Week 6

Fam-Bam,

This week is week 6 (the last week) of my second transfer here in Palau. President Dowdle comes on Friday for Zone Conference, and we're hoping he tells us personally how transfers are going to go. Chances are he won't and the Assistants will just do it like usual. It's pretty fun to predict what will happen, but really we have no idea. Elder Stanley thinks he'll be leaving Palau, but won't admit it. He's been taking pictures with all the families/people we've been teaching. We'll see - things could very well stay the same.

I've been informed that I recently came into some money from "Glee". If this is indeed the case, it would be awesome if someone invested it - or used it for my mission I guess.

It seems like every week I have a new dog story. Well, this week is no different. Before I begin, I would like you all to know that I am no longer afraid of these dogs. Without flinching I will walk by any dog to get to the door I need to. Even the ones on chains. One of the young men we bring teaching with us said, "you guys are either really stupid, brave, or you just don't care." Either way, it's been fun. Now my story. If I remember correctly, Kim asked if any animals had ever taken my things. Well, this week we were going to teach a family, and in Palau (probably all of Micronesia actually) you have to take off your shoes before you go in someone's house, so we did. After the lesson, we left the house and went to put our shoes on to go. However, I only saw one of my shoes. I assumed Elder Stanley had taken it and was hiding it or something, but it turns out a dog stole my shoe. The family we were teaching proceeded to search for my shoe (it was our last appointment of the day, so it was very dark). The little girl finally found it, but the insole was missing and the back was chewed. Other than that though, it was it great shape. I've been walking with uneven shoes all week, but then yesterday we were walking by the same house and the same girl said she found the sole. Great news. So now I'm back to normal.

A few quick facts about Micronesia:
1) 1 year "Liahona" subscriptions cost $1
2) Palaun doesn't have a standardized spelling system. You can imagine how much more difficult that makes things for me.
3) Apparently there was a Survivor - Palau. I had no idea, pretty cool though. For the record, anyone can survive in Palau. There's so much wild food: fruit, fish, chicken, tarro, etc etc.

While Adam is putting towels on his windows, we had to take all the food out of our freezer and refrigerator because it was leaking to the point that our entire floor was wet. The land lord said he and the maintenance guy would give us a smaller, temporary replacement until this one gets fixed. Also, sometimes our apartment just smells awful. We've pinpointed the source to the drain in our bathroom sink - at least we think. It smells like fruit bat - gross.

I actually didn't know there was an earthquake. Now that you mention it, I remember one of the chiefs saying something about a disaster in "hi-dee". I don't really know anything about it though.

We dropped 4 investigators this week. One of them has been avoiding us - we think it's because he asked us to borrow money and we said we couldn't. The second girl we taught twice and when she prayed about the Book of Mormon, she felt like she needed to be baptized, so she talked to her mom. Her mom said she already has her own religion and is no longer allowed to talk to us. We've tried going over there to talk to her, but her mom has her go inside as soon as we show up, and screens all of our phone calls. Pretty sad. Third person - we decided she just likes hanging out with missionaries (she's a 13 year old girl). Fourth is the Branch President's step daughter. She comes to church every Sunday, but it has to be because of her boyfriend and her parents, because she doesn't read and has no desire to be baptized. Pretty discouraging week.

I think we're going to start focusing on helping less active members. It's pretty safe to say that the reason 90% of them are less active is because they chew. We decided we would help them understand that if they didn't spend so much money on the stuff, they would be able to have a phone, or to buy food for their family, or clothes. Also that the church isn't for perfect people. They feel like they aren't worthy to go to church, so we need to help them understand that everyone has struggles, and the church is there to help us improve. I think it may actually work.

Yesterday, Elder Stanley and I tried to spend the whole day speaking Palaun to each other. To be honest, my Palaun is better than his, so we had to speak English here and there, but I thought it was good. I learned a lot.

We have to go pick out food for Zone Conference, so I'll talk to you all next week.

Betik a renguk er kemiu,

Elder Barlow