Hello everyone.
I love to read all the letters you write, they are so fun. I
will try and answer all the questions.
Reed/Jack - No problem on the advice... Next advice, read
Preach My Gospel. It is the best study tool you can ever have on a mission. I
use mine all the time. Also that is soooooo awesome that you can do a
wheelie!!!!!!!! I am excited to see it when I get home, in like two years. Ha
ha.
Mom - Um I am not sure how I got assigned to Yap. I have not
told President Mecham about the Yapese Book of Mormon thing yet. I plan on it
one day though. The only thing I can think of how I was assigned here is
Heavenly Father and the Spirit. My companion is awesome. He is from Kanab, Utah.
He has been out here for six months, starting his seventh. He is a great
teacher. He likes to cook, which is nice. I am so glad that he is my trainer. He
is an all around great guy. He is always helping me with my Yapese. IN his patriarchal
blessing it says he has the gift of tongues. He knows Yapese the second best,
almost the best, and has only been here 6 months. Yes I am learning Yapese. It
is the most difficult language in this mission. It is slowly coming. There is a
lot of conjugation. There are many rules that no one knows. I am reading from the Yapese Book of Mormon every day. It helps a lot. My patriarchal blessing
says the scriptures will be my tutoring guide. I am assuming it applies to
language too. Church is very small. We have a great building with no one in it.
President Mathew does a good job teaching and keeping the few here engaged. He
will call on you if you move your toe. It is pretty funny. There is always a
chance that we will be asked to speak right before church starts. I have been
asked once so far. The people are super nice. They are always willing to listen
and ask us for help. Sister Fanapan is a really old yap lady. She walks to
church every day. She is an amazing person. She is the only one in the branch
that has gone to the temple. I have gotten two letters from grandma they were
great.
Dad - I have gotten the package. It was absolutely amazing.
My water was turned on when we got home last Monday night. Sundays, we go to a
small group meeting with Jesse. He is paralyzed. There are 5 or 6 people there.
Only Jesse is a member though. Ummm… after that we go to the Thol branch. It is
super small. Your Home Teaching route is way bigger than the branch. Yesterday
there was 9ish people there, including kids. Humidity - um hot. I am getting
more use to it now. I sweat a lot though. Basically I would love to have one
day in dry Chico. A typical day… well, get up, study until 12, lunch. When we
are out teaching, um it is different every time. The people will normally let
us talk to him. I have only been yelled at a couple of times. Come home around
5 for dinner and head back out. Around 8 is when things stop over here because
it is dark and most don't have lights. That is one of the hardest times to fill
over here. We are not supposed to go finding around that time also. Typically
we see a lot of less actives. Most of the time they are just lazy and won’t
come. It is hard. Yes… I am extremely happy. I love it here and would not want
to go anywhere else. Audio recordings... I have started to use it. There are a
couple of recordings on there. I guess I can start sending them home. I will
start to do that next week. That is not the branch president in the picture. I
have not met or seen that guy before.
Last week there was an earth quake here. It only lasted
about 2 seconds. Our whole house shook. It was pretty cool. I learned that the Yapese
people like to eat bat, sea cucumber, turkey shashasumi (raw) and dog. I have
not had any of that yet.
They cook the bat whole in a boiling pot of water. In my opinion, that sounds nasty. Also, if you live in a low cast area, if you are walking through a high cast village you must carry a leaf and walk in a single file line. I am not sure why, but that is the rule. It is kind of funny, I think. If you don't, an old Yapes man will come out and yell at you. Also, the man houses, the women clean the outside only because they can’t go in, every week. In return, the men go fishing and give them a fish.
The package was amazing. I loved the whole thing. Most of
the stuff I actually wanted only a couple of days earlier. It was pretty
awesome. There is a guy from the Philippines named Richard who came here for
work. Weird, right? He is a member and has gone to the temple. He is going to
be a great strength to the branch. He is so excited to come to church. He has
been here for 2 months and could not find the missionaries. Finally we found
him and he is coming next week. He is a great guy and is so excited. If every member
had his enthusiasm for church, there would be no less actives. Yesterday we
walked to church with some less actives. There are 2 boys about 10 and 12. We
walked on the same path as the log bridge I sent a picture home last week.
Well this time, the tide was high
and the path was full of water. There was water up to my knees. So I guess you
could say I swam to church yesterday. It was pretty fun.
My address:
Elder John Meyer
P.O. Box 456
Colonia FSM
Yap 96943
Umm I would love some more pop tarts those are absolutely
amazing. You cannot get them on yap. Cheeze it would be great as well. My Leatherman
pocket knife. If you could find a Yapese English dictionary that would be great,
there is one copy here on yap. But two sets of missionaries. Don’t spend too
much time looking for one though. If you can't find one don't worry about it.
A couple of key rings for my consecrated oil. The one I have
is broken. Also a few carabineers, not sure if I spelled that
right (we used them camping) they are the things used to tow the tube on
the boat. Not that big though.
Also my speaker broke. If I could get another one, that
would be great. Then an ipod or mp3 player with a screen, with all the hymns, a
bunch of music, general conference, and anything else you can think of. The
reason is, in the small group meeting we have no music while we sing. It would
be great if we did. If not, and it is too expensive, please don't worry about
it. It is not a necessity, just a want.
Those brownies were great and so is the chocolate milk. A
couple more would be fun.
I feel kind of bad asking for all this stuff. I hope it is okay.
I love all of you so so much. I cannot express how much love
I have for you all. I only allow myself to think about you a couple times a day
or else I would be so distracted about how much I love and miss you all. I love
to hear from you every week. You are the best family in the entire world.
Love
Elder Johnny Meyer
I was helping a less active member put on a roof of a
choyeng. (hang out spot) it was a lot of fun. He made it all out of natural
materials. He is a great guy. So much fun to work with him.
Me an my companion next to a big stone money. We found it
while looking for a referral we were given.
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