February 2, 2014

Dear friends and family,

I'm glad you got my letter.  I will be sending more out to you today to explain all of what happened each week.  Don't worry, the rats haven't been nibbling on my toes. Gaua is nice, it's been very hot the last few weeks but that's all right.  The work here is good but like Tanna.  We only get about  1 or 2 lessons taught a day.  We haven't went to the volcano yet. We think that we will go to a waterfall instead.  It's close to the volcano and we hope to go next monday.  Gaua has been fun but sometimes you get bored.  We just stay at the house every P-day and get what we need done.  But that's okay, I just need to continue to work hard. 

We eat a lot of fish here and the people have spears and dive all the time and kill fish.  Oh and did I tell you I've eaten Octopus?  It's pretty good but very chewy, the meat inside is good but the outside is weird. But now I've tried it. Me and Elda Velly have one investigator ready to be baptized at the beginning of February. We hope to have 2 more ready and baptize 3. 

In Gaua everyone knows bislama so I don't have to speak other languages often.  There is a language here and I've learned the basics.  The language is still good and Elder Velly is great at teaching and I have learned many ways to help my teaching. There is one very nice family here that I have come close to.  They love my magic tricks and we have a lot of fun.  I taught one of our neighbors how to play "the ultimate poop-head" and they love it! They think it's a very fun game.

I haven't given any blessings while I've been here sadly enough. Everything is just so slow.  But life is still good. I love Elda Velly and he is a very smart, humble guy.  Just so you know my package lasted me a whole week and a half. I shared it too.  But I still have gum which is nice and I will probably receive a package while I'm here.

Not only do we have rats in our house, crabs come in too.  We woke up to one in the house and Elda Velly cooked it.  The people here give us lots of island food to cook which is nice. they give us "Kumala" which is in the potato family and is a little sweet.  I like to make french fries with it. And there's ketchup here too!
 
So there's a rich neighbor here who has a laptop!  He doesn't have internet though.  I might be able to email you guys though.  Here in Santo you can buy a flash drive from a cell phone company that you can put in your computer and have wireless access. I just need to find out how much it is and how much it coststo put credit on it. ( you pay for what you use) Sorry but no pictures this time because this computer is retarded.  I have some I want to send but honestly I haven't taken many in Gaua because not much happens.

Sorry this email is short there's just not much to talk about. I hope I will be able to email again while I'm here in Santo.  Plan on continuing to write me until I tell you otherwise.Know that I am still happy even though this place is slow teaching wise and know that I love you . I love you all very much. take care

Love,
Elda Baenon

Smith is serving on an island that doesn't have postal service, and he doesn't have email.  If you want to send him a letter, send it to the P.O. Box address on the blog, and he will eventually get it.  The zone leaders come to his island and deliver his mail.  Thanks so much for your love and support!