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
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