Week 6 - Taylor Swift at 2am

Hey everyone! This is gonna be a short one... But just some quick info about Yap!

Population: 11,377

Church Membership: 420

Island Size: 38.7 square miles

Language: Yapese and Woleaian

I'm the fourth sister ever to learn Woleaian, and there's maybe around 100 (at most) active members on Yap. Yap is the smallest island but the best because I'm here ;) Missionaries aren't allowed to eat Dog, Turkey Tail, Raw fish/meat, or Turtle. And I've been offered all except dog so far.

I don't know how to describe the houses, but they are very open. So they're mostly like tin roof structures (or grass roof) and some have no walls, others have walls, and then there's elevated 'floors' kind of like a giant wood box that's like three feet above ground that everyone sits on. And then there's actual enclosed rooms up in those maybe in the corner of the roof structure. They're all different but its all very open. And the kitchen is mostly dutch oven elevated in the other end of the roof structure or in a different roof structure. And the animals just run everywhere, in and out of the houses and all around. :) It's great! We don't live in a hut like other people do, just an apartment with real walls and a real door and real rooms and a real bathroom (another question I have.. Where do the people here use the bathroom??? There are zero public restrooms and I have yet to find an outhouse. I'll figure it out eventually I guess). 

There is no church material translated into Woleaian, so the work has been really hard. I was on Guam this past week for the Monthly Missionary Leadership conference. Pohnpei, Palau, Saipan, and Guam all have four or more sisters and Yap and Kosrae only have two (and of course Chuuk doesn't have any) so there are Sister Training Leaders on every island (because each Island is a zone) and every month the STLs and the Zone leaders come to Guam for Training (Mission Leadership Conference). And because there's only two of us on Yap, we both go to Guam even though Sister Jones is a Sister Training leader. There's suppose to be four sisters on Yap, and president said eventually there will be. But until then I'm going to Guam once a month. While we were on Guam, We met with Mission president. Even though I'm not an STL I sit in on all the meetings so my companion isn't the only female. During the meeting President kept asking if we had any questions and no one was saying anything. So finally, I asked about teaching people using the Book of Mormon when it's not in their native tongue and they speak very limited English. He taught us that we need to be those tools to teach the feelings and the message of the Book of Mormon to those people. I know and have learned that the prophets knowledge and accounts in the Book are incredible, pure, true, and simple. but because the people of Yap cannot understand it, I now have to be the interpreter of the feelings and message the Book of Mormon shares with people. I have to be like those prophets. And It's pretty cool :) So I've been studying the book mad crazy so I can know it forwards and back in order to perfectly explain the message of it to the people. And I also need to work on using simple English words to explain a powerful testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Teaching feelings (as mission president put it) is literally the only way we will baptize converts to the church. Because there's over 300 inactive members on Yap, I don't think we can afford to baptize anyone as casually as they have in the past. Baptism is a very serious covenant and as my good friend Dallas back home put it, it is definitely not Casual. So look out all you less actives on Yap, I'm comin for ya! ;)

So about the subject line... My trip to Guam was so much fun! Two sisters from every island came to Guam and we all stayed in the same apartment. We sort of got approval to stay up late for special occasions, and as most of us don't get to really see other sisters that often, we called it a special occasion and stayed up until 2am most nights laughing, talking, eating food, singing Taylor Swift songs, and telling crazy stories from our islands :) Each of us trying to make it sound like living conditions on our island is much worse than it is on theirs! haha we're all pretty hard core, tough girls with great sense of humor and funny dating stories, so it was a great week!

Also, I taught some people on Guam with Sister Memmott who is like a brunette me. We have like the exact same personality and she had the same experiences and feelings as me at the start of her mission. Anywho, we went to teach this one family and they had a bunch of children. Three of the girls came running up to me and started hugging me and grabbing my face and hair and said "You're face is missing brown, why is your hair missing black, you look like God" It was so funny and so cute!

Shout out to Justin Breinholt, Good luck in Mexico! A mission is crazy hard (sorry, "Challenging". My companion said we're not suppose to say 'hard' ) But I think I'm starting to see the good parts :) It's so worth it. And Hey everyone, read the Book of Mormon! Okay, pardon my French but good freaking heck (apparently 'freaking heck' is cussing out here in the mission world)! If you're not reading the Book of Mormon, WHY?! These people out here cannot understand even simple English sometimes and many of them spend hours on a few verses just desperately trying to understand it's words. It's a privilege to be able to have this book and to live in America, with 10 copies in your home all in your native language, and to leave that book and this gospel and these good doctrines just sitting on the shelf is just silly. I don't think any of us have any idea how lucky we are to have access to all of this knowledge and truth. And to have the ability to easily comprehend what the book is saying is something I've really come to appreciate (if you can't tell ;) ).

I love you all, and because I do I encourage you to maybe value the fact you live in the center of the restored gospel. Because it's freaking awesome :)

Much Love,

Sister Felt