June 22, 2014

Well, one more week is gone, and another one has started...

TRANSFER WEEK WAS LAST WEEK, which means.... i have a NEW COMPANION, his name is Elder McQuiston from Davis, UT. He is super awesome, and i can already tell that this transfer is going to be a really good one.

Elder Wright (my last companion) transferred up to BOGO, over on Cebu Island, so he went from the furthest south part of the mission to the furthest north... haha sucker;)

So that last week usually it is called "TRUNKY WEEK" because people are always transferring so they need to pack up and then the work suffers... well that was super true about our area until Thursday when Elder McQuiston came in... we had a total of 2 lessons for the week from Mon, Tues, and Wed... which is super BAD!!! usually we are supposed to have about 8 by the end of Wednesday. once Elder McQuiston got here we got 19 lessons in that last part of the week... we were extremely kugihan(diligent) and did a ton of house tracting!!!

Oh yeah, so we got bikes this last week for our area from the Senior Couple, well lets just say that the bikes are definitely not the best quality, we ended up braking them just riding them on the first day... (i know i am rough on bikes) but i was biking like a normal person and then the chain snapped... so we went and got it fixed, then the same thing happened the next day. then the Senior couple came and picked them up and took them to get fixed for 3 days, then we got them back, and they seem to be working now.

we have also been waking up at 4:45 again to go and work out with BROTHER HOPE. His son from america is here visiting him for his birthday(his sons birthday). he is super athletic, kinda like me before the mission... we have been playing football, basketball, tennis, baseball, and pretty much everything... it is super fun!!!

UM... Brother Roberto is starting to do a ton better, we actually paid to get him over to the hospital, and then once he was there we paid for him to get home... it was about 50 pesos all together... or about $1, and he got checked up by the doctor for free! they gave him some medicine, and the scary thing is that they think he might have TB(Tuberculosis), which i am not really quite sure what it is, so yeah.... i guess we will see what happens...

um.... well i think that is about it!!! CRAZY WEEK!!!!!

-Elder POGI-Larson

June 15, 2014

well hello again to everyone, i really hope that everyone is going good this week!!!

this week was one of the craziest that i have been here so far, mainly because of how hard we worked, with everything. so i told you all about our American investigator named Brother Hope right...? well if not, oh well, so this week we taught brother hope and his Filipino friend (JEFF) about the Word of Wisdom. last week brother hope told us that he had been smoking since he was like 7 years old, and had never had a cough, but since he has been in the philippines breathing in the NOT CLEAN air he has developed a cough... so we were at brother hopes house, and he was super busy talking with someone trying to get a deal on a car, so we taught his wife (filipina) in cebuano, and then told him that we would be back to teach him later... so when we got back, we started to teach, and we taught about it, then about 10 minutes into the lesson, they both told us that they had just been talking about quiting smoking and drinking!!!! and that just before we had gotten there they had made an 'action plan' to stop and to live better lives/more healthy lives.

so we told them that we WILL and WOULD LOVE to do anything to help them with their action plan, so we made a plan to come over and workout at 4:30 every morning except sunday so that they would change their morning habit..... well, that was probably one of the hardest things.... (mainly because we dont go to bed until 10:30, then we got up at 4:00 to get ready.... it felt so good in the morning because there was no smoke, and it was almost cold!!!!

this week we also got our first IBD.... that was our good friend ROBERTO(the ex highered killer)

we also did a ton of tracting/finding and got 8/16 lessons.... it was crazy awesome! also this week we were "KILLING IT"<--no pun intended... we got 21 other lessons and 4 Less Active lessons!!!! we also got 7 new investigators!!!!

TRANSFER WEEK IS THIS WEEK!!! so i could, or couldnt be in a different area, or have a new companion!!! i guess we will find out tomorrow night!!!!

-Elder POGI-Larson

June 8, 2014

kini nga email, gusto ko pagsulat sa poros nga Cebuano, apan kay kahibalo ko nga walay nasabtan ninyo. but, i know that none of you will understand what i am saying so i will write it all in English.

so this week i will just answer some questions about random stuff, so if you want your questions to be answered, just email me and ask!!!

What area your living arrangements?? 
it has 3 rooms, a living room connected with the kitchen. then we have a bedroom with 2 sets of bunk beds. There are no actual closets, so we bought the fabric ones that you can just set up.
we just barely got 2 desks to study on, we are still missing 2. i spent the first 3 weeks studying on a couch... it wasn't half bad, i miss my couch
How big is your apartment? about 400 square feet... maybe smaller....
How do you handle who bought what food???
usually we just put it in our own separate corners, mine goes under my desk, or on the top shelf of the fridge, usually we aren't too picky.
Do you eat much pineapple???

I eat as much pineapple as i can, i love the stuff, especially when i can walk out and pick it myself... it is so good, occasionally it is expensive, but nevertheless it is still delicious

OH YEAH!!! i almost forgot, we have a new investigator this week, that used to be a CONTRACT KILLER!!! what the!?!?!?! we just ran into him, his health is super bad, and he was saying that he really wants to find religion, i don't know how this will turn out, but it will hopefully be pretty good!

This last sunday i also gave a 30 minute talk on the Godhead, lets just say that was super hard, i was so nervous, because the other speakers didnt show up for church, so the group leader (Elder Caycayon) asked if i would talk for a little bit longer than he had told me to speak... so i stalled as much as i could and explained everything in Cebuano, and then again re-explained it in English.

I also have a question, so ELDER LARSON THE OLDER in the Omaha Nebraska mission is my junior batch, and i was wondering if it would even be possible that him and i could arrive home at the same exact time to go down the escalator together, i know that it is still 1 year and 3 months away, but i have been thinking about how cool that would be for us.

-Elder POGI-Larson

June 1, 2014

well hello again, this week was pretty kool. this last week we went to a place called Garden Cafe after district meeting. there we ate some of the best food that i have ever eaten in the philippines!!! they were authentic western food, so i bet you cant guess what i got...

...CHEESEBURGER!!! AND FRIES!!!

OH MY GOODNESS THAT WAS THE BEST BURGER I HAVE EVER HAD I BELIEVE!!! it was PERFECT, and then i also split an order of fajitas with Elder Ewell!!! it was so rediculously amazing!!!

so i am not sure if this is how it is for every american, but for some reason the american investigators that we have are super BRAYT*smart, i dont know if it is just them being american, or what but this last week we got another 2 american investiagtors, both of them with Filipina wives... but the one is our neighbor named Rick, we showed him, "The Restoration" video, and then at the end he asked some awesome questions, that honestly i have never really thought about!

​1. What​ is different about the "MORMON" church?

2. Why is religion/God important for our lives?

3. What is the importance of The Restoration in this day and age?

I don't know why but those three questions have really been sticking with me, if anyone has any sound ideas, or some help, i would love to hear/read about it!!!

So we have another investigator that is super awesome, we know that she is gaining a solid testimony, but then there are people hired by the Catholics to go and not let the people change religions, by almost hazing them and asking questions, and forcing them to stay... (I hope that makes sense) so this investigator told us that they had been coming and talking and interrogating her... so we told her that the only reason that people don't want her to listen is because they know that it is true, and that the adversary doesn't want us to receive it. for those of you that have read the book "Fahrenheit 451" you will know what i am talking about, for those of you that haven't, you need to read it!!!

well, today i woke up at 4:30 to go play basketball with some of our investigators, it was super awesome, then we went to CHOCOLATE HILLS, the TARSIER PARK, MAN MADE FOREST, and a bunch of other sweet things!!! that was so awesome, i loved it, all i can say now is that i am EXTREEMLY TIRED...!!!

um, i think that is all that i have for this week!!!

BUT PLEASE TRY AND HELP ME WITH THOSE 3 QUESTIONS!!!!!!!