Sunday, July 8, 2012

Letter from Elder Meyer: This may put a smile on your face...

As you all know I am assigned to Yap Island. I was so surprised. I am so excited at the same time. Well my companion is Elder Tueller. He is awesome. We left for Yap on Saturday at around 10. We got to Yap at like 11:30. Once we got there you get a leis (flower thing). And yes, it is a naked women doing that. It was a little weird, not going to lie. 

After we finally got our bags, we went out to the front to get picked up. Well, just like on the "Other Side of Heaven" movie, no one knew we were coming. We just sat there for about an hour and a half. Waiting for someone to come get us. We looked for a member to see if we could use their phone. Well, eventually a member in the ward recognized Elder Tueller and gave us a ride to the apartment. 

Once we got their, I pretty much fell asleep. I was really tired. We got up the next morning and went to church. There are two different meetings that we are assigned to in the Thol area. The first one is called a small group. The Bishop is called the small group leader. There was only 5 people there. It was crazy! 

They ran out of sacrament cups so we passed on that. Elder Tuller and I were asked to speak. No surprise there. It was quick and easy. This all took place on the back patio of some little hut. It was pretty funny. 

The second meeting we went to was in an actually church building. It is pretty nice. There were 10 people in total. The branch president ran all three meetings. I was surprised we had all three meetings, to be honest. I was not asked to do anything it sacrament meeting. Two young kids gave talks. They just read out of some church book. It was awesome. 

In Sunday School and Priesthood, the branch president taught. He just read out of the manual for them. When asked a question, he would choose on anyone who would move. Most of the people in the branch are from the outer islands, so they don't even speak Yapese. The branch president would translate for them as he taught. One time, when he was translating something, he asked a question and my foot twitched and he called on me to answer it. The question was in an outer island language, so I could not understand a word of it. I just did the best I could and moved on.

When you travel, you get what is called an airplane day. Basically the Mission President gives you permission to sleep for a little extra while. So, after church, I came home and sleep because I was still on Utah time. I sleep for like 8 hours, woke up, ate a little bit, and went back to sleep.

Today is Monday and pretty much all we have done so far is gone shopping and study. This whole time we have been sleeping in the other elders apartment. (there are 4 elders here now) We are going to go and clean up our apartment here, pretty soon. We took a look inside it. It is pretty messy. There is junk everywhere.

The apartments are actually pretty nice. There is running water and a filter in every apartment. There is also electricity. I was pretty surprised. Things have probably changed a lot since Brother Whitmore has come here.

Yapese is the hardest language to learn here in the islands. I am already pretty frustrated about it. There is an awful ng sound that is everywhere, and so hard to make. I have been trying forever and I am no where close. I know that the Lord will help me though. Let's see, oh yeah, we have a car. I was surprised about that too. It is nice to have the car. There are not too many roads here, and the roads that are here are really bad, so the Yapese people drive really slow.

The mission home is super nice though. And sister and President Mecham are really nice. Oh, Guam is not very close to the United States. it is way these civilized. So when I got there I was stunned about it not being so civilized and then when I got to Yap it is more civilized than I thought. I guess that is pretty good. Don't get the wrong idea, it is still very rural. The church does a good job taking care of us. We pretty much have the nicest cars and the nicest houses.

I have not gotten the package you sent. I don't have any idea where it is, or where it could be. I don't know when you sent it. Someone from Yap goes to Guam once a month, at the beginning of the month. I might get it then.

The food here is really expensive. We get 220 dollars a month for food and other stuff. There is no milk here. Dad you would not like it. If you want milk, you have to put it in a suit case and carry it from Guam. The store is a lot bigger than the picture that Brother Whitmore has.

I am sorry that I am not sending any pictures. I forgot my converter at the apartment. I will try to remember it next week.

I love you all so much. You are the best family ever. I hope everything is going well.

Love
Elder Meyer.

Road to the chapel:

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