Week 3 on Uripiv May 28, 2014

Dear Family,

I hope this email gets to you.  Yes I am able to email every week. Last week I emailed and was able to read all your messages. Then I typed up my letter to send to you all and when I finished it my time was almost out.  I pressed send  but it didn't send and it automatically opened up another tab and I didn't have enough time to try and resend my message. The computers here are ridiculous.  They have terrible viruses.  That's probably why it couldn't send. 

So now I will try to explain all that happened in the last 2 weeks. 

Overall the work here is slow (I think the Vanuatu mission is a little slow everywhere).  Me and my companion are only to teach a couple lessons a week.  The members here are awesome.  The feed us all the time (we hardly eat at the house). And I have many friends already. 

So Thursday, week before last week we walked a 15 minute walk to the East side of the island. (All the houses are on the west side).  A member named Morris came with us and e went to the beach on the other side and not too far off we roasted fish and bananas over a fire which was fun. And then we cut down a couple small trees to use their trunks for volley ball posts for our branch.  We've played a lot of volley since we've been here.  Just about every afternoon we play if we've made all our appointments and don't have any one else to teach.  Just about every night we eat at member's houses.   The kids love seeing us too.  Unlike tanna the kids here run to you and come talk to you and they really love us.  I do magic card tricks here too.  I think everybody in Uripiv knows me.

The island here is small but I think there's about 5 or 6 different churches here (Presbyterian, SDA, Church of Christ, Our church).  But I think part of the majority are in our church.  The people are really respective about our religion though. We meet many non-members but they respect us and we respect them.  These people are just great people.  There's also a family from Michigan that lives here. They're here to translate the bible in the ancient language of the people here.  They seem to be nice. 

We haven't taught many lessons here but we've had a couple already that have been awesome.  The Book of Mormon is TRUE.  We are able to see the power of this book change lives.  It's amazing how much power comes from a small book.  We haven't set any baptism dates yet but we are looking forward to making a few.  Also the work is slow here because many people work and go to Lakatoro every day but Saturday and Sunday and seem to be the best days to teach everyone.

I love my companion, me and him get along well.  He even waits while I email you guys.  He's never used computers before so doesn't know much about computers and electronics. But that's alright.  training him has been fun.  It's not nearly as hard as I thought it was, I think we get along so well that everything goes smoothly. But we just haven't been able to teach much. But so far his teaching is great.  Here in the mission we come up with many sayings. For example: I'm my companions first trainer in the mission so I'm his papa and he's my pikinini.  Sometimes a missionary will ask: Huia papa blo yu?  And then we say the name of our first trainer.  Did you guys have sayings like that dad?

Lakatoro is pretty nice.  But Malekula is a big island but not nearly as updated as Santo or Port Vila.  I like it though, this morning I had a popsicle for the first time in 8 months!  They have ice cream here too so I'm able to eat ice cream every p-day.  I love the missionaries in our districts and zone. We all get along well and life is good.

I've realized being in Uripiv there's not as much to see as the other islands because my island is so small but I like it, I don't feel too Segregated.  And here in Uripiv the people have more money.  I think the people here have more money than any other area that I've served. In fact, last night we ate at a members house and they asked me about the U.S. and about my family.  They had a laptop so I was able to hook up my hard drive and show them some pictures and videos of us. 

I also have some good news some good news, one of the zone leaders was able to print off some pictures of me while in Gaua and I was able to send them. I hope they get to you. I think they should get to you in a week or 2 ( I sent them 2 weeks ago) I can't wait for you all to see them. You could also scan a few to put on the blog if you want.


So I hear you are all going on family vacation. It will probably be weird without me being there but just remember that I'm on my vacation.  And I've realized that when I read your letters and emails, I feel like I'm there with you and I'm not missing out on anything, and it's true, I'm supposed to be here and I'm as happy as can be.  I hope you have fun (make sure to tell me about it and send pics, I will make sure to send you all pics.


So my district leader Elder McCain (he's from Gilbert, AZ) just told me we will be going on exchanges.  I will go with his companion Elder Ross to their area called Lowni and serve with him a few days.  And Elder McCain and Elder Takaro will go to Uripiv. After I'm done in Lowni, I will go to Uripiv with Elder McCain I think.  I'm excited.

Mi ting se hemia nomo mo mi save se evri samting i stret lo hom mo mi glad tumas blo sev lo ples ia. Mi lavem yufala koko ful spid no gat brek. Mi hop se yu kasem wanem mi stap telem. Mi lavem yufala!

Lav,

Elda Baenon