Filling up bags of coral in Pango

Week 23 on Port Vila

Dear Family,

The work just never ends!  We've just been busy busy, "mifala stap wok had".  Well last Tuesday we got caught up at the office doing some work and that afternoon we visited Avock and Rose, we hadn't seen them for awhile and we asked how they were doing and they said just great.  We taught them about the importance of studying scriptures and then we saw Moses and Norman and we taught them about the articles of "Ol toktok blong bilif" (the articles of faith).  And then at night we went to the Vanva Family's house and they had a cousin named Mariah who isn't a member and she wanted us to teach her and we taught her about the restoration and two of Mama Annie's sons Bradley and Claude taught her with us.  We had a good dinner afterwards with them.

Wednesday we visited and taught Alec and Kristel about the Word of Wisdom and it was a very good lesson.  Afterwards they knew it was true and they were completely willing to follow it.  We also went to the office and we tried to get a Visa for Elder Dakunimata to go to New Caledonia but it didn't come through, it was too late.  So President decided that Elder Jones would be my companion when we go.

We also saw Edmas and taught her about he importance of obeying and honoring the law and we had a meeting with our branch mission leader and then went to Beverly Hills to the Haukao Family's house.  Papa Frank was gone but the mama and the kids were and we taught them about the Great Apostasy and played with the kids and had dinner with them. The kids there are a lot of fun to be with.  Then that night I went to Pango with Elder Mastin to do an exchange and Elder Leong went to our area with Elder Dakunimata.

Thursday morning me and Elder Mastin studied and then went to a member's house named Leisumarie.  We planned to do a service for her. She needed us to get some coral for her to put on the ground around her property and her son and grandson Jopeth and Cliff followed us to another member's house where they lived by a beach and we borrowed some of their shovels and 20 empty rice bags and we filled them up with dried up coral on the beach and filled them all up and loaded
them in the truck.  It took about an hour and we brought them back, changed, and went out to teach.

We had Joseph follow us as our member present we taught an investigator named Ryan about the Book of Mormon. He knows all about Joseph Smith and his story but we decided to familiarize himself more with the Book of Mormon so he could receive a testimony of its truth.

We walked around the area and taught a boy from a part member family named Tatao and we taught him about Tok Blo Waes (the word of wisdom).  And then we walked back to Leisumarie's house and taught her about missionary work. We ended our exchange and went home and Elder Jones and Elder Christensen came over and we exchanged so Elder Jones could come with me to New Caledonia.

Friday morning at 4:30am we checked in to go to New Caledonia and we waited to fly until about 6:45am and then they said that the flight cancelled.  We assumed that it was because of the rain because it was raining but we went to the Air Vanuatu office and came to find out that the flight was cancelled because no one was at the airport. There were some strikes going on and people ended up blocking up the main roads not letting people in or out of the city of Noumea so they had to cancel the flight.  We waited for further news to know whether we would be able to go.

We  saw Donovan and taught him about the importance of Prophets and then we also saw Sele and taught him about the Atonement.  We found out that people were being allowed in Noumea again and that the Friday night flight would be going to New Caledonia.  So at 5pm we checked in, at 8pm we flew and got to New Caledonia at 9:30pm.  Elder Ellingson and Elder Tidjine, the North New Caledonia Zone Leaders picked us up and we drove to Noumea and on the drive there we could see burnt cars on the sides of the road where the people lit them on fire.

The missionaries said the strike had been going on for awhile.  People were blocking the roads and making traffic hectic so the government could change some of their laws. Well we checked in the Grangers at the Hotel and we stopped at theMcDonalds drive through and got a boss burger meal to go and the Elders dropped us off in Koutio with Elder Tempany and Elder Bourtache at 11pm.  It was a long day but a big blessing that we were able to make it there.  We had a big plan for Zone Conference and President had to make some changes to the schedule.

Saturday morning was Zone Conference and we had lots of training by the missionaries and me and Elder Jones gave a training about Chaper 9 about Finding People.  After the Conference we had lunch together and did some activities in the cultural hall.  We did some relay races and played a game called Skittle Soccer and had a good time with each other.  Then President interviewed the missionaries and we socialized until about 9:30pm and we were all hungry and we found a pizza place and we ordered pizza togo for dinner.  I asked them if they accepted card in French and I did pretty well, they understood what I said at least.  French is really hard, but I really want to learn it.

Sunday morning we went to church at the Magenta Ward and we only had sacrament meeting because many members could make it because of all the blockades on the roads. So we had sacrament meeting, and then while other missionaries got interviewed we made some ham sandwiches for lunch and at 1:30pm we had an MLC meeting and at 3pm we had a meeting at the office with the mission couple there.  At 5pm we had chicken sandwiches for dinner and then at 6:30pm we had the 2nd session of Zone Conference where President and Sister Granger did some
training and expounded the scriptures.  We read through D&C 43 and expounded on it about missionary work and talked about how missionaries can work with members and stake and ward leaders.  We returned to Koutio that night.

Monday morning the people decided not to block the roads and the Zone Leaders picked us up and we picked up president and went shopping.  We went to a big sports store and bought sports equipment for future zone conferences and we dropped President off with some elders to go teach with them.  The Zone Leaders drove us downtown and showed us some beautiful sights.  New Caledonia really is a beautiful place, the city is really developed too, I felt like I was home  a few
times just because some of the stores are so big and the land mass of the country is a lot bigger.

We then met up with President and Sister Granger and we went to one of the biggest grocery stores there, It was a lot like Walmart and there was a food court outside where we had lunch, I ordered a beef burger combo in french and we had our lunch and we went to a few other stores.  We looked for a projector and went to a store where they had projectors, phones, tablets, Video games etc. and I couldn't get my head around all the technology.  Technology is changing so fast  and so many things are coming out and the world is changing.  It was weird to see all the new technology, I'm gonna come back as someone they call "Manbush" here, being surprised by new things and knowing nothing about what's going on.

Haha oh well,  it really is good to have your mind off of worldly things, it really does help you focus on the work.  After seeing all the cool technology we drove all the way up to the airport and we checked in at 4:30pm and flew at 6:30pm and got to Port Vila at 8pm.  We exchanged again and it was good to be back.  New Caledonia was a lot of fun too, it turned out to be a fun Zone Conference, our next one will be in October so we will be going one more time before I return.....Yay!!!

Yesterday we took the day to prepare and do our shopping and we had an office meeting in the afternoon and did some work in the office and in the afternoon we went to Beverly Hills and played Futbol with some of the people up there and when we finished we were able to give out a pamphlet to a man named Luke who was interested in learning more about the church.  Then we went to papa Peter Sovuai's house and visited him and his wife and he told us his story about joining the church and then his teenage sons and daughters came and they talked with us as well.  Then we shared a talk by Boyd K. Packer about the Atonement with them.

Today we had our district meeting and I did some training for the missionaries focusing on Chapter 12 in the Preach My Gospel about "How do I help people prepare for baptism.  Afterwards we had tuna fish sandwiches for lunch and then went to Beverly Hills to check on Luke, who we gave the pamphlet to yesterday.  He was home and we asked him if we could teach him and he was glad and we taught him about the restoration.  He was a little skeptical but we will pray for him and
we hope he will be able to receive a personal witness of the truth.

We also taught Mariah again and taught her about the Plan of Salvation.  We started out teaching it in simple terms and then she asked many questions wanting to know more about it.  So we expounded and she was very interested.  Then we met with our Branch Mission Leader again and went to Moses and Norman's house.  We told them about receiving callings in the church and we told them how the lord will call us to do certain things in this life to help him and our brothers and sisters.

I taught them how my dad teaches in Sunday School, how mom is in primary, and that I have an uncle who's a bishop. They thought it was pretty cool, I also told them that my calling right now is as a missionary.  The lord called me to serve here for 2 years.  I love Moses and Norman and their family, they're so great.  I just love missionary work!  It just never ends and never will.  It's such a blessing to be here.  I love you all so much and I can't believe many of my friends are returning from their missions and it won't be too long until I return.

Tank Yu Tumas long Evri Samting, Mi Lavem Yufala Evriwan!!!


Love, Elda Beynon

 

Eating pizza with the Mission Pres.

Magenta Chapel

New Calendonia

The beautiful view (New Calendonia)

Preaching the Gospel of Repentance

Week 22 on Port Vila

Dear Family,

    It hasn't been too long since you heard me but the rest of last week went well.  Friday morning at 4:30am we checked in 2 sisters in the airport to fly to New Caledonia. Then we rested, studied, and went back to the airport from 11am to 1pm for another Elder to fly back home, and we went to the office and also checked in an elder and sister at 3pm to fly back to Tonga, then we visited Moses and Norman, and Maria.  We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of Faith, Repentance, and Enduring to the End.

     Saturday President wanted us to take it easy for the day and it was also the P-Day for Elder Jones and his new companion Elder Christensen.  So we made plans with them to drive to "Snake Hill" and
take some pictures of the cool view up there and we had some fun with it.  We also walked along the road to see "Cascade Falls," a tourist attraction but it wasn't very cool at all, the pictures up Snake Hill was though.  We hung out and went to a place called Tina's for lunch and I got a burger for lunch and then in the afternoon at around 4pm we visited a part member family  named kasti and taught them and some kids about the restoration.  Then we taught Donovan about the Sabbath. We hope to Baptize him on August 29th.  We then had dinner that night with President Tiasinmal.

    Sunday we partook of the sacrament and checked in an Elder who will be serving in the Solomon Islands.  After we flew we went back to church and taught Alec and Kristel about Chastity and we hope to help them get married so they can get baptized.  It sounds like they really want to so we hope to work with President Tiasinmal or possibly the new bishop so we can get them married. We also taught Donovan again about tithing and then we visited Gabbie and shared a scripture with her.  We stopped to see Sele and Mimo and taught them about Callings in the church and they're so awesome.  Oh and Sele was ordained a Teacher so he will be able to prepare the sacrament next week.  Oh and
Moses and Norman received the Aaronic Priesthood and they're both already passing the sacrament.  They are awesome!  After teaching Sele, we saw Emma and Ivana and taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited them to be baptized on September 5th.  So we hope to prepare them for that date.

     And today we studied, did our shopping, and we picked up Elder Sam Matua and did some shopping with him because he will be flying to the U.S.A. to the MTC and he'll serve in the Phillipines.  We had our office meeting at 1pm and at 3pm we checked in Elder Matua so he could
fly, and then we went back to the office to meet with President Granger about Zone Conference in New Caledonia.  We will be going there this Friday and coming back next Monday.  Learn some more French I guess.  It will be fun!  After meeting with President we went to mama Edna Busai's house and had a family haos naet with her family, willie, kevin, christoph, and a few others.  It was fun, we hope to visit members more often to get referrals.
 
  Well everything is fine, we're working hard and playing hard and everything is just great here in the islands!  I'm only down to about 2 more months now :) .... :(   Mi lavem yufala Evriwan!

Love, Elda Beynon
  

Famle Hous Naet with Busai Family

Up Snake Hill

Grillin' and Chillin'

Week 21 Port Vila

Dear Famle Blong Mi,

     Last week after we got back from Tanna we had a couple more meetings about transfers and We were busy getting ready tickets and getting work done in the office.  We did however contact and teach 4 new investigators.  A couple named Alec and Kristel,  and 2 sisters from Malekula named Ivana and Emma.  We were able to Last Friday we had 9 missionaries from the outer islands fly to Port Vila because they were finishing their missions.  I picked up a lot of them in the bus we have here that sits 12 people, it's quite fun to drive!  We were running back and forth from the airport all day rounding up the missionaries.
     Saturday morning we had a zone baptism where 11 investigators in our zone were baptized, none were ours though.  We then and visited Avock and Elorine.  Then we went to the mission around 3pm to help President and Sister Granger prepare for a last dinner and program for all the missionaries who are leaving.  There's 16 total.  Sister Granger put me and Elder Dakunimata to work and we turned on 2 barbeques and we cooked up burgers, sausages, and stirfry steak.  We cook a TON of meat for everybody and had burgers for dinner and cake and cookies for dessert.  Then we had a testimony meeting for the missionaries and brought all the missionaries back to their houses and
piled up in the bus to bring them home.
     Sunday we went to church and we were able to teach Alec and Kristel about the Plan of Salvation, and we also taught Sele about the Millenium and we also taught Ivana and Emma about the Plan of
Salvation.  We taught Moses and Norman about the importance of the Atonement and how Jesus suffered for our sins.  We got a lot of teaching done that day.
     Monday morning we rounded up all the missionaries and took them to get their things quarantined an we had our office meeting and that afternoon we checked in 11 missionaries to go back home and we barely got them through and 3 new missionaries arrived.  It was a very busy day.  Elder Esplin from Orderville Utah returned, and Even Elder Child,  he plans on going to SUU in a few weeks so keep an eye out for him.
     Tuesday morning we did our laundry and then went to the airport where we picked up 8 new missionaries.  Many from Micronesia, Kiribus, and the U.S.  We rounded them up in the bus and took them to the mission office so they could go to the bank and open up ATM accounts and then I dropped them off to their areas before picking up Sister Wamura to check her in so she could fly back to P.N.G.  Elder Willoughby also arrived from Solomon Islands, and a return missionary named Elder Nalawas returned from his mission so we took him to the office to get released and dropped him off with his family.
     Wednesday morning we checked in Elder Kiapen in the airport at 5am and then we went to district meeting, and then to the office where we updated our baptism records and then at 3pm we picked up all 11 new missionaries and took them to the mission home where we had an orientation with them and dinner with them.  Afterwards we sand hymns together and a sister brought her ukulele and we played hymns and sang together.
     This morning an Elder flew to Santo at 5am along with 2 new sisters serving in Malekula.  We then picked up Elder Nalawas and came back so he could fly back home to Tanna.  We went and taught Alec and Kristel about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then picked up 3 other sisters who were flying to Santo.  They flew and we got some work done in the office and then we saw Avock and taught him about service and Ivana about the Spirit world and life after this life.  Well honestly
this week has been busy and hectic, just like every transfer, except this one is big!!!  Most of it's done, tomorrow, two sisters will checkin at 4:30am to fly to New Caledonia and 3 other missionaries
will fly back home.  All is well and we are working hard. Mi lavem yufala!

Love,

Elder Beynon
 

Cooking with my Companion

Driving the Party Bus

The group of "new" missionaries

Smith's new Ukulele/Mandolin

Baptisms in Whitegrass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Week 20 on Port Vila

Dear Famle Blong Mi,

Well it hasn't been too long since you've heard me but last Thursday (July 30th) was indepence day for vanuatu.  In the morning we did our weekly planning  and got ready to go to the office to have a
transfer meeting with mission president. On our way we passed by a big park called "Independence Park" where thousands of people were gathered from around town.  There were stalls everywhere around the field selling Kakae and 400 people from tanna were doing a custom dance.  It was really cool.

We talked with some members for awhile and then saw President Tiasinmal at his stall and he gave us some lunch.  We then went to the office at 1pm and did a transfer meeting and many missionaries are leaving and it's going to be a heck of a transfer.  We met from 1pm to 5pm just organizing the transfers and thinking of new leaders for the future.  We got done and we planned on seeing Moses and Norman's family.  We went to Nambatri and brought a cake I made, popcorn, and Kool-aid and we watched "The Prince of Egypt" together.  We watched it and then we taught them about the
importance of following the prophet.  We had a great time, I told them it was our tradition back home to watch movies on our independence day.

Friday morning we got plane tickets for other missionaries who had arrived who needed to be placed in areas and then we went to the office and did an orientation for the 5 new missionaries.  They're all
from Vanuatu, and they just got back from the MTC and they're waiting for their visas to come so they can serve in PNG.  We did the orientation and then went and had lunch with them at Seaview Takeaway and then we had other meetings with President and got done in the afternoon and we were able to visit Edmas and teach her about fasting and we taught Elorine about Temples.

Saturday morning we flew to Tanna with President and Jackson Nipikou and we went straight to Whitegrass where the Elders were preparing to have a baptism program for 7 investigators that were
ready to be baptized.  we walked to an area to a river in a place called "Letopoiakaran" and there was a river with a big beautiful pool of water for baptizing. It was quiet and there was a good spirit
there. 

We ate a little lunch with them after the program and then drove all the way to Whitesands so President Granger could meet the Branch Presidency there.  We had a meeting with them and the people fed us before we drove all the way back up to Saet Siwi.  The roads were bad but Elder Ross really knows how to drive and we got all the way up the mountain.  Jackson Nipikou returned with his family and it was cool to see his arrival with them.  The people and kids were glad to see us as well!  They fed us dinner and then it got dark and we drove down the mountain and up to the Volcano.  We drove up in the rain and there was lots of Sulphuric gas for some reason so it was
hard to see, it was cool though.  I've been up there 7 times now. Then we drove all the way back and dropped off the grangers at their resort and we stayed in Lenakel with Elder Ross and Elder Tauraa.

Yesterday (Sunday) We all went to church at Whitegrass and a few prospective missionaries got interviewed to go on missions and I was able to see some good ol friends and talk with them a bit while President Granger met with the Branch Presidency and District Presidency.  Then we drove up to Greenhill where we met with the Branch Presidency there.  Oh I miss Tanna so much, I have so many memories there!  We drove all the way back to Whitegrass resort and we had dinner at the restaurant with the Grangers, We had Shnitzel and Fries which turned out really good.  And we talked about the future of tanna and what we can do in the future to continue to work with the district.

Today we flew back from Tanna, had an office meeting and also a final transfer meeting and we are about to do our shopping and go to a family haos naet.  Everything is great, tanna was fun, everything's back to normal there and everyone's eating and it's really green. There's a lot of work to do and we are keeping busy,  these next two weeks are going to be crazy!  We'll get through it though.

Mi lavem yufala evriwan!

Love,

Elder Beynon
  

Me with the Grangers at the Tanna Volcano

Baptisms at Whitegrass

Futbol

Branch Presidency in Greenhill

Us at the Whitegrass resort