Mauri my family,
Sounds like it was a fun weekend for you all, those posing photos made me laugh, you guys are lame :P
And happy 45th birthday mum! Hope you enjoyed your day and I'll try my best in this email but I think you already know I suck at writing, and sorry I can't send you's photos, but all well.... Tiaki taina I'm thinking of borrowing a camera and recording a short video, hopefully the internet will be fast enough to send it.
Um, still no companions for all of us on Kiritimati, Elder's Miller (my comp) and Johnson (Darm's comp) made it to Fiji but didn't get on the plane to Kiritimati on Wednesday. We have no idea why but when we went to pick them up from the airfield they didn't get off the plane.
However, this massive white guy got off, dressed in church clothes and came to us for help. He was the Pacific Area Facility Manager, and he had brought a PA system for the chapel here. We had no idea he was coming, but we helped him take the PA system to the chapel he checked out all the church buildings here. It was all kinda of bazaar, but that's kind of how it is here... Limited communication, responsibilities you would never think you would have on a mission. Oh, and while he was here, He was like, "I know I shouldn't do this but you wanna here some new songs?" it was so weird... There was this song by Justin Bieber and it was actually pretty good. Its weird to think that I will miss all these popular songs and viral videos and fads.
But yeah, no companions.
I already told you last week that since having no companion, has forced me to grow, but the growth continues. I have really been focusing on how I teach and interact with investigators, and now, I really strive for "teaching people, not lessons". I have been trying so hard to teach for understanding and really push the investigator to ask questions, and since I've started doing this, the relationship between me and the investigators has been so much better. I'm really getting to know them all better and their concerns and I guess teaching I'm more like Christ.
I hope none of that sounded like cockiness, and if it is, I'm waiting for the Lord to chop me down and humble me.
I'm not saying that I've become master teacher, but I'm definitely feel a lot better with my teaching skills considering that I thought I would never become a good teacher. And I'll probably still be really bad at teaching in English because I'm way more comfortable teaching in Kiribati.
Only working 3 days in my area this week, 3 really good days. taught some new people who I'm really excited for. I'll talk about them a little.
Nikiraa, 17yrs, is this hard core catholic girl, and I see her around everywhere with this fat cross around her neck. But recently she has been playing volleyball at the chapel and started sitting in on some of our baptismal services. We had been asking if she wanted lessons for a while, and she keeps saying I'll think about it. And now finally she decided to sit in on one of our lessons with Nikinam (fairly new investigator as well). We were teaching the Restoration, a pretty hefty first lesson for a hard core catholic. So we started with Christ's work on the Earth... Establishing his church. and then we started to explain the Apostasy.
I thought things were going to get heated but they didn't. She had questions but they weren't intimidating, just honest, earnest questions. We continued to the restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, and she listened all the way through. After the lesson we asked if she wanted to continue and she said she would think about it.
I didn't see her until later this week at the chapel and asked if she wanted to continue and she gave me a confident yes, so I'm really excited for her. Not sure if she's promising yet, but she's definitely thinking about things.
There's also this older guy, Uatebe, 50-55ish, he has been having lessons for ever and just never made it to baptism. Sunday was the first I had ever had a lesson with him. I heard earlier that all of a sudden he really wants to go to the Temple. So I went to go and visit with a YSA and he was studying from Ana Boki Moomon, Baibara, and a temple preparation booklet! We talked, got to know his hopes, which was to be sealed to his family and live a better life. We set a plan to be baptized on the 19th or the 26th. and he was really excited. He is such a cool guy. I never thought that I would be able to keep a conversation with him because he is almost triple my age and he is massive but talked about carpentry, what its like to be on a mission, how the church is going in other countries...
I'd love to talk about all the investigators and members, they are all so cool and I'd hate to leave Kiritimati right now. But yeah that's all I have. Hope it was a good Birthday email for you Mum.
sweet, Laters...
Love Elder Berends
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