Letter from Elder Meyer: Mission extended, Another baptism, 2 missionaries on the island, CTR helps stop chewing, Conference translation team.

Hello Everybody

Well some crazy stuff has happened over here on Yap, but I will not get into that right now.   We had a Tsunami warning. I had no idea. People here freak out a little bit because of the last typhoon that we had. Nobody was worried about this one though.

First I will answer the questions. 

Dad

I bet your internet speed is faster than the average internet speed here on Yap. Ha ha. Sounds like stake conference was pretty good. Congrats on the $100M. Elder Garrett has told us about all the new missionary stuff. There has been a huge increase of missionaries turning in the application. That is really cool. I miss the temple so so much. That trip was really quite amazing. I wish I could go to the temple now. You are just going to need to go for me.

Question #1:  Did you get all the videos that we sent?  If so, have you been able to use them?

Answer: I have not gotten them yet. I haven't gotten the mail today though. It could be there. I am very excited for them.

Question #2: Do you still feel like a "new" missionary, or are you in the groove of things?

Answer: Well, I don't fell like a new missionary very much anymore. I have been out like almost 8 months or something like that. But there has not been a new missionary on Yap since me. So I am still the youngest missionary on Yap. I am in the groove of things and have been for a while. Just the youngest missionary here.

Question #3: How many missionaries are serving on the island now?  Who are they?

Answer: Currently 2. We will have three once Elder Tueller gets back from Guam for his meeting. Me, Elder Tueller, and Elder Ramiterre.

Question #4: How are the 15+ or so recent converts doing?

Answer: Most are doing pretty good. We have one that is chewing again. We are looking for him. But Yap is an easy place to disappear.

Question #5:   Have you witnessed any miracles lately?

Answer: Yeah, I think so. Jar*me, has been very sick and hasn’t been to church. We gave him a blessing, and he made it to church yesterday. Yeah!   Many have had the stomach flu, I think. We just gave them all blessings. That one entire village was sick last week. It is all good now, though.

Mom

That is a really an old class, and a lot of men in it. That is pretty interesting. How exciting about the baptism. I know how excited I am about the baptisms here.

Question #6: Who are you teaching?

Answer: L*nda, L*o, T*rence, and S*phie.

Question #7: Do you having meetings with the recent converts?

Answer: We try and see our recent converts about once a week. Technically the ward missionaries are supposed to handle that, but we do it because we have none.

Question #8: How many people are now coming to church on Sunday?

Answer: In Thol there are 13, and in Colonia, the capital city, around 46.

Question #9: Tell me something you need?

Answer: Well Elder Ramiterre's shoes have a hole in them. So I said that you could send him a pair of crocks. Can you? He is a size 6 1/2 in men’s shoes. He also would love the scripture strings you sent to me. He has a quad my size.

Question #10: Tell me the most useful thing you got for Christmas?

Answer: I think the CTR (Choose the Right) rings and magazines. I have been giving those to people. The really like them. The rings are helping people stop chewing. They wear the ring, and when they start to make a chew, they see the ring and stop. It is helpful.

Question #11: Can you tell a difference in the seasons - or are they all the same?

Answer: What are seasons? This is a new word to me. No, I am just joking. There are no seasons here. It rains, and is hot, and there is sun. All year around.

Question #12: What have you learned this week?

Answer: In Jesus the Christ, there is so much you can learn from it. I am not sure if I have ever realized how voluntary the whole atonement was. It really was his (Christ’s) choice to volunteer.

Staheli - Hey How are you doing? How many Kids are you over now? Could you send me a recent picture of yourself? That would be fun. The last image I have of you is getting out of the car when I was heading to Utah. I would love a different picture of you. You are awesome by the way. Did you and Kate think of two other colors for your lava lava. I need four for each of you.

Reed - Sounds like you are having fun snowboarding. That is really awesome. Don't hurt your self on those black diamonds. ha-ha.  Also, the reason we have a mission nurse is so we don't die. We are supposed to call them if we are hurt and stuff.

To everyone:

Well, alright... so there are only three missionaries here now. And 1 went to Guam for zone council. So that left two of us for the whole island.

We needed to go up to Thol to meet a new investigator on Sunday. Well, we got up there and nobody was there. We got a call from the Branch President and his counselor, and they are both sick, so they were not going to make it. So we sat there until 10:30 and decided that nobody was going to come and so we were going to leave and go to the Colonia branch. Then, the District President showed up, so we started sacrament meeting. Then our investigator showed up. So we had a short sacrament and went on with the rest of church.

Then, after church, we had to go too three different places to give the sacrament to people. Then two places to give a blessing too. That took a really long time. It was good though.

I still feel healthy right now. I felt prompted to say in the blessing for Branch President that he would be able to make it next Sunday. He has missed the last two. So we will see if he will. I think he will make it.

Besides that, not too much is new. We have to cover the entire island. That means a lot of driving from the top to the bottom. It is crazy, but we will make it work. I can already tell that the work here is going to slow down. We went from around 45 lessons on Yap per week to about 20. And the less you teach the less you baptize. So it should be interesting.

Well the baptism on Saturday was really good. Arv*n, L*nda's husband, baptized and confirmed her. It was really good. We had L*nda's mom at the baptism. It was really nice. L*nda is going to be a big help to the branch, so will all the other recent converts if they would get a calling. That is a challenge with the 16 recent converts, as only one of them has a calling right now.

Anyways… Things are going well with S*phie. She is a really good investigator. Elder Tueller and Elder Ramiterre were teaching her and then we all got put together to cover the entire island. She is going to be baptized on Friday. I am really excited. S*pie asks good questions, and is keeping all of her commitments. It is really really nice.

A*gistine, C*rmen, R*nny and Ann**, I think are going to help the General Conference translation team. It should be pretty good. They are going to help translate all of the general conference talks.

That is about it for Yap. Not much has happened. The work is slow, but I am going to push it to try and make it faster. I love you guys so so so much. You are the best family in the whole world. I love you.

Oh here is some news. My mission has been extended 2 weeks. I guess there was some mix up in the MTC, so now this transfer is extended two weeks, so now we will cover the whole island for 8 weeks, instead of 6. So that pushed all of the transfers back 2 weeks. So now we all go home two weeks later. I am okay with it though.

Love

Elder Meyer