March 4, 2013

Alright so this week has been a little shorter, because of the P-day swapping! Anyways though it has been a really hot week. I think I have never been more sweaty in my life than here in the Philippines!! Like after I shower I have to sit in front of a fan to dry off and cool off! It just gets hot again though. Anyways though I guess it isn't even "HOT" yet because in April, that is when you will get so hot here that you can''t sleep at night! I am pretty afraid of dying here now haha just kidding! Anyways though It has been a good few days. Our investigators are progressing really well! We have 4 who have accepted to be baptized and we are just trying to get them to Church 4 times to meet that requirement. Haha we don't tell them that is a requirement though, we just tell them it has to be every Sunday and they have to commit to do that so they won't go less active. Anyways though it is hard because 3 of them who I talk about a lot are so poor! They seriously can't afford to pay for the bus. Also we aren't allowed to pay for them so now we just rely on prayer and faith. It is frustrating when they don't show up because you wanted them to SOO bad! Well anyways yesterday on Sunday .. ALL 3 of them showed up! It was like fireworks were going off!! We have worked with them for so long and now we are seeing the fruits of our labors! Everytime we teach them they just know that our message is true and they really want to be baptized. It is hard though, because they have a lot of obstacles to get over, but they are working for it and now at the end of this month we might see them reach their goal to be baptized! Anyways we also have another investigator, his name is Bro. Daniel Balosa! He is a sweet old man really!! When I first started teaching him, he just seemed like he was just an old guy who liked talking to us. Later one day I realized, he has been pretty much bearing his testimony to us after our lessons on how he knows this is the true Church, and how everything we say is true!! He is so Golden it is great to teach him!! His goal is also to be baptized on the 30! So as long as he can get to Church he is so ready!! I am just so excited to see someone get baptized!! It feels like it has been forever since I have been to a baptism! Anyways the work is really progressing here and it is awesome!! Anyways the people in that area are really poor and humble!! They accept the Gospel, in my opinion, because it gives them hope! It breaks me heart seeing how little these people have, and yet they are happy. Most of the poor people live near a river that could flood any day when there is rain, especially the rainy season. People here lose everything in floods and it is super hard to restart your life after you lose everything. We have a sister in our ward! She is one of the people who helped translate the Book of Mormon into Tagalog! Holy Moly!! She has nothing... it all washed away in a flood! She has one pair of clothing, and a bed. The ward helps her get food, but she is too old to work and her son has no job. It makes me wonder sometimes why someone so good is given so much trials! What she told me in my visit with her really hit me. She just said, life is hard and I am so sad. But I am humble and I know God loves me and will give me a way. Her faith is so strong! So I am grateful for that experience. Anyways this week has been way fun too. We have had a lot of Birthday parties here. Now in the Philippines, a birthday isn't just some party... It is like a big deal and people get offended if you don't drop by for birthdays if you are invited! Holy moly!! we ate so much food!! People just feed you on birthdays and a lot of people from all around come to celebrate! It is a fun time!! haha I love the Philippines!! Also a bad experience I had this week. We had this guy we taught and accepted our first lesson kind of like a golden investigator. This week we went to teach him and he was so different. He had a the spirit of contention about him and it was ... pretty bad. He kept asking us questions and when we tried to explain he said your Tagalog is very confusing and unclear! Also his questions only had one answer in his mind which was his answer, so no matter what we tried to explain to him, nope he said that is not clear the answer is THIS! and he would say his answer. I have never felt the spirit leave the area so fast, but he really just brought this bad feeling about. We probably won't see him for a while now haha! Anyways though fun fact for the readers. The Philippines is a place of trends. This season it is spinning tops! But the spinning tops here are ... like way legit!! It is like a sport here and who can do the most tricks with them! You wind these tops with a string and you do work!! it is cool to see! It is also super hard to get good at! I am practicing during my in between hours... i can barely even throw it! haha Well that is all for this week!!

February 25, 2013

Alright this week has been kind of the same. We have one area which we call Bonaba. That is our really poor neighborhood where people like barely have a roof over their heads. We teach a lot of new investigators there and it is great, they are really receptive. We have a group of investigators there named the Loyola group. One of them is named Bro. Teddy and he is like our Golden. I guess before I got here this guy hasn't been progressing much. So we just kept teaching him hoping he would make changes. Which finally he started doing! He really wants to be baptized now and he gave up drinking and has been abstaining now. So it is really good. So this week we taught this group the Law of Chasity. The other two are a couple and one is slowly stopping to smoke and th other is just waiting for her husband to stop smoking so they can be baptized together. Anyways the Law of Chasity went great. They clearly understood why it was a commandment and how it would live their lives. Now here in the Philippines, marriage is like considered a glorified title that you pay for. Also Divorce is illegal here so once you get married it is a long legal procedure and money consuming process to get a divorce. So people just don't get married they just live together and have families. Well Teddy used to be one of those people, until he got kicked out for fighting too much. So we told him he needed to try and get married because we aren't too sure if you can be baptized because you might be "separated" but you have kids together. So we are double checking on that, but he says he is sorry for being so contentious with his wife and he has been trying to fix it. She just won't talk to him. So hopefully he gets to be baptized as a single adult, but right now we are kind of stuck. It was funny though because he was asking 2 Young missionaries about how to handle talking to his wife and if we would go with him and try to talk it out with her.We kind of just became his Dr. Phil for his marriage. We told him we would hold off on us going and helping him and it would be better if he went and just talked to her. So that was a fun experience. Also in that are we have focused on the Book of Mormon with a lot of our investigators and Less active. It is working really well. In my 5 weeks I have been here, I haven't seen a family called the Devocal family at church for my stay here. We were asked to focus on helping them become active again so we have been visiting them. It has been a great blessing when we go over and read with them. Last Sunday we saw them all there. So obviously there is power in the Scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. Hopefully they keep going, but we have never invited them to go to church, we just visit and try to get them doing the little things, so they will start doing the bigger things. Also we have another area I call the high ground. It is a little higher and richer than the other area. That area is seriously a hard days work. We set up appointments and get punted at their doors all day. Nobody will listen to us it is frustrating. We walked for 8 hours straight one day going from appointments that weren't home or didn't have time for us all of a sudden, to street contacting, back to the home that didn't want us and than back to street contacting. It is so tiring and I wish they would just listen to us. But, we have to do something and hopefully we will figure that out! Anyways though the Philippines always has it's surprises and every corner has it's new challenge. Funny things that happened to me this week go as follows. So in the Philippines people want Americans to take them to America or marry them so they can be rich i guess. Well We look really rich in the Philippines, and I found out this week that a lot of girls will say you're cute. Haha ... that never happened to me in AMERICA!! So obviously you want something else. I finally understood one of them saying that to my companion and I haha. So that was fun. Also another fun thing I have been doing with the kids was that I tell them my Brother is Psy.. that guy who sings Gangnam style! They all think it is super funny. Oh also I got to go to the temple this week. The Manila Temple is small, but It is super beautiful especially compared to it's surroundings! So that's it! Anyways I hope this next week goes well ...until then!

February 18, 2013

Well this week has been pretty sweet. I finally have a like a firm grip of things and I don't feel so hopeless and useless. This week was pretty cool. We taught a lot of new people and we found a lot of new people too. My trainer Elder Hibbert has been letting me teach more, I finally told him I am bored as crap during lessons when I just sit there. So I get to say things and sometimes it comes out really bad, sometimes even False Doctrine haha. But, I am talking and I am happy! I hate when I can't talk!! haha I need to talk all the time.Anyways though we had some good experiences this week. We have been really focusing on finding new investigators, because all the potential's in our area straight up wont talk to us anymore. So we prayerfully went around this week looking for them. It has been sweet!! We had a day where all of our appointments punted us! So we had all day just to go street contacting. We met one person in a wheel chair, he told us he knew of us. We asked him how and he said his brother is a Mormon. He told us how he wanted to find a new religion because Catholicism was beginning to feel old and not really doing things for him. So we talked to him and we plan to go see him later. Also we were walking around in this other area. Haha someone yelled out at us and usually when people yell out to us they are just trying to heckle with my trainer who is white. It is kind of funny because they call everyone here JOE. they say HEY JOE! to get white peoples attention. It is a reference to the GI Joes that were here earlier haha. Anyways we usually ignore it but we tried this one girl who called out to us just to see what might happen. She straight up told us, I want you to teach me because my baby just passed away. Wow .. it is seriously strange to me how people have been prepared, it may be hard at times, but people seriously don't just do that!! haha But she seems ready and we have gone to teach her but she has been busy so hopefully we will get our foot in the door next time. Amyways besides that our investigators are progressing. We had 4 baptismal dates set up for March 16. It is hard though because they have to get to church, and 2 of our investigators made it yesterday. We will have to reschedule some, but it is amazing to see them change. We taught a lesson to 2 of them about Thomas S. Monson. Nanay Ester is her name and she was not a believer because he doesn't have a book of scriptures. We asked her to Pray about it and she seemed pretty stubborn that she wouldn't. When we came back and asked her how it went, she said she feels good about it and that she supports the Prophet. We were happy with that and see that she is slowly but surely progressing. Nanay Ester, and Bro. Teddy seem the most ready for baptism so hopefully they will give up smoking and drinking and come to church! Also we teach a man named Bro. Balosa. We asked him to be baptized this week and holy moly he gave us the answer we love to hear! It is funny because he didn't seem very, receptive to a lot of our lessons. I came to find out he as been really receptive and when we asked him to be baptized it was great!! He bore his testimony to us on how he feels this Church is true and right for him!! I am excited and praying really hard that they will make it to church! Anyways we are working really hard here. It is super hot and I am sweating every second I swear! But it is ok because at the end of the day I am still Alive haha! We have had a lot of fun times this week. Some drunk guy tried to kiss my companion after he came up to us really drunk asking us to help him change his life haha. He wasn;t in our area so we referred him to someone else. Also I got to do fun things like open a coconut with a machete and hold a chicken!! Overall the Philippines is a hard place to live but it is full of fun times and adventures! We have a lot of fun times here and my companion and our roommates make it fun!! Hopefully it continues on this way!! Well I love this work and I know it's true. Nothing makes more sense to me than the Gospel right now. I wish for everyone to just hear the 1st lesson once. It actually makes a lot of sense!! haha Well God loves me and loves everyone!! also the Book of Mormon is true!! Which makes Joseph Smith a True Prophet! I teach that everyday and it never sounds less true to me, it actually makes more sense and has way more truth now than it has ever. Well Anyways fun times ahead so bye bye

February 11, 2013

Well this week has been long! We have been working really hard this week looking for new investigators. We have kind of stopped progressing with our investigators right now so it is sad but we need to use our time effectively for people who are ready. So our search started this week and we are working really hard to get the ones who are ready to recieve the gospel to get to baptism. It is hard though because they believe everything, they just won't go to church! I really just want to drag them down with me, but where is the Trial of their Faith? Anyways we call them the Loyola Group, because it started with they Loyola couple and people branched up from them so we have 4 of them we teach all at once. They love our messages and know that they are true, they also have a lot of addictions and they are so poor it is hard for them to get money to go. Anyways though because they didn't make it to church yesterday we have to talk to them and maybe drop them. Anyways hopefully they will turn around. Also our other progressing investiagtor is an old man named Daniel Balosa. He loves hearing our message, but we havent really pushed him so hopefuly we can get him to make some commitments this week. Besides that we just have been getting referrals and trying to contact new people. Well I am struggling way hard here though. Language barrier makes fulfilling my purpose kind of difficult. I just feel useless out here. I am working hard and Trying my best and hopefully things will start going better. Anyways though on P days we go hiking a ton. It is tiring but here are some pics of the PHILIPPINES! mostly the beautiful parts! I wish I had better stories, but things are a blur. Weird thing i guess, A transvestite was drunk and asked to me profane questions.... super gross... super awkward... i wanted to punch himher. Haha there are a lot of those here... Also hmm... oh our ward mission leader lost his voice. Haha so at our correlation meeting we could not keep a straight face!! Haha He talked in his high falseto voice about things in the ward.. and we just laughed everytime he said anything. Haha He is this bigger gruffer guy haha so it was super funny!. Well anyways the internet is super slow so no pictures today! Sorry!! LIFE IN THE PHILIPPINES!

Testimony

Alright I didn't know if I would be alive this week but I am so WHOOPAY!! Well I am just going to say that the Philippines is a hard place to live. Anyways it's doable and with God on my side nothing will stop me! Anyways I am finally getting a grip on this place. So here is kind of the highlights of my week. We have been teaching a group of people who live in the squatters area. They are super poor and they farm for a living. Anyways though, Their names are Teddy, Remil, Nanay (Mother) Ester, Nanay Gloria, and Rodolfo. They had been taking the missionary discussions and when I got here was kind of the point where we thought they were ready to get baptized. I had the honor of extending that invitation and they have accepted. Anyways now the problem is that they are really poor! They can't even afford the bus! It is hard to watch and not even offer the money but that is against the rules. We have been trying so hard to encourage them but they haven't come to church consecutively. So I kind of jumped in the middle of this so I am not a emotionally invested as my Trainer. BUT SERIOUSLY I WANT THEM TO COME! haha So We prayed and fasted for them. They showed up this week! It was awesome!! They made it!! I almost jumped for joy! Anyways 3 more times and they are going to be baptized!! Well besides that we had some good experiences with street contacting. So for a little while our efforts were going towards reactivation here. My trainer had some sucess with that before I got here and right about now the progress has stopped and we switched our focus to finding new investigators. We made a goal to talk to two people a day! Our first day we had been knocking at this house for a while trying to find someone. Finally we looked lost and someone came and helped us. We asked where the person who lived here was. Turns out it was his house! Haha we talked to him and told him the story about why we knocked so many times. He helped us try to find the person and than we told him what our purpose was. Haha We asked him if he wanted to talk with us and he was like "sure sure when are you coming?" So we set up an appointment! It seemed too easy! Really! haha But I am excited and it really proves to me God prepares people! Anyways there is good work about to happen here. Also there are fun times here. I went golfing today haha! They have a driving range in our area so it was kind of weird. Also they have really nice malls here! I had to go buy stuff so it was an adventure! I had a sandwich for the first time since the MTC! It was good! haha This place is a hard place to live really! and the language isn't coming very fast! But I know God has a plan for me! So I am just going to go along for the ride. No matter how hard things get I know this Gospel is true. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. Jesus is the Savior of this world and he atoned for our sins. I know that the Book of Mormon is True. Those three things will get anyone through hard times really. So that is my challenge to the world. To come to know that those things are true. There is great power and comfort in those things. The people here in the Philippines need that though. They struggle to find purpose and meaning in their life because it is so hard here. So I will continue to do hard things. Oh and I would send pictures but things are sketchy here so I am a little hesitant. Also my picture with Ted Mozby is gone forever. Just a memory in my dreams! Dumb Virus ate it up!

The Philippines! (and Ted Mosby)

Alright! I finally made it to the Philippines! Holy Moly!! 26 ours of travel total!! that is counting lay overs and car rides!! I was so jet lagged haha! It was a miracle I am alive I swear!! Anyways we left Tuesday and got here Thursday When we got here they lost my bag... I was super stressed haha! But we finally made our way and went to the presidents house! Wow presidents of the church have nice things haha! His house was super nice and we had this way good Ulam... which is what all the food here is called. It basically means thing you put on rice! Anyways after we met our trainers. My trainer is Elder Hibbert. He is your classic white Idaho man. haha He is great though and he has been towing me around everywhere helping me out. it is good though because he lets me suffer and learn things on my own as well as trying to help me. Well here is the run down on the Philippines. It is Hot. it smells like ... an assortment of EVERYTHING, it is super poor. I live in what people tell me is the nicest area and people here are wealthier... It is still poor as crap! haha There are stray dogs and cats everywhere. I don't know how people survive! Haha anyways though It is weird. Going to the bathroom was way more different than I expected... I don't like it. Wiping with hands and nonsense. But cool story for the week. On my way to the Philippines! I met the actor of TED MOZBY!! my favorite TV show!! He was on his way home from the sun...something festival haha and he was on my flight! DANG!! I WAS SO EXCITED!! I had to take a picture with him. So i asked him after he got off the phone and he was pretty grumpy... he didn't really like the fact that I called him Ted Mozby haha But I got the picture.... than my sd card for some reason erased it... so I cant show anyone but it happened I swear!! Anyways back to the Philippines! I am doing well.. I was so jet lagged I barely remember anything! But all I know is that most people could care less about us. But the ones who do care .. are seriously prepared! They believe everything we say and they love the gospel. The people are so humble though and if you saw how poor it is here you would request that Oprah start a fundraiser. They are still happy though! they are always laughing and joking around. My first area is called Ampid. We it is supposedly the wealthiest. But is also... poor we proselyte in a squatters area and they have nothing... but they are still happy! haha I love this place... but my body hates it! So It is going to take some time to get used too. I don't understand anything but I know God will give it to me in my own time. Miracle of the week!! It was super sunny all day my second day and I swear I was going to die because of jet lag! I prayed so hard for some sort of relief because I didn't think I was going to make it! MIRACLE! Clouds rolled in out of no where and made the day really nice and cool!! I am so Thankful Heavenly Father looks out for me! Well anyways more stories ahead! The important thing is I'm safe and I haven't died playing frogger across the road!

Goodbye MTC!

Well it has been a long 10 weeks, but I finally did it! I made it out of the MTC alive! haha wow though this week has been a blur. We have been so focused on leaving I don't really remember what happened. I just know that we have been working hard and trying to stay focused but the excitement is almost tangible. Today I leave for the Philippines and I don't know what it is going to be like. I am kind of nervous, but nothing can hold me back now. I can't believe it though. Well this week went on as usual as it could but like I said last week we had some special guests appear in our class. Tuesday though was an awesome P-day! That night after I sent my last blog entry, Jeffrey R. Holland came to speak to us again! I have seen that Elder TWICE here in the MTC! Man he is so cool! He basically gave his usual speech about how nobody loved their mission more than him and we need to find that passion for the work because he says "This is Real Life" dont think you are going to serve for two years and just come home to your normal life. Nothing is greater that God's work. He also said he and President Gordon B. Hinkley could not bare to live, seeing return missionaries come home and become inactive. He said, "You missed the point" you cannot go on a two year mission and come back without converting yourself or you missed the point of your mission. haha He than said that you would regret meeting him in a dark alley if you came back home from your mission with tattoos and a pony tail or something. haha I love the apostles I really understand now that they are called of God and Jeffrey R. Holland is just the man! Than Last wednesday the newly called MTC president for the Philippines stopped by our class and taught us a lesson to help his wife and him prepare and train. His wife gave a brief lesson and what she said really touched my heart. She asked, "what is God's greatest sign of love?" I for some reason thought of a hundred different things thinking this question has so much about it and all the different blessings he has given us. The answer though suprised me because of it's simplicity, she said "Jesus Christ, his Son." I kind of had a humbling moment about how simple the gospel is and like how Nephi says, "I glory in Plainess." It definitely was a good experience to have that click in my head ... maybe a little later than hoped for but, That is a very important truth I think we should all know. Anyways afterwards The president, who's name I cannot remember, gave us a discussion about the Doctrine of Christ. Wow though, this guy used to be a big time lawyer and also I guess he trained the coast guards or something so he would shoot questions at us like gun fire. Wow I couldn't answer a single one of them because before I or anyone in my district could say anything, he would ask another one! But eventually his discussion lead to this, The doctrine of Christ consists of: Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost. Through that we build our temple is what he said. It basically meant, that is what we need to do to work towards temple covenants. After temple covenants we stay on that strait and narrow path and endure to the end. It was very good and he explained it way better than what I just wrote. But ... yeah I can't post the picture he drew either so haha SORRY! Anyways the next day was kind of stressful because the ambassdor of the Philippines for the U.N. and Richard G. Hinkley was supposed to come to our class. When they showed up only the Ambassador and his wife showed up. i was a little sad that Ricahrd G. Hinkley didn't come but that is ok because the Ambassador was such a funny man. He was like 5 foot 3 and he was kind of blunt. Haha I guess that is the culture there, reminds me of my parents. Anyways he told us as Long as we are honest and ourselves, the filipino's would love us! He didn't even know Tagalog that well though haha he spoke a different dialect. Anyways it was way cool to see him and an honor. I can't wait to meet TONS OF FILIPINOS SOON! Well Monday night was emotional for me. I said goodbye to a lot of my good friends, some of my future best friends probably. We are leaving a day later so I said goodbye to my whole zone except 8 of us in our district. It was harder than I thought to say goodbye to them. I served for 10 weeks with the Elders who were a major role in my conversion and now they are gone. I hope we stay in touch! But I love this work and I will sacrifice my time with those people so that people can be as happy as I am knowing that God is our Heavenly Father, Jesus is the son of God and our Redeemer. Also I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I can't wait to give that challenge to people so they can come to know for themselves the things I know are true. Well this is my last entry in the MTC! THE END MTC!!