31 Jan. 2011

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