flirt to convert

Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2017 6:59 PM (MDT)

         Monday, June 19, 2017 11:59 AM (Vanuatu)

hah! just kidding. 

this week went by really quick and i have a feeling this next week is gonna go quick too. 

went on exchanges with the zone leaders! and they have a truck! made me miss my old red truck that i drove back in santo... :'( i'll miss you big red. anywho. the zone leader that i went on exchanges with is elder piol! when he and his batch got off the plane the travel elders dumped them at our house! and i went on splits with him for like 2 days before his plane to santo! so being comps back with him for like a day was deja vu! so great and we taught 8 lessons in one day! them zl's are on fire! 

so you guys remember mama lona? she was baptized like a week or two ago. so now we're teaching her daughter and she's literally the best. like she's read every chapter we've given her to read from the book of mormon and she is absorbing the doctrine and feeling the spirit like a sponge! she's the best. i already said that. we have a family house night with them tonight. such a amazing lil family.

so! we made a dinner appointment calendar of sorts to try and meet all the members like members who wanna feed us can sign up. a thing that's like literally everywhere in the US but it's not here. but! it's the best cuz we've been eating with members a lot more and im getting #fat. they give us a mountain literally every time. and it's kinda rude to not finish it. but i finish it every time! im not a #quitter! when i eat icecream i throw away the lid! lol jk i don't eat ice cream. cuz it's fetchin expensive and i'd rather eat pancakes and good bread than have ice cream. #priorities. why am i talking about this. 

do you guys wanna hear a funny story? well i don't have time to wait for you to reply so i'll tell you anyway. so. in tanna (island that is - in the southern most province of vanuatu and has a very active volcano) they have a custom that whenever a girl has her first period. they cut down some banana trees and cut up the ends on the tree into basically a flog. and then they flog the girl with the cut up banana tree until her whole back is all swollen. i asked a bunch of different members from tanna and also some of our investigators are from there and they were all like. yep. i remember that, yep yep. customs here really confuse me sometimes. 

i should probably put some doctrine or quote or something in here. this week we've been teaching the plan of salvation a lot. but that's not how i like to refer to it. i've felt the spirit a lot this week testifying about how it's the plan of happiness. that through a correct understanding of said plan, we can have happiness and peace in this life despite all the challenges that we face all the time. 'i am the way the truth and the light' the atonement of christ is so amazing. i'm so grateful to have been able to feel it's effect in my life and see how it has been able to effect the lives of my investigators. 

yep. that's all for now.

my comp had a sd card reader that works that was basically gathering dust! so. pictures!!!!

1.      bird named westcoast

2.      you can do it elder west!

3.      my zone leader is the best zone leader

4.      challenge:build a house out of nothing but bamboo and nails. 

5.      unpleasant find

6.      whattttt

7.      parkour! in the dark! 

my current aesthetic: pile of trash with a name tag and tie on the front

Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 6:23 PM (MDT)

         Monday, June 12, 2017 11:23 AM (Vanuatu) 

yep. i said it.

heloo friends! this week went by fast. i don't know what to say! whatever comes to mind in scatterbraind order ready go

so we went exploring to try and get to know our area better cuz there's no maps of all the bush roads so we went exploring. we found the dump! if anyone who reads this who is in waste management, they need you help here. like. i dunno know to describe it. there's just. a gate. everything on the other side is legal and designated place to dump stuff. but it's not a land fill. it's just lil mountains of plastic and metal. and like one of the daily activities for people here is to sift through the new stuff that arrives basically hourly for food for pigs and for anything useful. i don't know how i feel about it. just a different way of life i guess. 

while exploring we found a ton of people! and got lost but people here are nice and directed us back to the road. side note. lost missionary is a great conversation opener for finding efforts. 

something kinda humorous but awesome that has happened multiple times this week. we go to a return appointment for a couple people. all family but like. extended family. kindred. i dunno how to describe it. so then one or two out of the couple people we had previously met are there. sit down and start a lesson/message/story whatever you wanna call it. and then mid story. other people just. come and sit down. but not directly infront of us but like. out to the side or behind us or in the kitchen close by. and so we like. face the people we originally had a appointment to but then dude off to the side asks a question. it's just. so great but so hard to manage/direct the lesson... so yeah! 

we had a baptism this week! a progressing investigator from the time of the previous missionaries. such a great mama. so passionate about the truthfulness of the gospel. we're probably gonna start to teach her daughter and/ or her neighbor. w00t. 

stake conference is coming up! area seventy coming probably! some more people on baptism date for this month! busy! 

another thing kinda funny is that the mama's in our ward. our ward is split in two cuz it's a geographically huge area and we couldn't possibly handle the whole thing. so we made two separate dinner feed-the-missionaries-if-you-want calendars which im pretty sure has never been done before. anywho. the calendars are posted up at the church and one mama signed up and immediately bragged about it to everyone. and then some more people signed up. heheh people are the best.

also our solar got fixed! so our fridge works! and our washer! and we don't have to use candles anymore! huzzah!

that's all for now. 

elder hyatt vi

bought a sd card reader but it doesn't work. sorry. maybe next week. 

jk this week thanks companion

ups and downs dead or alive

Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2017 5:24 PM

         Monday, June 05, 2017 10:24 AM 

hi friends. 

so one day this week it rained allllllll night and then in the morning it was nothing but MUD and flipflops with mud makes my pants really dirty. but! didn't fall down again. so that was nice.

this week was pretty great. got to spend a whole day with the celestial light of a seventy's tutelage/ testimony. and that seventy just happened to be my former stake president! and he made a bunch of references to how awesome texas is during his trainings! and i felt a lil awk but it's all good. 

so the one thing that's really different about vanuatu vs the US is that the family is like CENTRAL to social life. so like. cousins. great aunts. second cousins in laws. all are family and they all know your business and you know all of their business. so this week there was a old grandma(?) of the big tanna family and like. almost all of our investigators are somehow tied to this family. so the second news spread of the death all program/schedule besides work(maybe) is suspended to respect the customs of someone who just died. which is very respectful and all but people don't really wanna see the missionaries when they're grieving.

cool story that happened. we walk up to a house that we're pretty sure is a member's house. some kids are playing in the yard. we were going to hopefully find/ teach some less active members of the church. but one of the kids (10 to 12 year olds)asks us. 'do you wanna teach a non member?' and we're kinda suprised and say. uhm... yes? he then points us to his friend who has already been coming to church and wants to get baptized. now we're teaching him. true story. #miracle #whatarethechances #etas #efatezone #southefatedistrict #squad 

ahem. sorry. anywho. 'nother cool thing that happened this week. the ward mission leader! he just got called and he's super stoked about the work and so are we and yeah. it's great. 

i only got 9 monies left!!!!! gahhhhhhhhhhhhh why does time go so fast!!!!!!!!!!!! 

scatterbrained email from a scatterbrained elder

that's all for now.

elder hyatt vi 

sad story my camera battery like. stopped working? i dunno if it's the whole camera but it just. stopped. idk why. so most of my pix for this week are agonna come from my comp's camera. 

1.      my comp on p days

2.      closest thing to a mall food court in vanuatu. you can buy a burger meal for like. 750 vatu

3.      crackin some coconuts with a pioneer of etas! she's great

4.      filling out a baptism record

5.      what chu lukin at

6.      dont fall dont fall dont fall

7.      w/ Elder Gifford Nielsen

8.      everyone

PS re: S GIFFORD NEILSEN

WHEN I SHOOK HIS HAND HE ASKED ME WHERE IM FROM AND I SAID SUGARLAND AND HE REMEMBERED and he checked my nametag and he was like omg elder hyatt – how’s the family???

and i took a pic with him and my comp photobombed us. he's great. on #fire with the seventy's flame! really great to hear him talk./

woot

love ya he told me i had to tell you he said hi.

yep

don't walk. run. and then slip and fall on your butt in the mud. (i wasn't actually running tho)

Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2017 5:49 PM (MDT)

           Monday, May 29, 2017 10:49 AM (Vanuatu)

sup friends. how's life.

life with me is all good! as you could maybe expect, i get along pretty well with my first white companion! the last missionaries that worked in this area did a lotttt of work and at the beginning of this week they gave a list of return appointments that we had to go to. the only problem is we have no idea where they live. 

so we played where's waldo with names and vague locations. actually pretty successful. found most of them. the ones who wanted to be found at least. and yeah! so the last missionaries that left this area had 4 investigators on date for this past Saturday so! we had some baptisms two days ago! 

there's this one mama that worked with us a ton this week. the relief society president of our ward. so. we didn't know where this one house was so we asked her to show us where it is so i thought she'd show us the house then she'd go back home. but no! we went and she proselyted with us for like the whole day! and at one point. we're very carefully walking along the side of the road (whole road is nothing but a foot of thick soft mud) clinging to the shrubs. and she talks to her cousin in tanna language (sounds nothing like any language i know. good night is towiddalanaiyuu) and her cousin asks in that language, can they come teach me and my family?  y.y.yes ma'am yes we can how about right now. 

super stoked about the area and this transfer and so much work to do and so little time and the members love us and and and yeah. 

my former stake pres(elder s gifford neilson) is gonna come and give training this week! area presidency special training thing! yeah!!!!!!!! so stoked. anyway.

gotta look up. 

too blessed to be stressed.

that's all for now.

elder hyatt vi

1.         the chapel(yes theres no power only solar)

2.         my house behind the chapel

3.         my companion in my lil house

4.         hey. hey. ya got a lil somethin there.

5.         when the white man pulls out the camera everyone gets camera shy

6.         he was delicious

7.         all the baptisms from etas this week

8.         dat photo bomb doe

transfers transfers

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2017 4:52 PM (MDT)
          Monday, May 22, 2017 9:52 AM (Vanuatu)

i don't like transfers cuz i have to move..... aka pack all my stuff. 

but they're also great cuz you can clean out all your junk and you get a new area and new people to meet and care for and teach. so i guess kinda mixed emotions.

this has been the shortest time i've been with one companion/companions. only one lil transfer. elder dapena is staying in pango my pikinini (my child for those of you who don't speak bislama) is already in the solomon islands... and i'm going to etas. never been to etas. don't even really know where it is but it's somewhere on efate! 

so elder joseph left to the solomons on sunday morning and it felt supeerrrr weird not having two companions. but at the beginning of the transfer it felt superrrr weird to have two. perspective weird.

this week went pretty quick. had some really awesome family house nights. also thomson and letangi are amazing. by far my fave investigators this transfer. they ask so many great questions and they wanna learn more and they look forward to coming to church and our lessons and they the best. i'm super bummed i gotta leave them.... 

another really cool group of peeps we found/met were/are ann marie and her squad. the previous missionaries had taught them back in like February but they only put the name in the area book not where they live or stuff so it was a adventure. and yeah they're really cool and we had a chance to give ann marie's child who was super sick for like a solid week a priesthood blessing and it was the most precious moment. her mom explaining to this lil 5 year old child about blessings in simple terms. and the next day we get a text from her thanking us profusely for the blessing that her child was well again. so great. and also like. this mama. we didn't specifically ask her to come to church yet but she asked us. 'can i come to church?'😇😃 yes yes you can sister. so great. 

we helped a less active do a home improvement project. when it rains water would run into his house! 😕 so we helped dig a lil trench and put concrete blocks so now his house is nice and dry! all the time! so great. great week. looking forward to getting into my new area tomorrow and my new companion(my first white man companion elder west from idaho) just. #jazzedboutlife

that's all for now! 

elder hyatt vi

1.      seafoooooooddddd

2.      eat all the colorful fishes

3.      my lil district. so smol

4.      that feel when you lose your shoe

5.      service project(very grateful for gloves)

cannot describe.

Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2017 4:43 PM (MDT)
         Monday, May 15, 2017 9:43 AM (Vanuatu)

i'm super bummed cuz my card reader isn't working and i took some slick pix this week. oh well. 

hi friends. highlights of the week as they come to mind. 

exchanges! went of exchanges with the zone leaders and had a grand ol time. i just feel kinda bad for my zone leader elder gray cuz he's kinda portly and the whole bike situation did not agree with his physique. but! he endured and we had a lot of success. 

we found henry and nerry! this awesome lil family. we went to go teach some long time former investigators. like talked with missionaries over a year ago. and we go to their house and....... they not home. but! their sister(?) and her husband were there cuz they live/rent at the same place and we taught them! and they had never heard or seen the missionaries before and they had a ton of amazing questions and like. when we shared some truths about some different things they were confused about for a long time i could just see the light growing. does that make sense? like. i cannot describe. :))))

it's mother's day! i get to talk to my family! yayayayay! i have no idea what im gonna talk to them about but i get to talk to them! yea!

there was something really heartbreaking that happened with one of our investigators this thursday and we.. well i specifically felt really bad for the dude and really wanted to help him but didn't know how so me and my comps kneeled down and prayed about it and then on sunday he came to church with his family and everything was all good. so happy to see him. 

i guess that's the weird thing about missionary work cuz you get to open your heart up to people you barely know. and then they maybe open up to you and then all you want is for to help them to be better feel better get over all the bad stuff in their life. and then when they do. it's just. cannot describe. life is good. life is short. gotta make it good. :)

that's all for now.

elder hyatt vi

storm chasing and #ldsconf

Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2017 6:44 PM (MDT)
           Monday, May 08, 2017 11:44 AM (Vanuatu)

well. more like hiding in our house while it storms outside.

yes for those of you who are unfamiliar with the international weather. here in the south pacific there's a girl named donna who's rippin up vanuatu. it's a cyclone. not a girl. but it's named a girl so. 

anyway. it hasn't really hit me that much at all. it's mainly been absolutely destroying torba. which is a province i used to serve in. my poor friends in gaua.... their houses are probs wrek'd. but! good for torba but bad for us, donna is comin down south. right now santo (where i spent july-march) is getting wrek'd. but! guess what! donna's coming to vila!!! yay!!! jk. not yay. we can't proselyte when it's raining off and on super hard all day and so we spent most of this week sitting in our house.... 

some people that we did teach this week tho. idk if i talked about him before but. thomson. super legit and interested guy. before we had just been teaching him but we asked if we could find a time where we could teach him and his wife/family and we did! and it was so so so great cuz his neighbor(the member who initially brought thomson to church) let us use his house for teaching and it was a small and a lil cramped but everyone was so focused on the lesson and it was such a great lesson. high high hopes for that guy and his fam. great peeps. man. 

another really cool thing about being in vila is that i run into people who i used to know like all the time! like the ni van papa that basically taught me how to understand bislama back when i was a lil newborn in april of last year (wowie time flies)or the sister that i taught back when it was me and edler atuake in south santo. it's so grand to see old friends and see how far they've come. so great.

also! friends. if you have not listened to and studied general conference. do it. do it now. do it right now. i got a chance to listen to 2 of the 5 sessions this week while huddling in my house and man! that is some A++ stuff right there. as i email right now i'm downloading the other sessions so i can listen to the rest. a talk by a dude named sabin(don't remember his whole name or his calling so.) was great. and also basically the whole priesthood session was solid gold. yep.

that's about all for this week. woot. 

elder hyatt vi

1.      bush child 

2.      #poser

3.      feast

4.      local bakery

5.      so windy. it feels amazing when it's just the wind but the rain is annoying.