Resisting Agreeable Objectification: Finding and Stuff in the Wrong Area

So we're all still alive here in the San Lorenzo District and stuff. We did missionary work and things this week. We did some finding this week as well, and had exchanges with our Zone Leaders.

Tuesday -

We had our district council in the morning. Normally we get the keys to the church from a member named EJ who lives close and cleans the church, but unfortunately, he had given them to a different member named John Paul who helped him clean the church. So it ended up taking about 45 minutes to track down the key and get district meeting started. I ended up doing the district training and teaching about the Christ-like attribute of diligence and how diligence is something that can affect us greatly in both normal life and spiritual matters as well. After our training and weekly reporting we watched the "Safety Zone" which is some new church produced safety videos that we're required to watch as missionaries. It's kinda cringey and painful to watch because they tried to make the videos funny but they kind of did a bad job, but I do enjoy them nonetheless because of how bad the jokes. The jokes sometimes are so bad I do laugh with pity towards them.

Later after our studies and then went out working. We went to our area Payas and tried some finding and returning to some people we've previously talked with. This one couple we talked to for a while also told us that they live really far away in this place called Vintar, but we keep seeing them around and we think they're lying to us... so that's cool.

Wednesday -

Elder Fuller and I had exchanges with our Zone Leaders so that our investigator Lolita Tumamao could have her baptismal interview. Normally, the district leader is the one that does the interviews but seeing as I'm the district leader the Zone Leaders need to be the ones to interview her because I'd be bias since it's our investigator. Anyways, Elder Fuller went Elder Johnson to their area in Dingras and Elder Egana came with me to San Lorenzo. It was a pretty decent day. We taught a couple lessons and found three new people to teach as well. Also, we ran into a member of the Iglesia ni Cristo church.  Basically, they're notorious among missionaries for Bible bashing and arguing with everyone. It's kinda funny because we were returning to a family that we had previously taught one time, but this second time the dad was there. He wasn't there originally and the lesson went okay, but because he was there this second time it didn't go as smooth. He basically just yelled at us and said some said some Bible verses and told us we couldn't share with him or his family. We asked to simply share but again he said no, so we kinda just went our way. It's funny though because in their religion they aren't even allowed to hold a Bible without being excommunicated and he was trying to act like he knew the scriptures. It's okay though because he has his free agency to deny the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.. I mean it's only his eternal salvation or something.

Thursday -

After exchanges ended we all met back up in the morning at 7/11. It's pretty nice because 7/11's here are almost legit like American ones except for the fact that the products are a little different. We then headed back to our areas and worked another day. We ended going to a lesson we set with our investigator Nimfa Pacleb but nobody was home. We just kind of hoped that this meant our time was to be spent somewhere else. We were right. We ended up just doing some more finding and found 7 new investigators. The age range was 18-38 and they were all siblings and apparently when they were very little children had attended church a few times. We're very excited to teach them and they received the lesson very well. This simple experience is kind of a testament of the fact that if you're doing the right thing, you'll end up where you're supposed to be. For us, this was at the home of the Butay family.

Later that night we went to the funeral of the grandfather of some members. The whole event consisted of a whole bunch of people gather in a small room with the body and singing 13 hymns in a row. After that we ate some food and then left. It took a very long time.

Friday -

The most significant thing that happened on Friday was the fact that we unintentionally walked all the way to the edge of our area and into the Laoag 1c area while we were trying to find new people to teach. We knew that we  were getting close to the edge of our area so we asked some kids for directions and because of the misinformation they gave us we ended up finding seven new investigators outside of our area. They were the Paguirigan family and were very nice and receptive to the message. We gave the the first lesson about the restoration of the gospel and they really seemed to love and believe what we were saying. After we taught them, we asked what Barangay we were in. They told us that we were in Laoag, so we just ended up giving the other companionship over the Laoag area a referral for them. Hopefully they'll continue to be taught and progress.

Saturday -

We tried to return to some of the people we are teaching but no one was home. We ended up just going and helping clean the church with a couple members and the other two elders.

Sunday -

We had our sabbath day of worship and also did some missionary work.

Pictures -

cat in the store, very sweaty and tired me after playing basketball in a tropical environment with Elder Egana, Elder Fuller and I planning, Elder Fuller recovering a kid's basketball that he accidentally caused to fall in a pond, a cow, a native pig, me and a cool sign, and finally a torn political poster.  

Advocating Reserve Xenolith: Easter And New Companion in the Bourgeois

This week has been a pretty decent one. Mostly it has consisted of Elder Morely saying his goodbyes before he transferred out of San Lorenzo, and then introducing my new companion Elder Fuller to the area. Also Easter occured... so that's great too. 

Tuesday -

This whole day really consisted of Elder Morely saying his goodbyes to the people in San Lorenzo. He's seems a little overly devastated to leave the area, but little does he know that all areas have something different to offer. I also spent a while moving my stuff to our new apartment on the second floor since we're moving apartments.

Wednesday -

In the morning Elder Morely just said more goodbyes to some people. By 2:00 we headed over to the Laoag Stake Center in order to exchange. I dropped him off at the bus station because he's transferring out to Cagayan to a place called Camalaniugan. He'll now be able to experience more than just life in the posh Ilocos Norte area. It's a little more rough living circumstances wise in the Cagayan province, but the work is good. While I was waiting for my new companion to arrive I talked to Elder Clark for a little bit. He's the new AP just recently. For some reason he kept telling me to come with him to check up on missionaries and make sure they were getting to their right areas as they transferred. I'm not sure why he kept asking me but I went with him. It was strange because there were like a hundred random people standing there and he just told me to come with him. I don't even know him that well or anything, but that was fine I guess. He's a funny guy, he's 6'7" and sang rap songs that he made at zone conference. So that's just a little about him. Anyways, once my new companion arrived at the stake center we headed back to our area. He seemed a little interesting from first impressions but Elder Fuller is actually a pretty cool guy and I'm glad he's my new companion. Also Elder Etcheverry got a new companion named Elder Francisco. We live in the apartment above them and it's awesome because we're already becoming a pretty close district. 

Later at night we got a call from AP Elder Ballan and he told us that we'd be having two other missionaries staying in our apartment for one night because they needed a place to stay for a night before they met their new trainees on Thursday. Those missionaries were Elder Witt (my MTC companion) and Elder Childers (one of the first other missionaries I met in my first area). It was fun to see them again and all six of us missionaries played a couple games of Uno and Scum. 

Thursday -

Much of the day I just introduced Elder Fuller to the area, we went over the area book together, and I also took him out to meet our main investigators.  That was the entire day. 

Friday -

In the morning we did weekly planning, and then later we went out and I continued to show Elder Fuller around. We walked around a lot of our area and I just introduced him to members, and people we go to frequently. We also taught a couple lessons. 

Saturday -

Elder Fuller and I are trying to decide an area to focus on this cycle, so I continued to show him around, and we even did a little exploring in places I'm not as familiar with. We're trying to scope out our entire area and try and determine where we think we'd have the most success. Our travels took us over our entire area of St. Agustin and Payas. As we were trying to get back to the highway after exploring Payas, we started looking to see if we could find an alternate route back. We ended up just walking super far into a corn/rice field and found that it was flooded so we couldn't get all the way across. On our way back we popped out of the corn and then two old men were super surprised to see us. To them it looked like these two white guys were very lost. They asked us where we were going and just directed us back to a place we already knew. It was pretty funny to hear the surprise and concern in their voices. 

Also during lunch we talked to Elder Francisco about the Tagalog here in the Northern Philppines. He's from a place called Palawan (which is under the Manila mission) and he says the Tagalog here is very different than back home. Something simple as "chair" is different. Here in Laoag they say "upuan" which means "place you sit", but closer to Manila they say "salumpwet" which means "place for your butt."

Sunday - 

Elder Etcheverry and I had to give talks. It's kind of funny that we have to give talks as missionaries. I kind of would understand if we're in a branch but we're in a ward and it still seems like missionaries are assigned to do all sorts of random tasks even though they should have enough member support to get things done. Anyways, we both were assigned to talk about Christ. I chose to talk about the atonement and how through the atonement it was made possible for us to overcome both physical and spiritual death. Elder Etcheverry talked about the Great Intercessory Prayer.

All four of us missionaries got assigned to go ministering with members of the ward. "Ministering" consisted of us just going to less active members homes and sitting there quietly while everyone talked in Ilocano and we didn't understand anything. It was funny because people kept looking at us like they expected us to talk but we didn't know anything that was being said.

Pictures - 

a package I received, goodbyes with Elder Morely and Bishop Sugui, mga pusa, weird idols and statues for "holy week", my delectable canned meats, Elder Fuller and I, a very safe and structurally sound bamboo bridge, walkin' in the bukid

Zone Conference and Transfers

This week overall has not consisted of too much actual missionary work. That is the result of zone conference, moving apartments and finally watching last week's conference on Saturday and Sunday. Despite not being a super objectively productive week, it was a good final week with my companion Elder Morely. We just learned about transfers today and that he is transferring to Cagayan and I am getting a new companion. His name is Elder Fuller and he is actually in the same batch as Elder Morely and I am also becoming the district leader which is different. We'll see how this goes.

Tuesday -

We  had our zone conference on Tuesday. It was pretty cool to see Elder Butler, Elder Viador, Elder Magadia, Elder Burton, Elder Prusse, and other people as usual. There was a lot of goo things taught at zone conference, but the thing I remember most was that one of the senior Sister Missionaries taught about oral hygiene and it was just weird and funny to me. 

Wednesday -

We had a fairly normal opportunity to teach and proselyte. we ended up teaching around three lessons and having pretty good day.

Thursday -

In the morning we started trying to organize our move to our new apartment. We talked to the land lord, the office elders, and figured things out in order to enable us to move to our new apartment before this cycle ends. We then ended up teaching a lesson to our progressing investigators.

Friday -

In the morning we finished the actual paperwork and contracts to move to our new apartment. Our new one is attached to the same building as the other San Lorenzo Elders and is just on the second floor. We got help from a member who had a truck as well. We moved all our desks, tables, beds, and fridge from the fourth story of our old apartment building, loaded it in the truck, transported it to our new apartment, and then brought it back up another flight of stairs into the new building. It took forever but we got it done. The new apartment is pretty awesome compared to other ones I've seen. We still have to take bucket showers and don't have toilet paper, but it's pretty clean, has a little more spacious bathroom, and is fairly organized for now. I'm really excited for it actually.

Later in the day we were able to teach a single lesson to a part member family and it rained for the first time that I've been here in San Lorenzo.

Saturday & Sunday -

These two days mostly consisted of watching conference at the church. Not many members were really there on Saturday or Sunday, but it was kind of enjoyable to have basically a private conference session with A/C. There were, of course, a lot of good inspired talks and speakers.  I really enjoyed it, and it went by really quickly. If you really listen to any talk, there's something to be learned through the spirit, regardless of your previous knowledge. Some of the speakers I really enjoyed listening too were Dallin H. Oaks (both of his talks), Brook P. Hales, Dale G. Renlund, Tad R. Callister, and Kyle S. Mckay.

Later on Sunday night, we returned to the apartment a little earlier than usual so that Elder Morely could do laundry and start his packing process for Wednesday since he's transferring.

Monday -

Also, something cool that happened just today. So we went to the mission office to drop of the 6500 pesos that we had reimbursed by our previous land lords. While we were there, I met my previous companion Elder Areola coming from Ballesteros. He is headed home now but we talked a bit about the Ballesteros area. He said that this last cycle they baptized 15 people, most of which I actually taught. One family in particular that we taught was the Bauno family. The father had a beard and long hair and his wife is had one of her legs amputated because of diabetes. It turns out that both of them have been baptized since I left and in their testimonies they thanked Elder Areola and Elder Hunsaker for teaching them rather than Elder Areola and his new companion. It's cool to see that they continued to progress and their lives have changed for the better. 

Pictures -

zone conference, view from the roof of our old apartment, me, our fellowshipper Charles' face, me by a field, burning plate, pictures of our barber shop, pictures from moving.

Isa pang linggo lang

This week wasn't super boring, but it also wasn't super exciting really either. It also wasn't necessarily bad, but not super eventful either. It was simply "isa pang linggo lang."

Tuesday - 

We had our district council with our zone in a further away area called Paoay again. We also taught a couple lessons as well. In one of our lessons we taught our progressing investigator Lolita Tumamao. We finally taught her about the Word of Wisdom. Apparently, she previously has had problems with it, but since we've taught her the lesson it's actually been pretty simple for her to avoid coffee and alcohol which were her previous concerns. 

Wednesday -

We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. That meant that I was working with Elder Magadia. It's kinda funny because he was actually one of the Elders in our apartment in our last area. He was Elder Butler's trainer and I used to see him all the time, so I actually know him pretty well and it was even more fun to see him again since I can kinda communicate in Tagalog to him now. Anyways, we ended up teaching three pretty good lessons. I kinda forgot what it was like to have a companion that knows Tagalog super well. I also realized how important scriptures are in teaching people, especially when you don't know the language perfectly. For one, the scriptures have perfect Tagalog, but even more importantly their message is very powerfully conveyed through the spirit. 

Thursday -

Another day, and another lesson by the spirit. 

Friday -

So in the morning we had weekly planning, then we had studies, and then we went to the graduation party of one of Elder Morely's converts. There were a lot of people there and there was also the Baptist Preacher. It was an interesting experience with him there. It's not like he was necessarily trying to argue with us or anything but he wouldn't really leave us alone and kept trying to talk to us and sit with us the whole time and we just wanted to talk to the members and meet new people. 

Also at one point in the day we had an interesting interaction with a random guy named Roland Campos. He pulled up beside the three of us walking and said, in a Filipino English accent, "Hey do you guys want to have the biggest apartment in San Lorenzo?! I'm from America! I'm from Hawaii!" He then proceeded to pull out his wallet to prove his validity. His wallet had a fat stack of 500 peso bills and he did indeed have a Hawaiian license. He then proceeded to say "Yeah the Filipinos can't afford my apartment.. but you know what... sometimes.. SCREW the Filipinos. I know your religion can afford it." He then proceeded to drive away after a little bit of an awkward silence.

Saturday -

Another normal day. We taught a couple lessons, found a new person, and contacted out new referrals. It was also cool because we tried out a new teaching technique for lesson one. We basically just show those we are teaching each picture in the pamphlets and then ask them what they see. Doing this gets them involved in the lesson, helps us learn what they already know, and then helps us approach our teaching to their level of understanding.

Sunday -

It was Fast Sunday in a humid tropical climate that is starting into the hot season. We fasted, we taught a couple lessons and found two new people to teach as well. 

Pictures -

We've got some pictures from exchanges, from the graduation party, from our proselyting, with cups on our heads, with some members, and then one of when I forgot to shave for a day. We also have a picture we call the "father and sons" picture.