A little info about the workings of our church. Our congregations are divided geographically. Where you live determines which ward or branch (a smaller congregation) you are in. Which building you will attend and what time. Each ward/branch is staffed by it's members. We are the teachers and leaders. The head honcho of the ward is a Bishop, in a branch he is the Branch President. The Bishop/Branch President has two counselors that assist him in tending to the members.
ok so that's cool that they are in porters mission! (some local friends parents are serving in my nephew Porter's mission, and his brother is the Mission President.) and i think its funny that dad climbed in through the play room window.
this week has been crazy since my new companion is the branch president we have been meeting with every member i know and we were able to get our attendance up to 40! its crazy, i think we are really going to make a difference this transfer. so one day we got a text from someone who said their name was anna marie and we were talking to her. she said she knew us but i couldn't remember her so we asked when we could come visit her and she said Wednesday. so we asked what we need to ask people to find her house and she told us her name was kenneth lopez? we were like what the, that isn't even close and she lives in one of the farther out parts of our area. so we went and asked around for her and found her house she was across the street helping her mom with the school but she had no idea who we were. but in the end she was like well sorry, but you can share with me. she said she doesn't even know anyone named anna marie but her name is kenneth. so she had all these great questions and it was amazing but still have no idea who texted us. elder ostler said it was a referral from God! i think he may be right. so then another day we went to see an apostate member who used to be the branch president i don't really know to much about him but we talked and we thought he was starting to soften up but then he just got mad and rode of on his peddy cab. so we walked down another street and then back by his house to his neighbors and i kind of had a feeling we should stop, but elder ostler said something so we did, and turns out a girl is working there she is from tacloban and she is a member but doesnt know where the church is. so we ended up sharing with her and her to friends who are the grand kids of the owner and they came to church, yay! and then on friday we got a text from the district president saying he wanted to meet with elder ostler for some quick training, so i am going through a lot of this training as well. its kind of cool all the stuff we get to do now. then we had a lesson with a guy we met the other day who is from manila so he only speaks tagalog and so does his family. amazingly i was able to follow along and actually say some things in tagalog as well. the lord is amazing, but i really need to start studying tagalog as well now if we are going to keep teaching him. then we had basically a rolling black out all day on saturday from 6-6. it was not fun it was about 90 degrees and its the first day it hadn't rained in like 4 days. so it was super humid. so finally they turned it on at 6 and then back off at 7 we were like, what the heck! so then when we got home we were sitting trying to cool off a little before we had planning and i went to turn the fan on and as soon as i hit the button the fan came on and the neighbors lights came on it was awesome. then sunday elder ostler got sustained as branch president and the old branch president gave him a hug. i laughed a little, he was really excited to be getting released. so then we had some more training until about 1 then we ate and went to tolosa for the branch presidents meeting they have every 1st and 3rd sunday. so that will be fun. our sundays are basically full from now on and we have to do tithing so we have to take it to a money sender and then go to tacloban every p day now so we can send the receipt to manila. I'm actually a little excited about it, I'm in tacloban right now in the AC is really nice, and we can buy real food now. I've been eating hot dogs and tuna and corned beef lately. I'm excited for thursday, mashed potatoes gravy and a chicken because that's all we got, and turkey is extremely expensive.
so all in all a great week and i know there are many more to come its going to be long days from here on out but i know we can turn this place around i love you all bye bye ngan paghinay ha mga aswang
i wear a size 10 and i would really like an english to tagalog dictionary if you can find one and of course my contacts and solution and we have christmas conference on dec 12 and 13 so the next time i can get a package after that is the 23 but that's only if i transfer because transfer day is 2 days before christmas so ya i really hope i don't transfer that would be a weird christmas
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Week 22 - Dulag 11/13/2011
so to start off i got the package and i cant wait until thanksgiving now! (We sent instant mashed potatoes and gravy mix!) i am getting a chicken and mashed potatoes and apparently there is stuffing somewhere i just have to find it.
but anyway this week was interesting, just a lot of walking. no lessons but lots of potential investigators. and then Wednesday came around and we were on the back of a motor and received a phone call from our zone leaders and elder Andrus is transferring! so we finished out our day and went home. we had some extra elders at our apartment because half of our zone got transferred and some are training new missionaries. so its exciting. so thursday the ones who were training left in the morning to go to their training in Tacloban and me and elder andrus went to Rizzal to share with one of our potential investigators. i thought i was gunna die on the way he drove so fast but its all good, buhi pa. so then we went to a member to ask where he lived and she walked us to his house. turns out its her nephew so she stayed and i was excited to have a fellowshipper there. but it all went down hill he started talking about how he wants to know what church is true so he has been going to a lot of them and i was super excited. but as we were teaching the member wouldn't let us teach! as soon as we said something she would go off on stuff that wasn't important like what Gods name is and things like that. and when she started explaining about the quorum of the 70 i took the picture from her and bore my testimony and asked her to give the prayer before it went any farther. me and elder andrus went back for lunch and after we made BR's, or pages for our book of remembrance. its pretty cool thing, when missionaries transfer you make them for each other and you put them in your book so you can remember them and people have members do it too. its going to be a really good thing to help me remember people. but then he packed and we went out so he could say bye to all of our friends and investigators and all the members. then it started pouring down rain and we had forgotten our umbrellas so we ran to the members restaurant and ate there and waited for the rain to stop, then back home and he finished packing.
so then friday we got up and got ready and went to tacloban at about 7:30, and then to one of the other church buildings. its 2 story, its awesome but i got there and elder leishmen and mits (His companions from the MTC) were there and i got to hang out with them! so then the meeting started and they handed out the transfer announcements and i saw an elder walking back and I'm like that's my new companion. i heard him say dulag behind me and i said ya that will be fun but didn't tell him i was his new companion until after the meeting. but elders mits and leishman are in the same district now and still speaking cebuano, darn! I'm still in the same place but i am really confident in my language skill right now. my companion is elder ostler he has been here one transfer less than elder andrus he was assigned warry warry when he first got here but has been in cebuano for about 5 months now. he was zone leader before but has come to be my follow up trainer and the new dulag branch president. yay, as if we didn't have enough work as it is here in dulag. but i think it will be great he is an amazing missionary! he is from utah and is ready to work! so after the meeting he went for an interview, then back to dulag and we went to eat and to meet as many members as we could in a few short hours.
in the morning we had a meeting with a lady from Kazakhstan so it was in english really weird but turns out she was only there to try to prove us wrong. it was crazy we kind of just listened and she had us open to bible verses and anytime we had her look at one she would just say but here it says this what does that mean. so it went down hill really fast. she thinks she received a vision from god and he gave her power. so elder ostler said i don't care what you say, i ask you in the name of Christ to stop disrupting me i have received power from God to say this and i ask you to read this book before you say anything else. and ya so we will see. we have another appointment with her next week. on accident their driver asked us if we could come talk again next week and elder ostler didn't know he was their driver so he said yes. so one more and hopefully never again. but yes he is amazing and i cant wait to see what else he can do.
later no one was home so we went to go exploring and i saw a house out of the corner of my eye and said i know this place i think its a member who had a stroke. so we waited outside and he finally came and we talked to him and he asked for a blessing. we set up an appointment with him for later today and then we went to other members and shared and set up more appointments. i can see this transfer is going to be really good and i can see dulag branch growing already.
then sunday me and elder ostler spoke and i told the members it isn't just our job, they have a resposabillity to help grow this branch and that we cant do it alone. and most of them had a smile on their faces when i was done. i was excited! so then church went on and we went home for study and lunch and then out to visit but the person was at work. so we went finding and got a few potential investigators. then went to share with an inactive member and i really think this time she might come back to church. we keep finding more and more members that are inactive, that have never actually had a testimony but they got baptized. so we are having to convert them for the first time and its a lot harder now then it would have been the first time. so we are going around just trying to reactive any one and every one. when we added up our numbers for the week elder ostler got to write them in with his numbers from his old area. he went from 170 attendance as a his goal to only having 26, so ya we have a lot of work to do and we are really excited. i can see the members getting excited too, so and i know this is going to be the transfer that gets this place going again. we just have to work hard and help these people to the best of our ability. i know you all can do the same as well. if you just ask the lord for help we can do anything. i love you all and want you all to know that i love this work and i know it is exactly what i am supposed to do. thank you for all the support
so for christmas i want a pair of athletic SHOES!!!! lol mine are starting to fall apart and all the ones here are fake and will just fall apart. and i lost the cord for my camera so i cant send pictures. i found a charger that works, but i need either a card reader or a new cord before you will get any new pictures. sorry. we had a typhoon come through this morning and our front porch started to flood but luckily it slowed up before it was enough to come in out apartment. well that's really all. just please don't forget to send the contacts, magic tricks, the cds and an english to tagalog dictionary if you can find one. and when i opened the package and saw the see's i was like no way! and the other missionaries from cali were like your so lucky! then i opened it yes, the most sweet thing i will eat on my whole mission oh and i am really going to enjoy the burrito tortillas after i get some refreid beans next time i got to tacloban YESSSS!!! thank you
but anyway this week was interesting, just a lot of walking. no lessons but lots of potential investigators. and then Wednesday came around and we were on the back of a motor and received a phone call from our zone leaders and elder Andrus is transferring! so we finished out our day and went home. we had some extra elders at our apartment because half of our zone got transferred and some are training new missionaries. so its exciting. so thursday the ones who were training left in the morning to go to their training in Tacloban and me and elder andrus went to Rizzal to share with one of our potential investigators. i thought i was gunna die on the way he drove so fast but its all good, buhi pa. so then we went to a member to ask where he lived and she walked us to his house. turns out its her nephew so she stayed and i was excited to have a fellowshipper there. but it all went down hill he started talking about how he wants to know what church is true so he has been going to a lot of them and i was super excited. but as we were teaching the member wouldn't let us teach! as soon as we said something she would go off on stuff that wasn't important like what Gods name is and things like that. and when she started explaining about the quorum of the 70 i took the picture from her and bore my testimony and asked her to give the prayer before it went any farther. me and elder andrus went back for lunch and after we made BR's, or pages for our book of remembrance. its pretty cool thing, when missionaries transfer you make them for each other and you put them in your book so you can remember them and people have members do it too. its going to be a really good thing to help me remember people. but then he packed and we went out so he could say bye to all of our friends and investigators and all the members. then it started pouring down rain and we had forgotten our umbrellas so we ran to the members restaurant and ate there and waited for the rain to stop, then back home and he finished packing.
so then friday we got up and got ready and went to tacloban at about 7:30, and then to one of the other church buildings. its 2 story, its awesome but i got there and elder leishmen and mits (His companions from the MTC) were there and i got to hang out with them! so then the meeting started and they handed out the transfer announcements and i saw an elder walking back and I'm like that's my new companion. i heard him say dulag behind me and i said ya that will be fun but didn't tell him i was his new companion until after the meeting. but elders mits and leishman are in the same district now and still speaking cebuano, darn! I'm still in the same place but i am really confident in my language skill right now. my companion is elder ostler he has been here one transfer less than elder andrus he was assigned warry warry when he first got here but has been in cebuano for about 5 months now. he was zone leader before but has come to be my follow up trainer and the new dulag branch president. yay, as if we didn't have enough work as it is here in dulag. but i think it will be great he is an amazing missionary! he is from utah and is ready to work! so after the meeting he went for an interview, then back to dulag and we went to eat and to meet as many members as we could in a few short hours.
in the morning we had a meeting with a lady from Kazakhstan so it was in english really weird but turns out she was only there to try to prove us wrong. it was crazy we kind of just listened and she had us open to bible verses and anytime we had her look at one she would just say but here it says this what does that mean. so it went down hill really fast. she thinks she received a vision from god and he gave her power. so elder ostler said i don't care what you say, i ask you in the name of Christ to stop disrupting me i have received power from God to say this and i ask you to read this book before you say anything else. and ya so we will see. we have another appointment with her next week. on accident their driver asked us if we could come talk again next week and elder ostler didn't know he was their driver so he said yes. so one more and hopefully never again. but yes he is amazing and i cant wait to see what else he can do.
later no one was home so we went to go exploring and i saw a house out of the corner of my eye and said i know this place i think its a member who had a stroke. so we waited outside and he finally came and we talked to him and he asked for a blessing. we set up an appointment with him for later today and then we went to other members and shared and set up more appointments. i can see this transfer is going to be really good and i can see dulag branch growing already.
then sunday me and elder ostler spoke and i told the members it isn't just our job, they have a resposabillity to help grow this branch and that we cant do it alone. and most of them had a smile on their faces when i was done. i was excited! so then church went on and we went home for study and lunch and then out to visit but the person was at work. so we went finding and got a few potential investigators. then went to share with an inactive member and i really think this time she might come back to church. we keep finding more and more members that are inactive, that have never actually had a testimony but they got baptized. so we are having to convert them for the first time and its a lot harder now then it would have been the first time. so we are going around just trying to reactive any one and every one. when we added up our numbers for the week elder ostler got to write them in with his numbers from his old area. he went from 170 attendance as a his goal to only having 26, so ya we have a lot of work to do and we are really excited. i can see the members getting excited too, so and i know this is going to be the transfer that gets this place going again. we just have to work hard and help these people to the best of our ability. i know you all can do the same as well. if you just ask the lord for help we can do anything. i love you all and want you all to know that i love this work and i know it is exactly what i am supposed to do. thank you for all the support
so for christmas i want a pair of athletic SHOES!!!! lol mine are starting to fall apart and all the ones here are fake and will just fall apart. and i lost the cord for my camera so i cant send pictures. i found a charger that works, but i need either a card reader or a new cord before you will get any new pictures. sorry. we had a typhoon come through this morning and our front porch started to flood but luckily it slowed up before it was enough to come in out apartment. well that's really all. just please don't forget to send the contacts, magic tricks, the cds and an english to tagalog dictionary if you can find one. and when i opened the package and saw the see's i was like no way! and the other missionaries from cali were like your so lucky! then i opened it yes, the most sweet thing i will eat on my whole mission oh and i am really going to enjoy the burrito tortillas after i get some refreid beans next time i got to tacloban YESSSS!!! thank you
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Week 21 - Dulag 11/6/2011
this week was fun halloween and then nov 1st and second is basically party in the cemetery. yay! so lots of people weren't home because of that but we were still able to do most of the things we had planned. that's kinda funny that the bronco is going and mom got hit all in the same week. lol.
(I got rear ended, and the Bronco Tyler and Jim bought last week, is already for sale!)
but this week we didn't have a lot of lessons but the ones we did have were amazing. with the new planning we started doing, we are so prepared when we get there all we have to worry about is that there are no distractions. we started off going to a member and during my reading i found a verse, i don't remember exactly where it is now, but it says - in a little wrath i hid my face from thee but with everlasting kindness will i welcome thee into my kingdom. or something like that. she read the first line and started crying and said tamat elder. i was like wow, that really works. since that was our first lesson using the new planning. turns out she hasn't been at church because her kids all moved out and she had a tooth ache. so the spirit said offer her a blessing and i kinda was hesitant but i finally did she said yes, please elders i was hoping you would ask that. yay im so happy now that i have been having lessons like that all week. we have one sister, she cant get baptized because she has to get married first, but we wanted to make sure she had had a spiritual witness. so we had her pray like elder top had me do and ask god if he loved her but her friend that was there started laughing and was very distracting after the prayer when we asked her to wait for her answer. me and elder andrus felt it, so we just asked her to do it before she went to sleep. i really want all of you to do the same its amazing what it can do for you. if you haven't done it yet because "sure God loves everyone" but do you know for yourself that he loves you individually? it makes life go so much more smoothly because you know God loves you and will provide for you everyday if all you do is ask. like in conference a couple of the talks were about asking for small things like to find change in the road or for his 5 dollars to still be there, because if God will answer those simple prayers why wont he answer the big ones? i really think this is a big part of our life, knowing that there is always a way to know.
another fun lesson we had was with this old guy i think his name is loren not really sure, he is hard to understand. but, he asks ridiculous questions. our member started to bear his testimony about receiving answers through pray, he started out saying i know that if you have a question... and the guy said, "i know just say something, i already asked all my questions." we were like no for God not us. lol he is so funny he only has one leg and is in a wheel chair and when i asked him to come to church he said no that's to hard i cant walk. lol yay but ya either way he is awesome.
also i was able to give a training on tuesday about the new planning and how we as missionaries of the Philippines Tacloban Mission need to ask God if he loves us, and if we know that he loves our investigators as well we can better love them and know exactly what they need to go about their life.
so this week is transfer week and elder Andrus keeps telling me he is going to transfer and that i am going to train someone new. i don't know about that but i do think he might be transferred. and the letter you got from lisa, the same thing happened here in dulag with elder Andrus and his last companion and he is still learning new stuff about this place everyday. (our friend Lisa is on a mission in Washington. She wrote me a letter and told me that she was transferred into a new area, and her companion was also new to the area! So neither of them know anyone, or where anything is.) so i can understand that because i have still never been to a lot of my area because elder Andrus doesn't know how to get there. but this week i think we plan on going to some farther out barangay's.
but i want you all to know i love you and know that the lord loves you. I hope you all are doing your scripture study its one of the best ways to make your day go more smoothly, i learned that the hard way. i finished the BofM ( Book of Mormon) finally and started over and am excited to see what i can learn this time. i have one request for Christmas and i want you to try and guess what it is and ill tell you next week. its something that i wanted on all the time back home. (I am feeling like a really bad mom because I have NO IDEA what he wants!)
(I got rear ended, and the Bronco Tyler and Jim bought last week, is already for sale!)
but this week we didn't have a lot of lessons but the ones we did have were amazing. with the new planning we started doing, we are so prepared when we get there all we have to worry about is that there are no distractions. we started off going to a member and during my reading i found a verse, i don't remember exactly where it is now, but it says - in a little wrath i hid my face from thee but with everlasting kindness will i welcome thee into my kingdom. or something like that. she read the first line and started crying and said tamat elder. i was like wow, that really works. since that was our first lesson using the new planning. turns out she hasn't been at church because her kids all moved out and she had a tooth ache. so the spirit said offer her a blessing and i kinda was hesitant but i finally did she said yes, please elders i was hoping you would ask that. yay im so happy now that i have been having lessons like that all week. we have one sister, she cant get baptized because she has to get married first, but we wanted to make sure she had had a spiritual witness. so we had her pray like elder top had me do and ask god if he loved her but her friend that was there started laughing and was very distracting after the prayer when we asked her to wait for her answer. me and elder andrus felt it, so we just asked her to do it before she went to sleep. i really want all of you to do the same its amazing what it can do for you. if you haven't done it yet because "sure God loves everyone" but do you know for yourself that he loves you individually? it makes life go so much more smoothly because you know God loves you and will provide for you everyday if all you do is ask. like in conference a couple of the talks were about asking for small things like to find change in the road or for his 5 dollars to still be there, because if God will answer those simple prayers why wont he answer the big ones? i really think this is a big part of our life, knowing that there is always a way to know.
another fun lesson we had was with this old guy i think his name is loren not really sure, he is hard to understand. but, he asks ridiculous questions. our member started to bear his testimony about receiving answers through pray, he started out saying i know that if you have a question... and the guy said, "i know just say something, i already asked all my questions." we were like no for God not us. lol he is so funny he only has one leg and is in a wheel chair and when i asked him to come to church he said no that's to hard i cant walk. lol yay but ya either way he is awesome.
also i was able to give a training on tuesday about the new planning and how we as missionaries of the Philippines Tacloban Mission need to ask God if he loves us, and if we know that he loves our investigators as well we can better love them and know exactly what they need to go about their life.
so this week is transfer week and elder Andrus keeps telling me he is going to transfer and that i am going to train someone new. i don't know about that but i do think he might be transferred. and the letter you got from lisa, the same thing happened here in dulag with elder Andrus and his last companion and he is still learning new stuff about this place everyday. (our friend Lisa is on a mission in Washington. She wrote me a letter and told me that she was transferred into a new area, and her companion was also new to the area! So neither of them know anyone, or where anything is.) so i can understand that because i have still never been to a lot of my area because elder Andrus doesn't know how to get there. but this week i think we plan on going to some farther out barangay's.
but i want you all to know i love you and know that the lord loves you. I hope you all are doing your scripture study its one of the best ways to make your day go more smoothly, i learned that the hard way. i finished the BofM ( Book of Mormon) finally and started over and am excited to see what i can learn this time. i have one request for Christmas and i want you to try and guess what it is and ill tell you next week. its something that i wanted on all the time back home. (I am feeling like a really bad mom because I have NO IDEA what he wants!)
Monday, November 7, 2011
Week 20 - Dulag 10/30/2011
so to start off i forgot something last week. Wednesday night we came home and i was using the phone for something while elder andrus was doing something else. he went out back and i had this feeling which i have had a few times before in my life and every time something bad happened! like i tore my ACL! so there was no way i was ignoring it. it said leave. so i realized i couldn't hear elder andrus any more so as i walked out back i grabbed the kitchen knife and walked out side. he was just burning our trash but i still had the feeling so i went inside and he came in right after me. and i locked all the doors while he was in our room and he came back out and was like what are you doing? i said somethings bothering me and he said like what, i said i don't feel safe, he kind of thought i was being paranoid but he was nice about it and sang a hymn. i told him i feel like we need to leave but i don't know where to go. he said, i feel the same thing now, we will go to tolosa. so he texted the zone leaders said a prayer and asked them to as well that we would find a ride at 9 at night, and they called back and said don't worry you will get a ride. so then we went to a members restaurant in dulag and got one of her employees, who is also a member, and went to the highway to wait for a van. then he said sister yepeze's daughter can give you a ride on her motor. ok, so we went and she wasn't there. he said oh i have a friend but it will cost 150 pesos. ok, so then we got a ride and it was super fast and the farther we got from dulag the better i felt. yay, it was a fun experience and i know the lord looks out for his missionaries.
so really this week we just got a lot of potential investigators. we did lots of walking and not a lot of teaching. but the main thing was we went on splits with the A.P.s. i work with elder top in dulag and elder andrus went to tacloban with elder agustine it was amazing. he taught me an amazing way to plan the day and gave me a lot of other planning tips and keeps asking me if I'm ready to train. i always say no but they all tell me i can, oh well. (this means he would have a companion that has been out a shorter amount of time than him, and he will be responsible for training him) and elder andrus keeps saying he feels like he is going to transfer, noooooo! oh well, it has to happen eventually. so during my time with elder top he had me crying during companionship study. (I'm sure this was crying because he was touched by what they were studying, not because he was being treated badly) and while we where planning for an appointment that we didn't even end up teaching he asked me if i had ever asked god if he loved me? and i said no. he said well how do you know then, i said well i don't know, he loves everyone right? so then he said ok right now! we knelt and he had me pray and ask God if he loved me, and asked me not to open my eyes until i got an answer, and don't doubt or it wont come. so as i was asking i just felt happy and i knew, so after i said amen i still just sat for a second and opened my eyes and said thank you. he is an amazing missionary and i am really going to miss him when he goes home in 10 days. darn! and i just barely got to know him.
oh and i forgot i had splits with the district leader on wed and got to go to his area in abuyog and they speak cebuano in one half and warry warry in the other half! yay! i got to speak cebuano almost all day, it was amazing i still understand and i was able to still speak some. i love that we are able to have the gift of tongues. well i sent tyler a letter and in it i kind of talked about why this language can be hard at times and you will see why word can be spelled exactly the same just with stress on different letters and and have a totally different meaning. but luckily i haven't had to many mess ups because of that but all in all a great week and i cant wait I've almost been gone for 5 months now and its amazing i cant believe its going so fast i feel like i just wrote you like 3 days ago and i cant wait to be able to talk to you all at christmas. i love you and pray for you everyday and i hope you all know i want to be the best i can here in the mission and leave it better than i found it and I'm glad that's something you have taught me in my life, thank you.
so really this week we just got a lot of potential investigators. we did lots of walking and not a lot of teaching. but the main thing was we went on splits with the A.P.s. i work with elder top in dulag and elder andrus went to tacloban with elder agustine it was amazing. he taught me an amazing way to plan the day and gave me a lot of other planning tips and keeps asking me if I'm ready to train. i always say no but they all tell me i can, oh well. (this means he would have a companion that has been out a shorter amount of time than him, and he will be responsible for training him) and elder andrus keeps saying he feels like he is going to transfer, noooooo! oh well, it has to happen eventually. so during my time with elder top he had me crying during companionship study. (I'm sure this was crying because he was touched by what they were studying, not because he was being treated badly) and while we where planning for an appointment that we didn't even end up teaching he asked me if i had ever asked god if he loved me? and i said no. he said well how do you know then, i said well i don't know, he loves everyone right? so then he said ok right now! we knelt and he had me pray and ask God if he loved me, and asked me not to open my eyes until i got an answer, and don't doubt or it wont come. so as i was asking i just felt happy and i knew, so after i said amen i still just sat for a second and opened my eyes and said thank you. he is an amazing missionary and i am really going to miss him when he goes home in 10 days. darn! and i just barely got to know him.
oh and i forgot i had splits with the district leader on wed and got to go to his area in abuyog and they speak cebuano in one half and warry warry in the other half! yay! i got to speak cebuano almost all day, it was amazing i still understand and i was able to still speak some. i love that we are able to have the gift of tongues. well i sent tyler a letter and in it i kind of talked about why this language can be hard at times and you will see why word can be spelled exactly the same just with stress on different letters and and have a totally different meaning. but luckily i haven't had to many mess ups because of that but all in all a great week and i cant wait I've almost been gone for 5 months now and its amazing i cant believe its going so fast i feel like i just wrote you like 3 days ago and i cant wait to be able to talk to you all at christmas. i love you and pray for you everyday and i hope you all know i want to be the best i can here in the mission and leave it better than i found it and I'm glad that's something you have taught me in my life, thank you.
Weeks 19 - Dulag 10/23/2011
so to start off i was really missing mom yesterday during sacrament. it was the primary program, it was awesome! all 5 of them had 2 parts completely memorized and it was amazing! i almost cried, but whatever.
(In our church we have have responsibilities, or "callings". Mine is to teach the primary age kids 3-12 singing time. We work an a set of songs during the year and then perform a program for the congregation in the fall. )
so this week was fun, we had district meeting in abuyog and then rushed back for an appointment in rawis. it was really good. we taught the restoration and are going back this week too. we found lots of new investigators because for the month of october our zone has a goal of 20 and we planned for 7 a week. we need 7 more and it seems to be good because the more people you have the lower the chance of having nothing to do but talk to people. but in all the high lights came when we were with members. they are wanting to work with us now and we told the A.P.s (AP is assistant to the president, referring to the mission president) one of them used to be here in dulag when the attendance was 60 and he knows what happened. so he was kinda surprised when we told him they were working with us. so i guess we are doing something right. but I'm kinda scared aright now, the ap was talking to me about being ready to train next transfer! i was like i don't know this language well enough yet. although, i have had other missionaries tell me my language is good and i had an investigator feed us who said my accent is really good too. yay! i was told that's important in the mtc.
so i started reading the Warry Warry libro ni mormon (Book of Mormon) to help with my vocab and pronunciation because i was told when we finish the BofM in our language we will be fluent, so hopefully by christmas. we had interviews this week my first one it was cool. president seems to be happy with our work in dulag and he keeps telling me he understands the hardships we are going through. but of course i don't know any different so its just missionary work for now.
we went to teach lorena and stephanie the other day and stephanie is now shy of us she wont talk to us so we just taught lorena. she really wants to be baptised but cant read so we set up scripture study appointments with her and hopefully with in a few weeks she will be ready. so then sunday we had the primary program and an attendance of 37, yay! maguswag kami (no idea) then we had 3 members work with us after church. one works with us all the time, one always works and the other normally has school. but they all were free and on the same day, darn. but thats ok the one sister, sister jessa (in our church we call people "brother" and "sister" and then their last name) she is a college student is going to work with us friday. she is awesome! she knows everything about the gospel and has scriptures to go along with it. i hope she can work with us more later too. but we visited lorena and another lady named veronica, she would be a member already but she doesn't have a birth certificate so she cant get married. darn! but they are saving. she invited one of her friends to join but she is to shy. she got up and left after the prayer, lol, it was kinda weird. then we went and found a guy we met with the brach president on saturday. he is diabetic and he was going to get baptised about 10 years ago but he was a policemen and got reassigned and missed his own baptism. so that'll be fun, he is in a wheel chair and only has one leg, but we are excited to teach him. we also went to go see some inactives (this refers to people thta have been baptized members, but don't attend Sunday meetings) with the branch president. and turns out its normal for the members to listen to Jehovah's Witness. but its kinda funny they just like learning about the Bible from them. but the other missionaries don't know that, lol.
but ya so fun week! i made a shirt last p day that's red and in white writing it says bawal umihi dito its tagalog for don't pee here, like sister who I've forgot her name in our ward, whose sons name is von. but she said she wanted one when she was in manila for her mission. but everyone laughs when they see it, and the guy that made it for me said he might start selling them to people. well that's really all for this week but cant wait nov 12 is the end of my 2nd transfer and i don't think I'm going anywhere for a while but its all up to the lord. well i love you all
We got a second short email that said: oh and i remembered its barfeild -refferring to the name he couldn't remember.
(In our church we have have responsibilities, or "callings". Mine is to teach the primary age kids 3-12 singing time. We work an a set of songs during the year and then perform a program for the congregation in the fall. )
so this week was fun, we had district meeting in abuyog and then rushed back for an appointment in rawis. it was really good. we taught the restoration and are going back this week too. we found lots of new investigators because for the month of october our zone has a goal of 20 and we planned for 7 a week. we need 7 more and it seems to be good because the more people you have the lower the chance of having nothing to do but talk to people. but in all the high lights came when we were with members. they are wanting to work with us now and we told the A.P.s (AP is assistant to the president, referring to the mission president) one of them used to be here in dulag when the attendance was 60 and he knows what happened. so he was kinda surprised when we told him they were working with us. so i guess we are doing something right. but I'm kinda scared aright now, the ap was talking to me about being ready to train next transfer! i was like i don't know this language well enough yet. although, i have had other missionaries tell me my language is good and i had an investigator feed us who said my accent is really good too. yay! i was told that's important in the mtc.
so i started reading the Warry Warry libro ni mormon (Book of Mormon) to help with my vocab and pronunciation because i was told when we finish the BofM in our language we will be fluent, so hopefully by christmas. we had interviews this week my first one it was cool. president seems to be happy with our work in dulag and he keeps telling me he understands the hardships we are going through. but of course i don't know any different so its just missionary work for now.
we went to teach lorena and stephanie the other day and stephanie is now shy of us she wont talk to us so we just taught lorena. she really wants to be baptised but cant read so we set up scripture study appointments with her and hopefully with in a few weeks she will be ready. so then sunday we had the primary program and an attendance of 37, yay! maguswag kami (no idea) then we had 3 members work with us after church. one works with us all the time, one always works and the other normally has school. but they all were free and on the same day, darn. but thats ok the one sister, sister jessa (in our church we call people "brother" and "sister" and then their last name) she is a college student is going to work with us friday. she is awesome! she knows everything about the gospel and has scriptures to go along with it. i hope she can work with us more later too. but we visited lorena and another lady named veronica, she would be a member already but she doesn't have a birth certificate so she cant get married. darn! but they are saving. she invited one of her friends to join but she is to shy. she got up and left after the prayer, lol, it was kinda weird. then we went and found a guy we met with the brach president on saturday. he is diabetic and he was going to get baptised about 10 years ago but he was a policemen and got reassigned and missed his own baptism. so that'll be fun, he is in a wheel chair and only has one leg, but we are excited to teach him. we also went to go see some inactives (this refers to people thta have been baptized members, but don't attend Sunday meetings) with the branch president. and turns out its normal for the members to listen to Jehovah's Witness. but its kinda funny they just like learning about the Bible from them. but the other missionaries don't know that, lol.
but ya so fun week! i made a shirt last p day that's red and in white writing it says bawal umihi dito its tagalog for don't pee here, like sister who I've forgot her name in our ward, whose sons name is von. but she said she wanted one when she was in manila for her mission. but everyone laughs when they see it, and the guy that made it for me said he might start selling them to people. well that's really all for this week but cant wait nov 12 is the end of my 2nd transfer and i don't think I'm going anywhere for a while but its all up to the lord. well i love you all
We got a second short email that said: oh and i remembered its barfeild -refferring to the name he couldn't remember.
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