Family,
This will just be short, we have a meeting in a minute. We got our transfer call last week, and my new companion's name is Elder Agalzoff, he's new. He's from Oregon, and he's a pretty funny kid.
We had a baptism this weekend, and our recent convert was able to baptize his son. It was so cool. We even had an investigator come and see the baptism. She's going to be baptized in December.
Like I said, I just have a minute. I'm doing great, next week I'll go into more detail, when I have more time.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Monday, November 29, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
22 Nov. 2010
Family,
We've had a great last couple of weeks. We've been making a huge effort to meet with members and get some referrals from them, and it's been working out great for us. We haven't had a ton of referrals, but we have had some - which is more than we can say for the last while. We just began week one of the new transfer today, but we won't find out what is happening (who is getting transferred where) until Wednesday night. At least until then, we are still in a tri-panionship, and Elder Adams is the District Leader. This coming weekend we go to Guam again for leadership training, and then again two or three weeks after that for zone leader council, and then yet again two weeks later. Air fare for these meetings has got to be pretty ridiculous.
I think I mentioned the less-active man that we've been teaching, named Lloyd. He has just been doing great, and yesterday he came to church, and asked us to show him how to pay his tithing. He hasn't been to church in years, and now he's coming, reading from the Book of Mormon every day, asking questions, and paying tithing. His wife and daughter aren't too interested at the moment, but with his great example, I'm thoping that will change soon. On an unrelated note, his 13-year old daughter was trying to get her flirt on with my companions on Saturday during our lesson, it was pretty funny.
Our recent convert family is still doing great too. Ian, the father, has been talking to his neighbors and when we went over there on Saturday, he told us to follow him and we'd go talk to a Yapese family that lives near them. We talked to the mother and set up a return appointment. She was sick when we went back last night, but I was just so excited that he was willing to go with us to talk to his neighbor. Plus, he went out and got white shirts, slacks, and ties for his two sons, one is going to be baptized on Saturday. They all looked so slick at church.
A while back there was a less-active man that told another member (semi-less active) to tell us not to come visit him anymore because he "already knows the truth." I was pretty surprised to hear that because it was pretty out-of-nowhere. Anyway, we didn't go back for about 2 months, but anytime we saw any member of his family (there's a bunch of them that live there) they would ask us when we are coming again or why we haven't been by. We'd respond by throwing this other guy under the bus, "Oh, he didn't tell you? Yeah, he told us not to come anymore." They all got pretty upset. Finally, Saturday night we went to their house. His mother and his wife were outside and they asked us the same question, and we responded the same way, and they reacted the same. Later he came out and said, "Elders, I'm coming to church tomorrow, I don't have work." It was so weird. We're going over tomorrow to do some service on the old woman's farm/garden, and he actually did come to church yesterday, and even paid his tithing. It's crazy how things happen sometimes. I don't think him coming was a result of us sicking his family on him, but it felt good to know the rest of them still loved us.
This week is our Branch Thanksgiving Activity, which I'm excited for. The area produced a movie specifically for our mission called, "Do You Know Us?" It was filmed in Guam and has natives doing the voices for all the island languages. It's designed for members to show to their friends and family, and they're going to show it at the activity. I'm really excited because this activity is pretty well known around the area (Palauans love their food - especially when it's free).
I'll let you know how everything turns out.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Sunday, November 14, 2010
14 Nov 2010
Family,
This week was so crazy. I got back from Guam on Monday night, and my flight was delayed, so we didn't really have time to go out and do anything. We've been focusing lately on having a member present at as many appointments as possible. Each island is setting goals for how many of these lessons they can teach per companionship. We set a goal for 6, which is a step up from last month. The last two weeks we've had 3 and 5. This week we had 13. It was incredible. We got a bunch of referrals and several new investigators. We just had a ton of great success, and I'm so excited to see what comes of it all.
On Saturday we had the APs come and train us on the Abrahamic Covenant. It was something that I felt the members here needed to hear and take to heart. So, yesterday we had Branch Council Meeting, and I asked the Branch President if I could take a few minutes to teach them about it. Basically what it entailed was that Palauans are descendants of the House of Israel through Joseph, and helping them to understand that if they reach out to their friends, they will accept the gospel because of the Lord's promise to Abraham. It was really cool. Our next step is to take it into their homes and then get referrals. I have a feeling that this is what we need right now, so I'm excited to see the results here as well.
We were teaching a less-active man on Thursday, and he's just been doing awesome. Since he started reading the Book of Mormon, he's just been on fire. At first he didn't really care. He was nice and stuff, but he would just kind of flip through pages and look around during our lessons. It took him a while, but since he started reading, he is way more involved in the lessons, and is willing to keep any commitment we invite him to. We couldn't find his records anywhere, so we told him that it may have been lost when he moved to Saipan (it's kind of a problem here in Micronesia), or that we might not be able to retrieve it for whatever reason. We told him that he may need to be baptized again in order to recreate it. He answered, "If that's what I need to do, I'll do it." Then we taught him about sacrifice and coming to church (he often works night shifts and doesn't finish until the early morning), and again he responded, "If that's what I need to do, I can make that sacrifice and do it." Being able to see the change in him has just been so awesome, it's unreal.
I don't know if you guys ever sent that Halloween package or not, but if you did. I didn't get it yet. If not, then obviously it still hasn't come. Just making sure someone at the post office isn't stealing my mail.
This is the last week of the transfer, so if we get a new missionary, he will come next Thursday. Then again, we may stay in this tri-panionship for another 6 weeks. Who knows.
Let me know if you want pictures of anything in particular, I'll see what I can do.
Love,
Elder Barlow
We're helping a recent convert quit smoking again, and he asked me to carve "no smoking" into his workbench. Luckily I got my wood-carving merit badge.
The family that was baptized a few weeks ago. The father received the priesthood last week, and blessed the sacrament yesterday. Their other son is scheduled to be baptized on the 27th.
These pigs were HUGE. They are illegal to have down in Koror, but lots of people raise them in Babeldaob.
Pickle juice popsicle. Still delicious.
This is a crazy bug that landed on my book during a lesson.
Elder Stanley (my trainer) finishes his mission today, so he took me to the airport in Guam on my way back to Palau last week.
This week was so crazy. I got back from Guam on Monday night, and my flight was delayed, so we didn't really have time to go out and do anything. We've been focusing lately on having a member present at as many appointments as possible. Each island is setting goals for how many of these lessons they can teach per companionship. We set a goal for 6, which is a step up from last month. The last two weeks we've had 3 and 5. This week we had 13. It was incredible. We got a bunch of referrals and several new investigators. We just had a ton of great success, and I'm so excited to see what comes of it all.
On Saturday we had the APs come and train us on the Abrahamic Covenant. It was something that I felt the members here needed to hear and take to heart. So, yesterday we had Branch Council Meeting, and I asked the Branch President if I could take a few minutes to teach them about it. Basically what it entailed was that Palauans are descendants of the House of Israel through Joseph, and helping them to understand that if they reach out to their friends, they will accept the gospel because of the Lord's promise to Abraham. It was really cool. Our next step is to take it into their homes and then get referrals. I have a feeling that this is what we need right now, so I'm excited to see the results here as well.
We were teaching a less-active man on Thursday, and he's just been doing awesome. Since he started reading the Book of Mormon, he's just been on fire. At first he didn't really care. He was nice and stuff, but he would just kind of flip through pages and look around during our lessons. It took him a while, but since he started reading, he is way more involved in the lessons, and is willing to keep any commitment we invite him to. We couldn't find his records anywhere, so we told him that it may have been lost when he moved to Saipan (it's kind of a problem here in Micronesia), or that we might not be able to retrieve it for whatever reason. We told him that he may need to be baptized again in order to recreate it. He answered, "If that's what I need to do, I'll do it." Then we taught him about sacrifice and coming to church (he often works night shifts and doesn't finish until the early morning), and again he responded, "If that's what I need to do, I can make that sacrifice and do it." Being able to see the change in him has just been so awesome, it's unreal.
I don't know if you guys ever sent that Halloween package or not, but if you did. I didn't get it yet. If not, then obviously it still hasn't come. Just making sure someone at the post office isn't stealing my mail.
This is the last week of the transfer, so if we get a new missionary, he will come next Thursday. Then again, we may stay in this tri-panionship for another 6 weeks. Who knows.
Let me know if you want pictures of anything in particular, I'll see what I can do.
Love,
Elder Barlow
We're helping a recent convert quit smoking again, and he asked me to carve "no smoking" into his workbench. Luckily I got my wood-carving merit badge.
The family that was baptized a few weeks ago. The father received the priesthood last week, and blessed the sacrament yesterday. Their other son is scheduled to be baptized on the 27th.
These pigs were HUGE. They are illegal to have down in Koror, but lots of people raise them in Babeldaob.
Pickle juice popsicle. Still delicious.
This is a crazy bug that landed on my book during a lesson.
Elder Stanley (my trainer) finishes his mission today, so he took me to the airport in Guam on my way back to Palau last week.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Guamanian Devil
Family,
One good thing about coming to Guam every month, is that the internet is so fast! I click on stuff and it actually opens. Quite the luxury.
So we had Zone Leader Council last night, and it went from 1-10:15. It was pretty long, but I really enjoyed it. It's a good way to get some feedback on how to fix problems that we're having. I flew in Saturday morning at 5:20 or so, and didn't get to sleep until that night, so I was running on about 40 hours without sleep. Lucky for me, I didn't have a 9 hour meeting to stay awake through like the missionary from Yap did. Everyone else is gone, but my flight doesn't leave until this evening, so I'm just going around with the Guam zone leaders until then.
Really the only news I have is this trip to Guam, so I think I'll stick with that.
I went to the airport to check in, and the woman at the counter seemed like a pretty angry person to begin with. She looks at my passport and everything and asks where I'll be staying in Guam. I didn't know which missionaries I'd be staying with, and even if I did, I don't know the address. I told her all of this and she snapped back, "Well, then we can't print your boarding pass, and you can't get on this flight." Now I was annoyed. This was my fourth time flying out of Palau, and no one has ever asked me for that. I told her that I didn't know, and since it was 12:30 at night, there was no way I could find out. She wasn't going to budge. I asked her if she wanted me to just make up the address, and she cut me off and said "Oh, so that's how you got on the flight last time?" If Continental wasn't the only airline in Micronesia, and I had a choice, they would never get my business because of this one lady. Anyway, that's what I did; I took a guess (which turned out to be wrong) as to what the Mission Office address was, and she printed my boarding pass. Then I went through security they asked to check my backpack, and another ornery woman took my consecrated oil out and chucked it and handed me my backpack. It's my fault for forgetting about it, but that just topped it all off.
My trainer, Elder Stanley, is the zone leader here in Guam right now, and he goes home in a week (he extended for 30 days, so he goes home before the end of the transfer). In December, 60% of our mission will have been out since June. The mission president is pretty in need of people to train (we have 10 elders coming from the MTC this transfer). Things are going to get pretty interesting pretty soon.
In Palau I realized we've been kind of slacking in finding new investigators. We've been relying mostly on others (especially members) to give us referrals and people to teach, and we've, for the most part, neglected our own finding efforts. I've since repented, and I'm pretty excited now to get things going again once I get back.
That's all I have for this week. I'm doing well, and I hope you guys are too.
Love,
Elder Barlow
One good thing about coming to Guam every month, is that the internet is so fast! I click on stuff and it actually opens. Quite the luxury.
So we had Zone Leader Council last night, and it went from 1-10:15. It was pretty long, but I really enjoyed it. It's a good way to get some feedback on how to fix problems that we're having. I flew in Saturday morning at 5:20 or so, and didn't get to sleep until that night, so I was running on about 40 hours without sleep. Lucky for me, I didn't have a 9 hour meeting to stay awake through like the missionary from Yap did. Everyone else is gone, but my flight doesn't leave until this evening, so I'm just going around with the Guam zone leaders until then.
Really the only news I have is this trip to Guam, so I think I'll stick with that.
I went to the airport to check in, and the woman at the counter seemed like a pretty angry person to begin with. She looks at my passport and everything and asks where I'll be staying in Guam. I didn't know which missionaries I'd be staying with, and even if I did, I don't know the address. I told her all of this and she snapped back, "Well, then we can't print your boarding pass, and you can't get on this flight." Now I was annoyed. This was my fourth time flying out of Palau, and no one has ever asked me for that. I told her that I didn't know, and since it was 12:30 at night, there was no way I could find out. She wasn't going to budge. I asked her if she wanted me to just make up the address, and she cut me off and said "Oh, so that's how you got on the flight last time?" If Continental wasn't the only airline in Micronesia, and I had a choice, they would never get my business because of this one lady. Anyway, that's what I did; I took a guess (which turned out to be wrong) as to what the Mission Office address was, and she printed my boarding pass. Then I went through security they asked to check my backpack, and another ornery woman took my consecrated oil out and chucked it and handed me my backpack. It's my fault for forgetting about it, but that just topped it all off.
My trainer, Elder Stanley, is the zone leader here in Guam right now, and he goes home in a week (he extended for 30 days, so he goes home before the end of the transfer). In December, 60% of our mission will have been out since June. The mission president is pretty in need of people to train (we have 10 elders coming from the MTC this transfer). Things are going to get pretty interesting pretty soon.
In Palau I realized we've been kind of slacking in finding new investigators. We've been relying mostly on others (especially members) to give us referrals and people to teach, and we've, for the most part, neglected our own finding efforts. I've since repented, and I'm pretty excited now to get things going again once I get back.
That's all I have for this week. I'm doing well, and I hope you guys are too.
Love,
Elder Barlow
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