Oh, Happy Day!

Hi mom and dad! I hope you're around to at least see this email. I am alive and well and we just got to Nikunau and we did find internet at the council. We're really excited. Talk about an amazing place!

We woke up at 4:45 this morning and we got ready. We left the zl's house at 5:30, got to the airport for check-in at 6. Really rough to say goodbye to Sion, won't see him until America. He's a good kid. Our plane took off at 7. We flew from Tarawa to Tabiteuea Maeang, about a 70 minute flight, gassed up and then continued our flight to Beru, dropped off some passengers and then flew out to Nikunau. We're officially the furthest missionaries away from Tarawa, which is sweeeeet. Our flight was so long though and the plane we rode on was a little two engine propeller plane. Sketchy. 

We showed up at Nikunau at like 9:30 and it was the craziest thing ever. We just got off the plane, and this lady walked up to us and asked us what we were doing. We told her we would be working here, and she was so excited! Turns out she is a member, and she just happened to be at the airport that morning. She is an RM from Kiribati herself, and she was the lady that originally asked President Weir to send elders to Nikunau. She told us she already has a house ready for us to live in, and that just last week, she and her husband plus one other couple had church on their own in their house!! So awesome! So we have some great solid member contacts. We're even doing family home evening tonight with them. Tomorrow we'll go look for some of the members whose names we've gotten from members on Tarawa. SO COOL!!

How exciting is this! Of all places to have internet, Nikunau is one of them. Its great. Unfortunately its 6 bucks an hour, so I have to get off at 1:45 when my time is up. Honestly, one of the coolest islands ever! It is SO CLEAN. the whole place is like a clean house contest, so every house is neat and tidy and the ground is all gravel from the beach instead of dirty sand. Its surprising how nice it looks. And the road is just lined on each side with these big old breadfruit trees, so it looks so cool. It looks like neighborhoods kind of haha! Our house is awesome, we have a big buia (kind of like this elevated platform with a roof) and it has 3 walls. Its next to the Oceanside, so we have a decent wind and its really cool. I am so so so excited.

So so so so cool. We already found a Melchizedek priesthood holder too who can be our new branch president. We are really excited to get things started here, hopefully it goes well. We'll be sure to get online every week. supposedly they've had internet here for like 10 years, and they are proud of the fact that their internet doesn't break. The house we're staying at is super advanced... they have a portable generator, a fridge, a TV and they run a store. I'm excited. They seem like they're just totally down to make us part of the family. Way cool.

I did get my packages (while on Tarawa) thanks so much! Much of our stuff will be coming in a big box that the Walls will be sending out next Monday for us. For now, I have clothes, a kie (sleeping mat), and a mosquito net, my machete and my solar gear - plus scriptures. That's it really. We'll have bikes coming in on the plane next week, which will be nice. The island is small, 2000 people. We walked half of it in about an hour. With bikes we should run the whole island every day. It'll be sweet.

(We mentioned that with good internet there was the possibility for streaming general conference) So cool huh? we were just talking about that, Farley is testing it out by streaming Mormon messages, and its working really well. You just pause for a few minutes to let it get ahead and then it plays with no problems.

(We asked  how this great island has been a secret for so long!) Its not a secret, the mission has just never had enough people to go out this far...or a mission president crazy enough to send us out here.  Without a house hahaha. President has opened every outer island possible, and this is the last one. When I first got here, there was not that many open, but in the past 15 months, Pres has opened, Makin, Maiana, Tarawa Leta, Kuria, Beru, Onotoa, and now Nikunau. Its been a totally different mission dynamic. The concept of "opening an outie" is huge. Maiana got opened like a year ago, and they have a branch with like 80 people now. Everyone covets opening because you are there to really set the standard and see the explosion. I hope it goes well. Some don't. Sion's outie he opened was Makin and it was super hard. They didn't really get accepted by the people.

I am so excited to just get to work! we can go to literally any house and have a potential investigator. I'm excited to hit the ground running. We both have the language down, we're both good with the lessons, this is just going to be a blast. SO cool. We'll go home soon and I think we can just relax a little and get ourselves ready.

I'm excited. I think we have to get going now. We'll be heading back to our house for a bit. I don't even know what to do.  We probably have to get some planning going so we can be organized with how this week will go. I am so excited!

Love you all so much. Talk to you all next week!
Love, Dal

*As Grammy would say - Oh, happy day, happy day!  This email just made my heart sing!  I have to admit that yesterday was a long day for our family.  We knew he was traveling and assumed we had heard the last from him for many months.  There were some tears.  Ed had to check his phone one last time before going to bed and saw that we had and email!  We were cheering!

For those who don't know Dallin - this email is down-right giddy!  He is usually so calm and composed and he sounds like he is just bursting!  They arrived having no idea what to expect with only solar gear, clothes, a machete and scriptures... and not knowing where they would sleep that night! What a wonderful surprise awaited them!

I feel so grateful to my Heavenly Father.  He truly is aware of all His missionaries and prepares people in their path.  Even if there was no internet on Nikunau, there are people who have been patiently waiting for missionaries to come so that they could establish a branch and grow in the gospel.  I am in awe of these faithful people.  What an adventure lies ahead!  Just like Dallin, I am so, so, so excited!

A Pioneer

(These short emails came in the middle of the night while we were sleeping. He also attached two pictures.  The younger policeman is the Branch President Bakaiaa who has taken such good care of Dallin.  The other family is Teburea, Toatau, and Bateriki (Patrick) his other favorite family.  I'm so excited for him to have this experience and am still holding out hope for internet on Nikunau.)

Hey dad!

So I'm online from Walls' house, just sending my last few emails before I head out to Nikunau. Me and Farley will be on a plane tomorrow morning at 6 am. I'll probably be out there for 6 months, I would bank on me coming in in early September. Who knows though. I am not sure if we'll have email, if we do, you'll hear from me maybe even tomorrow. If not, I'll be sure to write lots and lots of letters and keep a good journal. 

I'm super excited to go out to Nikunau. I know that it'll probably be tough at times but i think that we'll be able to still do some really awesome things for the people out there. thanks for being a great dad. I'll be sure to do my best to make you and mom proud. Love you dad.

Love Dal

Hi mom!

It's official - me and Farley are heading to Nikunau tomorrow morning at 6 am. Bright and early for sure! I'm super excited. Like I said before I am not sure we'll have email out there, so I'll probably have to get used to writing letters. Just wanted to say before I go that I love and miss you. Thanks so much for being a great mom. Don't worry about me while I'm gone, I'll be totally fine. I am super excited. I'll keep a great journal so you can catch up on all the pioneering action someday soon. I love you! Thanks again so much. See you soon!

Love Dal

Last Week on Christmas!

Busy week here. It's been a mess trying to get President here and busy getting everything in check for us to leave and all. Mess. But in the end, President saves the day as usual!

To make matters the worst they can possibly be, the van was destroyed this week... the famous white van is dead beyond repair. Without mentioning names, there are some people who are terrible at driving stick shift and so they
literally destoryed the clutch! The entire transmission is gone, so the van can't even be resold like the church usually does. Bad news. Worse, pres drove around this terrible tiny rental car all week hahaha.

For the work, we had a baptism on Friday.  Awesome investigator - she's twelve and is super solid. Her name is Tieen. She's the one who came to church before she ever even had lessons with us. Awesome. Other than that, we're essentially out of people.  This last month has been crazy and we have been pulled in so many directions on the island that our area has been a little neglected.  New Elders are coming this week, so hopefully they can stay put and get things going again.

We had lots of farewell parties with members this week. We had dinner at Nakala's house, the family from Tabwakea that I love. Then we have dinner with Bakaiaa's family on Tuesday right before we take off and tonight we have dinner with Bateriki.  Pres has gone to some dinners with us.  He loves to meet the people we have been working with.

Bateriki got the Melchizedek priesthood on Sunday after district conference, which was awesome. I was the one that he picked to give it to him. I was scared, but I spoke really clearly and I feel like I was able to say what the spirit wanted me to say. He cried and I felt good. I actually need my priesthood line of authority from you so I
can give it to him. Cool that he kind of gets "adopted" in to that line. Favorite recent convert of all time!

(There have been some difficult situations on the island.  I try not to include anything negative on the blog, but this is Dallin's record of his mission and to be "real" it has been rough the last 6-8 weeks. No need to go into any detail.  Let's just say that he was worried that inaccurate information was being sent to the mission President and perhaps other missionaries.  He was so relieved to talk to President and laugh and see that President knew exactly what was going on and had never doubted him for one minute.  Relief.)
I got to have an official interview with President.  It was great to talk about things and laugh and look forward to my new area.  President just said that he wanted us to know that there was never any point where he lost confidence in us as a companionship. That's the best thing to hear, just to know that Pres trusts us. Hes
the man.

We talked a lot about Nikunau too. (There have never been missionaries on this island of about 2,000 people.  They will literally just show up, probably have to build a hut to live in, and try to get the local people to accept them.) Pres literally has no idea how it will end up, he thinks we could have heaps and heaps of work, or we could be like stoned and really have a hard time. If the work goes bad, he says we'll really evaluate whether we need to be there or not. My companion is elder Farley, who I have already worked with for a few weeks in Betio. He is the man, and it'll be fun to be back with him. Anyway, we'll be together for a while. if work goes well on Nikunau.  We'll be together through August, and then Farley will leave. Then I'll leave in September. which will be a long time out there. It really looks like it will be six months. Not looking like we'll have email, but who knows we might find a place. I'll be leaving pretty soon after we get back in, so I don't have many more p-days of email until like September. so we'll all be preparing for that I think.

Busy week. Good week. I'm excited to leave, Fiji is always cool.

Hope your weeks were good,

Love Dal

Cyclone Pam

 A historical storm has devastated Vanuatu.  While my son is far from the destruction, many of the moms in my Pacific Region Missionary Mom group are waiting to hear about their sons or daughters.  Missionaries in Port Villa were pulled in together, but those with missionaries on the dozens of outer islands are in for a long wait as communication is restored and all are accounted for. Pray for them.  Pray for ALL the people who have been impacted and are anxiously awaiting word of their loved ones.

Dallin is on Christmas Island about 2,000 miles east of Tarawa, Kiribati.  On the map below he is under the "e" in the word Region.  But as you can see, the rest of Kiribati is right above Vanuatu and has suffered severe flooding due to the storm surge.  Most of these islands are only a few meters above sea level and a big surge can cause a lot of damage.  Pictures of Vanuatu are all over the news, but I am posting a few pictures of the flooding in Kiribati.  Dallin is supposed to transfer back to the main island chain in a little over a week.  He was supposed to go and open one of the most Southern islands.  We will see if plans change after the damage from the storm is assessed and how much service is needed in the main area of Tarawa.

Each island usually only has one main road going around it.  Bridges are funded and built by Australia and damage to either one is a big deal.  I'm sure the government will rely on donations to help with all repairs.  There is a humanitarian group in Kiribati who is posting some pictures.

Here is the damage to the main bridge to Betio in Tarawa:

Flooding in Villages

A Picnic

(Ariel view of a lagoon on Christmas Island)

It's a long story, but I ended up working in Banana this week. It was Grover's last week. We spent some time visiting people and saying goodbyes. He had two baptisms in Banana, but I'm worried because neither came to church on Sunday to get confirmed. Ouch. So we'll fix that next week hopefully. Sion left for Fanning again. I'll be in a trio after Wednesday when Grover leaves. London is without elders again. I did convince Sister Seamons to let us come down to London to do our baptism there. Toatau was baptized, so we were happy for him. 

As for transfers, we still really don't know. President is doing something crazy again. He told me that he wants me and Elder Farley to go open Nikunau (This island has never had missionaries and the last census we could find shows population somewhere around 2,000 people with ONE person claiming to be Mormon). But last time we tried that it didn't work, so who knows if it will actually go through this time. He'll be here on the 18th so hopefully things can be cleared up when he comes. (The Area Authority did not approve the opening of Nikunau last time it was requested, but President has kind of promised Dallin that if it opened during his mission he would let him go.  We'll see!)

Our picnic was fun. We went to a place on the lagoon side, so it was like ocean, but no waves. It was also like super salty. Bad part, I got burned. But it was fun we got on little kayaks and then I took a nap and then we ate some fish that these guys from the ward caught in a net. It was good. Definitely tiring but so fun too. Good last pday for Grover. He's happy. We have a goodbye dinner for him with some ward members tonight at 7. We're going to Tabwakea tomorrow because I have to send stats in since Sion is gone. We'll try to radio to Fanning too, to see if we can talk to those guys. I'm so, so, so tired. Taking a nap today reminded me how tired I am. But I'm okay. Have a good week, enjoy the start of spring.

Love Dal

Go Cougars!!

This is a picture of the village of London

Hi mom! We're online today. No picnic. But it's okay we'll have some time to chat for a little I think. How are you guys? Congrats to Taylor!!! Go cougars.  Sion got into BYU too, we had a party! He was so happy, it was a big deal for him. So we're excited. Hopefully I have a roommate when I get back now hahaha!

I'm feeling okay. We all had a stomach bug this week and it was not too fun. But we're doing better I think. There's a possibility of another trip to Fanning soon, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get to go (even though I've been here forever and still never got to go to Fanning). So that's sad. Originally, the other elders and sisters were invited to go on a picnic to Poland this morning, leaving Sion and I in London... But thankfully we have a good district and we're all friends so everyone stayed.

We had a good work week - one baptism Saturday and one more next week. Next Saturday our baptism is Toatau, our recent convert's bro-in-law. He is the man, and he totally is ready to be a member. Bateriki has been a big support in his lessons and he's also the man. We think we'll have Bateriki do the baptism for him too. Really exciting. Yeah it's been so crazy. President is coming on the 18th, and we're leaving to Tarawa with him on the 25th. But it'll be good to have a week with him here. Only a few more weeks here, bittersweet. Our Branch Pres says hi! He's going to make an email so you guys can email him hahaha!  (The Branch President and his family are Dallin's favorite people and they always feed him and celebrate with him.  They are the ones who made a birthday dinner for him. We told Dallin we would love the chance to write them and tell them thank you!)

(We asked about the new house in London) It was always there, it used to be rented as a store, by our landlord Rodney. But he's a member and he thought the property would be more useful as a missionary house than a store. So he painted it up and made it nice inside and got us beds and desks and stuff. It's a nice house for sure. It's an old building but they really renovated it well. We don't stay at the stick house anymore, but if we go up to Tabwakea we ride our bikes.