Alright, so I'm not exactly sure where I left off from the last email. I know that I didn't say much since my email got deleted right as I was about to send it, so I guess I'll just give a little summary about the experience so far (forgive me if any of it is repetitive) and then I'll break down each day this week.
My experience here overall has been very hot so far. I pulled out my alarm clock that has the temperature on it, and our apartment is somewhere around 90 degrees the whole time. If you take the humidity into account it's absolutely ridiculous. I checked and at night it cools off to about 88 degrees haha. The past week has still been hot but Elder Butler and I have only been sweaty a lot, not a ridiculous amount like we did the first week. We're not sure if it's getting cooler or if we're adjusting or if it's a mix of both... either way, being able to sleep at 90 degree temperature at night without rolling around all night seems like a success to me. Maybe we'll eventually adjust. Also, since we haven't had electricity I don't think that, that's helped either. Some people have said we could get it as soon as October 5th, or as late as October 30th. Either way, I guess I'm fine though.. because not having electricity is the only thing I've known here in the Philippines. It will be nice to be able to have a fridge for groceries and for having an occasional cold glass of water.
The living circumstances include an apartment with mosquitos, bugs, cockroaches, spiders... I don't think it helps that we have the door open all night because it gets way too hot... but I think we're getting used to it. Bucket showers on the porch through a manual pump isn't preferable either but I'm growing used to it. I like the cold water a lot actually. Going to the bathroom is also a huge chore but I guess I'm getting used to it too.
Despite the living circumstances and crazy heat, it's been a great experience so far. This last week went way faster than the first. The people here are so awesome and friendly. They always look at Elder Butler and I because we're white and they never see white people ever. They always will say stuff like "Hey dude/Joe" and the girls are always weird too. The people overall though are so nice and so humble. This has been such a humbling experience so far and I know it will only continue to be one. There's also been so many investigators and things we have too. The people are so receptive to the gospel and it often just makes sense to them.
Monday (last p-day) -
So on Monday after I emailed before Elder Viador and I went to one of our investigators houses. Her name is Sister Renzlly Pascual. I believe she's 19 years old. When I first came here to Ballesteros, I stumbled into a lot of investigators we already had, but Renzlly is my first investigator we got while I have been out here. She's Catholic but super interested in the gospel and willing to learn. We're already on lesson 4 with here. On this Monday we gave her, her own Book of Mormon which was cool and all.
Tuesday -
This day started with our District Counsel meeting. It consisted of our whole district... or the 3 people I live with. It was me, my companion Elder Viador, and Elder Butler and Elder Magadia who I live with anyways. We made jokes like "Wow it's so nice to see the whole district back together again!" Anyway my companion is the DL so that's cool I guess. We make jokes about how I'm Assistant to the District Leader so I'm super important too. After that we went to this members house named Brother Nical. He wanted to get to know us new missionaries and it was really awesome. He's way more rich than other members and stuff so he had a generator with electricity so we could use fans... he also fed us spaghetti which tasted like an amazing normal meal.
After that we went and gave a lesson to our 2 investigators. It was Sister Renzlly and Joylene. They're both about 19ish I think.. (I actually have a really difficult time telling the age of people around here) we taught them the first lesson and it was good.
Wednesday -
On Wednesday we gave 4 lessons during the day. It started with Renzlly and Joylene again
and we taught them the Plan of Salvation which was really awesome for me because we use our visual aids.. with our visual aid it has all the key words for things which is awesome since I don't know the language very well... I know a lot about the plan of salvation but not necessarily how to say it in Tagalog. So anyways, that was pretty good.
After that we gave a lesson to an older woman named Sister Carmelita Bunnao. Some of her many children are recent converts and she want the lessons now and it's been going pretty good so far.
Following that, we went to the house of two recent converts named Trickia and Rhea. They're probably both like 15 and have both been pretty good members but we just keep going over to follow up and stuff and it's been good.
And finally, we went to a less active family called the Sumey family. It's a young family with 2 super young kids. The dad had a lot of sincere questions and it was a good discussion. On Sunday they ended up coming back to church and we've seen them at several activities which was cool.
Thursday -
Thursday started with a training with President and Sister Peterson. We had to travel to the city of Abulug like 45 minutes away. It was a good meeting and just nice to see some familiar faces and stuff. We also got to see a few of our batch mates that recently came out with us and talk about some of our experiences. We also got fed peanut butter sandwiches and apples. I got full for the first time I've been here... and apples never tasted so good.
After that we went back to Ballesteros and gave the first Lesson to Sister Carmelita (the "lesson" we gave her before was really just a short message about a favorite scripture) and it was pretty good.
After that we went to go to a different investigators house named Brother Pascual but he wasn't there, and that was pretty much it for the day.
Friday -
On Friday we prepared and then as we were going over to the church to do our studies (because it's way too hot in our own apartment to do all three hours of companion, personal, and language study) we stumbled on members doing service. They had gathered a whole bunch of rice and food and supplies to give aid for people from the typhoon. We decided to help and it took forever. It was hot to carry a whole bunch of stuff in our church clothes, but it was good.
After that, we went to Carmelita's house and had to have a discussion with her. Apparently she's living with her second husband that she's not technically married too... and we told her that she either would have to marry him, or separate from him in order to be baptized (since I already gave her the baptismal invitation last week).. It was a difficult discussion and she told us about her situation and how there's always contention in her household and she actually wants to separate but she has no where to go. It's hard, but she says she is interested and always feels the spirit when we're around... so we're gonna have to sort this out eventually, we don't know how yet though. The good news is that she did attend church and stuff though. Also, her one daughter as been sick recently and I gave her a blessing. The hospital said they thought she might have Dengue Fever, but after the blessing she was better the next day.
Saturday -
Saturday was a good day. It consisted of a big ward family party where every family went up and did a dance or presentation or something weird to music and stuff. It was a little awkward and cringey, but also hilarious at the same time. We also went with the youth to the cemeteries and took pictures of graves for family history work or something. The graves are a little creepy because all the bodies are in big stone boxes above ground.
Anyways, after the super long party, the other elders had a baptism of a 13 year old girl named Mary Grace. She got baptized in the ocean behind the church and it was awesome. The person baptizing her, and herself also got knocked over from the waves once while they were doing it so that was funny too.
The beach was awesome. It is the only place that's not blistering hot, has cool winds, black sand, and fresh air. It's hard to find fresh air around here where everyone just burns their garbage all the time.
Sunday -
Was a pretty good Sunday. It's nice to hear the sacrament hymns and prayers in English too. Church in the Philippines is kind of funny because everyone is kind of loud in the meetings and always talk to each other.
Anyways, after that, we went out working again. We got a technically new investigator named Angelica Pascual. She's 13 and the daughter of Brother Pascual and we gave her the first lesson with a whole bunch of fellow shippers (youth of course) and it was pretty awesome.
We also went and talked to other recent converts and then more less actives.
Monday -
Today we went like an hour away to a city called Allacapan to withdraw money for the start of the month. Apparently that's the only place around that's a national bank for us to withdraw money from. And now we're emailing.
Pictures - I might start sending pictures in a couple different emails so they're easier to access because if I attach them to this email it says it's 25mb or bigger so you have to request access to them. If I don't it in a different one it might be better. I guess we'll see.
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