The Victoria Ward

Well this week is great, boy do I just love Victoria! We get these new investigators that just kind of pop up out of nowhere, especially when we are struggling at finding a solid investigator. We have two new investigators, Sherwin and Angie. Sherwin is a cousin to our recent convert and Angie is a friend to them. We had just started to teach their nephew who is a part member family and we had made an agreement with him to come to church 4 times consecutively before we start to teach him. He had come 4 times in a row and asked us to teach him. His name is John Palolo, he is 9 years old and really wants to be baptized. We had taught him the first lesson one day and then Sherwin had come to church. They suggested that we teach him with John. After we taught to them they invited their friend Angie to come and listen. Angie did not really want to come. she was very hesitant during the lesson, but she was taking those first steps into new territory. Angie did not come to church this last Sunday, but when we asked her why she said she was sick. She did however read, she actually read a lot! So we were very proud that she did take the time to read. Teaching to them is a little chaotic at times but the whole time they are trying their hardest to focus and be active in the lessons. but towards the end of lessons after disturbances have ceased, right there at the end, everything just calms down and we get to review shortly, testify, ask follow up questions about the lesson and give commitments to them. We have also found one family where their daughter is the only member in the church and her mother really wants to be a member but her husband just never received his answer, when the missionaries had taught him before. He had read the Book of Mormon, all of it as he says, and prayed and waited for that feeling that this is all true. He had said that he believes in all of the things we say and he has read and I explained that we can’t receive answers for things that we already know. We definitely saw something kind of click with him then. We gave them a baptismal goal date and encouraged them to prepare themselves to come to church on Sunday. There was no hesitation in their commitment to do so. We have definitely seen the Lord’s hand in the work especially when we were down and struggling. We also will have a Baptism on the 29th of October at 3:30pm for J-Mark, which will be very exciting. he is ready for his baptism! Yeah so our work here in Victoria is awesome no complaints really! Elder Grow doing some Harvesting!

Regarding Typhoon Juan, October 18:

surprisingly the weather people are very accurate here they know like the hours of the storm! they were like 6pm we will have a storm and sure enough like 620 we had a storm! it wasnt anything horrible it was just like a bad rain storm back at home, nothing scary. The normal path we take was flooded tho and what i thought was shallow... happened to be very deep. so yeah i used the boots which was a HORRIBLE IDEA so i had water in my shoes for a good while! hahahaha but other than that it was weeak! and i forgot to close some windows and our desks got wet but they dried off in like 3 hours so nothing was damaged. seriously i was disappointed. i expected some fallen down trees or something like back at home... but no..

October 18 2010

sooo last week me and my batch (that means those who are going home or came to the mission at the same time) were talking about the date when we will come home because we received a card signed by President Monson with the date we will be finished with our mission. we looked at the calender and discovered our transfer date will be the week of Oct 19th 2011. so yeah we will all get an extra week in the mission! hahaha yeah that was the cool fact we found out. we will probably leave like on the 18th.Elder Latu should get home in tonga on the 19th but for me i will arrive on the same day again, the morning of the 18th.

nope never got a chance to see conference! but thats okay... Yesterday i found a monkey at a house we were oym'ing and i thought it was a cat in a tree but then i was like hey a monkey! well more like... TiSH! (its a noise you make here to get people's attention) UNGOY! Its pretty rare to see a monkey here so we were all amazed by it... but i know that kind of monkey and its a horrible nasty type... Deo (he is the one that gets scared easily) is from manila so he is a city boy and was like where? he should wear glasses all the time but chooses not to. so he was walking really close to it and then i was like wait, stop. then the monkey started to freak out ( it is on a small chain) and started to bite its hand and jump up and down... i instructed Deo to walk away from the monkey cause he might start flinging poop at him... although i would have fully and completely enjoyed that... but i did not have my camera so it would have not been so great.... next time! hahahaha yeah that was a sweet day yesterday we have a good contact and found a monkey! he is rather big too! But i know its like an EVIL monkey!

Yeah so we should be having a baptism again on oct 29 so that is good. We are out finding [investigators] and we have received some new referrals. and some people [who know our] investigators are asking them questions and asking for a Book of Mormon so hopefully they will ask to have us come teach. Anyways I do not like having a companion that is new to the mission but has been out just enough to think he doesnt need to learn anything more [about how to] teach... so yeah he is annoying me a little when it comes to teaching, but other than that, he is really fun to be with. we are always laughing and joking but man... he needs to learn to teach. But really other than that all is good! we are pretty similar actually ........ he is always joking and laughing and basically messing with Deo and then i scared elder gregorio. And we are very nice to deo and he knows its all fun and games i think he is starting to not become so startled by things now, at least he has stopped using the Lord's name in vain and swearing when he freaks out! hahaha

yep i am heading out! love ya!

Birthday Week

Last Thursday, Elder Grow got a new companion, and also had the opportunity to eat at a Pizza Hut!

"Pizza Hut was delicious. my New Companion comes from Guimba. we were in the same district back there. this is his second area. his name is Elder Gregorio. I am his first co-senior and he is annoying me hahahaha! no, really he is nice, just TRUNKY for being only 3 months out! He is the result of a trainer who was not a very good trainer to him and then a follow up trainer who was WAY TOO STRICT! I mean, where i come from when members are playing sports and you show up and join in (example of the elders playing football at your ward activity) there is nothing wrong with that. Well his follow-up trainer would scold him for an hour about it... So now he just gives me a headache... but he is really good at teaching and thats all i am glad about! "

He also got his birthday package!

"I got my package and everything. It was awesome! Thank you. Didnt really celebrate my birthday just got wished happy birthday a lot had dinner at a members house then sat around and talked good laughs!"

Bug of the week:

" I found a GIANT Beetle the other day, the horned kind, and when you pick it up it hisses. that was way awesome! they fly and i dont like flying bugs so i got rid of it before it decided to fly in my face!"

Elder Quentin L. Cook and Bishop Keith B. McMullin, of the Presiding Bishopric came to visit the Philippines Angeles Mission on Saturday and Sunday.

"Elder Cook and Bishop McMullen came to speak to us and they taught about serving a mission and the blessings that are in store for you and the ones you can be receiving right now. Elder Cook gave a blessing to all of us that we will overcome sickness and temptations as we serve. it was pretty awesome."

Did he get to shake Elder Cook's hand?

"yeah i did, that was cool!"

Baptism, Former Companion, and Recent Convert

Well lets see what else is going on right now. We should have a baptism going on nov. 6 for J-Mark. he is our new investigator and he is golden. he is a for sure baptism. Elder Wihongi-Ritchie is now my Zone Leader so we are going to be having splits again and working together sometime this month that will be awesome. He was asking if its okay for two foreigners to be together on exchanges. i reminded him that that rule has been lifted for me because i was companions with Elder Latu hahahaha he surely laughed and then said something in a ghetto new zealand accent. Our Recent convert Deo, he is like the ultimate person to scare, he jumps so easily. and you know those goats that if you scare they pass out... i think he has that part in him. there has been several times that i have scared him and he has collapsed to the ground hahahaha. he is really afraid of snakes and dogs and the streets always have dogs everywhere! so when we get one barking and following us if you are walking beside him you can reach down and grab his leg and he thinks the dog is attacking him! hahahahaha he is a good sport in it all and he tries his best to scare us but it never works. Oh and loud noises make him jump hahahaha well anyways life is good over here!

The end of today

yeah i am still happy. thanks for the birthday wishes and the love you send at me!

well i am tired.. we hit up an all you can eat place here earlier and i think i am going into a food coma! hahaha

well i am off goodbye Love ya lots Elder Grow

The Pancake House

I am not getting transferred and i am not Training! YES! .....but..... sadly Elder Latu is heading out....

so i ate at this Pancake House place here... its a restaurant but its like a really nice restaurant about the closest thing to feeling like you are back in the US hahaha. I said hey its my birthday next week and they say they have american meat here.. I will go all american stereotype here and order this burger and a root beer float! hahaha yeah it was over priced thats for sure but it was very tasty! i do not have any regrets! hahaha it cost me about 10 bucks for it all. Then after we left it clicked that hey we are still in the Philippines! Even though we were all speaking tagalog... except for the waitress for some reason if we said something in tagalog she would repeat it in english... hahaha

We had a baptism on saturday and there will be at least one for sure this transfer with our new investigator. He is a golden investigator and we have only taught him twice and he has commited to live the Word of Wisdom without a single problem. He even shared his testimony to us about the book of mormon... we have only taught directly to him 3 or 4 times. his cousins just recently got baptized and he would always excuse himself from the room but secretly listen to our lesson from the other room. Regarding the new Urbaneta Temple: The members i dont think know and i was just told earlier about it. It is in our mission boundries actually. So yeah i wish me and Elder Latu can go one more transfer because our work is just cooking up a storm over here! But he has received a calling to be a district leader and that is going to force him to speak english in District meetings! His trainer is our zone leader right now and he recommended him to be a District leader which he does not want at all, but he shouldnt have any problems with the step up he is awesome! Anyways yeah thats about all i gots for an update!