Week #50 - Now a trainer and in a new area

September 28, 2015

Hello!!

Well this past week has been awesome and an adventure! Opening an area and training is something that really is a challenge but I have been enjoying it thus far! We are in Alang-Alang which is in Tacloban zone! I am in my very first ward!

My new companion and my trainee is Elder Clark. He is from California and he is so excited to be here in the mission! I have been so impressed with him so far! He has no fear to speak the language and speaks at every opportunity he gets! The people here love it!! He is chill and easy going and really just rolls with everything!  Also this morning I had the opportunity to teach my companion how to do laundry! Every time I look at him I am reminded of myself about 10 months ago! (that's weird to say) It's really hard having to lead everything as a trainer because the trainee doesn't really know anything. But Elder Clark is catching on so fast!

So yeah the work here has been pretty hard the past few days because we have had to find everyone in the ward! We have done a lot of walking and talking which has been great for Elder Clark who says he wishes we had a car because we walk so much! We have found a lot of the members and along the way we found a lot of new investigators also! This area is so awesome! Just this morning someone we talked to on the street texted us and said he wanted us to come visit him and his family. He even said he was going to invite his parents also! So we started off the day happy! Yesterday we had some ward missionaries come work with us and the ward mission leader! So they took us on pretty much a tour of the entire area! So hopefully this week we can do a little better is teaching lessons and not just getting lost!!

We had a couple good lessons this week but there was one that really stuck out to me! We were teaching an RM and her recently converted husband. Their son is currently in jail because he was a member of a gang that assaulted a minor. He wasn't involved in the assault but he was watching. Anyways the mother is having a really hard time with it so we shared Elder Clark's favorite scripture verse, 2 Nephi 22:2, and taught her about trust and that God knows our pains.

But yeah that's pretty much it for this past week. I love you all!

Elder Child

Notes:

*The picture is of Brett and his new trainee, Elder Clark.  He currently has a brother serving in the Kennewick Mission and is working in Pasco right now.  Small world!

*The Ward he serves in now had 123 in attendance on Sunday, which is quite a change from previous areas.

*He said his new apartment is awesome, but didn't elaborate.

*He got his hump day box and opened it already (Stinker!!).  Thank you again to everyone that sent a picture or wrote a note of encouragement for him.

*The bottom pictures were posted on the Mission facebook page when the new missionaries met their trainer

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 #32 - First full week in Gandara

May 24, 2015

Hello!

Wow what a week! I have discovered since last Wednesday that this is definitely going to be a hard area. Last transfer my companion had a companion who didn't ever want to work so he doesn't know this area at all! Plus our teaching pool (last Wednesday) consisted of about a total of 10 people so that was a little interesting to see. Basta this past week has been full of hard work including finding, talking to the branch president, and just about everything else if you are opening an area! My companion is American and his name is Elder Thompson. He is a very good missionary with a big desire to be obedient and work. We live in the tiniest apartment I have ever seen! And we come home every night to cockroaches all over the place so it's fun to have a killing spree! Elder Thompson is definitely getting better at the language even though he has the worst American accent in the world! haha It's so funny to listen to him sometimes! The upside to having an American companion is that people really like to invite you into their homes and listen to you speak. Especially the girls. Anytime a girl sees an American here they instantly think "gwapo"(handsome). So it's a little challenging but fun none the less! But yeah about the work. We had a lot of finding. And this area is huge so that meant a lot of walking. My shoes now have holes in them. Anyways we have 7 new investigators and we taught more lessons in the past week than he taught with his last companion in the last transfer so he was a little happy with that. Then it got to Sunday. I don't really think you can call the Gandara branch a branch. It's more of like a group! haha We only had 41 sacrament attendance and then I had to force a "branch" council afterwards. So we kind of just sat them down and told them all this stuff they need to do because they have no organization at all. Oh well I hope that by the end of this transfer it has improved a little bit! Also this past week I had the opportunity to ride in a ambulance! We were working with a member and trying to get a ride to a super far away barangay and a ambulance happened to stop to get some snacks and the member asked if they would give us a ride. So they did so that was pretty awesome! Basta that's pretty much it for this week! My spiritual thought for this week is just strive to be like the 2060 stripling warriors! That's my goal too! Well I love you all and thank you for your love and support!

Elder Child

Notes:

*I asked him how they kept their food uncontaminated from the roaches.  Brett said that they have to put their food in bags and tie them shut.  And they have a "drying cupboard" to put their dishes in so the bugs can't walk all over them.

*They found a new family to teach last night.  It is a mom and her two teenage children.  The father ran away.  The daughter's name is Angel and they asked the missionaries to come back every day to teach them.  Brett told them they could come every other day.

*Pic #1 - Just Brett and a little boy.  So cute!!

*Pic #2 - Elder Thompson and a big praying mantis

*Pic #3 - Brett and his district having lunch.  He said the pizza was disgusting.

*Pic #4 - Elders on a pot pot.  It belongs to a member in their branch.  It is the family vehicle.