Week 45 - San Roque 4/22/2012

so fun week Monday i think i forgot to tell you but i had an interview that night awesome i spoke Tagalog i noticed how easy it would be for me to learn all i really need to do is to try and use it every once in a while and actually study i realized i have gotten lazy in my language study but that's different now i have learned a ton of Tagalog this week just by using it and my companion of course is able to help me out because the tone is a lot different for Tagalog than for Warray so sometimes even if i use the right word but with a Warray tone they have no idea what i am saying its crazy how big of a difference it makes but tuesday we had our district meeting and i gave a training about using priesthood power not just authority and it has really helped but ill get to that but after the training we taught a lesson and went to dulag to send the tithing money to Manila and then we had our branch presidency meeting and were able to get some things a little more organized but it didn't help things were still crazy but ya like i said ill get to that then wed we taught a new refferal and she will be great we just have to make sure she is ready before she has to go back home to go to school she is 11 and her mom is an inactive member from dulag cool didn't even know she was a member in dulag and i was there for 6 months so small world not really im only like a mile from my old area but still its awesome so hoping mom will start going to church as well in dulag im going to get elder ostler on that but that's about all that happened besides getting the budget from the district president for a YW activity then Thursday morning during my studies i got a phone call they said is this elder coontz i said yes and she said im sister so and so from the office i started freaking out like no i cant transfer now whats happening but it wasn't the mission office it was the tithing office in Manila and turns out money was sent but the names of the people who paid tithing were not submitted and we needed to find the problem so we went and tried to teach a few people but no one was home then we went to get the key from the branch president and he was already at the church thank you spirit for helping him and we search the whole church and there is no record so not completely sure what we need to do but they haven't called back yet so I'm not sure because we are a new branch presidency and we aren't the ones who sent the money so ya then i had to call the mission office in order to talk with the supply manager who is one of my friends from the MTC elder Cypres and order a Tagalog hand book for our branch president its hard since he doesn't have a cell phone and most of the time his daughters cell phone is dead since they don't have electricity in their home so ya but got that done then Friday we had a service project at 5:30 and finished at about 9 then ate studied and went to work we were able to teach our investigator again and she seemed to really get things she didnt want to pray but did it any way its so cool to see people learning then we tried to teach the old second councilor but the were cooking dinner so that didn't work out so we went to the YW presidents house and gave her her money for their activity Saturday then Saturday is when everything comes in to play we had our speakers planned and one is a member who used to be a branch president but lives in manila but had a stroke at 38 years old and we living with his brother while he was recovering so that becomes a problem because in the morning we taught the old branch presidents family and they told us he had a stroke again uh oh not good but we didn't have any information so we went home ate and went to the district building in Tolosa and talk with the district president and he gave us money and told us not to attend the training but to go to the hospital and i never want to go in to another hospital again after that it is the worst smell ever because people just pee everywhere i didn't realize the hospital i was in for my surgery was a private hospital we finally found him and his sister was in there with him and 20 other people with their sick family and she had a pump and she was pumping oxygen for him while all the nurses and stuff just stood around and talked like there was nothing to do i hate corruption turns out the Philippines is one of the top most corrupt places in the world but any way we were there for a reason and that was to give a priesthood blessing so we asked permission and they asked me to give the blessing i was a little nervous that the spirit would tell me to tell him it was his time to go but luckily that didn't happen but i knew it was his time to go but something stood out in my mind the only thing i can remember from the blessing i gave was that he would see his family again and i said it with complete confidence one problem his family lives in Manila and i thought about that all night and i know he will see his family again but right now he is doing the lords work in the spirit world preparing other peoples families until his family arrives because Sunday i conducted sacrament and the branch president filled in as speaker and during his talk one of the members received a phone call saying that he had died his brother ran out of the chapel crying it was one of the most stressful Sundays ever we had 18 people at church when it started the speakers were late and then all that happened ahhhhhhhhhh! but i know it all needed to happen people are changed now and i really hope to see some change in the things they do every day church ended and the only class held the third hour was priesthood because everyone else went home and then we had a training in Tolosa from what was supposed to be 2 to 4 and ended up being 3 to 5 so no work yay we practiced piano until 7 and went home and got things prepared for the service project we did earlier we made tree guards because and its a lot harder here we used bamboo and nails and machetes and hammers to make them and then it poured rain and the other people were late so we ran out of nails and left and on the way home we saw the other people on their way there but we were hungry and wet so we all went home and ya now im here emailing you well i love you all and hope those of you with priesthood are using it to help others because thats what its for and if you dont have it makes sure others use it well not to much longer and itll be May and i can hear your voices again

Week 44 - San Roque 4/16/2012

ok so this week has been pretty good really fast but good tuesday we had zone meeting in the morning and i was able to learn a lot we were able to plan an activity as well which is why this email is really late but any way tuesday i left really early in the morning with one of the other district leaders for our leadership training meeting i love those i always am able to find something that i can improve on to better help my my district to be better missionaries and more for my self but while i was at the training my companion was able to commit our investigator to being baptized on the first Saturday of May so that will be a nice thing to do she is a 15 year old girl whose mom isn't a member but her dad is but the problem is her dad is dead and her mom lives in manila she lives with her grandma who is also a member but at first she only really wanted us to teach her because she likes one of the young men well ill just say that changed she actually reads now and her crush is teaching her as well through text its kind of weird but she remembers it better when it comes from him so that's a plus then Thursday we did our weekly planning at night after doing some work on the records at the church then Friday we were able to teach like 3 lessons mostly to members but we also taught our investigator as well and she finally understands the Gospel of Jesus Christ its awesome she is mostly just shy about answering incorrectly but when she got a bunch of thing she opened up because she realized she actually does know what we are talking about and its awesome to see the spirit work inside of some one and helping realize that's what they are feeling and that its not just information they have gained but its something they actually know and they know its true so then Saturday we had a service project in Dulag and i got to see a bunch of members but it was a district youth service project and since I'm in the branch presidency we got to go awesome we were at a college that isn't necessarily  a very rich school we cut the grass out front that was about 5 feet tall and cleaned the class rooms its was funny because teachers here like to speak English because most classes here in the Philippines are in English so when they would speak English to me and i only ever responded in warry they were like where did you learn to speak warry and i am able to tell them that we talk to the people its easy they never believe me but that's cool turns out it takes normal people a couple of years before they can speak even a little bit and i go days without speaking any English i love this I'm able to learn so fast with the spirit but I'm just hoping i am able to speak Tagalog later tonight i have to interview the investigator for the zone leaders and she only speaks Tagalog yay I'm OK at it but its still pretty hard i always end up switching back to warry but that's OK they usually understand so then Sunday was fun i got to sit up front again but i didn't do anything but listen to the speakers we had people passing and blessing and the first councilor was conducting but then after i spent most of the time in the hall taking care of primary kids who wouldn't go to primary and just wanted to play in the other class room and since their parents don't seem to care about them being loud i had to make sure they weren't breaking things and staying quite its not very fun but it'll hopefully all change soon we are trying to change some things around and if their kids are being loud i am going to go get their parents like they do in America i just hope the parents can step up a lit of the time the kids just start to be loud and complain and the parents just let them do whatever they want its not good but i hope it can change a little bit so that our meeting house can be a little bit more spiritual and a place i actually want to bring investigators and where they will want to come back to but other than that all we have really done is try to get the records set up for the new clerk that we can hopefully call next next week once the records are ready for him to just do his job its all coming along just a little slower than id like it to but anyway i love the members here and they are slowly beginning to understand that the missionaries aren't just here to have fun but we have a purpose and there is a time for fun and a time to be serious and it is really helping our work some of the youth are working with us to prepare for missions and i can really see this branch becoming the place people want to go to church well i love you all and hope you all can find ways to have a more spiritually sacrament every week that we go so that we can help others feel good at church too

Week 43 - San Roque 4/8/2012

 alright so no email so i will just start so this week was fun all time low for lessons a whopping 3 but thats ok lots of meetings and lots of things were accomplished but yesterday during conference i realized something i have been slowly learning during my mission and that is even if you are doing the right thing you still have to be in the right place or there is no use in you doing good this all started with an experience i had in dulag we were teaching an investigator while the neighbors were having a dance party so the music was loud and no matter how hard we tried we couldn't teach with the spirit so no use the same kind of thing happened during conference saturday i was one of the lucky 5 elders in the whole mission who got to attend and that is only because i am in the branch presidency but i learned tons and learned i wasn't even close to fulfilling my priesthood responsibilities while i was a youth during president Uchtdorf's talk as he talked about becomeing deacons quorem president i was like hey iwas that too but i did absolutley nothing that i should have and during the later saturday sessions i learned a lot about becoming a parent someday then sunday in the morning i sat in the very front and learn tons as well but in the second session i sat in the back with our branch but then they left and went to the Tagalog and then a bunch of RM's and SA's replaced them yay!?!?!?!?! not they were loud and obnoxious and i couldn't hear hardly anything no matter how hard i tried to focus so i just started thinking and kind of out of anger i thought to my self and wrote in my study journal this question. If we don't listen to the servants of God why would God listen to us? and after that i was able to focus a little better and learn a few more things I'm just glad for what i learned form my study in Mosiah about Abinadi that no matter what the situation as long as we stay calm the spirit will help but that's the problem if we dont surround our selves with good influences it is really hard to keep our cool so no matter what we do the spirit wont want to help so we really need to make sure we surround ourselves with good and make sure we are providing a good environment for the people around us to learn and i really feel bad about this topic because before my mission i just didn't care and i know that's horrible but i just didn't get it until i got here i really didn't understand anything about the gospel because of my attitude towards others but now i would like to apologize to all those that i may have distracted from learning especially the other youth in our ward i wasn't the person i should have been and never realized how big an effect i can could have on other people by simply hindering there learning during church meetings and i am truly sorry and hope you can all forgive me for the things that i have done in the past and for my bad example and i can promise you i am a completely different person than you all knew before and hope i can continue to improve and help others come closer to Christ by providing them with a proper learning environment and also for my self to learn and be a good example to all of you now and when i come home some day well i love you all and hope you all recieve this and are able to share it with others but until next week paghinay hah! 

Week 42 - San Roque 4/1/2012

so a lot has happened this week Monday of course p day and that night i finished my training for my district meeting then Tuesday morning during my personal study i received a call from Elder/President  Maxfield him and his wife are the couple missionaries in our mission and he is in the mission presidency so we talked for a minute and he told me they were making a change in the branch presidency and he needed to talk to the old branch president and another brother brother Acala so he is our new branch president but ill get to that its been a long week so then i did my training and and went to work and made appointment for president Maxfield then Wednesday we had zone conference so i was in tacloban all day then the coul\ple missionaries took us to our area to do the interviews only one problem he doesn't know tagalog or warray just english and french darn so me and my companion had to translate for him not exactly fun he uses really big english words and when they translate they aren't long so he was a little upset with that but he understands now why so then the brother that was supposed to become the new branch president said no because it was to big of a mess to Begin with and he wasn't ready so then we went to tolosa to fix all the problem got everything fixed then back to let him know it was all better and told him we would be back the next day for an answer  so then the couple missionaries fed us awesome free food then Thursday normal day and the brother accepted the calling and then Friday normal day of work as well then then saturday we had to let all the old people know they were being released and call the new councilors well the new first councilor is brother jun Rodriguez and RM and i am the new second councilor and my companion is the new clerk so we wont be transferring yay but we have to train the new branch presidency fun but its ok itll be fast hopefully or else i will have been in the same zone for 1 year not exactly fun but thats ok if thats what the lord wants me to do and as well we have been looking for an apartment because my district is growing by two because they are opening a new area so lots to do not much time to do it but its so much better always having something to do then having to think all the time what can we do know because we visited every one we know so maybe the change will be good well i was going to send pictures but this computer is being weird and not letting me attach so next week so i did get the package and i have almost finished all the candy and the new scriptures are already getting tons of marks i love them but one thig grandma i love the dwars chew but that only last about three days in the humidity here in the philippines so please if you send just send like 4 so i can finish them oh and the BBQ sauce is amazing i cook it with chicken all the time and the filipinos love it i already almost finished one bottle oh and grandma the pens are amazing everytime you send them im just about to run out its awesome and all the letters are amazing im going to write back though not email so i may need a few addresses but i love you all so much and this is my last day as a teenager so im going to go play beach soccer at the old branch presidents house thank you untill next week ingatz 

Week 41 - San Roque 3/21/2012

(in order to get caught up I will just copy and past the letter.  No corrections!  Good luck, it will take about for our five letters and you will understand him)

Thats crazy Berlin Germany is crazy cold in the winter but im sure he isnt to worried about that but thinking about that i dont know how i am going to survive my first winter home i get cold when its 70 out side and thats only while i sleep even when we use air con it only gets down to about 70 so ya i think i might just stay inside all winter but thats ok its forever away but its so weird because people keep asking me how ling ive been on my mission and i have to think its so cool how that works but this week has been a little hard with our new zone leader he is changing everything most of it is really good and can help us but know he is having us as district leaders report on the obedience of our elders one problem my district is my companion and the zone leaders so i feel weird rating them but last night i had a little bit of time so i made an equation using things from the missionary handbook and and a form we use for self rating after splitz and turns out my district is only 75% obedient so we have some work to do some of it is simple like working out every morning and things like that but it still needs to be fixed not sure what happened but after i left Dulag i stopped working out but that changed this morning because we went and played basketball for a few hours and it felt really good to play its been a while since we have played for real. but we have a plan to start going to the gym every morning at about 5 so we have the exercise and still have time to get ready and eat before 8 so we can start our personal study on time............ OUCH! this is becoming really difficult to think in English i actually tried to the other day on the phone with a member and i just switched back to warry warry right away and i just asked my companion what dayun is in english and he didnt know so i had to think for a minute and its right away kind of not sure if thats translates right and people ask me all the time to help with English and a lot of the time i have no idea its nice talking to the American missionaries because it doesnt have to be straight English it can be mixed with warry warry or tagalog or even cebuano its really nice but i was talking to my companion the other day and if i only have Filipino companions until i go home i am going to forget English and my spelling is horrible i keep using spell check and i still don't correct it all well this week was different we only taught 4 lessons again and attendance dropped to 55 but turns out our branch president was think about asking to be released luckily during PEC we were able to help him and we gave him a blessing and sunday he was early to church and we were able to get everything ready that we could but we were still short one speaker so i got to speak again im getting pretty good at it its actually fun now because i get to teach the whole branch and they cant tell me they are to busy for us to teach and people are starting to actually listen one problem right now is school is about to get out this is their last week so parents have to work extra hard to get money for their kids to be able to pay for the teacher to sign the paper saing they graduated or they can move on the the next grade we have a few YW that should have graduated last year but because they were short on money she had to repeat her 4th year of high school so not fair but i guess thats how it goes here but we had splitz with the zone leaders this week and i got to work with the new elder he is an amazing person and knows what needs to be done but hard to teach with we worked in his area and i basicly taught the whole thing but when he did teach it was strait from the spirit so thats good i actually got in and started with his plan for teaching and then it  didnt feel right so i started asking a bunch of questions until i was able to ask that one inspired question turns out she had been praying but not if the church or Book of Mormon were true it was an awesome lesson not sure yet if she was at church yesterday but ill find out later well i love you all so much and pray for you always and thank you for your prayers i know they help bye bye

Week 39 - San Roque 3/12/2012

so this week has been really fun! one of the best weeks i have had so far, and not because we taught a ton of lessons, we actually only taught like 5 people this week, but it was full of service. one day no one was home and the thought came to my mind, who can we help? so we thought for a minute, then it came. we went to see a family who only their oldest daughter was home with the youngest but she was doing what we call laba or laundry.  instead of a washing machine you put your clothes in a plangana or bucket type thing and washer soap and you wash it by hand. its not exactly fun at first but its a lot cheaper than a washing machine. luckily i know how to laba because that's how i wash my clothes every week, its exciting. another day we thought the same thing and went to another house where we made brooms called silhigs ill take a picture and send it when the card reader gets here. but you take these long leaves and use a knife to cut out the center stem and you tie those together and that makes a silhig. then another day a member was doing whats called bunot which is taking the outer shell off of a coconut and then me and elder andrada used machetes to cut them in half, really fun! we have helped a lot of people this week and from what I've seen everyone we helped came to church, but not all the people we taught. so i feel we need to really just help people more often and i have really started to just notice ways we can help. its so cool how it works and i hope i can continue to do that for the rest of my mission.
we have been able to teach two of our investigators about three times one is the daughter in law of a member and the other is the granddaughter of the same member and they seem to get everything we are telling them.  when we asked questions to see if they understand they have stuff to add, its so amazing, they are so ready for this and i really hope to stay here and see them get baptized. well this week i had to submit a a report about elder andrada and his progression and after i submitted to the zone leaders and they reported it to the assistants  the assistants called and asked if i could just switch rooms and become the new zone leader in tolosa luckily that was just a joke but at the same time i worry because one of the zone leaders is going home. we just left him in tacloban this morning and all 7 of the people going home are either assistant to the president or zone leader so they need new ones in a few days. but i feel like I'm going to be in san roque for one more transfer so that's ok with me. but wherever the lord needs me I'm willing to go.

so for your questions yes i know elder misalucha and i also the elder that we left in tacloban this morning his dad served with dad elder senolos and i met a few people here in tolosa that know dad too one is sister perrez she said dad was bugoy pero maupay gehap or kind of disobedient but a good missionary and there was one more but i don't know his last name just brother jun they both said they know you kind of weird as well the apartment is a little different we have ac window units and running water but the table is really small and there are four of us and its a gas stove again but that's ok im learning to cook on it but as well i found a card reader but not sure how long it will last so I'm sending a few pictures right now well that's all i love you all and know that tyler will be fine in about 4 and a half months lol or 6 but i love you all and wish you all the best.

Week 38 - San Roque 3/4/2012

so this one is a lot later than usual since i didn't realize it was going to be march until after i emailed last week. so today i spent some time at a shipping company in tacloban called lbc to send presents for dad tyler and patrick. you'll know whose is whose when it gets there tylers is in a bag but dads is special and it cost me 2000 pesos to send it so next time small presents. happy anniversary as well, and no i didn't forget! time is just moving way to fast and i didn't pay very close attention. but it's all done now.

so this week has been interesting our fast last sunday helped a lot even though we didn't get to do very much work. monday we had an fhe and it was really fun then tuesday everyone we went to see was home and ready to listen, and all of them came to church! so nice! but wednesday we had splits with the zone leaders and i worked in tolosa and only taught one lesson, not a fun day. we went to the same peoples houses like 5 times because we had no where else to go and we had a member with us who is crazy, he is the one that joined my first district meeting. while we we walking he said "damo burod kon may uran" and i asked "kay ano" he said "kay tugnaw" which in english is "there are a lot of people who get pregnant if it rains" and i asked "why" he said "because its cold". me and the zone leader where like what? his mind is everywhere, he is like a little kid with adult thoughts, not a good combination. while we were talking to a member about all the debt they are accumulating from all the hospital visits, completely serious and the member was almost in tears, the crazy guy looks at me, pretends like he is playing basketball then pretends to shoot and yells KOBE!!! dang, it was not good and we basicly just litened to his thoughts all day because he speaks everything he thinks. its so funny as long as no one else is around and we dont need to be focused other than walking.

thursday we went to tacloban to get our monthly support money and came home and our family home evening got cancelled so we had our weekly planning and worked a little in tolosa again. but only one problem we had splits again friday but luckily i got to work in san roque. we only taught two lessons and visited every single person i know. one good thing, we taught one of our investigators who came to church and i got to meet the mother of a member who was an investigator before and are ready to be taught again. i'm so excited, i hope i don't transferred since this is the last full week until the next transfer day ahhhhh! not yet i'm not ready to leave. but oh well what ever happens is supposed to happen.

so march 16 is the next transfer day and one of our zone leaders is going home so we have to go whether or not i transfer, but i probably won't.

saturday we had a lesson at 10 in the morning in a place we had never been to, but it's a member and her grand daughter and daughter in law are not members so we  taught them. it was a really good lesson, they asked all kinds of questions because they already come to church so they already know a little bit. it's really nice. then after that we dropped by the branch presidents house to say hi and ask if he needed any help and he asked us to preside over an activity while he was at a meeting. then we went and did that and he showed up and we had pec meeting then he took us home.

sunday we had church of course and had 69 attendance with 3 investigators and a returning member YESSSS!!!so worth it i love this work its so amazing to see the change in people and like you said dad we need to be there friend. if we aren't they don't trust us and have no reason to believe what we say. one thing i have been sharing with the members is a testimony doesn't have to end in amen and it doesn't have to be words at all. just be their friend and be a good example and they will see what's different about your life and make it more open for conversation, and it works even for the missionaries. i love the people and i've noticed that seems to be all they need. it's so amazing! sunday i taught sunday school as a last minute thing and it was 2 nephi 11 thru 25 so Isaiah  yay not prepared but i learned a lot while teaching about why its hard to understand his words and ways to better understand then after church we have a couple missionaries and part of their area is tolosa so they fed us for fast sunday and then drove us to our appointment then we visited branch president again and set up a fhe for later tonight. i'm so excited they are such a fun family. well i love you all and hope the best for all of you and always pray for you bye bye