First Ocean Baptism and Acts 27:26

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami!

So these two weeks have been really, really long. Just unbearably long
and inconvenient. I found a funny scripture in Acts, chapter 27, which
fits the situation exactly. Paul is venturing off to Rome to be tried
before Caesar, and their boat is caught in a huge storm. Paul comforts
everyone on the boat, and says that everything will work out in the
long run. However, in verse 26, he clarifies that before that moment
of everything working out, "Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain
island." I'm convinced that God made islands like the one that Paul
got stuck on and this one just so he could try our faith.

The root of the issue island-wide right now is that we ran out of
oil/gas before the month ended, and so there's some unfortunate
natural results that followed. The biggest problem was that all of our
electricity generators on the island run off oil. And so from Thursday
to Sunday (Sunday was June 1, so the oil came in - thank goodness!) we
didn't have city power. Luckily we have a solar generator here at the
church, so Thursday was a normal day for us. Unluckily, it was cloudy
and rainy Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  So we had no lights or running
water for three days. We've been bucket showering and drinking warm
water, since our fridges have been off. As hard as it was for us, it
was a good reminder that most people here live like that every day,
and a reminder to be grateful Sunday the oil ship came in, so as of
6 pm yesterday we've been back on city power. Good thing too, it's
rainy and wet here again today. Electricity was one problem, internet
was another. Usually, us missionaries use an internet cafe run by the
cellphone network here, TSKL. But, their cafe is down... for good. All
the electricity problems and the surging and the random shutting off
of the power totally fried their server. And, they have no plans to
buy a new one. SO, our fast internet on-island is gone. Right now, I'm
emailing on Sister Anderson's laptop, which we have hotspotted through
our cell phones. It is S-L-O-W, but I am so glad it's working even a
little bit. Like I said before, inconvenience is just abounding on
this little island.

As worn down and sick of camping as we all are, these past two weeks
were really remarkably good weeks for the work, and as a result we
have been working like crazy. Last week we taught 26 lessons, and this
week we taught 32. We're trying to stay out as much as possible, so we
can make the most out of every hour of the day. It's really paying
off, we've been able to recover from the deficit with our people from
when I had to take time off for my arm. We have 20 different
investigators who are all currently working towards different
baptismal dates, and we're so happy for all of them. Some have a long
ways to go, but little by little we're making lots of big steps.

On Saturday, we had one of our investigators baptized. Her name is
Kabikea, and she is 9. She is very into sports, especially running.
When she introduces herself she always ends it by saying, "ao ngai te
tia biri," or, "and I'm a runner." She was actually ready two weeks
ago, but that was right in the middle of my arm catastrophe, and so we
held off a little bit. We almost held it off again, because on
Saturday we had no power. No power means that we have no way to run
our pump for the well water, and we cannot fill the baptismal font.
Luckily, one of the few convenient things about islands is that they
are surrounded by water! And so we decided to baptize Kabikea out at
the beach. Elder Raika let me do the baptism, because he had performed
beach baptisms out on his outer island before. I was pretty excited, I
haven't been in the ocean since last summer. However, this is a coral
atoll, not really an island, so the beach was really sharp. Also, the
waves were huge since it had been raining. So we ventured out into the
water. Kabikea is super short, since she's 9. So I said the baptismal
prayer, waited for a big wave to come, and then essentially just held
her still while the big wave went over her. Baptism done! All in all a
really fun experience.

Another "fun" experience was at the hospital. I had a final check up
on my arm last Wednesday, scheduled for 8am. So we went to the
hospital, and at around 9, the doctor showed up (the only doctor on
the whole island, by the way) - and he happened to be drunk! So he
gave me a sketchy post-op that lasted like 30 seconds. Never ever go
to the Christmas Island hospital! Anyways, the drunk doctor is an
important part of the following story:

Two of our investigators are Manuea and Tiim, who for all kinds of
different reasons and busyness, we hadn't met with in a while. We went
to their house at 6pm on Wendesday, to try and check if we could
teach them.  6pm is our last lesson slot every day before dinner, so I
was pretty worn out. We got there, and only Tiim was home. He
explained that his wife, Manuea, was gone to the hospital to try and
get her medicine for her diabetes, and he didn't know when she would
be back. Usually, we like to teach couples together, but we decided to
start teaching a lesson with just Tiim. We were teaching about Joseph
Smith and the First Vision. It went really well. Right when we were
finished, Manuea came back and she was visibly upset. She had gone to
the hospital, but the doctor had gone home early (probably for the
best!), so she couldn't get her medicine. Elder Raika apologized, and
asked her if she's like to join us for the rest of the lesson. I was
confused, because I thought the lesson was over, and our dinner was in
5 minutes, but I rolled with it. Elder Raika then started teaching
about the restoration of the priesthood. I got to teach about the fact
that through the priesthood, people can receive priesthood blessings,
for comfort in times of trial or for sicknesses. At the end of our
lesson, Manuea asked if she could be given a priesthood blessing,
because she was out of her medicine and was worried since she hadn't
been able to get any today. We informed her that indeed she could.
Surprisingly, she asked me to give her the blessing, even though Raika
was clearly much more fluent  I had never given a blessing in Kiribati
before, usually I just asked if it was alright if I spoke in English.
However, I felt extra confident for some reason, and decided to give
the blessing in Kiribati. I spoke very clearly and did not stumble
over my words or have grammar mistakes. I was very very sure that what
I was saying was what needed to be said.

I am so grateful we decided to teach "one more lesson," especially
when we could have gone home, especially when we were tired,
especially when it had been a crazy week. Manuea and Tiim both came to
church Sunday and they are both preparing to be baptized on the
28th. I'm so grateful for the priesthood and for this church. I'm
grateful to be a missionary. I'm not perfect and I know that just like
President Uchtdorf's talk, I can do a better job being grateful in my
circumstances, regardless of how ridiculous the circumstances may be.
I love you all! Thank you for your prayers of support, I need them all
the time. Hopefully we can continue to improve our internet ability
here, and next week will be less slow! Hopefully I'll talk to you all
again soon :)

Love Dal