Mauri,
In answer to your question about celebrations here, nothing is really big in Kiribati except for Independence day, apparently everyone just gets drunk, so it just makes problems for us.
Still haven't been tracting. To be honest most of our investigators and converts we just stumble upon. Ioriki, one of our new investigators, we met at church and we found out he wasn't even baptized. Most investigators come from members giving us the referral which is a blessing, and others are just people we see around and we end up asking if they want lessons.
Our investigators who are going really good right now is Eretii (baptism next week), Ioriki, Kano, Terima, Kabitouare, Manikoti and Earitabeta.
Earitabeta has been an investigator since the Elder before us, her husband is already baptized but was less active. When we first started teaching everything was going well, she was progressing up until we needed her to come to church. We tried to get her husband to take her but they would never show up on Sunday. Senior couple duties became our duties and we got so busy that we were visiting her less and less. It got to a point that we hadn't visited her in a month, which really sucked. We decided that she would be priority about 2 weeks ago because she was so good except for attending church.
In answer to your question about celebrations here, nothing is really big in Kiribati except for Independence day, apparently everyone just gets drunk, so it just makes problems for us.
Still haven't been tracting. To be honest most of our investigators and converts we just stumble upon. Ioriki, one of our new investigators, we met at church and we found out he wasn't even baptized. Most investigators come from members giving us the referral which is a blessing, and others are just people we see around and we end up asking if they want lessons.
Our investigators who are going really good right now is Eretii (baptism next week), Ioriki, Kano, Terima, Kabitouare, Manikoti and Earitabeta.
Earitabeta has been an investigator since the Elder before us, her husband is already baptized but was less active. When we first started teaching everything was going well, she was progressing up until we needed her to come to church. We tried to get her husband to take her but they would never show up on Sunday. Senior couple duties became our duties and we got so busy that we were visiting her less and less. It got to a point that we hadn't visited her in a month, which really sucked. We decided that she would be priority about 2 weeks ago because she was so good except for attending church.
We finally met with her but she straight up said she didn't want to be baptized. She said she saw no point in coming to church or quitting smoking. She told us that she knew we cared about her but she didn't want lessons any more. It sucked but we said we were going to keep visiting, not for lessons but just to be friends.
So a couple days after that day we returned and we just started having fun, playing guitar, singing, played this fun song game and then we left with not even a spiritual thought. Then, to our surprise, with out even asking, her and her husband came to church! with their 3 kids. They stayed for the whole of sacrament meeting but left straight after.
During that week we had a dinner with them, so we were hoping that we could share a spiritual thought because something must have sparked inside her to come to church. However, we get to the dinner and she wouldn't eat with us because she was busy. So we were confused.
But again to our surprise, her whole family came to church yesterday! They sat for the whole of sacrament meeting and again she left straight after, but we caught her before she left and set a time to meet with her after church.
So, after church we go to her house, opened with prayer and asked how her testimony was and asked if something changed because she's been coming to church. And she told us she wants to be baptized now! She said she really can feel something good when she comes to church with her whole family. She gained her testimony of the importance of coming to church! It was such a special moment. It was a blessing to see her go from no faith to wanting to become closer to her Heavenly Father.
So yeah that really was cool to see this week, and she should be baptized this week.
Well, that's it from me, I feel like I just wrote a pretty solid email, but the grammar is probably wack... sorry. (don't worry, we fixed it for him :)
So a couple days after that day we returned and we just started having fun, playing guitar, singing, played this fun song game and then we left with not even a spiritual thought. Then, to our surprise, with out even asking, her and her husband came to church! with their 3 kids. They stayed for the whole of sacrament meeting but left straight after.
During that week we had a dinner with them, so we were hoping that we could share a spiritual thought because something must have sparked inside her to come to church. However, we get to the dinner and she wouldn't eat with us because she was busy. So we were confused.
But again to our surprise, her whole family came to church yesterday! They sat for the whole of sacrament meeting and again she left straight after, but we caught her before she left and set a time to meet with her after church.
So, after church we go to her house, opened with prayer and asked how her testimony was and asked if something changed because she's been coming to church. And she told us she wants to be baptized now! She said she really can feel something good when she comes to church with her whole family. She gained her testimony of the importance of coming to church! It was such a special moment. It was a blessing to see her go from no faith to wanting to become closer to her Heavenly Father.
So yeah that really was cool to see this week, and she should be baptized this week.
Well, that's it from me, I feel like I just wrote a pretty solid email, but the grammar is probably wack... sorry. (don't worry, we fixed it for him :)
btw, I went on splits with Elder Peeti on Wednesday (kain Gisborn, NZ), such a cool guy, he was the missionary you guess met on skype. Anyways, he's hunted in the same area we hunted in NZ and he and his Dad hunt with dogs! He was telling me stories, it sounds like so much fun. And Elder Peeti has done some solo hunting as well which sounds so sweet. (Oh, and he just found out he's becoming AP so he's heading to Marshall's and will have to learn another language!)
So yeah, some big changes going down in Kiritimati. I'm excited.
Love you all,
love Elder Berends
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