Letter from Elder Meyer: A very humble people (Q5). Short letter because computer freaked out. Twenty-four people in that tiny branch showed up!!! (Q9). Baptism

Hello Everyone

I just lost everything is just typed. The computer freaked out so this one might be short again.

Funny hat on a kid in the branch.

Things have gone pretty well here this week. President Mecham is on island, and will leave tonight.

Dad

I am glad things are going well with you. I am not sure if I believe the no milk thing.

Question 1: How many lessons did you get to teach this week?  Do you think most of the Micronesia mission companions are teaching around 20?

Answer:  We got 20. I think most missionaries get that. Some get more.

Question 2: There was a big article about climate change impacting Yap Island and its production of Taro.  Basically saying that the island is going to get hurt because of it.  Are people talking about this on the island?

Answer: I have heard nothing.

Question 3: What did you do on Prep Day this week?

Answer: Email, shop, laundry, and I don't know what we will do after that.

Someone made him a grass skirt something...

Question 4:  How is your Yapese coming along?  Can you describe how well you are able to communicate if just using Yapese?

Answer: Great. In a conversation about the gospel, I am good. If not, it is a little bit harder.

Question 5:  What is the most important lesson that the Yapese people have taught YOU so far?

Answer: Humility. All islanders are humble. Also, caring for others. People just get up and move, and not bring anything. They live off of what the other people have at their house.

Mom

I am glad that grandma’s birthday was really well.

Question 6:  Tell me about the things you had made for grandma - who made them?  Besides shells, what are they made of?

Answer: A member living here form Phonepi. They rope is a hibiscus tree.

Gift from Elder Meyer to Grandma Seipert

Question 7: Do you use the DVD's we sent? How?

Answer: Yeah, we still use them. I just look for a video for someone specific. I bring over a portable dvd player that we have. Start the lesson, show the video, and talk about it with them. It is great.

Question 8: Do you ever use object lessons when you are teaching? When? What?

Answer: Yes. Pen as a prophet. Hand as Dispensations and apostasy, balancing scriptures on 3 spoons and 3 cups for church pray read. Pen with cap is also the Holy Ghost  and Gift of HG, flash light and flash for camera about holy ghost and gift of HG.

Question 9: Tell me about church yesterday.

Answer: It was really good, we had 24 people show up. Neither one of us taught the Sunday school class because the teacher came prepared for it.

Question 10: Share a time you felt the spirit this week.

Answer:  When we were at a members house for Family Home Evening. The mom gave the lesson and she bore her testimony, it was really quite good. She is very humble.

Question 11: Tell about the funniest thing you saw this week.

Answer: See picture 3. Maybe was last week, but it was funny.

Staheli - I hope you are doing well. Things are going great here. How is School?

Reed - Good luck on the basketball. I hope you make the team.

Grandma - I just want to say happy birthday. I hope you had a great birthday and Ii hope you enjoyed my gifts. Mom said that you wore the necklace all day. I am glad to hear that. I love you. You are the best grandma in the world.

 

To Everyone

Well, things have been good. President Mecham came and we had zone conferences. It was good. Our mission has baptized 248 people as of June this year. In 2011 we baptized 249 the whole year. So we are doing really really good. We are two behind to be on track to reach our goal of 500. I think that we will make it. We set that goal when we had 66 missionaries, now we have 106. We should be able to beat that goal.

On Yap, our goal is 29 for this year. We set that goal thinking we would have more missionaries. Then we went down to 3. Now we are up at 6, so I think that we should be able to get that goal. I think that we could have 4 or so baptism in Thool area next month. It would be really really good. It would really motivate the branch as well.

Things are starting to happen in the Thool branch. Members are coming and getting more excited. I am very happy about that. I hope they will stay excited.

There was a baptism here. Her name was Sh*ra. She is in the Colonia branch. She is really nice. She will be great for the branch down there. I taught her a couple of times.

Well, I am out of time. I love you guys. You are the best family ever.

I don't know how I was so lucky to be born in this family.

Love

Elder Meyer

Dad, could you send me a copy of my priesthood lineage. I am not sure where mine is.  Thanks.

Letter from Elder Meyer: On YAP, they sure chop down a lot of coconut trees (Q5). Taro, quite yummy (Q10). Four new baptisms possibly coming up.

Hello Everyone

Things are going pretty well here. I am really excited about the potential baptisms we have in our area. Internet is really slow right now. I have spent the last 30 minutes trying to log on. This one might be little short.

Dad

I hope you are able to figure out what is causing the blood sugar deal. That is no good. Sounds like you guys had fun in Tahoe. Thanks for the picture.

Question 1: Do you still like it when we ask you particular questions, rather than you just writing from scratch?

Answer: Yeah, I like the questions. They help me think of what to write.

Question 2: Do you have any questions for us?

Answer: Just how is grandma doing? I sent a package home just for her. I sent it on Saturday.

Question 3: How many lessons did you get to teach this past week?

Answer: We were able to get 20. It was great.

Question 4: When people are invited to speak at Sacrament meeting, do they get an envelope with the request and a specific topic?  How is it done?

Answer: No. The branch president will try and call them maybe like Tuesday or so and give them their topic. When he is unable to get a hold of them, he calls me and we go to their house and let them know what their topic is. The missionaries here, especially in the Thool branch, help a lot to run the church and keep it functioning.

Question 5: Any service projects this week?

Answer: We did. It was a lot of fun. We chopped down some coconut trees. Gathered some copra, and went to the taro patch. It was great.

Mom

Wow, you want to do all that by August. August is just around the corner. I know that you can do it though.

Question 6:  Tell me about church today.

Answer: Church was really good. We had 20 people here and 2 investigators. I taught the youth Sunday school and Elder Hatch taught the adult Sunday school class. It was great to have that many people there.

Question 7: How do you decide who to visit?

Answer: We just try and see everyone. Who we think will be home helps us decide who to visit and also when we have return appointments. I prefer to visit investigators, and have the members see those who rarely come to Church, but that doesn't really work all the time. Sometimes, when we see those who don’t come often, we find new people to teach. That is always great.

Question 8:  Does Thool have Ward Council meetings and if so, do you go?

Answer: Nope. We do not have those meetings. I wish we did. It would really help out the missionary effort on the island. In Colonia, they have a meeting like that. The missionaries go to it. It helps out a lot.

Question 9: Did the youth have any special events this summer? If so, what?

Answer: We had the district youth activity last Saturday. We had 30 youth there. We went and explored the caves. I think that there is going to be another youth camp like last year. It should be in August sometime. That is about all they will do though.

Question 10: You have sent some pictures of you and Elder Hatch digging up some plants. What plants are they?  Do you eat them?

Answer: The plant is called Taro. Yes, I eat them. It is quite good. You boil the taro then pour on top of it a coconut milk and sugar mix. It is really good.

Question 11: Elder Garrett says that pineapple is delicious there and that bananas are a staple food. Do you eat those?

Answer: Yes, they are both great. I will try everything on the island at least once. Most of the stuff is pretty good.

Staheli

Hope you are doing well. How was Lake Tahoe? Did you get in the water too? I miss you. Love ya.

Reed

Just one question for you. What is "your thing"? You said that you are just doing your thing. Not sure what that is.

To Everyone

Alright, let’s see. Things are going good. At the service project we clear part of the jungle. We cut down some coconut trees and clean the area a little bit. The plan is to plant a garden there. It was really cool to watch the really tall coconut trees fall down. We had a lot of fun there. The day before we were able to help the same people go and get some taro. It was really muddy and really fun to be in the mud. I really liked helping them out. I took some video of the coconut trees falling down so I will send it home sometime soon. Just need to fill up the memory card.

We got a couple of referrals this week. I think that we could get 4 baptisms from them. The members that gave them to us are really helping them out. That means that they should be baptized. We will see what happens. Their names are T*no and l*mona and M*tsin and G*na. They live next to the district and branch president. So they could really be baptized soon. I really hope they will.

C*rding is still doing really well. He came to church on Sunday. It was great to have him there. We went and saw the chief and his family. I talked to him for a while. He said that when his wife is ready to be baptized, he will come and join in. I talked to him about the kids being baptized and he said that they can't. That they are too young. He said when they are older, they can decide for themselves.

That is about it. Sorry it is short this week. I hope you actually get this message too.

I love you guys. You are the best family in the world. I miss you guys

Love

Elder Meyer

Fun Facts

Micronesia-Guam Mission Today

4,565

Total Church Membership

21

Congregations

5

Family History Centers

Letter from Elder Meyer: Nothing super crazy. Where did the Yapese people come from (Q2). 50 people at Church! (Q4). Self-reliant (Q5). Another baptism.

Hello Everyone.

This was a pretty good week. Nothing super crazy, but a good week. 

Dad

I am glad that you were not on the plane that crashed. That would not be good. That is really cool that you guys are going to the temple as a stake presidency. That is something that I miss so so much, the temple. 

Question 1: There has been much more news recently about Yap Island and the internal debate about leasing private land to China for tourist purposes.  I’ve seen about 6 stories on it over the past week or so.  Have you been hearing such chatter?

Answer: Yes. People really don’t like it. And the people don’t have the authority to lease the land to the Chinese without the chief’s permission.

Question 2: In 2 Nephi, Chapter 10, verse 8 we read, “And it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance.”   Do the Yapese people share with you where they believe there heritage originates from?

Answer: Yes, there is a whole legend on it. Basically they believe they came from either the Philippines or somewhere in Indonesia area. 

Question 3: Related question, do the Yapese people keep records sufficient to obtain Family History information?

Answer: All of the records are kept by the catholic church throughout all of Yap State. So they have back quite a ways. It is hard to get info from the Catholic Church though.

. 
Question 4: What was your Sunday like?

Answer: Sunday was pretty good.. I am in Colonia for a couple days, because Elder Tueller is in Guam for a meeting, so I need to drive the missionaries around down here. There were around 50 or so people. It was really good.

Question 5: Do the youth on the island have a good tradition or work. Basically, do they learn how to become self-sufficient?

Answer: Yes. Most everyone here is self-sufficient. They learn that at a very young age. Especially when they live outside of Colonia. 

Question 6: Did you have a special/successful day this past week?  If so, could you describe it?

Answer: A special day would have been the District Youth activity on Saturday. There was about 30 or so people that came. We went and explored some of the old caves that the Japanese had. They were really cool. After we explored the caves we went back to the church played some games and had a baptism. It was great. 

 

Youth Activity

Mom

Okay so Ashley’s husband got the job at Apple. Let me know what he is doing there. That is so cool that the church is getting so many more youth there at the temple. That is really cool. 

Question 7: Do the youth ever go to the temple to do baptisms?

Answer: Nope. It is much too expensive to go and do that. The youth don't have the money to get themselves there and the church only pays for people's first time to the temple to make a new ordinance. 

Question 8: Tell me about church today - how many were there and what did you do?

Answer: There was about 50 or so people there. It was really great. I was in the Colonia branch. So I didn't have to do anything. The Colonia branch is most like a branch anywhere else. The missionaries don't run it. 

Question 9: Does anyone on the island have a career or job?  If so - what are they?

Answer: Yes and no. A lot of people work. They work at the small stores, some work for FSMTC (phone), for the education department of the government, or like A*gistine started his own business fixing computers. People also work in the hotels that are here.

Staheli

Hope all is still going well with you. Your lava lava is almost finished. Love ya

Reed

Congratulations on the almost six pack. I am so glad that you are doing good. Love you man. 

Grandma

I hear that you are not feeling very well. That is no good. I just want to write you and say that I love you so so so much. You are the best grandma in the entire world. You have always been there for me. I love getting your letters. They make me so so so happy. I feel bad that I don’t write you back very often. I do still love you though. I have a necklace that I have had made for you. I should be able to get it today and then it should be in the mail soon. I just want to say that I love you so so so much. 

 

To Everyone

Alight, sorry that I am a little late today, but better late than never. Time is getting short, so I will go fast. This week was good. We had a pretty good start this week. We saw a lot of people that didn't go to church this past week. So that was good. I think that there were 16 in Thool yesterday. So it paid off.

Um, we got a new investigator named Th*mas. He has been taught before and was close to baptism. He says that he is really busy, but we are going to keep working with him.

C*rding is going to be baptized on August 30th. We are very excited for him. He is doing really good. I think he still has a little bit of a smoking problem, but I know he can overcome that. The baptism this week was for someone that I have been trying to teach for a long time. His name is K*n. K*n came to church a couple months with is family who are members.  Well, at seminary graduation, Ken came. He went to church for 4 weeks in a row and I thought to myself, it is time for him to be baptized. So, I went up and talked to him. He said we could come and teach him. Well, we taught him the first lesson. The other missionaries took over after that, and well, he was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday. It was really great. I was so excited.

Baptism this week.

That is about it. They youth activity was a lot of fun. I will send home some pictures. I love you guys so so much
You are the best family in the world 

Love, Elder Meyer.

Prep Day: Exploring

Prep Day: Exploring

Letter from Elder Meyer: ½ thru mission and best lesson to date (Q5). Now he likes turtle too (Q6). Hang up dance.

Hello Everyone.

Things are going pretty good here.

"Hang Up Dance"  : means they are done dancing for a little while

Dad

Glad encampment was fun and a little bit cooler than Chico.  Love ya.

Question 1: Have you pretty much seen and done everything on the island (except water activities of course)?

Answer: For the most part, Yes. Occasionally we hear about a new activity or spot to explore, and then we go do that on prep-day. Now, since we have those three new missionaries, we are just showing them the stuff that I have already seen. 

Question 2: Do the branches have any home or visiting teaching working?

Answer: I am not sure if you can call it working. In Colonia, it goes alright. Definitely a  bit below average as compared to the states for home and vesting teaching. In Thool, the visiting teaching is not organized and the home teaching doesn't happen very often if at all. 

Elder Meyer and Elder Hatch helping someone with "House Work"

Question 4: Have you ever felt the nearness of Grandpa Jack on your mission?

Answer: I would say, yes. Honestly, I know that I have felt my ancestors helping me. 

Question 5: This is your half way mark thru your mission... what is the most valuable lesson you have learned to date?

Answer: Well, first how important the Savior is. I knew that before, but to see the Savior really change people's lives helped me learn that more so. Also, how important members are in missionary work  Without the members, nothing happens. 

Mom

So when dad and Reed were out of the house, were you home alone. For sacrament last week, Elder Hatch blessed and a teacher passed. I love you.

Question 6: Did you eat any of the turtle that was caught a month or so ago?

Answer: Yes. When a member catches a turtle, they always like to share it. It is a really funny food. It tastes pretty good too.

Question 7: Do you have plenty of people to teach, or do you spend lots of time finding?

Answer: We are doing alright with the amount of people we are teaching. We still go finding for more people. The only thing is finding is not effective. Most of the time, it is a waste of time. The best way of "FINDING" is to "find" through the members for referrals. 

Question 8: Is your mission getting more missionaries?

Answer: We are at a cap now. We will not get any more missionaries unless they raise the cap. 

Question 9: Tell me about the active members in Thool.

Answer: Well… there is M*rtina. She is the lady that I videoed cooking. She is great. She is planning on moving to the States. She has 2 sons on Yap and 2 daughters in the States. The sons are S*m and P*ter. They are the only active youth in the Thool branch. They are amazing young men. Then there is F*napin. M*rtina's mom. I call her Titaw (grandma). She has the most amazing testimony in the world. President Mathew and his wife Margarita. Branch President. He had a stroke and is very disabled. Great family though. President Sylvester (counselor) his wife is a member, but doesn’t come very often. Then the District President is part of our branch. Jim. His wife is Cathy and they have two kids. M*xine and Sh*undy. That is about the branch. 

Question 10: What do you do to invite people back to church?

Answer: Well, first we need to find them. So we work with the members to find where the live. That is a big challenge. Then we just teach them lessons, read with them, do anything to help their faith grow strong again. 

Staheli

Dad and reed had encampment. Mom had girls camp. What have you been up to recently? Love You. 

Reed

Encampment must have been pretty fun if there was white water rafting.

To Everyone

Well, time is getting a little bit rushed, so I will hurry. Things went pretty well. Yap Games is over, so more people will be home this week. We had another sit down long lesson with the Chief's family. It was pretty good. I taught it in Yapese. It was great. My understanding and speaking of Yapese is so much better now. They are doing good. They still don't think they can be baptized for a while. We are working hard to get them to church because if they come to church, that will make it seem more possible to get baptized.

Let’s see. C*rding. C*rding is still doing good. He can't be married to his wife for a while, and they don't want to be separated, so he will not be baptized for a while. He is really excited about it though. We will see how that one all plays out.

Church this Sunday, we had 15 people there. Last Tuesday I taught a Family Home Evening at S*m and P*ter's house. While Elder Ramiterre taught C*rding in Tagalog. (We were on exchanges).

There are several less actives that i am working with there. It was really really nice to have them come back. One of them has not come for a couple of years and he came yesterday. It was so so so great. I was very happy.

We had the opportunity to do some service. We helped out on a house, it was a lot of fun. I will send some pictures home.  We watched a local dance as well. It was put on by Tomil. Was a "hang up dance" it means that they are done dance for a little while. Well that is about it. I need to go. You are the best family in the whole world. I love you guys so so so so so much. 

Helping with a house

Love 

Elder Johnny Meyer

Letter from Elder Meyer: Loves coconut. Baptism. Yap Games. Fire alarm. Conducted Sacrament meeting again.

Hello Everyone. I always start with that. Maybe I will switch it up. 

Ke urogumed boech tibinaw Rog? (How are you guys doing my family?)

Things here are going pretty well. Some very exciting news to share... Not in my area, but in my old area. But we will get there later.

Clearing the volleyball area

Dad

I am so glad that you enjoyed the pictures. I plan on reliving my mission through the pictures and videos I take, for the rest of my life. Hope you guys have fun on Encampment. I really enjoyed those trips. They are so much fun. You are bringing the boat? That should be fun. I am sad that Sister Brown has passed away. Let President Brown know that he and his family are in my prayers. 

Question 1: How are things going with those that have been baptized over the past year?

Answer: They are doing great. Most of them; that is. I only get to work with a couple of them because most of them are in the other area. But I really keep in touch with A*gistine and his family. They are doing good. They have hit a couple of rough patches, but we are helping them to make sure they come out on top. They both love the scripture sets. 

Question 2: On some of the video, I heard a ton of bird sounds. Are they continuous?

Answer: Yeah. When you are just walking through the jungle, you hear a lot of bird noise. If you are more in the city, or in a village with a lot of people, there are less of them. 

Question 3: How many lessons have you been able to teach this past week?

Answer: This week we taught 19 lessons. We were very close to the goal of 20. It is just tough, especially in this area. Most of what is planned falls through, but we just keep pushing along. 

Question 4: I can’t believe you love coconut so much. That’s not what the person who left named Johnny Meyer would have said. Are there good recipes or ways to prepare coconut that we can try?

Answer: ha-ha. You don't really prepare a coconut. You just crack it open and drink it. Then split it open and eat the meat. If you do get your hands on a young un-husked coconut, that is the best way to prepare it. For the older ones, they are more common in the states. You can still drink the juice in side. But with all the meat inside you can spread it up and make coconut milk to cook with. You put coconut milk on taro. Oh that is very good. 

Question 5: Can you describe how one of your favorite teaching moments went this week?

Answer: I would have to say it was with S*lvester. We were talking about prayer and then moved to temples. He and his wife, and their kids, have not been to the temple yet. We started talking about him going with his family. I just simple shared my testimony of the temple and the ordinances preformed there. The spirit was there and they are going to prepare to go on the next trip. It is great.

Mom

I didn't extend my mission. The MTC extended my mission because they scheduled the new missionaries arriving here. I am not sad about it though. Ha ha.

Question 6: Do you eat fish?

Answer: I do when members give it to me. I don’t go and buy it though. It is so much better than the fish that we have in the states. It tastes so much better. I don't know what it is, it is just better. 

Question 7: Describe the scene as you look out your apartment window. 

Answer: Well, you see my car. You see a big guava tree, and across the dirt road you see the jungle. And in the jungle is where some people live. If you look to your left you see more jungle. To the right is a small house that you can see through the jungle and behind my house is a village in the jungle. I really live in the middle of nowhere.

Front of home.

Question 8: Describe a time when you felt directed by the spirit this week. 

Answer: We are trying to work with a member on finding the less actives. We are working with him because he knows where everyone is. Well, we try seeing him a lot, and he is almost never there. So after a lesson, I really felt like we need to go see him. So we went over and he was there. I was very happy. We wanted to go out with him then, but he couldn't. So we scheduled a time when we will come back. I hope he is there this time, but at least we made contact with him. 

Question 9: What happens at transfers?

Answer: If someone is leaving the island, we will get a call Tuesday morning the AP's will say you are leaving, get on the plane tonight. Then we pack everything and leave. If no one is leaving the island, we get a call Wednesday night. They tell us who is a companion with whom, and in what areas. Then we bring our stuff to District Meeting and make the switch. 

Staheli

Sounds like you are home in Chico. Or you were on Saturday. Hope that it was fun. Have you been published yet???? It is summer there, so are you in school now, or are you taking a little break? Love you

Reed

So you are leaving tomorrow for encampment. I hope you have a fun safe trip. Let me know all about it next week. 

To Everyone

Alright… the exciting news this week. We had a baptism. It was for Alv*ra. This is the mom of L*nda, who was baptized in February. It was a really nice service. We found Alv*ra when we first talked to L*nda back in January. We taught Alv*ra until the end of March when I moved up to Thool. I have kept in contact with them, and now she is finally baptized. I was very excited. She is a wonderful older lady. I am so very happy for her. Honestly that is the most exciting thing that has happen.

Baptism

C*rding is still on track to be baptized. We are still waiting for his wife to get a divorce so they can be married. I hope all that happens very soon. I can't wait for him to be baptized.

Let’s see what else is new... Ummm. We are going to go see the chief and his wife again this week. We stop by quite often, but to have a sit down lesson is a big big deal there. So I am very excited about that. I am teaching everything in Yapese. It is really a lot of fun. I wish more people would force us to speak Yapese. It would make it a lot easier to learn the language. I have been told that Yapese is the 3rd hardest in the world. I don't know if that is true or not, but it most certainly could be.

Something that we are really trying to do now is find the very less actives on the island. There are a lot of them. The hard part is finding them. We are doing our best to work with the members that know where the live. There used to be about 50 people at the Thol branch every week. Now we have around 10. Yesterday there were 7.

I conducted and presided over sacrament meeting. It was interesting. I gave a talk on the fly again. Like Ii did last week. And luckily the other two people asked to speak showed up. It is not too bad conducting a sacrament meeting. I am assuming it is a little bit scarier when there are more than 10 people attending though. haha. 

Conducting sacrament meeting

Part of why this week was slow is because Yap Games is going on. All the villages have a team. Tomil, Gagil, Ramung, Fanif. etc. and they compete against each other in different sports. Basketball, soccer, baseball, track and field, ping pong, tennis, and volleyball. So we had to go and see how good this people are at basketball. They are pretty good. I went in and watched for a little while. It was pretty fun. It made me miss basketball.

While the game was going someone pulled the fire alarm. No one exited the building though. Everyone just sat there assuming it was a false alarm. It was in the middle of the championship game. It was really funny just to sit there and watch no one move. I will be excited once Yap Games are over. More people will be home again. It will be over this week. 

That is all. 

I love you all so so much. You are indeed the best family in the entire world. 

Love Elder Meyer