Tatay

Elder Grow is tired! hahahaha so here in Victoria the work is kind of leveling off but this is the normal occurrence in Victoria. We went out finding and met two new people. one is 81 which i still do not believe because his mind is way Sharp and witty and he doesnt look like the normal 81 year old filippino who looks like he is like one week from dying! so he said okay to being taught BRIEFLY but he ended up Talking WAY too much and what we taught was brief because he interrupted every 2 minutes. then we closed the lesson and me and Elder Landingin (the Assistant to the President) knelt down and Tatay just kept talking away! So we asked him like 4 times if he would kneel and pray with us.. he just continued and me and elder landingin just waited and tried not to laugh. Mainly because we were late to meet with our companions. Anyways Work is going good. we had received great comments from the Assistants to the President about our work and how our Recent converts and investigators really trust us and they would like to know our secret. We had no answer for them, we just rock and gain peoples trust.

I made this graham cracker freezer cake that is delicious and i make french toast a lot! And as much as missionaries complain about their houses being horribly gross i laugh because I have seen and been in houses that one.. smelled worst then any house here and two... That were horribly disgusting then any house i have been in here! Some houses [here] do not have a floor.. it is Dirt... and Yet that is more clean then some of the houses me and dad have been in! So i am a very happy missionary whether or not my roof leaks or i do not have a Shower Head! hahahaha But cold showers are something i could do with out! and just to make people laugh... The bucket of water is way cleaner then using Toilet paper! You will be converted if you use it! hahahahaha well thats whats going on with the mission life of Elder Grow and last remark here... "Do not let the little moments pass you by in the mission because you will regret the things you had a chance to do but chose not to! Love the mission love the life, get the work done!" Love ya all and thanks for the Support!

Dancing??!!

so we had a baptism on saturday! that was nice.. very unorganized but he got dunked... TWICE hahaha he had a toe pop up out of the water so we had to re-do it. no, i did not do the baptizing...

What will Elder Grow be doing this Thursday (Thanksgiving)?

"will be having a District leader meeting then practicing a presentation for our christmas conference!

elder nicholes has been assigned to come up with something... it could be a skit.. it could be dancing.... it could be singing...

the dancing is always horrible and not very funny... mainly because there are people who try..."

8 Days A Week

nope, no transfers... we will be doing 6 more weeks here! thats the news

i saw the manual (new Church Handbook) and looked at it. the opening and closing prayer for sacrament was a new thing i did not know. Married couples should not give both prayers. i thought that was interesting

We have a baptism on saturday which i get to attend because i am still here! hahaha Too bad everyone thinks i am transferred! it will be fun to see their reactions that now i am not!

This church is true whether there is or isnt reverence in sacrament meeting! hahahaha we had a primary presentation in our ward and we had an investigator who really is scared to come to church but he ended up coming and even tho the children are not so focused it was good. but the members were so irreverent during it all [that] our investigator did not get the experience he was looking for, but it was okay. we followed up with him and explained in more detail the purpose of primary presentations. so yeah he was okay i guess.. i just hope he will come next week!

[I still have a] hole in the shoe and i'm tired cause we had 8 days of no pday! that is a long week!!!

anyways i am leaving now

bye love ya

A Long Week Ahead

"i just want this next long week over with to know if i am getting transferred or not! its really going to be a long week over here this new schedule is soooooooo not cool for out 6th week in the transfer. i want to know if i am training... or becoming a zone leader or am i going to be a district leader still but in a new area or am i not getting transferred.... that is the usual thoughts that come when we are close to transfers... and especially this one cause we will only have one night to pack."

"its hot! its very hot! hahahaha weather is very weird here"

"yeah i am just not feeling like i want to write... but i do want to say i found A&W cream soda and hickory smoked bbq sauce and i will be cooking pulled pork sandwiches and will be happy! yeah so i am very anxious about that!"

"One of our investigators Angie has not been very active in our lessons and seems to want to stop listening. I feel one of the issues is that she is very shy about being asked questions during lessons. She often thinks that her answers are wrong even though we stress to her that what she says can in no possible way be wrong. When questions are asked she often just freezes up and we wait for her to answer and she will give a good almost correct response. We had a lesson that she was almost like not wanting to even be there. I felt that we needed to address this issue and talk about why we ask questions. She understood and I hope that she understands more and will want to answer questions more next time. Sherwin on the other hand is like way amazing and studies a lot. He is very active in seminary and he asks very good questions about what he would like to understand. He is scheduled to have a baptism on November 20. We also have two other people that we haven’t been able to teach but they came to church which was shocking, Mark and Kevin. Mark is an older brother to our recent converts and Kevin is the older brother of Sherwin. They both want to know why their siblings are so interested in all of this. Mark was once interested but stopped. Things in Victoria are still going strong although one of those lulls in the work is what it feels like, but to me it just means to step up and work more.

Elder Gregorio and I are doing well. Teaching is about the same. I do notice sometimes he will change certain parts in a lesson and won’t just repeat the same things over and over again. I had one lesson where I just felt I needed to be bold with a few of our not progressing investigators. I stressed at the end of the lesson on the plan of salvation that if they want to return to live with our heavenly father again they need to be baptized and find out for themselves if this is the true church. We gave a baptismal goal date to them and invited them to church and I felt that if they would come they would feel closer to the Lord and be able to receive their answers. I promised them this if they would just take the first step. They sadly did not come to church on Sunday. I know that I am at least doing my part and sharing with them what they need to do to know if this is the true church and they need to do their part.

Well I love my mission even with the ups and downs!"

PHOTOS!

"Me and Elder Latu posing as we wait for someone to open the gate to the church"
Sep 5, 201"Simbahan natin.... wow i just wrote tagalog... Thats our Church"
Sep 5, 2010"Posing for the camera"
September 17, 2010"Coming back from zone activity"
Sep 20, 2010"This is Deo. He was in a Seminary for 3 years to be a priest... NOT ANYMORE! hahaha he got baptized... sometimes he preaches when he is asked to share his testimony"
Sep 25, 2010"I caught a baby goat"
Sep 26, 2010"remember Deo yeah well he still had his seminarian outfit... we asked to borrow it... hahaha"
Oct 16, 2010"evil monkey! Actually not so evil.. i gave it a banana once.. i do not trust him tho!"
Oct 22, 2010"This dog hates me.... Sometimes... not sure why but now i can at least pet him and he licks my hand."
Oct 22, 2010This is J-Mark (his real name is Hazell) he just got baptized on saturday. also my new companion elder gregorio. (More Bars) (I believe the brownings will laugh at the more bars joke)"
October 30 2010