Letter from Elder Meyer: Email troubles, "All" the stores, Colonia branch, 3 investigators came to church on Sunday

Hello Everyone

It sounds like you are all doing pretty well. Well, except for Reed. I am surprised that it has lasted as long as it has. I was also a little surprised to hear about the age of missionaries to leave earlier.

Found a cave

Dad

Question #1:  How come it took 30 minutes to get on the computer last week?

Answer: The internet was very very slow. It would never let me log on to my email.

Question #2:  How is your new area?  What do you most like about it?

Answer: I like Colonia a lot. Not as much as Thool, though. My favorite part is how close I am to all the stores. It is nice to not have to drive 40 minutes to the store.

Ocean View

Question #3:  Is there more teaching, or finding, compared to the Thool area?

Answer: It is about the same teaching. Maybe a little bit more. The people live a lot closer together than Thool.

Question #4:  Curious about a typical day… how does that go?

Answer: The days here are all about the same. We get up, study, then leave and teach. We go and teach the people we have appointments with. We are also doing a lot of less active work to get people more active. We pick up some investigators from that because most are part member families.

Question #5:  I noticed there was a monsoon nearby. Did you get impacted?  Noticed also that the entire island was out of electricity for a time.

Answer: I want to say yes, but I am not sure. It was windy and rainy for a couple of days. I am not sure if that is a monsoon. It was more windy and rainy than normal.

Question #6:  Did you enjoy the spaghetti sauce mom sent?

Answer: Yes, I love it so so much. It is so so so good. Thank you, thank you.

Dinner, lunch, breakfast...

Mom

Question #7:  Tell me about your companionship. Are there two or three of you?

Answer: There are three of us. There is Elder Richardson and Elder Nelson and me. Elder Richardson is from Spanish Fork, Utah. He has served on Yap his whole mission. He is on his 14th transfer. He pretty much knows everyone on the island. Elder Nelson is from Washington. He served on Guam for a year and has been here since. He is on his 15th transfer.

We all go around together teaching. Sometimes Elder Garrett takes Elder Richardson to find some less actives and stuff. Normally we are all together though.

Question #8:  How is the language?

Answer: It is coming slowly, I feel. Twice a week we go over to a member’s home and learn from her. She is pretty good at both English and Yapese, so it is good.

Question #9:  Tell about the branch in Colonia - is it the same branch you were attending in Thool?

Answer: There are two different branches. The Thool branch has around 17 active members, the Colonia one has around 30ish active members. It feels a lot bigger than Thool. The branch president does not have any counselors. Just like up in Thool. We need some active priesthood holders.

Aerial View of Colonia, Yap Island

Question #10:    How are things different in Colonia vs Thool?

Answer: Colonia is more commercial. It is where all the stores are. Besides that, not much is different. People still love beatlenut, and have a hard time coming to church.

Staheli

Staheli - How are you doing? I thought that I would just say that I love you very much. How is work? To be perfectly honest, I can't remember where you work now. Is it with little kids, or did it change?

Reed

Reed - man that stinks that you are still out. I can't believe it is taking so long. That is strange. And you like school now. I will keep that in mind when you are back and don't like it again. So did you just sit around all day?

Grandma

Grandma - I love you so much. Thanks for the money. With the money you sent I bought a hamburger. It was as good as they get out here. Thanks.

To everyone

Well, this has been a pretty good week. At church yesterday we had three investigators come to church!!!! It was so amazing. I was so happy.

D*v*ne, she is 10 years old. She came to church. She has got a couple brothers that are baptized. They brought her. She has been taught pretty much everything. It was great to see her there.

It is so much easier to teach kids. They don't have as many problems as adults. It is great. It is a lot of fun to teach her.

Also A*g*st*ne and his daughter came. We have taught him everything, too. He is doing great. He has a friend that we are teaching to. He didn't come to church but we will keep trying.

We are also teaching a woman named Ann**. She is doing great. She is very interested in Joseph Smith. So we are getting all the stuff we have on him and are letting her read it. She is pretty far in the Book of Mormon, as well. She has a husband who is not sitting down with us, and two little girls. They are a lot of fun. All the little kids here are so great and so funny.

Today we went and saw a lady named R*y. She has been taught everything. She is the only person, in her family, not part of the Church.. We were very bold with here. She knows why we need to go to church and still won’t come. She says she reads from the Book of Mormon, but falls asleep. We talked about the Priesthood and the restoration.. It was a good lesson. She is a very interesting lady. She has read the Book of Mormon all the way through before. I think she just doesn't want to know if it is true. It was an interesting conversation.

Tell Natalie congratulations. That is really cool. I bet they are very excited.
Also about your phones, I heard the iPhone 5 came out, are you guys getting that?

I thought of something I would like for Christmas, a basketball.

Basketball Hoop

I love you all very very much. You are the best family in the world. I keep you in my prayers.

Love
Elder Meyer