Week 4

August 21, 2015

So things are going quite good here!

Our war last week was with the Tongans went very well.  Thanks for the supplies they were awesome!!  I was completely soaked after our war.  We were ready for another one yesterday with water balloons (which my mom did not send) till people complained and then some ZL’s from another zone came and freaked out so it didn’t happen.  But that’s ok. 

I leave on the 8^th of September to fly first to LA then to Fiji then to Tarawa then wherever they decide to send me.  I have no idea.  All I know is there is a good chance they said that most of us will go to outer islands, in which case they said that we might only be able to contact people perhaps every 4 to 6 months depending on the island.  So, that will be interesting to see how it all turns out. 

As far as my Visa to get into Kiribati, it turns out that we don’t need a Visa to get into Kiribati.  All that worrying for nothing mom!!  We did have to take our passports to the traveling office and show them that we had them and everything else seemed like they had it all figured out.  So, I suppose that is a good thing?

As far as missionary discussions go… some go well, others not so much.  It all depends on the topic, as some parts of the gospel I know how to say a lot more in Kiribati then other parts.  But, it is slowly coming along so I should be decent by the time I leave the MTC! 

So, as far as the language Kiribati it is pretty much the same thing as Gilbertese.  I guess they used to be called the Gilbert Islands till Kiribati was founded.  It is somewhat similar to Tongan or Samoan.  Vowels are the same as Spanish awe eh ee oh ooo (a e I o u).  And ti makes an s sound and tu makes a su sound.  Bwa and Mwa or Bwe and Mwe all make different types of sounds as well.  Most other things pretty much just sound out I guess, except for the weird ng thing.  They don’t use any accents and there are only 15 letters.

 A E I O U T M Mw W KI Ng B Bw R N

I have been playing been playing sand volleyball occasionally and volleyball in the gym.   I am starting to enjoy it quite a bit, even though I am not super good. 

The Nashville Tribute band came and performed on Sunday for us and that was pretty cool.  We also have someone from the 70’s occasionally come and speak to us which it good.

It would be nice to have a picture book with a bunch of pictures from home in it.  Just like a flip book with family pictures and friends.

Happy Birthday Sarah on Wednesday!!!

Well, things overall have been good here and I hope overall things are good at home.  Have fun with all the random stuff you are doing and I will write again next week!

Elder Dinsdale