We just got back from Chuuk this morning. Our flight landed at 4, so after flying all night, we slept all morning. But I had a blast everywhere we went. For P-day in Yap we rented a boat and the driver took us outside the reef and we went trolling, which is when you just throw your line in while the boat is moving through schools of fish (which you can see thanks to the flock of birds above it). We caught like 3 or 4 fish each - big yellow-fin tuna and flipjack (I think) too. It was about 80 pounds of fish total. It was really fun - probably because the fish were easy to catch (but hard to reel in). At one point a shark almost stole mine off the line, but I guess I was blessed or something because it didn't. Being the amateur fishermen that we all were, it took us like 4 or 5 minutes to reel in each fish, and the driver said that he didn't know what was going on because when he and the other Yapese go fishing, if they're pulling for more than a minute, the sharks are bound to grab it, but we can just keep going and not have any problems. We told him it was because we were missionaries and he said, "oh yeah, that's true." He was a pretty funny guy.
It was really cool to go back to Palau. The members and the other people that I taught seemed pretty excited to see me, so that was a pretty good feeling. It is pretty lonely there though with only two missionaries. I don't have much else to say about that, just that I still love it and things hadn't changed TOO much since I left - which is good.
Chuuk was a pretty crazy place. I got to go to all the outer islands, and work with the missionaries there. Chuuk has 6 areas. 3 outer islands with 2 missionaries each, and then 6 missionaries on the main island. The road on the main island, Weno, is actually more like a river, so everyone drives like 5 mph the whole time. It's about 7 miles from one area to the third area, and it takes an hour to get there. It's pretty terrible. But, the people, especially the members, love the missionaries there. The work is going really well. It was cool actually going because I've been working to learn Chuukese and everyone was impressed that I could speak without having been there before. In Sunday school yesterday, the District President (he was teaching), asked me to pray since I was a new face. So I nervously got up and prayed in Chuukese and sat down. He stood up with the biggest smile on his face, and in English he said, "when I asked you to pray I didn't realize you could speak my language." He's the nicest guy ever. He invited us all over for dinner before we left last night and then gave Elder Malit and I these seashell necklaces since we were leaving. To get to all the other islands they have a missionary boat and the driver is a member (paid by the church). I got pretty toasted on the boat ride out to Romanum. It was about an hour long boat ride, and the waves were pretty big and choppy. I got soaked by saltwater (which is the worst feeling ever, by the way) and toasted by the sun. Romanum is a crazy place though. It's only .6 sq miles and there are only 600 people. Ironically it's one of the strongest branches out there.
It's good to be home back in my own bed (as "my own" as it gets anyway), and I'm ready to finally do something in my area.
Pictures:
1) Fishing in Yap with my woven coconut frond hat
2) The result of our day
3) In Chuuk I got to go to Elder Stanley's house to visit with his family. If you remember, Elder Stanley was my trainer and one of my favorite companions. It was really good to see him. I met his girlfriend, whom he's planning on marrying - which was weird.
Love,
Elder Barlow
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