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!