Week 98 - Capoocan 4/28/2013

so big week i have some big news but ill get to that

Tuesday morning we got up at 4 and showered and headed to Allen for surprise exchanges i wont say too much but ill say I'm glad we went. Tuesday morning we learned a lot from the very moment we walked onto the apartment. so we then attended district meeting with them and it was good and i received some revelation and after district meeting we got all 6 of the elders together and had a meeting about things that we wanted for them and got to learn things from them it was really good. i just hope they got something out of it i don't think 2 of them cared they just looked like they were mad the whole time but that's ok we did our job.

Then Wednesday we went home in the morning after a good exchange and we went straight to catarman to help the elders move apartments but they ended up not being able to move so we were about to leave when the assistants called with the transfer announcement and 7 of our missionaries transferred and 2 of them are staying in the zone. we were instructed to have them leave there luggage in catarman. so then we went home and got a contract signed in bobon for the sisters, hopefully, and then sent the contract off though email.

Then Thursday we got up at 4 again and went to the catarman bus terminal and cleaned for a service project then we helped the elders move and then we went home and i grabbed all my stuff because i am also one of the 7 that transferred! so ya crazy! only 5 weeks left and I'm in a new area. But the weirdest part of the transfer is i was companions with a sister missionary for the rest of the day on Thursday. for our 7 hours of travel it was just the 2 of us, very weird after almost two years of only being with other elders. i spent 7 hours straight with sister karagdag but it wasn't as bad as i thought she is super nice but she doesn't talk much but still ok so we got to tacloban at around 8 pm and went to the mission office and because i have been super stressed lately, i have only eaten a few times in the past 5 days, (this makes me want him home!) but I'm ok now and back to normal. so when we got to the apartment to sleep that night Elder Leichman (companion from the MTC) was there too and he is also transferred its so weird we only have 5 weeks left. so then we got up Friday for transfer meeting and there are 10 new sisters and 13 new elders like almost all the sisters are training right now its crazy. then my new companion is Elder Sakay he is from Mindanao and we got here the same day, we are "batch" as its called here. so its weird. I'm still zone leader but i am in Capoocan, Carigarra zone. its really nice here it actually just became a stake a few months ago and things are going good. we have some really good missionaries and I'm excited. we are going to be super busy for my next 5 weeks and its going to be amazing. our area is amazing and we have already taught nine lessons in 2 days and i spoke in sacrament meeting Sunday and it was actually about the Holy Ghost as well. but mine was more focused on being reverent so that we can feel the spirit in our meetings and throughout our life as we learn to be reverent in what we do and not go to crazy and i used a quote from preach my gospel about the spirit its says something like, the spirit will not get our attention by shouting but it is a small voice just enough for us to notice it and if we are preoccupied then we may not feel it at all. i just feel that this is something that will help me for the rest of my life as i constantly seek to feel the spirit in my life and then i will be able to know what Gods plan for me is and its just awesome.

well about mothers day (I asked if we would Skype, or telephone!) i actually don't know yet but i think ill find out this Wednesday in our meeting with president Andaya.

well i know its your birthday on Sunday mom so i just want to say i love you and i hope you are able to have a good birthday and and hopefully you can wait just a few more weeks to see me i know i told you i don't want to talk about it but for you I'm going to do it for your birthday but i still don't know what day ill be home only the office knows for now but when i find out ill let you know.

love Elder Zachary Coontz

Week 97 - Bonbon 4/21/2013

well this week has been amazing i love companion exchanges they really keep me going. But that's so cool that you know people in Tyler's mission and people here know dad that's crazy. i read his email and the only advice i have for him with finding is you have to be excited and want to do it being excited is a good sign of your faith its awesome and ill get to the reason why later. so Monday night we traveled to lavezares for exchanges and i worked with elder Carlson again he is awesome in the morning Tuesday we attended district meeting because we are having some problems in that district that we are trying to work out. Then we ate and headed back to Lavezares for companion study and elder Carlson and i talked a lot about the blessings of the mission and he asked me to share what i thought would help him to become a successful missionary so i shared with him my definition of a successful missionary i shared some scriptures that have helped me and i shared my final and ultimate goal for my mission and that is in john 15:10-14, and that is to become friends with Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. Then we talked about the spirit and how it brings so much joy and happiness not only to ourselves but to others as well. and something i have been finding and focusing a lot lately is testimony and what it is and what it can do you me and others and i have learned that no one can gain that seed of faith until they hear a testimony and the spirit testifies to them so i have been trying to find a way to bear my testimony with every one. and it has been really helpful. then i read something the other day in preach my Gospel and it says that you work with many converts every day ask them what helped them to learn the truth and i thought even people who were not taught by the missionaries still were converted in some way and i would like to ask any and everyone who is willing to share to share with me their conversion story and what it took to get you to where you are today so that i can better bring those experiences into the lives of others. and i would like to share with you mine. all i remember in my life is going to church and mutual and never being able to remember anything that was taught because i didn't understand the spirit and what it was and as far as i remember i don't think anyone ever asked me to read and pray about the book of Mormon until EFY one year and i thought to my self ok ill try it and it worked but i never really read from the Book of Mormon again until i left on my mission so the main that that made a difference for me is a simple invitation to pray and now i ask all the time for different things like if Jesus suffered for my sins and if He is still alive today and i know that those answers came from Our Father in Heaven through the Holy Ghost and that we can all learn. then during our day me and elder Carlson did a lot of walking and when we finally got to our last appointment after not teaching any all day we sat down and like 2 minutes later the power went out so we shared a spiritual thought and went to buy food and meet up with our companions and we saw them with some members and elder Carlson shook hands with all of them and also with a random guy sitting on the corner. That man then looked up looked me in the eyes and asked what defines pure religion? in English and i was worried because that usually means the person wants to argue but i answered any way and said it is the laws and commandments given from God that people follow and then he said base your answer off the bible so i quoted that scripture i used earlier in john and he said that's good and he continued to ask then i remembered a letter uncle peter sent me about gospel conversation so i asked sir what is you religion and he said he is Jehovah's Witness so then i asked him what they believe and he continued to explain and then i asked him why he knew that that was Gods church and he said that he read it in the bible and instead of telling him he was wrong, which is never a good idea, i bore my testimony that i knew the church was true because i asked God and he answered my prayer and i invited him to listen to the missionaries and he said sure it was amazing. then we had exchanges in mondragon Friday and me and Elder Johnson had an amazing day we taught 6 lessons and saw many miracles we went to one members house and they weren't home but then we just said that's ok and started walking the 3 kilometers back to town to go finding and then they came back and we shared a great message and then that happened another time later in the day and then we went finding and this is where the happy part comes into play we stopped somewhere and prayed and asked to be guided and for the faith we needed then we started walking not knowing where we were going we just knew we were going to be guided and we were just smiling away as happy as can be and we walked up to a big house that they had tried before and the guy just walked out to us and we shared our testimonies and got  invited in shared a short message and then got a return appointment and then prayed again after we left and gave thanks for the guidance pray is such a big role and another thing we had 2 people receive and answer that the book of Mormon was true during our lessons so amazing and i know the gift of tongues is real we taught a lesson in Tagalog 4 in warry and the hardest lesson we taught that day was in English who'd a thought that two Americans would struggle to teach in English but it was hard but it was still good. well then Saturday we got up and traveled to Allen to conduct a baptismal interview and on the way home i was hoping to give a Book of Mormon out that day but in the morning i grabbed an English not Tagalog and i wasn't sure why but on the Jeep home a guy got on and he was not Filipino and i was so nervous to talk to him i just kept praying and finally i asked where he was from and he was from France working for a french Russian company he was 26 and we talked the whole way home and i actually gave a Book of Mormon to a guy from France so cool and he said he would let the missionaries come over but he is never home he travels all over the Philippines and he was only home for like 2 days and we just happened to catch him so cool i just hope he reads it then when he goes back he can find the missionaries so amazing what a small testimony can do i have felt my testimony grow so much this week its so amazing how when you use it more fully and efficiently it works like muscles and gets stronger i love it. well that's all really and we got fed twice on Sunday this ward is awesome but we have lots of work to do to prepare for the new missionaries they are adding this transfer day on Friday. 

 

 

these pictures are from the stake missionary activity or little MTC  and house i live in

Week 96 - Bonbon 4/15/2013

well this week was ok until conference then it was amazing i say ok because we taught 0 lessons this week Monday we had a good meeting with our district leaders then we had a family home evening with some of the members behind our apartment and ate some good food then one of the elders started to have an allergic reaction to the food we ate not good then 2 of the other elders were laughing at him and i just thought to myself how upset i would be with them if i wasn't so worried about the other elder. well finally we got a ride for him to the hospital and the 2 who were joking got what they needed turns out they are allergic too but then me and elder baker had to go to the pharmacy's at night to buy the medicine since the hospital doesn't even keep stock of medicine they make you go out and buy it but it was ok the only bad thing was we were at the hospital until 1 in the morning because we couldn't find the medicine i just remember praying to be able to stay calm and get the things that were asked of me and everything worked out then we came home and got to our apartment around 1:30 and i read from the Book of Mormon then went to bed because Tuesday we had whats called zone training meeting. in that meeting me and elder baker give a training we prepared from the trainings given in zone leaders council so that we can pass on information and also add things that we received as revelation its a really good meeting but very difficult to give with 4 hours of sleep. then we went home and we were invited by the stake to speak at a stake fireside. the fireside was for all the potential missionaries in the stake. it was probably the coolest activity i have ever heard of its what they call a little MTC its a 3 day activity and they have a fireside the first two nights and they have classes throughout the day about teaching skills and everything its so cool and we were invited to be a part of it. we were guest speakers and we also made musical numbers. i really enjoyed the activity and think it would be a great activity for anywhere in the world right now with the burst of missionaries. so that was until Thursday around noon then we went to a baptism in the afternoon and then visited a member after for dinner but tons of people were there so we didn't get to share just eat. then Friday i was dehydrated so i was required to stay inside and rest then Saturday conference and we took pictures of an apartment for the future sister missionaries. then we ate and i now have had diarrhea since Saturday so no work Sunday either life is getting really hard but its ok I'm hoping to have a good week we are going to Lavezares tonight for exchanges and hopefully we will be able to help them out my trainee is actually assigned in this area so ill get to be with him again it'll be fun. well i learned a lot during conference and i got made fun of because my favorite talk was by Elder Cardon they made fun of my because it was about successful marriage, but that's not why its my favorite. its my favorite because of the beginning when he said he learned it all by watching and i thought that applies to all parts of life even as missionaries if you've seen missionaries do certain things and it didn't work that means you need to try something different but if you see something that did work you should apply it to your work as well and it has endless possibilities. well that's really all I'm still a little sick but I'm getting better and I'm hoping to be able to go work tomorrow in Lavezares and do all i can to help their area to grow. well i love you and hope to be able to do all i can to help all of you while I am still here but i cant help unless you allow me to love you all

Week 95 - Bonbon 4 /8/2013

so this week was absolutely hectic we went to district meeting for the opening prayer then got on a van for Tacloban to attend ZLC (zone leader conference) because they moved the day to wednesday so weird but it was amazing i leaned a really good lesson from President Andaya about leadership his trainings lately have been really simple with lots of time for us to share new revelation that we have received and i leaned we need not only rely on the revelation we received but we need to learn from the revelation of our councilors and all other people around us and we actually prepared a training for tomorrow where we are going to give time to our missionaries to share what they have done and learned about certain topics. but then after zlc we rode the night bus and got home at 2 a.m. and then no work thursday because we prepared for interviews and we prepared a training . Then we had interviews and i got to learn some good things in my interview with president he is just amazing. and then he thanked me for my service because this is my last interview until june 4 when i will be going home and everyone keeps reminding me but it still doesn't feel like it will ever come. but then we got a special assignment from president Andaya to find 3 new apartments because they are going to add 6 missionaries to our zone so we will have 24 missionaries next transfer its going to be crazy we are going to be so much more busy than we are now and we have tons of work to do but then Saturday we finally got to work but didn't accomplish much we just looked for an apartment and held a great family home evening with one of our families we are helping come back into activity. then Sunday was ok but we went to church studied at the church ate and went to an appointment and they were leaving so we sang some hymns with members and then headed to stake p.e.c. and reported on the progress of the zone and then headed home to prepare some more for today and this morning we had a zone activity, and thanks to the birthday money i bought whats called a sapaktakraw ball and dad said he had a companion that had one its a bamboo ball that you play volleyball with your feet with, so i learned how to play today and its really fun you should look it up online its the national sport of the Philippines.

well later tonight we have a meeting with all of our district leaders at 6 then at 7 we have a family home evening with missionaries and some members from the ward its going to be awesome. oh i don't know if i ever told you but i love fish its amazing and i actually requested fish for dinner tonight I'm so excited this week is going to be awesome we are giving like 3 trainings and and singing at a stake missionary activity and we have 2 exchanges this week we are going to be so busy I'm so excited.

well that's so cool we have so many missionaries in the family and its going to be like never ending soon and i hope Tyler is doing well we have a different p-day so i will get them a week late but that's ok I'm excited to here what its like in a different mission well i love you all and i wish you all the best and i am trying to decide what else to do with the money you sent i got some cool things but things are cheap here and i haven't even spent half of it yet so we'll see what i can get i bought a bag made out of native material after my friend convinced me it would be good for when i go HOME. what'll happen maybe president will let me stay for 3 years with him and ill come home next year but i doubt it. well be safe bye bye
I'm starting to accept it but I'm still not sure

Week 94 - Bonbon 3/31/2013

so great week we go to clean our apartment Monday and it looks so much better than before we then had a great family home evening with the Delorino family and its the first time i have ever taught the entire family normally the dad leaves but i hope he starts to listen more often they have tons of kids and two of them submitted their mission papers on the same day last week so that'll be awesome when their calls come. Then Tuesday we had a good district meeting about Easter and the Resurrection it was amazing. then later that night we traveled to Allen and its crazy there there is a person there that has a Saint Bernard dog and its massive. But then we had amazing exchanges i got to work with elder Origines he is an amazing elder and always looking for new ways to make work more effective so we made a goal that if the people were to busy for us to teach we would sing a hymn with or for them and then say a prayer with them before we left and the people all accepted it not one person since then has said no so cool. but then we were able to, when we sang to people who don't know hymns, to sing in Tagalog and its so nice because they actually understand us and it brings the spirit so strong when everyone understands. Then we traveled from Allen to the over side of the island to Mondragon on Thursday morning and we interview a family for them that will be baptized this coming Saturday so cool our missionaries are the best. Then we went home and studied and went to work and were able to teach a little and we set up a family home evening then Friday was good Friday so we are not allowed to work here in our mission if its good Friday. Then our Saturday was amazing we were able to go out and even though we couldn't teach we were able to sing with a family then pray with another but then we were able to teach 4 lessons in the afternoon and it was really good and elder Baker is starting to get good at the language here its cool to hear Cebuano but not when other people don't understand him so we are working on that. so for Sunday we had a good time at church the primary were the speakers and they did a special musical number so cool and the little 10 year old girl named honey gave the closing prayer in English and it was amazing. but the primary president translated her prayer into English for her but still good. then after church we met with our new ward mission leader who just came home from his mission this week he is awesome and so ready to help he even came and worked with us and gave us some referrals of his non-member family. then we were talking while we walked to our next appointment and he actually dated a girl from Dulag before his mission who i know its so cool we always say its a small word but its even smaller here in the Philippines it seems like every few days i find a freind in common with some one here so cool. Well thats really all for now but this is the start of a really tiring week today is pday then tomorrow we go to tacloban then wednesday is ZLC then we tarvel home and get back to bobon at like 2 am thurday then we have a ton of appointments thurday then friday we have interviews so we have to clean the church before and after then we have lots to do and we have pec our meeting with our ward mission leader and stake pec this week its going to be crazy we only have like 13 hours for work this week and its going to be really hard to stay diligent but we can do it as ling as we keep praying and trusting in the Lord to help us well thats all for this week and thats awesome that ebers and jay are coaching they are amazing tell them i said hey. well thank you for forwarding tylers letter i want to write him every week he is going to be amazing when he gets out there and finally gets to be with people well i love you all and hope you know that mayaon ko sin maupai nga pagpamatuod kan Cristo. maaram ak nga buhi cea yana ngan mkabalik kit sa autbangan nea kun sundon naton and kanya mga kasugoan. love you Easter is amazing and the Philippines is still hot and rainy.

Week 93 - Bonbon 3/24/2013

alright so that's so cool everyone is going to speak Portuguese that's so exciting. And that's awesome for Jessica i don't remember him but i do remember that last name Allred. well for Tyler that's awesome he'll learn a lot just needs to keep going and keep being obedient and it'll all work out in the end. That's really cool about the baptism we were able to attend a baptism for the sisters assigned in Catarman i actually interview a few of them they had 8 baptisms on Saturday it was an entire family and its a family of 10 they have eight kids and their baby is named Elton John so cool. But watching all 8 of them e baptized was amazing they looked so happy and then the mom got up and and bore her testimony and said good morning every one, then everyone laughed because it was 6 in the evening but she then said i know its evening but this is the morning of my new life and i thought it was amazing to see her and her family just so happy. Well this week we haven't been able to work much Tuesday we were able to teach 2 lessons and then Wednesday we had to do our weekly planning and prepare for the coming interview next week so not much then Thursday we did apartment checks we traveled all of Northern Samar and it took all day we rode 5 tricycles and 2 jeeps to do the whole thing it was crazy. Then we did exchanges with the San Isidro elders on Friday good day. i was able to work with elder Mahoni who is Tongan from New Zealand and is very big so we had a fun day of work and got to teach some really good, unplanned, lessons. The whole day was just really hard and we were able to teach 4 lessons but none of them were the people we planned on teaching, which makes the day a lot harder. Then Saturday was the baptism and then i haven't been feeling to well since but I think I'm getting better now, I hope. Well this week we have exchanges in Allen and Friday no work because its Good Friday so not much but the week after this is going to be absolutely crazy. Monday is p-day then Tuesday district meeting and travel to Tacloban then Wednesday, my birthday, is ZLC (zone leaders council) so i will get the package then it'll be amazing then we travel home Thursday is weekly planning Friday is interviews for the whole day then Saturday we have PEC and our meeting with our ward mission leader so I'm just hoping to be able to get 2 lessons in then. But i guess I should just worry about it when it comes. Well that's really all. I love you all so much and I want to thank you for the birthday stuff i really appreciate it it always makes my life so much easier when i get them. Tell Bishop thank you too i've never thanked him for his help he is the best Bishop ever

Week 92 - Bonbon 3/18/2013

OK so that's super cool that they are missionaries now two i know Patrick isn't actually our brother but its like 3 of us are out at the same time i love it and for the package just some good food i was thinking re-fried beans and tortillas and the Ipod would be nice for the end of my mission and corkys but the money would be nice to buy souvenirs or even just to survive if i run out of money again which i might do this week and i still have 2 weeks until we get money again we do way to much traveling i just keep asking president for a car but i doubt it will happen while I'm in this mission but oh well it will be nice for future missionaries but ya then for the apartment thing that would be awesome but I'm not sure if i would get accepted but if you think i could you can try and i need to apply soon I'm sure but i cant do that here I'm not allowed to use the computer for anything other than email and i can use Mormon.org so if you can set it up and do it for me i would be glad to join in on that it sounds amazing i just wasn't sure if i could go to school right away because i don't know how to do that stuff but i love you mom for asking because i would not have done anything but if i need to do anything to apply just let me know and ill do it and president Andaya will write a recommendation if i ask he always does. so for this week not much work we did our zone training meeting an then had exchanges i worked in bobon with elder Banawan he is amazing him and his brother are the only members in their family and he is on his mission and his brother is about to leave but he doesn't know where his brother is going because they don't email him and he just keeps going amazing so much sacrifice. but then at lunch i got a call from the assistants and transfer announcement and there were eight transfers from our Zion wow i just messed up typing and got Zion not zone but its kinda true we have the best missionaries here but elder Myers transferred and so did elder Banawan's companion so we stayed together until Saturday and my new companion is now elder Baker he is from Logan Utah we made some really good plans on Saturday and did a lot of organizing some things in the apartment i like it a lot i don't know if i told you but my apartment is really big most missionaries might think so it is a 2 story house it has 3 bed rooms a living room kitchen dinning room and its just amazing its just a super nice house i love it ill send a picture of the outside hopefully today if i can get the thing to work but the Sunday we had stake conference and it was awesome it was a broad cast and elders Holland and Hales spoke so cool i learned a ton one thing i learned from elder Holland he said a good missionary always feels inadequate but he trusts in the Lord to make up for his inadequacies  so cool to think about because this work cannot be done by people alone but only with the Lords help awesome then we didnt get to sork sunday because of reporting issues but im excited for later tonight to go and teach with elder Baker well i love you all and im sorry if i didnt do much but i know i did what i was supposed to. oh and my trainee elder dariagan is now in my zone so cool ill get to work with him again hopefully but thats about all but a scripture that has really helped me recently is Mosiah 5:13 it got me thinking the other day and the only way we will know our Father in Heaven in this life is if we serve him during this life and its so true i feel i have come so much closer to him during my mission and i hope to be able to better get to know him as i continue to serve him and im so excited 

Week 91 - Bonbon 3/11/2013

well i just got a text a little while ago that we are now aloud to email all freinds and family outside of the mission and email our converts kind of weird to me but still cool i just hope all goes well with this. well to start i have a few requests if possible.

1. my drivers license expires in a few weeks and i was wondering if you can do an online renewal for me not sure but it would be nice.

2. my debit card expires in May and its also like falling apart so if possible can you get me a new card.

ok so thats really cool that you were able to have a good turn out for tylers farewell and that you were able to talk about the church a little bit. but this week was really good we had zone leaders council and learned a ton and it has really helped my teaching then we went on exchanges we have an elder thats struggling a little he is getting what we call trunky or basicly he is ready to go home he goes home with me in June and its all he can talk about and its effecting his companion and their work. so i had the opportunity to work with him we had an amazing day taught amazing lessons and the whole day it only stopped raining once while we ate lunch so we were just absolutly drenched at the end of the day but during the day we had a few lessons with people crying and it was just amazing how strong the spirit was we were teaching one less active family who just started coming back to church a few weeks ago and while we were teaching i just kept praying to know what does she need right now so we can help her testimony to grow and finally the elder stopped his testimony and i told them i know that what he said was true and just bore testimony the whole time praying and it was so weird as it always is but i just started asking this question and as it went through my mind it didnt make sense so i stopped for a second and it came back so i just said it and it was somewhere along the lines of what has changed in your life since you started coming back to church but not quite as clear and she thought for a second and then just talked for like 5 minutes of all the things that had changed and how much easier their lives were and how much happier they were and she started crying and said thank you because we had given her a blessing before the lesson started and she was just happy and it was amazing to see those tears of joy in her eyes and then at the end of the day me and the elder talked and i let him know that we knew all the things he was doing but i just assured him that the only reason we didnt come and sit him down and just be angry with him is because we know any one can change and i just let him know that if he needs any help that me and elder myers are ready to help in any way and i really hope to see those changes happen for him he has a lot of potential even in his last 3 months. well then saturday we went to bobon and we had the baptisms for Jeffrey and Ian and it was awesome to see both of them be baptized then in the after noon we attended a funeral service and then pec and so that was our day then sunday we had church ate studied had a meeting with our ward missionaries and then we had some problems contacting our missionaries and so we didnt get to work but it was still a great week and we had lots of fun. well i love you all and wish you all the best tyler be safe and i love you keep working hard until the end and itll be worth it 

Week 90 - Bonbon 3/4/2013

so to start happy anniversary and Dad happy birthday i love you.well i have excellent news we had both of our missionary aged investigators interviews on Saturday and they will both be baptized this coming Saturday I'm so excited they are so awesome and then we will be having some pretty hectic scheduling going on because we are in tacloban right now for zone leaders council and then we will get home on Wednesday at like 3 in the morning the Thursday we will start our exchanges and and Friday all day we will be working with the mondragon elders and then Saturday morning we have to do an interview prepare our baptism attend pec and do a little work in the after noon and then because of the new transfer date change next week is transfer week. a 4 week transfer is ridiculous it just started and now its over but it'll be ok in the end. so my Elder Myers keeps counting down for me and reminding me how much time i have left and it still hasn't hit me yet that this is actually going to end but ill let you count for your selves because i always for get what day it is let alone be able to count weeks but this week was really good we were able to have 2 companion exchanges one with lavezares and another with San Isidro  crazy I'm so tired we never get to bed on time no matter how hard i try after the evaluation and everything i still have to update the area book and rescue and retention binder then we have to update our zone leaders binder for the exchange then write in our journals and go to bed and we usually don't get to sleep until 11 or so then we always get up early the next day to see the elders off as they go back to their area then we just have had a crazy schedule lately teaching tons and doing lots of finding on the way here last night we rode vans for about 6 hours and on the last van from catbalogan to tacloban me and elder myers weren't able to sit next to each other and so i decided i needed to talk to the people around me but i was worried about how to start talking to him i know he had a good job because he had a nice phone and every phone call he got he spoke a different language like cebuano or warry or tagalog or even just different dialects so the whole time i was just thinking to my self what can i say and then i got a phone call from one of the elders in our zone who just happens to be filipino so we spoke warray warry so then the man heard me and started talking to me and i was able to share a quick message with him and then we just talked for about an hour about his job and about our job as missionaries and he told me he loves missionaries and loves talking to them so i got his name where he lives and his phone number for sister that are assigned where he lives and i sent it to the assistants then the man got off and the man sitting on the other side of me told me he is from bobon and he is actually really good friends with a member that is a police officer and so i talked to that man and got his address it was just so cool i was excited just to share the gospel even if it wouldn't lead to helping my area but i know that because i was willing to share in behalf of those other missionaries that the Lord blessed me with a new investigator as well i just love this work and seeing the things that come from sharing the gospel mom you asked about testimony i truly feel i had no testimony when i left on my mission i felt like i was just going to get away from the life i had and have some fun but then i learned something and that knowledge began to change in to more than just knowledge of my brain but i started to feel the spirit behind what i knew i have seen the effects of simply sharing my testimony with random people i meet my theory is its the most important thing to me the way i can show that to others is be sharing it and it reminds me of a quote in preach my gospel i think its on the last page of chapter one it is a list of quotes from the prophets of the church but george albert smith says that exaltaion depends on whether or not we shared the joy of the gospel with others and for me that is amazing just our words can change the lives of others i have seen people go from drinking smoking and having girlfriends even though they are married to becoming active full tithe payers all because me and my companion were willing to share our testimonies a persons testimony determines his or her happiness in this life i know that is true i don't think i have been more happy in my entire life than i am now and all because of the testimony i have gained over these two years well im running low on time but i want you to know i love you all and that my testimony right now is about all i can that is mine all of my cloths and things aren't mine they are things given to me but my testimony is something that i actually worked for and i will never leave it well my only advise to every one i teach is if you want to know you have to ask and then look for the answer in the scripture prayer and scripture study are the base to growing a testimony it can soften hearts and and humble anyone all we have to do is give our time to Him and he will do the rest. oh and thank you Grandpa for the email i actually think its amazing that you are working in the family history center

Week 89 - Bonbon 2/24/2013

so that's cool all the stuff you did this week being in the operating room doesn't really seem very fun to me but I'm sure it was a good experience I'm super excited for Tyler i wish i could go to the temple with him i  miss the temple i haven't been in so long and i really want to go again

well this week was pretty good we went to Allen Monday evening and didn't get to go home until Thursday morning so not the most fun but was still a great week we had awesome exchanges in Allen i worked with elder crockett who actually lives really close to Bakersfield in Visalia  and we got absolutely drenched i haven't had an umbrella for like 7 months now but its been ok we have been able to avoid the rain but we had to walk in their area because there are no rides anywhere but we had a good day and taught some good lessons but i wear rubber shoes they are like crocks but they look like dress shoes so they just filled up with water and my socks and shoes were full of water when we got home i actually poured water out of my shoes and the next morning we went to calbayog for zone conference and our cloths were still wet so i had no socks on and then i had to explain to president Andaya why my cloths were dirty and i had no socks then we took a picture its kind of blury but ill send it to you me and elder myers are sitting on the floor and our shirts are just super yellow compared to everyone else but then we had an interview to do in allen so we slept there again and then went home thursday morning and had to go to catarman immediately to send money to the office because they sent us 14000 pesos to buy a refrigerator for some other missionaries because they don't have anywhere that sells refrigerators and we just had it delivered to there apartment ,but we already bought it and got it reimbursed so then we had 14000 extra pesos that we had to send back to the office.

well then Friday we had exchanges again with the other allen elders and had a great day then Saturday and Sunday we taught our investigators and we are hoping for 2 baptisms this march 9 but some of the members told us they saw one of our investigators smoking again so we may need to give him some more time but he is awesome and he told us he wants to go on a mission he is 19 super awesome he invited all his group of friends to join the lesson on Sunday so we have a few new missionary aged investigators and they are all super interested because of our investigator ian its funny because he had been coming to church every Sunday for 9 months and we didn't know he wasn't a member. so now all we have to do it teach him and help him quite smoking and he will be baptized so cool and hopefully his friends will follow one told us he would come to church on Sunday even though we just met him and he said he has been trying to find a church that will help him change so cool.

and something i wanted to thank you for that has been really helping our work lately is you sent me with my family pedigree chart and recently we have been using it in lessons and that is just an amazing thing when we teach temples we always use it and its like i can feel all of those peoples ancestors and all of mine helping to convert these people it is so amazing to feel the power behind such a simple thing as my families names on a piece of paper and i love it so much and i cant wait to go to the temple again. i read an article recently about a Chinese man who was the only member of the church in his family and he lived in America so he had no record of his family for the temple so then he called some family members and found a distant uncle who had something so he got a book full of names and some one in

I saw the picture before I read the letter, and was a little concerned!

the past had gone back to china and found their family ancestral temple and wrote down thousands of names some of them were born before Christ and he submitted the first one thousand names and him and his wife go to the temple every week to do the work for his family and i just thought it was crazy family history is just so cool and so amazing i love it so much and its really help to grow my testimony of the spirit world 

Week 88 - Bonbon 2/18/2013

well just to start off you all have had a special week i really wish i got to spend more time listening to the apostles speaking and things but since im a missionary i dont really have a ton of time and i cant use the internet to look things up but im always so excited to hear about spiritual experiences like that and i really hope you are all able to apply the things you learned. well i didnt get to do a whole lot because i was sick for a few days but tuesday before i got sick we gave a training to the zone about goal setting and being better prepared to teach and it really helps chapter 10 in preach my gospel is all about teaching skills and me and elder myers have been trying to become better teachers and but then tuesday night i got sick but we still did planning for a full day of work because we had exchanges and i really wanted to work but didnt get to. then we got the transfer announcement and only 2 out of our 18 missionaries are transfered so we are basicly all the same but im sure next transfer day a lot of us will transfer and its crazy because a transfer is usually 6 weeks but this one is only 4 because of the adjustment for the MTC and its just going to be crazy trying to get all of our companion exchanges in in only 4 weeks instead of 6 its a lot less time but we planned it all out and it should be ok but thats really about it about the zone. but as for our work we have a new investigator who has been coming to church for like 3 months now and he hasnt been beeing taught because after the missionaries before got pulled out the new missionaries didnt know about him because the past missionaries did not make a teaching record but any way he is amazing he wants to serve a mission he is freinds with the young men that just left from our ward here in Bobon and he wants to go to so we have planned for him to be baptized this march 9th and our other investigator jeffrey to be baptized on the 2nd so its going to be awesome they are both so ready to be baptized and im just so happy to be assigned in this ward in my opinion it is the most organized ward in the entire mission and it is just amazing there are 4 patriarchs in the entire mission and 2 of them are in our ward so cool it is just such and amazing place and the members love to do missionary work they go and visit our investigators just to be fellowshippers like all the time and they are just amazing and they all have callings and do their best to full fill them its almost like a ward back home but its not english so amazing but ya so this week we have exchanges in allen and we have a zone conference in calbayog and i am really excited but lots of traveling we are going to allen tonight and wont be back in bobon until wednesday late night so im pretty sure im going to be really tired in the coming days because we are going to be really busy but im super excited and cant wait to see what the Lord has in store for us well i love you all and dad brother cornelius says hi and wants to know how your doing he is awesome and ive been told that dads trainer lives somewhere in my mission and is a doctor so thats cool to hear but anyway i have a question i was reading some stuff while i was sick and i need to know so i can let the office know but i need to know if you are coming here because in the letter dad wrote at the beach it said he was excited to come and get me so i kind of need to know that so i can inform the office before he buys my plane ticket which he will be buying in like 2 weeks from now so its kind of important but any way have a good week and if ever there is a hard time in life look to the scriptures for help

Week 87 - Bonbon 2/10/2013

well we had a really good week we got to attend our trainings with president Andaya and the assistants and learned a ton then we went home and just work we are hoping to do that more often and just bring missionaries to us for exchanges because our area is amazing we have a few investigators that will hopefully be getting baptized here pretty soon i hope i get to stay here in Bobon its really a great place and we have a goal in the ward to send out 7 missionaries this year its awesome and 2 of them are leaving this Thursday and they are going to be awesome they go out and work on their own all the time and they visit our investigators and they visit less active members like every day for like 2 hours and when we are gone we still set appointments and just send our ward missionaries to teach the lessons its so cool they are amazing but we have really just been enjoying our work. but we have been looking for more things we can do to as zone leaders to more fully help our zone to progress and we are hoping through the training we give tomorrow we will be able to help them out and be able to learn from them and things they may want us to do to more fully help them stay focused and diligent. its weird to me that i am actually looking for more to do since this is probably the busiest i have been in my entire life constantly traveling and going straight back into work and constantly following up with missionaries and its just crazy but I'm so excited to see how much more i can learn this week well the one new thing that i started this week is i had loaned that miracle of forgiveness book to a member in my last area and i have let other elders read it but i never actually read it for my self but i started and its an amazing book i can see myself being more understanding of others when they do things and i am understanding more all the different ways that we can sin its quite an amazing book and its helping me to be more diligent in being obedient and i am always excited for that like 10 minutes that i try to give myself everyday to read it i usually read it while we are cooking lunch and during breakfast and its awesome i cant wait until later when i go home and i can just put my cloths in the washing machine and sit down and read. its so nice to have a washing machine i have been doing laundry by hand for like a year and a half now and now i have a washing machine in my apartment its not the best but it makes my cloths not smell and if i use enough bleach it gets my shirts to stay white i never thought i would be thankful for washing machines until now that i finally have one again its so nice i love it well sorry not much but who knows maybe next week i will be transferred or have a new companion but i really hope not i love this area and my companion and life is amazing but its really up to the Lord what happens next well i love you all and thank you for all your support i hope mom gets better being sick is no fun i love you all and hope that i can be a better example to you all next week

Week 86 - Bonbon 2/4/2013

so good week we got a lot done but not really teaching we ere able to teach a few of our investigators and things and even had a few of them attened church but the highlight of the week was thursday when we had interviews with president Andaya i love that man so much he is amazing and now my interviews are different because i am a zone leader he not only talks to meabout my companion but the entire zone as a whole and our zone is amazing we have some of the best elders and sisters i know and its crazy because every companionship has a companion that is anywhere from 5 weeks to 4 months right now and they are just doing amazing things al the area are progressing and this stake is doing amazing the leaders are ll so willing to work and we just keep encouraging our missionaries to meet with tham and ask if there is anything more they can do to help out and its really working but ya so as zone leaders me and elder myers have an interview together after everyone goes home it was so cool we came in prayed and then he just said thank you we were really shocked we have always heard about the zone leader interviews as being the time he tells us what more we can do and he actually didnt tell us anything he told us thank you and told us that he could feel the unity in our zone throughout the entire day we were with them and its so cool then we just asked him what he did when he was zone leader that he thought really helped him the most and he told us the best zone leaders ask for suggestions and acted on them so we had already been calling all of our missionaries twice a week and talking to them about stuff so that was just like awesome and then he gave us oreos and took us out to eat but then he sent us to fix the sisters gas stove but turns out there regulator is broken so we went out to buy them a new one but all the stores were closed and everything got crazy then we went to san isidro and i spoke cebuano for the first time in my whole mission its really fun because san isidro is a port so they speak like every language but all the people we visited that day on exchanges were cebuano speaking so cool i actually understand it and am already getting pretty good at it. well im in tacloban for Zone leaders council meeting and its so cool to be with such great missionaries. then for chad the hardest things for me one the language then learning to be more understanding of people who come from different cultures its hard because they didnt do the smae things you do and they dont joke the same way you do it weird but then the hardest thing is learning to reapect others agency we can ask and ask but they always have the ability to chose whether or not to do what we ask and even though you know it will help them they still have that some gift from God and we need to respect that well thats all for now we are in a bit of a hurry now we are going to eat dinner at president Andayas house

Week 85 - Bonbon 1/27/2013

Our letter to Zac told him Tyler had received his mission call -

aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im so excited that is so cool ill have to find a way to see you but hopefully i wont be distracting but the mission is amazing and you will learn so much. i cant believe its actually happening im really speachless right now that is just so cool. we are going to have so much to talk about in 2 years.well this was a really good week we had got to teach a lot more lessons than i am used to we taught a few on tuesday then slept in catarman and traveled to tacloban at 4 in the morning for a mission conference then we got to meet president andayas mission president and then we ate and then traveled on a bus back to bobon in one day it was 13 hours of travel in one day we got up at 3 am on wednesday and got home at 2 am on thursday we were crazy tired so we had our weekly planning session thursday then the lavezares elders came over for our companion exchanges crazy so we planned with them for the day ate dinner got ready for bed and then ended up having to stay up until 11 taking care of some zone business then got up at 6:30 exercised and went into studies and had a great day of work i taught the most lessons i ever had in one day so cool the people are so receptive here and we just go teach random people. i keep looking back and thinking why coundnt we do this in dulag and then i thought to myself maybe if i were to go back now i would probably be able to do the same thing i just finally figured out how to go tracting when plans fail and its really cool but people are so awesome here either way. then on saturday we had pec and taught a few lessons and i made a goal to memorize a scripture everyday for the rest of my mission. i have been memorizing them for the past week or so now and its getting easier with each one its cool yesterday i memorized Alma 40:11 and ive noticed it makes it a lot easier to remember other scriptures too well thats really all except we had a really good zone activity we started with a small Family home evening type deal then we played sports like frisbee and soccer and kick ball and we caught spiders and made them fight its so cool we caught some huge spiders they are bigger than any spiders i have ever seen in america even tarantellas but so much fun to play with then we ate and now im here in the internet place with my companion still just kind of freakin out about tylers mission call i cant believe it its so cool you are going to have so much fun.well i love you all so much and tyler my only advice to you is to learn to love everyone if you just love them they will listen and they will feel that you love them and everything just goes more smoothly and you will never be able to love others until you learn to love your companion and yourself but it all starts with asking God if He loves you then you learn to love your self and your companion then it just keeps expanding until you just love everyone you meet im still working on it it may take an entire life time but if we start now we will get there sooner i love you tyler and i will pray for you everyday that you will be able to do all the lord wants you to do because that is when you will be truely happy and its just an amazing thing have fun but be obedient all blessings come from obedience to the comandments

Week 84 - Bonbon 1/20/2013

well this week was really good we were able to go on some more exchanges we worked in a place called Allen and they speak Tagalog there so it was really fun to practice and its cool because i got to work with elder Smith again who was in my district last year when he was a brand new missionary but we were able to get a few lessons in and do some good finding and we talked about some concerns they are having in their ward and we think we may have found a way to more fully help them out and then because there are two words in Allen we then worked with the Allen 2 elders where i got to work with elder Lenoy who is from Davao on the island of Mindanao and he is awesome we were able to teach 5 lessons during the day and give out some Books of Mormon but the best part of the exchange is always when we sit down at the end of the day and talk about ways we can improve its was a weird day i felt something was bothering him i and i found out at the end of the day that he was really nervous to work with me which to me was really weird Ive never had anyone tell me that before and at the beginning of the day i asked him to lead in all parts of the work for the day whether it was finding or teaching and he seemed a little hesitant to accept but he did and he did awesome but because he was nervous of messing up it actually made him think to much and he was getting jumbled up and tripping over his words but when he started to feel the spirit the lessons all ended up really good and 3 of the 4 people we invited to church were there on Sunday and it was an awesome day the attendance went up we had investigators at church and we were able to have a meeting with the stake president and talk about some of the things the missionaries had seen in their wards and branches that they feel could change and make the meetings more spiritual and it went well and ya just a great week and to answer your question yes me and elder Myers are the zone leaders for Catarman zone its a really fun calling that keeps me busy all the time and helps me to focus on the work more fully and as the zone leaders we had the opportunity to give a training to the zone about working with the leaders as we were asked to by president Andaya but we also added a part on the end of the training about working with your companion because how can we work things out with the leaders if we cant even work things out with our own companion and it was really good we have see some big changes in our zone this week and everyone is teaching more lessons and our reports say that they are meeting with their leaders every week now as well and its really cool because it is helping them to have members work with them more often and we really hope to see them continue to progress throughout the rest of this transfer. well i love you all and hope to keep learning as much as possible and i hope you all can try to look for opportunities to work with the missionaries and help them out a little because it is really hard work and it just works best if the members come along and help out. and just something funny i met a little girl who is the daughter of an inactive member whose name is ABCDEF pronounced ab-see-deaf and a missionary that was assigned here actually gave them the name so weird but i laugh every time i see that little girl

Week 83 - Bonbon 1/13/2013

this week was really crazy we have had a lot of stuff happen last time i emailed you i was actually in tacloban for a meeting we had with president andaya we learned a ton then we went home on wednesday because elder myers was sick and had to have a check up then when we goy home after no sleep in tacloban and a 6 hour van ride we went straight into companionship exchanges with the catarman elders i worked in catarman and elder myers worked in bobon we had a great spirit led day and found an inactive member who is crazy rich he lives in spain and is only here for business for a few weeks and his mom lives in our area so we got a few refferals and set up an appointment to go back and visit him then we had a few lessons and headed home for our evaluation then elder myers came to catarman and we headed to mondragon for another companion exchange and we both had great days tons of lessons and me and elder johnson were able to go finding for a while and prayed about what color house we needed to visit then i got the answer of blue and he got green so we turned around and started walking and saw a blue-green house and it started raining so the people invited us inside it was so cool everyone is that house is wealthy so we got to share a little about the resstoration and set return appointments with all 7 of them so cool their work is awesome in mondragon then saturday we were invited by the stake president to give a training for the young single adults about missionary work and then we had an interview in the afternoon then we attended a broadcast from the area presidency and went home so no work in my area all week i dont know anything but i did get to do a little work last night but only 1 lesson then we had some crazy promptings to go to another area in our zone  that night and we dont know why and still dont know why but we went and slept on the tile floor in their apartment because the only have 2 mattresses in their apartmentso fun night then this morning we played a little soccer and studied and now we are in catarman to buy food and things but all in all a great week and i am so excited to keep going we are so busy all the time it makes it so much easier to focus on the work and its so nice that my companion is totally on the same page with everything its so cool we like think the same things and just kind of do things the with out telling each other what the other is thinking im so excited to keep working well love you all

P.S. mom i love reading about the things you are doing in your sunday school class its so amazing to hear about how this program is working but one thing that i noticed is something that i have seen in myself as well something my last companion asked me to do and that was to be more open minded to the things others are doing and we should never criticize anyone for what they do its always better to try and understand why people do things the way they do before we say anything its something that i still struggle with myself but if we try to understand people and where they are coming from we can more fully help them ive noticed in my self i speak first then see what happens then have to feel bad first in order to try and go talk to them about what the problem was its better to do the aproach first that way we arent fixing 2 problems only one and we are better able to adjust to what others need and one thing we have been focusing on a lot in our zone right now is not complaining about hard circumstances in preach my gospel in chapter 8 about accountability and one part talks about never blaming anyone (or anything) else for our circumstances if you feel its hard having lots of people its probably because our Heavenly Father wants to teach you something i love you mom and sorry this is my email but it is something that has really helped me and i feel at this time it can help you as well so that your class can become an amazing spiritual experience every week no matter what has happened in your life or theirs during the week i know it can be spiritual if you are all seeking for the learning

Week 82 - Bonbon 1/7/2013

well im am all better i am out of the hospital and working hard i got to go back to sta margarita for a few days and had some members feed us we actually cooked with the corkys sauce it was amazing then i found out i was transferring so i packed my bags and headed to tacloban for my check up which i did not go to i talked sister andaya out of it since i feel normal again and she agreed so i stayed in the office all day and helped sister andaya get things organized from the hospital papers from all the sick elders and sisters and ate some pizza and met up with some other elders and had a good night talking about gospel stuff then friday morning was transfer meeting i got my call and everyone was joking saying i was going to go to the middle of no where and be in another super unorganized place but im not i opened my call and i am now companions with elder myers he is from texas and we are assigned in bobon wich is in catarman zone and it is also the farthest zone away from tacloban it takes about 7 to 9  hours on a bus or 5 to 7 hours on a van and it is amazing i am assigned in a stake and a ward that has about 160 attendance every week and the members work with the missionaries all the time and i am so stoked to be here elder myers is actually a freind of mine from the mtc he goes home one transfer after me so its so cool we were actually in the mtc together for 3 weeks this is the first time i have been companions with some one with like the same amount of time as me left and we are having so much fun we had a great first day i stayed in catarman friday night because we got home at like 2 in the morning from tacloban and then i went back to bobon at about 7 and we went straight to work it was amazing we taught 4 lessons then my companion started feeling sick and we headed home this area is awesome and its even better because it is my trainer elder andrus first area and elder ostlers last area before he went home and on sunday it was amazing even though the power went out testimonies kept going the youth and single adults just got home from a temple trip so it was awesome and then we got invited to a meeting with the stake council and i got some time to talk to them and gain their trust and i was able to give a few suggestions about how they can have a more spiritual sacrament meeting and the stake received it humble and thanked me and it just feels great to be here i cant wait to meet with them some more and see what else we can do to help out around the stake and better coordinate the work of the missionaries and members it will be awesome i am so stoked about this transfer amazing area and an amazing companion we are already freinds and we both love all the same things so its going to be great we are making some awesome new goals and we are hopefully going to set a good example for all the missionaries around us well im still not completely sure what the day is but i will find out soon i just got a letter from the office and i will forward it to you so you can get me the information i need but i don't think it has a date on it but i think it will be june 3 but i will ask because the transfer day is now june 5 and not june 22 so we will hopefully know next week well thank you for fasting you guys are the best family ever i love you all so much and i do pray for you all individually every night before bed and i hope that helps your lives become easier well sorry not much happened this week but im excited and hoping for big things this transfer

Week 81 - Sta Margarita 12/31/2012

alright so this has been an interesting week i am doing better still sick with dengue but after i talked to you all last the next day we left for tacloban and then had a check up that night and the next morning the mission didnt want to put me in the hospital so they just took me in for checkups but the doctors were really worried because i was really dehydrated and actually almost pass out in the hospital luckily i caught myself before i went down and then then proceeded to get me ready and as they put my IV they took blood and it wasn't the right color because i was completely dehydrated so then i spent a few days in the hospital and got out sunday and we are still here in Tacloban hopefully going to be going home tomorrow there were lots of people in the hospital including the Andayas their daughter who is 14 had a seizure sunday night and ended up in ICU for a while she and i both got out of the hospital sunday. i got my package it came in handy and then i kind of gave a lot of the candy away to some random guy who came into the mission office trying to get money but all i had was candy so thats what i gave him for his kids i put it all in that stocking sorry if that was something special but his kids needed it more than me. the piano is awesome I'm really hoping to get better before i go home well sounds like life is still going for you all nothing ever changes super stoked for Patrick that's going to be awesome well tyler is next and i hope jenna gets assigned somewhere in Bakersfield that would be funny well its transfer week so i might not be in Sta margarita next week but ill let you know next monday

Week 80 - Sta Margarita 12/23/2012

well not a lot happened this week but we recieved some revelation during our weekly planning and we are going to e focusing on the active members first because the only difference between them and the inactive members is they attened church on sunday but they still dont read scriptures the dont fullfil their callings and ya they need to step it up first before we can really get this branch to progress so we have another family home evening tonight and we are going to be teaching all the members hopefully this week because its christmas break so most people dont have work and this week elder dariagan gets to take over everything as part of the training program i just kind of guide him and give suggestions and thats all its going to be different but itll be ok he is really excited well saturday we came home and my knees started hurting and i thought it was nithing but when i woke up it had spread throughout my whole body and i was just in pain from head to toe and i had a fever not fun after church we went to calbayog to by some medicine and earlier this morning when i woke up at 5 i still had a fever of 101 but the pain was gone and the fever has slowly been going down since i ate breakfast thismoning im hopeing it will be completly gone later this evening because i could barely walk yesterday not fun but im feeling much better now well thats about all not a whole lot happened but we had a great family home evening last week and we are hopeing to have another later but i totally used dads lesson about the bicyle for the whole family and it really seemed to have a big effect on this family i just hope they can remember what was taught well i love you all and hope you all have a great christmas and im expecting to see some pictures next week well thankk you

Week 79 - Sta Martarita 12/17/2012

so great week not perfect but it never will be just happy that we were able to follow the spirit but just to comment on yur lesson i am actually in Ether in my personal Book of Mormon reading well at lest one of them receently i decided to start reading a new Book of Mormon after i reach 2 Nephi everytime so that eventually i will be in almost all time priods of the book of mormon all at the same time but every time i start reading a new one i pick a new topic to study about so the first one is an assignment given to us by president andaya and that is to mark the saviors name everytime it is mentioned mark christ-like attributes, anything from the doctrine of Jesus Christ or faith repentance baptism and enduring to the end and marking every where that Jesus speaks and its really cool and the new one i start is members of the God Head and any mention of the atonement whether it is some one using the atonement or it directly mentions the atonement and its helped a lot but any way i found it interesting in Ether the other day when it says that the Brother of Jared no longer had faith because he had seen Jesus and could no longer have faith because he had a perfect knowledge super weird to think about but then Jesus commands him never to sin again and i just thought its pretty crazy that he actually did that and how hard that is to accomplish but ya recently my and elder dariagan started to have a little bit of contention and i wasn't sure what was wrong i just know something was bothering him and it worried me that he didn't want to talk to me about it so one day it got really bad and i just got on my knees and asked for the strength to be able to talk to him and not just try to keep going as if nothing is wrong because work is not effective if that happens and so we talk for a few hours and finally after a while he opened up and told me how he feels like i dont include him enough and that i really dont understand the people we are around and of course it hurt but it was true majority of the Filipino missionaries in the mission don't really like me and at Christmas conference elder dariagan had the chance to be with them and not me and they talked about me a lot im not happy to know that the mission is talking bad about me behind my back but it helped a lot has changed in our work and it has been an answer to my prayers i recently decided i needed to ask our Father in heaven to humble me because i have been feeling really bad and i wasn't sure why so this all happened last week but this week we have been able to do some great work over a few days we worked Friday Saturday Sunday and had some really good lessons and we are able to teach with unity a lot more and i really just made it a goal that even though i am training that that doesn't mean that all i do is teach but i decided i want to just learn from him about him and really just every one around me and a lot has changed people are more willing to talk to us now that we are working together as one we have some really good new investigators and i know this has nothing to do with us but it is all the Lord but we are teaching the part member families that we have been trying to teach ever since i got here and they actually just decided to join in on the lesson instead of just leaving like they used to do and on Sunday our attendance came back up to almost 50 and we had some referrals from the branch and we are going to go teach these people later this week so that we can help the members out with their missionary responsibility  and things are going good we have a FHE later this evening with a family who i have been trying to get a FHE with eer since we got here and things are really just starting to fall into place me and elder dariagan still have our differences but that doesnt have to effect our work as long as we keep talking and keep setting goals to more fully adjust to one another and embrace one anothers background and keep working toward becoming more Christlike missionaries with one another i have seen recently there is no difference in missionaries new or old in the mission we are all even working towards the sme pupose and that is to become like Christ and help the Fathers children in the process and its going to be an exciting time when we finally get to the point to where we understand all the Father wants of us here and get to apply it to the rest of our lives i love you all and know that you all have so much potential and i pray for you to be able to reach that potential all the time and i know you will all some day be ready to stand tall in front of our Father in heaven and just talk to him face to face as a friend as he should be our friend well thank you for the letter and thank you for sending that package out but i dont really know to much about the skype thing yet but i will be emailing again on dec so i guess ill tell you then if not we may be able to text you or something i really dont know but ill be sure we get to talk dont worry oh and i gave my face book password to a member here so they could add me as a friend but they said you posted a bunch of stuff on facebook thats cool i figured my face book still had the picture from when i left but i guess not thanks you mom your the best

Week 78 - Sta Margarita 12/13/2012

well i did get the letter from the robertsons super nice thanks for the scriptures brandon i always love getting mail even though i have been horrible at sending it i have a ton of letters i still need to send that were supposed to be before christmas but we got crazy busy with dengue and the typhoon and we had a few other things happen and thats why i am emailing today instead of yesterday. but ya so here in calbayog we didnt really see the point in being inside aparently in TAcloban it rained pretty strong but here it only sprikled for a few minutes and was super cloudy but its ok and we did not clean because we are moving apartments and it hasnt happened yet but all of our stuff is in our bags and things so its kind of a mess with all of our things in the front room but still ok we havent been able to move yet but hopefully later today we will get things going and move into our area well this week was quite crazy after the typhoon we got up on wednesday got everything ready that we needed and headed to catbalogan as soon ans we got the all clear so that we would be closer to tacloban and then thursday we traveled to tacloban and and practiced singing for the christmas conference and then we had a sweet fireside where everyone was given a part of the book of mormon and was asked to perform a skit wich was really hard for us since we didnt have time to practice until like 1 hour before the actual program started but our skit was Alma the younger it was super funny im going to try to get a copy of it but ill try to explain the sisters were the narorators for our skit and they just would read a scripture and then we would act it out so the read about the sons of mosiah and alma going around destroying the church the people cast as those people went and beat up the priest it was super funny and then they read the scripture about the angel coming to visit and then our zone leader elder johnson ran across the stage and tackled elder kennison who was playing alma the younger and he started yelling at elder kennison like he was mister T super  funny then because the sons of mosiah and alma the younger were 2 tongans 2 samoans and 1 little tiny filipino they all pretended to faint like little girls and then they carried elder kennison unto alma the older who was elder wooley and elder wooley covered him with a sheet and him and the priests knelt down and t\curtains closed and then i ran on stage and elder kennison ran off so then they opened the curtain after saying 2 days later and then thaey read the scripture about how alma gets his strength back and how he is a new person and what not and the i came out from under the sheet everyone was laughing so hard then i had the job of taking our huge joke and turning it into a spiritual skit to and they had me bare my testimony in front of all the missionaries in the whole mission and im pretty sure that is the biggest group of people i have ever bore my testimony in front of in my whole life i was praying so much before we started that i wouldnt say something sarcastic and what made it worse my freind yelled out its elder Coontz and i started laughing but it was good i had one assignment during my testimony and that was to talk about grace and then after that we sang amazing grace so cool for some reason my zone when they planned this thought i would be the best to turn a joke into something serious because the planned this while we were in the hospital but it was amazing and then i stayed the night in CAnmogsay which was part of my district in san Roque so i stayed in tolosa for probably my last night ever but thats ok the next day was even better we played games that the office elders and sisters made and the purpose of the games was to build christlike attributes but there were still points for winning the game so my team lost every game we had the least points out of everyone but we won most humble i was really happy to here that because a lot of the elders that won for points were the elders that the whole time we were playing were just talking trash and talking about how they were number one i realized something in my self that day is im not that person anymore who wants to win usually i dont even want to play if i know im going to lose but now its just fun and most of the time i forget what the score is everytime we play anything and it makes things a lot more fun for everyone well sorry this is all that really happened but the reason why i didnt email yesterday was becuase we spent the day with elder neilsen of the are presidency super cool i leaned a ton the training he gave us was about a talk given by david a bednar and i think its called the atonment and mortality but it talks about the enabling power of the atonement most people only really know about the cleasing power but the cleasing with the enabling power makes it so much better i have already been able to aply it to my life and it helps a lot if you have the chance you should look it up and read it it makes prayers a lot more meaningful and seems to help you learn a lot more as well it is amazing and the neilsens are so amazing i wish i could have spent more time with them they invited me to eat lunch with them and we talked about a lot they taught me a lot about what i have done on my mission that i didnt even realize had happened super cool such insightful people well thats all for this week i love you all and know that even though we werent able to do much teaching we were most definately doing missionary work and i know i have been enlightened and i hope to more fully aply the things i have learned to everthing i do well this week i have a question in my personal stud i was reading in mormon 3:12 and mormon says his prayer was without faith i followed the refferences and learned something interesting and just want to see what you all get from it and see if what i got was really the reason why please send my anything you get because if a prophet says he had no faith then it makes my wonder how strong is my faith but i think i understand it now. well thank you for everything mom hopefully ill be able to get the package before i transfer but if not i will still be able to get the members the gifts through other missionaries thank you mom you are the best


 oh and i also got invited by the polonesian missionaries to sing with them during Christmas confference we sang a tongan hymn called folofola mai a sisu or thus saith the lord it is an amazing song and super fun to sing and i have been trying to learn as much about other langueges as possible it helps to better understand and i have started to learn ilongo from my companion its super fun well i love you again bye bye