Stuck in the mud!

Tanna Week 2 October 15, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry you got this email a few days late but we're just so busy!

Well last week was great, after we emailed you it was raining and we drove to the South and tried to drive up a road to go see an investigator named Henry.  The dirt roads were too muddy and slick so we couldn't drive up very far so we decided to park the truck at the bottom of the hill.  So we walked about 45 minutes up the mountain and we taught Henry and his family about tithing and sabbath day.  They are a great family and we hope to set a baptism date for them in the future.  After the lesson we walked down and got ready to go to Greenpoint.  We got in the truck, my companion put it in gear and started driving but the wheels just spun freely, even in 4 wheel drive!  So I got out and pushed while my companion floored it.  It made a little bit of a difference but then the wheels started digging in which made everything worse.  So we then put rocks and sticks underneath the tires but it still wasn't enough.  We decided to say a prayer for the lord to help us out.  We put more sticks and stuff underneath the tires and I got behind the truck ready to push the truck out and my companion floored it again and I pushed as hard as I could as mud was flying out behind the wheels and spraying all over me.  We were still stuck.  We continued for awhile and then the lord answered our prayer by sending two men that were walking down the road to help us.  We worked together by pushing and moving boulders and we finally got out!  We looked at our watch and we were stuck for about an hour and a half!  Then we decided that we would just drive back to Lenakel.  There's no way that we could make it to Greenpoint if we got stuck.  The roads in Greenpoint are a lot worse.  Well on our way to Lenakel we passed by a less active members house and we decided to teach her even though we were muddy head to toe. 

 

 But that's how missionary work is, sometimes you get dirty and there's hard work needed to be done.  Well we taught about prayer and told her about what had just happened and the prayer we said, it was a good way of testifying of the truth of prayer.  Afterwards we went back home and bathed.  I wasn't ever mad that we got stuck, it was rather a crazy but fun experience, mission i olsem ia nao, we made a memory. Wednesday morning we went to the area called Whitegrass, where are District Church Building is.  We had district meeting and then I went on an Exchange with Elder Ross, the elder who I did exchanges with in Malekula.  Elder Ross serves in the most northern area in tanna called Greenhill.   And Greenhill recieved a lot more rain than we did in the south.  We walked to a village called "Coffee", funny name huh? And we went to a house to teach a mama and her family how to make a style of laplap from malekula. They're members but are less actives.  We cooked with them as a way to gain their trust because the missionaries haven't been to the area for very long. Then we put the laplap on the fire to cook, while it was cooking we played marbles with the kids and did some magic card tricks and just had some fun.  Then we decided to have a family house night with them.  Many kids from the village came and we taught them all with the mama and papa.  We taught them about prayer and how it's important to pray with your family.  Then we told the story about us getting stuck in the mud.  When I said " I want to tell a story", everyone was quiet and listened. Everyone was interested to hear what we were about to say and the spirit was there.  The family loved the lesson and the mama and papa started teaching their children in their langauge about the importance of prayer.  It was a great little message that we shared with them. 

 

Then that afternoon we started walking to Greenhill.  The roads were very muddy and very bad because of the rain.  We walked for two hours barefoot in the mud back to their house. Then we played a couple of games of magic before going to bed. 

 

Thursday morning we woke up to rain (it rained all night) and we heard some thunder too.  We studied for a few hours but the rain wouldn't stop.  There was a thunder storm brewing as well.  After our studies we decided to listen to General conference while we waited for the rain to stop.  While listening a lightning bolt struck right by our house and we both jumped out of our pants from the thunder.  We soon later learned that the lightning stuck solar panels on the church house next to our house, crazy huh?!  By 2:30 that afternoon the rain stopped and we went out and walked around and there were little creeks running down the sides of the road because of the water and we walked on the road and there was a spot where we sunk in the mud up to our knees!  I will send a picture so you can see. Well we walked to a less active couples house and taught them and then we went to another family's house for family house night.  We shared a small message with the family and ate together and then went back to the house for the night.

 

Friday me and Elder Ross started walking back to Whitegrass.  We were out of the house by 8am and we walked in the mud for 3 hours until we saw Elder Child and Elder Killpack coming to pick us up to finish the exchange.  Me and Elder Child stayed in Lenakel and taught a teenage boy who's an investigator and we planned on baptizing him on Saturday.  His name is Royal and he knows that everything that we teach him is true.  Then we taught Royal's friend named Kasim about the book of Mormon.  Many other boys were interested and listened to the message.  The lord has prepared many hearts of the people here to hear our message and the work is going really well.  Then we went to another investigator's house named Tiffany and we taught her about the Word of Wisdom.  All of the investigators here are awesome and everyone is interested in the gospel.  I haven't served in an area like this before. I love it here!

 

Saturday morning we held Royal's baptism program and Elder Child baptized him.  It was awesome.  We walked to the ocean shore and we held the program there and we had some members give some talks.  Then we ate some lap lap and soup for lunch.  After the Program we drove south and up to Papa Henry's house again, this time the road was good.  We taught him and his family about prophets and repentance and his family is awesome.  We hope to baptize him and his family in the future.  

 

Then we drove up to Inapkasu.  We got pretty far but we arrived to a hill where it was to steep and muddy to drive up so we walked about an hour to a village where we taught a family and many others in the village about prophets and the time of Jesus Christ. Our Unit Leader there translated for us so all the kids and others who don't know bislama could understand.  In the village we went to, there were many people who were from Saet Siwi so I was able to speak a little in their language.  By the time we finished it got dark and we drove back to our house and ate mashed potatoes and steak that my companion cooked up.  IT was soooo good!  Oh and Grammy, thanks so much for the candy and mashed potatoes you sent me!  We are eating some good food and chocolate now.

 

On Sunday we went to Church in Lenakel.  We meet in a public building that the church rents out every week.  In our Unit here, we have about 50 members. And it's really growing quickly. We taught 4 lessons that day. We taught Royal again and one of his friends before going to see a recently baptized family. This family has a papa named Rodger and a Mama named Kia.  And they have about 6 kids.  This family is so funny. We all like to joke around together and talk about the gospel.  We read with them in 1 Nephi chapter 1 and then ate together.  And then mama Kia gave me an island Dress (the dresses they wear here, they call them island dresses) to give to you mom, and a skirt.  I will make sure to bring it home to you.  Afterwards we took some pictures and had a great time with them.

 

Monday I didn't email because we were freakin' busy!  That morning we went to a dock and unloaded things from a ship to send to the District here.  And then we had to drive to the other side of the island to the area of Whitesands where the District held some meetings with the presidency.  We drove them because it was cheaper to do so than having them find transports.  Then after all the meetings we drove to greenhill to drop one of the counselor's off and then we drove all the way back to Lenakel. We arrived at about 8pm.  But we were however able to hold a family house night with a family and we watched the video of the restoration together.  Royal came as well to join us.  It was a lot  of fun and it was good for them to see it.

 

Yesterday we drove south all the way to Greenpoint and walked up the side of a steep hill to the village of Mairaweng. We taught a brother and sister about the sacrament.  The mama translated for us and we also filled out a missionary application for one of the boys there.  It was great.

 

Well I'm out of time but just know that everything is great!  I love keeping busy as a Zone Leader and we've been busy lately because District Conference is this weekend.  We have many things to prepare for the mission president before he comes.  This will also be the 1st district conference in Tanna, so it will probably be really cool.

 

I love you all and know all is well.  I hope that I will be able to actually email on monday next week but we'll just see.  Mi lavem yufala gogo, ful spid no gat brek!

Love,

Elder Beynon

 

Walking in the mud with Elder Ross

Greenhill

Our baptism for Royal

Me with Rogers family