Week 80 - Abaiang (Companion: Elder Sagara)

Hey the fams 

Everything is going well here, we are busy. It's great to get to know everyone else on the southern part of Abaiang, we've made some really great friends. We also had a baptism last Saturday, nei Kaeaki, she's 36 yrs old and she has 6 children, 3 of which live with her. It was a lovely baptism and something she was very excited for. We aslo have some other baptisms coming in April. Also we have some success in the most southern village. When we first got there only 5-10 were coming to church but in the week that just went we had 25 attend. 

Sorry this is another short email, we have a lot of things happening on pdays, like fishing with members, service, and other fun stuff, we have a lot members from one end of the island to the other wanting us to do stuff with them. 

I tried doing something about school but I couldn't even set up an account to get started, the phone would just freeze. 

Aight love y'all

Elder Berends 

Week 78 - Abaiang (Companion: Elder Sagara)

Hey 

So about school stuff... I really gotaa do something about it. And yeah, I am thinking the BYU is the best option if I'm going to do film. So help a brotha\son out and let me know what I need to do, it kinda hard trying to do it all on a little mobile phone in abaiang like this. But I'm gonna do as much as I can from here. 

Anyways, the baptism was so good! Koriri, our recent convert from December did the baptism, he did an excellent job, hopefully we can get him on a mission. Katakua and tekaete were baptized 4th March Saturday afternoon just as the sun was setting. It was beautiful. They both bore testimony at the baptismal service and even the fast and testimony meeting the following day. In their testimonies they shared that they had never felt so close to their heavenly father before. They also shared their goals of going to the temple. So yeah that went really well. 

Just a short email this week, gonna get started with school stuff. 

Love Elder Berends

Week 76 - Abaiang (Companion: Elder Sagara)

Soooo...

Things are great here in abaiang, it is a lot of bike riding but I have accepted it as karma for having a car for the first 12+ months of my mission. We only have time to visit the most southern and most northern villages of abaiang once a week. And then every other village in between we have time to visit twice a week. Its been good fun and yes I have been feeling pretty fit lately. 

This Sunday we actually hired a motorbike because of how long the road is between the 3 places we do church at. Last Sunday we left our house at 9am and didn't get back until 6pm from doing church. So this week we just decided that we were going to motorbike to save time. 

However, when the bike came it turned out that Elder Sagara had no idea how to ride a motorbike with a clutch. So because I had experience driving a manual car, the responsiblity of riding the bike was handed to me. After a few sketchy starts I'd taught my self to ride a motorbike. So I'll have to get both a manual car and motorbike licence when I get back. Anyways, it was really helpful having the motorbike, we even had time to teach after doing church. 

We also have some awesome investigators right now, 2 of which just got married on Saturday and should be baptized on the 4 of March. Their names are Katakua and Tekaete. They're a younger couple (23&26) and Tekaete is actually pregnant and is expected to give birth in the coming weeks! So the Baptism my be interrupted. They are so sweet and have a goal to be sealed in the temple. And they travel the furthest to church out of any other member from the unit I Borotiam. They are so faithful. 

We have many other great couples that we are teaching, Tawita and Taakeuea being one of these. Elder Anderson and I tracted them a while a go and they are really investigating, they had so many questions about the book of mormon. We also have a lot if fun with them and their 2 young children. They've invited us to have dinner with them this Thursday which we are very excited about. But we'll have to pray hard for them because Taakeuea has a calling in the KUC (Kiribati united church) and they live right next to the KUC chapel, it will be tough for them. 

Anyways that's it from us. We are healthy and having fun.

Love Elder Berends