surviving in chuuk

Hey mom and dad,

I don't have much time on the computer today.  It's been a crazy week. We had zone conference which as always was a great experience. I had a really good interview with the Mission President.

Our Branch President is going to come back to church now, and says he is going to fulfill his calling now that family problems are being dealt with! I am excited for this branch. We have no set baptism dates coming up but are hopeful we will by the last week of august. Our investigators are having a hard time getting to church but I know it will work out!

I received my birthday package. It was so awesome, especially the birthday banner with pictures of everyone wishing me a happy birthday. It is hanging up on my wall and I will keep it there until i come home. Thank you so much! 2 weeks ago our power went out in our boarding so we had no fridge to keep the chocolate from melting. So the branch presidents family helped me eat the chocolate and they loved the different kinds of chocolate bars from Canada.

My companion and I work very well together. Again, I am sorry I don't have more time to write. Today for P-day we hiked up a mountain. I will send pictures in the mail for you to see.

I love you all so much and I am so happy to be serving a mission,
Love Elder Kearl

Here are some birthday pictures

turning 21 this week!

sidenote: Dan turns 21 this week! So hard to believe. What is crazy is that I was exactly his age when I gave birth to him. He can't send me pictures right now so I am waiting for his memory card in the mail. In honor of his birthday I thought I would put some pictures of him from when he was a little boy. I especially love the one of him with his pirate gear. He loved swords when he was little. He would make them out of anything he could find. I miss those days! julie

Dear Mom

I am doing so awesome. We have twelve baptismal dates, including a family!  It is really hot here in Chuuk. Our solar power went out and so our fridge does not work! All of our food is going bad!  We are doing great, Elder Lina is a good companion, he is progressing in the language!

Sorry about the post office box number, it's 861. Thanks for trying to get my package here on time!  I can't email pictures so I am going to send you my memory card. Hope that's ok.  My camera isn't working so can you buy me a cheap camera and send it to me? I don't think there is anywhere here on this island to buy one.

We had branch council for the first time and 30 people came including 10 priesthood holders!

I have no plans for my birthday because its a normal proselyting day! I do not know when my release date is yet! The missionary work is really good we are going to have a lot of baptisms in August and we have some good member work going! I am excited for this branch to grow, we are going to build it like lego's, one piece at a time! We have been working with the branch presidency on training leaders and we have been working on some cool part member families! I am doing really good and am very happy in my life as a missionary, best decision I ever made was to serve a mission.

I am going to print some pictures for you and send you my memory card hopefully today.  I love you so much mom! We have zone conference this week so I will let you know how things go! I am very excited to be here in Chuuk.

Sorry I don't have time to write more,

Love, Elder Kearl

roughing it in Chuuk

sidenote: derek and i were both very pleased that dan is in a more remote part of the island where he will not have the comforts of home. guam and saipan were probably more like a poor hawaii, this will be good for dan to experience this type of island life. very cool that he is living amongst his last companions family.

Hey Mom

I am doing awesome! We had a awesome week, we taught 30 lessons, found 36 new investigators and we contacted alot of refferals!  Chuuk is awesome! My companion speaks english and we are in the area called Sapuk. It is actually Elder Katas (last companion in guam) home branch. I met all his family, they are the strongest people on these islands. His uncle is the branch president, his mom is the ditrict relief society president and his sister and brother in law are the district young mens and young womens presidents! I have not taken any pictures yet, my camera is not working well but I will take some on Elder Linas camera!

We are walking everywhere, which is a first for me, I'm used to having a car. This place is very remote and rustic. Not very many people know english and our house is made of wood. The water pump broke and the shower head doesn't work so we have been using bucket showers where you have a bucket of water and cup and you pour water on your head and then you use soap and shampoo and stuff. So its ese kinamwe (not comfortable) We have electricity but no drinking water we just boil water. Luckily the branch presidents family lives right next to us and they have a filter so they give us water sometimes!

The church is really small, the chapel is as big as our living room! Only 23 people came to church. Elder Katas family and then some of his extended family! Everyone is related here it's insane! Me and my companion never use the mission boat because we are on the main island. I was so weird seeing Elder Katas house and seeing his mom! Church is really crazy; it started a half an hour late to wait for people to get here and one little boy pooped his pants so the grandma just took off his daiper and he was running around naked in the church and some people were openly breastfeeding! I also gave a talk yesterday! It is way different from church back home but I love it here and I love the people, they are very genuine.

We already have this girl form tonowas set for a baptismal date. She is really good, she just came up to us and said she wants to get baptized, her name is Castlyn! She is realy cool! Remeber Niciana form Saipan? This is her village and I met her son and husband! It's great to make so many connections wherever I go.

All I really want for my birthday is a handkerchief or two. It gets very hot here walking around and that will help wipe off the sweat.

well I gotta go, love ya, see ya, bye, I will send pictures next week

Love Elder Kearl

transferred to chuuk, what an adventure it will be for him!

sidenote: when dan was first called to micronesia guam i found the blog of the mission presidents wife. i spent a fair bit of time reading through her posts and looking at the pictures. the islands of chuuk seemed like a very cool place and i secretly kept hoping dan would get to serve there. it is very remote and consists of many many islands (look at the scale of the above map). the elders use a boat to get to some of them to see members and do missionary work. dan served in saipan the first year and guam for 8 months, both are quite modern and he loved it there. early on the mission president had asked him to do the lessons to learn the language of chuukese; on guam and saipan many people speak chuukese but i hoped it meant he would be going to chuuk. i was overjoyed when i received his email saying he had been transferred there. i kind of thought that if he wasn't transferred this time he would just be staying put in guam. HE ONLY HAS 2 MORE TRANSFERS TILL HE GETS HOME! YIPEE!!!!! i'm so excited to hear of his adventures in chuuk. i did have a little heart attack when i saw the size of the airport runway. julie

Hey Mom

Guess what?

I go transferred to Chuuk!! It is so awesome here. My last companion, Elder Kata is actually from here. I am in Sapuk with a philipino named Elder Lina! I am not a district leader here like I was in Guam but I am happy to be the senior companion. I have been asked to teach Elder Lina the language of Chuukese! Funny to think of me teaching someone another language.

I got here last night, and we stayed with the Mechitiw elders (my district leader). We had to study in the Mechitiw chapel this morning. The church is really small and made entirely out of wood! While we were studying these kids came and started talking to us. They wanted to sing some hymns with us so our studies were shot, oh well, we had a nice time doing that. We move into our apartment today!

Chuuk is the ghetto of the ghetto! You can't drive very far before the road is totally destroyed. When it rains there are big puddles everywhere. I am excited to see my actually area this week.

I am so excited to be here! Elder Kata gave me some notes to give to his family to read in church and he gave me 46 referrals for missionary work.  I was so sad to leave Guam, I had very positive experiences there but I am SO excited to be here in Chuuk now to finish out my mission.  I will let you know how it goes.

I love you so much and I am so grateful I made the decision to serve a mission.

Love Elder Kearl

p.s can you send me a towel and some white pants. Just send it to the mission office.

first baptism on the beach

Hey Mom

I am doing great!  How are you?  Happy CANADA Day to you too!

We have had a very hard but great week. We felt so much opposition in preparation for Ermina's baptism. We went to see Ermina on Tuesday and her relatives who run the Pentecostal lighthouse school had come to visit her, they don't want her to join our church. We couldn't see her when they were there. Ermina stood up to her relatives and told them to let her go and that it's her choice if she gets baptized.  And she did get baptized on saturday with Calvin. We also had two children of record baptized too. The baptism was awesome, we had a lot of members in attendance and the mission president, President Mecham came too. It rained during the service but during the actual baptismal ordinance it stopped raining. We had Fred Castro, a recent convert and ward missionary baptize her. He stood in the circle too when she was confirmed.

Just now I saw Sister Delia from Saipan, which was really cool! Other stressful stuff this week was that Fred had to go to the hospital because he was ill, but he got better really fast. I also found out that one guy I baptized in Yigo just got a DUI!

Even with all the opposition and uncertainty, I still had a good week.  That is so cool that Scott is going to EFY with Ethan in Rexburg!  Well I gotta go,

I love you,

Love Elder Kearl

Here some pictures of my last week in Guam