Jeff leaving us - the time went by too fast.
Our missionaries, Elder Rererita from Tarawa, Jeff, Elder Tupou
Bye Jeff, cry cry cry
Daiken and his familybrought shells for Jeff to take home and made a necklace out of some of them. Jeff couldn't take them all. Daiken really liked Jeff and wanted to give him something to remember him by. Two of our Young Women saw the shells on the table and wrote a note with them. "Patten, God bless you". The people here are so thoughtful and when they like you, they really like you. Elder Patten made sure that Daiken had a snorkeling set so he could see fish better and it would help him to feed his family. Jeff wanted to get him a spear gun for the octopus but he left before we could do that - we will see that he gets one soon. Daiken is a return missionary, one of the first on Christmas Island, he is about 50 years old. He has had a battle with alcohol and tobacco and has been in and out of church for a long time. We have visited him many times and the last time called him to repentance. Then Elder Patten said he wanted to have Daiken teach the Elders quorum lesson because he is an educated man and knows the gospel. So the Presidency agreed and he has been faithful in attendance and teaching wonderful lesssons. He has something to look forward too preparing his lessons and has stopped his use and is beginning to get some self esteem and confidence back . What a blessing, the Lord never gives up and neither should we.

Elders Quorum party, notice the chair I am sitting in, you won't see furniture like this anywhere else on the Island. This home is, Naitiniwa's, the Harbor Master. He has furniture and a very nice home for Christmas Island. Naitiniwa is sitting on the floor with his hands up. I was lucky to be at this party, maybe its because we made the cake and brought ice cream.
Independence Day festivities, the schools compete in their dancing. They really are beautiful dancers and the girls know how to make their hips work. The two boys standing in the third picture are directing the rest in music, singing and rhythm and they really know how to do it.

Beginning of the kit house, at least they got it square.
It stopped here until Salona came

And the work goes on, we were grateful for Salona expertise.

Jeff on the morning he left. He took most of the pictures but we managed these at the Christmas Island International Airport.
Elder Reireita Jeff and Elder Tupou. The elders loved Jeff and he had fun with them. Elder Reireita, the Kiribati elder is so inquisitive. When the security girl was checking Jeff's bag (She was quite interested in all of the zippers) Elder Reireita was right over there helping her zip and unzip the bag. If Osama yo momma ever wanted to get on an airplane to the USA, this would be the airport to do it. We noticed a honda 90 cruising along the runway the other day just as the Air Pacific was on his final apparoach.
Jeff stopped and took a picture of us taking a picture of him. It was hard to see him go and we felt a little homesick but then got back to it and we're fine now. Well, almost fine. Lois tells me I cry a lot in my sleep and say Mcdonald's double cheeseburger a lot since he left.
Thanks for the visit Jeff, it was great. Jeff brought us care packages. He thought he would be able to return home on the light side. When we came we brought enough drug store items to start a small pharmacy. We packed most of it up and sent it home with him. We don't plan on going home with much weight.

July 11, 2008

Friday July 11, 2008
Looks like some of the pictures we tried to get on the blog last time didn’t work so we will try again. That is Elder Patten’s job. We have taken more pictures and of course, there is much more to tell. The Elders Quorum Party was last Saturday and so we went around the
Villages with Arebonto to invite Elders to come. It soon became apparent as we also invited the wives that they were not invited. Arebonto said “oh yes, yes they are invited but it is to cook”. It is truly an Elders Quorum Party, no women but actually it was nice. At first I thought “hey wait a minute”, but you know, it’s their party and they did a good job. It was a progressive dinner and at each house, they opened with prayer, sang a song, and gave a talk on the priesthood. The women didn’t seem to mind, they said “Oh we have our Relief Society Party”. Another Christmas Island experience.
We sent Salona home on the Wednesday flight, he is the contractor from Tarawa that came in to save the day on the kit house. He certainly did that, he discovered that some of the material was missing from the kit and will have to be flown in. He also had to recalculate the roof because the plans they had did not match. What a great job he did getting this project up again. The roof is on and most of the framing is done. We will send a picture.
Jeff flew in on the same plane that Salona flew out on and it was so good to see him. Yes, it does make us homesick but it is worth it. We have enjoyed visiting with him so much. Independence Week started on Monday so it is a big deal here. Celebrations going on each day and evening. The little couple that we taught the dancing to, won and so she is now “ Miss Christmas Island” and guess what, her highest scores were on the dancing. We were there last night or rather this morning until l:30 A.M., it got started about five hours late (island time) and went on and on. They have a competition for 10 year old girls as well and one of our LDS girls did really well, I don’t know if she won yet because we left before all of that but I wouldn’t be surprised if she did, she danced so cute in her grass skirt and answered all the questions correctly. It was fun to work with them, the girl is already LDS but can’t come to church because her Grandmother, who is lives with, is KPC and won’t let her. So we have some work to do with the Grandma. The young man who danced with her is not LDS but the missionaries have talked to him and have an appointment so we will see. Actually his Father is LDS but doesn’t come to church because he is the Principle of the KPC school and would lose his job is he came to church. It is really hard here to find jobs but I guess they need to make a choice.
Jeff has been fishing two times, was going to go octopus hunting with Takin and scuba diving but a fishing trip interfered and so he didn’t get all of it in. I think he enjoyed living in the little Kia Kia and showering with the land craps. He spoke in Sacrament meeting two times – here and out in Banana and also blessed the sacrament in Banana and even taught an English class with us. Our two missionaries had fun with him and the people loved him and brought gifts for him when he left. Jeff has gone home now, it was hard to see him go but we will get back to work and there is a lot to do.
It is Sunday again another busy Sunday we always have two Branches to attend and together we had 200 people in church. After dinner we visited a family here and invited them over for home evening tomorrow and will try to get another family to join us. We would like to work our way around the island and continue to bring them in if they will come.
The kit house is coming along and the contractors have only about 9 days left to finish it and then they will have to go home. I hope they get it done. That has been an interesting experience. We will put pictures up if the blog will let us, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. It is good to hear all that you kids are doing – it sounds like a very busy summer for all of you. Will continue to work hard and do whatever needs to be done. Every week we find more and more that needs to be done, like we discovered two days ago that the tithing settlement and report has never been finished or turned in. They need a lot of training and just as we think we have it done, there is more. I have been meeting with the YW Pres. and we are getting the New Beginnings started here – also the Primary needs to start working on their Sacrament Meeting program, I don’t think they have ever done that before. I think we will have two more missionaries here in August and then it will help to baptize this island. The KPC’s and Catholics won’t know what hit them. We actually could use three sets of missionaries and have room for them but we will see. Sometimes I feel like I am living a dream out here and one morning I will wake up in Salt Lake City and it will be all over, never to return again so we need to work hard and do what the Lord expects of us while we are here. Its all good, we are good and you all are good. What a blessing. We love you all, thank you for your prayers, we feel them and I hope you feel ours for you because they are offered many times each day.

This is what we have accomplished since Wednesday on the kit house. The Church sent a physical facilities man from Tarawa on the airplane and he has got things rolling. We are planning to move into this house. I told Sister Patten to not ever say that I didn't have a home built for her. She even talked Salona into making a couple of changes in the design.

Sister Motete homecoming/Tokah's birthday

We celebrated Tokah's 19th birthday party here at the house. She is the one front center in the red. I guess we started something because now all of the girls want that same treatment.
These pictures were taken at the airport welcoming Sister Motete home from her mission. We served with her in Majuro and were very happy to see her again. She is the girl in the black blouse. She is experiencing the returned missionary blues just a little. For 18 months she lived in a nice apartment, ate well and had a monthly stipend while she was on her mission. She comes home to a simple hut that the family can't even sleep in. The rest of the family is Catholic so they sleep in the Catholic maneaba along with 50 plus other families. We let her come and wash her clothes at our place. Her mother tells her every day that she belongs to an "evil church" and her mother and the nuns want her to teach at the Catholic High School. Jobs are almost non existant and we worry about her. We are trying to get her into BYUHawaii. She will probably be able to go to BYU with a Sponsor scholarship but will have to go to Fiji to get a visa and then on to Hawaii. That will cost about $2500 and the family is so poor they won't be any help. The non member parents love to let the Church educate their children and send them on missions all the while telling all who will listen about the "evil church" The ironic thing is that if you ask most of them what they believe they have no clue. A wonderful friend that we love emailed us last week and said that she had been talking to her cousin who isn't a member about the Church. She sent us a list of questions that she wanted answered so she could help her cousin understand about the church. The standard questions, Why did Heavenly Father withhold the priesthood from the blacks until 1978, Is Revalations really the last book of the New Testiment, Why did Heavenly Father o.k. polygamy, etc. I wrote back and gave her my answer to her questions. "In the early spring of 1820 a simple, uneducated farm boy knelt in prayer and ask for an answer to a question. In answer to his simple prayer the heavens were opened and he saw God, our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. In that moment the world was changed forever." I don't know why Heavenly Father withheld the priesthood from the blacks until 1978, I don't know why the book of Revelation shows up as the last book in the New Testament and I don't know why Heavenly Father authorized polygamy as he had done at times throughout the ages and then withdrew the practice of it. What I know in my heart is that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and if that is true then everything else doesn't matter. This church is the Church of the Restoration. We belong to the restored Church that Christ established when he lived upon this earth. We teach our people on Christmas Island that all of the other churches are good and do good works and we should never say unkind things about others but we belong to the Lord's true church here upon the earth and we are grateful for that knowledge. David's son Matt just received his mission call to the Nevada Las Vegas West mission. We are so pleased that he has chosen to serve a mission. We just returned from an Elder's quorum get together. Speaking for myself, the octypus and raw and cooked wahoo was wonderful. The canned corned beef and tomato soup over rice didn't especially hit the spot. We love these people.