Week 12 on Tanna December 22, 2014

Dia ol famle blo mi,

First off I want to let you know that my package already came! It came last week!  Sorry but I couldn't resist and had to open it up early. Tank yu tumas blo evri samting!  We ate mashed potatoes and gravy last night.  I can't wait to talk to you in a few days and let's stick with the time I gave you, call on Dec. 25, at 1pm.

Well last week was CRAZY because we were getting ready for Zone Conference. Last Tuesday we spent the day picking up perspective missionaries to drop them off at members houses in Whitegrass so they could interview with the mission president on Wednesday.  We drove to Inapkasu in the morning and picked up a perspective missionary named Jimmy who's going to Papua New Guinea. 

Then we drove all the way down to greenpoint and we drove all the way to Imanier to pick up our perspective missionary Phillip who will be serving in Mississippi.  There's no reception in greenpoint so there was no way that we were able to let him know that we were coming ahead of time to pick him.  We saw him and told him what's going on and he ran up to his village and packed up for the next few days.  We played with kids down by the beach while we waited and I practiced using my sling and i'm starting to become pretty good at it. 

Phillip came and we started driving back and we saw one of our new investigators on the side of the road and we taught him about the importance of prophets.  He's a 10 year old boy and we had Phillip and Jimmy teach and translate for us during the lesson.  When we finished we drove all the way to Karimasanga and we taught his family about the Temple and they really want to go.  After the lesson it was already getting dark and we picked up another perspective missionary of ours named Ryson.  And we drove all the way to the other side of the island to Saet Siwi to pick up a perspective Sister named Rosali.  We drove all the way there and all the way to Whitegrass so the perspectives could stay overnight with some members so they could interview the next day.  By the time we got home it was late.  We were in the truck almost the whole entire day!  Well that's part of our work here. 

Wednesday morning we drove to the airport and picked up President Brewer and his wife and we dropped them off in whitegrass so they could start all the interviews.  We stayed awhile and then found out that Rosali's leg had a bad sore on her leg and it was swollen so mission president told us to go back to lenakel and take her to the hospital.  We did so and drove back and then mission president needed to meet with the district president so we drove to his house and picked him up and brought him to  meet with Pres. Brewer.  Then we drove back to his house to drop him off.  It was a rainy day and it was really muddy and the truck got soooo dirty!  It was pretty cool though.  There were puddles and mud everywhere.

Then we drove quick to the airport to pick up the AP's and we brought them to Whitegrass and then we had our MLC meeting (Mission Leadership Council)  After the meeting it was already dark and we went home with the AP's and made burritos for dinner.

Thursday we picked up President Brewer and we drove to Whitegrass for Zone Conference.  It started at 9am and everything went smoothly.  We had many cool trainings and it was a really spiritual Zone Conference. We ate good food too for lunch.  After Conference was over all the Elders interviewed and when everthing was over we dropped President off at the resort and we went and taught our investigator Tiffany with the AP's.  We taught them and went home for the night and ate a lot of
soup and Kumala that Elder Tupou cooked up.

Friday we studied and did all our weekly planning and we went to a few appointments but they cancelled.  And we decided to eat some lunch at the restaurant that catered for us at Zone Conference.  Then we went to the airport with the AP's and checked them in so they could fly
back to Port Vila.  Then afterwards a new investigator of ours named Jeff came over so we could teach him.  Then we went to Rodger's house and taught him and his family about family haos naet.

Saturday morning we went to Karimasanga and taught Henry's family again and then we drove all the way to Greenhill because they needed us to interview someone to be baptized.  We did so and then went to Whitegrass where the sisters had an investigator ready to be interviewed as well.  Then we met with the Sister Training Leaders to plan our christmas devotional for the missionaries.  I'll tell you about it when you call.  Then we waited for the district president to come so we could meet with him but he never came so we decided to just postpone it.  It was already dark and we decided to go to Evergreen Resort and we each bought a Burger with fries for dinner.  It was very good! Expensive though but worth it.  That was the best burger I've had since I've been here.

Yesterday we went to Greenpoint to church and we went there for sacrament meeting and then we drove back to lenakel to a couple appointments that cancelled but we were able to go teach Royal,  David Jonah, and a new investigator named Maria.  It was about 6pm when we finished teaching Maria and we then recieved a call from the mission office saying that Phillip would be flying on Monday to go to Port Vila and then to Fiji to work on his Visa paperwork.  But there's no
reception and no way to contact him there.  Luckily his parents were in town so we picked them up, drove all the way back to Greenpoint and they went up to their village Imanier and told him what was going on and then he packed up and we drove all the way back to Lenakel and dropped his parents off and he slept in our house last night.  When we got back it was late and we didn't get to sleep until about midnight because we needed some dinner because we hadn't eaten at all that day.

Well know that even though things are busy here everything is fine and I enjoy serving the lord!  It was mostly crazy because of Zone Conference but everything is winding down now.  Well I hope things aren't to crazy for you getting ready for Christmas.  Know that I love you and thanks for all the goodies you sent in the package.  I can't wait for you to call!

Iako keke ik sio Famle!

Elder Beynon