Malekula!

So this week was actually super cool! We got to do an exchange on an outer island, Malekula. We did exchanges with two companionships. The first we did with the Elders in Norsup. I went with Elder Hatch to a small branch called Litzlitz. The area and people were super nice. I met a girl from south santo too named Laymonday. Everyone calls her Monday haha. She knows tons of people that we talk to everyday in Santo. Small country eh? We also spent a lot of time with the leaders of the branch to try and encourage them because the branch is a little week as of now. When we got back to the house we found out that our luggage never came on the small plane so we just slept on a cold hard mat in the District leaders house haha. 

The second exchange we did was with the District leader trio in Wala. I went with Elder Mii and Elder Saluone to this branch called Walarano and Elder Hales went with Elder Stapel. The village we went to was kind of dead unfortunately because everyone was at an important meeting but the people that were there all speak french which was awesome! We also got to go out to a small island called Wala on a tiny boat just to talk with some of the members and some potential investigators out there. The first and unfortunately last time I will get to be on a boat on my mission. To end the exchange we had a family house night with these recent converts and they made some of the best laplap banana I've ever had. It was life changing. 

As for South Santo... it's going well! Peter and Anna's baptism will be next Sunday after district conference and then zone conference will be the day after. Jack and Julie will also be getting married on the 25th so we are getting hyped to see that too! I'm grateful to be serving a mission and I am especially grateful to be serving where I am! Its going to be hard to leave this place. Especially the members, the beauty, the culture. This is the kingdom of God on earth. I know it. That's it for this week! 

Love,

Elder Burbank

Sorry I left my camera at home! I'm snagging a few of Elder Hales' photos from the exchange.

Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel

 Last Tuesday was practically our Pday but we really didn't do much. We
did get to show The Testaments again however in Rata. A decent amount

of people all came over to watch. I think it was well received.

Sharing our testimonies afterward is always powerful.

Wednesday we found 2 new investigators, Tavon and Seule in Saradei, a

village where there isn't our church yet. We found them through our

investigator Peter actually! Peter isn't a member yet but he's already

sharing the gospel and talking to a bunch of his friends its awesome!

What's cool too is that he has other family members that I met in Vila

from Tanna who I taught and are now members of the church! Small

world.

Thursday we went over all the baptismal interview question with Julie.

She seems pretty solid. She needs to work on a few small things but

she's almost there! Her marriage will be on the 25th of August and she

may or may not get baptized the same day we'll see. We really really

want her soon-to-be husband to be able to baptize her but we are still

working through some things. Later the same day we tried contacting a

bunch of former investigators but it didn't really lead to much :(. We

did get some referrals from this old man from Solomon's though! He

said it would be good to teach his adult sons. We have an appointment

next week with one of them :). At the end of the day we tried to hike

it out to this village where they are trying to repair the road to get

to it but it was a bit of a disaster. There was sooooo much mud that

it was hard to even walk haha. My flipflops got so caked in mud that I

couldn't even wear them so a just sent it bare foot for like a mile. We

then found a dirty cattle pond and I washed my feet and flip flops but

it was not fun. Mistakes were made haha.

Friday our plans got changed up a little bit. We were suppose to have

another family house night in Rata but a guy in the village actually

died so tons of people were there to mourn and do the island crying

like on the other side of heaven. Later, further in the area we went

to another former investigators house but then this guy, the

investigators older brother came storming after us and yelled at us

for a good while haha. Caught us way off guard cause that never

happens in Vanautu. We talked for a while and tried to cool the guy

down and by the end of it all he ended up apologizing. Not sure why he

was so mad at us honestly. I think he felt like we had no right to be

here at first.

Saturday it just seemed like nothing really interesting happened haha.

Sunday one of the less active papas in Tanovoli, Rolong finally came

back to church!!! It made me pretty happy. After church we had a

really really long lesson with Peter and Anna up in Jarailan, Elder

Hales invited them to share their testimonies of the church thus far

and the spirit was super strong and we collectively set their

baptismal date for the 19th :). Later in the day we also had another

lesson with Melodie and her pops Savauli. They are pretty strong

Presbyterian but are really open to learn more about our church.

Somehow the lesson went from explaining the Book of Mormon and how it's

divine prophesy to explaining the restoration of priesthood keys for

the gathering of Israel. Bit of a deep doctrinal fire hose of a

lesson. 

I'll close with the first verse of Put Your Shoulder to the

Wheel!  "The world has need of willing men

Who wear the worker’s seal.

Come, help the good work move along;

Put your shoulder to the wheel." 

That's about it for this week!

Love,

Elder Burbank