ELDER CARTER MCCAIN

Mauri Mauri! I apologize for not writing in a couple weeks it has been a crazy month! So my companion is coming off an outer island but the flights are pretty rough on scheduling so he hasn't been able to make it in. So I have been just working in my area with the Elders who are about to fly out or just came back from an outer island. Super crazy transfer haha and I am still in training. But despite all the craziness the work here in Bikenibeu is going so great. Got a ton of new investigators this past week that we started to teach. Our ward is one of the biggest here on Tarawa with 300 active members but also 500 less actives. Spent a ton of time visiting less actives, and I've found the best way to get in, is to be their friend! Once they realize you care about them they are more willing to listen to the message we as missionaries have to share. So have been making a lot of new friends recently haha! Something I wish I did at home was just use the relationships we have wi...

Mauri n te riki ae bou! Happy New Years Everyone! The last few weeks in Kiribati has been a busy one. First the holidays! We had a Christmas party with some members from the ward. It was so fun, and they turned on the Christmas devotional for us to watch! It was so awesome to be able to listen to a few of the talks. The New Years was a blast the Brocks and Kirks invited us over to their house and we played minute to win it games, way fun! The work in this area is just awesome! There are so many people that are willing to lesson with us. My trainer got sent to a different area this transfer so I am now companions with Elder Edgeworth! Super glad that we are able to be comps but we will only be together for two weeks as he is heading off to Nonouti. With him being new to the area, I have to lead of our lessons which is pretty hard being here only a couple weeks haha. But it has been a huge blessing so far in helping out my language. We had like the coolest dinner this week! We got t...

Mauri! This week was another great week here! Super busy week, we went tracting and found a new person to teach! He seems like he is super interested which is so awesome and knows a ton about the gospel because he went to the church school here but fell away. We are working hard to get him back! We have a baptism this week of an 18 year old named Timai. He is super cool and is so ready to get baptized. Yesterday we had a mission fireside. Our mission president talked about doing all we can to not delay people from receiving the gifts of the gospel. Being here has been so eye opening to the gifts that the gospel gives to all of us, it is so awesome! Also we got to listen to the departing missionaries testimonies, they all spoke of their experiences and was grateful for their examples to me. Hope everyone is doing great and love you all! Tiabo Elder McCain

Hello All! Another great week here in kiribati! This week we had a marriage of a couple we were teaching, and we got to be a witness to the civil marriage! It was awesome to see them be able to take a step forward. I will add a couple pictures. One of our less actives is half paralyzed and is in a wheelchair. He loves to go to church but his family cant take him. So we decided to go to his house and push him to church. The only thing was that it was pouring rain haha! We got like a little bag and covered his head. It was a couple minute walk to church and showed up to church completely drenched. It was so awesome though to see his smile when he was able to take the sacrament and was completely worth it. So with Christmas coming up, service is the best way to show our love for the savior! Everything else here is awesome eating lots of fish and rice everyday! Hope everyone is doing great and love you all! Tiabo Elder McCain (Marriage) (study spot every morning) (Reunited wit...

Hello All! So it is technically my third week here and I just got around to emailing haha! Sorry about that but hope everyone is doing great! I am on Tarawa, in a small town called Bikenibeu. We have the biggest ward here on the island of about 200 members, it is so awesome. Sorry I dont have a ton of time today but I will write a little about being here so far! The biggest takeaway from being here is of just how important the gospel is. Even the people out here in the middle of the ocean need to hear about the restored gospel which is so awesome. These people definitely need it! They don't have much to live off of but they are the happiest people. When we teach them about the Plan of Salvation their eyes light up! I love to share that everyone has a purpose in this life and they are so amazed to learn that there is a bigger picture than just laying around on a boua all day and fishing haha! I am doing great and love you all! Wonderful young man in Tarawa!  Baptis...

Hello everyone!  This is Dad writing for Elder McCain as Carter was unable to email on P-day which was their Monday and our Sunday.  He left Salt Lake on Tuesday the 12th traveling through Los Angeles and then after a 5 1/2 hours layover took a 12 hour flight to Nadi, Fiji.  After a quick 2 hour layover in Fiji, he took another flight for 3.5 hours up to Tarawa, Kiribati arriving on Thursday the 14th in Kiribati.  They are 18 hours ahead of us here in Missouri.   On our Wednesday night around midnight we received an email from President Foster stating that he indeed did arrive with photo evidence! He was assigned to work in Bikenibeu which is on the island of Tarawa and his companion is Elder Ellis from Napa Valley, California.   We anxiously awaited contact from him and finally last night we had a chat over google text message with him.  He was able to access the internet cafe where they have to pay by the hour. I thought...

Hello All!! I apologize for taking so long to email all of you! I had lost the email group but I have them back now. I am doing great, life in the MTC is awesome. My companion is Elder Nawahine, he is from Idaho. My favorite part of the MTC so far is definitely learning the kiribati language. Everyday I get to go to class and learn more and more. So Mauri Ko Uara? The best part of learning a language is being able to teach lessons here in the MTC. Usually we have just been teaching our instructors as people who are interested in the church. The two highlights of the MTC so far has been General Conference as well as this past weeks devotional.  General Conference in the MTC was such a spiritual experience. My favorite talk was Dieter F. Utchdorfs! His talk totally relates to missionary work through his analogy. He talked about the call to adventure we all have, the best part was where he talked about learning to love. If we learn to love and press forward we will help others...