lots of pictures!

Ranannim Famini!!

Ifa soum? How are you?

I am doing fine! Its really weird being in a threesome (3 elders in a companionship) but I am getting used to it!

I bet the food drive was fun! That is such a great service project and I remember doing it with the family. They don't do anything like that here.

How was the temple trip? I'm glad Dad, Emily and Scott could all go. That is fun to hear that you are going to Hawaii for Christmas.

To answer your question, President Mecham did not give me any indication about how long I will be staying in Saipan. By the end of this transfer I will have been in Saipan for a whole year, so weird!

I was happy to hear that you are enjoying your clinical rotation in the psych ward! There are alot of people here who are crazy but still really good people. In this culture it seems that everyone enjoys being themselves and are not ashamed! Its the saying here, 'don't be ashamed!'

Well the missionary work is going alright. Ben is progressing towards Baptism, we set a date for Oct 8. We know he has a word of wisdom problem so we are going to work on that with him. We have other investigators now that our area has merged! We are struggling to keep appointments with people.

In our threesome we have lots of fun and laugh a lot. We found a funny sign about dogs, i'll send you a picture of it. We also found a church with a sign that says 'YE DAM CHURCH'! I thought it was funny, I will send you a picture sometime! I need to take it first though! ( did not end up taking that picture)

I Love ya,
see ya,
bye!
Love Elder Kearl

sidenote: today in the mail i received dan's memory card he sent me from micronesia. it had 183 pictures on it, some i had seen, some were new! it felt like christmas morning. i have included some of my favorites!

threesome and a time capsule

Ranineem Ai Famini

How are you? I am doing great! No, I did not get transferred, I'm still on Saipan. My area changed a little bit! I am.......in a threesome! so crazy! I am with Elder Cook and Elder Early in the CK area and the San Jose area, we are covering two areas. Fun! We are so busy and we are doing really good.

Ben, our investigator, does not have a baptismal date set yet. He has little ability to speak english so we have to take it slowly! But as missionaries we are working hard and having fun. Its hilarious being with these guys, all three of us get along really well. We had this really funny 3 hour discussion about the elements and soy milk powder. It was really dumb but it was funny! Man, I am doing so good!

Thanks for sending me a copy of the talk you gave in stake conference mom, it was awesome! I am glad grandpa and Laura came to support you.

I feel so old now, its insane. It feels like I have been here forever. We are trying to work with the Bishop and the ward council more. Because I have been on the island so long, the bishop called me an old fart.

It was awesome to fly to Guam last week for Zone Conference. Elder Stevenson (visiting from SLC) gave us lots of training! He's funny and really awesome. He always says "oh my word" He always remembers your name too! He doesn't call you Elder, he calls us using the japenese way. So for Elders, he will say chorro at the end, so I'm Kearl Chorro and for sisters shima (like Tennant shima). He's a great teacher. He will mention a gospel topic and ask what page is that in Preach my Gospel or what scripture talks about The spirit (for example) and every one will look it up and then he will talk about it in depth. Unfortunately, we had no time to take pictures because we had to go to the airport right after! But I will send you a picture of everyone who was there.

Have you received any of my pictures or letters I sent? I am still loving stuff from your package, it was so awesome, thank you mom.

I am loving being a missionary here in Saipan. ALthough I can't believe I will hit a year mark on November 3. We are having lots of fun working hard and staying busy!

Well I gotta go. I sent you some pictures of a van we found that was very old and hidden in the jungle and also a picture from church last week in the tagolag sunday school class. the guy to the right of me, the really dark one standing up, thats Brother Tamayo, he is really awesome and funny. We are really close, I love him so much, he always helps us with Missionary Work helps bring in many people to the church each year!

Well I love ya!  C ya, Bye, Love your son

Elder Kearl

sidenote: At stake conference this weekend they talked about a time capsule that had been buried at the west stake center 11 years ago. they opened it and in it were letters some of the kids had included in it. i loved reading dan's and thought i would include a copy of it on his blog.

My name is Danny Kearl. I am 8 years old. I was just baptized and it was really cool. I really like playing nintendo 64, my favorite game is pokemon stadium. I also like collecting pokemon cards. When i grow up i want to be a lawyer just like my dad. When this time capsule is unburied i will be 18. In one year i will go on a mission. I would like to go to germany or scotland so i can try haggis. We are learning about these countries in school. I hope that i will always choose the right and keep the comandments. I am a good boy and help my mom and dad a lot. I have really nice friends, they are Jare Squire, Steven Franchuk, Jared Mclellan, Michael Tagg and Michael Leavitt. I hope i will choose friends wisely. I have a sister, Emily and a brother, Scott. I hope my mom has another baby. I am happy to be a member of the church. I like to read the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. Danny Kearl

translation error.....woops!

Hey Mom,

How are you doing? That is so crazy that Kianna got married this weekend, but so good that she was married in the temple. The members here who did marry in the temple are the very strong members of the church.

I wish Emily good luck in writing the ACT exam, I hope it goes well for her. If I can get 20, she can get even higher! Thats good to hear that Emily and Scott went back to School and are enjoying their school classes and seminary.

I will pray for you as you do your clinical rotation on the Psych Ward! I can understand why you are nervous about it. We meet alot of crazies here on the island. It's insane, it feels that somehow we as missionaries are magnets for them. We had this one guy named William tell us that we are all characters and that our church is true because it comes from Jupiter and Jesus Christ lives on the ninth planet and he knows that the Book of Mormon is true because Lehi (he calls him Levi) came to him while he was working on his farm and gave him a piece of gold! The member that came with us just said to him "yep, you are quite the character". Very weird but interesting experience!

I have had a very good week. Elder Early and I found more new people to teach. We found this one guy named Ben Lozada, he is from the Philipines and came into contact with the Missionaries through a member, Bro Tamayo. It's quite an interesting story: So Bro Tamayo works at Ace Hardware and he was talking to Ben about Church and they talked about our religion. Bro Tamayo told him he was a member and Ben talked about how he met with Missionaries before and how he went to church regularly back in the phillipines and then he moved and lost contact with the Missionaries. So Brother Tamayo brought him to church yesterday and we taught him with Bro Salcedo (he was the fellowshipper for Alfonso and Maria and he helped them progress toward baptism). Brother Salcedo is a wonderful member missionary, he has helped some people get baptized in this ward. Ben doesn't speak very good english so Brother Salcado was talking to him in Tagolag and when Bro Salcado bears his testimony, he talks about his baptism, his calling, his family, everything! Brother Salcedo asked him, do you believe in Jesus Christ? Then he asked if he would like to get baptized and Ben said yes to both of those. However, Elder Early and I didn't know they said this until after the lesson, so we didn't have time to extend to him a date officially. So we are really happy he wants to be baptized. He even asked during the lesson, after I am baptized what do you think my calling will be? Brother Salcado said, I don't know but Heavenly Father knows, maybe you will be a building coordinator like me because your a mechanic! The members here are awesome and Brother Tamayo told him that he would give Brother Ben a ride to church every week. I am really happy the Lord pours out his miracles on all of us. Alot of miracles happen in Missionary Work!

I did receive the package you sent me from Nauvoo. It was reallly good, thank you! I loved everything in it! I haven't heard anything yet about transfers this week! We will see, anything can happen! The language is getting better every week. It turns out when I say the word for 'answer' I have been saying 'marry'. So sometimes I have told people, "if you pray and ask God if this is true, he will marry you" instead of "he will answer you". So now I know how to say it right! woops! I guess that's what happens when you are learning the language on your own without any formal training in it.

Thats awesome to hear that Brendan Day is going to Vancouver, its really cool there and really diverse. My card reader doesn't work so I can't send pictures through email, I did send some in regular mail and I will continue to send more! When you send me my memory card back, I will send the one in my camera right now to you. It has lots of pictures in it!

My thoughts will be with you this week as you prepare your talk for stake conference. You asked for my thoughts on the topic, D&C 18:10. Look at Preach My Gospel, page one, in the 1st chapter all the way to the next topic on the other page, my purpose.

Well I gotta go, love ya, c ya, bye, love
Elder Kearl

sidenote: luckily, dan sent me an email 1/2 hour later with some pictures he had downloaded off Elder Early's camera. i haven't received any pictures for a few weeks and i felt such joy when i saw the picture of him with the saipan zone missionaries. dan is just so happy, you can see it in his face and feel it in his letters. it looks so lush and beautiful where he is. hopefully one day i'll be able to go there with him. julie

officially out 10 whole months....yipee!

Ran annim famini!

I am doing good! This week was really tough. Alot of our appointments fell through and we had to drop some of our investigators so we have no one with a baptismal date set. The ones we did have baptismal dates for weren't able to meet with us or were not progressing well enough to be baptized! We still had a fun week though!

You asked about the weather here with it so hot and humid. You just get used to it, I still sweat alot but it doesn't bother me!

I hope Elder Potrie gets better quickly and can return to the mission field, I will pray for him!

I am still loving being a missionary here in Saipan. I sent you my memory card in the mail I hope you get it soon. When you do, could you please put the images on the computer and then mail it back to me so I can take more pictures.

We had a really good experience with Norris, one of our investigators! He is opening up more now because members are involved with him. He is progressing slowly but he has actually finished reading the Book of Mormon and he prayed to know if its true when we were there with him! He is from the island of Kosrae and was taught by missionaries a long time ago! He doesn't understand English very well and he is not the brightest bulb in the room, but we sure love him! He is keeping his commitments and we are going to hopefully resolve his concern about baptism tomorrow when we meet with him!

Thank you for sending me a package from Nauvoo, I can't wait to see what's in it. I have enjoyed all the pictures you have sent from your vacation to church sites and chicago.

P.S. Tell dad he has a nice beard in the pictures. It's a little long and he looks like an islander!

Well I gotta go, love ya, see ya, bye

Elder Kearl