2 zone conferences in one month. also battleship.

Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2017 5:47 PM (MDT)

         Monday, April 24, 2017 10:47 AM (Vanuatu)

so this week went by really quick. cuz wednesday and thursday were eaten by zone conference. really great conference. president granger is the bomb diggity. like he's the best. even though he's Australian. hahhhh jk. Australians are cool too. but this zone conference was about becoming. really great. really helped me to re focus and stuff. cuz coming to a new area, new squad of missionaries to chill with on p day, new companions, it's really easy to get out of focus. focusing on other stuff. cuz that's what satan is trying to do. if he can't get you off the right path by sin he just sends lil distranctions here and there until the amount of good we do is weakened. anywho.

on p day, one of the perks of getting assigned to serve in vila town is you can go to the mission office on p day! and they have board games! i played some rousing games of foosball and ping pong volleyball and battleship. BATTLESHIP. woot.

so! some of the people we're working with. there's a dude named kassy we're working with. super chill dude. been coming to church since he was like a baby. literally. but for some reason, his biological mom had always blocked him from getting baptized. so me and my comps come and she has apparently just. changed her mind? i dunno? she lives on a different island? sweet. so he's gonna get baptized this saturday. he's the greatest. he helped fix my bike. woot.

also! for those of you who aren't well versed in vanuatu culture, it's a very patriarchal society. literal chiefs and can't do anything unless oldfala man says it's chill. so we're working with this one lil family and they the best. the only thing is that the dude's dad lives in the bUSH in santo like you gotta hike for two hours to get to the road and then call a transport and pay 50$ to get to town bush. so this little family wants to get baptized but they not married so they gotta wait for oldfala from the bush. and they've been waiting for months now and guess. who. just came on friday. THE OLDFALA THATS WHO so they gonna get married. it's gonna be grand. i can't wait. 

life is good. it's fall right now down here in the southern hemisphere so. it feels amaze. 

ale ta. 

lukem ufala nex wik

Pictures

1.      vila squad!

2.      it's my family. ain't they adorable. me and my 2 boiz

3.      end of zone conference take as many pix as possible.

4.      yep. 

5.      yep yep that's the assistant to the pres. 

lds newsroom article showing Elder Hyatt

Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2017 4:10 PM (MDT)
          Monday, April 24 2017 9:10 AM (Vanuatu)

look friends! it's me! 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vanuatu Port Vila Mission <1802437@ldschurch.org>
Date: Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 9:11 PM
Subject: lds newsroom article

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org.nz/article/latter-day-saints-and-friends-worship-on-easter-sunday

nil bug bite, jerry rigging a fan and rambutan

Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2017 5:54 PM (MST)

         Monday, March 27, 2017 10:54 AM (Vanuatu)

hello. it's me.

this week a lot of stuff has happened. so i'll just say whatever comes to mind. on monday i had a really intense meeting with the other district leaders and the zone leaders. well. it was in the chapel not in tense but. you get the point. tuesday we had zone training meeting and wowie the zone leaders gave some amazing training. been on my mission more than a year now and still learning stuff about baptism and the essencials. reminds me of a (paraphrased) quote from russel m nelson. the gospel of jesus christ can be beautifully simple and yet still excite the keenest intellect. #tru

also on tuesday, we went up to the bush(palon and fanafo) and fixed some stuff in their houses. in both we jerry rigged fan switches. in one the turney knob thing inside worked fine but 1/2 of the wires connected to it straight up didn't work. so. connected the two that did work to a simple on off switch instead of a turny thing. boom.

fixed. in the other house, all the wires in the fan switch worked but the contact plate thing(also on the turny knob thing) the metal had fallen off? and so current was travelling through the plastic... burnt plastic smells amazing... so! turned the knob thingy to the other side of the contact plate and now the fan works! but only on 1 of 5 settings now. but hey. it works. #islandstyle

on wednesday, we went to a planned lesson, like the mama knew for sure that we were coming, and we go and we sit and wait for like, 2 hours.

her recent convert neighbor sat with us and told us about how their prophet from banks (part of the torba province of vanuatu) came to collect the tithes. or something like that. and so, club goin up.on a

wednesday    cuz the prophet came. mama maina didn't come. sad. this

makes the 3rd prophet i've met on my mission. from what i've heard, they(the prophets) all have multipule wives and a penchant for kava.

hmmm....

but things worked out ok. we're proselyting with a dude named kendrick alot. he's from palon and he's 17 and he's gonna be the best missionary ever. reminds me of back in the day when i went with the missionaries like 2 times. had 2 baptisms on saturday and 3 confirmations on sunday. (one who was baptized last week came to church really late so she wasn't confirmed last week). kinda funny thing that happened. at this baptism, standing in the water, i said..

' *name* by the power of the holy malkez. . . . .ahem.. sorry. *name* having been...' heh heh... whoopsie. heh...

also on saturday after the baptism, went to a place called club

notick(?) where there was a seminary activity. the young women in our branch are really strong. but poor kendrick was the only dude there..

the bus that was supposed to come and take us back didn't come. so long walk back through the bush shortcuts. #legit.

also a centipede (called nil bugs here) bit my foot. ow.

i've been in banban longer than any other area in my whole mission...

*mixed emotions as transfers approach...* that's all for now. sorry internet's really slow this week. again. if it's fast next week i'll send a bunch of pix.

the womb part 2, manbush in the big city and bikes!

Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2017 4:29 PM (MDT)

         Monday, April 17, 2017 9:29 AM (Vanuatu)

hello friends. 

for those of you who aren't updated about the weather in the south pacific. it's cyclone season and a cyclone(?) came through and broke the internet last week so i'm sorry i didn;t email last week. but! i am now transferred back to port vila where the internet is (slightly) more expensive but like 5 times faster. so yeah!

the cyclone is gone now. no need to worry. for me at least. 

so. transfers came. tearry goodbyes with all the people i'd helped and taught in banban... it was kinda funny cuz a bunch of the members were thinking/hoping that i'd be staying and elder naikasau would be transferring but! i'm out. bittersweet... and turns out i'd acquired actually a ton of stuff in santo. heh..

anywho. i transferred to vila! my new area is called pango. it's basically a peninsula? with a village and a pig farm and resorts and surfing competitions and it's great. and it's also part of a ward! omg it's so different serving in a branch vs serving in a ward. you have no idea. anywho. this week they had a special easter kinda invite all your friends! kinda sacrament meeting and we got tons of referrals! yeah! it's great. 

now about the womb. i now have a bouncing baby boy!👶 his name is elder joseph and he's from malekula and he's the best. now i have 2 kids. they grow up so fast... 😌 so now, i'm in a trio as a trainer/district leader. very interesting assignment. very different than maintenance elder. oh yeah my other companion is named elder dapena. he was my district leader back when i was being trained and now he's my comp!

also bikes are amazing. a m a z i n g. you have no idea. like. we can go so far. so fast. the only thing is you can't ride on the beach. it doesn't work out very well. at all. and also i learned very quickly that my legs are not as strong as i thought they were. heh.. 

this week is zone conference again which feels wayyyy too soon cuz my last zone conference was like. 2 weeks ago. (cuz vila is the 1st to have zone conf and santo is last) but yeah! new area new people workin hard to find people to talk to and teach! woo!

that's all for now ale ta~

elder hyatt vi

pictures:

1.      laplap manyoke with mince. delicious. and very very hot after just coming off the stones. 

2.      cyclone kinda broke our new house. heh

3.      beach like 2 seconds from our house. it's great. 

4.      last sunday in banban #squad

i got nothin for yah

Sent: Sunday, April 02, 2017 6:37 PM (MDT)

         Monday, April 03, 2017 11:37 AM (Vanuatu)

this week has seemed really long lookin back at my planner just right now..

so. as i think i said last week, this week we spent a lot of time finding. we found the beach! lol jk but not really. we went contacting along the houses/ground that open up to the ocean and took a bunch of cool pix and found a guy who's name is dick. he's really chill and he said he forgot how old he is. lol we asked him and he was like. i think i'm 26? i dunno my birth certificate is on ambrym at my parent's house... lol people here are the best.

another funny story from this week. last sunday a member who i wasn't terribly familiar with gave us a referral saying 'abu blo mama livan' abu can mean your grand children or your grandparents. it's kinda ambiguious. so we go to the appointment and find this mama who's been coming to our church at banban for the past year and the missionaries always just kinda assumed she was a member. turns out she is not. she married into a less active family and has been like that, someone who wants to attend church but her husband/family is not so church inclined, for the past 8 years. and the missionaries who came in the past. taught the less active family many times and never. found. her. this poor soul. we taught her a lesson and she loved every word of it. dang sonne.

another awesome new investigator of ours. there's this mama that was baptized in january. i don't know if i already talked about her but here i go again. she's the best. she's like the shining star example of what recent converts should be. could be. she shares the gospel that she has just recently received with everyone around her and now we're teaching 3 of her neighbors that she's already brought to church. she's the best. the only thing is her house is a solid hour walk away...

the impending change of transfers looms closer and closer.. i've been here in banban for 3 transfers now so the chances of me getting shipped is p high... *mixed feels* also i got my hands on a french book of mormon. my two years of french in highschool is worthless. i wanna learn french but. i guess i'll just wait until i have a french speaking comp who can help me learn.

i'm not gonna explain any of my pix you guys can just guess hah

*running around in baptismal clothes*

Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2017 7:33 PM (MST)

         Monday, March 20, 2017 12:33 PM (Vanuatu)

hello friends.

sorry i didn't send my email last week there was a public holiday...

making it such that the email shop was closed and therefore, no email.

so i'll try and update about what has happened. we had district conference. in which our mission pres came and gave some scathing rebukes and some heartfelt encouragements. great guy. great meetings.

this week we've had 2 people enter the waters of baptism. socilla terif and saelin wakon. great people. if the internet was faster i'd send some pix too but. #tragic. this week we've been working a lot with members as our area is too ridiculously huge to do contacting work effectively. so we have some amazing members who love to feed the missionaries and share the gospel with their friends. from one mama who was contacted in november, baptized in january and is now basically the relief society president, there's gonna be another person who will most likely be baptized before i send my next email to you all. great stuff. this other person is really really old. and lovesssss to talk. a lot. like. so many thoughts de-railed and discussions changing course. but she's the best. and she has said that the mormon church is gonna be the last church she joins. she has no front teeth.but she always smiles. her name is myna. she's the best.

in vanuatu there's a custom that when someone dies there's certain days afterward which the death is remembered and celebrated? like. 10 days. 1 month. 3 months, and the last, 100 days. so this saturday we attended a 100 days kakae and it was amazing. so much food. and many members(less active and active too) coming but none recognized as mormons. when us the missionaries got up to leave and go to our appointments, i could hear quite a few people mutterin/saying 'oh the mormons are leaving now..' we should all be unashamed of the testimony of christ! all of us who are members have (hopefully) been changed by grace. i am a testimony of christ, of his atonement's power. i invite you all to be unashamed of your testimony!

that's all for now.

elder hyatt vi

the big one two punch

Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 7:10 PM (MST)

         Monday, March 06, 2017 1:10 PM (Vanuatu)

that's right kids. the one two punch has finally come. 12 moneys. well. it's this thursday. 

lemme tell you story. a story of life. and of water. and of bad directions. so. i'll start at the end and then jump back to the beginning. in medias rea? i think that's what it's called. so on satuday we had a baptism. it was pretty freakin grand. his mom and brother and little sister came too. he's such a chill little kid. his name is junior. ok now back to the start.

here on santo, we as a zone have our district meetings at the same time at the one large chapel near downtown. so right before district meeting starts, there's all the missionaries milling about and chatting and such waiting for 10 o clock on the dot to start district meeting. so a sister who formerly served in banban comes up and asks. 'do you want a baptism this transfer.?' and i say, yes? and she goes on to explain about a boy named junior and how they had taught him and perpared him for baptism and then like a day before his baptismal service he moved to the bush. a real tragedy. so i tell her. alright gimme his address/directions to his house. so she hasn't been in banban for almost a year so her directions are terrible. but. i follow her directions the next day... and...

we walk up to this house. basically the whole family chilling outside under a tree/corrugated tin roof. and we ask. 'is there a junior who lives here?' and the little 10 year old boy reasonably startled stays quiet and then his mom says yeah that's junior. we teach them. get a return appointment. ect... missionary work. we come to find out later that this junior was the wrong junior. the directions were meant to lead us two houses up the road. but. now. the wrong(or should i say, the right) junior is standing in the waters of baptism and his family too and just. wow. good work team. 

in other related investigator news, in a previous email i referenced to the lost hunnit or in scriptural terms. the lost coin in the form of a part member less active family. and so this week we taught them about keeping the sabbath holy and such. committed them to come to church. not really thinking that they would come because of surrounding circumstantial evidence. yet! sunday morning like a hour before church starts when i had just gotten out of the shower. there they are standing in their sunday best at the edge of our yard(they live like. around the corner from us so. yeah.) elder naikasau and i freak out a little, giddy laughter for like 5 seconds then he jumps in the shower and we go to church. just. so much great stuff this week. 

also my truck returns into my hands this wednesday! and i fixed a bike! and this saturday/sunday is district conference!  and we're hopefully gonna have some more people ready for baptism by the saturday after district conference! huzzah!

this computer is really really slow about loading files so. i'll send pix soon. 

that's all for this week. hope you enjoyed reading that there book.

elder hyatt vi

Pictures:

1.      junior his mom me and naikasau

2.      fixin a bike on saturday night like a g

3.      art.

cutest baby ever (jemma) and her recent convert mama