Bugs and Boldness

Question: We haven't heard much about the bugs, are they big?

the bugs... yes they are big and all over the place and seem to be attracted to me all the time! i have grasshoppers who seem to just land on me and cockroaches that ran across my legs when i am in bed. We also have lizards that run all over the house. I catch them and make them my pets. I found out people are scared of them around here mainly children. So when i am tired of them (children) jumping all over me i catch one and its like anti-child! hahahahaha

Question: How are your sinuses?

my sinuses are fine just the normal allergies i believe.

Question: Do you still have Family Home Evening, like in Jaen?

hahahaha yeah we have fhe but no punishment of the marking on the face. normally they just do a silly act or something.... its not as fun... :/

Question: How is your tagalog?

for the first time ever i was told my tagalog is too direct (which means bold around here) Well i was sharing a scriptural thought to less actives in our zone leader's area (exchanges) and i shared the end of the Story of Abinadi. How King Noah was telling him to take back everything he has said or lose his life. I connected this to how we need to have a strong testimony and faith in the Lord. Also that the Lord is not asking us to just offer our lives to him but something even less important, our time (

cause time is way less important than our lives)

. Through reading, praying, going to church, and service we can give our time to the Lord. After the lesson you could see that they were slightly guilty for not giving their time to the Lord and the husband smiled and said basically "Your tagalog is better then it was last time!" The Wife chimed in and said it was too direct. Afterwards i thought, you know when you shared a story like Abinadi and how he sacrificed his life by being captured just to teach the people, then sealed his testimony with his blood for all eternity... it's kinda hard not to be bold... hahahahaha I just figure when people tell you that your Tagalog is too direct... it just means that they are feeling guilty because what you shared relates to what they have or haven't been doing.

By the way i am not anywhere CLOSE to fluent... but i try my best.

so in our email from President to all the missionaries was a Picture attached to the email:

That is the elder who replaced me in Jaen and Elder Manguiat (former companion) sitting on the ground, with the following message:

"The Parable of the Sower (Luke 8) comes to mind as I think of each of you in your fields of labor. The seeds that you sow sometimes “fall by the wayside” and those investigators hear and “then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts” and they hide the next time you come to teach them. Some seeds “fall upon a rock”. They are the investigators that hear and receive the word with joy and seem to believe but have no moisture and in times of temptation wither away. Other seeds that you sow “fall among thorns” and after they have heard and accept, go forth and are choked with the cares and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. The seeds we pray for and work so hard for are those that “fall on good ground” and bare fruit; those with honest and good hearts, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth the fruit with patience. Our call is to invite all to come unto Christ with love and hope that they may accept and bring forth fruit. Your joy will be full as you continue to love and lose yourself in finding, teaching and baptizing investigators. This picture of Elder Deppermann and Elder Manguiat tells the story of sadly waiting for the investigators that never came to church."

Yeah i got to talk to them at Missionary Zone Conference and they havent had investigators come to church since a month before i left so almost 4 months now no investigators. Man i want to go back to that area later on in my mission. There is so much potential there you just kinda have to be a bit pushy with the people hahahaha. That is Elder Deppermann's first area as well and when i see him at Conference he always tells me, "There is the Legendary Elder Grow! Boy do people talk about you in Jaen." I dont know what it is they say exactly.. maybe its something like, "Well that Elder Grow had some poor Tagalog!" hahaha i dont know what they say but knowing that i left my mark in that area always makes me feel like i did my best in the area. I did my part in planting and serving and I just hope someone will find those seeds and finish the work.

Well i have my hands full with this area as it is! Our Branch president has moved and just kinda said, "well sorry but i have moved and i hope things turn out for you all." So we don't know what to do about all this but its not exactly in our 'job description'. That's what President Puzey has told us. We are told that President is going to come to our area and check out how things are and what needs to be done. Oh yeah he doesnt speak Tagalog so that is always fun... hahahhaa He goes out and works whenever he can with his missionaries. By the way he is like 6'3 ft so he sticks out more then me around here! hahahaha

oh yeah, we still get the nightly thunder and lightning and rain! and the baptism for July 3 is on schedule so far

Hello Hello

Well there is not much new stuff to tell you. We had an awesome thunderstorm the other night! It was directly overhead and VERY LOUD! i did not get to see any lightning hit the ground though... but it sure did sound like it struck near by! but there were no fires or anything i dont even think it struck anywhere nearby! The other elders said they saw it strike and hit the ground when they were walking back from an appointment nearby them! I was very jealous... Well we have a baptism on July 3 and we have solved many situations we seemed to keep having with having her be a candidate for baptism. Mainly we needed the signature of parents. She lives at a friends house so that she can go to school. So we got the permission and so everything should be fine. She wants to be baptized and secretly i think she wants to teach in primary!!! WHO WOULD WANT THAT!?! ;) hahaha that goes out to everyone who is teaching in primary right now. Just imagine a primary that doesnt have the formal setup of primary, and kids that actually can climb exactly like monkeys!! its basically like nursery but with all age groups! hahahaha its very chaotic! Anyways so yeah we are just doing the same old same old. Trying to find people to teach, trying to get those we are teaching to come to church, and trying to get the inactives to stop attending different churches! hahahha even though most of them live right next to the Chapel and the other church they are going to is across the street from the Chapel! hahahaha anyways all is well here i am alive and having fun! love ya all!

i really dont have anything! this week has not been the greatest... i caught a sinus infection.. and just staying busy with work! um actually i do have something to tell! The dedication of the Cebu Temple was on sunday! it was a nice Dedication. President Monson had a lot of jokes when it came to sealing the corner stone! as they were finishing he was walking by the piano they had outside for the choir and he said "hey is this a piano? how about if I tickle the ivories for you'all?" so he played the piano for everyone and even tho it was not great it was funny... he played an old saloon style melody. Afterwards he told everyone about how his mother told him the only disappointment she had with him was that he didnt stay with the piano! He then said "I wish i had. It's a beautiful instrument." He then returned to conclude with a talk and the Prayer. In his talk and at the Corner stone he talked about how he is so very grateful for all the Filipinos who gave there lives in WW2 for the Americans. When he talked about it in his talk he had such a look of sadness for all of them that had died. He stressed that the people need to do their temple work for all of them because they have been waiting. He shared about the importance of the work and then concluded with the Prayer. It was a great spiritual experience and then later that night we had an awesome thunder storm! I even caught a picture of some lightning! Its like my favorite part of the nights around here and a regular occurrence! well thats about all i have for ya to share oh maybe i will tell about the old dead lady...well she is gone now. and thats all i have to share! hahahaha! love ya lots

The Lady Next Door

we are in the fall season now so its raining and a lot of that. Yes we miss Elder Wihongi-Ritchie around here but we are getting over it and just gettting down to business. Apparently if Elder Castro gets wet he melts or something. he really hates the rain! hahaha i am like "its just sprinkling lets go.." he complains and doesnt want to go out or leave the house we are at until it has stopped. I just call him a girl and everyone laughs at him and then we sit and talk to the people. so yeah we have found some new families we have been teaching. we also have one of our investigators who wants to get baptized but has some issues she needs to work on before she can be baptized. She goes to church all the time though. So we are just patiently waiting. um yeah thats about all thats new around here. Elder Castro and I are just dealing with the problems of the area around here and we have had success with a lot of Less actives around here which is good. We just want to get this area strong again. Oh we have a dead old lady outside our house for the last 3 days here. So when we walk out our front door... there is the body. hahahahaha i am just going to leave it at that to make you all interested! hahaha anyways i am alive and breathing! I hope you are all as well! love ya!

Questions:

What are you reading besides your scriptures?

What made you happy this week?

um i have been reading old conference talks from old liahona's in our house.

what made me happy?.... um, not sure. i am pretty much always happy around here =D

the owner of our house lives like right next to us and when you walk out our front door, her house steps are right there. Her mom died (85) and here the culture is to put the body in a casket with a glass top like snow white and then party for a week. so there are a lot of people always outside our house and we have to walk between them all. they are playing cards and just laughing and having a good time.

yep i am leaving (the computer place) now.

i am tired of all the children bumping into me!

so love ya!