Week #37

June 29, 2015

Hello!

Well sadly this has been another week of very little work because my companion got sick. This area is just a curse!!! But we did have a lot of success despite the little amount of work! Sunday's are literally the best in the mission field because we get to see the reward for all our hard work! Yesterday we had 8 investigators attend church!! Goes to show that they actually do have faith and aren't going to church just cause we always bug them because we didn't really get that much time to bug them this past week! But anyways that was awesome!!! 

Even with the few lessons we taught they were very, very good. We have one family that is great! They read the Book of Mormon every day and have prayed and received an answer that it is true! They are totally converted already and it's only been like 2 or 3 weeks. They are a family of 4! The mother and father (thankfully married already!) and their daughter and her boyfriend (sadly not married but we are working at that!!). They are so funny because a lot of the time when we read a scripture in the Book of Mormon the tatay will just say "tinuod hini" or "this is true". I love it!! So this past week we had the opportunity to teach them lesson 3 or The Gospel of Jesus Christ! And it was an amazing lesson! The spirit is so strong every time we teach them and I can just feel it testifying to them that this is true. Sadly though we had to give them some bad news. The nanay asked us if they could all be baptized and we had to tell her that her daughter and her "husband" can't because they aren't married. But they committed right then and there to get a marriage plan going so that's awesome! The tatay also said something pretty funny! He said "kinahanglan kamo magkasal kay kon diri kamo makasal diri kamo masunod ni JesuKristo" or "you need to get married because if you don't get married you aren't following Jesus Christ". I love the guy! Also we had the opportunity to teach a recent convert last night and it was a very good convert. She is the mother of 4 kids and her husband is a member but he finally came to church yesterday!! Basta, we got to teach them about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it is the only way to return back to our Father in Heaven! We used Mosiah 4 (there's a reading assignment for you!). It was a very good lesson and they even had one of their Catholic friends over so it was cool cause he was totally listening and the spirit was really strong!

So Waray Waray is getting way easier!! It's so much easier to convey my feeling and say what the spirit is telling me now in every lesson! Of course since I am american my Waray Waray is a little blunt and to the point but that's ok cause they totally get it. Besides, the spirit is the real teacher anyways.

My spiritual thought this week comes from a book my mom sent me titled "30 Ways to Love Your Mission". The chapter I want to concentrate on this week is called "be responsible". Pretty much the entire focus of this chapter is that we need to take responsibility for everything that happens to us. If we are always blaming someone or something for all the bad things, we sacrifice that moment to learn and grow. If we take responsibility we can learn and do better the next time thus increasing in knowledge and wisdom because knowledge is nothing without wisdom.

Well that's it for this week! Next week is transfers so I won't be emailing until Tuesday or Wednesday. It depends. Basta, thank you for all your love and support!

Elder Child 

Pic 1-2: a dessert they make in the Philippines.  It's ice cream inside of a coconut.  They made it for a district lunch.

Pic 3-6: they went to a resort on the coast for a district activity

Week #36 - Happy Father's Day and 250 days out

June 22, 2015

Happy Fathers day! 

Well this week has been full of lots of fun and spiritual experiences! But first I have news. The transfers will be delayed 1 week because there is a festival in Tacloban so it makes traveling very very difficult. So yeah I get to stay with Harry Potter for another week. Some other great news. My computer is being exceptionally slow today so you probably won't be getting very many pictures. Sorry. Basta, this week has been great so I'll just start at the beginning. Actually Monday and Tuesday we stayed in Catbalogan because we had a district activity and district meeting and then on Wednesday there was a district leader training given by President Maurer. Sadly I did have to attend because my comp is the district leader. But yeah it was ok and I learned a lot. And then after that we went on exchanges with the Zone leaders back in our area so that was really fun! I got to go with Elder Finau who I have been friends with since Typhoon Ruby. So that was really fun cause he is a great missionary! We only had time to teach one lesson but it was probably one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever been in! And quite possibly one of the funniest. So we taught the plan of salvation to some of our investigators (our best investigators) and it was so awesome! They were actually asking meaningful questions and you could just feel the spirit in the room! Then came the closing prayer. The tatay (father) gave the closing prayer and he just started crying during the prayer! It was great. And then we just hear from off to the side some old nanay (during the prayer!!!) say "thank you Jesus". I've gotta admit it was quite possibly the funniest thing ever! We held it in until we left the house and then we just died laughing! But it was a really good lesson and I learned a lot from Elder Finau! So then we will just skip to Sunday because that was the best day of the week because we got to see the rewards of our labors. We had a staggering 49 in Sacrament attendance! That's huge! And we had 9 investigators at church! That's insane! Also the district president and Brother Nikki (a convert of my teacher from the MTC who just happens to be the richest person in region 8 (my mission) ) decided to pay a visit and the pretty much organized the branch because our branch doesn't know what it's doing. So yeah that was awesome! And my companion and I had to give talks yesterday but of course since we have been so busy all week we didn't have time to prepare so we decided to go by the spirit. Surprisingly our talks coincided and connected with the surprise talk of Brother Nikki! It's amazing to see how the Lord works and how everything works out if we trust in the Lord. My comp gave a talk on preparing to meet God. I gave a talk on faith. And brother Nikki gave a talk on Obedience. Well that's it for this week! Thanks for all your love and support! I love you all.

Elder Child

Notes:
*Like he mentioned in the letter, his connection was very slow so we didn't get to go back and forth as much as usual.  He did get his new shoes in the mail so he was grateful for that.  He's keeping the old ones as a trophy of all his hard work.

*Pic #1 - district lunch - chicken curry 

*Pic #2 - on top of the apartment in Catbalogan

*Pic #3 - He sent the Father's Day picture for me to give to Mark yesterday.  Mark couldn't even finish reading it.  It was awesome.

Week #35 - a tough week of being sick

Hello!

Well this past week wasn't so fun! We didn't work at all because I have been sick since Tuesday. I have had body cramps, a sore throat, runny nose, and a cough. So yeah not fun! On the bright side I read Jesus the Christ and 30 Ways to Love Your Mission! So that was pretty productive! But on Saturday we did get out for a little bit and we got two lessons in so that was ok! But yeah other than that this past week was pretty darn boring! Basta, this past Sunday we had a Philippines area broadcast from Salt Lake so that was cool! It would have been awesome but it was all in Tagalog so I only understood like every third word. Basta, this morning we went biking again as a district plus two sister from the other district and it was really fun! We went out on a pier and looked out across the ocean! It's so cool being so close to the ocean here but it's sad because I can't go swimming! But yeah I really have nothing to say this about this week :/ My spiritual thought (I had a lot of time to study this week) can be found in the war chapters in the Book of Mormon! Just by reading the war chapters you can learn and understand the way people are. The way they think and why they do the things they do. To read and watch the pride cycle at work is amazing and it can teach a person a lot about the ways of the world! But yeah that's it for me this week! I love you all and thank you for your love and support!

Elder Child

Notes:

*We went back and forth a bit about member missionary work.  Our family talked about that tonight for FHE and came up with our family plan.  Now it's time to get to work!  He reminded me that when people feel wanted and loved, they return.  Thank you Elder!

*He said that it is raining a lot there, more than usual.

*Brett wondered if his Harry Potter loving companion was casting spells on him to make him sick ;-)  He is feeling better and unfortunately just had to let it work it's way through his system.  Hopefully its a better week!

Pictures:
1 - another picture of his "batch" - they all entered the mission field on the same day

2 - after their district activity

3-4 - out on the pier - Brett said no one fell in and they only trusted him to hold them up

5 - His July 4th box arrived early.  They are only taking about 2 months lately. It's going to be really hard for him to not open his Christmas boxes if they arrive a month early!

6-8 - on the pier - he said he wasn't really in the water and that there was a 7-8 foot drop

9 - enjoying some flavored tuna and chocolate pop tarts that arrived in his box

10 - his zone

Week #34

June 7, 2015

And I'm back!!!

Well I think I have forgotten everything that happened last week but I will try to remember. I have officially concluded that my companion is a weirdo. With Harry Potter quotes and yelling spells at me there really isn't much crazier you can get. But yeah. Also last week I had some lady propose to me. She's a member... Also over the past two weeks we have had an Iglesia ni Cristo preacher continually try and bible bash and prove us wrong. So we gave him a pamphlet! Hopefully he wants to get baptized! So we have been having lots of success with all our investigators and less actives! They have started keeping their commitments and reading and praying and everything! Then Sunday came and we had 32 attendance at church. Yeah a little disappointing. Looks like we will have to try harder! We now have the branch visiting less active members so we know thatll help a lot. Basta about this week! This week has been really fun but I was sick on Wednesday so we didn't work then! But we still had lots of success. We had an FHE with a big family with investigators which was super fun! We taught about the Plan of Salvation (the hardest lesson for me to teach in Waray-Waray) and it went pretty good. Sadly we had to cut it short because it was 9 o'çlock and we had to return home. Also Elder Thompson broke a house this week! We were at an investigators house and he was walking around and his foot went right through the floor!!!! It was so funny but sad at the same time cause he broke their house. But yeah that's a funny moment this week! Well my spiritual thought for this week comes from 3 Nephi 14:3-5. We need to first look at ourselves before we look at others and try and correct them! Well that's it! Thanks for all your love and support! I love you!

Elder Child

Pic 1 - Brett's "batch" - they all entered the mission field on the same day

Pic 2-3 - This was a district activity.  The girl on the back of the bike didn't know how to ride one so Brett drove her around all day.

Pic 4 - Traveling by boat; it started raining so someone shared their umbrella with him

Pic 5 - his district

Pic 6 - Family Home Evening with some investigators

Pic 7 - the sign says "Please do not pee here"

Week #33

June 1, 2015

We didn't get an email from Brett this week because they could not access the LDS mail server.  He sent a quick email from another account to let us know that they were going to travel to another area and try again.  It still didn't work an hour later.  So he sent some pictures and we went back and forth for about 10 minutes then they had to go.  Here is the small bit of info I got:

His new area is BIG - bigger than where he served in Tolosa, which was actually 2 areas.  He has to travel by boat to reach some people, which is one of the pictures below.  We sent him a new pair of shoes last week so hopefully they arrive soon to replace his that have holes in them.  

He said he has been not been feeling healthy lately.  He used the word "horrible" then said he just doesn't "feel right."  He's pretty sure that it is because all he eats is rice, noodles and corned beef.  The MSG in foods is very high there so he is going to try and cut back on that as much as possible and see if it makes a difference.  It's probably just because his system is still adjusting, and even more so since he is in a new area.  He promised me that he is fine.

That's about it.  Enjoy the pictures this week.  The last pictures made Brett so happy.  Adam loves his rubber boots - it started out with a pair of blue and now it is a pair of red boots.  We took a picture of him running through Zintel Canyon last fall in them and sent it to Brett in a little photo album.  Then when they were out walking they saw a man in a pair of shorts and rubber boots - just like Adam wears.  It made him laugh!

Have a great week!