first baptism

Hey mom

Ifa usoum?  How are you?  I am so good here in Saipan!  It's tough, extremely tough because we haven't found like any new investigators, so next week it is going to be all about finding people to teach the gospel to!  fun.........  

Yeah, so the baptism did work out!  I am so happy.   I didn't get to baptize her but I am just so happy to see her get baptized!  I was able to give her the Holy Ghost though, my first time too!  We also have a baptism planned this coming week and Zone Conference on Friday, I'm so excited!  

I am really happy to be here,  it will be sad if I get transferred to a different Island!  I love the people here so much!  Transfer calls are in like 2 weeks, I hope I am not with some Nukumach Missionari (disobedient Missionary).  

It has been hard trying to get the members to help, we are not getting much success in that area.  Because alot of members here are converts, they don't know that its our duty as members of the church to help the missionaries.  Did u know that?  I didn't until I read Preach My Gospel.  We should all read preach my gospel, it will help us all to become better member missionaries and will help us be able to preach the gospel more effectively.  I know that as we do this the Missionary Work in the Tuscany Ward and Saipan Branch will get better.  I can promise that if we help out in missionary work better that baptisms will increase and that the Lord's work will grow!  

I know that the gospel is true and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God!  

Ua Ewe Pechekun Kot Tongei Feri Mettoch (In the strength of the Lord I can do all things).

Ua Tong Kich

Elder Kearl

happy missionary

Rannineem Mom!

How are you? Kuma sta Po?  well I am doing fine!  I am really excited to be on saipan still, this really is the best area! 

So today and this past week we have been really focusing on members although with little sucess.   We are struggling with finding new investigators,  so once we find some refferals form members it should work out alot better.   I have the faith that things will get better!  

We have a baptism this week, I am so excited!  She is a chuukese girl whose parents arel less active.  She wants to get baptized so that she can have a better life for her and her family! (her family life is not very good right now, she is going through a tough time).  We are also expecting two more baptisms in february!!  This is going to be such a great month!  We are also having success with getting the members to trust us more, the Elders Quorum President is getting hometeaching started agian and the branch clerks are starting to update their records.  Its been more then 5 years since this has been done, its quite common here in siapan and in Micronesia in general.  Well thats what is happening here in regards to the work!  

We are also having trouble reaching our Mission  President and alot of people because the network went down all over Saipan!  I don't know how much longer I will be on Saipan.  I have no idea since transfers are unpredictable!  We only see our Mission President like once every 3 months because that is when Zone Conference is!  He hardly ever emails me back too.  He is so busy and travels so much.

This is going to be a good companionship, the last companionship was pretty good too!  I like Elder Garcia, he is a good teacher.   I am with Elder Bano for 4 days because both of our companions are at Leadership Conference and so this is going to be interesting covering 2 areas at once! well I gotta go, it was nice talking to you, 

Siggy po 

Upwap chefengen 

Ua Tong En

Elder Dan Kearl     

West Stake Youth Fireside on Missionary Work...dan's contribution

The West Stake prepared a fireside for the youth where they had each missionary currently serving from our stake to send some pictures and to share their experience on a mission so far.  Here is what Dan sent in:

Serving a mission is awesome!   You just get to help people and not think about yourself.  You get to experience how to be truly be like the Saviour.  You alo realize how important the Gospel is and how much it can really help you be a better person. It is really cool when you live somewhere different and you get to experience another culture.  There are so many different people here on Siapan, and you really learn alot from them.  I really like the people here, they are very kind and generous.  They all think I am too skinny and like to feed me lots of food.  They don't have alot of material belongings (some families don't even have a bathroom in thier home), but they are happy and their families are so important to them.   Saipan is a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, close to the equator,  that is 5 miles by 9 miles.   There is one branch here and 6 missionaries, we are each from a different part of the world.  My companion is philipino, the other elders are from australia, the marshall islands, pohnpei, and the US.  We all come from different upbringings but we all love the gospel, that is what unites us.   In December they created the first stake in Micronesia, a huge milestone for the church here.    On a mission you learn to really rely on the Lord and put your trust in Him.   I really love being a missionary, I am learning how to really love and serve others.  It's not always easy being on a mission but the highs outweigh the lows.   Choosing to serve a mission has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.  I would encourage those who are preparing to serve to study Preach My Gospel and the scriptures.  I know this church is true.  Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and restored the fullness of the gospel, the Book of Mormon is true and I am grateful to my Saviour for his atoning sacrifice.      
Elder Dan Kearl

one of my favorite emails.....made me giggle

Hey mom

I LIKE THOSE PICTURES YOU SENT FROM CHRISTMAS TIME!  Why doesn't dad shave?   he looks so hairy, but he is his own man!  OH Elder Garcia my companion says to Bro Duldley "Kamusta po".  Tell Bro Dudley that I want to know how he is too! Praying for all of you!

That is exciting Emily is thinking of going to BYU and will be writing the ACT soon.  I am still thinking of going to BYU Idaho when I get home.  However, college is at the back of my mind right now, i'm just worrying about inviting people to come unto Christ!  thanks for everything everyone sent me for Christmas.  I sent a whole bunch of letters this past month, do you know if anyone received them yet? 

So we met this Chamorro lady named Parlinda, she was a refferal from a member.  Her dad died recently and Bro Tanner (the member) told her to talk to us and so she did.  We were telling her about the Plan of Salvation and we gave her the Book of Mormon and she was comforted to know that she will see her Father again.  It made me think of Grandma.   I really miss her!  Good thing she can see me!  

Mom you should be so lucky you can afford to get an education.  Here on this island very, very few people can afford to go,  there is only a community college in Saipan.  It seems everyone here works crappy jobs and they can barely make ends meet, its quite sad!  

Well I am glad to know you are doing ok mom.  That's too bad about Grandpa dying, but glad to know he lived a good hundred years!  

My new companion is awesome, he is teaching me to speak tagoalag and chuukese.  They are improving a little bit.  When people ask me how I am I can say "Ako Auguappo Perrine" (I'm still handsome).   I am glad you are enjoying how tall I look in the pictures.  It is pretty funny, I just think it is because people are so short here!  I am pretty used to the climate now!  My companion likes the heat and he is afraid of rain (like most phillipinos, they believe rain makes them sick).  I can understand quite a bit of Tagolag right now.  I am so happy to be here on a mission, I can't say that enough.   I really love Saipan, I don't want to leave.  

Well I gotta go, 
I am praying for all of you,
Love ya, 
Cya
Love ya (Ua Tong En)

Elder Dan Kearl   

excited for mission calls back home

Hey mom, 
Aww man that is so exciting my friends got there mission calls, Tanner to Guatmala Centeral South and Tyler Henry to Cordoba Argentina (I think they are building a temple there)... Lucky!!!  Yeah, that makes me so happy!!  Where is Tyler G and everyone else going ?  I so want to know now!!  I will send them a letter next week I don't have much time on P-days!  

That sucks Grandpa died, though at least he lived till he was a ripe old age.  That actually made me really sad just reading about it but I will have to get over it because I am on the Lords Errand  therefore I should not be trunky!  

Well we just started a new transfer and I have a new companion!  His name is Elder Garcia and he's Filipino (gotta love them)!   He knows how to work through the members too so thats really good!  Hes been out as long as Elder Deocampo! We also got two other missionaries Sister Wingate served in Guam and the Elder Donekey served in Pohnpei!  They are both Americans and really nice.  They will add alot of obedience to this zone too!  Elder Donekey is really funny.  As we were driving him to his apartment this morning he said "now I heard yall Elders are the best looking in the mission"  We thought that was funny.  We still will have a district meeting and stuff so that we can coordinate well and improve.  I am so excited for this transfer you don't even know, but it feels wierd without my tranier in Saipan (hes on Guam right now with Elder Early)!  


I sent some pics but there are no pictures of any of the new missionaries maybe next week but I will send some Pics of some of our investigators today!     Hey Mom could you please send me my friends mailing addresses again!  I want to write more people letters!!  So excited to be on a mission and serving the Lord.  


p.s. my new comp Elder Garcia is in one of the pictures.
Love Elder Kearl

We got another one he wanted for his friends serving missions or about to or preparing to go:
Hey mom!!  

So Tyler Henry asked me for mission prep tips and I can't email him directly so could you forward this to him and all my freinds who are thinking about going on missions or have there mission calls!  OK so here is my long list of Advice:  A mission cannot be described in words only through feelings and experiences, but if I were really to describe mission in words I would describe it as a battle or war.  When you are in a mission it is not you against anyone else, it is you against yourself.  You might be puzzled reading this but let me explain!  
On a mission your purpose is to invite people to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel Of Jesus Christ through Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, Baptism,receiving the Gift of The Holy GHost and Enduring to THe EnD(Preach my Gospel)!  
ON your mission you are constantly trying to out do yourself and to be better, you are overcoming the natural man to become Christlike so that you can do the Lords Work the Lords Way!  You will become discouraged that you are not good enough and that you are not able to do it!  But you have to give yourself some slack and realize that "When you are on the Lrods Errand you are on The Lords Help"  (James E. Faust)  
Your mission will be hard especially if you are learning a language (trust me Chuukese and Tagolag are no cake walk) but He will help you if are worthy of it and ask!!  You also need to keep your self esteem high and let go of Pride!  We all have Pride and we all have to be humble.  CHrist will only help us if we are humble Ether 12:27.  U have to do things the Gospel way not your way and then you will become effective, when you let go of pride u can get along with your companion and do the work.  
I am still working on being humble and I am not perfect but you have to learn Humility!  I know this isn't what you expected but this is what I would tell you and to read Preach My Gospel,
and scriptures know them well, they are your sickles, your tools, your souls

Love Elder Kearl  


as a side note.....in the first picture, my son is the tall one on the left....just saying! 

start of a New Year

Hi mom

How are you?  I can't believe I have been gone 8 weeks either doesn't feel like that, it feels more like 8 days!  


I really miss Grandma too,  I wrote Grandpa a letter and sent  some pictures, hope he likes them, i sent it today. Thats sad about your friend who died, and you are right,  LIfe is not fair, but whoever says its going to be.  I am learning that right now. 


This has been a hard transfer for me and I am really sad that Elder Deocampo is leaving for Guam, (Office Elders spilled the beans to him and he told me I am staying in Sanjose though no idea who my comp will be).   Life only gets harder thats what I have realized.  The only thing that we can do is to change and to learn and to smile.   I have learned that even if things are tough you still have to be happy.   Because when I smile and sincerely show people here that I love them they really trust me.  You can't mope about it like I did back home sometimes.  Companions are really tough at times and when we have some troubles getting along, we always just go to work and just forgive each other and not think about each other and ourselves just about everyone else, thats the key.  All we can do is let Jesus Christ take the grief and pain and then your burdens will be light.  He is going to make them harder each time but he only gives us as much as we can handle to test to make us pecehekun( Strong).  

In chuukese when people ask how are you (Ifa Usoum?), you don't say good or bad, they just say Pechekun or Apwanapwan(weak).  The Chuukese don't ask if your good they only ask if you are strong and we have to be strong because Christ is our rock, our Redeemer.  Read Helaman 5:15!  I know that this Church is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God that the Book of Mormon is true!  

Oh, I got some funny things to tell you.  We were finding in Gualo Rai and while we were finding we were talking to this one lady and while we talking this dog totally bit me!  He didn't even make me bleed.  The elders Quorum President here is a doctor and he checked it out and it is fine ( my companions bled a little to and its fine too). My comp and the other elders tricked me into eating a local pepper and it was so hot I am not even kidding. I ate so much chocolate later that night and I couldn't even taste it!  


Well I gotta go, cya,  Love ya

Bye

Love Elder Kearl  

p.s Explanation of Pictures:

-New years eve/christmas/birthday philipino party(we could only come if it was a christmas party), it was so much fun

-Picture of us at our sunrise testimony meeting as a zone on the first sunrise of the new year
-Elder Bano( we get along really well, marshallese guy) really happy for some reason
-A canadain Flag I found in the currulas house that the Lonsdales gave them why they were there , thought it was cool