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!