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 

August 30, 2015

Hello, so my learning of Tagalog is SUPER SLOW!!! i am glad that Elder Caindoy is picking up Cebuano faster than i am picking up Tagalog, otherwise we would be in some trouble right now. i can understand a lot of it, it is still just super difficult to speak.

so this week we were doing way good, on Friday we had an appointment with some investigators, well the brother had "just a little bit" to drink... well that went right to his head. even though he was a little bit intoxicated we determined that we could still teach there because there were others present. there were 4 others there. we taught about the restoration and then after word we asked them if they had any questions. there were 2 younger boys, they are bible students here and... well they had a lot of questions, they were all very factual, and easy to answer. we took turns answering them. then they said that the next time we come back that they would have other questions. they said that they learned more from us than they had been learning in the bible school/class. so tomorrow we are going to go back and teach more about the restoration.

on Sunday morning there was a ton of commotion going on, they have started clearing the property in front of our house, and there was 4 large trees, i say was because on Sunday morning at around 9:30 they started to cut them down. let me tell you! that was LOUD! the first one was super big, they have used machetes to cut down some of the branches over the last week but yesterday they were going all out and went for it all. after about 10 minutes with the chainsaw it finally fell. it felt like an earthquake when it hit the ground. super loud as well.

so i have been super diligent for the last 2 weeks writing in my journal. after not writing in it, some days there is a ton to write, and other days there is only a few sentences. but as of yesterday morning it was up to date.

i have been doing my research, and study about that question. (attached is a pic from my personal study about, is it possible for a spirit in spirit prison right now to obtain Celestial Glory in the kingdom of God.) hope you get some insight from it as well... it was about 2 weeks of thinking, reading, and pondering.

umm. dont really have too much else to say.

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

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

August 23, 2015

does anyone know where the pause button on the remote of life is?! i really need to find it. my mission is going by so fast, and i want to at least pause it or at least slow it down. it has been a fast 5 months, and it is only getting faster... it is super stressful because there is a ton of stuff that i have not yet figured out, and there is other things that i feel like i should know how to do but i don't yet.

This week has been way fast as usual, the hard part, or one of them, was that we didn't have new planners for the new transfer, so it made it super difficult for planning and making sure that i was training Elder Caindoy right... i have forgotten how difficult it is to train, i really hope that I am doing the right things to help him start his mission off on the right foot!

This last little while has been really heating up, and with that so has our work, we gave 8 IBD's this week (Investigators with Baptismal Date) brother Roney Velasco has been thinking about becoming a member, and has been looking at the benefits as well as the difficulties, well the spirit was beating on my heart, as well as the heart of Elder Caindoy, so i told him to do it (part of the training) and Roney said no... well then we asked why, and he said he wasn't sure yet. so we asked him again and then he said YES!!! ahhh! we have been waiting for them to realize the church is the only way to be SAVED(everyone has their own definition).

there have also been a ton of mosquitoes everywhere, especially towards dusk around 5-6 pm. well these mosquitoes carry Dengue Fever, as well as Malaria. the only thing that you can do is try and slap them before they bite.... the only issue is that there is about 5 TRILLION of them!!! insect repellant doesn't work, it actually attracts them to you.... yeah!

So as you all should know, my anak(kid) is TAGALOG, so over the past week i have learned a lot of Tagalog phrases, and words, it is kinda fun because when he doesn't know the word in Cebuano, he says it to me in Tagalog, then i tell him it in Cebuano. Also i help by translating for him to Cebuano the lessons, and he translates them to Tagalog for me, because we have some investigators that only understand Tagalog. so i cant teach them at all, other than try to bare my testimony in my understanding of Tagalog so far. i can understand a ton of it, it is just super hard to speak because of the crazy use of the tongue in the language!

So for those of you that read all the way to the bottom of this email, i want to ask you all a question. i have spent the last 2 weeks trying to study about it, but right now i want you to give me your thoughts, and if you can... back up your statement with a scripture or a few of them...

ARE THERE SOME SPIRITS IN SPIRIT PRISON RIGHT NOW THAT WILL BE ABLE TO RECEIVE THE CELESTIAL GLORY IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD?

i know that this may be a difficult question but that just means that it is just hopefully a good one.

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

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

August 12 & 16, 2015

August 12, 2015

well, this has been one of the longest weeks of my mission, by longest i usually judge the time between emailing. the last time we emailed was on the 3rd of August. so it has been about 11 days.... wow... mind=blown. 

Kawanangan-air

kangitngit-darkness

kahayeg-light

bong-bong/din-din=wall

pang-pang=cliff

Well, so i am sure that all of you are as excited to hear about transfers, as i am to tell you about them. so, without further ado. We received transfer calls on Tuesday after district meeting. the district meeting was on APPLYING the principles, i don't know, i just don't really know how to teach super clearly because my mind likes to wander as i am talking, and i guess typing as well. so at the end of the meeting we all gathered together and talked about what we thought was going to happen for transfers. everyone said that they thought our area was going to be "white-washed" and that Elder Jennings and I were both going to get pulled out, and i was going to become a ZL.... well, that is NOT what happened. Elder Jennings transferred to DUERO, BOHOL. The area that i just came from. and the person who would replace him was not told to me because they didn't know who he was. now if you haven't caught on yet, I AM TRAINING AGAIN! I just had my 3rd kid in the mission. Elder Head in Mandaue, Elder Jennings in Tagbilaran, and Elder Caindoy in Tagbilaran.

Elder Caindoy is from a part of Luzon, which means he is Tagalog. so we might struggle a little bit with language barriers for the first little while but i am looking forward to it. I am so excited. 

another part of this transfer is that, i was "stepped down" which basically means that i am just a 

trainer, and not a District Leader anymore. which is OK with me, it is kind of sad i wanted to have 

as much leadership as possible to learn as much as i could from the other missionaries, but it is OK either way. there are many reasons why, or at least i think so.

this last week has been one of the longest for several reasons... we have a, i am not sure what to call him, that we try to teach, so when we were talking he kept saying "no hard feelings," which, he was just trying to make sure that i didn't get offended... well at the end we asked him to ask in prayer if our message that we were sharing was true, and he said, "NO" he then told us that he wouldn't ask God if our message is true... that was probably the hardest part for me to hear, is just him saying No,
we can't change that answer, nor can we force him to ask if it is true.

so on Wednesday we had our TLC (tagbi leadership council) in the Hospital because Sister Storey got Dengue fever way bad and spent 3 days in the hospital. that is one of the pictures... it was one of many illnesses this week.

on Thursday after our ZTM we went out to lunch and there was a missionary that got super sick, and passed out in the CR(restroom) well, we got her up she still wasn't feeling good so they went home. well, at about 9:45 that night Sister Tanner gives me a call and says that i need to go save her. when i got to their house, there was 8 sisters gathered around her and she was very sickly, they had heard through the grave vine that, that sister is going to be sent home, they were then saying how much they were going to miss her... so we told all the other sisters that they needed to go home, it was BEYOND
CURFEW, so they left, and then we took her to the E.R. well, after waiting about an hour they came
to us and said that all the vitals were normal, they weren't sure what was wrong so they said that they wanted to keep her for 24 hours for observation. well that was exhausting because they had to then find her a room, she ended up getting put into a female ward. we ended up finishing up there at around 1:00 A.M. and then Elder Jennings and i had to find a way to get home from there.

but wait.... there is more! on Saturday we had some sisters working, and one of them slipped on a 

rock, fell down and dislocated her elbow... she ended up going and getting it fixed in the ER. the 

best part is that i had no clue about this until on Sunday after church when i called the sisters to see how work went that week. that is one of my pet peeves is when people who are under me don't let me know what is going on and i hear about it through a 3rd source, or when sister Tanner has to call me and say, DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON??? it kinda stresses me out!!!!

Either way, i am super excited to be with my 3rd ANAK(child)!!!!! 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

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

August 16, 2015

well, this week has been a fun one. i think one of the fastest ever, mainly because we just emailed last Thursday.

so last week on Monday morning at 4:20 there was an earthquake, i am not sure if it was just an aftershock of the 7.2 almost 2 years ago, or if it was a new one. all i know is that it was about 20 seconds long. in our apartment we sleep on the second floor so we could feel it a little more. i woke up at 4:20 to the entire house groaning, and it shaking. well after it stopped i noticed that Elder Jennings hadn't even budged a little so i sat there and was kinda freaked out for about another 10 minutes, when there wasn't another one i just thought to myself, "I'm a missionary, i should be ok, and well, I AM EXHAUSTED, well i guess i will get up at 6:30." so when i got up i asked Elder Jennings if he felt anything last night, he said nope. so i thought that it might have been a dream. but everywhere we went and i asked about the earthquake everyone has said that they felt it too.

So this week we also had a Baptism! it was super awesome, we had Rian Autor baptize him. it was super great, we taught him what he is supposed to say, but didn't really explain super well what he is supposed to do. so the first try he didn't go all the way under, but Rian kept him down for about 10 seconds because he wasn't sure exactly what to do, i told him to bring him up. Bishop was one of the witnesses, and still saw a hand. so he did it again, the second time was a little bit quicker, but his hand was still about the water. so before the third time i told Rian that he would need to get a little wet as well. so finally on the third time he got it perfectly. it was so awesome, even though there were mistakes they finally got it, and the spirit was still super strong.

on Sunday was the confirmation, i couldn't hear what was being said, but i could feel the spirit testifying of the truth of the gospel. the sad part is that none of our other investigators made it to church to feel what i was feeling.

it is so awesome to have my 3rd kid in the mission, he also conveniently is my 2nd Filipino companion. so it is kind of cool that i am getting to learn more about that. with being companions with a Pinoy it means a lot more rice! so far in 5 days i have eaten RICE with EVERY SINGLE MEAL! it has been crazy, i don't mind it, i just need to not eat a ton of it!

I have also started to really work out in the morning, i do about 50 pushups in the morning, and then i do another 50 before bed. i also started to do other stuff to work out as well! hopefully i can keep my rice belly down, and start to get back to at least football shape.

well i started to write in my journal again (sorry everyone, especially mom, dad, mom, and siblings). i got lazy with it and didn't write in it for 5 months. but now i am not working on it.

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

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

August 2, 2015

kalibangbang=butterfly

alindanao=dragon fly

pagkamanggiloloy-on=praiseworthy

kabutaran sa yuta=gravity

gotta love these crazy words.

so right now we are sitting in the internet shop, and outside it is pouring so much rain, it has rained about 2 inches in about the last 30 minutes or so. it is so unreal how much rain can be stored in the sky at one time. so this week was pretty normal, waking up, studies, and then working until around 9... so exhausting. we had so much stuff to do, but not nearly enough time in the day to get it all done.

alright on friday night we went to our IBD for the 8th of August, our plan was to teach him about the LOC (law of chasitity) well, he is a 16 year old, and his family is all members, so we hoped that they would help us a little bit more than they did. but after we taught it i said "will you live the law of chastity?" he said "no".. well we all thought he would have said yes, so we were kind of shocked, elder jennings started and said maayo *good. mind you this is at 9 on a friday night after a whole day of running around already. then he cousin leaned over to him and said that if he wont it means that he is gay(bayut). he then quickly changed his answer from no to yes. i then recommited him to live it, and then added in, that it means that he will not be gay, or have sexual relations before marriage.

so i figure that everyone loves hearing about me crashing into stuff on the bikes, or almost dying... so i got another one for you all!

i was biking down a hill, and there was a couple of drop offs on the way down the hill, just like about 5 inches each one, well, i didn't see the last one. it was a little bit bigger, about a foot drop off. well because i was focusing on the drop offs i didn't really look up, when i looked up i saw a coconut tree right in my path, well, it was like time slowed down for about 5 seconds i did what i could to move myself and the bike bike to the side, (i was going for a head on collision with the tree). well i hit it pretty hard, and got obliterated by the tree, i went from sitting high up on my bike to being on the ground in a matter of seconds. i was going pretty fast to, it basically felt like i just got tackled in football, but i had no pads to protect my body. i stood up and dusted myself off. elder Jennings was still at the top of the hill, but i was out of breath to yell up to him. you know the scripture in D&C 84:88, there will be angels round about, well i feel like i was helped out a little bit by those angels.

so on saturday i baptized a 9 year old, his name is Angelou, he was super funny, i interviewed him last saturday, and specifically didnt ask him who he wanted to baptize him, because about 90% of the time they will say, "YOU" because 1, i am an american, and 2, that i was the one to ask him. but on tuesday sister Lapena, and Sister Nalawas told me that he has chosen me to baptize him. so i couldn't just say no, so i said that i would be glad to do it.

so last sunday we all got the flu shot. it was a world wide thing, where every single missionary got it. well this sunday i ended up with the flu. i woke up at 3 am to throwing up. i threw up off our balcony, it was great. then i went down to the bathroom and spent the next 2 hours being sick...

i took some medicine, and then we went to church, it was way awesome, we had 6 investigators at church, and 3 of them have IBDs. we are working on the other ones right now. hopefully they will accept a date this week.

i am really hoping and praying that i dont get transfered this next week. there is so much potential, and so much that needs to be done in this area right now. and i dont want to leave it!

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

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

July 19, 2015

Well this week i don't have a ton to share, mainly because i used most of my time writing another email... so there is a couple of things that i learned this week.

when playing basketball in the Philippines in full proselyting attire it gets REALLY HOT! well, on Saturday at around 3 in the afternoon there were a couple of guys who challenged us to a game of basketball. well, our plans were to do some finding, well, some times the Lord puts people into your path or puts you into theirs. so we took their challenge. the game was to 17 (i dont have a clue why just to 17) well, we ended up losing the first game... but as many of you know, i dont like to lose, so i rechallenged them to another game and said that if we win we will share a message, if we lose we will just walk away, well ride away, we had our bikes. well sad to say.... we lost that game as well, (i dont keep track of points) they will always win if i dont count.

at then end of the game we were both super sweaty. we went to get a drink, well when we were getting a drink we decided to see how wet we really were, well... elder Jennings litterally rung out his tie, and his shirt was dripping, it was almost like he had just done laundry and put his shirt directly on without drying it out, or ringing it out.

so our bikes have had some more issues in the last week, some MAJOR breakdowns. on monday last week we were going to our appointment, and we were going down a road nicknamed "broken bike road", well lets just say it didnt get its name from fixing our bikes. it is a gravel road going to the velasco families house. we were going and.... well the rear gear shifter basically was, hmmm, how to put this in English, became discombobulated, well it was a little bit more than that. in Cebuano it would be GILAGLAGAN (DESTROYED). it was crazy. so we were super lucky because i had some parachute cord as a tow rope. so Elder Jennings was kind enough to tow me all the way back home.

last week we also had Zone conference, i got to see a lot of missionaries as well, it was awesome. also learned from the leaders of the mission, and we had a 10 minute presentation on Testifying and Contacting people.... STRESSFUL!!!! ahhh, 60 missionaries, the AP's, and President looking at us!!!!

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

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

July 5, 2015

Well, HELLO FAMILY, and FRIENDS!

So i know that it has only been about 4 days since you last heard from me, which means that i dont have a TON of stuff to write you about. but i have had a couple of pretty awesome experiences.

on transfer day (Thursday) we were blessed to have stayed together, but we had to still go down to the chapel to open it up for the rest of the transfering missionaries. we didnt really get in a full study, but we got to meet some of the new incoming missionaries to the zone. they are awesome! we had some really good lessons that we had planned the night before.

we had 4 lessons total. but the last one was probably the most memorable. we have an investigator that wants to be helped financially by the church, and they will join any church as long as they are given a type of financial support. well i basically poured my heart and soul into teaching him because we love him, and his family so much. (this is the Velasco family) from 2 weeks ago until now i have seen so many changes in their lives to bring them in closer harmony with the gospel. when i was talking to him, i was realizing what i need to be doing in my life, here in the mission, and when i get home. it was a real eye opener for me. i also, probably for the first time, felt the spirit teaching through me with convincing power. i am not sure if it was teaching me or if it was testifying to the hearts of our investigators, but either way it was a powerful experience.

So there was a sister while i was home that posted on the FB page for the Philippines Cebu East Mission that she was going to be serving in the Cebu East mission, and i replied to her and said that i would help her with the language before coming back or her entering the MTC. well, because i got called back so abruptly i never had a chance to really help her... that is until now. she just arrived to the mission field and just happens chance that she is in my district. so i will be able to help her here in the field. Sister Paget, and her trainer is Sister Tarrobago. it should be pretty fun, cause they are in the same ward as us.

As of right now i have 7 kids in the mission, i have 3 sons (Elder Edoloverio, Elder Head, and Elder Jennings) and 4 daughters (Sister Johnson, Sister Nalawas, Sister Paget, and Sister Duran) so in the mission the DL is the father of the new sisters being trained. it is pretty weird how the relationships in the mission work.

so we received several referrals from the Velasco family, one of them being a guy named "Jake-Jake" so we were out looking for where exactly he lived, we walked up to a house and i asked him if he knew someone named Jake-Jake, he said no, but there was someone named "Jay-Jay" down at the end of the road we were on. i then asked, i guess an inspired question. "Brother, what is your name?" he then answered and said "Jake-Jake". both elder Jennings and i had a good laugh afterword. it was almost like, haha, caught you, you can't hide that well...

also this coming saturday 7/11/15 we have 2 baptisms, from a part member family. it will be super awesome, Elder Jennings is going to do the dunking. AHHH!!! this is fun!

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

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