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