March 27, 2008 Christmas Island
We have been here in Kiritimati (sounds like Kiris i mas)for a couple of weeks. The world knows it as Christmas Island. We have settled into our little home and I mean little, but we can do it and we are making it livable. We make our bread, hang our clothes out on the line and eat very simply. I never thought that spam and corned beef would be on my plate again. It feel like the “40’s” all over again. We can get chicken thighs and hamburger and that helps. We also have no hot water. It’s funny what you can learn to do and make it work.
The people here are very humble and teachable. The ones that have joined the church and really have a testimony are so faithful. We have about 175 saints out to Sacrament Meeting and when the Banana unit joins one time a month we can get up to 250. We have discovered that there are some returned missionaries on this island that are inactive now and Pres. P and I are going after them. We will visit two a week to see what has happened in their lives that keeps them from coming to church after serving the Lord for two years. We believe that is our calling here on this island and we will try our best. Other than that we are doing shadow leadership and helping the auxiliaries as much as possible. The Island is dry – not as lush as Marjuro – because there is not enough rain here. We are so grateful when it rains and fills up the rain barrels that we want to just stand in the rain and thank Heavenly Father for the moisture. The ocean is beautiful and the Lagoon is very green and pretty. The beaches are very nice – crushed coral – into power which makes it easy to walk on and enjoy. We have not had time yet to spend much time at the beach but plan to walk there this week - it is only about a half block away but you can’t see it from our house.
The R.S. had their birthday party yesterday and they did a good job decorating and planning, I was so happy with their effort. They really are teachable and with just a little help they can do it. They are naturally creative. They roasted a pig and had the usual fish, breadfruit, land crab, and rice. The young single adults danced for us and they are beautiful and graceful. We are planning to work with the young singles and help them plan more activities. We also will get a Moroni High School alumni reunion started and have it in our cultural hall hoping to reactive some who have been there and received their education. I think the missionaries will be able to get some contacts and referrals from that activity. Moroni High is a church school in Tarawa that many of the young people here go to.
We live on the church property next to the church building, the missionaries live just behind us in a Kia Kia, with crushed coral on their floor. They are very comfortable in it, they have a shower, toilet, and small refrigerator. They eat with us on Mondays for P day and do their wash in our cottage and send their emails. We always plan games with them in the afternoon and we like being around them. Pres. P made Elder Lortz the District Leader and he is doing a great job. One of our Young Adults received her mission call this past week to the San Francisco California. Mission. She is excited and what a different world she will see. There are several young people who want to go on a mission and we will try our best to help them go.
We have been in the mission field for 5 months now and it has gone fast. We will have a year left on the 22nd of April but who’s counting. Sometimes it is hard but always rewarding and wonderful at the same time. We feel like this is the place we should be and that there is work for us to do so we’ll do it. We miss all of you .
Just a note and then I’ll try and put some pictures on this evening. I just got back from picking up the missionaries in Bamboo. It’s about 15 miles from the church. On the way out there it was raining lightly and the land crabs were everywhere on the road. They seem mesmerized by the lights and just kind of stand there. I’ve learned that you can’t dodge them so you hope that they stand still and you miss them. The people here eat them just like a regular ocean crab. They have one big claw and one smaller one. They usually put the claws in one bowl and the rest of the body in another. I’m just a claw man and don’t have much desire to try the rest of Mr. crab.
The missionaries told us they have seven baptisms this month. Two of which are young brothers. Their mother comes to church occasionally and their father is a rm who is a minister in the local protestant church. They assure me that both parents want the boys baptized in the LDS church but I have had the missionaries make an appointment for Sister Patten and I to meet the parents tomorrow. I want to first of all try and make friends with the parents but most of all I think it’s important to get permission to baptize the boys. I don’t want the father to accuse us of stealing his sons or something six months down the line. Update……..Sister P and I went to visit this man yesterday. Come to find out he is not a KPC minister at all. He’s had some problems in his life that has kept him away from activity in the church but tears came to his eyes when we asked him where his heart was. We had a wonderful talk with him and want to get better acquainted with him and his family. He wants to come back and we will try our best to help him.
We did have a great experience last week visiting a policeman and his family who has been transferred here from Tarawa. He’s a rm, and has been in a bishopric in Tarawa. When he came here he just quit coming to church. We told him that we needed him at church and that we will help him with a minor w of w problem. We have great hopes for him and his family.
We met the non member family of one our sweet missionary sisters in Majuro. Sister Motete’s mom and dad live in very humble circumstances close by the church. They are catholic and they were very disappointed that our missionary girl didn’t become a nun. We have committed to grab Sister Motete when she returns from her mission in June and keep her so busy that she won’t have time to drop away. If she is interested we will try to help her get into BYU Hawaii.
Speaking of the catholics, we have made friends with the mother superior and principal of the catholic high school. She is a very sweet and lovely lady. We really like her. We haven’t had much luck with the priests but we will persevere.
Life is good. I will admit that on occasion we have felt that this really is a hardship mission. Then we go visiting and usually have a great experience A friend in Idaho said “John, there will be times on your mission that you will see an airplane go across the sky and you will think man, I’d like to be on that plane heading for home.” Can’t deny that has crossed my mine. We are so far out in the boonies that the church will let us take a week in Hawaii if we want to for a break. We talked about it and decided that we need to stay focused on our mission.We sent some things from Majuro before we left. They finally were shipped DHL and went from Majuro to Guam to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Sydney to Brisbane. We hope to see our things before we go home in thirteen months.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
fishing trip
This boat was interesting. The hull is not very wide but it's quite deep. If you stand up inside the hull it comes up to my chest. 
We had ten adult men on the boat and the 70 hp outboard moved us right along.
The man in the blue shirt went to the temple. He was a fishing boat captain and he seemed very at home on the boat. In the white shirt is Tom, a faithful member of the banana unit. He is a weatherman at the airport. 
This is part of the catch. Of course I didn't catch anything. They all thought that was pretty funny since they were pulling the fish up as fast as they could. They fish with hand lines. After we got back the Branch President told me how to do it. The fish are on the very bottom. You let your line out to the bottom then bring it up just a couple of inches. I asked him why he didn't tell me that when we were on the ocean and he just smiled and said "You don't learn everything all at once"
Sunday, March 9, 2008
welcome/farwell botaki
The guitarist is blind but plays great. He and his wife went to the temple last wednesday.
There is always plenty of food. breadfruit/raw fish/cooked fish/pork/ramen noodles/coconut pudding, etc.
They can dance so gracefully. 
We were guests at the Elders quorum presidents home for the welcome/farewell botaki
This is the plane that comes to Christmas Island once a week. It arrives from Fiji at 6:30 a.m. on wednesday and then goes onto Hawaii. It stops on it's way back at 3:30 p.m. the same afternoon. The mission president comes early in the morning and has to get everything finished before he recatches it in the afternoon. Miss the plane and you are here until the next wednesday.
This is the ship that we will travel to Fanning Island on to check on the branch there. About 100 members. 150 miles. 18 hours there and about 30 hours back. You go against the ocean currents coming back.
The Newbys and Pattens at a welcoming botaki for the Pattens and a farewell for the Newbys.Saturday, March 8, 2008
March 8, 2008
March 8, 2008
We left Majuro on February 25, 2008 about 8p.m. in the evening. We got on the plane and taxied to the end of the runway. The pilot ran the engines up on the Continental 737/800/900 and away we went down the runway. As we rotated I turned to Sister Patten and said “Goodbye Majuro.” We were sitting in the front of the plane in the bulkhead seats 5A and 5C. A few seconds later we heard a “bang, bang noise. For a moment I thought the gear was having trouble retracting but I realized that we had lost the right engine on takeoff. The pilot quickly leveled the plane and the head flight attendant came hoofing it down the isle saying over and over “we’ll be alright, we’ll be alright, we’ll be alright.” I wasn’t all that sure if she was trying to convince us or herself. Anyway the pilot did a great job and we made about a half an hour big wide circle back to Majuro where we enjoyed an uneventful landing. The passengers on the right side of the plane seated by the engine and many people on the ground could see flames shooting out of the engine before we lost it. Sister Patten seemed rather calm but did look at me kind of strangely when I asked her if she remembered how to put her life jacket on. We went back to the mission home and stayed the rest of the night and they brought a replacement airplane the next morning. We did notice that some of the passengers apparently decided not to go the next morning.
We had wanted to spend a full day in Hawaii to pick up some things but didn’t get there and to Costco and Walmart until about 6p.m. the next day. We had shipped some things and so had room to put a few things in our bags. We thought of an electric fry pan and realize since arriving in Christmas that will be a blessing.
We got up the next morning and left Hawaii the next day about 12p.m. and arrived in Christmas at 3p.m. on February 27, 2008. We were met by the Newbys and waved at President Bleak as he reboarded the airplane on his way to Fiji.
We moved into our cottage and the Newby’s slept in a kia kia until they left March 5, 2008 with a group of 30 members going to the Fiji temple. The Newbys will attend the temple and fly home to Boise via LAX on the 12th.
The Newby's have been here for 19 months and have done a good job. By the time that they left we were on training overload and they were happy to get on the plane for home.
I was able to go on a fishing trip on the first Saturday here. True to form I never caught a fish but then again my expectations aren’t very high when it comes to fishing. I think I can learn.
We have been invited to dinner four times since we arrived here. Raw fish, cooked fish, breadfruit, rice, and even a little pork. We have enjoyed just fixing a little something for ourselves the last few nites. We can get most staples here. A boat comes once a month and a air freighter comes once a month also. The air freighter brings things from Hawaii. They pick it up from Costco, and we pay about 3times what they buy it for there. The church gives us perks for being out here so I think it about evens out money wise.
We were told that this is one of the most remote places in the world to serve a mission.
The people here are wonderful. They are Micronesian but I think they appear to me to be more Polynesian in their ways. Their music and dancing, etc. remind me of the South Seas. I tell Sister Patten that we are in “The other side of heaven” for senior couples.
The beaches are so much better than Majuro. The ocean and the lagoons are so beautiful. Majuro is cosmopolitan compared to Christmas. The main supermarket is about 20 x 20 feet. Anything fresh is very expensive. I think I paid almost $20 for two nice green cabbages the other day.
We think that there is much to be done here. Dividing the branch. Organizing a district. Helping the less active return to church. Sister Patten has been trying to make the cottage more like home so guess who had to lay linolium all day. She lined all the cupboards and washed everything on site. We have stocked up on food not wanting to run out if the ship or plane comes in late next month. We make our own bread, hang our clothes out on the line and shower, do dishes and wash clothes in well water. We do have a filter for drinking water so we don't have to boil it. The missionarie live just in back of us and we all live on the fenced in church grounds. We are planning to go out teaching with them soon. We have a lot of shadow leadership to do, as well as an english class and temple class. Actually this branch has very good leadership abilities and have been trained well, we just need to keep it up and add to it. The people are very loveable here always have smile and are so humble which makes them teachable.
We love you all. The Church is true. We love being on a mission. We feel your prayers for us and want you to know that we pray for all of you also. Elder and Sister Patten
We left Majuro on February 25, 2008 about 8p.m. in the evening. We got on the plane and taxied to the end of the runway. The pilot ran the engines up on the Continental 737/800/900 and away we went down the runway. As we rotated I turned to Sister Patten and said “Goodbye Majuro.” We were sitting in the front of the plane in the bulkhead seats 5A and 5C. A few seconds later we heard a “bang, bang noise. For a moment I thought the gear was having trouble retracting but I realized that we had lost the right engine on takeoff. The pilot quickly leveled the plane and the head flight attendant came hoofing it down the isle saying over and over “we’ll be alright, we’ll be alright, we’ll be alright.” I wasn’t all that sure if she was trying to convince us or herself. Anyway the pilot did a great job and we made about a half an hour big wide circle back to Majuro where we enjoyed an uneventful landing. The passengers on the right side of the plane seated by the engine and many people on the ground could see flames shooting out of the engine before we lost it. Sister Patten seemed rather calm but did look at me kind of strangely when I asked her if she remembered how to put her life jacket on. We went back to the mission home and stayed the rest of the night and they brought a replacement airplane the next morning. We did notice that some of the passengers apparently decided not to go the next morning.
We had wanted to spend a full day in Hawaii to pick up some things but didn’t get there and to Costco and Walmart until about 6p.m. the next day. We had shipped some things and so had room to put a few things in our bags. We thought of an electric fry pan and realize since arriving in Christmas that will be a blessing.
We got up the next morning and left Hawaii the next day about 12p.m. and arrived in Christmas at 3p.m. on February 27, 2008. We were met by the Newbys and waved at President Bleak as he reboarded the airplane on his way to Fiji.
We moved into our cottage and the Newby’s slept in a kia kia until they left March 5, 2008 with a group of 30 members going to the Fiji temple. The Newbys will attend the temple and fly home to Boise via LAX on the 12th.
The Newby's have been here for 19 months and have done a good job. By the time that they left we were on training overload and they were happy to get on the plane for home.
I was able to go on a fishing trip on the first Saturday here. True to form I never caught a fish but then again my expectations aren’t very high when it comes to fishing. I think I can learn.
We have been invited to dinner four times since we arrived here. Raw fish, cooked fish, breadfruit, rice, and even a little pork. We have enjoyed just fixing a little something for ourselves the last few nites. We can get most staples here. A boat comes once a month and a air freighter comes once a month also. The air freighter brings things from Hawaii. They pick it up from Costco, and we pay about 3times what they buy it for there. The church gives us perks for being out here so I think it about evens out money wise.
We were told that this is one of the most remote places in the world to serve a mission.
The people here are wonderful. They are Micronesian but I think they appear to me to be more Polynesian in their ways. Their music and dancing, etc. remind me of the South Seas. I tell Sister Patten that we are in “The other side of heaven” for senior couples.
The beaches are so much better than Majuro. The ocean and the lagoons are so beautiful. Majuro is cosmopolitan compared to Christmas. The main supermarket is about 20 x 20 feet. Anything fresh is very expensive. I think I paid almost $20 for two nice green cabbages the other day.
We think that there is much to be done here. Dividing the branch. Organizing a district. Helping the less active return to church. Sister Patten has been trying to make the cottage more like home so guess who had to lay linolium all day. She lined all the cupboards and washed everything on site. We have stocked up on food not wanting to run out if the ship or plane comes in late next month. We make our own bread, hang our clothes out on the line and shower, do dishes and wash clothes in well water. We do have a filter for drinking water so we don't have to boil it. The missionarie live just in back of us and we all live on the fenced in church grounds. We are planning to go out teaching with them soon. We have a lot of shadow leadership to do, as well as an english class and temple class. Actually this branch has very good leadership abilities and have been trained well, we just need to keep it up and add to it. The people are very loveable here always have smile and are so humble which makes them teachable.
We love you all. The Church is true. We love being on a mission. We feel your prayers for us and want you to know that we pray for all of you also. Elder and Sister Patten
This is Gordon and Katy. Elder Beecher introduced them to us before he went home and after he left we continued to teach them. After eight years and two children they decided to get married. We thought we would get them baptized before we left but when we went to get on the airplane to leave Majuro there was Katy getting on the same plane on her way to North Carolina to work in a convelescent hospital. They hadn't told us. They were sweet, good people and we hope that someday they have another opportunity to find the gospel. The missionaries are still teaching Gordon and they plan to reunite as soon as she can send for him and the children.
We made them a four layer wedding cake but when we started to put the icing on it started to fall apart. We went to the store and bought one and when we got home this is how our wedding cake looked.
Left to right....Linsun/who thought he was our right hand man....Elder Jones/Parawon, Utah, zone leader and great missionary....Harrison who sure didn't want to see Elder and Sister Patten leave. He hugged us and hugged us. When we first met him he was so shy......Elder Keely/Meridian, Idaho, My sister Jennifer and her husband Bob know him. He was brand new but will be an outstanding missionary.
Sister Thomas, the Delap branch relief society president.
This is JAMES, future stake president in the Marshall Islands Majuro stake. His little sister was recently baptized and is showing off her new white blouse. James speaks excellent english. When we first arrived we would see him but none of his family. We visited his family and before we left Majuro his father Tioce had been called as the young mens president and his mother Benni was also working with the youth. One day in church James leaned over to Sister Patten and said "I am so happy my mom and dad are coming to church again."
This is Annie, the lady that came back from the dead in the phillipines. We have talked about her in our blog before. She came to the airport the night we left to say goodbye.
Mary Swain, District primary president. She loved Sister Patten
Lucetta Jon , Uliga branch young womans leader. Sister Patten helped both branches with new beginning programs before we left. They had never done them before.
Elder and Sister Simmons had a downloaded copy of the song "Have you ever spent christmas, on christmas island." They surprised us and played it and we got up and danced.
The Marshaleese love to see the missionaries let down and dance a little bit. It's probably because we are so graceful.
Josephines baptism
Jack, he is 78 years old and even though his family thought he was crazy to be baptised but he went forward and attended church with tithing in hand.
Beautiful Laura in the Marshalls
The Elders were willing to help rebuild this house but the owner said "no, it hasn't fallen down yet."
Our last zone conference in Majuro
Elders Beecher/Cedar City, Utah...Grinnell/Palmer, Alaska...Sahadeo/Toronto, Canada...leaving for home the next day.
Sister Naidu/Indian descent/native of Fiji living in Australia. She only knew one way to go.....straight forward. A wonderful missionary and new sister trainer.
Sisters Naidu/Sydney, Australia...Croaker/Sydney, Australia...Knowlton/SLC, Utah...Tinngey/Yap Island...(she was very shy at first. I asked her one day what language they spoke in Yap, Yapanese? She said "Oh Elder Patten we speak Yapese" When we found we were being transferred to Christmas Island she started calling me Elder Chreeeeeesmaaaaaas)...Garrigan/Honolulu, Hawaii...talk about a small world, we met her before our mission one morning at the Conference Center when we were hosts there...before either of us had received a call...Seeley/SLC, Utah
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)