Week #47 - "Great Things Never Came From Comfort Zones."

June 22, 2015

Hey Mom and Dad! Happy Father's Day Dad! I love you tons and thanks for always supporting me and still loving me even when I was a punk sometimes! haha I hope you had a great day!
 

Thanks so much for the pictures. Seeing real American trucks and camp trailers is a lot to take in. haha  It looks like you had a good week! Everything looks so green there in Utah!  Glad you are still having fun at work and enjoying all the stress ;) I wish I was there to work out with you and enjoy the cold weather you're having in Utah ;) LOL mid 90's with relative low humidity sounds really nice and cool to me! We played basketball this morning and I of course had a bath in my sweat! I was completely drenched within minutes!

I'll start out answering your questions firsts:

#1 What made you laugh this week? This is always the hardest question Mom! haha O.K. Our investigator Gio is a pretty funny guy. When he came with us to visit the LA's he wasn’t shy at all and was talking with everyone and keeping us laughing. It really surprised me. 

 #2 Bare your testimony in Ilonggo (just a short one) and  then give it to us in English. “Kabalo ako nga ang Gospel ni Jesucristo amo ang dalan para sa aton sa pagbalik sa Dios. Paagi sa pagbasa sa Libro ni Mormon matunan naton ang ebanghelyo kag mangin mas malapit kita kay jesucristo.”

“I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the way for us to return back to god/Heavenly Father. Through reading the Book of Mormon we learn the Gospel and become closer to Jesus Christ.”

#3 Describe the house you are living in. We have 4 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, in a 2-story apartment.  I guess there is kind of a yard, but not really. There is grass but it’s out in front of the 3 houses that make our apartment complex deal. They are adding 2 houses to it right now. I'll take a picture of it next week. It’s a small house for 4 people, it seems that sometimes anyways, but it’s alright. Everything in the Philippines is smaller especially the houses ha 

#4 Dad and I were looking at the crescent moon, and the converging of Venus and Jupiter last night and wondering if you see the same sky we do from your side of the world? Have you noticed the moon and planets recently? I’ve noticed that the moon looks *really* big here when it is full. I haven’t seen the stars in a while because of the clouds but when it’s a clear night I can always find Ursa Major, The Big Dipper. J

This week was a little slow. The past few weeks have been that way. We had interviews with President Aquino on Wednesday, which took forever but it was good to see a bunch of my zone and some other Elders from my batch. It rained nearly every day this week which has been pretty nice since it cools things down a notch.
Yesterday we had Gio and Ann Vian come to church. They are two children from a family we are teaching (The Panes). They are a really cool family. Their Mom likes the kids to hang out with us and go to church, but as far as baptism goes it could take a while haha.

 

This guy was digging this hole (a well?) by hand with a stick

Fish for lunch, anyone?>

On Friday I went on a split with Elder Noleal because I had to do a baptism interview. It was fun to meet people on the other side of Passi and the the interviews went really well. We were hoping for a baptism in our area too but school started about a month ago and made it very difficult for us to meet with our investigators.

 

On Saturday we did an activity with our Ward called "Half-Day Mission". Luckily Elder Crooks was in charge of the activity and he was the one responsible for teaching and putting on the workshop so all I had to do was participate! haha After the workshop we all split up and each missionary took 4 or 5 members to visit the less active members in the area. It is fun to work with the members and have them help us with fellowshipping some of the people who don't go to church very often. I really love this Ward here. What a great group of people and what great friends I've made. I can say that my time here has gone by very fast and when the time comes for me to transfer I will really miss them all. 

 

Yesterday (Sunday) we taught these two older people. The old man was really cool and funny. We had two members working with us (Bro Efren and Sister Marites) and at the end of the day it started pouring rain. Luckily a trike went by just in the knick of time, so we got a ride home. It's really fun to ride in a really small tricycle in a really good rainstorm! haha

Thanks Mom and Dad! Have a great week!
Love you!
Elder Michael