Last Week With Denton - Training na ako

So this week has been alright. It's been a little slow but that's probably because it was Elder Denton's last week in the mission. He's actually already on the way home right now and I'm currently the temporary companion of the zone leaders. It was a fine time with my Australian companion. I also just opened the transfer board and found out that I will be training a new missionary this cycle while I'm the district leader. I'm excited to get someone new and ready to work I'll attach some pictures below and send another email next week.

Pictures: with Elder Denton, at a ward party, etc.

Another Week in Baua

This has just been another moderate week in Baua. Nothing super crazy has happened and we haven't got to work as much as I would have preferred but it's been okay.  My companion is actually going home next Monday as well so I probably won't be able to send an email not week. I'm not exactly sure what's going on. 

Monday -

It was a typical Monday and I my companion and I tried to see how many foot-long hot-dogs we could eat. We managed to eat 4 each. Not that that's super important. That's just a side note.

Tuesday -

We didn't have district council as usual because of the upcoming zone conference. The main person we have been teaching recently wasn't available either. We had to just kill the time with some work. I also did a lot of studies. There's two scriptures that I really liked while reading the New Testament once again.

Acts 14:22 -

22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

I like this verse because it clarifies that it's through tribulation and trial that we enter into the kingdom of God. Sometimes we try and soften the trials and difficulties we face because we don't like to face and recognize difficulty, but in reality life wasn't meant to be easy. This plan wasn't meant to be easy, it was meant to be accomplish-able. That means you have to go through a lot to grow a lot and develop into the character God wants you to be. but you also will receive help because of Christ's Atonement.

The other verse I like is in Acts as well. I like it because it helps describe our relationship to God

Acts 17:27-30 -

27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

It also ends with an invitation to repent. The times where God "winked at" (overlooked) sin are passed. We need to change.

Wednesday -

Not much happened other than teaching the Word of Wisdom to our main investigator Jenlyn Agacir.

Thursday -

We taught a lesson about the Plan of Salvation to a member, that wanted to understand the plan of salvation better so she could explain it to her friend. Hopefully, we will be able to teach this said friend on a following day.

Friday -

We had our zone conference in a place called Magapit in a hotel called Solomon's Hotel. President Peterson's lesson seemed very familiar to me as he taught about the apostles, the spirit, and teaching from the Bible as missionaries. A few weeks prior during our interviews this was the exact same stuff I talked to him about. I shared a scripture from John 16:33 and I also gave him the context and explained it's meaning (about the apostles and how they were empowered by the spirit once Christ ascended). He then was happy and surprised when I shared a scripture from the New Testament unlike most of the other missionaries that shared from the Book of Mormon only. We had a discussion about how we wish missionaries would use the Bible more, specifically the New Testament seeing as it's the actual mortal life of Christ. This ended up being the exact topic of discussion at zone conference which is cool. 

I also received some two packages from home after zone conference ended.

Saturday -

We taught a lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ to our other progressing investigator and it went very well. I also did a lot of reading from 'The Great Apostasy' by James E. Talmage. It's a cool book of scriptural stuff intermixed with regular history which I like very much. It also seems to give a fairly good in depth explanation of the Great Apostasy so far. I also liked a quote in the book that said "Obedience to the law is the habit of a free man."

Sunday -

We had our district conference in this area called Gonzaga and President Peterson was there so that was cool. It's funny when he talks to Filipino congregations in English.

Pictures -

I wish I could upload pictures but for some reason that's not possible in the computer shop. I'll probably upload the pictures from this week the next time I get a chance. There might be a huge spam of pictures at once.                           

Exchanges and Rat Burning

So this week has been alright. We had exchanges this week with some of the Elders from Santa Anna and we also managed to kill one of the rats in our apartment. Also, this email might be a little short because my companion finished his emailing abnormally quickly and I'd rather not force him to stay here too long.

Monday -

It was a pretty typical p-day except for the fact that we met this guy from India and he asked us some pretty interesting questions. He asked us a few things like, "how did you guys learn Tagalog so quickly?" and "why do people cry to Jesus?" We did the best we could to answer his questions even though he wasn't very fluent in Tagalog or English.

Tuesday -

We had a pretty good day of finding and talking to new people. We managed to at least converse if not teach 11 new people or so throughout the day. Later in the day, once we returned home we found one of the rats in our house in the bathroom. We pinned it in there, I lit some alcohol on fire in the doorway, and my companion went at it with a knife. It got scared and actually ran through the fire and caught on fire itself. I also sprayed it as it ran on fire. It died.

Spiritual Note:

John 15:14-15

14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

This was a verse I found and really liked in my studies because it give a little different take on our relationship towards Christ. If we follow him and do what he says, we are as his friends. He says that he has made all things known unto us as he would a friend. If he considered us far below him, he wouldn't have done so, but he love us as friends and has respect for us as well.

Wednesday -

Not much really happened. It was pretty rainy. 

Another verse I liked was John 20:29. I won't go super in depth on that one, but you can study that for yourself.

Thursday - 

We had exchanges and I went to Santa Anna with Elder Lalamoro and his companion Elder Labuson went my Baua. The day went well and we did lots of work and finding. I specifically tried to help Elder Lalamoro become less shy about finding. He seemed kind of hesitant to bother people that looked like they were busy but I showed him that you can still talk to them and even help them even if even they seem preoccupied. Some people here are willing to drop everything and talk to you if they're interested.

Friday - 

Not much happened except for our weekly planning in the morning.

Saturday -

We did some work and returned to a lot of the people we've previously taught. We also managed to find some new people as well. 

Some other scriptures I liked were Acts 5:41 and 5:29. I really liked verse 41 though because it explains the idea that we should feel blessed to be worthy to suffer in the name of Christ rather than complain about it.

Sunday -

Elder Denton and I both gave talks in church. I also did my followup calls to all the members of my district later at night which went well.

Pictures -

Elder Lalamoro and I, and then Elder Denton and Elder Labuson (who managed to make a huge mess of our apartment while only being there one night)

Baptism n' Stuff

September 2-8, 2019

So this week we had the baptism of Brother and Sister Reolalas. That's probably the most significant thing that has happened. We've also been fighting our bitter war with our rat roommates. They are proving to be very durable.

Tuesday -

So we had our district council as usual and I taught once again. The sister missionaries weren't there because they had to go to the MLC (mission leadership council) so I recycled a lesson I made for my last district because I didn't want to make a new lesson for only part of my district. Later in the day we taught a lesson to the Reolalas family in order to further their preparation for baptism. Also, our electricity went out for the whole day once again because the infrastructure is great in the Philippines.

Wednesday -

Around ten in the morning we had our apartment checked by the senior sister missionaries. They checked our apartment and they were actually very impressed. Which is awesome because it took me a ton of time an effort to clean the mess made by previous missionaries and rats that no one was willing to clean up. They didn't really have many complaints except for the clutter under our kitchen sink which I then proceeded to clean as well. While doing so, an open container of paint thinner spilled and it was a very strong smell. It the fumes gave my companion and I very bad headaches. I took a break, opened the windows and then finished cleaning it. Later we went out and taught our investigator Jennalyn and also the recent convert of Elder Denton. Also, our landlord/branch president came by our house and was very surprised and pleased with the cleanliness.

Thursday -

We tried to go out and visit a bunch of the people we're currently teaching but no one was available. This of course was moderately discouraging for us but especially for my companion. He's going home soon so he's kind of getting 'trunky' didn't really want to go our much no matter what I said.. so I did some extra studies and made a stand for my guitar.

Spiritual Thought - 

John 14: 23

23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

So this verse is pretty simple, but it also states a simple truth that many people we talk to here in the Philippines (and probably the rest of the world) don't really get. It's the concept of belief alone vs belief and action. If one has true belief in something, clearly they act on it. For example, if you knew there was going to be a powerful storm you would probably prepare you home beforehand but if you didn't really believe there was going to be a storm, you would likely do nothing about it. This verse is similar. Christ says, "if a man love me, he will keep my words." It's that simple. If we truly profess to believe in and love Christ we will do something about it. And if we do act on our belief there is a promise that the Father and Son will "abode with [us]."

Friday -

So in the morning we did our weekly planning and the rest of the day was preparation for the baptism. This included washing the baptismal clothes, cleaning the font, filling it with water, and creating a baptismal program. All of this seemed to take a very unnecessarily long amount of time. Especially filling the baptismal font and creating the program. Creating the program was difficult because there was no Microsoft Office programs on the computer so we had to use this program called LibreOffice which is just a rip-off of word.. and it was very difficult to use. Filling up the font was weird too because I had to go into the water pump tower behind the church. I had to first unlock the very strange door and then I had to figure out which of the seven valves to turn and which switch to flip. There were no real instructions and I just flipped one random switch and it seemed to work. I was really concerned that I was going to cause some problem, but since the first switch I flipped was correct nothing bad seemed to happen. I also mopped the dirty font.

Saturday - 

Today was the baptism of the the Reolalas family. So these were some people being taught before I arrived here but I've been to their home a few times and taught a few lessons. The story of brother Reolalas in particular is pretty cool. He used to smoke three packs of cigarettes a day and tried to quit many different times but never was able to. He was final able to quit when he started hearing the lessons and going to church. It's a pretty cool miracle that shows the power through Christ is much more powerful than anything else.

Anyways, at the baptism itself, I was the conductor, chorister, and closing prayer and Elder Denton was the baptizer. We missionaries ran the whole show. 

Sunday - 

We had an interesting Elder's Quorum experience. Our meeting started 10 minutes late or so and then for the lesson our elderly elder's quorum president just read the entire time from both the Liahona and Friend magazines. That's all that happened the entire block. Later, the electricity went out again and then we did some work with some youth. We ate dinner at President Bote's house

Pictures - 

old money from Japanese imperialism, Sting - the energy drink that a very excessive amount of missionaries drink, my companion and I, my desk with my rat fighting airsoft gun, a cool old style key for the church, my guitar stand I made, baptismal stuff.

Barilin kong daga

August 26 - September 2, 2019

So this week has been alright but I forgot to bring my daily planner with me today so I probably won't remember everything I wrote down. This email will probably be pretty brief. This week though has consisted of cleaning our apartment, having interviews with President Peterson and fighting the rats in our apartment.

Monday -

We cleaned the apartment that's a complete mess.  It was a horrible mess from previous missionaries and then to make things worse some rats had got into everything. There was lots of rat droppings and torn up trash.

Tuesday - 

We had our district council like usual and I was the one to train once again. I recycled one of the lessons I prepared for my last district about the restoration. After that it was very rainy and stormy because of the "bagyo" which is a very general term that could refer to a moderate rainstorm to a hurricane. We weren't able to get out and teach as much as we were hoping. Also most people weren't outside on the streets as usual. Also in this area, if it's raining, the tricey's won't give you a ride so it's really hard to get around.

Wednesday -

In the morning we did some last second cleaning because we were anticipating apartment checks but they never happened. It turns out we were just confused. Apparently the apartment checks weren't last Wednesday but this upcoming one so in reality we wasted some time waiting for apartment checks that never happened. After that we headed over to the neighboring area of Gonzaga for our interviews with President Peterson. Those went well and I got some interesting news from President about what will be happening next cycle once my companion goes home. I'm not technically allowed to say much about it though. After that President and Sister Peterson gave us a ride back to our area and then we had a few appointments.

Thursday -

We had exchanges so that our baptismal candidates here could be interviewed by one of our zone leaders. I went to Santa Terresita with ZL Elder Griffits, and Elder Denton stayed in our area with ZL Elder Estrella. The day with Elder Griffits was cool and it was nice to be with one of my MTC batch-mates. We did lots of finding.

Friday -

We did our weekly planning. We also went and taught one of our referrals.. who in return gave us another referral. That's super convenient.. a referral from a referral.

Saturday -

I don't remember much about what happened on Saturday except for some work once again. Also, we found an airsoft gun that some previous elders left in the apartment. We ended up using that later in the day to shoot at our pet rat that lives with us. I managed to hit it twice but it ran away. I'm not sure where it went. 

Sunday - 

It was the sabbath. We did some work. We also taught a lesson to a member. I don't really remember to much

Spiritual Note -

 

John 10:

 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

I like this verse simply because it gives us a goal. The goal is to become his sheep. If we become one of his sheep it means we can "know his voice" and distinguish it from the voice of others. Once we recognize him, he will go before us, pave the way, and we will follow him if we know his voice.

Pictures -

For some reason the computer I currently using refusing to recognize my camera when I plug it in which means the few pictures I took this week will probably just have to be in the next email.