December 26, 2007
Here we are again with much to tell. We have been working with Josephine and Nemia since the second week we arrived. The President has been very interested in them because Josephine has relatives in Naru who could help with getting that country to allow the missionaries in. Josphine’s cousin is the personal secretary of the President of that country and he really listens to her. They have been taught for some time now by the missionaraies, so Elder P and I have just become their friends and taught a little along the way. We showed them the film “Christ in America” and bore our testimonies and asked them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about the truthfulness of the gospel. We told them that we felt they have a purpose that they may not be aware of yet and that it was not just a coincidence that they were here in Marjuro for a short time and that the missionaries have been teaching them. Josephine said that she has been reading the Book or Mormon and that she would continue to do so. Nemia still smokes and although he has always been very happy to see us, he has not taken on the challenge that Josephine has. So last Sunday they came to church and she had a light in her eyes I have not seen, she announced to us that she wants to be baptized and she knows it’s the right thing to do. We were very happy about that – she and Nemia are also going back to Naru to live – I believe that the Lord brought them to here just long enough for her to get a testimony and help bring the church to Naru. She will be baptized tomorrow evening and we feel very grateful that we were able to teach them and see the Lord work with her. We have 6 men we have been working with on addictions and four of them came to our first 12 step meeting on Thursday. One of them has slipped but that didn’t surprise me because he is such an alcoholic and so far gone that I don’t know if he will make it but he has been coming to church each Sunday. We will continue to work with him. I have needed to rewrite the steps so that they would be useful for the people here – we do a lot of education and I have given them some easy assignments. The problem is that there is a good chance that we will be transferred to Kiribiti soon and then they will probably have to go back to the old program – but I will give them the steps so they can read them over and over. There are two good men that could possibly help with that program, one is Dale with 6 weeks sobriety now and comes to church, the other one is Jack who is well educated, a member and could be a strong member of the church here but he hasn’t come back to church yet we will continue to work with him.
We went to the home of Anjo and Alma’s, they are the people with the sick baby. I don’t even want to tell you about what they live in – the baby is sick again – they brought him to the 12 step meeting and I wanted to take him to the hospital. The missionaries are making sure that he goes today, he has an appointment with the doctor there. I found out that he is one year old and he looks about 6 months old. He is not even crawling or trying to stand. We are going to keep an eye on that. The good news is that the Father, Anjo tells us he is ready to stop drinking and the whole family came to the 12 step meeting last week. They even were 15 minutes early which doesn’t happen here. Another man we have worked with – with the missionaries will be baptized in about a week. He and his “wife” have to get married first and so that is all happening soon. It just goes on and on and its all good. If we leave here, it will be hard to leave the people we have about 15 appointments each week that we teach and visit and we have really become attached. Christmas Eve we all met at Pres. and Sister Bleaks home with all the missionaries and had a great dinner and fireside. Christmas day was spent at the “beat”. Twelve hours of singing and dancing. It is held in the Long Island chapel and so we had a nice meeting first and then it started. All of the 6 branches present their dances and singing they have worked on all year. It’s mostly the youth but the women get involved as well. There is a lot of food, which I don’t eat, and they just dance and dance with different costumes for each different branch. The leader blows a whistle continually to give them signals as when to change their dance routine and by the end of the evening that whistle rings in your ears. All the missionaries lead by Pres. and Sister Bleak danced in and John and I did the swing, the people loved it, we all sang “I hope they call me on a mission” we should have sung “called to serve”. Anyway it was a good time and the youth love it and its better than just out on the street doing nothing. The youth are strong here and the strength of the church will be with them. Today we have appointments and then tomorrow the Pres. has chartered a boat and the seniors are sailing off to another island, cook hamburgers and explore then return, get to Josephine’s baptism and then to the 12 step meeting. One of the senior couple’s son is here visiting for the week so that’s why we have the boat trip. He is going snorkeling on some of the small atolls. Christmas wasn’t quite like it is at home but we had a good day. We didn’t realize how many people that we have met and come into contact with until we all get together like yesterday. If we go to Tarawa, Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) we will miss them. We didn’t realize how quickly you become attached to people on a mission. They all want to come and say “amon a ke amor?” “how are you? Or literally “how is your life?” Our answer is always “eman” or “good”. I’ll send you a couple of pictures when I get online to send this for the blog. David Patten and his family are in Hong Kong for vacation during the Christmas season. They have a built in interpreter and hope to be able to see and do lots of things in the time that they are there. Life is good for us. We’re healthy and happy and working hard. We think of you often but to be honest we are really busy and don’t have time to spend much time thinking of home. This is our home for the next 16 or 18 months. If we go to Tarawa our release date would be just two months before they change mission presidents so we might not leave until the end of June, 2009 instead of the end of April. Elder/Sister Patten
The Relief Society sisters really getting into it - the sister in the front really knew how to shake those hips.
I don't think we would get away with candles in a ward at home.
The young women singing - notice the beautiful long hair of the young woman leading the singing. She is very active in the church and is about 17 years old.
Then the young men in their white shirts and ties dancing in to met the girls in the background in red and white dresses.
The Marshallese band - they were really pretty good, they played for us Christmas Eve at the Bleaks. Next picture is the Relief Society in their white dresses, singing and dancing - notice the cute little girl that really got into it. Next the primary children with bubble gum strings hung around their neck. How would you like to take this little cutie home - sitting on Sister Pattens lap.
The missionaries getting ready to sing at the hospital, next picture is the sisters in our district, third picture is inside the hospital. Sister Bleak is in the front, Sister Patten in the back looks a little like a nun. Last picture is "feeding the thousand" at the Pres. and Sister Bleaks home later that evening. Notice Elder Nielson looking a little homesick.
The top two pictures gives you an idea of what the small islands look like. In places there are many in a chain and when the tide is down you can walk from one to another. Next is more of the jungle and the last picture is for you Mike and kids. We have pictures on the walls of our apartment and hang them up as we get them. 
Elder Patten in the jungle - don't you think he looks good! Next picture gives you an idea of the vegetation on all the islands. It is really beautiful. You have heard us talk about Josephine and Nemia, the third picture was taken just before she was baptised. Nemia is standing with the little boy who is really her grandson but he was given to Nemia as a son to raise. We have taught Josephine and Nemia since the second week we were here. The last picture is our christsmas tree. Our sweet grandchildren didn't know it but they did the decorating with their pictures and homemade cards. Thanks kids, we love you!
Some more pictures of our little excursion. This is classified as a "hardship" mission. It really is. The buildings are located on a small island which is only accessable by boat. The people who live here were relocated from the island of Bikini when they tested atomic bombs after ww11. The pink building is a home and the blue one is a community center. No cars on the island. You can't see it but on the left side of the blue building is a white pole about 25 feet tall. When someone becomes intoxicated they just take them to the pole and handcuff them to it. They let them sober up and then turn them loose. You see a couple of figures quite a ways from Sister Patten. They are from our group. There were only about four other people on the island besides the missionaries.
I know you think we don't get any work done but we really do. We took some time and rode out to an outer island on a boat last thursday. We'll post a few more pictures. I can't seem to do more than about four pictures at a time. The second photo is the picture of a great missionary relaxing after a hard and exhausting boat ride. Does this look like we are living in paradise or not? The captain slowed down and said "look down there" we did and could see a ww11 B-26 that was in about 10 feet of water. Another missionary got a better picture of it. I'll try and post it. It seemed to be in excellent shape. It was kind of erie looking down on the airplane. People come from all over the world to the Marshall Islands to scuba dive at ww11 battle graveyards. There is an area in the Marshalls where the Japanese lost an aircraft carrier and many other ships and airplanes.
This is a little clip of "the beat" on Christmas day in Majuro. Each branch performs a dance and songs, etc. It started at 9:00 a.m. in the morning and ended at 9:00 p.m. in the evening. We took about an hour break for lunch and that was it. I'm trying to send a little video. I don't know if it will work but if it does it might open some new ideas for the blog.
In front of our home in Long Island. We are getting ready to leave for the day.
waiting to be welcomed into their home. The shoes will come off and the floor is waiting for us.
John noticed this Sacramento Kings fan. The front yard of their home - the kids are playing with the coral, they run on it barefooted.
This was district meeting this morning. Notice Elder Forest Gump sitting in the front row. We love him so much, he is a great missionary. We are with him and Elder Woodland a lot. Elder Beecher (Forest) speaks the language so well that he trains the new elders. He translates for us at the 12 step meeting and it works very well. He may never be an AP or Zone leader but we know he has been one of the best missionaries here. He is so humble and sweet and the people love him. He was the missionary that discovered the sick baby. He is from Cedar City.
Thanksgiving day with our district.
The big guy in the middle is Elder Aiono, his uncle works for John in arizona. He has now been transfered to an outer island, where he will drink coconut milk, then eat the meat from it. There will be bananas and fish and thats about it. There is no communication unless a boat happens by which is every 6 months or so. The funny thing is the Elders love it and hope that they will be send to an outer island. I just don't get it. Elder Patten told him he had better put a bag a rice on his shoulder - that will last a month or two and then he is on his own. He flew to Ebey, got on a boat to Laie - it probably took him 3 days to get there. 
Sister Naidu and Sister Runyon - we have worked with them alot but Sister Runyon has now been transfered to Ebey. Sister Runyon is from Salt Lake and Sister Naidu is an Indian girl from Austraila. We stil work with her alot and Elder Patten teases her a little and she loves it. 
This is the Majuro hospital pig. She lives at the hospital. The dogs give her a wide berth. This is a picture of the main road in Uliga one of the areas that we work. This family is the one with the little baby that we mentioned in our last post. The father is an alcoholic and the mother seemed very stoic and we're not sure if she understood how to take care of a baby very well. We don't think he was physically abused just neglected. The fittest survive and the runt of the litter many times doesn't make it. That seems pretty hard in this day and age but you have to remember that they treat diabetes here with tylenol. The little boy by the car door is part of the family mentioned above. He was delighted to see himself on my digital camera. He was also pretty interested in the car like all little boys. Steve mentioned that we had done something incorrectly and left a couple of groups of pictures in draft status. We have removed them and will re-post the pictures. We have shown you only the hollywood staged photos so far. Steve also showed us that we had some comments about things that we had written. Thanks Kristen and Brad.
