Another Office Transfer

Well, another transfer has come past, and I'm still an office Elder with Elder Jeffries, making him my longest companion, which is kind of crazy, since this only my third transfer here.

This transfer was different, though.  Some missionaries from New Claledonia transferred to Vanuatu, and some missionaries here are transferring to the Solomon Islands, one of whom was an MTC companion of mine.  It'll be interesting meeting some 'new' missionaries for the first time, unless they went to Santo, I don't know where they went yet.

Missionary work was the same.  We didn't get anyone new, and everyone's about the same, technically progressing, but slow enough that nothing has really changed.

Well, that's about all I can think of, right now,  I'll answer any questions as they come next time

Elda Van Wagenen

Good start to 2017

Well, that was a great opening to a new year.  We had a great Christmas and New Year's, and then a baptism last Saturday. I've got some pictures to send now!  Some from Christmas (that picture of the main course at Christmas is dog...), and a picture of the baptism.  Her name's Marie, and she's 18 years old.  We've been teaching her for almost a month.  Her grandma, a member, introduced us to her, and she had already decided to be baptized before we even met her.  Now we are trying to teach her mother, who has a busy work schedule and can't find time to meet with us or go to church, but between random visits with her daughter, and from when the grandmother was being taught, she's already got a decent understanding of the Gospel, and she's really only being blocked by her work.

Office work has gone really quiet since Christmas ended.  All we've had to do are the weekly key indicators, but once all of those are sent in, I can finish in about half an hour, so we've mostly been in our area instead of in the office.  But even that is quiet!  Everyone went home to their outer island for Christmas, and most still haven't come back yet, so our area isn't just quiet, it's empty!  There's still some people, but there's a noticeable difference in how many people are walking around, and it feels a little strange.  But they'll be trickling back in the next week or so.

Anyway, that's about it for now.  Talk next week!

Elda Van

P.S.  Most people here don't have patriarchal blessings, but from what I've heard, surprisingly most of the ones that do are mostly fromManasseh or Ephraim.

Happy New Year!

Some of our recent converts surprised us with a little Christmas party the 23rd.

Happy New Years to everyone!

It's 2017, and we've just finished a great Christmas season.  We had some great Christmas parties on the 24th and 25th, with some interesting food choices at the party, aka. dog.

Skyping home to my family was great, even with the background noise on my side.

We're emailing out of the internet cafe from now on, instead of out of the mission office, a new rule from president which affects the whole office district, not just us.

This last week was pretty boring, as far as missionary work went, because everyone was recovering from Christmas celebrations and hangovers, and preparing for New Years ones, which will probably make most of this week quiet for us too.  Not that our investigators would be affected, but none of them have been home this week, either, along with many members that we had invited to follow us to lessons.

Mission office work has been quiet, too, because Christmas is over.  I'm sure something will pop up soon enough, though.

That's about all I can think of, for now.

Happy New Year!

Elda Van Wagenen

Saet Siwi...!

 

Saet Siwi is a crazy place.  I've only been there for three days.  My flight to Tanna was on Thursday afternoon, and was in Saet Siwi that evening. We don't have any investigators right now, in what was one of the highest baptizing areas in the mission.  Everyone we can find are longtime members and recent converts.  We've taught five children between 8-10 years old who were all baptized two or three weeks ago.  Walking in the area is crazy.  There's some pictures of a mountain range behind the volcano that I'm sending.  That's Saet Siwi.  It's always raining there, and we sweep up huge piles of volcanic ash from our floor every morning and evening.  It's also cold there.  I wake up freezing every morning, and I'm loving the change.  I started my mission near the end of summer, and haven't left it since, so the chill is feeling great.

My companion's name is Elda Rillang from the Marshall Islands.  He's 22 and going home in December.  I'll either be in Saet Siwi a really short time, or a really LONG time.

I won't be in Saet Siwi at all this week, because we're all going up to Vila for zone conference.  We'll be coming back to Tanna next Sunday.  That's kind of silly, because I was just there for an entire week waiting for my flight, but I like the civilzation.  When I'm in Vila I can almost pretend I'm in a first world country.  Haha.

Elder Van Wagenen

Transfer...!

Hey, there's been a bit of a change over here, again.

There was another emergency transfer, and I'm not in Malekula.  I've been in Vila for the last few days, since Friday, with the housing maintenance Elders, waiting for a plane to go back to Tanna.  I've been transferred to Saet Siwi, Tanna.  I should already be there, but the flight was cancelled, and there won't be another flight until Tuesday, at least.  My new companion is Elder Rillang, from the Marshall Islands.  He's already there, and I haven't met him yet.  President told me it's just a temporary fix, and that I won't be there very long.  The next transfer is in four weeks, and I might leave then.  Anyway, these next couple weeks will be a little crazy.  Saet Siwi doesn't always have a chance to get to Lenekel every pday, so I don't really know what's going to happen.

Elder Van Wagenen.

Rano Custom History

This week has been a slow one, but we went to the small island Rano again this week, and one of our investigators gave us a tour of the island historical sites while we were waiting for a boat to come.  He showed us some of the places for custom dances, and even what used to be a table for cannibalism.

Anyway, we also got some new investigators, and I should have more baptismal photos next week, or the week after!

Elda Van Wagenen

Transfer Call?!

Sorry I couldn't email again yesterday, there was another public holiday...

I'm still here in Malekula.  The last week was pretty boring.  The week of Independence was not good for missionary work, and most of the time we weren't able to do anything.

Anyway, the transfer call came today.  There's been a slight twist.  Elder Sate is being transferred to Tanna, he leaves tomorrow, and the Malekula district is dropping down to a single companionship of three elders: me, Elder Crowell, and Elder Sevao.  We have permission to proselyte anywhere in Malekula.  I'm companions with the missionary I trained with the entire of the second biggest island in Vanuatu as my area.  All this will be in motion tomorrow, when Elder Sate leaves.

Elda Van Wagenen

Another Week

Well, this week has been pretty slow, as far as missionary work goes.  Everyone has been preparing for the celebration at the end of this week, and no one has been home.  We still taught 8 lessons and have 2 new investigators.

On another note, there's two more Elders on Malekula now.  It's only until Thursday, then they go to Santo.  They used to be on Ambae, but the island ran out of water again, and president closed down the area.  I doubt he'll try and open it any time soon, after this.

There was a public holiday yesterday, and everything was closed, so we couldn't email until today.

Anyway, that's about all for this week.

Elder Van Wagenen

Malekula Bakegen

I'm still chilling in Malekula.  This week has been pretty slow again.  The trip to Santo threw off all our momentum here, and we've spent the whole week trying to get it back.  Out of the 32 lessons we tried to teach we only got 9.  But anyway, Vanuatu's Independence Day is coming up and everyone is busy getting ready for it in two weeks.  We probably won't get much done for the next month.

Some of the members decided to 'turn our hair', and we decided to let them.  Well, that's about all for this last week, altough we found some old baptismal records that are unrecorded that we're taking care of.  That's what happens when there's area that have been closed for almost a year that are included in my area.  That's about it though.

Elder Van Wagenen

Another Week

Hey, we went to Santo again last week.  We left on Wednesday and came back Sunday, and the training we went to was only one day.  We were stuck in Santo for the whole week because that was the only time flights went to and from Malekula.  Half the week we followed the zone leaders, and the other half we stayed in a missionary house in a closed area, so there was no work to do.  It was pretty boring.  We didn't get any teaching done in our own area, because we had no appointments set, because we've been gone.  I didn't get a chance to email yesterday, because the internet wasn't working.  it still isn't.  I'm in  a school emailing, and I can't send any pictures.  and it's a lot cheaper to come here, so we may just choose the school more often.

Elder Van Wagenen

Uripiv

We had a successful yet exhausting week.  We got a lot of work done, taught a bunch of lessons, and we went to another small island, Uripiv.  Uripiv doesn't have anyone that we think can actually progress, so I don't think we'll be going back very often, but it was a very cool experience just the same.  We mostly worked in Wala this week, but we've done a lot of lessons, and we did get a new investigator in one of our other areas.

We've got a special training in Santo this week, so we're leaving Wednesday morning to go to Santo, and we'll come back on Sunday. The whole week will be spent in Santo in meetings, I think, so this next week will be pretty boring.

Islands!

The ocean around Vanuatu is bright blue, no matter how close you get to the water. 

 I don't really have any words to describe it.

A Sea Cucumber

This has been a bit of a crazy week.  I conducted my first district meeting, which was actually fairly easy.  We did get to go to one of the islands this week, small island Rano.  The other two islands were small island Wala and Urapiv.  We have two areas on the mainland called Wala and Rano, so everyone calls the island part 'small island'.  I don't really have much to say about the week itself, but it was just a cool week.

Elda Van Wagenen

Litzlitz‏

Elder Crowell my new companion

The transfer call came a day early, on Friday instead of Saturday.  I've been transferred to Litzlitz, another area in Malekula.  One of the other areas, Lowni is closed so there are only two areas, with four missionaries on the island and in the district.  I'm the district leader.  My area's going to be great.  We have three small islands we will be boating to as a part of the area we work in.  My companion's name is Elder Crowell.  He's from Washington state, and he goes home in two transfers, so I'll probably be his companion until he leaves.  He was an AP for 7 months.  I think it'll be interesting to see what happens for the next couple weeks.  It'll be different having an American companion for an extended time.  I'm really excited.

Elder Van Wagenen

PS 'Football' is the largest sport in the world here. (Soccer)  I think it's even bigger here than American football back home.

Coconut crabs, my house, and transfers at the end of the week

These coconut crabs were in a restaurant, and yes you eat them, but you have to be careful with the claws, because I hear they can snap coconuts in half. We eat lots of coconuts.

Hey, I just emailed a few days ago, and not much has really happened since then.  Elder Ngatehau will be leaving to go home in two days, and the transfer is at the end of this week, so then everyone will be moving around.  This transfer will be pretty big, I think, because everyone in Malekula has been there for a while.

Here's some pictures of the house I'm living in.  I don't really know what else to say.  I'll probably have a lot more next week!

Elder Van Wagenen

Zone Conference

I just got back from zone conference, and I've really enjoyed it.  We've had to split this week's pday, because Monday and Tuesday were the days of conference, and pday has been split on Wednesday/ Thursday.  We flew back Wednesday, yesterday.  Conference was great, and we learned a lot.  The focus was on what Elder pearson talked to us about, and much of it was on how teaching was only part of a visit, and helping investigators make a commitment was more important, and that the mission really wanted to focus on companion unity.

Conference was a lot of fun, and I learned some things that will really help me as I teach.

Elda Van

Return to Malekula‏

The moon and palm trees in Malekula

 I was out taking pictures from a good dozen different places for over half an hour getting that moon shot.  We have nothing to do after dark, because everyone goes to sleep with the sun.  We ourselves are usually in bed by 8:00 because of that. The sun goes down around 5:30, and is dark around 6:00!

 Malekula

 Malekula

 Santo

Santo from the airplane

Everything went well in Santo, I'm glad to announce.  It was just a mission tour, and we'll be going back to Santo next week for zone conference, but we're not sure what day.  The visit from Elder Pearson was really good.  He taught a lot about obedience and goal setting, but I'm not sure how well most of the non-English speakers in the zone understood him.  My talk was on 'faith without works is dead, and I tried to keep it as simple as I could, because I wanted to have as many people as possible understand what I was saying.  I did have the talk scripted, but I only vaguely followed it, mostly referring to the overview and scriptures I used.

I don't have many pictures of Santo (only two) because we were in meetings most of the time I was in Santo, but next week I should get more.  There's a lot of undisturbed WWII sites there, and sometime I might get to explore one.

I don't really have a lot of time today, I'm using the more expensive internet cafe so I can coordinate a phone call home, and my companion is waiting for me.  His family doesn't have an email account, so he doesn't email.

Elda Van