Most Memorable Easter Ever

(I found this picture of a big breadfruit tree.  This is kind of what I imagine when Dallin talks about the streets being lined with big beautiful trees.)

This was posted by the Kiribati Mission Nurse to her family about Nikunau.  I loved learning more about this amazing lady who was waiting for Elders Farley and Seguine when they arrived:

"We sent a couple of missionaries out to open a new island. We didn't know how they would be received or where they would live. They were very excited about the new adventure. When they landed at the "airport", a member just happened to be there and asked them what they were doing. When they told her they were going to open the area, she was so excited and asked where they were going to live. They told her they didn't have a place and she said she had a "house" for them to live in. Now this is a lady who saved her tithing for 10 years because she had no one to pay it to. She finally was able to come to Tarawa and was able to give her tithing to a bishop. She also talked to President Weir and told him he needed to send missionaries to her island, Nikunau. And there she was at the airport when they arrived...Elders Farley and Seguine. She had no idea they were coming."

- Sister Sue Alldredge

(We heard from Dallin yesterday.  Internet was not available earlier in the week, so when they were finally able to send a report to President he sent us an update as well.  He is so happy!)

We had a crazy week. Its been just amazing being here. So much fun stuff all the time. I love the family we're living with, they're fantastic. The work is going great. We had 22 new investigators last week and 9 people at our inaugural sacrament meeting. We think that this week more people will be ready to come and we are going to do a second meeting in the south of the island, so we are shooting for 40 at church on week 2, with both units combined. I think church will be the most important thing for the island, but lessons are sweet. We taught 9 lessons yesterday and we were working from 10 am to 9 pm. Crazy busy, but its so good here.

Our family is awesome that we're living with. It's cool here because extended families live together basically. The dad is named Teiaaba, and the mom is named Tarawaa. She's not here right now actually, she got on the same plane that we got off of, but before she got on she told us we could live at their house. She's an RM, served in Kiribati like 15 years ago. They also have a 6 yr old girl named Bikea and a 5 yr old boy named Tiawen. There are also Tarawaa's mom and dad, Rutia and Iwini. They are funny, funny old people. Its so fun to be around them and they're just so happy to have missionaries around. The kids are so funny especially.

We're working with referrals and finding people. It was crazy with Easter here, most people were in the giant KPC Easter party from like Thursday on, but this week people will be returning to their houses and more available. Lots of good members just go to church in the KPC because there is no LDS church yet. But the ones we've met with are totally ready to come back, so this Sunday should have lots more people.

Our stuff came in on Saturday and Monday - about half and half. We're lucky there are two flights a week here. It was lame because only one bike came in on Saturday, so we had to borrow a kids bike and it was so small and we traded off on the big one/small one because it was so painful to ride it. The other bike and the rest of our stuff came in on Monday, we're good for things now, I think I have everything I need. I'm healthy. I got a bad cold from being in the air conditioning on Tarawa for a few days, but other than that I am fine. I got over that really quick in the sun here. Its ridiculous though, I'll die going home in winter. I cant even handle being in car air conditioning a few hours a day. sheesh!.

I still love the island, its way cool. Nice and small, not long like Abaiang. We can go end to end in 45 minutes. That makes work easier because there is less of a commute and I really like that. Its not as hot as Christmas, which is nice. Its nice to not have as much biking, for sure. Its still a long way, but there are villages essentially the whole way. and logistically its nice, we live in the North tip, so we just teach the whole way out to the end, and the whole way back to our house, and the day is over.  Pretty cool honestly. There are 6 villages. 

From north to south: Muribenua (our village), tabutoa, rungataa, mwanriki, nikumanu, tabomatang. We're planning on the north unit being in Muribenua, and the south in nikumanu. So many investigators in both of those places. Its great.

We have GREAT food. This island is weirdly shaped compared to the rest of Kiribati,because there is no lagoon side. So that means that its all real ocean all the way around. and so the fish we get are big deep-sea fish, like huge tunas and things like that. They are awesome to eat and there are essentially no bones, and its tasty as can be. Tuna is like red meat, we cooked some and it was like steak. So good. We eat it raw all the time and its delish. Like just huge chunks of raw meat. Teiaaba and Tanentoa (the guy who is the melchizedek prisethood holder) took us fishing on monday. We were wading out on the reef with some sticks and lines and hooks and I caught like 5 fish in 45 minutes. it was so cool. We took them home and Rutia the old lady cooked them for us and it was so delicious. Great pday activity.

(Ed told him about going to ChikFilA for a shake - mean of his dad!)  I'm jealous.  ChikFilA sounds delicious - a lemonade shake!!  We don't drink anything cold, mostly we drink really hot drinks all day long - even in the noon sun we're drinking boiling hot drinks.  Makes you so hot from the inside - it's awful.  But it's cultural thing and every house wants you to have a drink or eat - crazy!

The villages are really cool here. Surprising how clean and organized everything is here. all the houses have a huge breadfruit tree by the road, its awesome. Really cool place. President is the man. He literally just sent us out here with no house, no idea what it would be like, nothing, and he just told us to establish the church and have a branch ready to be setup in 3-4 months. Quite a task.  I really sometimes feel overwhelmed. But I think all I'm doing is just normal missionary work. Just finding and teaching on a large, accelerated scale. That's it really. but still, its crazy to think about.

Farley is a good guy. Super funny. We worked together for a few weeks a long time ago. He's just a chill guy to get along with. We kind of struggled with our teaching style throughout the beginning of the week. Sion and I finished each others sentences, so it was very, very short sections from each of us, just a few seconds sometimes. Farley is just coming off of training, so he's used to giving almost the whole lesson. Its taking some getting used to. Finally last night we taught a really, really great restoration lesson and we were both please with how we split the time and the general direction of the lesson. Really strong spirit.

The more lessons we teach the easier it will get. Its so nice to have a clean island. All the houses/compounds have gravel floors that they have carried by bag by hand up from the beach so that their houses are clean. Its way better than sand. Great place.

I hope things will go well for all of us! Its exciting  for sure. Nikunau is a cool place. Love you all, have a great week, talk to you on Monday!

love dal