June 29, 2008

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.