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.
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