ELDER CARTER MCCAIN

Mauri from Tabiteua! So this week was awesome and very surprising at the same time! I got a call Friday night telling me that I will be getting Emergency Transfered to Tabiteuea which is an outer island! There was an Elder who was sick and I am replacing him. I arrived here earlier this morning and it is so great from what I can see so far! The island is way long and very narrow. But it's more open than Tarawa and has less people crowded next to each other! Was sad to leave Bikenibeu already and will miss the people there a ton. I felt like I just got there haha and already left. Was able to have a last dinner with my favorite family and will add a pic! But I am also grateful for this new opportunity to come work on an outer island! My new companion is Elder Neubert, he is pretty old in the mission and am excited to learn all that I can from him! Just wanted to update you all and hope you guys are all doing great.  I know the Lord has a purpose for me in Tabiteuea.  Love y...

Mauri Everyone! This week was another great one here in Bikenibeu! Did not get transferred so I will be here for another one!  Super excited it has been good getting to know all the members in the ward. This week we had two baptisms Beia (from last weeks email) and Lafeta. It was so awesome to see them decide to join the church and become members. We are super busy in Bikenibeu with Elder Patane. We had like 10 lessons straight one day!  Way busy and excited for all the progress here in Bikenibeu. Wanted to give you all an update! Love ya guys  Elder McCain Baptized Nei Tai in the white and this is my favorite fam Baptisms this week - So awesome!  Spending time with Elder Naumu!!! Thanks for the pic Sister Naumu.

Kam Uara! How is everyone doing?? This week was soo good. The week started off with going to the President of Kiribati's house! The US ambassador for Kiribati was here this past week and they invited all American missionaries to dinner with them. It was so cool to get to meet both of them, even had a buffet style dinner haha and surprisingly had all American food, no fish and rice can you believe it! Was able to have a baptism this week of Nei Taai, one of our investigators! She was able to be baptized before going off and studying in Fiji! Her husband came up to me yesterday and told me she walked around to find the nearest church in Fiji which I was super happy to hear! So I wanted to share an experience with you guys about one of my investigators! So right when I got here we began to teach this guy named Beia. He wasn't super receptive to the lessons and had some problems with drinking. He works all day and his favorite thing to do after work is PS4 haha. So whenever we c...

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...