just relax.

Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2016 6:33 PM (MDT)

Monday, May 16, 2016 11:33 AM (Vanuatu)

so. this week. well every week.

goes by both really slow and really fast. like. on tuesday it feels like it's been forever and then all of a sudden it's saturday. 

so this week we had quite a few happenings worth mentioning. so one old guy this week. like the land lord for one of of my investigators. we went to visit our investigator and the old dude was waiting at the edge of his property and told us emphatically that he didn't want us there and that we weren't welcome. but in really fast bislama that i didn't pick up all of it. but yeah. that was an experience. and it woulda been mildly discouraging but the thing is we ran into our investigator on the street a day or so later and she was like. ''he's old and catholic he doesn't like any missionaries. but i don't care. you guys come back next week on my day off but come from the other side of his property and i'll be waiting and we can talk just off his property.'' :) that was p funny and encouraging and such.

so my apartment is really close to the mission office compared to other apartments of missionaries and so whenever there is a elder or elders that are traveling to a different island, or just arriving from the mtc or just finishing their mission, they stay at our house for a night or two and then leave. so we had 3 travel elders who were brand new from the mtc and we hosted them for two nights. it was weird. and fun because. they didn't know a single bit of bislama and it's like. realizing how much of bislama i actually know and can teach a little bit. 

'nother happening. the pictures. so there was a couple in my district's area that the husband is a amputee and the wife had a stroke a while ago. so it's really hard for them to do yard work. so we (most of my district and some of another district) came and helped cut grass, weed and such. and then after piling it all up and burning it because the trash service here costs 100vatu for one trash bag and a lot of people can't afford that.  anyway. the pictures. were all of the people that were there helping and also a picture of me being a pyro and using only a coal and a dead coconut branch to light a fire. good stuff.

 another thing! you can get fresh peanuts here! for like 100 vatu! so  that picture is how they come when you buy them from the market. they taste kinda like less sweet sugar snap peas if you don't cook them at all. but i cooked half of them with some oil and a little sugar and made a really basic peanut brittle of sorts. it was p good. 

so as far as the whole 100vatu for a trash bag. me and my companion didn't know about that and we didn't know how to throw out the trash so it kinda just accumulated in our back yard for like. a whole transfer(6 weeks) and then we bought some of the special trash bags and it was super gross throwing it all out. tied grocery bags around my wrists so i could grab the stuff without it touching my hands. filled 3 really big trash bags. but now our apartment is really clean so. it's all good.

and for those of you at home who want to learn a bit what it's like to learn bislama. one house we visited had those hung up. like kindergarten level stuff but bislama. 

spiritual stuff. so i now have 6 investigators that could be progressing a ton. but they are always busy or out of town or some such and never come to church. so. yeah. one thing that i've really learned in my personal study is that all things that we make in the gospel. this church. going to church. following the commandments. praying. are all acts of faith. and greater faith brings greater blessings. so. faith. important stuff. 

and lst but not least. i asked one elder who has been on his mission for a long time. for 20 months already. and asked him what one piece of advice did he think i could benefit from the most. and he said "don't be strict. just relax." and i've been over-analyzing that for a while. 

that's all for nowwwww

Elder Hyatt VI

new beginnings

Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2016 6:37 PM (MDT)

Monday, May 09, 2016 11:37 AM (Vanuatu)

so saturday was transfers. 

and just taking this marker as like. looking back on what i've done. what i've learned and who i've helped over the last 6 weeks. and like. yeah i've taught a lot of lessons. learned a language. and grown in my testimony. but it's kinda discouraging because none of my investigators are progressing. they love what we're telling them. love meeting with us. then suddenly they are never home. don't want to come to church. and they become former investigators. sigh. new challenges every day. 

since im training im not gonna be leaving this area this transfer. but it's just kinda crazy to think. my mission is already 1/16th over. ahhh!!!! season of excitement. one statement i read once said that according to some obscure scripture, we know that 1000 years is one day for God. so a mission. is like. 2 minutes of god's time. so better make the most of it. because i only have 2 minutes to be his missionary.

so. book of mormon readings. due to my fear of 2 nephi, i started in mosiah when i came to vanuatu. and this week i finished moroni. and jacob to mosiah. fell asleep while reading jacob 5. hah... but the end of jacob 5 really stuck out to me. jacob 5L72. that we are laboring and the lord is laboring right along side with us. really weird to think about. that god is laboring next to me. doing his hardest to try and help these people as much as i am. 

as far as the people im helping. so the people of vanuatu don't have a lot of things to take up their time here. so that means they tend to drift to breaking word of wisdom and law of chastity and such. and pretty much none of the guys here want religion. i mean like. young guys. most of the people we teach are widows or mamas or old dudes. it's all good. the lord works in his timing. 

as far as the pictures:

some pretty good views here. that one big building with the blue roof kinda dome looking or cone looking? my house is like a 20 min walk past that. n i took that picture from inside my area. lotsa walking. i've befriended quite a few dogs. the baptismal pic. sorry. getting off topic. so the two sister missionaries in the picture. it was their convert and the district leader who woulda done the baptism was swamped with appointments so they sisters asked if i could do it. my first baptism but not really mine cuz i didn't teach them. i had to re do the ordinance 3 times because her hair didn't go under. 

and the last picture is of me and my district. good stuff. i dunno. i dunno what else to say so, i guess that's all for now.

if anyone wants to send me anything. 

Elder Matthew Hyatt

Vanuatu Port Vila Mission Office

P.O. Box 1412

Port Vila, Vanuatu

have a great week!

culture

Sent:   

Sunday, April 24, 2016 6:19 PM (MDT)
Monday, April 25, 2016 11:19 AM (Vanuatu)

so. this week.

i tried quite a few new things this week. such as making coconut milk. a fresh coconut is only like 50 vatu (50 cents) here so. i've learned how to effectively open a coconut. and how to make fresh coconut milk. tastes so goodddddd. also i tried a native dish here. called laplap. it's kinda like mashed potatoes. a root crop. but it's banana root or casava root. boiled and then cooked in leaves with hot rocks on top. it's pretty good. the picture of mama jenny is her with a bunch of laplap she just made. it takes a long time to make so i haven't personally made it but it tastes ok. better than semboro. semboro is kinda the same but made of bananas and ground cabbage cooked in leaves. to be honest it(semboro) kinda made me gag the first time i ate it. but the thing is if you don't eat all of the food they give you you're disrespectful. so. but it's all good.

my comp elder omilig is a pretty good cook. he has a lot of philipino recipes up his sleeve due to the fact that he's philipino and so learning how to make those dishes and such. p good. turns out. apparently a lot of missionaries over spend their support here. and so we've had like. a zone training all about it and also a district meeting. but apparently im really cheap with my money. like. we're supposed to use no more than 5000 vatu a week. (50$ USD) and the food here is really cheap. so i buy plenty of food enough for both me and my comp for that much. and then splitting the bill. i guess im pretty thrifty due to my short college life and budgeting and such. 

as far as spiritual experiences. it's been pretty tough this week because we have a few progressing investigators(mama jenny being one) and less actives and recent converts that we visit. but none of them come to church.... it's honestly kinda frustrating and i don't know how to imbue them with the desire to come to church.., but. we've been guided by the spirit. my comp and i. without a doubt. one time i thought that we'd go to one little village to talk with the pikininis (kids, anyone under 16) and we started talking to the pikininis a little and a dude from the village that we had a return appt with once came out and talked to us. he had a lot of religious questions. and honestly searching for truth. like. he'd talked to jehovah's witnesses for 5 years. and he's really researched a lot. great lesson with him. and he talked english. so it was soooooo much easier to express my emotions and thoughts to him. good stuff. 

 

also. that bug. we sprayed permythrin around our apartment. so that there'd be less bugs. once one misquito bit me 14 times in one night. it was so gratifying to kill that bug. anyway. the big milibug. it's poisonous. and so. right after we sprayed permythrin (bug poison/deterrant) i found that dead in our hallway. fun stuff. 

that's all for nowwwww

Elder HyattVI

That's All for Now

Sent:    Sunday, April 17, 2016 6:09 PM (MDT)

Monday April 18, 2016 11:09 AM (Vanuatu)

uh. thanks for the stamps and all but they don't really work here. and it costs a 1.60 for an international stamp here. sigh. it's all good though.

oh yeah. I’m looking forward to a Mother’s Day call.  keep in mind that its 11:08 am on monday as i write this. so. yeah. you guys got this. 

i think about you guys alot. hope ya'll are doing well. 

The Lord's Work

Sent:    Sunday, April 10, 2016 6:43 PM (MDT)

            Monday, April 11, 2016 11:43 am (Vanuatu) 

this week has been a blast.

so we (me and my companion elder omilig) are re opening an area. so at first we didn't even have an area book. so we were just kinda walking around and talking to people on the street. 

it's so crazy. i now have 28 new investigators. in just one week. wowie. the people here are so humble and nice. one time, when i was leaving a lesson, the person i was teaching said. so do you want some naos or pampamouse? (i don't know if that's how you spell it but that is how they're pronounced) and he then went and pulled a fruit off a tree in his area village place and gave it to me. it was about the size of my head! pampamouse is a citrus. but the pulp is a light green. it's so great.

as far as other foods i've been eating alot. i've been eating a lot of rice. and beef. everything here is really cheap. but not a lot of variety. a weeks worth of food is like. maybe 8000 vatu (80$ USD) for two people. and thats bread milk rice, all the stuff.

im really loving it here. the people are so humble and happy. even though their living situations compared to the USA living conditions are less than appealing. it's so easy to get street contacts and share messages with people. because, they'll be sitting out under a tree in their front yard equivalent because almost no one has A/C so everyone just uses the breeze as A/C. 

my companion tells me my complexion has started to change. i guess im getting tan or something :p haven't gotten sun burnt yet but mosquitoes are the absolute bane of my existence. ugh. but it's all good. 

i guess i've realized compared to others who have arrived to the mission field at the same time as me. i've learned bislama really fast. but the people here speak so so so fast. so i have a hard time understanding what they're saying a lot but i can usually get the gist of what they're saying. 

i loved conference so much. i only got to see priesthood and sunday sessions. but it's all good cuz those sessions were the best ones XD. we had a re broadcast yesterday and watched all of the sessions but i was out teaching during the first two sessions so i didn't get to watch them. 

something kinda funny. is the women tend to sit outside and talk and the men are... i don't know. but whence we sit down with them and start teaching one or two people, 4 or 5 others come out and sit around and listen to our message. no pressure right? just 7-8 people listening intently to your broken bislama. it's all good. 

ok so spiritual experiences. so here in vanuatu, a lot of the houses aren't immediately accessible from the road. so me and my comp are walking down a paved road and i see a little dirt road and i tell my comp. lets go this way. so we went down the little road and we saw a dude lying under a tree. we taught him the lesson. it was probably the most spiritual lesson i've had so far. and after. he was beaming like. yes. you are coming back. i need to hear more. but alas. he doesn't live in our area. he was just visiting a friend. we referred him on but im pretty sure he's gonna enter the waters of baptism :)

i don't know it in the moment but im being guided by the spirit. i ask for it every day. mi save se lo tabu spirit blesem me tumas. mi save se papa god nedim mi stap lo hea nao.

that's all for now~

Elder Hyatt VI

PS - if you guys decide to send me a care package, pls put a picture of Christ on the outside. less likely to get stolen if you do that.

Managing Expectations

Sent:   Sunday, April 03, 2016 7:35 PM (MDT)

Monday, April 4, 2016 12:35 PM (Vanuatu)

Vanuatu. is the best!!!!

so. right now i don't have an sd card reader so i can't send any pictures. which is kinda sad. i've been all over the place. the plane ride was kinda crazy. i wish i could show pictures. one of the sisters on the plane ride with me is from micronesia and micronesia doesn't have and agreement with new zeland to grant visitor visas on the fly. so she got stuck up stairs and we had to check in for her downstairs and check her luggage and stuff.

we got to new zealand at 5 am on wednesday and our plane for vanuatu didn't leave until 1 pm. and check in didn't open until 11. so we were sitting around with our bags and waiting for hours. which kinda sucked but it was pretty ok. getting to know people in my travel group pretty well. i'll tell you their names and stuff when i send pictures. 

the ocean here. it looks exactly like the sky from far away. it's amazing. uhm. so the first night. i met the mission president, went to the office and got some stuff sorted out. putting visas and passports in the safe and stuff. i had passion fruit for the first time for dinner. everything is super cheap here. a big meal of food is 300 vatu. or like. 3$. my mission president is super nice. he's from australia. everyone here has a accent of some sort. american accents are rare. im rare here. hah. 

also, the people here have the coolest hair. it's black like normal african american's hair. but if it gets long enough, the tips of the hair naturally tint carmel color. it's so cool. i wish my hair did that. 

my trainer is elder omilig. he's philipino. he's trying to learn how to play the guitar. we're living kinda in the city of port vila. the place is called south ohlen. well. the name of the area is. i think it's kinda just a suburb of port vila. and the area used to be just ohlen. but the sisters that were serving in this area were mostly proslyting in the north so they split the area. so we don't quite have a area book yet or a area map. but it's all good

since my companion is philipino, he's been trying to get me to learn how to cook philipino style. like. chicken adobo. and such. lots of rice. the milk here is called full cream milk. which i think is the same thing as whole milk in the usa?

i guess i should say something spiritual. well. nothing super spiritual has happened yet. i've been focusing a lot on learning the language. and settling in. currently im out of food so im gonna go shopping later. and since we don't really have an area map or area book, it's hard to know were we're supposed to tract. or supposed to be. hopefully that will all be fixed by next week. 

so the reason i titled this post managing expectations. is cuz. literally everyone here has been like. expect this to happen. this is gonna happen alot in your mission. the best are of the mission is. and all that. and then 5 minutes later someone else tells me the opposite. so. i guess if anything. i've learned that i'll just have to make my own expectations. but this place is amazing. i wish you could see pictures. i'll get a sd card reader. 

that's all for now.

Elder Hyatt Vl

Transition then Arrival in Vanuatu

Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2016 4:59 PM
Subject: im alive and in new zealand!

.....

luggage fees are pretty hefty but apparently ill be reimbursed whence i give the receipt to my mission president.

i've met up with a couple different people here in new zealand. there's one sister and two elders who were visa waiters and are on the same flight with us to vanuatu.

i've learned some more things about vanuatu. concerning packages and such. vanuatu has a very sharing culture. so if you send me a care package of any kind, expect that i will get maybe a 1/4 of the actual contents. how it was described to me. if you buy cookies. they're not your cookies. they're everyone's cookies.

it feels like home here in new zealand. it's really humid and it feels just like houston. but everyone here drives backwards. driver in the right hand seat and driving on the left side of the road.

today has been an experience. i'll write home more about it if i get a chance to email in actual vanuatu.  ....

love you mom. love u dad.

hope you guys aren't too worried about me.

thats all for now!

Elder Hyatt VI

----------

From: Vanuatu Port Vila Mission

Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 8:22 PM

Subject:  Manly, Weita, Davis, Pahio, Stone, Broadbent, Parker, Hathcock, Hyatt.jpg

From: Vanuatu Port Vila Mission

Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 8:31 PM
Subject: Elder Hyatt with President and Sister Granger