On Sunday we attended our home ward. The meeting had started but Chris had not arrived. But finally after the sacrament he came and was confirmed. They now have the goal of going to the Temple in a year. Elder Hill came to the mission home with us after the block.
On Monday the Corry’s who are serving in Kirtibati came here to Majuro. They came because they were going to Idaho for their daughter’s wedding. We ate lunch with them and they loved the mission home. As we have told you things are different in Kiribati. We said goodbye to Elder Hill as we were going to go on the plane that Corry’s came in to go back to Kiribati. Elder Hill and the Corry’s both took the same flight to Hawaii together which was nice. We left that day for Kiribati at 2:00pm.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we had training meetings with all of the missionaries. All of the outer Island Elders were there except for a couple. The training went well and the missionaries did a lot of the training. They are beginning to realize that this training helps to make them better teachers of the gospel. They also go over these training lessons in their District meetings.
On Tuesday we went to dinner with the senior couples. We have such great senior couples and they really help us by doing the things for the missionaries that we would do, such as intake and departure meals. Training and orienting of the new missionaries. We wish they could all come to the mission home first but the expense of travel is too much. We are losing our senior couple the Phippen’s who are going home on Jan. 11th. They have done such a wonderful job and have worn many hats. We will miss them. The Corry’s will be picking up most of their assignments.
On Thursday we went to Bairiki so that Tom could interview a candidate for baptism.
We also had three other missionaries leaving before we go there again; Sister Toki (second from the right), Sister Kaotiteun (far right), and Elder Rameka.
Christmas Eve they had a lunch for all the missionaries.
Christmas day started out with phone calls to parents. Did that ever bring back memories! Those whose parents had the ability to Skype could choose to use it or to just talk on the phone. There were some who came to the place we were staying to use our computer. One of us would need to stay in the apartment as they weren’t with their companions. I wasn’t trying to ease drop but it was kind of hard not to hear the conversations. Like I said it brought back many memories of phone calls we had with our wonderful sons. We would put them on speaker and then each person in the family could also have some private time talking. I could hear the excitement in the parent’s voices and relate to that. We also skyped briefly with all of our family on Christmas morning, and then again the next day with each individual family. They sent us such wonderful, thoughtful gifts and we loved everything.
On the Majuro side they also had a lunch on Christmas Eve. They had a tie and necklace exchange. They received a goodie bag and they watched “Forgotten Carols.” On Christmas day they have a thing called the Beat. This is where every ward in the stake presents a dance and some singing. Our Missionaries did the cha cha slide. They had a lot of fun doing it and we were told that they did an excellent job. I think all the other churches do the same thing so it is a busy cultural day. Each missionary will also be receiving a wonderful book which Sister Christensen compiled. We think it must have got stuck in Hawaii, we heard that a lot of the mail had been held up there. We had the missionaries send a letter with a spiritual experience and their testimonies so it will be a wonderful keep sake.
We also attended a baptism on Christmas day in Bairiki.
Christmas Island has already taken one group of people to the Fiji Temple. They still have one more group of forty-five people who will be going soon. All in all about sixty people. The Moser’s, the senior couple, is accompanying them there. They were instrumental in getting all of their paperwork done, to make this possible, which was no small task. She spent hours and hours working on this. Many of the people are not raised by their parents and if they go to an aunt or uncles or grandparents or friends, they take on the surname of whoever they are with. Some stay with many different people which make it extremely difficult to trace their records. They said that the first trip was unbelievable, and they look forward to the next one.
Ebeye also has about seventy people who are going to the Hawaii Temple next month. The Mill’s, the senior couple, have also been responsible for gathering all of the paper work for their people. Tom and I went to Ebeye for him to interview all of the people there. Elder Moser is a counselor to Tom was given permission to do the interviews in Christmas Island. What a glorious opportunity for these people and for the areas they come from. This will help strengthen their branches and district.
We got the landing permit to leave Kiribati on Sunday morning. The flight back was pretty smooth except for when we were in some clouds it was a little rock and roll! I only grabbed Tom’s arm once and he has the scar to prove it!
On Tuesday we had two meetings, one was an office meeting which we have every Tuesday and the other was a senior couple meeting for planning and coordinating the Bednar’s visit. There are so many details to work out and we keep getting emails everyday from New Zealand with changes! We are excited for this event and as excited for the people here as they have never had an Apostle come before. It truly is a big event and we look forward to it also.
On Wednesday we went to the district meeting of Uliga and Delap. We usually just drop in so they don’t know that we are coming. It’s a great district and it was great to be with them. It gives us a chance to get to know the missionaries better and to see how the district leaders are handling their training. We then had the stake President, counselors and their wives to dinner. We have enjoyed working with them.
Thursday night we are having the Assistants over for dinner, left over’s from last night! They are then going to get one of their investigators and show her the film, “Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration.”
Tomorrow is New Years Eve, and all of the senior couples are coming over to eat and watch a movie. It’s always great to get together with the seniors; we don’t know what we would do without them. So Christmas here was different then back home but the spirit of the season is the same.
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