This is an email Smith wrote to his grandmother, more details on how they live on the island.  He never answered if he has power or not. 

Dear Grammy,

Vanuatu is great. You are right that this country is poor. Even though it's poor, I love it! It teaches you to be thankful for what you've got here.  The people are so great and I love it here. Things were once again slow but I had my first baptism and I performed it!  We found out that we will be able to go back to Port Resolution so we will be able to teach a lot more. But we found out that my companion is going to be transferred.  It's sad but my new companion is a native I've heard. I will meet him in a couple days.

Just so you know, we don't have running water. Our home used to.  Someone should be coming to fix it though.  We have a big water tank outside where we fill buckets up with water. We have a hand pump connected to a filter for drinking water. It rains here enough that we will never run out.  We use a bucket of water and a cup to shower.  Once we get the water fixed we can use the shower head. It's a nice little home though. It's not very clean and you see cockroaches every once and a while, but I don't care. It's perfect for me and my companion and I'm happy to be living in it. Thanks for your emails and know that you're loved!

Love,

Elda Beynon  

Hi, this is Shauna!  Information for anyone that wants to send Smith a Christmas Package.  Sounds like he wants candy: Mini Reeses, Carmello Bar, Crunch Bar, Reeses, Snickers, Chips Ahoy Chewy Cookies, Oreo Cookies, Gummy Bears (Haribo), Polar Ice gum (Extra).

He would also love emails, or even hand written letters, or pictures from your kids.  

The address for sending packages is on the blog.  Just make sure you use the right address for packages.  The address for sending letters is different, it's the one with the p.o. box.

Also packages can be quite expensive.  I recently sent him a package through the postal service, they have a flat international rate box.  It was probably 3 inches high by 5 inches wide.  It was about $20.  So just send him something small if you want to. If it's too big, the missionaries have to pay extra fees to claim their packages.  Please email me if you have questions: shaunamama1022@gmail.com

Thanks for all your love and support.  Love to all!

Week 7 Island of Tanna

Newest Letter, November 17, 2013

Dear Beautiful Mother Dear,

Sounds like that heart Concert was Awesome! I'm jealous! I could listen to Ann Wilson for a long time as well. She has such a cool voice! (Shauna went to the Heart concert last weekend). I wish I was able to go to Kendra's Birthday Party though, that would have been awesome.  Things are still slow in Saet Siwi but I had my first baptism last Saturday! It was so cool! And on Sunday I was able to Ordain a boy a Deacon.

The language is really coming on well and the teaching is good.  The sad part is that this week is transfer week and we found out that Elda Langi will be transferred.  My new companion will be Elda Samuel. He's a native which is really cool.  I will meet him in a day or two. I don't want Elda Langi to leave but it's all part of the mission.

The good news is that we are able to go to Port Resolution again! Yesterday(Sunday) we had church in Saet Siwi and after church we walked all the way to Port Resolution and held a sacrament meeting there. I was able to bless the Water in Bislama! It was fun to help with the sacrament again.  Know that I am happy and everything is great! I hope you are doing well and not stressing too much while I'm gone. I love you sooooooooooo much!
  

O.k. here is a little christmas list.

If possible, I want a speaker for me to play church music and stuff.  I put the one that I want on my amazon wish list. If you end up buying a different one, it needs to have a SD card or USB reader.  Besides the speakers, I just want candy and cookies. Especially CHOCOLATE!, such as Mini Reeses, Carmello chocolate bars, Crunch bar, snickers, whatever you want to get me. I would like cookies such as Chips Ahoy (chewy), oreos, you know me, I love sweet stuff. Gum would be nice, my favorite gum is "Extra Polar Ice".  Gummy Bears and Gummy worms sound good too.I just need some sweets to last me for a while, they have candy here but it's different and expensive. Oh and if you didn't already send my flash drive and hard drive, that would be great.

Just so you know I will send you guys a christmas package at the beginning of next month when my payment comes.  Remember to not open it till christmas! (I put two pairs of shoes in there that I don't need until I get back so if you can put those in my room after you open it that would be great!

Thanks so much mom! I love you and thank you for everything you have done for me. Know that you are loved and I am loving my mission!

Love, 

Elda Beynon

Baptism Day

Climbing my first coconut tree (doesn't make my mom nervous AT ALL)

Baptism Day

My first baptism

Hiking to the Volcano with some kids Nov 2013

Smith at the top of Mt. Yasur

Week 6 Island of Tanna Nov 4, 2013

Dear Friends and Family,

You get to hear from me again because we are having another district meeting!  We ended up going back to Mt. Yasur last week and it was better than the first time.  There were big expolsions of lava and it was loud and really cool.  Speaking of the volcano, I forgot to tell you that we had a little earthquake a few weeks ago.  Me and Elda Langi were doing our companion study when all of a sudden the table and door started shaking.  It was pretty cool.  Teaching wise, it was another slow week.  We only got about 1 lesson a day.  We did however get one of our investigators interviewed for baptism.  I think we will baptize her this Saturday.  We had a kid named Kadem hang out with us all week.  He was our member present when we taught.  He is a great kid and we are already friends.  Even though it was a slow week, things are still going great! 

I started speaking the language a lot more this week.  On Wednesday, it just clicked.  Me and my companion did a role play and I knew exactly what to say!  I was able to teach a few lessons in the language this week as well.  I said the opening prayer at church in Bislama yesterday and I also bore my testimony in Bislama. It was really cool.   The gift of tongues is a very real thing. 

The kids in Saet Siwi are awesome.  They are so much fun to play with.  The people are so friendly.  Me and Elda Langi walked down to Koromanu and some people were playing Volleyball and they invited us to play with them.  They kept score but weren’t very competitive.  If you had a bad serve or a bad hit nobody got mad or said stuff like “you could have totally got that!” you know what I mean? Life’s good and I can’t believe how fast time is flying. This last week was the fastest one so far.  I love you all and hope everything is going great!  Talk to you in 2 weeks.

Love, Elda Smith Baenon

Volcano Eruption!

Smith playing marbles with the kids

Smith climbing trees Nov 2013