Hello From an Ipod Touch!

*We did hear from Dallin!  There is a tiny place with Wifi on his island, but only two computers.  One was occupied by an elderly nun and he gave the other one to his greenie companion.  Dallin sent us short messages on an old ipod touch, so I am going to try to piece together a letter of sorts from those messages.

Hi mom and dad! I'm online :) such a good week! Great to hear from you this morning, such happy emails. I'm glad everyone is doing well. We’re in a little internet place about a 30 min ride from our house. 2 computers, one for my comp and one for this old nun... Awkward hahaha but lucky that there's wifi! How are you all? What do you want to hear about? Abaiang is great. Pulufana is equally great. He's a good kid, born and raised in American Samoa, but he moved to St. George last year and has stellar English. He's totally overwhelmed and shy right now, but I don't blame him. His accent is spot on, he just is shy to speak. Not a bad situation though.  No good stories yet, we hardly spent any time together on Tarawa we were always on splits with the ZL's because we worked their area and stayed in their house.  We just arrived on Abaiang Saturday due to travel delays.

(We asked about his health/arms and they are all healed.  He was able to take all the food we sent him to this island via boat since there were no weight limits) I am feeling super healthy! Not sick. I also have finally started working out again, nice to be back on a schedule.

Taylor’s pictures look awesome! (She sent him some pictures from her HEFY trip to the Dominican Republic) How is her Spanish now? Probably a thousand times better than mine. That's so fun. Tell her to respond to my email. Good for her (dealing with a mean guy during a visit), that's crazy. Our ZL right now, Elder Maisey, got in a machete fight on Beru. The guy went insane, but then he ended up getting baptized. Craziness is usually just a last resort before you give in to the truth. (She told Dallin a story about an old, drunk man trying to hit her head during splits with missionaries while yelling about the “blond Americans”.  It upset her, but she handled it well and he was embarrassed after she gave the closing prayer in Spanish and he realized she understood what he was saying about her.)

(Speaking of machetes - we sent him one in the mail per a long list of needed items for outer island life.) I'm so excited for that machete. In Kiribati it's called a taabe, and people love to show off their taabes. It's like a respect thing that your machete is sharp and clean and cool looking. So hopefully mine will qualify!  (Dallin needs a machete for several reasons, but they also drink a lot of coconuts and he needs it to open them.)  I absolutely love coconuts now. I would rather drink a coconut than just about anything else. And the stuff inside is delicious. If you get one that's the perfect ripeness, it is like carbonated. I don't know how, but it tastes so good and bubbly. Definitely my favorite food.

(We asked about P-Day activities) This morning, I hand washed all my clothes. No washing machine. My hands are sore and my back hurts from sitting next to the huge basin. Not a fun activity, but my shirts are all spotless. Outer island life is very different.  Since we already washed, technically nothing else needs to be done. Pulufana wants to play volleyball at like 4, and we have lessons at 6 and 6:30 and family home evening at 7. Other than that we have nothing else to do. I think we might go drop some coconuts and chill at the beach later. We’ll see. (We asked if he was climbing trees to get coconuts and he responded…) You use a big stick and poke the coconut stem and they fall right down – don’t worry, not climbing trees.

(We asked about the first church meetings on the island and the members in the branches there.  Since they only arrived Saturday afternoon, they didn’t have much of a chance to figure things out for Sunday.) We only did church in the main village. But, it started an hour late, we blessed and passed the sacrament, we spoke in sacrament, I taught Sunday school, and then I taught priesthood. WOOoow. I was exhausted. I honestly am worried, everyone was ready to go home after sacrament, and they were surprised when I suggested Sunday school and they seemed like "are you serious" when I suggested priesthood. Not quite sure what that means, but I sure didn't get any discussion. Kind of rough, but a good experience. I imagine that will end up happening a lot. 

Branch president is in Fiji on a temple trip right now. He's been gone for a while and he'll be gone a while longer. But I guess he's active if he's at the temple. I just wish he was here to help out.  Hopefully he comes back super motivated to get things done right. That will be important I think. Other than that, church was good.

After church, we went out and taught some lessons - 8 to be exact. Busy day! Hopefully Pulufana doesn’t hate me for such a busy first teaching day. It was good though. Tomorrow we’ll bike an hour and a half out and then the same back in from our southern village. Exciting stuff. 

Can't wait to talk to you all next week again! Thanks for everything. Love you all!

Dal