Christmas

Family,

We have this movie called Joy to the World, and I've probably seen it 45 times now. We've been taking it around tracting with us with our portable DVD player and using it to get in the door. People are very busy this time of year but we just tell them we want to watch a movie about Christmas to help prepare them for the season, and it's been great. They then send us to their family and friends and we got a few good investigators out of it.

I don't have a lot of time to write this, we're going to see those stone monoliths that Dad has been pushing me to go see (just kidding Dad, we're pretty excited about it). Transfers are next week, and President Dowdle hinted that we may go back to 3 missionaries here in Palau. I'm hoping I don't leave, but if I do, at least I'll have seen this stone faces thing.

I sent 3 pictures (It didn't work this week for some reason. I'll have to try again next week). One is of a monkey, obviously. These things are all over the place - not wild, just as pets. It's pretty cool. Second is me painting the inside of a Bai, which is the traditional leaders meeting house. Most villages have one, and our recent convert, Tobi, asked us to help him. He drew everything and we were just going over it with black paint. The last one is a ton of pigs. We were following this trail through the jungle and it just opened up to this pig farm. I took this picture, and it flashed and a bunch of them jumped up and scared me to death. I thought they were going to go crazy, but they just looked around for a second and laid back down. Crazy pigs.

Anyway, I love you all. It was good to talk to you for a few minutes.

Love,

Elder Barlow

20 Dec. 2010

Family,

I feel like half of my mission is being spent in Guam at these meetings. Anyway, here I am again.

So we've been kind of struggling lately for whatever reason. It's been hard for us to find new people to teach. But, we keep working and doing whatever we can.

Actually now that I think of it, part of the problem is probably that we had 3 branch activities this week. We went caroling for 2 nights and then had a small branch activity on Thursday. Our branch president was gone, so the planning and organization was pretty lax and a little sloppy, and no one announced it in church, but all in all, it was pretty fun.

All the Guam missionaries are going on zone p-day today, so we have to go with them. I think we're going to a waterfall or something. I'll talk to you Saturday (friday for you I guess)!

Love,

Elder Barlow

13 Dec. 2010

Family,

(First of all, will you call me at [removed], at 9:00am Tokyo time (same as Palau time) Christmas morning here? Elder Agalzoff is having his family call at 10:00. I don't know what time that is for you guys there, but I'll leave the dirty work up to you. If that number doesn't work, try it with another "1" before the area code. If you just can't get through, call the same number, but instead of 488 try 775.)

This week I had someone tell me I was going to hell and had a preacher interrupt one of our lessons. Just some of the perks of my missionary life.

So I told you last week about a woman named Ann. We taught her a few times, but we knew that her preacher would get in the way. Well, we went to our appointment and after just a few minutes of teaching, the pastor showed up and asked to join us. He immediately contested what we were teaching and after asking him a few questions and doing my best not to argue with him (which I think we did pretty well at), I had an opportunity to bear my testimony. I don't think I've given a more sincere and heartfelt testimony in my whole life. There have been 2 or 3 other times in my mission when I've walked away from a combative person feeling upset and talking about it for the rest of the day "I can't believe he said this! Doesn't he know the Bible says this?!" This time was different. As we were walking away I asked Elder Agalzoff how he felt, and he said he was pretty upset. I asked him to describe it, and he said he was just sad. That was the difference this time. We were both able to walk away with peace in our hearts and just feeling sad that John (the pastor) could have so much, but that he is choosing to harden his heart to it all. Anyway, maybe we'll take him to lunch this week!

Another day we were walking along the side of the road and there was a pretty slippery part. I've gotten pretty good at walking in Crocs, if I do say so myself, but Elder Agalzoff just isn't yet. He slipped and fell and got his pants pretty muddy (after trying to grab onto my and pull me down with him). We both kind of laughed about it, and just continued on our way. After a minute or two I noticed again, 'This part is pretty slippery too. He'll probably fall again.' *Thud* I couldn't help but chuckle because a Palauan couple pulled over "Are you alright?!? Of course not! You're all dirty!" He wiped most of it off with a banana leaf, but it was still pretty funny. Poor kid.

We got new gas cards, and they don't work at some gas stations for some reason. We went to a new one that we hadn't tried yet, and before filling up asked, "Will this work here? Because sometimes it doesn't." They assured me it would. So we filled up, and sure enough, it doesn't work. I had $1 in my wallet at the time. So they take the card and try calling the bank to get authorization or something. Doesn't work. Finally they came to us and said that we could just go get money and come back and pay before 10pm. My companion had enough money to cover it, but I was just amazed that they would let us just leave with a full tank of gas without paying. Pretty different.

Well, Merry Christmas everyone. Time to get going.

Love,

Elder Barlow

6 Dec. 2010

Family,

I've been waiting for the rainy season to really hit (it came much faster last year), and this week I think it finally did. It's been soaking us pretty often, and I'm loving it. My new companion has all silk ties, so I think I'll have to give him some of mine. He's a pretty goofy kid, but he's really working hard. He's struggling a little bit with Palauan, but with some effort and a portion of the Spirit, I'm sure he'll get it. He just has a hard time remembering what sound each of the letters make.

I've been back in Ngerias (of the two areas in Palau, the one I'm in now covers the north half of the island) for about 2 weeks now, and it's been rough, but I've been enjoying it at the same time. We started out not really having anyone to teach, so we've been spending a lot of time finding part-member families and contacting referrals. We've been having a little bit of success, so I see things moving forward gradually.

Something awesome happened to us on Saturday that just made my week. I don't know if anything will come of it, but the experience in itself is noteworthy I think. We wanted to look for a member whose name we found on the membership directory, so we started in the village she was listed under. We asked a few different people if they knew the person (there aren't any addresses, so really it's the only way), and they all said no, but gave us another name of a person we could ask. Finally our search brought us to a man named Charlie. We asked him the same question, and again, he said no. Just before leaving we asked him for referrals, and he gave us the name of a woman, and asked a little bit about us. As we continued talking to Charlie, his wife, Ann, came out of the house and talked to us also. Somehow we got on the topic of the Book of Mormon and Ann basically grabbed it from my hands and started to read. Immediately she started smiling and flipping through the pages and reading different parts. She sat down and continued doing the same thing. We were about to leave (we were still looking for this member), when Ann asked us, "Can we ask you two to do something for us? (Sure, what is it?) Can you come back and tell us why you guys, being so young, decided to come here and serve God?" Jumping at the opportunity, I told her we had time now, and if they did too, we could explain. So, we sat down. Elder Wright (we were on exchange) started by telling them why he decided to serve, and then I followed. We both shared passages from the Book of Mormon that have affected us, and we were able to bear our testimonies of the blessings of the Gospel. Ann then told us how they go to a church, but they still don't feel like they have strong faith in God. After a few more minutes she said that she was "hungry" for truth and the word of God. The only problem is that their preacher (a white guy from Wisconsin) is pretty anti-Mormon, and they wanted to share the Book of Mormon with him (and like 15 other friends). He has interfered in our lessons before, and it would be so sad for them to allow him to ruin this for them.

Just to toot my own horn for a second here. I asked them if their preacher speaks Palauan (he's been here for 4 years, and their church has a Palauan name), and they said, "A little, but not like you!" It made me feel pretty good, but it just goes to show you the difference that the Gift of Tongues can make when in the Lord's service.

We decided that for Christmas, we're going to get a bunch of the youth together and go to the church and make a bunch of gingerbread houses and then go and deliver them to less-active youth. I talked to the Branch President and he said if we put a shopping list together, the branch will pay for it. I'm pretty excited about it, and it seems like the youth are too.

I love you all, and happy December!

Love,

Elder Barlow