Christmas

Family,

I guess I'll start from after I talked to you. Christmas Day was one of the rainiest days we've had since I've been here. Despite the bad weather, the 4 of us managed to drive to the beach in a place called Melekeok in Babeldaob and have a BBQ. It took us a while, but we finally got a fire started and cooked some delicious burgers. Afterward, we went back to the Zone Leaders' apartment and watched the 1999 Micronesia-Guam Mission video. It was funny to see some of the long time members in it.

Since then, our air conditioner started leaking, our drains backed up (smells awful), and the leak from our refrigerator has caused a small lake on our floor. That's ok though, Elder Stanley just says that we're being blessed and our wives are going to be especially good looking.

The Christmas rain managed to carry over to these last couple of days, so it's made tracting a very fun experience. Actually, I prefer pouring rain to the blazing sun - so it's been nice.

I made pancakes today for lunch, and they were delicious. I just thought I'd let you know.

By the way, the Branch President's daughter is upset again. She was about to take pictures during the baptism, and someone asked her not to. I guess she got embarrassed/offended, so she left, and didn't come to church on Sunday. Tonight, we will be having a lesson on pride.

Oh, there are a few things I wanted to mention on the phone, but forgot or couldn't because Elder Stanley was there. First, if you could send two of everything in my packages, that would be awesome. I'm not saying send more packages, but in the ones you do send. Elder Stanley's family is from Chuuk, and I don't think they have money to send him things. It makes me uncomfortable to get packages when he doesn't get anything.

Second, I would love a fitted sheet. Odd request, I know, but my sheets are always falling off the bed.
I think that's it for those.

Yesterday we were knocking on doors and came across four Filipino men. This is very common, except that there was a huge pig lying dead in their midst. They began to cut this pig open to make fritata. I have provided a picture - enjoy.

Saturday, the four of us were asked to speak in church on Sunday about whatever we wanted, and weren't given a time limit. Great. So we decided to speak on things that the branch and it's members can do better or think about in the coming year. I spoke about Mosiah 18:9 - standing as witnesses of God at all times, etc. I thought it all went pretty well. We all bore our testimonies in Palaun at the end.

Now that we've had two baptisms, our teaching pool, like our refrigerator and air conditioner, is leaking. Luckily, we have some very promising potential investigators, so we'll see.

We tend to teach younger people (14-18ish), which is great, but there are only like 6 or 7 Melchizedek Priesthood holders (not including the missionaries) in the branch. We're going to see if we can teach more men.

That's pretty much my week. I'm still not done with the Book of Mormon, but I decided I'm going to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation before I finish my mission - hopefully it won't take that long.

Elder Stanley and I get into little useless arguments sometimes, and I'm going to see if I can help put an end to them. They happen because he is so regimented in the way he does things and I'm not very good at being told what to do and doing things someone else's way.

"...stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death..."

Love,

Elder Barlow

P.S. It's pretty funny to see what happens when it rains. Everyone stops working. They take cover until it stops, then continue working. If it rains for 10 or 15 minutes without stopping, they go home for the day. They refuse to work in the rain. They must think we're crazy.

Christmas Call

We called Taylor at 4:45 p.m. our time on Christmas Eve – that was 9:45 a.m. his time on Christmas Day. All the kids had written down questions to ask him. He seemed to enjoy answering everyone.

These are the notes that everyone took from what he said:

Taylor described the process of making Fritatas: You kill a pig and save the blood. Then you remove the innards and clean them. You fry the innards, and add the blood and cook the innards in the blood.

His apartment is near the beach. Everything in his apartment is broken - well, not everything. His refrigerator leaks and some furniture is broken. Missionaries have left behind lots of random stuff which seems to fill up the apartment.

The plumbing is good - the island is more modern than he expected. They have bikes that other missionaries have left. They use them when they run out of gas money. They even have a microwave in their apartment. If you are going to send him a package he would appreciate real food rather than just junk food (although I assume he likes junk food, too). He has a hard time making his money last, since so few members feed them. Most of what they eat is rice, and he would like food to go with that. He said that most of the time he doesn’t eat until he is satisfied (like he would at home) – he is usually still hungry. This month they didn’t have enough money to buy gas to drive the number of miles they are allowed to drive. And they ran out of food, so he was glad to get some packages and food from home.

The island that he is on is connected to other islands by bridges, so he can drive from place to place and doesn’t have to take a boat.

He's had one investigator get baptized. At the recent Zone Conference they have set their goals for missionary work for the coming year. This year's goal was 10 baptisms. They should finish with 8. Next year's goal is 10 baptisms as well. Taylor had an interview with his mission president at the Zone Conference.

They don't do very much tracting [door-to-door contacting].

For his personal scripture study he is currently reading in 3 Nephi.
Lots of people chew beetlenuts. It is addictive, like tobacco (in fact, they mix cigarettes in with it), and it turns your mouth red. They even share it with their children. The mothers put it in the mouths of the ones who are too little to eat it themselves. Although a lot of south Pacific islanders chew beetlenuts, he thinks that the usage is the highest in Palau.

The people also eat dog, but he hasn’t. It’s against mission rules.

Taylor has never been bitten by a dog, but he thinks it is only a matter of time.

He has also not eaten fruit bat soup, and he doesn't think it would taste good.

Taylor thought he had bed bug bites, but now thinks they are really mosquito bites. He would rather get bitten by mosquitoes than put insect repellent on and be sticky and sweaty at night. (Instead of just sweaty:))

He eats oatmeal made with just water since milk is too expensive. He puts brown sugar and syrup on it.

They exercise for thirty minutes a day. Taylor runs a quarter mile at the track. He has also used the jump rope Mom sent him (and Haven picked out).

The other missionaries in his zone/district came on Christmas morning, woke them up early, decorated their apartment and wrapped up presents for them (copies of the Book of Mormon, Restoration pamphlets, etc.). He had a barbecue at the beach with the other missionaries planned for Christmas day.

He feels like he is doing pretty well learning Palaun. Church meetings are partly in English and partly in Palaun. The missionaries are making corrections to the Palaun language materials to assist future missionaries. There is only one branch in Palau. He said that they are in the Manila Temple District.

Their time is 17 hours ahead of California time.

He said his companion grew up in the Church – sort of (whatever that means). He went to the MTC in Manila before he came out on his mission, but it was pretty hard for him since he didn’t speak much English.

Taylor sounded really good and didn’t seem to want the conversation to end. It was very fun talking to him.

Dennis Barlow

Scrooge

Family,

First I'll answer your questions.

1) I received one package from you guys last week (everything's been eaten), and two (one from the Roses and one from the Mathovs/YW) yesterday. Good to know there are more on the way. So far they have had all my favorite things, so thank you so much (ke kmal mesaul).

2) If you could actually call at 9:30 or 10, that would be better. We have plans during the day.

Moving on.

Interestingly enough, December is the time when people want to hear about Christ the least. There is this thing called Bethlehem that is put on by a few churches (not ours) in the area. Different organizations put together a choir (schools, churches, groups of friends, families, whatever) and they sing and I guess there's food and stuff. Anyway, it's a real nuisance. It goes all week long (last week), so no one is home for their appointments, or we couldn't schedule anything because they wanted to go there. It was kind of a slow week.

The branch was also putting on a Christmas party. These are usually a huge hit with investigators and less-actives. The day for the party came, Friday, and we still hadn't heard anything about it. We called around but couldn't contact anyone. Finally we talked to someone in the YW presidency who told us it had been canceled. Keep in mind that they announced it in church the Sunday prior. At some point in the week, someone realized nothing had been planned, and decided to cancel the party - without telling any of the members or the missionaries. It was then our job to talk to everyone we had invited and uninvite them. The other elders went to the church to turn people away. Very frustrating - especially since no one said anything about it at church on Sunday. They just acted like nothing happened.

We are supposed to drive 1000 miles/month or less. We've driven less than 700 and are out of money - and our gas tank is empty. Looks like a change will have to be made in the office. We aren't sure what we're going to do. We still have a week until support money comes. The same goes for me. I was under the impression that my money for the transfer would come today (since that's what my companion told me). Turns out it doesn't come until next week. Luckily I have some food left from last week and I got those two packages yesterday.

Despite all of this negativity, we did manage to have a baptism. We were supposed to have two, but one has to meet with the mission president first. This woman, Ungilbung, was getting really excited. She put a ton of thought into every detail of the baptism - especially the hymns. Afterward, she came to Elder Stanley and I individually and thanked us and told us how happy she was. Very cool.

Just some pictures from the baptism we had on Saturday. The woman (Ungilbung Sechalboi) is the one who was baptized, and the man (John Thing) baptized her.

I told you a little about the Branch President's step-daughter who said she was done talking to us. We visited her a few days ago, and she told us how much she missed meeting with us. So we had a lesson, and re-committed her to be baptized. She accepted for January 16th. I'll let you know how it goes.

We have another baptism happening this coming Saturday. This is our golden investigator. We've had to really rush to teach her all the lessons before her baptism, and we'll just barely make it. We had to teach her the Law of Chastity on Sunday, and we were not looking forward to it because she has two younger sisters (11 and 8) who always sit in on the lessons. We decided to split up. I took Meilany (the one being baptized) and taught her while Elder Stanley taught about the Sabbath to the rest of the family on the other side of the room. The man that we brought with us sat in between. It went well I thought. We talked about the program with her last night and gave her a list of people to choose from (who will baptize her, etc). She'll tell us tomorrow.

The Branch President's wife invited us to their house for Christmas, which is great. Unfortunately it's at a really awkward time. We had things planned as a zone, and we're not sure how it's going to work yet. Luckily she makes great food.

The language is coming. I'm learning pretty quickly I think. One lady I was talking to asked how long I've been here, and when I told her she was really surprised. She said I spoke really well. That made me feel pretty good. It's just hard when none of the missionaries really speak, and the language materials (which were written by missionaries who didn't speak the language) are very basic. I've just had to memorize and memorize, and spend a lot of time in the Palaun/English dictionary (which is actually pretty unreliable). It's been a good time.

Next time someone decides to send me a package, my favorite pens are G-2 ultra-fine point, black.

Time for me to go, but thanks for everything. I'm having a good time, and praying for all of you.

Merry Christmas,

Elder Barlow

Tales of Turkey Tail

Family,

As you may have guessed from my clever and mystical subject line, I had turkey this week.

Turkey tail is actually one of the foods forbidden by Sister Dowdle (the mission president's wife). However, they are more of "guidelines than actual rules" (name the movie). We went to a less active member's house for dinner and he made chicken curry with rice (or so he told us). It looked pretty good so I began to eat (which I would have done if it didn't look good, being the missionary that I am). Halfway through the meal, he mentioned something about turkey tail, which is when I realized that there was a reason why this "chicken" tasted nothing like chicken. It was turkey tail. Let me try and help you understand this particular delicacy:

Imagine cutting all the fat off of a steak or bacon or anything that has the really chewy rubbery fat on it. Take that fat and compress it into a chunk of meat. Now remove the taste. Then eat it. That's turkey tail. It tastes like nothing, but is pure fat and feels gross in your mouth. Delicious right?

So this Saturday we have 2 people being baptized. Their baptismal dates have been postponed many times over the period of about 5 months now, and they seem ready finally. Hopefully they pass their interview tomorrow.

We are going on exchanges again tomorrow so that one of the zone leaders can come with me and do these interviews. It's going to be a real test for me because we have appointments scheduled all over the area. I'll have to get us from place to place without Elder Stanley to guide me. I think I'll be okay except for one hamlet(or village) called Ngerbeched. It's the biggest hamlet with a maze of roads, and everything looks the same. I'll see what I can do.

Dad having a lot of church and work meetings sounds a lot like Dad before Gospel Doctrine. Looks like Hannah will get to use the computer more - no more planning lessons every hour of the week.

Palau has several islands. One (Babeldaob) is huge. It takes about an hour and a half to drive from one end to the other. The other is the main island where we live (called Koror), then there is Malakal, and Meyuns. Meyuns, Malakal, and part of Koror are in our area, and all of Babeldaob and the other part of Koror are in the other area (it's the biggest area in the mission). These are the only islands we cover in our zone, and we drive to them all.

Mail seems to come faster now that its coming straight here and not through Guam. Only like five days.

We have some awesome investigators. 6 of them are planning to be baptized in the coming weeks, we just aren't sure when.

Support money doesn't go as far as I thought. I have to plan things a lot better. Looks like I'll be eating a lot of bread and rice this week.

Oh! Mom, speaking of rice. Can you send me some things that are good with rice? Preferably easy sauces that I can buy. Its really bland alone, but with sauce it makes for a easy, filling, inexpensive meal. Thanks.

That's all the time I have for this week, I'm going to try and send a few more pictures.

It's amazing to see how I always seem to have just enough energy to get through the day, but no more. The work is hard, I'm always exhausted, but the Lord is helping me through.

I love you all,

Elder Barlow

Fritata - chewy, kind of grity. Not horrible.

 

Nervous at first.

 

Let's just go for it!

 

Coconuts from a member

 

Name of the Church in Palaun

Q&A

Several days ago I wrote to Taylor asking some questions. Here are his answers:

1. What is your apartment like?

My apartment is apparently one of the nicest in the mission. It seems like a typical missionary apartment. A room for study, a bedroom, a kitchen/eating area, and a bathroom. We can’t drink the water so there is a filter system. We live on the second floor with some pretty vicious guard dogs. They bark meaner than any dogs I’ve ever heard, but no bite. How’s that cliché for you?

2. Do you have all four elders together or just the two of you?

Just two.

3. I think I read there is just one branch, is that right?

One branch, yes.

4. Do you have a regular branch building or is it in some other type of building?

I don’t know what “regular branch building” means, but it isn’t like any chapel I’m used to. However, it does have a sign.

5. Is the Branch in a stake or does it report to the mission (or do you know)?

I think that it reports to the mission [I had that confirmed. Our branch is under the MGM (Micronesia Guam Mission)]

6. How many members in the branch?

No clue. About 50 come each week.

7. Are there any American fast food places?

No.

8. I saw a lot of very beautiful pictures of your area – when you have time, please send us some of the area.

Sure.

9. What do you eat for breakfast?

Eggs, oatmeal, cereal, toast, whatever really.

10. How is your Christ-centered reading of the Book of Mormon coming?

It’s coming slowly. I don’t think I’ll finish in time, but I’ll try.

11. What kind of a car do you drive?

2004 Toyota Corolla – 21,000 miles.

12. Do you have an umbrella?

No, I don’t need one. The rain is the only thing that cools me down.

13. Is there anything that you need?

I need bigger envelopes. The ones I have are too short. They’re long enough, but I can’t fit pictures in them. Oh, and a 512 mb SD memory card.

14. Should we send letters and the Family Newsletter through the email or should we send them by regular mail?

Letters are fine through email, but the newsletter I would like snail mailed. (Don’t send letters in the mail – too slow).

15. Can we send pictures by email?

Pictures have to be mailed also. These computers are awful. I’m sending pictures in the mail also, I can’t attach them to emails.

16. I assume we should use the new address in Palau that you gave us?

Yes, mail is slow enough as it is.

17. Did they give you any idea of how long you would be in Palau?

Nope, I’m the first one to have Palau as my first area. I assume I’ll be here a while.

18. Are distances measured in kilometers or miles?

Miles. They’re trying to be as American as possible.

19. Are there larger shopping areas like malls, or mostly just small commercial areas?

Nope. “Commercial areas” is an overstatement. There are shops and things, but not like anything I’m used to. And all the food and stuff is really expensive because it all has to be imported.

20. How often do you have district and zone meetings – and if you have a meeting larger than just your district, do you all gather together somewhere?

District Meetings → once a week. Zone Conference → once every 6 weeks. Our district and our zone is comprised of the same 4 elders, so we meet often.

Palau Zone

Elder Acton and Elder Lyman – ZL's

Elder Stanley – DL and Elder Barlow


Dennis Barlow

You talk like American Black

Family,

It’s good to hear that I have a package on the way. I haven’t got it yet, but I also haven’t checked the mail since….Thursday I think. Packages take a little bit longer than letters anyway.

So we have been teaching this girl (Branch President’s step-daughter), and she decided that she wants to be baptized on the 19th. Saturday night, we got a text message from her saying that not only does she not want to be baptized, but she doesn’t want to come to church, and she doesn’t want to meet with us anymore. It turns out that she and her mom had gotten into an argument about the car. This girl assumed that she could take it to go hang out with her friends, but when her mom got home, she said no. The daughter got upset, and her mom said we just need to give her a few days. We’re supposed to have an appointment tomorrow night, so we’ll see how things go.

Another girl we are teaching is just great. She’s the daughter of one of the less-active members that we have been teaching. (I may have already told you about her) Anyway, she asked to start taking lessons from us, and so she has. As a result, the mother is active again, and the 3 daughters (8, 11, and 15) want to be baptized. We actually invited the oldest daughter, Meilany (may-law-nee), to be baptized in our last appointment, and she said yes, but then told us that she has been meeting with a “fat [other religion] lady” at the same time she’s been meeting with us. She comes every Saturday, then picks them up and takes them to church on Sunday. Meilany said, “I have to escape, I don’t like her.” It was a pretty good time. Anyway, she reads everyday and even brings the Book of Mormon to school and highlights verses that she likes. She’s great.

(This letter is a lot more missionary-oriented, I just noticed.)

Two of our investigators also prayed for the first time this week. It was really cool. I’ve grown up praying, so I guess I’ve kind of taken it for granted. It’s really refreshing to see how someone’s first, sincere prayer can surprise even them.

Mom, I have some extra time, so I’ll try and answer your questions from last week.

3 meals a day? Yes. Absolutely.

Brakfast? Cereal, oatmeal, eggs, cinnamon rolls. Whatever I want really.

Do the members feed you once a day? The only member that feeds us is the Branch President’s wife, when we teach her daughter. Which is actually good, because they lived in the states for a few years, and the daughter doesn’t like fish. Currently the daughter is upset though, so we’ll see.

Sleep on a bed? Yes. However, I always thought bed bugs were invented for the children’s rhyme. Turns out they’re real, and live in my bed. So every morning I wake up with four or five new bites. It’s a real nuisance, but I’m starting to get used to it.

Apartment a shack? Nope, my apartment is actually one of the nicest in the mission, or so I hear. The zone leaders have the nicest in the mission. Anyway, I included some details in the letter I wrote home. We have 2 guard dogs that attack everything that come up and down the stairs, including us. So it makes every morning, and every night an adventure.

Snake free like Hawaii? Palau is not snake free. There are 2 kinds. One is poisonous and one is not.

I have four things to add:

1) Contrary to popular belief chickens CAN fly. I witnessed this groundbreaking event yesterday as a rooster took off and flew over my head. Flabbergasted, I turned to one of the Young Men that was with us and said, “I thought chickens couldn’t fly!?!” To which he responded, “Who told you that? Of course they can.” Must be American propaganda.

2) My companion refers to all black people as “American Black.” We met someone from Nigeria, who had never been to America, and Elder Stanley still said American Black. It was so funny.

3) Could you send me my sunglasses? I need them when I drive. Either the white ones or the black and yellow ones.

4) If there was one thing I would change about missionary work, it would be morning exercise. I have been exercising for 30 minutes every morning, simply because it’s a rule. Jake (Berg, not my brother), I got your letter and I’m sorry to say I have not grown to love it. People say exercising in the morning is such a great source of energy. I disagree, all it does is make me hate my life for 30 minutes. Anyway, enough complaining. Just expect me to come back looking like Arnold – pre-politics era.

Another thing, a gallon of milk is $12. Just thought you’d like to know that.

I love you all,

Elder Barlow