Transferred and Pictures

It was great talking to you! it is too bad we couldn't talk for the whole time. it was because of a brown out(black out). so i wasn't able to call back. but i love all of you. since thursday a lot has happened. i got transferred to a city called Vigan. it is the 2nd largest city in the mission and a one of the worlds 7 wonder cities. at least that is what they say. haha. it is cool because it has the one really old road+houses that the spanish built. but other than that it is like every other city. My new companion is Elder Tanner. he is from Oklahoma and he just finished his training. he is a cool guy. He played soccer in highschool, likes to fish, he is taller than me(first time), and works hard. I like him. i will send you lots of pictures

1. brother and sister Aquino

2. Vigan Zone

3. Adobo and tilapia

4. the pork chops we barbequed on christmas eve

5. some member kids with some of the toys you sent

6. kayla and Domino with some toys!(they were soo happy! haha!)

7. elder Hontanosas opening his presents! he says "thank you!"

8.a returning less active. she is cooking pancit for her grandsons birthday!

9.Malankit(sticky rice rolled is something) and a empanada (egg,lettuce,sausage torilla thing)

10.nanay Dina- she cooked the malankit and empenadas

11.the Rotor family (strongest members in San Juan)

12. waiting for a bus on sunday night to take us to Vigan.

Christmas Activities

Referral

we got a refferal last week. i don't know if i told you about them the ,Aquino, couple. they are also very prepared for the Gospel. tatay(the father) used to be an acolyte but he has told us that it never felt like enough. that no matter what he did he still felt like something was missing. Nanay(the mom) expressed how she felt the same. They are super humble and they always follow the commitments we give them. their only concern is that they are hesitant to commit to baptism. but it is also a good thing. it has shown us that they are really pondering whether this is the true church and whether they should enter into the baptismal covenant. they already know that it is true. they have recieveda witness from the holy Ghost several times so we know they will come to a sure knowledge of the gospel. we have felt that Heavenly Father has a plan for them and is preparing them both to become leaders in San Juan.(which will soon become its own branch!!!!)

Christmas con was also this week!

the Christmas conference was great. we had the devotional in the morning. our president gave us our new mission standards for this year,  the purpose of the christmas conference was to remember,reteach,repent,refuel,and return. haha. it was great. our president also showed us the new mission standards. he expects a lot out of us. haha. it is going to be a great year! after the devo i saw elder pingol(my trainee) he told me about what happened to aparri after i left. 2 of our investigators (jerwin and jerico) were baptized and now have the priesthood!!!! hahaha he also told me that the belina family. hasn't been baptized yet! too bad. but it was great to see him and hear about the progression of aparri.

after the devo we also had a huge activity (the amayzing race) in Laoag. haha  in big groups we ran around Laoag city trying to find the people at each station and then complete the challenges! haha! ti was super tireing but it was fun. i will tell you more about it over skype. haha

after we ate at eh mission home and every zone performed a skit. ours was Mormons got Tallent haha! I got volunteered for my parts which were a bit embarrasing but it was fun. i will try to get a copy from someone who got a video of it. haha. umm.... not much more happened. we will talk more on christmas. haha.

A Typhoon Baptism and Christmas Parties

I am doing good. the bagyo/typhoon didn't reach us. we didn't even get rain. the office texted us and told me they recieved the packages. i will pick them up on wed. when we go to our christmas con.

good news! sis. Mildred and Kayla got baptized last saturday! they were so happy! I have had a spirit packed weekend! I will send pictures! we also watched the Christmas Devotional yesterday. it was great!! i really liked the talks. i learned a lot! on saturday we also attended the branches christmas party! haha lots of little kids running arround screaming! haha but it was fun! haha. we also got new bikes! We are so lucky that we have a loving Mission president! haha! i will also send a picture. haha! we are one of the 6 areas that have bikes. out of like 110 areas.

It's going to be a warm Christmas

Warm Weather

Everyone seems to be enjoying the cold! haha the forecast here this week: 90highs-70low. haha. i love warm weather. it hasn't rained yet. i am not sure whether the typhoon will hit our mission but if it does it will be a lot weaker than when it entered the phillipines. the bug hotel is actually alright it is becoming my favorite apartment. haha! it has just enough room, its easy to clean, water+elec. are cheep, and very quiet.

Sister Mildred

Sister Mildred is doing great! we are just finishing up teaching her the lessons. she is still so excited about learning the Gospel! she goes back to Kuwait in january! it is soo sad! she will be there for another 2 years before she can come back. we taught her about tything this week. she was worried about how she was going to pay her tything while she is in Kuwait. but her brother the elders Quorum president talked to her about it and she decided that she would just send it to him every month so he could pay it for her! MAN! We realized then how converted she really is! it has been a blessing to be able to teach and learn from her! she is so humble and obedient! yesterday after her interview she bore her testimony in sacrament meeting! i felt the spirit so strongly! as did many members who later said they felt prompted to bear their testimonies because of her! haha! I wish she could just stay in the Philippines! she would be such a spiritual strength to the branch here.

Turning Recent Converts Into Missionaries

other than sister Mildred we have just been focusing on our reacent converts. yesterday after church we started what we call PMG class. we invited all the member and reacent converts in our area to attend. the goal is to get them all PMGs and to help them become familiar with them and to prepare them to serve missions/ learn to share the gospel to everyone around them. it was a lot like a district meeting. Elder Hontanosas gave the training then we paired all of them up and they taught us+some RMs in our branch. haha it was great! reminded me of the MTC and our 5 min memorized lessons! haha! they did great though. haha we will have PMG class every sunday. next week i will give the training. it will mostly be  and Introduction on how to use the PMG. If you have any ideas or experiences please send them even if they get here a little late! haha!

Christmas Devotional and Random Facts

we get to see the Christmas Devo this sunday! i am excited. hopefull a lot of members go.

i love reading/listining to talks from the first presidency i have found as i have studied them that i learn so much and so much of it applies directly to me as a missionary.

random fact: in the philippines they have competitions to make the best Christmas trees. everyone uses random things,(bamboo,trash,metal,etc) they stand them all up in a park or on the sides of roads all december so people can look at them. we have seen some good ones i will try to get pictures.

An Embarrassing Exchange :)

Exchanges and Embarrassment

this week not too much happened. we went on a couple exchanges one was with our Zone Leaders. our first excange was with the elders in our district. i took the American who is in training with me in our area. haha we had a great time! the thing i like most about him is that he is always happy and looking at the positive. it is one of his strenghts. during our second exchanges with our zone leaders i went to thier area in Cabugao. haha in the after noon after we had left the apartment, after lunch we walked along the highway to get to the area that we were going to go finding in. when we got there we first stopped at a members home. the sister came out and imediatly said ELder Bukas ang pantalone mo!(Elder,your pants are open!) my zipper had been down the whole time!!!!! hahhaaha! i was lucky because my polos are really long and they covered my garments. haha the whole time we were walking a ton of people gave us wierd looks haha we realized why when we got to the member! hahaha!

Sister Mildred

this week we continued to teach Sis. Mildred. she is still awesome! she is so excited to get baptized! she always has a ton of questions and she seems to just absorb everything we teach her. our focus now is to just get the members involved. to get her as many friends as possible in the church.other than sis. Mildred we have just been reteaching our reacent converts. our president set a deadline next week. we have the most in our area that haven't been retaught so almost all our lessons have been with reacent converts. we are getting close but it will still be tight finishing their lessons by the deadline.

Alam ko na ang simbahan na ito ay totoo. Hindi dahil may nagsabi sa akin kundi naramdaman ko and espiritu santo. Alam ko na and aklat ni mormon ay totoo dahil binabasa ko siya. Alam ko na ang Panalangin sa Dios ay totoo. dahil nagdarasal ako lagi. nalaman ko ang mga bagay na ito dahil ako mismo ay naranasan ang mga biyaya na dinadala nila sa atin. Mahal ko ang Atin Ama sa Langit.

(Google Translation: "I know that this church is true. Not because someone told me, but I felt and the Holy Spirit. I know that and the book of Mormon is true because I read him. I know that prayer to God is true. because I do always. I know these things because I myself have experienced the blessings they bring us. I love the Heavenly Father Ours.")

We Are Stronger Than We Think

Zone Training Meeting

this week was really good. it was also really busy! haha! on friday we had ZTM it was really good it was mostly about working with the members. I learned a lot and i am excited for our next couple district meetings. on saturday we had interviews with our mission president in the morning. as we waited our turn the APs gave a training on getting investigators to come to church and on teaching reacent converts. then Sis. Barrientos gave a training on our Health. she talked a lot about worms... haha me and elder Hontanosas are going to buy pills to kill them Just in case! haha! the interviews started at 8 am and lasted until the first session of our District conference around 3pm. It was super good!!!! our Pres. Barrientos spoke. He is an amayzing teacher. he always teaches with the power of the Holy Ghost and everyone can feel it. he also teaches so simply that no one can misunderstand and when he talks you can always feel his love. in his talk/training he basically called all the members there to repentance. he spoke about missionary work. I learned a ton! even though he was speaking to the members.

District Conference

Haha  then on sunday was the second session of District Conference. we had 2 investigators come to church! after our president finished interviewing all the missionaries.(including us) It was a really great week even though all the meetings took away from our working hours. we weren't able to visit a lot of our investigators that we wanted to invite to church. agh. but its cool. saturday night when we were waiting for a bus we actually met the mother of one of our investigators. she just got back from Quait! we have been teaching her daughter and her son(reacent convert) but just before her daughter was supposed to get baptized she called and told her family here(the ones taking care of her kids) that she wanted her daughter to wait until she got back so they could be baptized together!!!! haha!

An Amazingly Strong Sister

she finnaly got back!!! haha. she is super nice+ has experienced a tooon of trials! especially in Quait. She works as a House maid there. she told us a lot about how the people there treat thier maids/workers. the maids are also only allowed to visit home once every 2-4 years!!! it is super hard but a ton of Philippino people do it because they need the money to support their families. She is only going to be here for a couple months before she needs to return so we will focus on teaching her and help her prepare for baptism so when she returns she will return with the power and comfort of the Holy Ghost. she and her daughter were the investigators that went to church.

Transfers

this is transfer week. Me and Elder Hontanosas are together again for one more transfer. haha Pres. Barrientos told us early in our interview with him. he told us both that he was letting us enjoy the christmas season but we need to prepare because the new year will be hard for us... he told e. Hontanosas that he will train! haha! i can't wait! haha he will be a great trainer! other than us. one of the sisters (sister Richards(stl)) is going home this transfer and Sis. Smith is transfering and becoming a Stl. i don't know the new sisters but i think one is a phillipina and the other is samoan or tongan. I am excited to meet them. haha.

Random facts about the Philippines

1. marching bands are super popular here. almost every school (elementary-college) has at least one. sometimes every student is a part of the marching band.

2. every Baragay( like a neighborhood) has its own month to have its own fiesta. our barangay's fiesta month is December! haha I wonder what they will do.(parade,food,music,basketball competition)

3. Christmas caroling has already started!haha!

A picture with the assistants

Progressing both Investigators and Missionaries Alike

New Investigators
I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well! this was a great week for us as well. w started to teach Sis. Mildred (the one who just got back from Dubai) She is great! She has accepted everything we have taught her. we taught her yesterday about the restoration+joseph smith. we watched the Restoration Video. We could tell she felt the spirit and after she told us how everything that we had shared she felt was true. haha! she has been so prepared by the lord! haha I feel like that is always the case! I have met and taught so many people that have just been ready and seemed to be waiting to hear the gospel. they seemed to accept it right away. It definitely was not due to anything i did or have done, i am just glad i was there to witness the Lord carrying out his work. as well as with sis. Mildred. even though we teach her we know that the spirit is converting her and not us. haha. I am so gratefull that we as members are entitled to the constant companionship of the holy Ghost. without it i know i would be lost and would never succeed.

Reteaching Deadline
This week we also recieved a call from the zone leaders. kindly reminded us that the Mission deadline for reateaching all reacent converts is December 9th. we have 10 reacent converts not yet retaught! about 68 more principles to reteach! so for the next two weeks we will spend nearly every hour with our reacent converts to finish their lessons. haha! it will be close but we can do it.

Extra Pictures

No letter this week just some sweet pictures:
Monzairel

this is my favorite kid(Rio) in our area! He always yells ELDER HICKEY when he sees us!

Some of our recent converts

Lyka(left), Jasmine(reacent convert), and Rio at their home

Viagan zone

Teaching While Finding and Finding While Teaching

Bringing People to Church

this week was really good. we got punted a ton! haha! we went finding everyday because our old investigators are not progressing. Levi, the investigator who was progressing, went back to school so we can't teach her anymore! darn. It is alright we are meeting a lot of new people who have a lot of potential. especially on saturday. we went to teach a refferal with the member that reffered her to us. when we got there, a bunch of people came to listen. as we began to teach we started to realize that there was one woman there from Cabugao who is Golden. she has been soo prepared! it was like  she realized, right there that our church is true. she asked about baptism and asked when we were able to teach her again! haha! It was a great lesson! even though one of our RCs almost destroyed it. haha! he is a little different but he still fellowships with us sometimes. when we were explaining baptism a little bit to the group he cut in suddenly saying "the catholic church has a great sin because they baptize babies!"(they are all catholic) we could tell from thier expressions that they were very offended. we cut him off before he could say anything else and began to explain how christ set and example and taught children don't have sin. it turned out to be alright but it nearly gave us a heart attack! haha! the next day 5 of the investigators came to church!

Zone Activity

earlier today we also had a zone activity. it was in Sto. Domingo. we went to the beach and played games such as(sharks+minnows,rugby,baboy bahay bagio (pig house storm), and they had a slip n slide. haha after we had a boodle fight! its were they put all the food on bannana leaves and everyone just uses there hands to eat! it was a super fun activity! I will send pictures!

Some Extra Pictures of the Zone and of Jake at the Beach

Learning and Lots of Pictures

Learning

this was a good week! I learned a lot. I feel like i am getting better at teaching investigators. I am learning a lot about myself and my weaknesses. the more i do the more i feel like i am progressing. I used to get so frustrated with myself because i didn't feel like i was improving/ wasn't as good as everyone else and i didn't understang why. I have learned that president Uchdorf's talk about looking inward before outward is true. this week i found as i evaluated myself and let others evaluate me i felt more happy. I am able to see where i really am at, what i need to do and how i need to do it. I am getting better everyday and i can see it.

Writing in Cursive

you may think this is funny but among all the other things i am trying to improve and learn i decided i want to learn how to write in cursive. haha i learned how when i was in elementary but i never used it and i quickly forgot. this past week i was thinking about the General Conf.story about the woman who forced her kids to read and give reports and i kinda realized that successful people all have libraries(they read) and (this is the revelation part) they all write in cursive. haha. so every night i have been writing my journal entries in cursive. haha at first it looked worse than joe's handwriting!haha(don't tell joe) but it is slowly getting better and i am slowly getting faster. there are still some letters (especially capital letters) that i can't remember how to do. can someone send a guide? haha! thanks!

Zone Leaders

this week the Zone leaders came to our district meeting to see if i am doing everything i need to. they are both very good at giving trainings and inspiring missionaries to do there best. at the end of the district meeting they gave me really good advice(improvements haha). After the district meeting we went on exchanges again with the elders in our district. this time i went with the Jr companion, Elder Francis. he has only been here for 4 weeks and he is experiencing the joys of not knowing the language. haha. He is a great guy. super nice and always happy but, I never realized how hard it is to teach without the support of a companion that can speak the language. I have always had companions that could speak very good tagalog. haha lets just say i gained a lot of respect and gratitude towards my trainer Elder Payne. haha.

Pictures

Vigan! a large spanish type city near our area

Vigan2

meet the district- Sis Diolata,Sis Smith, Sis Dollete, Sis. Richards, Elder Williams, Elder Hickey, (bottom) Elder Hontanosas, and Elder Francis

A FISH!

hmm... yup its a rock! Haha

this is probably the best picture we took (hope you liked all the pictures!!! this is the last)

Exchanges, Hot Peppers, and District Leader Learning

we started the week with exchanges with the zone leaders on tuesday. Elder Iosefa (a Huge Samoan) came with me to our area. haha he is a great guy and we had fun riding the bikes to our areas. Elder Hontanosas was scared his would break if Elder Iosefa sat on it but it turned out fine!haha. It was a great day and i learned a lot from him. the next day we went on exchanges again with the elders in our area. this time I went to their area in Sto. Domingo. I was with Elder Williams he reacently stepped down from ZL to train. haha. even though i am the DL an i am supposed to evaluat/teach him. it was deffinetly the other way around. he is a super good missionary and he seems to know everything!haha.  I will send a picture of our district.

Other than that...not much new happened. I am still learning all the District leader stuff out. but it is getting easier and i am enjoying how much i am learning. I hope i can stay as a district leader for a while. It is actually kind of fun. haha

I ate a really hot pepper!

Epic Missionary Photo

Going Places!

Bikes

this week was really good! we had a hard time at first teaching all of our investigators that we are trying to focus on because they all live so far apart and their schedules are never set. this week we decided to try to request for bikes.haha we texted our president and he didn't respond so we thought it wasn't going to happen but thursday night he called us and told us that they would bring the bikes around when they get time. turned out to be saturday afternoon! haha! we are officially BIKING MISSIONARIES!!!! haha! we used them that afternoon! It was soo much fun and we laughed the entire time because they are kinda girly bikes! haha a lot of people stared at us funny!haha we would just wave and ring the little bells on the handle bars!haha! It was also great we were able to get to far areas in just a couple min. our lessons have also increased a lot and we are now able to focus more on the investigators we want to progress!

School Break

Another great thing about this week is that one of our progressing investigators, Levi Rodriguez has Sem break(2weeks no school) she studdies super far away and is never home but she always comes to church and wants to be baptized! the only concern was that we could only teach her on saturday. now we will be able to go to her everyday with our assistant BML(also on Sem break) she will probably be baptized in 2 weeks! YES!!! haha! this area is really starting to progress! especially with the help of BIKES!!!!haha

District Leader

i am still learning how to be a district leader!hahah it is fun. this we will go on exchanges with the zone leaders and the other elders in our district. i am super excited i always learn a ton from exchanges. haha.

Leadership Brings Growth

Zone Training

this week went by super fast. it was probably the most stressful week since my training last year. haha on tuesday the zone leaders called and told me that all the missionaries in the zone were going to be attending my district meeting!!!!! because all the other district leaders are training new missionaries and wont be able to return in time for district meeting!!!!!! hahha i spent every moment i had on tues and wed  to prepare a training!haha wednesday night the zone leaders called again to tell me that the plans had changed and the other districts will just have their meeting a day later! haha! i felt super relieved and the thought of giving a training to just my district didn't stress me out as much as it would have had i not stressed about the whole zone. haha I guess as we are put in situations that cause us to stress and worry, we grow and smaller things stop causing us to stress or worry. the more stressful the situation the more we grow. i almost wish that the first plan could have continued. i know i would have been scared to death and probably not prepared but i know i would have grown so much as a individual. haha.

Best Companion Ever

this week was super fun! Elder Hontanosas is probably my favorite companion so far. He is in my batch, He is hardworking, happy always, funny, and very good at teaching simply. I often feel like he should be DL. haha. I definitly have a lot to learn from him.

we had a lot of interesting funny stories this week. we met a guy who took at least 10 sentences to explain then answer any of our questions. for example: "hello brother! what is your name?" 

"I can't answer your question directly because it is from america which mixed with spanish who cam to the philippines and then the chinese...." his name turned out to be Ferdinand. haha

General Conference

we also were able to watch general conference. it was super great!! I loved so many of the talks. I noticed how a big theme seemed to be on the prophet and gaining a testimony of the prophet. i also noticed how many talked about family preparation. I wonder what might happen to have inspired these talks. haha I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet. i know that he and his apostles have the power and authority to lead the church. i also know they recieve revelation for the children of our heavenly father.

Highlights from Elder Hickey

A Brave Example

our BML (branch mission leader) invited his whole barangay(usually 1-3 roads of houses) to come to church and 5 of his cousins/friends showed up! He is only 18, but he is so courageous and faithfull. I wish I was like him before my mission. He is super smart and reminds me of Johnny a bit. He is also one of the hardest workers I have ever met! Hopefully he will be called to Utah to serve a mission! haha!

No New Apartment

We were super close to moving into a nice house with tile,a couple bedrooms,shower,and air conditioning. Our president was adding 2 missionaries to our area in San Juan as well. BUT Sunday morning (2 days after the office elder talked with the owner)  The owner came to us and told us that he changed his mind and dosn't want to rent the house to us!! So now we get to enjoy the jungle suite for a bit longer and the 2 other missionaries will not be coming anymore !haha! This experience frustrated me a bit because 1. it was sunday morning 2.we were fasting 3. we were really looking forward to the new missionaries and the house.  It was not the best way to start a sunday!  When we got to church I was still a little bit irked so I prayed that I would feel the spirit and peace. It was almost instant I felt all the frustration dissapear! It was one of the best church services I have ever been to. (general conf. is next week! I'm sooo excited!)

Conquering Fears

I GOT OVER MY FEAR OF SPIDERS!!!!!!!!! well not completely, but this week I held/played with a spider in my hands for the first time in my life!! They have a certain kind of spider here that is very common. They are not poisonous and cannot bite. Their bodies are about the size of a small marble and they look really gross but children here catch them in thier hands and fight them on small sticks. I caught one this week and we played with it a little bit!haha I will send a picture!

Transfers and District Leader

Today we found out about transfers!!! Elder Pacala is transfering to my old area in Aparri with ELder Marsh! I will tell him all of the people he needs to follow up on!  I miss that area a lot!

My new companion is Elder Hontanosas. I don't know him but I think I have met him a couple times. Philippino I think. also............I am the new District Leader!!!!! WHAT!?!?! I have no idea what I need to do!!! or how to train or what to train on!!! AAAHHH!!! I saw a list of the elders and sisters in my district and they are all really good and expereienced missionaries!!!  I just hope I can help them somehow.

FHE with members

Hanging  bridge

The Storm of the Spirit

Zone Conference

This week was a crazy week. On Wednesday we took a bus to an area called San Lorenzo. it is close to Laoag. We slept at the elder's apartment. It was a mansion!!! It was sooo nice! It has AC and two stories, 2 bathrooms (with showers)! Elder Pacala and I were pretty jelous! haha! We slept there with 8 other elders.On Thursday morning we got up to go to zone conference in Laoag. It was really good Our president gave a training on getting investigators to talk more than we do. It was all about scriptures and asking good questions. We learned a lot and we have used  what we learned in our lessons. We have seen a big difference in our lessons. I think the biggest thing that I learned this week is that missionary does not mean teacher. haha. it means that we are the ones who get up at 6:30, walk,and open our mouths in front of other people. I learned this week that Heavenly Father, Christ and the Holy Ghost are the ones that should be teaching. We are just there to help our investigators understand that the scriptures are the words of Christ and what they are feeling is the Holy Ghost. I have learned that this is the best way for investigators to gain a testimony of what we are called to share. We had a reacent convert express to us how she has known missionaries who at every appointment would endlessly argue or explain doctrines but, the recent convert explained that this only frustrated her and her family. They didn't want to do what the missionary said because they felt everything he said, though true, was only coming from him. She told us that they have learned so much more as missionaries used scriptures and bore there testimonies. She also explained that they felt more prompted to do as the scriptures said.

Typhoon Again

This week was also crazy because we had another bagyo(storm/typhoon). It rained all Friday and we were drenched by the time we returned to the apartment. On Saturday, the typhoon came. Our president texted us saying "stay in your apartments! DO NOT WORK!" so the whole day we just sat in the apartment and studied. We had a Brownout (blackout-not sure why they call it a Brownout) so we studied by candlelight the whole time. It poured buckets and the wind made it look almost like the rain was falling horizontally! haha. A bunch of trees got knocked down and a bunch of branches fell around our apartment. We were very blessed though, our roof did not get dammaged at all. The only thing that happened to us is that a tree broke and is now leaning on our apartment, but nothing broke.

We were supposed to text our district leader every hour about our situation but we had run out of Load(min/text) on friday so we just waited for our DL to call us. On Saturday our president let every missionary eat then go to bed early!!!!! We went to bed at 7!!!! hahaha 11 hours of sleep!!! It was Awesome!!!haha!

On Sunday, the rain had stopped. we went to church on the way we saw a bunch of trees that had fallen over and a ton of broken branches on the ground. Everyone's houses seemed fine. We still didn't have any power and we also ran out of Gas! So we cooked our lunch on a small fire we made outside with a few kind of dry sticks! haha it was like we were camping! We got power again at night and we were able to use our rice cooker to cook our food(rice and ulam).

IT was a crazy experience. We heard that our district leader's apartment got flooded chest deep and they evacuated to a members home! I have never been more thankful for our small bug infested apartment! haha!

Today we were able to buy groceries and we will buy gas later so we are good now. We have also visited most of the members in San Juan and they seem fine as well. We are very blessed that no one was flooded and that all their houses are still fine. We were so happy to see most of them still go to church on Sunday even though there was debri everywhere.

Two Typhoons and Some Good Sleep

Committed Investigators

this week was good. we have still been doing finding. we went back to the family i told you about. only the father was able to be taught. last time we left a book of mormon and an assignment to read the introduction. he showed us that he had read past the introduction and was currently reading the testimony of Joseph Smith! We were so suprised!  before during most of the lessons he hadn't participated too much! he had just sat quietly and listened. we then taught him more about the book of mormon. we bore our testimonies that it is true and that he will recieve an answer that it is true as he reads it and prays to know wether it is true. He seemed to be excited to read it! It is too bad we only were able to visit them once.

Typhoons

we were going to return on saturday to commit them to comming to church, but our president texted us. he said that all the missionaries in the mission had to return to thier apartments by 5 that day because there was a Typhoon coming. so that is what we did. the APs and the zone leaders texted us a bunch always asking if we were doing ok. haha. I was kind of excited i had never experienced a typhoon before on my mission. we just studied in our apartment while we waited. not much happened. it rained a little. the next day we went to church. None of our investgators we had invited to church came! not even the ones who have baptismal dates coming up. we had 2 brand new investigators come to church. One we had actually taught once. she lives way out in one of our farthest areas. one of our Reacent converts is friends with her and brought her. the other we had never met before. she is the daughter of a young couple that we taught a few times. our BML brought her. We were super blessed that they came! we will deffinetly focus on them and their families this week. in sacrament Elder Iosefa (zoneleader), Elder yuson, and I gave talks. I talked about endurance. haha i am still no good at giving talks!haha! but i am grateful for the experience. I feel like i have gotten over the nervousness, that i used to get before and while i gave talks, a little bit. Just wait ill be a pro when i give my homecoming talk haha!

Sleep

after church we had to go directly back to our apartment because of another typhoon that was coming. so we just studied the whole day. only around 8pm it started to get windy and started to rain. we lost power around 9. our president said we could go to bed at 9:30! YES hahahahah! i think i slept through the storm. haha. in the morning i was dissapointed. only a couple twigs had fallen from the trees. i was expecting a big storm. haha. Everyone had seemed really worried.

More Cleaning

we are still looking for a new apartment. there were elders in the apartment before me. they just NEVER cleaned. Elder Pacala was super suprised when i started cleaning everything. he just finished his training and he told me he never saw his trainer cleaning, other than sweeping. so i have been teaching him what an apartment should be like. today we cleaned the kitchen. Gack! hahah there were some smells in there that i don't ever want to smell again! It took us about 2 hours but it is starting to look and smell better.

Growing Into a Man

Referrals in Rafaro

This week we had a lot of refferals in a place called Rafaro. It is far away in the middle of the bukid(rice fields) so we have been doing a lot of walking! haha! Every night we get home and I drop onto my chair and try not to fall asleep! haha! It is good though! I like feeling tired it makes me feel like I am growing and improving not just my body but my mind and skills as well. haha! Each day it gets easier and easier.

Finding Families

This week we found a the Paraon family. We have been teaching the father(Jose) and his daughter(nevalyn). They are super kind. We are working on getting their mother into the lessons but she seems to always be doing something when we go there. when we first found them both me and elder pacala felt that they would progress and we decided to focus on their family. They are very receptive and humble. However, as we have been teaching them it has suprised both elder pacala and I how much satan does not want them to know the gospel. Each time we have tried to teach them it seems like the lessons are always interupted and the spirit lost. We were going to teach them the restoration and commit them to baptism but a big group of teenage boys showed up near where we were teaching and became very noisy.

The Devil Cannot Stop Us

This experience reminds me of the story of Joseph Smith. when Joseph Smith was taken from his home at night and tarred and feathered but he still whent to preside at the church meeting the next day. There he told the congregation something like "the devil can not force the prophet to do anything"--- I know that there are many forces against this work and this area and every area and mission to stop the work from progressing but the devil can not stop us from doing anything if we have the faith to follow Christ. I pray everyday that I and our investigators gain this faith. I feel like there are so many people here that are prepared but they lack the faith to give up family relations,work,to endure trials, and give up vices.

New Area

This week Pres. Barrientos told us to start looking for a new apartment. he told us that he wants to put 2 more missionaries into San Juan! haha we have been looking for another apartment and we may have found one but we need to wait for the owner to come back from manila. hopefully this next transfer our president will open the new area in San Juan. I am excited! haha!

to answer your questions:

1.my week in the BUG hotel has been great we recently have found new and different kinds of friends living there also. haha maybe I will send pictures... it is actually becoming a lot more clean. This week I started on the kitchen.

2.Our branch in cabugao has about a 200 attendance but from San Juan only about 30 attend.

3.Mom you don't need to send anything i am doing alright but if you do don't send razors, bug spray/killer, cleaning suplies(we already have plenty). don't send the taco seasoning packets (I get sick everytime we use them). maybe just send stuff I can give to kids or members.

4. I feel like i have only gotten here! I still have so much to learn! in addition to tagalog, I have started to learn Ilocano it is basically the same grammar but almost all the words are different! haha! (Mabisin Nakon!- Im Hungry! Mangan tayon!-lets eat! haha)

Adventures in a new location

New Companion…Great! and New Apartment…Not so great… 
So when we first got to our area we jumped out of the bus and pulled our suitcases out onto the side of the road. my companion, He is a shortfunny guy who kind of sounds like hermit the frog.haha. he is philippino and only speaks tagalog, lead me onto a gravel path between some large houses. it seemed like as we kept going they kept getting nicer and nicer i was just getting excited about our apartment, and then i saw it the last house on the path. Its a concrete cubo hut! (a shack with leaves for a cealing) WHAT!? haha! but it only got better. haha. when we got inside i found that it was 3 rooms:bedroom/studies, a bathroom, and a kitchen. it is super stuffy and there were spiders everywhere!  there was a musty smell in the whole apartment. I started cleaning right after we got back that evening. i havent stopped since. every time i get i start sweeping cobwebs and killing spiders. It was almost worse than cleaning the sheranians dungeon! haha! in our apartment i have seen Ants, cocroaches, spiders as big as my hand, and rats! haha... i wondered the first night how i was going to survive! haha! since last tuesday the appartment is starting to look a lot better. this morning we tackled the bathroom and a little bit in the kitchen. it is still far from clean though. today we are going to buy a lot of cleaning supplies and pest killer.

other than the apartment i have really liked this area. the members are really nice and seem proactive and excited about doing missionary work. we are the only 2 missionaries in San Juan and we and the members go to Cabugao about 15 min bus ride for church. they are super dilligent and even though it is far a lot of members from san juan still go to church.

Our area is really big it goes all the way to the base of the mountains to the sea. I haven't even seen a quarter of it yet. from what elder pacala told me he also hasn't seen most of the area. his trainer just took them to the same places all the time. since tuesday we have been doing a lot of finding.becaous we only have a few investigators and most of the investigators we had were not progressing.

our area is also really pretty. it feels like i have finally come to the philippines. even though the people here are more rich than those in aparri. there are a lot of trees and it is a lot cleaner. there is almost no trash.

Who is Your Hero? - Elder Hickey

Holidays

This past week there were two philippinno holidays. Aquino's day-some famous leader who helped free the Philippines and then today actually is Hero's day. They celebrate all the Philippino heros. One hero called Lapu Lapu, looks like a native American, but he has a big sword and a african looking shield. He aparently fought against the Spaniards with an army that only had swords,shields,bow,etc. whereas the Spaniards had guns. He ended up killing the Spaniards leader Magellan and kicking the Spaniards out.

Because of the holidays most people didn't have school on thurs-mon. so many of our investigators went to visit their families in different parts of the Philippines, so we didn't get too many investigators to come to church/progress this week. We did have one(Jerwin Ladran) who traveled back sunday morning to go to church. haha he was so tired! he looked like he was going to fall asleep in our gospel doctrine class.

Transferred

Transfers are tomorrow. I found out yesterday that I will be transferring but I didn't find out, until today, who my new companion would be or where my next area would be. We need to wake up tomorrow at 3am so that we can get to where the bus stop is at 5am! haha we will have to go out  and find/hire a multicab driver willing to get up that early! haha 

My new companion is Elder Pacala He is actually in the same batch as Elder Pingol. so he just finished his training also. Our area is in San Juan. Almost as far as I could have been transfered!  I have heard that It has more spanish culture there and the architecture in some places is really old and pretty. I am excited but I am also sad that I have to leave elder Pingol and all of our investigators.I am also a little bit worried about our area, But I know elder Pingol will take care of it. He is 10 times better than I was when I finished my training. Elder Pingol's new companion will be Elder Marsh!!! My mtc companion! haha! I feel like all the trainers are just switching trainees!

Some Pictures

Some of the Basics

The Weather

The weather is actually really hot and dry! It is wierd because it is supposed to be the rainy season. However, this week it is supposed to rain 6 out of seven days.  It would be nice to get some cloud cover!  We had a zone activity this morning. We played basketball,volleyball,and had a waterballoon fight! haha it was fun but I got a bit sunburnt.

Investigators

Our investigators are all still doing good. The father of the Belina family is down to a goal of 0 cigarettes per day. we taught them on Saturday night, but they didnt come to church! We don't know what happened! We are going there tonight. I hope they are ok, they are not the type of people to lie/make false promises. We think they might have had an emergency.  

Our other investigators are also doing good. Most of the investigators I told you about last week came to church. Our area is progressing. We have found a couple more investigators with really good potential. The next two transfers in this area will be exciting! I am so excited for this branch!

Meals

Yes we eat rice every meal! I never really apreciated rice before my mission. When I first got here I didn't like rice too much and it kind of weirded me out that we had to eat it at every meal. I have really learned to love it over my mission! I have found out that even when you only have a little bit of ulam(real food) you can add a plateful of rice and it is just as good AND filling! haha! It makes the groceries a lot cheeper!...Yes, we have to be careful about what we drink. It is nice because they have water purifying stations everywhere here. Most people buy their drinking water from them so usually we are fine. But we usually don't drink anything but softdrinks if we are outside of the apartment... I know its not healthy but that is what people always give us.

So Happy to Be a Missionary

This week was really good for us. a lot of our investigators are progressing including the Belina family, Sister Maricon, bro Jerwin, and and new investigator Jerico Perez.

the father in the belina family is down to 2 cigg. or less every day. he has a huge desire to quit now. we explained last week that we would want to baptized the family together and because of his addiction we would need to reschedule their baptism a couple weeks late. I think this made him realize that he is holding his whole family back with his addiction. The time before last we were expecting him to have done our commitment of only 3 ciggs. but he suprized us with only two. we were super happy because it was really hard for him to go from 4 to 3. before we even commited him to go to 2 he did it. They have a great family and want to go to the temple to be cealed as a family.

Sister Maricon is the one that lives with the member. she is about 22 and they have a super cute 1year old kid. whenever we teach them he always shakes our hand first and has learned to call us EDE(elder) haha! sister maricon right now is working on getting married to her Live-in(the member) he just returned from manila so now they can get the papers they need to be able to get a marriage licence. she has a baptismal date on sept 27 so we are trying to speed them up a little bit. maybe we will have the marriage then the bapt on the same day... haha! Bro. Jerwin is not her husband but a college student that lives near her. he is a little bit feminine so they became good friends. he is also progressing toward his baptismal date.(same as maricon.) We are afraid though that if maricon isn't married and bapt by their bapt date he will be too shy/scared to be baptized. he is super smart and always has really deep questions which we love answering but he is a bit shy.

Jerico Perez is a new investigator that elder pingol and elder benaly found last wednesday when we went on exchanges. He is a college student also. he used to be a investigator a long time ago in a different city(he is only living in aparri as he goes to school.) He is super humble and sincere! he is also hardworking. We have found that he has a special recepetibility to the spirit. we have only taught him 3 times but after two lessons he came to church and had a bapt. date. this last time we taught him he asked about fasting,tything, and he asked about deacons,teachers,and priests. he was interested to know why at such young ages kids become deacons,teachers,and priests. haha He used to be a catholic so he is used to older men holding those positions. the question kind of threw me back i had never thought about it. I had always just known that you became a deacon at 12 and a teacher at 14 and a priest at 16. haha. He also expressed a concern of his. His parents really don't want him to be baptized and he is afraid to tell them that he has started listening to the missionaries again and that he has a bapt. date. we invited him to pray, to fast (we also explained how,why,etc), and to just bear his testimony to his parents. he is so faithful! I know that he will be able to help his parents understand. I learn from him about humility,sincerity and a desire to follow christ every time we teach him.

the last couple weeks i have felt soo blessed! i have been happier than i ever have been on the mission! I love our investigators so much! we only have 2 more weeks in this transfer and there is a good chance that i will transfer. i will miss all of our investigators so much! If i transfer i am worried that i will get super area sick! Haha! whatever happens it will be ok though. I think that Elder Pingol will train after this transfer. he is super good at teaching. I know all of are investigators will be fine and he will help them continue progressing he is so much better prepared to train than i was when i started training him! haha! I feel like i have learned so much the last 2 transfers! I feel like i have grown up! haha! I feel happier than ever before in my life. the days are flying by! I am scared how close i am getting to one year! as The character in Rocket Man said.... "ITS GOING TO FAST" haha!

A Big Appetite for Preaching and Hamburgers

Belina Family

theBelina family is doing good! we are helping the father slowly stop smoking but they are still super good! the last time we went and taught them.the mother asked me if i wanted another bag, so i wouldn't need to use the same one always, haha!  ltold her that i am alright with just 1 bag,(my bag) because it is small,strong and looks good.because the bag she wanted to give me was kind of large, old, and ugly... haha! but she wouldn't take no for an answer! haha! so now i have two bags. haha! she is super nice i used the bag she gave me yesterday and it was actually alright. haha! their family will deffinitly be baptized but probably not until after i get transfered! SAYANG! haha!

Burger Challange

this week not too much happened. this morning we were able to get our support money again. we celebrated by eating at a burger place called KEVINS. there me and my trainee Elder Pingol and Elder Benali (another elder in our apartment) did what they call the MONSTER BURGER CHALLENGE! haha! it is a burger with 2 buns, 5 patties, there are also a ton of fries and a liter of lemonade! the challenge is to eat all of it in 5 min. haha!If you can finish it within the time limit it is free, but if you cant it is 300P about 7 dollars. haha! doesn't seem like much but that is a lot of money here! haha! Elder Wirthlin!(joseph) it felt just like one of those(AMRAP) workouts that we did in weight lifting! before the time started you just sit there looking at the food in anticipation! and when they started the timer we all started as fast as we could trying to beat each other! ahaha! none of us finished in time but me and elder benali were super close. i could have done it but for some reason i got a lot more fries than the other elders. I only had a handful of fries at the end and a bit of lemonade! haha! i am debating whether to try it again...haha! I will send a picture of it haha! i also had an elder video it so i will try to send that too.

How to Extend Commitments and Always Improving

well not too much else happened this week! haha the burger challenge was the highlight haha! something that i learned and practiced this week was to be direct and not apologetic when extending commitments or when explaining/ teaching a doctrine. i realized that when we are not direct/ confident they will not think that we are serious and will not do what we tell them they need to do. i am also working on always looking people in the eyes haha i think i have had a hard time doing that my whole life. haha! This week and this next week i have been and will continue to try to become better as a missionary. 

Faith, Rain, and NesTea

Rain and 72 hr kits

This week was a good week!  It rained most of the week.I bought a big new umbrella which helps keep me a lot dryer.haha. There is supposedly another Bagyo(storm) coming on wednesday so Sister Barrientos has been checking everyones 72hr kits(we buy ourselves with support money). Mine was good,  all that i lacked was clothes,flash light, and... water... haha whoops!  don't worry I will get everything today so if I need to use it I will be fine.

Faith of Members and Filipinos is Amazing

We are still teaching that new family!  We taught the word of wisdom so that they can prepare for their baptism. It was a great lesson. We had our elders quorum president fellowship. He used to be what they call a lasingero, which means someone who is always drunk. He was able to relate to the father of the family who has cigarette problems. He also provided a lot of good support and bore his testimony of the blessings that he recieved by living the word of wisdom. The whole family commited to follow the word of wisdom. The father is working on his smoking and is very determined to stop! It was kind of funny, right after the lesson the mother brought out a big jug of NesTea!!! haha!  when I saw it I thought "OH no! thats tea" haha to be tactful I asked the sister what kind of juice it was! haha! she of course replied that it was NesTea and then it dawned on her that (nes)TEA is tea which we just taught her was not allowed! Sshe felt really bad and took it back to the kitchen. I think she threw it all out! She is awesome! We felt really bad that she had to throw it out, but we realized that it was a good learning and faith building experience for her and her family. They are a great family and are progressing well. They want to be baptized and sealed in the temple. I know they were prepared for us and I know we were led to their family! It was a mirracle that we found them. We never would have found them (they live behind a bunch of other houses and you can only get to them through a small alley which looks like a dead end) had the mother (Ruby Belina) not been standing on a corner as we passed. I know it was not a coincidence that we found them! I know that the Lord has prepared them for us and has led us to them! I have loved seeing how willing they are to accept commitments then to do them! I am kind of sad because I will probably be transfered before they get baptized. but I know they can do it. My Elder Pingol will just need to send me a picture of their bapt. then when I get home I will photoshop myself in it... haha jk! but it will be hard to leave this area. we have a lot of great members and investigators here. The area also seems to be progressing well.

Branch FHE

This week we also had a branch family home evening. it was really stressful because the branch kind of made us in charge of everything and they didn't help out too much. It was good we watched "to this end was i born" then afterwards we had our branch president speak for a little bit.The relief society president brought food for everyone and everyone talked with the less actives and investigators.

Families Joining the Church and a Little Abdominal Pain

Families Joining the Church and a Little Abdominal Pain

this week was really good! we were super blessed to find a family of 6!(The Belina family) we only taught their whole family once on saturday but they still came to church yesterday! it was a great day! in sacrament meeting it seemed like the kids were a lot more quiet and well behaved! also the speakers did really well. It was also great because the mom of the family realized when she got there that she knows a bunch of the relief society somehow! the whole branch was excited and helped to felowship them and make them feel welcome! they had a great experience. we were able to talk to the father after and he told us that they would definitely go to church again next sunday! haha! finding them was a great blessing! I feel like our area is progressing so fast! we have so many great investigators and our members a starting to get excited about missionary work! they are also working out the home teaching and other branch problems! i feel so blessed right now! it has been a long time since we have had a bunch of progression in our area and i know that it is only because we have always been obedient and worked hard that we were able to find this family!

Other than that. my companion almost died on thursday! just kidding but it seemed like he might have. he had really bad gas pain and was rolling around in pain for about 2-3 hours! I almost took him to the hospital but sis. Barrientos called and told us what medicine he needed + she told us he needed to rest. it was crazy! but he is alright now and we are still working hard! Don't worry about me i am still on my long streak of healthyness! haha.

Pictures
Crab
New District
Rambutan

this is at the sister's investigator's house with a bunch of the branch leaders and their families. the kids are trying to connect the spoons on top of the cups without moving the cups. the objective is to be able to place a book(trials) on top of the spoons/cups(scripturestudy,prayer,church) so it needs to be strong.