June 25-30, 2019
Tuesday -
Our district meeting in the morning went fine like usual. I assigned Sister Calipayan to do training. She taught about using the Book of Mormon in our teachings. It went well and her teaching style kind of seemed like an elementary school teacher which is funny. After that we all ate at McDonalds ('MacDoh') as a district. As Elder Doyle and I returned home to our apartment we saw several text messages and mixed calls from Nanay Ulep. She's a member and our landlord. Instead of just texting back we decided to just go over to her house since it's close and her concern seemed important. We headed over to her house and she seemed very concerned and upset because it was our due date to pay our electric bill and we hadn't done it yet. It turns out that they found our electric bill torn up and on the ground somewhere and were kind of upset with us, but in all honesty we never even saw the bill because the electric company mistakenly put it on the vacant apartment below ours. We explained the situation and Nanay Ulep seemed to be relieved. She then told us to pay the bill at the Ilocos Norte Electric Company office. Usually we just go to the 7/11 just outside of our area and pay it at a machine but we had to go to the main office since we were paying on the due date. I'd never been to this office and it was kind of far away and we had to wait in a long line. It kind of reminded me of a DMV back home.
After that we headed to a place in our area called Baay. I tried to call home to my family for my dad's birthday (which is now allowed with the communication change for missionaries) but of course the quality of the computers made that impossible. We just ended up trying to do a little work there and then it got pretty dark. When we made it back to the highway there was only one tricey left. We asked if we could get a ride back to San Lorenzo and the driver just said, "Hindi (no)" and didn't give us an explanation why or even use the respect article of "po" which you usually use when talking to strangers. We had to walk all the way home in the dark from one of our furthest areas.
Wednesday -
During my personal study I re-read the scripture John 16:33. Though I've read it other times before, it really felt significant to me this time. It says "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." It stood out to me a little more than usual because I had been reading 'Jesus the Christ' that explained the context of this verse a little more. To keep it short, Christ's disciples were scared because he was going to preform the atonement and be crucified and they weren't sure what they'd do after he was gone, but in reality they needn't worry because He is victorious over the world. That's a promise applicable to us as well.
Thursday -
We were able to successfully teach another lesson to our investigator Aldridge Allado. The lesson kind of started off when I showed him a picture from my gospel artbook. Then he asked if the entire book was full of pictures. I then started explaining each story and parable from the artbook to him one-by-one. He was very entertained and interested and his mom was kind of listening in as well. Once I got the the Book of Mormon stories I then transitioned into our lesson to him about the Book of Mormon. It was really awesome and once we finished it sounded like he actually had sincere desire to read it which has previously not always been the case with our other investigators. We of course gave him a copy.
Friday -
We had our weekly planning in the morning. It mostly consisted of formulating plans for finding new people.
Also, another verse that stood out to me was Job 19:25 - "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth."
Saturday -
We went to barangay St. Maria to teach the Allado family but no one was there so we headed over to the barangay basketball court to find some people. While we were there, lots of kids asked me to dunk (because I'm tall and American), so I dunked on their hoop that was probably about 9 feet off the ground. It ended up partially breaking which is awkward. It didn't fall over but one of the branches that held it up on the tree was kind of broken so the hoop is super shaky now. That's too bad for them.
Sunday -
We had church and since it was the fifth Sunday it was different than usual. Apparently the area seventy Elder Schmutz requested that all the wards show a video about financial maintenance because it's a very big concern for members here. It turns out that there's been an issue here across the nation with lots of members not being careful and getting unknowingly involved in pyramid schemes, ponzi schemes, and other scams. The biggest concern was that a lot of people have been investing in a company that is legally listed as a church by governmental agencies. When they join the investment they also sign-up to join that church and accept that church's leader as a living prophet. It's pretty weird stuff to say the least.
After doing some work I did normal weekly follow-ups with the other companionships in the district. The four sister missionaries called in kind of late because they had attended a 'necrological service'.
Monday -
This morning we went to the Paoay Church which is just a tourist spot here.It's also one of the few places to visit on p-day in this mission since there's not really many museums or thing around. It's an old Spanish church built in 1710 using eggshell cement or something. It was pretty cool and we even went inside. We didn't go to far though because it's still in use today.
Once that was finished we headed to the mission office to have a big independence day barbecue with 24 other elder missionaries. It was pretty good. We had fairly legitimate burgers, watermelon, cookies, mango cupcakes, and ribs (which were pretty rough and not very tender).
Pictures -
a text from a member asking us to bless their motor, some pictures from work, the Paoay church, our BBQ
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