26 September 2016

India came back all over again. We had a very short week running all over, looking for people. My companion is fresh out of training, and doesn't know the area too well so far, so we are  both having fun trying to find people. Things are going well! Our biggest problem is our investigator's availability- we can't find them. I forgot my journal again, so this will be a shorter email, though. We largely spent the week trying to meet with our investigators, but with little luck. One of them, Aruna, was out of town, and is now facing some severe financial difficulties. We visited her Sunday morning, and she promised to come to church. She didn't, and she bunked on the appointment we had set for that night too. That's always frustrating. We did have a better appointment with Santosh, another investigator. He is an interesting case. He comes from a Hindu background, and so doesn't have all of your standard Christian beliefs. When we were teaching about the Plan of Salvation, he started laughing at the thought that everyone would be resurrected. "Where would everyone be? There's not enough room on the earth!" That sort of thing. Eventually, we just challenged him to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and ask God if this is his plan for us. That seemed to work at the moment, but we'll see if he follows through.

Throughout the week, we've had a lot of people who have randomly stopped us on the street! That's definitely a welcome change. The only problem with them is that usually, they only speak Telegu. My companion, Elder Daniel, speaks Tamil and Malayalam, and I've learned French, Tagalog, ASL, and a couple others. Unfortunately, no one around Visak knows any of those languages. That's always fun. Apart from that, enough people know English that we can usually teach...usually. I'm really strongly considering learning Telegu, just to get around. 

That's about all that is new for the week. Next week I'll put in pictures! The view around here is great. See Ya!

19 September 2016

This week was really, really short. Tuesday morning, we had zone training. All of us went down to the stake center in the morning, and the training started. Right after that, things got crazy. President Koster called and asked if I'd received any news on my visa. When I said I hadn't, he told me he had: my visa arrived! And not only that, but I was leaving. When? Tomorrow. After the training, I went back and started packing everything. That turned out to be a wise move, because I got a call from the office later confirming some details. Specifically, that I was getting picked up that night. I threw everything in my bags, and still had time to go out visiting before the APs picked me up. We went down to the mission office, and I got McDonald's for the last time...That night, we slept at their place. Unfortunately, the only free spot they had was a leather couch. Have you ever tried to sleep on leather? You stick. I didn't sleep- at all. In the morning, we went down to the office again, and I hung out and ordered Burger King...also for the last time. Eventually, I had an interview with President, and we waited for the cab. 2 hours after it was supposed to pick me up, we finally had to drive out and meet it. The Area Office was way behind, for some reason. I still managed to get to the airport on time (nearly), and I made it to my flight. With everything I owned it tow, I flew off to the logical, smart layover: Abu Dhabi, only 1700 miles past India. It was a 9 hour flight there, and a 4.5 hour flight back.

After an eternity of not sleeping on various planes, I arrived in Bangalore. The driver and I had to wait at the airport, because another missionary was arriving in an hour. I used the time to sleep on one of the tables there. We went down to the mission office, and the APs took us out to lunch at a chicken biryani place. That was amazing- I hadn't had it in 4 months. Later, I met with our new President Mortenson. Turns out, he was my grandparents' former home teacher! Then, I learned my new assignment: Visak 3rd branch, with Elder Daniel. Now, there's only one zone I haven't served in, Chennai: the one President Koster went on work trips in. That night, I took yet another flight out to Visak.

I arrived there late Thursday night, and not too much has happened since. We've done a lot of walking around and riding autos. Turns out that we have a ton of investigators who are infrequently home and live far apart. Thankfully, we do have a couple on date. That's pretty much all that's happened. See Ya!

12 September 2016

Well, I forgot to bring my journal in this week. That means a very short email. But, let's see what I can remember.

This morning, we climbed the mountain again with a big group of members. That was a lot of fun, especially with the view. 

We spent a lot of time this week out with Edwin, our former Elders Quorum President. Funny story on that- for a week or two, he was both the EQP and ward mission leader. He was not very happy about that. Fortunately for him, he was just released as EQP, and has been devoting a lot of time to his new calling. We had a record number of lessons to investigators with a member present- and an equally remarkably low number of investigators at church. The excuses were wide and varied. One family had their mom is Pasig, another city, so all of them didn't go to church. One family's father returned to drugs, so they didn't come to church. Fortunately, our investigators who are on date for this week both came to church, and we just reviewed the interview questions with both. Pray that nothing terrible happens until Saturday, and they are looking good! 

We currently have quite a few investigators who would progress if only they would come to church. Roland, unfortunately, is looking about ready to drop off the list. He is facing some serious financial difficulties- including his utilities being shut off. He's looking for a job, but asked us not to come back for 2 weeks again to give him some time. 

Things are going well here, and the work is moving on. See ya!

5 September 2016

This week was really, really short. We did a whole lot! On Tuesday, we had a district meeting, followed by a district leader training. Since my companion is the district leader, I hung out with other missionaries for an hour until they were done. We managed to meet with an investigator named Sander, who we learned actually lives outside our area. Oops! We'll be transferring him.

Wednesday was exciting. I turned 20! Apart from that, a lot happened. We met with Roland in the morning, and gave him a triple combination. He is struggling right now with some old demons, as he puts it. We had a long talk about everything from Joseph Smith to the Pearl of Great Price, and everything in between. Later, we went out to Tagpos, and met with the Panahon family, which was interesting. The husband is less-active, all the rest are nonmembers. Finally, we had dinner with a member.

Thursday wasn't quite as busy. We visited a member family in the morning, the Antoja's, to ask them to fellowship Roland-only to learn they were leaving on vacation soon. We met with Daniel, an eternal investigator, later. At night, we met with a recent convert, and another part-member family.

Friday was weekly planning, which is always thrilling. Then, we went out and everything fell through, so we visited Carlos. Oh, Carlos. Always a barrel of laughs...and false doctrine. This is the less-active who thinks he's a prophet, by the way. Highlights: "God gave me this elastic mark on my waist so he wouldn't forget me, because he loves me so much (he pulled down his pants to show us it). You see this (finger) nail? Get a thousand people and none of them will have a nail like this. Smoking is only a little sin. I always pray before I smoke, so God understands. Jesus is merciful, right? The people who won't forgive Marcos are 100% going to hell!" I'll admit, it was a fun monologue. That afternoon, we visited Emie. She is an old, blind, less-active with a fun story. She wants me to ask you to adopt her. Do you want a 70 year old daughter? Up for grabs! Finally, we went to the Gutierrez family.

Saturday wasn't quite as interesting. We visited the Panahon family again, and they are all scheduled for baptism now! Later, we visited the Deguzman family, who were struggling. Their 9-year old kid is pretty sick. Finally, we went to Mark.

Sunday, we had stake conference, with a surprising number of investigators showing up! Afterwards, we went out visiting again. The most noteworthy was Mark, who is getting ready for baptism! 

That's the news of the week-see ya!

28 August 2016

Well, this week was my chance to take over the area. Elder Eagar left; Elder Talaboc came in. I spent a lot of it just showing him around. Because Elder Eagar was going to Mindoro, an island that you have to fly to get to, he showed us all over on Wednesday. We know the area fairly well already, thankfully.

Unfortunately, there was a stunning lack of availability all through our area- no one was home! That led to lots of walking around, which did help us learn the area extra quickly. Elder Eagar got dropped off on Thursday, and our week started from there. We had weekly planning on Friday, and went out visiting. A member, Edwin, came with us to Tagpos. That ended up being a mistake. All of our plans fell through, and so we asked him to show us some places we didn't know. In his defense, he did. He showed us all the members he knew. All the active members who didn't really need the missionaries to visit. And he talked for a minimum of half an hour with each. That pretty much killed our day. Finally, we had correlation meeting with our Ward Mission Leader, and visited the Gutierrez family.

Saturday was also slow. The highlight was meeting with Mark in the morning. He's been investigating for forever, but is now on date for two weeks from now! We also visited the Adesnas, a part-member family, who promised to come to church, but didn't. The fun part of the day was meeting with Carlos. Oh, Carlos. He loves to talk. And talk. And talk. It's even better than that- he is crazy. Halfway through the lesson, Elder Talaboc leaned over to me and whispered, "We need to report him to the bishop for disciplinary action! He's apostate!" After I explained that people usually aren't excommunicated just for having very strange opinions, we continued listening to the nonstop Tagalog babble, which hadn't paused during our little side conversation. That lasted for roughly 90 minutes, during which time I may have fallen asleep...once or twice. 

Sunday was when things started happening, thankfully. We had church in the morning, where half the ward leadership was reorganized. Edwin has been the Elders Quorum President for 6 years, and was sure that he'd be released and called as the new WML. He was half right- he was called as the WML all right, but they didn't release him as EQP! So, we had a snap correlation after church with him and the ward missionaries. Then, we had a baptismal interview with the zone leaders, and Edwin showed us a new family, the Deguzmans. That was great- they are a part-member family with some kids who need to be baptized. We got them all on date! 

So, story time- Saturday night, when we were going back to the apartment, we met a woman who called us over and handed us a "Missing" poster. Her 9 year old son had vanished two days back. Sunday afternoon, at one member's house, they told us that the child had been found- dead in a river, of unknown causes. Sunday night, at the Gutierrez's, we found out the real cause- someone had mutilated him. We saw some very graphic pictures they had taken. Apparently, their 14 year old son had seen the kid in the river and taken pictures. Ugh. That's pretty scarring. 

That's the news for the week- See ya! 

22 August 2016

This was a thoroughly eventful week, with lots of fun stuff. It starts off right after district meeting on Tuesday. We visited a member to ask them to befriend one of our investigators, and their dog ate my shoes while we were in their. Not the whole shoes, just the top bit. Fortunately, I had my spare pair, the ones that I'd replaced less than a month ago. The shoes I am wearing have lasted 19 months with no major issues, just gradual decay. The shoes I got here lasted about 3.5 weeks. That story coincides with another that happened late Monday: my 2-month old umbrella died. I replaced it. The replacement lasted 6 days before breaking. I fixed it. So far, so good.

Wednesday was the very exciting day. We had my very first double exchange with the zone leaders. What is a double exchange? It's when you both go over to their area to split. I'm not sure why, but hey, we survived. Fun moments included walking on a railingless, falling-apart plywood ramp up over a construction site to visit some recent converts, and an FHE at night.

On Thursday, neither of us were feeling great, but we went out anyway. We had some fun lessons with a lot of less-actives, refound a new old investigator, and had another lesson with Roland, who is really getting interested in the gospel.

Friday was the day of miracles: we were healed! That came in handy for weekly planning. The biggest news of that day was with the Gutierrez's for their final baptism prep.

We spent all of Saturday running around inviting everyone to the baptism we were having! At 6, we started preparing. It was supposed to start at 7, but on Philippine standard time, that translated to 7:45. We baptized John Loyd and Anna, from the Gutierrez family. The only real hiccup was when John Loyd ran outside rather than bear his testimony in public (he's young.) Apart from that, and after we found him, things went smoothly. 

There was some exciting news on Sunday. We had ward conference, where a new bishopric was announced. Bishop Urbano was switched out with the new bishop, Bishop San Juan. After the conference, we had a very whelming day in Pagasa, one of our areas. Fortunately, we did manage to meet with some good people after.

We just got transfer calls this morning, which is always exciting. I am staying in the Tayuman area, but it's being split and Elder Eagar is moving out. This is the 3rd area I've split! It's always an adventure. My new companion will be Elder Talaboc, a Filipino. 

That's the news for the week. See Ya!

14 August 2016

This week was the Filipino version of frigid, piercing cold- in other words, all the way down to an average of 80. People were dying of frostbite in the streets. Not really, but everyone we visit has started giving us Milo (the Filipino equivalent of hot chocolate) to keep us warm. There's been plenty of rain, at least. Almost constantly, for the first few days. Anyway, here's the news of the week:

Monday, the head fell off of my umbrella. Not a big problem- umbrellas are fairly cheap here, so I replaced it. Saturday, my brand-new umbrella wouldn't close. That makes it a lot harder to take it places, but fortunately it hasn't rained much since. 

Tuesday, we woke up at 5 to make it to a zone training. There, we learned a lot about finding, and went back. We had to return barely an hour later for interviews with the new president, President Koster, due to an unexpected schedule change. There seems to be a lot of those around here... That went pretty well, and didn't take too long. We finally made it back around 4:30, and bounced around from one bunked appointment to another until we managed to meet with the Dimacali family, who did come to church this week!

Wednesday, we tried to meet with Roland again, but without luck. We then met up with Ninya and Blodemir (the Filipino equivalent of Vladimir), and went on an exchange with them. Both of them got their mission calls recently! With them, we tried Roland again, who was there this time. We taught a few more commandments, and he mentioned, out of nowhere, that he was going to church this week! That's big, considering that he, just a month ago, had a hardline "no" against going to church. Later that day, we visited the Gutierrez family. They are close to baptism, and were on date for Saturday.While on our way back home at night, we met an interesting person. He's an American named Korbit, who tried to subtly warn us about "going away from the true doctrine of Christ". People who just try to subtly hint make me laugh, to be honest. 

Thursday, we visited the Adesna family again. They were much more receptive to the possibility of marriage now, likely because they just found out the wife was pregnant earlier that morning. God works in mysterious ways, that's for sure. We visited the Gutierrez family at night again. 

Friday,we had a thrilling weekly planning session, where we had to decide whether or not to baptize the Gutierrez's on Saturday. After a lot of thinking and scripture study, we had to call it off. They're close, but still not ready. Fortunately, we are confident they will be ready by this Saturday. We met with an interesting member later: Carlos. He has some fascinating ideas: that he is a prophet, that God talks to him at night, and that he knows all the secrets of God. Oh, and you can't forget: he doesn't make mistakes, and cigarettes are the only things keeping him from translation. That was a fun lesson. Whatever you say, Carlos. 

Saturday, we had a fixed appointment in the morning with a French guy, Thomas. He bunked...again. We went all over visiting a ton of less-active members after that, but nothing too eventful happened.

Sunday was the big day: my 19 month mark. Roland made it to church, along with all the Gutierrez's, and a couple more. Good turnout! We had lunch with a member, followed by a lot of missed appointments. By the end of the day, we still taught a few people, though. Things are going well!

See Ya!