Family,
Before I forget, I have two requests. One - when I was in Kosrae, one of the members found out I was from California and one day he came out teaching with us all day and he asked if I could get him a copy of the song - California Dreamin'. I told him I'd ask you guys, so if it's possible for you guys to send me a CD, I'll give it to one of the missionaries and they'll take it to him (obviously I won't be listening to it). While I'm on that note (I guess I have three requests), at the beginning of my mission I asked for some music, and Craig Blake sent me some good stuff - but it's been a while since I've had any new music - so this is another blanket request for anyone who has access to any good missionary music (our music rules are pretty relaxed - just as long as it's produced by members of the church and is spiritual in nature. Or if it's not a member of the church, if it is a sweet rendition of a hymn or something, that's cool too.), I would love some. Second/Third - I have a 320 GB external hard drive in the garage (it's black with red designs on it), and do you think you could package that up and send it to me? I just wanted to be able to back up my pictures and videos and stuff while I have access to the office here. Thanks.
On to my week. Yesterday we had more people at church than I can remember ever having in all the times I've attended church here in Guam. Chairs filled the cultural hall and people were standing along the back and in the hallway. It was crazy. The ward is just super excited about reactivation and missionary work. Every Tuesday, anyone who wants to, but at least the priesthood leadership meets at the chapel and they split with all the missionaries. They either come with us to the appointments we've set, or we just go and visit less-active families in our area. It's been great, not just because we have members to come with us, but it allows them to meet the people that we've found, and then they're more concerned about how they're progressing. I've just really enjoyed it.
We've been really busy this week with transfers. It seems like every transfer, area boundaries have to be re-drawn in Guam. One companionship is leaving a district, so we have to divide that area up. Plus, no one in Guam is really sure what their boundaries are because it has just been hearsay for so long. We're putting together set boundaries and giving a copy to every companionship so people aren't calling us and asking us every other day (I don't even know myself, so this has been good for me). My new companion is here in Guam. We picked him up from the airport this morning. He was one of the Zone Leaders out in Chuuk, Elder Malit, from Utah. He's Filipino, but doesn't speak any Tagalog or anything like that. We'll be spending this week prepping him on all of his duties and stuff and preparing our training for Zone Leader Council in 2 weeks.
We had a guy call the office and asked to talk to the highest authority possible - so they transferred him to President Dowdle, who happened to be in the office that day. He asked for an appointment, and President asked why, so this man, Joe, said that he wants to join the church. Those are the kind of calls that make our lives easier. Turns out he lives in our area, but he hasn't been home when we've gone. We had another guy come to church yesterday who said basically the same thing, and who also lives in our area. He gave us his name and address, so we'll go see him sometime this week too. I love when stuff like that happens.
Lastly, we have these two investigators, both Chuukese, the two brothers that I told you guys about last week. I guess on their tiny outer island the culture is such that if a man's wife dies, he is to take her sister as his wife. They don't have to be remarried or anything. Obviously that doesn't fly legally, so that's going to be a topic of discussion, plus his smoking, and his drinking (coffee, tea, alcohol). Luckily my new companion is the best Chuukese speaker we have in the mission so he'll be able to get that message across effectively.
I'll let you know how all of these things play out.
Love,
Elder Barlow
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