Monday, March 5, 2018

Busy week in Vanuatu


Well Ill just start with last Monday. Had a pretty normal P-day. Didn't really have time to do any cool activity like normal. Elda Child did however taste his first milkshake from "Jill's American Cafe" though. Those things are heavenly haha. 

Tuesday we got haircuts really quick from the cheep barber dude just before our district meeting. We didn't have time on P-day so we got it done. We have quite a bit of flexibly in our schedule as travel elders :). After we saw Jonathan again. We are just following up with him and getting him really to get the priesthood. We also saw our most potential investigator Angelina. She is suppose to be getting baptized the 31st. Its been kinda hard teaching her though. We gotta bang our heads against a wall just to get here to talk haha. She's super super quiet. Same goes with most Ni-vans honestly haha. 

Wednesday we spent the morning getting our vanuatu's drivers licences. After living here for 3 months you have to get a local licence for some reason. Pretty pointless, I think the government just wants our money. A cool souvenir though! haha. We also met with this inactive mama, Mama Diane! She made this Ni-vans version of a Banana Pie haha. Its was pretty good but just...different, like everything else here :). We also saw Ian's, girlfriend Ailine. She broke the news that he is really not trying to stop any of his word of wisdom problems and now hes working 7 days a week. Literally like 70 hours a week or something ridiculous. Gonna be real hard to help em now :(. We also saw a less active named Harriet who came back to church this Sunday! Twas good to see a less active finally come back to church!! 

Thursday was chill. Made some flights for a district president training conference that we literally just found out about haha. All the district presidents on the outer islands are coming into Vila. We also found a few new potential investigators. To end the day we picked up a zone leaders who is going home this transfer, Elda Hathcock. His Vanuatu visa is expiring before he goes home so we had to send him to Honiara so he could finish his mission on a visitors visa haha. Believe it or not it is actually cheaper to send someone on a return international flight then to have them pay a late visa fee when leaving the country. 

Friday we were up super early to send off Elda Hathcock. We'll be seeing him in a week again in a week to actually send him back to the U.S. Later we went back to the flight agency to finish up some of the district president flights and some other stuff. There was a horribly smashed up bus just in front of the travel agency that hit a pole the night before. The bus was never cleaned up and 2 people were brutally killed in the accident. There was still blood and stuff all over the bus. A gruesome scene due to drunk driving. Not even the government I feel is taking responsibility to clean up the mess and its kind of ironic because elections are going on right now haha. The plot actually thickens on Saturday. 

Saturday afternoon we were just chillin out in our area. Trying to find some people to teach or whatever. We happen to find Mafin again who was back in Teouma, our area, just for a day or two. He was there in his little village with tons of friends. One among them had a huge bandage on his head full of staples. Turns out he was literally the driver of the bus that hit the pole in Vila. He was the only survivor and he was basically hiding out in the middle of nowhere in the bush because tons of people basically hate him now. He can't go back to his house in town because I think someone will literally kill him. Right then and there we teach the whole group about the Book of Mormon. The lesson went well actually. One guy was a devout Ba'hai. I really don't know much about the religion but I think they believe that there are like 9 holy books of scripture or something such as the Bible, Quran etc etc etc. It was actually really hard to teach someone that believes that so many religions are all collectively true. Anyways...

Sunday we had to deal with more flight complication with everyone trying to fly back to their outer islands after zone conf. President loves to call air Vanuatu the pirates of the skys haha. It can be fun to deal with them sometimes. Church was also good. 12 year old Jerry came to church on his own and passed the sacrament for the first time! Not even his parents go to church for the moment and his solid uncle in the church just flew back to New Cal for a few months. Literally nobody shows him a good example for the moment but he pays his own bus and comes haha. What a stud. We also found a few solid potential investigators. Looking forward to following up! 


That's bout it for this week! 


Avec amour,
Elder Burbank




A goat stole our phone


Its been a couple weeks! Last week I couldn't really email cause I was back in New Cal!! I went over for just a day last Sunday and came back last Monday! I went to go get my "Carte de Sejour", or visa because you have to pick it up in person. It was suuuuper weird going back. It was actually hard to switch back into French but after speaking for a few hours it was just like before haha. As for these last two weeks its been great! Jonathan, the guy who randomly started following the word of wisdom on his own got baptized!! Elda Child baptized him and I did the confirmation. In classic Ni-can fashion we both got asked to give talks on baptism and the spirit on the spot at the baptismal program haha. This time round it was a lot easier though. Bislama is coming along.

Elder Kennedy and Elder Gaulden, some other office elders, also had a baptism in our ward too. We had to drive out to a place called Eton which is a tiny little village about a 30 min drive. There is a tiny little unit of the church out there but its technically part of the Etas ward so we did our baptism together with our recent convert! Being in Eton for a bit was actually awesome. When we got there its turned out the guy we were suppose to interview hadn't come back from work yet so we made simboro (some local food. Look it up!) and talked with the members for a bit wait we waited. 

Another story. So last Saturday after the baptism we were kinda having a rough proselyting time. Nobody we wanted to see was home and so we were a little frustrated. To let out a little frustration, after walking back from a house of someone we wanted to see but wasn't there, Elda Child jumped out and yelled at a goat to scare it haha. Turns out that this dumb little thing would come back to haunt us. What we didn't realize is that the phone at fallen out as he jumped out at the goat. We were looking around for hours back at the house and back tracking our steps in our area to finally find it next to the flippin goat. Looking back I should've taken a picture of that dumb goat haha. 

This week we also picked up some mid transfer arrivers. 2 Tongans and 1 Micronesian. They were in the "english second language" program at the New Zealand MTC so they come in mid transfer which makes things interesting. It was a little special this time cause president and sister Granger were not even in Vila at the time they came so they never really got a proper orientation. Me and Elder Kennedy had to do a make shifty welcome for them at the mission office haha. 

Another story. Elder Child and I have decided to "contact the neighbors" We bought a pineapple and decided to basically do some door to door. We figured we'd prepare now to be 40 year old men in our future neighborhoods and to be Mormon neighbourly neighbors haha. It worked kinda. They said they'd invite us over for a "drink" one time haha. Maybe an opportunity to teach the word of wisdom :). 

Well that's everything interesting that happened these last couple weeks! 

Avec amour,
Elder Burbank

Pics:
-Tontouta airport in New Cal!! Took Elder Hable back with me cause he got transferred to Vanuatu!
-Cool sunset in Vila
-Makin Simboro in Eton 
-Jonathan's baptism! 
-Eatin some sugar cane