The mission president came for a quick visit and interviews. He stayed for only about an hour, but he brought packages!! Yahoo! Dallin received lots of gear to make life easier on an outer island like a solar panel with battery pack, lots of small tools, and let's don't forget the machete :)
"I love the solar panel, coolest thing I've ever seen. The machete is sick also, I cut open a coconut with it and it was so fun. Yes, all fingers are still attached. I did get Grammy's seeds, plus the freeze dried stuff. We made tacos with ground beef and it was DELICIOUS! I love that meal so much. I love Grammy. The solar panel is perfect, and the little battery pack is amazing. I have a fan all night now, and I'm not dying of heat! Thanks again.
President stayed for like maybe an hour. He just interviewed us and then they left again. We got to see the APs again though, good old Josh Sherman. He finishes in October. Fun stuff."
We asked him how his arm was doing:
"I'm basically a professional surgeon. It's all healed, probably a minor scar but that's life. No more infection. I do however have like scurvy or something. My gums are kind of bleeding on one side of my mouth, lower right jaw. I think I could use some bigtime multivitamins??"
Did he seriously just give me something else to worry about? Lets see how many diseases we can come up with in our minds that have the symptoms "bleeding gums"? Sheesh. When will the madness end?
We asked him how the language was coming and how his new companion was picking it up:
"My language is good. I've kind of stopped focusing on myself, I'm busy with Pulu. But I certainly don't ever get lost in conversations. If people are joking around and trying to be confusing that's different, but other that that I'm fine. It's weird, I wish I could hear the language again for the first time, because now it doesn't sound crazy anymore, I just understand what they're saying now. Interesting transition. I'm fluent, for sure. I just make Pulu talk as much as possible. He doesn't really like it. It's tough too because he gets stuck and doesn't have the full train of thought or teaching skills to stick to basics. He hangs up on weird details and he can't explain them in the language, so he like gives up. We're working on teaching skills mostly. I have him teach some things. Mostly if he teaches, it's a memorized sequence I gave him. He doesn't get creative. I don't know, it's hard for me, I always love teaching and he seems to just not enjoy lessons at all. We have Book of Mormons, most people can read, just not very well. It's a real problem having such low literacy levels. I'll pick an investigator from each area and highlight them."
"Investigator from Tabon te bike: Tererei is like 50 years old. She's been catholic her whole life. Her son, Tarataake went to moroni and is a member (less active - but were trying to get him on a mission). She loved to see the difference in her son's life when he was active in the church. Now that he's not active, she wishes he was, and she started wishing she could have that difference for herself. So she started taking lessons. We spent a long time on the restoration, explaining every principle separately as its own lesson. It took forever, but now she's really fully onboard, and she is looking forward to baptism in about a month. She is brave, because her husband still wants to be catholic. But she doesn't care, she wants to be a mormon and she's going to brin her son with her. It's a great example of teaching slowly, because if we did I all at once, she would not have been as onboard. She needed time, but now she's ready."
"Investigator from Borotiam: Niuea is about 45. Her husband is Niumalala, from Tuvalu. He's a longtime member, and he was the first branch President in Temwaiku, one of the areas on Tarawa. He and her have been living together for 10 years, in a Kiribati marriage, bt not officially married under the government. Niuea married before in the Catholic, but she ran away from that husband. The problem is, he won't allow a divorce because he is a strong Catholic. So we're working with the Elders in Beru to cancel the first marriage so that Niuea can marry Niumalala here, so that she can be baptized and they can both take the sacrament again together. She has never been willing to take lessons before from Elders, because she knew she couldn't get baptized without getting married. But, when she saw that we could get things done actually, she decided she was ready to take lessons. She is reading the book of Mormon, and we're slowly making progress on the marriage situation. She has a lot of faith though, to face her past life to be able to embrace a new one. When she is finally baptized, her husband and her will be very strong active members."
"Investigator from Tuarabu: Tiaare is 8. He jut showed up at church one day and nobody knew who he was. He told us his great aunt in Tarawa was a member, and that he always liked going to church with her. So he came to church on his own here in Abaiang! We walked back with him to his house, and his parents gave us the OK to teach/baptize him. He was under the impression he could be baptized like that very day, because he just turned 8 and he knew that was the baptism age. So he just wants his lessons to be over with already. He's a good, smart kid, and we're hopeful that as his parents see how we work and how their son is happy, they'll be willing to take lessons too sometime."
He sounded so good this week and it was such a relief to talk to him. The work is going well and he got a real boost from the packages and letters he received. Thanks to everyone for the prayers - they definitely work!
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