that's cool that you guys are having a Christmas party. we are having our branch party on the 16th just in case, but i doubt ill transfer with all the new stuff that is going on, but there is also a good chance because lots of people are going home next week. they have to go home a week early because of Christmas and all of them are zone leaders and district leaders. so lots of spots to fill, don't think i will be any time soon, but may need to take some one elses spot. but i hope not, im really starting to like dulag, but not so much the new work we have to do. we are so busy all the time either finding members or in meetings. we haven't even been able to have studies since Tuesday. its crazy how full our day is.
Sunday was good, it was district conference (a district is a stake full of branches and the stake president is the mission president) so it was amazing we had all kinds of trainings and things. the main speaker guy is a members of the quorum of the 70, yay another one, at least this one didn't have me bear my testimony during the meeting. but he is amazing! during the trainings my companion described the training as "a kick to the balls!" it was harsh but so necessary. the attitude of the members is i will do my calling if i have time, not i will make time to fulfill my calling like it needs to be. we find it hard to fulfill our callings and we are assigned as missionaries to do it, but i know the sacrifice is necessary as well for them as it is for us. he basically told of the district presidency because they are taking on branch presidency callings as well and they can't handle 2 callings that are that big. so they are now released and they are calling more next week. this whole place just needs a good kick to get it going and organized. we have found the biggest problem is nothing is organized. we keep finding more and more people who don't live in our area any more but their records never got transferred, ahhhhh!!! its a pain but we are getting there. i am really wanting to take on the primary, we have no youth because in primary all they do is watch movies like the testaments. so when they are older that stops and they don't want to be there any more. but that is going to change really soon now we have to go and rescue all these 19 & 20 year olds who aren't even ordained to the priesthood yet. but its made some progress we had 37 members travel to tanauan for our district conference which isn't easy. its 30 pesos round trip, but the members were able to make the sacrifice. we are hoping that is going to be the turning point for this branch.
so i forgot to tell you about thanksgiving. my companion didn't come back from his training until 8:30 so no chicken we just ate a big bowl of mashed potatoes and some gravy. awesome! and i walked for an hour and a half during that day trying to find a member and didn't find her until we went back this week. so not too fun.
I'm am really learning to speak tagalog now. we went on splits this week with our district leader and i was with his companion who only speaks tagalog and cebuano so when he taught he had to teach in tagalog in order for them to understand, so then they would speak tagalog too and so then i had to as well or people would get confused. I'm really glad I'm able to figure it out a little now that we have two investigator families from before the new program started who don't speak warry warry, tagalog only. so its helps being able to share a little with them as well. also we have been able to have some really good times walking trying to find members. it was pouring rain one day and we had about a kilometer to walk and a big truck drove by and through a big puddle and splashed water all over us even though we moved our umbrellas toward it. it was just too much. so then we got to be soaked for the day. it is rainy season here so i have an umbrella in my bag at all times, its kind of a pain actually needing one instead of just running to the car. oh i wish!
but we have been sharing what we call damnation lessons with the members. we planned a few for different members for when they receive a desire to follow. we read with them about if they don't your going to receive everlasting damnation. kind of a harsh lesson but it seems to be working for the most part. we just have to do it right otherwise they just kind shrug it off which i don't completely understand. but oh well they will get it some day, hopefully before its too late. also we have a crazy week ahead with hardly any time to work because of all the meetings we have to get in before Christmas conference next week. so the next two weeks are going to be amazing with trainings and fun times in tacloban with all the missionaries in the whole mission. then i got some letters yesterday one was from tayloer sorry i cant remember if its an o or an e and then another was from Bailey D and grandma. thank you grandma, the part about telling them you love them was great that's something we do all the time in the mission i actually said it to our zone leaders the other day in a text and of course we are missionaries and have to do some thing to stay sane here, he texted back, more than just friends?!?!?!? lol i laughed so hard and texted back pwede gihap and that means... hmmm well it doesnt really translate but it kind of means it can be that too. but ya fun times in the mission still immature little kids teaching the word of God to the world amazing how that works! well i love you all and hope you are able to have a great christmas party
and im sad i may never see the robertsons again and i dont know that ill get the present before christmas but ill get it in december so thats ok becsue it doesnt go straight to the office they have to go pick it up and only do that once a week thank i love you all so much and still haven't really found anything cool to send home maybe just birthdays
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