A New Companion

We had rain this morning which was nice. It has been really hot in the afternoons but it gets cold at night and i am waking up every morning blowing my brains out! and then i will sneeze for like 10 minutes.... so i do not know what the deal is... it is only in the morning..

Well my new companion [Elder Tandas] is a very good companion. He is very nice and a very good teacher. He talks to people very nicely which helps with new people letting us teach. We have a lot of new investigators that i like to call TIME EATERS they just eat up our time which is good and bad... because they end up asking way too many questions that just end up distracting the lesson and trying to get them back on track. All of their questions are great, our lessons will give them the direction they are looking for but we continually have to explain to them that we will answer their questions another time because it is part of another lesson we would like to share in a later visit. (Insurance that we have a return appointment). Well we are working in two different sides of our area every other day and then in the mornings we go to another area and work. Sometimes in one of our areas we end up walking for about 40 minutes to our last appointments because there are no more jeepneys. some times we catch a tricycle which is normally when we are about half way to the last area. Well sadly we did not have the success that we should have had with investigators coming to Church because of situations that had occurred. 2 of our investigators who committed to come to church, even if they were going to come by themselves, ended up having something happen with their dad, which didnt allow them to return later that night to come to church the next day. 1 of our other investigators, his fellowshipper (who was going to come the morning of and take him to Church), got Shingles. He is in pain and didnt believe me when i told him he has shingles. 2 other investigators promised to come next week because they plan to have people over for her birthday on [this] sunday so they did not come of course. We did have one investigator who is 11 years old that is a part member family who did not get baptized because she is too shy to answer questions and did not answer any of the baptism questions when she was interviewed. She has started to answer simple questions that i ask now which is good. So hopefully when the time comes she will be ready for her baptism. So that is about what is going on in the work around here. we have a lot of new people and some that we havent been able to revisit because of loss of time at appointments or they just have not been at their house. So we are just going to try and get down to business with these people and teach them.

Pogs!

yeah, we dont talk about any of the disasters cause we are so far inland its not a big concern.

We heard about the big moon but it was going to be at 1 in the morning. although i woke up, i did not want to go out side... But [do] you remember that one night we were at payless and came outside and the MOON was Huge but when we got back home it had become small. If you can find pictures that were taken on the internet i would like to see them.

Anyways... when brother garcia left, the couple missionaries took him back to his home which was far away but i got sent to the area with the zone leaders so just a, "well good bye and good luck" But the night before, we ate well and enjoyed our last night together. he returned this morning to visit the members before he enters the MTC. So i got to see him for a few minutes but because i will not be in kalikid i wont see him later tonight.

Well the zone leader here became the next assistant to the president and so the last AP is working with us. He was my zone leader back in Victoria Tarlac. So it has been fun working with Elder Scott and Elder Landingin but i miss my area and my members and i am excited for my companion to come tomorrow so that i can get back to working with my investigators and what not. My new companion is Elder Tandas he has been out for a [long] time. He replaced me back in Guimba when i left. We did work in my area and we had good success with 3 of my investigators who i hope will come to church! anyways Elder scott is obsessed with Pogs... do you remember pogs? they were those cardboard disc's that i had like 4 tubes of?? well the kids around here play it here all the time. So back when it was cool to have pogs no one new how to play them... WE KNOW NOW! hahaha you can buy pogs anywhere around here and they are 3 for one peso... so we bought like 15 pesos of pogs and play them at night before we would go to sleep. Life in the Philippines is different that is for sure but you always have two choices to make... Hate it and complain all the time or Jump in and just enjoy it all! I will be coming up on 6 months remaining right? I best continue to enjoy life here!!

hey i am getting out of here now! I am done and tired of sitting at the computer and i think Pizza hut is calling me! And people are singing Jim Croce in the Videoke restaurant (videoke is Karaoke) its like the 5th song in a row! hahaha yeah i probably will never play pogs when i get back!! hahaha okay love ya!!

Re: Ryan & Chelsea's twins

twins... really.... that is just "two" much! haahaha well they will probably be born on my birthday! and that will be okay it doesnt really effect me! just means MORE CAKE! hahahahaa well congrats to them!

Well Brother Garcia will be leaving on thursday and i will be heading out to another area for a week until transfers then i will go back and work! so yeah that is the plan i was told... so other than that there is nothing new.. it is just in the next area its not far they said i will go back and work in my area with them a few times so that i do not have to pack a lot.. also they want to use my hot water!! hahahahha

okay i am leaving!

Q&A

Question: What's new?

Answer: nothing really.. just getting work done like always! we have a lot of investigators that.. are not going to church! but they are very nice and actually reading the book of mormon! so yeah that is all.. i went to find a flag of the philippines-- i found one... it was crappy quality and expensive so i did not buy it... that was my adventure earlier! Brother Garcia is doing great i am going to miss him when he leaves!

Question: You sent some pictures from baptisms and have written about them but you never mention if you have performed the ordinance. I know that here the family member holding the priesthood is encouraged to do the ordinance work.. is it the same there?

Answer: Yes we are encouraged to invite members to do the baptism to exercise their priesthood... we were told not to perform the ordinance but they give us the chance now to do so.. But i would much rather have someone in the ward perform it so that they have a connection with the member. so i have not done so.

Question: Of all the areas you have served, which area have you liked best? And why?

Answer: Every area has been different and i have liked them all. They all have their differences. In Jaen it was all the youth that made the area funny and welcoming. (I saw one of the youth at the Mall earlier and just talked real quick.. that was cool). In Guimba it was the relief society that made that area great. all of the nanays and their jokes and good times. In Victoria it was all the single adults that made it feel like home. Here in Kalikid its just the members that are nice and all of the work here that is making this area great. Even tho i hate all the gossip stuff and problems that was caused a year ago that broke the branch into two and things havent been back to normal and all i hear is stuff that i do not care about. But i still love the area, all of my areas! I do not think one was better than the other!