Sunday, October 7, 2012

"I am Blakman..."

Ok family,


It was GREAT reading your e mails. I miss you guys. Glad to know everyone's doing well. As for me, I'm pretty good. We've had some pretty interesting situations this past 2 weeks. Good old drunkies. We've had some strong adversity here in Etas. The harder we try and the better we get the harder it is. We have some great investigators, but, they each have their large obstacle to overcome. We're trying our best to help them progress and achieve their goal. Every one knows the church is true. They want to be baptised badly. I know they'll get there. I feel like we for sure have the right spirit of missionary work. We are trying in every way possible to help them physically and spiritually. We love them and they love us.  Anna will be getting baptised this month. She is the greatest. She is an apu (grandma) from Malekula (Elder Samuel's island). Her husband left her many years ago. All her children don't take responsibility to take care of children they have. In result, Anna looks after 3 of her grandchildren; tracy, sandra, and charles. She is loving everything she hears inside the church and applying it all in her life. She's shared her needs with us. She has no garden to plant food and no money. They were hungry. We pondered over her needs for a while and came up with a solution that has worked. 2 times we supplied her with meat and onions and materials to make shishkabobs (don't know how to spell that one) basically. Once she has some built up she pays a little bit for the meat and we just transport it to her. So now she saves money for transport to go buy materials and she is self sufficient. She is so happy. School fee's were also a problem. Last sunday at church we chatted with her and our former branch president, Andrick Vano, now elders quorum president. I love him. I call his house the black hole. If you go there you can lose a lot of time and incredible chats. We have the best gospel/church chats ever. He's a huge guy from Paama. He's one of the pioneers of the church here. I love him because he has a charitable heart. He said he'll be taking care of the school fee's. A big problem here in Etas is talking without action. He talks little, pure action. Anna's a blessing to us as we have been to her. My focus/thoughts have been on Less actives. There are TONS here in etas. We've been visiting them and I love it. They all have testimonies. Thats what this branch needs more than baptisms or anything else. Lately we and President Hilliman (branch president) have been tight. We've been helping him with a bunch of stuff. We've had some good chats. He is dedicated. He has a great job (which are hard to find here) at asco motors. He just quit barely to give more time to his calling. Now he's a self employed garbage man on the weekends and his wife is cooking. Consecration. He has a big heart. So I got a funny compliment the other day. Apparently I am no longer white. I am "blakman". Not skin color but my "Fasin" (behavior, attitude). I was informed of a convo where 20 members were chatting and saying out of every white missionary I am the same as people here. My former companions were supporting it. I like it, they are great people and we can learn a lot from them. I dream in bislama now. The other night Elder Samuel got up at 230 at night to go to the bathroom. He heard me say "Afta, yu bin mekem wanem tede?" (What did you do today?) I also think in bislama most of the time. I also understand racism now. I've gotten the equivilent of racial slurs, stereotypes, and disrimination, no joke. Example: I was kind to someone and they said: "if I came to america you would have shot me already". (They watch videos and think we are violent and at war 24/7) anyways thats all for today... random, but I'm doing well and still learning lots. Not much success at all but I can honestly say I'm giving my best. The church is true.

Elder Sears

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