Tuesday -
We had district council in the morning like usually. After that we did our studies and then continued throughout the rest of the day. We ended up giving three lessons overall. One to our less active family, one to our recent convert Carmelita, and a finally one to our new investigators the Mendoza family. That really ended up being the day.
Wednesday -
On Wednesday we traveled to the ends of our area in order to get to this barangay called Fugu. It basically takes what seems like an hour to get there. We went to Fugu because we got a referral from a member. We met up with her (along with our pretty regular fellowshipper Dan) and headed over to the house of her neighbor/boss named Roldan Gaoat. HIs house was by far the nicest house that we've ever taught in, but it turns out that he owns a catering business which explains it. He also even had a car, which is almost unheard of around here. Usually people just have some type of "motor" (a term referring to either a scooter or motorcycle) or a tricey. Anyways, we taught him the first lesson and he seemed very interested. He also seemed to retain some knowledge from his learnings as a member of the Catholic church. A lot of the time people claim to be part of a certain denomination or sect of religion but never tend to practice it, so when you find someone fairly knowledgeable it's a good sign. He kind of has the mannerisms of a "bakla" in the inflection of his voice and how he holds himself, but he also seemed very interested and friendly. Overall it was a good lesson and I think he's actually going to be a very good investigator.
Later we went back to Centro (or kind of the main part of the Ballesteros area) and gave a lesson to our other investigator Junior Tolentino and talked to some recent converts of Elder Viador's, both of which events went good. Also at some point during the day a whole bunch of high school aged girls wanted to take a picture with me because I was white. So that kind of thing also happens here.
Thursday -
So we had exchanges on Thursday. I ended up going throughout the day with our Zone Leader Elder Durbin. I had to lead the area and plan the day out and everything. I also had to lead lessons (which basically means open and closing them and choosing the direction they go) which was a little difficult but fine. Overall, it was a pretty good day and I'd say I learned a lot. Sometimes it's just nice to go with someone who knows both English and Tagalog really well to help explain things. Also since he's zone leader he had some packages for me and Elder Butler which are ALWAYS great to receive. I also learned from him that our Philippines mission is likely the most rural. He said that our mission has 2 cities in it, Laoag and Vigan and that all the other Philippines missions have 8-10 cities in them. So that kind of just puts things in perspective a little bit I guess.
Anyways, for the day we ended up going back to the home of Brother Dan-dan (Roldan) back in Fugu because we scheduled to come back. It was another good lesson and we even gave the baptismal invitation. He immediately said "Yes" but also expressed a little concern afterwards wondering if our church "accepts people a 'little different" like him. So he didn't exactly say he's gay, but I'm assuming that if he does intend on becoming baptized he might need to do a little life changing. Either way, teaching and lessons with him seem to be going good. Also he invited some of his neighbors who are interested into the lessons too. He's also their boss and we now have some new investigators because of them.
After Roldan we went back to the Mendoza "family" (I put this in quotations because basically the only one that listens or is around the whole time is named Ela). The lesson itself went good and near the end we found out that we have a double "live-in" situation. Apparently, Ela lives in the same building with her boyfriend (she's 17) and her mom also lives in the same building with her new husband that she's not technically married to. So even though the lessons are going good, it's definitely a problem that needs addressing.
Friday -
This was a really unproductive day. It started by using up some of the time in the morning by returning companionships back to their areas after the exchanges. After that we ate and then went to the computer shop in order to watch a "Light the World" video specifically made for the missionaries. We were told that it was important enough that we could go on some time not during our p-day. So it was good and cool and all. Basically, for the rest of the day, I did lots of study and extra study while my companion slept... I mean we did spend a lot of time on the Light the World stuff and some forums made for missionaries to share ideas, but we wasted more time than I wanted. Later we ate dinner with the Lacsi family and that was the day.
Saturday -
We gave the third lesson to Roldan after having members feed us lunch in Abulug which is in the area of the other elders. It was way nicer in their area than ours so that's just something interesting to note. Basically that was the day. Also Elder Butler and Magadia also managed to lock the keys inside our apartment. This has also happened before, but we just opened the window and reached the doorknob to open it up. Unfortunately, this time the window was also locked. It was kind of concerning. Eventually after my companion messed with the window a little bit, I finally got up and tried something. I ended up just forcing the window out of the frame by pushing really hard and we got in. Then we put the window back in place.
Sunday -
During sacrament meeting we had the primary program which was awesome. It was all done in English and had lots of singing. The children actually seemed to have better English than most adults here and it was awesome.
After church Elder Butler ended up making a Thanksgiving style lunch from the supplies his family sent him. We ate mashed potatoes with gravy and chicken and it was great.
Later we went out for work with fellowshippers and ended up going to some less actives, our investigator Junior, and some recent converts.
Monday -
Today has basically been a typical p-day except this morning we went to Abulug to practice a skit/dance for a Christmas Conference that we'll apparently be performing. The practice basically consisted of the sister missionaries bossing people around because we couldn't take the dancing very seriously.
Pictures -
pictures of us in flowers, a picture on exchanges with Elder Durbin and teaching Roldan (bottom left), my package, the Christmas tree at the house of some members that fed us in the area of the other elders (like really this was a way abnormally nice house, I haven't seen anything like it and I don't think I will see another any time soon), then some pictures of the armless member named "Ferds" that sometimes hates us because we're "Amerikano" or other times is fine with us, but anyways in the picture we just put all our bags on him and made him carry them, and finally just a weird looking picture of Elder Viador.
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