New Companion Elder Areola

So this week has been pretty good. My new companion is named Elder Areola. He's 22 years old and lives in the boundaries of the Philippines Baguio mission which is just south of mine. He only has two more cycles left before he goes home as well. He's really a pretty hard worker and it's nice to have a companion that's actually willing to put some work in. I'm also learning a lot about paper work type things that my previous companions didn't even acknowledge the existence of. So on some level, it's like I'm still in some level of training. 

Monday -

We'll just skip Monday and Tuesday in this email because it was with Elder Perez which constitutes a lack of work.

Tuesday -

Skip..

Wednesday -

Nothing all day with Elder Perez except for sending him of to his new area. Later, after being in a tri-some with Elder Butler and Vaea for a couple of hours, we went to pick up my new companion Elder Areola. I picked him up, brought him to the apartment, got him settled in, and then we went out. Basically, I just showed him around and let him meet some of the nearby members so he could get familiarized with the area a little bit.

Thursday - 

On Thursday we really wanted to work, but also we had to wait for the two new Elders coming to Ballesteros. So we ended up hanging around close-ish to our apartment and doing a lot of finding. We found like 20+ people. We talked to a lot of people and gave out a lot of pamphlets after sharing a short message about them. Also, while we were in the apartment for lunch I was in the bathroom doing some of that urination thing, and then a magnitude 5+ earthquake happened and it shook open the door and it bumped me. Like nothing really bad happened but you could feel it and it kinda made a weird noise. Later Elder Prusse and Elder Mamauag (the new elders in the area) came and we showed them their new apartment and stuff, which is just adjacent to ours. It's part of the same building actually. They're both pretty cool. Elder Prusse is from Arizona and is training Elder Mamauag. Elder Prusse is 19 and Mamauag is 26 and actually grew up in Ballesteros. His grandparents even live here still. So it's funny because he's serving on his mission, in his first area, in his home  town. Also I got 2 packages sent from my family that Elder Prusse and Mamauag brought from Laoag.

Friday - 

We went out and did a lot of work in our area, even though we realized that our area might be changed for the new elders. We just kinda went around and visited some members, less actives, recent converts, and did some more finding. We were also able to help resolve a concern of a member that had become less active.

Saturday -

On Saturday we did a lot of trying to reorganize our area so that the new elders could have an area. We basically gave them parts of our area, and the Ballesteros B elders (Butler and Vaea) gave them part of their area as well. It was kinda difficult to divide the area up because if we didn't do it carefully, it would mean that a couple of the companionship would never be able to work close to the apartment and would have to pay for a tricey to go out far every day. After getting that organized we walked to a further area called Palloc and had a dinner appointment with some members.

Sunday -

It was pretty typical of what a Sunday should be. We went to church, had a meeting with all the missionaries and the Branch Mission Leader, and then went out fellow shipping with lots of members. It was good and we got some work in and helped Elder Areola get more familiar with a different part of our area. And that was pretty much our week. I look forward to more work which was rare last cycle.

Pictures - 

pictures of me and Elder Areola, and then pictures of our whole Ballesteros district with the new missionaries as well.

Mission-ish

So once again this was a HIGHLY unproductive week.. but I'm not sure what I expected otherwise.

Monday -

So our p-day was the same as usual with emailing and laundry. Elder Butler and I also were eating at this place called Ramdent's, and there were a ton of workers there sitting there staring at us the entire time. They would just laugh and giggle at everything we did. One of them was a bakla and called us handsome. So basically, we were just sitting there uncomfortable the entire time while there was a crowed of workers just sitting around doing nothing because there's a strange amount of over employed companies and things here. In lots of stores and stuff there's often people just standing around doing nothing which is kind of weird.

Tuesday - 

Elder Butler and I went out and worked while our companions did nothing the entire day.

Wednesday -

Another day where not much happened...

Thursday - 

On Thursday we had district council and then for Elder Butler and I, lots of studying. I read in Alma 24:27 where it says "thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people." The story of the righteous Anti-Nephi-Lehies being slaughtered is a sad but powerful one. The Anti-Nephi-Lehies were willing to put away there weapons and not defend themselves because of the covenant they mad with God. As a result of their slaughter, it helped many Lamanites realize the error of their ways and as a result many were converted. It was cool to realize that while the Anti-Nephi-Lehies weren't necessarily physically protected from danger despite of their faith, "we have no reason to doubt...[that] they were saved" and it was truly for the good purpose  of bringing the Lamanites closer to Christ.

Sometimes we don't understand why certain things happen or for what purpose, but I know that if we are faithful, good things will be brought about through God's plan, regardless of our understanding and reasoning at the time.

Friday -

So on Friday we didn't do much except go to the house of this member  named Sister Caroline (who seems moderately mentally handicapped - and also has a kind of deformed skull) because she was having her wedding with this guy who's not a member. It was kinda weird.

Saturday - 

Nothing happened.

Sunday - 

We had church and a meeting with us four missionaries and our new Branch Mission Leader. After the meeting we headed out on splits and did work. Each missionary went with another member of the ward who holds the Melchizedek Priesthood and went off to a bunch of different areas. I went with our Branch Mission Leader (who just received this calling) named Nino. He's actually a returned missionary. Anyways the work went alright and we went and worked in this place called Palloc.

Later at night we received transfer texts because the cycle is over. So it turns out that the only person transferring is Elder Perez out of the four of us. This is good, because even though I kind of wanted a new area, I will at least get a new companion who is probably more willing to work. 

Pictures -

A picture from when Elder Butler and I went out to work together, some "tag pictures" that my mom desired, a dead bloated cat on the street that no one has bothered to pick up for a couple weeks even though it's right by the market and tons of people have to walk by it, some piglets, and another picture with Elder Butler and I.

Preaching to the Dead

Well unfortunately, with my companion Elder Perez, I can't say that it has been a super productive week which is pretty frustrating. On some level it's kind of difficult to realize that I only have control over myself when we're supposed to have the same goal in mind. Though there wasn't a ton of work, the little work that was done was good and I'm glad it happened.

Tuesday - 

We had our district council.. and then the companions of Elder Butler and I just went off and did there own stuff until we had a dinner at the home of a member named Brother Nical. Elder Butler and I ended up doing a decent amount of studying.

Wednesday -

This day also included a lot of studying. I also saw an old white dude with a thick mustache on a very rusty old bicycle which was interesting. It's always weird to see white people here. Later when we went out to actually work we saw a whole bunch of kids around the age of 10-12 smoking tobacco (which isn't unusual) and they all had tattoos. We asked them about their tattoos and they said some adult dude just gives them tattoos for free. So that's pretty messed up, but not unusual either I guess. We ended up teaching 4 lessons. We taught two people that I've been visiting almost my whole time here in Ballesteros and then also found this elderly couple that we talked to and visited with for  awhile. 

Thursday - 

Today was potentially the least productive day so far. There was more studies and then Elder Butler and I started trying to figure out how to play our harmonica's we both have. It was kinda funny.

Friday - 

We went out for a little while and saw two of our investigators.

Saturday - 

Some teaching was done on Saturday. We ended up going to some investigators and also to Fugu to teach my convert Dan-Dan. Then later we had to re-baptize the 9 year old named Wayne that we baptized last week because the baptizer said the incorrect middle name, so that ended up eating most of our day away.

Sunday - 

This was probably the most busy day and it felt nice. The day started at 10:00-12:00. There was a live area broadcast from Elder Holland to the whole Philippines that replaced stake conference. It was a really cool talk and he hit on the topic of our job as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints. He basically said that our job as members is to prepare the earth for the second coming of Christ and we need to be prepared to present the church to him when he comes again. He also taught about how the first law of the gospel is obedience which was awesome as well. Obedience brings forth blessings truly. 

Later we went out on splits with members of the ward. Apparently this is allowed as long as the missionaries split with another Melchizedek Priesthood holder. I ended up going with a member and fellowshipper named Rence that will leave on his mission in March. We ended up teaching to a few people and it seemed to go very well.

After a while we met back up with my companion Elder Perez and his fellowshippers. There was this long time investigator named Brother Oandosan(?) and he invited us to teach at the home of his sister. Their father had recently passed away at 101 years of age. In the Philippines it is tradition for whole extended families to gather after the death of a loved one. For 10 days they mourn with the body of the deceased person in their home in a coffin with a glass lid so you can see the body. Anyways, we went in there and taught a fairly large group of people about the Plan of Salvation and how families can be together forever while standing next to the dead body. We stood up in the front and gave a sermon like lesson as they were expecting and people were crying and things. It was a very interesting experience, but I'm very glad we were there.

Pictures - 

I don't have many pictures this week because of lack of work in all honesty but the few that I do have should include... the less amazing Filipino version of the White House, a couple pictures of a decent meal I had called "Grigliata del giorno" which is Italian for "Barbecue of the Day" (very delicious by the way even though I don't know exactly what meat it is), a picture of Elder Butler's mini-statue of Jesus that I used to explain idols which there are so many of here in the Philippines, a picture of Wayne that we re-baptized (clearly he didn't want a picture taken of him), and finally this notebook that says "Turkey" with the Turkish flag but also elements of Thanksgiving pilgrim stuff mixed in which was just hilarious to find.

Buhay pa rin / Zone Conference

Monday -

So last p-day, after emailing in the morning, all four of us elders headed to Aparri to withdraw our money for the month. Usually, we just go to Allacapan, the next city over, to withdraw money, but this time we went around 2 hours to Aparri. We had never been to Aparri before this time, but it's more of a bigger "city" there. So it had a more legit grocery store. It definitely wasn't anything like what you'd find in America, but I was able to buy actual stick deodorant which is rare elsewhere. Also, I think elder Vaea wanted to buy some "D'sleeks" which are some pants that are popular among missionaries but you can only get them tailored in Aparri. Despite the fact that it had more stores and products and things in Aparri, it still was very garbage ridden and dirty. We also ate at Jollibee's for the first time. It's supposed to be kind of a Filipino fast food place. It being Filipino means it's menu is not similar to other fast food restaurants you know and most of the items were "unavailable." I did get the "Ultimate Aloha Yumburger" though and it was alright.  Unfortunately for Elder Butler he ordered fried chicken and spaghetti for some reason. As you can imagine, it didn't exactly please his palate. Also on the jeepney ride back from Aparri Elder Butler got stuck sitting by a VERY manly bakla on a several hour packed ride.

Tuesday - 

It was New Years day here and it seems like people really were excited here. Everyone seemed to make a big deal out of it and they all celebrated by eating food. In the morning we ended up going to the home of President Guillermo (a member of our branch but also the 1st Counselor of President Petersen in this mission). We stayed there for a long portion of the morning and ate lots of food. After that, at about 12:30 we headed back to the apartment to do some of our normal things, but Elder Perez decided to sleep until like 3:30... After he finally got up we went to the church because our usual fellowshipper Dan Solis was being set apart as a missionary. He was super awesome and a great fellowshipper to have. It's too bad he's leaving but I know he'll actually be a great missionary. We ended up eating after that and I did lots of scripture study and things in the apartment.

Wednesday - 

In the morning Elder Butler and I did our laundry. We were intending on having district council afterword at 9:00 but Elder Vaea said it was cancelled for whatever reason.. After that nothing happened the entire time because of laziness. We ended up having our interviews with President Petersen at 5:30. I ended up making President Petersen very aware of the situation that the Ballesteros elders are in and kind of told him about the relationship between Elder Perez and I. He gave me some advice and told be to keep trying with him, and kind of gave me  "Kill him with love" piece of advice. Also later after we all returned home after the interviews we went to sleep. But both Elder Butler, Vaea and I all woke up in the middle of the night at the same time super sick. Elder Butler and I kinda threw up and all 3 of us needed to go to the bathroom. I think the place we ate at with President made us all sick.

Thursday - 

Thursday was also a moderately useless day. Luckily though, we did have our district council. In the morning we had it and I had been assigned to teach. I taught about teaching by the spirit and how if you're not teaching by the spirit, it's not of God. After that, the APs swang by our house and gave us a new washer because the other one was broken and for some reason our apartment had an old beaten washer when all the other apartments got new ones.

Later in the day all four of us elders headed to Allacapan to stay the night with other missionaries. Our zone conference was on Friday in Aparri and we needed to get a little closer so when we woke up the next morning we wouldn't be late because Aparri is far away.

Friday - 

The next day we woke up at 4:00 in the morning. There was one shower and eight elders in the same building, so we needed to wake up early enough for everyone to shower, but also early enough to leave early in the morning to travel to Aparri and get to zone conference on time. We ended up getting there on time and early enough to also go to Jollibees again. After that we had our zone conference. It consisted of two main topics. Number one, a long, well deserved may I say, chastisement from President Petersen about obedience in the mission. After that, Sister Petersen talked a lot about budgeting and not wasting your money on things and what the mission funds should be used for. The conference seemed very applicable. 

After conference, we had an usually long painful trip back home. The trip actually took so long that we couldn't make it all the way back home and had to stay in Allacapan another night.

Saturday - 

In the morning, we headed home from Allacapan. Another fairly unproductive day except for we did end up going and giving one lesson. We shared one lesson with my recent convert Roldan Gaoat and some other investigators in Fugu. It went pretty well. After that, not much work was done again. We ended up going back to Ballesteros and hanging around the church for a while and talking to some members and things. I can actually slowly feel my Tagalog improving. I can more fully communicate with people than previously. By no means am I fluent but I can definitely feel the Gift of Tongues kicking in a little more. It took LOTS of prayer really. Also I've felt the companionship of Elder Perez and I slightly improve as well. It's also by no means near perfect, but it's slowly improving which is nice. Hopefully it continues that way.

Sunday - 

We had our first 2 hour session of church on Sunday. It was kinda weird but I really could see the benefit of study at home. I'm sure it's a little more applicable when you're actually with your family and can read and discuss scriptures and doctrine together, but I really like to have personal study anyways, so I learned a lot from Come Follow Me. Also, after church we taught a lesson to the girlfriend of some member who leaves on a mission in February which went alright as well. After that we ended up going to the home of a less active family and teaching a lesson as well. That's the most work we've done in a while. At 4:30 we ended up going back to the chapel to watch the Philippines Area broadcast. It was basically an hour and a half of three members of the Seventy speaking in English to people that don't understand it that well. It was kind of funny actually too because it had some really scripted sounding "conversations" where they asked Filipino families how they felt about the area plan and the Come Follow Me program, then the families responded with exact memorized responses with perfectly put together English grammar with their accents. It was kind of humorous really. After that, we headed back to the apartment. I ended up doing my Come Follow Me Sunday studies and then my personal study as well. That 

was the gist of the day. Also during all my studying I found a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson that Heber J. Grant quoted frequently. I've heard it before but it was awesome to here it again. The quote says "That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased."

In my mission so far I've learned many things, but one thing that I have a great testimony of so far is that of scripture study. When I say scripture study, I mean study of both modern and ancient scripture. Sometimes when things get difficult scripture study is a source of a kind of outlet and peace. As I continue to read scripture I continue to learn things that I didn't even recognize before. As I read, I find answers to concerns of investigators, myself, and I also find answers to problems that I didn't even know I had. I know that scripture study along with the influence of the Holy Ghost can be one of our most valuable resources. I invite all of you to more fully study the word of God and I know that it will draw you closer to Christ. In 1 Nephi 10:19 it says "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round." I know that this scripture is true and that through the power of the Holy Spirit we can know all things that are expedient in God if we have sincere faith in Him and His Son. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Pictures - 

the appetizing meal of Elder Butler at Jollibee's, the New Year's celebration at President Guillermo's house, a picture of me preparing to fight the militant NPA group, a picture of how you feel when you express concern to the mission president but he only  responds with "don't worry you'll be blessed" (the picture of me committing Seppuku),  and then a picture of how I used the cardboard box I got as a shelf to organize my stuff.