June 17-24, 2019
Monday -
So in the morning on last p-day I watched a diesel with a big tractor on the back of it drive by us slowly. On top of the tractor was a man with a rubber pole. His job was to move all the power lines with his rubber pole as the diesel drove under them. He was supposed to make sure that the power lines didn't catch on the tractor (I think). He worked quickly and it was actually pretty impressive. Though he acted quickly we almost watched him catch his head on a power line before he ducked last second. I mean this isn't necessarily an important story or anything, but just something random I remembered.
Also on p-day I was able to call my family, including Caylor, (even though he's on his mission as well) because it was fathers day. So that was nice. We also did our laundry and ate at a Filipino fast food place called Jollibee's. It's okay. It's better quality than I previously remember it when I was near the beginning of my mission. I think maybe I'm just becoming less aware of quality though.
Tuesday -
We had our district council in the morning as usual. Elder Butler and Lorange from Laoag 3A gave the training on goals. It was a good, down to earth training about setting and accomplishing realistic goals. After that the whole district went out to eat for lunch. The different companionships went their different ways depending on the food they wanted and Elder Doyle and I ended up at KFC with Elder Butler and Lorange. We had a pretty fun in depth discussion about the location/setting of the Book of Mormon, Hopewell Indians, the Dead Sea Scrolls, translations of the Bible, etc.
Once we returned to the apartment we did some of our studies and waited for the Senior Sister missionaries to come to our apartment to do a cleaning check. They were supposed to get to our apartment at 1:30 but the actual inspection happened at around 2:30 or 3:00. We waited around a while but then I got a phone call from their Filipino escort. The driver of their car was really confused and asking for directions to our apartment. After a while of confusion discussion in Tagalog on the phone we figured out that they were completely in the wrong barangay. I'm sure they thought that I was giving poor directions initially, but once we figured out they were in the wrong place (not by my direction) they got to our apartment pretty quickly.
As for the inspection itself, I'm sure the sisters weren't super impressed. When they had told us in advance that they were coming to our apartment I had done a pretty in depth cleaning of the apartment... but, because it's the Philippines the apartment was dirty again by the time they got to our apartment (because of water that doesn't drain correctly, leaks, windows that don't fit their frame correctly, lots of insects, etc). After the inspection they gave us a huge list of things to clean up. For much of the afternoon I decided to try and clean up some, but some of the other things are just impossible. For example I cleaned the entire bathroom last cycle, but because of the poor quality it just has tons of water stains because it won't drain correctly. While I was cleaning stuff up (and Elder Doyle sleeping) a huge thunder and rain storm started. So, I guess it's kind of a blessing we spent time cleaning the apartment so that Elder Doyle didn't get drenched again because of his broken umbrella. We then went out and worked for a little bit and then returned back to our apartment. Also, the entire night hundreds of frogs were croaking.
Also when I did my studies I found a quote from Jesus the Christ that said, "excuses are easy to find; they spring up as readily and plentifully as weeds by the wayside."
Wednesday -
We went out and did some work in our area of St. Maria. We were there to try and teach the Allado family some more. When we got there, only Aldridge the 13 year old brother was there. He's the one who we taught previously. We told him that we wanted to wait for his mom and sister to get there too so we could teach all three of them. He then told us to come with him to the basketball court with him while we waited. When we got there, there were a bunch of children to talk to and mess around with. Like usual, they told me to dunk since they must think that's what all tall white people do. Anyways, since the hoop seemed slightly lower than usual and despite the fact that I'm not in great physical shape, I was able to dunk on the hoop for them. They were very entertained and then kept telling me to do all kinds of weird dunk contest type stuff like "Mag-360 ka!" So since I'm not capable of doing a 360 dunk I just dunked it backwards and they went crazy. It seemed to suffice. Also, since my companion isn't very tall they just told him to close his eyes and shoot. He successfully made two three-point shots with his eyes close despite the fact that usual he isn't super great at basketball and he admits it. It was a pretty enjoyable time. Unfortunately, we did not end up teaching all of the Allado family since they never all showed up and we had a dinner appointment with some members. Though we didn't get to teach very much we hope that maybe our time there helped introduce ourselves and make the people of Sitio St. Maria a little more comfortable with us. Hopefully people won't be as shy if we try and talk to and teach them next time.
Later after we had got home and went to bed I couldn't sleep. After laying in bed until about 1:00 am I got up and then decided to fix some of the broken screens on our windows. There were lots of mosquitoes getting in our apartment. I used some of the leftover guitar strings that I cut off my guitar early in the day when I was re-stringing my guitar that was rusted. I basically wired the windows shut. I then took some melatonin that my last companion left behind and then I went to sleep.
Thursday -
So most of the day was spent finding in this area called Baay. We tried to return to a bunch of people we talked to on a previous occasion... but for some reason none of them were "available" or at their house. We just ended up looking around this area since we're not super familiar with it. The most significant thing is that we found a road that connected to a different part of our area that we were more familiar with. Other than that, not much happened other than our studies.
In my personal study I read a lot from 'Jesus the Christ' again. It was really good experience and I learned a lot about the final part of the Lord's mortal ministry. As I was reading I also used the New Testament side-by-side and I could feel the spirit testifying to me the truthfulness of Christ and his atonement. It was actually very powerful when it talked about Christ weeping before he performed the atonement. Sometimes I feel like we kind of dismiss what he did because he was 'perfect.' We think it must have been easy for him since he was perfect and The Only Begotten of the Father. Of course he was the only one capable of performing the atonement, but as I read I was more fully impressed of the idea that it was not easy for him. He was a little fearful and wasn't necessarily looking forward to his suffering but he did it anyway because of his love for God and for all of us. It was VERY hard for him. In Luke 22:42 He said "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." This was not just a casual statement but a cry of help to His Father and because of that I've come to a greater realization and thankfulness for His atonement and I know that it is a true blessing for all of us as long as we take advantage of it and constantly repent and try to become better. That is also my invitation to all of you. Take advantage of His atonement that he's already completed for you.
Friday -
I practiced my guitar during the extra time we had for our weekly planning. Once we started working we decided to search more of our area. Of course, our work locally more recently hasn't been the best so we made our way to further reaches of our area. We ended up just doing a lot of wilderness wandering. Most of the pictures this week are probably from that wilderness wandering.
Saturday -
We got a haircut because Elder Doyle's mom had told him he needs to get one. We then went back to the Allado family once more but this time Aldridge was sick and had sores on his arms and legs or something. We then also went and had dinner at the Bulatao family again.
Sunday -
We went to church. We ended up doing our work with the recently returned missionary Emerson. it also rained a lot.
Monday (today) -
We had a zone activity here in San Lorenzo earlier because we have one of the few churches with air conditioning. We played lots of "Filipino games."
Pictures -
lots of pictures from our wandering in the trees, a picture of a quote from Jesus the Christ, a video from our work with Emerson, and then lots of pictures from our zone activity.
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