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!

Transfers

so we got the announcement Elder Wihongi-Ritchie is leaving us and Elder Castro is our new District Leader. That means every single one of my companions has been a District Leader... hahaha so me and elder Castro will be staying here maybe for another month then he will leave or no transfer again for us two! so yeah we are sad to say goodbye to Elder Wihongi but excited to still be companions! We have a lot of work to do around here and are happy for the chance to stay and help! Nothing really exciting is going on. we have one investigator who really wants to be baptized and we have a new investigator we have started to teach who is really awesome! she has a brand new baby and loves to hear the message we come bring to her. So people say summer is over because of all the rain and lightning we have been having. By the way, the lightning and thunder here is amazing! We have had some really loud thunder that sounded like the lightning had hit just outside our house. i was talking to elder castro and we were in the 'work out' room and the windows were open and then- bam, the thunder! and he just ran away into another room! hahaha i just stood laughing at him. then the neighbors saw and heard and were asking if he was scared and I just laughed and told them yeah i think so because he ran away!! hahaha So thats all the news i have for the area here.

Yeah i dont speak english like ever. the only times i get to speak english is when my companions ask me what is the best way to say something and i have to hear his reallllllly bad english grammar and then translate it and give the proper grammer answer... then teach him how to speak like a normal american so that he doesn't say it funny... hahaha but yeah my english is bad. i cant talk to the couple missionaries with out using tagalog words... its embarrassing... oh i ate today a bbq pulled pork sandwich that sister cosgrove made. yeah it was really good! it made me miss my bbq... then she made an amazing chocolate cake that was sooooo good! most amazing frosting. yeah there was some left over but i was like um no i cant eat anymore. cause i am used to eating filippino food and i eat enough stuff that i dont ever want to really eat again. so i passed on the left overs because i knew i would not want to eat later! hahaha oh how i miss food like In and Out, BBQ, Dr pepper mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm hahaha well the power was cut off for a few minutes but thanks to the new google email ldsmail it saved my letter =P well i am off love ya!

Sunday Baptism

we have had some rain here and there randomly it will just rain then stop

we had a baptism on Sunday morning cause there was no power on saturday. [In attendance were] me, my companions, the elders quorum president, and our nanay, and Tyson who got baptized. it was small & quick. Tyson(he is 25) never went to school and has a hard time learning and understanding but we taught to him like you would a 5 year old and he understood and after the baptism we got to hear for the first time his testimony! he is very shy about that stuff and it was great! he has actually gone to church like 8 times in a row and helps out with setting up chairs and what not maybe that will be his calling

sooo yeah we are broke over here and starving. our support was held back for a week and we dont have any propane for our stove

so i found our rice cooker which was broken... and opened it up and was like- what could be wrong... hmm that is black on the wire... oh it h
as a fuse i will just go ask at the junk shop for one it will probably be like 40 pesos... so we go and look and nope no one has one... darn... so a member said "we have a rice cooker we do not use come by later and get it"... well we went home and i was like um i think we have a rice cooker up stairs. i found it and the lever was broke... so i was like- i bet the fuse is good. sure enough it was and i fixed the rice cooker so that we can have rice, hard boiled eggs and pancit canton! hahahaha so we are surviving! well thats about all the excitement around here! i have pics of Tyson who was baptized on Sunday! and just randomness! love ya all!

me and tyson waiting for power to come back on! yeah no i am not fat just making a funny face!!| (taken May 22 at 4:23 pm)

me and tyson having fun waiting for power still! (taken May 22 at 5:24 pm)

Tyson and Elder Wihongi-Ritchie waiting! (taken May 22 at 4:15 pm)

Our Chapel! (taken May 22 at 4:18 pm)

The Three Nephites of Guimba! (Taken May 22 at 5:25 pm)

my crazy zone leader.... he caught the bat in our second floor! (taken May 14 at 2:46 pm)

It's Hot!

i am sweating to death! hahahaha but other than that i am fine! yeah its hot from 10-4 then the wind comes so its not too bad. i am not in it all the time

um yeah i am actually getting ready to leave [the computer place] a little early cause we are sweating to death in here more so then normal! but really i dont have anything to say [for the blog] we do have a baptism coming on saturday and thats about it so when that happens you just focus the whole week on that person so yeah thats about it! love ya

Answering Some Questions

Do you still go without a watch? Yes the one i bought broke two days before transfers!

What is your favorite hymn? Abide With Me Tis' Even Tide

What is your favorite scripture or conference talk? The Parable of The Lost Sheep, and Elder Holland's Talk on the Book of Mormon from last Conference ["Safety for the Soul" Oct. 2009]

What is your favorite thing to do on P-day? E-mail! of course! and Eat with the elder's

What is your favorite food? Shanghai Lumpiang and Halo-Halo is good (its like a dessert thing here and its really a lot of random things i would never eat separate! but you mix it all together and WOW its tasty! (i will get one later most likely!)

any other favorites or dislikes, now that you have more experience?

Likes

The cloud lightning like every night is awesome!

Speaking Tagalog to people who try to speak english to me!

Adobo (its food)

Rice (my companions have stopped eating it for a diet, i miss eating it now)

Halo-Halo

Pancit Cantan its like top raman but WAY better! hahaha

Making random dogs follow me to appointments

Teaching!

Rain!

Dislikes

Getting punted from an Appointment

sweating all day!

when the jeepnee keeps stopping and putting people in when there is obviously no room!

also being packed into the trike now that there is three of us and Elder Wihongi is not small!

[for photo of a trike, go to the December 29, 2009 entry]

Rain (cause its hard to work when you are dripping wet)

hahahaha thats about it for the likes and dislikes!

???? how many months has it been?

So we had an amazing rainfall! haha every night we get what is called Kidlat (lightning) its just the cloud lightning no thunder but its way cool to see

the sky just flash randomly ever couple of minutes. But we did actually get some real thunder and lightning the other night and rain. Elder Castro not

a fan of rain he does not like to walk around soaking wet! haha It had started to sprinkle and i was like Yun! Unlan! (yes! rain!) and then it started to

really rain... WOW it just came out of nowhere and poured. we started to run to our appointment which was close by. yeah we were pretty soaked

for only being in the rain for like a minute! so yeah i have learned that rain around here is no joke and that its not fun to be

soaked... so i am told (i think it is still fun! as long as my socks are not wet!) well that is all the fun and adventures for this week for Elder Grow!

"Last Night Jaen" taken April 21, 2010 at 5:22 pm
"Rays Bright" taken April 22 at 5:42 pm"Rays Dark" taken April 22 at 5:43 pm

Transfer to Guimba

Okay, so yeah, i have 2 companions! and i am not counting the Holy Ghost! hahaha yeah i am back to the Threesome again! we are all co-seniors and Elder Wihongi-Ritchie is a Maori (from New Zealand, of course) and he is our District leader and the other is Elder Castro. Yeah, um, they are awesome missionaries and i have enjoyed this transfer. my area is a small unorganized branch. the area is Guimba. Elder Latu [Elder Grow's companion at the MTC] is in the same zone but in the other district. the area is HUGE, but our working area [although] big is smaller, wayyyy smaller than Jaen! ...so everything is going good here, just trying to adjust to the new people and accents... and oh, this is an ilokano [dialect] area, but everyone knows tagalog also. so, yeah, new dialect and all. Well, that's about it for the new area. i will get a picture next week of me and my Companions!

oh, our house is HUGE! ...the only down side is our house is always really reallllllly hot!

english is getting harder... [my Tagalog] is fine but it should be really good after this transfer cause i don't get to speak english ...I haven't spoken english in like 2 weeks!!!! mainly cause Elder Wihongi-Ritchie speaks Maori and his english is just as bad as the Filipino's and Elder Castro doesn't speak english but knows words, so yeah it [english] is pointless

oh, I have been reading "Teaching, No Greater Call"... wow i fell in love with it. if you haven't been reading it lately, READ it. read Finding Lessons Everywhere [correct title: "Looking for Lessons Everywhere" in Part A, article 10, page 22] the story about the Garden was great! it has REALLLY improved my teaching and i teach complete with the Spirit. i don't even think of what to say, i just kinda go blank and words tumble from my mouth and its reallllllly an amazing experience.

...I learned from the story [L. Tom Perry General Conference April 3, 2010, Saturday Afternoon "Mothers Teaching Children In The World"] about the Apostle's mom who prepared HUGE LESSONS for Relief Society but would shorten them up for her class. but the things that she left out of her lesson, she taught parts of them to him. And after she passed away, many many many years later he was going through alll her notes and remembered the lessons and STILL learned from them. So yes, if you don't prepare your lessons thoughtfully then your lesson won't have any thought behind it.. it will just be another boring old lesson from the manual.

6 Months! and Pics

Well its been Six months! 4 Months here in the Philippines! Wow time has gone by fast! I am also being transferred to a New Area although we figured this and many Members have been very sad about it but its what the Lord has chosen and you just kinda have to go with it! =P hahaha well all is well here in Jaen and i hope that things continue to Progress while i am gone. We have found a lot of potential investigators and i really hope that they will truly listen to the message and come unto Christ's Fold. I have been doing the whole Bible study thing and yes its hard but I truly do love the Parable of the Sheep especially the 99 and 1 Parable. Its one of my favorites because of Jaen. There are so many inactive that need to come back before they become Spiritually Dead and continue to fall away. Also the Parable of the Two Sons and the one that left and Sinned but came back and the Father Greeted him with open arms and gave him the Fattest of all the (Goats?) and the obedient son was so mad at his Father for doing this. The Father just said because you have been obedient your reward is far greater! But because your brother who was lost has returned it's a time of Celebration! Now let us be happy! and in comparison of the 99 and 1 it says when you find that lost Sheep how great is the joy of finding that one that you put it on your shoulders and carry it back and tell your neighbors, “I have found the one!” If we take these parables and apply them to the ones who are lost in our wards and loved ones, and use the teachings of Jesus about Let your Light Shine from 3 Nephi 12:14-16 and 3 Nephi 18:24, and we do our best to help them see that Light that We have, and guide them out of the Darkness back into Christ's Fold, oh how great will that day be! But not for us, but for them-- for they have been lost and have been found and returned! This is the thing i have learned from Jaen: that we need to do our part to be that Example of Christ and Find those Lost Ones and not by forcing and chastising them, but by Being an Example unto them and greet them with open hands and kindness. This is how Jesus taught and that is how we should act. Once again i am sorry for the Preaching but this is what i do and what i teach to the members. I love everyone of you and challenge you to find and hearken unto your lost sheep or the other sheep that know not. Through your Examples and kindness to them. they will want what you have, and you will be the one that has opened or reopened their hearts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for all your love and support!

FHE with the Flaminanos
Question: What game did you play at the Flaminanos' house? Looks like you were not very good at it!
Handa Kilos. THEY GANGED UP ON ME! It was not fair!!
You will have to explain the game some day!
Handa Kilos means: Ready.... Action! but yeah, its not a game you can explain, you have to show

[Today, April 19] its my last FHE here in Jaen! its going to be a good one!
By the way its reallllly hot here!

Life on the mission

Comments on General Conference:

...the members don’t like [ to watch conference in] Tagalog because they can’t feel the Spirit from the translators, so they had it in English and Tagalog in the RS Room. Yeah it was about the Best Conference I have seen, very powerful. Loved Elder Holland’s talk mainly cause he can be so bold and firm in his Speaking and yet say jokes.

Regarding Food:

...i buy a lot of random food from these things called Tindahans which are like windows [through which] people sell food from their houses. so i buy things and then i am like ew... this is not good... then some kids are walking by and speak really bad english and i just tell them to come here and give them the nasty food.. hahahah i give a lot of food away! hahaha

About discouragement:

around here you kinda need to feel depressed and discouraged but if you let it destroy you then you lose, but if you let it strengthen you then you become stronger and better. So trust me i never have wanted to go home but i have wanted to go to a new area which i should be doing next week even thought i will miss this area i just want to see what the next challenges are.

Is Elder Grow’s Tagalog improving?

yes my companion says i am and i talk to our Nanay if she is washing our clothes outside and we are home i go out and talk to her so yeah i can function here

Hard Week

Question: Do you get to see conference or do you have to wait for the Ensign?

i get to see it this saturday and sunday most likely in tagalog so that will be interesting They do this amazing thing called translators... thats why its a week late... =P then i will get the ensign next month

Well I have been feeling tired, worn out from the 30 minute walk to one appointment then the 40 minute walk to the next. Also i walk through a Corn Field that is rather random never thought i would have to do that. Anyways so I have been feeling a little discouraged lately and having troubles. I have just felt very depressed, because we have great investigators but the lessons haven’t seemed to help get that spark going. I just keep trying to think of something to share, a personal experience or something to help them feel that strong Spirit, but I just fall short I guess. It’s been very hard and I was having a lot of troubles towards the end of the week and just prayed and fasted that Sunday for strength and for my investigators to feel the Spirit to understand that feeling. It came on that Sunday night we weren’t having any real good success but we went to an old investigator and wanted to share the Finding Faith in Christ DVD, but their DVD player just broke recently. So we decided to share. I couldn’t think of anything to share and just looked up at her and in that moment some of my personal study had come back to me. I had been studying all the events in the Bible of the Atonement and Luke 22:40-46 my favorite passage about the Garden of Gethsemane and so I shared about it. I shared my thoughts about how at times when I think of my life being so hard and difficult and want to just give up, that I need to think of this moment when Jesus Christ asked Heavenly Father if there was another way please do it, if not then I will do it. The Spirit came so strong at that moment and tears just filled her eyes and she started to share about her personal experience and how she has felt that the Spirit of God keeps knocking on her door but she just is not answering. I shared with her about Jesus Christ and how so many people did not accept him for who he really was but he always kept accepting them. I told her God will not give up on you and you will finally answer that door. That was just what I needed, it really brought my Spirits back up. I realized that Heavenly Father is answering my prayers, that He is giving me that support I ask for, I just need to do a better job at looking for His support. I have also lessened my disliking of the Bible and started to study it more now. I take one of the Events of Jesus Christ's Ministry and Read all the Accounts of it and gain a big picture of it. it has been a good experience and a confusing one as well.. i tried this whole reading Joseph Smith Translation but i dont understand that... i will just go back to the reading the Bible Dictionary when i am finished! hahahaha anyways love ya all hope that you are staying alive out there! I wonder what Coldness feels like cause its only like 75 here at night and that feels cold but its not really. hahaha

Busy Week

yeah so this week has been busy we have been working hard but this week was graduation week and so a lot of investigators were not home and its coming close to holy week so its pretty crazy around here.... a lot of idol worshipping going on... i would love to tell you in detail but it would end up just coming out really bad cause its rather ridiculous the things we have seen already so yeah anyways me and elder manguiat are working together better now and starting to get work done! yay for us i mean we were doing work just not so good. so yeah anyways having the same old same old fun! well i gots to get going i am designing zone shorts for our zone yeah you can make just about anything you want here and its pretty cheap! its rather fun to think of all the things you could make... but dont have the time to do it! well back to work i go! love ya all!

Met Elder Ko

so whats up? everyone is grossed out about the balot? we just had a bunch of them today but its not my favorite so i didnt eat it. they were 18 days old so they were a little more gross. i think mine was like 5 days old so its not as bad.

so yeah, nothing really big happened this week- just had zone conference and met Elder Ko. He picked on me during the zone conference and made me stand and read and asked me questions but yeah it was really cool to meet him. also, work has been tough. we have about a 30 minute walk from one area to another so i am pretty much tired at the end of the day. also the work has been tough cause we are always behind schedule now and trying to play catch up so that we can teach all our lessons that day. cause we only have certain times of the day to teach them or they will not be home, or it will be too dark and some of them don't have good lighting so its hard to teach or they are just too shy to let us teach cause its dark. so we just work on walking fast and teaching and hoping we can leave in 30 minutes. The weather is really weird- one day its way hot out then the next its over cast and warm but with a POWERFUL wind! hahaha yeah but i love it when it rains it feels so good when its hot out!

well really nothing else to tell ya. doesnt look like any baptized this transfer but [later] there might be 3 in this area cause we had to push back dates because they missed church because they couldnt get to church. 8 o clock church- what a stupid stupid thing..... anyways love ya lots and hope i will get some more pics of something cool to send!

New Companion

well Elder Pajela is now in Angeles City and i feel sorry for him cause that is a really hard area for teaching! Normally big cities are really hard... people aren't as friendly as they are out in the townish areas. My new companion is Elder Manguiat [Filipino] and he has been out on his mission for 10 months he is also a new convert since 2006 so he is always studying the Gospel Principles. We have been helping out our new Bishop who is awesome he is really trying to change the ward and make it great! We also have a new investigator who attended church after one week of teaching her. She was a referral from our old bishop and we have had our other investigators attend church this week. It's nice to see Progression from Jaen! I have also been having fun talking to members now that Elder Pajela is gone that talk to me cause Elder Pajela is super talkitive and did all the talking with members so its been fun to talk to them and joke around. And because of my BRT (Building Relationship Trust) with our Nanay who washes our clothes, she buys us 1kilo of Mangos for 25 pesos so we normally get 4 kilos and wow they are huge and tasty! hahaha I have eaten Balot and its not bad i dont know if i told you that last week but here is a picture. well gots to go love ya!

[Regarding the last photo sent of zone meeting] they were piled on me cause I slid into them and messed up the picture! Hahaha there was a lot of ELDER GROW!! Then GET HIM!

Transfers

we havent had time to teach the nanays [see blog entry Feb 15] because we gained some new investigators and the nanays can only be taught late at night and it takes us awhile to get home so we had to just drop them... and i am staying in Jaen and Elder Pajela is going... so thursday we get to find out who my new companion is. I dont feel any earthquakes but we have had a lot of power outages but thats just because they were replacing power line poles i believe. yep we get the ensign every month... well i dont have time this week [to write] because we had to go to Gapan and get our transfer announcement and use the computer shop here and stood around for 2 hours waiting.... i hate this computer shop! well anyways love ya and i need to write president and leave in like 10 minutes....... :(

Gapan is in the center area of the map. With traffic and waiting for jeepnees, Gapan is about 30-40 minutes away from Jaen.

Good Week

yeah, so... late at getting to the computer today the place was crowded and i couldnt get a computer for awhile... grrr anyhoot this was a good week we have finally had investigators at church a new bishop has been called one that works with us missionaries and is willing to change how things are... even the old bishop has made suggestions that are amazing sooo we are thinking he has been wanting to be released for awhile now and causing trouble to get released... well we have had a lot of work to do... finding has been really hard for us but we try anyways and guess what... the investigators have found us! hahaha the trike drivers have become our investigators in an area that was not progressing and now has a lot of potential and great investigators. Transfers are coming up next week and its a toss up of me or Elder Pajela leaving Jaen there is a lot of talk about him Training again and that means he will stay in Jaen and i will be off to another area of the Philippines! It's going to be weird-- new companion, new area, its like starting over! wellllll lots of fun here lots of headaches the crazy language is driving me nuts.. i get tongue tied on words that are like ridiculously long! and then we all laugh.. hahaha well he have a lot of stuff to get ready for so i have to get going. sorry for being so short but its a busy day. we have a FHE with our investigator who has been to church 2 times and we are hoping that she and her family will be baptized by the end of this month!! well love ya all and hope that you are doing well!

2 Months

Well its been a good week this week We had a lot of really good lessons and we had one of our families come to church this time! we were so excited for them and we introduced them to members and did our best to show to them how important church is. We have been doing a lot of walking and even though its Summer now and its HOT its all worth it to see that family and the inactive families we have come back to church. That is really all that matters out here... its not about you and how tired or sick you are... you just get up, put on a white shirt and tie, grab your bag and get to work cause you have no idea what is going to happen You might run into someone that has been waiting to hear your message and they just happened to be home at the right time and felt like listening this time. That's really what i have learned out here. Missionary work isn't about you at all. You just get to introduce The Gospel to them. The Gospel just does the rest. As a Missionary you just need to learn what to teach to your investigator and in return you end up learning just as much as them. hahaha That's about it... you don't need a name tag that reminds you who you are every day because as Members of the Church you have the name of Jesus Christ imprinted on your heart and you can choose if you are going to let the name be shown on the outside with your actions or the inside. That is something me and Elder Pajela have taught to our ward here about missionary work and how all members of the church are and should be missionaries. That reminded me of Elder Costa's talk about being a missionary everyday of his life now and how he talks to everyone about the church and he just asks after introducing himself (as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and saying "Are you a member?" they reply "No" and he just asks "Well Why not?" hahaha soo simple yet so hard to do. Unless you have a name tag ;) hahaha well sorry if that all sounded preachy but thats really about it this week nothing crazy happened... oh wait Elder Pajela thought a BIG dog was going to bite him and he started to swing his back pack at it and well the dog was just going to sniff him but after the back pack swinging the dog was going to bite him... i just laughed at him and kept walking hahahaha the dog eventually just ran away... hahahahaha oh the joy of random dogs barking at you and following you! hahahaha well love ya all! hope you are all staying alive!

Blog

yeah sooo i really dont have much to say... last week was rather dull and unexciting just work work work so if you have questions to ask that would be helpful in writing =P

How is Ivy doing? Is her family members? Do you have any investigators that seem serious?

Ivy's mom is less active and Ivy comes to church and been reading the book of mormon from the beginning one chapter a day. she is the oldest in her family too. We have investigators who ask a lot of questions that we answer but wont come to church because its too early yet they continue to read and listen. we have one investigator that was a previous investigator a year ago and she is 30-32 i think and has 3 kids and her mom is listening and even made her friends come listen to us who have families of their own one of them after listening to us teach Aye Montepolka (the previous investigator) about the BOM and praying to know, said to us that she is 53 years old and never ever let or wanted to hear what the missionaries had to say to her.. but now she wants to hear. so we teach them all together the Nanay's we call them which means Mom's so the three Mom's are all friends and we teach them all together because one its fun they have some of the funnest questions and comments and two because they are all close friends and will encourage each other to go to church and such ( gots to love peer pressure ) yeah so thats really our main investigator because the others are not taking that step of sacrificing their time to go to church. There has been a lot of changes in teaching around here as well and how to be more effective we have been changing up the way the mission field works here in the Angeles Mission. So we are still working out the kinks and what not how to manage time and teach to people. And focusing on Less Actives. Which is the main thing here in Jaen because there are 609 members in our ward 331 member households (but the records are messed up i noticed and need to be fixed soo probably about 250 member households) and yet 82 average attendance in sacrament and we counted the most active members on our fingers last night.. we came up with 11 active families... We have been focusing on activating less actives and we had a lot come yesterday even one we stopped teaching for the last 3 weeks and he is an RM and used to be a ward missionary he came to church we asked him to come work with us and come to PEC meeting and Coordination meeting and he came back later and shaved and cleaned up and worked with us and really had fun with us and started to ask us to come teach his family. so yeah thats about the highlights of the week!

Was Sacrament Meeting switched to the end of the 3 hour block? Also, did you buy a watch?

nope we still have 8am and its really not helping anyone...
and nope no watch we dont really use it cause we have such a set schedule that it doesnt matter its not like we are going to skip teaching someone if we are late we still stop by cause we have to walk by their house hahaha

the juices are getting used up fast! oh the slushy things dont really work... hahaha but thats fine i just like the juice and kool aids and the gatorade was gone in 3 days.... =D
Can you buy the juices there?

not really sure... we dont have real supermarkets and the juices around here are like Mango weird fruit things or Tang
but i have plenty [of] kool aid even tho the ones [powdered juices] in the tube are WAY good and no sugar - i was shocked! well only the cherry and fruit punch is what i like