August 7,2008

August 7, 2008

It’s raining here on Christmas Island. We’re into the dry season but every so often we get a wonderful cloudburst and it feels and smells so good.
The kit house is looking good. The contractors will be leaving us next Wednesday and we anticipate being finished with the house by the weekend or Monday by the latest. The first of this week we could see that they were slowing down and realized that they were thinking that they were almost finished and were ready to go fishing and take a little break. We had been telling them about several things that needed to be finished but they weren’t listening. The insulation in the ceiling for example. For several weeks we had mentioned that the ceiling insulation hadn’t been installed. Finally we were down to a crawl space hole above the front porch as the only access into the attic. The company that manufactured the house didn’t send any outside paint so the workers told us that we could have someone paint for us after they were gone if we wanted it painted. Not…..We had extra exterior paint left from the building of the chapel here and knew we could use that. Night before last we knew we had to get them moving if they were going to finish before they left. We made a list of everything to finish and had a little meeting the next morning. We assured them that if they worked hard they could be finished by Saturday or for sure by Monday. The church was paying for their lodging and meals etc. and they needed to finish everything on the house.
We called the area facilities manager and he was in agreement. If you’ve ever dealt with the church on the temporal side one thing you learn is that when they have a contract with someone, they expect them to perform.
Sister P. has actually kept them on their toes with a combination of cajoling and chocolate cake with ice cream. $24.50 for 2.5 gallon ice cream. They like Sister P. and have this thing about all scattering when they see her coming toward the house. They think that’s pretty funny but they have been very accommodating and helpful when we have asked them about anything.
This thing about communication is really interesting. We had heard that the lead carpenter’s wife and father in law were members of the Church. The husband is Catholic. Of course my missionary wife couldn’t wait until she could ask him about that. “Yes, he said they are members and she goes to church.” Sister P. then told him she had a gift that she wanted to share with him and would he listen to the missionaries before he went home? What could he say, right? The next day our second counselor in the Branch Presidency told us that Laquisse was confused. His father in law is in the bishopric but his wife is a catholic and he couldn’t understand why she would be going to sacrament meeting in the Mormon Church. We all got a laugh out of that. I took Laquisse to the airport and before he left he told me to tell Sister Patten that he would listen to the missionaries when he returned home. Sister Patten hits a home run again.
It was Elder Tupou’s birthday this week. We had been able to get some Costco hamburger when the air freighter came in and we invited the elders over for hamburgers. Elder Tupou is from Australia and has been a McDonald’s employee but Elder Reireita from Kiribati had only heard about hamburgers in the land of the big PX. His companion had told him about Big Gulps and he couldn’t believe it. Anyway, we made hamburgers with all the fixens. We showed him about onions, relish, catsup and mustard. He had a great time loading his hamburger up and we noticed that he even put potato salad on it. Yes, we had potato salad and cole slaw too. He ate that hamburger and said “in Kiribati to much rice and fish”
Our additional set of elders will arrive on the 20th. It will be good for the resident elders to have someone else to talk to besides the two old “ grandma and grandpa imatongs” here.
We have finally all agreed that we need a new branch clerk. We haven’t seen him for several months and when visited he has every excuse in the books. We have organized and filed the membership record changes that hadn’t been filed for a long time. We will now teach the membership clerk how to file the incoming changes and show him that there is more to his job than counting the people at sacrament meeting.
The next challenge will be to try and move the records out of the branch for those who have moved away.
The branch presidency and other leaders really don’t like to be told what to do. They don’t want a “to do” list. They want a suggestion and the time to figure out how and why things are done the way they are and then make a decision. It has taken us a while to gain their trust. We try to gently lead and counsel them. In the past few weeks they have really come to open up to us and trust us. You know that is happening when they want to be with you and show up and want to talk or want to take you fishing.
We love this island and these people. We have great disappointment at times when we see some young people and their families take all that the Church will give them and then return to their old ways when they return from church schooling and missions. It is causing great concern in the Church as to who to send out and some kids won’t have that opportunity because of the actions of others before them.
Members and non members alike want their kids to be accepted at the Church school in Tarawa. I will be more inclined to send a less qualified child who has the support of their member parents instead of a child whose non member parents just want the Church to educate them and will say anything to get them a spot in Moroni High School. These decisions will be made after lots of prayers.