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!