Walking and Walking

 

Washing Abo Mirriam's clothes with Bong and Maowi

 Another fantastic and extremely hot week here in Vanuatu!  I think my double earache is on its fifth week without relief.  Antibiotics don’t seem to work here.  I hope it doesn’t permanently damage my hearing!  I'm just getting to the point where I feel like I'm going to crack with all this heat and sweat and pain haha. I just want it to end!  God is testing my patience for sure! 

Not a ton happened this week, just a lot of working and walking!  On Tuesday, Sista Sellesin and I had the chance to make an exchange with the Sistas in Erakor Bridge (Sista Lape and Sista Kara).  They are both from Papa New Guinea and are just darling.  I got to work in my area with Sista Kara.  She just got here about a week ago, but has picked up the language and was teaching like a pro.  One scripture she shared with an investigator was Ether 12:27.  God gives us weaknesses, but if we humble ourselves and have faith in Him, He can make those weaknesses into strengths. I guess it hit me that we need to trust that God will help us.  Trust and faith are very closely related and once we show God we trust him, that's when miracles happen. Sista Kara is super quiet and very little, but knows how to work hard.  She comes from a very strong Catholic family who was not happy when she joined the church and decided to serve a mission.  Sista Kara said she had a dream that made it very clear that this was the right choice for her.  She fell asleep on our couch just a few minutes after we walked into the house, and didn't wake up until around 9 p.m.  So I think I worked her a little too hard!  I enjoyed my time with her and learned a lot.

Baptism of Sonia

On Saturday, Noel and Sonia were baptized!!!  Sonia and her Mom met us at our house, and then we went to the church together.  Noel didn't show up until the baptism program had already started.  We were just a little anxious, but couldn't have been happier to see him, his less-active mother and a bunch of his siblings and cousins too!  Because so many missionaries in our zone had baptisms scheduled for Saturday we decided to combine the baptismal service.  We had over 20 baptisms take place on Saturday!  The work is moving forward and I couldn't be happier to be part of it!  Sonia even shared her testimony after her baptism and her mom was smiling from ear to ear.  It was a great day! J

Papa German, Frank, Mama Dorris and Lenkap all came to church on Sunday = a miracle!!!  We helped introduce them to people and they all seemed to enjoy it.  Fasting works!!

Baptism of Noel

 I don't have much else to tell you . . . one random thing that I realized this week is that the whole country of Vanuatu doesn't have one stop light in it!  Crazy huh?!?  These people just drive like crazies and no one cares!  We also found a huge centipede in our kitchen the other day that was still alive, but we smashed it until we were 110% sure that thing was dead!  Yep, that's it for this week!  

I love you all!  Make it a great week!