Monday -
So not really much happened on Monday other than our typical p-day things. We were just going throughout the day as usual. We did all our normal stuff and then finally, at the end of the day Elder Doyle and I received a text from President Peterson. President had asked him if he changed his mind about going home and Elder Doyle ended up telling him that he wanted to stay. That was a big surprise to both of us, especially since we were both anticipating him leaving, but a good surprise nonetheless.
I think that I'll also just describe what Elder Doyle is like a little bit in this "Monday" section despite the fact that much of what I might say is something I've determined throughout the week. So Elder Doyle is from New Zealand. He has both English and Polynesian blood and isn't super tall. So far he's been pretty quiet when we teach lessons and things but it hasn't presented a major problem. I do hope that for his sake he starts speaking a little bit more to other people in order to help him learn Tagalog. Knowing how to speak to people at least decently makes missionary life a lot more enjoyable. So he's kind of quiet and really just likes to do his own thing. I have to tell him what time we're leaving and stuff but it's not like he argues or gets upset or anything. He'll go out and work he just needs a little push. He's pretty nice though and our companionship is doing well overall. Hopefully he'll become a little more vocal overtime which will also help in our efforts of finding new people.
Tuesday -
So all of Tuesday mostly consisted of Elder Francisco and Etcheverry (the two elders downstairs) packing their things and preparing to leave since they were being transferred to new areas. Elder Doyle and I needed to go to the computer shop as well in order for him to tell his parents and family that he has decided to stay in the mission field. Elder Etcheverry and Francisco also tagged along with us because Elder Etcheverry was not able to log into his email on p-day and did not know what he's travel plans were to his new area. After that, all four of us ate at the burger place called Zark's for one last time before our district was to split up. Once we returned Elder Francisco still needed to pack his luggage but Elder Etcheverry wanted to say goodbye to some of the people in his area before he left. I ended up going with Elder Etcheverry into his area while Elder Doyle stayed with Francisco. It was good to see and meet some of the people in Elder Etcheverry's area, especially since their area (San Lorenzo A) was actually going to be absorbed into our area (San Lorenzo B) and become one big San Lorenzo area. So our proselyting area is actually huge right now.
Later that night, Elder Etcheverry left to stay his final night in Laoag because his bus ride out to his new area in Cagayan was at 5:00am and he needed to be close to the bus terminal in order to catch his ride on time.
Wednesday -
So since Elder Etcheverry left the night before, Elder Doyle, Elder Francisco and I become a momentary tri-some companionship for one day. Not much really happened because we couldn't just leave Elder Francisco alone while we worked in our own area. We basically waited around and did studying and stuff until Elder Francisco could catch his ride to his new area. Once he was gone it was kind of late and we just spent some time looking through the apartment of the elders that had just left. We snagged what we wanted and left the rest for the mission to take and use as it's needed. So far no body has come to remove the desks and things out of the apartment for other missionaries.
Thursday -
So Thursday finally shifted into more of a normal day. We hadn't had one of these in a while because of the abnormality of the last couple weeks. We've had to deal with my former companion Elder Fuller going home, and then me getting a new "temporary" companion, and finally the other two elders transferring, but finally everything settled down a bit and we were able to do some work. Most of the day we spent trying to find some new people but the most effective work we had happened while we were sitting down eating some 'halo-halo' at the stand of a part member family.While we were sitting there a couple more guys hopped out of a Petron Gasul truck and bought some halo-halo themselves. I started talking to them and we had a pretty good friendly conversation. One of them was actually a former Filipino Marine and he showed me some pictures form a joint training they did one time with some American Marines that were stationed in Okinawa. After a little while we got onto the topic of the our purpose as missionaries and were able to share a little bit with them. Unfortunately, they were not in our proselyting area but I did end up giving them a couple pamphlets and the one extra Aklat ni Mormon we had. Though we weren't necessarily able to set a return appointment or anything it is nice to at least 'plant the seed' and introduce people to the gospel.
After that lesson I was able to recognize the Gift of Tongues. I was able to nearly effortlessly speak to these two men in Tagalog. Of course my Tagalog isn't anywhere near perfect, but I've been able to become more comfortable communicating with others while Elder Doyle has been here since he's been a little quiet and I've had to take the lead.
Friday -
So Friday we had our daily planning in the morning and then went out to work and do some finding later in the day. We also taught three new people. Hopefully this means something and they'll progress unlike most people that allow us to teach them. The message itself felt good and it seems like there's potential.
Saturday -
Once again, we did some finding but our success ended up at the SAME halo-halo stand. I think the halo-halo stand is actually a pretty good place to find new people because we don't have to go out of our way to approach them. We're just in a comfortable casual environment and started a conversation isn't super abnormal. The guy we met this time was actually "from Italy." Well, not really from Italy but he's been living in Italy since he was 19 as a FWA or Filipino Working Abroad. He comes back to the Philippines every five years in order to renew his workers visa and we happened to stumble on him. I started talking to him once again and it was pretty casual. He was surprised that we knew Tagalog and apparently he had not many other missionaries previously. We kind of got on the topic of our purpose of missionaries but he didn't seem remarkably interested. He kind of talked about how he believes in God and stuff but doesn't really attend any church. He then asked us about the origin of our church. He asked where it's from. America? This gave me the perfect opportunity to explain that though our church was 'technically' formed in America, it had a more divine beginning. I was then able to give a general overview about the first lesson and the restoration of the gospel. I explained how our church is organized the same way as the church back in the days of Christ and how we are the only church to hold the authority of the Priesthood (I've learned that it's pretty important while teaching people to focus on the fact that we have authority given from God and are the SAME church that Christ established back in his lifetime. If you don't initially explain this sort of thing people will likely dismiss you as any other church, but you have to explain that there's something special and different about ours). After a while of teaching and dismissing his concerns that he's had with other churches he finally said that by his own desire would like to attend our church sometime. He declined the opportunity for us to immediately start teaching him the lessons because he wants to learn about it more by himself, but his view on our church and religion completely changed by the end of our conversation and you could feel it. This is just another example of the importance of listening to the spirit and saying what it would have you say. Once again, we don't know what will happen to this person we taught, but we have at least planted the seed.
Sunday -
Of course we attended church in the morning if you were wondering. Then, we had fellow shippers the rest of the day introducing us a little bit of the area that Elder Etcheverry and Francisco left behind. We did that all day but really only met some less active members.
The other thing that happens on Sunday as district leader is 'follow-ups.' For follow-ups I just have to call and check in with all the companionships in my district. I have to see how there doing and if they have any problems, concerns, or complaints and then later in the day I then have to call our Zone Leaders and relay any important information or problems to them. This was a super easy task last cycle since my district included my companionship and then the other two elders on the bottom floor of our apartment. We were all pretty close and casual and I would just talk to them and ask if everything was alright. It was easy, but now I have to call the three other companionships in our district over telephone while speaking lots of Tagalog over the patchy signal. It was funny because there are two Elders companionships and one sister companionship in our district. I called the other Elder companionship
in our district and it was quick and smooth. When I called both of the other sisters' companionships the calls took about 20 minutes each. I wasn't really expecting it to take too long because my previous experiences with follow-ups has been pretty quick and easy with our Zone Leaders but it was pretty lengthy with the sisters. None of them had very major concerns but just talked about the regular issues that all missionaries deal with like finding new people, getting people to go to church, and obtaining referrals. I just kind of encouraged them, empathized with them and told them to keep trying and that seemed like a good enough answer. At the end of the phone calls i legitimately just laughed. The two phone calls were super unnecessarily long and it was just simply funny. I asked the previous district leader if long phone calls with the sister missionaries are normal and he said "very."
Pictures -
a couple last pictures with the San Lorenzo district, the two Petron Gasul truck drivers (the marine standing beside me. If you notice he probably doesn't seem super intimidating based on height alone), a picture of me by a bukid
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