Week 1 Dumbéa Nord

This week I learned that White washes are kinda hard!! Especially because I am the senior companion this time round. Last Thursday I woke up and it all kinda hit me all at once. I had to lead a new area that I know nothing about with the little French I know. The funny thing was Elder Bybee, the last Elder in the area who got transferred to Vanuatu took our phone!! We eventually got it back but we couldn't call anyone for the first half of the day and we really couldn't do much! Also Elder Nulak apparently kinda of died during the night. He had all these pains in his gut that basically incapacitated him. Lets just say we didn't get off to a very good start haha.

Friday we did a big service project for a member in our ward with two other Tahitian Elders, Ly and Tao. We also met with some members in our area to help learn our area and such.

Saturday we went to an 8 years old baptism in our ward. It was really helpful actually. We got to meet lots more people in the ward.

Sunday we bore our testimonies and introduced ourselves to the whole ward. We also did a little exploring to continue to learn our huge area. There is this one neighborhood that goes straight up a mountain... it's kinda crazy. It's pretty hard to contact here in Dumbéa actually because literally every single house has a big fence and a gate around it. We have to yell to get people out of their houses which kinda comes off a little aggressive haha.

Monday I got to do my first baptismal interview which was a little scary but it actually went well! The guy I interviewed, Ivon, only had one eye which was kinda cool haha. We had to drive up to Tontuta to do it which is about 30 minutes north of Dumbéa. Driving here is a little sketchy. A lot of the drivers here are insane. We've had a few close calls.

Tuesday we had a zone meeting up in Tontuta again. That's about all that happened though because our lessons fell through. We had yet to have a lesson here! Every lesson fell through this first week. Its a little frustrating but were gonna change that!

That's its for this week!

Avec amour,

-Elder Burbank

Pics: Sun in my eyes, Cool views 

White Washed, Baptism, Cyclone Cook

This last week has been pretty exciting. Last P-day we got to do our final activity as a district which was bowling! Elder Nulak, who has never bowled in his life won! A hidden talent he didn't know he had I suppose.

Thursday was a pretty typical day. A little bit of door to door and we had 4 lessons!

Friday we had a really good lesson with Heirani again. Her baptismal date had to get moved to April 29th but I got transferred! Wont be there for that but that's the missionary life! I got transferred to an area called Dumbéa Nord with Elder Nulak from Vanuatu. Dumbéa is about a 30 minute drive north of Nouméa and it is waaaay different up here. The area is much much bigger and basically jungle so we get a car. Way more people up here live in "Squats" and everyone is much more spread out. Just today we had to drive through a few flooded rivers and help out people clean up all the debris from Cyclone Cook.

Saturday and Sunday the stake came together to Watch General Conference. We watch it a week later because of time zones and everything. All the talks were suuper good. Watching conference as a missionary is the best! All ten hours fly by and you can't get enough! After the final session on Sunday we had our baptism for Fabianne right afterwords. Tons of people showed up and it went well! I don't have pictures on my camera so ill have to ask Elder Conger to send me some.

Monday was Cyclone Cook! President told us we had to stay Inside for the entire day. It didn't get too crazy around where we lived. There was definitely some strong Wind but nothing too serious. The northern parts of the island got hit alot harder. I can see a lot more damage now that I am further north. The chapel down South in Nouméa did get damaged quite a bit though. They found out that it wasn't constructed very well to begin with.

Tuesday we had our white wash transfer. Thankfully the Elder that served here before, Elder Bybee, had to stay with us because he was going to be transferred to Vanuatu but the flights got delayed because of the Cyclone. He has been showing us around and helping us learn the area.

That's it for this week! I'm a little terrified for this new area but I'm sure it'll work out!

Avec amour,

-Elder Burbank

Pics: Crazy Sunset, Cyclone, Conference, Huge Cricket field, strange gas plant, 

Bowling in New Caledonia

We had another crazy week this week! Last Wednesday we had a great lesson with a super long time investigator Fabianne. She will be getting baptized this Sunday right after we watch General Conference at the stake center! That also happens to be the very last day of the transfer. Its been a while here in Ducos so I might be getting transferred. No idea though. Ill let you all know next week! When we were walking back in the dark from her lesson that night a big black dog busted through a gate and ambushed Elder Conger. I've never heard him scream louder in the 4 months that I've known him haha. The dog ran right up to him but stopped right at the last moment. He lost his footing out of pure fear and basically fell on me. I could not stop laughing. I've noticed that the dogs never really attack but they will threaten. Also that night there was a huge car crash just below our apartment. Some drunk driver hit a street lamp and smashed it into pieces. I don't think he got that hurt but I'm honestly surprised this doesn't happen more often. It seems like everyone here is drunk all the time...

Last Thursday was a little rough. We had a whole day planned out with 6 solid lessons and every single one fell through!!! A little frustrating but the day turned out anyways. We had 2 unplanned lessons and found a new investigator! Also another random Italian guy stopped us on the street with his car asking us for an English class. Luckily we have one! At first I kid you not he told us his name was Pizza. Elder Conger and I were well confused. We later found out his name was Joseph though. :( No idea why he told us otherwise haha.

Last Saturday was the "Poisson d'avril" or april fools. We went contacting with a recently returned missionary who served in the States named Melem. Conversations with him are kinda funny. He likes to speak English so sometimes its just a mess of French and English between the 3 of us haha. Later in the evening we tried stopping by a less active member but turns out only her sister was there. We talked to her for a bit and she told us she was from "Canala" which turns out is a northern city on the island. We had no idea. The whole time we thought she was saying Canada so we were super lost. The language barrier is REAL sometimes! Once we cleared things up the 3 of us all got a good laugh out of it. 

Monday I lost my legs. The whole day was walking and contacting besides 1 lesson with Heirani! She hasn't been able to come to church as of recently so we had to move her baptismal date to April 29th but she is still solid. 

Running out of time so I got to go but we got to go bowling today for P-day!

Avec amour,

-Elder Burbank

Bowling

My new companion below, Elder Nulak from Vanuatu

Je suis la vache avec deux tache

Another week has flown by! The activity of choice last P-day was sleeping, and that's about all that happened haha. 

Thursday we had some great lessons with a few of our investigators. We tried to invite the couple we are teaching, Raimanu and Mareva to be baptized by they were a little hesitant. I think they know the church is true but they just have to get married and all that. They did come to church this last Sunday though which was awesome! Its the first time they've come since I've been here so thats progress! We also taught Heirani again who is still having a hard time with some word of wisdom issues but she really does want to quit! She still wants to get baptized on Easter Sunday but we'll see! 

Friday we had a lesson with a super long time investigator who has been investigating for about 11 years named Fabianne. She is practically a member she just hasn't been baptized and she recently told us she wants to get baptized in a few weeks! We had the lesson scheduled at the chapel but the member who was suppose to take us completely forgot! We had to hop the bus and ended up being 30 minutes late to the lesson! She had to get home soon after so we had a super short lesson and she told us why she wanted to get baptized. She is suuuper ready. She did tell us she wanted to move the date back a little further into May but I think she doesn't realize how ready she actually is haha. We are going to see her tonight so we'll see what date It'll actually be. 

Saturday we had a bunch of lessons fall through but we had a few good lessons to make up for it! We met with a former investigator named Maleko. Its been quite some time since any missionaries had visited him so we decided it was time! Turns out he already had a bunch of great questions! We taught the plan of salvation and he made a ton of connections to the Bible on his own! It was cool to see. That night we had a fireside that was specially for investigators but not a single one showed! It was still good non the less. We talked about the atonement and Bishop bore an amazing testimony at the end. Though only members were there I think we all got something out of it!

Sunday we had 3 investigators at church which was super good to see!

Monday we had a family home evening with the partially member, partially less active and partially non member, Tahitian family again, the Teura's. They are just awesome. We are still working on getting them to come back to church and all but slowly but surely haha. While waiting for the super super good Tahitian food to finish cooking we played a little game that literally translates into "The cow without tasks" Its kinda hard to explain but its safe to say that I was NOT good at it haha. I became the cow with many tasks.... aka ->(Je suis la vache avec deux tache)

Tuesday we had another zone conference! With the new missionary standards we have a zone conference every transfer now which I really like. Its always good to see President Granger since we so rarely get to see them :(. For the conference I got the opportunity bear my testimony and share a thought on Preach My Gospel! It was good day. 

That's it for this week!

Avec amour,

-Elder Burbank

Pics: (A weird fruit they call sugar apples. Has the texture of a banana, full of seeds like a pomagranite, tastes like an apple and a mango haha) (More views by Raimanu's house) (A tribal "fleche" or "arrow" in French on the side of an apartment)

Progress

This week has been pretty solid. Last Wednesday we had a fun district activity and we played a bunch of board games and card games like Clue in French! I also got a haircut from one of my zone leaders! He's pretty new at cutting hair so it was an interesting experience haha. Really nice of him to take time out of his P-day though! I usually just get haircuts from other Elders now because professional haircuts are really expensive and I'm not sure how I would explain how I want my hair cut in French when I can't even do that in English haha.

Thursday we had a lesson with one of our newer investigators named Evelyn. We actually found out that she is an active Jehovah's Witness which kinda caught us off guard. She is still really open to us and says she wants to come to church which is a little bizarre. We were kind of surprised she let us in in the first place! We also had this lesson with a long time investigator who is originally from Tahiti named Raimanu. He is super chill and I think he and his girlfriend want to get baptized but they live together...and I don't think they are getting married anytime soon unfortunately. Maybe one day.

Friday we had our sports activity again with our English class too. We had a whole non member family come to the English class and they loved it! We haven't even taught this family once, we just met them and invited them while tracking but they still came! They are moving up north really soon unfortunately but I think they have huge potential! 

Saturday we contacted this member referral which went super well. The member who told us to contact her told us not to mention her name...but we did anyways. We really felt like it would make a difference and it did! She seemed super interested and they even asked for 3 copies of the Book of Mormon in Bislama! (They are from Vanuatu). 

Sunday we went to go teach the family that came to the english class but the dad wasn't there so they said another time. Instead of us teaching them though they gave us a bunch of different kinda of cake instead haha. It was super good :) We also found out that a long time investigator wants to finally get baptized! I haven't even had a lesson with her yet because she has had the lessons so many times so the missionaries kinda just let her on her own for a while. She occasionally comes to church but out of the blue she said she wants to get baptized in April !

Monday was ALOT of contacting. We didn't get a single lesson but we still had good success. We found a bunch of new potentials which is really promising! Also the weather on Monday was super weird. It was raining with mostly blue skies and sunshine. It didn't make any sense.  

That's about it for this week! 

Avec amour,

-Elder Burbank 

Another view of our apartment.

Mangroves

Copies of the Books of Mormons" (as we like to call them haha) in our apartment

Mangroves

Dengue Season

Well its Dengue season here in New Cal. Every other day its pouring down rain then its clear skies and waaay too hot which is apparently good for mosquitos. There are these posters that the government put up everywhere (in the pics below) so people are rightly taking precaution. Besides the dengue literally floating in the air this week been good! Last P-day I spent most of my time on a split with one of the zone leaders, Elder Miner, because he was pretty sick. I had to stay behind in the zone leaders apartment while Elder Conger and the other zone leader Elder Kessler went to ward meetings. We all thought Elder Miner had the dengue but it turns out it wasn't so that was a relief. 

Last Thursday we had a nice lunch with some recent converts in the ward, Famille Wajoka, which was great! A lot of our lessons that day actually fell through though. That night we tried to have a "Visit de Bon Berger" which translates literally into "visit of good Shepard" which is a ward activity where we all go out to visit less actives but it kinda fell apart unfortunately. It can be hard to actually get things to follow through here because the church is still so young! 

Friday we had a great lesson with one of our investigators, Heirani. She wants to get baptized on the 16th of April which is after the transfer so we'll see if I get to be here for that! We also had a pack of 5 dogs follow us all the way back to our apartment door!!! It was kinda ridiculous. That night we had dinner with the Famille Ulivaka again and they told us their conversion story which was super cool. At first they really did not like the missionaries because apparently they ruined the sister Ulivakas birthday by dropping in and bothering them. Later that day however those 2 Elders came back that same day with a random cake that someone gave them for no reason in particular haha. 

Saturday we went contacting in a pretty far place in our area. This place was basically just a gigantic cricket field with a few houses beside it. I didn't get a picture unfortunately but if we ever go there again I will. While we were there there was a bunch of old ladies in uniformed "mommy dresses" playing cricket. It was pretty funny to watch haha. 

Monday we had our apartment checked by the new senior couple in our mission, Elder and Sister Jean from Tahiti. We passed :). Other than that though we basically just added to our tan lines by walking A TON. We tried to have some lessons but nothin really worked out. However, we did get to give a Book of Mormon in Fijian to this old Fijian guy oddly enough.

Thats about all for this week! 

Avec amour,

-Elder Burbank

Pics: The District with the ward mission leader. Bus stop view, La Dengue poster!!, Zone Leaders (Kessler on the left, Miner on the right), 

Still in Ducos

These last two weeks have been a little crazy! Thursday a few weeks back I got to go on an exchange with one of our zone leaders Elder Ursenbach which was awesome! It was really cool to see the perspective from someone who has been in this mission for much longer than I. We also found out all the transfer info and I'll be staying in Ducos with Elder Conger! I was kinda relieved when I found out I was staying here. There is still work to be done! 

Last Saturday was a pretty normal day. We did get stuck at this one ladies door though for like 50 minutes. She talked about anything and everything without even talking a breath....literally. Some French people talk while there are breathing in so it's never ending haha. We tried to leave multiple times but she just kept talking and talking!

Last Monday was the first day of the new transfer! We got two new zone leaders in our district. Elder Minor and Elder Kessler. They are both pretty cool! We also ran into a guy named Jean from Australia but lives in New Cal. Apparently he loves to take any opportunity to speak English so we have a 45 minute discussion in English which was suuuuper weird. He kept going on and on about how he loves what we do as missionaries but he also kept saying he'd be a terrible Mormon haha. He also said we didn't quite measure up to how good German Amish people were. It was pretty hilarious. He was super cool though. Later in the day we went contacting in the neighborhood that we live in. After an hour or so of not really getting to contact anyone we ran into this guy named Luigi. He started out yelling at us in Italian but then realized we didn't actually speak Italian....In a French speaking country haha. He switched to French and talked to us for some 40 minutes about how youth now a days don't do anything and he really liked how we were "workers" and "doers" essentially. His Italian accent on his French was super weird too. I couldn't understand anything for the first 5 to 10 minutes and neither could Elder Conger. Turns out he was super catholic and he was flying back to Italy that night! We are hoping he meets up with some missionaries in Italy haha. That Monday night we had a dinner with a really funny Tahitian family who is partially active, Inactive and non member. The mom is the only active member and she did NOT hesitate to point out her family members about being inactive in front of us haha. They were all super cool though.

It also turns out that one of our less actives that we visit passed away this week. She was quite old and was too sick to go to church. It still really caught us off guard though. It was kinda interesting though because apparently she passed the morning after she had received the sacrament for the first time in a LONG time.

This most recent Friday we got to go to the wards sports activity which was much much needed for me. First time I've really played basketball in 3 months!!!

Yesterday Elder Conger assigned me to give the district training for our district meeting! I still don't know how I feel about giving all these missionary trainings in French but I'm sure its helping me one way or another haha. We also ran into these 2 younger girls on the street who turned out to be Jehovahs Witness missionaries. They were super nice and from some reason they wanted to share something with us. They also gave a strange pamphlet about dealing with depression which I didn't really know how to take haha. All in all a strange but good couple of weeks!

Avec amour,

-Elder Burbank

Sorry I didn't really take any pictures this week!!! Ill try to get some next week.