For anyone who doesn't believe in bed bugs...and more

These are some old pictures that I never got around to sending, and some new ones.

1) When Elder Stanley (my trainer) left to be a Zone Leader on Guam.

2) Something pooped on our truck, and I had to fling it off with a stick, but it was pretty stuck on there.


3) A less-active woman and her family that I worked with in my first area, then she moved to the area I moved to (but then I got transferred back).



4) The woman (Seba) that we baptized a few weeks ago.



5) At a waterfall in a place called Ngaremlengui


6) Elder Shular when we dropped him off at the airport this week.


7-11) One morning I woke up and my legs were just ridiculously itchy. After examining the source, I counted 94 bites from my waist to my toes - give or take a few. The bites look the same as the bed bug bites I got before, but we decided they were chigger bites from the beach we taught at the day before.

25 July 2010

Family,

Ok so this week was pretty crazy. Elder Shular was transferred to Saipan on Wednesday night, and the new guy came Thursday night. His name is Elder Adams, from Gilbert, Arizona.

As for me, I was transferred back to my old area, which isn't really what I was expecting. I was a little nervous to go back at first - I didn't expect it so soon, but I'm pretty excited about it now. Elder Bano is my new companion, and even though he doesn't talk much, he's a smart guy, and pretty funny when he wants to be - he just has to open up a little bit. Even though the people are the same, I feel like there's a lot of good I can do now, after being away for a little while. We have a girl scheduled to be baptized August 14th now, and I'm pretty excited for her.

We've been thinking about moving apartments, so that we can actually live in Meyuns, rather than Koror, and be closer to the people we're trying to work with. We are trying to revive the branch that used to be there, but its hard if we have to be driving back and forth from our apartment all the time - it takes quite a toll on our gas.

Saturday was our Pioneer Day activity, and it was pretty interesting for several reasons. First, it started at 6 a.m. and we walked to where Palau was dedicated for missionary work. After one of the members read about the history a little bit, we walked back and had breakfast at a member's house. The activity reconvened that evening for a slideshow and variety show. Each auxiliary put together something and then performed it for the rest of us. It was pretty casual, but still pretty fun. The branch president's step daughter (the one I've been talking about for forever now), who still isn't baptized, brought 4 non-member friends to the activity, one of which she gave to us as a referral a couple of weeks ago. She's the best non-member missionary there is, I'm pretty sure.

Oh I forgot, I'm also the District Leader now, so I'll get to go to Yap for like 4 days for leadership training. I'm pretty excited about it.

Love,

Elder Barlow

First Pregnancy

Family and beloved associates,

If anyone was alarmed at the subject line I have included, rest assured. I am not pregnant, nor is anyone else as a result of my actions. I couldn't think of a better way to indicate that I will reach my 9 month mark on Wednesday. I probably say this (or at least think it) every time another month passes by, but I can't believe it's been that long already.

This week begins a new transfer, so let me tell you what I think will be happening. First of all, last week, we learned that a new missionary would be coming to the island (we need to take care of some of his immigration stuff I guess - we don't actually need to, but the office thought we did). During our weekly call-in report, one of the assistants hinted that Elder Lyman (my companion now) would be going to Guam. We knew that someone had to leave if someone new was coming, but we didn't know if it would be Elder Lyman or Elder Shular (my last companion). So either I'll be the new Zone Leader, language training the new guy, or Elder Shular will, and I'll go back to my old area. We'll find out on Wednesday, and I'll let you know next week how this all plays out.

I was kind of hoping that you hadn't already sent a new camera, since mine resurrected this past week. But since you already did (thanks a ton by the way), we have two options. First, I can send one of them back home and you can get a refund or whatever. Second, I can give my old one to Elder Bano (the new Marshallese missionary here - who doesn't have a camera). Let me know what you would prefer. Also, I don't know the model number on my razor, but I'm pretty sure it's the same as yours, Dad. If not the same model number, I think it's close enough that it would fit.

Picture time. The first one is my new apartment. That's pretty much all there is to it. The senior couple lives above us, and a Fijian/Palauan couple live next door. Second, Elder Scofield (from Burbank) served here about 6 years ago, and I think was friends with Heidi. Just thought that was pretty cool. There's a member who has all the missionaries write on a piece of plywood that he has nailed over one of his windows - that's what the picture is of. Last is a picture of the tourist sign leading to a waterfall. I thought it was just a really nice, well-kept informational sign, and wanted you all to appreciate it with me.
Now lets talk about the work for a minute.

Back in December, there was a woman named Deejay that we baptized. After a while her family started getting in the way and requiring that she return to us all of her lesson manuals, Book of Mormon, videos, and anything else she had from the church. They forbade her from going to church, and in Palauan culture, if your family tells you to do something, you pretty much have to do it. We were pretty bold with her and read from the Bible about "he that loveth his father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me" (not an exact quote but I think it's close enough). She asked for a blessing, and then we tried to get some other members to handle the situation. I got transferred, and she moved, so we kind of just gave up on it all. Here's the good news! Apparently one of the newly reactivated members (who lives near where she used to live) woke up one day and felt like she may have moved back. He walked down to check and see, and lo and behold - there she was. He asked her to come back to church, she agreed, and he picked her up on Sunday. All of this happened without any of us knowing, so watching them come into church on Sunday was amazing. Everyone seemed excited to see her and welcomed her lovingly. So cool. I'm pretty sure Joel (the one who picked her up) gets instant exaltation for that single act right? Just kidding, but still - what a stud.

While I'm talking about church - we had 6 investigators there yesterday. We had a great week.

I'm not sure if I told you, but we have a girl scheduled to be baptized on August 7th. Her name is Risong (or Charity), and has been just a wonderful investigator. She has read and marked the Book of Mormon from 1 Nephi through Mosiah so far. We have been meeting with her dad and her brother too, but they aren't progressing quite as quickly as her.

I mentioned that there were some changes happening, but they weren't quite what we expected. They are as follows:

-Zone Conference is now every quarter rather than every transfer.
-President Dowdle will come every quarter to go on splits with us (alternating quarters or the same, I'm not sure)
-Zone Leader Council is every month (rather than every other transfer, or every transfer like it has been)
-District and Zone Leaders will go to Yap every other (I think) transfer for leadership training.
-The content of training (from leaders) is shifting to how to receive revelation through various mediums (church attendance, prayer, scripture study, etc).

Apparently they will start teaching all of this in the MTC in May, but they need the missions to be doing it right first, before they send missionaries into it.

I think that's all I have to report this week. Lots of exciting stuff is happening this week (we already have 19 appointments scheduled and the week hasn't even really started).

I love you all, I'll talk you next week.

Love,

Elder Barlow

12 July 2010

Family,

Good afternoon one and all. So my companion is still in Guam, but arrives tonight. Apparently there are some major changes happening to the way missionary work is done. We all have our conspiracy theories, about a new Preach My Gospel or electronic area books or something else crazy, but really we have no idea. All I do know is that all the District and Zone Leaders are being flown to Yap (I don't know what the significance of Yap is, but that's where they decided) for some leadership training in August. I'm really curious to learn what's going on.

We got a referral about a week and a half ago for this man and his wife, and so went to contact them, and we just couldn't seem to catch them at home. Finally we went and the husband and his daughter were home. We soon learned that they had met with missionaries about a year and a half ago (they still remembered the names of the missionaries, which was encouraging). They invited us back the next day to teach them. We came, taught them about the Restoration, and set up a time to come back. We decided to watch the old "First Vision" movie, since its the only one in Palauan, just to make sure they understood what we were teaching. As we were watching, I had the impression that I needed to ask them to be baptized, but this being only our second meeting with them, I wasn't sure. I started to think about dates and trying to find what the date would be for a Saturday about a month away, and then just kind of catalogued it as we continued with the lesson. We gave them the Book of Mormon challenge, which is a plan for them to finish the Palauan Book of Mormon in 84 days, and mark references to Christ. We were about to end the lesson, when I got that feeling again. At the surprise of my companion, I invited them both to be baptized. They looked at each other and the daughter answered, "ochoi" (yes). Her father said he wanted to keep meeting with us before he answered, and asked us to come the next night. They had read from the Book of Mormon together and marked it together. I was so impressed and ridiculously happy. We're supposed to meet again tonight, but at least Risong, the daughter, is scheduled to be baptized on the 7th of August.

We even had a less active family stay for the full 3 hours of church, at the request of the non-member father. This week was just great. I think things are really starting to pick up here, and if not, I at least feel like they are.

My mission president hasn't let me know about the email situation yet. So that's still pending. If you've written me, and you haven't received anything from me, just keep writing, hopefully they'll fix whatever the problem is.

Until next week.

Love,

Elder Barlow

5 July 2010

Family,

First of all, there seems to be an issue with the mail. I've had a couple people write me wondering if I'm getting their letters, and as far as I know, I am. I've responded to most, if not all of the letters I've received, but I don't think they're making it out of here alive. I don't really know how to take care of that, but I think I'm going to try and talk to the Post Office and tell them to get their act together. If that doesn't work, I may talk to the mission president and ask for permission to email non-family. On that note, will you let people know that they can email me? I can't email them back, but emails are faster and more reliable.

Anyway, a shooting? Doesn't the guy know that the punishment for suspected shoplifting is going to be infinitely more merciful than shooting 2 policemen? What a dumb guy. Guns are illegal here in Palau. I think police carry guns, but I'm not even sure.

Big news. We had another baptism this last week. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first investigator that we've had who we've taught completely in Palaun from start to finish. Teaching her has been such a good learning experience, especially for the language. After we teach a principle, if there is a better way to communicate that thought, she would explain it to us, which was awesome for 2 reasons. One, we learn, and two, she internalizes what we taught since she repeated it back to us. Palauan is pretty interesting. They don't have a lot of words to convey ideas that we as English-speakers are used to. For example, they don't have a word for "understand." Now here's the problem. As I'm teaching, the people I teach will not interrupt for any reason (usually), so it's hard to tell if they understand something. In English I would just say, "Do you understand?" or "Does that make sense?" Without a word for "understand", it has been pretty hard to convey that thought. I've had to say things like "Do you already know?" Which was fine, but isn't quite what I mean. Teaching Seba (the woman that was baptized) has really helped. She doesn't speak great English, but good enough to explain. In one lesson, I said, "Ke mlo medengei?" (you already know?), and she responded, "just say, 'ng bleketakl?'" (it's clear?). There are several golden words like that, that just make speaking so much easier. Pretty cool.

We had a pretty good week. My companion is going to Guam this next weekend, so I'll be with the other missionaries in my old stomping grounds. I'm pretty excited to see people, but it's also a little bit of a hassle to not be able to work in my own area.

I mentioned this in my last letter, but my camera lens has like some mold or something on the inside, and there's no way for me to get to it. I hate to ask, but would it be possible for me to get a new camera?

I forgot to tell you that we solved our bed bug problem! We got rid of all 4 mattresses from both apartments, then fumigated both of them with a bug bomb thing, and bought new mattresses. Finally that nightmare is over. But guess what. Now we have fleas.

Happy 4th of July everyone.

Love,

Elder Barlow