Maligayang Pasko!

Dec. 24 - 29, 2019

It was a fine Christmas week. As usual... it included doing lots of finding new people as well.

Tuesday -

On Christmas Eve we attended the branch Christmas party. It was from 8:00 until lunchtime. It included food and performances by different groups of members. It was a fun way to change up the typical schedule a little bit.

Once the party was coming to an end the other missionaries from our district came over from Bangui and had a little bit of the food and then we all had a very quick district council. After our 20 minute district council meeting we went out and did some caroling. It was very enjoyable. While caroling we gave out Books of Mormon wrapped in Christmas wrapping and handed them out. It was very unexpected to those we were caroling to. Caroling here in the Philippines is a little different because people carol just so people will give them money. Usually the people hang around the house singing (often without much effort) until somebody gives them money to make them go away. So, when we actually attempted to sing nicely and gave them a present they were very surprised. Many of them kept trying to give us money but we refused. It was fun.

Later that night as we were headed home some Seventh Day Adventists called us over and gave us spaghetti as they were preparing their powerpoint to show to some people in the neighborhood. While we were there, the 21 year old American Adventist that we see sometimes around here in Pagudpud showed up. We talked to him and he was really cool. His name is Jared and he's from Auburn, Washington and is here for 8 months on a 'medical mission' where he basically works as a nurse at the Seventh Day Adventist hospital here. He also made a funny comment about how even though he doesn't eat pork it's impossible to get away from here in the Philippines, so he's ate it a couple times but he's not concerned because he doesn't believe it's a "matter of salvation."

We stayed for a bit and listened to the presentation which was about nothing other than why the Sabbath day should be Saturday. I guess that's the doctrine they care about most. 

Wednesday - 

On Christmas day we just continued with regular work. We did lots of finding and talked to 22 new people. Surprisingly no one was doing anything for Christmas at all. Most people will still just working in the rice fields like normal. When we asked them why they didn't really have much of an answer. A couple people did say that they were just waiting to celebrate for Bagong Taon (New Year) rather than both Christmas and New Years because it's too expensive.

Thursday -

We called our families in the morning for Christmas which was fun. After that we did more finding of course.

Friday - 

We did our weekly planning in the morning and did more finding the rest of the day. During our finding we ran into a 70+ year old Filipino man that actually has lived in America since he was 21. He was nice to talk to and spoke better English than Tagalog. He also used to be in the military and worked for the Department of Veteran Affairs. He was impressed with our Tagalog but was hesitant to care about what we were saying. He seemed kind of annoyed that we "Mormons" were trying to "force [our] religion on [him]." His response was probably more typical of what I imagine missionaries in the United States experience regularly.

Later we met this other weird guy that kept insisting that me and Elder Powell should marry Filipinas. He also told us that we should be married by now since we're both 20 and that since we abstain from dating and things as missionaries we're sinning and not following the commandment to "multiply and replenish the earth." We asked him what age he was married at and he said "30 but I've repented now." It was super funny. I kept trying to turn the conversation to something else concerning the gospel but he always brought it back to the marriage thing. He even told us that we should marry someone that's 'ka-religion' or part of our religion. Finally, I just stood up and said "Sige. Hanapin namin ang mga asawa ngayon. Bye." Which basically means "okay we'll go find ourselves some wives right now." And then we left and it was funny and ended our long conversation.

After that we then ran into a muslim family. That was interesting.. And despite that it was an interesting experience I can't say they seemed very interested.

Saturday - 

More finding.

Sunday - 

We had church. Luckily both the speakers showed up this time. After that, we did more finding.

Pictures -

A couple pictures of a Christmas Eve sunset, and then my companion in a Baymax hat. I forgot to take pictures again.

Pagudpud with Elder Powell

Dec. 16 - 22, 2019

I just transferred to a new area called Pagudpud with my new companion Elder Powell. He's 20 and form Tempe, Arizona. This new  area is super awesome and easily the most beautiful area I've been assigned in. It's close to the ocean and mountains as well. Our area actually goes through the small mountains and to all the nearby homes. It's very pretty and green and there's also lots of rice fields in the little valleys. This area actually met my expectations of the beauty that I was anticipating in the Philippines and only took me around 15 months to get here. Because of the dense vegetation there's lots of birds and things unlike some of my other areas. Though it's been very beautiful here we've also seen four snakes already. Three were dead and only one was alive. Unfortunately that one snake was pretty big and bright green and slithering across the street. The scariest one of them all those was actually a dead large snake in our area. It was really dark at night and we found this snake that the locals had killed. It was large and we believe it was a cobra. Luckily they found and killed it in the rice field before it got to us. Another interesting thing about this area is that it's super touristy. There's lots of resorts and even white people that we see occasionally.

As for the missionary work in this area it's not as beautiful as the nature here. We actually have a small branch that meets every Sunday in a small meeting house composed of two separate buildings. One is an old home painted white and the other is a building that was constructed later specifically for sacrament. The branch isn't huge and on Sunday we probably had a total attendance of 30 people or so. Both of the speakers were absent and the meeting ended 30 minutes early.The few members that were there were very nice though. The work of the missionaries for the past few months here doesn't seem to have gone super great either. Our area hasn't had investigators attend sacrament for about a month. Our goal right now is to just find and find and find. That's all we did this week actually. We'll get this area progressing sooner or later.

Also today we went on an unexpected trip looking at the cool sights here in Pagudpud. We got a lot of cool pictures and even saw a waterfall. There's also some cool videos but for some reason they won't upload right now. Those might just have to be saved for next week.

Mga Binyag at Transfers

Dec. 10 - 16, 2019

This whole week has mostly consisted of lots of finding and then ended with three baptisms! I also just got the news that I'll be transferring to a new area of Pagudpud with my coming companion Elder Powell. 

Tuesday -

The whole day consisted of district council in Sta. Ana and then finding. That was basically all.

Wednesday -

Just another day of finding. We've been trying to use the new technique of finding taught to us at zone conference. It's been kind of slow but we're just gonna keep chugging along. At the end of the day the zone leaders interviewed our three baptismal candidates who all passed with no problem.

Thursday -

I had exchanges with Elder Smith who's still in training. He was fun to spend the day with. We also find one new person that we'll probably try and return and teach. She fits the criteria for our missions new people finding technique. We talked to 26 new people the whole day.

Friday -

We basically did baptismal preparation the first half of the day. This included cleaning and filling the baptismal font, creating a program, etc. After we did that we did, as you might have guessed, more finding.

At the end of the day I did studies and finally finished reading the New Testament which was awesome. It's definitely an underused piece of scripture in the church at times.

Saturday -

Now this was the focus of the week really. This was our three baptisms. We baptized Christopher Javier, Mae Albonida, and Joy Rosete. I'll give a little information about each of them now.

Christopher is a 15 year old boy that is doing really great and reads everything we tell him too. When we first met him we were focusing on teaching is 18 year old brother but as we continued teaching it was obvious he was interested too. As time went on we realized Carl (his brother) couldn't be baptized because he can't attend church frequently because of his schooling so our attention shifted to Christopher. It took a while to get him to church because he's shy but once we got him there the first time he went four times in a row without being compelled. He also has made lots of friends with the youth and is doing great.

Mae is a 21 year old girl and is probably the most 'legit' of all three of our baptisms. We met her on the street and simply invited her to church. Without ever having taught her she attended church and brought her aunt Joy (we'll talk about her later) along with her. She then attended all four times as well. She also has done amazing on reading the Book of Mormon and can explain what she reads in depth every time. She also understands the doctrine we teach her very well. She also asks great questions frequently. She was actually also baptized on her birthday.

Joy is 18 years old and really just seemed to tag along with Mae. She also understood things very well and was always happy to have us over. She also has lots of fellow-shipping at church as well.

Interesting side note for the day. After the baptism while we did more finding we met a guy with polio which was crazy.

Sunday -

Finding.

Monday - 

We tried to go to a waterfall this morning. It was pretty. You'll see pictures.

Christmas Conference in Santa Ana

December 3 - 8, 2019

This week has been pretty fun and different because we had our two day Christmas conference and we also had exchanges with the other missionaries in our district. The work took a two day break but it was definitely worth it.

Tuesday - 

This was the day of exchanges. I exchanged with Elder Squire and came and worked with me in Baua. We tried to do lots of finding while testing out the new technique our zone leaders talked to me about during our follow-up call but the day was very slow. Not because of the new technique but because we've went to nearly every house in the small area of Baua and I've met nearly everyone. We tried to do more finding which basically meant going to the far areas that don't have a super dense population and are probably too far to afford paying to get a ride to church. It was a slow but fun day with lots of conversation. Elder Squire is very 'madaldal' as we say in Tagalog.

During the studies of the day I also read rom 2 Nephi 4:17-35 and Revelations 2-3. These are both really cool scriptures. The section of Nephi is about understanding our own shortcomings but also knowing who we can go to for help (Christ) and the two chapters in Revelation are really interesting chapters about overcoming or as I interpreted it, enduring to the end of everything.

Wednesday -

After finishing exchanges we had a good day and talked to nearly 28 new people. We intend to maybe return to two of them though because they showed more sincerity. We also accidentally stumbled upon the house of a less active member named Hitler Tacal which is kind of funny.

Thursday -

This was the first day of Christmas conference. My companion and I had to show up early so I could attend the District Leader workshop with the APs. It ended up just being a three hour discussion and finding people that are willing to attend church. It was actually really good and the techniques they suggested seem like they will be very effective in the Philippines. We basically just try to talk to as many people as possible (since everyone here is willing to talk to you) and then only return to those that say they will go to church after your first interaction with them. Initially this  approach seems harsh but here in the Philippines everyone wants to talk to you but not many are willing to change. This new technique helps us identify those that want to change. I can't wait to see it in action a little more.

The rest of the Christmas conference included a general introduction from President Peterson and then all the different zones doing their performances. These performances included lots of different dances, songs, skits, and things of that nature. It was very enjoyable and a nice break from the everyday mission life. It was also nice to meet up with some of my friends in the mission and also meet some new missionaries as well. My zone did a skit actually of which me and Elder Rasmussen with the main stars for some weird reason. It was a tid bit cringey.

Friday -

This was the second half of Christmas Conference. In the morning after a very cold night's sleep (because of the A/C) we continued in our casual clothes to the meeting hall thing and then had some games organized by the senior missionaries. They were actually unexpectedly enjoyable and sometimes difficult. One of the games was as simple as hitting each other aggressively with pool noodles.

Saturday -

We had an okay day of work once again. In the middle of our work though the sisters from the other area called and said they needed baptismal clothing from our church. We dropped everything and returned from our far area to help them. By the time we got to the church they said that they no longer needed the clothes. We then just returned back to our area and kept working. We ended up talking to 11 new people. One of them seemed kind of interested. Later in the day after we returned home we found another rat and burned it alive in our apartment.

Sunday -

We had a nice day of work applying what we had learned about finding people to go to church. We ended up finding three people we might go back to. Also our three investigators went to church again. They will probably be baptized next week.

Pictures - 

a mix of pictures from Christmas conference, my packages, the rat, and a very uncommon bird