Bahay-Bahay

July 22 - 28, 2019

So this week not much happened other than going house to house trying to find people to teach. That pretty much is the gist of it. 

Monday -

After doing our typical emailing we went and played billiards, so that was fun and unusual. It was companionship vs companionship. It was Elder Doyle and I vs Elder Butler and his trainee. Now I'm not saying we lost because it was Elder Doyle's first time playing, but we lost because it was Elder Doyle's first time playing.

Tuesday -

We had our district council in the morning as usual. I taught about invitations/commitments and why they're essential in helping bring others unto repentance. I also gave out a few Starbursts to people who participated, which was everyone. Everyone got a max of two starbursts each though because I managed to eat most of the contents of my package before our meeting.

Once we got out to work we went to this area called Bingao anticipating some door-to-door work. We ended talking to someone at the first house we tried. Apparently she had been visited by previous missionaries but isn't usually available for lessons because she usually lives in another town. After we talked to her for a while and shared a little bit we decided to continue our work. We ended up getting stopped by a recent convert who we talked to for a while which distracted us from going to the rest of the houses on the street. It was okay though because this recent convert hasn't been at church for a couple weeks so we hope that our conversation with her will help.

To end the day we went and ate dinner at the Tumamao family home once again. We talked to them for a while about their son who has just started his mission in Ghana, Africa. We also answered their questions about missionary life and work. It's always a good opportunity to go to there house especially since it's a part member family. The missionaries are always very close to them.

Wednesday - 

So in all honesty, this was the first day in my mission that we did legitimate intense door-to-door finding. With all my other companions, as we walked from appointment to appointment, we would just talk to random people on the street and things. Those people we talked to would sometimes be with their friends as well which just helped us teach more people. I would say that most missionaries here don't do door-to-door work very frequently. Typically it's more street contacting. With my last companions in my last area it was pretty simple and easy. In this area the work has been much slower. As we're running out of things to do I finally decided that we just need to go to every house like Paul. So, that's exactly what we did the entire day.

We went to this area called San Pablo and tried to go to every single house. We also got denied every single time except three of them. One of the people we found does not even live in our area. The other two seem moderately interested. One of them had a sling on their shoulder and I started the conversation by talking about how I injured my shoulder and needed surgery because of football. While we were talking to this 21 year old with a sling, his two younger sibling came out and talked to us as well. We asked to return on a later date and they said that it would be fine.

Though we got denied many times it actually didn't feel so bad. Most of the time I laughed at how awkward each scenario was and how people quickly thought of fake excuses to try and shew us away. The excuses usually were pretty painfully fake. This was also the first day that I had a little girl close a door in our faces.

Thursday - 

We did service at the home of the Gadu family. Most homes here don't have a lawn, let alone very much grass, but at this home there was actually way too much grass. Some members used weed wackers to cut the whole lawn (that was over 3 feet tall at some parts) and we missionaries weeded the edge of the house with little knife-saw things. It was very hot. After the service Nanay Gadu said she'd make us lunch. She did make us lunch but it took forever and we waited a very long time. We also ended up teaching a lesson to our investigators, the Segui family, at the Gadu home since they were visiting Nanay Gadu.

Friday - 

We got out a little late to work in the morning. We then ended up going to Bingao and trying some door-to-door finding in the area we didn't finish working before. It wasn't super effective. They seemed to all be familiar with the missionaries and not interested.

Saturday -

We did some more finding in another part of Bingao. It yielded similar results.

Sunday -

Nobody we were teaching came to church. We later talked to Menchie Segui our investigator and she said that they showed up to church 30 minutes late and she was too shy to enter because of their lateness. We taught her and her husband later in the day. During our work day we also had our fellowship Ezra with us. 

Pictures - 

mostly last seconds pictures I took because I realized I hadn't taken any the whole week, then a picture of Nanay Gadu, her dog fat dog Chung-li, and my companino Elder Doyle

I forgot my spiritual note on my last email, so I guess I'll just send this one individually.

So as I've been reading the New Testament I came across a couple verses that are very well cited and that we're probably well familiar with. Those verses are Matthew 5:44,48. As I was reading I also really liked verse 45 which seems to be less emphasized typically even though it helps explain in greater detail the importance of both verse 44 and 48.

44 But I say unto you,  Love your  enemies,  bless them that  curse
you, do  good to them that hate you,
and  pray for them which despite-fully use you, and  persecute you;
45 That ye  may be the  children
of your Father which is in heaven:
for he maketh his sun to rise on
the evil and on the good, and sendeth  rain on the just and on the
unjust.

48  Be ye therefore  perfect, even
as your  Father which is in heaven
is  perfect.

As it says in verse 48, our father in heaven is perfect. In verse 45 it gives an example of his actions that are a result of his perfection. Because God is perfect, and sends rain/sustenance on both the good and evil, we should also do the same. Though sometimes it is hard because no one is perfect, we should still strive to be more perfect like our father in heaven by loving our enemies and by doing good to them that hate us. Love isn't subjective and dependent on the situation. Love, like our Father in Heaven's, is constant regardless of situation. That is what is also required of us. I have another invitation to all of you to try and love others regardless of scenario. Try and to more fully see them as God the Father and Jesus Christ do.

Maulan ang linggo

So this week has been alright once again. The weather has been kind of weird though. Sometimes it has been pretty rainy and we've needed to use raincoats and umbrellas but then it will immediately stop and become super hot and humid again. Trying to anticipate the weather is also a little difficult since we can't really see the news, but other than the weather, it's been pretty normal. We've tried lots of finding pretty much every day.

Monday -

Not much happened last Monday other than our typical p-day activities. I also prepared a lesson for our district council meeting.

Tuesday -

In the morning we headed to San Nicolas centro for our district meeting with the two sister companionships in our district. The lesson I prepared was about the first lesson we share as missionaries, the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and why it's so important. We discussed techniques on how to simplify our teaching for people and emphasize the importance of authority given of God.

Once we got back to our area we did some finding once again and talked to some people but it never really turned into much serious work. At the end of the day we ate dinner once again with the part-member Tumamao family. While we were there we saw part of the nightly news. There were two weird stories we saw. One of them was about elementary aged students being issued coconut helmets just in case of an earthquake, and the other was about someone giving the victim of a car wreck a pig for forgiveness. The coconut thing was pretty funny because they interviewed a teacher and during the "serious" interview she was wearing the helmet and it looked hilarious.

Wednesday -

In the morning we did some work in this area called Samac. We just talked to a bunch of people as usual and actually ran into the father of our bishop's wife. He was not very interested in our message and claimed be a member of "all religions." Apparently he's been in contact with missionaries for a long time but just doesn't care too much about what we have to say. After some work we had our interviews with President Peterson in Laoag at the mission office. The interviews themselves went smooth as normal, but the journey back home took forever. Of course we always travel around by riding on a mix of triceys and jeepneys which is slow anyways, but for some reason there was also ridiculous amounts of traffic as well and it took forever. By the time we got back to our area, there wasn't really a ton of time to get much work done.

Thursday - 

So in our work we found some new people, the Payaoaon (I think that's the spelling) family. They were super nice and allowed us to talk with them. The doctrinal aspect of the conversation didn't get super in depth (of course it wasn't non-existent either)  but we did have a nice time getting to know them and talk to them. Unfortunately, the two people that talked to us the most are actually leaving in a couple weeks. This couple, both of whom are in their up 20's, are returning to Saudi Arabia to continue their work as nurses. We talked to them for a while and they even bought us some merienda. Though the most talkative of them won't be around when we return, we are still excited to return and try and teach their family. Also on our way home to our apartment we got invited into the home of the Rafol family. They're members and they gave us some hot chocolate because we were all wet from the rain.

Friday - 

While we were doing our weekly planning in the morning the office elder stopped by our apartment and gave me a couple packages from home. They're nice packages specifically designed for my one year mark in the mission. Though, they're slightly early they are greatly appreciated and the contents of the package will be in the pictures below. 

Once we headed out for some work we went to our area in Bingao. When it hit dinner time we then headed over to the wealthy Barruga household for our weekly meal with them. After dinner ended we headed over to the church to have our missionary council meeting with the ward missionaries and ward mission leader. Unfortunately it was cancelled because no one else showed up.

Saturday - 

On Saturday we always eat dinner with the Bulatao family. Because of this we talked with Sister Bulatao and organized an opportunity to teach their neighbor who had attended church last week. Unfortunately she never showed up for us to teach her. That was a little disappointing since that was the appointment we had been anticipating the whole day. At the end of the day I also started preparing a talk that I was asked to give in church about choices and accountability. I prepared an introduction but then decided it was talking too much time and just did a general outline for the rest of the talk with some scripture references.

Sunday -

I gave my talk and even though I didn't have much in depth preparation it actually went very well. Usually I like to have the entire talk planned out, but this time I went moderately unprepared compared to usual. I ended up going up and speaking about whatever came to my mind concerning the topic while citing fairly random scripture references and quotes from prophets and apostles. I also joked around a little bit. I wasn't very concerned about preparation for my talk though because the last time I talked in sacrament meeting here no one really paid much attention. This time people seemed more engaged and it went well. Bishop Sugui told me it was a good talk and was impressed that I managed to fill the rest of the time since the first two talks were pretty short. I was actually surprised because I was pretty sure I was going to be short on time because of lack of preparation, but by the time I finished I had taken way more time than I was anticipating.

Also, this Sunday only one of the four interested people that attended church last week returned. That was a little disappointing but we are glad that the one did return. We ended up teaching her again later after church. Also during our work we had a fellow shipper named Ezra with us the whole time.

Note - 

So I just want to share this quote from Elder Dallin H. Oaks that I used during my talk, it says 

"if our works are to be credited for good, they must be done for the right reasons... it is not enough to serve God with all our might and strength. He who looks into our hearts and knows our minds demands more than this. In order to stand blameless before God at the last day, we must also serve him with all our heart and mind"

This quote, though not necessarily referencing very deep or unusual doctrine, is very powerful and important to us. We can always be doing the right things and make the right decisions, but if it isn't with the right heart it credits us nothing at that last day of judgement. So, I invite all of you, including myself as well, to try and be more sincere in all that we do. Though it can be very hard sometimes I know that as we simply try to be more sincere in our righteous works we will find ourselves having greater desire to do those things the Lord has asked of us. His work will become less of a 'task' and more of a joy that we want to do.

Pictures - 

some goats on a car, starving cows, our rainy weather apparel, pictures of things from my one year package, pictures with our investigator

Saganang Tinuturuan

So, this week started out initially slow but by the end of the week we were able to find some success and I'm very thankful for it, especially since the work here has been so slow for so long. Now I'm not saying that work here has sped up to the level of work in my last area, but we have seen a slight increase which is very exciting.

Monday -

On Monday, aside from typical p-day activities, we also traveled to the mission office to say goodbye to some departing missionaries, and then we had "family home evening" at the Rafol household.

Tuesday -

We had some slow proselyting time in Barangay St. Agustin. We just did lots of door-to-door finding and ended up teaching a lesson, but no body seemed overly interested. We then ended the day with dinner with the Tumamao family, which is a part member family that is close to the missionaries.

Wednesday -

We did some work in this area called Samac and tried to return to some recently found new people. Unfortunately, none of them were there. We then just kept trying to find some new people once again.

Thursday -

We decided to return to the area of San Pablo. We haven't worked here very much so we wanted to see if there were any new teaching opportunities. We did some street contacting of some unenthusiastic people, and then also found a short cut to another section of our area. So that's nice I guess.

Friday -

We did our typical weekly planning in the morning as usual. By the time it hit the afternoon we headed out of our area to centro San Nicolas; this is the sister missionaries area. I then interviewed two of their baptismal candidates since I'm their district leader. The first lady I interviewed was super old and honestly pretty forgetful of the doctrine it seems, but from what I could tell her heart seemed in the right place. I also talked with the sister missionaries about her for a little bit and then I cleared her for baptism. The spirit of discernment said nothing contrary. The second person interviewed was a 13 year old girl. Despite her age she was actually pretty tall, especially for some here in the Philippines. She, unlike the older lady, seemed to know what the sister missionaries taught her and passed just fine.

After that was over, we didn't really have much extra time to work, so I just started preparing a lesson for an upcoming ward leadership training that we were invited too help with.

Saturday -

The previously stated ward leadership training occurred on Saturday the next day. In the morning we headed to the house of the former stake president Brother Rafol to get a ride to the training meeting. We ended up getting a ride with a member named Michael. He's a returned missionary. He gave us a ride on a kurong-kurong (kinda like a tricey). About half way through the ride he decided to tell us that the motorcycle didn't have a brake.. So that was a little sketchy but nothing bad ended up happening. He just had to slow down way before each turn or stop and also couldn't get up to very high speed just in case we needed to stop quickly.

The venue of the event itself was pretty cool. It was at this places called JTL Resort or something. Though it claims the title 'resort' it is far from any resort we're familiar with back home. 'Resort' basically means it has a pool. Anyways, the view was actually very cool. On one side you could see this big lake called Paoay Lake, and then on the other side you could see the South China sea in the distance. The training itself was alright and mostly about ministering. We missionaries were assigned to share about the relationship between Members, Ministering and full time missionaries. Since, I was the only one to prepare anything, I just talked the whole time and then told my companion Elder Doyle to read aloud the scriptures references I found. Our teaching was just about how ministering is basically missionary work for members, and we focused on the idea of "every member a missionary" by David O. McKay. That concept isn't understood very well in this area. Usually, they try and make us do everything because we're the missionaries even though the things they want us to do are ones they could easily accomplish themselves. It seemed to go pretty well. As I was talking I realized no one was any longer paying attention so I just summarized everything and then ended it. That's usually how it goes. 

Once that ended, we headed over to barangay Payas to a return appointment we had set up. We showed up and no one was there. After that we then headed to our dinner appointment with the Bulatao family. It was dark for much of the meal because we had an electrical brown-out the entire day, but near the end of the meal the lights flickered back on. 

Sunday -

There was a miracle of four investigators that attended sacrament meeting. We were anticipating only two of them (because we'd previously taught them), but it turns out that two of the members that had attended the training meeting the day before brought two new people with them to church as well. So that's awesome and we're excited to start teaching them. Also, later in the day after we did some work we were just walking on the road like usual. As we walked on the road, a guy went by on a motorcycle and we smiled and waved as usual. To our surprise, after about 30 seconds or so, he returned and stopped us. He said something (in Tagalog of course) to the effect of "I want to become a member of your religion. How do I do that?.. Oh, I'm Warmboy Acosta by the way." We then had a nice conversation with him and explained our purpose to him and how we'd be excited to share the lessons with him. He also said that he would be coming to church next week since that's one of the requirements of preparation for baptism. He's also 24 years old and 12th grade school teacher which is pretty cool. If you're a teacher here in the Philippines that's kind of a big deal because it means you're a little more educated than the average person. That means he also should know English a little better than the average fellow as well.

After that Elder Doyle and I walked away very excited. That's the first time that a person has went out and found us. Usually we're the ones finding, but it's cool to see that people are being prepared for the gospel beforehand. Warmboy also talked about how he had recently see a movie called "God's Not Dead" and he felt like it was a spiritual wake-up call for him. So we're just looking forward to start teaching him.

Pictures -

Should include some pictures from the ward leadership training venue, a nice bahay kubo, 'Landslide Phrone Area', and Fiesta Street.