Hello Everyone
This was a wonderful, but awful week all at the same
time. But more on that later.
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| Happy dancer |
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| Harvest rest |
Dad
Glad that boating was fun, and that you were home this
week. Sounds like you are traveling a lot right now.
Question 1: When you were in the
ocean getting ready to perform the baptism on Saturday, what were you feeling?
Answer: Honestly,
like I wanted to just jump in and swim around, and I also felt the Spirit,
because we were baptizing someone. [Note
from Dad: one of the mission rules is that they shouldn't swim.]
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| Elder Meyer not swimming. |
Question 2: When you were finished baptizing
her, and walking back to shore, what went across your mind?
Answer: Well, now that the baptism is
over, maybe I can jump in now. Ha ha. I am just joking. The Spirit was really
strong and I know J*ne felt it.
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| Ocean baptism |
Question 3: What do you most love about the little Thol Branch and why?
Answer: How much it has grown. When I got here, our average was around 9
people a week, and we saw it get down to 5 or less, without any leaders there.
Now, the average is 23ish. Very exciting.
Question 4: Have you taught or engaged with
any of the visitors to Yap Island?
Answer: Well, visitors don't come where we
serve –in Thol up northern part of island. I am up in the jungle away from the
city.
Question 5: If you were to pick 2 traits that are common amongst the
Yapese people to take home with you, what would they be and why?
Answer: Humility,
and caring. For the most part, people are very humble and they care so much
about their friends and family. I just think those are good traits to have.
Question 6: Do you need any clothes or
anything at all. Do any members of the
branch need something that we could provide?
Answer: Nope, the only thing branch wise
is white shirts for the priesthood and I think some got sent from Guam, but I
will let you know.
Question 7: Did anything particularly funny happen this week?
Answer: Yes, but later it is funny, but what made this the worst week
ever.
Question 8: How many lessons were you able to teach this
week, and how many with members present?
Answer: 25 lessons
and 12 of them with a member present.
Mom
That is a really really good quote. I really like it. I
am sorry about you being hurt, but congrats on getting closer to wake boarding.
Question 9: Now that you have been on Yap for over a year, what is
your favorite place to visit that brings the Spirit, besides a church building?
Answer:
I really like being near the tower and seeing all of yap from up high. It just
reminds me that God created everything.
Question 10: Did you
have a baptism this weekend? Tell us
about it.
Answer: We did. It was
great. We also had a branch activity the same day. So it was a lot of fun. We
just played some games and cleaned the church. It was great. The baptism was in
the middle of it all. We started at the church then walked to the ocean and
then did the baptism. Then walked back. Ja*e was so so so excited. It was just
a wonderful and spiritual experience for her.
Question 11: You send lots of pictures in caves. Describe the caves to me.
Where are they? Are there lots of them? Is caving a favorite pastime of the people?
Answer: Not a whole lot to them. It was an activity for the youth a while
ago. They are in the middle of Yap. They are old Japanese caves from when they
were mining here on Yap. They were fun to explore.
Question 12:
What is your favorite scripture currently?
Answer: 1 Nephi 3:7. I like it because
it is one that will help all my investigators because they all struggle with
following the commandments.
Question 13: Share a time when you felt the Spirit this week.
Answer: Well, that is an interesting
question for this week. I will share with you below.
Staheli
Hope you are great. I really miss hearing from you. Hope
school and work are going great. I just want to say I love you.
Reed
Congrats on the wake boarding that is awesome and good luck with the Basketball.
To Everyone
Alright,
so this week started out great… it was wonderful it was absolutely wonderful,
nothing unusual, just great. Well, then we went to an appointment to an
investigator at a member’s house. There were 5 pastors from the ****** church
there. I walked up, and the Spirit was gone, just like that. I don't know if I
have ever felt a loss of Spirit so strong in my life. It was sad and scary.
Being without the Spirit is not good. They all started yelling at me and saying
I am not allowed to ask a question. One pastor says a prayer for the family and
in the prayer they ask that this family will not be lead astray by the
antichrist standing here. So that was great. I got called an antichrist. It was
odd for sure. They keep talking about the Book of Mormon and how it is so
wrong, and how we don't need a prophet today. Afterward, all 5 of them come up
and try and confuse me, they failed. They
just asked questions about who I represent (well Christ, not Joseph Smith, who
they thought I represented). They thought that I didn't believe in the
resurrected Christ. In the end I just let them yell at me. They asked about if
the Book of Mormon was talked about in the bible. I answered them, “Yes”. They
just got mad. I just decided it was no use arguing because contention is not
from heaven.
It was
crazy. After they left I prayed with the family to invite the Spirit in. It was
just crazy. The Spirit was never fully back the rest of the day, but after the
baptism the next day, the Spirit was back again. It was just nuts. I recorded
in the voice recorder all of this as a little journal entry, so you will have
that someday. That is all I want to say, because I don’t want to feel
contentious.
Church
was great. J*ne was confirmed. I also confirmed her. It was really really a
great meeting. We had 28 people there, which is the most since I got to the
island. So it is going really good. I didn't have to talk or teach any lessons
at church this Sunday. It was a wonderful meeting. The Spirit was there, we had
a confirmation and an investigator there. So I could not be more happy.
So that
is how it was… the best and worst week ever. Pretty crazy week.
We
should have another baptism this week in my area. It should be pretty good. I
am excited about it. His name is M*ldon. He is from the outer islands. He is
great. I am very excited about him. We have President Jim and/or President
Mathew help us teach him. He doesn't speak a lot of English, and the language
he speaks is not Yapese. It is hard to teach him, but we have great help from the members.
Well
that is about it. I love you guys so so much. You are the best family in the
world.
Love
Elder Meyer.
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