Wednesday, May 17, 2017

May 15, 2017


So randomly on Tuesday we get a call from Mareta and she asked if we were at the house because she wanted to drop something off. We weren't at the house, but later when we were back she dropped off a HUGE bag of groceries and tons of good stuff! Haha what?! We get money from the mission for groceries, but she just loves us too much! Awesome!

This is Sophia's grandson at our family night last Monday. He's super cute!

Saturday, ex Elder F (he finished his mission last September) stopped by our house. I was super surprised and super pumped to see him! He was really good friends with Elder P, so I got to know him last year at Papeete. He had also served at Tahaa and is visiting right now with his Mom.


 Hello family!

It was so great to skype with you yesterday. Happy Mother's Day!!!! It was fun to hear your voices. 45 minutes goes way too quickly!

This week has been good. Every day we have biked to the other side of the bay of Haamene to teach H. Her baptism is this Saturday and she can't wait! This week, almost every lesson was incredible. H is so prepared for the Gospel! We showed up to teach her on Tuesday. We had planned to teach the Plan of Salvation. The first thing she told us is "since the beginning of the year I've been asking myself a lot of questions. Like Why am I here? What is my purpose in life? Also, my Dad died when I was 11, where is he now? Can I see him again one day?" What?!? No one ever asks those questions just like that, it was like reading a missionary textbook. So cool! So we taught her the plan of salvation and how this life is a time to prepare to meet God. She said her desire to get baptized went from being little to being 100% sure. She can't wait for this Saturday! It's awesome.
We taught her daughter yesterday too. Also, her husband came to the lesson yesterday for the first time and seemed to like it. Hopefully we can start teaching him! He said he "might" come to the baptism this Saturday.
Besides that, we biked a lot this week. Back and forth around the bay of Haamene, and also into the other villages and bays on their respective days. Vaitoare on Wednesday, Tiva on Thursday, Faaaha on Friday, etc. Friday night I went to bed fine. I woke up in the middle of the night really sick. Mostly in those moments of being sick I just think to myself, "I want my mommy!" Haha. Miss you mom. Saturday morning I was super wiped out.
Yesterday morning we left early to the chapel to skype with you! On the way there an old guy flagged us down. He asked "do you have a book of mormon for me?" Apparently his daughter is a member of the church and told him to get a book of mormon. He said he's been searching for the truth and has gone in all the religions. All the religions say they have the true church. How can he know which is true? Another moment of "did he just say that? Is this really happening?" Luckily, as missionaries, we have the answers to those types of questions! The man's name was T. We took down his number and said we'd try and stop by his house on Wednesday. He called us this morning and said he wanted to talk to us. He's pretty excited about the book of mormon apparently! We scheduled a lesson for Wednesday.
Yesterday at church all the members who found out that I was sick were mad at me for not calling them. Haha. They were like "why didn't you tell us? We can bring you medicine and food" and stuff etc. All I needed was to sleep, and I was feeling quite a bit better. It was pretty funny. The members love us too much.
In the middle of the night last night I woke up and Elder Jenkins was sick. Bummer. So today he's wiped out. Apparently my sickness was contagious. He called M, one of the member's who loves us! and asked her for some soda because that sounded good. She came by and dropped off soda and medicine. So we're well taken care of here. It's so fun.
Tonight we have our family night at the chapel with the branch. I'm excited, there should be a lot of investigators there! This Friday night we'll find out if there's a transfer for us. Pretty excited/nervous/completely no idea what to expect/ for the transfers. We'll see how it goes. Saturday is H's baptism in the bay of Haamene (I'll take lots of pictures, hopefully it's a sunny day!)
The work is taking off here in the branch. There's definitely the Spirit at the chapel. President Tsing is awesome. We have some member referrals, notable a family of 4, made up of two younger parents and two young boys, ages 11 and 12. Hopefully we can start teaching them this week! The work is really taking off. It's sad, because one of us will most likely be transferred next week.
I'm doing well. Can't wait to see you all in 3 months from today!

Have a good week, send me lots of pictures!

Love,

Elder Barlow

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