Me and the Branch President's family in Greenpoint

Week 14 on Tanna, January 4, 2015

Dear Family Blo Mi!

Last Monday after I emailed you we drove to Whitegrass and moved the Sisters there into a new house owned by the church.  We filled up the truck with all their things from their old house and moved them into their new one.  We did that for most of the afternoon and there was a truck on the side of the road selling horse meat.  The Whitegrass Branch clerk was there and told us the meat was very cheap we paid 1000 Vatu ($10) for a LOT of horse meat, probably about 8 or 10lbs. When we drove back home we gave away some of the meat because there was so much.  We fried it up and made some rare Horse steak.  It tasted alright but the meat was so hard to chew, not tender whatsoever. We couldn't finish eating the meat because our jaws and teeth were getting so sore! We soon found out that the horse had been killed 2 days before, it wasn't kept in a fridge,  no wonder why it was so hard to chew! But oh well, funny little story to tell.

Tuesday morning we checked in a perspective missionary named William in the airport so he could go on his mission.  He's going to the New Zealand MTC and then serving in Australia.  Then we drove up to Karimasanga to Papa Henry's house and taught them and then we drove to Greenpoint and picked up a family to bring to Lenakel so their daughter who is serving in Guam could call them.  We picked them up, drove all the way back to Lenakel so their daughter could call, and then we drove all the way back to Greenpoint to drop them off and then we ate dinner and met with our Branch president there.
 
Wednesday morning we drove to Whitesands Branch for our District meeting and after the meeting Elder Child dropped me and Elder Godfrey off in Saet Siwi for an exchange (Yay! I love Saet Siwi).  Me and Elder Godfrey walked to Imaeo village and set a few appointments and then stopped by a member's house and talked with them awhile.  Then we walked all the way up to Ikurup (the main village where our house is) and we played some soccer with the branch president's family and the
members there.  Then that afternoon we taught an investigator girl named Melsy about baptism and the Gospel of Jisas Kraes.  Then since it was the new year, we hung out with President Nipikou's family (my family here) and we played cards and just chilled and we ate dinner with them.  We lit off a few bottle rockets (they call them fireworks here) I bought in Lenakel and when I brought them out but no one knewwhat they were.  A few of the boys knew.  But all the parents and girls had no idea what they were.  President Nipikou asked me to light one off and I did and once the rocket took off and exploded everybody screamed because it scared them because they've never seen anything like that before. 

At 9:30pm we went to the house because we can't stay out late at night in the mission.  We did our daily planning and got done at around 10;30pm and that's when Elder Godfrey went to sleep.  I didn't even plan or care on staying up in the first place but I had to write in my journal and when I got done I checked the time and it was 11:38pm.  I had 2 choices, stay up 22 more minutes or sleep.  Well I made my decision and turned off the light but I just layed in my bed until 12am and I prayed and went to sleep at 12:03pm. It didn't feel like the new year but I was especially grateful to spend most of it with my family in Saet Siwi. The people here stay up to just like we do,  some areas have big parties where people go to celebrate and some just stay together and spend time with family like we did.

Thursday morning we studied and then walked down to Imaeo where we taught a recent convert Michellan about Missionary Work.  A 17 year old kid named Collin followed us around and taught with us and translated.  Then we walked up the mountain but to the west of Ikurup on the other side of a ravine to a village called Iabowr where we taught a less active kid named Therber.  Him and other kids came and listened to us and we were able to teach a little bit in their language which is cool.  I'm really starting to understand the South Tanna Language known as the "Nafe" language.  I can't speak it too much but I know the basics and I'm starting to understand what the people say in their language.  After we taught in Iabowr we walked through a village called "Inias" and up the mountain a ways and we walked around east and down to "Ikurup" where we taught an 8 year old girl about baptism and then Melsy again about the Word of Wisdom.

Then we ate with President Nipikou and hung out again before going back to the house for the night.
Friday 2 kids named Edwin and Bani followed us around.  They used to follow me around a lot while I served there and that's one thing I have always loved about Saet Siwi.  You are never alone,  there's
always someone who wants to follow the missionaries there.  Well we walked down the mountain and walked about an hour and a half to a village called "Isaka".  I had never been there before so I was able to see a new place there which was cool.  Me and Bani tried shooting birds with our slingshots and sadly enough I shot a stone but mis-shot and broke the right arm of my sling shot.  But then Edwin found a strong wood that we used to make a new one.  Once we got to Isaka we went to a village called "Iyai" where I interviewed 2 investigators to be baptized.  Then afterwards we taught 2 brothers named Thermon and Fredrick about the gospel of jesus christ and then we taught another
investigator.

Afterwards we walked all the way up to Ikurup, had no luck in shooting pijins (birds).  We hung out until Elder Child and Elder Dakunimata came back and they brought a mission call for my Best Friend "Katum" here.  He will be serving here in Vanuatu in the next few months. Well after all that we exchanged again and went back to Lenakel.  It was a fun exchange and I was so happy to spend time with my family there again.

On Saturday morning we picked up our Perspective missionary named Phillip Rawi (the one who's going to Mississippi for his mission) from the airport and we taught Henry's family again and then we went all the way to greenpoint to Phillip's Village called "Imanier" which is honestly up a cliff!  We walked up there and saw his family and his dad Charlie was incapacitated because his leg was very swollen.  He somehow cut his leg and it got super infected and it was swollen SO big.  I gave him a blessing and the family asked us if we could take him to the hospital and us with about 6 guys carried Charlie down this cliff on a makeshift stretcher.  We all made it down safely through the hand of the lord and we drove all the way to Lenakel and dropped them off at the hospital.  We cooked boiled some Kumala and bought some bread to give to them to eat while they were there and then we went home and did our weekly planning for the night.

Yesterday we went to church in Lenakel and many investigators came to church.  Afterwards we taught our investigator named Peter about the Plan of Salvation which was an amazing lesson.  They knew that it was all true and they have never heard anything like that before. Then we checked up on many appointments that cancelled and then we checked on Charlie, Phillip and them at the hospital and they seemed to be doing alright, the swelling is slowly going down I think.  Then we taught a recently baptized family about the plan of salvation. They hadn't heard that lesson for awhile so it was more like a review to help them remember everything.  Then we went to our Unit Leader's house to meet with him before we went home for the night. Well know that all is well and that New Year's in Saet Siwi was GREAT!  It sounds like new years was good back home and know all is well back
here.

Iako keke ik sio famle (I love you, my family)

Love,

Elder Beynon

New Year's with my family at Saet Siwi

A view of the volcano from Isaka