Coming back off the bench...

Family,

Anyone who thought I forgot to write last week, let me inform you: that is not the case. Our P-Day was cancelled and replaced by training. Whatever happened last week is kind of a blur, so I won't really have much to say about it.

What I can remember though, is my trip to Yap this last week. It's pretty similar to Palau, but there aren't as many buildings (Palau was the Japanese headquarters in Micronesia during WWII, and a lot of the buildings are still here, and used by the Palauan government), and the houses are more spread out. Here people live in clustered villages, and the villages are a little spread out. In Yap, everyone is pretty equally separated. Plus, Yapese women (not all, but many) don't wear tops, and the men wear these sumo-wrestler-esque loin cloths. It's good to be home.

Sunday we went to church there, and it was great to see all the kids. Palauans are embarrassed by their kids I think, so they don't bring them to church. This little girl came and sat next to me during sacrament meeting, and faithfully reminded me to fold my arms and close my eyes everytime a prayer was said, and asked me to help her find the hymns we sang. It was pretty cute.

Monday-Thursday was taken by 7-8 hour meetings. The topics were: The Doctrine of Christ, Sweet Boldness, the Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion, Revelation Through Prayer/Church Attendance/Scripture Study, and How to Begin Teaching. Even though the meetings were long, I loved it. After our meetings, we went out and proselyted for the rest of the night. It was awesome putting the things we learned into action. Even though I don't speak Yapese, it was still a great experience. I learned so much, and now it's my job to train these other guys for the next several weeks. I'm going to Guam next weekend for the same kind of training, but only for one day this time. I don't know if we'll have P-Day or not, we'll have to see.

I realized yesterday that when Elder Lyman leaves (this is his last transfer) I'll be the oldest missionary here (in Palau), and the next oldest will have been out only 4 months. That's going to be weird for sure.

I only have one picture for you guys this week. This is "Yapese Stone Money". like 500 years ago, Yapese men traveled to Palau by canoe and carved this money out of our Rock Islands. It's value is determined by tools used, and how many men died on the voyage - size only has a small influence. Pretty cool.
Until next week (hopefully).

Love,
Elder Barlow

16 Aug 2010

Family,

Public school started today. It's pretty funny because every school has uniforms here. It's been a while since I've seen all the kids walking around in their goofy uniforms. Some of them are pretty atrocious, I should get a picture for you guys.

This last couple of weeks we've been trying to make a special focus on lessons with recent converts, less-actives, and investigators with a member present. My companion and I did really well, but we had some pretty discouraging results (I don't think they are related, just a bad coincidence). The three girls we had scheduled to be baptized didn't come to church, which is several weeks in a row now. The problem is they don't have a car, and for some reason are ashamed to ask someone for a ride. We arranged for some youth to walk to church with them, but when Saturday came, one of the girls said (well, told her mom to tell us) that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore because she doesn't want to walk all the way to church. It's like a 2 mile walk, but for these Palauans that's like walking from California to Arizona or something - they're pretty spoiled.

Another thing we've struggling with is the actual church here. We have one branch, and the leadership struggles. They don't show up to meetings, they don't really do anything - except the Branch President. He has gotten to the point where he just expects people not to do anything, so he doesn't ask them to, or follow up, but just does it himself, or no one does. One of the other missionaries and I met with him yesterday before church to talk about the problems the branch is having and how 'To the Rescue' (I don't know if you guys are doing that at home, but I assume you are. If you're supposed to be, and aren't, I'll put dishonor on your whole family) can help. He agreed and then discussed it with the branch council. Then we (the missionaries) are going to go into the homes of the active members and pester them and make sure the assignments are fulfilled. Everyone has great intentions, I just don't think they know what their calling actually entails, and need some training.

Last week, we were driving to see a waterfall (I'd been there before, but the new guy hadn't), and we got stuck in some pretty watery mud. We all got out to assess the situation, and decided we'd just push it. So we put it in reverse to give us a little boost as we pushed. It worked great, but the problem is after it got out of the mud, it kept going. Elder Adams opened the driver's side door and jumped in and hit the brakes before it rolled into the side of the hill. It was a pretty good time. We tried going over the mud again, after laying some banana leaves down over it, and from a different angle, and we got over just fine. Unfortunately, we then realized that the path to the waterfall started right there - about 10 feet from the muddy spot. We didn't actually have to go over it at all. We all felt pretty dumb, but we had a good time anyway.

I leave for Yap on Saturday, so I don't know how P-Day is going to work next week. If you don't get an email from me on Monday (Sunday I guess for you), you'll either get an email or a letter from me later in the week I guess.

I heard something about Proposition 8 getting brought up again (I guess that's why they asked you to speak, Dad), but as usual, I don't know anything about it. What's the problem?

Dad, having the new missionary's principle's nephew's cousin be your cousin's wife's sister doesn't make it a small world. That's about normal. Speaking of weird family relationships, Palau is ridiculous about that. Actually all of Micronesia from what I've gathered. People call their 3rd cousins' kids their nieces/nephews, or their grandmother's cousin is their mom, and just tons of other things like that. It always makes contacting referrals interesting.

"We're looking for a woman named Tmong. Do you know her?"
"That's me."
"Nice to meet you, you're sister, Ochob said you might like to listen to the message we have to share."
"Who?"
"Your sister, Ochob?"
"Ochob?"
"Yeah, she lives in Ngerbodel, in the green house."
"Oh! Ochob, yeah that's my cousin's niece."

This probably happens every day.

I'll talk to you all next week, hopefully.

Love,

Elder Barlow

Baptism!

Family,

We had such a great baptism this week. The girl is 15 years old, and was the greatest ever. My companion and I found her last transfer, but then I moved areas halfway through her teaching. After we asked her to be baptized and come to church, she immediately agreed, and hasn't missed a week. She finished the whole Book of Mormon in a month (she wanted to finish before her baptism), and started again, she rented "Our Heritage" from the local library, and read that too. She invited so many people to her baptism, so we had about 40 people there (Sacrament meeting attendance is about 55-60). She even asked one of the other young women to help her pay her tithing yesterday (her first Sunday being baptized). She's ridiculous, and will be such a good example, especially to the Young Women. I got to interview her, and it was such a great experience. It just makes you think how many people are out there just waiting. Pretty cool.

We've been struggling with a couple of our families (the ones who have children preparing to be baptized). One of them doesn't have a car or phone, and lives super far from the church. Another has a car and a phone, but the car is unreliable, and they often can't afford gas, and they live far too (not really, but in the Palauan mind they do). A lot of you guys have kids that you bring to church, so hopefully you can help me. One problem we've been having, especially, is people are afraid to bring their young children to church. They're afraid that the kids will cry and run around, or whatever else kids do. We've tried to tell them that of course they will, but if you keep bringing them, they will learn. How can we help them to not care so much? Or what are some cool tricks to get the kids quiet for an hour in the meeting?

I think we've officially entered the real rainy season. It's been constantly raining for the past week. Some days more than others, but my planner gets pretty soaked. The sheets I brought came in these plastic things that zip closed, so I've been using those to put my books and photo album in (inside my backpack). I thought it was genious, but every time I pull it out, everyone giggles. It's pretty funny actually. I'm still doing it. I've been wearing my Crocs (yes, I have crocs, for those who didn't know - they're approved specifically for our mission) everyday, but now that it's raining so much, it's too much of a hassle to avoid all the puddles and look at the ground all day. So, I switched back to my normal shoes. I'm not retiring them just yet though.

That's all I have I think. My trip to Yap is the 22nd of August I found out yesterday, then we'll fly back the 26th for Zone Conference that day.

Oh, Dad. Either you or Mom asked if you're sending too many pictures, and the answer is no. But here's the thing. I can't keep them all (I just don't have space) - so you can just print them all on regular paper, fold it up, and send it off. Plus, I think it would save some time and money for you guys. Just a thought.

Love,

Elder Barlow


(Pictures):

1) I found this word in the dictionary the other day. I'm going to try and use it in as many teaching situations as possible - "God has asked us to love our neighbor. That means that we should not 'melengesakl'"
2) Risong and her family at Risong's baptism.

3) Risong, Tobi (another recent convert), and the missionaries - Sunday (yesterday).

Micro-Games

Family,

This week has been crazy. So starting yesterday, is the 7th Micronesian Games. It's like the olympics, but for Micronesians. It includes Palau, Nauru, Guam, Kosrae, Marshall, Saipan (CNMI), Chuuk, Pohnpei, Yap...and I think that's it. So there are over 1,200 athletes, and then about that many fans, plus the usual tourist crowd. Not to mention all of the people from Palau's outer islands that came for the games. All on like a 15 sq. mile island. They have the police force directing traffic all over the island, complete with cones and everything - for 10 days. It's stressing me out - I'm not used to this many people. On the bright side, it's been pretty exciting to see all the different kinds of people, and trying to guess what island they're from. Each of Palau's states, plus various other stores and groups, set up booths as fundraisers and stuff. It's going to be a pretty cool P-day activity this week and next week.

We finally picked an apartment to move to. It's on Meyuns island (where we want to start the branch) and has a pretty sweet view. Plus, we have 4 people scheduled to be baptized over there. Two of them are sisters, one is their cousin, and the 4th is another guy, named Odi. We're looking at the first week of September, since I'll be in Yap the last week in August.

There's this less active family that we've been meeting with ever since I've been here, and even way before that. They've never come to church at least since I've been here, and again, probably way before that. The youngest daughter is great though. They had a copy of Gordon B. Hinckley's "Way to Be" that her older sister got in Young Women years ago, and it's just been sitting on the shelf. We had an appointment with them on Saturday, and this girl (Chanel) was reading it. She put it down, and someone was going to move it so they could sit where it was, and she pretty much yelled, "don't lose my page!" - she's like 11. Pretty funny. Anyway, we have a copy of the old First Vision movie, that was translated into Palauan by the former Branch President here, and we showed it to them Saturday night. Then they came to church the next morning, and the father even bore his testimony. We've had so many great things happen after showing that movie to people. It just shows how important it is for people to learn the Gospel in their language.

That reminds me, Fast and Testimony meeting is the best meeting for less active Palauans. Many of them will wait until then to make their triumphant return and bear their testimony to the branch about how long they were less-active, but now they're back! Then everyone else gets up and bears their testimony about how great it is to see so-and-so back at church. It's really a pretty interesting thing to see.

I'm going to stop writing "Elder" on my letters - we'll see if that changes anything. I'm still trying to figure out why they aren't getting there.

Love,

Elder Barlow.
(it's ok on emails though.)