3 Oct. 2011

Family,

Tomorrow's my birthday, and I think that this is the least excited I've been for a birthday. Not that I'm not excited, it just feels like a normal day. So, I'm just as excited as I am every day, which is probably more than most people I'd say.

This weekend was the worst weekend for missionary work. It was the same last year, but I forgot just how terrible it was. October 1st is Palauan Independence Day. The celebration lasts for 3 days. Day 1 is a market where all the states have a chance to sell their goods - mostly food. Day 2 is similar but it's for private business - mostly food again, but this time some souvenirs and stuff are mixed in. Day 3 is the big day. All the major business owners (or anyone else that's rich enough to participate) have a speedboat race. Somehow they drag it out into an all day event. All of the people in our area spent the weekend in Koror, it was a ghost town. It's like people just stopped whatever they were doing and hopped in the back of someone's truck and left. Laundry still on the line, piles of leaves uncollected, it was spooky. Luckily, we had to spend the weekend in Koror too, because Elder Wright went to Guam and we had to be with Elder Marshall (his companion). Sunday we started another unit in the Koror elders' area. We had a quick Sacrament meeting there, and then made the hour-long drive back to our area to have ours. Other than the missionaries and Toby, there was only one woman - everyone else was in Koror. Even the attendance at the main chapel was sad - 22 at the start and 37 at the end of the meeting. Anyway, we went to the festivities on Saturday for our dinner break, and it was actually pretty cool. Many of the villages had put together cultural dance groups, and they all performed, along with the booths selling various things.

Friday morning the white guy in the branch who is actually a CAT Army doctor was holding a free clinic in our area, and my companion has been getting boils on his legs pretty often, so we decided to go. While the nurse was going through the preliminary stuff I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk to him about medical school and things. Nothing he said made that sound like a course that I want to pursue, so that brings me back to square one. Maybe law school or something with the media. Maybe somehow combining the two. I have no idea what I'll do when the time actually comes.

That's all for this week. My companion and I bought a bunch of food so we're going to be cooking all kinds of delicious entrees. Fajitas, pastas, stir-fry, the works.

Love,

Elder Barlow