Ballesteros pa rin

This week has been pretty typical except for the Ballesteros Branch Christmas party. The work itself has been pretty normal overall. It has been a little more difficult with my new companion because he doesn't seem to really like his American companions, but I'm sure it'll all be alright.

Monday - 

So, our last p-day was pretty normal as always and included washing and emailing. We also went out to the home of our investigator Dan-Dan and gave him a lesson as well. Later, we were in the grocery store and when I walked in a bumped into another white person (which is really rare). He looked at me in the eyes and in a rough Australian accent said, "Tell me, have you met another Amerikano  here named Ray Taylor?" It was really hard for me to understand him initially, but I responded with "No. No I have not." Then he looked at me, gave me a head nod and walked out. It was a really strange and short interaction that felt like it was kinda in a movie. I told Elder Butler about it and we joked that he was an assassin looking for Jay Taylor who was hiding out in Ballesteros.

Tuesday - 

For Tuesday, we had our district council in the morning, did lots of BRT (building trust and relation - mostly because my companion wanted too) with the YSA, gave a lesson to the brothers of a member named Reniel that just left on his mission, and did finding. Also, a police truck pulled over when we were walking at one point and asked me "Why aren't you on a basketball team? Where is your team?" It was funny because here in the Philippines every barangay/neighborhood has their own basketball team and he really wanted me to play on their team. They have tournaments with other barangay eventually until they lose or play the best in the country and a lot of them get recruited into the Philippines Basketball Association. Most of those drafted in the PBA didn't actually play college basketball or anything.. but I guess that's why no one in the PBA has ever made it too the NBA, not to mention that they're all probably like two feet tall as well.

Wednesday - 

We ended up teaching around 4 lessons on Wednesday. In the morning we did our studies and went out after lunch. We taught to our long time investigators Renzlly and Junior and later taught two new investigators. One is named Cyrene and she's the niece of a member, and the other is a 9 year old named Wayne Singson. His family is already members but they're less active so he never got baptized, so we're going to teach him. Near the end of the day we headed over to the home of some members because they're was a birthday party and we got some food which is nice.

Thursday - 

This day was a packed one but we really only ended up teaching 4 lessons. Most of the day was finding new people and asking them if we could return later. So we found lots of people that agreed, but we're not sure if they were serious. We'll just have to see if they progress I guess.

Friday - 

We had our weekly planning session again this week in the morning. My companion didn't want to help much since I'm "leading the area" but he's Senior Companion, so I ended up planning most of it. Later we taught the first lesson to a new investigator named Gabby Laso. After that, we ended up at the church for most of the day because we were with the other elders for their baptism. I also had to give a talk at the baptism. It was a little annoying cause I was warned last second, but it's alright because it doesn't seem like much is expected out of you as an American that barely knows Tagalog. 

Later that night all four of us elders went to the home of our investigator Dan-Dan to have a "family home evening" with dinner. It was pretty fun. We left a short message and played games with basically everyone on Lizardo Road in Fugu.

Saturday - 

The whole day was basically consumed with the branch Christmas party. The party consisted of karaoke that was sang by anyone regardless of talent, performances and a full roasted pig. It was pretty fun and kind of a nice break from the normal. It was also good because some investigators and non-members showed up to the party too.

Sunday - 

A fairly typical Sunday that consisted of church, and then fellow shipping.

Pictures - 

A random picture near the beach that for some reason was partially black and white, a picture from the birthday party of a member, a couple pictures from when we were working in the "mountains", some pictures from the family home evening with our investigator Dan-Dan and lipstick on our face as a punishment for messing up in the game, and then some pictures from the Christmas party (don't be deceived if it looks like not many people were there. I took the pictures at the beginning and end).