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