September 28, 2015

well, we are all moved into our new house. it was kinda a difficult move, we got all packed up on P-day, but we were still trying to figure out if we actually needed to move or if we could still stay there. but on thursday morning we were out of there. it was a painful process because we have no car, or vehicle, so we had to wait for the senior couple. we waited for public transportation for about 35 minutes and then we finally just called the Halladay couple to see if they could pick up our luggage.

well our new house is super far away from our area, i dont know how it is going to work yet.

on saturday we woke up at 4:30 to go to a FAMILY FUN WALK here in Tagbilaran City. it was pretty fun, it was about 1 kilometer (.5 miles) that we walked.

ummm.... i guess that i will have to wait until next week to tell you all that i really wanted to because i forgot my planner with my list of stuff to email... darn!

oh yeah, i am on D&C 119, i read D&C 124 last P-day. it was so HUGE!!! 145 verses.... 

we found a dead snake, and decided to take a couple of pictures of it.

 

-Elder Larson theYOUNGER

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

September 22, 2015

ok, so this week is transfer week, which everyone was thinking ahead of time that i was going to become a ZL because i am the oldest missionary now in the entire mission... all my batch has now left, and should be home either today or tomorrow. so yeah, well, we are both moving, but we are staying together and in the same area, and i am the DL again, so what is happening is that we are moving houses, we are staying in the same area but moving. so we are NOT TRANSFERING. i am staying in Tagbilaran 1 Green with Elder Caindoy.

So here in the Philippines they have a ton of spiders, (i know, shocker right). but here they have spiders that the kids catch and then they fight spider against spider, until the death, well i have a couple of these fighter spiders. they are super fun to fight. it is also super crazy to watch them fight. they put them into match boxes for keeping so they don't run away.

so i was thinking about when i was home or hearing from Elder Larson how they were always helping move people out of houses, or apartments. while i was home all of my parents kind of joked about he would help move people to a different house, and i help people move their house... well up until this last week that was just a joke. we helped a guy we just barely met move his house about 200 yards away from where it was. the house is small. it is about 5 ft, by 5 ft, and is about 4 feet tall... made out of bamboo.

so this week was super rainy, which is good because it cools it down a little bit, but terrible because of the mud, and water. i have had to do laundry every night... it is no fun! especially by hand.

our RC, Jake, is very acrobatic, i took some pics of him doing a backflip. i am super jealous, i wish i could do that.

 

-Elder Larson theYOUNGER

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

September 13, 2015

http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/html/update_SOEPD/EQLatest.html

WunderMap® | Interactive Weather Map and Radar | Weather Underground

so those 2 resources on the top were emailed to me by one of our investigators. the first one shows the up-to-date earthquakes here in the Philippines. i dont know if i told you about the one at about 5:20 in the morning, either way that is pretty cool, especially after the 7.2 earthquake. the second one is a current view of weather, i haven't really used that one, i am pretty sure that you already have one like that, but our investigator showed us it. it was pretty cool to see especially because he was able to show us those typhoons that just went over us here in bohol.

That investigator of ours that showed that all to us is an american from Missouri. it has proved to be quite a challenge to teach him. i have almost forgotten all my english. the only real time that i use it is when talking to President Tanner, or emailing. in the philippines the people that dont understand the other language they say "NOSE BLEED AKO." and they put their finger up or cover their nose so that you know that they don't understand. well, that is what i have had to do with our investigator. i try speaking and teaching and i end up throwing in Cebuano, and then our investigator had to just stop us while we were teaching, and ask what i was saying.

we have a family that we have been teaching the Velasco family, and we were on our way home from one of our farther appointments and as we were biking my bike randomly blew a tire. so we pulled off to the side of the road. well here in the philippines you go to a vulacanizing shop to get your tire fixed, they just melt rubber on to the tire to cover the hole. so our investigator shows up and says to me, get on the motor i will take you and your bike to go get fixed. it was around 8:30so pretty much everyone of them is shut down. i then told him that we would go get it fixed the next day. well he wasn't satisfied with that answer... and persisted to tell me to get on and he would take me to get it fixed right then. i then told him that it was not ok for us to ride on motor cycles any more. he was angry with me for that, i told him that it is "bawal" against the rules. well to make the matter worse, he was a little bit buzzed with alcohol, so he didn't take that answer any better. Now it looks like we are going to have to drop them because he won't let us in to their property... sometimes obedience hurts. but to look at it the most positive way, i know that the savior can rely on me a little bit more if i am willing to obey.

this week i had a random thought, "trying to explain the gospel to someone who doesn't want to learn is like trying to explain the color blue or red to someone who is blind, or explain the sound of a bird to someone who is deaf" it just wont happen.

on Sunday i was one of the speakers.... well lets just say, i was super nervous, 1 reason there was 112 people in attendance, and the other i don't know how to do it in English, the speaker before me spoke  in English, so i got up and said that i didn't prepare a talk in English, so hopefully everyone could still understand me. i don't even want to think about giving a talk to almost 300 people, that is my idea of torture. the funny thing is i now know how to give longer talks as in 15-20 minutes. i remember my farewell talk was 10 minutes and 5 seconds (i timed it).

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

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

September 6, 2015

So this week we had some fun, we had a way fun CSP. we basically got to take down an entire forest with machetes, and shovels. it was super sweet because i finally got to use my machete for real! we got there at about 8:00, and then worked for about 2 hours, some worked hard, and others hardly worked... i guess that is what could be expected of a bunch of 20 year old young men and women. i am just super glad that i have been raised better by several good leaders, and my amazing parents. i was one of those working hard... i worked for 2 hours straight cutting down trees, and clearing bushes. by the time i was done i was literally dripping from everywhere. my shirt was soaking wet, and it looked like i had just got out of the shower. I had Sister Halladay take some pictures (she is the grandma of Elder Tolman, senior couple). it was super good, the only wounds are superficial... 

i was chopping some wood that was pretty dry, about the last 10 minutes of the CSP, and a piece of it flew up and hit me in the right eye. well it cut my eye just a little bit. but it is ok i can still see. also the other injuries were just from the plants we were cutting, and ant bites.

So my other news is that there was a baptism in Duero. they baptized a family that we started teaching, the Floralde Family. i am super happy because Elder Jennings, and Elder Borego were able to baptize them.

this week has been even more exhausting than usual. i am not exactly sure why but for the last week i have just felt... well down in the dumps. i haven't been my usually self, happy and excited to do the work. i just was teaching lessons, which is not good!!! we are supposed to teach people the lessons, and not just teach lessons to people.

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

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