half jews and diamond investigators

Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2016 3:39 PM (MST)

         Monday, November 21, 2016 9:39 AM (Vanuatu)

hi friends.

this week was an experience. i am very grateful for my umbrella.

there's a superstition here that goes. if a tourist boat(cruise ship) comes, it will rain. and boy did it rain. the boat came on like wednesday and then thursday through saturday. just. RAIN RAIN RAIN im very grateful for all of the stuff i have that's water proof or water resistant and just. yeah!

so. my diamond investigator. i've talked about her before a couple times. she's the bomb. like. we already taught her all the official lessons and she was really engaged while we taught but she didn't really read the book of mormon. and now, she's discovered the foot notes and she read. 4 WHOLE CHAPTERS in one day. oh good golly gosh no investigator in my whole mission has ever read that much out of that holy book. and she did it in one day. it made me so so soso sososo happy. like. yay! the only slightly sad part is i might not be in this area when she is finally ready to enter the waters of baptism.

and now for the half jews. so. there's a religion reffered to as the SDA's. they believe that their church is true purely based off of exodus 20. and from what i understand the founder was at one point a mormon woman who wanted the priesthood but it was denied her. anyway.

we had a lesson with a very stubborn SDA and i had heard about them before but i really hadn't gotten into it with one before. during the lesson he basically tried to chastize us for not following the 10 commandments. it was pretty funny. part way through the lesson i was just partially laughing inside because of how rediculous their beliefs are. they basically believe christ fufilled the law but only part. cuz the 10 commandments were written in stone, they are still the foundation. it's ok he's hopefully gonna read the book of mormon like he promised and then it will all work out.

also last big thing that happened this week. OUR BRANCH GOT A PRESIDENCY!

so i've been in this area for like. 4 months by now and for basically the whole time i've been the presiding authority and sunday school teacher, and and and... but! now i am not! now i am just a missionary! yay!

wanna hear a joke? did you know that many a blonde dyes by her own hand? tragic right?

that's all for now! slow internet this week so..... no pix. might send home a flash with all of them for christmas. yep.

elda hyatt vi

life and stuff

Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2016 3:46 PM (MST)

         Monday, November 14, 2016 9:46 AM (Vanuatu)

i dunno im not good at titling emails.

this week went by pretty quickly. our branch is gonna get a branch president this week!!!!! finally!!!!!!! we're so stoked. positive change.

it's kinda sad when you find out that your investigators fully remembered the return appointment and deliberately scheduled to be in the bush at their garden during the appointment... sigh.

this one mama we've been teaching. she has a copy of the bible in the 'good news' translation. and she mentioned that she really likes our bibles and that she wants one so. we're gonna buy a copy of the standard works for her. here they're pretty cheap and yeah! the only thing is that she and a lot of the people here only think about religion and reading and praying and all that really really important stuff. when we, the elders, are there or if it's sunday.

looking forward to the future and pressing forward through the trials.
life is good~

that's all for now.

elder hyatt vi

Pictures
1. squad

2. chillin

(subject)

Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2016 4:28 PM (MST)

         Monday, November 07, 2016 10:28 AM (Vanuatu)

this week has been an experience. felt really really long. 

our golden investigators seem more and more golden. and everyone else is just... the rocks around the gold. i feel like that's terrible to say but. it's true. the people who we've found who are sincerely looking for truth are the most amazing people ever! and then there's everyone else who hides from and lies to us.. it's all good. 

my father has asked me to explain my 'millennial slang' to all you old people who apparently read this. so. p dope. p is short for pretty. cuz im lazy. and typing retty is a lot of work. dope is a word that can refer to drugs but the people who take the drugs feel that they're great so. p dope is pretty great. tho is short for though. cuz adding the ugh is silent letters anyway and just ughhhh... hah. anyway.

i've been studying in the old testament lately(along with the book of mormon...). did you know there's a difference between a sin offering and a trespass offering? cuz i didn't. but now i do! calculated out how many pages a day i gotta read to be able to finish the old testament before i finish my mission so. yeah! right now im somewhere in leviticus. good stuff. have you read the bible all the way through before? 

i hear the election is tomorrow. should be fun? lots of good candidates? haha i make myself laugh. 

we had 23 people come to church on sunday. that's all for now. k byeeeeee

heaven and hell

Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2016 4:47 PM (MDT)

         Monday, October 31, 2016 9:47 AM (Vanuatu) 

this week tho.

this week felt short and long. sickness and health. we've nicknamed our three villages sodom zion and gomorrah. yep. zion's right in the middle.

people have been hiding from us a lot this week. ate a lot of mangos this week.

we started teaching a mama who is kinda is at a crossroads in her life. and she's very passionate about her beliefs in christ and it's really great being able to help her come to understand the doctrines of the kingdom. and she's very knowledgable of the bible and we've been using like 500% more scriptural support than we usually do cuz usually people don't know/care about the scriptural support. it's been pretty great. she's pretty great. D&C 29:7 is a really great scripture i've been thinking about a lot lately. the work progresses. press forward!

that's all for now!

elder hyatt vi

1.      my companion like a boss climbing a coconut tree

2.      we harvested like. 20 green coconuts from one tree. i'm also getting really good at cutting coconuts.

general conference! yeah!

Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2016 4:37 PM (MDT)

         Monday, October 24, 2016 9:37 AM (Vanuatu)

hi friends.

so this week we had general conference on saturday and sunday. and a lot of people were pretty interested in it cuz here in vanuatu, all the various churches have 0 central authority and so. they were very curious about it.

we're working more with members now in our area. all the men in vanuatu are generally very strong headed and not willing to change. and so, when we missionaries come and invite people to change and come unto christ, they're very stubborn.. but it's ok. the work progresses at the speed heavenly father will have it and all i gotta do is make sure im doing everything he wants me to so that i don't make the work go slower.

all the talks were really great. like. really really great. and like. one thing that happened. is we were explaining to some of the members about the organization of the church leadership and one of the papas noted that president monson was really old. and he was like. 'his son is gonna take his place soon huh.' and that made me smile. cuz these people have only been members during president monson's time as prophet. and they don't know about previous prophets except for joseph smith. and just. my heart went out to them. and we got to teach them about the modern day prophets a little. very grateful for the picture book thing that has all the faces of the prophets.

mango season is in full swing, i ate probably.. 10? mangos this week. pretty good. for those of you at home who have never tasted a 1/2 ripe mango. it tastes like a apple. only when they're fully ripe do they taste like mango. weird. but good.

been learning a bunch of stuff from a stash of talks i got from another missionary. desiring to improve. to be better. to learn more. to grow and become what god expects me to be. theres a bunch of different ways to study and learn from the scriptures. one that i found out this week is like. old testament=premortal christ. new testament= mortal christ/post mortal christ. Book of mormon= pre and post mortal christ. doctrine and covenants= post mortal christ. they all interconnect and work out because he's the same yesterday today and forever. and like. i've never seriously studied the old testament or the new testament in depth so. im gonna dive into those and hope to come to know christ more fully. and change myself to become more like him.

some of the people we're working with are pretty dope. some really want to find the truth and are working with heavenly father to find that out. and we get to be a part of that! yeah! also something that i kinda found out about is that some people here join the church purely for the fact that the church has the capacity to pay for children's school fees and housing and stuff. and it made me kinda mad that people abuse that tithing money. like. that money is sacred. they don't care about the truth or the gospel. they only care about the fact that the church can give them money. and if and when the church stops giving them money they become insta-less active. sigh.... it's ok. god is a perfect judge and it's not my problem. i just gotta have the worthiness to have the gift of discernment. yeah!

being a district leader is weird. filling out papers and coordinating the work and stuff. my shirts are always dirty. tried bleach. didn't really work. it's ok. pale yellow-brown is the new white right?

yeah! missionary work! yeah! district leader! yeah!

D&C 4 is really great. whom god calls he qualifies. the field is white. i know it with all my heart and mind and i'll testify of it with all my might and strength.

that's all for now!

elder hyatt vi

1. general conference!
2. building our little chapel that got wreck'd by the rain.
3. frying octopus cuz that's how we roll.
4. poor little bird got trapped in the chapel. found him when we went to district meeting. his nails were freakin sharp tho. ouch. caught him and let him out of the chapel. he was probably in there since sunday.. (district meeting is on tuesday)

'you're a district leader.' im a... what?!

Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2016 5:39 PM (MDT)

         Monday, October 17, 2016 10:39 AM (Vanuatu) 

hello friends.

yes. i am now a bouncing baby district leader.

transfers have come and elder atuake and i are not leaving the area of tanavoli but the districts got re-arranged and i am now a district leader of a newly created district! but im more of a relief society president because there's only sisters in my district haha

this week was pretty good. pretty rainy. on tuesday, we went and taught a whole soccer team at the same time! it was really unexpected and really new experience but yeah! we were able to preach the message of the restoration to 12 people! yeah! #purposefufilled!

also we've found and taught and such a mama who has been kinda investigating the church for a really long time but never like. offically talking to missionaries kinda thing. it was really great talking to her and stuff and yeah!

it's been raining a lot lately.  like when we have church we have to like. yell over the sound of the rain hitting the tarp.

we helped a papa in our branch build a floor in his kitchen. by no means good enough to pass american or mechanical engineer standards but. for bush standards it was pretty good. he was happy with it.

i dunno what else to talk about. the internet is really really slow here right now. so. only a few pictures and small email.  sorry.

good dayyyyy

a week of miracles!

Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2016 4:41 PM (MDT)

         Monday, October 10, 2016 9:41 AM (Vanuatu) 

so, so many things happened this week so im just gonna go down the list of really awesome stuff that happened this week.

miracle 1, my camera basically resurrected itself. like. i gave up on it it was fuzzy and had water in it and it was just. a lost cause. but because it can still read the card, i carried it around with me in my bag. and then on thursday i took it out of my bag to use the flash to scare a chicken(i know right) and. IT WORKS AGAIN LIKE WITH GOOD PICTURES i was very very shocked and took some good pix and my camera was alive for the baptism and it was just. a miracle. it was great.

miracle 2, we had a BAPTISM?!? like? what! we had a baptism. it's still kinda surreal. it was such a great experience and even though it rained all day, during the service, it stopped raining for us. it was legit. and i took some great pix and all of the Se 's friends came and he's really welcomed into our little branch and it was the best. and just. life is lookin up despite the rain clouds

also something that's kinda funny. in santo, when ever a cruise ship comes to town, it rains. with out fail. like. it'll be nothing but blue skys and oppressive sun and then the cruise ship rolls up and boom. clouds. rain. it's happened like every time. without fail. white people bring rain. heh.

miracle 3. on sunday, we were hoping the very busy district president would be able to come to our little unit thing. and do a bunch of interviews to help some young men progress in the priesthood. and it looked like he wasn't gonna come but then he did and 3 young men now have the priesthood in our branch and i was the dude that got to do the ordinations and it was really dope experience. and also our district president is really sincere and he started out in a branch smaller than ours in ambae and now he's the district president and a RM and he's just a really dope guy. we had a really good day at church despite the constant rain.

one thing here is that people's drinking water is rainwater gathered by corrugated tin roofs and gathered into buckets and tanks and it hasn't rained in a while and it's great cuz now they all have water again! yay!

also a poisonous caterpillar bit me on my neck. or im allergic to something again.

i dunno what else to talk about now so. that's all for now. i'll send a bunch of  pix now.

that's all for now!

11.      resurrected camera! in the bush! cutting green coconuts for drinking water!

22.      gahhhhhh baptism! the kid getting baptized is named Se and his mom leah and his little sister!

33.      ocean baptisms and cloudy skys!

44.      lots of rain and hiding in our chapel from the rain

55.      bush chapel

66.      baptism pix