Me and the Williams Family

Port Vila Week 18

Halo Famle Blo Mi,

Last week on Wednesday morning we were able to check in all 5 of the missionaries into the airport and they flew to the MTC.  Then we packed up and checked in the airport at 9:30am to fly with the
Grangers to Santo for the next missionary meeting.  When we got our luggage from the airport we were ready to load our luggage in the trucks when suddenly a foreigner from another church started yelling at us and mission president saying that we teach the doctrine of hell, and that we're confusing the people.  He said many doctrinal things and we said things back as well.  He was very angry and wouldn't listen to us or shake our hands. We just said "Bye, Good day To You Sir", and then left.  Even though that happened, we didn't care, it was just someone from another country who really doesn't like our church. 

You would never get that from the people here.  Some might not believe in our beliefs but they will never yell at you and say bad things about the church like that guy did, I love the people here in
Vanuatu!  Well Everyone from Gaua, Ambae, and Malekula were in Luganville for the missionary meeting.  We arrived and many of the missionaries interviewed with President Granger and I saw a few good ol' friends.  I saw Elder Joe, who I haven't seen since last year when we served together in Lowni!  He will be finishing in August.  During the afternoon we exchanged with Elder Pearce and Elder Killpack and I went to the area with Elder Pearce and we went to the village "Rata" and visited a less-active papa named William and we shared a scripture with his family and we invited them all to come to church.  Then we went back home and planned for the next day.

Thursday morning we had our missionary meeting and many great last testimonies were shared and we had a good lunch at the Santo Hotel again.  Then everyone had their interviews and we socialized
with all the missionaries until the afternoon and then some member teenage boys all came and played futbol and we played with them while we waited for President to finish his interviews with the zone leaders and District President.

Friday morning we ran back and forth from the airport to check in all the Elders to go back to Ambae, and then that afternoon went to the airport 4 seperate times to check in everyone from the Malekula
Zone so they could fly back to Malekula. After everybody left we went to the "Natangora Cafe" for some lunch and we all bought burgers which were very tasty.  I've eaten there once before, last year in January when I transferred to Gaua, I had french toast and Ice Cream.  We ate good burgers for lunch and we checked in the airport with the grangers at 3:30pm and we were supposed to fly at 5:30pm but there was a big delay and the plane didn't come until 7:30pm and then we flew to Port
Vila.  After arriving we drove to the mission office with a return missionary named "Elder Harry" who served in Australia.  President released him before we went home that night, we didn't get all done until about 11pm.

Saturday morning we brought Elder Harry to the airport so he could fly back to Malekula, He's from Tisman Unit, Lowni Branch.  I met his father and family back when I served there.  He flew back to
Malekula and we went home and we planned and tried to think we would do for the day, we prayed and felt like we should go to Beverly Hills and we prayed for the lord to place people in our path to teach. We drove up there and decided to park the truck by the futbol field there and we saw about 10 papas and boys sitting in the shade and we decided to sit down with them and talk with them.  We talked with them and then asked them if they've seen missionaries before and they said yes but they've never talked to them before.

We found out they were members of many other churches and then we started teaching them a
little about our purpose and I told them how I worked before I came and saved money to come and we asked them if they had any questions for us and one brought up Joseph Smith, he had seen a video about him many years back but didn't know much about the story, and we asked them, do you want to hear the story about Joseph Smith?  And they all said YES! and they were all interested.  So we taught them about the time of Jesus Christ, the apostasy, and about joseph smith and the restoration and Book of Mormon. 

We got done and asked them if they had any questions and there were none but some of them said "thanks for sharing that, I've always been curious about that and your beliefs and it was good to learn what your church really believes."  Then we asked them if we could come back sometime and they all said "yeah come anytime, our house is over there and we got many of their phone numbers.  None of them were against what we taught and all seemed very open to the gospel if we come back.  We hope to teach them and their families in the future.

 I just love how receptive the people are to the gospel, the lord has really prepared the hearts of the people here to hear the gospel.  We then walked around Beverly Hills and received some referrals from families and then walked back to the futbol field and we played futbol with the people before going to Nambatri to teach Maria.  We taught Maria and Penaline about Prayer and the importance
of praying at all times and we taught Moses and Norman how to donate tithes and offerings.  We had bread and tea with them for dinner.

Sunday we went to church and after church went to Donovan's House but he was gone so we taught Elorine about obedience.  The Basil family fed us rice, chicken soup, and salad for lunch and we ate with them before going to the mission office to meet with President Granger about the arrivals of a few missionaries.  We met with him and then went to Beverly Hills and taught Sele about Missionary Work and we asked him to invite a friend to come to church and I hope he does. Then at 6pm we had dinner at the Mission Home with the Grangers.  We had burgers and talked with them about the mission and they taught us alot about australia.  They're a lot like my family.  They love the
outdoors and love camping and stuff.  Perfectly fit for Vanuatu.  We made plans to go back to Tanna next month so President Granger can meet the District President there and the missionaries.

Today we got laundry done in the morning and our shopping and we had our office meeting. Afterwards we tried our best to get a Visa for Elder Dakunimata to go to New Caledonia but there were a lot of other documents we needed.  We started applying for one last week but it
didn't work out.  So Elder Dakunimata won't be going to New Caledonia, President wants Elder Esplin, from Orderville, Utah to go with me.

I heard they have a Mcdonalds there and we hope to eat there.  A new sister arrived named Sister Lainos and we dropped her off in Etas so she could stay with the 2 sisters there and then we took them to the mission home and met up with Elder Mastin, Kiapen, and a new Elder named Elder Leong and we all had dinner with the Grangers.  Sister Granger made mexican food!  She bought some tortillas, made refried beans, rice, corn, ground beef, and we all had tacos and burritos for dinner and it was so dang good!  Best Mexican food I've had in Vanuatu.  We dropped off the Sisters and just found time now to email.

Everything is going well here and it's fun to have the Grangers here and they're adjusting just fine to the culture here. They're learning bislama pretty fast too! Ale Mi lavem Yufala Bigwan!!!

Love,

Elder Beynon
 

Me, Elder Joe, Elder Saika,, Elder Benry (Tanna Squad)

The Malekula Zone

Our Football Team in Santo