Santo Week 1

This is the church "building" that we attend!

And this is the "toilet" at the church.

Wahoo for adjusting to new things!  Life here in Santo is very, very, VERY different than life is in Port Vila. You were right what you said about adjusting.  This week has been hard!  I don't know very many of the missionaries here in Santo, so I feel like I'm starting all over with the area, the people and the missionaries.  It's a little hard. . .

We haven't watched general conference yet and from the sound of it, I don't think we will.  It just isn't possible here.  I’ll just have to wait until the conference Ensign comes out and gets mailed to me.

When I walked into my new house in my new area on Wednesday night it was flooded due to the tropical storm that hit on Tuesday.  We ended up sleeping over at some other sistas house because everything in our house was soaked.  (But we made out better than the elders in BanBan East whose roof got ripped off in the storm.) The next morning we got up early and cleaned and cleaned all the dirt and water and leaves and everything else that blew in with the storm.  I have never seen such a dirty house before!  I really think that the house might not have ever been thoroughly cleaned before!  When that was done, we went down to town and explored a little.  The town here is just one long street.  The Market is heaps cheaper here in Santo than in Port Vila, and you can get more fruits and veggies. 

 

My new companion Sister Tonga from Tonga!

As far as my area goes, it's bush and bush and more bush oh, and then there's some bush!  J Bush everywhere!!  Just one big jungle!  I'm used to being in the town and so this is quite a change.  I feel like we walk through the jungle until we happen to run into a small home with a family inside.  We can see the ocean for the most part of the day, which is beautiful, but that means that there are tons of mosquitoes everywhere!  Oh well, you can't have both I guess.  I have a new Santo disease; it's like boils on my legs. So here come the scars that everyone else has!  The people are so kind though, and I really do love the area.

It's a jungle out there!

 

Saturday Mary and Michel got baptized.  There is a nice church in town with a baptismal font.  We were able to go there for the baptism.  Everything went really well and they seem like nice people (I met them the day they got baptized).  Our branch president also seems like a good guy who will help us a lot.

Sunday Sista Tonga and I left the house at 8:00 a.m., but didn't get to church until 9:30 because we had to go pick up some people.  We only picked up three people but we had to walk FOREVER to find them!  When we got to church (a bamboo hut with a palm leaf roof) church hadn't even started yet.  We waited around until 10:15 when they finally got started.  It was district conference so the district president was there. They talked for a good hour and a half and then they announced that church was over. . . yeah. . . I couldn't believe it!!  We have a lot of work to do to get this branch going!  

Sooooo, this will be a bit of a change! J  I know this is where the Lord needs me  .  . . so I'll try to do my best.  I love the scripture in Joshua that tells us to "be strong and of a good courage" even when hard times come.  I love you all, have a great week!

Mary and Michel's baptism at the nice church in town.

Here are some pictures of my house that looked like a pig sty when I first arrived.

Other than the mess we found to begin with, our house is amazing!! It's a beach house without anyone around.  I can sit on our patio and just stare at the ocean!