Baptisms!

 

 

 

 

Tanna Week 8 November 24, 2014

Dia Sio Famle,

Since last week on monday night we drove to Middlebush so we could do exchanges with the elders there.  I had the chance to go there and stay with Elder Willoughby, from North Ogden, Utah.

Tuesday we walked to many villages and we taught an olfala about prophets and the time of Jesus Christ.  Then we walked to the village or Lonotuan and taught an investigator named James about the Book of Mormon.  Many others were there to hear and they knew it was true. James was awesome, he said "It's so true, there must be another witness of Jesus Christ and the book that Joseph Smith translated is true. Well what can I say, Jos blo yumi i tru i tru!

We were also able to teach another investigator about missionary work and we were out the full day and before we went home we stopped by some members house who were from Port Resolution and I met the head chief.  They were surprised because I knew their language so well. Then I did some magic tricks for the people and many people around came so it was kind of like a magic show, it was awesome.

Wednesday we hung out in Lenakel as usual and we were able to teach a new investigator named Susan about the Restoration.  Then we saw our Recent Convert Royal and then we taught Linda.

Thursday morning we woke up at 4am because a couple perspective missionaries from whitesands needed to fly to Port Vila to do some mission stuff.  We drove there and picked them up and checked them into the airport at 6;30am and they flew and then we went to Evergreen resort and had pancakes and bacon for breakfast.  It was sooooo good!

Then we drove to Greenpoint and taught a new investigator named David. He's the branch presidents brother and we taught him and his family about the restoration.  Afterward he told us "I've never heard anything like that before, it's so true!"  Then we drove up to Ianapkasu and we went to the village of Iatafum and we taught a recently baptized family about family prayer.  I love bringing
families together and teaching them.  When we finished it got dark and we drove back to Lenakel
and we taught Linda again.

Friday we drove to Greenhill to do some baptism interviews for Elder Ross and Elder Killpack, but everyone who should have been interviewed were gone. So we drove to Middlebush and I interviewd a 10 year old investigator there.  It was the first baptism interview i've done.  It was cool and I was very glad to do it.  It also gives you the chance to see the testimonies of others. we then went to lenakel and taught royal about the need of the atonement and  that afternoon we ended up driving back to greenhill to bring a propane tank regulator to them, because their gas was leaking.

Saturday morning it was raining and we drove south to Greenpoint so we could baptize Henry and his family from Karimasanga.  Sadly we forgot to grab our baptism clothes so we had the branch president and a priest baptize.  It was cool because we started the program in the church house while it was raining and when we got ready to walk down to the ocean and the rain stopped, it was still cloudy but the rain stopped.  So we went town and the family got baptized, a total of 6!  And when we walked back up to finish the program in the church house, it started raining again.  It was really cool, the lord was preparing the way!  We stayed there and talked with members before going back to Lenakel to teach a new investigator named David Jonah about the Restoration.

Yesterday morning we drove to greenpoint and we had to walk a ways because the truck couldn't get up a muddy incline so we walked about a mile to the church and we had sacrament meeting and confirmations. The family was so happy and they were so happy to be baptized!  Then after church we had a meeting with the Branch President and then went to Lenakel and taught Royal about Temples, then we went to other appointments but they were gone but we did recieve a call from a papa who asked us to come to the hospital to give a blessing to his child that was sick.  So we went and gave this child a blessing, and then another mama asked us to give a blessing to her newborn baby who had some sores on it's body.  I love the chances to exercise the priesthood and come do the savior's work.

Well know that all is well, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving just so you know but there's a senior couple coming this week and we will be helping them with the work so if we are lucky, maybe we will hit a restaurant or something.

 

Well I love you all and know I am staying busy and having a great time here. I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Beynon

Doing magic tricks in the middlebush

Sunset over the volcano in Tanna

Walking up to Inapkasu

Week 7 on Tanna November 17, 2014

Romassen iakuarsikar ik miambam (that means "gud dei yufala evriwan" in the south Tanna Language),

So last week since you last heard me um....... oh, on tuesday we went to greenpoint.  We origionally planned on going there to meet with the branch president there and teach a few lessons but we had a change of plans and checked out a house that missionaries can stay in the future.  We drove there, talked with the owner and took pictures of the house, then came back to lenakel to email the pictures to the mission president. But mission president declined and said another house would be better.  So we drove all the way back to greenpoint to tell the owner of the decision made and by the time we got back to lenakel it was dark.  So that's all that happened Tuesday.

Wednesday we stayed here as usual and taught many people. We taught one of our investigators about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how to "Sakem Sin" (Repent).  Then we were able to read with a few recent converts in the book of mormon.  Many people were ready for us to come and teach them.  We also taught a new investigator named Susan about Heavenly Father and how he loves us.  We just worked, worked, worked! So that was good.

Thursday we stayed home because we were sick.  We both had a cold but Elder Child was soooooo Conjested.  I was alright but we decided that it's better to take one day to rest instead of getting more sick and going to the doctor or hospital.

Friday we felt a lot better and we went to the Whitegrass Chapel for District Meeting and afterwards we went on an Exchange with the Elders in Greenhill.  This time Elder Ross went with Elder Child and I went to Greenhill with Elder Killpack.  Me and Elder Killpack knew each other in the MTC, he was in my zone so we already know each other which is cool. He's from Orem, Utah. So we started walking in one of their areas called "Coffee" where theylook over a Unit.  I think they call it coffee because people grow coffee beans here and it is one of the main sources to get money in Tanna.  They don't sell Kobra or Cocoa like Malekula does.  Alright so in Coffee we saw a family and made Laplap Sorsor with them,  I can't remember if I told you about laplap sorsor already but it's a syle of laplap made in malekula where they make regular laplap but they put coconut milk in the middle so you can dip the lap lap in it and eat. It's really good.  And the people are surprised when we make it with
them because not many people can make their island foods. Yeah so we made the laplap and taught this couple about eternal marriage and about temples and they were very interested. We stayed there awhile and then walked an hour north to greenhill.  It was dark by the time we got there so we planned and played a couple games of magic before going to bed.

Saturday morning we walked to the village of Eniu and met a family from Wala, Malekula where I went on my exchange with Elder Jensen awhile back. I knew their language a little and it was easy to relate to them.  We helped Marie, the mama, make some Laplap Sorsor and then we taught them the plan of Salvation. It was a very good lesson and we used the book of mormon alot with the bible to show how it makes everything clear and how the two books work as one.

Then we went to the village of Itonga to look for some investigators but they were gone so we went to the village of "Lowita" instead and taught a less active family.  We played games with the family and taught them how to play ninja and they loved it!  It was  a lot of fun.

Yesterday we went to church there and afterwards taught a few little kids about the word of wisdom.  There was a member at a clinic who needed a blessing so we walked there to give a blessing and afterwards there were some kids playing with bow and arrows they made.  It's really cool, the people make bow and arrows here, I might have to get a hold of one for myself sometime.  We followed the kids back to the house where we taught one of them about the word of wisdom as well. And then Elder Child and Elder Ross came back from the Exchange.

Sorry  this email is short,  not much happened last week but all is well.  I love you all and hope all is well.

ia ko keke ik sio famle! ( I love you, my family - south tanna language)

Love
Elder Beynon

The branch church house in Greenpoint

The White Grass District Building

District Building

Smith and the Lenakal Unit Leaders family

Sunset by the church

Eating lap lap Sorsor

Smith and the kids in Lowita

Smith and some kids

Playing with the kids at the beach at Greenpoint

Week 6 on Tanna November 10, 2014

Dear Ol Famle Blo Mi,(I can't wait to speak bislama with you guys when I get back),

So, last Monday after I emailed and we had no famle haos naet planned and Elder Child felt sick so we went home for the afternoon.  The good news is that I had time to teach him how to play magic!

 

Tuesday we went south to Greenpoint.  When we got there we went to the main village "ikakahak" where the church house is and there was only a member named Kennedy and his wife were there. We asked them where everybody else was and they said that everyone, just about everyone from every village in Greenpoint went to a big meeting.  It was a meeting that they held because there were some arguments there.  So chiefs and families got together to meet and fix the problems.  That's how it works here, each village has chiefs and when there's problems they hold meetings together.  Sometimes it requires members of the family to come and sometimes others too.  But EVERYONE was at the meeting and we knew that we wouldn't be able to teach.  But down the mountain a ways there was a beach where many pikinini were playing and swimming.  So we hiked down a steep hill down to this beach where the kids were playing.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  I wanted to swim so bad!  But it was alright.  We ran and played with the kids and we practiced doing backflips on the beach.  I couldn't rotate fully off the ground but when I stood on a big boulder and jumped I was able to do it.  We played with the kids and stayed there until about 4pm.

 

We decided because we had nothing else to do that we would continue to drive on the road south and drive to the East part of the island and then go to the Volcano.  We thought that it would probably take an hour or so but that wasn't the case.  We drove on this bumpy, muddy, and windy road for 2 and a half hours before meeting some friends from Saet Siwi to go to the Volcano.  It was a beautiful drive though, but we were just shaking around so much in the truck crossing rivers, driving over stones and through the mud.  Well we drove up to the Volcano and took some pictures.  The volcano didn't go off that much and when it did it wasn't very big.  It wasn't as exciting as it used to be.  The boys said that it was because of the weather.  The people also have custom beliefs and stories about when the volcano goes off.  It was a lot of fun though, I've seen the Volcano 5 times now!

 

Wednesday we hung out in Lenakel and we were able to teach an investigator and a couple of recent converts.

 

Thursday morning we went to the Airport to pick up the AP's (Assistants to the Mission President).

They came to do an exchange with us and see how the Zone is here.  One of the AP's is named Elder Tupou from Tonga,  he's been on exchanges with me back in Malekula when I was a District Leader.  The other one is Elder Petty from Australia. He was the Zone Leader while I was in Gaua and he's been on a couple exchanges with me as well.

 

So they came and we decided that Elder Tupou and Elder Child would go to Ianapkasu while me and Elder Petty stayed in Lenakel.  were able to read in the book of mormon with many recent converts and help them know more about the stories.  We also taught a couple lessons with investigators and I learned a lot from Elder Petty.  Then we made mashed Kumala and Beef for dinner that night. It turned out pretty good, except that the gravy that I made was pretty salty.

 

The next morning (Friday) we went to the Whitegrass church house for Zone Training.  Me and my companion led the Zone into making a key indicators goal for each week.  I thought the training went great.  Then we went to the Airport so the AP's could check in and it was raining really hard.  We checked in and waited for the plane to come but it couldn't land because it would most likely hydroplane on the runway so the flight was cancelled and they would fly on Saturday.  So we drove back home and bought lots of chicken wings and made chicken soup for dinner which hit the spot!

 

Then on Saturday we decided to drive to Karimasanga so the AP's could inverview Henry's family to be baptized.  We plan on baptizing them next week!  We played with kids and threw spears and tried to shoot birds with our slingshots and just had a lot of fun.  Once we were done we drove to the airport and dropped off the AP's at the airport and then we went home to do our weekly planning.

 

Yesterday (Sunday) we drove to whitegrass to pick up the branch president to bring him to Lenakel so he could do some priesthood interviews for us.  We then had church and afterwards ordained our recent convert Royal a teacher! Then we drove to Whitegrass where a perspective missionary was ordained an Elder.  Then we came back and taught a couple families and had a meeting with our Unit Leader Nos.  It's kind of Ironic but I already met our Unit Leader and his family last year while I was here.  On christmas eve we came and cut their grass with bush knives to do some service.  Well after the meetings it was already dark and we played a few games of magic and Elder Child kept beating me!  

 

Sorry not too much happened this week but know all is well and I'm so grateful to be here.  I love you all so much!

 

Mi lavem yufala tumas!

 

 

The Beach at Greenpoint

Running on the beach with the kids

At the volcano with Saet Siwi friends

Lava action at the volcano

The tree we crashed into last week

Week 5 on Tanna November 4, 2014

 

Dia ol Famle blo mi we mi lavem tumas!

Not too much happened this week compared to last.  But since you last heard me, last monday night we went to the District Clerk's house. His name is Daniel.  His wife Julie and her niece named Linda is an investigator of ours.  Daniel set up a projector so we could watch the Restoration for Famle Haos Night.  It was really cool and I love that movie, the church is true!!!

Tuesday we drove to Karimasanga and taught Henry's family about the saving ordinances in the church and set a baptism date for him and his family on Nov.15th!  They're a family of 6 and 5 will be baptized!  The sixth born is too young to be baptized.  So the next few weeks are gonna be awesome!  We then drove to Greenpoint and walked up the side of a steep hill to the Village of Miraweng.  Before walking up you see trees and bush and when you get up their you're really surprised to see people and houses up there.  The people really know how to live and survive in the bush.  It's way cool.  Up there I put on a magic card show and many people came to see my magic tricks and it brought many members, less actives, and non-members together.  After the magic tricks we taught them all about enduring to the end and how it's so important for us to read the scriptures, pray, and go to church.  The people loved it and glad to have us teach them.  Then it started to rain so we had to get out of there fast because the roads wouldn't be good. 

 

On our way back we saw a crab crossing the road, decent size, and I got out and picked it up and I asked Elder Child, what do you want to do with it? Eat it? Then he said "no, let's put it on the windshield and see  how long it stays on.  This crab was strong and we put it on the windshield and it hung on for quite a few miles!  It would hang on to the windshield wipers and we would turn them on and the crab would be pushed over the edge but would somehow be able to catch itself and hang on!!! It was a random thing that we did but it was pretty funny I think!

Wednesday a man named John Bennion was flying to Tanna with 2 other people.  John looks over the church houses here and they all came so they could work on some things at the whitegrass church house and a missionary house.  So that morning we went straight to the airport and picked them up and the first thing he said is "Elders, are you Hungry?  Let's go to Evergreen Resort." So we drove to a tourist resort called Evergreen Green resort which is right by the airport.  We got their and went to the restaurant there and John ordered everybody eggs and bacon.  I noticed that I haven't had bacon since the MTC and it was sooo good! 

 

Then we drove to whitegrass and we helped them work a little on the house.  Then that afternoon they needed to go back to the airport and we also had to check in some sisters who were being transferred.  Then after we checked in,  we had some time to kill and John said "let's go to Evergreen agian".  So we went there and he bought us their homemade ice cream and cake.  The ice cream was Vanilla Bean and it was really good, I could totally tell that it was homemade.  So we had a good dessert before John left.  There was some good food there. Then we taught our investigator Linda about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to be baptized!  She gladly accepted and now we hope to have 6 baptisms by the end of this month.

Thursday we went to Ianapkasu and and walked up the hill that we slid down (we won't drive up or down that hill anymore). We got up there and played with many of the kids and then we taught them about the story of Nephi and his brothers, and how they sailed to America.  Then we walked up to a village nearby called "Ietufun."  There we taught some members about how the book of mormon came about and when Joseph Smith translated the plates.  

 

Then we went back home a little early to do weekly planning.  We ate good that night though.  Me and Elder Child eat good here, the best I've eaten on my mission.  We fried up some steak and I boiled Kumala(which is like a sweet potato) and I made some mashed Kumala and Gravy.  It turned out way good!

Friday (Halloween), we stayed in Lenakel and decided to walk around instead of driving the truck.  It was good so we could shake hands and talk with people.  We walked across town to a member's house and we read in 1 Nephi 1 with her and helped her know more about Nephi and his family. Then we walked to our recent convert Royal's house.  On our way there was a teenage boy walking by and he saw us and told us "Elders, I want to join your church but I don't know how".  We talked with him for a few minutes and set up an appointment and gave him a restoration pamphlet to read.  It's amazing how the lord prepares people and puts them in our path to teach. 

 

We then taught Royal about the Plan of Salvation to make sure he knows heavenly father's plan really well.  He's so awesome and he sets a good example for his friends.  After seeing Royal, we went to a perspective missionary's house.  Her name is Belinda and her and her family invited us to come over.  And since it was halloween we decided to watch a scary movie! Just Kidding, we decided to watch 17 Miracles with this family to help them know about the early years in the church and how the Pioneers faith was so strong that they gave up all they had to go to Zion and go to the temple.

Saturday we drove to Karimasanga and we got to the base of the road to drive up to Henry's house.  For some reason another truck was parked in the middle of  road and it was raining and we decided to drive around the truck.  We started driving around it and almost made it but since the road was wet we couldn't go higher.  So we backed up a little but since we were on the side of the road and there was old deep tire tracks that our wheels were in so we went back and got high centered!  About 20 feet away from where we got stuck a few weeks ago!  Good thing I put a shovel in the back of the truck to prepare for these situations.  We were high-centered for about only a half an hour before we got out and then we just decided to walk up to Henry's house.  We were soaked because of the rain but that didn't stop us.  Nothing can stop me and Elder Child! 

 

We got up there in about 45 minutes and reviewed the baptism interview questions with his family and we just talked there awhile and then on our way back down a guy named Sam asked about our church and we set up an appointment with him.  Another man was placed in our path.  Then we taught a less active member about the priesthood before we went back to Lenakel. 

Sunday we wanted to go to Ianapkasu for church.  The Church house was finished so we went up there.  It rained alot saturday night so the roads were very slick again so we had to park the truck way down.  Then we walked 45 minutes up to Ianapkasu.  The church house is beautiful and many members came to church.  They used to place mats in a small kitchen and worship but now there's a bush house that we worship in.  They put in mats for everyone to sit down.  We taught the kids during sunday school about the story of Nephi and the Prophet Mormon and how he abridged the records.  During Sacrament meeting I had the Priviledge to give a baby blessing to a 2 week year old baby! Then it was testimony meeting and we bore our testimonies and taught a new investigator named Elina about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Then we had to walk all the way down to the truck and we drove to Lenakel to teach.  We shared a scripture with a member before going to see royal again.  After teaching him, we received a call from the Greenpoint Branch President's son asking us to come to the hospital to give a blessing.  We went there and there was a baby named Moroni that had respiratory problems so we went and gave a blessing.  I think the baby's doing better now. 

Well know that all is well, I'm glad that Halloween was fun and know that Everything is great here!  I love serving the lord and living among these people. I love you all so much and you're in my prayers!

Love,

Elder Beynon

Me and the kids at Inapkasu (man bush)

The church house we helped build in Inapkasu