Tarawa Week 7

I'm with Elder Stone.

We're going to Christmas March 9th.

Before church on Sunday we decided to leave early and try and teach people before church at 12.   We ended up getting one kid that almost got baptized before and then didn't want anymore lessons so we hadn't taught him for awhile.

We taught him.  We all felt the spirit.  He asked if we would wait for him to get ready so he could go to church.   He got laughed at as we were leaving.  He didn't care.  Church was awesome.

When we put in work with a smile and obedience, the Lord blesses us, and He blesses others through us.

I love my mission. I love Kiribati. I love my companion. I love all of you.

Elder Pettingill

BTW please tell me you haven't sent the package since.  I won't be here for awhile.  OOh if you could put shaving razor heads (extra razors) in it that would be awesome. and hot tamales like the candy and then just hold it or something cause I will be out Kiritimati probably for dayys.  Oh and a new little picture book would be amazing because I gave mine to Tareka before he left :)  also I got the letters with pictures. So awesome thank you!!

Questions:

How is life with Elder Stone? Do you speak English together? Elder Stone is an animal.  We're going to Kiritimati together March 9 :) Ya we speak english. He's wayy good at speaking Kiribati to, and teaching and being a white person and we're putting in work ;)

Are you being transferred to Christmas Island?  Yes, I'll be working in a Banana.

How is your foot? Foot is 100 percent with just a scar leftover :)

How was zone training? Do they hold it in English or Kiribati? Who does the training? Is it with all the missionaries on Tarawa? Do you have a meal together as well? Zone training was legit. Held in English. We watched "Meet the Mormons!" for training as well as President gave us a lesson. It was with all on Tarawa yes.  We ate sloppy joes and fruit salad and cake and candy.

My weather app says it's been super rainy and lightning there. Is that true? It is not. It was the highest tide in Kiribati history this past week.  Our area wasn't really touched, but some places got a little wet ;) It's going back down now.  If it rains then it rains.  Only once in Beru was there lightning.

What do you use for the Sacrament? In Beru we used crackers.  Here for the most part bread, sometimes crackers.

Tarawa Week 6

NGaianne.

So last week.  Well pretty legit farshore but it went by way too fast.  Haha realized yesterday that I still hadn't written my journal entry from 2 Sundays ago so I got on that sort of.  Well Elder Tareka is gone. He'll be hitting up the Provo MTC tomorrow or something which I guess is today for me so that's like wild right?  Haha Still don't have a new companion though cause transfers (started 2 weeks ago) still aren't over and Stone is the very last one there so he'll probs be with me around Wednesday or something. So stoked!  

Upcoming week we have mission/zone conference, first one and I'm like 8 and a half months into my mission like what?  Haha let's be real, Kiribati is unreal...also just realized that when I started my mission Katie was on her 5th or 6th transfer or something like that and now I'm on my 7th so like let's goo! No sweet number pics for you all cause we don't do that here haha..

Also I just realized that I have a problem killing or having all dead comps like count them.  Loe (alive)  Iotebwa (dead) one week.  Faoliu (dead) one week. Klatt (dead). Matiare (almost dead). Bettencourt (America). Tareka (America/Biribin (phillippines))  They're all gone but I think that's going to stop soon (hopefully).  Carrington got back from Beru today so that was legit to see and talk to him and good to hear about my island haha.

Looking a little chubby huh? (Rich told Daniel in his email that the kids said he looked a little chubby in his pictures from last week, and so Adam said he is going to be able to beat Daniel at basketball when he gets home.) That's rough. but I will promise, if anyone wants to take me at basketball they are definitely going to want to give it a try when I get home, cause I really probably won't be very good.  Sacrifices for the work right?

This last week we worked really hard. But it was a rough week, Tareka was starting to feel sick and I was feeling way tired for some reason but we managed to get two solid baptisms in on Saturday which were awesome, of course.  And managed to throw down 30 something lessons, (my high so far is 40).  I hear Stone is an animal so we'll probably get a lot of work done when he finally gets down here.

Spiritual:  Sunday we forgot (it was complicated and a lot of reasons but "forgot" sums it up) to give our baptismal forms to the person conducting so then they didn't know about our baptisms and then the Sacrament started so our two recent converts didn't get confirmed and the Stake Pres said we had to do it next week.  It really sucked. And I felt like all I was doing was working for this ward. Giving them all I've got and they couldn't do enough to know we had baptisms on Saturday. Well it was our fault really and I felt calm because it felt like it wasn't that big of a deal. Well guess what? Turns out this girl comes up to us after church after hearing about it and is like "What happens if you've never been confirmed?" (translated ;) Well you need to be confirmed, so it turns out her friend had been baptized a long time ago but because of one thing or another she never got confirmed afterwards. Heavenly Father is there and answers prayers and worries with the plan that He has long since planned out. If they were confirmed, that other girl might not have had the Holy Ghost for a long time more and that is a bad thing.

Love you all, hope this is a good enough email for you all cause I tried. :)

Love,
Elder Pettingill

P.S. Sending pictures from here supposedly gives viruses and I've already seen some so I am going to cut back on pics and try and send the ones that need to go through the senior couples!

Questions:

What does Ngianne mean? Ngaia anne.  "That's right".  I speak two languages. So weird. So awesome. Learned some Figian this week too from our district leader.

Where do you hold baptisms?  We baptize in our chapel, but the one time the person forgot to fill up the font and so we baptized her in the ocean right next to it since it has a place for that as well :)    

Tarawa Week 5

Oh hey guys,

So these are my Tarawa Baptisms so far

doing way good out here mom don't worry about me and honestly you could probably wait on sending another package...really until I get back home cause I just got one from you and one from the Maughans. Tell them a huge thank you from me and also to all those who have been sending Christmas cards! I'm going to buy tape today so I'll do a little Christmas card wall like back at home ;) cause I don't know how how I'll ever be able to finish that much food (although Tareka has been pounding down those dried mangos).

Met this guy the other day that says he talks to Satan every month and he gives him stuff he wants in return for him reciting a spell from this book he has.

hey I'll try and send you all another legit email next week cause I'm running out of time here (one hour goes by so quick ;) the other elders are threatning to leave me.

ps only one of the three ways actually worked for the cinnamon rolls the other two were moldy, I think it was the dry sealed one or whatever

Love you all a lot. Doing swell

Daniel

Love as well

Elder Pettingill

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!