Videos from Yap Island: Elder Meyer takes on strong man. The Jungle. High Cast Village Stone Money Bank. Yapese Dance.

Thought you might enjoy these videos we received from Elder Meyer.

Arm wrestling with President Jim

Walking in the Jungle looking for someone to teach

Found a High Cast Village Stone Bank

Yapese Dance

Moves and front door is on the ocean. Audio message for Christmas. Never thought the day would come (Q4). Another baptism (Q6).

Hello Everyone

Things are going pretty well here on Yap. We have had a lot of changes to the island in the past week [Week of Dec 8^th). It is awesome.

Christmas Testimony in Yapese -> English
2:49 minutes

Dad

Congrats on doing that much temple work. That is really cool. You are a great example, of how one person being taught the gospel affects generations in both direction. That is pretty cool.

Question 1: Refresh us on who all the missionaries are, companion setup, and location covering.

Answer: Me and Elder Mott in a new area called Gagil. It is the same area, just some of it was assigned for the other missionaries. Waimila and Hatch in Thol (where I just was), Ramiterre and Huppe in Dalipebinaw. Huppe is new to the island, but served on the Island of Chuuk for a while. He is 2 transfers older than me and the sisters. SisterCambell and Sister David. They are in Colonia.

Question 2: How many lessons taught this week, and how many with members’ present?

Answer: Well, only 15 and 8 with a member. Not too bad for having to move where we live, and get stuff ready, and shrink part of my area.

Question 3: Are those going to the temple repeat visit or new first time?

Answer: Most are new. It is really great. I can't wait for them to come back and talk to them about it. Jim the district president is going again. If you go a second time, you have to pay for expenses.  [Note from Dad: Because of the substantial flight and expenses to travel from Yap to Philippians –nearest temple—the Church helps defray the costs for those going the first time to the temple to be sealed to each other.]

Question 4: When the sisters arrived, what thoughts crossed your mind about their service on this wonderful little island?

Answer: I never thought I would see the day. I was so happy to have them here. Sisters in the past did a lot of good work. So it is good to have them here after not having any for several years. I was a little concerned too. I have actually never really served with sisters before. The only sister missionaries I saw was when I went to Guam to get my trainees.

Question 5: You haven't got any of our packages for a while. I wonder why? Mom has stuff to send, but concerned about you not getting them... i.e., scriptures for that Elder for example.  [Note from Dad: Our last 4 packages haven’t been received. Something has changed]

Answer: I didn't know you sent the scriptures. I got the art stuff last Wednesday. Thanks. Those kids are going to love them. When did the scriptures get sent?

Question 6: What put a smile on your heart this week?

Answer: Seeing Cl*nton baptized.

Question 7: What do you most appreciate about Yap Island, other than the people?

Answer: Umm.. Everything… really I love it all. I really like how clean this island is. I hear most of the other islands are a bit dirty, but not this one!

Question 8: Can you describe details around the best teaching moment from this past week?

Answer: We were teaching Sh*ndra. She is a new investigator in my old area. We were talking about the restoration.  Starting at the beginning with God, and who He is. And she asked why there are so many churches, and what are the differences between them. She was super interested. It was really great. She was engaged in what we were teaching. It was all in Yapese. She was really impressed. We got to the Apostasy, and she really understood why there were so many churches today. It was great. She accepted a baptismal date. It was awesome!

Question 9: What are you most looking forward to this week and why?

Answer: Umm let’s see. Probably working a spot of the island that has not been worked in a long time. It is going to be great. It is really strong Catholic, but it should be really interesting.

Mom

Sorry mom time is up. I know you are really busy don't worry. You are the best still. Love you

Staheli - How was your presentation? If you did it already. I can't remember when you are doing it. I hope it goes well, if you have not done it yet! I know you will do great.

Reed - Hey Man, love you.

Letter to Everyone

Alright so what is new here? Well I guess a lot is new here. So dad asked about where everyone is. So that is really cool. We have not had 8 missionaries or sisters in such a long time. It is super exciting. I know that it will really help the church grow here. The sisters have a car, which forces a walking area in the Thol branch. It is a big area. It is from where I use live at to the church. It is large, but good things can come. I moved apartments and so did Ramiterre. It has taken a long time to get it all situated, but it is all done now. My new apartment is really nice, and every morning I get to wake up to a beautiful sun rise over the ocean. It is super nice. It is really fun.

I live like right next to the ocean. It is really nice. In the morning there is a really good breeze. It is nice. When we moved to this apartment, we lost the air conditioner. None in the new place. I am okay with that, but Elder Mott is still not adjusted, so he is always hot. There is another apartment right next to ours. The missionaries for the Jehovah witnesses live there. It is an interesting relationship right now.

We had the baptism of Cl*nton. It was super great. He was so excited. One of the members who is his friend baptized him, S*lvester. It was really great. I gave him the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. It was a really good service, and he was so excited. Cl*nton has a couple of friends that we are going to try to work with. They are pretty shy, but we will see what comes out of it.

Let’s see what else is new. Oh yeah. I am the new district leader. So that is cool. It should be pretty fun, I guess. I need to give trainings ever Thursday at district meeting. I call all the missionaries for their work report and then tell the zone leader. Then they tell Guam, but besides that, I am just a normal missionary. I just make sure the district is functioning well, and help fix any problems.

I have talked to the sisters a little bit. Sister Cambell is training sister David. It is sister David's first week in the mission. It would be hard to train in an area, where you don't know anything about anyone. They will do really good.

I love you all so so much.

You are the best family ever.

Love

Elder Meyer

Elder Tueller goes home

Letter from Elder Meyer: Wow!!! Sister Missionaries coming to the island! Now there are 8 missionaries on Yap.

Hello Everyone.  Here's a video of a wonderful baptism in the ocean.

To Everyone

So, this transfer is crazy… I will go fast. We heard we might lose most, if not all, of the missionaries because of the chickenguna.

Well, then we were told we need to find some more apartments so that is what we are doing now. We have found 2 new places to live, and are getting things ready for more missionaries. We were told that we might get some sisters, which is really exciting, and go up to 8 missionaries. We have not had either of those for 3 to 4 year.  So things are pretty great right now. It will be really great. There should be 4 missionaries in the Thol branch and that would be really exciting. I can't wait for that to happen. This transfer should be good and quite interesting at the same time.

Cl*nton is doing really good he should be baptized on Saturday. It should be great, we are both very excited. The person, who gives him a ride to church, is going to the temple, so we need to find him a new ride to church. It will all be okay though. Blessings will come from people going to the temple. We have some new really great investigators, they should be baptized this week, if all goes according to plan, we are going to push and pray that it all happens.

Sorry it is short. I had a huge letter written out and when I pushed send it took me to toggle.com, so I lost it all. I am very sorry. The internet is crazy here sometimes.

That is about all the time I have left. Just know that I am doing fine, the work is going great, I love this gospel, and I LOVE YOU ALL. YOU ARE THE BEST.

Love

Elder Meyer

Just lost everything again on the computer. And I have only a couple of minutes left, the only thing that saved was dad's stuff.

Things are going good here on Yap. We are all doing really great.

Dad

Sounds like Reed's day was a lot of fun. You are so lucky to be able to go to the temple so much. I truly miss it. And over 200 kiwi's, that is crazy. I didn't think we would ever get any of those.

Question 1: I noticed the Garrett’s finished their mission. What was the biggest blessing they brought to the island during their service?

Answer:   I think the temple. They were such a big part of getting the first group to go and getting this group ready to go next week.

Question 2:  If you were to pick one thing that you learned this past week, what would it be?

Answer: Expect the unexpected. More on this later…

Question 3: How many lessons, plus with members present?

Answer: We had 23 lessons and 12 with a member present.

Question 4: I can’t remember if mutual is working in the Thool branch? If so, what do they usually do?  Answer:  Nope.

Question 5: Any teaching or lessons being shared with an island chief?

Answer:   Not really. They have stopped progressing. We just stop in and see them every once in a while to keep them in contact with the missionaries.

Question 6: I’ve lost count, how many total baptisms on the island since July of 2012?

Answer: I think close to 30.

Question 7: Was there a moment this past week when the Holy Ghost confirmed something that was being taught?

Answer: We taught the restoration several times this past week, and every time the Spirit was there, I felt it and I know the investigators felt it.

Question 8: Could you share the details about today’s prep-day?

Answer: Today, we study in the morning just like normal, and after head to Colonia. We start laundry go and shop and email. Come back, finish laundry and go do something fun. Today, we are going to be busy doing something very interesting. More on that later though.

Question 9: For the youth Sunday school class, you seem to teach from time to time, do the students seem to have a favorite Book of Mormon story?

Answer: Nephi, I guess. That is the one that they are most familiar with. So I try to get them to know more stories from the Book of Mormon.

Question 10: What put the biggest smile on your face this week?

Answer: Hearing the testimonies on Sunday.

Question 11: How do you feel the zone is doing overall?

Answer: We are doing pretty good. I think that we can always do better though. We are all pretty unified which is good.

Mom

Sounds  like you guys had fun.

Question 11:  Did you get any packages this week?  What was in them?   Answer: No.

Question 12: What did you do on Thanksgiving?  Answer: Teach

Question 13:   Tell about church in the smaller northern island branch/congregation.  How many were there? What did you do?   Answer:  22 blessed sacrament.

Question 14:  Have you thought of anything you want for Christmas?  Answer: chocolate bars.

Staheli - Dad said your presentation is awesome.

Reed - How was Reeds day?

Letter from Elder Meyer: Haircut Yap Style (video). No one sick from Chikungunya. Maybe more missionaries coming. Huge conference and well attended.

Haircut Yapese Style

Hello Everyone

This was a good week. Unfortunately everything that I  just typed was erased, and now I need to do it all over. I will go quick and see what I can get done.

Dad

Quite a story about the Presiding Bishop. [Note from Dad: Bishop Stevenson attended our ward/congregation and shared with us that he had been on Yap Island just before Elder Meyer arrived there.]

Question 1:  From the story above about the Presiding Bishop talking about Elder Meyer… what comes to your mind about it?

Answer: Everything happens for a reason.

Question 2: What traits have you observed from President Mecham that you would like to incorporate into your life?

Answer: HE is bold and enthusiastic about the gospel.

Question 3: Do you use any forms of technology in teaching people on the island?

Answer: Just he DVDs you sent.

Question 4: How many lessons and with members present?   Answer: 19 and 7

Question 5: There was another Chikungunya fever outbreak on Yap. News says that 340 cases discovered.  That’s quite a bit for the population.  Are you and the others Elders staying healthy?

Answer: We are good.

Question 6: What may have strengthened your testimony the most this past week?

Answer: Hearing the testimonies of the people I’ve taught, they spoke at district conference.

Question 7: If you were to write one complete sentence that describes the children on Yap, what would that sentence be?

Answer: They are special group of kids, they are like all kids though, they just want to have fun. They are just awesome, the spirit they have is amazing.

Question 8: If you were to write one complete sentence that describes the adult church members on Yap, what would that sentence be?

Answer: A group of people who are doing all they can to follow Christ in a difficult spot in the world.

Mom

It sounds like you talk to everyone about me. When I come home you will have nothing to talk about. Ha ha.

Question 9:  Any packages?  What did they have in them?   Answer: Nope

Question 10: Any Thanksgiving plans?

Answer: We were going to have a baptism, but that is not going to work out, so not really.

Question 11: How many people were at church, what did you do?

Answer: Well, it was district conference and there were 137 people there. It was awesome. Elder Ringwood, the new Area President was there. It was really good.

Question 12: How many church services do you attend?

Answer: I guess you could say two. It is one normal one, and one that is called a small group meeting. It is just sacrament meeting. It is smaller than a branch and is dependent on the branch.

Question 13: Talk about the children on the island.

Answer: The kids are great. They are supper funny and really fun to talk to. They are like normal kids. They like to have fun and play around. There is just a special spirit with these kids though.

Question 14: Have you gotten sick while on Yap?

Answer: Not really. I have stayed pretty healthy.

Question 15: Describe a time this week when you followed the spirit and were blessed.

Answer: We got a referral, but could not find were the person lived. We looked up and down the village and we had no luck. I just felt impressed to go down one more time, we stopped at this house, and there she was. It was great. We had a wonderful lesson with her.

Staheli

Hope things are going well with you. Dad said that you were giving a presentation in Tampa or something like that. What is that about?

Reed

So you are a junior. That is what I thought. It has just been a long time since I thought about school. You need to stop injuring yourself. You are going to lose both your legs if you are not careful. Ha ha. Glad you are doing great man!

Grandma

I just got a letter from you last week. It always puts a big smile on my face to read your letters. Thank you so so so much.

 

To Everyone

Alright, I will go fast because this is the 2^nd time I’m writing this letter since my first letter got deleted… This has been a crazy week.   We are being very careful about the chickenguna illness going around. Then got a call that Pres Mecham is thinking about putting more missionaries on this island. And that I need to go and find an apartment for them to stay in. So now I have done that. I am not sure what is going to happen. I think it will all be good. Whatever happens it is the will of God, so no reason to worry too much. I know that there is a lot of work to be done where the new missionaries would be moving to. So it will be good.  I know good things will happen there.

Elder Ringwood is here. He is a really great man. We had a ton of people and District Conference. It was really good to see so many people there. We had 137 people, it was great. As I have mentioned, some of my recent converts talked. Ag*stine, and his wife, and also J*hnny.

It was really great. They all did a fabulous job. It was so good to hear their testimonies. It made me feel really good. The spirit was super strong there. It was great. J*hnny talked about me in his talk. He was really scared to go up and talk. I helped him feel a little bit better the night before. He did great.

Ag*stine and C*rmen were both really nervous. They told the other missionaries that he wanted to talk

with me. So I drove down there and talked to them about what they were going to do, and how they can prepare for it. They both did wonderful.

It was a very good conference. It was mostly about hastening the work.

It all went right along with what President Monson is talking about.

It was really good.

This morning we had a meeting with President Ringwood and his wife and the Pres and Sis Mecham. It was a really good meeting. Most of it was about working with members more. Hastening the work. And of course there was always something about being obedient, well exact obedience.

Elder Ringwood is a very smart man. We talked for a long time just on 3 Nephi 11, and the order of things that happens, and the order that Jesus Christ did things. It was really interesting. I never thought about it. For example, there were about 2500 people there and they all touched Jesus. If you figure it took about 10 seconds per person to touch Him. Then that is about 7 hours that Jesus stood there letting every single person come and touch Him and get their own testimony. It was all really good. True conversion takes time on our part and on theirs. We can't be frustrated when some people are progressing faster than others.

Well, I am almost out of time, so I need to hurry.

You guys are the best ever. I love you all so so so much.

Love Elder Meyer