Snail Mail letters written February 15 and February 22/29 from Nonouti

15 February 2016

I'm currently wearing a pink cloth wrapped around me. Also there may or may not be flowers on it. A lot of flowers. Prep yourselves America.

We had a pretty productive preparation party today. Highlights of the day: patched our thatch ceiling. Cleaned, fought coconuts and won. OH and we built a BAO BAO (a counter hut thing that is used for dishes).

By the way, it turns out they have a few solar powered freezers here at the main stores and so they make little square plastics called ICE (but are basically weird shaped otter pops) and sell them 20 cents a piece. So for $2, we brought home 10 of them and put them in cups of water. Then we used that ice cold water to make ice cold water chocolate milk! It was pretty good.

 Oh yeah, internet hasn't been working for the past couple of weeks. Typical. Any outer island I go to has internet when I get there and then it breaks and doesn't work again until I leave. Sorry guys. S'not my fault. (This has happened on all three of his outer islands!!)

Also, remember the bao bao we built? 100% natural, almost. 1) old coconut husks pulled apart, twisted back together, rolled/twisted again  =  rope 2) rope + sticks + coconut leaves  + 3) more coconut leaves weaved together (thatch) + rope + sticks + coconut leaves + more thatch = 4) our new bao bao : )

Elder Larsen had his first baptism this past Saturday, woohoo! 

Have a GREAT WEEK. Read Acts 4:12 so good, Joshua 24:15, Alma 37: 33, 35  The Lord loves us!

Love, Elder Pettingill

22 February + 29th of Feb, 2016

So this morning we woke up and checked email and it TOTALLY WORKED! Just long enough for me to type out my email and then it quit on us. So I am just going write out what I said...

It read:

Hey so it looks like email is working again. #miracle (I hope you see the irony of this)

Past few weeks have been legit. Elder Larsen and I are both healthy which is sweet. Church was great yesterday and saw a couple of miracles that have been awesome!

One was this Melchizedek Priesthood holder who had a problem over the past couple of years with drinking alcohol decided on his own to quit. He had a knarly Lorenzo Snow beard (to give you all an idea of what it looked like) and then cut it and shaved almost all of it off, only leaving some sweet side lambchop sideburns, as a symbol of his commitment. His name is Tokarerei, and he is a changed man. It's sweet.

Also, one of my recent converts from Beru is here! Her name is Teruku. Her and her husband were one of my favorite families on Beru. Elder Klatt wouldn't know them but he would know her younger brother Taakaio (Bioia + Teanako are the parents' names). Taakaio was a YSA and now he's an Elder here in Kiribati serving in Abaiang. Anywho seeing Teruku and Koraweite was the greatest...SO cool. They haven't missed a beat and were at church on Sunday.

Elder Larsen had his first baptism in the mission a few weeks ago and we were both so stoked! The kid's name is TeBaa and his grandfather is a member and used to go to school in Tonga at the Liahona School. He's doing great. Plus I got Mom's name tag picture at the baptism spot that she requested.

Nonouti is long but we're figuring things out and being blessed for working hard! I love being a missionary and I love you all! Can't wait to see you all in May!

Love, Elder Pettingill

Nonouti Week 7

We got a series of short emails from Daniel late last night:

Hey internet is working a tiny little bit not sure how many minutes
we'll get if that but Love y'alll and I've gotten to read y'alls emails at least :)

These last couple weeks have been awesome. We had a couple baptisms and saw bunches of miracles...I've been sick again lately which kinda sucks but I'm feeling better now so hopefully it stays that way :)

Way fun to hear about everything that is going on

Everyone is soo oold nowadays huh?  Katie's married, Josh is graduating and going to college, and Beth will be in High school and just everything haha kinda hard to believe. Seeing pictures of you all is like seeing season 7 cover pictures of "Meet the Pettingills" and I still haven't seen seasons 5-6 crazy.

Elder Larsen is doing great and we are having a blast haha. Sometimes we get along a little too well and just talk fur dayz.  It's definitely way fun having an american comp again and I think it's getting me prepped a little for the real deal in a few months.

Sounds like church activities are still the same. I'm sure that father/son competition was way fun. Elder Larsen and I certainly had a good laugh about it ;)

Anywho it was way spiritual this past week when we baptized this deaf and mute girl named tienii (seny). She is so cool and has been coming to church faithfully since we got here and she washes the elders (our) clothes every week. We just drop them off with soap and bleach and she takes care of it which as you can all imagine is soo nice. Her baptism was a pretty sweet miracle for sure.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFFREY LOVE YOU!

love you all! see yall next week!
Elder Pettingill

PS Dad try not to break my younger siblings while I'm gone aka nearly
smashing josh during that father/son race ;)

(Here is the story Rich shared with Daniel that he refers to in his email: The priests had a father/son team competition. The first event we had to race about 25 yards with one partner on our back, switch, and then race back.  Let's say we had a 1st place finish coming our way before I was too much for Josh, and he tripped and fell. It was a bit painful for both of us, and we finished 2nd by stretching out our hands to cross the finish line (Pulsipher's won). The 2nd event was wheel barrel race. Same thing: 25 yards, switch, and come back.  We did finish 1st in that event.)

Also, he answered a couple of my questions:

Did you receive your package yet? It arrived in Tarawa several weeks ago, so it should be coming soon.  Haven't gotten the package yet but I'm sure it'll come soon.

We discovered recently that there is Scouting in Kiribati. Have you seen any boys participating in scouts since you have been there? Yeah the only scouts I have ever seen are like typical youth activities in the church IDK if any people run it just by themselves but I'd assume not...

Surprise mid-week email

Love ya dad

So sweet to hear all that's happening! Something quite of a miracle
and internet is randomly working way well today when we came by and so
looks like we are on haha. Just kinda of way cool to see the tender
mercies of God all the time.

We just came from a lesson where we haven't been able to get a time with
this guy for a while. He's way cool and we taught him about church and
law of sabbath. He said he would come to church and the lesson went
way well...then we asked him to say the closing prayer and he did.
There was just this really warm feeling as he said the prayer and 
afterwards he had tears in his eyes. I told him we felt something and 
Elder Larsen agreed and then he told us he felt something too. 
I asked him what he thought it was? and he said that he thought it was
just so great that we could come and help him come up with the thought 
to go to church on Sunday. Then I asked if he really thought it was us 
that brought the feeling? He said no it must be the Holy Ghost!

The whole lesson was awesome and I was able to testify that THAT is
why we are here, to help him be baptized, cleansed and feel that all of
the time! We are seeing miracles here. It's so true that the Lord
blesses you when you push through the hard stuff and be obedient and
work hard especially when it is hot and you are feeling sick and
everything!  
#Churchistrue

Elder Larsen's a bro. Way cool. Way stoked to be with him.  My email
that I had all written out last week wouldn't send so I wrote it as a
letter and sent it.

Elder Pettingill

A few email exchanges with Mom:

Why do you get to email at this time of night? 

uhm we were picking up our money and 

they told us internet is randomly working so we took the opportunity and checked 

and turns out it is!

Lucky for us! I'm sorry that you're sick!  

Hey sickness is just part of the job description right? It's rough but
you push through and get blessed so not too bad ;)

It has been really fun to work with Elder Larsen. He's a bro. And he's
really enjoyed the change that's farshore and I really have enjoyed
being here! We are definitely seeing miracles.

I'm stoked to go back to school. I love learning stuff so much more
nowadays haha, before not so much...

LOVE YOU GOT TO GO

P.S. from Khristine--the day this email arrived, March 1, was Elder Larsen's mom's birthday. I know this was not a coincidence that the email was working. After not hearing anything from her son for a month, she got two emails in one week, one that came on her birthday. The Lord watches out for his children and sends them indications of His love. Tender mercies. 

Nonouti Week 5 email from his companion

We did not receive an email from Daniel, but his companion was able to email his family and they shared it with us!! It was so good to hear about the work they are doing together. They sound like they are super happy and working hard! I will share some of the things Elder Larsen said, with permission from his mom.

Elder Larsen explained why they have not had internet: the internet thing they had broke so they have been waiting for a new one to come from Tarawa! It came on Wednesday so now the internet is finally fixed! Anyways it has a been a great first month with Elder Pettingill! 

Elder Larsen shared about a baptism they had:  I had my first baptism as a missionary! It was such an amazing experience!! The kids name is Tebaa. Me and Elder Vaai started lessons with him like the 3rd week that I was here and we had set 2 other baptism dates with him but we never hit them cause stuff would always come up which was disappointing. But it gave him more time to prepare and to gain a testimony! He lives with his grandpa who is a very strong and faithful member and he asked us to teach him and we finally got to do his baptism. It was so cool to do a baptism in the ocean! It made for a great day!!

Elder Larsen shared about some exciting things that have been happening: There have been some way cool things that we have seen and that have happened over the last 3 weeks! First off, Tokareirei who is a Melchizedek Priesthood holder has had a problem with drinking and when Elder Pettingill got here, he made a deal that he would shave his beard and cut his hair! So we we set up a time and had a huge dinner and we cut off his huge santa beard. His beard was a lot like Lorenzo Snow's beard. Then a couple days later he shaved it off and cut his hair. We showed up at his house to talk to him and see how he was coming and we didn’t even recognize him. Elders have tried doing this thing with him before and he said no and he finally let us do it and he hasn’t drank since! Pretty sweet!! Then when we had fast and testimony meeting there was a recent convert that bore his testimony about how grateful he was for the church and the Elders that helped him stop drinking alcohol and change his life.  He and his wife are two of our strongest members! We are baptizing their daughter this Saturday who just turned 8! It was such a strong testimony and the spirit was soooo strong! That fast testimony meeting was so amazing, the spirit was so strong and everyone got up and bore their testimonies!

Elder Larsen shared the transfer news: Transfers were this last Tuesday and I am not going anywhere! I just hit 4 months here on Nonouti and I am over 5 months on my mission now! So crazy the time has gone soo fast but it has been awesome!!  We had a boutakie (party) after our baptism and elder p.. is sooo funny. When he dances he goes so hard and everyone laughs.

Elder Larsen talked about the weather:  Ha it has rained soooo much that the entire road had about 6 inches on it in all the places where it used to be dry, and the places where it wasn’t dry was about 1 foot! Our well was almost all the way filled! Haha it was crazy! We built a little thing to wash dishes and to do that kind of stuff and we didn’t have time to dig holes and put it in the ground and the wind was so bad it blew it over!! It was like 70 MPH winds. It was insane! 

Elder Larsen talked about one of the investigators and the work in general: There is this kid named Toroman! He is just this massive kid and just is way friendly to Elders. I have talked to him in my limited Kiribati and I have just always had a feeling he would be a sweet inv. So when E. Pettingill got here we asked him and he is keeping commitments and we just gave him a baptismal date and he has come to church the last two weeks! He is the man!! Things are going great! Everything here is going up and up! The work and all of our investigators are progressing and keeping commitments and coming to church. We had 8 of our investigators come to church this last week! So amazing.

We are so grateful to hear from Elder Larsen that they are happy together and working hard and seeing lives improve from their efforts. Happy day!! Thank goodness for Elder Larsen, who is obviously a very hard worker and a great missionary, with a deep desire to help the people of Nonouti. Daniel is so lucky to be working with him!!

Nonouti Week 4 No email but some videos of the islands that I found

No email again this week. I went searching for some information about the island and found these videos posted by a fishing group that explored the area as a possibility for fishing expeditions. The videos give you an idea of what the island is like, and you also see how beautiful it is. It's probably only something a mother cares about, and a teenage boy who dreams of serving someplace like this! As a side note, according to their website, the fishing group decided not to pursue regular trips to Nonouti. The living conditions were too primitive for them. :)

Introduction to Nonouti click here  (3 minutes)

Nonouti September 2011 click here  (11 minutes)

Blog post about the trip by the fishing group, with pictures click here

Nonouti Week 2 & 3 No new emails but travel plans

We have not received emails from Daniel for the past two weeks. Elder Larsen's mom told me that the internet doesn't work when it is raining. It's the rainy season, so I guess we better not expect many emails. However, we did receive his return travel itinerary this week! He will arrive home on the evening on May 12. We have his homecoming talk scheduled for Sunday, May 15 at 9 am at the Mormon Center (which is the building next to the Sacramento Temple.) Jacob is coming from Provo, and Katie and Tanner are coming from Idaho to be here when he gets off the plane and for his homecoming talk. Our whole family will be together!!! I can't wait!!! So I guess we can be patient with no emails for now. We get to see him soon! 

See the itinerary below. My favorite part is the second picture. When he travels from Fiji to LA, he arrives 8 hours before he left. Now he can add 'time traveler' to all his other amazing mission experiences! --Khristine

Nonouti Week 1 (we are back to semi-regular emails! Hooray!)

This email is all responses to questions I asked him. I will put my question in italics and then his answer.

so I already replied to this email once but it was lost #outerislandemail

Did you figure out that Elder Larsen (new companion) knows Tanner Fonnesbeck yet? (Tanner is his sister Katie's new husband--they are from the same small Idaho town) Yeah we figured it out this last week when looking at the pics that you sent me

Are you okay with these classes for summer term at BYU? I'm down for Calculus and CS 142 (what is that exactly though?)

Do you think you are going to be big into the social when you get back (like sleeping over to get good seats for the football games, etc) or do you think you got that out your freshman semester? We'll see about the social part ;)

Are you going to get mail on Nonouti? I heard it takes longer. I am gathering the things for your package, but I am wondering if you will get it while you are out there or not until you come back into Tarawa? It's the same and thank you! That's way sweet. I still have two unused SD cards (that should be enough right?) but another flash drive would be nice cause those are way useful out here.  

You told us that you are coming home May 12. How accurate is that? You put it with question marks, so it left us wondering. Pretty accurate since I saw it on multiple papers and it was the scheduled date when filling out our itinerary forms but once y'all get the itinerary it will be 100 percent

What are the living conditions on Nonouti? House or hut? Bathroom or ocean/trees? Electricity? Tell
us about the island and what you think of it. What are the members like? Is there a branch? or just multiple units? Island is great, it's so long and kinda harsh and IDK haha but it's great. Hut but bigger than in Maiana and bathroom if you count the hole in the ground ;)  Members are legit and there is not a branch yet.

How is it going with Elder Larsen? Elder Larsen is legit and him and I get along great. He really is
enjoying the change in companions since we're working hard and being really obedient and stuff.

Love you too! Thanks for the prayers! Praying for all of you as well!

Elder Pettingill