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
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