Letter from Elder Meyer: Best experience -- Bed Bugs -- We walk 2 miles in the rain, or sun, or ocean (depending on the tide) to church.

Hello everyone! This week went by really really fast. I can't belive there is only one week left in the transfer.

Dad – About cars… I have not had any problems with traffic J  The only thing here that gets bad, car wise, is when five slow cars get stuck in a row. It is hard to pass five cars on a curvy  road. Ha ha.

Oh, and about your new garden, Beatlenut might be a little hard to grow in the garden; it would grow much better in the grove. Ha ha. There are many groves of Beatlenut here.

Question #1: Could you describe your very best day, and what made it the best?

Answer: Best experience, how about that? I got two. First is with the boys that we are walking with on Sundays. I will tell you more about them below. Second is also the one of the worst things. It is with Trevor. I believe I told you about him. Well, he finally picked a baptism date. It was January 24th. So far away. The other sad part is that we can not find him again. We are trying very hard though. 

Question #2: Could you describe the most challenging day, and what made it so?

Answer: How about time? Right now the most challenging thing is the language. I don't really know Yapese all that well. It is the hardest language, and I hear that from everyone on Yap. Also, there are a lot of outer islanders that we are teaching. We can't even communicate to them in their native languages. You can never tell how much English they really understand. That is the hardest thing now. 

Question #3: How much time do you spend each day studying the scriptures and are you feeling/learning new things about them that you didn't know before? Any examples?

Answer: Since I am still a new missionary --first 12 weeks you are a new missionary-- we study, each day, 1 hour personal study, 2 hours companion study, and 1 hour language study. Once not a “new missionary” you only have 1 hour companion study. So I study 4 hours every morning.  See below somewhere on what I learned 

Question #4:  While on the island, if you walked into someone from the States, what would you say to them?

Answer: I would say “hi”, I guess. No one from the states ever comes up to my area though. I am not near the tourist area at all. I am on the north side of the island. Everything that people come here to see is in the south side of the island. 

Mom - Umm sometimes there is ice-cream on Yap. It all depends on what the boat brings. There has not been ice cream the last month or two. There was some today. There is no real rhyme or reason on what shows up on the boat.

Youth activity is great. This week we watched a movie that one of the kids brought. There is starting to be more and more people coming. I think it is going very very good. Sunday, wake up, study for 30 min. Go to small group meeting with Jesse. Then go to the Boys house. Some less active/recent converts.

We walk 2 miles in the rain, or sun, or ocean --depending on the tide-- to church. We have all 3 meetings in church. I was asked to teach Sunday School next week. There is only one deacon who passes. One priest who blesses and I lead the music. Funny, yeah.

Then after church, we walk back. Finish up our studies and then go out to teach. Sometimes we skip our studies and teach all day. Just depends on what we have going on.

Yeah it rains a lot. It rains almost everyday. It is just normal to me now. I am doing fine with my clothes and shoes. No worries there. I only wear like 2-3 shirts a week. It makes them stay whiter longer, I was told. So I have not even worn some of my clothes.

Most people on the island have talked to the missionaries at sometime in their life. Most of the time, it is just that they are catholic and that is good enough for them. Some people just use that as an excuse to not talk to us. Most everyone, if not everyone, knows all of us missionaries as Mormons. I get called Mormon a lot. It is kind or funny. 

Staheli - How you doing? I am sure that everything is going well. I am thinking about getting you a pair of turtle shell earrings. Wouldn't that be cool? The only problem is that you are not supposed to have turtle shell in the states. I think I will try to send some in a package. What do you think?

Reed - nice hair cut. It looks good. It is short. I thought you didn't like it short. I bet you love it now. I love my hair short. It is so much cooler. 

Grandma - I just got a letter from you today. I have not finished it yet. Sounds like your garden is doing great. Love you

Well this week we have tried to see J_r_m several times. I guess there was some big preacher from his church from Hawaii that came. He was there all week. We finally saw him last night. He said that the guy healed him. I am not sure how. I am not sure what he meant. It was a little strange to hear that.

One of the boys, that is a recent convert, the ones we walk with… was asked to speak in church. We helped him prepare a talk. He also just received the priesthood. So he passed the sacrament to. They are getting much more excited about coming to church. It is so good. I am so glad that they are starting to enjoy church. I was having a hard time understanding why we were walking with them. Now it has all paid off. We are building a habit for them, and they are enjoying it.

One of the other brothers asked if he could talk, it was great. He is speaking next Sunday. I am so excited for them. The one that just got the priesthood… didn't have a white shirt and tie. We are still working on the shirt, but I gave him one of my ties. I also taught him how to tie it. It is so great to see them so excited about coming to church and the youth activity. 

What I have learned recently. Well in Mosiah 15 1-3 it talks about how Christ is the Father and the Son. I was very confused because we believe in the Father and the Son as 2 different people. Well, with some more study I found Mosiah 5:4 or Mosiah 5:7 (something like that) and it basically says that after you are baptized you become a Child of Christ. It made so much more sense how Christ is the Father and the Son after that.

Well, I am pretty sure that I have bed bugs. I have many bites in places that bugs could not get if I were awake. So I sprayed my bed with pyrethrum (do you know what kind of chemical it is, dad?) All of the elders on Yap have bed bugs except for Elder Tueller. I am not sure if there was just some huge bed bug break out or something. So I am just super itchy, like all day. It is what ever. As soon as we start teaching, and doing something, I don't notice them as much. 

Love you all so so much. 

This picture is of me and my new scripture cases that I had woven for me. They are awesome. 

Love, Elder Meyer