The Rescue

Dear Mom, Dad, Taylor, and Cami

Happy one more week! This was an absolutely crazy week. I should probably just stop saying that because every week is ridiculous out here. But, It was also a really really fun week. We were so lucky to have the AP's come in this week! They got here on Wednesday and they'll be heading back to the Marshalls on this coming Wednesday. Josh Sherman is one of our AP's here right now, so it has been lots and lots of fun to gt to spend time with him lately. We've gone on a couple splits, and it's been nice to have a familiar face to catch up with. Very Exciting. 

Highlight of our week was District Training on Thursday from the AP's. Elder Sherman gave an excellent training on prayer, and about how important it is to be sincere. He also pointed out that there are SO many promises attached to prayer. He then drew the connection that God is not able to lie to us, and so if he has given us a promise, then we can act in full confidence that that promise will be fulfilled. However, the extent to which it is fulfilled is dependent largely upon our willingness to exercise our faith. In Kiribati, the phrase "exercise your faith," is best translated as "Make work your faith," or kamwakura am onimaki. It's a good little reminder that faith always requires action, and we can't accomplish anything without taking the first step on our own. 

The other AP is named Elder Decker. He actually goes to Lehigh University, out in PA, so it was nice to talk to someone who has some East Coast familiarity. Decker gave his training on a new program that is being instituted all throughout the Pacific titled The Rescue. Basically, the program is being instituted because so many people join the Church and immediately fall away. There's no church infrastructure, if you will, so there's lots of people ready to do things but no one knows how or where, so they just give up. In our Branch at Christmas Island, we have 300 active members, and 700 inactive or less active. We've been tasked with finding each and every one and bringing them back. So our teaching pool just exploded :) The point is that President Weir wants this island to become a stake, and to become an example to the rest of the Pacific of how a stake can operate even in isolation. We've been approved to become a district, and President Weir will be coming in June to split our Branch into 3 branches and to install a District Presidency. But before that, our job is to find people and bring them back so we can be ready in June. Hence the Rescue. The Rescue is a branch activity once a week, where all of the branch leaders, branch missionaries, us missionaries, and members who are able to meet in the chapel. We all then essentially go on a giant companionship exchange, and go visit less active members and invite them to come back. It's like the parable of the lost sheep. A shepherd is willing to leave the ninety and nine to find the one who is lost. In our situation though, we're involving the ninety and nine in the process of rescuing. It's a really cool concept, and I'm excited. It's a big commitment, from everyone, and I expect it'll be difficult to install and get going. There's a lot of "cultural inertia" that keeps people from wanting to progress. However, the good thing though is that once it finally gets going, it'll have some real momentum (total physics analogy - I'm a nerd). 

Elder Decker also talked about keeping going when things are tough. He talked about the scripture that says that the Lord will embrace us and say "Well done though good and faithful servant." He talked about how important it is theat the word the Lord chose for those scriptures is "faithful" and not "successful". There's a significant difference, and we can  be good missionaries that the Lord can depend on without necessarily having every day be the most successful day ever.

We really took it to heart, and we had 20 less active lessons this week. I think that's just what we need to keep us busy every day, since our actual investigator pool is smaller than we'd like it to be. It's an excellent way to continue to fulfill our purpose, and to show the Lord that we love all of his children, and that no one is forgotten. 

Our very first rescue visit, I was a little skeptical of the concept. I was on a split with Tionimoa, one of our YSA's, and we went to visit a less active lady named Maima. The original plan was to teach a lesson on the importance of the Sabbath Day, since one of her obvious problems was not coming to church. However, before I went in to the lesson, I decided that was the wrong lesson plan. We sat down and just had a normal conversation, and I really focused on listening to her and seeing how her life is going. I asked her about how her prayers have been, and she admitted she hasn't prayed in the longest time. I knew just what to do. I have been really focusing on preparing myself for lessons, and part of that is topically organizing my Book of Mormon with tabs for every lesson and concept. For "Prayer" I have like 50 different tabs. I picked one at random and it happened to be Mosiah 18:24. The scripture talks about how God will always visit his people in their time of affliction when they are faithful in praying to Him. As we read the scripture, she totally started crying. She talked about how she had been having some very hard trials in her life lately, and that she had forgotten how important prayer is. We invited her to start praying again, and she agreed to. We also saw her at church the next day. I know that that lesson wasn't led by me, and I'm so grateful that I was given the opportunity to be an instrument in God's hands here on Christmas Island. I love being a missionary, and I am so grateful for the chances I'm given to grow. 

I love all of you and I can't wait to hear from you again next week!

Love Elder Seguine

*Also, the cats are safe and alive, they are almost cute now, looking more like cats than rats now. They are 8 days old, and we only had to kill one more crab since the first "incident". 

*ONE MORE THING: Tionimoa got his mission cal to Brisbane Australia! It came the same day as the AP's, and he's psyched. He'll do great I know.

Note from Mom:  It had been raining for 36 hours when he emailed us.  He said he is actually cold for the first time on the island.  He is sick with a sore throat, and didn't get his packages... but did get some letters!  He is excited to have actual letters to hold in his hand.  Hopefully some extra rest today on P-day will help him feel better for the busy week ahead.  Overall he sounds great and is excited to be busy working! He tried to send some pictures, but they wouldn't load due to slow internet.  We'll just have to wait a little longer :)

Pouring Rain, Two Baby Kittens, and a New Phobia

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor, and Cami!

How are you all doing? From your most recent emails, it looks like you had a really crazy week! I'm glad you're all mostly safe and mostly healthy. That's a good place to be.

Before I talk about anything that happened this week, I must tell a terrifying story. Our cat Ginger who lives in our house is a wonderful cat. She's super nice and always likes to be petted. However, we thought she was getting super fat. Turns out, she was pregnant!  Sunday, she had two baby cats. They were super gross. Thankfully, she had her babies in a random box, so they were safe. (Cami has been driving us crazy all day making sure we ask Dallin if Ginger the cat had babies.  He mentioned they suspected she was pregnant a few weeks ago.  Cami was so happy to hear they arrived!)  HOWEVER, this morning, we woke up to Ginger making all kinds of evil hissing noises, and it was really loud so we looked over at her box. There were 4 crabs inside our house all making war trying to get into Ginger's box to eat the baby cats! It was terrifying! So we jumped out of bed and tried to kill the crabs, but then they started attacking us! They were big, and had big claws. So we took sticks off of our walls, since our house and the walls are made of sticks, and started trying to beat them. Ginger continued to make evil noises, and the crabs are going everywhere. The worst most scary thing was that one climbed straight up the wall, like up to eye level, and then climbed out the window. It was terrifying. In the end, if you hit them once hard on the head, they kindof go limp for a second, so we would have to hit them and then flick them towards the door and then hit them again until they were outside of our house. At which point, we smashed them. It was really scary because the sun wasn't quite up at 5:45, so we weren't sure if we got them all. Crabs are definitely evil animals. They're like armored and weaponized spiders, and apparently the ones that live here can climb walls. So I have a new phobia. (I think I would have a phobia if I were engaged in a battle with armored spiders in the dark protecting innocent kittens too.  Quick thinking to tear apart the stick house and use it as weapons... ummm I can't believe his life has come to that statement.)

Anyways, that describes this week. We had a really rough week. Transfers and rain and other external circumstances made meeting with people and teaching lessons very difficult. We tried to stay productive, but it was really hard. I guess there's really no such thing as a normal week as a missionary, but just keeping a pattern of working is really hard when things are always disrupting your pattern. Trying to take something good out of every day has made me grateful for the good things, even if there's only a few each day.

Wednesday was a particularly sad day. We had transfers, so we woke up at 5 to drive out to the airport. We picked up a new Elder and a new Sister. Elder Raika is from Fiji. He is an absolute ace at speaking Kiribati. He's a huge guy, also plays rugby. Elder Paora and him were instant buddies over that. He's going to be good for all of us, because his Kiribati is better than his English, so we have to speak the language more now. The new sister is named Sister Johnson, from Utah. She's very nice and slightly crazy, but she's funny. (I was welcomed into my missionary mom email group by Sister Johnson's mom!  She gave me the link to her daughter's blog so I could get an idea of what the mission was like.  I mentioned this to Dallin and he said she was sitting right beside him and it was indeed her blog we have been following.)  It's a different district dynamic now, but I think it'll be really great. It was very sad to see Elder Marks and Sister Tarie go. Marks is headed to an outer island, and Tarie finally got her Australian visa so she'll be starting her real mission after 9 months waiting in Kiribati. They'll do great I'm sure. Transfers are just crazy that's all!

Also on Thursday, the rain started. When I say rain, I mean RAIN. Hurricane style. It just poured for so long. It's not exactly nice to live in a stick house when it rains. We only have a few leaks, but it was so much water it was like a steady stream into the house. We switched buckets constantly. Also, our floor just turned into mud. Everything felt kindof dirty and damp. But now we have clean drinking water again! We were super low on the tanks, but now they're full again. Our tanks are at the church, where we live, and we were happy to see them overflowing. 

Side effect of the rain, we can't teach lessons. We have to bike in our area, and there is no possible way to bike and not get wet when it's pouring. So on Thursday and Saturday, it rained in the afternoon, and we had to ride around on our bikes getting soaking wet just rescheduling lessons. We got home and it looked like I got in the shower with my clothes on. So much water. 

I wish I had a really spiritual experience to share this week. I guess all I have to say is just focus on the good every day. Not every day is great and in fact some will definitely be bad. But there's always something good every day. So that's where I'm at. I'm very happy to be a missionary. I'm grateful for this time I've been given to learn and grow, and I hope I'm doing a good job getting everything out of it that I can. I love and miss you all! Keep praying for me - I need it. Here's to a better upcoming week :)

Love Elder Seguine

*Ed and I were both super concerned about Dallin all day on Wednesday (which would have been his Thursday).  We didn't think he was in danger, but kept having the recurring feeling that he needed to feel uplifted and loved.  We stopped many times that day to pray that he would be strengthened and know we were praying for him and loved him.  That was the day of pouring rain.  He said in our back and forth that it was just horrible.  The hut was leaking and everything was just kind of wet.  He was beyond discouraged and wondering how in the world he had arrived in these circumstances.  He is feeling better today, but still trying to figure out how to keep focused and productive under any circumstance.  We are so proud of what he is doing and the attitude in which he is trying to approach each day.  Missions are hard for different reasons in different places, but all missions are hard.  Some things in life can only be learned through tough experiences.  He realizes that he should be looking for those lessons, but some days are just plain hard.

Hopefully this week he will have sunny skies again and be able to get out and teach the investigators.  The APs are coming to visit and he will get to see his friend Elder Sherman.  I'm sure he will be happy to have some time on splits with Joshua!  He did finally send us a list of all the things that would make his life easier and hopefully we can get them in a box and sent in the next few weeks.  They should reach him before he gets  transferred from Christmas in a few months.  As always, prayers on his behalf are appreciated.  Our list of missionaries to pray for each day is getting so long I sometimes have trouble remembering everyone!  What a great problem to have!

Splits, Patience, and a Visit From a Friend!

Dear Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami,

I love you all! I hope that this has been a wonderful week. Looking through the emails I got, it looks like it was! I'm very happy for you all, and thank you for thinking to include me.

Congratulations to Taylor for surviving our family for 17 years, that's a decent accomplishment. Also congratulations on making varsity for lacrosse! That's a really decent accomplishment. Just don't hurt yourself, you obsessive crazy person. And don't let Stella hit you anymore, that's not very friendly of her. (Taylor dislocated her index finger due to a blow from her good friends lacrosse stick :) But really, way to go, you're doing great, and I'm very proud of you. Finish strong through Junior year, it's the most important. Good luck, you're doing great I'm sure!

Also, a round of applause to Cami for her participation in the school play, way to go! I'm glad you were able to have so much fun. You'll be great in all the plays. You're much braver than I am, I would have been far too scared to stand up in front of everyone and sing and act like you did. Way to go. Mom told me that you're doing really well in all of your classes! Congratulations, isn't middle school just the best? You're doing so much, and I'm proud you can handle it all. Growing up never was tough but you're doing a good job adjusting. Thanks for your example. I love both you and Taylor very much!

These past two weeks have been growing weeks for sure. We have worked very, very hard, and I'm still trying to keep my learning pace high. I don't want to plateau, so that means some hard work to keep going. I feel more than comfortable in the language now. I won't say the word fluent, but if there's a synonym that's close, I'm there. The hardest part is still hearing, and working on my accent.

We had plenty of splits opportunities these past two weeks. The first week, we split 4 out of our 6 days, so I hardly even taught with Elder Paora. Tuesday, I worked with Elder Marks, who is the other trainer on the island. He works in Banana, but he came down to Tabwakea (my area) and did a day with me. It was fun to lead every lesson, and be forced to remember and navigate to every investigator's house/shack/tree house (difficult with no addresses/roads). I really had a good day, Marks and I were able to help eachother and learn a lot I feel. The next split, I worked with Elder Davis (my MTC companion) on Thursday. Elder Paora had to conduct baptismal interviews in Banana since he is the District Leader. It felt good that Paora trusted me enough to run the area after 5 weeks, especially since Elder Davis is not able to speak or understand the language. However, it was really good for us to work together again, because it forced me to really step up, and teach almost the entire lesson every lesson. It also forced Elder Davis to really try, because there wasn't a trainer to rely on when things went South. Really enjoyable. After that, we went on splits on Saturday and Sunday with members of the Branch YSA. It was so fun to work with native speakers. We had a great time. I worked with a guy named Tionimoa (So - knee - mow - ah), who has sent his mission papers off already. He's the man. He helped me with the language, and I helped him with how to teach a little bit. It was awesome, and we actually did the same split yesterday as well. We think we'll do YSA splits every Sunday, so we can help them to get ready for their own missions. It was really fun and really rewarding. Tionimoa wanted me to tell all of you back home that he really hopes he gets called to the Philadelphia mission so he can meet you all someday. We'll see how that goes :) (Wouldn't that be awesome to have someone here from Kiribati?)

This week, we had to do a lot of administrative sorting out of problems and things, since Elder Paora is our district leader. It was hard, because we spent two whole days of proselyting time not being able to teach. I was surprised how much not teaching affected me, but it put me in a really in a bad mood. However, Elder Paora knows a teaching moment when he sees one, so he totally set me straight, and really kindof snapped me back to reality. He said that it's not our job to decide how other people act or how their actions affect us, but it is our job to react in the way that a missionary should. It hit me really hard. So I've been working a lot on that. I fasted yesterday for patience and humility (side note, don't do that, because then the internet place will be very busy and you'll have to wait an hour to get online to prove you're learning to be patient). But it's been making a difference. I really want to be better and take advantage of all of the opportunities to grow that I'm given, so I'm doing my best.

We also had the wonderful opportunity on Saturday to baptize Tikataake! He is the best little kid I've ever met. He's 10 years old, and he's kindof grown up in the Church. However, his Dad was crazy, and refused to let him be baptized because his dad was part of the KPC church. So it caused a lot of contention. However, Tikataake had such a powerful testimony he kept reading and praying and talking to the missionaries after school when he could. He and his Mom recently moved to Christmas from Tarawa, and his Mom divorced his crazy dad. So the first thing they did after the Wednesday flight in to Christmas, was come find the missionaries! We taught them Thursday, Friday, and then baptized him on Saturday. He was the definition of prepared, especially since all of his lessons had already been finished on Tarawa. We were so grateful for such a highlight to our week/month/mission so far. He's a great little boy. When he prays, Elder Paora without fail cries. It's so sincere and kind. He always prays form Paora, and me, and for our families. So if you felt a boost this week, it was from 10 year old Tikataake. I'm grateful for his example, and I'm grateful for his genuine love.

Also this week, Elder Paora's family sent him a flash drive with music! However, the music is not playable for some reason. So we borrowed some member computers and pulled random music off of them for us to have.  Speaking of, President Weir is very relaxed about our mission music policy, so if you are feeling really nice my wonderful family, could you maybe get together an iPod or MP3 device of some kind to send me? We're allowed to listen to any music that is not profane, and is not so fast/crazy that it drives the Spirit away. And all church music is acceptable.  You have a pretty good handle on what music I like, and I trust your judgment fully. Thanks so much family!

Another random fun fact, the AP's will be coming to check on Christmas Island at the end of this month! And, lo and behold, who else could the Marshalls-side AP be but Elder Josh Sherman! He sent me an email this week and told us he was coming. So fun! It'll be great to see someone I know, even for a little bit. Very exciting to hear. (The Shermans are good friends of ours from when we lived in Indiana!  Dallin is so excited to see Josh and his mom called me right after she got the news from her son's letter!  Josh is serving IN the Marshall Islands and since they speak different languages they would not cross paths unless a visit like this happened!  Yay for friends!)

Hopefully this email makes up for missing last week! I'm grateful the internet was on for this whole time. I love and miss all of you! It's always great to hear from all of you. I love you so much! Talk to you all next week.

Love Dal

Internet Down

Hi Everyone.
We did not receive a letter this week.  Boo Hoo.
We saw that he was online and he said he was working on a letter, but was disconnected before he could send it.  We can only assume the internet and/or power went down.  He did manage to tell us that he had received most of the packages we sent.  All but one from us arrived and one from Kalani.  He now has lots of water purification stuff and all kinds of non-perishable food, protein bars, protein powder, and other goodies.  I do consider it a blessing that he was able to tell us that before getting cut off!

I keep hoping we will randomly get a letter sometime this week, but probably not until next p-day.

A Book of Mormon Miracle... and PICTURES!

Finally a picture!!! This is Dallin with his investigator Itaaka and his daughter.  Itaaka is the Kiribati equivalent of Isaac (in case you were wondering).  The daughter will be baptized in April.

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor, and Cami!

I miss you all, and I hope that everything is going well for you all. I am so excited to wruite this email! The problem is, that when I type, the text takes about 15 seco ndsto load on the screen, so that is a problem indeed. Ican't see when I make any mistakes, so I'll have to type slowly. I am going to try and send na few pictures so that you can have a little bit to work with. The internet is fast today, it's just laggy. Hopefully It goes through! 

(OK, you get the picture.  I'll edit the typos out for the rest of the letter :)

I'm very proud to hear that Campbell's play is this weekend, and I'm so excited to hear about how well it goes. Good luck! or, break a leg! Whichever you want to hear I suppose. 

It sounds like you guys are having the best winter ever! I'm so jealous of the cold. I could use some , if you can somehow bottle it up and send it. This week was extra hot for some reason. I literally sweated 24/7, and it was awful. I did laundry twice just because I felt so gross. It was unbearable. But, I guess at the same time it was bearable because I'm still alive. Barely, and I'm getting smaller every week (No more belt loops - I just slide it all the way to the end now. Sorry!). My body has gone to war with the mosquitoes though, and I can occasionally resist a bite. But still, I'm getting bitten and getting bumps more than I care to explain. We're at war, but we're still losing at this point. Hopefully the tides turn soon. Very very itchy. 

(A guy from our ward served in Micronesia 20 years ago and told Dallin that you just have to suck it up and deal with the mosquitoes for a good portion of your mission.  At some point your body just quits reacting to the bites.  To this day he says he can be in a swarm of mosquitoes and won't have a bump on him.  I just pray that all these bugs are free of disease since he can't seem to keep them from biting constantly!  The spray doesn't seem to deter them.)

I think that there is some unwritten law for Kiribati elders and sisters that if you want to have a good week spiritually, you must have a bad week in some other department of life. And you just have to be humble enough to accept that. So I'm working on it. We actually did have a really good week. Our investigators are all doing extremely well. We have been pushing within our companionship that hard work is the key, and it took a lot of effort to get into a rhythm of working extra hard, especially in the absurd heat. However, on Saturday, we finally had some momentum, and we were able to be out and teaching and doing real work for 10 hours straight. We didn't come home until bedtime, and then we just crashed. I barely had time to get my tie and shirt off before I was asleep. I think that's a good day. 

Just being out and conversing and really working to talk to people has supercharged my language. I feel really confident now. I've been out for about one month now (happy anniversary!) and I'm feeling like I can essentially communicate anything I need to . I still struggle to hear people sometimes, especially old people who are very quiet, but even that is improving. I'm getting faster, but that's the focus now, just being able to construct sentences in time for them to be useful. 

At the beginning of the week, we had exactly 0 lessons lined up. So Elder Paora was feeling very discouraged (read-irritated), and we were just not starting our week on the right foot. Tuesday we found one lesson, and Wednesday we had like 4. Come Thursday, we had district meeting, and Elder Paora (our district leader) was not in the mood to give a training. SO, I asked if I could give the training, and he let me do that. I was really under the impression that we needed something to give us all a purpose, because the week had been equally bad for the sisters too. So we talked about why we're out here. I wrote up the purpose statement on the whiteboard, and then we worked through ways we can still be effective missionaries even if we're not teaching lessons 24/7. President Weir's goal for Christmas Island is that it can become a Stake sometime, and it's a real achievable goal. I'm excited to help in that sense, and we're emphasizing helping our members to become stronger. I'm excited to get to that point. And, after we had a goal to work towards, our week pulled a 180 faster than I could even believe. After having 5 lessons in our first 3 days, we ended up with 23 on the week, and we worked for every one of them. I was so grateful for the witness to me that we can be good missionaries, and we have all the tools we need. It sometimes just takes a jump start.

We had a real miracle happen this week too. Christmas Island is 100% out of Book of Mormons to give out to investigators. We just have no more, and it's a real problem. We want to help people, but it's hard without the BoM. We have one investigator named Tariaiataake, an old lady who is actually the grandmother of one of our other investigators. We wanted to give her one, but we've just been having to get by with pamphlets for now. But we started to explain the story of the iron rod to her, and she said, "Hmm, I just read about that!" We were very, very surprised. She then went over to her suitcase and pulled out a very waterlogged copy of the Book of Mormon, with no cover and no title pages. She had no idea that it was our Book of Mormon, it was just a story book to her. The book started for her with a picture of Christ in the Americas, and then went right into the first Chapter. It was amazing . There was no title page, no cover, no writing on the spine, anything. It was just a random copy of the Kiribati Book of Mormon. We were astonished. It was a real answer to our prayers. She now has a copy of the book, and we're hoping she has the opportunity to read more of it.

I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. He truly will give us things that we need when we need them. I love you all, and I miss you very much! Hopefully you all have a great week. I will talk to you soon!

Love from Christmas,

Dal

*There is a story very similar to the Book of Mormon Miracle story above where an Italian man, Vincenzo De Francesca found a copy of the Book of Mormon with no cover or title page.  He felt such a strong spirit when he read it, but didn't know where to find people to teach him more.  This video tells his true story of conversion and his struggle to be joined to the church of God.

Here is a link to the full movie:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75D5UEPwP-Y

His story begins at 22:23... but if you have time the full movie is worth watching.  It explains more about the Book of Mormon and why it is so important as another witness of Jesus Christ and how it goes hand-in-hand with the Bible.

*The internet was faster than usual and he was able to send some pictures to us.  It was a direct answer to a mother's prayer to know her son was actually OK, because the other people he tried to send them to did not receive them.  So grateful that in these small ways I know Heavenly Father is aware of my worries and sent me a smiling picture of my boy.  He really is happy.  He's living in rough circumstances, but is adapting well and loving his mission.  If the boxes of food we sent him would ever arrive he might just be able to stop losing weight. Hopefully soon!

We went back and forth a little bit with Dallin. He has been able to hear from a lot of friends and family and it really brightens his week to hear from everyone!  He is short on computer time, so can't answer everyone, but says to say he loves you and thank you for your love and support.

He saw the temple shirt from Rob Shoenewald and was so grateful.  He said to say hi to the Schoenewald family and all his other friends.  He loves and misses all of you!

Here are a bunch of pictures!

 Elder Seguine, Ueata, and Elder Paora

 His birthday feast and crown provided by a wonderful family in his branch.  I wish I could thank them for doing this.

 This is the Stick House.  Complete with coral/sand floor and mosquito nets.  I think these pictures speak for themselves.

 The picture below is his desk and closet.  He said that since he was on Christmas Island, he decided to hang his Christmas stockings from us and Kalani as decoration.  

 He told me not to freak out when I saw his bathroom.  It is not sanitary, acceptable, usable, ideal, but at least he has a bathroom. The next picture shows what the bathrooms look like on the outer islands. Yikes!

 These are the stray pet cats.  Ginger (who is very nice and soon to have kittens) and Mamma/Baby cat.  They are a fun distraction for Elders Seguine and Paora and come and go as they please.

 This is a picture of his MTC zone

This is Christmas Island from the plane.  Gorgeous!