29 Aug 2011

Family,

I got the package this week. It came on Thursday but I had to wait until Saturday when we drove into Koror to get it. I was probably most excited about the Sommer Sausage and the Cheesecake. Gross combo, but awesome separately. Thanks guys.

This week we had some sweet experiences with our investigators. We're teaching these two girls, who are actually the sisters of a member in Koror. The older one, Cassandra, had been taught by missionaries years ago, but she told us that the real reason she ever did was because she thought that one of the missionaries was cute - Elder Stowe (she remembered his name). Anyway, she told us all this after she read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and even wrote down a list of questions she had as she was reading. She said that this time was different, and she wants to be baptized. So she and her sister are planning to be baptized end of April, pending the fact that we have Sacrament meeting up there pretty soon. But she invited her boyfriend to talk to us, and as we talked he asked a few questions, but at the end he said, "wow, this all really makes sense." We told him that the two of them were planning on being baptized, and he turned to her and said, "you were just going to get baptized and leave me behind?" It was pretty funny. Now they just need to overcome their Word of Wisdom problems, and a clear Law of Chastity problem.

Our one active member (Toby) that we have comes teaching with us everyday, and he's probably the best person we could ask for. He has an awesome testimony and he doesn't put up with people's excuses.There was one guy that we were trying to contact and he basically shooed us away pretty rudely. When we went to pick up Toby, he said that he had just talked to a man named Petrus (which was the rude guy's name) and told us that he was actually a member - baptized in Chuuk. Toby said, "Good thing I followed the Spirit in talking to him because you guys never told me you went to talk to him! Anyway, he said we can come visit him." I was really proud of Toby. He's only been baptized for just over a year. Even after Petrus was rude to us, he was still on my mind for the next week and a half, and I couldn't figure out why. So I'm excited to see how things go when we go back.

Another guy that's "the man" is a Army guy named Brother Hibbard. He's from North Carolina and he's the new Army doctor that came with the CAT team (each branch of the military rotates every 6 months or so. So the Air Force just left when I got here and the Army came in). Everyone in the branch loves him and he is getting them all fired up about missionary work and home-teaching. He asked us for 10 copies of the Book of Mormon and a bunch of pass-along cards. Then he asked the Branch President for a list of all the members so he can go and visit them and invite them to church. And since he has all the gas he needs, he's offered to come teaching with us whenever. PLUS, as part of his being here, he's doing research on the health effects of chewing betel nut. He said that 90% of people that chew betel nut get some form of mouth cancer. And that's not even people that chew with a piece of cigarette. Those that chew with a piece of cigarette just accelerate the process. So he's supposed to finish the research and then do a presentation to all the schools. He's great.

Okay I have to go help my companion email - I'll talk to you soon.

Love,

Elder Barlow