April 19, 2015

well, i am glad to say that i have officially made it through a full
entire week here in the field! it has been a crazy week, hopefully i
can remember everything that happened and be able to write it down...

alright so this last week we finished off our P-day by going down to
Valencia, about an hour away by bus, to play basketball as a District
at the chapel there in Valencia. we thought that we would have
district meeting the next day (tuesday) which got changed so we just
slept in Valencia with the ZL's because there are no more
vehicles(sakayanan) going to Duero after about 7:30. and we finished
basketball around 9:00. after basketball we got a ride on a motor
cycle(hable-hable) to the house of the Elders, but because of my luck
i touched the tail pipe with my calf when getting on and got a pretty
good sized burn on my calf. so tuesday morning we woke up at 5:00 so
we could get back to our house on time to start our studies and
prepare for the day.

On tuesday we had a really difficult day teaching, we only taught one
lesson, but it wasnt a good lesson. we did finding and we found a
family, they didnt seem very interested and they said that they would

"minaw lang mi" (we'll just listen). so we taught about our Heavenly
Father... when we tried to set a return appointment they all sat up
and said that they were "super busy," the father had been laying down
the entire time, and then promptly sat up and said, "naa koy daghan
kaayo nga mga buhaton, kinahanglan ko maggab didto, ug unya
kinahanglan ko magkuha mga mangga... wa koy orasa para niini." which
roughly translated to... I DON'T CARE, I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO YOU
AGAIN... (very roughly translated). so we kinda just marked them down
as... they have been given a seed to start growing.



alright so on wednesday the AP's(Assistants to the President) came
down to us in the Valencia Zone, because they were going around the
mission making sure that every one was doing good, and seeing what
concerns or problems we were having with our branch, or with our
areas. it was really awesome, our AP's are amazing! also on Wednesday
i had to give my first workshop.... that was so crazy, the only issue
right now is that our district, even though it is 16 missionaries, is
very quiet, they dont really like to participate very much... so i
kinda felt like i was up there begging them to give some input, and
their thoughts.

also on wednesday Elder Connolly came and worked with us. we went to
our Branch President and made plans, and set goals for him, and the
branch to improve. it was an amazing lesson.

hopefully this week will be a little bit better, and they will have a
little bit more input, because on thursday i called all of the
companionships and asked what they wanted to learn or do for the
Workshop. most of them said that they wanted to learn about trackting
and finding. so that is what it will be on this week. Thursday we also
met a man by the name of Noel. he was up in an area called Labogon. he
is a chemistry, and food science teacher at the high school. we just
talked with him about our Heavenly Father, and then set a return
appointment for Sunday. after we left him we continued to walk up the
hill, when we got a little further up, Noel came and told us that he
would come and go with us to teach other people. that was super
awesome because he wanted to learn more.

on friday we spent the entire day walking, about 5 hours of walking
and looking but  lessons at the end of the day. we couldnt find anyone
to teach the entire day, it was exhausting. when we got home i crashed
so hard at about 8:30 before planning...

on saturday Elder Albar and I went on exchanges, i went over to their
area, and Elder Acosta and Elder Head stayed in our area and worked.
this was one of the best days that i have seen in Duero. we had
brother Eds (BML{branch mission leader}) come and work with us. we
started off way strong by teaching a couple of quick but powerful
tracting lessons. then we went a little while without another one
because we had about a 30 minute walk to get to the next teaching
appointment. one of the last appointments was amazing.

i believe our second to last appointment we taught an investigator of
theirs. his name is Reden. so our lesson with him started off with us
just kinda talking about the Gospel so i could kinda get to know him
and so he could get to know me a little bit. so we shared about Mosiah
18:8-13, and then about baptism. we asked if he believed that the true
church of Christ had been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
he then said that he was fairly sure. then he told us about a dream
that he had, where he was dressed in white, and there was another
person dressed in white. he remembered seeing a bathtub type thing
there, but it was big enough for them to stand in. he then started to
tear up a little over it. Elder Albar then offered the baptismal
commitment, and he said he didnt know if he was ready. but then we
both testified of the overwhelming feeling that was around us. we
testified that it was our Heavenly Fathers love for him, showing him
where he needed to go. we then offered a date for him to prepare to be
baptized, MAY 16. we then asked him to close the lesson with a prayer.
THAT WAS THE STRONGEST, AND MOST SINCERE PRAYER THAT I HAVE HEARD AND
FELT. THE SPIRIT THAT WAS THERE WITH US WAS UNCOMPARABLE. It felt like
my heart was just going to jump out of my chest. UNREAL!

so on sunday we helped President with his goals that we had set up and
started to work towards a more spiritual sacrament. it was amazing the
difference that it made. also on Sunday the Robertsons(senior couple
from Tagbilaran). they both gave talks at sacrament and i just gave a
brief testimony, (first week here).

after church we took the Robertsons to Noel to help us teach. it was a
very hot day, and we were all dying of the heat. but the lesson we
taught was amazing, i cant tell you all everything that happened
because that is personal that we need to help him with. but it was an
amazing lesson, and we were so blessed to have Elder and Sister
Robertson come with us to help teach. we then went home for lunch.

we tried making adobo... but we had no meat, so i just made adobo with
potatoes... it was not very good, we added too much brown sugar, so it
was way TOO sweet.

ummm.... that just about sums up my week! Hope that the pictures are
awesome. i love this area, and my comp, he is THE BEST!!!

-- 


-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-JAN 2016