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.

Some Good Crazy Fruit

Finding

we did a lot of finding because we got punted a lot and because we had no fellowshiper the whole week! we found some good investigators and have discovered a lot of new places in our area. i thought i knew all of it but there are still little corners that we keep on finding. we also got transfer instructions today. me and elder pingol are still together. but elder ramsay is getting transferred to Vigan, at the other end of the mission. elder liska's new companion is from california and i have heard he is a nice guy. it is going to be a good transfer. we are looking forward to it. we expect it to be very successful and we expect that our area will progress a lot.

Cultural Answers and Good Food

In laoag there were also a bunch of piles of dirt/rocks everywhere like no one cares. But people here are generally more happy and friendly than americans. they are also easy to talk to and make friends with. i really love it here only sometimes i miss how clean america is and how much variety of foods we had there. speaking of food... this week i discovered and tried a couple new fruits. there are so many fruits that i have never even heard of! rambutan,santol, and atis are the three that i tried. rambutan is a red fruit that looks like a big prickler. inside it is white and the texture is like a gummy candy, Santol looks like a grapefruit on the outside. on the inside it is also white but has a large seed. it is really sour and reminded me of a war head! yum! the Atis is hard to describe but it is good! the texture is sometimes like apple sauce! haha