The Mission Fan

Hi mom and dad! I'm online now! Happy pday. Whats up?

This week we were teaching this lesson and after we opened in prayer but before we actually started teaching, a minister from another church walks up and he's like, "What are these guys doing here?" to our investigator. Then, he sits down and listens to our lesson. We talked about faith - hard to argue about. It went well, he didn't like cause a ruckus or anything mid lesson. But at the end he WOULD NOT stop accusing us of not being Christians. He was so rude I was on the edge. But I didn't retaliate. I just said, thanks for your input, we recognize that some of our views are different from yours, but we are definitely Christians and we love you anyways. We left and then
later that afternoon we went back to that investigator to apologize for what happened. He was so mad at his minister. He said we can come back whenever we want. So in the end it was okay, but it was good I had Farley to help calm things down.

Things (with their investigators) are fine. Baptisms next week, we're looking for like 10+. It's going well. We actually broke 50 at church this week, so we're still creeping up slowly. We are so excited! Hopefully things go well (this week). Its always a big deal for our investigators to ask for name removal from their churches. Like, huge. They are essentially asking to be shunned. But we have had 2 couples do just that, and they're all in now. Essentially it just comes down to lessons and getting ready. 

Church was good. We had one speaker go this week. It was so funny, but touching. He just read straight out of the gospel principles book for like 15 minutes hahaha little by little he'll get there. It was a really good experience. We're going to work on getting people to rely on themselves instead of the elders as much. It'll be good down the road.

The north is making big strides, the south is inching along. We're working with them all really closely. Its going well. We made a goal already to visit every member/ investigator once a week, even after baptism. We want to keep tabs on everyone and keep things on the upswing. We have our most solid investigators in the North, complete families. We have two couples getting ready, plus their kids. No part-member families, just total converts. They're solid as can be, deacons from another church, so they know their stuff. I think that the North will be so much stronger because it has such a strong base of families to rely on, and we're really making progress there. The South is okay, and there are heaps of people who come and are taking lessons, but we can't get a
lot of men to church. Last week we only had one. We have 3 others we teach, but they're not quite all in yet.
Pres gave us a challenge to have 3 Melchizedek priesthood holders ready by the next time he comes,  potentially in August/September, so we're looking to have these men ready. Everyone is Christian. The island is like 70% Protestant, and 30% Catholic. Most people like (the idea of modern day) prophets, and priesthood authority, AND the Book of Mormon. There are never enough Book of Mormons, Pres brought 12 when he came (which is 1/4 of the box they received for all the missionaries - sorry to everyone else hahaha) and we have 3 left. Seriously, The Book of Mormon is a huge deal here. We do a Sunday school class up North out of the Book of Mormon Sunday School manual and I taught about Nephi's Ship last week. Farley talked about 2 Ne: 2 this week and it went well.

We teach people how to sing, its a good thing I took choir. We have 10 hymn books, so we bring them to church with us and help people get used to the songs. Its fun. Singing is hard. Some songs go better than others hahaha

ALSO, sad sad day, my fan is burning out, it is noticeably slower. I still have batteries and such, but if i could get a new fan? Maybe two, so Farley can have one. We have enough battery packs, so that would be a nice thing for him and for me. I'll keep the broken one as a souvenir of all the hardships of Kiribati life. I just think about that fan and I am filled with gratitude, seriously. Almost unto tears. It just makes a difference so much. Seriously though. when I think hard about sentimental mission things that fan is up there. Its really hard to live on an outer island.
(*I actually threw a tiny battery operated fan into a package a long time ago.  I knew he had re-chargeable batteries with his solar pack and he said the hardest thing about island life was not being able to sleep after a long day because it was just unbearably hot.  That little fan has been an emotional blessing for him and helped him to sleep almost every night.  He just charges the batteries and puts it blowing on his face so he can fall asleep.  I have been so grateful he has had it and now feel an urgency to get a new one to him pronto!)

Last week we had to buy fuel to run the generator at the store so we could use clippers to get a haircut.  Bonus is we got to run the cooler while the generator was on and chilled some drinks. It was great. What a treat.

You are all champions! Love all of you! See you soon! I have to go, talk to you soon! Have a good week!

love dal