Week 98 - Betio 1st, Tarawa (Companion: Elder Sheffield)

"Hey mum,

I'm sorry but I just got a computer right now, and it's time to go home and teach some lessons, but i'll let you know the work here is amazing, we should be getting a new investigator tonight, we have so much work right now. I'll see you in 3 weeks."

And that was all I got this week, although he did send emails to his bother Rhys who received his mission call last Monday. Rhys has been assigned to labour in the Korea Seoul mission, reporting to the MTC Provo on 31st October 2017. Elder Berends leaves Tarawa on 21 August and gets home 22 August 2017. We will have two and a bit months all together.

Week 97 - Betio 1st, Tarawa (Companion: Elder Sheffield)

Not much in the email this week ... he is certainly starting to feel the separation from the Kiribati people already.

"My week is great, had another baptism on Saturday, Nei Tekai. We have so many teaching appointments, I'm working with Elder Sheffield. Pdays are for visiting recent converts in my old area. Work here is going great, I'm glad I'm finishing this way. And I'm so excited to hear about Rhys's calling.

Week 96 - Betio 1st, Tarawa (Companion: Elder Sheffield)

Oi,

What's up? This weeks been great. There are some changes in Betio, since Elder Kitchens leaving there was a transfer that went down. Elder Tiakia is now with Elder Sagapolu and I'm with Elder Sheffield (from Utah). He's actually a missionary from Marshall Islands but moved over to this side of the mission 3 months ago. 

It was really sad watching Elder Kitchens leaving, it was hard for him. 

Lots of work here in Betio, keeping myself busy. Still struggling with the ward but little by little. We did finally get a new Ward Mission Leader, he's awsome, just moved from Temaiku. I'm excited to work with him. 

I'm sorry, losing the desire to email, but don't worry, I've been keeping my journal up to date. I'll tell you all about it in 5 weeks. 

Vaughan!! Happy birthday, it's Independence day here in Kiribati, so we've been celebrating over here as well. 

Love you all. I have 1 bubuti... please don't make a banner for when I get home. 

Elder Berends 

Week 94 - Betio 1st, Tarawa (Companion: Elder Taylor)

Hey family,

So I'm super relieved that BYU-H application is over and done with, now I can get right back to work here in Betio 1st. The new ward is going fairly well, there is so much work here except the ward has a similar problem to Betio 3rd ward, little support for missionary work. We still haven't got a ward mission leader and its been 4 weeks now! As for the work, it is awesome, I'm hoping to have baptisms lined up for the next 7 Saturdays starting from 1st of July. 

So we had a baptism on the 1st of July, Harriet a 15 year old boy who is a student at Moroni High School. This coming Saturday we'll have 2 of our people baptized, Nei Meere (who is also a student at Moroni, and her Dad was a Branch President in an outer island) and Nei Uente (21yrs). 

So Nei Uente has had lessons a long time ago but was never baptized because of her family being very strong Catholic's, mainly her mother (father is absolutely fine with it, he's actually had lessons as well). We picked her up over a month ago and she was happy to listen again, but a couple of weeks ago she got in to a fight with her mother and was forbidden to take lessons with us again. she came to the house to tell us what happened, it was pretty disappointing. 

However, that same day she then heard from people that her real Mother and twin brother who she hadn't seen for years had just arrived in Betio from Maiana. She went to go visit them and told them what had happened between her and her step mother, when her real mother and twin brother heard they started to laugh... It turns out that her mother and twin brother had just join the church only months before in Maiana! So Nei Uente that night came to the chapel to tell what happened and said she's now determined to continue her lessons and be baptized. It was definitely an answers to prayers.

 

In weeks to come we have others lined up for baptism, Taareti, Tooreti, Tekai, Ueatau, Rutia and many other new investigators. We also have some couples that we are working on, Baiteke and Nei Bunterenga. We just have to get them married and finish their lessons. Tiiu and Nei Jiji is another couple, Nei Jiji just gave birth to a baby girl last week so we haven't had a chance to teach them for a while but we visited them in the hospital. Also have 2 other couples we literally started teaching this week we'll see how they go. 

So yeah, plenty of work to keep me busy.

Other news is we moved house. We moved from the Betio 3rd chapel house to a huge brick house that is closer to our area. It's a house that the mission has just started renting so we get to break it in. Funny thing is it's bigger than our house in Brisbane (67 Galsworthy) with 3 huge rooms and an even bigger living room. It has 3 queen size beds and 2 normal beds, all of which we do not use. We all just sleep on the living room floor. It's still us 4 elders working in Betio, Elders Kitchen, Tiakia, Taylor and I but Kitchens is leaving next week for America so there'll be a change soon. 

Alright, I think that's it.

Love Elder Berends

Week 91 - Betio 1st, Tarawa (Companion: Elder Taylor)

Hey fams,

It was funny hearing about Dad's and Rhys's hunting trip, also a bit worried about Mum's trip to the hospital but I'm glad everything is fine. And Vaughan... I love you too. 

Things have been good this week, Its been a little bit of a struggle since we are new to the ward, not yet familiar with people, however, having dinner with families will help out there. Currently we have very few investigators, so we have been doing a lot of tracting. 

We had some great success in this one house. We were originally going to teach just this one couple, Ten Jihu and Nei Jiji. We introduced our selves, explained a little of what we do as missionaries, l opened in prayer and started teaching. As we just got started teaching we had two girls walk up to the house with one saying "This girl wants to take lessons". The other was a less active member. So I was like "No problem". I thought it was important before we continued the lesson we already had going with Jihu and Jiji, that we introduce ourselves to the the new comer, who's name was Nei Bunterenga. After introductions we were about to continue the lesson when the less active girl comes back with another guy who wants to listen to the lesson, so for the third time we introduced our selves and finally got on with the lesson. We all got on well with each other and they invited us back for lessons as well as dinner on Tuesday night. It was sweet, and they're all couples and that's what we want. 

So yeah, that's how the work is right now, it's not hard finding people who are happy to listen, the only problem is finding people who want to investigate . Just wish we received more referrals from members, which is tough since we don't know the members yet. Little by little.

So i'll see what I can do about Grandad's birthday thing, i'll send it next week. A'ight, love ya'lls

Elder Berends

Week 90 - Betio 1st, Tarawa (Companion: Elder Taylor)

Hey,

So there's changes in Betio right now, Betio 3rd right now has no missionaries and Elder Taylor and I have been moved to Betio 1st ward and we are 'white washing' (both of us are new to the area). I wasn't very happy about that but there are reasons ... I'm not going to be trunky. We don't sing "I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord" for nothing, and as usual I'll fall in love with my new area, just got to get through the first few weeks of not knowing anybody. 

The work here is great, we have plenty of investigators .... 

So yesterday was the first time at church in our new ward, Betio 1st, it was fast and testimony meeting so it was a perfect opportunity to introduce myself. After church was ward council which gave me some confidence in the ward and the bishopric. I actually mentioned one of our investigators, Kiaiai (who's 69yrs old) in our meeting and Bishop along with 2 other priesthood leaders offered to come with us and visit him that afternoon. It was a great lesson! I'm excited for what there is to come. 

So that's the update of what's going on in Betio. I'm so happy to hear that Rhys has his papers in, so stoked man! The mission will teach you a lot. 

School stuff... I've prayed about it and I don't think a film course is what I should do, so my only idea is business, and BYU Hawaii sounds sick. An interesting place with plently of opportunities to make some sweet films for fun. So the dream is studying business or something else at BYU Hawaii. I don't really need anything right now in parcel thanks. 

That's all,

Elder Berends