Highlight of the Week

A Potential Baptism

This week was pretty normal. until saturday. on saturday our BML worked with us. we went to sis. rapacon she has been an investigator for a very lond time. she was first taught 20 years ago! haha! she has always come to church with her family but she has never made the decision to be baptised. we were very blessed this last saturday that our BML was there. over the years they had gotten to know each other fairly well. during the lesson our BML was very bold with her. he also spoke a lot in Ilocano (so we didn't understand so well) haha. while he was speaking to her she started to cry. because they were speaking in ilocano we were not sure whether they were fighting or whether sis. was feeling the spirit. (Ilocano always makes the speaker sound angry for some reason even if they aren't. haha! its confusing sometimes) when our BML stopped talking we jumped in to fix what we thought was, a bad situation. haha. turns out that our BML had finally gotten through the self created beliefs(every church is true, i don't need to be baptized) that sis. rapacon had held on to for so many years. haha. i am not so sure what he said but once he stopped talking all we had to do was extend a baptismal date. haha. because she has been taught everything and because she goes to church every week we were able to schedule it on the 28! haha. this experience has been another testimony to me that this work is inspired and that the work is more effective when members work with missionaries. i wish i could have worked with them before the mission. haha. i will just need to wait till after, to work with them, haha! wierd thought. haha.

that was probably the highlight of this week! haha! all the members are excited that she has finnaly decided to be baptized! haha!

Another Crazy Week in the Philippines

Boanerges and Omkar

this week was good. we continued to teach Boan and Omkar. brother boan is super smart and knows the bible back and forth. haha. he has started to read the BOM. he has a ton of questions about nearly every verse. haha he compares it all to the bible. haha. sometimes as we are teaching he will tell us he has a question then teach us for 3 min about a story in the bible and ask how it applies or fits with a story in the BOM. haha.  for instance once nephi says to his brethren "and surely moses spake unto the waters..." but he compared it to the bible wich never says that moses spoke unto the water. haha. we are trying to get  him to rely more on praying about the BOM and seeking the Holy Ghost rather than trying to prove it through evidences. haha.

Abang

this week we also started teaching the Abang family and prince again. they were our investigators before but we refferred them to the sister missionaries in our branch because they live closer. but they never went to teach them so they gave them back to us. the Abang family as well as prince, if you remember, almost got baptised. bro. abbang just had to stop smoking. and we just needed to finish teaching prince all the lessons. so we are still working toward preparing them for baptism.

Baclas and Old Ladies

this week we also had a crazy week with baclas and old ladies haha!! we were finding and we met an old nanay and a group of middle aged men. because they were drinking we told them we would just come back at another time. as E.Hoopes was shaking the old ladies hand she pulled him in and gave him a kiss on the cheek! hahaha!!! then later that day we met 2 Baclas(gays) both about 30-40y. we also told them we would share the next time around because i don't feel comfortable teaching baclas without a fellowshiper. as we were trying to go one tried to hug us! yuck! we are definitly staying away from that area for a long time!!!! haha.

Pictures of a Boodle Fight, Omkar and Boangerges, and Maps of their area

Competition and Business

Lunch with the Mission President

we were the last missionaries to get interviewed so when we were finished all the other missionaries had already gone. Pres. Barrientos invited us to go to lunch with them! haha! he took us to a super nice Boodle fight restaraunt! haha! Boodle fight= when they put banana leaves on the table for your plates. haha they ordered a ton of food. i don't want to make you jealous so i wont describe the food (grilled pork, tilapia,catfish,squid, also sisig, eggplant,muscles, sea weed, sili, and unlimited rice) too much haha!!! lets just say it was super good! haha it was also fun to go eat out with our mission president and the APs. they are super funny people.

Boanerges and Omkar and Business

we are still teaching Boanerges. he invited one of his friends to also listen, Omkar. they are both super nice and willing to learn. they have many challenges ahead of them in order for them to progress but they can do it. haha. we are also a little worried that their interest in the church is based on thier desire to get to america or to start up a buisness with me and elder Hoopes! haha! they keep trying to set up buisness deals(3-4years from now)! haha! from what they told me and from what i understood they want us to start the buisness because they cant unless their are american. but they will provide funding. haha! i don't know if i want to be a buisness man. haha maybe i will just refer them to dad! haha! hopefully they will continue to progress when we tell them that we aren't here to do buisness. haha.

Boanerges and the Power of the Spirit

New Companion

My companion(e.Hoopes) is from arizona. he is a cool kid. I like him. he is in elder tanner's batch. so he is still pretty new at the language but he is working at it.

yesterday i interviewed to kids for thier baptisms. one is 12, and the other 9. they are the only ones in their families who come to church. but they love to because they told me that they feel the spirit. haha they are both really sweet.

New Indian Investigator

yesterday a member who works as a security guard for a college student dorm brought a foriegn exchange student to church. guess where he is from..........India. haha he is sweet! his name is Boanerges. aparently they don't have last names in india. He can speak english and his native language Tamal or something. haha. he invited us to his dorm to teach him yesterday. it was wierd teaching in english but it was a great lesson. he is super humble and positive. he wants to be baptized! he told us that he felt the spirit in church and he is super interested in the book of mormon. he is already christian so he believes in the bible but he also believes that prophets wouldn't just be called in one area of the world! haha So far he is a golden investigator. he asked how he could join our church and we gave him a baptismal date. haha. the only problem i see is when he goes home there might not be churches there... i don't know.. are there any churches in india?

Missionary Parents

also a sister missionary reacently finished her mission. her parents picked her up and have been touring her past areas. vigan was one of them. they came to church yesterday. haha it was wierd to have americans there! haha. everyone was kinda going crazy! haha! they were super excited to see/meet them. haha! her mom insisted that we all take pictures so she could upload them on the facebook page! it reminded me of you mom! haha. enjoy the pictures! haha.

well that is about it for this week. next week we have interviews with our mission president. i am excited i always learn a lot!

Life Events

Funeral

last friday like i told you me and another sister missionary sister in our branch were assigned to speak at a feuneral service for a guy we had never met. it was alright we just talked about the plan of salvation. haha most of the people there are not members but that didn't stop us from using the BOM, Dand C, and Pearl of Great price. haha!

Baptism

then on saturday we had a baptism. the sisters in the other branch were the ones to teach him because he was always at his girlfriends house in his area. it was only just before i interviewed him that they found out he lives in our area. haha. His name is Argyll. he is about 18 and super awesome. haha we taught him yesterday about the priesthood and about missionary work. we asked him if he wants to serve a mission. we were worried that he wouldn't because he is studying and has a girlfriend also he is the only member in his family who did not support his desicion to be baptised. but all he said was i just need to prepare a little more!!! haha! he totally wants too! he just dosn't feel qualified yet, wich is fine because he just got baptised. haha. we are going to have him fellowship with us as much as he can! he is super humble and sincere!

Transferred

Also we found out about transfers. Elder tanner is getting transferred to my first area in Laoag 2B! i have already told him all the people he should say hi to me for. haha. My new companion is one of elder tanners batch. he is an american, his name is Elder Hoopes. He is from Arizona. I have only heard a little about him but he seems like a cool guy. I am excited but sad that elder tanner is leaving. he is always energetic and happy. wich helped me alot whenever i felt stressed. Elder Miller will also be transfered but we aren't sure where yet.

Helping the Living and the Dead

Harder to Find

this week was fun. i have found that our area is a bit different than my past areas. we have a bit harder of a time finding and when we seem to teach people they try to bible bash with us. haha! it is  a little frustrating. haha. also this week we have dropped a majority of our investigators and we are looking for new ones. we are also trying to go to new areas that we havent gone to before, the trick is finding close enough that the investigators can afford to go to church. we have met some great people but we will see whether they run from us the next time we go there. haha.

Helping with a Funeral

this morning we had a wierd experience... last week a member in our branch died. the philippino tradition is to have the body stay in the house for 1 week for people to come and see them before they are buried. so today our branch pres. asked us if we could help dress him in his burial clothes before they closed his casket... of course we helped out. it was wierd though.... we had to lift parts of his body up and put on the white clothes.haha.

A New Investigator

this week we also started to teach the daughter of a member. she is about 30. she is really open to the gospel. she has actually been an investigator for a long time we haven't taught her for a long time because she has been really busy with her job. she believes in joseph smith but she also believes that every church is true it just depends on whatever you like. so we have been inviting her to pray to know if this is the only true church.

Eating Horse and Carnival

Eating Horse and Church For the First Time

sorry i don't have much time but i will try to write as much as possible. this week we had a lot of great lessons we also got punted more than any other week haha! i have noticed that the more our area seems to progress the harder it also becomes to proselyte. haha. the Rigucera fam(fat man) is progressing we visit them regularly. once they fed us HORSE just before we left! it was actually really good. it was like beef but super healthy and soft. aparently it horse has almost no fat in it. you should try it some time! haha! yesterday sis. rigucera, her daughter and her niece came to church. it was too bad her husband and son didnt but we were super happy that at least they came. we sat next to them in sacrament meeting. they seemed to like it, it was different for them though. we are going to keep teaching thier family we have a baptismal goal for them next month. if they continue to come to church every sunday they will be ready. But Bro. Rigucira and thier son also need to come next sunday to make the goal date.

Carnival

this week the carnival continued until yesterday. many of our investigators couldn't come to church because they were in a parade that was scheduled the same time as church.but next week they will be able to! next week is going to be awesome! we will also have more fellowshipers. this week no one could work with us. also because of the carnival.

Minivan

yesterday we had bro mark anthony work with me again. (we went on splits) he took me around in his nice shiny MINI VAN haha! i felt rich again! haha! it felt too nice almost! haha. we went out to the far area again to teach the ilocano family. they are also progressing. instead of week, when i taught then my fellowshipers(2nd councilor,EQP,and YM2ncouncilor) translated i just gave them short topics to explain. we taught the Saviors earthy ministry. the lesson quality improved and the investigators seemed to understand a lot more. at the end i was suprised when 2 of the daughters pulled out a lined sheet of paper. they had covered it in questions from what they had read in the pamphlet we left them! haha! we only had time to answer 2-3. but the questions were great! (1. why was truth lost after death of apostoles?,why is the BOM a witness of christ? why does God love us even after we sin/don't follow him? haha it was Awesome. i felt that the spirit was stronger when they started asking their questions than at any other point in the lesson.

Zoo

this morning we went to a zoo. haha it was kind of funny. they had sheep, small horses, and deer walking all around(open cages to the walk ways). the main attractions though were the Tigers, and the animal show. they basically put snakes, lizards,birds, and a wierd bear/cat on anyone who volunteered. haha.