Family home evening with the Solomon family

Port Vila Week 6

Monday April 26, 2015

Halo Famle Blong Mi,

I hope you all enjoyed reading our crazy experience with the Cyclone. Everything seems to be going fine here even after 1 month since it hit.  School is continuing, people are all working again, and many blessings are being poured upon the people.

So since you last heard from me, me and Elder Smiler went with our Branch President, President Tiasanmal and his family to a place called Bellvue where a part-member less active family lived.  The mama and papa and some of the kids are members but some of there other kids aren't and their grand kids and they all want to be taught.  They just barely came back to church last week and they invited us to come over. So we did and did a family house naet with the Solomon Family and we had prospective missionaries with us bare their testimony as well as President Tiasanmal's familly.  It turns out that the family is originally from Whitesands, Tanna.  We hope to teach all of them and
baptize the rest of their family in the future.  After our testimony meeting we ate dinner with them and chocolate cake I made, it turned out pretty good!

Tuesday we were very busy, in the morning we taught a little 9 year old boy at "Namba Tri" named Avock, his parents are members but Avock just never got baptized. We taught him how heavenly father loves us and about prayer.  then we went to Namba Tu and taught an investigator named Edmas about the restoration.  She's an middle-aged mama who's been coming to church after the cyclone and she was really interested in what we had to share.  Afterwards we visited with an investigator named Vanessa and we shared a scripture with her in 2 Nephi 4: 34 where nephi is praising the lord.

We then visited 4 new investigators named Avock & Rose, and Anna and Janet.  All have been coming to church since the cyclone as well and the sisters taught them and gave them as a referral to us.  We taught them all about the book of mormon and they were very grateful for the message.  We gave each of them a book of mormon and none of them rejected it or had questions about it.

We then drove up to Beverly Hills and taught Sele, he's young but super smart, knows everything is true.  We taught him about the book of mormon as well and he's been coming to church every week as well. Then that afternoon we taught our investigator Bella about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we hope to baptize her next month if possible.

Wednesday morning we had a great MLC (Mission Leadership Council) with our Zone and Mission President in preparing for the future with all the new investigators.  It might be possible that if us missionaries get too busy or overwhelmed with appointments that every once in awhile we can split with Branch Missionaries or returned missionaries. It's kind of weird because 22 missionaries left after the cyclone but tons and tons of people started coming to church.  I think over 800 total non-members came to church on April 5th on the island of Efate! yeah just non-members, not counting less actives, members, etc.  We have a lot of work to do and I know the lord knows that we can handle it.

After our MLC we taught Melissa about Missionary Work.  She will be baptized on Saturday!  She's very smart and she's very excited.  We then visited mama Shantel and read with her in Mormon chapter 9.  That afternoon we met with our Branch Mission Leader Fred and the Branch Council that night to make plans to contact all the referrals we received.

Thursday was Zone Conference!!! It was focused on the topic in the Preach My Gospel "How do I prepare my investigators for Baptism",  the perfect training for what is to come!  It was a great Zone Conference and we had good pizza for Lunch!  Then we had our interviews with mission president and then took part with him while he set apart a missionary.  His name is Messiah Isaiah Lapenmal, he's from Malekula, great kid, totally ready to serve.  He will be serving in the Australia Adelaide mission. He stayed with us the night so we could bring him to the airport the next morning.

Friday morning we studied and took Elder Lapenmal shopping for a last few things he needed to get before he would fly.  We brought him to the airport and he flew to New Zealand to go to the MTC there. Then we went to Namba Tri and saw Avock again and we taught him about the restoration. He's so cool, he's not afraid and he answers the questions we ask and loves us coming to see him.  We then saw Sele and taught him about the Plan of Salvation about the premortal live and why we are here on earth.  That afternoon we went home to do our weekly planning.

Saturday we went to the Branch for Melissa's baptism.  the missionaries in Blacksands also had a baptism so we did our program together.  Here in Port Vila, only the Church house at Namba Tu has a
baptismal font outside, so anyone who gets baptized will have the service there, it's the District Center as well.  We had Melissa's baptism and Elder Smiler baptized her and then we visited our
investigator Gabby again.  We had many other appointments which cancelled that afternoon but it was alright.

Yesterday was great!  We went to Church and President Tiasanmal asked me to give a small talk about Missionary Work and Introduce Myself to the Branch.  I did and I have to admit, I was pretty nervous, I'm not used to speaking in a microphone to a bunch of people, I've given many talks and taught a lot during the mission but in small branches and units, nothing this big since my mission farwell I think.  My talk went well though, Elder Smiler said I didn't look nervous at all.

After church we had lunch with the Busai family who invited us over and we ate rice and fish with them.  Then we taught Bella about Chastity and comitted her to be baptized on May 23rd!  Then we met 3 potential investigators that came to church and we contacted them and set appointments to teach them.

Afterwards we taught mama Edmas about the Book of Mormon and she knew it was all true.  She said a great closing prayer saying "I believe Joseph Smith is a true prophet and that the book of mormon is true, it's amazing how fast the Holy Ghost will witness of the truth when they are ready.  We then drove to Beverly hills to and Mama Annie and Papa Bradley's house.  Bradley and
his wife stay with Annie and her Husband in one house and they're all family, They have a few teenage boys and a few young kids and their family comes from Gaua, Vanualava, and Merelava, some of the Norther Islands.  We talked with them awhile and then we shared a scripture in 1 Nephi 15: 24-25 with them and then Annie asked us to give her a blessing because she was sick and so did their grandma named Lessy.

Then we all knelt down in family prayer and the mama said a prayer thanking the lord for our coming in which we came.  They really needed us at the time and the spirit led us there and we were very grateful to help them.  We left and went to teach Sele about the rest of the plan of Salvation and we set a baptism date for him on May 23rd as well.  He's so awesome!!!

Well that's about all that happened last week.  We're keeping busy and it sounds like you're all busy as well, and it's good and I'm so grateful to be here.  Mi lavem yufala bigwan!!!

Love,

Elda Beynon

Getting ready to eat after zone conference

Pizza!!! For zone conference!

Melissa's Baptism

Mormon helping hands unloading food from trucks

Cyclone Part 7

Sunday March 22nd, 2015 We went to church this morning at the district center and two branches that go to church in Nambatu.  We went to church with the 2nd branch and it was awesome!  It was a lot like back home, they even had an organ to play the hymns!  Everything was done by the members.  I've been in the bush too long!  The AP's had to drop a missionary off at the airport so they told us to go to sacrament meeting with the other branch as well.  After church the AP's came back and we went on splits and we all visited members and shared scriptures with them.  Then we met back at the house at 6pm.

Monday March 23rd, 2015 This morning we flew to Tanna with the district president and John Bennion who looks over the church buildings and shipments here.  We all flew there and everything was so dry!  Nothing green at all.  It looked a lot worse than when we left Tanna.  The phone network was still out.  A transport brought us into town and we went to the market and luckily found three of the branch presidents and the district president there.  Also the unit leader was there with his truck so he took us all to the whitegrass chapel and we all met together. 

Each president discussed the needs of the people.  Everyone in Tanna is struggling.  Water, food, and clothing was all needed.  The church will probably help them out by sending seeds, gardening tools, tarps, and tents to help keep them going.  We met with all of them and then went to greenhill wo we could see the branch president there.  The churches structure sat on two meter long posts in the ground and when the cyclone hit, the wind blew the church over and the posts tipped over and the church lay flat on the ground about ten feet over from where it used to be.  It hit the missionary house but just did minor damage.  They will probably just re-build the church there.

 It got late and we got dropped off at the whitegrass resort, but on our way we stopped by whitegrass church first and and everyone was cooking food for the afternoon.  Sadly enough we found out that they only had enough food for one meal a day.  Just boiled bananas or manyoke and it's starting to go bad.  Their food will probably only last a couple more weeds before it's all gone.  We had some extra food that we gave them to eat.  We then got to the whitegrass resort. This is where Pres Brewer stays and surprisingly they were still running and had a few rooms available.  We stayed in bush huts that were very nice inside like a hotel.  I haven't slept in a nicer room than that since before my mission. 

We ate crackers, and tin meat for dinner because the resort was low on food.  We flew back to Tanna Tuesday morning where we learned how the mission would be down sized.  Afterwards me and Elder Pearce split up and now I'm staying with good ol' Elder Leva, Elder Mastin, Elder Manu, and Elder D.

Well this is about all that happened with our experience with the cyclone.  Crazy huh?  Everyone is all right and I know the Lord has protected us.  He has a special plan for Vanuatu, especially Efate and Tanna.  Great blessings will be seen and received, and in the future as well.  I hope this paints a good picture of my experience.  Mi luvam tumas!
 

The church organizing food for the people

Love, Elda Beynon

View of Tanna from the plane

Cyclone Part 6

March 19th, 2015, Thursday, District President Nalawes picked us up this morning and brought us to the airport.  A chartered plane was supposed to come but we called the AP's on someone's satellite phone and they said it was delayed.  An "Air Vanuatu" plane had just landed but not very many people boarded so we called President Brewer to ask it we could just follow the plane if they had extra seats available.  Luckily they did and we flew to Port Vila.  We arrived and the AP's dropped us off at the mission home  President and Sister Brewer were very happy to see us. 

President had me call President Pearson of the Quorum of the Seventy and I told him a little of our experience during the cyclone.  He said lots of prayers were said, he said more prayers for you than you've every probably received in your life.  Apparently the Twelve Apostles were even praying for us!  He also said that he had talked to Dad (Marc) to ask him how he and mom were doing.  He said they seemed to be alright.  He said after my experience with all this "to keep up the faith, don't let anything get in the way of it". 

We all ate mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner that Sister Brewer made.  They were amazing!  President told us what things were like in Port Vila.  He said that the mission home flooded as well during the cyclone and that the powere went out.  But then came back on a few days later.  The mission home got minor damage from a tree that fell on the roof during the storm.  And the internet was down on the island except on his phone and the family history center.  He said "the Lord had his hand stretched out in his work, and Vanuatu will see many blessings".

It was such a big cyclone but so few deaths.  Eight deaths were confirmed in Tanna.  In Port Vila, not a single member of the church was killed by the cyclone.  As a result, they will most likely have to downsize the mission.  The AP's dropped everyone off with the other Elders and Sisters and we got to see the destruction in Vila as well.  Each missionary house had about 4-6 Elders or Sisters in each of the houses.  Six of the houses were damaged.  Big buildings were in bad shape.  Yachts and said boats were sunk and blown into the shore.  It still seemed like Tanna got hit the worst though.  The AP's had us stay with them.  I made some burritos for us for dinner.

Friday March 20th, 2015, This morning we went to the mission office with the AP's and we all had  a meeting with President Brewer.  He discussed things that need to be done, and information that needs to be learned.  He gave me and Elder Pearce and assignments and he wants us to go back to Tanna with Pres Basil and Joen Bennion on Monday to find out the needs of the people and branches.  If the bank is up and running and the status of what is going on.  We then put our photos and videos of the cyclone on a disk to keep for the missions history and one for the quorum of the seventy.  We did so and followed the AP's around for the rest of the day. 

Saturday March 21st, 2015, This morning we went to Nambia which is the AP's area and where the district center is at.  We went to the district center to do some service.  From 10-4 we unloaded tons of food from trucks and store rooms and offices full of rice, flour, sugar, noodles, salt, onions, biscuits, etc.  The church offered a ton of help for these people.  We helped other distribute it evenly, load some of it on other trucks to give to members and non-members.  Then we followed the AP's and they let the Elders and Sisters from Tanna call and talk to their families for 5 minutes to let them know that everything was alright and that they were all okay. 

Our zone safe and sound at the mission home in Port Vila

Planes from other countries coming to help

Cyclone Part 5

We found two trucks and we divided into two groups.  I went East with one group to Saet Siwi and Whitesands.  We went East to the areas and there was total devastation.  The island looks so different now.  Henry, our driver dropped off the sisters in Whitesands first and dropped us off so we could walk to Saet Siwi.  We started walking up at 7pm.  It was dark and the roads were terrible.  Fallen trees and debris everywhere!  We would crawl underneath fallen trees and climb over everything.  We got up in about 45 minutes.  We didn't think the church would be standing after seeing all the destruction, but to our surprise it was totally fine.  And the lights were on inside. 

President Napikous family was there and they were alright.  Every house was blown down except the church house and the missionaries house.  Many people took shelter in the church when the cyclone came.  The Elders packed up their things and said goodbye and we left at 8:30pm to go back down.  We got down most of the way but at one part of the road there was so much debris to share we couldn't find the road.  We could use the volcano as a gauge of where we were, but we couldn't find the road that would bring us straight to the truck. 

We prayed for direction and eventually found the road to the truck around 10pm.  We took a lot longer than ecpected.  We picked up the sisters show ere waiting a long time for us and Henry drove us all the way back.  It was a chilly ride, it got pretty cold, it felt good though.  We got back after 11pm.  The other group had alrready gotten back before we came, they said that the Whitegrass church was also fine.  Same with the house.  The house near the volcano was damaged.  And the Greenhill church which was help up by posts was blown over and it hit the missionaries house, but both structures were just fine.  We all then went to sleep.  We were very tired especially after running up to Saet Siwi and getting lost on the way back.

Wednesday March 18th, 2015, This morning we had our last devotional and we said goodbye to everyone.  All the people were sad to see us go, but they were all grateful for all the help that we gave them.  William the principal was very grateful for all we had done and the spirit we brought in the school, he said that in the future, if we want to use the school for anything, that we could use it.  We then packed up our things and we went to the airport. 

Army planes from Australia, New Zealand and New Calendonia all landed down and brought food and water for the people.  Then at 1:30 the AP's finally arrived.  They said there was a change in plan, the sisters would fly back to Vila with them but the Elders would have to wait until tomorrow.  The small eight seated plane was loaded with rice, flour, meat and food for the district.  We helped them unload it, then the sisters and AP's flew back to Port Vila.  The AP's told us to arrange transports and take the food to Whitegrass and to stay there for the night.  We got there and stored the food and we checked out the damage to the church. 

It was very minor.  A couple of broken doors, and gutters, but the building help up nicely.  We talked to President Mankura and he said it was a miracle.  Every house in the village was destroyed but the church held up and provided shelter for over 300 people.  We held a family home evening with everyone who stayed there, before we rested for the night. 

Western Tanna

The Branch Presidents outside the district building

Cyclone Part 4

Monday March 16th, 2015

This morning we had a devotional and less people were there.  Many people were staying in shelters they made near their houses.  After the devotional me and Elder Jensen and four other boys went down to the house where we filled up all our water bottles and water jugs for the school.  Then we carried they all the way up to the isangel school.  Then we helped everyone clean up around the school.  Some of the people got lazy and wanted to rest.  But some didn't work much because they were waiting for chainsaws and supplies to be sent. 

We all then decided to help mama Rabi clean her place, then in the afternoon, me and three of the missionaries tried to made a siphon so water could come out of the well into a water tank.  The hose had a few little holes so it didn't work.  Then we used buckets of water and soap and we washed some of our clothes.  We then played soccer and volleyball outside with the people before we went to the devotional.  We found out that the road to whitegrass to middlebush and back to lenakal had been cleared and it was cleared all the way to whitesands.

The power was still out and the network is still down.  We are in dire need and need to talk to the mission president.  We need his direction and he is probably worried sick.  After the devotional they brought us some rice to eat, but it really wasn't much at all.  Food was really running low.  We will probably have to start conserving food.  The sisters didn't want to eat the rice.  The elders didn't want to eat it either.  Only a few of us did.  Most of us went hungry that night.

Tuesday March 17th, 2015 This morning we wok up and did the usual devotional and then three of us went down to the house to fill up water bottles.  But unfortunately the water was off.  We were completely out of water.  We walked back up to the school and saw a mama working in her yard.  We called the zone together and we all did service for her and cleaned up her yard and around her house.

Elder Tauke and Elder Pearce gathered money together and went into town to buy some food for everyone in case we had to stay for a long time.  They came back with lots of tin meat and crackers to last for a while.  Then me and Elder Jensend hooked up our water filter to a tank of water to fill up our bottles but there wasn't enough pressure for the water to move through the filter and the water was dirty.  Luckily we found a different tank that had clean water. 

Then we heard that some the the police were using satellite phones that were brought by planes from armies from other countries.  They were really nice and let me call President Brewer.  He answered and was very worried, he asked us where we were and if the missionaries were all alright and I told him we were safe and no one was harmed during the storm.  Then the network cut out.  He only had a little time to give us some direction.  He also said that the AP's were coming tomorrow.

We all went back and helped William clean the tile floor in a house in isangel.  We used brooms to scrub the floors with soap and water and we cleaned that house as other helped mama Rabi and John dig holes to put posts into the ground.  After the service we decided to call President Brewer to find out what his plans were.  He didn't answer so we tried the AP's number and luckily they answered.  They said that tomorrow the church would be chartering a small plane to come and pick up the sisters. 

They will fly the sisters back to Port Vila and then come back to pick up the Elders.  We will need to be at the airport at 11am tomorrow.  They also said we could charter transports to go to all the areas to grab all the missionaries, their luggage, and things.  We also saw there was a good chance to see each area and how it is.  We talked with John and he helped arrange transports that could take us to each area. 

Going to the house to fill up water bottles

The wind during the cyclone

Cyclone Part 3

People huddled in the dorms and the wind slowly died down and it all stopped around 3 or 4 pm.  Then a member policeman names John drove us down to our house to gather our stuff in case it gets stolen.  I stood in the back and surveyed the are and everything was broken and fallen down.  Houses, trees, power lines and there was no communication from the island  Our house was still standing but half the roof blew off and a few walls weren't great, but my things were all right.  I stuffed all my things in my duffel bags before the cyclone hit.  We went back to Isangel and a chief police names Joseph stopped us and said "Elders prepare a devotional at 7pm".

So we prepared one and someone gave the school rice and boiled it and we distributed it and it with some tuna that we had.  There were lots of people at the devotional.  Probably 150-200 people.  We all met in the schools dining room and three of us gave talks and then we sang a hymn to them.  Afterwards Joseph and counselors of the province let us know what was going on.  He said "as of now, all power is down, cell towers are down, and there is now way of communicating out of Tanna to Port Vila".  No one knows how we are doing.  

Joseph said that tomorrow at 6am we will have a devotional again and develop a plan to start cleaning up.  Everything was destroyed!  But nobody in the area was killed.  There wasn't much drama and everybody seemed to be fine.  Everyone was so grateful that their lives had been spared. 

Sunday March 15th we woke up early and did a small devotional again and Joseph divided everybody into separate groups to clean up around the school.  We decided that it was lawful to do good on the sabbath so we joined each of the groups to help out.  We picked up branches, garbage, leaves and puled them up so they could be burned.  We did that for a few hours and we went to the house to use a water filter that's hooked up to our sink to fill up water bottles to drink but unfortunately the water was off.  So we gathered up all the fallen coconuts but our house and we opened up 50 or 60 and filled our water bottles with coconut water so we could have some kind of water.  Then we carried everything back up to the school.

After everyone cleaned up the school they started going back to their properties to get their things.  We decided it would be a good idea to have sacrament meeting.  The missionaries and three members gathered in a small room and I conducted a small meeting.  Then we rested a while and mama Rabi brought us some food for dinner to eat.  At 7pm we had our devotional again.  We shared scriptures about faith and how we need to be faithful and have hope even after the disaster struck.  Then Joseph And counselors of the province reviewed the work done for the day.  Our groups that worked around the school reported the work that we had done.  And they developed their plans. 

We heard that the road from Lenakal that leads to the airport got cleared so if planes come, they can help.  I do recall seeing some planes from other countries flying over the island to survey the damage.  But still there was no communication from Tanna to Port Vila.  They thought of plans to obtain water in the wells at the school but it was not safe to drink, we could only use if to bathe with.  Outside the dorms is a big room with toilets and places to bathe, so everyday we would use water from the well and buckets of water to bathe.  We gave Sister Torea a blessing because she was scared and stressed out.  I think she was very worried about the circumstances we were in. 

The road in Tanna going toward the airport