Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Maiana Week 4

Hey guys,

So you all want to know what it's like living in a hut huh? Well
transfers went down yesterday, Elder Nauer left and went to go re open
an island called Butaritari with a trainee and I got elder Aru (same
intake as me but couldn't make it to the MTC on time so he stayed and
worked in his home country (Vanuatu) till Elder Stone and all of
that intake after me) as my new companion. First thing he said when
he walked in the house was "is this it?" Haha I said no we have a
bathroom (native outhouse) out back. So in answer to that question I
would say "yeah it's cozy"  actually it's not bad at all. It's life ;)

Food, we eat plenty at night. Normally eat here and there throughout
the day for lunch and will normally have noodles and/or homemade "bun"
which is just bread made in little stacks or whatever. We'll see if
things change with elder Aru since he doesn't like either of that...

Maiana's pretty long. 2 or 3 times the size of Beru. I think Beru was
something like 22 kilometers long and Maiana is 19 miles (about 30 km)  and has a
couple "etimwakoro"s or small islands that you can only get to during
low tide. Both are normally not wide at all. skinny parts you see both sides of the ocean

Last week was fun. Had a picnic with everyone on the island for Elder
Nauer before he left. Got a bunch of investigators there so that was
cool.

Love you all tons!
Elder Pettingill

Mom,


yeah sorry I always forget about the Christmas package.  A new journal

please. Mine is about halfway through so I don't think it will last
the rest of my time. Uhm food is always happily accepted, these
members gave us apples with barbequed chicken from Tarawa the other
week (Maiana is close maybe 15 mintues plane ride, you can see Lights
from Tarawa at night in the distance) wayy good. Obviously you can't
send that stuff but it was good :)  Yes I got your last package. Thank
you soo much. like seriously. If you find a flashlight that uses
double aa batteries that would be awesome too! Hand sanitizer for
unexpected bathroom trips ;)  Black trash bags that we could use for
make shift ponchos or something for the rain like for my companion and
I (rains a bunch here haha it's definitely not Beru) sugar free gum
(they don't have any here and after awhile I always run out and it
stinks cause I hate sugared gum nowadays...) cheap sunglasses (ray
bans are the popular expensive brand so if you see some that are the
knock offs that should be like 5-10 dollars? probably even cheaper
actually)    None of those are needs so if you can't find it  (except
maybe the journal) it's all good. and one package is more than enough
for both of us.  I love you guys so much and means a ton that my
family still supports me so well on my mission which in one way has
fulfilled my setting apart blessing which said that I won't have to
worry about my family while on my mission. You guys are awesome!

Love you

Watch this video to see them bike riding in Fanning Island


Pictures from the trip to Fanning Island




















Monday, October 12, 2015

Maiana Week 3

SO  Katie's engaged huh? What's the new last name?  Sweet for her...truth be told (in kiribati introductions can get pretty detailed) I've been telling everyone Katie's engaged for about a month now so glad she didn't make me a liar!

Elder Nauer and I are getting along real well. He's straight out from Samoa but speaks really good english but basically everything we say is mixed (english/kiribati/sometimes samoan) Talofa lemu lau susuga!  Haha

Yeah there's tons of villages out here in Maiana and so our church is normally an hour long in each of the villages which means we leave at 8 am and come back home around 9ish pm. Nothing beats a day full of church although at the halfway point you start to get sick of it and then it gets better...
Glad the pictures and outfit were received and appreciated. 

The works really been picking up here in Maiana plus we've all been asked to do the 1st 12 weeks program (for new missionaries in the field) so we've been really busy!

I love you all! Talk to all more next week!

Love,
Elder Pettingill

Mom, 

Email's working this week. Yes, Elder Stone's foot got infected. Then like didn't go away. Got pretty swolled so he had surgery in Tarawa and got sent home to rest for a month...Elder Stone took the SD cards home with him and then said he'd send them in a package with your kiribati outfit...I hope you like it! Maiana is an outy for sure. We live in a stick house 13 by 11 feet I think. People here are close to Tarawa so they have a more laid back attitude than Beru and so far the work is going good. It's a really sweet island. Pretty green. Bananas grow and papaya and stuff so that's awesome.  It's a good size bigger than Beru. We live in the middle and it takes about an hour to go the one side (I haven't been to the other side yet)


Love,
Me 
Here are some pictures from the SD cards from Christmas Island before Elder Stone was transferred


























The Kiribati outfit that he sent me with the SD cards
Also here is a brief video clip of the members of the branch dancing. 


Tuesday, October 6, 2015

New pictures and videos

Yesterday, two SD cards arrived in the mail!! There are literally 1000+ pictures and videos. I will post them little by little. Enjoy!

Videos:
Octopus Elder Stone
Octopus Elder Pettingill
Fishing pole
Kids climbing a coconut tree


Pictures from Banana on Christmas Island before Daniel was transferred:
Elder Stone leaving:



New companion Elder Whitehead



















Amazing local creatures and fish they caught:



























There are tons more where these came from!! I will post more of baptisms, sunsets and the trip to Fanning soon!