Rotten Egg and Dog Bite experiences

I don't really have too much time to email so I'll keep it brief. This week has been alright with some pretty good work and lots of finding. We managed to talk to 115 new people this week about the gospel (a lot of them weren't very interested sounding though). We also managed to teach 14 new people that seem a little more interested. Some seemed pretty sincere and I'm excited to continue teaching them. Unfortunately, none of them came to church. The week of work was fine overall. During the week a couple other things happened as well. Midweek we had an incident with a rotten egg. I cracked an egg in order to cook it but instead of a delicious egg, the green rotten liquid got everywhere and all over everything. It smelled horrible. We then spent an hour and a half trying to clean up the rancid smell before we get out to work. Another funny thing that happened this week was while we were riding in a public vehicle I yelled "Apo!" instead of "para po" to try and get the vehicle to stop at our destination. It's funny because 'apo' is the Ilocano word you say to tell people you're waiting at their door (the equivalent of a doorknock back home). The phrase "para po" on the other hand is Tagalog and is what you say in order to stop the vehicle. It was funny and awkward when I yelled the wrong thing because I yelled it VERY loud. I mistakenly said it because it was the first thing that came to my mind since we go house to house every day yelling 'apo' loudly. Now, the crowning event of the week (and this reason I can't send a full email today) is when I got bit by a dog. It was a VERY minor scrape caused by the dog's tooth on my hand. It didn't even bit down. It's tooth just scratched me and I barely bled. I bleed more if I mess up shaving. Anyways, that means that I need to get a rabies shot in order to ensure that I don't die. That's what is limiting the time today. We went and waited at the hospital earlier today for two hours just to be told that they don't have the rabies injections locally. Anyways, that's pretty much the week.

Here's a scripture I like - 

Jeremiah 9:24 - 

24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

I like this Old Testament scripture because it just helps us focus on what should be important to us. If we are to glory in anything it should be our knowledge of the Lord. That should be our focus and what brings us happiness.

Masarap ang aso

We've had a pretty decent week of work. We've just done lots of finding and returned to a lot of the people we've previously talked to. We also walked in on a person we previously taught cooking and entire freshly killed dog. That was an experience.

Monday - 

As you can imagine, since it was preparation day, we did preparation things. We also did in depth apartment cleaning. it was very gross. I don't really want to go into much detail about the cockroaches and trash and things underneath our stove and fridge.

Tuesday - 

We had district council in the neighboring area of Gonzaga. I assigned Elder Squire to teach the lesson for our training but the Zone Leaders came in and just gave announcements practically the entire time. We were left with 10 minutes left so I just filled the time with some short discussion. We didn't want to waste Elder Squires nicely prepared lesson

Once we returned to the apartment the Senior Sister missionaries came and gave an apartment cleanliness check. They were very impressed.. and rightfully so. Before Elder Rasmussen got here I did lots of apartment cleaning (to try and help with his adjustment into the Philippines). He and I also did even more cleaning while he's been here. Our apartment is VERY clean. The Senior Sisters said "Sorry, we have to be really picky about the small things when your apartment is THIS clean." It's awesome because we put a lot of effort into it and they recognized it. Also, the companion you have and their desire for cleanliness also affects the entire apartment.

Later we went out to work in San Jose. We met a lot of new people mostly and taught about the Book of Mormon a couple of times. We also met this random guy from Manila who just complained to us the whole time about the Ilocano people here in this part of the Philippines. He just told us how bad their Tagalog is here and how they're attitudes are bad or something. It was kind of funny just to hear him rant. He was pretty nice though.

Wednesday - 

In our work, we focused on this place called Ammunitan. We also did some teaching to previously contacted people. The coolest part of the day was when we found this lady named Sister Casafrancisco. She immediately let us in, was super nice, gave us a snack, and asked us lots of questions. The rain was really strong and loud on the tin roof though so it was difficult to hear very much. We taught about eternal families and then both my companion and I felt a prompting to give her a Book of Mormon immediately (which is a little out of the normal order that we do things). She's excited to have us come back and we're excited to teach her again.

(random scripture I liked: 1 Corin. 12:20)

Thursday - 

We worked in two areas, had a great lesson with a Brother Mark Bermejo. We asked if he read and prayed about the Book of  Mormon and he said he did pray. He and his wife prayed and both "felt the spirit rush into their house." It was pretty cool and he seems like he'll really progress. It was an awesome lesson. The rest of the day consisted of typical finding and stuff.

Friday - 

We had weekly planning in the morning, ate lunch at a member's house, and then worked in an area called San Jose. We returned to the little rural fishing village we visited previously and taught a new person. One lady we taught recently had a stroke. We shared about the Book of Mormon and Christ's atonement and how they can help her. He immediately cried and it was a very good lesson.

Saturday -

We did lots of work in Ammunitan again. We returned to some people and taught some new people. We're trying to decide who really cares and who's just nice (that's a real problem here). We ended up finding 13 new people and teach 2 new people. Also, as we were returning to one of our contacted people we found them cooking a freshly killed dog. It's body was still in one piece, it's throat was slit, and they were holding it with their hands over the fire. They were burning it's fur off and scraping it's skin off with a spoon. It was pretty gross one might say.

Sunday - 

A full day of finding on the highway. We did lot's of competing with Jehovah's Witness missionaries that were EVERYWHERE.

Also another scripture I like is...

2 Corinthians 7:

4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

6 Nevertheless God... comforteth those that are cast down..

I like this scripture because it's about being joyful in tribulation and receiving help from God. Often our trial isn't removed as we hope, but we still receive a sense of peace. We grow through that trial. We become more like Christ as we suffer as he did.

Sketchy Bridge, Interviews, Conference

So we've had another decent week that feels like its been full of things to do. We visited this small fishing village (only accessible by a very poorly made bridge), had our interviews With President Peterson, and finally got to watch General Conference. We've also been trying to cook things in our apartment more lately. We've done some experimenting and even made chicken curry one day.

Monday -

It was a fairly packed preparation day. We did our normal activities along with buying lots of ingredients in order to cook our own food at home. We also both did our laundry which took probably around four hours. That's the first day I've done that with one of my companions. We also did some work in a close by area called Bigot.

Tuesday -

We did some good work in this area called Sta Maria and even returned to our one new investigator named Jaylord. We've done lots of finding recently but he was one of the few people that have at least seemed moderately interested. We returned to teach him and found out he actually read the Book of Mormon and stuff. That's a VERY unusual occurrence here. After we taught him the lesson though we learned that he's leaving to go to school in this place called Aparri so we won't be able to keep teaching him. That's alright though at least we were able to do our part.

Romans 12:5-6

5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

This is a random scripture I liked as I was reading in the New Testament. It's pretty simple but shares the important idea that we're all different. Everyone has there own different skills, interests, lives, weaknesses, etc, but we're all required to sacrifice all that we have and are. And even though we have different strengths and weaknesses we can always get better through and because of Christ. We're all supposed to work together to build Gods kingdom and each talent we have (regardless if they're not many) is of benefit to he kingdom.

Wednesday -

This was a cool day of work in our area called San Jose. We started trying some finding here. I asked a man chopping some wood if there were more people at the end of the long road we were walking on and he said "marami" or "many." My companion and I started walking the long road and there was no one around for a very long time. Finally we reached the end of the road and hadn't found anyone. At the end of the road, there was a river and then a really poorly made small bridge. It was a little sketchy (see picture below) but we crossed the bridge. Across the bridge we ran into a small isolated fishing village of people. It was an interesting experience. Most of them were even related to each other. The area is so isolated that the only entrance is the bridge. There's no other way to go to there homes because of the river and mountain. We even talked to some old people and asked when the last time they crossed the bridge was. They have been in the same small village area for years now because they're too scared/fragile to cross the bridge.

Anyways, while we were there, we went to the beach and then talked to some fisherman. We talked to them for a little bit about their fishing (they said they didn't catch anything) and gradually the conversation moved into our purposes and missionaries and the gospel. We ended up sharing about the restoration of the gospel and one of the fisherman kept asking questions trying to stump us but his questions only pushed the lesson forward seeing as we had the answers. It was a cool day. It was also cool to talk to them and it reminded me how simple the original apostles were in the New Testament with the humble jobs of fisherman. They were weak, simple, foolish (1 Corinthians 1:27) things but instruments of God none the less.

Thursday -

We had interviews with President Peterson in the morning. They went well and pretty normal. President Peterson referred to me as a "bible guy" and also hinted to me that our mission will be receiving smart phones.

Once we got out it was actually kinda rough day of work and getting denied a bit but it all made up for it when we taught a very powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon to our investigator Lolila. The spirit was very strong; the Book of Mormon is true.

On the way walking home from work we stopped in a small store to buy a few things. While we were there we heard a few ladies scream and then saw a man walk in the store with a machete. We were really concerned momentarily, but it turns out he wasn't robbing the store, he was just SUPER drunk.

Friday -

It was just another day of work in our area called Bigot. We taught the Javier family that we found about the Book of Mormon. The mother even forced all her kids to sit down and listen which was super awesome. They all listened and it went well. We also saw a monkey and a lot of children.

Saturday - 

We did a little bit of work but mostly watched conference the whole day We watched it in our dirty church's clerk office in some air conditioning which was really awesome.

Sunday -

We watched the morning session of conference in Tagalog and it was not super entertaining. (which we then re-watched in English)

Pictures -

random pictures throughout the week, the bridge, some videos, etc.

May anak na ako sa mission! - Si Elder Rasumussen

This week has been a little crazy! I'm training now! My trainee is Elder Rasmussen and he's from Salem, Utah. He's 18 years old and is ready to work hard. He's adjusting a little to the language and environment here in the Philippines but we've been doing lots of finding in our area and I'm excited to see how this area will progress.

Tuesday -

I rode the bus most of the day to Laoag so I could pick up my new trainee. We got to Laoag at probably around 2:00. I placed as temporary companions with Elder Prusse and Goodrich. I'm pretty good friends with Elder Prusse so that was fun. We worked in Elder Prusse's old area in Laoag until about 6:00 when our trainers meeting started with President and Sister Peterson. I then stayed the night in a different area in Laoag with Elder Vaea (my previous roomate in my frist area; it was nice to catch up with him a bit) and Elder Funk.

Wednesday -

We had a big meeting with all the trainers and new missionaries and had our new companions revealed to us. We then rode our 8 hour bus ride back to our area of Baua. We got home at like 9:30 so we didn't really have time to work.

Thursday -

We had our first full day of work and we went to some of our previous investigators and taught them. I also showed Elder Rasmussen how to go house-to-house and talk to everyone. We found 13 new people and got two new investigators.

Friday -

This day of work was not as easy as the first because we got denied by lots of people who were members of the Iglesia ni Cristo. They're one of the only groups of people here in the Philippines that always seems to want to argue and yell at you. Because of this, we only found around three new people or so and it was super rainy which is too bad since I think someone recently stole my umbrella that I left on our porch.

Saturday -

We had a good day of work and finding in our area of Sta Cruz/Cabiraoan. We just went house to house and talked to everyone. Elder Rasmussen has even been working on his approach since he's new and it's been good. We ended up finding around 22 new people in one day which is a lot. A lot of which also started breastfeeding in the middle of the lesson which was awkward but the work was pretty fruitful so that's what matters. Also I've been reading from Romans lately in the New Testament and I have a verse I would like to share (there's actually a lot of good scriptures in Romans 8 but this is the one I'd like to share because of limited time)...

Romans 8:26

26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

 I liked this scripture because sometimes there are just some things in prayers or in life that we can't fully explain in words, but through the spirit, God is perfectly in touch with our deepest desires and feelings and everything. I know he knows us and loves each and every one of us and wants to help us.

Sunday -

We had another alright day of work with seven new people found and one new investigator. We also taught our older investigator... We're not sure why but she has been progressively seeming less and less interested and active and lessons which is a little frustrating. We're going to try and help find and solve her concern.

Picture - 

Me and my new companion (trainee). It's only one picture because he doesn't want to take pictures on any day other than p-day. It might be like this for a little while unfortunately.