Off to London

Hello,                                                                                                      

Hey I am doing good. I sent you an email when I got back from Tabueron so I am not sure why you didn't get it. But I am back safe.

I will explain some about Tabueron. So it was a 24 hour boat ride both ways.  It is a flat boat and everybody sits on a platform made up of grass mats in the middle of the boat. When we got to Fanning (Fanning Island is the same thing as Tabueron) it was just like the movie The Other Side of Heaven where nobody knew we were coming. We just kind of chilled and waited there to get all of our stuff. Eventually somebody from the church saw us and got our branch president. We got settled in to our stick hut home and then pretty much went to work. Our main thing we did was we tried to find people prepared for baptism. Since people rarely go there we just tried to see who the people before us had taught. We baptized two teenage guys while we were there so that was good. Also while I was gone two other guys in Banana had their baptisms so that was also good.

There are two parts of Tabueron. And we traveled on a boat to the second part and stayed there for a couple days. There is a guy there who is a member and his name is Beto. He is way legit. We get there and he has an earring in his ear, and he is an amazing member. He took us to all the different houses and we taught the people. Pretty much all of them were Catholics but he didn't care, he wanted them to hear what we had to teach. He took us to these places and taught with us and bore his testimony and it was so cool.  I noticed that it didn't matter to him what religion people were we taught them anyways.

Fanning Island is very green. There are Bananas there and a lot of papayas and such. So we ate a lot of fruit. I got sick while I was there for a little bit, but it ended up working out in the end.

So I am being transferred as of today. Tonight I move to the village London and I shall be working with Elder Johnson.   Johnson is from Arizona originally but he lives in Spanish Fork. At least I think that is right.  He is the same intake as Elder Whitehead so he has been out over a year.  I will miss my birthplace of Banana, but it will be good working in London as well. London is more of a city than Banana. There aren't a whole lot of people in Banana most of the people live in London.  I will live in a little house that we rent from a member. It is decent, but super hot inside.

Here is a little information about my mission. 

I think there are like 150 missionaries. There are 80 missionaries in Kiribati and 70 in Marshalls. I am not sure though exactly. 

In my area there are chickens running around everywhere but people do not use their eggs. In fact I am not sure where the eggs actually go.  The chickens just wander and then when they have a party they will kill and eat them. 

When we went fishing a few weeks ago I held a shark (pictures are coming) but we didn’t eat it.  The Kiribati people who were with us took the sharks home to eat them and sell them.  I did eat sea turtle a couple of weeks ago though. I do try everything and I like a lot of it.   

Funny story, I have a picture of the mountains and the snow.  One of the converts told me that she is scared of snow and mountains since she has never seen them before.

I am glad Thanksgiving went well. We had a small celebration at Tiim’s (a rich fisherman) house in Tabwakea and they made us way good food including turkey. He had most everything imported in from Hawaii for us. Elder Hungai had never heard of Thanksgiving so that was good he could experience it. I did miss mashed potatoes and gravy though but it was all good stuff.

As for packages I did not get one. But I am hoping soon!

Other people have been getting them so we will have to see if I will soon!

Yeah I am healthy. I am doing just dandy.

Thanks for everything.

Elder Dinsdale

Dist serving on Christmas Island Thanksgiving 2015

Off to Tabuerson

What a great surprise I had when I opened my email today and read.

Hey mom,

I am going to an outer island for a week or two called Tabueron or Fanning Island. I am going with Elder Afatasi. 24 hour boat ride there and 48 hour boat ride back. I will take pictures but chances are I will not be emailing.

So I will email in a week or two!

Love you all.
Elder Dinsdale

Beautiful Sunset in Kirimati.

Gone Fishing

So I have no time to email today as we went fishing far away. I am on someone’s phone emailing you now.   I will just let you guys know that things are going good.

Sorry I can't answer questions.

Love you guys.
Elder Dinsdale

From Jen:  I did happen to find a few fishing pictures that were taken on Monday and posted from other Elders moms!!

Happy Halloween

Hello,

It seems like Halloween was a success in America. They don’t celebrate Halloween here but after telling Elder Hungai about what Halloween is we went to JMB and bought starbursts and suckers and then we went and handed out candy.  They were rather scared to say trick or treat but once they did and we gave them candy they liked it.  It was pretty sweet stuff and it was fun. Nobody really had heard of it but it works.

Language here is coming. Elder Hungai is good at the language so it is good, but sometimes when I ask him what things mean he doesn't know what it means in English so that is exciting. I wouldn't say it is coming faster will him, but it is still coming, so that is good. I study the language daily and the scriptures. We study personally for an hour, in our companionship for an hour, and then language for like 30 minutes to an hour every morning pretty much.

Church is good here. I brought my English scriptures to church because we study the bible in Sunday school and it is super hard to understand in Kiribati.  We always get a couple good things out of church each week which is good.

Weather is the same. It is hot.  It rains occasionally but not a lot.  It seems weird to think that even during Christmas and stuff here it will still just be as hot as every other time of the year but I suppose it works.

You asked me about my clothes.  They are good so don't worry about that. I have made it my own personal thing though to protect myself.  So just for fun and I am pretty sure I am the only missionary on the island that does this I wear socks!!!  So, yeah I am a beast. But my feet look better than most others so I don't regret it. My health is good, and I am feeling fine and doing good so don’t worry mom. 

We have an appointment with some new people tomorrow so that should go good. And the branch here just barely started the whole home teaching program so that if done right should really strengthen the branch here.

One thing I need is a bread recipe. There is this lady and we go over to her house a bunch because we teach a kid there and all she really ever does is make bread. Last night we had dinner with them I was telling her about how we have like Banana bread and pumpkin bread. So if you can send me some bread recipes that I can give to her that would be great.

Here is a scripture that I like. 3 Nephi 13:33.

Just make sure we are always before anything else seeking the Kingdom of God

A mission is a time to serve the Lord and we should avoid using it as a way to make ourselves higher up than certain people because others didn't go or because some person goes to one place and someone else goes another. All missions have challenges and none is necessarily better than others (even though I will always love Kiribati because it is my mission). I don't feel like what I am trying to express is making sense, but hopefully you understand what I am saying. We should always just make sure to focus on good things and be humble before the Lord.

This is his work, without him it wouldn’t be possible.

I love you all, and just keep living life and doing good things.

Elder Dinsdale

I got my first letter last week from Hannah!!!  It seems like she sent it about a month ago so it takes quite a while for stuff but I would love to hear from all of you!!!