Christmas Week 19

Hey guys.

Haha sounds like y'all had a fun week.  Just saying that puppy (we got a new puppy) looks
huge already so either it's already pretty old or all of the dogs here are just tiny (probably the latter, that's what you get when you only get fed bin (coconut)).

Sorry I've been bad about answering questions lately. 

So this was Elder Stone's last week, and then he transfers? Uhm yes Elder Stone is leaving on Wednesday to head out to another outer island called Makin (known for having evils spirits...he's stoked ;) 

What size fishing line did you have to even have a chance at pulling in a shark? I use a 60 pound line for my shark and it got cut by it's teeth, Elder Buhler who pulled his in used a 180 pound line so he had no trouble ;) 

What did you guys do with all the fish?  I'm guessing the sweetlips fish is poisonous, so do you throw it back? No dad the sweetlips (rou) is not poisonous. It actually tastes way good. My favorite is the red snapper (ikanibong "nightfish") though. 

Do you eat the shark?  Shark steaks?We didn't eat that elder's shark but Elder Stone had set a line/shark trap out that we caught an even bigger shark on when we came back on Tuesday night and we ate that one...yes shark steaks. way good.  

How's the work going in Banana? Are you seeing sacrament meeting attendance still continuing to grow or has it stayed steady at about 120? The work is progressing, I'm way excited for Elder Whitehead to come and bring some new energy to help us pull things up even better though! and yeah church has pretty much stayed the same as of lately.

This past week for us was good. Someone put a thorn magnet on Elder Stone's bike so he ended up with like 6-7 flat tires by the end of the week, while I had none on the other hand. Guess I just get more love and blessings than everyone else does...(except for every single week before that when it was always my tire going flat and not his ;)

Haha but on a serious note if you all could pray for Kakiaman (Ka kee amen) (he way wants to join the church just needs to get married first but when he told his wife he wanted to marry her she told him no and if he gets baptized then she'll leave him) and Karubeia (ka du pay yah) (way sweet girl, no problems except for whether or not she's 9 or 8 and should even be taking lessons [mom's less-active]) and Tubwaina (Su buy nah) (scared her mom will tell her she can't get baptized and
she will have to drop her calling in the local Christian church) and Aana (Anna but pronounced Aaw na) (She's afraid her husband because he's a drunk and is mad because she left him and also her daughter wants her to come back but doesn't understand that she can't because her husband is crazy, also is having a hard time praying since she's been raised in the Catholic church).

Those are a few of our investigators and I think you can all see now how much persecution Banana is getting nowadays and how a few extra prayers would really help!

I love you all and hope you all keep looking great!

Tiabo
Elder Pettingill

P.S. How tall is everyone nowadays anyways? Oh and also I got the camera and two letters this past week!  Way awesome!

P.P.S. Elder Stone and I are going to be companions for 23 weeks this Wednesday.  He became my comp on Feb 18...haha I told Elder Stone last week and he was all like "I feel like we've been companions for way longer than that" and then we checked the calendar to be sure and yup
23 weeks. Dang. And We've been in Christmas since March 11 so 20 weeks. Time flies huh?

I love you!

Below are some pictures from other Elders on the island. 

Daniel's new companion, Elder Whitehead, who has been serving on the other side of Christmas island

Church meeting place on the other side of Christmas Island

Elder Buhler and the shark he caught

Christmas Week 18

What's up guys? I was way shocked for a second when reading my emails from y'all to see they were quite lengthy...haha guess I get that now that I'm the only full time missionary in the family ;)

So yeah this past week was the Kiribati independence week holiday.. They gained their independence on July 12 (don't know the year) so naturally they take off the entire week to celebrate it. Despite it all we found ways to stay in our area and work, and it ended up to be a really great week for us. And  we got a few new investigators who are all really wanting the blessings from taking lessons

Why am I emailing so late again? Well we ended up doing a district fishing trip for the day and just got back.  I caught a a fair sized sweetlips fish, a red snapper, a red bass and a couple of a fish I don't remember the name of in English and last but not least a black tipped fin reef shark (although it snapped my 60 pound line trying to get it on the beach so it got away)...everyone else caught a variety too including another bigger shark and a fair sized trevalley. It was fun.

black tipped reef shark

trevally

red bass

red snapper

sweetlips

Oh and by the way Elder Stone will be transferring around July 30th so I guess our reign of terror will end about 20 weeks;). (Rich commented how they had been in the same companionship and same village for 18 weeks, which is impressive.) I'll be staying and elder Whitehead will be my companion ...oh and Elder Openshaw will be going AP.

Hey I love you all! Thanks for being awesome and I'm glad you are all having a great summer!

Love,
Elder Pettingill

I asked him if he preferred longer emails because I thought he liked short ones from me since I also mail a letter every week. Haha I just noticed the difference is all :) Oh yeah about letters, Fiji has an embargo on mail to Christmas right now ...something about not paying their bills so that's why nothing (including the camera) has come lately.

I'm sure he would love an email from anyone who is reading this! daniel.pettingill@myldsmail.net

Christmas Week 17

This came in Sunday at 10 am:

Hey mom,

soo last week the internet was down...I think the rest of the missionaries got to email but we didn't so sorry about the no email last week, I did send a letter though...oh and today Elder Seamons is driving us up to a spot to go fishing all day So no email until later probably

Love, Elder Pettingill

Then we got this Monday at 1:30 am: 

Hey guys sorry for the late email...we went up to the end of the island to go fishing since it was something Elder Stone wanted to do before leaving and we'd heard rumors that this might be his last Pday. Turns out it won't be but it was still way fun.

This last week was great. We just buckled down and worked even though everyone seemed to be gone in preparation for this whole one week long independence celebration thing going on this next week...we're planning on working this whole next week too but we'll see how much work we can actually get done...so stoked (that's sarcastic;)

 Uhm spiritual exp...we were able to find 3 new investigators this past week, one of whom had needed help with his English for a job interview/résumé so we helped him out. That was a month ago and, even though he didn't get the job, he decided that he wanted to start up lessons again and be baptized because of the experience. It took us by surprise for sure but we didn't have any problems with it haha. Sorry it's short but I love you all and it'll be better next week.

 Love, Elder Pettingill

Here are some pictures and also one more video from the SD card

Bike problems

church meeting place

I think the pictures below are evidence of the rats getting into their food. Yuck!

No email but a few videos of Christmas Island

We didn't receive an email from Daniel this week. But here and here and here are some videos he sent us from Kiritimati on the SD card.

Banana

This past week...

We made fishing poles out of sticks and went and caught a few little red snappers on 

Monday.

Then our old bikes were falling apart so we got new bikes and some Nutella on a boat 

that came in from Hawaii.

We had a big branch celebration with Kiribati dancers and stuff for the Father's Day on 

Saturday.

Our branch is hitting some huge opposition lately because of the upcoming temple trip.

something spiritual... One of our recent converts (her name is Mary Claire) has been 

having a way hard time with figuring out stuff with her boyfriend (an RM in the ward). 

We just recently retaught the restoration/the priesthood to her and reminded her that
she can ask for one anytime she is feeling any kind of heaviness (sadness/opposition) and
I was able to bear my testimony of how much Mom would always ask for a Priesthood
blessing during hard times and how much that would always help.

The spirit was wayy strong and you could just tell she came out of that so much more

happy than how she went into it. Thanks Mom and Dad for being such good examples to

me and teaching us what kind of power the priesthood really is, the power to serve at a 

greater capacity.

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Pettingill

P.S.  for future vacations I'm down for pretty much anywhere, I'll even try amusement parks 

if that's what you all really want ;)

Questions:

How do you wash your clothes?  washer machine at the hotel

In the pictures you sent, there is American food. Did you buy that or receive it in 

a care package? Kiritimati has a plane that brings stuff from Hawaii monthly  so we have a bunch 

of American stuff.  We have pancake mix and syrup and the gross kind of milk. so we bought it.

When fishing, how do you catch such big fish with just a coconut and fishing line? 

Why don't they just swim away with the coconut? We hold the line in our hands when we fish and

it is just wrapped around the coconut to keep it from getting tangled.

How do you cook the fish you catch? We cook it on our gas stove with oil

How did you cook the octopus? Or did you eat it raw? We didn't cook the octopus. Members did 

for us and one they just boiled. The others they cut up and cooked in oil with flour.

You said that milk fish is among your favorites? Do you cook it or eat it raw? both

Christmas Week 14

Oh yeah so first off happy father's day to dad...now that that's out
of the way ;)

Haha just kidding, geesh no need to take things so seriously

Love you all and I'll see you all next week
Elder Pettingill

(This was in response to a joke Rich made in his email about Father's Day)


Ha okay now that you've all stopped laughing I can actually write my email now. How are you all?  Solid pictures from the past week from y'all. You really made me just miss home soo much with that last bored one you all took haha (Rich sent a picture of us when we were waiting around, locked out of Jacob's new apartment at BYU)

This past week for us was good. Lots of the typical bike problems and stuff and then we all saw Elder Openshaw off on his way back to Tarawa but it was a good week. It really made me appreciate soo much just going out and teaching lessons and getting to feel the spirit. Although Sunday made me want to change my mind a little bit cause we were assigned to give sacrament talks, and taught the sunday school class cause the teacher's lesson ran about 45 minutes too short and we were also asked to prepare the priesthood lesson last week so we gave that as well.  It brought me back to the Beru days of teaching everything for every unit every sunday...you know how it goes

On Saturday while Elder Stone was fixing a flat on his bike I went out and caught a bunch of crabs and tied them to the back of our bikes and then for the rest of the 15 minute bike ride down to the village we were playing real life mario kart trying to crush each others crabs. haha probably not the most missionary thing but it was a fun lil break.

I'm glad to hear you are all doing great we are out here giving it our best as well. It's been tiring lately but neither of us are the kind to quit so we keep working!

I love you all hope you all have a great week!
Elder Pettingill

Questions:

Have you received the camera yet? no camera yet but hopefully soon

How did you feel when we hung up the Skype? Did it make you happy to talk to us or a little sad? (Some missionary moms say their children are sad after Skype. Just wondering.)  no I wasn't sad. It was fun but it was fine hanging up

Have you gotten a new Elder on the island yet?  new elder will be Elder Jonhson hopefully will come this Wednesday

Is there anything you need or can think of things I could send for the members? Out here they do pretty fine, the only thing I could think of would be like cheap dollar ties or something that we could hand out (aka ctr rings, temple pictures, 1st presidency) but I'm sure you can figure out better stuff than I can. Don't make it a priority though. I know it costs a lot of money to send stuff out here and you all don't need to be spending any more money on my mission than you already are....also another suggestion to future missionaries, pay for as much of your mission as possible. It is a lot more rewarding and motivating!

s

Look for crabs in the pictures below

Some things from our Skype

What is the favorite thing you eat? Milk fish and red snapper. He says the fish is "way good".

What keeps your investigators from progressing? Smoking, alcohol, short attention span so they don’t understand the lessons and remember their commitments

How is the church organized? Banana is the largest branch with 120 active members, including 30 Priesthood. Then there are 5 other branches, including small island groups. It’s a district not a stake because the other branches are pretty small. One of the branches has only 3 Priesthood holders.

Do you eat more fish or rice? Rice! Members feed us pretty much every day, and they like to give us canned American food like spam or corned beef with rice.

They flush the toilet with bucket of water. There are currently about 20 fisherman at the hotel where they live. They are mostly from Australia and Alaska. They don’t usually talk with them because they are gone from early in the morning to late at night.

He has met the mission president 4 times, had 2 interviews, and will see him again in September if he is still on Christmas. There are 10 missionaries on Christmas, including 2 sisters, 1 senior couple, and 6 Elders.  They hold District Meeting every Thursday from 10:30 am to noon. They used to have to leave by 9:30 am to find some way to catch a ride to get there by 10:30 but now there is a mission bus that will pick them up. They usually get together on Mondays as well.

How do you find people to teach? It has been harder work on Christmas to find good people to teach. They most get member referrals. Tracting is not effective.

There is an American store where they can buy lots of food, including ice cream, but it’s very expensive.

What kind of ice cream is there? There is neopolitan, drumsticks, vanilla, and swirl.

What advice do you have for missionaries coming there? Be sure to bring a smaller bag or a carry on so you can take things out to the outer island. You leave everything you don’t need there in the Zone Leader's apartment and just get what you need from it when you come in. You don’t need a camel pak. Everyone gives you water or something to drink. You do need a water proof back pack. That has saved him.

How much have you been sick? He has had no stomach problems since Tarawa. He likes all the food now and doesn't have a problem with drinking the water. He did have another foot infection and needed an antibiotic. Elder Stone has a foot infection now so he is taking an antibiotic. They drink a certain part of the coconut to deal with diarrhea.

It feels like he has always been there and like he will never come home. He is happy and loves his mission.

Mail comes on a plane from Fiji every so often. That’s how the letters get to him at the Christmas address. He loves getting letters!

Favorite thing is to go fishing. He saw two sting rays last week on pday. A fishing pole costs $100 so instead they tie fishing line to a coconut and toss it out in the waves. For bait, they use hermit crabs or clams that they break open. The hermit crabs are about as big as his hand. The fish they catch are about 3-4 feet long.

Regarding coconut trees, there are steps cut into the trees and they are often only about 6-7 feet up. People gather coconuts to sell. They ship them to Fiji in exchange for cash, receiving 10 or 20 cents a piece. If you cut them open and dry them, you get 50 cents a piece. The missionaries don’t do a lot of service because it is often people wanting them to cut open their coconuts so they can make money from it.

They are preparing Banana for a church meeting place. They have the piece of land and are clearing it of stumps from coconut trees. It’s moving at Kiribati pace, which means slowly.

President will come visit Kiritimati in September. Also, there are supposedly 12-15 Elders coming to the mission in September.

What is the biggest thing you have killed? A crab. Why do you kill the crabs? Because they are at the front door when we walk out and are attacking us.

What does the water taste like? We run it through our filter so it’s great. Before that it’s brown or yellow.

Daniel said he is super happy and loves his mission. He thinks about home sometimes but he loves being there.

If anyone gets bored, he said would love a letter from you!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Elder Daniel Pettingill

General Delivery

Island of Kiritimati

Republic of Kiribati