1 August 2011

Family,

This has been such a busy week for us. I told you about the guy that was going to get baptized on Saturday, well he did, but to prepare for that, we had to teach him every day. In between visits, his family would quiz him on the things we talked about and then review things from "True to the Faith" and the scriptures. They were a really big help for us. He was baptized on Saturday, interviewed for the Aaronic Priesthood right after, then confirmed and ordained as a priest on Sunday. We had 5 of our investigators come, not to mention like 5 or 6 other non-members that we aren't teaching yet. There was a really good turn out from the ward as well, a lot of people came to support him.

So I'm just wrapping things up here in Guam before I go back to Palau on Friday. It's still a secret until Wednesday, but I figured by the time you guys try to leak the secret to anyone, everyone in the mission will already know what's happening. Wednesday we're having a meeting with all the trainers, where President Mecham, my companion, and I will go over the new 12-week training program, and emphasize how important the role of a trainer is. I'm actually going back to Palau to open a new area that missionaries haven't been in before, and to train a new missionary. His name is Elder Rokodakunivosa - he's from Fiji. I won't get to meet him until next week, since he's coming from the New Zealand MTC and arrives on a different day, but I'm excited to see how things go. There's a lot of uncertainty ahead since it's a new apartment, new area, new companion, and just a handful of members that are all less-active. I've been communicating with Elder Wright (who's now the Zone Leader in Palau) on finding a good apartment in the area that we're looking at, but we've totally kept him in the dark that I'm coming. He and I got along really well when we were companions, so I'm excited to go back and work with him, even though he won't be my companion. I told Elder Malit that my goal for the rest of my mission is to teach more lessons than him every single week. It's not really fair because he'll be laden down with administrative duties and all I'll have to do is teach all day, every day. Again this is a secret, so hopefully none of the senior couples are going to read my blog and spill to the younger missionaries on their islands. Jacob, maybe you could wait to put this in until after 9:00 pm Wednesday night our time. Not that people care that much about what happens in a 4-man zone in the western corner of the mission, but secrets are secrets.

I don't really have anything else this week, we were just super busy running from appointment to appointment. We skipped dinner most days just because we had appointments scheduled (we just ate really quick when we came in for the night). I haven't been able to teach so much in months. We came in every night just beat, but it's satisfying to reflect back and look at the work you did and actually feel successful. Our area should be having a lot of baptisms in August. Things started working out for us all of a sudden. I'd much rather leave an area on that note, than leaving it dead.

I love you guys,

Elder Barlow