Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Week 13 - Dulag 9/12/2011

Sorry it took me so long to post this one!

but ya so this week was fun kind of a party week here in dulag. it was fiesta, so at the beginning of the week everyone was preparing and then wed thurs friday they partied. so monday was fun in tacloban then tuesday was district meeting and we didn't do to much because no one was letting us talk to them. so then wed the party started in the morning there was a huge parade and we watched the show they had after with all the high school bands and dance teams they aren't very good compared to america but still cool.  we had investigators and members who participated and asked us to come watch so that was cool and then no one again. we basically just walked around dulag all day I'm so tired from all the walking this week.  so then thursday was the eating part of the celebration they just eat all day, we had 3 lunch appointments and 2 dinner i was so stuffed after the second one but we had a few potential investigators invite us to eat too, so hopefully we will soon teach them. one of them is the kind of person we are looking for, a potential branch president since our branch president doesn't live in dulag. but ya he owns 5 dyipnis the one from the pic is one of his, he also has a weld shop and a store, so we need him. so then on friday we had a few people say we could come over but of course they forgot and most were hung over. but saturday was great we had a plan to increase sacrament attendance so we went around to almost every one we know, investigator and inactive and invited them to church. and then that night we went to a funeral service for a a guy whose son is in the branch presidency its weird because they have the body in a casket in the middle of the room open so everyone can see him. but they fed us after so it was nice because all the stores were closed and we had no food at home for that night. so sunday we went to church in hopes of high attendance but only 30 darn, next week. the burial for the guy was during church so we were missing some people and we had another investigator come to church she has been an investigator for years on and off and she told us after fiesta she would come so we were like ok cool, and she did and had some friends there so it was even better. but then she went to go sit up front after president talked to her i was like uh oh but she was sitting by her friend so i was like maybe its ok. then they brought us the schedule for sacrament and they had forgotten to call speakers so me and elder andrus spoke and president.  but i look at the schedule and our investigator was giving the closing prayer i was like uh oh. luckily she is really good at praying but she got up at the podium and like everyone else before her said good morning, then started and it was great and she had fun and answered questions in sunday school so hopefully she and her family will finally join. she has like 6 daughters and they don't listen to us when we come because we are american. yay, and they are naawud or shy but not when we have philipinos with us. but whatevs. we are gunna get them. so then we went to see a guy who told elder andrus before i got here to come back after fiesta, so we did. turns out he had the lessons 20 years ago and still reads the bom (Book of Mormon) from time to time. and he is a politician with a large house yessssss, profesionals. but any way after that we went to see the people we saw the day before who said they would come to church then didn't. and hopefully we helped them to feel missed and then we went to see the RS(Relief Society - our church's women's group) pres who also didn't come. something just said we need to go see her. so we did and she is upset because she gets no support for reactivation and it was awesome. i understood everything she was talking about and when my companion turned to me, and i started to say what i had thought of, and then i told her something completely different and i don't know what i said! i didn't even know the words i was using! but then she seemed like she was satisfied and got her answer. i was like asking elder andrus after what did i say to her he said i don't remember but it was perfect. i was like great! too bad i cant just have that happen every time, its amazing how the spirit and the power of the gift of tongues works. we missionaries really need to have faith and be worthy of it, it is amazing. and i hope it happens again as i learn this language. so today my email is late because we went with some other elders to some WW2 stuff around here in dulag. apparently where the first Americans landed and destroyed the japenese is right off the coast of dulag. and on a hill about a kilometer away from our apartment is where they raised the first american flag 40 min after landing and defeating the japanese. around the area its pretty awesome. so then we are thinking about playing a little basketball after lunch, we are thinking about getting a whole chicken from this place called chooks to go. if you find it on google maps our apartment is just west of it across the street at a place called cebuanan luhilier or something like that.  its a pawn shop. so dad asked last week if the mosquitos are eating me? well I've only gotten about 10 mosquito bites since i got here its kinda nice. whenever i tell people dad served in baguio they are like oy tugnaw didto which means its cold there. so ya they all want to go to bagio because that's where all the rich people live, bagio and manila.  so its kinda weird when I'm getting cold at nite and its 80 degrees! its gunna be a hard first winter after my mission. oh and i finally got the dear elder you sent a few days ago its not and instant thing anymore i beat it here but anyway i love you all and pray for you always thanks for everything until next week

Elder Coontz

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