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.

Being Grateful For What We Have

Captain Moroni

not too much happened this week. our super fellowshipper went home! sayang! but he told us he will come back in a month. haha he really loves his family and friends here. haha. If every member was as active at missionary work as he is, the world would have been converted by now. haha! reminds me of captain moroni. haha!

                                                       

Longanisa Fesitval – Sausage time

other than that we have continued to teach the investigators that he has referred to us. some have punted us. haha. He was the only reason they let us in thier houses. haha but some of them have really good potential. we are going to extend bapt. dates to all of them this week. Our old progressing ivestigators have dissapointed us a little bit. Bro. Allen(the artist/clay master) was busy all week making a float for a parade this week. and our other progressing  bro.Prince practiced all week for his drumming thing in the parade this week! so we were never able to teach them and they also weren't able to come to church this week. agh!

this week is the Longanisa festival.(longanisa-sausage thing that vigan is famous for.) they will have a parade and activities everyday in vigan (folk dance competitions and band competions). too bad that is not our area. haha. we wont be able to see any of it. hopefully our schedule wont be affected by it. haha. we almost reached standard this week and next week we really want to get it! haha.

No TV

this week i had a wierd expereince haha! yesterday actualy. me and elder Tanner went on splits with two of the elders quorum. the brother that went with me brought his car! haah i felt rich haha. it was super nice..... anyways our last apointment was at a house where they only speak ilocano and they are also super poor(no TV). so my fellowshipers had to translate everything i said in tagalog into ilocano. but that isnt the wierd part. the wierd part happened after. we were driving back to meet up again with elder tanner, when my comp. bro mark told me that he has never been inside a house without a TV! haha he thought that there wasn't any people in vigan without one! haha! i felt like i had just shown him the rough side of the town! haha like i had opened his eyes and changed his perspective of vigan! haha i couldn't believe that he has never been in a house without a tv. there are so many people who don't have one haha!

A Miracle and An Angel

This week we also experienced a little mirracle. haha we were finding in one of our areas. we both had the impression to stop at a house at the end of a long driveway. the gate was open so we just went in. as we got closer the people sitting outside ran inside and called out an older guy with white hair. he immedietly invited us to sit down. we thought he was jehova witness at first but then he whipped out his temple recomend(president Rigucera)! haha he is a retired Branch president from another part of the philippines. he is visiting his family because a relative of his receantly died. he explained that he has been looking for missionaries in vigan because he doesn't know where the church is here. since we met him he has fellowshiped with us almost everyday with new refferals each day. we go to all his family, old friends, and classmates. haha he is super funny. he treats everyone like his best friend even if he barely knows them! haha! once he didn't know the name of one of his nephews so he just yelled "Fat Man! Fat Man! Come here Fat Man!" hahahahaha!!!!!!! we were sooo suprized but the guy didn't seem angry or offended. through him we have noticed a difference in our lessons. we always have him testify of the blessings of the gospel. (he was baptized when he was 40) he is always so real and sincere that the people we teach seem so much more open to the restored gospel. He was planning on going home last friday wich leads to the next mirracle. haha kinda. when he worked with us for the first time he expressed his desire to teach all of his family and friends he told us that he is not sure whether the lord wants him to stay. he also lost his wallet with all his money for the bus to go home. this has caused him to stay until wednesday(more time to fellowship and reffer) haha! he is the most hardworking fellowshiper i have ever heard about. he commits us to baptizing everyone he refers and to work with him! haha! he has a vision of having a branch in his little barangay. we believe that it is a serious possibility. for no other reason than the faith of this old member.

A couple of photos of a clay oven used to fire clay pots/tiles/sculptures, and pictures of the new apartment.

A New Area for a New Year

New Area

I really like my new area. it is really big but for the last week we have had one of the young men work with us for almost everyday. he drove us around in a trycee. haha it was super nice. we were able to go anywhere in our area at any time. haha.

our new area is a mix of bukid and suburb. we don't really have any areas in centro. but yeah it is a really cool city. it has a bunch of old buildings and a really cool road that we go to on pdays. in vigan there are two branches. our branch is super cool. there are a ton of young men. haha they are all super chill too. our branch pres. is young and most of the other leaders are new converts but they are really masipag/hardworking.

we also have a lot of progression in our area. there is one young family who is progressing. the father is deffinitly the one who has been converted he has almost completely gotten rid of his wow. his family is also progressing but a bit slower. they all come to church but they havent recieved an answer yet about joseph smith. they are super cool though.

New Years

new years was alright. i think they celebrate christmas more. for new years people usually just drink, shoot fireworks.... wich are more like bombs. haha. i forgot to get a picture of one but everyone makes things called boga. they are metal cans taped together with a plastic bottle at one end. they stick the ignition of a lighter in the end. they put some kind of uncultured alcohol in it. they are basically crude guns. haha. everyone has them. they are not even illegal. they also buy bad quality fireworks which usually blow up early or late causing many people injories. what we did on new years is a different story. we had to come home early (5pm) and study. then we slept.(10:30) WHOO! haha i didn't even wake up at 12 i was so tired! haha!

Transferred and Pictures

It was great talking to you! it is too bad we couldn't talk for the whole time. it was because of a brown out(black out). so i wasn't able to call back. but i love all of you. since thursday a lot has happened. i got transferred to a city called Vigan. it is the 2nd largest city in the mission and a one of the worlds 7 wonder cities. at least that is what they say. haha. it is cool because it has the one really old road+houses that the spanish built. but other than that it is like every other city. My new companion is Elder Tanner. he is from Oklahoma and he just finished his training. he is a cool guy. He played soccer in highschool, likes to fish, he is taller than me(first time), and works hard. I like him. i will send you lots of pictures

1. brother and sister Aquino

2. Vigan Zone

3. Adobo and tilapia

4. the pork chops we barbequed on christmas eve

5. some member kids with some of the toys you sent

6. kayla and Domino with some toys!(they were soo happy! haha!)

7. elder Hontanosas opening his presents! he says "thank you!"

8.a returning less active. she is cooking pancit for her grandsons birthday!

9.Malankit(sticky rice rolled is something) and a empanada (egg,lettuce,sausage torilla thing)

10.nanay Dina- she cooked the malankit and empenadas

11.the Rotor family (strongest members in San Juan)

12. waiting for a bus on sunday night to take us to Vigan.