december 28, 2014

How are you? (Please use three complete sentences to describe your current state.

i am sick... i have a pretty bad cough, and my voice goes in and out... GOOD NEWS: i have just recently started to work on a 6 pack.... and the coughing helps out a ton!!!!  hahaha, other than the whole sore throat, i am doing good!!! it has been a very different week, i dont think that there is another way to put it!!!!! it was not the most fun, but not the worst!!!!

Are you feeling better or worse than you did on our Christmas conversation?

I am feeling a lot worse after our conversation, it is super difficult to talk, my throat is always dry and makes me cough, i also have runny nose... well, it can only get better, or i guess it might get better over time... i guess we will see how that goes....

Besides the Skype conversations, what was the best thing about the last week?

well... to be 110% honest.... this last week has just kind of sucked...

How are your IBDs doing?  Still on track for the 10th???

one decided she didnt want to be baptized, she felt she was being rushed... so we told her she doesnt have to be baptized then... so we are just teaching her still.

Any new investigators???

NOPE.... we have been struggling getting any new real investigators... i think we have gotten one or two in the last maybe 5 or 4 weeks.....

How is the new place???  Have you gotten all settled in???

the new place is way good... still havent gotten moved in yet..... we are still missing time to do that.....

Do you have a distance to go to get to your "area"?  Do you have specific boundaries you teach within???

no, we just walk around until we are headed home, then we sakay(*ride) from there...

How is Elder Head?

we are both sick, but he is just getting over the hill of being sick....

Anything else you want to share???

MOVING SUCKS!!! ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO IT..............................

ummm.... yep!

December 21, 2014

How are you???

FREAKING EXHAUSTED!!! but, other than that i am doing good!!!! it has been another slow week, we now have a teaching pool of 2 solid families, and a ton of LA's... it is just starting to get a little harder........ we need more tudloans(*people being taught)

What was the best part about the last week???

ummm... we finally were able to give the Barangan family an IBD and they accepted it!!!! 1/10/15!!!! i hope that we are able to help them get there!!!!!!

How was the ward Christmas party???

it was super fun, my memory card though..... it has a virus and deleted everything................. freak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i had so many pictures and stuff to send this week..... it is just super irritating!!!!

What are your plans for Christmas Day???

we are going to have work just like normal!!! but for dinner we are going to go to the Barangan family!!!

How is Elder Head???

HE is doing very good, stressing a little about the language but is progressing a ton!!!! he is BISDAK(fluent in cebuano) already!!!! it is awesome how good he is at the language!!!

Are our prayers softening hearts or do we need to pray harder and who should we pray for???

1. Barangan Family still they are still getting ready for their baptism on 1/10/15
2. Frances Ortiz she is also planning on being baptized on 1/10/15... She just needs a solid testimony of the BOM

What, other than writing to us, is the best part about P day???

RUNNING AROUND LIKE A CHICKEN WITH HIS/HER HEAD CUT OFF..... THAT IS PROBABLY THE MOST FUN!!!!!

You mentioned you and Elder Head blessed the Sacrament.  Was the Cebuano language version already in your brain???

YEAH!!! i want to be able to do it in cebuano whenever i bless the sacrament at home now. i have only heard cebuano version for the last year.... it was just normal for me...

Do you think in Cebuano or English more???

honestly i have to translate have the stuff when i email into english, because i think in cebuano a lot more, i have dreams in cebuano, and it is just weird!!!

Are Filipino celebrations of Christmas a lot different than typical American Christmas celebrations???

yes, but not much, i dont know if they believe/ or know about Santa!!!!

Anything else you would like to share or that we should know???

nope.... not this week.....

ELDER LARSON THE OLDER's QUESTION:  Whats you biggest mission fear??

i think for me the biggest mission fear is that i will just come home the same as i left, and just not be any different.... just go back to the same things i did before and forget the people that i loved and served... forgetting to really LIVE MY RELIGION!!!

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-OCT 2015 

December 14, 2014

How are you???  Please use at least 2 complete sentences to describe your current state.

I am GOLDEN! super tired this last 2 weeks now the earliest that we have gone to bed has been about 12:00, then we wake up at 6:00... it is ridiculous!!!! um, i am super ready for Pasko!!! (Christmas) next week is SKYPE!!!!!! ahhhhh, only one more after that and i will be home!!!

What was the best part of the last week???

the 2 Christmas parties, we had one for the mission on Thursday, and we had another on Saturday for the ward! they were awesome, because we got to have some fun and grow together...

How is the work going???

it is going... i couldn't say if it is going good, or if it is going bad... we just have no teaching pool right now!!! we are working super hard to rebuild it!

How is Elder Head???

he is good, really looking forward to skype, and Christmas in the Philippines...

Any strange and wonderful things going on for the holidays in the Philippines???

not too many, just a ton of Christmas carolers, they are everywhere, and they all want pinaskohan(Christmas gifts)

Anyone we can pray for or names to put in the Temple???

1. Frances Ortiz- she finally came to church, after about 4 months of being taught, she is our only IBD, and Progressing INV.
2. Barangan Family- they are super prepared, they just need to finally say yes to the baptism...
3. us.... we have been struggling a lot this transfer.... we have no teaching pool, and it is super difficult!!

Anything else you want to share...???

(from President Tanner)

"I would remind you of a couple of things:
Please inform your families and friends that beginning February 2015, you will not be communicating with them in "real time" or "live chat". Please help them realize that it goes against the spirit and intent of the world-wide mission rule to only communicate that way twice a year. Please be prayerful about this if you are struggling with it. I know in my heart that this is the right thing to do, but I hope you can each feel it as well so that you can persuade your families that it is a correct principle. Please refer to Page 20 in the Missionary Handbook: "As your call letter states, you are ' "expected to devote all your time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs." ' I have seen the results of maintaining a very close, weekly tie to family and friends through "real time" communication and I testify that it can be very distracting to accomplishing the work you came to perform. Please understand that this is not in an effort to frustrate you or your loved ones, but only to help you each focus on the work you are here to do with as few distractions as possible."

(bold is added)

(this is probably going to be really difficult for my family, but i know that it will all work out for the better!!!)

JUST SEND ME AN ACTUAL EMAIL WITH QUESTIONS, and LET ME KNOW HOW YOU ARE DOING!!! I WILL REPLY TO IT, but I CAN'T "CHAT" ANYMORE!!! BEGINING FEBUARY 2015

​CHRISTMAS IN THE PHILIPPINES

1. ​
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4aFwoNOa68
2. ​it is one of the most fun times ever!!! it is so amazing!!​

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-OCT 2015 

December 7, 2014

How are you???

ALIVE STILL!!! haha, just kidding i am doing well, it has been a very weird chain of events the last few days... I am sure that you all have more info than i do. other than that i am still alive. i dont even know where or what happened with the typhoon because it was supposed to get to us at 2:00 A.M. on Sunday morning. I dont even think that it hit us, or came close to where we are... Other than that i am good.

What was it like during the worst part of the typhoon in your area???

it was..... calm.... if i didnt know there was going to be a typhoon, i could not have said that there was one... it was so calm, no wind, no rain... it wasnt until really today that there was any real rain... or at least that we knew of.

Was there a lot of damage in your area???

almost none... there was just a couple of places that had part of their roof torn off.... but nothing compared to last year...

Did your investigators and members make it through Ok???

no one even had a scratch, it was basically a big let down from the baguio, stupid "RUBY", worst "date" ever. she totally flaked on us!!!

Were you confined to your apartment or did you go somewhere else???

we were just in our apartment, we also had 2 elders come down from the Bogo zone to stay in our house, because it was "supposed to go and 'destroy' bogo" again... So we just were in our house for the storm.

What did you do during the storm???

SLEPT!!!! it was 2 AM IN THE MORNING!!!! i am not losing my sleep over a typhoon, especially one that ran away from us... it was supposed to come and hit where we were, and then at the last second it turned away!!!

What was it like being in a typhoon???

THAT WAS A TYPHOON!!?!?! (obviously this one kinda got answered) i think that it had less rain than that one last transfer that just dumped 300T of rain in 24 hours... there was less destruction as well.....

Will you be doing CSPs to help with the clean up and repair???  (I am very proud that you know how to use tools and can help with those projects!!!)

well, if something actually happened, we would be doing a ton of CSPs, but that probably wont be happening...

So has it been hot with like 100% humidity or did the storm cool things down a bit???

yeah, it feels so amazing!!!! last night Elder Head used a long sleeve polo(church shirt) cause he got cold... haha, it was super amazing, i couldn't describe how good it felt for a couple of days...

How is Elder Head???

he is good now, he was way freaked out about the typhoon, (i was super excited, and looking forward to it). we have started working out doing pushups and what not... (STARTED my 10 MONTHS to SEXY)

What was the best part about the last week???

the best, i don't know if there was a best part there were several lows, this last week has been a very different week. Hopefully it starts to get better now!!!!

Did you guys have church yesterday or did everyone stay hunkered down???

yeah, we only had sacrament, and then we talked about what we are going to do for our ward Christmas party. it was still raining and had a little bit of wind. Elder head and i had to set up, and bless the sacrament... that was super legit!!! (WE DID IT IN CEBUANO)!!!! there were 78 people at church on Sunday....

STUFF

1. Ward Christmas Party this Saturday
2. Mission Christmas Party this Thursday
3. SKYPE in 17 days...!!!!
4. ummmm... i am starting to get in shape.... (not round anymore...) KEY WORD STARTING!!!

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-OCT 2015 

December 2, 2014

How are you???

i am good, feeling a little bit stressed for this upcoming week with the GIANT BAGUIO(*typhoon)!!!! especially for my mga tudloan(*people being taught).. their houses are not the most stable!!!

Where are you???
I thought you all would know where i am by now........ i am in the PHILIPPINES about 20.5 hours away from you, or about 7426 miles(11498.4340000 Kilometers)........ and 13 hours ahead in the time zone.... ;P hahaha, wow, silly question!!!

Did you get transferred???

I did not get TRANSFERRED, i will be staying in Mandaue 1st ward until after Christmas, and my birthday!!! So, that means i have another 6 weeks here!!! SUPER EXCITED!!!!

Who is your Companion???

ELDER HEAD GIHAPON(*as well), he and i are just staying here in Mandaue together. super lucky, 

Do you actually unpack and repack every 6 weeks, just in case???

usually i do, but not just in case, i repack every 6 weeks because i want to make sure that everything still fits in my suitcases.... :P

How far ahead do you know you are transferring???

2 days, we find out on Tuesday if we are transferring, and then on Thursday we have transfers.

Did you get hit with the last typhoon???

Yes we did, but it was no where near as bad as over in Valencia zone, and it was just a lot of rain and what not... it was not too bad at all by the time it got to us.

Are you glad typhoon season is almost over???

It is almost like it is just getting started!!! So this Friday(Thursday for you guys) there will be a pretty big Typhoon that will hit our mission... It is going to do a lot of damage here. So if It would be very helpful if you could keep the Philippines in your prayers. I will update you on how everything goes.

How is the WORK???

It was way good this last week, we taught 28 lessons, (led the zone). the only thing that happens is that we teach.... then teach.... then teach... nothing really comes out of our teaching, or at least not yet!!! it is kinda frustrating at times... we can teach 50 lessons in a week and nothing will happen!!!

Uncle Durv wants to know what the craziest adventure you have had to date is???

i thought of one!!!! it is from last year (DECEMBER 14-16) right after the Christmas party we went up to BOGO to build houses, and i was in charge of my group, so i basically told them everything, the only thing that i struggled with was the language...

later today my anak(*son) has the same opportunity to do some panday(*building) we are going to go and strenghten some of the members houses, as well as some of our investigators houses.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/new-west-pacific-threat-develo/38232221

"The scenario of strengthening Hagupit bringing life-threatening dangers to the Philippines remains a serious concern.

Hagupit strengthened into a typhoon early Tuesday night PHT (Tuesday morning EST) with maximum sustained winds of 130 kph (80 mph).

Conditions are prime for Hagupit to strengthen further, potentially approaching super typhoon intensity over the waters of the Philippine Sea later this week.

Prior to reaching the Philippine Sea, Hagupit will bear down on the island of Yap during the first part of Wednesday night (local time).

Residents of this island should prepare for torrential rain, damaging winds and dangerously rough surf. The weather will begin deteriorating Wednesday afternoon.

​

Beyond Yap, AccuWeather.com meteorologists have identified two scenarios for Hagupit. Both involve Hagupit becoming a powerful and dangerous typhoon. However, the Philippines will either have to brace for life-threatening impacts or will be spared depending on which track unfolds.

The first scenario would be a more westerly track, bringing the typhoon into the southern or central Philippines this weekend and in contact with a much more significant population."​

if you can see this, it shows that one of the potential things that can happen... well, if you look you can see that it might come and knock on our door step here in Cebu, especially here in Mandaue...

Anyone we can include in our prayers???

Just the ENTIRE Philippines!!!

EXTRAS:

1. Sister Joana (our baptism a couple of weeks ago) moved..... she didn't tell us when or if she was moving, she just isn't here anymore....
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQjUT4fBnyw
3. MALIPAYONG PASKO!!!!!

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-OCT 2015 

November 23 2014

How are you this week??? (Please use at least 3 sentences to describe your present state.)

I am doing good. this week was probably one of the most sucky (if that is ok to use as a missionary) that i have had... the only thing that kept us going was the baptism of Sister Joana on Saturday. We struggled with teaching all week, Elder Head was stuggling with the language which is expected, of course. it was just an all around hard week. right now i am super tired and sore, we got up at 5 A.M. to go and play basketball, i rolled my ankle, and got punched it the face(on accident he was going for the ball and missed a little bit...).

What was the highlight of the last week???

The highlight was the baptism of Sister Joana, I was lucky enough to be the one that got to go down into the water with her. It was a pretty good service, there were 3 talks, 1 ELDER HEAD, 2 BROTHER PAUL MULDONG(he is now our NEW ward mission leader) 3 SISTER SHEILA FLORES. they were all way good talks. then when we got down into the water, even though it was pretty cold. right as i held the wrist of Joana, she started to cry, it was so cool! but no one knew cause about 10 seconds later she was soaking wet with water running all over!!!

We saw pics from the baptism.  Was it at a chapel???  Do you meet in a regular chapel like the ones here???

Yes, it was at the Stake Center. we do, at least right now, in this area.... over in Panglao we just met in a house of one of the members. it is fairly big sized, it is about the size of the average chapel in Utah, but it is a stake center...

How is Elder Head???  Did he survive his Feared Filipino Food Fest???

He has survived... i have put him through just about everything that i can think of up until this point... i will keep looking for weird stuff for us to eat. We had some Durian pie yesterday, it was DELICIOUS! haha, for those of you that have had it.... you know the taste, and just talking about it just makes my mouth salivate... haha.... lets just say that "IT IS THE FRUIT OF THE GODS." "it tastes like heaven but smells like poo...."

Do you drink a lot of soda pop there???  Is it safer than the water when you are out and about???

i have been trying to cut down on the soda, but it is really good. we drink what we can afford..... some weeks it is soda, other.... water. they have these things called ATMs(automatic TUBIG*water machine), that usually have clean water... key word right there is USUALLY! but for the most part we are able to drink just about anything. if we eat somewhere, or something sketchy we usually will drink a soda.

How are the investigators???

They are still alive.... 

Have any hearts softened or do we need to pray harder for anyone???

ummm.... 

1. Alibo Family; they are awesome, they just dont understand yet that they NEED to become a member...
2. Frances Ortiz; she accepted a baptismal date, but said she had concerns, some of them being that her dad needed to consent to baptism(which he didn't) and she needed to receive an answer to the her prayers(which she did) she knows it is true, she just "can't" she also needs to make it to church. we shared with her MATT10:35-39, and later today we are going to go by and teach her.

What was the best food you ate in the last week???

well, i can tell you what the not best food that we ate... durian pie...

probably the best is our POT BROWNIES... we have no ovens in the Philippines, but we do have a stove top, we mixed up the brownie mix and threw it on the stove, and did a double boil thing.... i am a genius because it worked out amazing!!!!

How many ties do you have now???  Have you given a lot of them away???

I am down to about 30, i gave a ton away!!!!!

Aunt V wants to know what has been your favorite area so far???

I dont know if i can answer this one.... i have had a ton of favorite parts of each my areas so far.... but if i have to choose one(which i am sure you all might want me to, i will choose the MTC(is that ok?) i choose it because of the air conditioning, the unlimited food, the chocolate milk, the ice-cream on Wednesdays and Saturdays.... but in all actuallity, my favorite area has to be my first area in CONSOLACION 1B, i just had so much fun there, i wish that i was still there... our area was in the BUKID*jungle/mountains but we lived in the city, so it was super easy.

there is amazing stuff about each of my areas!

Uncle Durv wants to know what the craziest adventure you have had to date is???

well.... i dont really know if i have any.... define "CRAZIEST ADVENTURE" for me.... i have been trying to likay buang nga mga butang(*avoid crazy things).... especially crazy people(like literal crazy).

OTHERS

1. this week i got to go back and see Nicka, Kate, and Russell from my first area, about 6 months ago, they have gotten a ton bigger!!!
2. BAPTISM of JOANA!!

 

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-OCT 2015 

November 16, 2014... Bonus week. Yay

Sorry last weeks email is a little late, i thought i sent it off, but apparently i didnt! So for this week i will just kinda talk about the week because i dont have a set of questions to answer...

Monday- we had our thanksgiving feast(on the words of Christ), i was feeling very gutom*(hungry) afterword because we skipped lunch because we were running late. we also had NO work today because we had to do all of our P-day stuff (shopping, laba, and others)...

Tuesday- we didnt have much work... we had District Meeting until about 1:00, then lunch until 2:00... then when we went out to work, while at work be basically got sent away(PUNTED) from everyone we went to go and try to teach... that wasn't a first.

We also had a dinner appointment with the Bailey family(from Logan UT), it was so amazing, they fed us ENCHILADAS, and FRIED RICE, as well as desert was CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!!!! AHHH!! they were still warm when we ate them, the last time i ate cookies or anything like that was 13 months ago!!!!

Wednesday- we decided to actually go to work, we started working super hard, in total we taught 9 lessons, and had 5 new investigators today. we worked in TIPOLO, we usually struggled with teaching there before Elder Head got here, but for some reason Elder Head seems to be a magic trick, or i guess a LUCKY CHARM for Tipolo! We goaled to teach 10+ lessons, but we were both satisfied with 9!!!

We started off with teaching one of our inv, she has been struggling with believing that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet of God. so we read in 2 Nephi 3, about Joseph of Egypt and his Prophecy. We also taught some of our new investigators, they were all busy in their own little area, so we decided to teach a bunch of short, but powerful lessons...

Thursday- we had work out it Cabancalan, we decided to do some work there as well... we taught 6 lessons today, but they were a lot different, and most a little bit longer. today, i also started to get a little bit sick, developed a cough, and running nose. It makes it super hard to speak clear Cebuano, but they manage to understand what i am talking about...

Friday- we went to Tipolo for the first couple of hours then we went back to Cabancalan, because there were a lot of people that we didnt get to teach because they weren't home, or they said to come back tomorrow. Today we taught another 8 lessons!!! it was unreal, i got a little bit more sick as well... the first part of the day we taught 3-20 minute lessons. we have found that we actually get more through to them if we teach more frequently and SHORTER!!! after that we went to Cabancalan, we actually ended up giving 4 priesthood blessings there, there were some youth/kids that are/were sick. they(members) asked us to give them blessings. one of them was in bed all week and then on sunday we saw him at church... PRIESTHOOD POWER!!!

Saturday- we had a baptismal interview for one of our INV (Joana) when Elder Jandoquile came out (after almost 2 hours of being in there) he said that she didnt pass.... but i called him out on it, because he had the biggest smile EVER!!! She will be baptized this coming NOVEMBER 22. She chose that both of us will baptize her, we got it worked out, i will hold her hands and Elder Head will hold her legs and we will just throw her in!!! JUST KIDDING, she ended up choosing me to baptize her... it is such an honor and a privilege!!! So ELDER LARSON THE OLDER WILL BE have a BAPTISM as well this coming week!!! AWESOME!!!

I also went and got a chest x-ray, that took quite a while but in all actuality it was quick.

then to close off the day, we had stake conference, priesthood, and adult sessions. Elder Collada was presiding, he went and played hardball with the members about the LoT(Law of Tithing) and Fast offerings!!! it was crazy to watch him go!!!

Sunday- we finished off our stake conference, the only bad part is... BROWN OUT(NO POWER) which means NO AIR CONDITIONING!!! in the philippines when there is 1000+ people in 1 building and there is no air conditioning it is super HOT!! and to add to it i am sick... everyone was pouring sweat!! we passed out all of our pamphlets to use as fans!!! it was so HOT!!! ahh, for dinner we went to our Bishops house for dinner, because it was his Daughters birthday!!! it was delicious!!!

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-OCT 2015