be like the zone grandpa when the new Tongan Districts get here on Wednesday. I'll find him later tonight to take a picture. Thanks for thinking of him. 

(We asked if there were any missionaries in his zone who never got mail or packages from home... we can't have that now can we!)  In the zone, we're super lucky that everyone has family support. Most of our zone comes from Polynesian families and they get boxes and letters from everyone, even though it's expensive. It's really happy. Thanks for thinking of them. We all share too, so goodies for me mostly get eaten by others, and so no one really feels left out. It's an interesting setup.

I love you all! 

Bonus email!

Dallin used a little bit of his time to email in the morning and couldn't get his camera to upload pictures.  Then his little district of 4 went and helped with a service project at the temple.  They came back and got ready for evening class, but there was no teacher.  Since there are only 4 of them, and it was still technically p-day, they were told they could go and have extra email time with their families during evening class!  I happened to get home from work and sit down to check email at about 9:00 - one minute after he sent an email saying, "Is anyone online?  I have extra time to email today!"  We got to email back and forth for almost 2 hours!  It was as good as getting to talk to him.  Another missionary helped him figure out the problem with his camera and we finally got pictures too!  What a bonus blessing!  It was so great to have time to ask questions and really get a feel for how he is doing - which is great!

I'll summarize a few things he told us and then post some pictures.

*He got the package with all the cards from his sisters and the Hammonds - he says thank you so much!
*About New Year's Eve in his Zone of Islanders: "I did get that care package, we ate it on New Year's Eve while we played apples to apples. We also had an elder who had a whole bunch of tiny Martinelli's sparkling cider bottles, like individual sized, and we drank those...Intense New Year's Eve. At midnight, since our zone is like all Polynesian, they broke out of the residence and did the haka dance thing out in the courtyard and were super loud while fireworks were going off and such. It was cool for sure."  He said that while he wasn't going to join them in breaking any rules, no one seems to want to tell the big Polynesians to stop when they are doing an intense tribal/war cry dance... not even security.  They were just hoping they would go back to bed when they were done.  They did :)
*He spent time talking to the girls about school and sports.
*He sent some fun pictures.  His favorite is the one where he is touching the flag.  He said, "An Elder in our zone is from Kiribati, and he told us the red of the flag is "the blood of his ancestors" so, that was super creepy and we joke about it all the time. We always touch the flag and say blood of my ancestors haha."
*We talked about how much he is enjoying being able to focus on learning to teach in a new language and how hard it is for the MTC to find and keep teachers in his language.  He is already hoping to be able to teach when he gets back :)

Mostly we just got to chat and laugh and enjoy having him for a while.  It was a huge blessing to all of us.  I'm sure that won't happen again, but I enjoyed every minute while I could.  Here are a bunch of pictures.

 His little Kiribati District!

New Year's Eve Celebration

 Flag of Kiribati

 One of the Elders after a 9 hour Wednesday of language study.

 Dallin studying hard.

The MTC's mini-temple-square

"Blood of my ancestors"

 Dallin and Elder Mattison

MTC Week 2

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor, Cami, Hudson and Zoey!

Happy New Years! Two weeks already in the books. It's been so crazy and so fast already. Pretty amazing actually.

I am in fact getting your DearElder letters! They're fantastic and I love them. Thanks so much, it's so nice to get letters in the mailbox. Sorry I haven't mentioned that yet. I like reading them, and I'm sorry I don't get to email my replies more than once a week.

I did get the Olson's Christmas package, it was great. I love the water bottle, and I always have it with me. It's so convenient and super awesome. I'm looking forward to your package too, thanks again!

I'm so jealous you guys get to spend more time with my friends than I do now. (Dallin's friends dropped by and I sent him a picture of everyone on the couch.)  I love those kids, I'm glad you got to see them. Also, Ev, decent flex; you're huge. I also am jealous that you got to see the cousins! It looks like you guys had so much fun. Skiing looked like a blast, Cami sent me a few pictures of that adventure (thanks Cam!). Dad I'm sorry you couldn't go, but it probably was for the best for your knee. Also glad to hear you're enjoying being a bishop, it's a good thing and you can totally handle it. I'm glad all you guys had fun catching up with the Olsons and the Meises, that's fun. Have fun going back to school and work today, I would probably take a day of high school classes over a day of language training any day!

Here's some answers to your questions:

Language: I'll try and summarize my knowledge so far. Basically, the language has no "rules" - literally. Sentence structure is just more of a guideline, and you can mix things up however you please to best fit the context. The recommended sentence structure is Personal Pronoun + Verb + Subject, but anything other than a super basic sentence gets really messy. Verbs are not conjugated to the subject; they're conjugated to the direct object of the sentence. Spanish is an absolute detriment in that sense. Moreover, tenses are determined by one word in the beginning of a sentence, like, "Ngke" which implies past tense, or "Na" which implies future. After that word is stated, the tense is "implied" and then the sentences just work like you were talking in present tense, no contextual clues or anything. It makes it tough. For example, "Joseph Smith Prays" and "Joseph Smith Prayed" are the exact same sentence. E (third person singular personal pronoun) tataro (pray/prayed/prayer/will pray) Iotebwa Timiti (Joseph Smith - there are no j's, p's, h's or s's or a whole bunch of other letters so it's a pain to write names like that!). It's hard. But, I'm getting it, slowly and steadily. Memorization and such is a huge help. I can bear my testimony and pray simply in Kiribati. I also have been teaching lessons in Kiribati since day one, and on Saturday we're never again allowed to use notes when we teach, so that'll sort of force some growth there I guess.  I'm sure I know more than that paragraph let on, it's just super hard to describe. MY english is also being negatively affected, all my structure is flipped and broken sounding. I basically can't communicate effectively in any language right now (except for SPANISH - super weird and useless right now). 

Anyways. Yes, there are only four of us in our class. Myself and my companion Elder Davis, and then the companionship of Elder Mattison and Elder McCormick. No sisters in our district. We all get along great though, and we are all roommates. Some other friends from the zone include Elders Buckingham (from Hawaii), Fogamomi (from Orem - he went to Mountainview), Vaitu'u (from Tonga) and Hix (from Wyoming). It's a pretty solid core of friends. Our whole zone sits together at meals, which is fun.

Culture is funny. The weirdest interesting fact we have heard is that there are no "bad words" to the Kiribati people. Like, if you were to say poop, you're also saying c***, and you're also swearing... so they only have one word, and it's sometimes swearing and it's sometimes just saying poop. Way confusing. Especially when you're trying to tell the teacher you need to use the restroom. Elder Mattison tried to say he needed to leave to go to the bathroom, but he ended up producing like the most vulgar phrase in the language... so there's that.

Our most recent devotional was about resolutions - surprise surprise. But it was a really cool perspective because the Elder (whose name I neglected to right down, I feel terrible) talked about the fact that any spiritual resolution which we make, even if we only keep it for a day, or a week, or a month, makes us better. So we should never be worried about "failing" a spiritual resolution which is ambitious. It was encouraging and unique in perspective.  He also encouraged us to take a look at our 2013 in review and see the Hand of the Lord where we can. I'll try and do that in another email later today.

My laundry is done now! I have to go fold it, then I'll go back to the classroom and send some more emails!

Love you all, you're supportive and awesome. Thanks again!

Elder Dallin Seguine