Family,
So I guess this is it for January. I can't believe it. Anyway, most of this week was spent in Guam. We got back Thursday night and after weekly planning and everything, we weren't able to get back to work until early Friday evening. It was fun to go around and meet all the different people that the Guam missionaries work with, but as usual, it just makes me homesick to come back here. We spent Monday from about 10am - 6pm in meetings with President Dowdle where he trained us on the Doctrine of Christ and "The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion". The last three days weren't as long (about 9am - 4pm) but still exhausting. I can only imagine how President Dowdle feels having to teach for 25 hours. Tuesday - Thursday we discussed revelation through prayer, the Book of Mormon, and church attendance, commitments, "Teach people, not lessons" and finally, "How to Begin Teaching". It's a series of 8 lessons that were developed by the church to help spiritually defective 20-year-olds become effective missionaries that know how to rely on the Spirit. It doesn't replace the actual material that we teach, just how we do it. So, that's why all my time has been spent in Guam the last few months.
On to my work here in Palau. Recently we had a girl move into the branch from Guam. She's half Palauan and half Pohnpeian. She came to live with her dad, who she just met briefly last year. I guess they're trying to build a relationship or something, which is good. Anyway, she called us and asked if we could come teach her dad Sundays at 3 (it's about an hour drive). We agreed, and yesterday was the first chance we had to meet with him. We did our best to implement a lot of what we had learned this past week, and the lesson ended with him agreeing to read, pray, and be baptized on the 26th of February. It was great. Of course, we'll still have to work with him to make sure he's ready, and we don't know what other factors will get thrown into the works, but he's a great man. He's actually a delegate in the government, so he would be a great strength to the church here.
One more thing. So there's this less-active girl that we've been working with, and the past few months she's been struggling. She got in trouble once for underage drinking and had to spend a night in jail. A couple of weeks ago she got busted again and got 2 weeks in jail this time plus 60 hours of community service. We went to visit her Saturday and Sunday (that's when visiting hours are), and on Saturday the policeman went in to tell her she had visitors and all we heard was "yes!" It didn't seem like she had had many visitors. She came out to talk to us and just seemed so happy. She had quit chewing, and had read half of the Book of Mormon so far. We went again on Sunday and shared a spiritual thought and she was eager to read all the verses and then end with a prayer. We were thinking maybe that's what we should do with all the less-active people. We could just call the police and say so-and-so broke into our house, and have them go to jail for a week or so. I just hope she's able to keep this momentum when she goes back home.
Once again, I'll be in Guam next Monday, so my letter may be a little short. Just a heads up.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Picture Time
Taylor sent home his SD card from his camera to be offloaded. Some of these have already been posted, but a good recap of the first year on his mission.
Taylor's Mission - Part 1
Taylor's Mission - Part 1
Sunday, January 23, 2011
23 Jan. 2011
Family,
I just have time for a quick note today. We have a 4-day training this week in Guam, and it starts today, so our P-Day is super short.
Quick run down:
-Our investigator's mom said it's too fast for her to be baptized. Wants her to wait 3 months.
-I learned how to do a Rubik's Cube.
-Since there's only three of us in Palau, we all came to the training, which means no work is getting done in Palau for a whole week.
That's pretty much all I can think of on short notice. I love you all, and I'll talk to you again soon.
Love,
Elder Barlow
I just have time for a quick note today. We have a 4-day training this week in Guam, and it starts today, so our P-Day is super short.
Quick run down:
-Our investigator's mom said it's too fast for her to be baptized. Wants her to wait 3 months.
-I learned how to do a Rubik's Cube.
-Since there's only three of us in Palau, we all came to the training, which means no work is getting done in Palau for a whole week.
That's pretty much all I can think of on short notice. I love you all, and I'll talk to you again soon.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Monday, January 17, 2011
17 Jan. 2011
Family,
We had a pretty exciting week. We have 2 people on track to be baptized in just a few weeks. One of them is named Hayleen, and she's doing awesome. Her parents are really nice (not interested yet) and bring her to church and mutual on Wednesdays (about a 30 minute drive each way every time). She was supposed to be baptized this week, but since she lives so far, we can only visit her once a week, and then teach her on Sundays at church. We just didn't have enough time to teach her everything we needed to.
The second one is a kid name Jayvan. We were going over to teach our recent convert and he joined in. He is a pretty cool guy, and pretty open. He doesn't have a problem answering questions or even asking them. We've only met with him twice, but I'm pretty confident he'll continue meeting with us (that is, assuming his parents don't say otherwise). I don't really have much to report on this guy, but I will soon.
I'm glad you sent that package, thanks a lot. The journal and the shorts are very needed. Of course the rest of it is needed too, but those especially.
Funny story. So in Palauan, you can just change the suffix and it indicates who something belongs to, or who you're talking about. We were teaching the Law of Chastity to a returning less active woman, who isn't married to the man she lives with. I wanted to ask her if she wanted to marry him at all:
"Soam el mo bechil a rubak er kau?"
Do you want to become the spouse of your boyfriend?
Instead, not thinking, I messed up the suffix:
"Soak el mo bechil a rubak er kau."
I want to become the spouse of your boyfriend.
They just laughed and laughed, and it took me a second to realize what I had said wrong. It was pretty funny.
Some more good news, our recent convert was just assigned to teach Elders' Quorum. He's pretty excited and I know he'll do an awesome job. It's just for one week, but cool nonetheless.
I realized that I stopped wishing people a happy birthday, so I apologize. I just don't have everyone's birthdays committed to memory (sorry again), so I forget to look at the calendar I got from Hannah last year. Just a little explanation.
That's all for this week. All three of us are going to Guam next week for leadership training, we'll be there from like Sunday-Thursday.
Love,
Elder Barlow
We had a pretty exciting week. We have 2 people on track to be baptized in just a few weeks. One of them is named Hayleen, and she's doing awesome. Her parents are really nice (not interested yet) and bring her to church and mutual on Wednesdays (about a 30 minute drive each way every time). She was supposed to be baptized this week, but since she lives so far, we can only visit her once a week, and then teach her on Sundays at church. We just didn't have enough time to teach her everything we needed to.
The second one is a kid name Jayvan. We were going over to teach our recent convert and he joined in. He is a pretty cool guy, and pretty open. He doesn't have a problem answering questions or even asking them. We've only met with him twice, but I'm pretty confident he'll continue meeting with us (that is, assuming his parents don't say otherwise). I don't really have much to report on this guy, but I will soon.
I'm glad you sent that package, thanks a lot. The journal and the shorts are very needed. Of course the rest of it is needed too, but those especially.
Funny story. So in Palauan, you can just change the suffix and it indicates who something belongs to, or who you're talking about. We were teaching the Law of Chastity to a returning less active woman, who isn't married to the man she lives with. I wanted to ask her if she wanted to marry him at all:
"Soam el mo bechil a rubak er kau?"
Do you want to become the spouse of your boyfriend?
Instead, not thinking, I messed up the suffix:
"Soak el mo bechil a rubak er kau."
I want to become the spouse of your boyfriend.
They just laughed and laughed, and it took me a second to realize what I had said wrong. It was pretty funny.
Some more good news, our recent convert was just assigned to teach Elders' Quorum. He's pretty excited and I know he'll do an awesome job. It's just for one week, but cool nonetheless.
I realized that I stopped wishing people a happy birthday, so I apologize. I just don't have everyone's birthdays committed to memory (sorry again), so I forget to look at the calendar I got from Hannah last year. Just a little explanation.
That's all for this week. All three of us are going to Guam next week for leadership training, we'll be there from like Sunday-Thursday.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Sunday, January 9, 2011
10 Jan. 2011
Family,
Last time I came to Guam, I realized that my permanent retainer was coming off. It wasn't a huge problem, but I didn't want it to become one. I asked the mission nurse to schedule me an appointment with an orthodontist, so this weekend I came a day earlier than usual to get all that taken care of. They filed off the old cement/glue and resealed it. Good as new.
Oh, so about 5 days ago, I got a package. My long lost Halloween package finally arrived. I guess it was sent parcel (which means it was shipped here by boat) and took almost exactly two months. I don't know why that's even an option. Who's sending stuff thinking, "Hm..2 months...that sounds reasonable." Anyway, I got it, and I've been enjoying the candy.
I don't know if I told you, but every month for Zone Leader Council, we have a "unity building activity." It switches off between a service project and some kind of fun activity. Once we went bowling, and this time we went miniature golfing. For service we installed a rainwater collection system for this family in Guam that doesn't have running water, and then we came back a couple of months later and it hadn't been raining, so we filled up the same family's water tanks with water donated by the mayor. The father, Brother Alik, is one of the most humble guys on earth. His daughter is actually a missionary in Saipan right now - she started the same time I did.
We're back in a threesome for the next while, so when I come to Guam again, the others will be coming with me as well. Since it's for leadership training, it would normally be just two of us, but we can't leave Elder Agalzoff by his lonesome, so he's coming along. He even gets to attend the training. Lucky guy.
One of my favorite parts about coming to Guam (other than the fast food and fun activities), is that I get refreshed. I get a few days away from Palau, so I miss it, and just want to go back and get to work. The months seem to go by so fast, it's like I never have enough time to get anything done. We set goals each week, and before we know it, the week is already over and we're setting new goals. I can't believe it.
I'm going to send my 8gb memory card home. I'm getting nervous leaving all the pictures from my mission on one memory card. I'm not sure of the best way to do this though. Hopefully it doesn't get lost in the mail.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Last time I came to Guam, I realized that my permanent retainer was coming off. It wasn't a huge problem, but I didn't want it to become one. I asked the mission nurse to schedule me an appointment with an orthodontist, so this weekend I came a day earlier than usual to get all that taken care of. They filed off the old cement/glue and resealed it. Good as new.
Oh, so about 5 days ago, I got a package. My long lost Halloween package finally arrived. I guess it was sent parcel (which means it was shipped here by boat) and took almost exactly two months. I don't know why that's even an option. Who's sending stuff thinking, "Hm..2 months...that sounds reasonable." Anyway, I got it, and I've been enjoying the candy.
I don't know if I told you, but every month for Zone Leader Council, we have a "unity building activity." It switches off between a service project and some kind of fun activity. Once we went bowling, and this time we went miniature golfing. For service we installed a rainwater collection system for this family in Guam that doesn't have running water, and then we came back a couple of months later and it hadn't been raining, so we filled up the same family's water tanks with water donated by the mayor. The father, Brother Alik, is one of the most humble guys on earth. His daughter is actually a missionary in Saipan right now - she started the same time I did.
We're back in a threesome for the next while, so when I come to Guam again, the others will be coming with me as well. Since it's for leadership training, it would normally be just two of us, but we can't leave Elder Agalzoff by his lonesome, so he's coming along. He even gets to attend the training. Lucky guy.
One of my favorite parts about coming to Guam (other than the fast food and fun activities), is that I get refreshed. I get a few days away from Palau, so I miss it, and just want to go back and get to work. The months seem to go by so fast, it's like I never have enough time to get anything done. We set goals each week, and before we know it, the week is already over and we're setting new goals. I can't believe it.
I'm going to send my 8gb memory card home. I'm getting nervous leaving all the pictures from my mission on one memory card. I'm not sure of the best way to do this though. Hopefully it doesn't get lost in the mail.
Love,
Elder Barlow
Monday, January 3, 2011
3 Jan. 2011
Family,
So it's finally 2011. I was thinking about this yesterday, and it's kind of a weird feeling entering the year that I go home. Even though it's still almost year away, it's just a weird feeling.
A lot has happened this last week. We found out that the Assistants were coming to visit on Wednesday night, and they would stay until Friday night. So Wednesday came and we went and picked them up, and went back to our apartment. One of them gave me a folded piece of paper and when I opened it, it was a flight itinerary for Elder Adams. I was pretty surprised. He flew back with them on Friday night to go serve in the mission office. I think he was pretty disappointed, but transfers are so unexpected sometimes, even in a mission like ours. So now Elder Wright is back with us and it seems like that's how it will be for this next transfer. I'm pretty sure nothing will change, but we won't find out for sure until Wednesday.
This past p-day we went to see the stone monoliths, which were actually pretty cool. They didn't have any explanation to them really, so it really makes you wonder what these Palauans were thinking, and how they did it. The tourist price to go see it was $5 and the local is $2. We all forgot our resident permits, but I walked up and said, in Palauan, "Is this where we pay?" And the guy looked at me all perplexed. "Are you Palauan? ...or American?' Again, in Palauan, "We're American, but we live here" Score, only $2. Afterward we went to see an old Japanese lighthouse that had collapsed. It probably wasn't safe, but they let us walk through it all and take some pretty cool pictures. I couldn't take as many as I would have because I left my memory card at home.
When the APs were here we didn't have any appointments. I felt pretty bad for them, but we walked all day. We met so many great people and gave us a great boost to our teaching pool. Now that we're combining areas though, our time is going to be divided pretty significantly.
Happy new year!
Love,
Elder Barlow
So it's finally 2011. I was thinking about this yesterday, and it's kind of a weird feeling entering the year that I go home. Even though it's still almost year away, it's just a weird feeling.
A lot has happened this last week. We found out that the Assistants were coming to visit on Wednesday night, and they would stay until Friday night. So Wednesday came and we went and picked them up, and went back to our apartment. One of them gave me a folded piece of paper and when I opened it, it was a flight itinerary for Elder Adams. I was pretty surprised. He flew back with them on Friday night to go serve in the mission office. I think he was pretty disappointed, but transfers are so unexpected sometimes, even in a mission like ours. So now Elder Wright is back with us and it seems like that's how it will be for this next transfer. I'm pretty sure nothing will change, but we won't find out for sure until Wednesday.
This past p-day we went to see the stone monoliths, which were actually pretty cool. They didn't have any explanation to them really, so it really makes you wonder what these Palauans were thinking, and how they did it. The tourist price to go see it was $5 and the local is $2. We all forgot our resident permits, but I walked up and said, in Palauan, "Is this where we pay?" And the guy looked at me all perplexed. "Are you Palauan? ...or American?' Again, in Palauan, "We're American, but we live here" Score, only $2. Afterward we went to see an old Japanese lighthouse that had collapsed. It probably wasn't safe, but they let us walk through it all and take some pretty cool pictures. I couldn't take as many as I would have because I left my memory card at home.
When the APs were here we didn't have any appointments. I felt pretty bad for them, but we walked all day. We met so many great people and gave us a great boost to our teaching pool. Now that we're combining areas though, our time is going to be divided pretty significantly.
Happy new year!
Love,
Elder Barlow
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