Sunday, December 2, 2012
Week 77 - Sta Margarita 12/2/2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Week 76 - Sta Margarita 11/25/2012
so its only been a few days but i am with the office elders and
assistants today doing some stuff trying to get us back to our area but i
found out i have to come back here to TAcloban tomorrow night for a
leadership training meeting so lots of travel but thats ok but so cool
kamrie is 11 now crazy that means in 6 months ill be 21 lol crazy happy
birhthday kamrie it is your birthday here right now so cool i love you
sis well nothing much has happened but i have been staying in the same
apartment as elder leishman and we talked about a lot last night and i
hope this transfer will be good we are going to be really busy as we are
going to start teaching a preach my gospel class here pretty soon and i
have trainings to attend and we have christmas conference then in like 3
weeks its christmas and we will be talking again so crazy hope you all
are ready i know i am well i love you all and cant wait to talk
Week 75 - Sta Margarita 11/24/2012
so this has been an interesting few weeks last week not much happened we
had our amazing zone activity and had a great zone training meeting and
then tuesday night we went out and taught a young man who is a recent
convert of about 7 months we are trying to teach his parents but they
are always drunk or out with their friends so really difficult but we
taught him a great lesson about scripture study and he committed to read
everyday so that he can become an example for his parents and we can
hopefully start teaching them but then i started feeling sick and so we
went home and long story short i started getting better come saturday
but elder dariagan got sick friday with the same thing but it was way
harder on his immmune system so we went to the hospital saturday night
for a check up and they wanted to admit him to the hospital and so i
called sister Andaya and she asked if we could travel to tacloban as
soon as possible turns out there has been a dengue outbreak in the
mission and me elder dariagan elder misalucha elder theobald and elder
bard were all in the hospital at the same time here in Tacloban me and
elder theobald werent to bad so we were just under observation and then
our blood platelet count came back up and i am fine but my companions
dropped down to 63 which for those of you that dont know the average
person his age and size should be 250 so not good and for those of you
that dont know what blood platelets are they are the part of your blood
that makes it clot so not good is if he started bleeding and he almost
had to have a blood transfusion crazy week but we are out but have to
stay in tacloban until monday when he goes for a check up because his
blood platelet count is still low it was only 100 when we left and if it
is low again monday we go back into the hospital but one thing has come
from this week i have learned a ton with all the free time in the
hospital i had 5 hour personal studies everyday for 5 days and have read
a ton mostly about the things in my patriarchal blessing i read
Doctrine and Covenants 107 twice section 121 section 46 and 84 and i
read 3 nephi chapters 8-12 and in my other book of mormon reading i read
from the title page to 1 nephi chapter 19 and i read like 10 chapters
from Preach MY Gospel such a good study time to bad i dont have the
chance to use all the new stuff i have learned and i got to see elder
Ostler one last time before he went home i cant believe its been a year
since we became companions but i only have 2 companions who are still
here in the mission Elder Andrada and Elder Dariagan and they are from
the same home stake so weird all of my companions are home and i just
realized i only have 5 transfers left that is a really short time not
sure but i feel like i have one more big thing i need to do before i go
but as well i got the package while i was in the hospital so nice to
have things to snack on its almost all gone but the BBQ sauce and
potatoes will be used whenever i go back to Calbayog so we can celebrate
Thanksgiving even if we are celebrating late but thats ok well im
really excited to see what happens since me and elder dariagan are
together for another transfer no transfers in our entire zone except
they took one of our sisters and put her in the office so its still good
she is an amazing missionary well i love you all and sorry i dont
really have a ton of amazing stories to let you in on this week but i do
want you all to know that no matter what we are right now that isnt who
we have to be when we die its all a matter of goal setting and
accomplishing and as long as we look to the lord to fill in those parts
we cant do everything becomes possible well i love you family and hope i
have brought at least a little enlightenment to your lives through this
email but until next week be careful with the gun mom and chad keep on
practicing it will really pay off dad i love you and i met another
person who lives here in tacloban who knows you she brought us food
while in the hospital she was quite amazed that i was here because her
oldest is only 16 but ya kamrie its ok if elementary is over because it
only gets better and you will just keep getting smarter and scott your
bed is awesome a lot of people here in the Philippines would love a
hamok that big a hamok in warray is called a duyan they are awesome and
tyler just keep going and dont forget what you need to do to serve the
Lord you will need his help and you can get that by doing what He wants
you to do i love you all and know this is the only church that is 100%
true here on earth and it is Gods kingdom here on the earth so lets keep
doing our part to help build that kingdom so we will all be happy well
thats all for now
and its crazy 75 weeks i
just want to ask if the blog is still updated because i have a
missionary friend that was reading it before he got here and it was
behind and he wasnt sure what happened well love you all and i will be
sending letters to you soon that i want you to send to our family
members one day i decided i needed to do what i do best and that is help
people come back to Gods kingdom and i wrote all of our inactive family
members and i hope i can get them to you before christmas thats kind of
what i wanted to do for christmas
Week 74 - Sta Margarita 11/11/2012
ok so this week has been amazing not a ton of lessons again but we made a
new goal this week as we were studying about finding in companionship
study we decided we werent very good at it so we added to our key
indicators or the daily goals we set every day and we made a goal every
day this week to get potential investigators and we did a lot better
than we planned the plan was to get 8 this week and we got 17 so i guess
we need to raise that goal a little but it was amazing the way we got
them we have continued every time we get to our appointments and no one
is home to stop and pray no matter where we are i got this from reading
about Nephi in Helaman 5 when he goes onto a tower and prays and the
people all gather around to see what he is doing and he got a ton of new
"investigators" so that is what we did and one day it was really weird
we went to go teach the parents of a member and hopefully get some new
investigators but they were eating so we set up some appointments for
next week and we were going to go to another members house to try and
get a refferal but as i was about to walk up to the door it just didnt
feel right so i told elder dariagan and he said ya me too so we walked
back out to the highway and prayed and got the weirdest answer ever the
spirit just said stay put and dont move and i asked elder dariagan and
he said he didnt know but he felt there was something we needed to do
right in that spot so thats what we did we stayed and talked to a few
passing people but no success and it was almost time for us to need to
go home after we had waited for like 20 minutes i felt we needed to ride
the next tricycle that came past a tricycle is a motorcycle with a big
metal cab bolted onto the side and we ride them everywhere but then we
saw a tricycle going away from calbayog so elder dariagan joked and said
did the spirit say which direction and i said no but the right before
the tricycle got to us it stopped on the side of the road no one got off
nothing happened so weird and we were kind of like what do we do and
then i looked to the left and a tricycle was about to pass us going to
calbayog and he stopped and asked where we were headed so we hopped on
and ended up with 3 potential investigators who all know members it just
felt so comfortable we talked to every single person that got on and i
sat next to the driver and got his name and address it was a really cool
experience and im so glad i am having these experiences with elder
dariagan its going to help his mission so much knowing these things now
instead like me finally figuring it out with less than a year left but
im so happy all the time its amazing we are seeing so much success even
as we teach members our attendance keeps growing and growing we also set
a goal for how many recent converts and less active members would would
have at church on sunday and the goal was 20 we were really hoping to
get it but i rained and we were a little nervous but we prayed and went
to church and we had 17 recent converts and less active members at
church on sunday amazing and we had a few investigators at church work
is so much fun i love seeing the change in peoples countenance as we
teach we taught one lessson and the family was like we cont pay tithing
we dont have enough money so we read from 3 Nephi 24 verses 8 through 11
and explained about it and talked about what was easier paying tithing
or being cursed be God and they seemed really excited to see the
blessings that can come from tithing and living worthy of the spirit
sorry i cont put everything into one email but if i used one word to
explain how i feel after this week is thankful and maybe its because im
excited for thanksgiving but i really am grateful for all the things i
have been able to learn and do recently life is amazing and i just wish
it could have been like this from the begging of my mission but thats my
own fault i just need to make sure all my companions from here on out
can have this as soon into their missions as possible too and this
mission can be awesome we are making so much progress right now its
amazing well i love you all and hope that i con be of some help to you
all through this email but i know i kind of just rambled on about my
week but its so amazing and i love all the revelation we have been
receiving recently we are going to see great things here pretty soon
this branch is just about to take of and really start progressing on its
own i can feel it and i cant wait and hope i can stay to see it but if
not ill just do it again wherever my next area is but i love you all and
pray for you always and i hope you all can feel the presence of the
Holy Ghost in your lives because it is so real and so amazing and it
truely is a foretaste of what eternal life will be like and i can wait
to get to that day where i can feel that amazing joy that comes from
keeping all the commandments and being able to stand in front of our
Father in Heaven and say im ready to enter your kingdom it Will be
amazing and i hope you all can do the same at that day well thats my
letter for you all keep smiling and the Lord will make it permanent
so i know what i want for
christmas i want those little pocket sized Books of Mormon if possible i
would like 5 or 6 of them i want to give them to people the more the
better but i dont know how much they cost so just as many as you feel
like possible if grandma and grandpas could get that that would be
awesome because you cant buy them in the philippines and people love
them so they can bring it with them everywhere but if not thats ok too
and ya love you mom i hope i can get the package before thanksgiving but
if not ill celebrate another day
Week 73 - Sta Margarita 11/4/2012
so this week was different we were only able to teach 4 lessons there
were a couple reasons but its ok because the lessons we taught were
awesome we had some of the youth come work with us and i asked them why
they wanted to spend their semester break working with the missionaries
and they said they wanted to learn the things we teach to the people i
was really impressed with the way they were able to follow the spirit in
helping us teach and getting appointments to teach more people so cool
the the young women met us at our appointment and the person was asleep
so the one young women said lets visit the arniaz family so they went to
their house and we went a different way and they got there and started
talking to the mom who was on her way back to work and the young women
had already invited and commited her to come to church sunday and she
was there so cool the the same young women asked where one of our old
investigators lived so we could go visit him and it was just around the
corner so we got in to talk with him and the reason why we stopped
teaching him before was because he would always say the church is true
but he wouldnt be baptized so we taught and he showed us his desire to
follow the comandments of God so then me and elder Dariagan were
prompted to read from 2 Nephi 31 verses 10 and 11 and in the end he
commited to being baptized but not yet so cool and he came to church on
sunday so cool then we taught the young mens president who has gone
inactive his family all moved to Cebu and left him behind to finish
college so he is kind of lonely but i have been wanting to teach him
about the Oath and Covenent of the preisthood in D&C 84 and in verse
51 it says he who breaks this covenant will not receive forgiveness in
this life or in the life to come and when he read that he sat back in
his chair and just said ouch and we invited him to start fullfulling his
priesthood calling and offered help when needed and he slept in on
sunday but still made it on time for him to teach sunday school and
attend sacrament meeting he is going to be awesome i just hope he can
keep going and continue giving time to the Lord everyday of his life no
matter how small but then thursday was interviews with president Andaya
so cool it was a little bit different usually he checks our planners and
area books and everything but he started to and then we just kind of
started talking it was really nice just to sit down and have a one on
one conversation with president about my trainee and about the things i
am doing to help organize the branch and it made things really nice he
took notes and it was just amazing to see how much he wants to help even
though i know he is super busy all the time then we havent done much
because i have been sick and not sure what was wrong but all i know is i
had absolutely no energy to do anything it was difficult for me to walk
from the apartment to the road to catch a ride to our area so we didnt
do much but my district is doing amazing and its just going to keep
getting better sometimes ill be sitting and just be prompted to start
writing and im not sure why and it always seems to be questions this
last time i was in fast and testimony meeting not sure what these
questions are for but here they are
1. What is the importance of love if you yourself dont want to love?
2. What does Jesus see in our future?
#. How do we see that future and make it a reality?
4.Why do we not always understand the nesecities of life?
5.How do we truely give everything to the Lord?
6.Why are we forgiven?
7.Why doesnt everyone have a desire to be forgiven?
8.How do we help people gain that desire if the don't feel remorse?
9.How do we feel remorse?
10.What feelings are needed in order to gain a stronger faith?
11.How do we truely love the Lord?
some
of these i know the answer to but others not really but i figure they
are always something we should ask ourselves as servants of the Lord so i
just hope to be able apply them to my work some how not sure yet but if
you feel like you dont know the answers to all of these maybe do a
little studying and see what the lord has waiting for you its always fun
to start studies with a question in mind
Well i have a question for all of you if you have an answer for me
we constantly see in the Book of Mormom the people being righteous and
then becoming wicked and prideful after the blessings come so i was
reading in Helaman chapter 3 and it starts happening within like a few
years but then in Alma 62 the people are blessed and dont become
prideful why do some people become prideful so fast and forget the lord
while others dont and how do we prevent this from happening to the
people we teach as missionaries?just send me an email if you think you
can help me out a little bit. well i love you all and i can promise you
that i pray for you everyday its amazing what happens to the work when
your prayers are specific and have names its so cool i love missionary
life so much.
Week 72 - Sta Margarita 10/29/2012
so just to start off this week started amazing and i have learned a ton
and applying some new things to my work to make it more enjoyable and
being able to see more miracles already so cool but to start off the
training i gave this last week was so cool i have been trying to find a
new way to help keep focused all the time because i have heard stories
of like missionary's sitting in their apartment and the spirit prompts
them to leave and go visit some one and i wanted to know how that was
possible so i have been studying about the spirit and how i works lately
and one of the things i read said that sometimes our minds are
preoccupied by things of the world as missionaries that sometimes we
wont even notice that the spirit is prompting us to do anything and that
hit kind of hard as we have been trying hard to constantly avoid those
kinds they still seemed to slip in sometimes and then we end up talking
for like 20 min. about nothing important and we lose our focus and drive
and so i realized the one thing every missionary and even the everyday
person needs to be able to recognize the spirits promptings is by
building our virtue and if our thoughts and actions are always virtuous
the we can constantly feel the spirit and we as missionar's have been
asked to give all attention to the work so that includes what we talk
about in the apartment and everywhere no matter who we are talking to
but it was amazing and i met with the new missionary's in the district
and talked to them a little about some goals they have set for this
transfer so that i can help follow up with those goals and pray for them
as well and it has been amazing after that we had companionship
exchanges and i worked with elder Johnson he is our new zone leader and
he is awesome but we had a really good day taught a few lessons but the
coolest thing was our experience in finding we went and decided to ask
what color house we needed to visit when we left the house so we just
thought about it on our way to Sta. Margarita and when we got out my
thoughts had rd or blue but when we got out i was sure it was red so
then elder Johnson asked whats the color and i said its definately red
and he said that was my exact thought so we walked across the street and
past a house and then elder Johnson says wasnt that house? red and i
turned around and there was an old man staring at us from his front
porch and he received us and our message and we got an apointment to
come back so cool then the same kind of thing happened with me and Elder
Dariagan he is making some good progress and getting closer to the
spirit everyday and im really enjoying teaching with him even though we
still have a few things to work out but we tried the same kind of thing
after no one was home and so we prayed and asked what part of our area
we need to go to and after the prayer i turned around and thought and
the first thing that came to me was go to barangay sulsogon so i turned
and asked Elder Dariagan and he said Sulsogon so cool how that works
then we went and then found a guy we met a few days before and we cant
get to his house but he just happened to be at the road on his way home
as we got there and we were able to give him a book of mormon and get an
appointment to go and visit him this coming thursday so amazing then we
taught some amazing lessons with a few families and were able to
attended the baptism of my investigator in gandara even though its not
my area anymore i was super happy that i got to see the baptism then
sunday i wasnt feeling good after church so we went home to study and
rest and i prepared my training for tomorrow and was reminded of
something really important by a man we named brother Niki and it has to
do with prayer and prating for specific people and specific things so i
made a list of people who i need to pray for so i dont forget any one i
my plan is to just keep adding to the list for the rest of my time in
Sta. Margarita and then start over wherever my new area may be in the
future but its amazing the list ended up being way longer that i thought
and i was like wow maybe this is how pray should always be i should
truely be asking for the Lord to help these people with their needs and
its so cool i felt so good as i did it and feel like this is going to be
the start of a lot of miracles i the lives of these people and hope
that it can continue for the rest of my life prayer is so important and
my testimony of it has been reinforced so greatly this past week and
hope i can keep going and i also read some things in Alma 60 when
captain Moroni writes pahoran and in verses 23 and 23 he talks about
fixing the inner vessel then the outer vessel can be cleansed and thats
so true and that is what this branch needs and i shared this in our
Missionary coordination meeting and the members made some new goals to
visit on their own and with us so cool im super excited to see the
miracles God can put into work for this branch its going to be amazing
as long as we can keep it going well i love you all and sorry for not
letting you all know before about me withdrawing ill be better about it
now but another thing is my card is going to expire before i go home and
it has started to tear a little bit so that could be one thing that
could help out a little but if not thats ok too well i love you all and
can say that i have prayed for you all and prayed for specfic things for
almost everyone reading this not sure who still keeps up with these
letters but i love you all and hope that i have helped you all in some
way today.
Week 71 - Sta Margarita 10/22/2012
so ya i feel like money for christmas would probably be the best thing i
have a few things i would like to buy here like a tagalog hymn book and
and some other study materials but ya for that package if posible could
you throw my cleats in there if they havent been destroyed yet we have
started to play soccer and rugby and it would be really nice to have for
times like that and the piano would be great if it isnt to expensive i
want to play in sacrament meeting before i go home but the only time i
have to practice is p-day and at night in the apartment so if i could
just always have it i could practice whenever the few times come up
where we have some down time and i dont know about the bank i always
check to see how much is in there first then i always make sure not to
pull to much out and try to leave some behind so that doesnt happen but i
did have an emergency last month and my travel money wasnt reimbursed
until late in the month and i was 100% out of money so i pulled some out
but i still checked first im sorry ill try to not pull much out but i
will probably ordering some garments here pretty soon because mine are
starting to turn yellow and get holes in them and they are super cheap
here so itll be nice well sorry i havent taken any pictures this week my
camera is dead and i keep forgetting to charge it but the coolest thing
this week was probably during our companionship exchange with the
Gandara elders i worked with elder Acosta who is the same group arriving
to the mission as my companion but you wouldn't know unless someone
told you we got tons of referrals taught a random minister on the side
of the road and we went to visit some members that they didn't know
where they lived yet so i showed him and at one with brother
Arseno Cabral it was crazy we weren't going to teach but he invited us
to sit he had never done that before and we started talking and the
spirit just took over i don't remember everything i said but after the
lesson elder Acosta said you just chastised that man to tears it was
amazing one thing that was said i asked him if he would go to church and
he said he wasn't sure and it came to me to read about agency so we did
in 2n 2:27 and i told him we have 2 choices God or Satan who are you
going to follow and he said God and started praying it was crazy i have
never felt so good after a lesson in my entire life its crazy how much
more can happen if the spirit is talking and not you. i had never seen
that man smile before in the entire 3 months i have been here i just
hope he remembers what happens but ya then Sunday we organized a
reactivation activity because there is no school right now and had like 7
inactive members attend it was a sports activity on the beach the
members walked and I'm so happy they did it was amazing even though i
have been sun burnt 2 weeks in a row now and its not very fun but
totally worth it well i love your letters and I'm so happy for Tyler and
Patrick you guys don't need to worry about anything all you need to do
is give all you can and if it isn't enough God will do the rest that's
how this life works and that's defiantly how the mission works well i
love you all and sorry mom for the bank mess ill try to be more careful
and only pull out half
Week 70 - Sta Margarita 10/15/2012
o not a ton has happened this week since elder misranda went home i work
with the zone leaders and we were able to teach a few lessons but didnt
really have much time tuesday we had an amazing district meeting i was
inspired one not to write some questions so i did and used them in
district meeting since we have time for reporting and i have free reign
over how it is done i just wanted to learn about my missionaries so i
started with the questions and had them all close their eyes so only i
knew what their answers were but i would like to ask all of you as well
as these questions can help anyone see what they need to do next the
first was who feels like the arent progressing as fast as they should?
second who has a plan to make that progression faster? third who gets
frustrated trying to accomplish their goals? fourth who understands
what the light of Christ is and what it can do for you? and fifth who
has faith enough in God to let him turn us into Gods ourselves? and i
was able to give a training with the help of the other missionaries and
our Father in Heaven about a way to better accomplish the goals we make
more quickly and effectively and that is through accountability to our
leaders and to the Lord through prayer we need to let someone know what
our goal is and we need to tell the Lord and ask him for help and it was
really amazing because it really makes the difference when we really
ask for help and show our desire to change something i read in that talk
said something like "if we say we cannot change and that we are who we
are then we deny the plan of salvation and cannot repent so not a good
thing but we can all change all it takes is faith hope and a little
action on our part as long as we do everything we are able to do God
will do the rest and we will all become more like our Savior but the
coolest thing that happened this week was Wednesday when the assistants
called the zone leaders to let them know that i was going to be training
so cool so i went to Tacloban the next day and there were 18 new
missionaries and out of all of them i just happened to be training the
new missionary who knows elder Andrada who i follow-up trained so cool
they are both from Roxas city Capis and my trainees name is Elder
Dariagan he is definitely new but i feel bad because all we have done so
far is go to conference and have a zone activity and wont get to work
until tomorrow after noon because we have a zone meeting tomorrow so ya
it will be fun i guess but i learned so much at conference even though i
didnt get to watch the whole thing the power went out during elder
Bednars talk so i was a little upset but the ensign will come soon
enough but ya so today we played touch rugby its super fun and we played
volley ball and basketball so much fun since we have 2 tongans and 2
samoans and an Australian super cool and ourt new zone leader is an
American named elder Johnson he is so cool and then we are having a zone
family home evening tonight but there are 4 sets of missionaries
training in our zone right now this is going to be crazy and i cant wait
to see the things that are going to happen im expecting big miracles
with the branch my companion and in myself especialy im so glad i have
this wonderful opportunity to be learning so much as a trainer i can see
its going to be harder than last time but it will be amazing but i love
you all and pray for you everyday and hope that you are learning as
much as i am if not just pray and ask for help and set some goals to
become better it works really well. well until next week i love
missionary work.
i forgot i only have one area now i am only in Santa margarita no more gandara they have their own elders so cool
Week 69 - Sta Margarita 10/7/2012
well with the voting i have to register first and i cant do it the
computers here are no good so ill just pray that mit romney wins and
vote next time but for now i want to share somthing that changed my life
forever this week i have been realizing that i have started to move
backward a little and started doing some repenting lately so that i can
be a better missionary and got to a poit where i thought i was good and
then i want on exchanges with the zone leaders and we had our evaluation
at the end of the day i started talking to Elder Tauteoli about what i
had been doing trying to improve and he had just been on companion ship
exchanges with the assistants the day before and wasnt sure why until
now because one of the assistants gave him a talk by a mission president
that literally was exatl what i needed and the basis of it is that it
takes moe than our time and energy to serve God because that is
something he can take away from us but what he cant take is our heart
and mind so what we as missionaries need to do is give our heart and
mind to Him and make a covenant that you will give in to what the
mission president called a complete surrender of ones self and it has
changed everything even in the 2 days after that i had 2 of the most
spiritual lessons i have ever taught in my entire mission and was able
to actually help people because i was able to dicern thier thoughts and
feel the spirit and becasue God allowed me to i was able to speak to
thier hearts and every one we visited from then on has been excited for
us to come back and they asked us when would be our next visit it was
amazing then saturday we had exchanges with the branch elder miranda
went with the branch president and i went with the second councilor and
every one i visited with president ruedas came to church on sunday and
we went from having 3 Melchizidek priesthood in Sta. Margarita to have 6
and haveing inactive members bear thier testimony in fast and testimony
meeting and it was amazing even a few of the primary got up and bore
thier tesimony about the priesthood and the one boy started crying as he
thank his dad for being worthy of the priesthood because he knew he
couldnt ennter into Gods kingdom if his dad didnt have the priesthood
and it was just amazing and i also recieved revelation through a
reminder of what the missionaries in our ward did in giveing a BofM and
having the members write thier tesimony in the back and give it to a
freind but i figured i would start with the aux presidents so i brout
about 5 Aklat Ni Mormon with me and instead i was prompted to ask who
would be willing to give one and one of the youth was the first to raise
his hand and i was surprised that way more than five wanted to share
its amazing this change isnt just affecting me but everyone around me
and life is amazing and i know this is what a mission is supposed to be
like even though i have been able to help people before i know it will
even more effective now than before and i love it i know that the
Atonement is the most powerfull tool we have at our fingertips all we
need to do is use it for good well i love you all and pray for you
always and hope your lives are going as good as mine and if not just try
to use the atonement more fully and i promise it will become better
Week 68 - Sta Margarita 9/30/2012
so to start off this week was ridiculous i didn't teach a single lesson
and most of the week i wasn't with my companion ahhh! but i think this
week will be good because all we are doing is working and teaching but
last week was way different so Monday was ok after our service project
we had a good FHE for family week and then went home and went to sleep
then Tuesday i washed some cloths in them morning studied and then we
had district meeting at 1 instead of at 10 in the morning because the
other missionaries were busy so then we had district meeting and then
went home packed and headed to Catbalogan for the night and while there
the lady that live across the street from the elders apartment is a
member and she was companions with elder misaluchas mom but she also
knew dad and she got her pictures out and i took pictures of a few of
them and then i took a picture with her too but ya we went back in the
apartment cooked, ate, went to bed, and when i woke up i had these weird
bumps on my arm that itched but i wasn't sure what it was and we were
short on time so we quickly headed out the door and went to Tacloban for
our meeting with the new area health advisor and about half way though
the meeting i could feel the bumps spreading over my whole body so they
were having check-ups during the trainings so i went in and they said im
allergic to something and i was covered in hives so not fun then we
went back to the training and were supposed to be waiting for the office
elders to take us to the pharmacy to get the medicine i needed but they
changed their mind and said we were suppose to buy it ourselves but no
one told me so then we were waiting and it just kept spreading so we
went to go eat and when i came back i asked if they were able to get the
RX and they said i was supposed to buy it but by this point i was
starting to feel really weak and just not good so they called sister
andaya and she said they needed to go buy my medicine right that second
before it strated to spread internally and block my breathing which
would not have been good so they ruched out and i fell asleep on the
couch in the office and they came back and gave me my medicine and a ton
of water and so then they had me change since i was wearing long
sleeves and elder Ostler was kind enough to take pictures so i will send
those but i ended up sleeping in tacloban until friday and we got on a
van to go home and then sister andaya called saying i had a doctors
appointment at 2 but i was already on the island of samar so she said
just keep taking the medicine and i would be fine right now i still feel
a bit weak but the hives and itching is all gone so then saturday we
were on an assignment from president andaya to get an apartment in
Gandara as quickly as possible so we found one took picture sent them
and and hopefully they will be able to get that apartment so that elders
can be assigned there next transfer and i dont have to travel as far
all the time anymore and run out of money all the time because im
spending almost 3000 out of my 8000 pesos every month on just travel so
not cool thats way to much but so worth it but other than that
everything is the same sacrament attendance is slowly rising and life is
good again i love you guys so much and one thing i want to share is
that priesthood blessings are amazing i know that that is the reason why
i am ok right now after i got a blessing the hives just started going
away and it was so cool i love our Heavenly Father and things like that
just re-assure me that He loves me and i know He loves each and everyone
of you and all we need to do to feel His love is by showing faith and
following His commandments that is the way and there is no other (Mosiah
2:22-24) we literally owe Him our lives and we can never pay Him back
but we should always be trying because that is how we can make Him
happy.
oh and i may need your help president andaya wants us to vote so I'm going to try to cast an absentee ballot and vote for the first time from the Philippines.
oh and i may need your help president andaya wants us to vote so I'm going to try to cast an absentee ballot and vote for the first time from the Philippines.
Week 67 - Sta Margarita 9/24/2012
so that's cool they are doing good and i don't really know the
difference between the class or division but that's still cool and those
coaches will never go away we just need to understand that not everyone
has the ability to think about others before themselves all he is
thinking is that the kids really want to win when in reality the coach
is the only one that wants it in that way the kids that don't get to
play as much don't like it very much and those kids parents want to see
their kids play just as bad as the the good kids parents do and how are
those kids who aren't as good going to get good if they never have the
opportunity but any way the world will never change so this week has
been really tiring we didn't get to teach very much but our attendance
went up both in Gandara and Santa Margarita we had a great lesson about
enduring to the end with our investigator and the best part is her mom
who has been a member since before i was even born started testifying to
her daughter about the Book of Mormon and how that she has seen so many
new people get baptized and they just disappeared and she was always
wondering why they left and they were able to stay strong and active and
she come to the conclusion that its because even though the church was
gone from where they lived they were always reading the Book of Mormon
and that is so the way she just testified until she started crying the
spirit was so strong and i have gained a stronger testimony of that book
because of it and also that having members be present in lessons is so
important and i have decided when i get home that whenever i have the
chance i need to help out the missionaries back home so that the kingdom
of God can grow where we live i have seen what the church being strong
in one area can do to the entire city since my friend elder Cypres had a
meeting with the mayor of Tacloban that's huge Tacloban is the regional
headquarters and they had a meeting about what they could do to help
the people out in the city so cool and i know that can happen any where
as long as we can bring the spirit in any one can change we have a
member here in Calbayog and everyone missionary in the entire mission
has heard about him before the missionaries taught him he lost his job
because he was an alcoholic and he was a chain smoker and at the same
time he is what they call a bayut which in English is a guy who wants to
be a girl so he cross dresses and its really weird but now he is
amazing and is the reason why this city is the way it is he is rich and
he knows everyone so he is constantly taking the missionaries to meet
with the mayor and the city council and every other rich person he knows
and they are teaching doctors and lawyers and just tons of wealthy
people and that's really hard to do here in the Philippines because
those people have big gates around their houses and you cant ever talk
to them with out a friend bringing you there first and that is what
brother Niki does he is amazing i just hope to be able to learn
something from this man he has only been a member for a year and i feel
like he knows more about the gospel than any one else in this mission he
is amazing he just gets it and i have learned a lot the reason why
people are the way they are is because of their understanding of the
gospel not because they can cite scripture but they understand and apply
it to their lives and that is how we progress here on earth it has
nothing to do with how much money we have but how much we understand the
gospel and i love it so much i just hope i had a greater understanding
of things but i feel like it will come with time as i continue to study
and ask the Lord for help i will learn all that i need to learn well
sorry about that that definitely wasn't my plan for my email today but
the family is dong better we helped them a little this morning to put
the walls up on their new house and the members here are amazing one of
the members hired a carpenter to go work and build their house and 2
others bought the stuff they needed to put the roof on and they are just
amazing and this week is going to be really tiring again tomorrow we
dont get to work because we have district meeting and then we are
traveling to catbalogan and then wednesday morning we are going to
tacloban and then coming back and wont be back until like 12 at night
wedneday and thursday we are going to take picture of an apartment in
gandara so that hopefully they will have their own missionaries next
trasfer and then friday we have our weekly planning and then saturday is
a full day of work then sunday no work again and then next week is
elder mirandas last week in the mission and then the week after that is
transfer week so its going really fast but its been really hard but its
so worth it im learning alot well love you all and thanks for you
prayers i can see whats coming from it well next week
one is a key chain thing a member gave me super cool and the other is while riding on a boat on the way home super beautiful in Gandara
one is a key chain thing a member gave me super cool and the other is while riding on a boat on the way home super beautiful in Gandara
Week 66 - Sta Margarita 9/18/2012
so this week not a lot of lessons but we had some crazy stuff happen and
it has made me start thinking of how mysterious God is in everything
that he does we have had some crazy encounters lately with people being
close to dieing or losing fingers and its just crazy that it is all
happened in two weeks so with sister ariola she is fine and so is her
trainee sister bogenschutz but the crazier stuff happened later in the
week but ill start with one thing that i have been struggling with
lately with our investigator her name is mavie tan and she is 10 her
parents are members but she never got baptized because there was no
church in Gandara for almost 10 years so she never got baptized but she
is awesome and always pays super close attention when we are teaching
but she wont talk when we are teaching im having to learn how to read
lips in another language and its way hard we dont know why she wont talk
while we are teaching because as soon as we are done she talks to us
and when we ate lunch at their house she was talking about school and
everything but she reads the BofM every day and her parents said she
prays every night before bed which is awesome she is an awesome example
to everyone but she just wont talk oh well and with that thing dad said
about the trees they used that here when we started the rescue and
retention program as missionaries the said the roots are the doctrines
of the gospel and what happened here in the Philippines is the roots
werent deep and the trunk which is priesthood wasnt wide but there were
tons of branches being thrown on the branches are the other members so
with out deep roots in the doctrine and without priesthood the church
cant stand it needs roots and priesthood first then we can start adding
more members or branches to the tree and its so true thats why our group
in gandara is great there are 5 Melchizedek priesthood and only like 40
members but sta margarita has like 300 members and only 3 Melchizedek
priesthood so not good but they are starting to get it we are having a
missionary fireside on saturday and the members have all been asked to
bring a non-member friend or less-active member its going to be awesome
the members are wanting to work with us now but we have just been so
busy working in other areas that we havent had the chance to work with
them but we have plans for this week so now for the crazy stuff on
thursday we went to a member but the dad wasnt home so we couldnt teach
but the reason he wasnt home was because he almost cut 3 of his fingers
off and was getting a check up to make sure it wasnt infected and then
we taught an awesome lesson to a less-active young women and her
siblings while her parents where outside talking to their friends and
she is going to teach her parents the plan of salvation and then invite
them to listen to the lessons and get baptized too its going to be
awesome but then we got a ride home and the dad that was at the hospital
earlier was on his way back but not for him this time it was for his
grandson who got run over by a motorcycle and got a bunch of stitches in
his head he is good now thought just lots of road rash and then the mom
and most of her kids were at church on sunday so cool we almost had 50
attendance in santa margarita then what happened in Gandara is so crazy i
dont know how any of them survived ill be sending pictures of this we
had an appointment with some investigators at 1 and so we were running a
little late and as we turned the corner to where there house is the
house couldnt be seen anymore it was underneath a giant bus so we got
out and found the dad and asked what happened he said that his wife and 3
of thier kids were taking a nap and aparently the driver of the bus
needed to take a nap too and he dozed off and when he came back to he
paniced and went of the road and the bus was going to fast he ripped a
coconut tree in half he didnt even take out the roots it was a clean cut
all the way through like some one used a saw or something and then he
went through their little tiny house then hit another coconut tree and
and that stopped the bus on top of their house with them underneath this
is after mom quite her job so she could go to church on sunday so they
have no money and turns out she was reading the plan of salvation
pamphlet while her kids where sleeping and then thier house got run over
by a bus they have a few cuts and bruises but for the most part they
are ok and now they have 15,000 pesos to rebuild their house which is
way more than their house was worth so total blessing in disguise and it
shows them that if they do all they can to serve God he will protect
them and we decided we are really going to start focusing on that family
and get them baptized as soon as possible they are amazing and then we
had to go to Tacloban sunday night so that my companion could get his
check-up since he is going home in like 2 weeks its crazy that we
actually go home so weird. but on thing that i learned this week froma
study i had from Alma he said in chapter 35 that the people became
offended because of the strictness of the words of God and the first
thing he does in the next chapter is remind his family about living the
gospel before he goes and teaches others about it so i was thinking i
ask people every week to have family prayer and scripture study and FHE
but i dont know that that is happening at home so i just want to to
promise you all that if you have those things and we follow the things
we have been asked to do we will be blessed even if we dont understand
why but it wont matter at the last day whether we understood why but
that we did what we were asked thats important so i love you all and
know that this is something thats hard but it is possible and if we do
the things we need to before the things we want to do God will bless us
even more than ever well thank you for the email and mom i dont know if
ill even speak english when i go home so that it wont matter lol just
kidding but dont worry about it thats a long ways away
Week 65 - Sta Margarita 9/11/2012
Week 64 - Sta Margarita 9/2/2012
so not much since i was just in tacloban like all week but one thing is i
don't think i have traveled so much in like my whole mission life in
one week its crazy we are given 1700 pesos for travel for 30 days and i
have already hit 1800 and I'm only half way through my 30 day tracking
this is going to be exciting since Tuesday we got to listen to elder
Cook of the seventy speak to us so cool and i learned something really
important from elder Nielsen of the area seventy of the Philippines they
were asking us for concerns we had and most of them were with the
organization of the church and people not doing everything they were
supposed to and he just said yes we know this the only reason is really
that in America the church has been there for like 160 years but in the
Philippines it has only been 50 so it just needs time and hard work to
help it progress faster so i just need to do everything i can to
continually follow up with the leaders about their meetings and their ht
and vt because it is not happening at all most people don't even have
an assignment so not cool and its hard to get an assignment when they
don't call an elders quorum president but anyway its going to be good i
finally had my meeting with the branch president and we are going to
have a missionary fireside and i told the members its going to be a
video showing and testimony meeting and their ticket to get in to the
video is an in-active member or a non-member friend its going to be
awesome but i also talked to him about us wanting to join in on their
meetings like pec and branch council and mcm so its going to be cool
once we start getting those meetings going so that we can get more
organized and make things go more smoothly but then sunday we had
district conference and elder misalucha was the guest speaker so cool he
told me to say hi to dad and then i met another sister who lives in
catbalogan she was talking to my companion and then she asked him who is
your companion and then she saw my name tag and said i know an elder
coontz turns out her twin sister and her both served in bagio mission
with dad and her sister is the siter i met before in a place called
dagami they were both sister calda and she said she is going to try to
find dad on face book the one has a son thats an RM and the other has a
son about to leave so cool and here in the phillipines its a normal
thing to call people fat so when they saw the pictures of dad of course
thats exactly what they said since he was only like 150 pounds on his
mission but elder misalucha said tell him dont worry because he is about
the same i have a picture with him and some other missionaries so its
cool to meet people who know dad and elder misaluchs wife also served in
bagio mission but after elder misaluch went home but i didnt get to
meet here and elder misaluchas sister also served there and said dad was
her zone leader back then so cool but then we went home and got home at
about 8:30 or so and got things ready then went to bed and now we are
here emailing and thats about it for this week besides the fact that i
am super tired from all the travel but its all good being tired is
usually good thing as ling as im doing what im supposed to God will
give me the strength i need to keep going but about the preach my Gospel
class you should totally attend and institute isnt for single people
only its for all people ages 18 to 30 and i so wish i would have gone
even if they said it was boring but it would have been nice knowing what
the lessons were before i got to the MTC and the Christ like attribute
section is definately my favorite and it can totally help any member its
not just for missionaries its amazing and i know it can help you all
mine is starting to fall apart and i might order a new one soon but its
amazing and im so glad its been given to us. i have learned so much from
it and without using it you wont know how to be an amazing missionary
it helps you understand yourself and others so you can teach according
to needs and it is an amazing tool for the rest of our lives well i love
you all and hope i have shared something that can help you all this
week but if not just know that God loves you and that will never change.
Week 63 - Sta Margarita 8/27/2012
well we are here in tacloban again but i will get to that in like 3
sentences or so because nothing happened this week. well we taught 0
lessons because elder barney is sick. but sunday i realized i only had
like 400 pesos left and had to go to tacloban which costs 160 pesos by
bus so thats 320 pesos round trip and that money is supposed to last me
until saturday luckily here in tacloban we were able to get our
reimbursments for travel and now i have 1000 pesos but this morning we
got up at 2 again after going to bed at about 12 and got on a bus at 4
and got to tacloban at about 9 and went straight to the doctor and the
doctor said that he doesnt know whats wrong with elder barney because
the meds didnt do anything for him so then he said that elder barney
needs to be admitted to the hospital so i called president andaya and
then we met at the mission office and talked with him and they were
going to admit him right away and i asked if we could email first so
here i am but then he came back in and said we can just go to the
hospital tomorrow since elder Cook the apostle is coming to speak
tomorrow so we will see him first so cool im super excited to listen to
him speak and itll be cool since all branch presidents are invited so
that means my friends from dulag and tolosa will be there since it is
for presidencies and single adults so cool i hope apostles keep coming
and speaking so that i can learn more from them they are so amazing i
dont know how they do it maybe some day i will be able to be as in tune
with the spirit as they are so that i can help tons of people too that
would be awesome well thats realy it i just did a lot of studying this
week and dont think i have ever been this tired before in my entire life
its crazy i can barely keep my eyes open even when i was talking to
president earlier i was like falling asleep but luckily he didnt seem to
notice i havent shaved yet to day but ill fix that later the bigest
problem is we dont really have clothes to wear at least not that will
last a week but i think president is going to help us out he is amazing
well i love you all and i totally was thinking august just started but i
guess its already the 27 here but happy birthday chad so crazy but get
working on those merit badges and ill try to be better about remembering
next year lol since i will be at home i hope i remember i just realized
everything that is happening now is now my last of things in the
mission my last thanksgiving christmas and all kinds of other stuff so
crazy how fast things are happening it needs to slow down a little bit
but i guess ill survive well love you all and dont forget to read your
scriptures today because im sure God has something he wants to teach you
from them he always does well good bye until next just pray for my
companion with me and ill pray for all of you
8/31/2012
they told us to email you and let you know we are ok and there are no problems even thought there was a huge earthquake last night the wierd thing is we didnt know it happened everyone else in the entire mission knew except us the said a bunch of peoples houses fell down and we didnt even feel it but elder barney is in the hospital and i am back in calbayog with my new companion his name is elder miranda he is filipino and this is his last transfer in the mission hope i can make it a good one well i love you all and wish you all the best ill email you again in a few days we are perfectly fine and there are no problems
8/31/2012
they told us to email you and let you know we are ok and there are no problems even thought there was a huge earthquake last night the wierd thing is we didnt know it happened everyone else in the entire mission knew except us the said a bunch of peoples houses fell down and we didnt even feel it but elder barney is in the hospital and i am back in calbayog with my new companion his name is elder miranda he is filipino and this is his last transfer in the mission hope i can make it a good one well i love you all and wish you all the best ill email you again in a few days we are perfectly fine and there are no problems
Week 62 - Sta Margarita 8/21/2012
so sorry no email yesterday we ended up in Tacloban yesterday to go to
the hospital not fun but ill get to that later so this week has been
really fun Monday we had a FHE with the family of the second councilor
in the branch presidency and almost didn't have a ride home that would
not have been fun at all but luckily we were able to catch a ride on the
late night bus which comes through at about 9 or so and we were a
little late coming home but it was worth it to help their family then
Tuesday we had a zone meeting and it was super good they gave a training
about Christ like attributes which are really what you need to be a
good missionary i really love chapter 6 of preach my gospel it has
helped me to change a lot here in the mission field and i never really
thought about it until zone meeting but our zone leader always called it
the heart of missionary work and then he explained how it is right in
the middle of the book which is so cool and it is the main thing we need
lots of really good missionaries have come through this mission and
were horrible at the language but because they were Christ like
missionaries they became some of the greatest missionaries i know so
cool that just having that charity is all we really need to help these
people but we cant just say ok I'm going to increase my charity today it
doesn't work like that that's why its not just one Christlike attribute
there are many because by us becoming patient diligent faithful hopeful
virtuous and by being obedient we are able to gain love and charity for
all people and learn how to be like Christ and that is who we should
always be trying to become more like then Wednesday we went and taught
an amazing lesson with the Doinog family we had talked to them the week
before about sharing the gospel and helping bring their family to Christ
but the we sat down as we were planning and it just hit us that they
cant really share the gospel very well if they aren't living it
themselves so we went in and explained to them about sharing the gospel
and how like us as missionaries we cant commit people to read the BofM
everyday if we aren't doing so ourselves because that's hypocrisy so
then we read in 3 Nephi 17 where Jesus says unless ye shall repent he
will destroy you or something like that and because we did this in the
right way they responded in a good way and the mom was at church on
Sunday but i was disappointed when i didn't see the father but its ok he
has his agency but i have mine too and we are definitely going back and
letting him know what he is doing to his soul but promising the lords
servants that he would do something knowing that he wouldn't do it
because now that's 2 sins and not one not good i wish people would just
be more honest sometimes it would make things more easy but i guess
that's agency oh well so then Thursday was fiesta here in Calbayog so we
went and ate and some peoples homes and then went to the doctor for a
check up because sister Andaya said to then the doctor said and x-ray is
needed so not fun sister Andaya then said we would need to be in
Tacloban Monday morning which is really hard to do since it takes 4
hours to get to Tacloban but ya then we went home and had our weekly
planning and then had choir practice and headed home then Friday was
companionship exchanges and i got to work with Elder Tauteoli he is
awesome but one problem the two of us together way over 200 kilos and
that is really hard for the pedicab drivers to peddle around with so as
we rode we were surprised how well the guy was pulling us and then we
made it to the place we needed to be and as he pulled off the road the
road was higher up than the side walk so as he went down the hill with
the one wheel the pedi cab started to flip over so i hopped out turns
out it wasn't just flipping the tire bent in half it was ridiculous i
haven't seen that much damage to a tire before without getting hit by a
car or something it was crazy the wheel was underneath the part where we
were sitting so crazy so we ended paying 150 pesos each instead of 10
pesos each to ride so that he would still have a job since he needed to
now buy a new tire for his pedicab so we wont ever be riding in a pedi
cab together ever again but then we had to ride on the roof of what we
call a multi- cab for 40 minutes to get to Gandara and got super burnt
then we had a member come work with us and we were talking to him about
the missionaries that were assigned here before and he said sobell and i
was like zobel and he said ya so I'm not sure but i think president
zobel's son was assigned here maybe not but still that would be cool
then we met some members that we didn't know yet and then it started
pouring rain so we had to go home because if it raining the rides stop
going back to calbayog so not fun but when we got to calbayog since
Friday made one year for me in the Philippines we went out to eat at a
place called Marcial's grill and it is super good but i had to use
personal money since it cost 1000 pesos for both of us to eat there even
thought that is only 25 dollars for two people to eat at a super nice
barbecue restaurant its super expensive here and tastes delicious and
then we had to go to the church for piano lessons and then home and
Saturday we went back to Gandara me and elder barney taught our
investigator from manila and i spoke the best Tagalog that i have spoken
in my entire mission so cool i really like Tagalog and we got a new
investigator then went home for cleaning our apartment since we werent
here yesterday and then sunday was good 39 attendance in santa margarita
and 50 in gandara and i spoke in both sacrament meetings and since
elder barney and the other speaker were only prepared for 5 minutes i
spoke for 10 minutes in Sta margarita and 15 in gandara so cool i love
speking in sacrament especially when i haven't prepared its so much more
fun to just talk for 15 minuets about one topic that goes along with the
other talks then we went home but the best part was that instead of us
paying 35 pesos to go to gandara it was free a member gave us a ride in
his CAR so cool a CAR then another member paid for our ride home souch
nice people here i love it then we went to bed at about 11 when we were
don with choir and a dinner appointment we got home at 9 thirty and
started getting things ready for tacloban so we went to bed at 11 and
got up at 2 and we left at 3 for tacloban an got there at 7 and went to
president andayas house to get the papers we needed for the doctor and
then went in for the x-ray then we ate and waited until about 12 for the
doctor to finally look at it then we got to go to our doctor and walked
in and he put the x- ray up and said elder you have bronchitis i just
laughed because I'm fine this was all elder barney and i told hm he was
sick and he didn't believe me so i told sister andaya and turns out he has
had bronchitis for almost 3 months and hasn't done anything about it so
now he has medicine for the week and we got on a van to come home last
night at about 8 and got home at 11:30 so we were super tired and we
have to do it again next week i don't really want to but whatever ill
survive and next week is transfer week so if one of us transfers we are
going to tacloban monday coming home and going back again thursday
afternoon no fun at all but ya life goes on well i love you all and hope
you all are having as much fun as i am even if we cant enjoy our live
together right now i know its so worth it this is changing my whole life
well the youth got a hold of my camera so i had some pictures of them then we took a picture as a zone and me on the top of a multi cab so much fun then me and the people who cut down the trees last week
well the youth got a hold of my camera so i had some pictures of them then we took a picture as a zone and me on the top of a multi cab so much fun then me and the people who cut down the trees last week
Week 61 - Sta Margarita 8/13/2012
so this week has been pretty fun and even faster than last week but part
of it is because of what i did to try and help my companion i wanted
him to see what would happen if he transfered and got put with just a
disobedient missionary so i did some things like waking up at 8 but not
really i still woke up at 6 i just didn't let hi8m know i was awake so
then there was no exercise and no studies and we didn't pray as a
companionship when we left the house and he didn't say a word to me and
as we worked we only made it to one person i wanted to show him how hard
this work can be if God isn't helping us so then wednesday i switched
back i got up at 6 i exercised i had my personal study and we had
companion study and then we had district meeting and we went out to
teach and were able to fill our time until about 6 when the people
weren't home and then the person that was supposed to work with us wasn't
there so i said well nothing else to do lets go home and he just looked
at me funny but still followed me home but i had started a fast that's
why we went home he didn't know but i went home studied again had
language study and i had another personal study then i went to bed and
he ate dinner at about 10 then the next day back to being the most
obedient missionary i know how to be and it came time for our weekly
planning which was the reason why i was fasting because one part of
weekly planning is called companionship inventory which is time you take
to tell your companion his strengths and also the weaknesses so that
way we can make goals to improve and i asked him if there was anything
he say that i did last week that he wanted me to change and he told me
no i was a little upset that he didn't even notice the difference so then
i told him the things i did and he just was like ya i thought that was
weird so i said ya and you didn't even say anything to me why??? he had
no idea how to answer so i told him how i felt. i feel like i have been
sent here to help elder Barney to prepare for something big i don't know
what it is yet i don't know if it will be an assignment or if it will be
helping another missionary become obedient but all i know is that if i
don't do what the lord wants me to do right now with elder barney his
mission wont be what i needs to be and i just told him that i love him
the members love him and we just want to see you improve so that you
don't waste these two years just following your companion around and he
actually took it a lot better than i thought he would and then we went
out to work and went finding or tracting which i am not very good at but
we didn't find a member and were able to set an appointment with them so
we could come back and share with them and hopefully get them coming
back to church too but then friday we went on exchanges with the zone
leaders and i got to work in calbayog with elder misalucha whose dad is
coming to district conference in sept so its going to be super cool i
might get to meet another person that served a mission with dad but the
exchanges were awesome the people here in calbayog are super nice and
friendly even the rich people we were able to talk with 3 or 4 super
rich people whose houses were giant and were able to get return
appointments with them then we went to the church because elder
misalucha gives piano lessons every friday and saturday night but then
saturday we went to gandara which is just so far away its not even fun to
go there until i get there and start working its such a good area we
get referrals there every week and the members want to work because there
haven't been missionaries there for like 10 years and it just opened
back up and last week we had 52 attendance and a lot of the members don't
even know that there is a church in Gandara right now so we are going
to start focusing a little bit more of our time there its so cool we
ride on little boats down the river to get to our investigators house
and then sunday was cool because president maxfield came to church in
Gandara the ol\nly problem with gandara is most people don't have the
priesthood so they need the missionaries to do things but the mission is
talking about hopefully putting missionaries into Gandara again since
back in 99 they had two sets of missionaries they are super excited and i
hope i get to be the one to open it back up next transfer but i doubt
it will happen oh well but ya attendance went up again in gandara and
they didn't even know president maxfield was coming and we had 79
attendance the only bad part is we have church on the first floor of a
members house and its super hot and crowded but so cool well that's about
it besides the fact that i have been fed by members more in these last 3
weeks than i have in my whole mission so far its awesome i love free
food and it makes it so much easier to get back to work well this
morning we had a district activity we played football and foursquare but
then the branch president showed up and said they were going to but
cutting down trees so that's what we did we tied a rope to the tree then
chopped it down with a machete they are still about 5 feet tall and
apparently will keep growing so cool but we chopped down like 15 trees
today so cool i have a picture with all the trees but i forgot my card
reader so ill send them next week well i love you all and i plan on
writing some letters tonight since we have a post office right down the
street so hopefully i can send a few here in the next week or so well
until next week.
that's so cool Bailey is married but totally weird at the same time that my friends are getting married i feel old now...
that's so cool Bailey is married but totally weird at the same time that my friends are getting married i feel old now...
Week 60 - Sta Margarita 8/5/2012
so this week has been really cool we taught some really good lessons
after receiving an awesome training from the assistants and President
Andaya our work is really going to change and i feel like it is helping
my companion to be able to more involved in all the lessons rather than
just me saying ok now elder barney is going to teach you about baptism
he just knows that is what he is supposed to teach as soon as i stop
talking and it works really well so Wednesday was our first day of work
because of the training we had but it was good we taught 4 lessons and
contacted a referral we got he is awesome and he has a good job to he is
a teacher but he is also part of the program they have here called
DEPED and they basically like give trainings to other teachers and go to
seminars and stuff its really cool and we have an appointment with him
tomorrow but then Thursday we had weekly planning and i decided our
planning wasn't thorough enough so we had a really long planning session
this week we planned from 1 until about 5:30 it was ridiculous but so
worth it this week should be amazing so then Friday we had some really
spiritual lessons one with our investigator who is a lay minister for
the catholic church and has been going to school for a really long time
for it just kept asking us all these questions that were completely
irrelevant to what we were teaching but the spirit helped us be able to
answer his questions and still bring it back to the doctrine we were
teaching it was so cool i don't think i ever could have answered those
questions before and i even remembered scriptures from the bible to
share with him so cool i like never read the bible but it can come in
handy. but in the end he just thanked us for the time to talk after i
invited him to read and pray but he didn't take me serious so then i was
prompted to tell him we would not be coming back until he read and
prayed and received and answer that the BofM was true so cool to bad he
just kept hardening his heart with everything we shared and wouldn't let
anything in but hopefully he got something out of the lesson i have
really just been trying to focus on even if they don't learn anything
from the lesson i want them to know i love them because that seems to be
the only way people start to listen to what we have to say is once they
feel that love they really change and its so cool but then Saturday
Elder Barney was sick so i started reading our search for happiness
really weird i never liked reading before my mission but i read that
entire book in just a few hours so cool i actually enjoy reading now
just one more good thing that is coming from my mission but ya Sunday
was fun i taught the youth Sunday school class again in Sta. Margarita
and then i blessed the sacrament in both sacrament meetings and i helped
the branch presidents councilors give a calling i never thought i would
be teaching more people how to give callings and i almost got to give
another child a name and a blessing but i taught the first councilor how
to do it instead i figure i can only do so much for them while I'm here
so i need to make the most of it but I'm super excited and really loving
this area but i looked through my camera on Sunday with some of the
youth at my pictures from san roque and dulag and started crying a
little bit i guess i just wont look at my pictures anymore so that wont
happen but ya anyway today me and elder barney are going to this super
nice hotel called ciriaco because it has like a super nice restaurant
and hopefully its not to expensive but it has lots of different kinds of
food so I'm excited to have a little more variety in my diet well i love
you all and sounds like you all had a good time wish i could have been
there but there is always the next one hope you all took tons of
pictures and i cant wait to see them well this week is hopefully going
to be amazing and it ll probably be even faster than this week was since i
feel like I've emailed you all like 3 days in a row not 3 weeks but its
still really cool well have a nice day and use your sabbath day wisely
you never know you might just learn something today that could change
your life forever
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