Week 17 - Dulag 10/9/2011

so i only get mail about once a month and that's if it made it. i have gotten a few dear elders but not as many as before of course.

so my investigator who is supposed to be baptized on the 22 went to visit her dad last Sunday and hasn't come back. her phone is broken so we have no idea right now, i'm really hoping she comes back because her friend can't progress without her. we found out she cant read so she is really worried about not being able to be baptized, and i am too. so i emailed tyler a few weeks ago but i'm guessing it was the wrong email or he doesn't check it. (this is a response to his mom saying he should write his brother!) but any, way i have a few things more i want in the package if tyler still has that vertical leap increasing exercise program that would be nice. i need to be able to dunk so people stop bugging me. then i need a cd with the nearer my god to thee cd and a hymn revival. and then a i have an investigator who wants new american music if you could send some that would be nice. and any magic trick stuff i have cards but anything cool would be nice, i have completely run out i try to make up more but they are basically the same.

so this week we really didn't have much happen, really wish it would have but, oh well there is always tomorrow.  I've decided that's how i will look at it after the talk in conference where he talked about climbing the volcano with his kids and said don't look at how far you have to go but how far you have come. so tomorrow is nothing compared to the life I've lived and can never be longer than any other day.

we were able to start teaching a family who have basically just been friends, finally!  they are the ones who fed us dog. they are really cool people and our zone has a goal, and if we can get 20 new investigators this month we get a prize. and we decided we can get at least one a day with how often we get punted at appointments (I have no idea what that means). we just go talk to people.

so during conference i just kept waiting and waiting for the talk about the kid in japan. i wish i would have know it was like the last talk of conference*. I've never taken notes before during conference and i have 10 pages and i didn't even write half the stuff that stuck out to me. the mission is an amazing thing and i really want to do it again some day.  i cant believe I've been gone for so long already, i swear i just got here like 2 days ago its crazy how fast time goes when in the service of God.

so i really need to get these letters and presents out to kamrie and chad and start finding christmas presents for everyone. not sure yet, though but ill figure out a way to get it there.

so right now i really feel like i want to stay here in dulag until they get a building but i worry the Lord will want something else. but i know it will be the right thing if i leave.

so my time is starting to run short since i pay by the minute here its interesting to think I'm like wow that's a lot of money when in reality I'm not even spending a dollar but i can buy a days worth of food for about $2.50 its ridiculous i think i am going to retire here when i get older

so the other day i had people asking me for my full name so they can add me on FB so we can talk when i get home and a couple members want to give me their phone number so i can practice my warry after my mission. I'm like wow i just got here, but it seems like with the way things are going its not far at all, and I'm not sure what all to do all the time yet, and i just hope i can learn it all in a short 2 years. but anyways the language is great, I'm starting to learn some tagalog too because people assume we speak it. but then we just tell them we only speak warry and a little cebuano and they usually switch, but not always so its fun. but any ways thank you for your prayers and your support i love you all.

oh  and i forgot Wednesday we had a service project cutting grass for an investigators new house. but no lawn mower here, just use sundangs which is basically a machete. it was awesome! but i got some really bad blisters that started bleeding but I'm ok now.  and i have some weird rash thing on my arm no one seems to know what it is, they just say put alcohol on it.  so i do, its amazing, that's their answer for everything here.

*The reference he made to conference is something our church holds twice a year.  Called General Conference it is a Sunday when the leaders of our church speak to us from Salt Lake via satellite.We actually get to watch from the comfort of our home.  It is a great time to be uplifted spiritually.  If you want to hear the story he is talking about you can listen here.  He tells a story of a missionary that served in the same mission as his father.  If you didn't know Jim also served a mission in the Philippines.

Week 16 - Dulag 10/2/2011

so first off this week has been great! i had my first transfer and im still in Dulag. so me and elder andrus are working hard, we haven't been able to teach the polotican guy again, he is really busy. but as of right now the baptism is on. their names are lorena and stephanie, one day this week we were teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and we were reading in the BOM and read a scripture it said repent ye repent ye, i think it was in 3 nephi but then stephanie said hey this is the scripture god showed me in my dream. i was like what? thats crazy, because earlier elder andrus was trying to explain faith and asked, have you ever seen God and they both said yes! what? and stephanie said ya he came to me in a dream. i cant wait until the 22nd it wil be awesome. so other than that we have another person that would be able to get baptized but she has to get married first. she is 19 with 2 kids, kinda crazy to think she is only a month younger than i am. but they cant afford birth certificates for their kids or a marriage license so they cant get married yet, and we were told not to help pay for it. her asawa or soon to be husband is an inactive member so his sister is the one who told us to go and visit them. but she is going to be in tacloban from oct 5 to the 30 so we have one more appointment with her then we have to wait. but its ok, i think she is getting money from her aunt working for her so she can get a marraige license and birth certificates. so 2 of the elders in my district tranfered so i had the opprotunity to work with another elder on thursday. we went to see a member who cant go to church because he has school sunday morning, but he wasnt there. so then the other elder, elder bondoc didnt want to walk back just yet so he asked his mom if we could share, and she talked after he shared a scripture for an hour. i tried to bare my testimony and close like 10 times but she wouldnt let me she just kept going on and on and on about nothing. just talked about her kids, i think its because she never leaves the house so she has no friends.

so on to the fun stuff we had lots of walking, and talking to freinds because again,everyone was busy, and we are about to drop and investigator because she never reads. and last night we had our first free meal outside of fiesta. an investigator invited us to eat dinner and we showed them a movie called together forever its pretty good and they really liked it. he was like ya how come in the marriage ceremony its only to death do you part? thats dumb, yay maybe we can get another appointment. and he really likes the city of memphis so he started asking me questions about the city and of course the only good things i could tell him is elvis' house is there and we have a really good zoo. then the other stuff he was like wow i thought it was all nice and happy and everyone is playing music of course all he really knows about the US is what he has seen in movies. so in reality nothing. then they started talking about the blind side and i was like yay that school is by my house. ya they were like so is it really like that the "black people" as he said  all just yell and fight? lol wow memphis. but of course here they dont say black people they think they are black, they use some very choice words here. i thought it was funny at first but thats just normal here.

so we are in Tacloban again today and i have no money because I forgot my pin for my missionary card, but oh well i think ill survive. so im gunna try to send a few more pictures today if i can figure it out. oh and if you send a package all i need are like instant desserts i can cook without an oven or microwave because all we have is like a camping stove so we are kind of limited on stuff to cook but any ways thats all and if you can find a english to tagalog dictionary that would be nice i want to learn tagalog as well as warry-warry

Week 15 - Dulag 9/26/2011

(I was looking through the letters and adding dates, when I realized this one never got put on the blog.)

so this week was good still not so sure why the people feel like they need to feed their babies while  we are teaching.  so monday night we had a branch FHE and they asked us to teach about families being together forever. and we had 2 investigators there who we were going to teach the plan of salvation to the next day, i was like hey i have a pamphlet about that! so i hadn't taught that lesson yet in warry-warry but elder andrus wouldn't talk he just drew on the board and i was able to teach the whole thing and answer questions as well!  it was cool! so now I've taught the plan of salvation like 4 or 5 times this week. one of our investigators is going to seminary and committed to baptism on the 22 of october but we may have to move it if her friend doesn't come to church. i think they want to join together so that will be nice to have a baptism. and so elder andrus had a meeting on thursday in Tacloban so i stayed in dulag with elder bondock who lives in our apartment with us and elder nelson who serves in abuyog. i had to plan out our whole day and i had to know where everything was. the hard thing is in abuyog they speak cebuano, so elder nelson speaks cebuano. and elder bondock only speaks tagalog. so it was interesting 3 languages in one lesson it was hard because i can follow cebuano but not tagalog. i only understood a little of it so it made it harder for me than the investigators. but it was good we got a lot done and didn't have anyone tell us they were to busy or not be home like normal. so really the rest of the week was cool elder nelsons companion ended up in the hospital after his health check in tacloban so elder nelson was with us for another day and ended up needing to go to tacloban as well because he had sores on his foot and his eye was all swollen up when he woke up and he couldnt open it. so we took him to tacloban and headed to tolosa for the family week celebration activity. it was cool we played games and ate and spent time with members and some lady was following us around taking pictures of the Americans playing basketball kinda weird. they were trying to hide it but i could hear the noise it made and see the flash from the camera. so then saturday we did a lot of walking and only got to teach once all day. we walked about 35 kilometers this week its awesome! so sunday we went from 5 investigators at church to 0 and 43 members to 30 again. yay but its ok there is always another week to come. i cant wait! oh and so we have this buang nga lalaki gawas ha amon apartment and elder bondock named him don armando he is literally crazy and he started living outside our apartment a few weeks ago. and he laughs all the time and yells at his feet about how they stole his wife and kids its funny sometimes but also kind of scary. he started coming in our gate and peeing on the pile of rocks outside and the other elders started yelling gawas na don he started laughing and went back outside the gate. yay not sure what to do though we are going to get district t-shirts that have a picture of him and don armando and put bawal umihi didto which is tagalog for it is prohibited to be peeing here. its awesome, its on all the walls and i saw it today while we were playing pool inside the building. this morning we invited our investigators who are the dulag grand champions for basketball to play it was cool. only one of them came and me elder andrus elder bondock and his companion elder zarrate played with him against some kids who were skiping school. it was fun, ive never been so tired from one game of basketball before in my life. i guess after 6 weeks of not playing an actual game is getting to me. and its super humid right now. we ran in to a baptist missionary earlier who told us there is a typhoon coming through! oh well just a month or two more and its rainy season and it will rain ever day for 3 months! yay! oh well i love you and miss you all and keep up the good work i cant wait to see you all again but thats ok this is going super fast im almost worried i wont be able to do enough in only 2 years but as long as im always working i know it will be ok. well oh and if you send another package can you send a couple pairs of contacts and solution for p days thanks if you can and im not so sure how mail works yet but im trying to figure it out so letter should be coming pretty soon but it will take about 2 weeks to get there

Week 14 - Dulag 9/19/2011

oh my gosh its so cool all the things that are happenig here, the lord really does bless those who serve and follow the rules. we got our sacrament attendance to 43 this week! yes, naguswag kami! we had 5 investigators at church and we had one other that had something come up and couldnt make it. we could have had 50 but some members were late and have gotten offended. they dont like our branch president because he doesnt help them but that because he lives in a different city, but oh well. we are doing our best to make sure the members know we are different than the last elders that ran this place into the ground. we have struggled since i got here to get 1 or 2 lessons with members but this week we had 4! and at one we had 3 members it was awesome, it makes our job so much easier. so this week some how we were able to bring our numbers up even though we really just walked to everyone we knew like every day hopeing some one would let us in. but in the end it paid off.

so this week we had zone meeting on tuesday in tolosa with the district president and wednesday was zone conference. so we were in tacloban all day and got to hear from one of the area presidency elder ardern from new zealand, it was pretty cool. then we went to dulag and had some extra elders at our apartment because there were no busses going to their area that late at night. but then we went out and taught and despite the set backs we got 5 new investigators this week and one of them is a polotician so its awesome. but we still need to work on some members as well. we went to see one lady who told us the church is true but the book of mormon is only true when it applies to her and all the church leaders and the prophet are liars. so yay for dulag! but we will get them back! apparently we have 150 members here in dulag we just have to find them, so yay, but we can do it. so im really starting to get the hang of the language i find my self talking to people for a while and then they realize im not using english they are like wow what happened, i just tell them im not speaking warry  only english and that they are speaking english too! its fun to see their faces and our polotician investigator was like do you guys beleive in the holy spirit because i think thats why you can speak our language. i was like yup and he asked how long id been here i was like one month yesterday, it was awesome! i really love this language and want to teach it to my kids when i have them so they can speak 2 languages itll be awesome and it wont be spanish like everyone else in America. but ya aperently when you get a filipino comp you learn tagalog because a lot of them dont learn the language because everyone speaks tagalog so they can just speak it so maybe ill be able to learn it as well, that'll be cool.

so i really love this place and i hope you all are have as good a time as i am. the time is just flying by its crazy to think ive been in the philippines for more than a month now. well i love you all and want you all to know that i miss you and cant wait to see you after my mission and hopefully by then ill have forgotten a ton of english like some of the frends ive made here because i really want to speak this language so untill next week love
                   Elder Coontz

Week 13 - Dulag 9/12/2011

Sorry it took me so long to post this one!

but ya so this week was fun kind of a party week here in dulag. it was fiesta, so at the beginning of the week everyone was preparing and then wed thurs friday they partied. so monday was fun in tacloban then tuesday was district meeting and we didn't do to much because no one was letting us talk to them. so then wed the party started in the morning there was a huge parade and we watched the show they had after with all the high school bands and dance teams they aren't very good compared to america but still cool.  we had investigators and members who participated and asked us to come watch so that was cool and then no one again. we basically just walked around dulag all day I'm so tired from all the walking this week.  so then thursday was the eating part of the celebration they just eat all day, we had 3 lunch appointments and 2 dinner i was so stuffed after the second one but we had a few potential investigators invite us to eat too, so hopefully we will soon teach them. one of them is the kind of person we are looking for, a potential branch president since our branch president doesn't live in dulag. but ya he owns 5 dyipnis the one from the pic is one of his, he also has a weld shop and a store, so we need him. so then on friday we had a few people say we could come over but of course they forgot and most were hung over. but saturday was great we had a plan to increase sacrament attendance so we went around to almost every one we know, investigator and inactive and invited them to church. and then that night we went to a funeral service for a a guy whose son is in the branch presidency its weird because they have the body in a casket in the middle of the room open so everyone can see him. but they fed us after so it was nice because all the stores were closed and we had no food at home for that night. so sunday we went to church in hopes of high attendance but only 30 darn, next week. the burial for the guy was during church so we were missing some people and we had another investigator come to church she has been an investigator for years on and off and she told us after fiesta she would come so we were like ok cool, and she did and had some friends there so it was even better. but then she went to go sit up front after president talked to her i was like uh oh but she was sitting by her friend so i was like maybe its ok. then they brought us the schedule for sacrament and they had forgotten to call speakers so me and elder andrus spoke and president.  but i look at the schedule and our investigator was giving the closing prayer i was like uh oh. luckily she is really good at praying but she got up at the podium and like everyone else before her said good morning, then started and it was great and she had fun and answered questions in sunday school so hopefully she and her family will finally join. she has like 6 daughters and they don't listen to us when we come because we are american. yay, and they are naawud or shy but not when we have philipinos with us. but whatevs. we are gunna get them. so then we went to see a guy who told elder andrus before i got here to come back after fiesta, so we did. turns out he had the lessons 20 years ago and still reads the bom (Book of Mormon) from time to time. and he is a politician with a large house yessssss, profesionals. but any way after that we went to see the people we saw the day before who said they would come to church then didn't. and hopefully we helped them to feel missed and then we went to see the RS(Relief Society - our church's women's group) pres who also didn't come. something just said we need to go see her. so we did and she is upset because she gets no support for reactivation and it was awesome. i understood everything she was talking about and when my companion turned to me, and i started to say what i had thought of, and then i told her something completely different and i don't know what i said! i didn't even know the words i was using! but then she seemed like she was satisfied and got her answer. i was like asking elder andrus after what did i say to her he said i don't remember but it was perfect. i was like great! too bad i cant just have that happen every time, its amazing how the spirit and the power of the gift of tongues works. we missionaries really need to have faith and be worthy of it, it is amazing. and i hope it happens again as i learn this language. so today my email is late because we went with some other elders to some WW2 stuff around here in dulag. apparently where the first Americans landed and destroyed the japenese is right off the coast of dulag. and on a hill about a kilometer away from our apartment is where they raised the first american flag 40 min after landing and defeating the japanese. around the area its pretty awesome. so then we are thinking about playing a little basketball after lunch, we are thinking about getting a whole chicken from this place called chooks to go. if you find it on google maps our apartment is just west of it across the street at a place called cebuanan luhilier or something like that.  its a pawn shop. so dad asked last week if the mosquitos are eating me? well I've only gotten about 10 mosquito bites since i got here its kinda nice. whenever i tell people dad served in baguio they are like oy tugnaw didto which means its cold there. so ya they all want to go to bagio because that's where all the rich people live, bagio and manila.  so its kinda weird when I'm getting cold at nite and its 80 degrees! its gunna be a hard first winter after my mission. oh and i finally got the dear elder you sent a few days ago its not and instant thing anymore i beat it here but anyway i love you all and pray for you always thanks for everything until next week

Elder Coontz

Week 12 - Dulag 9/4/2011

 Zac with his Mission President and his wife

so lets see today i got up at 6 did laundry then got ready and caught a bus for tacloban, they were showing the jackie chan movie where he has the suit, but that was probably the nicest tv ive seen since i got here! i am in the mall in an internet cafe its nice, its got ac. it hasnt been too hot at night anymore just 85 in the apartment i was actually cold the last coulpe of nights and had to wrap up in a sheet. its kinda weird to think that im cold when its still 80, but whatevs. so i am going to try and send some pics with this email but im not sure yet. (he forgot his cord, but his companion had a card reader so got few)

so this week we havent spent to much time outside of the apartment we only had one full day all week. of course monday was p-day and my companions b day we made cake and bought some roticary chicken then played some b ball.  so we kinda just went and saw an inactive family then went back for dinner.

then tuesday was district meeting and we bought a chicken and one of the elders who lives in our apartment made chicken adobo it was delicouse. so then we went out met a few people, then i got to teach my first lesson in warry-warry it was awesome! we taught her and her husband and it was great my companion keeps saying he is amazed at how much im able to talk during the lesson. i almost know enough to teach the whole thing by myself, but good thing he is there for when i get lost or dont understand a question. its really hard to understand them, they speak way fast. so then we went to go see a guy we met who knew ezra taft benson to be our prophet but he never seems to be home. no one is ever at their store either, but oh well we will find him. so then that night i got pretty sick i had some pains in my stomach and was up all night with ibm. (this is not a fun thing for the mom to read!)

so then in the morning we went to clean a dyipni (that is what the vehicle in the picture is called)  it was awesome, he fed us and i threw it up later, but oh well. i went back and fell asleep until about 12 then we had language study. i laid down for a little while then we went out to teach. we met with an investigator family who told us we cant come back until after feista, so not till the end of this week, but oh well maybe theyll come to church sunday. then we got on the back of a moped thing with an extened seat and went to see an inactive family but not home, so we did a little exploring and found a new investigator who we are going to tomorrow.

so then thursday was weekly planning so nothing till the after noon again. and all we were able to do (because our investigators were "busy", they were drinking, but oh well) was to visit some members and shared and got a refferal and set up a family home evening for tuesday with a part member family. itll be cool.

so then friday was our monthly cleaning day so again nothing till about 3, but we did have a lunch appointment in a cemetary! i have some pics it was awesome food they had a whole pig.








so president Andaya stopped by and he is going to order me a study desk because we are short one, awesome! so then we went to an inactive family who doesnt come because their oldest son has school sunday morning so we helped him with his english for his history exam. its really hard to explain english, i never thought i would need to do it. so then to another inactive family who live across the street and they asked us to help them move their house a few meters closer to their kitchen! thatll be fun we are just picking it up and moving it! then our investigator didnt show up agian, and i drank a 1.5 liter bottle of orange soda that costs less than a dollar, awesome! we get ripped off in america. saturday we went out with the branch president and a member and saw some inactives and taught a lesson to some new investigators. so second lesson awesome! and the bracnh president was impressed with my warry, he said i need to just talk, but i am kinda too scared unless its a lesson. oh well, maybe some day. so we met a few more in actives then back home because we were fasting, so no dinner.

then sunday at church we had one of our investigators at church, awesome! and we had 33 in attendance and 3 people that are normally there didnt come, darn maybe we will have even more next week. so then we didnt get to eat untill about 3, i was dieing we fasted for like 27 hours, and we arent supposed to do that. so hopefully never again but we only went over because they had a 2 hour meeting after church and asked us to come, when really we just sat there. oh well. then we saw a few more people and submitted our numbers and some how despite all the set backs our numbers increased from last week! awesome! so now im in tacloban and we are gunna do some shopping for stuff we cant buy in dulag.


but ya so i dont have an address, when we get addresses its a barangay and a name and you just ask around till you find them. but my barangay is marketsite its really close to the beach. (Jim had asked for his address so we could look it up on google earth) so if you want to send anything food with sugar like candy or no bake cake would be great. we dont have an oven we cook with a propane stove and our microwave oven caught on fire. so patay na but ya really just any good snack food that will last a while we dont really have very much like candy or anything like that. so i just realized i forgot the cord for my camera, so its gunna have to be in a few more weeks sorry but time is going by really fast here its crazy i love it and i love you all

              Elder Coontz

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