Tarawa Week 4

Yeah so sorry again about last week. I was literally talking with the nurse when she sent that email to you all...She doesn't even have to visit me every morning now cause my foot is solid nowadays so nothing to worry about!

How's Tarawa huh?  It's actually turning out to be pretty dope, well at least for now anyways but there should be transfers mid-April so we'll see if we get to be in Tarawa for Conference but looks like I'll be here for awhile huh. Uhm for companionship news my kid Elder Tareka will be heading out to the Provo MTC finally on Feb 12 (so next week) and then I will be getting Elder Stone to come work here in Bikenibeu with me, which I'm stoked for cause I haven't had a white comp for soo long! We'll probably go ham on lessons out here! Elder Stone came right after me!

There are two stakes but they are currently working on a soon to be third stake which will make only one more before Kiribati gets a temple. (fun fact:there are over 18,000 members in Kiribati although only over 10,000 of them are active ) I ate the giant clam (newe, pronounced neve) the other night. I don't think it was cooked right (if at all) because it was the first food I didn't like from here. Yes there are restaurants here and a member owns one of them so you bet we had dinner there last night for fast Sunday!  Uhm we saw a sleeping drunk guy who was naked and just covered in sand the other day. Went to take a picture and he definitely woke up and looked right at me so I didn't quite get that one so I guess you'll all just have to picture that one in your minds ;) hahaha 

Other than that Tarawa is definitely like a different mission but that doesn't mean it's like any other mission haha. We get new investigators everyday and it seems like we are wayy busy everyday and it is a way nice from hardened old Beru.  We actually will have probably 4 baptisms this Saturday before Tareka leaves so that's cool right?  One of our investigators has had lessons with over 10 different missionaries in her life but has never been interested but then the other day she came down with dengue fever. We came to give her a blessing and told her that if her husband cleaned up his life (didn't know he had any problems at the time) she would be fully healed and would have no problems. Two days later we came back to see how she was doing.  Was feeling much better (could actually walk), husband decided to be rebaptized (turns out he was excommunicated) and she decided to get baptized this Thursday when we gave the invitation.  There's a bunch more to the story but I'm just sharing this much so that you all know God is real and blesses people for their faith, especially when it is hard for them. Yes, I believe this is the true church, and if all things aren't good enough for proof, then ask "and he will reveal the truth of all things unto you."

Love you all a lot,

Elder Pettingill

sorry haven't taken much pics in Tarawa so more from Beru! 

that's us having dinner with that one sisters family and her mom showed up too!

An email from the mission nurse

Hello Sister Pettingill,

I am so glad to be able to ease your worrying a little.  I have seen Elder P everyday for almost 4 weeks.  His foot looked horrible in the beginning.  It was swollen, red above the ankle, with cuts, scrapes and of course the infamous hole.  I immediately put him on abx.  We have been packing the wound daily so it will heal from the inside out, pulling the infection out each dressing change.  It is finally responding, almost all filled in.  He just finished his second dose of abx, so now we will be watching to make sure the infection doesn't flare up again.  

You will be happy to know that through all of this, he has not complained or missed a day of work.  He clomps around with his foot half in his croc because of the swelling (gone now) and  the dressing.  He is a fun great kid. 

About him not emailing you this week, there is a volunteer dental group here that has been seeing all the missionaries.  They saw the missionaries on Monday.  By the time they got to the email place and the girls took long because of the slow internet, they just wanted to go enjoy some of the time that was left.  When I saw him Tuesday, he was at his desk writing you a letter. 

I have included a couple of pictures.  Hair after hair cut and dressing his foot.

Have a great day.   

Sister Alldredge

Tarawa: Week 2

Hey guys kam na mauri!

way glad to hear you're all doing swell and all of that.

Uhm me:

Bettencourt (my old comp) just left to go back to Kiritimati taking my spot today and so I'm currently comps with an Elder Tareka from Kiritimati who is waiting for his MTC time (about 4 more weeks) to head off to the Phillipines!  So I'm training basically and we're having a blast.

We just had stake conference and they reorganized the stake (haha yes they do that all around the world) and that Sister Nateri's brother* got called to be stake president from our ward...and no he's not that old, he's like mid 30s, so yeah Tarawa east stake.

My foot is way better. The yellow/red puss that's been coming out if it nonstop has been replaced with just blood and not that much so I'm feeling good. Just a little bit longer and the hole probably won't even be that big...

Civilization is weird...kinda sucks but has its benefits I guess.  What's been way weird and actually really fun is associating with missionaries other than my comp for the first time ever, like district meetings? whaat?  Haha but it's good I'm getting used to it, although the whole senior comp and trainer thing added to it all is making it a very fun experience. :)

Don't know what else to say and this actually using English thing kinda sucks. Like just speak Kiribati ;)  haha I love you all !  Here are a few more pics(don't want to send them all at once ya know;)  actually the sds having some problems I think the thing I was using has some problems...sorry!

Haha Love

Elder Pettingill

*Sister Nateri is a sister missionary serving in the California Roseville Mission and met a family from my hometown. Sister Nateri emailed me to ask if would have Daniel visit her less active mother who lives in Tarawa. She also asked him to visit her brother in the Bikenibeu 1st Ward. When we heard Daniel was transferred and opened that ward, we were excited to hear if he had met Sister Nateri's brother.  Here is is response:

So uhm first of all you should probably tell that sister that her brother just got called to be stake president yesterday and yeah I've had dinner with their family a couple times now so yeah I know him....and there is a lady who I thought was his mom that is living with them, pretty sure she is.   Anyways I will try and figure out things and if it's not, see if someone can visit the mom.  I think there are sisters there so if that's the case I will give the name and tell them to visit her. Also tell Sister Nateri good luck! I know learning English is really hard but she is way good so nothing for her to worry about!

That is so awesome to hear from her, I respect missionaries from here so much and her brother President Maunga is way awesome! Also the fact that she's serving in Aunt Jeanette's stake is dope!  Tell her to take good care of that sister cause they are taking great care of me!!

Thanks :) love ya

I'm back!

so totally forgot who all wanted my emails but I trust mom will take care of whoever I miss right? ;)

Anywho where I am right now:

Tarawa (main island) Bikenibeu 1st (which we just reopened) with Elder Bettencourt (who just came back from Kiritimati)

So yeah the last week has been pretty packed.  I mean we were like all over the place not to mention trying to figure out Tarawa and reopen this place.

Basically this last week went like this...

Monday: we skyped and pday and first restaurant in however long

Tuesday: Matiare and I came here and cleaned out our house that the elders from however long before forgot to clean our house (which is like a legitish house by the way)

Wednesday: Matiare went to be district leader in Bairiki and I became comps with Elder Bettencourt  and I also split with a kiribati elder who knew our area

Thursday: We got some stuff taken care of (going to the bank etc) and then had our first real day working in the area. Also we bought little one dollar ice cream cones...so that was my first ice cream in over 5 months

Friday: Took care of some of Elder Bettencourt's stuff and then went down and worked again as much as we could.  Found 8 kids (10-14 yearls old) who were playing on a backstreet, asked them if they wanted lessons and then took them all to the local chapel for a great lesson on prayer (since they all previously did catholic prayers aka memorized)

Saturday:  Another solid day of workish, got called over by what we thought was a member but turned out to be a previous catholic missionary who wanted to get to know us cause we're white, haha tried to teach him

Sunday: church (we gave a lot of lessons) and then Bettencourt interviewed with pres and is now on his way back to Kiritimati today which is wayy awesome because he was having a really hard time and didn't know if he wanted to stay in the mission but now is back on his way and happy.  Love the guy, need a new comp now though ;)

ps forgot to bring my other sd card so there will be more pictures next week but these are all from like right before I left as you can see with the hair. The one with the family is a family we were really close to that lived in the village Eriko (Jericho like from the bible). Then the husband of a lady I baptized he was a less active back in the day now he's great (the one holding me)   

Climbing the coconut trees

Before haircut

After

Foot infection

Questions:

Did you get your haircut? yes I did...I had to after you put the skype pictures on facebook which president saw....got ratted out by my mom on the mish haha!

Why are you emailing so early? (He emailed at 1 pm on Sunday when it's normally in the evening) yeah so here in Tarawa we do email real early I guess

Are you going to Christmas Island? I don't even know if I will be going to Kiritimati now because Elder Bettencourt is retaking my spot up there...so we'll see later today what I will be doing!

Skype from Tarawa

When we first saw him and news of his transfer

Testimony in Kiribati

Daniel will now be on Christmas Island (Kirimati) with Elder Openshaw, who came the transfer after him. It has internet! Hooray! So we should be back on track for regular emails again!!

As you can see, the video quality was very poor. We finally turned it off and just talked so we could understand each other. He told us that he received our packages. They celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, and they all stay up until midnight in order to welcome in Christmas. They did the same thing for New Year's Eve. They finally got rain around Christmas, so then the island road became a river and they were riding every where in deep water. They had 5 baptisms over the last few weeks.  He and Elder Matiare were both transferred and replaced by two new Elders. Elder Matiare goes home in March, so he came in to Tarawa for the rest of his mission. He promised us pictures the next time he can email, so probably next week. We asked about his health. He does have one new problem. He said people only tell you about the rats eating the soles of your feet, but they don't warn you about the flies. Last week, he was showering with the dirty well water and he had some sores on his feet which became infected. He ended up with a fever and his right foot swelled up. He didn't tell the nurse because he figured he was going in to Tarawa soon, but by the time he got there today, the infection had eaten away the flesh on his foot in about a dime size area and the depth of your finger, so he said maybe an inch deep. (It grossed us out too). So the nurse is going to treat it but says you can't put in stitches on the foot. She will have to pack it with gauze and medicine and allow it to heal and hopefully the area will fill in with healthy flesh. On the positive side, he can feel on that foot again, which had been numb! He also told us the reason he had not been writing letters was because every week, they thought the internet was going to be fixed. So he just kept waiting to email, which never happened. We asked him what he learned most from his time with no internet and he said, "Patience!" He said they left the new Elders with lots of potentials and plenty of work to do. We asked about the pictures of the Salt Lake Temple, the First Presidency, and the CTR rings that I sent in his Christmas package, and he said the members loved them! He said everyone wanted a CTR ring and he had to be very careful about handing them out. So you can imagine I will be sending CTR rings from now on in all my packages! Oh, and when he arrived in Tarawa today, he received a stack of Christmas cards and letters! Thank you!!!

It was wonderful to hear from him. Keep an eye out for a new email next week, maybe with pictures this time!! Keeping my fingers crossed. After he hung up, he was headed out to get a haircut!

MTC pictures and fun mission call video

Nothing from Daniel in 3 weeks. Transfers are next week (December 18, I think) so we are hoping he will come in to Tarawa where there is internet and can email, send some pictures and maybe even have a Christmas Skype. In the mean time, I found these pictures last week that I hadn't seen before. When Daniel was at BYU, he lived in Building 9 at Helaman Halls and made a great group of friends. Many of them received mission calls together and some were in the MTC together. They called themselves "The Big House" and even have a motto, "Comfort and Dominance". They exchange a big group email with short snippets from their mission experiences. Anyway, I found these pictues of several of them together while in the MTC, and also this cool video one of the boys made of their mission calls. (These are the things that keep a mother patient when she doesn't receive email.) 

Letter received November 28, 2014

Kiribati: November 1st 2014 12:38 pm
American Time: October 31, 2014 5:38 pm

Hey guys,

What's up? I'm sitting here having just finished my studies and Matiare fell asleep because he and Takaio (YA prepping for his mission) stayed up until 12:30 last night talking apparently. Looks like today's going to be another hard one. It's good for me because I'm learning patience which I need haha and I'm also developing an eternal dislike for laziness, which happends to be a major characteristic of the Kiribati people cause there's just not much for them to do. It's chill though. I love Matiare. He's way great and so are this people. It would just be nice to go out and do what I came to do. Spread this stinkin gospel. I'm having a hard time keeping the thought that I'll regret my time here, and I should tell Matiare he's lazy and I'm in charge and we're going to work cause I'm tired of him. Hahaha that's not very Christlike though huh? which probably means it's the wrong thing to do ; )

Anywho, enough of that, don't want to create the impresson that I'm actually having a hard time out here huh? Cause it's really way fun and my language is coming along. Especially seeing as it's the only one I can speak haha?

Oh by the way, forgot to mention I'm writing this letter cause the internet's out and sounds like it won't be back this next Monday either. So just FYI I'm still alive although my strep throat spread all over my mouth. Didn't know it could do that haha?  But seriously I'm smiling way big right now and I hope Halloween and Beth's birthday went way well. Out here the "koro n ririki" is like a 3 to7 day nonstop sleepover party with only their closest friends, or in other words, everyone in that village attends and anyone else who wants to as well. Do you think we should start up that tradition when I get back, Mom? If you do the math, that means life out here is one constant "bootaki" (party). Guess that's what happens when your only job is fishing once a week for food and collecting "bin" (coconut) for money.

Other big events: hit 150 days out on the mish. Weird that one more month and I'm 1/4 of the way through my whole mish and I haven't even left my first area. But maybe that's just me.

I climbed my first coconut tree.  Haha sorry sorry Mom, but I was way thirsty and our "karau" (rain) was running out and I wanted a "moimoito" (immature coconut) which are way good. Well at least they are now. I used to hate them. Don't worry, it was a way small tree, so we're chill, right? If not, I'll just lie and say this never happened haha. Also my first journal got all the way filled up so on to the next, which should last a lot longer cause it's pretty sweet. Found it in the MTC.

Matiare, Takaio and I hit up the beach cause Matiare had to "beka" (poo). Turns out we found this way beautiful spot where you could see the whole coast. So we took pics. Haha pretty sweet. Oh also we saw a group of clear little fish jumping in the water so it looked like a huge sea serpent was going through. So again, pretty sweet. Taught a family how to play poker the other night with rocks for our money. I don't know if that is unmissionary-like behavior but it was way fun! I think that's enough for now. I'm going to go back to trying to leave the house now.

Last note though. If you ever meet a Bekah, know that her name means poop in Kiribati and you can tell her that! Just put that together. Love you all!

Elder/Castaway Pettingill (the younger)

This was the back page of the letter