Thursday 24 December 2015

Week 14 - Kiritimati

Email 21 December 2015

Hey Family,

All this change sounds so exciting! the new house sounds so sick, you guys are living like kings, but so am I! Elder Afatasi and I are living in the senior couples house in Kiritimati, it is possibly the sweetest house in Kiribati. We have two air conditioning units, a nice kitchen, big mattresses and hot showers. But to be honest I cant wait to live in rough living conditions. 

Seeing the pictures of Rhys in New Zealand is making me so jealous, it sounds like such a fun trip they have planned. and Vaughan! please do something cool.

This week in Kiritimati has been a really good one, it started slow because we had Senior Couple duties, of course. I had to do a lot of scanning of tithing slips and weekly disbursement for all the branches to be sent to Tarawa. But after we got that all done we had some really successful days, taught a lot of lessons, 3 new investigators and 5 investigators prepared for baptism for December 26th. 

We were meant to have a whole family baptized but Tatonga fell, he got drunk. We came to visit after Margret, his wife, told us the news. It was really good to talk to him with his wife and kid, Rooti. He was telling us he had no desire to drink again and was truly sorry and he really wanted to baptized, so we are pushing his date to the 2nd of January, but his family will still be baptized on the 26th. I felt really bad having them baptized on different days, however, after thinking about it more, I think having him see his family be baptized will really strengthen his desire to change and work towards a eternal family.
 
On Saturday, there was a "fat" party/dance at the chapel. All the branches from the district have been practicing for weeks for this dance. Elder Afatasi learnt the dance for our branch a couple of days before so he was dancing. It was a really good activity and we had lots of our investigators attend, but things got weird. 

In the Kiribati Dancing culture, they get really into it, especially the people singing for the dance. They get so into it that they believe a spirit takes them over and they can't control them selves, so right in the middle of some of the performances there would be ladies who were singing, start screaming and shaking so hard until it looks like they're about to pass out.
 
It was a crazy day, but it finished on a really good note. Our investigator, Fred, who had been taught since Elder Openshaw was here, got baptized. His uncle, who is also the District President, baptized him and it was such a great moment, he is so prepared and I can see him receiving the priesthood soon. To make things better the sunset was perfect, but my camera is out of action.

My parcel has not arrived but we got an email from Tarawa saying there are a lot of parcels going to Tarawa that are meant for Kiritimati, so it's probably in Tarawa waiting for me. For the camera battery stuff, ask Elder Osborne's mum how she posted her parcels because they all made it to him.
 
Skype should be good, power might cut out sometimes and internet is sketchy but should be good.
 
Love you guys heaps,
Elder Berends




Sunday 13 December 2015

Week 13 - Kiritmati

Hey guys,


This week has been a lot more successful, we actually had a couple of full working days with out banks and bills getting in the way. However, we were not successful with the bills, they are now 1 week over due. We were unable to get the money because Elder Afatasi doesn't yet have his name under the accounts to be able to sign cheques so we are just waiting for that confirmation from Tarawa.


Sounds like you'll be leaving the ward at exciting times for your YW's mum. How is Red, is he apart of the family yet? Have you planned any hunts for Red yet? I haven't been counting the weeks but it must be around week 13 because I heard the new intake from the MTC arrived last week. 


My crocs are going great, Elder Afatasi says he's had his crocs since day one and he only has less than 2 months.
.......

Okay well power just died and I was using basic HTML so that it runs faster but that also means that it doesn't save drafts automatically. So when the power died I lost everything I hadn't saved... which was a lot, sorry. But basically I was talking about all the success we had, 8 investigators came to church, several less active as well, 2 baptisms are going down this Saturday for Kaboruru and Reite, and at least another 4 will be baptized on 19 Dec, including Tatonga, his wife and child.


People have been saying I'm getting the language really fast but I feel I have a reeeeeaaally long way to go. Sorry that it's not a very good email, but there are people waiting for their turn so laters.







Love you au Utu

Love Elder Berends




Thursday 3 December 2015

Week 12 - Kiritimati

HEY!

Sounds like it was a fun week besides packing. And those cakes look the bomb! (We had a ward activity, a cake auction. Members make and decorate cakes for judging, participating in activities to earn monopoly money and then we auction off the cakes at the end of the evening. It was lots of fun! And we had over 20 investigators, friends and non-member family attend.) 


Kam bwati n te kuka! 






And it blows me away that people at work are still going on about me, I feel like I didn't do anything to deserve all their kindness, but tell my St Vinnies crew I love them.

What kind of new work opportunities are you looking for mum? And the change will be fun and scary and stressful, but fun! It doesn't feel right give you advice mum because your 101x wiser than me but, just go with the flow and learn something from it.

I'm back in Tabwakea this week because Elder Afatasi got back from Fanning on Tuesday. On Wednesday it rained HARD the whole day, 70% of Kiritimati must have been under a couple of inches of water (this is not a fact). Elder Afatasi came to pick me up from London and we spent that wet day moving into the senior couple's house. We got news from President that the Siemons (previous senior couples on Kiritimati, Elder Siemons needed surgery) weren't returning and that Elder Afatasi needed to be in the SC house to do SC duties. So on top of Elder Afatasi being District Leader we are also Senior Couples/Office Elders/Airport Elders...and none of the Bills are paid (due today) and there's lots of reports and scanning to be done.


So this week has been kinda lame, we have only taught 5 lessons since being back in Tabwakea and the Baptisms that were meant to happen on the 28th didn't because of the Fanning trip. I can not wait for all this paper work to be over so we can get investigators prepared.

We did, however, end our week on a very good/happy note. On Sunday, investigators Tatonga and Markreta got married! We had a nice little service in the Chapel for them, had lots of member present and there was a Bootaki (gathering) with so much food! They have so many friends from the church now. Next step will be a Baptism for them and their oldest daughter on the 12th of December, then a trip to the temple hopefully. I have no idea how we can get them to the temple, plane tickets are so expensive, but hopefully one day.

We had 8 investigators at church as well, which was such a surprise because he hadn't had lessons with most of them yet. But that just goes to show that they're ready for baptism.

Well hopefully next week I'll be able to see some more action. I love you guys! Have fun on your Kiritimati holidays!

Love Elder Berends