Sounds like everyone is healthy apart from dying of heat. Rhys looks so old, and I see that Vaughan's feet are big enough to fit in dads shoes! Are all the boys officially taller than Mum and Dad?
So lots of questions about the minister and how the relationships between religions are going. I'm sad to say that our minister in our village just has too much of an ego. We passed him twice while biking and he completely ignored us. I'm still going to try, but I'm realising its going to take a lot more than just trying to work with other leaders of churches. It will be through small and simple acts.
So latley I've found a new appreciation for tracting. Before I just saw it as trying to get new investigators and even if they let us share our message but didn't accept a return appointment I felt that it was a waste of time. But now I see tracting as something more, as an opportunity to correct misunderstandings about the church of Jesus Christ, to bare witness of our Saviour and to leave the spirit in their homes. Even if we don't get a return appointment I feel as though we have accomplished something towards bettering this society.
For example just the other day we tracted this old lady and asked her if she was happy to listen to a message about Jesus Christ. The first thing she said was "bwa ngai kain te kamatu" (but I'm from the Protestant church). So I told her that's fine and that we just wanted to share a message about Jesus Christ, and so we did. We taught about the Godhead, emphasizing the divinity of the Saviour, Jesus Christ and encouraged her to pray to her Father in Heaven in the name of Jesus Christ everyday. Even though she wasn't interested in continuing lessons with us, she was very thankful for our message and we knew the spirit was present.
Actually, right before we left we noticed that the platform of her buia has very old and had holes in it. So we told her that we'd come with a lot of baa (the hard middle part of the coconut leaf) to replace the old. She laughed because apparently seeing white missionaries do Kiribati work like "raeba" is funny. But the next morning we went into the bush with some youth to gather baa for her buia. It was good fun.
Anyways some news.. big changes here on Abaiang, transfers happened calling my son (Elder Anderson) to a different place, as well as one of the Elders (Elder Hilliard) working on the southern part of Abaiang, leaving Elder Sagara (kain Papua New Guinea) I to work the whole island. We have a lot of work now, Abaiang is a long island and we have investigators going from the most northern village to the most southern village. Lots of bike riding on dusty roads. I used to be able to wear the same white shirts 2 days in a row with out it getting too dirty. But now we just look horrid by the end of the day. It's good fun though, Elder Sagara is a lot of fun to work with and I'm grateful for the chance to meet people from the other half of the island.
So yeah that about it, loving it here.
Love y'all
Elder Berends
