March 27, 2008 settling in

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.