March 27, 2014

well i will just start off by saying this week can't be over yet, it just started!!!! but i guess it is....

This transfer i have been pretty destructive with the Consolacion 1 ward... at least with the missionaries, i will now demonstrate what happened this last transfer.

DAY 10-Deported E. Francis to TACLOBAN MISSION

DAY 22-BANISHED/EXHILED E. Raymundo to LILO-AN 3

DAY 39-KILLED E. Veloria to his HOUSE in Pangasinan

The ward went from having 4 missionaries six weeks ago to having 1, i am leading 2 areas, and helping the zone leaders in their area... i am super busy, have no time to do anything but work and study, which i guess is SUPER AWESOME, cause then the time goes by faster!!!

So tomorrow is transfers, my new companion is Elder Durham, from CANADA, so i will have had a companion from UTAH, AUSTRALIA, PHILIPPINES(GEN-SAN, PANGASINAN), UTAH, UTAH, and now CANADA. i get my new companion and i am staying in the same area. CONSOLACION 1B. tomorrow i am going to be bringing 3 new missionaries to the house!!! yay, now there will actually be people!!!

I am starting to love the language, and i am able to speak somewhat fluently and understand a good portion. 

the food... all i have to say about the food is that... IT IS DELICIOUS!!!! well most of the time anyway. 

my favorite things are the people, the hours and the service, also growing myself. right now i am in Helaman 5, in 6 weeks i have read this far, and for those of you that knew me before my mission can vouch for me, I NEVER READ, i hated reading, and if i started to read i would fall asleep!!!

my least favorite things are that i am not nearly as good as i want to be, or i thing i should be at this point. 

I just got out the trio with E. Raymundo, and E. Veloria, but now i am in a trio again with the ZL's. my favorite companion so far was Elder Francis, we just had so much fun together, my least favorite was Elder Veloria(mainly because he was super trunky.

Right now i am the temporary DL, and i guess in a way a ZL, i do all the things the ZL's do, it is kapoy(tiring/tired)!!! I AM SUPER TIRED, i got super sick this last week, i think possibly pneumonia, or bronchitis... but it is slowly getting better, i also read from ALMA 26 to HELAMAN 1.... kapoy!!!

March 19, 2014

March  11, 2014

Well, i have no clue at all how long i have actually been on my mission, all i know is that i have to make it through today, and then today will be over, and it will be tomorrow.

this week was pretty crazy! remember how last week i got put into a trio, well on Saturday one of them (ELDER RAYMUDO) got ET(ed) or in English he was Emergency Transferred, because of the missionaries going back to the Tacloban Mission! so there were 3 that went back this week and president didn't want to have 4 trios, so that means that i get to kill Elder Veloria myself!!!! yay!!! i have started mission off crazy, i have become a serial killer the past transfer, i will have killed 2 different missionaries in 1 transfer!!!

i also received news about this coming transfer, because i am going to be killing elder veloria, i will be staying here in CONSOLACION 1B, and then i will also be helping the new elders/sisters, open up the 1A. That means that this next week or 2 i need to learn that area. so our area is the entire Lacion 1 ward, which is HUGE!!! just to give an idea of our teaching pool, we have 59 investigators, 55 less actives, 6 recent converts, and we still do finding every day!!! it is so crazy!!!

Saturday and Sunday was the first ever Semi-annual stake conference for the Consolacion Stake. it was super awesome, the stake president talked about "Sister Yolanda" how she is the most amazing Visiting Teacher, Home Teacher, and missionary. Before the typhoon November 8 in Tacloban and surrounding areas, the average attendance for church was between 30-100, but after the typhoon the attendance was upwards of 500-700 everywhere!!

Monday elder Raymundo left to Lilo-an 3. we also had our Zone Training Meeting, it was awesome! we also had Elder Jackson(area doctor/medical consultant) come and talk to us about health, because there is a lot of injuries, sickness, and other stuff!!!

yesterday we had to pay bills or they were going to disconnect us... so we spent about 3 hours standing in lines waiting to pay the bills, if i wasn't 6'1" and WHITE i could have just snuck to the front and payed, but we just had to wait. it was so crazy long. and tedious!!!

um that is about it!!! love you all! hope you are all having so much fun!!! because i know i am! kita kits, gihigugma ta mo!!!

March 19, 2014

Wow!!!!!!! time goes by super fast when you are busy, i don't even have much to write about this week, it just went by so fast!!!

this week on Friday we had a temple tour for our investigators, we had 6 of them come, there were 5 kids, and then the "live in" of their mom. the MOM is a member, also a RM, but the divorce laws here are difficult. we did the tour and walked around the temple then we got to go inside and everyone got to feel the quiet and sublime feeling inside. there is not a quiet place in the Philippines other than inside the temple... so they got to experience that, and it helped them with wanting to be baptized. They flat out told us that they wanted to be baptized, we had been struggling with getting them to want to be baptized, but after this they all said they wanted to be baptized!!!

so on Saturday we had the baptismal interview, and they all passed, but we have to move the baptismal date to April 12, they were supposed to be baptized this week on Saturday, but we need to have a little more commitment and help from the mom...

Sunday we gave them the new goal, and gave things that needed to do in order for baptism on the 12th of April... it was so awesome.

Tuesday we had to teach them about the law of tithing. it was so hard to teach, the language barrier and then i had to teach kids 11, and younger the importance and how to pay tithing!!! it was so crazy hard. then i didn't really get any help from my companion, he was just super quiet!!

well that is all i have to say!!!

March 6, 2014

From February 25th:

well this last week was pretty awesome, except for the whole my companion being SUPER TRUNKY!!! We got very few lessons, and we only went out to work 3 days of the week...

Thursday- i went to the Chung Hua Hospital for an operation on my finger... it was super over done, it was even more drastic than my knee surgery last year... i had to get COMPLETELY NAKED... and put on a hospital gown... then they rolled me back on a bed... this whole time the nurse was hitting on me... while i am naked. when we get back there to the operation table, i get on the table and i lay down, they put heart monitors on me blood pressure as well... remind you this is just a small thing for my pinkie.... they could have just taken a pair of scissors and done it.. they lay my hand out on the rolly table and then spray it down with alcohol so it will be sterile...

the doctor comes over and says not to look, so of course i watch, he stabs my finger with the stuff that makes it numb... and keeps using it because i could feel pretty much everything... he had to stick me with that about 8 times....... because i could still feel the poking!!! so after that he took like an exacto and just cut my finger open!!! it was so crazy... a bunch of blood just drained out and what not... and then he spent the next little while making sure that he got everything!!!! after the "surgery" they wheeled me back, little did i know that we would be there for another 4 hours, and i would have to pay out of pocket for my surgery and another elders ingrown toe.. the total price for just the 2 surgeries was 15,898.25 PESOS, or about $356...

On Friday we went to the mission office to have everything reimbursed, it was about 20,021 pesos, or about $450

On Monday was Elder Francis' last day in 'Lacion so he just wanted to spend as much time in the apartment as possible so we didn't even leave the apartment until about 3:45 when we needed to go to the mission office to have him checked out of the mission... so he could return to the Tacloban Mission.

So i ended up killing him(from the mission not really murder, because that is frowned upon for some reason). so now my new companions are Elder Raymundo, and Elder Veloria. both of them are Filipino, elder Veloria is a native Tagolog speaker, so he is slowly teaching me Tagolog, and then elder Raymundo is a visayan speaker, so we work together super well!!! it is awesome!!!

this week we started out terrible!! we have 2 lessons in 3 days...

UM i guess this is all i have to email about today... any questions???

i also gave one of our investigators a blessing, he just had a major surgery, he has a BD of 3/15/14 but he just needs to come to church, he is super awesome!!!!!! i have had such a crazy week... but now we have an even crazier week ahead!

From March 4th:

I don't know about the rest of you but it doesn't feel like it is march yet... It feels like I am just getting to the Philippines so i guess it feels about November, or maybe December. but i guess it isn't, the calendar never lies... or does it!!!

This last week has been super fast, i don't really remember what happened, oh yeah so last week i got my 2 new companions, so now we are in a trio, it is a little harder to teach with three of us, but it still works out. the hardest part for me is that they rarely speak in English so it is super hard for me to understand what is going on, but slowly i am getting there, i am becoming "BISTAK" or i guess fluent in the language. 

so lets see, this last week was pretty good...

this last week was ZONE INTERVIEWS, so president Tanner, Sister Tanner, and the AP's were in our zone. they each gave a workshop, and president talked about reading the New Testament to learn about Christ. i liked his idea, it is super amazing... 

the AP's taught about the necessity of commitments. commitments are one of the most important things to do at the end of a lesson.

then the ZL's finished their workshop from last time... it was awesome then we had about 1 hour for practice teaching.

then we had lunch... MC-DO!!! it is weird here, they have the same burgers, but instead of fries, most of the time, they give rice with EVERYTHING. don't get me wrong i love rice, it is starting to grow on me!!! haha!!! i am starting to get "tumbok." i am the biggest now that i have ever been, i am almost as big as my older brothers.

after lunch we had a workshop by sister tanner, hers was about EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, and with good reason to. after the typhoon, and earthquake, sister tanner wanted to have us get stuff that we needed to have for emergencies and a plan for emergencies...

On Monday we went on SUPER SPLITS, because there are 3 of us we can do this, we all go a member as a companion, and went and taught a bunch of lessons... it was awesome, i was a little nervous at first because i don't feel adequate at the language, but then i ended up doing super awesome apparently. i taught a bunch of people, and they all said that i am super amazing at the language, because i am from America... (they always like to point that out) but now that i am super tan, they cant make fun of me as much for being "PUTI"-white.

today we are going on a zone activity to discovery hills, (this is the second time...) it is super awesome, but there isn't too much to do there... and today is HOT!!! it is 11:01, on march 5, but it feels like i am back in the old Olympus high first day of school, no air conditioning, super sweaty, nervous, learning a ton, and everything... it is so hot!!!!!!!!!!! 

i believe that is just about everything for the week!!! i am sweating out of everywhere, it is so weird, and the rest of you are probably huddled up with a blanket!!!