27 Sept. 2010

Family,

So we’ve been meeting a lot with the family that I told you about last week, and the father agreed to be baptized with the rest of them. The problem is, he still has not read from the Book of Mormon, or prayed. Then something came up, and none of them were able to come to church yesterday. We were pretty bummed about it, but it was the first time we really asked them to come. It was encouraging to see members that we had taken along take an interest in them though. When they didn’t show up, people came up to us and asked about the family – how they were doing, that they were excited to see them again, etc. It meant a lot to us. I still have high hopes for them.

Zone Leader Council is happening this coming weekend, and I just learned that I’m going to Guam for it. I’m assuming that means I’ll be the Zone Leader here in a couple of weeks, but you never know right? I’m pretty excited to go because I’ll get to eat at real restaurants and have fast food.

We were asked to give a blessing last night to the father of a less-active man that we’re teaching, and I realized how inadequate I feel sometimes. Here I am, 19 year old Taylor, being called upon to make the will of God known to people much older and more experienced in the walks of life than I am. I can’t help but be humbled at the opportunity.

I think I’ve mentioned the To the Rescue program, but part of what it entails is the active members are supposed to assign themselves to a less-active member, and go visit and fellowship them – in addition to normal home teaching to their other families. Anyway, it hasn’t been happening, so we’ve started calling members and just scheduling times with them to go and visit whoever they’re assigned to. We called one woman in particular, and she picked a time and day, and then decided, “You know what? Why don’t I just pick her (the other woman she is assigned to) up, and bring her to our house tomorrow for Family Home Evening?” So that’s happening tonight and I’m so excited for it.

Love,
Elder Barlow

P.S. In the newsletter you said “For Kandis’ babies” (plural) is she having twins and no one told me?


One of our families' diseased pet puppy. Sick.

Gross puppy again.


Our instant water heater and broken pipe in the middle of being fixed.



This is Rilang - the girl who left on her mission (in red), myself, Elder Lyman (not my companion), Rayda (a returned missionary in blue), and Rilang's crazy little brother, Ngirachsui.

20 Sept. 2010

Family,

This week has been pretty interesting to say the least.

First of all, we just recently moved into a new apartment, and then we learned that everything is broken. We then went through the apartment with the landlord and showed him all the problems. He then made some observations of his own (we needed a smoke alarm, fire extinguisher, kitchen hood, towel rack, etc), and sent his worker over to fix it all. They installed an instant water heater (our first one was broken) with a shower head on a hose attached to it, but he didn't put a hook or a cradle or anything for the shower head to rest on, it just hung down. The next time the landlord came we asked if there was supposed to be a hook, and he said yes, and that he would send the guy back. They guy came again and was about to put the hook about two feet off the ground, but we asked if he could raise it up, so that we could actually use it to shower. He said sure and proceeded to drill. The next few days we realized that water was leaking out from behind the hook/cradle thing. I unscrewed it to see what the deal was, and then turned on the shower, and water shot out of the hole that he drilled. Mr. Construction Worker drilled right into the pipe. Needless to say the landlord was pretty upset, and so was the worker when we told them the problem. Saturday, the worker came in (absolutely fuming - it was pretty awkward), and tightened the screw and was about to call it good and leave. The landlord said, "listen, if it doesn't leak out, it's going to leak in. You have to fix the pipe!" So then the worker angrily hammers some cement/putty stuff into the hole and called it good (the landlord had to go). Today we saw the landlord and he asked us if he fixed it. Not wanting to cause more trouble, but still make it clear that it was still broken, we said "yeah, I think so, he hammered some stuff in there and it doesn't leak anymore." Again, angry landlord. Then he called the worker, yet again, to come and fix it. That's where we're at now. I'm not anxious to see the workers face when he comes back. Pretty exciting though.

On a lighter note, a young woman in the branch left for her mission in Australia this week. I think she was feeling excited about it, because she gave us some great referrals just a couple of days before she left. One was for a girl that she met just running errands, and the other was for a family across the street from her. We were only able to meet with each of them once, but the mother and the two kids agreed to be baptized in a month. The father wasn't sure, he said he'd already been baptized, but I think he'll come around. Rilang (the girl who left on a mission), was so excited when we told her. It was a great send off for her I think.

We'll be getting a new missionary here in Palau when Elder Lyman leaves in 3.5 weeks (he's going home), and I'm pretty excited to see how it all plays out.

Love,

Elder Barlow

Birthday

If anyone is wondering what I want for my birthday (October 4th), I'm not really sure. But I'll see what I can come up with:

Many pictures of all different temples (like the kind you can get at the distribution center), especially the Manilla one.

Some good facewash (it's like $100 here)

A sweet Plan of Salvation visual diagram of some sort (portable of course)

Canned chicken/roast beef (sometimes they get canned chicken here, but it's only once in a while and it's gone super fast, and it's great)

Candy

Pictures (of people - Dad does really good with this, but if there are pictures other people would like to send to, that'd be great).

(As I'm thinking about things, did you guys ever get that other watch fixed? I don't know how long this one will last)

That's really everything I can think of. I don't need ALL these things, I just thought I'd give you guys some ideas.

Love,

Elder Barlow

13 Sept. 2010

Family,

First of all, when I die, make sure no one feels obligated to come to my funeral. Especially distant relatives. Also make sure it only lasts an hour. This week there were two funerals in our area, and it basically froze our work.

"No, I can't come to church, I have to go to my cousins funeral for 3 days"

"Oh, was it your first cousin?" (I asked this question, knowing what the answer would be)

"Well, actually it was the son of the second cousin of a woman that was pretty much raised with my mother"

"..."

This really happened. I couldn't believe it.

Anyway, something pretty interesting happened to us last night. Elder Wright and I were out knocking doors, and we walked past this girl who talked to us for a minute, but then we kind of brushed it off and kept going. After a few more houses, we walked back out to the road, and there she was walking our way again. She asked us if we knew Jenny (obviously we do), and then asked a little about what we were doing. We soon learned she left her parents' religion (Jehovah's Witnesses), resulting in her basically being exiled. After learning she used to be JW, I knew that this was the girl that one of the Young Men has been talking about for months. He has a huge crush on her, so we'll probably tease him about it next time we see him. Anyway, she works 2 jobs to support herself while she lives on her own. It was pretty sad, but I think it shows at least a little desire to find truth, if she's willing to go through all of that. We scheduled to visit her on Tuesday.

I got to have McDonald's in Guam last Monday, that was pretty cool. They even have Chili's and Wendy's and Subway. We're missing out here, that's for sure.

Oh, I almost forgot. We had another baptism on Saturday. I almost forgot because the senior couple taught her. We weren't really involved in the teaching at all, but she's been coming to church for months, even institute and activities. She just had to be taught, and we thought that since she's a woman, it would be easier for the couple to teach her. I got to interview, and her English isn't very good (she's from the Philippines), so I brought someone with me to translate. It was a great experience.

As I'm trying to teach Elder Wright Palauan, I realize how much I would hate to be learning all over again. It brings me back to see him struggle with the same things that I did. I think he'll be able to learn really quickly. I'm excited for him.

Love,

Elder Barlow

Cookie Sandwich

"Here is a picture of Taylor that we got off the Mission Blog - he is teaching the leadership how to eat a cookie sandwich. You take two cookies and put a piece of chocolate in between. Then you eat off the extra cookie and then dip what remains in hot chocolate until the chocolate candy starts to melt - then eat." - Dennis Barlow

BYU wins

Family,

So I'm in Guam for training this weekend, and it's been pretty weird. First of all, I had to change planes in Yap (actually I just got off the plane, then back on the same plane - they did a security check or something), and as we were taxiing to the gate, lightning hit the runway. It was pretty loud, and hit close to the ground crew, so the pilot told us they were going to send them inside until the storm calmed a little. So there we were sitting in a giant metal airplane, just waiting. Finally, they started again and finished taking us to the gate. So our flight left like 30 minutes late - not too bad considering everything.We finally got here at like 5:20 in the morning (I checked into the airport in Palau at 11:20), but then had to wait for Elder Abubo (a Filipino elder from Yap) to go through customs, and we didn't get to the apartment we were staying at until close to 7. Then we had to get ready to go to church at 9. After church and lunch, we were finally able to get some sleep.

Oh, so my companion was transferred to Saipan. Now I'm training a new missionary. His name is Elder Wright and he's from Northwest Arkansas. It's been pretty interesting to realize what kinds of things you have to teach new missionaries. Simple things that I've done everyday for almost a year, are completely foreign to him. Things like planning, the daily schedule, it's all new for him, and I have to be patient and remember that he hasn't done it before. The hard part is realizing what's actually new for him so I can teach him. Should be fun.

This week is going to be pretty short. I have to get to the airport, so I'll talk to you all next week.

Love,

Elder Barlow