Me and a couple of friends in Lokeria

Tanna week 20
Sunday February 15, 2015

 Dia famle blo mi mo "Hapi Valentines Day!"  (i forgot valentines day was coming up)

So first off you are probably thinking "is Elder Beynon still walking or is the truck back?"  Well the truck was origionally scheduled to come back yesterday but a few days ago we received a call from the mission office saying that the truck is almost done but they are waiting for a few parts to come to fix up the body that got damaged when we crashed into that tree in Inapkasu. So it will be another 2 or 3 weeks until the truck gets back, but it's alright. "Yumi mas gohed!"

Also the mission couple who looks over the mission vehicles went back home.  The mission couple is from St. George! Their names are Elder and Sister Duke. (sorry I can't remember their first names).   I think they live in the retirement homes at "Sun River" in St. George, so if any of you hear about anyone just coming back from Vanuatu in St. George, It's them and they know me.

Well so last monday we went to Mama Rabi's house, her family's from Whitesands and we had famle haos naet and we watched a church movie called "the work and the glory," it's about the time of Joseph Smith and there's a story line of family's of that time, I don't know if it's all true stories or not though. We watched it and bore testimonies for the family home evening before going back for the
night.

Tuesday we were supposed to go to Greenpoint but we received a call that 2 more sisters would be coming to serve in the area of "Loweao" by whitegrass.  We changed the plan and it was raining alot and we didn't have any appointments set.  And the people in Lenakel don't expect us to come and teach on tuesday's because we always go south that day.  Sadly enough we planned on going to the airport at 1pm and waiting 3 hours for the sisters to come at 4pm so we could transport them into their area.  Well during the 3 hours of waiting we studied a little and then met all the workers at the airport.  We asked them their names, they all know us missionaries because we go to the airport a lot but they didn't seem to know our purpose.  So we taught them our purpose and how the church doesn't pay us (everyone thinks the church pays us missionaries here) to come work here, we come to
sacrifice 2 years of our lives to help families obtain eternal life.

So we taught them and then we gave out a few pamphlets and book of mormons and then we showed them magic tricks. Then we showed them how to do some tricks and they loved it!  They started doing them to each other and it was so funny!  All of the employees hung out with us and we all became close friends.  It was alot of fun.  The sisters finally arrived and we had a transport take us back to Lenakel so they could buy food and stuff and then we went all the way to Loweao and dropped them off.  Then we got home and it was already late by the time we got home.

Wednesday morning we studied and we walked to Lokueria where we taught Joe and Joses about the Sabbath day.  Joses is almost ready to be baptized, If he continues to progress we hope to baptize him on March 7th.

We walked back and checked up a few appointments which cancelled but then we decided to see Pastor Jefford and his wife.  We told them of our beliefs and they told us of theirs.  And they were so respective of us.  They accepted what we said and said nothing against us.  They are both so charitable and we are slowly reeling them in.  They own a store in Lenakel and a tiny restaurant and everyone from greenpoint and from south stay there over night if needed.  So many members in
greenpoint know him as well. They are such a cool family, we also taught them a little about the restoration which was cool.  And they also let me borrow a bible in their language (the south tanna
language, also known as "Nafe" Language)  So I've been studying in that to try and learn more of the language from south and I understand it very well. It's so cool, I'm gonna come home and speak a language you won't be able to understand at all.  There's just so many different languages here.  I think I know a total of 6 different languages, just the basics it's a lot of fun to speak them to the
people, they are really surprised when you speak in their language. The gospel will be preached in every nation, kindred, and tongue!

Thursday we walked all the way to Inapkasu to find out that a big soccer tournament was going on.  So EVERYONE in Inapkasu and many other villages around were there so we just took the time to meet everybody who was watching and then we walked all the way back to Lenakel and taught Henry Yoyo's family about the Restoration.  They are of the Presbyterian faith and we had a great lesson with them, they seemed to be very interested in what we taught.  We hope help the family come to church in a few weeks.

Friday morning we had district meeting and we went back to Lenakel and all of our appointments cancelled so in the afternoon we decided to do our weekly planning, and we bought cake mix and baked a cake in a pot and made some frosting and it turned out pretty dang good!

Saturday it was really rainy and we decided to press forward walk to greenpoint.  Because of the lack of time we just decided to go to Karimasanga. We walked all the way there in the rain and taught their family how to do family home evenings, and then we stayed a few hours before we had to walk back and we passed by a less active's house named Ben. His cousin just recently died so we shared a small message about the spirit world, life after death, and eternal life.  Then we walked all the way home and I made a chocolate banana cake which turned out amazing!

Yesterday the District President came and picked us up in the morning so we could go to Greenpoint and he could visit the Branch.  The roads were really bad and President was able to drive most of the way.  He just barely got his truck a few months ago and is learning how to drive and the roads to greenpoint are a challenge The President's faith is so strong!  As we drove he stalled the truck a few times on inclines (he's never driven on this road or terrain before because he's from North Tanna) and many times Elder Child said "do you want me to drive?" and president Nalawas said "No, I need to learn!" and he got most of the way there. and then Elder Child drove the last couple miles.

We first went through all the records to find out who can be ordained Elders, priests, teachers, deacons etc... to help organize the branch more.  Because Greenpoint is in the bush,  we didn't even have a branch member list, we went through all the baptism records to find out everyone's age.  They did interviews for everyone who needed them and then we had sacrament meeting and afterwards we ordained 3 Elders, 2 Priests, and 1 Deacon.  It was awesome, the savior sent the District president to help the branch grow and ordain more priesthood leaders.  We stayed just about the whole day there before going back to Lenakel where one appointment cancelled but we were able to meet and talk with a potential investigator family.

This morning we came to lenakel and 2 perspective missionaries came and we filled up some applications for passports.  I think you are all already aware, but back home, each missionary fills out their forms, does medical, and the passport, and everything needed.  But here they don't know how to do it very well so us Zone Leaders take the lead in helping the perspective missionaries with their mission papers and prepare.  We have sooooo many missionaries leaving and recieving mission calls, it's so amazing to see the faith of these people!!!!!

Well even thought the trucks not back yet the work is going forward, slowly.   We haven't had much time to work and teach because of the walking but we've planted so many seeds!  The work is slowly going forward but all is well.  I love this Mission!  There's no other mission like this!  I love serving the lord here in Vanuatu and mi lavem yufala evriwan!

Love,

Elder Beynon

Walking in the rain to Greenpoint