Today is a beautiful "bidet"

Family,

It has almost been one week now since Elder Acton became my companion. We realized that he is now the oldest missionary in the mission, and I’m still the youngest (I don’t know when new missionaries will be coming). Just a piece of fun trivia for you. He is from West Jordan, Utah and has been in Palau for 4 months. He came just one transfer before me, but spent about a year and a half on Pohnpei. He speaks great Pohnpeian and talks about it all the time. He only has 3 transfers left before he goes home, and he’s very organized and I have a lot to learn.
Yesterday we were knocking doors pretty far from our apartment, and Elder Acton decided he needed to go to the bathroom. We couldn’t go back to our apartment, so we drove to a nearby resort (Palau Pacific Resort – which is where I recommend that we stay when we come back to visit after my mission. You can start making plans now.) and walked into their restroom. I was standing outside and Elder Acton says, “Elder Barlow, you have to come look at this.” He pointed out that the toilet looked space age. I looked, probably made a few witty remarks, and walked back out. About 30 seconds later he called me back in and pointed to what looked like a security system on the wall of each stall. These toilets were equipped with bidets. This is probably more information than you need/want to know, but seeing as I had never used a bidet before, I had to try it out. It was pretty weird, but we were so enthralled that we had to tell the other elders. So we called them at lunch and they decided to make it our next zone activity. Who would have thought that my first experience with a bidet would be in Micronesia?

Saturday morning we got a call from a member in our area, Carsla, who asked us to go to the hospital to give her uncle (a less active member friend of ours who is also one of the Chiefs) a blessing. When we got there, he didn’t look very good at all. Some of his family was there and we told them that Carsla asked us to give him a blessing, and they agreed (many of them are less active members themselves). I later learned that one of his relatives from another church had called Carsla and asked her to call “her missionaries.” I hadn’t ever really given a blessing before, but I was asked to this time. It was a very different experience for me. I expected something miraculous to happen, but the blessing was very simple: that his pain and discomfort would soon pass. He passed away early the next morning. The Lord has a plan for all of us. We all have a work to do. Whether it is through our family or the influence we will have on others, only God knows. Of course we come to Earth to learn and for personal growth, but we are also to help others, and to be an example at all times. Life is too short to be caught up in our own problems.

The branch president is going to ask the family if part of the funeral services can be held at the church. Since he is a chief, the funeral is going to be very large and will probably make missionary work very difficult while people are preparing. I’m hoping the family agrees, and that people start coming back to church.

That’s mostly my week. We’re still struggling with investigators, but we’re doing our best.

I love you all, and it seems like all is well there.

Love,

Elder Barlow

P.S. to answer your questions Mom,

1) My bed bug bites are going away, and I sprayed every nook and cranny of my bed with permetherine (don’t worry its diluted), so I haven’t got any new bites yet. But no new mattresses.
2) The language is hard. I don’t really have much else to say about that at this point.
3) We successfully avoided having to eat shark. Lucky for me.