Email No 27 - Study is important... Every Day!!!!

Here is this weeks...

Your calling sounds awesome... now you don’t have to be in the kitchen every time :) ...and you get fed by Polynesians so that’s even better :) The people here know how to cook with so few things and it tastes good as :)

I love learning new scriptures and ways to teach... The scriptures are really important with teaching and study is so important.... Every day! I’ve had a few times when the thing I’ve studied that morning is what I’ve been told to use during a lesson by the Spirit... Gotta love missionary work :)

The baptism we had was good... We had a mother and her son get baptised... But the dad is a drunk so yeah... the good thing is that the mum said in her baptism interview that she'll be working on her husband to get baptised... We started having lessons with him but he never was home after a while ha ha.

This week has been okay... We taught like 25 or something lessons... We have another baptism this week... Me and Elder Kiaitonga said we were gonna have a baptism every week while we're together :) that’s our goal anyways... Our bikes are still going strong for now... My bike makes a crunching sound every time I pedal but it still works. I think I’m getting transferred soon... I got told I might be cz I’ve been in this area for like 5 months now.

I met the Mission President and his wife a couple of weeks ago when they were here... They came and visited every district for like an hour and got a photo.

Gotta go Mumma... I love ya to the moon and back... Stay strong!!

Email No 26 - I am dreaming in Kiribati now!

One friend leaving and another returning.. such is the life of our young men in the mission field! Thanx Siobhan for organising his parcel and everyone who wrote letters.. it lifted his Spirits!


Kent’s almost gooone!! I love that kid. I’m so glad you guys are going through the temple when he’s going... I’m jealous as! Can you just give him a big hug from me and tell him I love him please... If you remember.

Ha ha Jess found boys on an island... Oh deary lol... Nah she’s fine... She should be having a tonne of fun!! I have to email her!!!... Has she told you guys anything else??

Woah Dave’s almost back??? Man that went fast... time flies ay?? It’s the last days!!!!! Dave’s the man! Give him a hug from me too please :p

I heard Australia has a female Prime Minister... And then we were in a restaurant and the TV had her on it and I’m like noooo not her... and she’s got red hair!! LOL ... if she’s the Prime Minister I don’t really wanna come back.. Haha!

Elder Kiatonga is the man... we have some fun together... But I think it’s safe to say I’m thinking and dreaming in Kiribati now... Lol ! I hang out for English speaking Elders so I can speak English.... But it’s all good. But me and Elder Kiatonga had an English speaking day... He can understand it kinda well but he’s not very good at speaking. He’s good though. We work hard and we got our bikes fixed!!!!! Woohoo... its heaps better with bikes.

I got a package from Chev!! Lol it was sooooo good... There were like 10 letters in there from friends... I think she got them all to write one :)

We should have mum and son getting baptised this week... Men are so danged hard here!

Thanks for everything mum... I love ya tonnes... Be good. Send my love to everyone!!

Elder Nye... Tia bo

Email No 25 - He has a new companion!

Hi everyone... I missed this one.. so sorry! Matt is still in the same area, but he has a new companion. Elder Mortensen was given a new missionary to train. They have their new missionary intakes three weeks after their transfer weeks, so sometimes they just get a companion while they are waiting for the 'greenies'... that was the deal with Elder Mortensen.. but they really enjoyed each other's company.


What President said about reading the Book of Mormon seems like a good idea... I’ve definitely thought about it but I got told not to by Elder Grover... cz I need to learn how to say things the way people here say them... not a Book of Mormon translation... you know what I mean? But I do have a better way to get the language now.... cz I got a new companion... he's Kiribati :) It’s awesome cz I just speak Kiribati with him all day... it’s pretty tiring sometimes... but it’s really good cz it helps me heaps. When I do read the Book of Mormon in Kiribati, I can understand half of the verses but there’s still some words I don’t know so I’m working on that.. the language is hard to study... its better to just talk :P

Conference sounded cool... and what you said about the whole sacrifice thing is true... who ever thought I’d miss Conferences!!

Jess is gone!! Wow that was fast... she’s so lucky ay? She’s in Rome... she can’t even speak Romanese?? :P lol. She’s awesome.

We don’t really run out of water so to speak... I think every house has a well... but you can’t drink that straight otherwise you’ll have an animal in your body growing (jks)!!! So people shower from the well but most people have rain tanks too... all the houses, like our houses have water pumps for the shower so yeah stuff like that. It’s pretty cool showering from a well... lol.

Anyways my new comps name is Elder Kiaitonga... he’s funny as... we have some fun and he works hard and is helping me heaps with the language obviously.. I got another sickness this week... I got a rash from something... I don’t really know how I got it... but it’s on the mend... got some medicine for it.

We had 1 girl get baptised... she is awesome... and we did it in the ocean again... I love it !!

Email 24 - He baptised in the ocean..and loved it.

On the weekend, our family went to the snow to play and I emailed Matt a few photos from our escapades. The kids held up signs saying "We Love You Matt". They were very cute!

The photos were mean as (ha ha) they made me laugh and smile and feel happy so thanks heaps... I miss you guys! You’re all awesome... Joseph looks like the man... send him in the next parcel please!? :P I did get a little jealous though... you guys playing in the snow... I forgot snow existed LOL I honestly did... I read your email and I’m like why would you go to Mt St Gwinear? Kiribati does things to ya :) !

We had three baptisms this week... and I have some exciting news... I did my first ocean baptism :) Well it was the lagoon side actually so no waves... but it was awesome as!! The chapel ran out of water so we baptised them in the ocean... I loved it heaps and I don’t really want to go back to the font :P This week’s been pretty ordinary... nothing new... except one cool thing about the area is that we get to see the planes come in ha ha... there was a huge US Air Force plane that came... and a sweet slick plane from Australia too... so it was a good week! That’s how we gauge our weeks here lol jks. We had a stuffed up Saturday... we had a leadership meeting in the ward and they told us it would finish at 12 and it finished at 4 and the baptism started at 5 so that meant we didn’t get many people to church... only 6 this week... we'll bump it back up this coming week.

Stake conference will be good. If you talk to President Sanders or someone in the Presidency, tell them I send my love. I wish I could go to a conference or something... I miss them. They changed a rule... Zone Conference every 12 weeks instead of 6. Mortensen and I have been talking and we kinda notice that because the church is so new here, we don’t get that spiritual lesson all the time... you know what I mean... obviously we feel the Spirit but it’s nice to sit down and be spiritually uplifted by someone in leadership.

Anyways it’s all good... I’m loving the work and missing everyone heaps.


That's it for another week.. sorry I was late getting this on here... just been a busy week.

Email 23 - The prayers of children!

A little bit of background for today... first of all, our niece, Becky said family prayer this week for her family. In it she asked for Matt to be blessed... and asked that he wouldn't have to eat maggots this week and that someone would feed him chicken... and could they please cook it! Too cute!!

Last week Matt wrote a very short email and about the only thing he wrote about his work was he and his companion had set a goal to have 20 investigators to church on Sunday... he fills us in on that in this email.


Tinau!! (Mum)

I’m doing well Ma... me and Mortensen are doing good work lol. I’m so tired at night times but it feels good... I don’t know how to break this to you but I think I’m getting a bit of a belly...(like I would care! lol) it’s all the damn rice... haha. I’m trying to keep the stomach down by sit ups and I’m cutting down on rice now... lol

Man that’s awesome about Becky!! I love that girl.. tell her I did have a very yummy chicken dinner... twice... and no maggots this week! Woo hoo a parcel on it’s way.. cool... I should get it sometime this week... I’ve been thinking about sending some stuff home but I really don’t know what to send home cz I could just give it away or throw it out... haha.

Elder Mortensen is the Man... he’s been out for a year and he’s obedient and we work hard haha. We worked real hard and prayed really hard and we came up short... only 13 investigators on Sunday... next week we'll get better though... maybe... we are having three people baptised this week so it could be hard cz they’re not classed as investigators anymore... but we will try hard.

We still haven’t met the Mission President... he's coming next week I think sometime... it sucks he’s having a training meeting with Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Trainers... that leaves about 5 companionships out... including us.

You know how we used to say, sometimes you can miss a Sunday? We were wrong! lol... missing church is bad! One of our converts was a drinker before he got baptised and he just missed two Sundays in a row. We went over Sunday afternoon to see how he was doing and he had been drinking! ..I was shattered... I’m sick of everyone falling. It like really hurts when you see them do that.... in my area there are so many people living badly.

We just have to wait it out til the ward gets strong enough in the area. The ward is soooooo important in missionary work... I really underestimated the member missionary side of things before I came here!

I’m getting fat but that’s life!

Love Elder Matt