Playing with the kids at the beach at Greenpoint

Week 6 on Tanna November 10, 2014

Dear Ol Famle Blo Mi,(I can't wait to speak bislama with you guys when I get back),

So, last Monday after I emailed and we had no famle haos naet planned and Elder Child felt sick so we went home for the afternoon.  The good news is that I had time to teach him how to play magic!

 

Tuesday we went south to Greenpoint.  When we got there we went to the main village "ikakahak" where the church house is and there was only a member named Kennedy and his wife were there. We asked them where everybody else was and they said that everyone, just about everyone from every village in Greenpoint went to a big meeting.  It was a meeting that they held because there were some arguments there.  So chiefs and families got together to meet and fix the problems.  That's how it works here, each village has chiefs and when there's problems they hold meetings together.  Sometimes it requires members of the family to come and sometimes others too.  But EVERYONE was at the meeting and we knew that we wouldn't be able to teach.  But down the mountain a ways there was a beach where many pikinini were playing and swimming.  So we hiked down a steep hill down to this beach where the kids were playing.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  I wanted to swim so bad!  But it was alright.  We ran and played with the kids and we practiced doing backflips on the beach.  I couldn't rotate fully off the ground but when I stood on a big boulder and jumped I was able to do it.  We played with the kids and stayed there until about 4pm.

 

We decided because we had nothing else to do that we would continue to drive on the road south and drive to the East part of the island and then go to the Volcano.  We thought that it would probably take an hour or so but that wasn't the case.  We drove on this bumpy, muddy, and windy road for 2 and a half hours before meeting some friends from Saet Siwi to go to the Volcano.  It was a beautiful drive though, but we were just shaking around so much in the truck crossing rivers, driving over stones and through the mud.  Well we drove up to the Volcano and took some pictures.  The volcano didn't go off that much and when it did it wasn't very big.  It wasn't as exciting as it used to be.  The boys said that it was because of the weather.  The people also have custom beliefs and stories about when the volcano goes off.  It was a lot of fun though, I've seen the Volcano 5 times now!

 

Wednesday we hung out in Lenakel and we were able to teach an investigator and a couple of recent converts.

 

Thursday morning we went to the Airport to pick up the AP's (Assistants to the Mission President).

They came to do an exchange with us and see how the Zone is here.  One of the AP's is named Elder Tupou from Tonga,  he's been on exchanges with me back in Malekula when I was a District Leader.  The other one is Elder Petty from Australia. He was the Zone Leader while I was in Gaua and he's been on a couple exchanges with me as well.

 

So they came and we decided that Elder Tupou and Elder Child would go to Ianapkasu while me and Elder Petty stayed in Lenakel.  were able to read in the book of mormon with many recent converts and help them know more about the stories.  We also taught a couple lessons with investigators and I learned a lot from Elder Petty.  Then we made mashed Kumala and Beef for dinner that night. It turned out pretty good, except that the gravy that I made was pretty salty.

 

The next morning (Friday) we went to the Whitegrass church house for Zone Training.  Me and my companion led the Zone into making a key indicators goal for each week.  I thought the training went great.  Then we went to the Airport so the AP's could check in and it was raining really hard.  We checked in and waited for the plane to come but it couldn't land because it would most likely hydroplane on the runway so the flight was cancelled and they would fly on Saturday.  So we drove back home and bought lots of chicken wings and made chicken soup for dinner which hit the spot!

 

Then on Saturday we decided to drive to Karimasanga so the AP's could inverview Henry's family to be baptized.  We plan on baptizing them next week!  We played with kids and threw spears and tried to shoot birds with our slingshots and just had a lot of fun.  Once we were done we drove to the airport and dropped off the AP's at the airport and then we went home to do our weekly planning.

 

Yesterday (Sunday) we drove to whitegrass to pick up the branch president to bring him to Lenakel so he could do some priesthood interviews for us.  We then had church and afterwards ordained our recent convert Royal a teacher! Then we drove to Whitegrass where a perspective missionary was ordained an Elder.  Then we came back and taught a couple families and had a meeting with our Unit Leader Nos.  It's kind of Ironic but I already met our Unit Leader and his family last year while I was here.  On christmas eve we came and cut their grass with bush knives to do some service.  Well after the meetings it was already dark and we played a few games of magic and Elder Child kept beating me!  

 

Sorry not too much happened this week but know all is well and I'm so grateful to be here.  I love you all so much!

 

Mi lavem yufala tumas!

 

 

The Beach at Greenpoint

Running on the beach with the kids

At the volcano with Saet Siwi friends

Lava action at the volcano