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!
I wonder if Elder Joshus Sherman is related to a couple we used to have in the Doylestown Ward. Leigh and Alice Sherman were stalwarts in the ward. She was our R. S. President and I was one of her councilors back in the late 80's. Leigh was in the bishopric. I know Alice has passed on and I heard a rumor that Leigh did shortly after her death. They might have grandchildren Dallin's age.
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