so funny that your forgot what day you are going home (that was me, went to LAX on Sunday only to realize my ticket was for Monday! It wasn't funny at the time!)
so this week was good at first then it just went down hill. stephanie came from palo and she had gone to conference there by her self yay! so we went to teach her, we taught the law of chastity, ya my first one. kinda weird but oh well. its hard because the things we are supposed to tell them not to do are bastos, or like curse words here, so we have to work our way around it. she then told us we need to ask her mom if she can get baptised so we set an appointment for that. then we really only taught like 2 other people all week. it was kind of sad but we did get 7 new investigators which will be nice this week.
so we visited an inactive lady named marietta and her sister. she is 21 with one kid and her sister is 25 with one kid. her first child died and she wasn't sure where he was or if he would be ok without baptism. so we read from moroni about it and she was happy then. we asked them if they would come to church and she said they were offended just like everyone else in dulag. its all because of the old branch presidents wife who is now apostate. but the one lady said, my husband wont let me because he is only home on the weekend, and the other said maybe. so then thursday we went back to them and helped weed their peanut farm it was pretty fun. then later that day we went to stephanie, the one who was supposed to be getting baptised on the 29. so we talked to her mom and turns out she was offended by another inactive member. so we told her before you say no will you at least listen to what we are teaching your daughter? she said I'm busy, so we said 5 min, she said ok. so we taught a short restoration, i was so nervous i didn't want to mess that up. so then after, we asked her to pray to know if its true and if its good for her family and she ended up joining our tithing lesson with her daughter. she seemed happy after so we set and appointment for saturday.
friday we walked about 12 kilometers but we got 2 new investigators and its a family, yay. that was all no lessons. then saturday we got on a motor which are ridiculous! its a basic 150 engine with an extension on it and me elder andrus a member missionary and the driver all squished on. its fun sometimes but we were on it for about 15 minutes and the driver was like sitting in my lap. ewwww! but whatever, it happens every time we go some where because we are to big to fit inside the pedy cabs which are a bike with a cart on the side. so we take motors. and then we taught a member and went to another member who had referrals for us to teach, yay! so we went to their house, turns out their mom is an inactive drunk and thought we spoke tagalog. so she was telling a member stuff about her husband we weren't supposed to know in warry and talking to us in tagalog. dang it, i need to learn tagalog! i couldnt even answer her questions. finally the member that was with us starting getting frustrated so we taught really fast said godbye and left. but, she wants her kids to be baptized, yay!
then on to see stephanie she had "gotten in trouble for fighting with her brother" so we just taught mom and went home. so the next morning at church their fellowshipper sister susan came up to us at the doors to the church and said stephanie has a big problem. she went to go get her in the morning for church but her mom wouldn't let her in and said she was going to palo again. she thought something was weird so she went next door to get lorena but she wont go unless stephanie does. so then she saw the back door was open at stephanies, so she snuck in and apparently our law of chastity lesson wasn't good enough! oh well its just weird because she is only 15! but its ok we can help her repent and hopefully be baptized in a few more weeks. so really that's all that happened we just did a lot of walking we were only able to get about 5 lessons in but all that matters is that we are trying. the lord knows and will help us be better missionaries and help prepare these people here in dulag before its to late. but the members here are getting excited now that we told them how to get a building. and all the students are starting to come back because the semester is over. Yay, fellowshippers , they are awesome! the one girl is probably the best missionary I've ever met and she is only 18 and the only member in her family. i cant wait to be able to work with her.
so all in all a good week. just wish we could have taught more people, but its not our choice whether they are busy or not so it'll be ok in the end.
so mashed potatoes would be awesome and we (I asked if he would like us to send him some) don't have a microwave at all, its not broken. (I thought it was broken, guess they didn't even have one, I asked if maybe they could buy one) so I'm thinking i might get one, but i cant get one here in dulag. i have a little money from my account but its just reimbursement money from travel. i have about 4000 pesos so about $100. I'm going to start looking for Christmas presents now that i finally got chad and kamries b day presents sent last Monday. it cost about 4 dollars so not to bad, should be there in about another week or so. oh and chad just ask the girls to dance in warry-warry "buhaton ba nimo magsayaw upod ha akon " that means will you dance with me, it'll be cool, they'll be like what? lol but ya its fun here and when christmas comes i actually text you with our cell phone and you call me back on that number. so if there is anything else you all want to know how to say just let me know i love these languages and want to know warry-warry, tagalog, and cebuano before i go home it'll be awesome to be quad lingual and why not use the gift I've been given to learn and understand languages. it'll be an adventure. well i love you all and hope you get the letter with the presents
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Week 17 - Dulag 10/9/2011
so i only get mail about once a month and that's if it made it. i have gotten a few dear elders but not as many as before of course.
so my investigator who is supposed to be baptized on the 22 went to visit her dad last Sunday and hasn't come back. her phone is broken so we have no idea right now, i'm really hoping she comes back because her friend can't progress without her. we found out she cant read so she is really worried about not being able to be baptized, and i am too. so i emailed tyler a few weeks ago but i'm guessing it was the wrong email or he doesn't check it. (this is a response to his mom saying he should write his brother!) but any, way i have a few things more i want in the package if tyler still has that vertical leap increasing exercise program that would be nice. i need to be able to dunk so people stop bugging me. then i need a cd with the nearer my god to thee cd and a hymn revival. and then a i have an investigator who wants new american music if you could send some that would be nice. and any magic trick stuff i have cards but anything cool would be nice, i have completely run out i try to make up more but they are basically the same.
so this week we really didn't have much happen, really wish it would have but, oh well there is always tomorrow. I've decided that's how i will look at it after the talk in conference where he talked about climbing the volcano with his kids and said don't look at how far you have to go but how far you have come. so tomorrow is nothing compared to the life I've lived and can never be longer than any other day.
we were able to start teaching a family who have basically just been friends, finally! they are the ones who fed us dog. they are really cool people and our zone has a goal, and if we can get 20 new investigators this month we get a prize. and we decided we can get at least one a day with how often we get punted at appointments (I have no idea what that means). we just go talk to people.
so during conference i just kept waiting and waiting for the talk about the kid in japan. i wish i would have know it was like the last talk of conference*. I've never taken notes before during conference and i have 10 pages and i didn't even write half the stuff that stuck out to me. the mission is an amazing thing and i really want to do it again some day. i cant believe I've been gone for so long already, i swear i just got here like 2 days ago its crazy how fast time goes when in the service of God.
so i really need to get these letters and presents out to kamrie and chad and start finding christmas presents for everyone. not sure yet, though but ill figure out a way to get it there.
so right now i really feel like i want to stay here in dulag until they get a building but i worry the Lord will want something else. but i know it will be the right thing if i leave.
so my time is starting to run short since i pay by the minute here its interesting to think I'm like wow that's a lot of money when in reality I'm not even spending a dollar but i can buy a days worth of food for about $2.50 its ridiculous i think i am going to retire here when i get older
so the other day i had people asking me for my full name so they can add me on FB so we can talk when i get home and a couple members want to give me their phone number so i can practice my warry after my mission. I'm like wow i just got here, but it seems like with the way things are going its not far at all, and I'm not sure what all to do all the time yet, and i just hope i can learn it all in a short 2 years. but anyways the language is great, I'm starting to learn some tagalog too because people assume we speak it. but then we just tell them we only speak warry and a little cebuano and they usually switch, but not always so its fun. but any ways thank you for your prayers and your support i love you all.
oh and i forgot Wednesday we had a service project cutting grass for an investigators new house. but no lawn mower here, just use sundangs which is basically a machete. it was awesome! but i got some really bad blisters that started bleeding but I'm ok now. and i have some weird rash thing on my arm no one seems to know what it is, they just say put alcohol on it. so i do, its amazing, that's their answer for everything here.
*The reference he made to conference is something our church holds twice a year. Called General Conference it is a Sunday when the leaders of our church speak to us from Salt Lake via satellite.We actually get to watch from the comfort of our home. It is a great time to be uplifted spiritually. If you want to hear the story he is talking about you can listen here. He tells a story of a missionary that served in the same mission as his father. If you didn't know Jim also served a mission in the Philippines.
so my investigator who is supposed to be baptized on the 22 went to visit her dad last Sunday and hasn't come back. her phone is broken so we have no idea right now, i'm really hoping she comes back because her friend can't progress without her. we found out she cant read so she is really worried about not being able to be baptized, and i am too. so i emailed tyler a few weeks ago but i'm guessing it was the wrong email or he doesn't check it. (this is a response to his mom saying he should write his brother!) but any, way i have a few things more i want in the package if tyler still has that vertical leap increasing exercise program that would be nice. i need to be able to dunk so people stop bugging me. then i need a cd with the nearer my god to thee cd and a hymn revival. and then a i have an investigator who wants new american music if you could send some that would be nice. and any magic trick stuff i have cards but anything cool would be nice, i have completely run out i try to make up more but they are basically the same.
so this week we really didn't have much happen, really wish it would have but, oh well there is always tomorrow. I've decided that's how i will look at it after the talk in conference where he talked about climbing the volcano with his kids and said don't look at how far you have to go but how far you have come. so tomorrow is nothing compared to the life I've lived and can never be longer than any other day.
we were able to start teaching a family who have basically just been friends, finally! they are the ones who fed us dog. they are really cool people and our zone has a goal, and if we can get 20 new investigators this month we get a prize. and we decided we can get at least one a day with how often we get punted at appointments (I have no idea what that means). we just go talk to people.
so during conference i just kept waiting and waiting for the talk about the kid in japan. i wish i would have know it was like the last talk of conference*. I've never taken notes before during conference and i have 10 pages and i didn't even write half the stuff that stuck out to me. the mission is an amazing thing and i really want to do it again some day. i cant believe I've been gone for so long already, i swear i just got here like 2 days ago its crazy how fast time goes when in the service of God.
so i really need to get these letters and presents out to kamrie and chad and start finding christmas presents for everyone. not sure yet, though but ill figure out a way to get it there.
so right now i really feel like i want to stay here in dulag until they get a building but i worry the Lord will want something else. but i know it will be the right thing if i leave.
so my time is starting to run short since i pay by the minute here its interesting to think I'm like wow that's a lot of money when in reality I'm not even spending a dollar but i can buy a days worth of food for about $2.50 its ridiculous i think i am going to retire here when i get older
so the other day i had people asking me for my full name so they can add me on FB so we can talk when i get home and a couple members want to give me their phone number so i can practice my warry after my mission. I'm like wow i just got here, but it seems like with the way things are going its not far at all, and I'm not sure what all to do all the time yet, and i just hope i can learn it all in a short 2 years. but anyways the language is great, I'm starting to learn some tagalog too because people assume we speak it. but then we just tell them we only speak warry and a little cebuano and they usually switch, but not always so its fun. but any ways thank you for your prayers and your support i love you all.
oh and i forgot Wednesday we had a service project cutting grass for an investigators new house. but no lawn mower here, just use sundangs which is basically a machete. it was awesome! but i got some really bad blisters that started bleeding but I'm ok now. and i have some weird rash thing on my arm no one seems to know what it is, they just say put alcohol on it. so i do, its amazing, that's their answer for everything here.
*The reference he made to conference is something our church holds twice a year. Called General Conference it is a Sunday when the leaders of our church speak to us from Salt Lake via satellite.We actually get to watch from the comfort of our home. It is a great time to be uplifted spiritually. If you want to hear the story he is talking about you can listen here. He tells a story of a missionary that served in the same mission as his father. If you didn't know Jim also served a mission in the Philippines.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Week 16 - Dulag 10/2/2011
so first off this week has been great! i had my first transfer and im still in Dulag. so me and elder andrus are working hard, we haven't been able to teach the polotican guy again, he is really busy. but as of right now the baptism is on. their names are lorena and stephanie, one day this week we were teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and we were reading in the BOM and read a scripture it said repent ye repent ye, i think it was in 3 nephi but then stephanie said hey this is the scripture god showed me in my dream. i was like what? thats crazy, because earlier elder andrus was trying to explain faith and asked, have you ever seen God and they both said yes! what? and stephanie said ya he came to me in a dream. i cant wait until the 22nd it wil be awesome. so other than that we have another person that would be able to get baptized but she has to get married first. she is 19 with 2 kids, kinda crazy to think she is only a month younger than i am. but they cant afford birth certificates for their kids or a marriage license so they cant get married yet, and we were told not to help pay for it. her asawa or soon to be husband is an inactive member so his sister is the one who told us to go and visit them. but she is going to be in tacloban from oct 5 to the 30 so we have one more appointment with her then we have to wait. but its ok, i think she is getting money from her aunt working for her so she can get a marraige license and birth certificates. so 2 of the elders in my district tranfered so i had the opprotunity to work with another elder on thursday. we went to see a member who cant go to church because he has school sunday morning, but he wasnt there. so then the other elder, elder bondoc didnt want to walk back just yet so he asked his mom if we could share, and she talked after he shared a scripture for an hour. i tried to bare my testimony and close like 10 times but she wouldnt let me she just kept going on and on and on about nothing. just talked about her kids, i think its because she never leaves the house so she has no friends.
so on to the fun stuff we had lots of walking, and talking to freinds because again,everyone was busy, and we are about to drop and investigator because she never reads. and last night we had our first free meal outside of fiesta. an investigator invited us to eat dinner and we showed them a movie called together forever its pretty good and they really liked it. he was like ya how come in the marriage ceremony its only to death do you part? thats dumb, yay maybe we can get another appointment. and he really likes the city of memphis so he started asking me questions about the city and of course the only good things i could tell him is elvis' house is there and we have a really good zoo. then the other stuff he was like wow i thought it was all nice and happy and everyone is playing music of course all he really knows about the US is what he has seen in movies. so in reality nothing. then they started talking about the blind side and i was like yay that school is by my house. ya they were like so is it really like that the "black people" as he said all just yell and fight? lol wow memphis. but of course here they dont say black people they think they are black, they use some very choice words here. i thought it was funny at first but thats just normal here.
so we are in Tacloban again today and i have no money because I forgot my pin for my missionary card, but oh well i think ill survive. so im gunna try to send a few more pictures today if i can figure it out. oh and if you send a package all i need are like instant desserts i can cook without an oven or microwave because all we have is like a camping stove so we are kind of limited on stuff to cook but any ways thats all and if you can find a english to tagalog dictionary that would be nice i want to learn tagalog as well as warry-warry
so on to the fun stuff we had lots of walking, and talking to freinds because again,everyone was busy, and we are about to drop and investigator because she never reads. and last night we had our first free meal outside of fiesta. an investigator invited us to eat dinner and we showed them a movie called together forever its pretty good and they really liked it. he was like ya how come in the marriage ceremony its only to death do you part? thats dumb, yay maybe we can get another appointment. and he really likes the city of memphis so he started asking me questions about the city and of course the only good things i could tell him is elvis' house is there and we have a really good zoo. then the other stuff he was like wow i thought it was all nice and happy and everyone is playing music of course all he really knows about the US is what he has seen in movies. so in reality nothing. then they started talking about the blind side and i was like yay that school is by my house. ya they were like so is it really like that the "black people" as he said all just yell and fight? lol wow memphis. but of course here they dont say black people they think they are black, they use some very choice words here. i thought it was funny at first but thats just normal here.
so we are in Tacloban again today and i have no money because I forgot my pin for my missionary card, but oh well i think ill survive. so im gunna try to send a few more pictures today if i can figure it out. oh and if you send a package all i need are like instant desserts i can cook without an oven or microwave because all we have is like a camping stove so we are kind of limited on stuff to cook but any ways thats all and if you can find a english to tagalog dictionary that would be nice i want to learn tagalog as well as warry-warry
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Week 15 - Dulag 9/26/2011
(I was looking through the letters and adding dates, when I realized this one never got put on the blog.)
so this week was good still not so sure why the people feel like they need to feed their babies while we are teaching. so monday night we had a branch FHE and they asked us to teach about families being together forever. and we had 2 investigators there who we were going to teach the plan of salvation to the next day, i was like hey i have a pamphlet about that! so i hadn't taught that lesson yet in warry-warry but elder andrus wouldn't talk he just drew on the board and i was able to teach the whole thing and answer questions as well! it was cool! so now I've taught the plan of salvation like 4 or 5 times this week. one of our investigators is going to seminary and committed to baptism on the 22 of october but we may have to move it if her friend doesn't come to church. i think they want to join together so that will be nice to have a baptism. and so elder andrus had a meeting on thursday in Tacloban so i stayed in dulag with elder bondock who lives in our apartment with us and elder nelson who serves in abuyog. i had to plan out our whole day and i had to know where everything was. the hard thing is in abuyog they speak cebuano, so elder nelson speaks cebuano. and elder bondock only speaks tagalog. so it was interesting 3 languages in one lesson it was hard because i can follow cebuano but not tagalog. i only understood a little of it so it made it harder for me than the investigators. but it was good we got a lot done and didn't have anyone tell us they were to busy or not be home like normal. so really the rest of the week was cool elder nelsons companion ended up in the hospital after his health check in tacloban so elder nelson was with us for another day and ended up needing to go to tacloban as well because he had sores on his foot and his eye was all swollen up when he woke up and he couldnt open it. so we took him to tacloban and headed to tolosa for the family week celebration activity. it was cool we played games and ate and spent time with members and some lady was following us around taking pictures of the Americans playing basketball kinda weird. they were trying to hide it but i could hear the noise it made and see the flash from the camera. so then saturday we did a lot of walking and only got to teach once all day. we walked about 35 kilometers this week its awesome! so sunday we went from 5 investigators at church to 0 and 43 members to 30 again. yay but its ok there is always another week to come. i cant wait! oh and so we have this buang nga lalaki gawas ha amon apartment and elder bondock named him don armando he is literally crazy and he started living outside our apartment a few weeks ago. and he laughs all the time and yells at his feet about how they stole his wife and kids its funny sometimes but also kind of scary. he started coming in our gate and peeing on the pile of rocks outside and the other elders started yelling gawas na don he started laughing and went back outside the gate. yay not sure what to do though we are going to get district t-shirts that have a picture of him and don armando and put bawal umihi didto which is tagalog for it is prohibited to be peeing here. its awesome, its on all the walls and i saw it today while we were playing pool inside the building. this morning we invited our investigators who are the dulag grand champions for basketball to play it was cool. only one of them came and me elder andrus elder bondock and his companion elder zarrate played with him against some kids who were skiping school. it was fun, ive never been so tired from one game of basketball before in my life. i guess after 6 weeks of not playing an actual game is getting to me. and its super humid right now. we ran in to a baptist missionary earlier who told us there is a typhoon coming through! oh well just a month or two more and its rainy season and it will rain ever day for 3 months! yay! oh well i love you and miss you all and keep up the good work i cant wait to see you all again but thats ok this is going super fast im almost worried i wont be able to do enough in only 2 years but as long as im always working i know it will be ok. well oh and if you send another package can you send a couple pairs of contacts and solution for p days thanks if you can and im not so sure how mail works yet but im trying to figure it out so letter should be coming pretty soon but it will take about 2 weeks to get there
so this week was good still not so sure why the people feel like they need to feed their babies while we are teaching. so monday night we had a branch FHE and they asked us to teach about families being together forever. and we had 2 investigators there who we were going to teach the plan of salvation to the next day, i was like hey i have a pamphlet about that! so i hadn't taught that lesson yet in warry-warry but elder andrus wouldn't talk he just drew on the board and i was able to teach the whole thing and answer questions as well! it was cool! so now I've taught the plan of salvation like 4 or 5 times this week. one of our investigators is going to seminary and committed to baptism on the 22 of october but we may have to move it if her friend doesn't come to church. i think they want to join together so that will be nice to have a baptism. and so elder andrus had a meeting on thursday in Tacloban so i stayed in dulag with elder bondock who lives in our apartment with us and elder nelson who serves in abuyog. i had to plan out our whole day and i had to know where everything was. the hard thing is in abuyog they speak cebuano, so elder nelson speaks cebuano. and elder bondock only speaks tagalog. so it was interesting 3 languages in one lesson it was hard because i can follow cebuano but not tagalog. i only understood a little of it so it made it harder for me than the investigators. but it was good we got a lot done and didn't have anyone tell us they were to busy or not be home like normal. so really the rest of the week was cool elder nelsons companion ended up in the hospital after his health check in tacloban so elder nelson was with us for another day and ended up needing to go to tacloban as well because he had sores on his foot and his eye was all swollen up when he woke up and he couldnt open it. so we took him to tacloban and headed to tolosa for the family week celebration activity. it was cool we played games and ate and spent time with members and some lady was following us around taking pictures of the Americans playing basketball kinda weird. they were trying to hide it but i could hear the noise it made and see the flash from the camera. so then saturday we did a lot of walking and only got to teach once all day. we walked about 35 kilometers this week its awesome! so sunday we went from 5 investigators at church to 0 and 43 members to 30 again. yay but its ok there is always another week to come. i cant wait! oh and so we have this buang nga lalaki gawas ha amon apartment and elder bondock named him don armando he is literally crazy and he started living outside our apartment a few weeks ago. and he laughs all the time and yells at his feet about how they stole his wife and kids its funny sometimes but also kind of scary. he started coming in our gate and peeing on the pile of rocks outside and the other elders started yelling gawas na don he started laughing and went back outside the gate. yay not sure what to do though we are going to get district t-shirts that have a picture of him and don armando and put bawal umihi didto which is tagalog for it is prohibited to be peeing here. its awesome, its on all the walls and i saw it today while we were playing pool inside the building. this morning we invited our investigators who are the dulag grand champions for basketball to play it was cool. only one of them came and me elder andrus elder bondock and his companion elder zarrate played with him against some kids who were skiping school. it was fun, ive never been so tired from one game of basketball before in my life. i guess after 6 weeks of not playing an actual game is getting to me. and its super humid right now. we ran in to a baptist missionary earlier who told us there is a typhoon coming through! oh well just a month or two more and its rainy season and it will rain ever day for 3 months! yay! oh well i love you and miss you all and keep up the good work i cant wait to see you all again but thats ok this is going super fast im almost worried i wont be able to do enough in only 2 years but as long as im always working i know it will be ok. well oh and if you send another package can you send a couple pairs of contacts and solution for p days thanks if you can and im not so sure how mail works yet but im trying to figure it out so letter should be coming pretty soon but it will take about 2 weeks to get there
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Week 14 - Dulag 9/19/2011
oh my gosh its so cool all the things that are happenig here, the lord really does bless those who serve and follow the rules. we got our sacrament attendance to 43 this week! yes, naguswag kami! we had 5 investigators at church and we had one other that had something come up and couldnt make it. we could have had 50 but some members were late and have gotten offended. they dont like our branch president because he doesnt help them but that because he lives in a different city, but oh well. we are doing our best to make sure the members know we are different than the last elders that ran this place into the ground. we have struggled since i got here to get 1 or 2 lessons with members but this week we had 4! and at one we had 3 members it was awesome, it makes our job so much easier. so this week some how we were able to bring our numbers up even though we really just walked to everyone we knew like every day hopeing some one would let us in. but in the end it paid off.
so this week we had zone meeting on tuesday in tolosa with the district president and wednesday was zone conference. so we were in tacloban all day and got to hear from one of the area presidency elder ardern from new zealand, it was pretty cool. then we went to dulag and had some extra elders at our apartment because there were no busses going to their area that late at night. but then we went out and taught and despite the set backs we got 5 new investigators this week and one of them is a polotician so its awesome. but we still need to work on some members as well. we went to see one lady who told us the church is true but the book of mormon is only true when it applies to her and all the church leaders and the prophet are liars. so yay for dulag! but we will get them back! apparently we have 150 members here in dulag we just have to find them, so yay, but we can do it. so im really starting to get the hang of the language i find my self talking to people for a while and then they realize im not using english they are like wow what happened, i just tell them im not speaking warry only english and that they are speaking english too! its fun to see their faces and our polotician investigator was like do you guys beleive in the holy spirit because i think thats why you can speak our language. i was like yup and he asked how long id been here i was like one month yesterday, it was awesome! i really love this language and want to teach it to my kids when i have them so they can speak 2 languages itll be awesome and it wont be spanish like everyone else in America. but ya aperently when you get a filipino comp you learn tagalog because a lot of them dont learn the language because everyone speaks tagalog so they can just speak it so maybe ill be able to learn it as well, that'll be cool.
so i really love this place and i hope you all are have as good a time as i am. the time is just flying by its crazy to think ive been in the philippines for more than a month now. well i love you all and want you all to know that i miss you and cant wait to see you after my mission and hopefully by then ill have forgotten a ton of english like some of the frends ive made here because i really want to speak this language so untill next week love
Elder Coontz
so this week we had zone meeting on tuesday in tolosa with the district president and wednesday was zone conference. so we were in tacloban all day and got to hear from one of the area presidency elder ardern from new zealand, it was pretty cool. then we went to dulag and had some extra elders at our apartment because there were no busses going to their area that late at night. but then we went out and taught and despite the set backs we got 5 new investigators this week and one of them is a polotician so its awesome. but we still need to work on some members as well. we went to see one lady who told us the church is true but the book of mormon is only true when it applies to her and all the church leaders and the prophet are liars. so yay for dulag! but we will get them back! apparently we have 150 members here in dulag we just have to find them, so yay, but we can do it. so im really starting to get the hang of the language i find my self talking to people for a while and then they realize im not using english they are like wow what happened, i just tell them im not speaking warry only english and that they are speaking english too! its fun to see their faces and our polotician investigator was like do you guys beleive in the holy spirit because i think thats why you can speak our language. i was like yup and he asked how long id been here i was like one month yesterday, it was awesome! i really love this language and want to teach it to my kids when i have them so they can speak 2 languages itll be awesome and it wont be spanish like everyone else in America. but ya aperently when you get a filipino comp you learn tagalog because a lot of them dont learn the language because everyone speaks tagalog so they can just speak it so maybe ill be able to learn it as well, that'll be cool.
so i really love this place and i hope you all are have as good a time as i am. the time is just flying by its crazy to think ive been in the philippines for more than a month now. well i love you all and want you all to know that i miss you and cant wait to see you after my mission and hopefully by then ill have forgotten a ton of english like some of the frends ive made here because i really want to speak this language so untill next week love
Elder Coontz
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)