Zone Conference, Aglipayan Funeral and Binyag Ulit

This week seemed to be pretty busy overall, but didn't necessarily have a lot of individual lessons. This week we had a baptism, our zone conference, and then attended a funeral service of a different religion along with service work later.

Monday -

So after doing all our typical p-day activities we ended up going out and doing some work. We ended up teaching a lesson to our investigator named Bryan Tabyous about the atonement. It was an awesome lesson and you could really feel the spirit. Bryan is also a pretty cool investigator that is super easy to talk to. Sometimes it's difficult to talk to some people because they don't care to talk about much beyond what's physically around them, but Bryan actually likes to read the scriptures and study the church. Most people commit to things with no intention of actually doing them. So anyways, it was a really good lesson and all, but he also informed us that he is applying for a job in Manila so we probably won't be able to baptize him if he gets accepted which is too bad. He was basically a golden investigator that really seemed to care about what we were teaching him.

After that, we taught some other lessons. The most notable thing from the other lessons is that during the closing prayer a cat just casually walked through our group and everyone just kicked the cat really hard for no reason. I mean it was weird and random, but typical of people hurting animals randomly. It was also kind of funny because it showed that all the people we were teaching were on the same page and thought it was necessary to kick the cat for no reason.

Tuesday -

For Tuesday, we ended up just getting the permission from parents to baptize our convert. His name is Ryan Dave Quinday. We talked to his dad and he gave his approval. We also talked to him for a while learned that he'd been working in the bukid (rice field) since he was seven years old and he never went to school or anything.

Later, a member called us and asked for some help for doing the math do figure out how much a wooden plank should cost. The experience that happened kind of made me wonder how much help an education here really gives anyways. So anyways, the math problem was pretty basic. It was saying "I am buying a 4 foot piece of wood. Each foot of board costs 50 pesos. How much should the one piece of board cost?" It was funny because immediately I said 200 pesos, but my companion and the member did tons of math and writing on paper to try and solve the problem. I eventually helped them finish the problem after about five minutes of struggling. It was very weird and it kind of gave me a little more perspective on how blessed we are to have a good education back home. 

Wednesday - 

Our work brought us to our far area Fugu. We taught a few lessons there and it seemingly went well. After the day there were a couple bugs and cockroaches that were in our house, but instead of just squishing them this time, we went the burning them alive route with alcohol. After that, things just got a little out of hand with burning alcohol and fire bending with sanitizer covered hands. It was pretty crazy but enjoyable experience.

Thursday -

Mostly we just had our baptismal interview for Ryan Dave Quinday.

Friday -

We woke up at like 4:00 so that we could travel to Aparri on time for our zone conference. It was of course nice to see some batch-mates and stuff again. We also ate at Jolliebee's in the morning. The meeting was, of course, about a lot of things, but we did go a little in depth about the new rule allowing missionaries to call their families every week on p-day which is awesome.

Saturday -

In the morning we woke up and immediately went to the church to meet up with our Branch Mission Leader and members of the YSA. We all headed over together to the funeral of someone who is somehow connected to a member of the church. Anyways, it was an Aglipayan church which is basically just a strange mix of Filipino culture, guitars, and Catholicism. There was lots of strange phrase reciting, a crucifix, purple robes, and talk concerning the single American in the entire congregation. It was a very strange experience and I felt pretty uncomfortable for a while.

After that we headed out immediately to do service for the investigator of one of the Ballesteros companionships. This included us going into the woods and shopping down trees for helping build a house and collecting coconuts for drinking.

Following our service, we finally had our baptism of Ryan Quinday. He's 13 years old, knows the doctrine fairly well, and has actually been going to church for a long time. He was previously taught by some sisters in our area before, so we re-taught him all the lessons and had him baptized.

Finally, at the end of the day, we headed over to the house of our Branch Mission Leader Ninu Dela Cruz. It was bearable food luckily. Also one member named Nephi said "Here in the Philippines we only care what people look like, not what's inside their heart" which was hilarious and I don't know if everyone around him agreed with his statement, but then again, no one straight up denied it either. 

Sunday -

An alright day of work in our Santa Cruz area with four lessons.

Pictures -

proselyting and lessons, walking home, when personal study is full of revelation, Aglipayan church, service in the woods, the baptism, mango shakes, and corn candy.

Classifying Kind Statue: Updated Communication in the Marginalized World

Overall, this week has been another of good work. Lessons were taught, people helped, and mango graham shakes were found.

Monday - 

It was actually Elder Areola's birthday and our branch mission leader organized this weird party thing for him. There just ended up being a bunch of YSA members and people outside our house on our porch thing. There was some noodles and stuff prepared too. So it was pretty fine for a birthday on a mission I guess. They did more than we did on my birthday out here. It was pretty fun and he had a rice cake. Which really was just a big mold of rice that was cooked in a pot.

Tuesday - 

We had our district meeting and then went out and taught 3 lessons. It was a pretty decent day with some pretty decent work.

Wednesday - 

On Wednesday we went out to our far area called Fugu. We taught a lesson to our new investigators called the Bauno family. The dad is usually pretty drunk but friendly and emotional (and also he wasn't drunk on this specific visit), and this is the nanay that is missing one of her feet because she has diabetes. We were able to teach them a pretty good lesson and resolve some concerns. We also ended up finding 9 new people.

Thursday -

Another day with a pretty good amount of work. During our proselyting we walked past an elementary school. I kinda joked with Elder Areola about how none of the kids were in their classes and they were just messing around outside like usual and then he told me about his elementary school experience back home. He told me that back at his home it's exactly the same and that in elementary school basically no one goes to class and they just mess around and do whatever they want the whole time. He said when he was in elementary school he never went to class. It was kinda funny to hear that from him because I didn't know if that was just a weird Ballesteros thing, but he's from a more populated area in the Philippines and apparently it's pretty typical. Overall, we ended up teaching 4 lessons.

Friday - 

We went out to Fugu once again and taught some lessons. We also met some new investigators. They're the Umblas family. So the mom of the family is a sister of an active member. We talked to them and taught them a lessons and it was really awesome. You could really feel the spirit and they immediately said they "want to become Mormons." Later while we we walking around and finding more new people I got hooted at by another bakla like usual, but it was a weird exchange because I couldn't understand what they were saying at all out our fellow shipper responded to them.The conversation went a little like this 

"Hey is your companion there gay?"... "No, he's not.".... "I think he is, the way you're walking together is gay." 

And that was the end of the conversation. I asked why I couldn't understand his Tagalog and our fellowshipper said "He was speaking in the gay language" whatever that means. It was a strange exchange for sure.

After our lessons in Fugu we started walking home, which we've never tried before because Fugu is really far away, and it took forever. Once we were probably about 3/4's of the way home an ambulance stopped by us and gave us a ride. It was weird that and ambulance was just allowed to stop and pick us up. The interior of the ambulance is kinda what you'd expect out of a ambulance here. There was one dirty stretcher, one oxygen tank, and then a small shelf with almost nothing in it. 

Once we returned back to centro Ballesteros and met up with the other Elders, Elder Prusse and Mamauag were excited to tell us that they saw a lifeless person earlier in the day. Apparently in the middle of one of their lessons there was a gun shot and then when they headed out later they saw a big group of people gathered. They walked up to the group because they thought it was a party or something but it just turned out to be the result of the gun shot. Also, from the information we heard the criminal wasn't caught. Once we all got back to the apartment I asked Elder Mamauag how he felt about it, and he said "Normal. Ballesteros has always been dangerous even when I grew up here. That's why everyone goes inside at night so early." But from my  5 months in Ballesteros so far, I think it's been alright, or we're at least we've received divine protection. I've never felt in major danger at any point, just a little uncomfortable when drunk guys hug you.

Saturday - 

On Friday we basically had a branch "fireside" the whole time. This consisted of us missionaries just doing missionary work role plays to help "teach" our regular fellow-shippers (who everyone in our ward mistakenly calls branch missionaries because they don't understand that they need to be set apart in order to be a branch missionary) how to share more effectively. We also heard the good news from a member that we can now video call our families every p-day. That got us super pumped and it was awesome. On top of that, we found this new place that sells mango graham smoothies. which are actually delicious. There's not many places that ever sell legit good food (even the "legit" food we have is still not as desirable as mediocre food back home) but these new shakes are fantastic. So basically, with the good news and delicious shakes, we had a very good day.

Sunday -

We did some missionary work.

Pictures -

Elder Areola's birthday party, picture of me from my package from home,  some pictures from proselyting, a picture with a pig, a picture form inside the ambulance, the "fireside", some investigators that came to church.

Mediating Unitary Vision: Machete Lawn Mowing Music Box

As you can see, I'm struggling to be super creative with the titles, but aside from that, it's been a good week. It has included lots of work (of course), our interviews with President Peterson, service, and a beach barbecue.

Monday - 

So aside from our typical p-day activities on Monday, we also had a beach barbecue. All the missionaries came together and everyone gave 100 pesos each so we could buy some meat, charcoal, and, of course, rice. So basically, near the end of our preparation day, we all headed to the beach, made a fire in our black magnetic sand, and cooked some pork. This was one of the few occasions that we had lean meat without bone. Usually we have either complete fat without bone or lean meat with nothing but bone. So it was a nice change.

Tuesday -

The day started with our district meeting. That went well as usual. Later in the day we taught 4 lessons that all seemed to go very well. Even though it wasn't a ton of lessons it felt like a pretty productive day. It always does when you can tell people are touched by the spirit.

Oh, also near the end of the day we were going out to get some food and a drunk guy kept talking to me and grabbing my arm and stuff a whole bunch while he talked about how he used to be a sailor or something and has been to America "maraming beses (many times)." It's just a funny story, but also happens very frequently. Basically, you can find a super drunk person at any point in the day here and they love to talk to you a lot.

Wednesday -

We had our interviews with President Peterson on Wednesday. They went good as usual of course and President hinted to me in my interview that I would probably be transferring this next cycle. During Elder Areola's interview (supposedly) President Peterson also told him that I would be transferring as well because they "need leadership" in other areas. I don't know if my companion is just joking with me or if President actually said that about me or not. Either way, I guess we'll see next cycle on March 5th.

Thursday - 

For Thursday we headed to our further barangay called Fugu to do some work. We went there taught four lessons and also did some finding. It was a good day of work.

Friday - 

Another of day of work it was. We ended up teaching four lessons once again. Also Elder Areola showed me this weird thing that he did with a chicken. He basically but it's head under it's wing and then put it on its back and it couldn't move at all. And he claims that because it couldn't move, it would sit there until it dies if he didn't help it up. It seemed legit. Anyways, it was good and we taught our lessons to our new investigators that seem pretty sincere about their interest.

Saturday - 

The whole morning we did service. Our service was basically mowing the weeds of the branch president's "yard" by hand, using machetes. We did service from 8:00-3:00. It was a lot of work, but I think it took way longer than it needed to because in service projects I've done here, everyone (members and everyone included) seem to stand around and talk most of the time and do very little work. After we finished my hands were super blistered, but everyone harassed the three "Americano" or "Puraw" (whites) for "talking" the whole time "without work", but luckily my hands beg to differ. 

After that, we went out and did a little teaching later, and at the end of the day went to a family home evening/ birthday party with all 6 of Ballesteros elders. When we got home both my companion Elder Areola and Elder Vaea felt really sick. Elder Butler and I suggested that it was the questionable looking meat that they ate (that neither of us ate and we were fine) but they said it was because after the hot day of service they drank cold water and it made them sick. Apparently that's something they believe happens.. but from all my experience from drinking cold water after football practice and feeling amazing, I disagree. I kinda think that they didn't want to admit that the lack of safely prepared food here is what caused their sickness. Anyways, I ended up giving my companion a blessing because he said it felt like his brain was going to "explode." He woke up a couple times in the night, but the next morning was alright.

Sunday - 

We had church of course. Then we had our branch mission meeting. Basically the whole time was just the Branch Mission Leader telling us Americans (not even Elder Vaea the other foreign missionary from Tonga) that we're not allowed to speak English in our apartment and that he was able to learn Cebuano (a different Filipino dialect) in one month. He thinks we're slacking and bad learners or something, but little does he know that Cebuano is just a different dialect, not whole language, and that we're actually right on track with what's expected as the average foreign missionary learning Tagalog. So we basically just endured harassment towards the "puraw" for an hour and a half.

After that, we went out and did work in our far area called Fugu and taught a lesson (kind of) to our investigators called the Bauno family. While we were trying to teach the drunken dad just cried and asked questions the entire time so we couldn't really do much.

Pictures -

Should just be a lot of random pictures from work, service, our bonfire, etc. Also, I'm attaching it to a different email this time because there's more than usual.