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