Baptisms! - 5 FEB 2016

5 FEB 2016

Hey, sorry it's so late. I don't know what time it is there but here it is about 3:30pm. I am usually able to email earlier but I couldn't because of baptisms! Yeah we had 3 baptisms for us and there were 14 total among the zone. Our three were "S", "A", and "L". They are two Abu's and an older Mama. Abu is grandma basically. They are all related. We have another mama and a young girl from that family that will be baptized at the end of the month if they come to church. "K" was supposed to be baptized

Elder Bramell and three new members of the Church!

this week but he wanted to talk to his mom first so he will be next week. The baptism went well though. Elder Christensen did two of them and I did the other. It was nice. Elder West also had a baptism. There were a lot of missionaries there with baptisms. Don't worry I have pics.

This week has been decent. We've been having a lot of appointments fall through lately. It's not ideal but we are making the best of it. We had the new AP come in this week. The Assisstant to the President. His name is Elder Fidow from Samoa, it's him and Elder Crowell. He was serving in the Solomon Islands when Elder Christofferson went there. Which reminds me...

Elder D. Todd Christofferson didn't come to Vanuatu but he did go to the Solomon Islands. President Granger was telling us all about it. President got the impression that we needed more missionaries in the Solomons. He wanted to increase from 8 to 20. The only person that can approve an increase in missionaries is, as it turns out, an apostle. So, with E. Christofferson's visit, there's going to be 20 missionaries there within the next 6 months. That means that some people from Vanuatu are going, so I could go to Solomons if I needed to. Elder Christofferson also bestowed an Apostolic Blessing

Missionaries at Zone Training

on all the missionaries, including me. I don't know exactly what it says yet, but President wants to get a copy to every missionary, so next week I could tell you more about it. During our office meeting on Monday, President was reading it to us. It was super spiritual until Rex (a large lizard), who was on my shoulder, decided to go to the bathroom, on my shoulder. It was nasty but it was funny at the same time. So, needless to say I got distracted.

But I mean it's been a good week. How have you guys been? I've been doing good. It's nice to finally email, sorry for how late it is. There are 3 computers in the office and 8 missionaries. So, sometimes it's tough. Hopefully you are all doing well. It's nice to hear from you guys. Take care guys!

Children of members who were baptized on Saturday

Umm...I can't explain this photo!

Highs and Lows - 29 JAN 2016

29 JAN 2016

So It's been a pretty decent week. So last Saturday after I emailed everyone, I was bored so I started playing cards. Eventually we got a poker game going. It was fun. Then later we bought little candies and used those in a game and it was crazy. I ended up getting two Elders to go all in and then I cleared them out with four 5's. We played until only one person was left and there was just one huge pile of candy. I also bought a guitar at a Chinese store. It's nice and I got it for a cheap price. It's black and I just bought a silver sharpie so it's going to look so cool.

Our baptisms are going fairly well 4 of the 11 aren't scheduled yet. 2 of them we have to push back because they didn't come to church. But the other 5 should be baptized on next Saturday. All the others are still going to be baptized just not next Saturday. On Sunday, one of the members brought 2 friends to church, and now we are teaching them! Jack and Solomon. They both said they would get baptized. So now we have two new investigators. That's what happens when members help the missionaries.

This week we had some new missionaries come. Four of them were the visa waiters I was in the MTC with. Then we had 3 more. Only 2 of them are staying in Vanuatu, the rest are going to New Caledonia. They left for New Cal on Friday. So we hung out with them all week and brought them to our lessons so they could teach with us. It was nice, they are all cool people.

One really big disappointment this week is that Elder D. Todd Christofferson is not coming (Elder Christofferson serves in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). The runway at the airport is messed up so Air New Zealand refuses to fly here until they fix it. Because of that, Church Security cancelled his trip here. They don't want to risk anything. So all the meetings and special stake conference and everything are all cancelled. Everything is back to normal. It's really disappointing, I was really looking forward to that.

But that's my week. It's been mostly good with a couple of not so good times. But that's okay, that's how we grow and improve. I'm lucky to know all of you. I love you guys so much! Have a great week!

David:  Curtis wrote me a response to some questions I had.  I thought his response was sweet and a good glimpse into his personality...

Happy Anniversary! You two are amazing. I hope I'll be as happy as you guys are. Everything is good here. I'm getting used to the weather, but when we go indoors to teach it gets like 10x hotter. I've been trying a little bit to learn to cook. I can make rice so I can survive haha. The baptism font is at the Numbatu Chapel, the Stake Center. Hopefully someday I will get to baptize in the ocean. Make sure you tell the Sisters congratulations on their baptism! I know how tough it is. I can only imagine how hard it is for them. Sorry if I'm not making sense I'm trying to answer all your questions haha. But it's all good out on the home front. I hope work isn't stressing you out too much remember to take a breather I know how stressful things can get. Well I love you so much, you are the best father a boy could have!