July 29,2012

Thanks for the pictures! Glad to hear your all doing well. I liked the california pictures as well as seeing grandpa. This last week was decent. Unfortunately lots of distractions. President Brewer assigned us a truck to use in the area which is very nice. Before we were on the bicycles which weren't safe at all. Our truck got destroyed on the island of Tanna because the roads are horrible and it's being repaired, should be out on wednesday. Unfortunately in Etas my ipod got stolen :(. If you haven't sent the package yet PLEASE CD's! lots of them. Sent it to PO box 1412 not sandalwood apartments. Things are going well in Etas. I really like our branch president, president hilliman. We're still looking for more people who are genuine. We had a sad experience as well. When I got here there was a woman named Chantal. She was the sunday school teacher and apparently well known for being good at it. She was very sick but they couldn't diagnose it. She suffered for some months. We visited her a few times in the short time I've been here. She was exemplary in a time of hardship. She kept her faith and prayed a lot. When we or other members would visit she's temporarily be happy again. On thursday we were doing a service for family Toa. We were helping them in their garden to dig kumala when we heard that she had just died. I was blown away and really saddened. That whole day we were with the branch president trying to arrange for the funeral and buying the burial plot. The district president came to dedicate the grave. He asked me to conduct. There were a lot of people there. People were wailing and her husband was distraught. I know that she is happier now than before and she was prepared. Also this week we had a marriage. S and E, our best two investigators finally got married. They were so happy. S wants to get baptised so bad but he still has one habit to break. We met with him a lot and I shared dads story of the man he taught who was able to give up smoking in a miraculous way. Afterwards we gave him a priesthood blessing. This week it's independence so there's lots of temptation around so he opted to go down to  stay with some of his family down by the river, far away and secluded. We'll be having 3 baptisms next week. 3 girls who are awesome and come every sunday.
 Love you all.

Elder Sears

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.