Quick update from Jake

I am still doing good. this week was fun and crazy at the same time. we went down to Laoag again! because the Area 70 (Elder Arden) came to speak to us. I was fun... an 8 hour bus ride full of missionaries! i got to stay another night with Elder Marsh in his apartment at Laoag, then the next day we went to the church to listen to Elder Arden. haha! It was really good I really enjoyed and learned from what he said. He talked about a lot of stuff including obedience,faith,prayer,the spirit,etc. I love how many oportunities that we have to learn as missionaries. right after the "conference thing" we all got back on the bus and came back to our areas. it was also fun but we were really tired... my trainee is doing good he is learning english and he is super diligent. he is from Laguna. Elder Ramsay and elder liska are still in our apartment.

A Week in the Life of Elder Hickey

Monday

we prepared for transfers and packed for my trip to Laoag.

Tues

woke up at 3am (happy birthday to me!haha) to catch a bus at 7am-2pm.

Then we had a trainers training at the mission office. I was

temporary companions with e. Marsh and e. Aagard. (both in my mtc district

and both are training also). We ended up proselyting in e. Marsh's

area for two hours.

Wed.

we worked the whole day in e. Marshes area. It was interesting

to see how much we have all improved in Tagalog and at teaching. It

was also fun to meet some new people in his area.

Thurs.

we met all the trainees at the mission office for breakfast!

then we had a training and we found out who our companions would be.

My new companion is E. Pingol. he is Philippino and super cool! At

about 10a,m we threw all of our luggage, supplies of Bof M/pamphlets,

and your package ( I got It!!!!!! it is huge!) onto a trycee to catch

a bus at 10:30 back to Magapit. It is always fun to go on the busses

because the drive is really pretty just really long. We got to Magapit

around 5pm. and then we took a multicab(like a van) to Aparri. We worked

for an hour. My trainee is really good at teaching and he is super

masipag! (diligent)

FRi.

We did weekly planning and then worked in the evening we got rejected

 all day! we only got a couple of lessons. But it was alright.\

Sat.-

We worked all day and  went to a baptism of an

investigator that we used to teach in our last area.

Sun.-

today we only got two investigators at church and they are both

kids. We decided to change the way we are proselyting. We decided

we needed to drop a lot of investigators because they are not

progressing and find new investigators. We started to talk to everyone

we saw today and we got a lot of good potential investigators we are

excited to go teach them all this next week.

Well that is a snapshot of this week! haha a lot happened!  It is hard to go

into details! haha! But I am doing good, my trainee is super awesome!

This next week we have to go back to Laoag again because one of the area

presidency is coming to give a training. patay and pamasahe namin!

mahal naman ang bayad para sa bus! haha! pero ok lang. we are excited

but we also wish we could stay and teach more. Last week we only got a

couple lessons because I went to Laoag. This next week will probably

be similar but we are really going to push ourselves to get more

lessons. Well not much else happened I love you!

Elder Hickey will Train and a Yellow Watermelon

Training

so this week was alright we found out about transfers... I AM GOING TO

TRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am soo excited! Tomorrow I will need to wake up around 2-3 am to get to the bus

station an hour away so that I can take a 11 hour bus ride to Laoag to pick up my

trainee! hahaha! I am so excited.

Birthday

I am not sure if I will be able to celebrate on my birthday

because we will be on the bus and in a training at night. But the mission president

gave us some money to buy a cake today! haha! So we are going to

celebrate tonight.

Fantastic Young Men

This last week was pretty good. We were able to watch two of our old

investigators in our last area get baptized! There

were a lot of members there because just before we taught the young

men in the ward about missions/missionaries. I love our branch. We have

alot of young men. They are all really good too! They are deligent

about having mutual and doing their Duty to God. I also really like

our branch president. He is very humble! He is always trying to be

better. He is also super hardworking! He works 6 days of the week

(usually away from home) and then he also has all his branch pres.

responsibilities.

A yellow watermelon.

The Great Filipino People

Investigators and Awesome Members

We won't find out about transfers until sunday. Our investigators are doing good. We had

one get baptized this last week! He is about 14 and part of a less

active family that lives near the church. It is sad because he is

super converted but his parents and syblings who are members almost

don't care anymore. His mom and two of his brothers came to his

baptism. We were hoping that seeing his baptism would help his parents

come back to church, but this last Sunday he came by himself again...

He is such a cool kid, if I get transferred I will miss and worry about

him so much! haha! I will send you a picture of him! On Pdays we play

basketball in the morning, clean, study, eat out, email, and buy stuff at

the plankay.  Mom I am sending a package to you for your

birthday! I hope it is not too late! I haven't gotten your package yet

but I got one from Natalie! it had chocolate in it, a letter from

Natalie, and all the valentine letters from grandma's valentines

party. haha.

Great Branch and Missionaries

This week we had a lot happen! We were super busy! We went on splits

twice this week! I am so grateful for our branch they are so good! we

always have fellowshipers and so many of the members want to help us.

I am also going to miss our branch if I get transfered! We also had

two exchanges this week and our Interviews with pres.(yesterday) It

was good I learned a lot on our exchanges. We have some amazing

elders(2) in our district. Elder Liska and Elder Ramsay! They are both

super happy, excited and crazy! haha! It was so much fun working with

both of them. They are both really solid missionaries, obedient and

hardworking! Well not much else happened.  I love you all. Sorry again for

not writing in a couple weeks. I hope you all have a great week!

this is me and elder ramsay on exchanges with our reacent

convert(marlon-far right) and his brother (richard- 2nd to left)with

their friend