Abaiang!

This is the Bishop's house... and I assume his kids as well!

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami!

Wow. This was a truly truly crazy week. I know that I say that every week but I just cannot be more serious about this week. We'll start backwards again.

8 am this morning I had an interview with President Weir. Despite the fact that I've been on the mission for about 6.5 months, I had never had an "official" interview with him. So, I just figured it was pretty routine, since he will be leaving this afternoon, and he just wanted to catch me before he went back to the Marshalls.

That was a very false assumption. 10 days after arriving in Betio, I was being asked to transfer to ABAIANG, an outer island, and I'll be leaving around July 17/18. More than just a transfer though, I will be whitewashing the area, and training. Abaiang has had Sisters on it for the past 3 months, however due to some issues, they're being pulled back in. Since no Elders have been out there, and I can't be companioned with a sister, I'll just show up on this island with a kid straight out of the MTC, and we'll just have to figure it out from there. 

Voicing this concern, President has authorized me to take a little vacation out there with my current companion Elder Farley. Farley worked in Abaiang three months ago, so he'll be able to kind of show me around a little bit, and I'll get a feel for it before show time. Tuesday morning, Farley and I will take a speedboat out, and we'll work there til Thursday evening, when we'll catch a plane back to Tarawa. Hopefully I can get a feel for what's there and what I need in that time, and I can get everything together before the middle of July.

So that's the craziest of all the things that happened this week. Essentially, President is just sending everyone he can out to the outer islands. There's 60 missionaries in Kiribati, 6 on Christmas, 23 on outer islands, and the rest on Tarawa. So busy.  Lots of work and lots of really big goals for this country and these people. I'm very excited.

Saturday, we had a baptism in our ward! One of our less active members we had been working with got himself all the way cleaned up and active again so that he could baptize his daughter. It was so awesome. They're looking towards the temple now, and we're so happy for them.  His name is Taboa and his daughter is Taua. Great great experience.

Work is going SO well in Betio  - I'm so sad to leave it. We have 5 baptisms this Saturday, 4 the following week, and 3 the week after. Very exciting, and we're just working so hard. Basically that's all the news I have! I took pictures this week, so Mom will be stoked. I'll send them all home.

I know that I need to learn something from all this craziness. Hopefully I can figure it out soon! I'm grateful to be a missionary and I' excited for all the things to come :)

I love you all, catch you next week!

Love dal

Note from Mom:  We had a quick back and forth with Dallin tonight.  He says he is about 75% health wise and President is confident that he will be well enough in 2 weeks to go to this outer island.  The only communication is a Ham radio, but the island is close to Tarawa, so he can get mail and packages pretty regularly.  The church owns Moroni High School on Tarawa and thy own a speed boat that can go pick them up quickly if there are any health issues.  It is even more like camping on Abaiang and he sent us a list of things he will need... including lettuce seeds (Grammy has been talking about sending those for a while now - you were right!).  He said P-day is spent growing a "farm" on this island.  He also needs lots of solar powered stuff and a machete, fishing pole, and big knife.  His companion was giving him all kinds of advice about what he wished he had while he was there.  He's pretty nervous about training, but is excited to try to turn this area around.

Here are some comments he made in our back and forth:

"I'm freaking out. My kid is straight out of Samoa or Tonga or something. ZL's showed me the transfer screen when they emailed, his name is so long it didn't fit the alloted space on the church system. Pula'af'a..... we'll see how it goes! Hopefully I can do what I need to do for him."

Ed asked him if "speedboat" actually meant a canoe with either a fast paddler or a motor:

"Speedboat means the Moroni High speedboat - Te Riaona (the Liahona). It's a legit speedboat. No, there's supposedly a house there. No chapel, just a mwaneaba (traditional meeting house). Because Abaiang is close to Tarawa and there's an airport, I ca receive packages and mail and such. SO please keep in contact!"

About the branches on the island:

" I'm scared of this island and whatever problems got left... one of the branches there (of 2) is down at around 12 for sacrament meeting attendance. Not good news. Prayers are needed please."

Thank you to everyone for your love and support.  We have been pretty worried about him, but are grateful he is so excited about the work and making progress with healing.  Maybe being on a smaller (and hopefully cleaner) island will be good for his health and knowing he is close to the nurse makes me feel better.  It will be sad to have no email for at least 3 months, but he should be able to get letters out regularly.  We just have to move forward with faith and keep those prayers coming!

Emergency Transfer and Betio

Dear Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami!

WHAT A WEEK. Right now, I am sitting in an internet cafe in Bairiki,
with Elders Farley (my comp - Orem), Sion (Detroit/Honduras),
Ngonevulavula (Fiji), Maisey (North Dakota, our ZL) and Lopez (Mexico,
other ZL). You're probably confused because the town and the Elders
don't sound very familiar, or very much like Christmas Island. Well,
that's because I'm not on Christmas Island anymore!

Starting with last Tuesday: I sent that email in the morning off the
phone just to let you all know I was in bad shape with my arm, but
that I was trying my best to keep it together. Raika and I went out
teaching around 12 that day, and by 4, my arm was swollen bad like
last time, and I could hardly even ride my bike. We came home and I
had Sister Anderson just try and do something for me. Poor Sister
Anderson is too nice, she tried to poke at it and get stuff out with a
needle, but it was too much for her, and even after it got poked it
wasn't bleeding or draining. So she called Sister Cassita, our mission
nurse here on Tarawa. After a little discussion, Sister Anderson hung
up and reluctantly informed me that I would be leaving to Tarawa the
next day, so I could stay under the mission Nurse's supervision. All
told, I ended up with 18 hours notice to pack, say goodbye and
mentally prepare to leave. Moreover, Elder Hamula and President Weir
were both coming in on the morning flight, AND it just so happened to
be my 6 month anniversary. A day to remember for sure!

Wednesday morning, we woke up, and I packed all my bags. Funny to
think everything I own fits in two suitcases and totals under 50
pounds. But it was nice to get everything all clean and ready for a
new area. As I finished packing, Elder Hamula walks right into our
house! He's a TALL man, like 6'6" plus. He's so nice too though. He
just talked to us for a bit, looked around and kindof laughed a little
that we literally lived in a stick house. It was fun to just chat with
him and see that he is a normal person too. Also nice to meet
President Weir. He is so loving, and he felt so sorry that I had this
arm problem, especially that it was repeating and so severe. He was
very very ready to get me back on the mainland. That morning, we had a
one hour training with Elder Hamula, and he talked about how truly
blessed and important the Christmas Island missionaries are. The
reason that he came to visit Christmas was because he was instated a
District of the church, and he talked about how many blessings the
people would receive from the spiritual power of a district, and that
it was a direct result of our efforts. So cool. Mostly he complimented
us, and told us he was proud. It was so nice to feel the genuine love
from him. After that, the district was instated in a huge general
meeting for all the members. The Banana branch bused in, and I think
every member on the whole island was there. The chapel was OVERFLOWING
and Hamula was really surprised how many people were there. He said if
turnout kept up like that, the branches he was just about to split,
would have to be split again in a few months! It was great to see such
progress. Now, there are 4 branches. Two in Tabwakea, 1 in London, and
1 in Banana. So happy for those wonderful people.

That afternoon, I said goodbye to all my investigators, the Andersons,
Sisters Johnson and 'Alafoki, Davis, Toanna, and Raika, and I got on
the plane to Fiji. I was with President and Sister Weir, and Elder and
Sister Hamula. We spent the night in Fiji, and at a resort
nonetheless! I had my own hotel room too. I turned the air
conditioning down to 60, took the first hot shower in 4 and a half
months, and slept like a rock. We left again for the airport at 6, for
an 8am flight to Tarawa.

Upon arrival at Tarawa, I was greeted by: Elder Paora! His area covers
the airport so he picked us up. No one knew I was coming in, since it
was an ET, so he was so surprised and excited to see me. It's great to
see him a little bit more, he goes home the end of July. I also was
greeted by the AP's, Elder Sherman ad Elder Sias, who were waiting for
President. Awesome to see Sherman again. Then, I went straight to
Cassita's house for "evaluation." The "evaluation" took a half second
glance, and then turned in to "operation." I laid down on a couch in
the Senior couple's house at Moroni, with my arm resting on a chair.
My arm was super swollen, and just full. She gave my four shots of
lydacaine to numb the imminent pain. The shots themselves hurt,
because my arm was then even MORE full of random liquids. Then, she
took a SCALPEL to the infection site, and cut it open. Grossness
ensued, so don't read on if you're faint. She started at the edges of
the infection, my wrist and elbow, and SQUEEZED as hard as she could.
The tiny incision in the middle of my forearm became a fountain, and
just all kinds of stuff came out. I cannot express how painful it is
to have your swollen infected arm just squeezed relentlessly. Suffice
it to say I definitely cried. She started from the outside and
continued all the way to the center, a total elapsed time of an
excruciating 7 minutes. She commented it was the worst infection she
had dealt with in either of her missions. However, she was positive
that she had removed the foreign material, and enough of the infection
that the rest could be handled by antibiotics. Grateful to have been
blessed and protected, and that it wasn't any worse.

I just recuperated the rest of the day, spent the night at the Zone
Leaders' house (more air con - I was in heaven!) and then the next
morning we had Zone Conference. All the Elders and Sisters on Tarawa
met at the Tarawa East Stake center, Temwaiku (the newest chapel on
the island), and Elder Hamula gave us training for like 4 hours. It
was crazy, he was an amazing teacher. He taught for so long and I
honestly could have kept listening. He talked about obedience for a
long time, and he was very up front that this mission has missionaries
who have no reason not to be exactly obedient. He talked about how
good we are, and how much this region is exploding. He talked about
how that was amazing, given the fact that a lot of missionaries
disregard the rules. He told us that if we tried our hardest, and
actually decided to be the missionaries he knew we could be, then
Kiribati would without a doubt become the Church headquarters of the
Pacific. He challenged us to re-commit, starting with the study
schedule. It was awesome. Then he talked about the importance of Faith
in relation with our investigators being able to make and keep
commitments. I'll talk more about that in weeks to come, it was earth
shattering. Then, we had lunch and I ate a cheeseburger! It was
delicious. After that, I got to go to my new area!

I'm working Betio. Supposedly, Betio has almost 30,000 people in it,
and the population density rivals Bangladesh. There are just people on
people on people, and sanitation is an obvious issue. I'm glad I have
a terrible nose, because there are always some serious smells going
on. Betio is one district of missionaries, 3 wards, 2 chapels, 3
areas, and 6 missionaries. I work Betio 3rd with Elder Farley. Farley
is from Orem, UT, and went to Timpanogos' HS, right next to where
Kalani went :) He's a lax star, so I feel comfortably east-coast with
him. He's the intake before me, so he's about to hit 9 months on the
mission right as I just hit 6. He is so obedient and happy and
genuinely loves the people. I'm a little better at the language, but I
think that we can both really help each other in a lot of ways. Our
ward is great, but it's a challenge. President told us that this ward
needs help: there are way too many less actives. So he's giving me and
Farley this ward because we're both obedient, and we're both ready to
work hard for the people. 3 weeks ago, sacrament meeting was at 40.
Last week, 70. Yesterday, we had 93! We are very excited to work with
all the members and help them remember the blessings of this church.
It's also a real sign of confidence that President trusts us as young
missionaries with such a big task. Our chapel is the second newest
chapel on island, less than 2 years old. It's so nice. We're planning
on filling it :)

I cannot explain why this week was so crazy. There was so super low
lows but also some super fun things too. I am sad I left Christmas,
but I am so excited to work in Tarawa, especially in Betio 3rd. I
don't know all of our investigators yet, but I know that they're great
people and they're going to grow so much from the lessons and I can't
wait to help them. I'm grateful I was protected and that I'm healthy
now, and I cannot wait to work hard! I love being a missionary, and I
love all of you. I have consistent email now, so I will hear from you
all next week! Thanks for the prayers and emails and support! I really
felt it this week.

Love Dal

(*We are so grateful that President Weir was aware that Dallin needed to be transferred back close to the mission nurse.  He is truly being watched over.  Unfortunately, I have seen infections like these and know that they are quite serious.  If he were here in the states he would have been in the hospital with IV antibiotics - not to mention a more sterile and less painful surgery. I'm trying to have more faith about his circumstances and am grateful he has such a positive attitude.  We fasted and prayed as a family yesterday that he would be able to maintain his health and focus on missionary work.  Now we have to have the faith necessary for that to happen.

He did finally get all his boxes (like 12 or 14!), so he has lots of food and protein powder.  He said that was a nice surprise after so many terrible and painful days.  He will be able to email every week, but too many viruses to send pictures from the place he was yesterday.  He was so excited about his new companion and the desire to work hard.  He just kept saying not to worry and that everything was going to be fine.  Lots of tears were flowing from all the women in his life this week.  It's interesting that experiences in life are never quite what you expect.  I always pictured our family gathered around reading his weekly letters smiling, laughing, and feeling so uplifted.  We do feel the spirit and the importance of what he is doing, but we are working to overcome the worry and fear that creep in with every update.  Doing the Lord's will is not always easy, but as we can see from Dallin's letters it brings joy even in the toughest circumstances.  I'm so proud of him and grateful for those watching over him.

Having these experiences with Dallin has definitely instilled a desire in me to serve as a mission nurse somewhere remote.  I could absolutely help missionaries like Dallin to stay safe and healthy!  Dallin even commented that the poor Anderson's on Christmas were sick with worry and just didn't know how to help him.  He said that I could totally be a remote nurse and "squeeze infected arms".  That part did actually make me laugh. Ed is just going to have to come along for the ride.)

Perspective and Your "Finest Hour"

Dear Dad, (and Mom and Taylor and Cami - but mostly Dad)

Happy Father's day! I felt so terrible yesterday that I couldn't email home. Not fair that moms get a video call, and poor dad doesn't even get an email. I really don't know how yesterday could have gone any logistically worse. Email was down, power was down, the telecom store where we buy phone credit was closed and we happened to be out of credit of  course. Wow. So instead of emailing and games, President Anderson drafted us missionaries into a landscaping crew to clean the chapel for President Weir and Elder Hamula's arrival tomorrow. Ouch. Not a very fun p day, and I still haven't had a chance to do my laundry, but finally power is back on.

It was nice to read all the emails from this week, I really needed a boost. Terrible news: remember my arm infection? Well it left a nice ugly scar on my right forearm. And unfortunately I'm going to have a matching one on my left forearm. Exact same place, exact same symptoms and pain, just on my left arm this time around. It started Sunday afternoon, and it's swollen and red again already by now on Tuesday morning. I guess I did not properly learn what I needed to learn from last time, so here goes arm infection round two. Yikes. I'm back on the ciproflaxin for the next ten days. I'd probably say my attitude is worse than my arm, but I'm trying to be grateful like Elder Uchtdorf asked us to be in conference. Much easier said than done!

Other than that, I am doing alright. Coolest news on the island, there is now a restaurant open to the public! I've been there about 5 times since it opened last week. Its not even that great, but its so cool just because it exists. I ate French toast, and one piece only cost 6 dollars. I'm still convinced it was worth it.

Last week was an extremely busy work week. We had Elder Raffi from the Marshalls' Service Center here to look at our chapel. Its about to become a stake center (or whatever the equivalent is called for a district - district center?) on Wednesday, so some updates are really in order. He's really cool, and he has been spending a lot of time with us missionaries. We also had 30 lessons, another marriage (4 so far, one more on the way), and we had a baptism for 8 people! Lots of good accomplished in one week, and it was very fulfilling. All of our people bore great testimonies after the baptism, and I was very proud.

News for this week: tomorrow is my 6 month mark (!), I will finally meet my mission President, I will get to spend some time with Elder Hamula of the Seventy, our branch will be split into 3 branches, and a district presidency instated. On top of that, we will still have the usual lessons, we'll have baptismal interviews on Saturday and if we're lucky we might find time to sleep. Lots of busyness!

I recently restarted the Book of Mormon, and I've come to 2nd Nephi now. I just had the opportunity to read Lehi's advice about "opposition in all things." It has new meaning as a missionary. I think that when things are going the best they can also seem like they're going the worst. It's more a matter of perspective than fact, because it is a fact that when you're on the verge of doing something magnificent, something really important with real meaning and value, there's going to be some bumps along the way. How big those bumps are is proportional to how much potential good your actions have, and so times of greatness are often also times of strife. Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, "For the faithful, sometimes our finest hours are hidden in or just after what we perceive as our darkest hours." So in reality, when you think you're having the worst day ever, its because you've got an opportunity for a "finest hour." So take it as a heads-up and make the hard times worth it.

I'm grateful to be a missionary. I'm so glad I get to work hard every day for people who need my help. I know I'm involved in an amazing work and that "no unhallowed hand" can stop or even slow it down. I'm grateful for trials, and for the opportunity to find the finest hour hidden therein. I love my family, especially my dad and mom on this (day after) Father's day. I also love my girlfriend, my siblings, my friends back home, my companion Elder Raika, the people I'm privlieged to work with on Christmas Island, and my Heavenly Father. Thank you all so much for your support, your thoughts and your prayers. I'll hopefully get to contact you all again next week!

See you all in 18 months and 1 day :)

Love Dal

(Note from Mom: I'm grateful that the Mission President is coming tomorrow and they are supposed to have more antibiotics since the nurse came last time.  I can only pray that they are in tune with the needs of all the missionaries on the island.  I just never imagined that Dallin would have to deal with being sick all the time.  I guess challenges are never the ones we expect... or would choose.  I'm so proud of his attitude and have faith that he is learning and growing in the ways he needs.)

No Email This Week

We didn't hear from Dallin yesterday.  Hopefully he will be able to get a letter to us at some point this week.  These weeks make me sad because I fear he will be on an outer island soon and we will not hear from him for months. I'll keep you posted if I hear anything!

Greetings From Inside a Shipping Container!

Dear Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami,

Hi! So good to get a chance to email you all this week. We were scared
we wouldn't have email or power again, but we were blessed to find
some random internet cafe! It's about the sketchiest location you
could ever imagine: INSIDE of a shipping container down at the port
customs authority! It's also one computer hooked up to like 12
monitors, so it's very slow. BUT we're very grateful to have found it.
We're also grateful it's one of the refrigerated shipping containers,
so there's air conditioning :)

This week was awesome. We had lots of random busyness to take care of,
so we only really worked Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  
Wednesday we had transfers, and Sunday we had 8 baptismal interviews 
to take care of for the district.

Transfers! Elder Fa'oliu and Sister Banimone both went back to Tarawa.
We were excited for them, especially Elder Fa'oliu, because he'll get
to work with Elder Paora on Tarawa. The new missionaries who came in
are Elder Toanna and Sister 'Alafoki. Toanna is from Kiribati, and he
will be working with Elder Davis. He also doesn't speak a lick of
English, so Elder Davis has drastically improved his Kiribati in just
the 5 days he's been here. They're both really excited to work
together. Sister 'Alafoki is from Tonga, and she's Sister Johnson's
new companion. They have actually worked together before on Tarawa,
back when Sister Johnson was brand new. She was the Sister Training
Leader on Tarawa before she came here, so she loves to work hard and
we're all very excited about how the work is looking for the whole
island. Elder Davis and I have een informed to expect to leave around
the end of July or beginning of August, so we have quite a while left
here.

Interviews! All Sunday after church, we went and did the interviews
for the whole district. All together, we'll have 8 baptisms on
Saturday, and we are so excited! Elder Raika and I have 4, Teikauea,
Kaoa, Tekai and Tekiebu. We are so grateful for their progress and
their testimonies. I have been teaching Teikauea since I got here, and
after 4 months of working and making it through all kinds of
challenges, we are so happy that he is ready to be baptized. He was
married last week, and we got invited to be the witnesses. So fun.
Kaoa is a realy great investigator too. She is a really old lady. She
spends her days making donuts, and helping sick pregnant ladies. She's
basically just a good samaritan, and she goes and helps the sick
people for free every day. It's actually hard to find time to teach
her, because she hates being in her house, she would much rather be
out helping someone. She is fantastic. Tekai and Tekiebu are 12 and
14, and are brother and sister. They're so smart! They never have
problems remembering our lessons and have been so good about keeping
commitments. I've really been impressed with them making the trip out
to church each week, because their parents are inactive and don't go
with them. They walk fr about a half an hour on Sunday mornings on
their own just to be to church on time. Tekai is excited to be
baptized so he can receive the priesthood and help to pass the
sacrament. We are so grateful for all of our people for their faith
and their willingness to progress and grow.

One fun thing that happened Saturday.  We had really good power this
week, but just Saturday morning it was off. So we didn't have running
water again and showering was going to be a problem. Right when I was
about to go pull water out of the well, it started POURING rain! Some
of the heaviest rain I've seen since being here. And so I literally
just put on a bae and stood outside behind our house and showered in
the rain. It was so funny. Probably a lot cleaner than the well water
too. Definitely an experience, probably just a one-timer though :)

Surprisingly, this week seemed very fast. I don't know if it's
somthing that just happens when you've been a missionary for a while
or what, but it was truly a fast week. I'm grateful to be a
missionary, and I'm so happy to be given the opportunity to serve the
wonderful people of Christmas Island.

I love you all! I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for your prayers and
support, can't wait to hear from you again next week.

Love Dal

First Ocean Baptism and Acts 27:26

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami!

So these two weeks have been really, really long. Just unbearably long
and inconvenient. I found a funny scripture in Acts, chapter 27, which
fits the situation exactly. Paul is venturing off to Rome to be tried
before Caesar, and their boat is caught in a huge storm. Paul comforts
everyone on the boat, and says that everything will work out in the
long run. However, in verse 26, he clarifies that before that moment
of everything working out, "Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain
island." I'm convinced that God made islands like the one that Paul
got stuck on and this one just so he could try our faith.

The root of the issue island-wide right now is that we ran out of
oil/gas before the month ended, and so there's some unfortunate
natural results that followed. The biggest problem was that all of our
electricity generators on the island run off oil. And so from Thursday
to Sunday (Sunday was June 1, so the oil came in - thank goodness!) we
didn't have city power. Luckily we have a solar generator here at the
church, so Thursday was a normal day for us. Unluckily, it was cloudy
and rainy Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  So we had no lights or running
water for three days. We've been bucket showering and drinking warm
water, since our fridges have been off. As hard as it was for us, it
was a good reminder that most people here live like that every day,
and a reminder to be grateful Sunday the oil ship came in, so as of
6 pm yesterday we've been back on city power. Good thing too, it's
rainy and wet here again today. Electricity was one problem, internet
was another. Usually, us missionaries use an internet cafe run by the
cellphone network here, TSKL. But, their cafe is down... for good. All
the electricity problems and the surging and the random shutting off
of the power totally fried their server. And, they have no plans to
buy a new one. SO, our fast internet on-island is gone. Right now, I'm
emailing on Sister Anderson's laptop, which we have hotspotted through
our cell phones. It is S-L-O-W, but I am so glad it's working even a
little bit. Like I said before, inconvenience is just abounding on
this little island.

As worn down and sick of camping as we all are, these past two weeks
were really remarkably good weeks for the work, and as a result we
have been working like crazy. Last week we taught 26 lessons, and this
week we taught 32. We're trying to stay out as much as possible, so we
can make the most out of every hour of the day. It's really paying
off, we've been able to recover from the deficit with our people from
when I had to take time off for my arm. We have 20 different
investigators who are all currently working towards different
baptismal dates, and we're so happy for all of them. Some have a long
ways to go, but little by little we're making lots of big steps.

On Saturday, we had one of our investigators baptized. Her name is
Kabikea, and she is 9. She is very into sports, especially running.
When she introduces herself she always ends it by saying, "ao ngai te
tia biri," or, "and I'm a runner." She was actually ready two weeks
ago, but that was right in the middle of my arm catastrophe, and so we
held off a little bit. We almost held it off again, because on
Saturday we had no power. No power means that we have no way to run
our pump for the well water, and we cannot fill the baptismal font.
Luckily, one of the few convenient things about islands is that they
are surrounded by water! And so we decided to baptize Kabikea out at
the beach. Elder Raika let me do the baptism, because he had performed
beach baptisms out on his outer island before. I was pretty excited, I
haven't been in the ocean since last summer. However, this is a coral
atoll, not really an island, so the beach was really sharp. Also, the
waves were huge since it had been raining. So we ventured out into the
water. Kabikea is super short, since she's 9. So I said the baptismal
prayer, waited for a big wave to come, and then essentially just held
her still while the big wave went over her. Baptism done! All in all a
really fun experience.

Another "fun" experience was at the hospital. I had a final check up
on my arm last Wednesday, scheduled for 8am. So we went to the
hospital, and at around 9, the doctor showed up (the only doctor on
the whole island, by the way) - and he happened to be drunk! So he
gave me a sketchy post-op that lasted like 30 seconds. Never ever go
to the Christmas Island hospital! Anyways, the drunk doctor is an
important part of the following story:

Two of our investigators are Manuea and Tiim, who for all kinds of
different reasons and busyness, we hadn't met with in a while. We went
to their house at 6pm on Wendesday, to try and check if we could
teach them.  6pm is our last lesson slot every day before dinner, so I
was pretty worn out. We got there, and only Tiim was home. He
explained that his wife, Manuea, was gone to the hospital to try and
get her medicine for her diabetes, and he didn't know when she would
be back. Usually, we like to teach couples together, but we decided to
start teaching a lesson with just Tiim. We were teaching about Joseph
Smith and the First Vision. It went really well. Right when we were
finished, Manuea came back and she was visibly upset. She had gone to
the hospital, but the doctor had gone home early (probably for the
best!), so she couldn't get her medicine. Elder Raika apologized, and
asked her if she's like to join us for the rest of the lesson. I was
confused, because I thought the lesson was over, and our dinner was in
5 minutes, but I rolled with it. Elder Raika then started teaching
about the restoration of the priesthood. I got to teach about the fact
that through the priesthood, people can receive priesthood blessings,
for comfort in times of trial or for sicknesses. At the end of our
lesson, Manuea asked if she could be given a priesthood blessing,
because she was out of her medicine and was worried since she hadn't
been able to get any today. We informed her that indeed she could.
Surprisingly, she asked me to give her the blessing, even though Raika
was clearly much more fluent  I had never given a blessing in Kiribati
before, usually I just asked if it was alright if I spoke in English.
However, I felt extra confident for some reason, and decided to give
the blessing in Kiribati. I spoke very clearly and did not stumble
over my words or have grammar mistakes. I was very very sure that what
I was saying was what needed to be said.

I am so grateful we decided to teach "one more lesson," especially
when we could have gone home, especially when we were tired,
especially when it had been a crazy week. Manuea and Tiim both came to
church Sunday and they are both preparing to be baptized on the
28th. I'm so grateful for the priesthood and for this church. I'm
grateful to be a missionary. I'm not perfect and I know that just like
President Uchtdorf's talk, I can do a better job being grateful in my
circumstances, regardless of how ridiculous the circumstances may be.
I love you all! Thank you for your prayers of support, I need them all
the time. Hopefully we can continue to improve our internet ability
here, and next week will be less slow! Hopefully I'll talk to you all
again soon :)

Love Dal