Letter from Elder Meyer: A very different meal, Kids respect adults, Games they play, Another baptism

Hello Everyone, Mangil e blayal… “good evening for you guys”,

Dad - If you ever do make it to Yap, I will be sure not to blow your cover <kidding>…  Your secret is safe with me. Sounds like you guys are enjoying the motorcycles again. That is good. How did you guys get to go so far? That is awesome. 

Question 1: What is different about your testimony today, than say a year ago?

Answer: I think it is so much stronger now. It is a much deeper testimony than before. I feel like I had a pretty good understanding of the gospel, but now I realize that it wasn't as good as I thought it was. 

Question 2: Are there any fun traditional island games that you've learned about?
Answer: I don't know about traditional, but there are some fun games. One is where you tie a handkerchief to the top of a tree. Then everyone tries to climb and grab it. Another one is where you have a machete and a piece of vine, you hold your machete up and swing the vine at it. A piece of vine gets cut off and flies at a person.

Question 3: Have you had any really difficult days?

Answer: I am sure I have. I really don't focus on them though. I remember that this is not my time, that it is the Lord’s, and I move on. 

Question 4: Do the youth generally respect their parents? Grandparents?
Answer: Yes. If you don't, you could have some serious consequences. Like be tied to a man house. 

Question 5: It looks like you’ve lost weight… are you needing us to send food. We can make almost anything work.

Answer: Really, it looks like I lost weight? I don't think I have. How much did I weigh before? I think now I am like 140.

Mom - Thank you for the pictures, that is really nice. I love them. It looks like the snow is white. That is cold. I miss it a little bit, and then I remember I get cold at like 70 degrees. Then I don't miss it as much. 

Question 6: How do you say mom on Yapese?

Answer: It is spelled Nina. It is pronounced knee-nuh

Question 7: What was in the last package you've received from us?

Answer: I got a lot of DVDs. Thank you very much. We are going through all of them. Elder Garrett took some to use at his weekly fireside. So they are being put to good use. Kammagar (thank you). I also got the scripture strings and a bunch of pop tarts. Thank you so so much. They are all great. 

Question 8: What was the most interesting thing that happened this week?

Answer: A couple of things… first the baptism. I will talk about that down below. Also I tried something pretty interesting that you guys will all get a kick out of, but it will have to wait to the end. 

Question 9: Describe a typical prep-day.

Answer: Well, I got a haircut today. But normally we get up, and do the normal morning stuff, then we go shopping and buy all the food we need for the week. After that we will email. That is a good part of the day. Then, hopefully the mail is done being sorted so we go and check the mail to see if we got anything. Then after that, we do whatever we want to. Oh, we wash our clothes too. Goes throughout the whole day. Sometimes we go out and explore, sometimes we stay in and play cards. Sometimes we play with the balls you sent. We climb towers, you know, whatever sounds fun. 

Question 10: What sounds really good that we could send you?

Answer: more Gatorade. Really, any snack stuff is really good. I love all the snacks. You can buy some stuff here, but it is expensive. A bag of chips is $5. It is crazy.

Question 11: Tell us about the baptisms.

Answer: S*phia was baptized. I will tell you below.

Question 12: Tell us who you are teaching? 

Answer: Our teaching pool is kind of small right now. But we have a couple of new investigators. L*nda's brother, M*chael and T*nin mayo. I think that both of those people will go somewhere. 

Staheli - How are things going? I hope all is well. In the picture you look like a pro skier. 

Reed - Hey man. You look good in your snowboarding stuff. How are you doing man?

To Everyone

This has been a pretty good week. We had a baptism on Friday. It was for a lady named S*phia. She lives in the Thool area. It was really good though. I gave a talk on Baptism. Elder Ramiterre baptized her. It was the first person he has baptized on his mission. Not counting the child of record baptism that he did. She was an awesome investigator. The pamphlets we give out to people, there is questions and scriptures at the end. She would actually answer all the questions. It was really really nice. On Sunday all of us went up to the Thool Branch. S*phia was confirmed by Elder Tueller. It was really nice.

All three of us gave a talk on Sunday because the 1st counselor who was supposed to assign them wasn’t able to do it. So we were all asked to talk about 5 minutes right before sacrament got started. It was alright though. We made it work. In the Thool Branch there were only 11 of us, including the missionaries. It was a pretty small meeting. In the Thool Branch, P*ter (S*m's little brother) turned 14. So he needed to be ordained a Teacher. He wanted me to do that. So I did. It was really cool. He can now prepare the sacrament. It is pretty exciting. 

Alright, I know you have been waiting for the next strange thing that I got to eat. It is a little bit crazy are you ready? Well it is pig's blood. Yep… yum. It was actually quite good. It is some meat cooked in pig’s blood. It is really quite surprisingly good. You are all laughing now, I know. It is really not bad though. It tastes better than the bat. 

Alright, I got to go.

I love you all so so much.

Love, Elder Meyer

[Dad's note: The reason we are still laughing at Elder Meyer eating pig's blood, is that for years, at home, all he would eat is rice and watermelon. We wondered what would happen if he was to serve a mission where other foods were likely to cross his palate.]