Family,
So if I wasn't already aware that I'm coming home this week, everyone's emails made it pretty clear. Anyway, I guess there's no avoiding the inevitable. It was pretty weird to finish my last planner last night and call in our reports. Elder Wright, my iron-fisted, uncaring Zone Leader is requiring that we have District Meeting on Wednesday, so that makes the amount of time I have left in my area even less than it already is. I'm just kidding, but he really is making me plan a training. It's like my last lecture. I don't really know what to say. I think I'll talk about...planning (make it really boring so he regrets having District Meeting during transfer week).
As for this last week, we had a good week. We've found 3 youth that I'm sure will be baptized. The only problem is making sure they have a consistent mode of transportation to church. We can provide rides for them so they can come to church enough times to get baptized, but I want to make sure that they can continue coming afterward. People aren't going to want to pick them up forever. 2 of them live in our village, so they can walk no problem, but the 3rd lives a ways away (by these standards anyway - how far away can you get really?). I'm pretty sad I won't actually see them baptized, but hopefully I'll get pictures from these guys.
Wednesday night the Branch President called and said, "so you can speak in church this Sunday before you go right?" I told him I couldn't because we had to have to attend our unit, and then the phone cut out. He called back and said "you can just come and speak and then after the talk you can drive up in time for Sacrament meeting." "well, I guess I could..." "okay great, thanks. *click*" I was pretty annoyed. So we had to make the 1-hour drive each way, just so I could speak. I can't be too upset though, he just wanted me to be able to speak before I left, and now I'm glad that I did. Plus, it gave me a chance to practice my homecoming talk (edited for the audience of course).
So I guess I'll see you guys on Friday huh?
Love,
Elder Barlow
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
17 Oct. 2011
Family,
So on my mission I've only been told to go to hell twice - twice that I can recall anyway. The second time was this week. We walked up to a house to teach a few of our investigators, and the less-active woman that I told you about last week was there so we said hi, but she had to go cut bananas for the market the next morning. Anyway, her husband walked over and before he said anything, the people we were teaching told him where his wife had gone. So he walked off and we continued our lesson. A few minutes later we heard some yelling coming from next door and then the husband came back and told us never to come to his house (he didn't know that we'd been going there pretty often, he just thought we came to talk to her that night - which we didn't), because he worships a different god than we do, and if we come he'll show us how to REALLY use a Bible, and then proceeded to condemn us to hell. I felt pretty bad, not because of what he said to us, but because he thought it was okay to yell at his wife like that. He's actually converted from the Protestant church to another church that I won't mention, and everyone in that village said that since then, he's been different. He became pretty mean. Sad. Anyway, I don't think we'll be visiting them again for a while.
Also this week, we got a new senior couple, the Johnsens. The are the first senior couple the mission has received in a while that are classified as "proselyting". Usually they are over S&I. But, since there isn't one over S&I, they'll probably take over that responsibility too. They asked me to go over the branch directory yesterday and tell them who is active and who is not, and they're going to do their best to find who they can and they seem really excited. He was an accountant for Exxon Mobil and they're from Houston most recently but they've lived all over - from Illinois to California to even Guam.
We finally watched conference this weekend too. Dad, it was cool to see Elder Callister speak, everyone here really enjoyed his talk. I think President Monson is getting more and more lively as the years go. He's got to be so comfortable speaking at this point.
Another thing, I got a bug bite on the bottom of my foot and in the middle of the night, it woke me up - unbelievably itchy. So I scratched it like my life depended on it. Anyway it got infected - evidenced by the red lines running up the side of my foot the next morning. So we called the doctor that I told you about who's here with the Army, and he said "oh that's not good". Thanks doc, but not what I want to hear. So he had us come to the clinic and he gave me a double antibiotic. Probably the biggest pills I've ever taken, or even seen, in my life. It's better now, but before, it felt like I was walking on a rusty nail - it was pretty uncomfortable. All's well in Zion again - no need to worry.
I still haven't prepared my talk - I just don't know where to start. Maybe I'll just wing it.
Love,
Elder Barlow
P.S. Just kidding I won't wing it. I'll think of something.
So on my mission I've only been told to go to hell twice - twice that I can recall anyway. The second time was this week. We walked up to a house to teach a few of our investigators, and the less-active woman that I told you about last week was there so we said hi, but she had to go cut bananas for the market the next morning. Anyway, her husband walked over and before he said anything, the people we were teaching told him where his wife had gone. So he walked off and we continued our lesson. A few minutes later we heard some yelling coming from next door and then the husband came back and told us never to come to his house (he didn't know that we'd been going there pretty often, he just thought we came to talk to her that night - which we didn't), because he worships a different god than we do, and if we come he'll show us how to REALLY use a Bible, and then proceeded to condemn us to hell. I felt pretty bad, not because of what he said to us, but because he thought it was okay to yell at his wife like that. He's actually converted from the Protestant church to another church that I won't mention, and everyone in that village said that since then, he's been different. He became pretty mean. Sad. Anyway, I don't think we'll be visiting them again for a while.
Also this week, we got a new senior couple, the Johnsens. The are the first senior couple the mission has received in a while that are classified as "proselyting". Usually they are over S&I. But, since there isn't one over S&I, they'll probably take over that responsibility too. They asked me to go over the branch directory yesterday and tell them who is active and who is not, and they're going to do their best to find who they can and they seem really excited. He was an accountant for Exxon Mobil and they're from Houston most recently but they've lived all over - from Illinois to California to even Guam.
We finally watched conference this weekend too. Dad, it was cool to see Elder Callister speak, everyone here really enjoyed his talk. I think President Monson is getting more and more lively as the years go. He's got to be so comfortable speaking at this point.
Another thing, I got a bug bite on the bottom of my foot and in the middle of the night, it woke me up - unbelievably itchy. So I scratched it like my life depended on it. Anyway it got infected - evidenced by the red lines running up the side of my foot the next morning. So we called the doctor that I told you about who's here with the Army, and he said "oh that's not good". Thanks doc, but not what I want to hear. So he had us come to the clinic and he gave me a double antibiotic. Probably the biggest pills I've ever taken, or even seen, in my life. It's better now, but before, it felt like I was walking on a rusty nail - it was pretty uncomfortable. All's well in Zion again - no need to worry.
I still haven't prepared my talk - I just don't know where to start. Maybe I'll just wing it.
Love,
Elder Barlow
P.S. Just kidding I won't wing it. I'll think of something.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Homecoming
For those of you that are interested in hearing Taylor speak when he comes home at the end of the month, I've created a public event on Facebook that you can RSVP to. You can find it by clicking here.
If you don't have Facebook but you would still like to attend, here is the information:
Time
Sunday, October 30 - 11:00am to 2:00pm
Location
136 N. Sunset Canyon Dr. Burbank, CA 91504
If you don't have Facebook but you would still like to attend, here is the information:
Sunday, October 30 - 11:00am to 2:00pm
Location
136 N. Sunset Canyon Dr. Burbank, CA 91504
I don't normally post on here because I don't want to steal Taylor's thunder, but for those of you on the fence about whether or not to come, Taylor I'm sure would love to see you there. Missionary homecoming talks are some of the most powerful that you will hear in the church. The experiences that they've had; while you've read a good majority of them here, you will be able to see what an enormous impact that they've had on someone in two years.
Hope to see you there!
Jacob
10 Oct. 2011
Family,
So there is this very less-active woman, Florence, in our area who was baptized in Saipan in the 80s but when she moved to Palau, the church was so far that she started going to the Protestant church - which is in our village. So after almost 30 years of that, she's become pretty devoted. However, she agreed to let us teach her granddaughter (that she adopted as her own daughter - that happens a lot). So we arrived the next day and the Florence had given the girl, Medicine (I thought it was Madison, but after asking her to spell it, sure enough it's not), an extra copy of the Book of Mormon, and as we were watching the Restoration, Florence was humming along to "oh how lovely was the morning...." At first I couldn't tell where the humming was coming from but afterward I asked Florence, "were you humming along to that song?" she said, "...yeah...but I can't remember the words." And then she said the closing prayer and asked God to bless "our prophet" and all the members of the church. There may be hope for her yet! It was a pretty interesting turn of events. She has been pretty obstinate up until this point. At first she told us she was baptized, then she changed her story and said she wasn't, and back and forth. To clear things up I called the office in Guam and had them check with the service center. Turns out she was, and that's what we told her. As soon as she realized she was caught, she's been a little easier to work with.
My whole mission I've struggled with people saying they will do things (read, come to church, etc) and not actually meaning it. Whether they do it to make us happy or to get us to go away or what I don't know. I don't know if it's the same in other parts of the world, but it's pretty disappointing. Especially because I feel like it's magnified in the area I'm in now. I'm just trying to stay loving and positive and try to be patient with them. I have to somehow help them understand the idea of a commitment.
Another of our investigators is an alcoholic, and we figured this wasn't going to be a good weekend to see him since it's payday week, but we thought we'd stop by and show him we didn't forget about him. Sure enough he was drunk and he tried to hug me and stuff, so we said we'd come back next week. I can't imagine that people really understand how foolish they become. They cannot possibly understand and continue to do it.
I don't know if I've talked about this yet, but even though I know I have like 3 weeks left, I haven't felt any different. I don't know if it's because I've just been doing the same thing for so long or what, but I just can't comprehend doing anything else. So, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing until someone tells me what day it actually is.
Love,
Elder Barlow
So there is this very less-active woman, Florence, in our area who was baptized in Saipan in the 80s but when she moved to Palau, the church was so far that she started going to the Protestant church - which is in our village. So after almost 30 years of that, she's become pretty devoted. However, she agreed to let us teach her granddaughter (that she adopted as her own daughter - that happens a lot). So we arrived the next day and the Florence had given the girl, Medicine (I thought it was Madison, but after asking her to spell it, sure enough it's not), an extra copy of the Book of Mormon, and as we were watching the Restoration, Florence was humming along to "oh how lovely was the morning...." At first I couldn't tell where the humming was coming from but afterward I asked Florence, "were you humming along to that song?" she said, "...yeah...but I can't remember the words." And then she said the closing prayer and asked God to bless "our prophet" and all the members of the church. There may be hope for her yet! It was a pretty interesting turn of events. She has been pretty obstinate up until this point. At first she told us she was baptized, then she changed her story and said she wasn't, and back and forth. To clear things up I called the office in Guam and had them check with the service center. Turns out she was, and that's what we told her. As soon as she realized she was caught, she's been a little easier to work with.
My whole mission I've struggled with people saying they will do things (read, come to church, etc) and not actually meaning it. Whether they do it to make us happy or to get us to go away or what I don't know. I don't know if it's the same in other parts of the world, but it's pretty disappointing. Especially because I feel like it's magnified in the area I'm in now. I'm just trying to stay loving and positive and try to be patient with them. I have to somehow help them understand the idea of a commitment.
Another of our investigators is an alcoholic, and we figured this wasn't going to be a good weekend to see him since it's payday week, but we thought we'd stop by and show him we didn't forget about him. Sure enough he was drunk and he tried to hug me and stuff, so we said we'd come back next week. I can't imagine that people really understand how foolish they become. They cannot possibly understand and continue to do it.
I don't know if I've talked about this yet, but even though I know I have like 3 weeks left, I haven't felt any different. I don't know if it's because I've just been doing the same thing for so long or what, but I just can't comprehend doing anything else. So, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing until someone tells me what day it actually is.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Sunday, October 2, 2011
3 Oct. 2011
Family,
Tomorrow's my birthday, and I think that this is the least excited I've been for a birthday. Not that I'm not excited, it just feels like a normal day. So, I'm just as excited as I am every day, which is probably more than most people I'd say.
This weekend was the worst weekend for missionary work. It was the same last year, but I forgot just how terrible it was. October 1st is Palauan Independence Day. The celebration lasts for 3 days. Day 1 is a market where all the states have a chance to sell their goods - mostly food. Day 2 is similar but it's for private business - mostly food again, but this time some souvenirs and stuff are mixed in. Day 3 is the big day. All the major business owners (or anyone else that's rich enough to participate) have a speedboat race. Somehow they drag it out into an all day event. All of the people in our area spent the weekend in Koror, it was a ghost town. It's like people just stopped whatever they were doing and hopped in the back of someone's truck and left. Laundry still on the line, piles of leaves uncollected, it was spooky. Luckily, we had to spend the weekend in Koror too, because Elder Wright went to Guam and we had to be with Elder Marshall (his companion). Sunday we started another unit in the Koror elders' area. We had a quick Sacrament meeting there, and then made the hour-long drive back to our area to have ours. Other than the missionaries and Toby, there was only one woman - everyone else was in Koror. Even the attendance at the main chapel was sad - 22 at the start and 37 at the end of the meeting. Anyway, we went to the festivities on Saturday for our dinner break, and it was actually pretty cool. Many of the villages had put together cultural dance groups, and they all performed, along with the booths selling various things.
Friday morning the white guy in the branch who is actually a CAT Army doctor was holding a free clinic in our area, and my companion has been getting boils on his legs pretty often, so we decided to go. While the nurse was going through the preliminary stuff I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk to him about medical school and things. Nothing he said made that sound like a course that I want to pursue, so that brings me back to square one. Maybe law school or something with the media. Maybe somehow combining the two. I have no idea what I'll do when the time actually comes.
That's all for this week. My companion and I bought a bunch of food so we're going to be cooking all kinds of delicious entrees. Fajitas, pastas, stir-fry, the works.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Tomorrow's my birthday, and I think that this is the least excited I've been for a birthday. Not that I'm not excited, it just feels like a normal day. So, I'm just as excited as I am every day, which is probably more than most people I'd say.
This weekend was the worst weekend for missionary work. It was the same last year, but I forgot just how terrible it was. October 1st is Palauan Independence Day. The celebration lasts for 3 days. Day 1 is a market where all the states have a chance to sell their goods - mostly food. Day 2 is similar but it's for private business - mostly food again, but this time some souvenirs and stuff are mixed in. Day 3 is the big day. All the major business owners (or anyone else that's rich enough to participate) have a speedboat race. Somehow they drag it out into an all day event. All of the people in our area spent the weekend in Koror, it was a ghost town. It's like people just stopped whatever they were doing and hopped in the back of someone's truck and left. Laundry still on the line, piles of leaves uncollected, it was spooky. Luckily, we had to spend the weekend in Koror too, because Elder Wright went to Guam and we had to be with Elder Marshall (his companion). Sunday we started another unit in the Koror elders' area. We had a quick Sacrament meeting there, and then made the hour-long drive back to our area to have ours. Other than the missionaries and Toby, there was only one woman - everyone else was in Koror. Even the attendance at the main chapel was sad - 22 at the start and 37 at the end of the meeting. Anyway, we went to the festivities on Saturday for our dinner break, and it was actually pretty cool. Many of the villages had put together cultural dance groups, and they all performed, along with the booths selling various things.
Friday morning the white guy in the branch who is actually a CAT Army doctor was holding a free clinic in our area, and my companion has been getting boils on his legs pretty often, so we decided to go. While the nurse was going through the preliminary stuff I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk to him about medical school and things. Nothing he said made that sound like a course that I want to pursue, so that brings me back to square one. Maybe law school or something with the media. Maybe somehow combining the two. I have no idea what I'll do when the time actually comes.
That's all for this week. My companion and I bought a bunch of food so we're going to be cooking all kinds of delicious entrees. Fajitas, pastas, stir-fry, the works.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Sunday, September 25, 2011
26 Sept 2011
Family,
This week we finally had Sacrament Meeting in Ngaraard. We had a total of 7 people in attendance. We had it in a "Kwateleu" which means "open place". It's basically just a place with a roof and some benches. They have them in parks at home but I can't remember the name for it. Anyway, Toby was assigned as the group leader and he did a great job. As we were walking down to our car, to go and visit people to make sure they came, Toby rolled up with his motorcycle. His arm is still broken, even though he'll tell you it's already healed - it just needs exercise. But he was in a nice shirt and tie and looked awesome. Anyway we set up a small table in the sand, my companion gave the opening prayer, he and I blessed the Sacrament, I spoke, I chose the hymns, and Toby gave the closing prayer. Afterward, we talked to a couple of people in our village and one of them who saw us said, "why didn't you invite me?" We told him that everyone is invited and we'd love to see him next week.
There's this other girl that lives in the other elders' area who is mentally challenged. She's about 15 but functions at an 8 or 9 year old level. She's been coming to church for months and attends all the activities for the youth, and wanted to be baptized. After talking it over with the branch and the mission president, they determined that she'd have to be taught and interviewed, just as any other convert, but let's let her be baptized. So I drove down on Friday and did the interview. It was pretty interesting, but it was apparent that she did in fact have a testimony and so I passed her. She was baptized Saturday, and a lot of the branch members were able to attend.
I guess there was a typhoon somewhere between Palau and the Philippines, I don't know how true that is since we don't get any news and all I hear is word of mouth, but I believe it. We had trees get blown over and we just got dumped on over the last few days. It's always so unpredictable too. It can be hot and sunny one minute and then clouds come and it rains literally within 2 minutes (no longer sunny, but still hot). Sometimes I'll be in the house and I can look out one window, and it will be sunny and I'll walk over and look out the front door or another window, and it will be raining. It makes it hard to prepare - so usually I don't.
We spent most of this week teaching our investigators about the Sabbath day and the Sacrament to prepare them to come to our Sacrament Meeting. I'm hoping to see a steady growth in the attendance. If that happens, my responsibility to "establish the church" will be covered.
Kim made me worry about classes, so I'm going to go call the mission president and see if I can look at my options.
Love,
Elder Barlow
This week we finally had Sacrament Meeting in Ngaraard. We had a total of 7 people in attendance. We had it in a "Kwateleu" which means "open place". It's basically just a place with a roof and some benches. They have them in parks at home but I can't remember the name for it. Anyway, Toby was assigned as the group leader and he did a great job. As we were walking down to our car, to go and visit people to make sure they came, Toby rolled up with his motorcycle. His arm is still broken, even though he'll tell you it's already healed - it just needs exercise. But he was in a nice shirt and tie and looked awesome. Anyway we set up a small table in the sand, my companion gave the opening prayer, he and I blessed the Sacrament, I spoke, I chose the hymns, and Toby gave the closing prayer. Afterward, we talked to a couple of people in our village and one of them who saw us said, "why didn't you invite me?" We told him that everyone is invited and we'd love to see him next week.
There's this other girl that lives in the other elders' area who is mentally challenged. She's about 15 but functions at an 8 or 9 year old level. She's been coming to church for months and attends all the activities for the youth, and wanted to be baptized. After talking it over with the branch and the mission president, they determined that she'd have to be taught and interviewed, just as any other convert, but let's let her be baptized. So I drove down on Friday and did the interview. It was pretty interesting, but it was apparent that she did in fact have a testimony and so I passed her. She was baptized Saturday, and a lot of the branch members were able to attend.
I guess there was a typhoon somewhere between Palau and the Philippines, I don't know how true that is since we don't get any news and all I hear is word of mouth, but I believe it. We had trees get blown over and we just got dumped on over the last few days. It's always so unpredictable too. It can be hot and sunny one minute and then clouds come and it rains literally within 2 minutes (no longer sunny, but still hot). Sometimes I'll be in the house and I can look out one window, and it will be sunny and I'll walk over and look out the front door or another window, and it will be raining. It makes it hard to prepare - so usually I don't.
We spent most of this week teaching our investigators about the Sabbath day and the Sacrament to prepare them to come to our Sacrament Meeting. I'm hoping to see a steady growth in the attendance. If that happens, my responsibility to "establish the church" will be covered.
Kim made me worry about classes, so I'm going to go call the mission president and see if I can look at my options.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Monday, September 19, 2011
19 Sept 2011
Family,
This week was our trip to Guam, and it was so good to see my old investigators and all the missionaries. President Stevenson, the Area President came, and he spoke to us about some fundamentals of missionary work: hard work, obedience, and testimony, or HOT. Anyway, it was really good. But as usual, it's good to be back. We found out what would be happening with the transfer on Wednesday night, just before we left, and the news was pretty expected. No changes in Palau this time around. So I'll stay with Elder Rokodakunivosa in Ngaraard.
I have good news! The Branch President finally gave us the go ahead to start having church this next Sunday. Now we don't really have any excuse to not have any investigators at sacrament meeting. I think the majority of the lesson that we'll teach this week will be about keeping the sabbath day holy, just to prepare.
We had a really good experience with one of our investigators this week. His name is Adriano, and he's preparing to be baptized in October. He's a pretty rough guy, but he's slowly making changes. He's been struggling to read from the Book of Mormon, and he doesn't understand that he's not going to be baptized if he's not reading. We showed up to our lesson and he basically told us, before we could even say anything, that we better not ask him to read again, because he doesn't need to, he's just going to prepare himself and be baptized - besides, he's too busy to read. So I was praying to know what we needed to share and as we began, we started with the requirements for baptism in D&C 20:37 and I asked the member that was with us to share thoughts about it. As he did I said a quick prayer to myself and as soon as I looked up, Adriano asked to make a comment. He talked about feelings of guilt for past sins and forgiveness and all these things, which gave us a perfect chance to talk about baptism and the Atonement, and the feelings of peace as we read from the Book of Mormon and how it is a testament of the Savior. He was able to see how important it was for him to read, and he committed to do so. We haven't been back yet, so I don't know if he actually did, but it was a very spiritual lesson for me nonetheless.
I love you guys, I'll let you know how things work with the basic unit.
Love,
Elder Barlow
This week was our trip to Guam, and it was so good to see my old investigators and all the missionaries. President Stevenson, the Area President came, and he spoke to us about some fundamentals of missionary work: hard work, obedience, and testimony, or HOT. Anyway, it was really good. But as usual, it's good to be back. We found out what would be happening with the transfer on Wednesday night, just before we left, and the news was pretty expected. No changes in Palau this time around. So I'll stay with Elder Rokodakunivosa in Ngaraard.
I have good news! The Branch President finally gave us the go ahead to start having church this next Sunday. Now we don't really have any excuse to not have any investigators at sacrament meeting. I think the majority of the lesson that we'll teach this week will be about keeping the sabbath day holy, just to prepare.
We had a really good experience with one of our investigators this week. His name is Adriano, and he's preparing to be baptized in October. He's a pretty rough guy, but he's slowly making changes. He's been struggling to read from the Book of Mormon, and he doesn't understand that he's not going to be baptized if he's not reading. We showed up to our lesson and he basically told us, before we could even say anything, that we better not ask him to read again, because he doesn't need to, he's just going to prepare himself and be baptized - besides, he's too busy to read. So I was praying to know what we needed to share and as we began, we started with the requirements for baptism in D&C 20:37 and I asked the member that was with us to share thoughts about it. As he did I said a quick prayer to myself and as soon as I looked up, Adriano asked to make a comment. He talked about feelings of guilt for past sins and forgiveness and all these things, which gave us a perfect chance to talk about baptism and the Atonement, and the feelings of peace as we read from the Book of Mormon and how it is a testament of the Savior. He was able to see how important it was for him to read, and he committed to do so. We haven't been back yet, so I don't know if he actually did, but it was a very spiritual lesson for me nonetheless.
I love you guys, I'll let you know how things work with the basic unit.
Love,
Elder Barlow
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