I am still a beast!!

Hello,

  What’s up?  We have had another great week in Tab North.  No new investigators but our investigators we have are going strong.  Iobwaara came to church this last week as well as our other investigators.  There are a bunch of people way close to baptism.  It’s great!!

  Well, I heard my package came and the Jenks will be sending it next week to Tab South.  So all my candy and stuff got eaten by rats?  I do hope some of it survived.  That stinks.  I do hope there will be some food left after the rats got it but really all I need is my camera so thanks for sending that!!  I guess I will take some food to Tab South just to be safe.  We will be flying down tomorrow but it seems like the plane might be full so if that is the case we will be taking a boat again and that will be fun.

  A fun thing happened this week when Elder Pratt challenged me to an eating contest.  After 4 plates I took the win!!  They aren’t your little plates either.  I still have it!!!

 For Halloween Elder Pratt and I are dressing up in costumes for dinner!  We had a lady order stuff to do a cake like a month ago when we were here and now we will enjoy it on Halloween!!  I am pretty stoked.

To answer a few questions that you asked.  Elder Pratt cuts my hair and yes I am still a beast.  He gives a great haircut.  A Christmas package would be great.  The thing I liked most last year was the letters that everyone sent that were in a stocking.  I would love that again and then just anything.  Maybe food would be good. 

In my studies this week I have liked in the New Testament how Paul teaches that God is not a God of darkness or of secrets.  He is a God that does not work in darkness.   We should always work in the light and strive to be true saints of God.

I hope you all have a nice couple of weeks.

Love you all,

Elder Dinsdale

 

Here is the picture we got from Elder and Sister Jenks (the senior companions)  At least the rats enjoyed the food!!!

Back in Tab North!

Hey,

I am back in Tab North and things are going great!  My companion is great we are working hard and going to a few parties so that is good! We went to a party down in Tab South for a person’s first birthday.  We had a great time but were sick for days after.  The child didn’t have a clue what was going on.  No presents at the party just food, music and dancing.  It was great!

Our newest convert Karakitewa just received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday and his wife came to church for the first time too!!  This week was way good but the lessons and stuff didn’t go the best.  But, all 3 of our favorite investigators came to church for the first time yesterday!  I could not have been happier.  A lot of awesome things have been going on.  It’s amazing.  Now I am the senior companion I conduct the baptismal interviews.  They are a cool experience.  We have been teaching and a few of our investigators should be ready in another month for baptism. 

In Tab South we pretty much run the church.  The only thing the unit leader does is run sacrament meeting.  We plan all the times for the different churches and let everyone know.  We normally give talks, we are in charge of getting men ready to receive the priesthood etc.  It works though and I am loving it.  We have a ton of new investigators in Tab South! 

My diet is pretty much the same.  Fish and rice and of course my favorite, sea turtle. 

By the way of good news…  All those pictures from my SD card that got wet forever ago when my camera got we didn’t get broken.  So, I have those 3 or 4 weeks still which I am way happy about.  Also you sent those SD cards and the one with the birthday wishes worked on Elder Pratt's camera so thank you very much for those. I was really happy to hear all of your guys' voices and I am very grateful to you for putting all that together.  I have not received the package with my new camera but hopefully it will come soon.

I feel like some of the most memorable things Heavenly Father has helped me with have been meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but they help me remember that we can always rely on Him for small AND for big things.  He is there for us always.

I am doing just great out here. I am healthy as can be.  

Elder Dinsdale

Eel anyone?

Hello,

   It seems like at home there are a lot of my friends getting called on missions.  Good for them, they will love it!! When I get home I am definitely going out with the Elders if they are still in Perry.

  So you just had General Conference?  I will probably be able to see it in a couple of months.  Actually I will probably be able to read it before that though.  I will look forward to it. 

   

   I have been talking to a guy about dad’s strawberry and raspberry plants he would like to try and grow them if you can figure out how to get some plants to Tabiteuea. 

   So remember how I told you that we (Elder Pratt and I) would probably be staying in Tab North with the next transfer?  Well, no one is coming.  A bunch of new missionaries are coming to the mission but the Mission President has decided to keep us going back and forth from Tab South to Tab North every 2 weeks.  Not as much can get done as we would like, but we will continue working hard to do as much as we can. I know that President Larkin is called of God so whatever works.  I love it here and am glad I am going to stay. 

  

 You asked about home teaching.  Well, home teaching is definitely a way important thing.  When I was in Tarawa Elder Grant, Berends and I tried to start up the home teaching program in our ward.  Now in Tab North they already have it set up but only 1 companionship ever visits their people. It should be getting better though.

Here is some more information about Tab North.  It is definitely nicer than Tab South but not much nicer.  There are no cold food items or anything like that.  There are more primary schools and there is like a High School type thing here.  They do have stores here that have some decent ish food.  Nothing compared to America, but they don’t run out of rice and canned food like Tab South does.  There are 2 Branches and 2 units here in Tab North and there is only 1 unit total in Tab South.  There are a bunch of members over all in Tab North but there are lots of less active members but we are working on that.  We usually bike a distance here of like 45 minutes to our far part, but if we had the time to work our full area of Tab North it would take us 2 and a half hours probably to bike from one end other the island to the other. 

So we were able to fish last week.  Fishing is one of my favorite things to do out here. Here when we fish we just throw out line with a hook and normally a hermit crab on the hook or a cut up fish and we pull the line in by hand. It is way fun. I just caught a sea snake type thing! It was an eel, I don't know if that is a sea snake, but I ate part of one!   It is still hot and dry here.  Last year on my mission it rained a lot but for the past few months there hasn’t been much rain at all.  We need more rain.

Remember I told you about Karakitewa?  At least I think I told you about him.  We were teaching him about God’s commandments and about the word of wisdom.  Well he quit smoking and quit tea and started coming to church.  We taught him about repentance and prayer.  He had a hard time praying.  We asked him if he was able to do it and he said that he prayed in his heart and repented of his sins.  It was sweet!  He still has a hard time praying out loud but whatever works he knows the basics and can do it in his heart.  Anyway Karakitewa was baptized this week and it was awesome!  His wife came to the baptism which is sweet.  Hopefully she will start coming to church as well.

I have definitely developed a much bigger trust in the Lord through my work out here.  I know that true joy comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I remember an apostle said once that there is no reason on the earth to be sad all the time.  There are definitely things that are hard and times when we are crazy sad, but they can all be made better through the Atonement and gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, things are going really good here. I will be heading down to Tab South tomorrow.  Keep doing great things and I will email again in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for all you do for me.

Love,

Elder Dinsdale

Clean it good or you will die!!!

Hello,

 So how is life? Things are going really good here.

While we were in Tab South things were going awesome!  A ton of new people in Tab South and now I am back  in Tab North we have been working to get new people but with not a ton of success but it works just fine.  We still have a bunch of people to teach so that is sweet!

The weather here has been hot and dry but that is ok with me.  People here are way blessed weather wise.  There are not hurricanes.  If a hurricane were to hit here everyone would die. The land is too small to survive anything.  People here don’t have any food storage either.   Some people have boats for fishing and little canoe type boats  but  they don’t have life rafts or life jackets.   The only thing that ever happens in Kiribati is that it just rains a bunch. But here in Tab it doesn't rain very often at all... It is just hot all the time. I would rather have it be hot though than for it to be raining and me to be soaking wet biking around.

Here is an interesting experience we had.  On Monday morning at about 12:30 am we got up and went and collected a half a bucket of hermit crabs for a couple hours in the middle of the forest. Then, once we had them we went back to bed.  When we woke up the next morning on P-day, we went fishing with them. I caught a couple fish.  The one that was the coolest was a blow fish!!   It was pretty sweet!!  Everyone said that if you don't clean it out right and you eat it then you will die. Well… I am not dead so I guess the lady that cooked it for us cleaned it good.  Just to let you know blow fish just tastes like regular fish it was delicious.

I had a great experience that I will tell you about. We have a way sick investigator named Karakiteua.  He is the greatest, but has a way hard time praying.  It was like he couldn’t pray at all. We have had him try tons of times and his mind just blanks and he says nothing the entire prayer and then closes the prayer. I felt like we should have him try one more time though and as he was trying to pray I was praying way hard that he could say a prayer. He finally said his first prayer all by himself!!  He pretty much just said  “Our Heavenly Father, we ask thee that thou wilt love us, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.”     It was way sweet and the spirit was so strong. I definitely felt like God had answered my prayer to help him pray.

We have heard that we may be getting some more missionaries in October so that will be good.  It is hard to teach for only 2 weeks and then leave for 2 weeks.  We will be going to Tab South in 2 weeks, but after that new Elders should be heading down there. Nothing is confirmed but it should be happening in October and I think Elder Pratt and I should be staying in Tab North after we get back from Tab South.  You asked if we bring all our belongs when we go back and forth and the answer is yes.  We bring all our belongings with us each time we go.  We took a boat again.  A plane is 10 dollars cheaper but we choose what day we leave on the boat.  A plane you go when they go. 

 I will definitely miss Tab South if I end up in Tab North but I miss whatever area I am not in and that is just a part of the mission. 

I will await the package,  I am looking forward to a camera again.  Just send whatever your heart desires.  I should have internet next week so I will email again.

Well, thanks for all the support and such.

Love you,

Elder Dinsdale

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