I feel like I may never leave Kiritimati

Hey,

   Things have been really good this week.  I guess I will start out this week answering a few questions:

Does it seem like you have been out 6 months?  Do you think about home or do you feel like Kiritimati is home?  So, yeah for me at the moment, I still remember home and stuff, but it just feels like I am never going back.  It feels like I will never leave Kiritimas (which I wouldn’t mind because I love it) but I am pretty sure that I am leaving soon and I am good with that as well.  So, you had a party for me without me there?  Haha, sounds chill to me.  Well, I can say that you did more than I did.  I was glad to hear that some of the family and friends came over and hung out.  The “Island Cake” was great Sarah.  Cake is definitely something I miss. They have a type of cake here, but it just isn't like actual cake. I will eat a lot of Sarah's cake in 2 more years.

Where should we send letters to?  So, as far as letters please send them to me on Tarawa.  Last I heard I am leaving this month so I don’t want to miss any letters.  If I don’t leave this month it might be in March but if you send them to Tarawa it should be good. 

I heard Elder Darm had a Birthday Party and there was dancing.  Tell us about it.  Haha, yeah Darm had a pretty big party.  Yes, there was dancing.  I may or may not have ended up in a leaf skirt.  By the way I found out that I can shake my hips quite well if I say so myself!!!

What is your favorite thing to do there and what about a cool experience this week?   I enjoy fishing, telling stories, and teaching.  Honestly just meeting new people and talking to them is way fun.  Cool experience.  Well, one day we woke up and it had been raining all night so it was slightly cold. (It rains a ton usually) and so I decided, hey, Elder Dinsdale let’s take a hot shower. So I boiled some water and micro waved some more and took a hot bucket shower. Ha pretty legit stuff. I have done that a couple times now when it is raining and cold and such. 

How is it going with Elder Beacham?  Since you both sing have you been singing?   Elder Beacham and I are getting along quite well.  We have not done much singing, but we have talked about singing. Yeah not much time to do singing.  We spend our time teaching and then there is not much time for many other things.

How is it going with your investigators?  Investigators are doing good. Not as many as we would like right now.   We are working to find more people to teach since school started up today.  We have started teaching a new kid. He seems interesting and wants to have lessons. No baptisms last week but 2 people interviewed yesterday that will be baptized this Saturday so that is really good.

Do the members help support the new converts?  Do you have to talk or teach each Sunday at church?  Some members are good at supporting. But honestly people need their own testimonies here to say in the church. Not that many members here are great at supporting.   As for converts that fall away, quite a few. Probably 1/4 fall away it seems.  I just heard that one of mine from Banana just started coming back to church though so that was sweet.   Do I talk in Church?  I pretty much try to avoid talking or speaking in church.  But, yes I did a couple weeks ago.  I have to say it is nice on Sundays being taught because all the rest of the week I am teaching people.

What have you been studying in your scriptures that you want to share with us?  I have been studying in the Book of Mormon and the New Testament. It is hard to understand why Jesus does some things he does, but He is quite awesome I would have to say. Also one thing is that I feel like no matter how many times you read the Book of Mormon you can find stuff new. I never read much at home, but I am always finding cool stuff here about random things.

So yeah the Island life as a missionary is good.  Honestly, I am just trying to do good things and trying to be obedient.  I have noticed here that God will definitely give us trials, but if we just endure, great things happen.    We just need to remember that obedience to the Lord’s commandments bring blessings.

Thanks for all that you do for me.  Have a great week!!

Elder Dinsdale

Cake the Sarah made for Scott!!!

Focus on the good things!!

Hello,

   I don’t have much time to write today but let’s just say this week has been good.  My new companion is really good.  His name is Elder Beacham. He is from Cedar City Utah, he did theater (he performed in the Shakespeare Festival), ran cross country, he sings, and just does good stuff.   He is a quiet guy overall, and doesn't talk too much but if I get him on some subject I can get him going.  He has been out a while and will finish up his 2 years in May.  He is really cool though and I will enjoy my time with him.  I have honestly enjoyed working with all my companions.  It is great to be with different people because I get to see how they teach and work and speak and it helps me learn and grow. 

Here is an update on the people that we have/am teaching this week.  At church there was a kid (11 or 12) that I have seen before, but never talked to. Our branch mission leader guy pointed him out to us and told us to go ask him about lessons. I guess he lives right next to him and isn't baptized but wants to be.  So... we have been teaching him and it is going really good.  It feels like he is someone that is ready and was just given to us which is great!

The girl that we have been teaching is 14 and it was going well but her mom doesn't seem like she will change her mind and let her get baptized.   I have nothing against Catholics but let me say they very much try to force everyone in their family to stay Catholic. Sometimes very rudely, which I have stories about but I will not tell them.   

Here is a little information about the kids here.  Many kids (ages 8-18) go to school away from the Kiritimati.  They have had a break from school for December and January each year so we have been able to teach a lot of them.  Now that they are gone we will need to look for others to teach. 

Just a update of my last weeks catch.  We did not eat either the octopus or the shark. They were both small and I don't think it would work out too well. Someday I will eat them though and things will be good. Yumm...  Elder Hungai (my old companion but now he is just in my district) showed me how I could just hold the octopus and it wouldn't do anything so that was pretty sweet.

It has been raining here a lot. It never gets too hot here anymore (still a lot hotter than home) because most of the time it rains.  When the sun comes out after it rains it gets very humid which is never too much fun.

Language is coming good. I can pretty much have a conversation with anybody now without too many problems. My main thing is there are just so many words in the language and it is hard to get to know them all, but I am working on it.

One thing I try to do on my mission is to always focus on the good things.  I have found if you try to find even one bad thing you will not only find that but you will find a ton of them.  But, if you focus on the good the Lord’s way will be shown to you.   I am enjoying my mission.  I would have to say that Missions are definitely something worth it.

Have a good week and do good thing. Party it up at home.

Elder Dinsdale

PS   I didn’t get any packages but I did get a few letters.  Thank you Grandma, Kim and the Taylor's!  I love letters so please write!!

Octupus anyone?

Look at the far left and there is Elder Dinsdale!!

Hey,

My week has been really good. We went fishing today with President Weir and it was great. Today was my first time I have actually put in a line in the ocean and really fished!!  Yep, I caught myself a small shark!!  I was so excited and after that a small octopus! Soo yeah it is pretty much the coolest type of fish to catch ever and I caught them!!

I am pretty excited to have a new companion, but I have really enjoyed my time with Elder Johnson.  One of the things I thought was cool is to work with a bunch of people while I am on Kiritimas Island.  As far as my new companion he will be here on Wednesday and nobody seems to know him. This doesn’t usually happen but literally people don't know anything about him. The one thing I have heard is that he is a good cook so that is chill.

President Weir is here but didn't bring my packages. (I am guessing he came from the Marshall Islands and not from Tarawa)  I am hoping my new companion will bring me some letters or maybe a package. 

I got a Christmas card from the Brackens in our new ward. Tell them thanks. Are they the Brackens that we went to their farm when I caught their goat?   

Congratulations Amanda, Eric and Beckham on your new baby Jonah. Sounds like a cool name. I hope he will watch out for whales though.

That is good that Sarah is working with Tami. Honestly working with her I feel like just really builds the confidence of people and really helps people sing a lot better.  Sarah wrote me about the party that she had in my basement. I am glad that she is having fun and doing good things. The pictures of it were weird though because it was a bunch of young kids partying in my basement. I guess I will just have to get used to it.

That is cool that you saw Jay Christensen at Grist Mill.  Please tell him I said hello for me and tell him that there is a Kiribati dude names Itimaera (Ishamel in English) that reminds me of him because he is always climbing trees and stuff like a crazy person.

Our investigators are doing really well. One girl (that I told you about last week) her mom is forbidding her at the moment to come to church which slightly stinks... But we have another really solid girl we just got and a potential Melchizedek Priesthood holder.  He has come 2 weeks in a row now to church and we hope to be talking to him about baptism soon. We were able to have 2 more people baptized this week which are from the family of Karaiti (who was baptized last week). We also got 4 new investigators.  One issue that is going to be coming soon is that all our people will go back to school in February except for the ones that work.  So that will be exciting to see what will happen.  I am sure we will find more people to teach.  So that was great!!

Well, things are going really well here. I am healthy, the language is good and ready to go for another week of good stuff on Kiritimas Island!  I hope you are all doing good things.

Elder Dinsdale