Our Zone wearing our new Christmas shirts

Week 13 on Tanna December 29,2014


Dia famle blo mi we mi lavem tumas,

It was so great to hear your voices for christmas.  Sorry we didn't have much time to talk, I wanted to talk a lot more but we just had such short time.  But the half an hour call was a big blessing. So this email won't be too long since we talked but I want to let everybody else know what went on for christmas here.

So on Christmas Eve, me and my companion woke up and started making some food for a christmas program we would be holding in the afternoon with all the missionaries. I made a big batch of tortilla dough and refried beans while my companion made salsa and fried up some steak so we could make some chimmychangas to bring to the program.  At 1pm we started our program and ate together and it was a potluck dinner.

Each companionship brought  a dish of food and we all ate together. We ate chimmy changas, potato salad, kumala, beef, and chicken. Then we started a devotional where a couple missionaries gave
christmas talks and then we had a testimony meeting.  The testimony meeting was very spiritual and we could really feel the spirit of christmas and the savior.  After the testimony meeting we sang some
christmas carols and hymns to 6 members who came to listen.  Even though only a few came they loved it and we all had a great time.

Then we opened up stockings that were given to each missionary and we all got a new christmas shirt like last year.  It was so cool, I'll send you a picture. After the Program we dropped of the two Elders up north in greenhill, and then we dropped off the two elders in saet siwi and the two sisters in whitesands and that was the end of our christmas eve.

Christmas morning we drove to whitegrass to give a phone to the sisters so their families could call for christmas.  When we got there we saw the branch president and some members and they were about to start a little christmas program and eat together.  They invited us to stay and we ate with them and talked for awhile.

You are all probably wondering what christmas i like here and how the people celebrate it. The people seem to go home and get together with their families where they make a "bigfala kakae" (big feast) and eat together.  They invite anybody who walks by to eat with them and christmas here seems to be a time to eat together and rest from work.

Well we ate in whitegrass with the members and since we both had nothing else to do we decided to go to evergreen restaraunt to eat. We were already a little full but decided to eat more at evergreen and I had a beef burrito there that wasn't that bad.  Then we drove home to rest awhile but then we got bored again and in the afternoon we decided to drive to middlebush to drop off a christmas package for an Elder There.  We dropped it off and them too like whitegrass were about to eat together and the Unit Leader there invited us to stay and we ate dinner with them. 

Afterwards we went home and played magic for the night. We were glad to spend christmas with the members and just being with them and talking with them was very enjoyable.

On the 26th,  my family called in the morning and my companion's family called.  After our phone calls we drove to greenpoint to the christmas activity there.  Dec. 26th in Vanuatu is a holiday called
Family day.  So the branch started a program where we talked about the importance of families and christmas.  Then us and the members all ate together and did some activities.  One of the activities we did is we put a cookie on the people's forehead and they cant use their hands and they had to use their face muscles to move the cookie into their mouth.  They loved it and they had a lot of fun.  They played lots of music where many kids danced.

One side note about tanna, the kids here, regardless of what age, can Dance!   It's so cute and funny when they dance.  Me and Elder Child danced with the pikinini for fun as well.  Then the last part of the activity was a gift exchange.  It's kind of like our cousin gift exchanges that we do every christmas eve at grammy's house.  You have someone to give to and they give to you. Everybody was gathered around and the 1st counselor was in the center and he called out 2 names and they came to the middle and one gave their gift, and the other gave theirs.  Their gifts they gave were mats, baskets, chickens, pineapples, plates, flowers, and clothes. They give all kinds of things and it doesn't matter what it is and everything they give comes with a lot of love.

After the activity we went to an appointment that cancelled and then we went home do do our weekly planning.

Saturday we went to whitesands and we had a guy replace a bad door at their house and then we stayed in Lenakel where we met some families and just talked with them to build their trust.   Then that night we taught Tiffany about how the church is organized and we watched 17 miracles with them for the night.

Yesterday we went to Inapkasu for church and we taught our investigator Elina about tithing before we went back to Lenakel and we taught a group of mamas about the restoration.  We then taught our
investigator Thomas about how the book of mormon and bible work together and then we taught our investigator Mary about the restoration again.  Then that night we went and visited Rodger's family and taught them.  It was a very busy day.

Well know that all was well during christmas this year.  I hope your christmas went well and I wish you all a happy new year!

Mi lavem yufala bigwan!

Love,

Elder Beynon

Down in Greenpoint near Imanier