Cargo Has Arrived!

Hi Family!

Pday miracle, the kaibuke came today! We should have food again. Tarawaa said she got 10 bags of rice and plenty of canned foods so we survived the worst of it. Good stuff! Its for the store, which is essentially for the family. If they run low they just stop selling and it becomes kind of like food storage for them. They're 45 pound bags, so 450 pounds of rice will last forever!

Fun story. On Sundays the whole branch just hangs out all afternoon after church, usually they sleep or eat and all together. It's really fun, the whole gang is so close right now. Anyway, we were just relaxing and Tiavin and Bikea (7 yr old boy and 8 yr old girl who live with us) came up and sat down with us and we chatted for like an hour hahaha They are the funniest kids ever. They just go on and on and on and they have that funny Nikunau accent so hard.

Elder Farley's mom sent us a box of goodies for the people on Nikunua, candy, etc. We gave Tiavin and Bikea some Pez toys and they thought it was the coolest thing ever. Of course, they happened to be superhero Pez: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash. So we ate candy and played with Pez dolls and talked about superheros for ages. Afterward, they wanted to see pictures of you guys. They think everyone from America is beautiful. I was showing them those pictures from vacation at the OBX 2 years ago (wow that's long) and they saw all the extended family from mom's side. They were counting how many people were in every family, and then they counted the people in their own family. They said, "we are 10 people in our family - Mom, Dad, Bikea, Tiavin, Erivin, Pa Ivin, Ma Rutia, Tatairenga... and Elder Seguine and Elder Farley." I love those little kids. Nikunau is the best.

Yesterday in church I spoke about the apostle Peter. I set him up as a good example to our people of a person who is not perfect at any stage of his life, but perseveres and becomes the leader of the church. I focused on two questions Christ asks him and then had our members think about how they would answer those questions individually. The first one is from Matt 16, "Whome say ye that I am?" Peter answers, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." If we can truly, truly in our hearts admit and KNOW that Jesus is the Christ, then we are on our way to discipleship. We know the path to take and our fears and doubts cease. The second question peter is asked is from John 21, after they go quit the ministry to go fishing again, and Christ calls them back to the work. He instructs Peter and the others to lower their nets and they gather 153 fish (people here are astonished - they
know what 153 fish looks like and is and what it means for people who fish for their lives). Later on the shore, Christ points to the nets, and the boats and the fish, and he asks Peter, "Do you love me more than all these?" Peter responds, "Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." When we remember to ask ourselves whether or not we love the Lord more than our sins, attitudes, desires, etc., we are able to truly follow him. With these two questions as a guiding influence in our lives, "Who is Jesus Christ to me?" and "Do I love him more than blank?", we can follow the admonition to become a true disciple.

It was an awesome talk, and I was so happy. Our people have so much faith and they are well on their way to becoming like Peter. I left my binders of conference talks back on Tarawa, but I know that Bednar has a talk about testimony and conversion and I remembered he talked about peter, so I used that as a starting block. I actually really, really love Peter as an example right now. to read about him and how he goes and stumbles and falls - Christ literally calls him "an offence" once hahaha - but in the end he is so diligent that in Acts they bring people into the streets just so that Peter's SHADOW will touch them and heal them as he's walking in the temple. That's
crazy to me.

I also got an envelope of letters from kids at youth conference in the mail last week! Cami wrote a very kind note, she is a gem. I think when I'm home for that month in December I would like to drive to seminary, if that's okay with you guys. It'll be fun, and it'll keep me from being lazy. I might go to the YMCA or something while she's in
class.

Another hilarious note was part of that envelope, some kid who told me about how scout camp was the hardest thing in his life - but did I give up?? NO, and neither should you! I was inspired, quite honestly. I read it and I was dying. Especially funny to read in my house here. True, it is a lot like scout camp here. I cant decide if I will like
camping more after this, or never ever want to do it again. Not sure yet.

(We mentioned how at Stake conference today so many people came up and talked to us about his mission because they read his blog. He has obviously never seen it.) I cant wait to read this whole blog all the way through, I want to see it all at once when i'm done. 

(We told him we watched a meteor shower while we were on vacation at the beach.) That is cool! Did I ever tell you guys about the lunar eclipse we saw on Abaiang? it was the craziest thing ever, the moon just disappeared.
Kind of creepy honestly, we were outside our house after a ward party, FHE I think. it was way weird.

I have to go now! love you all!
love, dal

Good Thing He Likes Fish

Hi Family! How are the OBX? Its super busy here at the internet place today. Air Kiribati is down, so there hasn't been planes for like 2 weeks, but its finally coming today (we hope!) and everyone is freaking out. ALSO the island is out of cargo... like no rice, no canned food, no flour, no sugar. No food hahaha we are lucky that our members like to fish! AND our landlords have a store, so they saved some rice and are rationing it a little so we can eat. When its out though we will be eating literally fish and coconuts. If there's no fish that day... no idea. Craziness.

Air Kiribati crashed in Butaritari, so they just barely got up and running again. Luckily no one died/was even hurt, but that's a sign of how good Air Kiribati is haha! Pres is doing the transfer himself on the charter jet - pretty cool to have a pilot mission president!

A big ship will have to come. but we have no idea when that will be. A plane is coming today with only cargo, basically boxes. we should get a box from APs, and possibly one from Sister Farley? Elder Farley told me that she was sending one in. Such a nice lady. 

We're okay so far. There are billions of coconuts, but just the fish to worry about I guess. We have lots of mouths to feed if we work as a collective group of 4+ families. I think we can manage to make it. We have tons of money (there is usually nothing to spend money on) so if it comes to purchasing fish somewhere I'm more than happy to sponsor. For the first time in my mission I debated not going out to work so that we could go help fishing. It was
a weird struggle but we decided to teach lessons and in the end there was enough fish anyways. Its so crazy, literally there is no canned food for sale anywhere on the island. WHOA.

We fish with poles, out on the reef. I think we'll be enlisted for the afternoon once we get home from internet and taekan te aaro for our elementary kids. Everyone has a canoe called a "WA". We're not allowed to get on them, they occasionally float away out to sea, which is undesirable for missionaries. But bill and Taaboi go fishing on their wa's.

Also its been so stormy and cold lately that I have a pretty good cold. I'm on mucinex but I have bad chest congestion and I'm coughing up gunk all day long. I said "COLD" but I have no idea what temperature it really is, probably not lower than 70's and I'm sick as could be hahaha I will NEVER survive a Provo winter.

I think you need to find a place close to home where we can buy fresh yellow fin tuna, because that's my favorite. Here its called the Ingimea, and its so good - especially raw. We will need to find that for me.

I'll let president know about whats going on. Tiaon is good. He's a champion and he's taking it in stride. It's weird
that I think of him as a new elder since I trained him, but he's at 5 months now, so he's not new anymore. He's just fine.

Resistance never stops. We built a SUPER cool volleyball court for our people and we brought a bunch of sand to the court so its nice, and it's cool. Then the other church copied us and made their own court, and told their kids to not come to ours. SO its just continuously crazy. We had a new investigator at church though! Shes awesome, her name is Tekaa and she's 22. We want her to go on a mission. Champ.

Its so easy to set up volleyball. We bike patched an old ball, pumped up and hung an old fishing net between two sticks. Done. The members are so funny. No one is good at sports and everyone is uncoordinated so it makes things so funny. That being said, it is SO lame that all of our ideas are always copied. Tiaon was lamenting this
and he said, "if they keep calling us "false prophets" then why do they always copy everything we do?" Wisdom from Elder Tiaon. Its a different kind of missionary work. not only am I teaching lessons I have to plan ward activities and do EVERYTHING church related with Elder Tiaon. Its busy.

The Catholics on the island are totally nice to us. The KUC is definitely antagonistic to the Catholics. Sometimes they do this thing where they march the Mary statue from one chapel in one town to another and they all say the Hail Mary prayer the whole way. They get made fun of so hard, and I just feel for them. I am so proud of the ones that actually walk the whole way. They're true to their faith and I like that.

I have to go! Love you all. Have a fun time in NC, enjoy the warm weather. If you turn off all the air conditioning you can feel really close to me :)

love dal

The Octopus Story

Hi mom and dad!

I'm online. We're late this week because of a random three day weekend for the government for "youth day." Hopefully you have a fantastic week at camp and Cami has a great birthday!

We went fishing again yesterday and I caught an octopus with my bare hands and was inked all over. It was so cool! I grabbed it right off the water and it was stuck to me and it almost bit me with its beak! But then Teiaaba killed it... with his teeth. Whoa. I think the ink will stain, so my shirt just got way cooler. It hasn't been cooked yet, tonight I think. It was sweet. If you grab it, it sticks to you reflexively. I was scared it would bite me! Teiaaba just bit its head until it died. He has sucker marks on his forehead and cheeks hahaha you supposedly hammer it to tenderize it, then boil it.

The persecution continues from the other ministers. We just keep trying to teach our people and don't worry about the other stuff.


Gotta go, love you guys!
love, dal