Monday, December 28, 2015

Week #71 “Come Unto Christ and Be Perfected in Him…” Moroni 10:32

December 28, 2015

Hi Mom and Dad - It was so great to Skype with you! I did a lot better this time with not feeling droopy afterwards. Things just seemed to move on as usual so that's good! Only one more Skype to go and then I'll be home before you know it.



I hate to say it, but I don't feel bad for you at all with how cold it is there. Haha I've complained about the heat here so much...so that's all I'm going to say about that :)

Here are some pics from our baptism on Christmas Day and the party with the Tangalan Branch. It was a pretty awesome day! Filipinos know how to party well! Ward/Branch parties here go on for HOURS! LOL

The last few days have been good. We got fed every night at the Cuales family because they had a wedding this weekend so they had lots of leftover pig. I can say that I'm finally tired of eating pig! I've had it for about 1 week strait now. Brother Gary who is married one of the Cuales' daughters fed us yesterday because they are going home to Las Vegas today. They are way cool people. Things aren't really working out with the Australian guy we were teaching, which is kind of a bummer because it was really fun to teach him in English, but that's ok. We ended up walking all the way home from their house last night because there were no vans on the road so by the time we got home it didn't take long for me to hit the bed and fall asleep, but I guess that's how most nights go! Today we have an FHE so we will just do our shopping after email and then head back home.

Sorry this email is kind of boring. After talking with you so much just 2 days ago I can't think of much else to tell you. I haven't gotten any of the cards or letters yet for Christmas. They'll probably end up getting here all at the same time since things take so long to get through the office. But that's ok. I'll still enjoy reading them. 
Have a great week! Love Elder Rasmussen












Friday, December 18, 2015

Week #70 "He Is The Light and Life of The World" Mosiah 16:9"

Dec 15, 2015

Hi Mom and Dad - Thanks for all of the emails and pictures! The snow looks awesome! Pres. Aquino is pretty generous and gave us time today to email since we were at the party on MondayDon't worry about the Typhoons they come through all the time. Very few are huge and destructive and come South far enough to reach the Visayas.
I had a pretty good week besides being sick a few days this week! Actually to be honest the work was just...crappy and we were getting rejected at a lot of houses:) Our investigator was sick so she even turned us away, which was a bummer. But one new thing we did this week was go to an area called Jawili which I found out to be a beautiful area and it was fun to explore! We met some new LA's and investigators but that was when I started feeling really crappy and by our last appointment I felt like puking and got shivers. From that time Saturday night to Sunday night I was laying in bed with a fever and a stomach gomboo. It sucked way bad. A member helped me out and cooked some food and stuff for me to feel better but I wasn't able to go to church in the morning. Luckily by the late afternoon I felt well enough  to go to Kalibo to the Christmas Devotional. But when we got out of the van, Elder Stevens and I ended up accidentally leaving our bags in the van and didn't realize it until we had already taken a trike to the church then we realized we had left them. We both felt devastated because it had all of our stuff for our trip to Iloilo. The trike driver was a nice guy and helped us go to the police and radio station but they couldn't do anything for us so we went back to the place we had gotten off the van and no kidding like 30 seconds later the van came rolling down the road and stopped and gave us our stuff back. It was nothing short of a Christmas miracle! We were so relieved! After the Devotional we stayed the night in a place called Banga with 10 other elders and only got like 3 hrs of sleep, then got on a bus at 5 a.m. to travel to Iloilo. A member picked us up in Iloilo in a really nice truck. It felt so good to be in a nice vehicle again!

So we made it to the party and it was a blast! It was so much better than last year and luckily there weren't a bunch of trunky missionaries singing about how they were heading home for Christmas like last year. That wasn't fun for any of us new guys last year haha This is President Aquino's last Christmas as Mission President so he really went all out to make this year a really great Christmas Conference. We had a blast!

We had another devotional on Tuesday and it was more focused on spiritual uplifting. They handed out a lot of the stuff I am sure you sent mom like shirts, ties, and the pocket scripture sets. I took some pictures so you can see, and I'll try and get them sent to you, but this computer is being dumb, it's not letting me download pics, so it may be next week before I can get them to you.  But all of the Filipino missionaries got something  :)
 
Speaking of Christmas, Skype will be the same as last year. We will Skype about 8 a.m. on the 26th here, so it should be about 5 p.m. there on Christmas Day. Hopefully we won't have any trouble connecting this year, but just plan on around that time on that day.

Have a great week! Love and Miss you all!
Elder Rasmussen

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Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Week #69 - "...if any man serve me, him will my Father honor." John 12:26

December 7, 2015

Kamusta Family! 

This week  was super quick!  It went by just like nothing! I got sick (just a head cold) for a few days and that kind of made the work slow for me during those days, but I feel great now so I was happy that cold went away quick. The day I got sick we worked for a couple of hours until I just decided it would be better to go home because I just felt really crappy and not up to working. 

We did not have too much luck it seemed like the first couple of days of the week and honestly I can't remember too much about them except for the time that we spent in the area called Panayakan working with our golden investigators who never fail to impress me with how smart and quick to understand they are! I always look forward to teaching Jane and Rhea May and it made me realize how thankful I am to have found the perfect people who are ready to receive the gospel. During our lessons with them, the spirit is always present and so strong, even though their house is right next to a really noisy highway When we told them about their baptismal date for Christmas Day Jane was more than excited and was way happy about it! They both come to church by themselves and participate in the classes and everything. It's just really awesome and exciting!





Yesterday (Sunday) we had a lesson with another family who we are discovering to have some pretty strange beliefs haha but they are very kind and so we have continued to visit and teach them. I was having a hard time answering their questions in my Tagalog/Illonggo mix of words but luckily Bro. Vaugn jumped in the lesson and helped them understand what missionaries do and how we can best help them. Sometimes it really sucks not to be able to express everything I want to say or answer the questions very well. I love to practice teaching with my companion because we can speak English so it helps to memorize the doctrine and lessons much more easily, but this new mix of Tagalog/Aklanon in this area is really a challenge for me coming from an area where everyone spoke Ilonggo and I was getting pretty good at it! Dang! LOL



Our Kalibo zone practiced a skit for the Christmas conference next week. I'm so glad there are people who like to do skits and stuff, because I sure don't. I guess you know how I feel when it comes to that kind of crap :) That much has not changed about me! LOL But I am trying to have a good attitude and I'm participating and doing my best even though it's basically torture for me. haha

That's all I can think of for this week. I have heard that we won't be able to email next week since we'll be in Iloilo for the Christmas Conference. I'll send a quick note if I get a chance. Love you all!
Elder Rasmussen 

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Week #68 Our Daily Discipleship Will Determine Our Eternal Destiny

November 30, 2015

Thanks for the pictures Mom and Dad! Great job on the Christmas lights Dad, but I don't think Clark Griswold would be too jealous! lol <kidding> Everything looks great! Good job on the tree Mom. That picture is funny! Time really has gone by so much faster than last year went. I can't believe it's already Christmas time in America...

The cold weather sounds nice but we actually enjoyed the warm weather here at the beach this morning. We stayed in a place called Buruanga last night and had dinner at a member's house there and this morning we hiked through a jungle to get to this secluded beach and it was way nice with white sand.  We got to do lots of tide pooling and found some really interesting creatures. I'll send lots of pictures. I also got to see Boracay Island which I have heard about since I got here in the Philippines but we only saw it from our island. Lots of foreigners!





This week was great. We met some really awesome people and had some great lessons with them. Once specific lesson was with our investigator named Jane. I met her sister who is younger than her (13) and she told me how she as well wants to listen and go to church. I was a little bit hesitant to start teaching another younger girl but they are both very smart and are very interested. They also invited their friends, both girls who ended up being geniuses as well, and we had an awesome lesson with all 4 of them. That was the funnest part of this week as far as work goes. Jane and her sister (Rhea May) also came to church and are reading the Book of Mormon.

We found another family who are very polite and kind to us and interested in the message. They have the name of Lorenzo and there are 5 of them. I saw their house from the side of the highway and thought "what the heck, I'm going to talk to those people in that house." They ended up being some of the kindest people I have met on my mission and easily welcomed us into their house. That made me happy since we had talked to several people during the day and been rejected by most of them, including a few set appointments, so meeting the Lorenzo's brightened an otherwise pretty dismal day of missionary work. 

On Thursday we had a zone meeting in Roxas. So we got up really early around 3 AM and loaded up in a van and made the long trek to Roxas City. It was great to  be back in Roxas for a day and hear the Ilonggo again! I even had a hard time not using the simple Tagalog words like "dito" "saan" and the different pronouns. It was great to see Elder Alpon again and a lot of other people from Roxas zone.
 
Well, that was my week! I got my Christmas package thanks for sending that! Love and miss you all lots!

Love Elder Rasmussen