Reunited... and it feels so good!

hahaha well i was going to just wait for the letter to arrive telling you [Mom and Dad] that i am a District leader now.... I am not really happy about that but i have the best companion i could have received and the ward here wow its great! So this companionship we have is the first time President Puzey has made this transfer. I am companions with Elder Latu again! hahaha We are the first foreigner companionship in the mission since President Puzey. We got a little meeting with him after the transfer was called and everybody was compaining (more like jealous) Because we are batch (means we arrived the same time) we were companions in the MTC and we are Foreingers. So he talked to us and told us that when he recieved the inspiration that we are to be companions he knew that it was the first time, but he has his trust in us to basically not screw around and get the work done. So yeah its pretty crazy! The Zone i am in is Huge-- Tarlac Zone and my area is Victoria. Yeah its pretty close to Guimba my last area. I am also the District leader over Elder Leavitt he was in our district back in the MTC. Anyways our Ward has over 100 people attend they are ACTIVE members and we have functioning Ward Missionaries. This is the first time in a long time where we just had to relax and enjoy Sacrament meeting.

yeah this is like the best transfer so far, we are having a lot of fun. I think we are the only foreigners that dont speak english to each other... like ever! hahahaha this area is awesome its like a ward at home and actually we do not really have dinner appointments but i made some great first impressions so yeah i am working on getting fed ;) hahahaha In this area it is pretty easy to get things [groceries etc] we are kind of a city here, but not really, its in between a farming area and a city. i am having a hard time learning the area, lots of turns and streets, not like the street highway guimba was like.

Um Well there are Zones and in each Zone there are 2-3 District Leaders. In each district you have at least 2 or more companionships. The District leader is in charge of those Elders in helping them in their work. We also have to conduct Baptism interviews for their investigators to see if they are ready for baptism. We also have to report the work of our district to our zone leaders and now we have to get workshops in every district meeting about the new curriculum. Before the new Curriculum it would just rotate every week. So yeah its a whole lot of responsibilities i really don't want... but i did get an awesome companion out of it so i wont complain too much!

I was transfered!

well i got transferred! I will be going to a new area on thursday and it will be on the other side of the mission.

Transfers go like this. Your Zone Leaders get a text sunday night about who is being transferred then on monday for p day we have the announcement. Then on thursday that is when you will go to your new area but you dont know where or who is your companion until then. There are two sides to the mission, the Angeles Side and the Cabanatuan Side. i am going to angeles. There are like 8 zones in each side. So all you know is that you will go to that side of the mission at the Transfer point and then there will be an announcement of who are companions and their area. Then you pile up in a jeepnee and head to your area! Its all very hetic! so next monday i will tell you all about where i am. Re Cabanatuan: i go there all the time-- well went there all the time... that is were we go for our mission conferences. Its a city and rather big. most of the missionaries i know started there. my trainer Elder Pajela is the Zone Leader of Cabanatuan. He might have gotten transferred now though.

so our walls are not painted they are just concrete and we found a box of chalk in our house-- so since we dont have white board like most houses have to write about investigators and what not, I just started writing on walls: Trike fares and jeepnee fares to places in our area and random tagalog words to learn. Well i was like hey its just chalk and that looks like a good place for my name!

well i am off i am hungry and i am going on the Good-bye Tour! hahahaha love ya!

A Pretty Good Week

So this was a pretty good week! We had investigators come to church! We had 4 investigators come-- they are teenagers, though. but hey, everybody needs the gospel in their life! We even have a referral that we have only taught twice but when we followed-up about her praying to know, she got a taste of the Holy Ghost bearing witness to her. we explained to her what that was, and we are trying to teach her whole family. We have talked to her mother and encouraged her to listen with her daughter. Surprisingly i dont really do the whole teenager scene, mainly cause they sometimes aren't too serious about it all, but the ones we have been teaching actually listen and keep their commitments. Because we have been learning this new curriculum and they are new investigators of ours, we have been applying what we learn to them. We have seen some dramatic results! Our new Branch President Mario Cortez, was the Branch President when it was just a meeting house and that was sometime ago. We had our first PEC Meeting with him and we just went over what is expected in a PEC Meeting and what would help us out as of right now. We talked about a Branch Missionary Leader. So things are looking like they are on the incline which is sad and great at the same time. sad because it seems that when i get dumped into an area that is well what people say 'Hard', just before transfers the area starts doing good and yep i get the boot! hahaha I will take it as i did my job correctly though! This is what happened in Jean and so it looks like it might happen again just got that strong feeling. I have had splits with two Americans which was unavoidable. one was our Zone Leader he is Samoan and lives in Utah. He is way nice and we had a lot of fun on Splits. he is going home next transfer and it was starting to set in for him. He was like man i am going home and i am scared its going to be way weird. I just laughed at him and was like yeah i dont need to worry about that for another 14 months! Well the time is going by way fast and i am just continuing to have fun, teach and preach (i dont do the whole preaching thing cause that is basically just talking at someone and that is not a good Gospel Teacher). Well i hope all is well at home! I might have some pictures next week! Love ya all!

Q & A

We got a new branch presidency and our attendance was 92 this week !

Oh, also this is the land where all our old broken toys end up. I have seen toys that i am like Wow i had that when i was a little kid and i swear it was broken the same way! hahahaha

Question: How did you solve the problem of the house you live in so that you don't need to find another one?

Answer: The problem was that the nanay who washes our clothes had to wash clothes inside our house because there was no place outside to do so because there is a house behind us and we cant just leave our clothes hanging out all day. But we talked with the house manger and we closed off the path to the house behind us and locked our gate with a lock so our clothes are safe and people aren't always walking through our area and the facet outside needed to be replaced and some wires placed for hanging the clothes so all is well now and that episode is over!

Q: What about the mud in the yard.. still need cement work?

A: We have some gravel for the outside.

Q: What about grocery shopping and what do you do for breakfast?

A: We have a grocery store it is over in the city. We actually are lucky and have dinner appointments with members, but yes we cook. The morning is Rice and a fried egg sometimes or hot dog (its nothing like a hot dog you would know hahahaha) Or rice and noodles. But yeah all meals are with a plate of rice.

Q: Did you ever get a watch?

A: No i don't use a watch i have completely adapted to the time and just know what time it is. My companion has a watch and i am like its like 6:30 now isn't it? and he is like yeah its like 6:35 so yeah i know what time it is normally by if it is dark or how bright it is

New Curriculum

Well there is some awesome new curriculum that went out to the MTCs that help teach [you how] to be a better teacher of the Gospel. It is some really awesome stuff. We are being taught now in the field and get an extra Zone Conference to learn and study the new stuff. With this new curriculum we get a new Preach my Gospel DVD. the old one was to show what missionary work was like and it basically covered all the principles of PMG. The only problem with the [old] Videos was that the investigators they had were like PERFECT so it was like-- okay teach this principle and oh look they understand... and wow i can't apply this to my work. This new DVD yeah it shows the not successful at all and the successful lessons and the Elders and Sisters they use are rather humorous and actually are like "yeah i get frustrated when i think i am teaching something clearly and they just aren't getting it." So we all love the new dvd and yeah you can really relate to them. We have used this new style of teaching and even tho we have only started to learn it we have seen some differences in our lessons. We also had a miracle happen this sunday! We had 86 people come to sacrament meeting. one of them was someone who had not gone to church for 2 years because her husband is not a member. We also had a reactivation activity after church that helped us meet a lot of part member families that we could visit and hopefully be able to teach. Well there is nothing more really to say but maybe just maybe this next week will be filled with exciting news... I am feeling it! or it could just be indigestion... hahhaahaha well love ya all! Well if i dont have anything to say next week how about some people submit some questions that they would like answers for... that would make my life a tad bit more easy! hahaha