Don't eat the PIG!!!

Hello,

Wow, it seems crazy that it is so cold there.  I get cold with the air conditioning on so I don’t know how well I could do in the snow. 

Work here has been going really good. I am just loving serving in Banraeaba.  Banraeaba is a village in Tarawa.  There is a primary school here, a bunch of stores, and some small clinics for health.  In Tarawa there is everything but in Banraeaba only a few things.  In my zone we serve Ambo, Banraeaba, Taeoraereke, Nanikai, Bairiki and Betio.  Betio has 3 wards so that is great!!

This week we did like 4 baptismal interview for people in our zone so that is really good overall.  They take a bit of time but I always enjoy doing them.  I really try to make sure I feel like they are ready because I don't want them to get baptized if they are not ready.

We had the baptism of Seete.  It worked out just as we hoped it would!!   His wife spoke and a guy Kantara baptized him.  Kantara just got back from his mission in Iowa.  We have a font in our chapel in Teaoraereke but sometimes there is no water so we do the baptism in the ocean. (Picture thanks to Elder Parry)  

We have 3 more people that are super solid so within the next month or so should be baptized. I am just really excited for everything. Finding new investigators is going decently. We had one of our investigators come to church for his first time this week with his wife who is also an investigator so it was pretty awesome.  We have a bunch of potential people so we are working hard to get out and teach all of them.

Our investigator from the Church of Christ isn’t making too much progress but we are trying not to give up on her and her daughter.  They both have so much potential.  She is really intelligent but some of their beliefs in their church just don't make sense to me. Just a bunch of stuff she believes has changed after the Bible was completed or something like that. We are working on it though. 

 I probably could send pictures home, but that would take a bunch of time, and I feel like it is more fun to have you guys wait till I send SD cards or stuff like that!!  Sorry mom

Well, things are just going really good here.  Make good use of all the snow.

I love you and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Dinsdale

Funny story from Elder Parry email (Scott’s companion)

We went to this birthday party for perhaps the classiest and most faithful couple in all of Kiribati. Tokobea and his wife Anne.  They were celebrating their 71st and 72nd birthdays.  So cool to see a couple that old that have been strong in the church since their conversion after they were married.  Anyways, one thing all Elders here know is that eating pig is always a risky thing to do.  But we decided to go for it anyways since it was their special day.  Fast forward to our first lesson the next day and me and Elder Dinsdale both got hit with intense stomach pains.  We were in such a hurry afterwards, and the thing about Kiribati is that there is no such thing as public restrooms.  To make things more inconvenient ALL of the members were gone to a ward picnic. Haha. We barely made it home in time.