Maiana 5 October 2015 (letter in the mail)

Hey,

So yeah, no email today. Sorry. Apparently, the power/some battery died in Tarawa so the internet's not working today. Hopefully they'll have it fixed by next week though?

Would like to start by saying a huge THANK YOU for the package. It showed up last night when the plane came. (Flies here on Fridays and Sundays). Yeah, you're all pretty much the best. We were way tired from the whole fast Sunday and tons of biking thing but then I had to stay up late reading the letters and stuff. One good thing about letters vs emails is I might actually try and answer Q's from letters/respond (which I have been horrible at so sorry for that.)

It's night right now and I'm about to go to bed, but I need to finish writing this so here goes...Today was pretty busy. Did not get studies in today so I've been feeling that. Instead woke up and we fixed Elder Nauer's bike, then hand-washed our clothes. Then ran down to a marriage we were going to be doing for some of our investigators (not doing, just witnessing.) Yeah they didn't show up. Everyone's all busy right now cause the Kiribati Pres (who's final term is up) came today to have a celebration/party/gathering here since Maiana is his home island. Pretty big. He'll be here tomorrow too and leave Wednesday. So since we got stood up, we went and Elder Nauer dropped us some coconuts (moimoitos) and we messed around and had a good time. Then we played volleyball with people who are actually good and on a low net. It was fun. ; ) Elder Nauer's a stud at volleyball. Then with no one home (the whole island but us is staying at the gathering) we had noodles and crackers for a lunch snack and dinner. And Elder Nauer got chatty and I got tired...

P.S. to answer Fanning Island trip Q's:

-no missionaries on Fanning because no plane that comes, only the boat every 3ish months. So round trip boat rides. :)

-we stay at church maneba/Kiribati house (chapel/giant shade structure) for the Elders near it. Members feed us the WHOLE time. Between the two of us we had one pack of fruit snacks. I didn't bring them.

-we had two people get baptized by their dad who we interviewed. We gave the Aaronice Priesthood to the dad.

-Easily the greenest, most alive agriculturally place I've seen yet in Kiribati (Maiana's the 2nd.)

There should be pictures on the SDs Elder Stone took back with him. So those should be getting to y'all around now.

Love you all,

Elder Pettingill

Pictures from his trip to Fanning Island

Also, if you haven't watched the videos he sent from the boat and on the island, here they are again. Just click on the links below:

On the boat

dolphins

more dophins

and even more dolphins with Kiribati language in the background

riding bikes on the island

Maiana Week 6

We fasted that we would be able to successfully combine the
whole island for fast sunday church and it worked out! The little
stick chapel was packed. We had a sweet break the fast lunch
afterwards and planned a Christmas party! I felt like it was a pretty
sweet answer to our prayers...

Pretty much the same old same old living in our stick house and taking
bathroom breaks in the woods and stuff. President Weir and the two APs
visited us (elders Davis and Openshaw) to give us a pick me up
(homemade bread and 4 apples and some pringles) and to do other church
stuff.  It was fun and we spoke English and everything! Also we got
this way good feast made for us. Elder Davis who's preparing to go
home (only has like 2-3 weeks left) reminded me of how different
America is from here and stuff  #thedifference
#notsureIllbeabletohandleit

prayer as a form of communication has really been a focus of mine this
past week and I have started teaching investigators to ask in the
personal prayers the question Ko uara? or How are you? to our Heavenly
Father as a way of starting out and have actually used it myself. If
nothing else it is a great reminder everytime that someone is
listening. Talk to him.  Definitely seen answers to our prayers this
past week.

Love you all so much
Elder Pettingill

Questions:

I'm guessing the internet was down last week? yeah the internet was out last week

How is missionary work going over there? Are you able to teach a lot? Do you have good bikes? yeah we teach a bunch and we have nice bikes, I think we average 20-25 miles a day on these super nice dirt roads that should be flat but never are ;)

Can you tell us about one spiritual experience you had this week? too many spiritual experiences to share any of them sorry...actually I forget them all and don't bring my journal (I record at least one every day)...OH! We've been teaching these kids who's parents are more than happy to let them have lessons but they aren't ready themselves and then lately they have been hanging around listening in until nowadays they get ready and listen silently and support their children. We talked with the wife yesterday and she said that is because they've seen such a change. Before it would be her husband doing one thing and her another but the lessons bring them together as one and she really likes it and wants to take lessons too she's just gonna wait a little longer to see if her husband will take them with her. I then quietly testified to her of how we don't want to teach people so bad for any other reason than the one that she just stated. Te bitaki or "the change"

Here is a video from Daniel's birthday in June that we loved watching. This was when he was still on Christmas Island. 

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

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. 

More videos--they are like gold to us!

Fishing on pday
Sailing on the Kwai
Dolphins on the Kwai
More dolphins
Last video of dolphins--I think it's the best one
Riding bikes on Fanning island