Go Hannah, Go Mormon

Family,

These last two days have been crazy. On Sunday we had all kinds of meetings and stuff, plus church, and then we had to go pick up our new senior missionary couple - the Hansens from Moses Lake, Washington (who, by the way, know some Barlows in their ward. I'm sure we're related somehow, but I have no idea.). He's a retired school teacher/basketball coach and they're super nice. The other missionaries were booked with appointments all day yesterday, so Elder Acton and I played Zone Leader and showed the Hansen's several apartments and got them set up with a cell phone. They ended up moving into a very nice apartment right above the other missionaries. It's going to be weird having them here, but I'm very excited.

I've been meaning to tell you about this for a few weeks, but I keep forgetting. At the moment, we have about 58 missionaries in our mission. In June, there is a group of 19 missionaries going home together. By the fall, there will be about 12 other missionaries going home. There are no plans to send any new missionaries here (Elder Matthews and I were the last ones to come). Meanwhile, they are opening missions in places like Farmington, New Mexico. The mission president wrote a letter to whoever is in charge of the Missionary Department, and he said he was very "bold" with them. I like to imagine it was along the same lines as Mormon to Pahoran:

"And now behold, we desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect; yea, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state.

"Can you think to sit upon your thrones in a state of thoughtless stupor, while your enemies are spreading the work of death around you? Yea, while they are murdering thousands of your brethren[...]

"But behold, this is not all - ye have withheld your provisions from them, insomuch that many have fought and bled out their lives because of their great desires which they had for the welfare of this people[...]"

I imagine it went something like that.

I don't know how well the mission will do with 27 missionaries.

On a lighter note, Elder Acton and I have been working really hard to start focusing on the members here. We came up with a 3 step system. They are as follows:

1) Write down the names of 20 people you know. They can be friends, classmates, co-workers, family, etc. Don't worry about whether they are interested in the church or not. All you are doing is writing down who you know.

2) Review your list of 20 people. Kneel down and pray. Ask God who on the list is ready to learn the Gospel. Listen to the Spirit, and circle the names of those who are ready.

3) Pick a time and day when you will either accompany the missionaries to meet each person, or invite the person to be taught in your home.

The end. We made it pretty exciting though. We have each step in a separate envelope with the person's name on the outside. Each step has various quotes and scriptures which make them much more effective I think. We haven't given anyone step three yet, but on the paper, there is a place for them to write the date and sign it - like a contract. So far people have been pretty excited about it. They don't get to see the next step until the one before it is completed. We're hoping it helps.

Yesterday was Elder Acton's birthday, so we made a cheesecake (I got the package from you, but his parents sent him cheesecake too - we used his). For lunch we also made an absolutely delicious BBQ chicken pizza. The Austins sent me a package a couple of weeks ago with some pizza dough mix in it, so we used that, bbq sauce, monterey jack cheese, and we grilled some chicken. I took a picture, but left my camera in the apartment, so it may have to wait. I was really impressed with what we accomplished.

Slightly less delicious was my first real fish experience. I've had two now. One of the investigators we taught told us that he would make us lunch for our next appointment. We got there and he had fried some fish and made rice. At home, every time I've seen fish (at least cooked) it's just been the meat. Here they leave everything - bones head, eyes, fins and all. So we went to work. If you've seen Lord of the Rings, there's a scene where Golem grabs a fish out of the water, slaps it against the rock a few times and then bites into it. It was kind of like that, except he cooked the fish. This being my first time, I had to be careful not to swallow any of the bones. It was no BBQ chicken pizza, but it wasn't bad at all. We did it again at our apartment with a fish that a member gave us on Friday for Elder Lyman's birthday. Not as good as the first time.

As far as I know, Palau has volunteered to take the remaining Uighurrs from Guantanamo. It should make it easier for me to find at least one to teach.

I got some pictures of Betel Nut effects from another missionary that had some, thanks for the help though.

Thanks for everything, I love you all.

Love,

Elder Barlow

[I didn't mention that the title of Taylor's email, "Go Hannah, Go Mormon" came from Mom's email to him. At the track meet that Hannah was in last week her friends cheered her on as she was running the hurdles. Many of them cheered, "Go Hannah!" But also many of them cheered, "Go Mormon!" So it is apparent that she does not hide her light under a bushel.]