Beru-Week 18

Hey y'all

First off.  "Mauri nte Kiritimati" is what they say sometimes and is the equivalent to Merry Christmas...Fun fact

Haha this last week was a very solid one as to work wise and we got a ton of contacts to contact. So yeah we were busy and the week went by real fast.

Oh and we built our house.  Two days of work with everyone who could make it from the branch and we built ourselves a nice little "booia" raised hut with a stick floor that is on a bedrock that get's flooded when the tide comes in, so literally on the ocean.  Unfortunately it's not quite big enough for us both to sleep on so we might extend it more who knows we'll see. It's still a dope study spot.

After it all, I was so tired I started having realistic crazy dreams this past week that'd I wake up write down and just laugh at...Maybe I've been out here a little too long?

Matiare has been hearing things that we are both getting transferred in December but they are rumors, and even worse they're Kiribati rumors which rarely hold much truth if any...so we'll see!

Anything else? Got the pictures from the primary...SO sweet. So definitely tell everyone who was involved with that a big thank you! I'm a little scatter brained today cause it's been a different one and I just want to sleep.

But I still love you all! So I guess that means you can tell your friends you have friends in places they've never heard of and it is literally true...oh and a sweet gospel convo tarter..
Baptismal pickup lines?  Is that gunna be a thing?  If so, you'd better trademark that to me.

Mangatangira man te aba ae weteiaki Kiribati (more love from the place called Gilberteese) yes Kiribati is Gilbert translated.

Love
Elder Pettingill (the younger)

P.S. NO More PAckages to MArshalls.  Just got my last package from there and they sent a note that they will not be sending anymore because it is so expensive...You did manage to slip those cinnamon rolls through though, can't wait to try them!  Haha already read the what like 5 letters you sent?  I had some comments but I already forgot them...sorry. Also, Matiare means Marshall, fun fact, aka from Marshall

Questions:

Have you had any rain this week? no rain as of yet

How do you get the water from the well that is one mile away back to your house?  We ride our bikes!

Do you fish every day? We do not fish everyday.  We have stuff to do remember? haha just every now and then on PDays

  
What is your favorite day of the week? Probably Tuesday cause we radio and we're filled with energy after the weekend, well most of the time 

What is one thing you like about Beru that is better than home? I like the fact that I am  a dang missionary!  All I have to worry about is my people and their problems and while they might be big, really big sometimes, they are still their problems.

How do you like your hut on the beach?  Have you ever felt a sea breeze on an extremely hot day?  Yes it's wayy cooler ;) 

Here is a link to a blog post with some pictures of typical Kiribati huts. 

Beru-Week 17

Yeah so I'm still here if you were all wondering...

A pretty busy week this last one:

First, we're about to get three hammocks in our house for us to chill in, in our spare time,so that's sweet. We're borrowing different members' hammocks.

Second, turns out there's a store here that has a tiny mini fridge that's powered by a solar panel and what do they keep inside it? Freaking cold soda! So we hit that up 2-3 three times this past week.  You just hold it next to your head until it's warm and then drink it. Beautiful.

Third, we got our first baptism for awhile this past week and then ate <good food> for the celebration afterwards. Apparently your first time you'll break out in red lines everywhere but they haven't come yet so I'm pretty happy about that....Also it's way good.

Fourth, We are about to build ourselves a new house!  Well a hut.  But it's gunna be on he ocean (hopefully) so we can sleep there and just feel that ocean breeze all night long...Man that is about to be so so nice.

Lastly, hasn't rained here for awhile so we finished our rain water and we can't drink out of our well cause then you get wayy sick even if you boil it and filter it...so we were just not drinking water at our house and would just hope we get something to drink in one of our lessons...until we found a well about a mile away which is way clean! So we now bike there and back with our bucket to get drinkable water! Haha I love this place!

It's ridiculous how long I've been out here (four months in Kiribati this week) and I have to tell you awhile back I was wondering if I'd ever start to really like being here rather than anywhere else.  But now, looking back, I realize that all along I have had such a great experience here, and there's so much I would like to do before returning to Tarawa.  This is a pretty swell but barbaric place, isn't it?

Love y'all,

Elder Pettingill (the younger)

Questions:  

How often do you have transfers? Transfers are when new intakes come in every 6 weeks...although they last forever (2 plus weeks) because one missionary gets on a plane and then a missionary comes back and then he goes to a new area and replaces another missionary and so forth...if there's a lot of missionaries that come, they charter a plane and get em done in a day so they'll probably do that for me around Christmas.

Did you get any packages or letters this week? No I haven't gotten any more packages or letters and I doubt I will before I get back to Tarawa.

Do you work like normal when it is raining?  Well it hasn't rained for weeks because while y'all get the cold it seems to only be getting hotter here.

Do you ever use that solar charger I sent you with?  haven't used it yet

How are you doing on first aid stuff?  plenty of first aid stuff here

What about things like shampoo, soap, and deodorant?  There's all of that stuff here :)

If people want to send you a package, what should I tell them to send you? Uhm if they really want to, I think cookies? but seriously I'm fine. haha I'm turning into an islander and I love the food here!

Have you gotten any letters in the mail from anyone other than me? nope

Do you want me to send you your fishing pole? We made fishing poles out of sticks and there is one here from an Elder here before, so I'm fine thanks!

Do you have any furniture in your house?  We have plastic chairs :) 

Do you wear your top button unbuttoned on your white shirt and your tie loose like we heard before you left? YES I DO. I'd die otherwise.

Who can we pray for? Haha pretty much everyone here, we're seeing problems everywhere we look, it seems like.

Sweet afro

A picture of Daniel with a member, showing off his afro that he is growing since he can't get haircuts on the outer islands.  

Beru-Week 16

Hey y'all

Running out of time here but I sent a letter summarizing the past couple of weeks so whenever that comes haha

I'm really starting to like this island look (afro and wicked tan line). I'll have to see if I can't turn it into a wig when I get it cut so I can have it for the rest of my life...which'll be helpful when I get hit with the inevitable baldness haha.

You're all lucky you got to celebrate Halloween aha all we did was I bought a thing of tic tacs and then gave one to everyone we saw yelling trick or treat at them. I stopped after I started getting too many crazy looks...

Got some pig this past Sunday and then got kicked out of the house 5 minutes later when another church showed up to do their church in that house haha.  I was alll smiles afterwards cause the pig was good and then I saw that both Matiare and Takaio weren't speaking...apparently it was one of the rudest things they coud have done and Matiare wouldn't go back to that village for a week.

Been pooping in the ocean lately...no more toilet paper...kinda like it though; wake up, get ready for my morning shower by bucket, hit up the ocean for a minute, wash off, shave, cook some noodles spam and rice, and boom we're reading for study.

Hahah I'm trying to hold up out here and be patient with Matiare with him not wanting to work because we're hitting a rough patch in the work.  Nothing to do but keep on and hopefully I'll be able to leave here feeling accomplished in a month or two.

Love you all and just keep on cause if you stand still you'll inevitably start getting pushed back.

Love
Elder Pettingill (the younger)

Questions:  

Did you get a package from Bro. Bahouth?  If not, keep an eye out for that! Any other packages or mail?  Haha no packages so far, prob not until I get back to Tarawa if any

How are you feeling?  Did you get diagnosed with strep throat and get some medicine from the clinic or did you just deal with it on your own?  No one to diagnose me...but I know strep throat and then it spread all over my mouth haha so that sucked but I started an antibiotic treament I found and been really cleaning my mouth (floss, brush 3 times, listerine) and it's doing wayy better. 

What is fast Sunday like there?  Matiare and I always bear our testimonies and then random members will when they feel like it, Oh and one branch all of the kids bear their testimonies without fail, reminds me of the fam ;)

How is that afro coming?  We are all dying to see a picture!  afro is...really big...a lady sent a picture of me and her to Klatt over facebook so if you can find him you'll get a pic of a couple
weeks ago.

Dad would really like to figure out how to mail a letter directly to you. Idk about letters but I sent one to y'all cause no email last week, It was broken.

What holidays do they celebrate there? Christmas for sure. Other than that they have their own Independence Day that they celebrate for a week in July.

What is your favorite thing about your mission so far? How rewarding it feels when we do work

Ideas for Christmas?  I am working on your package... Idk haha that's too far away to think about

Daniel's mom:  I have not seen the picture of the afro yet, but I will post it when it shows up.