Typhoon

Basically, this is just a quick email to say I'm okay. Nothing really crazy happened and during the whole typhoon I wasn't worried. I'm all good and nothing got damaged. I'll tell you more about it on p-day.

Typhoon Rosita 1 (Typhoon Yutu)

Dear Families and Leaders of Missionaries serving in the Philippines Laoag Mission,

Typhoon Rosita, known internationally as Yutu, is expected to make landfall in central Luzon as early as Tuesday morning October 30, 2018. Unlike Typhoon Ompong that hit us directly last month, it appears the direct path will be below our mission.  However, we will likely feel some associated heavy wind and rain.  As for now, we have asked our missionaries to be on alert and ready to respond to a possible evacuation within the next 24 hours (although currently this looks unlikely).

All missionaries have been instructed to increase their 72hr emergency kits to include a one-week supply of food and water.  Rest assured that appropriate measures will be taken to ensure the safety of your missionaries. We will monitor the situation closely and provide updates.  

We love these missionaries and consider them to be the best of the best!  Thank you for preparing them so very well!


With great love and appreciation for your support,

President and Sister Peterson
Philippines Laoag Mission
Brgy. #50 Buttong, Airport Avenue
Junction Tangid Road, Laoag City


Mom's notes

I've been following this for the last week and it looks like his area is in the path of the typhoon. He is not worried, but will remain in his apartment during the storm. We will be praying for the safety of everyone in the Philippines. 

I was updated tonight that President Peterson did end up bringing all the missionaries into Laoag again for this typhoon too. I was very relieved with this news because Brodie’s Province was one hit pretty hard by the typhoon.  The Philippines has been hit by 18 typhoons this year, I don’t think that is something I can get use to. The mission President said they are more prepared for the power outages this time. I hope this doesn’t mean another month of no power. Praying for the Philippines.

Zone Conference

So this week consisted of what seemed like a lot of traveling. We had zone conference and then we just finished out the week normally. Also, apparently there's gonna be a category 4 typhoon tomorrow so we've also been preparing for that as well.

Tuesday - 

This day consisted of traveling to Laoag for zone conference. We had to wake up early in the morning to catch a 5 hour bus ride to Laoag. Now let me tell you, this bus ride isn't pleasant. You basically just sit on a moderately crowded bus for a really long time on chairs that are too small for you to lean your head back to sleep, the driving is crazy as usual here, and the suspension on the bus is weird so you just bounce back and forth the whole time becoming nauseated. 

Anyways, once we got to Laoag it was pretty good though. We ended up going to McDonalds because Elder Butler and I really wanted some normal food. I ended up getting a quarter pounder, fries, and a Coke.. all of which tasted exactly the same as at home. There were a few different menu options but I wanted something I recognized. After McDonalds  ( an expensive delicacy here) we went to the mall. In Laoag they have this legitimate big mall called Robinson's. We ended up going in and just kind of looking around. I didn't bring a ton of money, but now I know that I need to bring some for next time. After all that, we headed to the church where lots of missionaries were meeting, and then we stayed the night in the mission office. 

Wednesday - 

In the morning I woke up and was excited to experience both an actual shower that also had warm water, and a flushing toilet. After getting ready in the morning we immediately headed over to the church for the "Zone Tour" (because it was lead by someone other than our Mission President it's called 'tour'" and we didn't even eat breakfast. Basically, zone tour was from 9:00 to 4:00 and it was lead by Elder Wakolo of the Seventy. It was pretty cool and I would say I felt like I learned a lot. Also I got super cold in the church building because of the A/C. Back home I would have died not having air conditioning.. but here I almost died with it. After the zone tour they fed us food and then we headed back to Ballesteros on another 5 hour bus ride. On the bus ride I heard the song The Gambler by Kenny Rodgers. I was very surprised but also happy I'd say. Music is funny here because everyone loves to sing no matter how good they are at it and because of this, seemingly all kinds of music, even VERY weird kinds, are popular here. Occasionally I here country music here too which is funny. By the time we got to Ballesteros though, it was really late and there were no triceys.. so instead of walking for a super long time we just continued on the bus to the next town over, Allacapan, and stayed the night there with the other elders because their apartment was only a walk away. Allacapan is the same place we did exchanges in a couple of weeks ago.

Thursday - 

On Thursday we headed back to Ballesteros in the morning. Once we got there the other elders kind of decided to sleep more I guess. The bus arrived super late the night before and they were all super tired from traveling. During that time I once again did a lot of personal study and talked to Elder Butler as well. This day was pretty unproductive in all honesty. After the Filipino elders woke up they said they had no clean clothes to proselyte in so they just washed them for a while. Basically nothing happened.. but I did learn a lot from the scriptures and Jesus the Christ. Also later at night Elder Butler and I were hungry and the other elders didn't want to go out so us two Americans went out to buy food quick. It was okay until after we walked back and there were a ton of out "bakla" (gay people that try and look like girls) that were hooting and hollering at us when we walked back. Also some dude followed us on a motorcycle for like 15 minutes and would stop and act like he was texting when we looked at him. It was a weird experience and Elder Butler and I decided not to go out without our Filipino companions again.

Friday - 

Aside from having a very unproductive day on Thursday, Friday was a packed schedule. We planned and prepared lessons for at least 9 people. We only ended up giving 5 of them but it still felt like a very productive day. We shared a message with the less active Repaje family first, then gave another lesson to our recent convert Joylene, gave the third lesson to our investigator Carmelita, gave the first lesson to our recent converts Trickia and Rhea (because after they become baptized you have to give all the lessons again), and taught the lesson about the Law of Chastity to both Angelu and Angleica Pascual. That was pretty much the day. It had lots of walking involved.

Saturday - 

This day started with Elder Viador and I traveling on a tricey ride about 15 minutes away to give a lesson to our investigator Jessa Blanco. It turns out she wasn't even there and that she was in a different city taking an exam. So we just ended up giving a quick lesson to a less active family. It kind of ended up being a waste of pisos. After that, we ended up going back to the apartment to do our personal study that we had failed to do in the morning, and then we headed back out after. After our studies we gave a lesson to the less active Corea family, and the second lesson to our investigator Sherry Anne. After that, all the elders went and ate a a members house named Brother Lacsi. Also, I was just thinking (on a completely unrelated note) about how it's funny that the milk I buy here is from Germany, has English packaging, and was sold in the Philippines.

Sunday - 

We had church. Later, we gave another lesson to Sherry Anne and I invited her to be baptized on November 17, my birthday. We also gave a lesson about the 10 commandments to Sister Carmelita our investigator and shared a quick message with our other investigator Angelu Pascual and that was pretty much the day.

Monday - 

So far today we've just done a little laundry, ate breakfast while Dora the Explorer and Max and Ruby were being showed on the television, and emailed some.

Pictures - 

The pictures should consist of a cringey picture of me with McDonalds in Laoag, a bunch of random pictures I took since I forgot to take many throughout the week, and some cows grazing down a schools soccer field made of weeds.

Unang Binyag!

Today has been a pretty good week. At the start of the week we had exchanges in Allacapan, and near the end we had my "Unang Binyag."

Monday - 

So basically, last Monday just included all the caving activities I emailed about last week, and then our normal weekly preparation and washing clothes and things.

Tuesday -

So we started with district council meeting on Tuesday morning. Once we got to the church, we had to walk back to the apartment because Elder Viador forgot a marker... which they also don't have any of at the church. Once we got back to the church we sat down for the lesson and Elder Magadia who was assigned to teach forgot to prepare one so he just winged it. It still ended up being a pretty good discussion about the purpose of using the spirit in missionary work.  After the council, we all ate some food and then checked up with the t-shirt shop that is making t-shirts for our whole zone. We then went back to the apartment and did all our studying for the day.

Once we finished all the things we needed to do, we then headed out to do our work for the day. Having district council in the morning really bumped back our schedule and we only got a few lessons in. First of all, we went to try and teach one of our investigators, Ate (Tagalog for older sister - what she wanted us to call her) Susan. She was there, but seemed really busy so we waited for a little bit and then told her we'd be back some other day. Since our first person wasn't there, we switched to our backup plan which also didn't work out.

Eventually, we just went to the next lesson we planned which was just with a recent convert. We just gave a lesson about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon every day and stuff. After that we walked a little ways to give our other investigators, the Pascual family, a lesson but no one was there either.. and that was basically the day.

Wednesday - 

On Wednesday I had exchanges for the first time in Allacapan with one of the Zone Leaders Elder Willoughby. He's from Canada and is heading home on October 28, so he's really close to being done. It was a pretty good experience and it was nice to have somebody explain things about the Tagalog language to me in fluent English so that I could actually understand why certain things are said. A lot of people said Elder Willoughby was really  fluent in both Tagalog and the Illicano language... which from what I could tell seemed to be true. We had a good and very long day. It was weird because he told me that I'm "very good" at Tagalog for only being here around a month. This statement surprised me because I feel like I haven't learned so much, but it's good if that's true I guess. Anyways, we taught a ton of lessons and talked to a lot of people.. and it was good.

Thursday -

We left Allacapan in the morning and headed back to Ballesteros. We ended up getting back home at about 10:00 and the other Zone Leader Elder Durbin came and did exchanges with Elder Butler. Once we got back all three of the other elders took a nap until like 12:00 and I just did a lot of personal/language study.

Eventually, after eating lunch, we started our work. We started by heading over to the less active Repaje family, but they ended up being asleep or something so we went elsewhere. After that, went all the way to Palloc which is pretty far away. We took a 15 minute tricey drive or so to give a lesson to a newer investigator named Flordalita. She ended up not even being at her house so we just walked back down into the more central part of Ballesteros talking to people and other members on the way back. We ended up teaching a lesson to two less active girls and some recent converts and that was our day.

Friday - 

Friday is our day for weekly planning which everyone claims is supposed to be a 3 hour session... it usually ends up taking 45 minutes or so and then I just study the scriptures and things for the rest of the time which is what happened on Friday.

Basically, by the time it got over, along with our other regular study sessions, it was 4:00. We ended up teaching a lesson to the less active Repaje family. After that, we headed over to the church to try and fill up the baptismal font. It turns out that there was no water in the church, so we actually have to do another baptism in the ocean. While at the church we talked to a lot of members because it was there mutual as well. We also ended up giving the first lesson to our new 13 year old investigator named Alfredo or "Al" as he likes to be called. After that we basically ate and then headed home for the night.

Saturday - 

This is the day of my first baptism! Before we get to that though, I'll just describe the day. We woke up, ate and got ready for the day. We didn't do our studies in the morning either. At about 9:00 we headed over to the home of our 19 year old investigator named Joylene Cabanglan in order to give her the final lesson before the baptism. We also helped kind of prepare her for the baptismal interview questions that would be asked to her by one of the zone leaders. After that we headed over to the church with her at 10:30 so she could be interviewed. The interview went successful. After that, we hurried and gave 2 lessons before the baptism and 3:00 and invited a couple people.

At 3:00 we had the baptism. I actually was the one to preform it too. We headed out into the ocean that seemed moderately dangerous with a few rip currents, and did the baptism. We had to time the baptism with the waves and it ended up taking 2 tries which apparently is better than some people. So it was really cool to help bring Joylene into baptism. She's been an investigator since the first week I got here and I actually was there to teach her all of the lessons and everything. She's a little shy but seemed to be receptive to our message and it's awesome that she's decided to become baptized and kind of interesting that she chose me to be the one to preform the baptism considering I only speak the little Tagalog I can during the lessons. In the end though, the spirit is the ultimate teacher though.

After the baptism we went and taught the Word of Wisdom lesson to our 14 year old investigator Angelica Pascual, and that was our day. It was mostly consumed by the whole baptism, but it was definitely awesome.

Sunday - 

We had church on Sunday of course and a few of our investigators were there which is good. After church we went and gave three lessons. The first lesson was with a 15 year old investigator named Sherry Anne. Apparently she has previously been taught by other missionaries but didn't seem to progress so they dropped here. We decided to start over and teach her again after out of the blue she started showing up to church and also watched conference. We ended up giving her the first lesson and she seemed really happy about it. She also seemed to remember some stuff from her previous lessons.

After that, we talked to some recent converts for a little bit (just to check in kind of). Following that, we gave a lesson to Angelu and Angelica Pascual, who are siblings. Angelu is 16 and Angelica is (like I said earier) 14. We've taught them a lot of the other lessons and on Sunday, taught them about the 10 commandments and taught Angelu the lesson on the Word of Wisdom as well.

Monday -

That's today.. and basically we just played some basketball with some members, ate breakfast, and are now emailing.

Pictures - 

The pictures in a separate email should include images from the baptism, a picture of Elder Butler with his Hello Kitty towel and coffee (both of which he accidentally bought), and pictures in a rice field "all white and ready to harvest."

Sickness and Caving

Anyways, this week has not been very busy because around mid-week both Elder Butler and I got pretty sick for about three days. During those days the mission home told us to just rest back at our apartment, where not very much happened as you can imagine. Also the email this week might not be as in depth as well because I didn't take as many notes.. likely because I wasn't feeling great for a little while.

Also, last week I forgot to mention a little story. So anyways, while we were out working a member of the ward stopped on a tricey and had a little conversation with us. My companion talked to him a little bit in Cebuano and this random guy said something about having known some Cebuano sisters a few years ago here. We started talking to him a little and like everyone else here he said "Wow, you're VERY tall. How old are you?" I said "I'm 18 but I'm turning 19 on November 17" After that he told me that that's HIS birthday and he insisted on proving it to us with his license or something.

Basically, the fact that we had the same birthday got us into the conversation with this guy named Edmond. It turns out that he had been taking lessons with some sisters that were in this area a few years ago, but was diagnosed with breast cancer, which I take is rare for men. Anyways, he said it kind of got in the way of his learning but he's been reading the Book of Mormon again more recently and might want to learn again. So I just thought that was a short cool story from last week that I forgot to mention.

Monday - 

After the zone activity we did our normal schedule of washing clothes, cleaning, etc. and that was all.

Tuesday - 

This Tuesday we had our district council in the morning. For this council, both the Zone Leaders and STL's also came. I guess they rotate which areas they visit weekly and we'll see them like once a month. Also the STL's were super slow and late which is funny because they're both Filipino. It was a nice way to reinforce the "Filipino time" stereotype. 

After that, we had another lesson with our investigator Carmelita about the word of wisdom and luckily she doesn't seem to struggle with the standards very much either. Also, this is the same investigator that we've had potential baptism issues with because she's "remarried" but not legally remarried. We talked to the mission president about it and apparently in the Philippines divorce is illegal, so if people separate from their original spouse and have been with a new person (even if they're not legally married) for at least 5 years they can be baptized. So, as of right now, there looks like there might be a good outlook on the situation.

Following our lesson with Carmelita we went and shared another lesson with Renzlly Pasucal. It was about the 10 commandments and it was good because she was familiar with some of them and very open to following them.

Once we finished that lesson as well, we met up with the other elders and headed over to the house of some members that offered to cook for us. They made adobo (chicken that tastes pretty good but has a ton of bones so it's actually pretty hard to get much meat out of it), fish (which neither Elder Butler or I are fans of ), pork something (it was basically strange cuts of pork that I didn't recognize that was cooked with banana; I ate a banana cause they told me to and I was being nice and it tasted gross lol), bananas (which I eat a ton of every time I get the chance because it's one of the few healthy things we can regularly find, and okra (the vegetable that's green;  I also ate a ton of this because we rarely have vegetables and I feel like I'm missing out on calories and nutrition). It was a pretty good time I guess and we talked to them for a while.

Wednesday - 

On Wednesday, we woke up and left by 9:00 to go help with some service we volunteered for during church on Sunday. Us and some of the elders were going to help with a house that got the roof ripped off by the typhoon. We got there and in all honesty, for us missionaries, there wasn't much for us to do. All the men of the ward were doing work on the roof which we aren't allowed to do. We basically were hanging around there until like 1:00 and during that whole time only lifted up like 2 pieces of wood and talked a lot to the father of the family.

Finally when we got home, both Elder Butler and I really badly needed to go to the bathroom. After we went, we both just needed to go around every 15 minutes. There was no way either of us could leave the apartment to get back to work. It was really bad. The rest of the night we "rested" and tried to stay near a bathroom.

Thursday -

This was basically a  complete sick  day. We did pretty much nothing but stay at the apartment. Also, the symptoms that I had increased over night. I didn't just have diarrhea but had a headache, fever, vomited, had a rash, and overall just felt weak and light headed. We also never really found out what caused the sickness of both Elder Butler and I.

Oh also a little later in the day we went to the church and saw a lot of the YSA and youth. Out here we shake hands ALL the time. Now I'm not just saying like the normal amount that missionaries do, but it's excessive. Before church on Sundays we legitimately shake every hand in the congregation because our Filipino trainers do too. Anyways, as we were talking to some of the members on Thursday night we asked them about it and basically they kind of think that handshaking here is something you do if you're a member of the church. It's funny because I think that they're under the impression that it's almost required and Elder Butler and I told our companions about how we don't necessarily need to shake every single persons had before church if we're not going to even talk to them.. but I don't think the practice is going to be stopped any time soon.

Friday -

This is our final sick day.. we did absolutely nothing truly. The mission nurse (I guess is what she doubles as) Sister Snyder kept checking up on our symptoms through text. She basically had diagnosed us with a "cold" even though our symptoms don't seem to align with that assumption.

Saturday - 

This was the day that we started doing a little bit again. Also we watched the Saturday of session of conference this day, but before, Elder Viador and I went out and did a little work with our investigators since we've been away for so long. 

First, we gave a lesson to Joylene and Renzlly about the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. Apparently Renzlly like to drink coffee but she's content with only drinking milk and this chocolate drink called Milo and Joylene is all good too. 

After the lesson we went to the church to watch conference. It's so nice there because we have A/C now. Anyways, conference was really good and it seemed like the Saturday session had a lot to do with family and families. It seems a little hard to apply it's teaching since I'm leaving my family for two years, but it was good. Also, it was so nice to hear the gospel in English rather than a language I still don't understand at all.

Once conference got done at around 4:00-ish we headed back to the house of Renzlly because she invited us back over for her Aunt's birthday kind of. So it was nice and we got food there. After that, we went and caught up with the recent converts Trickia and Rhea, and that was basically the day.

Sunday - 

Once again we watched conference much of the day. All of the talks were really good and for some reason I really liked the one by Elder Neil L. Andersen about trials. Another cool thing was that we had a pretty decent number of our investigators attend the conference session, but yeah.. that seems like that was it.

Also, later after we were back at our apartment at like 8:30 Elder Butler screamed loud cause of a bug (like usual) but our neighbors threw a rock across the fence towards us. Everyone here goes to sleep super early and apparently throwing a rock is a way to tell your neighbor to be quiet.. which I think is kind of funny.

Monday - 

Today's p-day has been pretty active and crazy already. We woke up at like 5:30 to meet up with all the other members of the zone in order to go caving since our zone leader Elder Willoughby is leaving back home in a couple weeks. We traveled like an hour away and went and "explored" a cave with a "tour guide."

Basically, we showed up to this place and payed them some money to guide us through the cave. We went to the back of this place and we all hopped in these little canoes to go into the cave. I was sketched out because all the other canoe experiences I've had in my life usually have them flipping over, and I wasn't super excited to flip into a Filipino river with my camera. Anyways, we rode in the boats (and didn't flip) and went back into this cave which was really pretty cool. There was also a ton of bats and bat poop. Anyways, we got to the entrance and started the journey. 

To summarize this, I'm just going to say that this little hike thing probably wouldn't be legal in America. It included lots of climbing on slippery rocks, climbing through very claustrophobic tunnels and crevices, not seeing very well in the dark, and getting super muddy. There were some places that I'm even surprised I made it through. Often it was so dark and we were crawling up and around touching the muddy rocks and everything we couldn't see. I don't even want to think about all the spiders and centipedes and things that I touched. Anyways, near the end, there we all went through this exit call the "cave challenge" and it was a super tight space that got me super dirty, gave me a couple cuts on my knee, and was just kind of sketchy. I kind of regret doing it a little to be honest. 

Anyways, the caving experience was cool and very scary, but I'm glad that I did most of it. I probably would have been sketched out to do a lot of stuff like this at home, but I'm sure it's a once in the lifetime opportunity I can't miss in the Philippines. Afterward, the whole district ate at this abnormally decent pizza place, and now I'm about to continue on with the rest of my preparation day.

Pictures - 

The pictures should include our district council with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders, pictures with me and a monkey that was a little scary to get next to (which is saying a lot considering all the crazy angry dogs that bark and run towards us on the regular), a tricey picture, a Filipino "hamburger" (it's also like the size of have of a index card), a picture inside a Jeepney with the zone, and then a whole bunch of pictures from the caving experience.