elder. guess what.

Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 10:44 PM (MDT)
           Wednesday, October 25, 2017 3:44 PM (Vanuatu)

you're the new zone leader. wait.... what?

that's literally what my week has been. im not dead. but my p day is wednesday this week cuz i attended Mission Leadership Council on monday and tuesday so today is my p day. so sooo much stuff happened this past week o my goodness. 

i went to the museum! twice! so when i was still district leader of my last district, we went to the museum and then played ultimate frisbee outside the museum! super fun and culturally enriching! #squad! (see pix) and then again in my new district as a ZL today they wanted to go to the museum and had planned for a while to go there today so i went again with a new squad! yeah!! i learned some cool sand drawings! like how to make some cool cultural stuff. kinda like how polynesians have tribal tattoos. we in vanuatu have sand drawings. yeah!

i had a youth pastor from a non denominational christian church try to release me from my calling as a missionary. we just walking down the road to an appointment and this white dude from colorado rolls up on his motorcycle and talks/preaches to/against us for a hour straight on the side of the road and then rolls off. the biggest thing that he said that pissed me off is that he told me what i believe. he didn't ask. and what he said was i was being led astray and wrong and he had already 'researched' and knew that we were wrong. mind you. that he hadn't read and pray'd about the book of mormon but he had done 'research'. i won't go into all of the sophistries that he spew'd but yeah. fun guy. what a interesting fellow. 

i baptized a child on her 8th birthday. daughter of the relief society president. we walk up to the relief society pres's house on the way to an appointment and she asks us for a baptism record. go back to the house. get a form. fill it out. teach the appointment we were going to come back and cuz i have a camera they wanted me to come to take pix for the baptism. and also my very limited piano abilities is more than like anyone else in the ward so i sat and played the melody of hymns for a long while. playing guess that hymn and such waiting for peeps to come and the font to fill up. then they gave us a bunch of taro baked on stones for the last meal in etas. so gooooooddddd.... 

i became a zone leader. i get a call on wednesday last week from our zone leaders that im the new ZL and one of the ZL's is gonna come and stay with my pikinini imae. didn't believe them. tried to get a second witness of that fact. found out thursday night it was legit. packed up and became a ZL friday morning. wwwooootttt its great but i also feel a much greater  obligation to my fellow missionaries to look out for them and help them in their work and stuff. tbh i don't really feel adequate. like. i can be a DL forever just fine i can be DL in my sleep. i've been DL basically my whole mission. but ZL?? 🙃😅😎👔

my new companion is elder piol! he's from the Philippines in cebu and he's 3 months younger than me in the mish but he's been a ZL for 9 months now. so he's a seasoned veteran and he can be a ZL in his sleep. so much to learn from him. he's probably the most mature missionary i've met/gotten to know in the mish. great guy.

all the members in etas gave me some legitttttt souvenirs. the blessings that come when you serve in a area for 6 months and all the members love you. so i found out wednesday lunch time. wednesday night was ward council. told the ward council i would be gone by friday. some of the members dedicated like all of thursday to make me some custom stuff. like i had casually asked them weeks before if they could maybe make me some. but now i have custom stuff out the wazoooooooo sweeeeetttt so many peeps be jelly of meeee

i got to go to MLC!!!! what! what a experience. basically 2 days straight of president granger and sister granger at their fetching mansion of a house(compared to the houses that i have lived in and proselyted to on my mission) with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders from new cal and solo and vanuatu teaching us how to be leaders and the problems the mission faces and the needs of the missionaries and all that. wowowowowowow. i lovedddd it. pres g is such a g. wow. sister granger made lunch in the crock pot the first day. soooooo goooooddd... and home made enchiladas and bean salad the next. wahhhhhhh i miss mexican food so much..... cafe rio how i miss your spicy goodness... 

just this past week with the doctrinal trials of the youth pastor bro and the bonfire of faith that is pres g my testimony feels so much stronger now. like. there's no doubt. at all in my mind or my heart that this church is anything but the one and only true church of christ on the world today. god does not change. he has called a prophet today. he has given his authority to him and leads and guides us individually and as the body of christ though the trials of these final days. i know it.

yep. that's about all i wanna talk about today. this mission has been such a roller coaster from day one and i still gotta hang on until the end!

that's all for now! 

elder hyatt vi 

1.      sand drawings!!!! this one tells the story of black birding and the basically slavery that happened back then. 

2.      finished product from a angle. he never took his finger from the sand. one continual line.

3.      sweaty post frisbee squadddd!!! including from left to right. elder imae, sister marava(from PNG) sister lavemai from tonga marava's pikinini, sister motuliki from tonga almost 2 transfers old and has been training for 1. and last but not least sister james nila from malasyia. 

4.      that farmer's tan tho. #trust your sickle. #skincancer maybe. 

5.      i made bread!!!! for the first time in my life!!! like legit add yeast made by elder hyatt only!!! i feel so #domestic.

6.      the squaddd including john nasse my rc and naela the birthday girl and her family!

7.      custommmmmmm those things around my neck are meant to be tied around your ankles. they're fetching loud when you dance with them.

8.      very concentration. much power. wow. gotta get 4 penne pasta on your spaghetti and dump it in the pitcher. #teamgames

9.      communication games! ft STL's from new cal sis chard and rodriguez!

10.  the musically talented creating motivational songs for the mission! probably to be repeated throughout the whole mission!

11.  efate leaders! ft from left to right. sis fuller from utah! elder piol! sis eria from kiripas! and me!

12.  the stl's were too scared to get on the railing to get a sick jump shot... 

13.  squad at cafe vila for last kakae before everyone files back to their respective countries/islands. 

14.  and drunk photobombing Australian tourists. the best.