Strengthened by the Lord

Hey,

So things are all good here.  It sounds like everyone is busy at home working and such. 

Not everyone here works. And most of the people that work just collect coconuts and sell them and such. I believe work is a good thing. People here are super surprised when I tell them that where I am from if you don't work then you don't eat. Here people can find food if they are too lazy to work for it.

You asked me what I eat… If I eat in the morning or lunch I eat crackers with this spam stuff but a different brand of spam. And then if stores have banana's I buy them and have them. Dinner is as usual, fish and rice.  So pretty much I am living the high life out here. I am healthy so don't worry.

As for a description of our area, we live in Tuarabu. Our area is 30 minutes North and an hour South of our house. So it is good for the exercise.  There is tons of work to be done here but we have got it.  This week we biked to the edge of the island and worked there a bit as well.

Our area definitely had some issues before we came. Right now we just started our work in another branch in our area which we came to find out has just fallen apart over the past few months. The branch president just got back a bit ago. He told us only 9 people came to church the week before. We visited some people and did church there and we got about 15 people there. So now we are rebuilding. Also we have to re teach people stuff because people that were baptized recently don't know what they need to know. We are planning on working a lot down there now because before like 30 or 40 people came each week and now it is messed up. So we are rebuilding a branch and it is fun. The branch president doesn't have any councilors because nobody is worthy down there, so there is a lot of work to do. Also down in another village we are hoping to start up a unit or something. We had 7 people come to church so little by little we hope to make a new place there. Church services are very different from each other here. One branch here is good. The other one it is just one hour of church a week and the branch president conducts it. And another area we do the church.  We give the talks and bless the sacrament and everything.  So it is a new experience.

Originally it was really hard getting people to teach but now we have plenty to teach. Lots of less actives and a few investigators but it is good. People really like my companion I would say. It helps that he has no trouble talking to them because he is Kiribati. One problem (which isn't really a problem) is that if something needs to be done they tell him a lot of times because he is Kiribati but he is new and doesn't know really that much stuff. A lot of people are just scared/shy of white people.

To be honest, coming here and not knowing anybody with a kid (new missionary) that he doesn't speak English not knowing what I was doing or anything was hard. Also the lifestyle is different because there isn't really anything out here. But now like we have it. I don't think we will be baptizing a ton, but the area here is definitely being strengthened by the Lord now so it is really good.

So, yeah we have a lot to do but I agree that we will definitely learn a lot more from areas like this.

Well, that is all from me thanks for everything.

Love you all.

Elder Dinsdale

(I lost my sunglasses a while ago but don't send a package just for those. We have bike stuff here. Dad gave me a bunch before I left. The wrench bottom fell off though unfortunately so I do not have a wrench anymore to fix my bike.  If you do send a package Elder Neeti likes chocolate so please send some chocolate bars or something.)