June 29, 2008
It’s Sunday afternoon, everyone has left the church grounds, the sky is perfectly blue and there is a breeze blowing through the window. It’s very quiet and peaceful right now. The last three weeks we have had more of our less actives return to church. Maurice is now the Young Mens President. Kikitea is the lst counselor in the Elders Quorum, Yanaw has returned after a long time of inactivity and we will find a job for him very soon. His wife is the Young Women’s President. Utimawra has had a temporary set back but Elder Patten and Pres. Henry set that straight this afternoon. Petesa, a young girl age 21 has come back and spoke in Sacrament meeting today. Tekan a returned missionary comes and sometimes goes but we have our hand on him and will probably have him teach in the Elders Quorum before long, he does know the gospel . Rebeta came to church last week after a long time and we will continue to work with him. There are more out there and we will continue to find them and invite them back. Our missionaries are doing well and we love them and enjoy having them around us all the time. Last Wednesday morning we welcomed home one of our sister missionaries we knew in Marjuro, Sister Motete. We were glad to see her again and will keep close contact with her because her mother is very Catholic and thinks we are the “evil church”. We have talked to her about being very strong because the nuns are after her now that we have trained her. We asked her to be a trainer in our Branch Missionary Program. We have one other returned missionary in that program and we are now requiring that any young person who wants to go on a mission participate in the branch mission program and be trained first. The same day we welcomed Sister Motete home, we put one of our young women on the plane and sent her on a mission to the Marshall Islands Majuro mission. She doesn’t speak much English but she has a strong desire. The Young Men here need more help to get them interested in a mission and prepared to serve. I think it is because the Branch has been lacking in a strong young men’s program. Elder Patter and I are committed to changing that and will train and work with both the YW. and YM and their leaders. We worry about the sisters returning home with no one to marry on the island and just marrying a non member and then the inactivity begins. We wish we could bundle them up and send them to BYU Hawaii where they would have a chance to meet members and have a better life.
Some of our families are so poor and we have been trying to take a little food to them. They live on fish and rice and if the father is sick and can’t fish the family suffers. We will help them while we are here and also teach them to give back through some work around the church grounds or helping to clean the building. Our wonderful Young Women spent three days pulling weeds on the church property and that really helped. We love those girls so much – they come to our English class and sometimes just come to visit us. They love Elder Patten. I was practicing conversational English last Tuesday with them, Elder P was not there so I asked them what they liked about him and they said, “he jokes with us and laughs all the time and he has a round stomach and big ears. “ So the next day at the airport all the girls were there and he got a stern look on his face and said “which one of you girls said I have a round stomach and big ears” They all just looked at him and he started to smile and they started to laugh. We really love the people here and have become their friends – sometimes I look at them and realize that in less than ten months we will leave and never see them again. I know this will seem like a dream when we get home. We pray that while we are here we will accomplish much and be able to leave the island a little better. We feel blessed to be here. Sometimes it has been hard living on Christmas Island and we have had to adjust our thinking and make things work even when they don’t . There have been frustrating times but we have Pres. Hinkley on our wall with his quote. “ Things will work out. Keep trying. Be believing, Be happy, don’t get discouraged, things will work out.” We have read that a few times and you know what - things do always work out, maybe not on our time schedule or even the way we think they should be but the Lord always whispers in our heart “be patient and wait”. I also have my favorite saying on the wall which has pulled me through some hard times in my life. “Seek out the quiet times on the gray days. Force discipline and obedience until the answer comes, because it will. Remember what the Lord has said, “I have not gone away child. I am here, always. Rest in me, in confidence. All in your life is being guided and planned, each detail. I know, and I care. Things are being worked out as quickly as possible for your highest good. Trust and be grateful. I am right here. Soon you will see and know”. Annette, if you are reading this you will remember how we have talked about that.
We have some disciplinary matters to take care of, or rather President Patten does and he will need the guidance of the Lord and He will get it. We have a few difficult problems with people on the island that we need to take care of and then we have some reinstatements that are coming up and so that is always a happy time.
We love you all and miss you – we talk many times about what it will be like next year when we can be with you again in Mirror Lake, the July party, join you in Park City, see all the kids and find a home. It will all come in due time and for now we are moving forward and doing our best. The Lord is at our backs and we feel his gentle nudging as to what we should do and who we should see and what we should say. That is a wonderful feeling.
I’ll just add a note this evening. As you know the kit house was delivered last week and last Wednesday we picked up the two contractors who were sent to build it. Thursday morning they lined the foundation out and by Thursday evening they had most of the pilings dug and set in concrete. They came and their tools consisted of an old skill saw and a couple of hammers. The builder of the house sent nails for a nail gun but of course they didn’t have one of those. They really liked our 91/4” skill saw and all of our tools, etc. Friday morning as they began one of them came to me and said in broken English, “we don’t have enough metal for the roof so we will have to build the roof another way” I said “you have to build the house just as the plans show it to be built” A little later he came and said “we don’t have enough lumber to build the step into the house so we will have to go and buy more lumber” I went and showed him that we had enough lumber to build the step. Saturday morning they had the floor joints on and were about ready to start on the sub floor. My friend came to me and said “the framing material is not right, the studs are to short so we will have to build the house one foot shorter than it calls for.” I explained the complications of doing that and again cautioned that they had to build the house exactly the way it was supposed to be built as per the plans.
By this time I was pretty sure that I knew more about building the house than they did (What a scary thought). I called the facility director in New Zealand and told him that I was going to shut the project down. He agreed and so in the morning I will tell my friends that they must pack up their bags and we will put them on the airplane for Tarawa on Wednesday. New Zealand will try and get someone up here next Wednesday to finish the house.
Sister Patten has told you about our other experiences for the past two weeks. As I sat in Sacrament meeting today I looked out into a sea of beautiful brown faces. Sometimes, especially on Sunday my heart feels so full that I don’t want to even think about leaving these wonderful people. I can’t begin to explain to you the love that we feel for them. What an experience.
Our Kiribati Elder came to early morning meeting today and his face had white cream all over it. All I could see were these two piercing black eyes looking through the cream. He looked like a reverse Al Jolson.“What in the world are you doing, I asked” He got kind of tongue tied and his companion, Elder Tupou said that he had lightener cream on his face so he could look more like the ematongs. I told him that the white men and women all want to get a suntan so they will have beautiful brown skin like he has. That kid never ceases to amaze me. Later in the day I walked up next to him and put my arm around his shoulder and said “Hey,white boy” and he burst out laughing. He thought that was pretty funny. I was just grateful that he didn’t try to wear it to Sacrament Meeting. We struggle a little with the Kiribati Elders, they come into the mission field with very little experience and maturity and their training at the MTC is in English so I am not sure how much they understand . For many of them their maturity level is around a sixteen year olds. We are constantly helping him to grow up and Elder Tupou has his hands full. Elder D’s heart is in the right place though and he has a testimony and is willing to be taught and corrected. I’ll have to tell him again that his missionary stipend is not to be used on lightener cream. They say time flies when you are having fun and this mission is really moving fast.
Sister Patten tells you how much fun I have with the young adults but I want you to know that she has the whole branch including the young adults eating out of her hand. They all love her and are always wanting her advice on one thing or another. The women think that she’s the “clear stuff.” The other day Elder Tupou called her Sister President. I’m not the smartest guy in the world but I am smart enough to recognize her wisdom and we counsel together everyday as we try to do the Lord’s work.
We are looking forward to Jeff’s visit in about ten days. We’ve asked him to bring so many things that I hope he’s able to do so without to much trouble. We love you and pray for you and feel your prayers for us.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Sister Patten with Elder Tupou, or new missionary from Austrailia.
Look who is dancing with the girls!
Kikiteia and Maria, he is our policeman who we reactivated with the Lords help. Maria is the primary president. He was a lot of help for the Moroni Reunion and is very active in the church. Counselor in the Elders Quorum.
Kisese, our camra man, we are still working on him. Elder Patten talked in the last blog about giving him one shoe and he would find the other one at church. Well, he is at church but yet to see him at Sacrament meeting. It will happy some day soon.
moroni high school reunion
These are some of our young adult girls, the one on the left in the blue shirt has served a mission in California, speaks english well and helps us in the branch missionary program to train prospective sister missionaries.
Trete in the front is a former Bishop in Tarawa
Man in the front is Rodney Edwards, former Branch President.
Tokah in the front, one of the young adult girls, is beautiful, speaks english very well, dances like a professional and has hair down below her knees. Sister Henry is at the end of the line and is the wife of our Branch President.
one last botaki
This is the last "botaki" honoring Elder Lortz. The man in the middle of the picture is Towasu. He is blind and plays a mean guitar. Actually he cords pretty well. We have wondered what we could call him to in the branch and have decided that he could stand at the door with his wife and welcome people to church.
These two ladies are from Vanawatu. The one on the left is Anson the hostess of the "botaki" They were dancing for us in the style of Vanawatu.
A friendly Chiristmas Island scorpin we found on our bedroom floor one morning. It makes it really exciting to think about jumping up in the middle of the night to go potty and sharing the floor with one of these babies. I've decided to not drink much water before bedtime anymore. When we first arrived on our mission we panicked when we saw a roach. The other day we were talking and there came a roach and we just scooted it out of the way. No big deal.
Our good friend Abba that we mentioned in the blog. He wondered if he should put his tie on for the picture and I said I didn't think it was necessary.Monday, June 16, 2008
Elder Lortz farewell botaki
One more chorus of "Welcome to the Hotel California"
Some of the members saying goodby to Elder Lortz
This is a "gooney bird" for all you WWll buffs.
botaki girl
We went to a "botaki" before Elder Lortz returned to Tarawa. This little girl thinks she is the "princess" I tried to get a picture of her eating her noodles with her hands. She danced and flirted and and finally got tired and laid down on the mats and went to sleep
June 12, 2008
Our new missionary came and we’ve had an opportunity to get to know him. His name is Elder Tupou from Australia. He’s Tongan by decent but he was born and raised in Australia. His grandmother joined the church in Tonga so I guess that makes him a third generation member of the church. He has a twin brother who is serving in Tasmania. He’s 21 years old and is just a great missionary. He’s a hard worker with a lot of good common sense about him. He has really had a positive influence on his Kiribati companion, Elder Reireita. It has made such a difference in this young man. He has really blossomed.
Our new kithouse has arrived in Christmas. We are hopeful that the contractors will arrive next Wednesday to start it’s construction. We expect that it should be completed within about three weeks. We ordered new appliances, window ac, fans, microwave last week and they should arrive on the air freighter on the 27th of June. We will lay linoleum down before it is moved into and have it all ready to go hopefully within a month. I think we may move into it ourselves and let the elders move into where we live. It would be a nice move up for both of us. Sister Patten says she would like the smell of a new house even if it’s only 300 square feet. We hope the solar water heater gets here so we can install it on the roof of the new house before the contractors leave.
Our plumbing has been repaired. We finally found the water pipe that drains the water from the washer, sinks and shower. It was further toward the front of the house and deeper that we expected it to be. When the house was built they installed the pipe so that it runs a little uphill to get to the septic tank. We thought it was a blockage where the shower, sinks and washer all came together but it was blocked clear to the septic tank. We were going to hook into the main pipe but the pipe laid to low to do that. We finally cut it and dug a big hole, filled it with large rocks , then small coral and covered it with black plastic and finished it with topsoil. We cringed when we heard the first load of wash water go down the pipe but it seems to be working pretty good for a town this size.
We have initiated some real efforts to help find the “lost sheep” We have called two sets of branch sister missionaries and one set of branch elder missionaries. We are using a returned missionary sister who served in California to work with the sisters and the full time elders are splitting with the branch elders. We are committed to clean up the branch membership records that have accumulated over the last nine years. We will have another returned sister missionary home later this month. We need to especially teach the young sister missionaries how to be missionaries and what will be expected of them. The Area Presidency will not accept any more sister missionaries in Kiribati. We have all we can handle. Some of them are really a handful. Some of these kids think a mission is a great 18 month vacation, expenses paid. That is really changing. If a prospective sister can’t speak English she will have to wait until a current sister comes home and then maybe fill her place. If they can speak English well enough to serve in an English speaking country they can be called when they turn 21.
The Lords work goes forward but it is sometimes slow and it’s not always easy.
We got some flour the other day that came from Tarawa. It was from China. Flour has been in short supply for the past month. John, the storekeeper watches out for us and he put back five bags to make sure we get some. Our daughter in law, Janae gave us a great French bread recipe and boy does everyone like our French bread. We tried several regular bread recipes and one day wondered what the French bread would do if we baked it in a regular bread pan. The French bread is wonderful and we have discovered that it’s just as good baked in bread pans for a little variety.
The other day we were in fast and testimony meeting and at the end of the meeting Sister Patten got up to bear her testimony. I guess we are really going native because here she comes barefooted just like the rest of the Kiribati sisters.
I have mentioned Abba a time or two in the blog. He’s 77 years old and can still run up a coconut tree. He went to the temple on the last temple trip and is a wonderful man. He came to me last Sunday and told me he was moving back to Tarawa. Maybe it’s because we are older but we have really bonded with him. Monday, he showed up at our house and wanted a picture of him taken with us. He wanted to sit down and tell me something so we did. He said “Pat, I very sad to leave Christmas” “You and Sister Pat are my friends” “Please don’t forget Abba” “Don’t forget this Christmas people” “This Christmas people love you and Sister Pat” “They look in eyes and know you love this people” “You are kind to them and they never forget you” “I take my temple clothes with me and not see you again.” He then tried to tell me that we would meet again someday and he would put his arms around me and call me brother. He was trying to talk about after this life. Of course as you can imagine by this time my shirt was wet with tears.
Jeff will be coming in less than a month. We keep asking him to bring just one more thing. We are looking forward to his visit. Hopefully the kit house will be finished but if not he’s going to go native and sleep in the extra kia kia. We have a mosquito net and a wood bed frame with a twin mattress up off the ground for him.
Occasionally we get a little lonely and feel like we’re far from loved ones. We have found that all we have to do is get up and say our prayers and ask to be led by the spirit and we have always been led to a great experience. Last week we remembered a lady that we had seen at church and stopped in to see her. We said that we had enjoyed seeing her at church and she said that she loved church and wanted to be a member someday. We thought she was already a member. She needed help getting a divorce from her first husband who lives in Majuro so we will help her with that. The man she is “married” to now “Kiribati marriage” just came from Tarawa so we went and talked to him. He speaks perfect English. He has been baptized so we told him we wanted him to come back to church. He said I can do that but It does ’t feel good in my heart when I can can’t partake of the sacrament. We talked to him about changing some of his lifestyle choices and he said he could do that. Is there anything else that would hold you back from coming back into activity? Well, he said I have another pretty big problem. Yes, we said waiting. I just got out of prison in Tarawa. We will see what his church status is and go from there. Something new comes up everyday. Maybe we won’t make our prayers quite so an
When Jeff goes home we’ll only have nine months left. The CES couple in Majuro, the Simmons went home yesterday. He promised to eat a New York strip steak medium rare at the Outback in Honolulu for me. The Randalls in Majuro who work in the office extended for six months. I asked Sister P what she thought about that and she just rolled her eyes at me. I said where else can you go on a mission and wear dockers , sometimes a tieand flip flops and go to church barefooted. We’ve got it made. She just rolled her eyes at me again.
June 16th – (Sister Patten)We had the Moroni Reunion last Saturday and it was great, about 50 people came and we were able to talk to each person that had become inactive. I talked to about 6 women and they told me “I would come to church but I married a catholic or KPC and he won’t let me, or there would be an argument.” I told them who did they want to please, the Lord who has the truth or their husband who don’t. They all said the gospel was still in their hearts and they had not lost their testimony. We played games, danced, ate kiribiti donuts with jelly or peanut butter on them and it was a good night. We visited a man a few days ago who went to Moroni and still has a testimony but has been drinking Kava, he told us that he believes in priesthood blessings and wanted to come back. Wouldn’t you know it, his little daughter was sick as we were there, she had a boil on her leg and was crying. Elder Patten gave her a blessing and she was quiet and laid so still – after the blessing we went home and got her some medication for boils and candy for the kids when we got back, She was already feeling better. Last Sunday at church she came up to both of us, took our hands and kissed them. She is about 5 years old and you know what that did to our hearts. We will keep visiting this man and urging him to church and give him a calling.
We finally got a new YW pres. and so I will start working with her on the Personal Progress Program. The Young Single women are so great in the branch but the younger girls and boys need some structure and a program that will help them grow. So I guess that will a new project very soon. The work goes on and there is so much to do in the next few months.
My legs, well, I will just have to live with the little outbreaks, I think it is a fungus here in Christmas island and I hope it goes away when I get home. We miss all of you, love you all so very much – we need your prayers and we pray for you each day. Take care, love from us
Our new missionary came and we’ve had an opportunity to get to know him. His name is Elder Tupou from Australia. He’s Tongan by decent but he was born and raised in Australia. His grandmother joined the church in Tonga so I guess that makes him a third generation member of the church. He has a twin brother who is serving in Tasmania. He’s 21 years old and is just a great missionary. He’s a hard worker with a lot of good common sense about him. He has really had a positive influence on his Kiribati companion, Elder Reireita. It has made such a difference in this young man. He has really blossomed.
Our new kithouse has arrived in Christmas. We are hopeful that the contractors will arrive next Wednesday to start it’s construction. We expect that it should be completed within about three weeks. We ordered new appliances, window ac, fans, microwave last week and they should arrive on the air freighter on the 27th of June. We will lay linoleum down before it is moved into and have it all ready to go hopefully within a month. I think we may move into it ourselves and let the elders move into where we live. It would be a nice move up for both of us. Sister Patten says she would like the smell of a new house even if it’s only 300 square feet. We hope the solar water heater gets here so we can install it on the roof of the new house before the contractors leave.
Our plumbing has been repaired. We finally found the water pipe that drains the water from the washer, sinks and shower. It was further toward the front of the house and deeper that we expected it to be. When the house was built they installed the pipe so that it runs a little uphill to get to the septic tank. We thought it was a blockage where the shower, sinks and washer all came together but it was blocked clear to the septic tank. We were going to hook into the main pipe but the pipe laid to low to do that. We finally cut it and dug a big hole, filled it with large rocks , then small coral and covered it with black plastic and finished it with topsoil. We cringed when we heard the first load of wash water go down the pipe but it seems to be working pretty good for a town this size.
We have initiated some real efforts to help find the “lost sheep” We have called two sets of branch sister missionaries and one set of branch elder missionaries. We are using a returned missionary sister who served in California to work with the sisters and the full time elders are splitting with the branch elders. We are committed to clean up the branch membership records that have accumulated over the last nine years. We will have another returned sister missionary home later this month. We need to especially teach the young sister missionaries how to be missionaries and what will be expected of them. The Area Presidency will not accept any more sister missionaries in Kiribati. We have all we can handle. Some of them are really a handful. Some of these kids think a mission is a great 18 month vacation, expenses paid. That is really changing. If a prospective sister can’t speak English she will have to wait until a current sister comes home and then maybe fill her place. If they can speak English well enough to serve in an English speaking country they can be called when they turn 21.
The Lords work goes forward but it is sometimes slow and it’s not always easy.
We got some flour the other day that came from Tarawa. It was from China. Flour has been in short supply for the past month. John, the storekeeper watches out for us and he put back five bags to make sure we get some. Our daughter in law, Janae gave us a great French bread recipe and boy does everyone like our French bread. We tried several regular bread recipes and one day wondered what the French bread would do if we baked it in a regular bread pan. The French bread is wonderful and we have discovered that it’s just as good baked in bread pans for a little variety.
The other day we were in fast and testimony meeting and at the end of the meeting Sister Patten got up to bear her testimony. I guess we are really going native because here she comes barefooted just like the rest of the Kiribati sisters.
I have mentioned Abba a time or two in the blog. He’s 77 years old and can still run up a coconut tree. He went to the temple on the last temple trip and is a wonderful man. He came to me last Sunday and told me he was moving back to Tarawa. Maybe it’s because we are older but we have really bonded with him. Monday, he showed up at our house and wanted a picture of him taken with us. He wanted to sit down and tell me something so we did. He said “Pat, I very sad to leave Christmas” “You and Sister Pat are my friends” “Please don’t forget Abba” “Don’t forget this Christmas people” “This Christmas people love you and Sister Pat” “They look in eyes and know you love this people” “You are kind to them and they never forget you” “I take my temple clothes with me and not see you again.” He then tried to tell me that we would meet again someday and he would put his arms around me and call me brother. He was trying to talk about after this life. Of course as you can imagine by this time my shirt was wet with tears.
Jeff will be coming in less than a month. We keep asking him to bring just one more thing. We are looking forward to his visit. Hopefully the kit house will be finished but if not he’s going to go native and sleep in the extra kia kia. We have a mosquito net and a wood bed frame with a twin mattress up off the ground for him.
Occasionally we get a little lonely and feel like we’re far from loved ones. We have found that all we have to do is get up and say our prayers and ask to be led by the spirit and we have always been led to a great experience. Last week we remembered a lady that we had seen at church and stopped in to see her. We said that we had enjoyed seeing her at church and she said that she loved church and wanted to be a member someday. We thought she was already a member. She needed help getting a divorce from her first husband who lives in Majuro so we will help her with that. The man she is “married” to now “Kiribati marriage” just came from Tarawa so we went and talked to him. He speaks perfect English. He has been baptized so we told him we wanted him to come back to church. He said I can do that but It does ’t feel good in my heart when I can can’t partake of the sacrament. We talked to him about changing some of his lifestyle choices and he said he could do that. Is there anything else that would hold you back from coming back into activity? Well, he said I have another pretty big problem. Yes, we said waiting. I just got out of prison in Tarawa. We will see what his church status is and go from there. Something new comes up everyday. Maybe we won’t make our prayers quite so an
When Jeff goes home we’ll only have nine months left. The CES couple in Majuro, the Simmons went home yesterday. He promised to eat a New York strip steak medium rare at the Outback in Honolulu for me. The Randalls in Majuro who work in the office extended for six months. I asked Sister P what she thought about that and she just rolled her eyes at me. I said where else can you go on a mission and wear dockers , sometimes a tieand flip flops and go to church barefooted. We’ve got it made. She just rolled her eyes at me again.
June 16th – (Sister Patten)We had the Moroni Reunion last Saturday and it was great, about 50 people came and we were able to talk to each person that had become inactive. I talked to about 6 women and they told me “I would come to church but I married a catholic or KPC and he won’t let me, or there would be an argument.” I told them who did they want to please, the Lord who has the truth or their husband who don’t. They all said the gospel was still in their hearts and they had not lost their testimony. We played games, danced, ate kiribiti donuts with jelly or peanut butter on them and it was a good night. We visited a man a few days ago who went to Moroni and still has a testimony but has been drinking Kava, he told us that he believes in priesthood blessings and wanted to come back. Wouldn’t you know it, his little daughter was sick as we were there, she had a boil on her leg and was crying. Elder Patten gave her a blessing and she was quiet and laid so still – after the blessing we went home and got her some medication for boils and candy for the kids when we got back, She was already feeling better. Last Sunday at church she came up to both of us, took our hands and kissed them. She is about 5 years old and you know what that did to our hearts. We will keep visiting this man and urging him to church and give him a calling.
We finally got a new YW pres. and so I will start working with her on the Personal Progress Program. The Young Single women are so great in the branch but the younger girls and boys need some structure and a program that will help them grow. So I guess that will a new project very soon. The work goes on and there is so much to do in the next few months.
My legs, well, I will just have to live with the little outbreaks, I think it is a fungus here in Christmas island and I hope it goes away when I get home. We miss all of you, love you all so very much – we need your prayers and we pray for you each day. Take care, love from us
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)