funeral

Funeral for the baby of Kikitea and Maria that Sister Patten wrote about in the blog. The big man bringing out the casket and singing at the gravesite is Kikitea. He's a policeman here on Christmas Island. If we don't have any other success while we are here getting him back to church was worth the mission. We really clicked with this family and he could easily be the new branch president out here. When we first met him he told us that he smoked three or four cigarettes a day. Sister Patten asked him if he had served a mission. He had and then she asked him to tell us about it. "Did you bear your testimony to the people?" " Did you tell them that the church was true?" "yes" "How did that make you feel?" "Good" "Do you want to feel that way again?" "yes" He committed to work on his cigarettes and a bit later I called him to be in the elders quorum. "I still smoke one cigarette a day." "I'm calling you to be in the elders quorum so stop." "O.k., he said, I can do that." and he's been fine since. He's such a strength in the quorum and in the branch. This is the reason that we're writing about our experiences. It's mostly for us you know. When we quit going on missions we can sit in our rocking chairs and read about our wonderful missionary experiences.

kit house almost finished/YSA

The kit house is almost finished.
A picture of the YSA party. The young man is Koata. He's 33 years old. He told me he wanted to bless and or pass the sacrament. His records showed him as no priesthood so we had to find out if he'd ever been given the Aaronic priesthood. We found that no one had ever got around to do that after 13 years of being in the church. He's been active but somehow fell through the cracks. A couple of weeks ago we confirmed the Aaronic priesthood on him and ordained him a priest. Last Sunday he passed the sacrament for the first time and today he blessed the sacrament. The records are in such a sorry state. I know that all senior missionaries think they will fix the records but then other challenges arise and the records get left behind. Now that the kit house is finished we are setting aside the next month or so to try and weed out the move outs etc. from our branch records. Accurate membership records and accurate sacrament meeting attendance makes for accurate budget requests. I asked the branch president a while back if he knew how the Church figured the budget for Christmas Island branch. He said "Oh New Zealand just told us to deposit the donations each week and then go ahead and spend the money in the checking account." They are particular about keeping receipts and the branch checkbook up to date but are not at all knowledgeable or concerned about how they spend the money. I did a quick financial check for the first five months of the year a while back and showed them that they had spent a good portion of their budget the first five months of the year. I told them maybe they ought to cut back on corned beef at $36 a big tin whenever they get together. On the other hand we see such improvement and good things happening in the primary, young women, young men, elders quorum, relief society and ysa. Many areas of improvement and good things happening.

The YSA party was a great success. Somehow they had heard about a barbeque and thought they might like to try one. We did our best to accomodate them. We wanted to grill hamburgers but of course that wasn't feasable. Instead we fried chicken, made potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw and topped it off with Christmas Island crazy cake and ice cream. They slicked every dish clean. Today one of the women came up to Sister Patten and said "I made a crazy cake and forgot how much flour, etc. that I put in and it didn't work." My husband said "You don't know how to make Christmas Island crazy cake like Sister Patten."

tattoos and construction crew

This tattooed hand is on one of our proposed missionary girls, Tannang. I couldn't get it on with the pictures of the prospective missionaries. It says love on the fingers and homemade writing on the hand. Very crudely done and very unattractive. We are trying to teach the younger kids not to write on themselves with ball point pens but they love to do it. The Tattooing is all very home made and primitive here. The church rejected a prospective elder because of his many tattoos since we have been here.
Our construction crew for the kit house. Standing from left to right is Arebonto, who is in our branch presidency and took it upon himself to oversee the project. He wanted to learn how to build a house so he could do the same at his motel. Next to him is Maemae one of the carpenters from Tarawa and a local electrician from Christmas Island. We got a kick out of the electrician because he would come and make the carpenters do his work and then leave again. He always seemed to show up at lunch time. On the end standing is Laquisse another of the carpenters from Tarawa. I don't know who the kid was that is kneeling. He was related to the electrician somehow. He was supposed to be a painter but Sister Patten wound up going over most of his work.
Another picture of the real crew. Arebonto, Laquisse and Maemae on the day that Laquisse went home. Maemae has had to stay awaiting the solar heating unit so he can install it. It didn't arrive again last Wednesday.

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.

missionary girls and FHE

Here are our next missionary girls whose papers are all ready to go to the mission president. The top girl is Bwaati (Boss). She is a strong girl whose father is deceased and her mother lives in Tarawa. She lives here with her brother and sister in law. Brother encourages her to come to church and sister in law goes to the seventh day adventist church and gives her somewhat of a hard time about the church. Bwaati hold her own and will not compromise. Something that is quite unusual here as the culture tells these kids to do what their parents and elders tell them to do until the parents die. She speaks English and will most likely go to an English speaking mission.
This is Kaoa. Her parents are not members of the church but are being taught by the elders as we speak. Some of her brothers and sisters are members. Both Bwaati and Kaoa are branch missionaries and have been for some time. We require all prospective missionaries to serve as branch missionaries so they will be better prepared for missionary service. She speaks English and will also probably be called to an English speaking mission.
We have FHE in the cultural hall on Monday evenings. We invite an active family and a less active family and have had some good response. At this particular evening it was my job to tell the children about mama bear. As I began it soon became apparent that the kids had no clue what a bear was. I know, I know big problem and you should have seen me playing charades with them trying to describe a bear. You think that is funny? How would you describe a bear to someone who has no clue. Sister Patten saved the day and then went on to give a wonderful lesson about families. Sister Patten has such great love for these people. They really trust us and know that we love and respect them. Now that we have the new kit house we bring them in and we sit on the floor all over the place and they seem to like to be in our home.
This is Tannang. She is also wanting to serve a mission. She speaks English quite well but has not been a branch missionary for very long and has tattoos on her hand so we are hoping for the best. She will probably not be sent to an English speaking mission and we don't have any need at the present time for any more Kiribati sisters in the Marshall Island Majuro Mission. The last sister missionary sent from Christmas was prepared and her papers submitted before we got here. She has struggled greatly from the time that she went to the MTC and frankly I would not have sent her on a mission if I'd been here. We are having problems with the Kiribati sisters who are called to the MIMM. We have taught and hopefully impressed on these three girls that a mission is "hard work". No naps during the long day and have gone over and over what will be expected of them. Unfortunately many prospective missionaries here in the Pacific think of a mission as a great 24 or 18 month vacation with a stipend thrown in to boot. We will see how things work out
for Tannang. One of our favorite Kiribati missionaries came home a while ago. We had known her in Majuro and loved her to pieces. President Bleak interviewed her before she came home and I did when she arrived home and she came for about three weeks before she quit coming. She went to work at the catholic high school as a teacher and they conveniently keep her busy on Sunday and make sure that she is also busy during the week. Dealing with first generation members even if they have attended and lived at Moroni High School since they were twelve years old and then served a mission is a challange to say the least. I'm sure Heavenly Father takes that into consideration.

Christmas Island church on the right and cultural hall on the left.
These are our 5,000 gallon rainwater containers filled from the rain collected on the roof of the chapel. When we first came here we were told to not share water with anyone because it was for the missionaries. We let any member take some and figure if the Lord wants us to have water he'll send the rain. They are filled to overflowing right now.

We were cutting palm trees to make some timbers to build Daiken a new home. Yonei was the only one qualified to use the chain saw and he was barefooted which gave me a little concern. We ordered a chainsaw from the church building facilities when we first got here. Almost five months later I saw on at the island store and bought it. It saved hours the first time we used it.

a little stir crazy

I was fixing rice the other day for dinner. As I stood there rinsing and filling the pan with water then picking the little black bugs out of the rice water I suddenly stopped and said to myself, "self, you have been out here way to long because you don't even think this is unusual."
After a while you just kind of go with the flow. Go ahead and use the well water, it's quicker and I'm sure if we use it for cooking it probably gets hot enough to kill all of the bacteria and bugs. The rain water really doesn't need to be run through the purifier because I haven't seen any little wiggelies in it for awhile. Besides that they are only mosquito larvae. We've gotten so we just eat what's put in front of us and try not to think of how we know it's been prepared.
We are having a YSA get together tonite here at the church. We expect 35 and will have a barbaque per their request. As close as we can get to that will be fried chicken (thighs) we have come to enjoy thighs cause that's all they bring in. Potato salad, baked beans, chocolate cake and we splurged with 2.5 gallons of neopolitan ice cream for $24.50. We rounded up some good boot scooten music and we are going to dance.
On fridays we have started a movie after mutual volleyball. The first week we had ten kids, the second week we had about 20 and last nite we had over 30. We let them play some music and then at 7pm start the show. We love these kids. They don't really have much to look forward to so a little popcorn and candy seems to go a long ways to get next to them. We have even taught them how to put the wrappers into the garbage and put away the chairs.
We have been cooking most of the day except I took an hours break and went fishing for octypus with the branch president. We got four while I was with him and then I came back to kitchen duty. I told Lois that all this cooking was a pretty hard job and she just looked at me with that eye roll that she does so well.
The kit house is looking great. Sister Patten has painted and overseen the painting. (One painter kept re painting the trim that she had finished another color. We will look for linoleum on Monday as the ship from Tarawa has come. You would think they could unload at the dock but nooooooooo the dock wasn't built for most ships so they anchor in the bay and run the cargo in by skiff. We should be ready for some curtains to be put up next week.
Today the workers asked me how I wanted the front door to swing. I told them we wanted the front door to swing into the house and we wanted a screen door on the outside of the front door.
"We can't do that because the screen door has to be on the inside of Kiribati houses. " After further discussion that was leading nowhere I told them to do it how they wanted. The second counselor in the branch presidency was there and said " President Patten, you have to remember that you are not in America."I said thanks Arebonto, I would never have realized that if you hadn't reminded me.
We have come to not have any great expectations when it comes to time, etc. The elders quorum went out to move a man's house a few feet from where it was. That was tuesday and when we were assigned we were told it would be a 10 minute job for ten men. When we arrived it was a frame house with corragated tin all over it and would be a three day job for 50 men.
Was anyone upset? no, they all just laughed, I bought them a strawberry soda and they made arrangements to go back today. We told the owner to take the tin off before today and we would be back. I stopped by last nite and he hadn't done anything. I then went to the elders quorum president and reported that nothing had been done. He said "oh that's alright, we will go and help him take off the tin in the morning." They are just such laid back wonderful people.
I really don't think to many people die of heart attacks over here in the pacific. Diabetes mostly.
Life is good. Lots of things are happening in the mission. We get two new additional elders on the 20th of August. The president told us that lots of things are happening in the mission and reminded us that he had promised Sister Patten that he would only leave us out here at the maximum of nine months. We told him we loved it here and didn't want to be moved anywhere but who knows. At least a new couple would have a great home to live in. I think that is what missions are all about.
We love and miss you all. April, 2009 will be here before we know it.
We found that one of the contractors from Tarawa is married to a Mormon. His father in law is in the bishopric of a Tarawa ward. Sister Patten was all over that. She asked him if he'd ever taken the lessons and he said "yes for FHE" She has him set up with the missionaries to teach him the lessons before they return home on the 13th of August.
The YSA dinner and dance was well attended and a good time was had by all. I cried as I dished up $24.50 worth on neopolitan ice cream. We took some pictures and will post a few asap.