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
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