May 24, 2008 baptism

We had six interviewed and lined up for baptism. One girl forgot I guess and one boy had something to do at school so went and did that instead. It's the island way and if you aren't able to just roll with it it could drive you crazy.
This little girl wasn't sure this was for her.
This man works on the boat from Christmas to Fanning and Washington. When I interviewed him for baptism he was concerned that he would only be able to be at church twice a month. Jobs are so scarce that I encouraged him to do a good job at his work and the Lord would bless him.
Betarere is the branch mission leader. We have him and his companion and two sets of sister branch missionaries. Betarere fixes the missionaries bicycles. We changed the tires on one of the bikes and I threw the old ones away. The next time I saw him he ask about them. He was pretty disappointed that I would throw them away. He is such a good man. The next time I went to the supply store I bought a couple of new tires and dropped them off at his house. Needless to say he was very pleased.

more picnic

Love that raw fish.
This is Toasu and Montebuda. Toasu is blind but loves to play the guitar. Montebuda is known as the Christmas Island cowboy. He can really crank out the music. They played all day long. In Majuro we didn't hear much music other than hip hop. Here they still play the island music.
Elder Lortz getting ready for his feast. "mom" has laid it all out for him. These missionaries are babied out here. In every village the have a "mom" who spoils them rotten.
This is Eddie. His twin brother died a few weeks ago. They were both down syndrome children. Eddie enjoys the music and is right there as long as they are playing. Every so often he will stand up and dance. His eyes are crossed and he has cataracts. It breaks our hearts that we can't do something for him. He seems to be happy and does the best that he can.

fish, fish, fish

The fish were ready to be cooked but some just couldn't wait.
Elder Reireita was eating his raw. He's not just being funny. He ate the whole thing. Little kids, big kids and adults were all grabbing fish. They threw some on the fire but the others they just pulled off the head and ate it raw.
I was more interested in the cooked fare. After I got going on this one I noticed that no one is all that careful to make sure it's done thru and thru. When we go to someone's house to eat I always tell them how good the raw fish is. I think they were a little disappointed that I didn't chow down on one of these myself.

Branch picnic

We had a branch picnic a week ago this past Saturday. When we arrived they had the fish ready to be cooked. These are milk fish and are about a couple of pounds up to three pounds each.

We had over 200 attend. Some play volleyball, some make music, some swim and some old fogies just sit in the shade.

Berenia's send off

This is our little missionary Berenia the day she left for her big adventure. She was called to the California San Francisco Mission. She is the girl in the white blouse and black flowered skirt. Her father in the blue shirt arrived just before she had to get aboard the airplane. She has been in Fiji and Tarawa since she left here getting clothed and prepared to go to the mtc. I think she enters the mtc on June 3, 2008.

I guess we wanted to remember this infection on Lois's leg. We live in an area where infection runs rampant from a bug bite or a scratch. Thank goodness for antibiotics and modern medical advice even if it is 1500 miles away in Honolulu. This infection almost got us off the island for treatment. We appreciate the area doctor who was concerned and helped us take care of it.
If we had something really serious go wrong the church would bring a plane from Hawaii and they say they would be here within five hours.

May 12, 2008 and later

May 12, 2008 Monday
I know it is Sunday, Mothers Day for all of you and I hope all you Mothers have a great day. It has been raining and raining and raining and the water table is high and so the water is coming up in our drains when we shower or use the washing machine. Elder Patten is going to see what can be done. Its not like you can call a plumber or anything, but maybe he will have to get someone to dig a trench or a large hole full of coral to absorb the water and drain it away from our home. This means that the missionaries will have to wash their clothes by hand in a bucket because our bathroom floods if too much water is used. Somehow it will be taken care of – the Lord always has the answer. Insenawa, the harbor master here, is the second counselor in our Branch and he said that he would look at it with Elder Patten today and see what needs to be done. Insenawa is just a wonderful man, he speaks English very well and knows about everything on this island. What a blessing it is to have him in the church. He and his wife Susana have adopted 3 children and have one of their own. The youngest is about 6 years old, a little boy, who is blind, deaf and can’t walk. They just love him and take care of him so well. One of the adopted daughters, kamboa, was on a mission in Tarawa but had to come home because she has leprosy , she has been home for 6 months and wanted to go back to finish her mission but after talking to Insenawa and Pres. Bleak, Elder Patten felt impressed to tell her that it would not be good for her to return. She was okay with that decision, maybe a little relieved. We discovered that the stress and required work and activity of a missionary life aggravates leprosy and she would probably not be able to handle it and have to return home again.
We may have mentioned Keketea, a policeman from Tarawa. I became friends with his wife Meria, she was our librarian and she told me a couple of months ago that Keketea, was a member of a Bishopric when they lived in Tarawa and is a returned missionary but had started drinking a little and smoking when they were transferred to Christmas Island. Elder Patten and I went to visit them in their home and talked to him. We told him he was needed back in the church and he said he wanted to come back but his cigarettes were a problem. So Elder Patten talked to Pres. Henry and decided to call him into the Elders Quorum Pres. – he accepted and Elder Patter set him apart. He hasn’t smoked since and yesterday bore his testimony in Priesthood and spoke in Sacrament meeting and did a wonderful job. When you look into his face you can see the light has returned and he and Meria are so happy with their little family, what a blessing for them. They are preparing to go to the temple and have their family sealed. We need to start a temple class soon. There are many more like Keketeia that we need to visit and talk to and doing that as fast as we can. Another RM has returned to church also and I noticed he spoke up in Sunday school yesterday answering questions. He also speaks English well and we have visited him and his family, we have decided that he needs a calling as well and so we asked the Branch Pres. what he thought of Teacon becoming the assistant mission leader in the branch, he thought that would be great so that will take place very soon. Teacon was the first missionary in all of Kitibati to leave on a mission, he knows a lot about the gospel and needs to return and teach others. We took a white shirt and some pants to an inactive member (husband of a faithful woman here her name is Francis). We urged him to come to church, he said he would but didn’t show up the first week but came the 2nd all decked out with his white shirt, and pants, he didn’t have a tie so Elder Patter gave him one of his. I asked Francis (his wife) while he was standing there, “who is this good looking man you have with you” “ she laughed and said “My husband with a big smile on her face”. I told him he looked so handsome he needed to come to church each week just to decorate the building. He said, “yes, yes, I will be here.” I know he is a good man and I pray that he will continue to come. We will continue to visit him and find a calling for him.
Last week we saw an Imatong (white person) riding on a scooter and so we pulled over and talked to him. He is a young man from Colorado, actually Brookes age, a free lance photographer here taking pictures and trying to get a story hoping to sell it to a magazine. We told him we were LDS Missionaries and invited him over. He came for dinner and brought all his Pictures of Christmas Island and the people and stayed for a while and told us of all his adventures. He is catholic but told us that he has been around Mormons and has found them to be wonderful people. We felt that we had made a friend and maybe he will remember another couple of Mormons with no horns and had one wife.
I get bit here a lot by mosquitoes and yesterday found a little sore on my leg that has now blistered and is a little red around it. We are watching it today, we have found out that the people use the papaya fruit to heal a lot of things. So I am going to get Nautau to climb our papaya tree and put some of it on my leg and see what happens. I’ll let you know. Elder Patten thinks it might be our ticket to Hawaii if it doesn’t get better. So now I am wondering just what he is praying for……. to have it get better or go to Hawaii if it doesn’t. There are certainly no doctors on this island that I would go to. Well, today the sore got worse and is pretty ugly but our phone line isn’t working and so we can’t use the internet or call the Pres. There is no communication today on this island. There is an infection in this sore but I think it is just an island thing and that in time it will get better but will leave a scar. Elder Patten took a picture of it to send to Majuro for the nurse to look at or even the doctor in Hawaii but no way to get to them today.
SEVERAL DAYS LATER – Well the sore got worse and we were finally able to get to the Pres. and he got to the doctor in Hawaii and he called us. He said “ Sister Patten today is Tuesday and tomorrow is the last chance you have to leave the island if you think you need medical attention.” We decided to send the Dr. a picture of it to see what he thought and we all decided to go with the antibiotics and wait it out and I am glad I did because it is now getting better – one week later- still an open sore but smaller and better. Now if we could just get our plumbing fixed we would be in good shape. When the washer has to drain we stop it and let it drain in a bucket and then dump it in the toilet. We have ordered a “snake” from New Zealand and hopefully it will get here by Wed. – if that doesn’t work we are not sure what else to do. We have a lot of people to visit this week. Elder Patten is with Arebonto, 1st Counselor, visiting all the places necessary to get permission to have the new kit house placed on our land. The kit house is on the boat as we speak and when it comes, a builder from the church will come as well and oversee the construction of the house. We may move from this one into that one if it gets done in time. It will be new and have new appliances. Things move very slowly with the church and the island so it could be next year before it is completed.

Hey there:
We had a branch picnic last Saturday. We had over 200 people on hand for the fun and games. The kids swam in the lagoon, the young adults played volley ball, three men played guitar and ukulele and sang all afternoon. They caught a bunch of milk fish when we first got there and they were ready to cook. Some of the younger ones and a few adults couldn’t wait and pulled the heads off and ate them raw. Actually it didn’t seem all that unusual. I guess we’ve been out here to long. Raw fish actually has a pleasant flavor but I’m not quite up to eating one like an ice cream cone. They cooked most of them on a grill. The whole thing and it’s up to you to get down to the meat.
I am happy to report that I went fishing and caught two bone fish and a trevallie on my little Wal Mart fishing pole. Fishermen come from all over the world to fly fish for the bone fish and although I didn’t use a fly fishing outfit I caught a couple with a little fresh bait. They are about four pounds and fight like crazy. When they are worn out you reel them in and very gently remove the hook, kiss their head and let them go. I also caught two big birds as I was casting and they grabbed the bait right out of the air.
Elder Lortz has been here about 11 months and will be replaced when the plane comes next Wednesday. He is being replaced by an Elder Tupou from New Zealand. The President says he is the best missionary in Tarawa. We are expecting big things from him. We have pretty much gone along with the way things were when we came but will shake it up a little when the new elder arrives.
I have made friends with a man who is a RM and attended BYU-Hawaii. He has taught me some good pointers regarding fishing. His only problem is that he doesn’t attend church. I had an extra pair of water shoes that I wanted to give him. Sister Patten and I went to his house the other day and I put one of the shoes in a plastic and went into his house. We talked and I told him I had a pair of shoes for him to wear fishing. I handed him the one shoe and he looked it all over and tried it on. He would look at me and at the shoe and finally he said “why are you giving me shoes?” I said “because you are my friend.” He said “why are you only giving me one shoe?” I said “Oh the other shoe will be in the church next Sunday and I want you to come to church and get it.” He looked at me for a minute and then got this big smile on his face and said, “I can do that, I can do that”
I can’t explain how I really feel about these people. Sometimes I get frustrated with them because getting things done in a timely manner just doesn’t compute. Time is not an issue to them. It is really almost immaterial. They are such a gentle, kind, obedient, giving, loving people and will do anything in the world for you. I truly love them and Sister Patten and I have a great desire to serve them.
They had a birthday party for Sister Patten last Monday evening after a family home evening. Food and drink. Two sisters made dresses for her and she will need to wear them so they won’t get their feelings hurt. I don’t know how to explain what they look like but she needs to let me know when she is wearing them so I can take a picture. I don’t think I will find Brooke Dana or Carrie in one of them. They have introduced is to “Korben” It is the juice of the coconut boiled and reduced down to a syrupy substance. Tastes a little burned. Mixed with canned milk and water and sugar. Kamboa offered me a cup and I said “ Oh Kamboa, I can’t take this, I don’t drink coffee.” She didn’t get it for a minute then thought I was funny. I can’t help myself and tease them constantly. Sometimes they get it and sometimes they don’t have a clue what the old Imatong is talking about.
Yesterday we went out to Banana and picked up a members mother from his sister. They will care for the mother and father for a time. Driving out we found that the mother and father are members of the church for over 35 years. The son has been active but over the years has stopped coming to church. As we talked Sister Patten turned around in the seat of the van, looked Oosimawa in the eye and said “shame of you, you are a good man and we need you in this branch. I want to see you on Sunday. He said “Ok Ok, I’ll be there.” They are old and don’t go any longer. When we picked up the mother she stopped and looked at us and recognized us as missionaries. She took Sister Patten’s face in her hands and kissed her on the cheek. I couldn’t keep the tears from flowing. Her belongings consisted of a woven sleeping mat, a pillow and a little bag.
The couple before us put down coral on the front of the church and along the sides. The branch leadership came to me recently and asked if we could go back to grass. “We told the other couple that as soon as it rained the weeds would come but he thought he knew better and we wanted to be obedient.” Well the rain has come and we cannot keep up with the weeds. Sometimes us Imatongs really don’t know as much as we think we do.
I had to get a building permit for the new kit house that’s on it’s way from Tarawa. The government building committee said they had to have a special meeting to consider such a plan. Of course it had to be a special meeting and each of the members needed something to come and consider our proposal. $330.00 should about do it. When I went down there yesterday morning they met me at the door and said “We have to wait until Tarawa opens because we are quite sure that the price has increased to call this special meeting.” “Also, you must pay in cash.” I said “We pay by check and you can go to the bank and cash the check. I also will require a receipt.” “Why, they asked.” “So that I can verify that I have paid you for meeting to consider this building permit. As to the additional fees that you are quite sure we will have to pay when you contact Tarawa I will have to contact church headquarters and talk to them about it so we may not be able to have the committee meeting today.” “One moment please, they said” I went and sat down and visited with someone and soon the spokesman came out and said “Elder Patten the committee has decided to honor the former price for a special meeting . They request that you would buy them lunch instead.” “I will buy them lunch and tell them that I thank them for their kindness to us.” We do things just a little different out here in the middle of the Pacific. I might mention that when I was waiting for the committee to see just how far they could push us I worked a deal with the Protestant church who was there for a permit also to split the difference for the cost of the meeting.
This was a long one but I will try and put some pictures on this evening.

May 5, 2008

May 5, 2008
We have had a busy week. Several weeks ago we noticed that the pump that pumps water from the well for our showers, toilet, sink and kitchen was acting funny. Big delay from the time you turned the faucet on until you got any water. I made a couple of small adjustments to the tank and decided we had better order another one which we thought would take weeks. Tuesday evening it started to act up again and by Wednesday morning it was dead. After a shower out of a bucket and singing in the rain I started trying to see what our options were. The Air Pacific plane stops on it’s way from Fiji to Honolulu on Wednesday mornings. I went looking for answers and when I returned the Lord had sent a new pump and we were able to install it that day. We now have on demand water and everything is great. We also acknowledge that the Lord takes care of his missionaries.
We have a kit house in Tarawa in containers. It has been there for almost a year. When we arrived we tried to start the ball rolling and get it here so we can build it and get another set of missionaries on Christmas Island. To get the kit house ready we have to get a building permit. Oh the dance you have to do to get a building permit. We are known on the island as the “rich church” When I asked when the building permit committee meets I was met with a shrug and told that no one knows when the committee meets. I was then told that there were fourteen members of this planning committee and that if I would pay each of the fourteen members $30 that they were quite sure that they would meet and discuss our permit. As they never meet unless you pay them that is what we are doing. Hopefully we will get our permit soon. The ironic thing is that everyone else on this island just builds wherever they basically want to. The church, our cottage and the new kit house are the nicest buildings on Christmas Island and we really jump through the hoops for them.
The branch president returned this week from Fanning Island. He brought us some island bananas. They are so good. We have been hoarding them and now they are almost gone. We really miss fresh fruits and veggies. We may be going to Fanning next month. Not sure yet but may take a set of missionaries up there and leave them for a month. Sister Patten and I would only be gone about ten days. At one time there were 80+ members but with no support that number has dwindled. We could baptize the whole island if we had the capability of supporting the members.
I mentioned to the branch president that it would be nice to have a choir for sacrament meeting. That was over a month ago and he has had the young adults practicing “Onward Christian Soldiers” until it’s coming out of our ears on Sunday evening. We still haven’t heard them in sacrament meeting but I’m sure that when we do they will be wonderful.
We have a little man named Abba who went to the temple with the last temple group. His wife has passed away and he is 78 years old. He asked for some temple clothes to be buried in so we had some sent from Tarawa. We delivered them this week and he was so excited. He tenderly held them in his hands and got tears in his eyes. I told him that now he had to live at least 20 more years. We also visited one of the first missionaries from Kiribati. He is not very active but we are working with him. We took him a white shirt and he and his family were at church this morning.
We have met a young 18 year old girl that we just really adore. She’s the one whose picture is on an earlier post with the long hair. Her name is Toka and last week she shared with us that her older sister is also a member of the church. We stopped in where the sister works and introduced ourselves and invited her to church. She didn’t come today but came to the house this evening and talked. She is 22 years old and lives with her mother and father and six siblings. She is educated and has a very good job. Makes $500 a month and supports the family. Her mother is a “deacon” in the KPC and let’s Toka come to church but says the other girl can’t attend. Sister P, in her sweet counseling mode talked to her and told her she needed to be strong and tell her mother that she was going to come to church. The mother has told her she will kick her out of the house if she attends. We assured her that since she provides all of the income for the family that her mother may throw a fit but she’s not about to kick the bread winner out of the home. The next counsel that she will be given is to open a bank account and deposit her money into her own account and give the family part of the money and save some money for herself. She has always just turned over the money to her mother every payday which is expected if you have a job and wonderful if no one else can work but there are members in her family who could work and help as well, including her Father.
President and Sister Bleak will be here on the 28th of May. They will bring a new elder in that morning and take Elder Lortz out six hours later. The Air Pacific plane comes from Fiji at 6:30 a.m. and goes onto Hawaii. It stops back in the afternoon about 2:30 p.m. We are hoping for a strong elder. Our Kiribati elder is a wonderful young man but it will take someone strong to keep him focused. We have basically followed the lead that was established when we got here but are forging ahead and are making some changes now that the missionaries are changing. We won’t have much time with the President and his wife but will feed them breakfast and lunch and maybe get to counsel with them for an hour or so between President’s interviewing of the Christmas elders and he gets back on the airplane.
We are adjusting here on Christmas. We just have to know the routine and then we can live with it. We may have one more transfer before we return home. We don’t really want to go back to Majuro but will do what we are asked. I think we will be here to supervise the building of the kit house and get things in order here. The only negative thing about here is you just hope if you get sick or something it would be on Tuesday and not Thursday because if it was Thursday it would be a WEEK BEFORE YOU COULD GET OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!
David’s son Matthew is about ready for his papers to be turned in. We are excited to see where he might be called. We understand that he would like to learn a language. He will be a strong missionary and follow in the footsteps of his brother and his dad.
Jeff said he might come out to see us and that would be great, if he can work things out. We love you all and miss you. I don’t know what we would do without the internet and our ability to communicate. We are doing our best and feel like with the Lords help we are doing some good things. We love these people for their goodness. We send a sister missionary to Fiji a week from Wednesday. She flies to Nadi, Fiji then flies onto Suva. Applies for a USA visa, flies back to Nadi then onto Tarawa. Finalizes everything and flies back to Fiji where she then boards an airplane to Los Angeles. Changes planes and flies to Slc. Then to the MTC in Provo. She is going to the California San Francisco mission. This is a little girl that lives in a grass hut in a little village and cooks over an open fire. She asked me if I thought they would have rice and fish at the MTC. I assured her that they would feed her well. When I told her she would have to wear shoes in San Francisco she just looked at me. We know she will be fine but we feel so protective of her and want her to do well that it’s hard to let her go out into the big old world. Talk about culture shock.
The weeks go by so fast. Where else could you buy eggs for $25 a flat and wear dockers and flip flops to church. I’d wear a lava lava but Sister P. won’t let me.
Its amazing but the girl with the bad toe keeps coming for clean bandages and help. Sister Patten looked at it today and it is actually starting to close up. The opening is now about the size of a dime and you can see the flesh starting to heal, I couldn’t see the bone this week. What a blessing. And if that isn’t enough – the missionaries have been teaching her and she will be baptized in two weeks. We will take a picture of her – she is beautiful. Yesterday the primary had a party on the church grounds and they played games and you will see a picture of them swinging from the palm tree branches. Anyway you will see the pictures of the primary party, we passed out the candy that you sent for the kids and they loved it. During the party, Sister P was shaking hands with the children and a little boy kept looking at her and kept holding on to her hand, he finally pointed to his leg and she realized that it was the same little boy with the gouged leg that she bandaged last week. He needed more help so she took him back to the cottage and fixed his leg again. Those big brown eyes were begging for someone to help him. What a privilege it is to do any little thing for these children or any of them.
Every Sunday in R.S. they ask Sister P to speak – since she can’t understand what they are saying, she has to asked what they want and then just get up and speak on that subject. There is a lady who can translate and speaks English as well as kiribati so that seems to work out well. Sister Patten is getting the primary organized again – the program has to be altered to fit the situation here and that is a challenge sometimes. Then she will move to the mutual age kids, they need a lot of help. There is a lot of work to do and it seems that we are busy all the time. Tomorrow is P day again which means that the elders will be doing their wash here, eating breakfast and lunch and emailing for about 4 hours. We almost have to leave home to make room for them. Life is good, we love you all, grateful that Mike is okay and grateful for all your help in his behalf and staying in touch with us to well, thank you Brad for all you did. Write to us , we look forward to emails from home it’s the highlight of our day.