Bus Ride To a New Companion and New Area

Bus Ride To a New Companion and New Area

This week was really good! the bus ride was super pretty! it was mostly on the

coast/in the jungle! some of the buses are air conditioned. ours

wasn't so we just opened the windows. my new area is smaller and

mostly in centro Aparri. i love the area! people are poorer and

humbler here but they are happier and friendlier too! my companion is

sweet! He is super good at teaching! i am trying to learn as much as

possible from him! My tagalog is getting better faster too! he speaks

super fast in tagalog so its forced me to listen harder and has caused

me to understand better. He loves to be out working! he pushes me to

do more than i would normally do! I have learned alot from him

already! i can really tell he wants me to improve. even at basketball.

this morning after we played he showed me some tricks/techniques to

use the next time we play. haha.

Pictures

a bridge we cross to reach members

our apartment

the other elders in our apartment (Elder Mabunga, Elder Ramsey(Austrailan+super thick accent), me, Elder Felices)

spiders in the area

on the way to aparri

"Just a little bit of faith"

Transferred!

This week was good. I am being transferred to Aparri. My new

companions name is Elder Felices. He is a Philippino from Bicol. I

heard he is super hardworking so I am excited to meet him. We haven't

transferred yet. Tomorrow I will take a 6 hour bus and a 1 hour

van ride to our area. I am so excited. Aparri is the largest city

in Cagayan (that part of our mission) so I don't think it will be too

jungly. I have heard my area is mostly in the city.

This week was good but it was also super sad! agh! I had to say good

bye to so many of our investigators, less actives and members! I am

going to miss some of them soo much! Agh! other than that it was good

though.

“Just a Little Bit of Faith”

I sent a picture of one of the less actives and investigator families

that live in our farthest area. This week the sister Agudon

told us that last week after we taught her about faith that she could not

forget a phrase that we said to her "just a little bit of faith". (we

have been trying to get her and her husband to come to church but it

is hard for them because they are very poor and live very far away.)

So she prayed and told Heavenly Father that she was going to go to

church from then on but she needed her husband to get a job.(it is very hard

to get a job here) so she followed through and came to church last

week. the day after her husband came home and told her that he just

got a job and started the next day!!! Now they will be able to have

enough money to come to church every week! It was an amayzing

experience to see how the Spirit helps others to develop and act on

faith! it makes me so happy to be here on a mission everytime I think

about it!

The sister holding the baby is Sister Aguidon that acted on her faith

And the other one is how we do Laundry :)

Samuel Got Baptized!

Samuel's baptism

Elder Del Rosario and I had to travel a lot for baptismal

interviews. On Saturday, of course we had our baptism. we combined

with another ward because there was a huge bishop/branch president

meeting at the church most of the day. It was really good. Samuel was

super nervous! He was so scared to give his testimony haha he did

really good, though. He didn't even seem too nervous when he got up to

the pulpit. It was also a good thing that there were two other

teenagers baptized with him, it helped to make him feel less nervous. After

the baptism Samuel's mom invited us to her house for food to celebrate

Samuels baptism kind of like a party. I thought it would

 be at their house, with their relatives, and  would have had a lot

members, and would actually be for the kid baptized, but it was at a

house across from them. At some people's house not related to htem

 where they were celebrating the  baptism of some 1 year old who had just been baptized into the

catholic church. Everyone was drinking and they had a thing called a

videoke machine there (sing a long machine) and all the drunk men were

singing!It was wierd! We tried to get out of there as fast as

we could. haha!

Possible Transfers

Well not much else happened this week. I am excited to hear where I

will go next. I am hoping I will be transfered to cagayan to the far

areas. haha maybe even open up Apayao, closed right now because it is

kind of dangerous, or one of the islands. haha! jk wherever will be

good. even if I stay for another transfer I would still be happy. If I

leave I am going to miss all the members in our ward. anyway mahal

kita!

The Good News of the Gospel

Interviews

I am doing good!  Not too much happened this week. We had

interviews with our mission president last friday. My mission president told me I am probably going to transfer in the next transfers! He has also told me that I will be following my

trainer! It will be out to Cagayan which is half of my mission, but

this area the farthest from the mission home on the North and Eastern side! I am

excited to get away from Laoag city and get some fresh air! ha ha

Baptized!

Our investigator passed his baptismal interview so he will be baptized on Saturday!!!!!

I am excited! I got some photos of that little town that I told

you about. This week has been pretty normal. Nothing

crazy has happened this week. Except for the Pamulinawea which is

basically a celebration that every city throws for a month. Each city

has a different month and Febuary is Laoag's. They do a lot of parades

and competitions and parties throughout the whole month. We haven't

been able to see much of it because our area is not where they do the

parades. But there is always a lot of people around.