Email 21 December 2015
Hey Family,
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.
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
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