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.
