Email No 65 - A week on an outer island and then off to the Marshall Islands for a week!

Hey!!

Man that’s cool we moved to Rowville :P I just had a look on Googlemaps at the location of the house and its pretty sweet yeah? Close to everything :P

Paintball sounds cool as haha... are Dad and Michael on the same team?? Where are the teams from?? It’s pretty cool... sounds intense :)

I did get the package.. thank you thankyou.. the skin stuff is helping :) its good… and that was a mean toothbrush... it was like the sweetest toothbrush I’ve ever seen :)

So anyways... something pretty exciting is happening... on Wednesday Elder Van Dyken and I are going to an outer island called Abemama... we're going for a whole week and the purpose of our visit is to just baptise... teach and baptise!!!! There aren’t any Elders on that island and we have been told lots of people are ready for baptism :) :) .. so our job is to baptise them... pretty cool huh?

Then... after I get back from Abemama... me and another zone leader, Elder Cole( from Brissy) we're going to Marshall Islands for a week... to see what its like up there... the Assistants are coming here to Kiribati so President wanted 2 zone leaders to go up there :) Cool stuff aye? So the next couple of weeks should be pretty fun :)

We had a baptism on Saturday... her name is Taatara, she has a less active husband but since Taatara was preparing for baptism he’s stopped drinking and he’s coming to church every week now :) happy endings lol..

On Sunday we had to talk at church but they asked us to get some of our recent converts as well... to speak with us... we had 2 speak and they were really good :)

PS I wont be emailing next week cz I’ll be in Abemama.... no internet out there... I’ll take heaps of photos. :)

Love to everyone!

Email No 64 - It rarely happens... but Matt got angry!

So Tiare our recent convert was the only Priest… there are heaps of people in our ward, we have around 100 something but there’s weren’t any ordained priests 16-17 yrs old... so we helped there and now they have 3 priests doing the Sacrament every week.... We have a problem getting them to bless the sacrament in church... the old guys always get up and do it... they just need more training… it’ll get better.

I wrote a bit about Elder Nielsen in my letter... which I haven’t sent yet :( I forgot it again .... sorry… but I led one of the meetings we had... and we got to have dinner with him too... it was cool as to just eat with him and talk to him heaps... we were just talking and telling stories for an hour and then we ran out of time.

Our mission goal for baptisms this year is 1664 but we're behind right now... and it’s not looking good cz we're gonna lose a lot of missionaries soon and only a few more are coming in so we're in a bit of a pickle.

Thats cool about Esther... and I’m shocked about Ben yeah... haha 18 yrs old!!! He’s old as now.. did he get any taller...? He is going to be a giant if he doesn’t stop soon! Good news about Ross and Skyler too.

Nothing too much new with us... we had Stake Conference this Sunday.... and then after that we had 8 lessons!!!! haha it was fun... it was just me and Elder Van Dyken... cz the last couple of weeks we've had Elders from the outer islands stay with us so we've been running around a lot and going on splits as well... wasting time.. but now its just my and Elder Van Dyken again... and we are working hard to make up for lost time!!

Last night we had a terrible lesson with two girls from the Seventh Day Adventist church... it was such a bad lesson.... we had a lesson with them a few weeks ago and then the second lesson they asked about the seventh day... and then me and Elder Van D were like here we goo... so we explained what we believe and they are just so caught up on finding scriptures for it that they don’t have the heart to pray about it... so last night we had a lesson with them again and started talking about their prayers and fasting... cz we fasted with them too... and they said just one day isn’t long enough for the fast... we need three!!!

We asked our members present to bear their testimonies on how they joined this church... so after that we asked them if they had anything to say and then they just brought up the seventh day again.... one of the girls was so stinking annoying I ended up getting angry at her… wasn’t the best thing to do... she was telling our members present that they're wrong and said they don’t have a knowledge of the bible... and they said they don’t believe this verse that we gave them which says the apostles broke bread on the first day of the week (acts 20:7) and then the one annoying girl said the scripture about if ye love me keep my commandments…………… and that’s when I went off............. I told her "yeah, I don’t love God... how can you tell me that I don’t love God ….blah blah …. how can you tell these people that they are wrong after they have already prayed about it and you haven’t yet??" Stuff like that... and then I just stayed quiet for the next 5 mins and we closed and left... it was so annoying and I hate the fact that I got angry cz now they can mock us and the church saying... ahh we made another Mormon missionary angry, cz they’ve done it before... anyways so that’s what happened last night.... didn’t like it very much but I’m over it now...

I love you mum... thanks for everything... send Dad and everyone else my love and tia booooo xoxox

Email 62 & 63 Combined - Its amazing what happens when you work with the ward!!

Man it was really good to talk to you all... it was fun... haha yeah Joseph is so big and Lucy looks as cute as with her red hair and blue eyes... its way cooll...

Thanks for what you said about being Zone Leader and stuff...
I am struggling a little bit... cz me and Van Dyken both just want to work with the people and spend more time doing what we love. I understand someone has to be doing what we do and I do love it, I just sometimes feel like I am wasting precious time, but I know I'm not. It is a confusing thing to explain, but like you said... you and Dad understand because it is similar to having Stake callings and just wanting to work in your Ward ... but just to have you know... our zone is pimpin it... we're getting really good stats and baptisms! lol

Me and Van Dyken are doing really good... our recent converts yesterday were all mean as... and we were like ohhh man these baptismss are actually sticking and not just falling away again.. it's kind of sad but it does happen most of the time. But we're excited cz our peeps are sticking really well and really strong testimonies.

Like this girl we baptised last week, Tikabu participated in a YW presentation in Sacrament Meeting and she got up and bore her testimony in front of all of the ward... so gangsta haha... our investigator, Tonganibeia just got baptised on Saturday, got the priesthood on Sunday as well... and he's the man... and his wife and kid will get baptised as well... we're seeing heaps of success with our recent converts and all of our investigators... its amazing what happens when you work with the ward... and if the ward like helps and fellowships your people!! Our other recent convert is helping take the Sacrament to those people who can't come to church... he was the only Priest age boy in our ward when he got ordained to the priesthood.. cool as.

My boils are coming back but we're just waiting still for that antibiotic thats supposed to be coming... its taking ages... pray for it please...

Love you Mumm... thanks for everything and send my love to Dad and everyone :)

Email No 61 - Cadbury.. .more than $10 a block!

Mauri Mumsy..

So I’ll be Skyping on Sunday 4:00 pm... I dunno what time that is there but I’m sure you you probably do! :p I can’t wait to see everyone... I don’t really know yet how to Skype but I’m sure everything will go good on the day... There'll be someone that knows how.

Yeah you can buy Cadbury chocolate but its really expensive like more than $10 a block... and you can buy Tim Tams too... but only from Betio.

It is very cool about Jess' mission papers... Its gonna be so exciting.. It’ll be interesting to see where she goes.. I’m praying for Kiribati... It could happen cz we have different surnames... We'll pray for it.

The work is going okay our investigator didn’t pass her interview on Thursday but she should be okay for this Saturday... Still waiting on marriage papers for others. Still troopin through zone leader... I wanna go to an outer island so bad lol... but I know this is where the Lord wants me and I am trying to be patient and be a good zone leader.

There’s not much to say...we cleaned our car today... that was cool.

I am sure we'll have lots to talk about on Sunday... It’ll be kinda weird yeah? Just talking to everyone and seeing them… Joseph and Lucy… man, can’t wait.

Love you Mum tell Dad that I love him.

Talk to you on Sunday!!! xox