Family,
I know I still haven't sent any pictures of the church or our apartment yet, but I'll get around to it.
I feel like we had a pretty successful week finally. We have been working with one member in particular named Joel. When I first got here, he was completely inactive. A few weeks later, he started coming teaching with us and coming to church, but we've moved on and started working on a few issues that he has. His wife wants to be baptized, but we found out that she isn't really his wife. They have been living together for maybe 20 years or more, and have 4 kids together, so they have nothing against being married. Unfortunately, Joel is still legally married to a woman who has since moved to Saipan. Divorce papers cost about $50, which is a lot when you only make $3/hr. We decided we'd show him how much money he could save, if he would just stop chewing betel nut. It came out to be like $23/week. He hasn't chewed since. We're super excited for him. His "wife" isn't doing as well as he is, but it's a start.
Also, we have this super studly woman in the branch named Evangeline. She has been a member since the early days of the church in Palau, but her entire family (besides her kids) is less-active, and her husband is not a member. She is the perfect example of what the members will be like in Zion (except that she married this guy, but you get the idea). She asked us to visit a young man that she works with at the college (she teaches English to the Uighur terrorists). We tried to visit him several times, until finally he was home. His name is Mesikt, and studied theology in the Philippines. Needless to say, he knew the Bible really well. We had a really good lesson with him about the Restoration, and it seemed to make a lot of sense to him. Having studied theology, I expected a bible bash type of experience, but it wasn't at all. He was very open to everything, and said that he had a lot of questions for us when we come back. Elder Shular made it very clear that we weren't there just to discuss the Bible, but to show him Christ's church, have him learn on his own that our message is true, and then help him to be baptized. His response was if we can teach him something he didn't know before, that he believes, he has no problem following it. I can't see him not getting baptized. I'm super excited about him. I'll keep you posted. We were supposed to see him tonight, but we forgot about the new P-Day, so we had to reschedule to Thursday.
On a different note, Thursday night a member of the branch presidency asked me to give a talk that Sunday (yesterday). This guy is actually from Mexico, in his 20s and a relatively new member. We decided that he and his wife were talking one night and she asked who he asked to speak on Sunday. Only then did he realize that he had not made any assignments. 'Dang, who can I ask to give a talk on short notice...one of the missionaries...and Rodney (recently returned missionary).' I don't know if that's how it went, but it seems like a pretty good scenario. Anyway, my point is, I gave my talk in Palauan. It took me a couple of days to prepare, since I had to not only decide what I want to say, but also how I'm going to say it with my limited vocabulary. I only spoke for about 6 or 7 minutes, but I thought it went really well, and people seemed to be impressed. I overheard two members talking (I heard my name so instantly I perked up) and one of them said (in Palauan), "Elder Barlow has only been here for a few months and he already speaks like he's Palauan." It made me feel pretty good. Someone else came up to me (the wife of the guy that asked me to speak) and asked me how long I'd been here, and I told her. "It must be a missionary thing. My husband can't say anything." So all in all, it was cool, even though I was nervous beyond belief.
We also had our first Sunday school completely taught in Palauan. It was so great. Even though there are now two Sunday school classes, we're hoping the Palauan one will dominate the English one and phase it out. We had less active members participating and answering questions, whereas before the only one that would say anything (other than the teacher) was the white Elder's quorum president. It was such an amazing Sunday, even though all of the people we were expecting didn't show.
I better get going, but I love you all.
Elder Barlow
Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
New P-Day
Family,
So the Area Presidency has asked that we hold our Preparation Day on Monday now (apparently most other missions do), which is why I'm writing now.
This has been a pretty exciting week. I sat down wondering what I was going to write about, but a lot more actually happened than I thought.
First of all, we were supposed to meet with a family (Less-active mother, recent-convert daughter, and 2 other non-member daughters) on Thursday night. We drove to the appointment, and the recent-convert girl was gone. We weren't too surprised since she always goes places without telling her mom (we're working on that). After about 5 minutes, the mother's sister, Fran, drove up too and told us that Meilany (the recent-convert girl) got in a car accident and was in the hospital. My companion and I rushed to the hospital, but she wasn't there, and the hospital said that they hadn't received any news of an accident. We drove back and Fran said, "No, she's not at the hospital. My brother just went to get her." Apparently Meilany and her friends were driving somewhere like 45 minutes away, got into a pretty bad accident, and then ran away because none of them had a license. Luckily no one was hurt, but we spent that night (until 9) watching church movies and singing hymns with them, just to try to keep them from getting worried.
Second, Fran's daughter (Meilany's cousin), came down with a pretty bad fever and had to be hospitalized. Fran asked us to give her a blessing, so I got to do that for her last night. It's always such an interesting experience. I've only done this a few times now, so I always stress about what to say and everything, but once the blessing starts, it's really pretty relaxing.
Third, we had our first baptism of the year! It wasn't from our area, but still encouraging nonetheless. The man who was baptized, Tobi, has a pretty colorful past, and needed 2 interviews with the mission president, but obviously passed. As they were walking into the water (he was baptized in the ocean by his house) he said, "Maybe you should hold me under for a little longer." It was pretty funny. He was confirmed yesterday, and will hopefully play a big part in helping the growth of the church here.
Lastly, I think I'm allergic to crab - at least land crab. Here in Palau, and I'm sure many other places, they have several kinds of crabs - land crab, coconut crab, mangrove crab, etc. At the baptism, Tobi provided a bunch of food. Most of it was fish and rice, but he also had a huge bucket of tarrow leaf soup. It's basically tarrow leaves boiled with coconut milk (they take ground up coconut meat and squeeze the juice out of it. It's not the stuff you drink.) and they added crab to it. It was really good (so was the fish, might I add) but then the palm of my hand got super itchy all of a sudden. I looked at it, and I had little tiny bumps all over my palm. I thought it would go away pretty quick, but I still have it 3 days later - and it's still itchy. I asked a few people about it, and they said sometimes that happens when people eat crab. I'm still not sure if that's what happened, but that's my best bet.
We're struggling more with the work here than we ever have before. My first couple of months, we had a ton of success, but it has slowly gone downhill. I'm not sure exactly why that has happened, but we're desperately trying to find new avenues. Nothing yet.
I got the newsletter today, so even though it's delayed news, it sounds like everyone is doing well.
Until next week.
Love,
Elder Barlow
So the Area Presidency has asked that we hold our Preparation Day on Monday now (apparently most other missions do), which is why I'm writing now.
This has been a pretty exciting week. I sat down wondering what I was going to write about, but a lot more actually happened than I thought.
First of all, we were supposed to meet with a family (Less-active mother, recent-convert daughter, and 2 other non-member daughters) on Thursday night. We drove to the appointment, and the recent-convert girl was gone. We weren't too surprised since she always goes places without telling her mom (we're working on that). After about 5 minutes, the mother's sister, Fran, drove up too and told us that Meilany (the recent-convert girl) got in a car accident and was in the hospital. My companion and I rushed to the hospital, but she wasn't there, and the hospital said that they hadn't received any news of an accident. We drove back and Fran said, "No, she's not at the hospital. My brother just went to get her." Apparently Meilany and her friends were driving somewhere like 45 minutes away, got into a pretty bad accident, and then ran away because none of them had a license. Luckily no one was hurt, but we spent that night (until 9) watching church movies and singing hymns with them, just to try to keep them from getting worried.
Second, Fran's daughter (Meilany's cousin), came down with a pretty bad fever and had to be hospitalized. Fran asked us to give her a blessing, so I got to do that for her last night. It's always such an interesting experience. I've only done this a few times now, so I always stress about what to say and everything, but once the blessing starts, it's really pretty relaxing.
Third, we had our first baptism of the year! It wasn't from our area, but still encouraging nonetheless. The man who was baptized, Tobi, has a pretty colorful past, and needed 2 interviews with the mission president, but obviously passed. As they were walking into the water (he was baptized in the ocean by his house) he said, "Maybe you should hold me under for a little longer." It was pretty funny. He was confirmed yesterday, and will hopefully play a big part in helping the growth of the church here.
Lastly, I think I'm allergic to crab - at least land crab. Here in Palau, and I'm sure many other places, they have several kinds of crabs - land crab, coconut crab, mangrove crab, etc. At the baptism, Tobi provided a bunch of food. Most of it was fish and rice, but he also had a huge bucket of tarrow leaf soup. It's basically tarrow leaves boiled with coconut milk (they take ground up coconut meat and squeeze the juice out of it. It's not the stuff you drink.) and they added crab to it. It was really good (so was the fish, might I add) but then the palm of my hand got super itchy all of a sudden. I looked at it, and I had little tiny bumps all over my palm. I thought it would go away pretty quick, but I still have it 3 days later - and it's still itchy. I asked a few people about it, and they said sometimes that happens when people eat crab. I'm still not sure if that's what happened, but that's my best bet.
We're struggling more with the work here than we ever have before. My first couple of months, we had a ton of success, but it has slowly gone downhill. I'm not sure exactly why that has happened, but we're desperately trying to find new avenues. Nothing yet.
I got the newsletter today, so even though it's delayed news, it sounds like everyone is doing well.
Until next week.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Clam-dellem
Family,
This week I had raw clam. Luckily it had some soy sauce and lemon, or else I probably would have barfed all over the girl that gave it to us. I tried to chew, but I just couldn't. I ended up swallowing it whole, and almost gagging as it went down. All of this while trying to keep a smile on my face - hopefully I fooled her, but I doubt it. Anyway, it was sick.
We went to a member's house for dinner on Thursday. He's actually Mexican and in the Branch Presidency. He's probably the only Mexican on the island. He and his wife met in Monterey California while they were going to high school. They got married, moved here, and now he's a dive instructor. Anyway, my point in telling you this story, is because I thought I had avoided the whole Edward Cullen/Robert Pattinson look-a-like business coming 8000 miles away from home.
I was wrong. This wasn't the first time someone has told me that, but Brother Canseco took it to an entirely new level. He had me take pictures with him, and all kinds of ridiculous stuff. It was pretty funny, but even more embarrassing.
We've been struggling this past week with dropped appointments. Without any investigators really (since we've spent so much time working with less-active members), our appointments are scarce as it is, and to have one fall through is always so disheartening.
However, we'll finally have our first baptism this Saturday. His name is Tobi, and he's the one who carved my storyboard and is the chief of his village. He's very closely related to many of the less-active families that we've been working with, and he's super studly, so we're hoping he can set that example for them.
Rather than just focusing on less-active families, we've now directed our focus to those that are only part-member. It's been pretty successful, but we always run into the same problem. Betel Nut. Everyone has a different problem, so it's hard to cater to them and focus on what they can do. We have them make a list of times that they chew the most, and things they can do instead of chewing, or they cannot chew while doing. For example, some people chew the most when they are watching TV, and cannot chew while they are fishing. Therefore, the obvious conclusion is to eliminate lazily watching TV and instead going to fish, which keeps them from chewing and helps provide for the family. Unfortunately not everyone is that easy. Some people have learned how to chew and spit even underwater. There is one fool-proof solution. Not a single person we have talked to can chew while they read the Book of Mormon. I'll use the same less-active family as usual, as an example. One lady, Diza, can chew anywhere, everywhere, all the time. We tried to help her make a list, but the only thing she could not do while chewing is sleeping. We then found out that she stopped reading and praying. Therein lied our solution. She is currently on a 24 hour no-chewing test run. We'll see how she does.
The reason that Betel Nut is such a problem for part-member families is because we tell the investigator that in order to be baptized he/she needs to stop chewing. Then they look around at the rest of the family, and they all are members - and chew. Even though they may agree and commit, they still have that mental block in their minds, "Why do I need to stop chewing, if all of these people are baptized and still chew..?" It's extremely frustrating. Plus, it's making them poorer than they already are.
I'm loving all the pictures that you guys are sending. It's so fun to see how everyone changes.
I'll talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Barlow
This week I had raw clam. Luckily it had some soy sauce and lemon, or else I probably would have barfed all over the girl that gave it to us. I tried to chew, but I just couldn't. I ended up swallowing it whole, and almost gagging as it went down. All of this while trying to keep a smile on my face - hopefully I fooled her, but I doubt it. Anyway, it was sick.
We went to a member's house for dinner on Thursday. He's actually Mexican and in the Branch Presidency. He's probably the only Mexican on the island. He and his wife met in Monterey California while they were going to high school. They got married, moved here, and now he's a dive instructor. Anyway, my point in telling you this story, is because I thought I had avoided the whole Edward Cullen/Robert Pattinson look-a-like business coming 8000 miles away from home.
I was wrong. This wasn't the first time someone has told me that, but Brother Canseco took it to an entirely new level. He had me take pictures with him, and all kinds of ridiculous stuff. It was pretty funny, but even more embarrassing.We've been struggling this past week with dropped appointments. Without any investigators really (since we've spent so much time working with less-active members), our appointments are scarce as it is, and to have one fall through is always so disheartening.
However, we'll finally have our first baptism this Saturday. His name is Tobi, and he's the one who carved my storyboard and is the chief of his village. He's very closely related to many of the less-active families that we've been working with, and he's super studly, so we're hoping he can set that example for them.
Rather than just focusing on less-active families, we've now directed our focus to those that are only part-member. It's been pretty successful, but we always run into the same problem. Betel Nut. Everyone has a different problem, so it's hard to cater to them and focus on what they can do. We have them make a list of times that they chew the most, and things they can do instead of chewing, or they cannot chew while doing. For example, some people chew the most when they are watching TV, and cannot chew while they are fishing. Therefore, the obvious conclusion is to eliminate lazily watching TV and instead going to fish, which keeps them from chewing and helps provide for the family. Unfortunately not everyone is that easy. Some people have learned how to chew and spit even underwater. There is one fool-proof solution. Not a single person we have talked to can chew while they read the Book of Mormon. I'll use the same less-active family as usual, as an example. One lady, Diza, can chew anywhere, everywhere, all the time. We tried to help her make a list, but the only thing she could not do while chewing is sleeping. We then found out that she stopped reading and praying. Therein lied our solution. She is currently on a 24 hour no-chewing test run. We'll see how she does.
The reason that Betel Nut is such a problem for part-member families is because we tell the investigator that in order to be baptized he/she needs to stop chewing. Then they look around at the rest of the family, and they all are members - and chew. Even though they may agree and commit, they still have that mental block in their minds, "Why do I need to stop chewing, if all of these people are baptized and still chew..?" It's extremely frustrating. Plus, it's making them poorer than they already are.
I'm loving all the pictures that you guys are sending. It's so fun to see how everyone changes.
I'll talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Monday, May 10, 2010
11 May 2010
Family,
A lot of this is going to be redundant, since I just talked to you guys yesterday, but that's the way it is.
First of all, I was going to use the phone call to wish a happy birthday to Kim, Heidi, Kandis and Hannah, but then I remembered to only one I could talk to was Hannah. Happy birthday everyone, as late as this may be.
Moving on, I'm starting to think that the reason I'm here in Palau is not to teach and baptize. Rather, to learn Palauan, teach, and reactivate. I think our branch has been kind of depressed watching recent-converts go less-active shortly after their baptism, so they have been reluctant to fellowship them, and give them some kind of responsibility. As a result, things have just gotten worse. One lady that was baptized at the end of last year, has been having a lot of family pressure lately. She used to be Modokngei (a Palauan church that is pretty deeply rooted in old Palauan culture, traditions, and gods), but realized it wasn't true and was shortly baptized. Her uncle is the leader of her old church, and convinced her that there are evil spirits in her house now because she has been meeting with us. He and some other members came and did this black magic ritual to cast out these "spirits". Ever since then she has stopped coming to church, and then this week she tried to return everything to us - her Book of Mormon, Bible, lesson manuals, etc etc. It's not because she likes the other church better, it's just that in their culture, so much respect is given to the Rubak (the old man in the family) that they will do whatever he says. It was really a sad situation. We've asked another lady in the branch (whose husband is this other lady's first cousin) to go and talk to her, just to see what she can do.
On the bright side, we've been working a lot with a less-active family lately, and we've having some encouraging success. One of them, Daichingo, has now come to church for a month straight and said his goal is to not miss a week for six months. His father (Chief Singeru that died) was less active before he died, and Daichingo feels like he should take his place and make up for that. His brother-in-law, Idip, isn't a member, but has come with Daichingo three times in a row now. Before he gets baptized, we want to make sure that this family will be active enough to support him spiritually. They also have a cousin, Farrah, who is starting to come back too. She's come twice now, and wants to meet with the Branch President to start her repentance process - and she's fed us twice now, it's been great.
Also, there is a woman named Carsla. She has been a member for who knows how many years, but has not been active for the last couple of years. She hasn't even left her house actually. She claims that a while ago, she got into a car accident and now cannot drive in a car, or be away from her mother. Missionaries have been bringing her the sacrament since ever since and have been trying to get her to come to church for just as long. Well, we decided that it's all in her head, so she needs to come to church. After lots of help, we got her to "try" to come last week, and if not, then this week. Well, she didn't come last week, and told us she had changed her mind and wasn't coming this week either (she called us Sunday morning). Apparently she just said that because she wanted to surprise us, since she actually came. She convinced her bed-ridden, super old, mother to ride in the car with her and then wait in the parking lot so she could take the sacrament. She didn't stay for all of sacrament meeting, but it's a start. Pretty cool.
Seems like there hasn't been much success in the family lately in the dating area, but if it's any consolation to anyone, I don't have a "significant-other" either, so chin up buck-o's.
Sounds like all is well, it is here too. It was good to talk to you guys yesterday, let's do it again real soon (I'm thinking like in 7 months, what do you say?).
Love,
Elder Barlow
A lot of this is going to be redundant, since I just talked to you guys yesterday, but that's the way it is.
First of all, I was going to use the phone call to wish a happy birthday to Kim, Heidi, Kandis and Hannah, but then I remembered to only one I could talk to was Hannah. Happy birthday everyone, as late as this may be.
Moving on, I'm starting to think that the reason I'm here in Palau is not to teach and baptize. Rather, to learn Palauan, teach, and reactivate. I think our branch has been kind of depressed watching recent-converts go less-active shortly after their baptism, so they have been reluctant to fellowship them, and give them some kind of responsibility. As a result, things have just gotten worse. One lady that was baptized at the end of last year, has been having a lot of family pressure lately. She used to be Modokngei (a Palauan church that is pretty deeply rooted in old Palauan culture, traditions, and gods), but realized it wasn't true and was shortly baptized. Her uncle is the leader of her old church, and convinced her that there are evil spirits in her house now because she has been meeting with us. He and some other members came and did this black magic ritual to cast out these "spirits". Ever since then she has stopped coming to church, and then this week she tried to return everything to us - her Book of Mormon, Bible, lesson manuals, etc etc. It's not because she likes the other church better, it's just that in their culture, so much respect is given to the Rubak (the old man in the family) that they will do whatever he says. It was really a sad situation. We've asked another lady in the branch (whose husband is this other lady's first cousin) to go and talk to her, just to see what she can do.
On the bright side, we've been working a lot with a less-active family lately, and we've having some encouraging success. One of them, Daichingo, has now come to church for a month straight and said his goal is to not miss a week for six months. His father (Chief Singeru that died) was less active before he died, and Daichingo feels like he should take his place and make up for that. His brother-in-law, Idip, isn't a member, but has come with Daichingo three times in a row now. Before he gets baptized, we want to make sure that this family will be active enough to support him spiritually. They also have a cousin, Farrah, who is starting to come back too. She's come twice now, and wants to meet with the Branch President to start her repentance process - and she's fed us twice now, it's been great.
Also, there is a woman named Carsla. She has been a member for who knows how many years, but has not been active for the last couple of years. She hasn't even left her house actually. She claims that a while ago, she got into a car accident and now cannot drive in a car, or be away from her mother. Missionaries have been bringing her the sacrament since ever since and have been trying to get her to come to church for just as long. Well, we decided that it's all in her head, so she needs to come to church. After lots of help, we got her to "try" to come last week, and if not, then this week. Well, she didn't come last week, and told us she had changed her mind and wasn't coming this week either (she called us Sunday morning). Apparently she just said that because she wanted to surprise us, since she actually came. She convinced her bed-ridden, super old, mother to ride in the car with her and then wait in the parking lot so she could take the sacrament. She didn't stay for all of sacrament meeting, but it's a start. Pretty cool.
Seems like there hasn't been much success in the family lately in the dating area, but if it's any consolation to anyone, I don't have a "significant-other" either, so chin up buck-o's.
Sounds like all is well, it is here too. It was good to talk to you guys yesterday, let's do it again real soon (I'm thinking like in 7 months, what do you say?).
Love,
Elder Barlow
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Hellfire and Damnation
Family,
The highlight of our week was something that we did with a lot of our less-actives. First, some background. My area covers three islands. First is Koror, which is the one I live on, second is Malakal, which is pretty much where they've banished anything industrial, and third is Meyuns. Meyuns is divided into two hamlets, or villages - Meyuns itself and Ngerkebesang. A couple of weeks ago, I told you about one of the islands that is like 80% members, that's Meyuns island, and we finally did the movie night that we have been planning.
This is how it went:
We borrowed a projector, popped a bunch of popcorn, hung up one of my sheets on their clothesline, and invited everyone in the area. We had a surprising turnout, and watched the Testaments. After the movie, Elder Shular stood up, read some scriptures that I can't remember, and then we both told them how much we love them, but there isn't much more we can do to help them. Any of you who have seen the movie know that Jacob's character falls away, and then has to go through a bunch of stuff before he finally comes back. It was so powerful, at least for me, and it seemed to have an effect on most of them there. This was Friday night, and on Sunday, all but 3 of them came to church. It was so cool to see three cars full of people show up to church for the first time in a long time. Two of them even bore their testimonies. It was easily the best Sacrament Meeting we've had in months. We're supposed to go back tonight because they want us to start teaching their kids. I'm so excited.
We got our new Marshallese missionary, Elder Bano, and he is super timid. At first we thought his English wasn't very good, but then he was asked to pray in church, and that definitely is not the case - he's just shy.
I've been learning a lot about prayer recently. Many times as I've prayed, I've expected some great revelation to come to me, but as I've studied on my own, I've found something that is probably more correct. I haven't been putting enough effort into finding answers or making decisions for myself. For example, I've been struggling to think of places to work each day, since our area is so small and I've been here for 6 months. Rather than ask "Where should we go today?" I started to decide on my own. Yesterday, I tried something like this, "We are thinking about going to the main road, and knocking on the houses there. If there is something we should do instead, please help me to know it." I felt really good about our plan, so we went. The first house we went to was empty, but then someone called to us, and invited us to come sit with them. He gave us food, and then I recognized him as someone who had asked us for gospel pamphlets a couple of months ago. We only had a few minutes before our next appointment, but it was so easy to see how the Lord answered my prayer and blessed us with a little success.
I'm having a hard time understanding Palauan. I can speak okay, but I just don't get enough practice listening. Church is mostly in English, and my companion doesn't speak it so when we teach, it's just me listening to myself. People don't usually ask questions, or when they do, it's only a few words, so it's easy. I think I might try to find some videos or something that have been translated, and just listen to them for my language study - but those are very limited I'm sure.
Before I go, I'll explain these pictures.
1) This is what we had for lunch last Tuesday at an investigator's house in Ngaraard. It's a unicorn fish called Um, and I think a Surgeon Fish - I'm not sure though. Plus we had fresh picked coconuts to drink. (Before coming to Micronesia, I thought all coconuts were the same - you drink the juice and eat the meat. Nope. When they are young, you drink the juice and the meat is like a jelly. When they are older, the juice is no good to drink, but that's when the meat is thick and nutty. Who knew?)
2) This is a storyboard of the first vision that this same investigator carved for me. He wasn't finished when we went, but it's supposed to be done in a day or two. All he had left to do was carve the faces, then sand and polish it all. He's easily the best carver. I was amazed.
3) I though you all would like to see me! So here I am waiting to go to the airport one night.
4) This is a delicious BBQ Chicken pizza that we made from scratch one day. It was the best.
That's all I have for today. Tomorrow is Zone Conference.
With love and coconuts,
Elder Barlow
The highlight of our week was something that we did with a lot of our less-actives. First, some background. My area covers three islands. First is Koror, which is the one I live on, second is Malakal, which is pretty much where they've banished anything industrial, and third is Meyuns. Meyuns is divided into two hamlets, or villages - Meyuns itself and Ngerkebesang. A couple of weeks ago, I told you about one of the islands that is like 80% members, that's Meyuns island, and we finally did the movie night that we have been planning.
This is how it went:
We borrowed a projector, popped a bunch of popcorn, hung up one of my sheets on their clothesline, and invited everyone in the area. We had a surprising turnout, and watched the Testaments. After the movie, Elder Shular stood up, read some scriptures that I can't remember, and then we both told them how much we love them, but there isn't much more we can do to help them. Any of you who have seen the movie know that Jacob's character falls away, and then has to go through a bunch of stuff before he finally comes back. It was so powerful, at least for me, and it seemed to have an effect on most of them there. This was Friday night, and on Sunday, all but 3 of them came to church. It was so cool to see three cars full of people show up to church for the first time in a long time. Two of them even bore their testimonies. It was easily the best Sacrament Meeting we've had in months. We're supposed to go back tonight because they want us to start teaching their kids. I'm so excited.
We got our new Marshallese missionary, Elder Bano, and he is super timid. At first we thought his English wasn't very good, but then he was asked to pray in church, and that definitely is not the case - he's just shy.
I've been learning a lot about prayer recently. Many times as I've prayed, I've expected some great revelation to come to me, but as I've studied on my own, I've found something that is probably more correct. I haven't been putting enough effort into finding answers or making decisions for myself. For example, I've been struggling to think of places to work each day, since our area is so small and I've been here for 6 months. Rather than ask "Where should we go today?" I started to decide on my own. Yesterday, I tried something like this, "We are thinking about going to the main road, and knocking on the houses there. If there is something we should do instead, please help me to know it." I felt really good about our plan, so we went. The first house we went to was empty, but then someone called to us, and invited us to come sit with them. He gave us food, and then I recognized him as someone who had asked us for gospel pamphlets a couple of months ago. We only had a few minutes before our next appointment, but it was so easy to see how the Lord answered my prayer and blessed us with a little success.
I'm having a hard time understanding Palauan. I can speak okay, but I just don't get enough practice listening. Church is mostly in English, and my companion doesn't speak it so when we teach, it's just me listening to myself. People don't usually ask questions, or when they do, it's only a few words, so it's easy. I think I might try to find some videos or something that have been translated, and just listen to them for my language study - but those are very limited I'm sure.
Before I go, I'll explain these pictures.
1) This is what we had for lunch last Tuesday at an investigator's house in Ngaraard. It's a unicorn fish called Um, and I think a Surgeon Fish - I'm not sure though. Plus we had fresh picked coconuts to drink. (Before coming to Micronesia, I thought all coconuts were the same - you drink the juice and eat the meat. Nope. When they are young, you drink the juice and the meat is like a jelly. When they are older, the juice is no good to drink, but that's when the meat is thick and nutty. Who knew?)
2) This is a storyboard of the first vision that this same investigator carved for me. He wasn't finished when we went, but it's supposed to be done in a day or two. All he had left to do was carve the faces, then sand and polish it all. He's easily the best carver. I was amazed.
3) I though you all would like to see me! So here I am waiting to go to the airport one night.
4) This is a delicious BBQ Chicken pizza that we made from scratch one day. It was the best.That's all I have for today. Tomorrow is Zone Conference.
With love and coconuts,
Elder Barlow
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)