Sickness and Caving

Anyways, this week has not been very busy because around mid-week both Elder Butler and I got pretty sick for about three days. During those days the mission home told us to just rest back at our apartment, where not very much happened as you can imagine. Also the email this week might not be as in depth as well because I didn't take as many notes.. likely because I wasn't feeling great for a little while.

Also, last week I forgot to mention a little story. So anyways, while we were out working a member of the ward stopped on a tricey and had a little conversation with us. My companion talked to him a little bit in Cebuano and this random guy said something about having known some Cebuano sisters a few years ago here. We started talking to him a little and like everyone else here he said "Wow, you're VERY tall. How old are you?" I said "I'm 18 but I'm turning 19 on November 17" After that he told me that that's HIS birthday and he insisted on proving it to us with his license or something.

Basically, the fact that we had the same birthday got us into the conversation with this guy named Edmond. It turns out that he had been taking lessons with some sisters that were in this area a few years ago, but was diagnosed with breast cancer, which I take is rare for men. Anyways, he said it kind of got in the way of his learning but he's been reading the Book of Mormon again more recently and might want to learn again. So I just thought that was a short cool story from last week that I forgot to mention.

Monday - 

After the zone activity we did our normal schedule of washing clothes, cleaning, etc. and that was all.

Tuesday - 

This Tuesday we had our district council in the morning. For this council, both the Zone Leaders and STL's also came. I guess they rotate which areas they visit weekly and we'll see them like once a month. Also the STL's were super slow and late which is funny because they're both Filipino. It was a nice way to reinforce the "Filipino time" stereotype. 

After that, we had another lesson with our investigator Carmelita about the word of wisdom and luckily she doesn't seem to struggle with the standards very much either. Also, this is the same investigator that we've had potential baptism issues with because she's "remarried" but not legally remarried. We talked to the mission president about it and apparently in the Philippines divorce is illegal, so if people separate from their original spouse and have been with a new person (even if they're not legally married) for at least 5 years they can be baptized. So, as of right now, there looks like there might be a good outlook on the situation.

Following our lesson with Carmelita we went and shared another lesson with Renzlly Pasucal. It was about the 10 commandments and it was good because she was familiar with some of them and very open to following them.

Once we finished that lesson as well, we met up with the other elders and headed over to the house of some members that offered to cook for us. They made adobo (chicken that tastes pretty good but has a ton of bones so it's actually pretty hard to get much meat out of it), fish (which neither Elder Butler or I are fans of ), pork something (it was basically strange cuts of pork that I didn't recognize that was cooked with banana; I ate a banana cause they told me to and I was being nice and it tasted gross lol), bananas (which I eat a ton of every time I get the chance because it's one of the few healthy things we can regularly find, and okra (the vegetable that's green;  I also ate a ton of this because we rarely have vegetables and I feel like I'm missing out on calories and nutrition). It was a pretty good time I guess and we talked to them for a while.

Wednesday - 

On Wednesday, we woke up and left by 9:00 to go help with some service we volunteered for during church on Sunday. Us and some of the elders were going to help with a house that got the roof ripped off by the typhoon. We got there and in all honesty, for us missionaries, there wasn't much for us to do. All the men of the ward were doing work on the roof which we aren't allowed to do. We basically were hanging around there until like 1:00 and during that whole time only lifted up like 2 pieces of wood and talked a lot to the father of the family.

Finally when we got home, both Elder Butler and I really badly needed to go to the bathroom. After we went, we both just needed to go around every 15 minutes. There was no way either of us could leave the apartment to get back to work. It was really bad. The rest of the night we "rested" and tried to stay near a bathroom.

Thursday -

This was basically a  complete sick  day. We did pretty much nothing but stay at the apartment. Also, the symptoms that I had increased over night. I didn't just have diarrhea but had a headache, fever, vomited, had a rash, and overall just felt weak and light headed. We also never really found out what caused the sickness of both Elder Butler and I.

Oh also a little later in the day we went to the church and saw a lot of the YSA and youth. Out here we shake hands ALL the time. Now I'm not just saying like the normal amount that missionaries do, but it's excessive. Before church on Sundays we legitimately shake every hand in the congregation because our Filipino trainers do too. Anyways, as we were talking to some of the members on Thursday night we asked them about it and basically they kind of think that handshaking here is something you do if you're a member of the church. It's funny because I think that they're under the impression that it's almost required and Elder Butler and I told our companions about how we don't necessarily need to shake every single persons had before church if we're not going to even talk to them.. but I don't think the practice is going to be stopped any time soon.

Friday -

This is our final sick day.. we did absolutely nothing truly. The mission nurse (I guess is what she doubles as) Sister Snyder kept checking up on our symptoms through text. She basically had diagnosed us with a "cold" even though our symptoms don't seem to align with that assumption.

Saturday - 

This was the day that we started doing a little bit again. Also we watched the Saturday of session of conference this day, but before, Elder Viador and I went out and did a little work with our investigators since we've been away for so long. 

First, we gave a lesson to Joylene and Renzlly about the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. Apparently Renzlly like to drink coffee but she's content with only drinking milk and this chocolate drink called Milo and Joylene is all good too. 

After the lesson we went to the church to watch conference. It's so nice there because we have A/C now. Anyways, conference was really good and it seemed like the Saturday session had a lot to do with family and families. It seems a little hard to apply it's teaching since I'm leaving my family for two years, but it was good. Also, it was so nice to hear the gospel in English rather than a language I still don't understand at all.

Once conference got done at around 4:00-ish we headed back to the house of Renzlly because she invited us back over for her Aunt's birthday kind of. So it was nice and we got food there. After that, we went and caught up with the recent converts Trickia and Rhea, and that was basically the day.

Sunday - 

Once again we watched conference much of the day. All of the talks were really good and for some reason I really liked the one by Elder Neil L. Andersen about trials. Another cool thing was that we had a pretty decent number of our investigators attend the conference session, but yeah.. that seems like that was it.

Also, later after we were back at our apartment at like 8:30 Elder Butler screamed loud cause of a bug (like usual) but our neighbors threw a rock across the fence towards us. Everyone here goes to sleep super early and apparently throwing a rock is a way to tell your neighbor to be quiet.. which I think is kind of funny.

Monday - 

Today's p-day has been pretty active and crazy already. We woke up at like 5:30 to meet up with all the other members of the zone in order to go caving since our zone leader Elder Willoughby is leaving back home in a couple weeks. We traveled like an hour away and went and "explored" a cave with a "tour guide."

Basically, we showed up to this place and payed them some money to guide us through the cave. We went to the back of this place and we all hopped in these little canoes to go into the cave. I was sketched out because all the other canoe experiences I've had in my life usually have them flipping over, and I wasn't super excited to flip into a Filipino river with my camera. Anyways, we rode in the boats (and didn't flip) and went back into this cave which was really pretty cool. There was also a ton of bats and bat poop. Anyways, we got to the entrance and started the journey. 

To summarize this, I'm just going to say that this little hike thing probably wouldn't be legal in America. It included lots of climbing on slippery rocks, climbing through very claustrophobic tunnels and crevices, not seeing very well in the dark, and getting super muddy. There were some places that I'm even surprised I made it through. Often it was so dark and we were crawling up and around touching the muddy rocks and everything we couldn't see. I don't even want to think about all the spiders and centipedes and things that I touched. Anyways, near the end, there we all went through this exit call the "cave challenge" and it was a super tight space that got me super dirty, gave me a couple cuts on my knee, and was just kind of sketchy. I kind of regret doing it a little to be honest. 

Anyways, the caving experience was cool and very scary, but I'm glad that I did most of it. I probably would have been sketched out to do a lot of stuff like this at home, but I'm sure it's a once in the lifetime opportunity I can't miss in the Philippines. Afterward, the whole district ate at this abnormally decent pizza place, and now I'm about to continue on with the rest of my preparation day.

Pictures - 

The pictures should include our district council with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders, pictures with me and a monkey that was a little scary to get next to (which is saying a lot considering all the crazy angry dogs that bark and run towards us on the regular), a tricey picture, a Filipino "hamburger" (it's also like the size of have of a index card), a picture inside a Jeepney with the zone, and then a whole bunch of pictures from the caving experience.

Electricity

This week has really been awesome for several reasons, one of the best simply being that we got electricity finally..

Monday - 

After finishing emailing and things last p-day, all four of us elders decided to go to this nice restaurant called Kafe Carlos. Basically, everything here is nothing like restaurants or anything back home, but this place is close. It's much more expensive than the other places we eat.. around double the price.. but it was so amazing. Elder Butler and I (the Americans) are thinking about coming here like once a week maybe because it's expensive and we have to be careful with our money, but it's also so good. Anyways, we both got burgers and they were normal good burgers and they also had cold water and orange juice. It was so nice.. especially since all the water and stuff we had been drinking up to this point had been warm. 

After eating there, we headed back to the apartment... and were greeted to electricity. After surviving around two weeks without electricity we finally got it. It felt so nice to just have fans turned on, and lights in our apartment... and now... occasionally running water. That means we can shower in our bathroom with lots of spiders instead of outside on our porch now which is nice.. it also means that we don't have to pump all our water outside to flush the toilet either.

Tuesday - 

We woke up in the morning and our power was out again which was super disappointing. After waking up to no electricity, we did our normal morning preparation and then headed over to the church for our weekly district meeting. When we got there, it was locked and we couldn't find anyone with keys anywhere, so we just headed back to our apartment to do our daily studies. Our plan was just to do it the next day. 

After our studies we headed out for the day. Our first lesson was with our 19 year old investigator named Renzlly. We gave her the third lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I asked her the baptismal invitation. She accepted it and our goal date for her is on November 3. In our mission, you have to attend church at least 4 times before you can be baptized, so to meet the goal she has to be worthy and attended all 4 times. So that's pretty cool. The people here are very willing to listen to the gospel and don't usually have many questions.. Maybe they have more questions than I think though and I'm just struggling to understand the language and conversation.

After that, we intended to give another lesson to our middle aged investigator Carmelita about the Word of Wisdom, but she wasn't there so we just talked to her daughter who's a recent member for a while. Following that, we gave a quick lesson to a less active family named the Turitino's and on Sunday they were at church which was cool. After that we also shared a short message with some of our recent converts as well.  After that, we went and wanted to give a lesson to our other investigator Brother Rolando Pascual, but he wasn't there so we just shared the first lesson with his 16 year old son Angelo and his 13 year old daughter Angelica and that was the day I believe.

Wednesday - 

We had our district council in the morning. After, we did all our studies.. and then with some fellowshippers we went "searching for souls" or "soul searching" as we call it. We went pretty far away to this place called Palloc. We went looking around for a while and found 2 new investigators. One was named Flordilita and she's in her 60's. She was super excited and happy to see us and was very friendly. We helped her pick a few weeds or something and then we gave her a Book of Mormon and she told us to come back later. I don't remember the name of the other investigator, but he spoke mostly Illicano.. so not me or my companion could really understand him, but some of our fellowshippers could so it was helpful to have the. This investigator didn't seem as interested but was talking to us, so we'll see where it goes.

After searching for a long time we finally headed back to the main Ballesteros area and gave a couple lessons. We came back and shared a lesson with a more recent convert and then gave another lesson to Angelo and Angelica Pascual. After that, we finished the day with dinner and the area book paperwork.

Thursday - 

We did our normal morning schedule on Thursday. This morning we shared a message about tithing and the blessings that come from it with the Repaje family that's less active, but came to church after we visited them last week. We also planned to visit another less active member name Tatay (dad) Nick but unfortunately he wasn't around but we talked to someone that knew him for a little while. It was funny because she has a nephew or something going to England on a mission and she asked me if England was part of America.. we get weird questions all the time. It seems like the education here might be more focused on math and science but not other things. I'm not sure about much, but one thing I do know is that education here seems way different. 

After that, we went and talked to Carmelita again. After that, we still had a lot of time to spare so we went "soul searching." While doing so, we found a new investigator named Susan who's in her thirties. She was super welcoming and let us right in. It was super cool and unexpected. Right there we gave her the first lesson and it was cool. We also taught her how to pray and stuff. A lot of people here claim to be "Catholic" or some other religion, but are usually not very religiously literate so there's always a lot of teaching to be done. Many people don't even know the story of Noah or Moses which is interesting. Anyways, she was super happy to have us and wants us back.

After that we tried to teach the Pascual family again but no one was there so we went and saw a younger less active couple and just checked up with them I guess and that was our day. When we got back to the apartment, there was this weird flying beetle thing that seemed like the says of a crawdad and it was basically a tank. I hit that thing so many times and it stayed alive . Eventually, I injured it enough and swept it into some water going underground. It was hilarious and a little bit scary.

Friday - 

Friday, we basically do our normal morning studies and stuff, and then do our weekly planning. Weekly planning is apparently like a 3 hour long thing.. but we usually get it done in like 45 minutes.. my trainer said we can use that time to "rest" or something.. but I'm not so sure about that. . because I don't know anything different. Now they're great good guys who love the gospel, but there's been a few times where I think we could of used our time more wisely. Anyways, while my companion rested I just studied the scriptures and some Tagalog.

After we finally finished our weekly planning, we headed over to the Corea family. They're a less active family but super friendly. Also, their house was completely destroyed by the typhoon. All that was left was a cement base. Now it was really weird that their cement home (which are nicer than the average homes here) was completely gone, while some of the other homes around it that were made out of things like scrap metal, sticks, leaves, and plastic were just fine. The typhoon did weird damage.. because not everything was destroyed, but randomly something is very messed up. Anyways, they were living in dried out palm leaf huts while they're slowly rebuilding. We shared a short scripture with them about trials and afflictions and it was good. They also ended up coming to church this week too. It was also funny because there were 6 boys and 3 girls in the family and all the boys were named "Mike [insert different second name here]." So there was a Mike Jose and a Mike John and other Mike "somethings" and I asked them if they knew why they were all named Mike and they said no.

After the Corea family we basically went to mutual did a check up with some of the recent converts. The mutual activities here are weird because basically all the youth just shows up and talks. I'm not sure if there's actually planned activities or not in all honesty.

Saturday - 

On Saturday, we were out of the apartment by 8:30 which is unusual for us.  We needed to go to give a lesson to an investigator named Jessa Blanco, and we wanted her friend named Carla who's a member to go with us as well.. and basically 9:00 was the only time that really worked for everyone. Anyways, we went to Jessa's house (she's like 17) and gave her the second lesson. Apparently my companion had already given her the first lesson with his old companion. Jessa is a Born Again and actually knew a lot about religion and stuff which is unusual here. Anyways we gave her the lesson and it was good. Afterward, her grandma (who's not a member or anything) wanted us to give her a lesson. She kept trying to pay us because she thought we were pastors. We had to politely tell her no like a thousand times. It's not easy to get a point across to a senile old person in a different language haha. Anyways, I gave her a blessing and it was good. 

After that, we headed to our other investigator Joylene's house and gave her the third lesson. I also asked her to be baptized as well and she also said yes. So that's pretty awesome. She's actually been to church three times already so she's on a seemingly good path. After that, we went back to our new investigator Flordilita's house and shared a quick message with her about faith and with all our fellowshippers there.

Once we were done with that, we stopped by our recent converts Trickia and Rhea's house and checked up. After that, we went and taught Angelo and Angela Pascual the third lesson and I also invited them for baptism. They also both said yes which is cool. We also invited them to come to church. Angelo came to sacrament but left after because he had practice, and Angelica did come because she said she was sick. Either way, they both accepted the baptismal invitation so we're going to keep working with them.

Sunday - 

On Sunday, we learned about the changes to the Sunday schedule in 2019. It's crazy that church will be only two hours now. No one here seemed as surprised as I think people in my ward back home would have been.  Anyways, during priesthood there was like this loud dispute over where relief goods for the typhoon should be stored. It's weird because it think in Filipino culture everyone is just a little louder. So this "dispute" went back and forth for a very long time but ended in everyone laughing.. so I'm not sure what happened or if anyone was every actually upset at any point. It seemed to end happily.

After church we went out with all our fellow-shippers to do missionary work again, but it seemed like most of the people we planned to talk to weren't there and stuff.. So for a while, we just did a lot of walking. Eventually, we talked to some of our recent converts and stopped by the house of two less active girls. And that was our day.

Monday - 

Today started with basketball with the whole zone. Everyone came here to Ballesteros and it was a good time. We also ate with all of them at Kafe Karlos after which is still so delicious. And.. now we're emailing, going to go buy our groceries for the week, and wash our clothes.

Pictures - the pictures will be in a separate email from now on. The pictures will probably include a picture of our apartment with electricity and fans everywhere, some frogs that were swimming in the buckets we use to shower, a picture of me and my companion eating food, some pictures at the beach with fellowshippers, a picture with Flordilita and her Book of Mormon, and the sweaty zone members from basketball.

Just Pictures

Yay!!!! We were able to access the pictures from last week. I love seeing what Elder Hunsaker has been up to.

I don't think he ate it, or maybe I just hope he didn't.  It is called balut.

His Manila MTC District all Laoag Missionaries.

There out door shower.

Their washing machine if they ever get power and the line to dry their clothes.

His trainer companion Elder Viador

Main mode of transportation called a jeepeny.

Another Week Without Electricity

Alright, so I'm not exactly sure where I left off from the last email. I know that I didn't say much since my email got deleted right as I was about to send it, so I guess I'll just give a little summary about the experience so far (forgive me if any of it is repetitive) and then I'll break down each day this week. 

My experience here overall has been very hot so far. I pulled out my alarm clock that has the temperature on it, and our apartment is somewhere around 90 degrees the whole time. If you take the humidity into account it's absolutely ridiculous. I checked and at night it cools off to about 88 degrees haha. The past week has still been hot but Elder Butler and I have only been sweaty a lot, not a ridiculous amount like we did the first week. We're not sure if it's getting cooler or if we're adjusting or if it's a mix of both... either way, being able to sleep at 90 degree temperature at night without rolling around all night seems like a success to me. Maybe we'll eventually adjust. Also, since we haven't had electricity I don't think that, that's helped either. Some people have said we could get it as soon as October 5th, or as late as October 30th. Either way, I guess I'm fine though.. because not having electricity is the only thing I've known here in the Philippines. It will be nice to be able to have a fridge for groceries and for having an occasional cold glass of water.

The living circumstances include an apartment with mosquitos, bugs, cockroaches, spiders... I don't think it helps that we have the door open all night because it gets way too hot... but I think we're getting used to it. Bucket showers on the porch through a manual pump isn't preferable either but I'm growing used to it. I like the cold water a lot actually. Going to the bathroom is also a huge chore but I guess I'm getting used to it too.

Despite the living circumstances and crazy heat, it's been a great experience so far. This last week went way faster than the first. The people here are so awesome and friendly. They always look at Elder Butler and I because we're white and they never see white people ever. They always will say stuff like "Hey dude/Joe" and the girls are always weird too. The people overall though are so nice and so humble. This has been such a humbling experience so far and I know it will only continue to be one. There's also been so many investigators and things we have too. The people are so receptive to the gospel and it often just makes sense to them.

Monday (last p-day) -

So on Monday after I emailed before Elder Viador and I went to one of our investigators houses. Her name is Sister Renzlly Pascual. I believe she's 19 years old. When I first came here to Ballesteros, I stumbled into a lot of investigators we already had, but Renzlly is my first investigator we got while I have been out here. She's Catholic but super interested in the gospel and willing to learn. We're already on lesson 4 with here. On this Monday we gave her, her own Book of Mormon which was cool and all.

Tuesday - 

This day started with our District Counsel meeting. It consisted of our whole district... or the 3 people I live with. It was me, my companion Elder Viador, and Elder Butler and Elder Magadia who I live with anyways. We made jokes like "Wow it's so nice to see the whole district back together again!" Anyway my companion is the DL so that's cool I guess. We make jokes about how I'm Assistant to the District Leader so I'm super important too. After that we went to this members house named Brother Nical. He wanted to get to know us new missionaries and it was really awesome. He's way more rich than other members and stuff so he had a generator with electricity so we could use fans... he also fed us spaghetti which tasted like an amazing normal meal. 

After that we went and gave a lesson to our 2 investigators. It was Sister Renzlly and Joylene. They're both about 19ish I think.. (I actually have a really difficult time telling the age of people around here) we taught them the first lesson and it was good. 

Wednesday - 

On Wednesday we gave 4 lessons during the day. It started with Renzlly and Joylene again

and we taught them the Plan of Salvation which was really awesome for me because we use our visual aids.. with our visual aid it has all the key words for things which is awesome since I don't know the language very well... I know a lot about the plan of salvation but not necessarily how to say it in Tagalog. So anyways, that was pretty good.

After that we gave a lesson to an older woman named Sister Carmelita Bunnao. Some of her many children are recent converts and she want the lessons now and it's been going pretty good so far.

Following that, we went to the house of two recent converts named Trickia and Rhea. They're probably both like 15 and have both been pretty good members but we just keep going over to follow up and stuff and it's been good.

And finally, we went to a less active family called the Sumey family. It's a young family with 2 super young kids. The dad had a lot of sincere questions and it was a good discussion. On Sunday they ended up coming back to church and we've seen them at several activities which was cool.

Thursday - 

Thursday started with a training with President and Sister Peterson. We had to travel to the city of Abulug like 45 minutes away. It was a good meeting and just nice to see some familiar faces and stuff. We also got to see a few of our batch mates that recently came out with us and talk about some of our experiences. We also got fed peanut butter sandwiches and apples. I got full for the first time I've been here... and apples never tasted so good.

After that we went back to Ballesteros and gave the first Lesson to Sister Carmelita (the "lesson" we gave her before was really just a short message about a favorite scripture) and it was pretty good.

After that we went to go to a different investigators house named Brother Pascual but he wasn't there, and that was pretty much it for the day.

Friday -

On Friday we prepared and then as we were going over to the church to do our studies (because it's way too hot in our own apartment to do all three hours of companion, personal, and language study) we stumbled on members doing service. They had gathered a whole bunch of rice and food and supplies to give aid for people from the typhoon. We decided to help and it took forever. It was hot to carry a whole bunch of stuff in our church clothes, but it was good.

After that, we went to Carmelita's house and had to have a discussion with her. Apparently she's living with her second husband that she's not technically married too... and we told her that she either would have to marry him, or separate from him in order to be baptized (since I already gave her the baptismal invitation last week).. It was a difficult discussion and she told us about her situation and how there's always contention in her household and she actually wants to separate but she has no where to go. It's hard, but she says she is interested and always feels the spirit when we're around... so we're gonna have to sort this out eventually, we don't know how yet though. The good news is that she did attend church and stuff though. Also, her one daughter as been sick recently and I gave her a blessing. The hospital said they thought she might have Dengue Fever, but after the blessing she was better the next day. 

Saturday - 

Saturday was a good day. It consisted of a big ward family party where every family went up and did a dance or presentation or something weird to music and stuff. It was a little awkward and cringey, but also hilarious at the same time. We also went with the youth to the cemeteries and took pictures of graves for family history work or something. The graves are a little creepy because all the bodies are in big stone boxes above ground.

Anyways, after the super long party, the other elders had a baptism of a 13 year old girl named Mary Grace. She got baptized in the ocean behind the church and it was awesome. The person baptizing her, and herself also got knocked over from the waves once while they were doing it so that was funny too.

The beach was awesome. It is the only place that's not blistering hot, has cool winds, black sand, and fresh air. It's hard to find fresh air around here where everyone just burns their garbage all the time.

Sunday - 

Was a pretty good Sunday. It's nice to hear the sacrament hymns and prayers in English too. Church in the Philippines is kind of funny because everyone is kind of loud in the meetings and always talk to each other.

Anyways, after that, we went out working again. We got a technically new investigator named Angelica Pascual. She's 13 and the daughter of Brother Pascual and we gave her the first lesson with a whole bunch of fellow shippers (youth of course) and it was pretty awesome.

We also went and talked to other recent converts and then more less actives.

Monday - 

Today we went like an hour away to a city called Allacapan to withdraw money for the start of the month. Apparently that's the only place around that's a national bank for us to withdraw money from. And now we're emailing.

Pictures - I might start sending pictures in a couple different emails so they're easier to access because if I attach them to this email it says it's 25mb or bigger so you have to request access to them. If I don't it in a different one it might be better. I guess we'll see.