Transfer 4

Family,

This week begins my fourth transfer in Palau. Here are the results of last night's transfer call:

- I will stay in Meyuns.
- My companion is being transferred to Guam to die.
- A certain Elder Shular is coming from an island called Ramanum in Chuuk to be my companion.
- The Zone Leaders will stay the same.

I'm pretty excited to meet Elder Shular for several reasons. First of all, he started his mission in the area I'm in now. Second, he's been on Ramanum. Ramanum doesn't have electricity. The missionary "house" has solar panels which provide enough power for a small fan and a miniature refrigerator. I'm sure he has some great stories. Third, my entire mission thus far has been spent with the same 3 other missionaries. It's going to be pretty different. I have to be at the airport tomorrow night until like one in the morning and then spend the next day with the Zone Leaders until my new companion arrives Thursday night.

Yesterday for FHE, the Hansen's invited us over for dinner. We had burritos (she made the tortillas from scratch), lemonade, and for dessert she made apple pie a la mode. Having been the "selective" eater that I once was, I had never had apple pie. Let's just say this may be the beginning of a very dear friendship between the Hansen's and I.

Next on the menu is the long-awaited shark. We had planned to eat shark for a couple of weeks now, but for one reason or another, things just didn't work out. Finally, we all went to this member's house for brunch and ate. It was a little mushy, but it's really pretty good if you have rice.

Today we decided to start our P-Day by going to Ngardmau in Babeldaob. Our Branch President is the delegate from Ngardmau state and recommended it, so we went. The hike in was pretty intense, but they carved stairs into a lot of the hills to make it a little easier. It was a really beautiful hike.There was a part where the river runs down this rocky slope and has created very deep holes in the rock. People (not us) were swimming and stuff, it looked really cool. At one point (the pictures are in backwards order) you have to cross the river (which explains why we're all knee deep in water), so our shoes got soaked. Elder Stanley said last time he came, the water was up to his waist - I guess we missed out this time. Finally we got to the waterfall, took some pictures, and then wanted to take a group picture before we hiked out again. If you were wondering who the Japanese guy is in our picture, so were we. He just jumped in. It made our picture all the better.

We've known that a sister was coming for a while now. She keeps getting delayed though. It's been months. On the bright side though, I've been told that there will be 12 missionaries coming soon - spread out over 4 or 5 months I think. 2 of them are from the Marshalls and 4 are Americans. I don't know anything about the rest. Looks like there's hope yet.

The branch decided to have a missionary activity, so we're making plans for that. Every member that comes is supposed to bring at least one friend who is not a member. We're going to have food and an activity then watch the Restoration DVD. There's a lot of planning to do still, but we're hoping it will be effective.

We finally got some rain this week (I've been told that January-April is the dry season). It rained super hard all day Saturday all through Sunday afternoon. It was great.

I'm still doing what I can here, always looking for ways I can improve. Thanks for all the help and advice, I'm loving it.

Love,

Elder Barlow