Bagyo

Nov. 19 - 24

We're a little short on time because of a zone activity we had earlier so this email might be a little brief. Overall, this week has been okay though. We did have a typhoon though which slowed the work for a couple of days but it was nothing crazy. The work overall was okay and we had six people attend sacrament meeting which is awesome. It's taken a while to get people to come to church consistently but it seems like we might be on the right track.

Tuesday  - 

This was the first day of the typhoon and it was just rainy and windy. As we were walking around working and getting wet with our umbrellas everyone was always surprised and asked what we were doing out in a typhoon. Though we were VERY wet by the end of the day we did manage to have four very powerful lessons and it made it a good day even though finding was hard since no one was out and about.

Wednesday -

It was actually the second day of the typhoon on Wednesday but it didn't really seem as bad. We still got a little wet but it was far less windy this time. We weren't super concerned that we were going to lose our umbrellas. We found three new investigators and talked to eight new people. The work was alright.  There were more people outside as they were heading to the barangay hall to get free relief packs of food from the government.

Thursday - 

It was a pretty good day but was slowed down at the start because I had to get my rabies shot in the morning. During the rest of the day we taught two new people and talked to 15 others. Also, I read James 3 in the new testament. It's a chapter about the power of words used for good or for evil. It's a pretty good chapter with cool comparisons and is definitely something I invite others to read and try and apply in their lives.

Friday - 

Isa pang araw. We just did some more work and taught more people.

Saturday -

We planned a day of teaching a lot of our progressing people. Most of them didn't happen to be there unfortunately. Though they weren't there, we did find other good uses of our time and found some new people.

Sunday -

We had a good Sunday with six of our investigators attending sacrament. It's nice to finally get some people that actually attend church after they commit to it. Most people just say yes and never show up. We are focusing on three people that are doing very well, reading the Book of Mormon, and going to church. It's exciting to finally see the fruit of those that actually follow through with commitments. 

Pictures -

I broke my camera. I did manage to get one picture first. This picture happened moments before I clumsily broke the lens.

Tropical storms Ramon and Sarah

Hello parents, families and home leaders of Philippines Laoag missionaries,

We so appreciate the service of your wonderful sons and daughters. We love them dearly and they are fantastic missionaries!

You may have noticed some turbulent weather conditions in the top of the philippines this week (tropical storms Ramon and Sarah). We seem to get this alot here in the north. We have instructed our missionaries to use caution and to not go out to work if conditions are overly windy or rainy. We are checking on them regularly to make sure they are all safe and sound.

Based on the weather information we are receiving and on the advise from our local FM group, we do not consider the potential of this situation to be overly serious. I just wanted to take this opportunity to reassure you and to tell you how grateful we are to you for sending us your incredible sons and daughters. They truly are the best of the best!

Ingat po kayo (take care),

President and Sister Peterson

Another Rainy week

Nov. 12-17, 2019

This week it was really rainy and right now I'm writing this email while a tropical storm is headed towards our part of the Philippines again. We also had exchanges earlier this week but overall nothing super crazy or abnormal seemed to happen.

Tuesday -

It was a pretty normal Tuesday except for we didn't have district council since it was transfer week. We were able to complete a full day of work and ended up talking to 14 new people and teaching one new person and of course we walked the entire day like usual since Baua doesn't seem to have many forms of transportation.

Wednesday -

It was another decent day of work which consisted of lots of finding like usual. Our mission has been focusing a lot on specifically finding sincere people. Everyone here will let you talk to them but not everyone sincerely wants to change. So we've been doing lots of sifting of wheat and tares. We also tazed ourselves with Elder Rasmussen's taser that we use to scare dogs on the street.  Also I have another scripture that I liked from personal study in the New Testament..

Hebrews 10:36 -

36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

This is just one scripture that I think really does a good job of simplifying the process of the faith cycle. It goes hope/belief, then action on our part, and then evidence. There's no other way that faith works and if we understand this we'll see and recognize a lot more miracles in our life.

Thursday -

We had exchanges with the ZL's and I went back to Sta. Terresita with Elder Grifitts. I also got my second rabies shot there. Our day of work was pretty good and we both learned a lot from each others' techniques for finding and things. It was a good day and I also got to see lots of their progressing investigators. Elder Griffits is in my batch and I really like him. He's a good missionary.

Friday -

It was a shorter day of work because we had to finish exchanges in the morning and we also had to do weekly planning. We also had a few pretty good lessons with some people we started teaching recently (all of which didn't attend church on Sunday). We also ran into some people doing the Philippines census. They were going door-to-door on a motorcycle. It's kind of funny and painful circumstances for them since addresses don't exist here in the Philippines. We also learned that in our biggest barangay (town) in our area there are only 1004 people. The population is so small here.

Saturday -

We had a full day of work. Our goal was to go to all of our progressing investigators which caused us to travel to almost every single area in Baua and we did a LOT of walking. Unfortunately most of the people we tried to teach weren't there but we did talk to a couple of new people, one of which attended church yesterday even though we didn't do much of anything but casually invite her to church.

Sunday -

We had three people attend sacrament. It was the first time to attend church for all of them which is pretty cool. The downside is that the other people that have been attending church for the past couple weeks didn't show up. Also during church we had the primary program. Children both opened and closed the meeting with prayers and the nine children that are even part of our primary gave talks. They didn't just have memorized lines or phrases but had their own talks which was fun.

Pictures -

I failed to take many pictures and stuff.

The rest of the day we did some work with some of the youth of the ward. They got easily distracted so it kind of slowed the work but we didn't really want to deny them the opportunity to serve others.

Maraming Baha

Nov. 4 - 10

This week has been a pretty good week. There's been lots of rain and flooded. We even saw the aftermath of a minor landslide. It's been pretty stormy. We also had two exchanges this week with the Elders in Santa Ana.

Tuesday - 

We had our first exchanges of the week once we finished our district counci in Baua of which I taught. I went to Santa Ana with Elder Smith (a new trainee) to check on his progress and how he's doing. We did lots of work and we did some finding. It was a nice day and I helped give him some tips on adjustment to life here since his trainer is Filipino and he probably doesn't know what it's like. I also helped explain Tagalog concepts from an English speaking mind so he could more fully understand the language. It was some fun exchanges.

Wednesday -

We returned from our exchanges (which put a slight delay to our day of work) and then started working in this area called Santa Maria. It was going well and as we were heading home to eat a quick lunch we received a call from the Sister missionaries in Gonazaga. They were requesting an approved blessing for Sister Cumuyog who was really sick. By the time we made the trip that usually takes around 45 minutes or so the sisters told us that she had already received a blessing from a member. They actually had to teach him how to give a blessing. By the time we got there they were in the hospital because she had fainted. We then had to make the long trip back home to our area and do what little more work we could squeeze into our schedule. Sister Cumuyog is also okay. They just said she just has a viral infection or something like influenza.

2 Timothy 1:7 -

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

That's just a simple scripture I like about the power receive when we have the presence of the spirit with us.

Thursday - 

In the morning I headed back to Santa Ana again to go on another exchange with another trainee. This time I was with Elder Garcero. It was a good day of work except for the main area we had planned to work was super flooded. We ended up just doing a lot of finding. Also during our work we stumbled upon a ton of mud on the road and asked around to hear that there was a landslide earlier. Everyone was scared of the landslide and flooding but luckily the small landslide didn't happen on any houses.

Friday -

After exchanges we came back to an apartment without electricity. We then managed to lock ourselves out of our home. We also locked all of our proselyting supplies inside. For a while we tried to get another key from our landlord/branch president but to no avail. Eventually, I remembered how poorly made one of the locks on our other door is and we managed to break in just in time for my companion Elder Rasmussen to go to the bathroom. Though the day got off to a slow start we did teach some good unexpected lessons to new people. It felt good after struggling in the morning.

Saturday -

We had a good full day of work. While walking on a road damaged by water I also stepped in a pool of mud. I was just walking normally and stepped in a spot that looked nearly identical to the rest of the road and my leg sank two feet deep or so in this wet sand. That slightly delayed our work but not too much because we found a well nearby and pumped water and quickly washed off the wet sand. I just was wet the rest of the day.

Sunday -

It was a pretty good day of work and we taught six new people. I also saw a member from the Ballesteros ward in my first area was at our church and I was able to talk to her for a bit which was nice. We actually taught her and helped reactivate her a little bit back when I was in Ballesteros. Now her older sister and dad are likely going to be baptized which is great.

Pictures - 

mud, me in my coat because of rainy weather, and old picture from a sketchy bridge, etc.

Exchanges, Zone Conference, New Finding Technique

Most of this week has been finding new people. Our finding recently has been a little different though since we've been focusing on finding people that seem legitimately interested rather than those who are just entertained by us. Almost everyone will let you into their house and let you return to teach them again but most of them don't actually care about what you're saying and often aren't willing to change. During this week we also had exchanges with our zone leaders where I was able to work with my former companion Elder Morely for a day. Following exchanges we were also able to have our Zone Conference in Aparri.

Tuesday - 

We just tried a lot of finding and returning to past people. It went okay. After that, we went to the neighboring area of Gonzaga so I could complete two baptismal interviews for Sisters Brook and Cumuyog. Both baptismal interviews went well and a member in their area even fed us. It was fish, which I'm not typically a fan of, but it was actually pretty good and didn't even have very much bone. We then got a ride home from our area from the same family. The ride home was sketchy on two plastic chairs in the back of their truck.

Wednesday -

We had exchanges with our zone leaders and I went to Sta. Terresita with Elder Morely and Elder Rasmussen stayed with Elder Griffits in our area in Baua. My day with Elder Morely started at the clinic where we waited over an hour just to be told that they don't have an animal bite center for my rabies shot. So that was super long and annoying. The rest of the day was good as well. We had a long conversation with a baptist preacher, taught a few awesome new people, and even got invited to eat dinner at a really nice home. We even met an American guy there that was with his Filipino co-worker.

Thursday -

After we finished our exchanges all the missionaries headed to Aparri for our zone conference. It was a good zone conference and had a pretty enjoyable training about changing our approach to inviting people to church and who we should focus on. Also during zone conference they gave out the revered Golden Toilet Seat award for the missionaries with the cleanest apartment. We won it. I'll probably send a picture of it next week. Somehow we managed to have the cleanest apartment after lots of cleaning which is awesome. 

Friday -

We did our weekly planning and more finding while trying to apply the new technique learned at zone conference the day before. It was a lot slower day and we only found nine new people, but hopefully as we continue to do this, we'll find more sincere people.

Saturday -

We had a similar day but found 21 people rather than only nine. It was okay. It was nice to try and get to know people more individually and help them in any way we can. We tried really hard to address their concerns.

Sunday -

We found 31 new people. That's our record for one day. Unfortunately, none of them seem like they were interested enough for us to return to them. We found one person who we declared a "maybe." It was actually a very long day but we will just keep looking for the prepared people that are willing and wanting to change.

Note -

2 Timothy 3:15

15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Read the scriptures if you happen to be someone that cares about salvation.

Pictures - 

Unfortunately only one picture can be sent today because the computer shop we're at doesn't allow us to upload images. The only picture I have is from an email from my trainer Elder Viador. It's a picture of him, my trainee, and myself. It's three generations in the mission.