Ngeasek Redil

Family,

To give you an idea about how "in-the-loop" the Palau missionaries are, we didn't know there was a tsunami, let alone an earthquake, until President Dowdle called the Zone Leaders, asking if we were okay. He then proceeded to tell them about the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. It made me wonder what would have happened if the tsunami actually hit - we would have had no idea. Unless President Dowdle knew there wasn't a problem and was simply calling because he had to - who knows.

Second order of business on my agenda has to do with the language. We were teaching a less active member and her three daughters, and we brought another less active member (male), so that we could teach them. Anyway, after the lesson I asked who the young girl was at church (there was a little 3 year old girl that I didn't recognize sitting with them last week). To say "young girl" I used "ngeasek redil" (ngeh-ah-suhkuh reh-theel), which should make perfect sense because according to the dictionary, "ngeasek" means "young" and "redil" means "female". Well, as soon as I said it, Joel (the one we brought with us) said "ochelek!" (oh-eh-lek) - which means "my brother" but is the English equivalent of something like "oh man!" The family then proceeded to laugh, of course, because what I actually said meant "sexy lady" and I was using it to describe a toddler. Pretty awkward, but funny nonetheless.

After church this week, we went to the cemetery for Singeru's burial. The actual funeral was during church so we couldn't go to that, but we were there for the burial. The family asked Elder Stanley to dedicate the grave, and I could tell he was really nervous. He had never done that before and didn't want to mess it up. Despite him reading words out of the white handbook during his prayer, it was a very spiritual experience. The family asked us to join them in their family picture, which was pretty cool, but kind of awkward. Funerals here are kind of like family reunions. They all have shirts with the family's name and some other things on the back. There's tons of food, and lots of people. Since Palau is so small, most of those people are extended family - hence the family reunion.

Our companionships are back to normal now that Elder Stanley is back from Guam. As a Zone/District we decided to make a bigger push toward learning the language. We started doing words of the day, and requiring that every lesson include a few things: at least one prayer, one testimony, and one principle taught in Palauan. It's been hard, but we're getting there.

Uighur update this week: We saw one of them, Safar, driving the same car that we drive. We think he is taking driving lessons - but I can't say that for sure.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty dry. It has only rained a couple of times, and even then it has just been for a minute or two. As a result, it's been blistering hot. I will say that it has motivated us more to get in the door and teach people - just to get out of the sun.

Sunday as we were getting ready for church, we heard what sounded like a pig squealing, but where we were, it was unreasonable for there to be a pig nearby. We wrote it off to be someone drilling something. As we walked outside to the car, we looked over the banister to see what was making the noise, and sure enough, there was a pig. Some Filipino men below us had tied it up and started shaving it so they could kill it and make their fritata. It was so loud.

I have now finished my second Book of Mormon challenge, and I'm almost done with Genesis in the Bible.

I think that's my week. Sorry, no pictures again - we didn't really go anywhere for P-day last week.

Thanks for the support and all the love.

Love,
Elder Barlow