7 March 2011

Family,

So we're storing two bikes in our apartment since every companionship in Guam has a car, and Elder Matthews and I decided that if we have them, we might as well use them. We did it twice and decided that we prefer the car.

We've been pretty swamped planning for this week's leadership training. In the past there has been a separate one for the west side (in Guam) and the east side (in Pohnpei). This time around we're doing it all together in Guam. We've had to make plans for where everyone is going to stay, who is going to pick up who from the airport, organize a service project for them all, and find out how they're all going to eat this week. Plus, we've had to prepare handouts, and our own training. To top it off, there is a problem with two of the companionships, whose area boundaries fall in two different church unit boundaries, so they are attending a different branch/ward than their investigators, so we had to redraw the area boundaries and move some people around. It's just been crazy.

As for our missionary work, we had some interesting turn of events there too. So we're teaching this Chuukese girl and her aunt (the same ones I mentioned last week). The girl's family is back in Chuuk, but she moved here permanently for school, and her family has no plans of coming. So her aunt is the legal guardian, but wanted to double check with the family for permission for this girl to get baptized. Saturday evening they called and the family said no - her grandfather is apparently some minister and got pretty upset. We're not really sure how to deal with it all because their permission doesn't really matter since the aunt that she stays with IS the legal guardian. We'll see how it all unfolds.

As we were walking around one day (I think Friday), we came across a woman who motioned to us that she was deaf, and was about to close the door. I called to memory what little sign language I could muster and asked this lady if she knew how to sign. She said yes and excitedly invited us inside. Unfortunately she is a single woman so we couldn't teach her. We gave her a pamphlet, asked her to read it, and then she told us her story of how she doesn't like Americans because her ex-husband was American and he left her and took the kids to the US and his family refers to her as a witch. It was pretty interesting. I was pretty impressed with what I could do after a basic high school class and then almost 4 years of nothing. We'll have to go back again when we can find a man to join us. I don't know how great of an investigator she'll be, but we'll never know unless we try.

I think that's pretty much how our week has gone. We're just trying to balance everything we have to do.

Love,

Elder Barlow