13 April 2010

Family,

This week was a big one for me. I think I told you that the APs were coming, but if I didn't - they came. One of them, Elder Wells, spent 20 months on Chuuk, and is finishing his mission as an Assistant. He speaks Chuukese better than anyone. The other is Elder Sandvik, who spent the first part of his mission on Pohnpei, and this is his last transfer as an Assistant. They went on an exchange with the zone leaders on Wednesday, and then us on Thursday. Knowing this, we were desperately trying to schedule appointments for that day, so we wouldn't have to be knocking doors the whole time. We did pretty well, so we had a very busy, very successful day. Now, the real news that I wanted to share about that day. I spent the first part of the day with Elder Sandvik, and he required that I speak in Palauan to everyone, so I did, and I even taught a lesson. When we switched, Elder Wells said the same thing, but this time we had several appointments. I ended up teaching about the Restoration, the Sacrament, and Nephi and Laban - all in Palauan. It was so hard, and I felt so drained by the time we got back to our apartment. They told Elder Shular, so he's continued it, and I've been teaching in broken Palauan since then.

I have a few problems with all this though. First, my Palauan vocabulary is pretty weak at least at this point, so trying to teach concepts takes a lot longer. I have to stumble through everything, and try to pull words from every crevasse of my brain. Second, I don't feel like I can teach with as much power in Palauan (I guess that's obvious) since I'm always fumbling for the words. Hopefully that comes as I get better. It's just hard for me.

President asked me to start revising the Language Packet (what the missionaries use to learn the language), so I've been working on that during my Language Study time. It's not my favorite thing.

I got the package you sent me yesterday, thanks for all the stuff. I already got compliments on the watch. I haven't tried the gift card yet, though.

We're trying to get the branch to start using Palauan in church meetings, but for some reason, they refuse. It's frustrating, because they have a Palauan woman teaching about the Old Testament in English, and no one understands what's going on, not even her. They have Gospel Fundamentals in Palauan (the same manual that the rest of Micronesia uses), but no one wants to use it. People are so alienated and the only one that makes comments is the one white guy in the branch. Not to mention the fact that his comments are in English, and way over everyone's head. The branch is in a difficult spot though, there's this one white guy, some Filipinos, a Mexican, and all of us missionaries (six including the senior couple), and they feel like it's important for us to know what's going on I guess. Despite all of that, we're in Palau.

On the bright side, the Branch President has agreed to sit down with us for an hour every Sunday and teach us Palauan. He used to teach Palauan at some kind of school, and he speaks great English. We had our first lesson on Sunday, and it was great. I wish I'd had this the whole time.

Okiu a budech me a bltikarreng,

Elder Barlow