Another Normal Week (If you can say that) of Being a Missionary

Easter in the Phillipines

It was a good week. they actually didn't do too much for easter.

i thought that they would have done more. I don't know if they have

any traditions but i have heard that on easter a lot of times people

will get super drunk and try to repent for their sins by crucifying

themselves for an hour or two!!! i didn't see it happen and i didn't

believe at first. i thought it was just a trick the other elders were

pulling but then i asked some of the members and they said it happens

every year!... Happy Easter! haha! I haven't gotten your package yet

but that could be because i am so far from the mission office. Oh yeah

tomorrow is transfer day. Me and Elder felices are still companions

but we are transfering to the farthest area possible we are going from

Aparri district 1 to Aparri district 2. haha. nooooooo! i don't want

to leave our area! we have too many investgators and members that i

love there!!! ahhahh!

This week was pretty normal we didn't have much happen. we got our

transfer calls! this transfer went by super fast it was crazy! I want

it to slow down! I feel like so many things happen that i can hardly

rember most of them! haha! maybe i will start bringing my journal to

the computer shop every monday! haha!

This is our District

General Conference and Pizza in the Microwave?

General Conference

This week we got to watch General Conference! It was awesome! It

was in english because for some reason they don't translate it into

tagalog so most of the people didn't understand. It was amayzing to

see how many people came just to see the apostles and the prophet and

hear his voice even though they couldn't understand that much.

My favorite talk was Elder Hollands about how the Gospel is not easy,

the truth is hard, and how people will not like or want it. I liked

how he said that, right is still right no matter how many people are

doing the wrong and how it takes courage to do the right because often

we will be alone when we do.

I also liked Elder Bednar's talk about how our load is what helps us

progress/ get unstuck.

I liked the phrase- " our burdens are not made light because Christ

takes them away, but because He makes us stronger and able to carry

it."

New Investigator

We started teaching an18y old kid. he is a Elson's friend. He is super

prepared. He is always doing the assignments that we leave with him

and he always has great questions. He came to general conference this

last week, but I don't think that he understood very much. Hopefully we

can get him to marry his girlfriend because they are live ins so he

will be able to be baptized.

Pictures:

Pizza---we made pizza from scratch at a members house because she told us she has an oven.

When we got there she showed us her oven... turned out it was just a

microwave oven! haha! mom for future reference you can cook your

pizzas in a microwave. haha! It was still good but the cheese we had

was gross. They don't have any real cheese where we are, so we

just bought this kind of melting cheese. haha. also they had a suprise

birthday party for one of the YSA while we were there cooking so we

ate the pizza we made for the party food. haha everyone loved the

pizza! even though the cheese wasn't good.

rooftop

The one on the far right is Elson, He is sixteen and always gives us

his friends as refferals and fellowships with us. He is always telling

them to read, pray and listen to the missionaries!

I Love Being a Missionary

Conference

we haven't seen conference yet... but this sat and sunday we will. I

am super excited! (johnny) we also eat adobo, fish, pancit(noodles),

manudo, curry, etc. we ususally go to what is called a Plankay. it is

where the farmers bring all of thier produce/meat to sell it. so we

buy pork which they hang up and cut in front of you when you buy it,

rice, vegitables and fruits there! it is all super fresh which is

awesome!

this week was pretty normal. we changed the boundaries to our area and

the area of the other elders because before they only had areas that

are far away and expensive to travel to everyday and we only have

close walking distance areas. so we gave them a couple blocks and they

gave us one of their far areas. we are going to try it out this week!

A Baptism and a new-found testimony

we had a baptism. Mark Leste. He is about 18 and going to college. his

friend reffered him to us. right now he is living with his uncle and

aunt because they are closer to the college he is going to. His real

family lives across the river which is in our area but we can't go

there because travelling in boats is not allowed. he told us that they

have anacondas  there! haha! he is a super cool guy! he is always

willing to learn and always says yes when we ask if we can teach him.

even before he was baptized he would often come around with us to

fellowship to our other investigators! haha! when he bore his

testimony after his baptism he said that he knows this church is true

because of the feelings he has had! he said he knows because he has

seen the blessings of the Gospel in his life already! he mentioned

some challenges in his life before we started teaching him and then

explained how they had all left as he started to do the commitments we

left with him, as he started to live the commandments and as he

decided to be baptized!

I know this is the true church and that it can

and does help any one of us with any challenge, hardship, trial that

we may have!

 I love being a missionary! haha! It is going to be hard

to come back home when my time is up! haha

Pictures:

**outside our apartment.  The workers wear flip flops, no helmets, eye protection or saftey belts/lines, eventhough they are constantly up in high places welding things. haha

**Tesani family--this is my favorite family in our area!!! We often teach the sister on the far left because she is not a member yet.

A Beautiful New Area

Zone Conference

This was a good week. We had a zone conference and i saw my trainer

again.

New Area

the new area is still good. it is mostly just city. so it is a

smaller area but it is still super green. i like it a lot better than

my old area. it is cooler which is really nice because it is

officially summer as of last thursday. I also like the branch.

the leaders fullfil their callings well. Here are views from our roof.

The members are also really good. they love to feed us! haha here are the

coals that we cook our meals on and my breakfast which was something

like a sweet potato. 

We also have great investigators! many are progressing and a couple have baptisms

comming up! in my old area we would just walk around and try to teach

anyone we saw outside their house. In this new area it is great

because we keep getting refferals so we haven't had to do much finding

in this area.

Preparation Day

yeah we still play basketball alot it is one

of my favorite things that we do on P-day!

we wake up and play B-ball at 5:30 then clean around 8,

study at 10-11, then our time to go out to shop, email , and

everything else is 1-5. Sometimes P-day is the most stressful day of

the week! haha! so much to do! haha. not much new has happened. it is

the end of the month so like always money and food are tight! haha!

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!