december 2 thru 8 2007

The week of December 2, thru December 8, 2007
This week we have been working with twelve different families. Investigators, part member, inactive. Elma and Manuel, the family that we helped teach were baptized about three weeks ago. Elma will be sustained as a counselor in the young womens, Manual will be ordained to the Aaronic priesthood tomorrow. Another couple Alou and Jabade and their ten year old daughter Anna were all baptized since we arrived. Alou will be ordained to the Aaronic priesthood also tomorrow. Remember we bought 100 CTR rings? Well we have decided to give them to each child that is baptized so we gave one to Anna and I am sure we will see it on her finger tomorrow in primary. Migon isn’t married but has 4 children and his “wife” doesn’t want to have the church in her life right now – so two days ago he told us that he will marry her so that he can be baptized – then we have to work on his children and wife. He has so much faith and maybe his “wife” will come around in due time. Nemia & Josephine are coming along – he finally let down, crying and told us about some of his heartache – we think it may take a while yet before they will join the church but who knows. We have been working with Dale and Annie – he has been drinking a lot and she has cancer – they are both members and so we have him coming to the 12 step program and he has been sober nearly three weeks. We love that family and need them back in the church. Annie has a strong testimony and nearly left him due to his drinking but it is looking up now. Rose and Anjab – he drinks a lot but has been sober 1 week now – they are members and we are going to work with him on the 12 steps. They have committed to attending church. By the way we invited 6 people to church last week and 4 came so that made us happy. We have visited 3 other inactive families and they are doing better and committing to come back to church. We visited a wonderful family last night and invited them back to church and they were so humble and said they would come. I have seen their little boy in primary each week by him self. I didn’t know who he was but he asked me last Sunday if I knew a primary song about reverence so I said you mean “reverently, quietly” and he said yes so I promised to bring it next Sunday which will be tomorrow and then found him last night in this little family we taught . He bore his testimony to us in such a sweet way and you would have thought he was 20 years old. It really touched me that a little 9 year old boy would come to church by himself and have such a testimony. The people here are so humble and if we can just spend some time with them and invite them to church they will come back – they just need a little attention and love. Elder Patten always says “Why don’t you come to church, we need you and we miss you, Heavenly Father loves you and needs you.” They just can’t tell him no. We always tell them that we will be looking for them. We have invited 4 men to come to the 12 step meeting on Tuesday and we are doing a lot of work with that program.
The couples all got together last Monday and had dinner at one of their homes Elder & Sister Simmons. Pres. and Sister Bleak were there and we had a good time. The Simmons apt. overlooks the Lagoon – you could just stand on their back porch and throw a line out and catch some pretty good fish. We sprayed our apartment today and so we had to leave for a while I am sure our friend the gecco didn’t live through the spraying but he just had to sacrifice his life because I am not fond of the ants and roaches. We have adjusted to the island life and it almost seems like home until we give home some serious thought. We try not to dwell too much on all the things we miss and just concentrate on what we are doing here because we will never have this experience again. We love the missionaries so much and they stand in line to have us go with them – not because we are so wonderful – but because it helps them to have an older couple bear their testimony and talk about their family. We talk about you a lot and they can’t believe we have 9 children and 38 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. I think it gives the people a desire to remain in the church and stay strong. They can feel our love for them and that we really know the church is true and they seem to respect us as older people and tend to believe all that we say. If you could just see these beautiful children – big brown eyes and black hair. The babies are born with hair that is thick and long. It’s amazing. The little children love to sit on John’s lap – they aren’t afraid of him (even though he is a white man). We can be walking on the street or in the store and hear a little voice “ hello Sister Patten/Elder Patten” they hold out their little hands for us to shake. The people here live in villages and they all take care of the children. When we are teaching three or four children will just come in the door and sit on the floor and listen – they don’t belong to the family we are teaching but it doesn’t seem to matter. The families stay together – grandma, cousins, brothers, sisters and so on, all sitting on the floor and eating rice. Many of the children get sent to the states to live with relatives so they can get an education. I thought each of you might like one. I don’t understand how they can give their babies up but they do. I have stories I could tell you about that but will wait until we see you again. It is our P day today and Elder P is taking a nap but it is time to get him up and let him write a little before we close. So until next time we love you.
We woke up this morning to the sound of heavy rain. It has continued to rain all day long. We looooooove the rain. Sister P told you that we sprayed for varmints today. I really feel bad about our lizard friend and hope he survives. I’ll see him sometimes on the kitchen floor and he just looks at me and waddles under the stove or fridge. On the way to town this morning we saw some men doing something on the oceanside with the tide out. I stopped and walked down there and could see that they were butchering a pig. I guess they were going to have roast pig tomorrow. Yesterday was a big holiday here called “Gospel Day” to celebrate the arrival of the first catholic missionaries many years ago. I tried to explain that it was the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor but no one listened. Sister P told you of the handsome primary boy who goes to church alone and who bore his testimony to us in his home last nite. I couldn’t keep the tears from flowing. We are beginning to pick up a few words and kind of understand the flow of the conversation. If we stay here in Majuro for our whole mission I believe we will be able to speak their language in a simple fashion. At the local “supermarket” a lifesize Santa robot sings and dances. You’ve probably seen the same one in a Walmart store. These little ragmuffin kids will stand and watch him till they shoo them away. Today there was an older boy who looked like he was in from the farm stood there amazed at Santa. The people here never cease to amaze us. In so many ways they are so childlike and wonderful. The last couple of days there has been a gigantic container ship at the dock. I wanted to get up closer to it and take a better look but by the time we weren’t so busy and we had a minute it was gone. Well, I think we are going to make some cookies for the missionaries. Sister P. made cinnamon rolls for district meeting yesterday and the poor missionaries could smell them all through their meeting and darned near starved before they could get to them. We love you and want you to know that our testimonies are strong. We realize that we’re not quite as young as we used to be but we love the work and we love the people and we love what we are doing. We testify that we are all children of a Heavenly Father who loves and knows each one of us. Jesus Christ is the savior of the world and he lived upon this earth, and through the atonement took upon himself the sins of the world. The boy Joseph Smith saw the Father and the Son and that changed this earth forever. Good men down through the ages tried to reform Christianity but through the prophet Joseph Christianity was restored again to the earth as it was in the days of the Savior. Kejbarok wot (take care) and Bar lo yuk (we’ll see you later) love, Elder P. p.s. Sister P. cut my hair the other day but when it came right down to it we found a young Phillipino man at a beauty shop to cut hers. It looks very nice.