From: Colton James Riner [colton.riner@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 12/26/2010 9:14:29 PM
To: wjriner@eltopia.com [wjriner@eltopia.com]
Subject: Re: Re:
so my christmas was rough haha lets see, after i called u we went to echague for the baptism and interview and that was all good except the person i interviewed was so talkative so it went late and when we tryed to get a ride home we couldnt so we stayed at there house and that was cool but i just wanted to go home... thne i ended up sleeping on the tile floor which was so hard and it stunk. then we also saw a dog get NAILED while waiting for the ride home that never came, it was crazy the dog was straight OUT OF IT! then i have also been sick on top of it. So sunday we wake up and go to church and like all of out investigators were gone and stuff and couldnt go to church it stunk. So then sunday we worked pretty hard and went all over the place but i had a HORRIBLE stomache ache so taht was tough and then my voice is all jacked cause i have a sore throat.. sunday night we had a family home eveing that was pretty sweet. i love that family. Today we went and played football ealier that was way fun. thats pretty much it since i last talked to u haha. i guess i was just bumbed cause i am sick and for what could be my last sunday, our investigators were other places.

Well my week was WAY awesome. So pretty much our area is BUMPING and
my and Jackson are RUNNING everywhere just to get things done; its not
easy being district leader of a SICK district and have a awesome area,
but it does make time FLY, every weekend I have interviews and
baptisms and all this stuff we need to do, then run home and scramble
just to talk to our investigators. ITS awesome. We have like 11 people
with dates, and 9 went to church. Next week we should have like 17
with dates and like 20 go to church, we could…. That’s how awesome our
area is, I don’t take any credit either, all I can say is that god
rewards u for ur efferts and all I wanted to do with this area was
leave it better then when I came and I will have SUCH a good feeling
if I leave this coming cycle cause this area is awesome. But to be
honest I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE, I want to see all these people get
baptized, there way to awesome, and I love them all a TON, I cant miss
there baptism. But god is defiantly helping me and elder Jackson out
here and its just so humbling to see how little we are in this work
and how much we need him in order to get ANYTHING done. But me and
elder Jackson just got back from out Christmas practice thing, we are
doing this skit thing for our Christmas devosinal this coming wednsday
and our skit will OWN!!! Its SOOOO funyy, I cant wait to send it home
to u guys u will laugh ur heads off…. plus we played a ton of
football too it was SICK!

Well this week was pretty sweet. Last Monday we had a sweet p-day followed buy a lot of teaching, so this is pretty much how it is for us right now, we leave the apartment and walk for about 4 hours just getting punted and finding and there is noone cause there all out in the bukid planting there rice, then 5 roles around and after that we are running from each appointment and in like 2 hours we get 4 appointsments, so its pretty nuts. Our district meeting was AWESOME just cause every one of the district mates was involved and sharing, I was worried it wasn’t going to be so long, but with all there sharing it was actually to long, and we learned a lot, so it was way good, then I had a split with elder pincoc and he interviewd are investigators that we baptized this wee, genevice and jennieffer Ill have to send a pic, but it was a sick sick baptism, got me and jacson repumped for the work again and I love it, we should start having a baptism almost every week starting in about 2 weeks, we have HUGE potential it is crazy, lets just say by the end of this week we could have like 15 people of more with a baptismal date, god is just blessing us a TON its crazy. And then the ward is so awesome, I love them all so much, if I leave this coming 28th I will be pretty dang sad, I LOVE my area, and the people. But its cool, ill just build the next area up as much as I can too with gods help. But that is pretty much the week, with a few crazy things that happened inbetween and stuff, this week was just all about the work and getting people ready for baptism and everything, then last night we found out that this less acvtive family we have brought to church is now paying tithing!!! Witch is a big thing by the wy, it was AWESOME.

NEW PICTURES!

Colton's Birthday Cake

YUM! LUNCH!

This week… nothin really amazin happened I guess it was just a regual week, last Tuesday we went and had our district meeting and it was really good, I love teachin with the district I learn a lot. Then our whole district went and ate together, which is always fun cause there all way awesome. After that thought me and my comp had splits again with the zone leaders and that was fun, I went with this philipino his name is elder cabanacan and he is a really good missionary, so I learned a lot from him and it was fun to just teach back and forth with the guy, we tore it up in our area, I had one of the most spiritual experiences too it was sick, we just had this old women pray to know if joseph smith was true right in front of us and she just started bawling and said he was true it was just a “you had to be there” klinda thing but it was great, good testimony builder. Then the next day we went and met and then sepatated again. Wedensday was sweet too. We taught a lot and walked even more, it is nuts how long we walk every wednsday and Friday, but I acctualy love it cause its just me and jackson and we just talk the whole time while walking a hundred miles and hour. Saturday me and jackson had to get up and just run out the door to catch the baptism of some of our district mate, then when we got there pres was there too so it was nice to see them there. The baptism went well too, then I interviewed another kid they had and that is going to be baptised next week. Sunday was good, we had a good number come to church again but it was lowed cause they just started planting season. We got a few more kids to come too this week we had been teaching so that was good. Then we had this coralation meeting with the ward, it was good, they are so aweosme and we were laughing so muh, mostly at me and my comp and our spelling of the weird philipino names. But it was good, and there defianlty getting more in the work and its goig to help out a ton more! Then I went out with pres to work, man god is blessing us, if everything worked out like it is looking like it should we could be havng a TON of succes coming real fast, we just got 2 HUGE families that are really interested and said there going to go to church next week, we could have like 15 investigators at church next week if it all works out good, but we’ll see. The work is going good, pretty much me and jackson are just workin hard and doing our best and god is making up the rest, so thankful. Man it was all I could do to keep my mind off football this week with the game and everything, my comp and I, with other missionaries played football and basketball this morning, it was way fun. I miss it!

It is WAY hot, but its cooler then the rest of the year, its accutally pretty nice weather, but i know i have gotten use to the hot a lot too. and harvest is never over its a on going process in this area.
My week was pretty full, now that I think back on it a TON happened this week, its crazy. First of all last Tuesday we had our zone meeting witch pres attended and it was pretty cool but the best was my split with elder goobie.
We went to his area and we tore it up J we had a ton of lessons and they were all good. But then the night started to role around and in there area they have a college so they have like boarding for all the kids that attend the college, so me and goobie went there cause they had an investigator but we got punted there so me as we were walkin back I saw a whole bunch of guys and I went to talk to them and they let us in there huge house and then me and goobie ended up teaching about 20 guys and girls from ages 16-21 it was crazy!
We just taught them the restoration but it was so cool cause at first it kinda seemed like a joke to them but as we started teaching and bearing testimony all of them were just eatin it up, it was way crazy and it was so intimidating cause me and goobie were in the very middle of them and as u teach u have to like look all around and there all these kids ur age and its just way nuts. When we left we just looked at eatchother and we started laughing, I think It was one of those,” you have to be there” kid of things but it was defiantly sick!

Then we left and as we were walkin right by this road, the truck was coming right at us going way fast and all the sudden, RIGHT in front of us we hear this load bump and then the truck just flys by and this dog jumps up and just starts screaming and runs as fast as it can right at us then doges us and keeps going, im sure it went and just laid down and died somewhere it got his HARD!
Our split was just cool, after we got home we stayed up and talked and told stories and stuff with elder hardman too, it was all pretty cool. Then the next day I met the other district leader and went straight to our leadership meeting.
Man that was a cool meeting, it was all the leaders in my whole mission and it was just cool. I saw elder Naylor and Hale and that was just way awesome I love seeing them. We just talked and I found out about them and then old comps and stuff and it was just way sick. Them we learned a lot, pres and his wife are the coolest ever, it was all about the knew cycle emphasis and stuff and it was just a good meeting, I am excited to teach it to the district.
Then we got home and I got back with my comp finally. Then the next day I had an interview with some knew baptisms in my district. My district is tearing it up! All of them are way excited for this month cause we are all just baptizing everyone we have been preparing lol so its going to be aweome, I pretty much have a interview every week. My interviews were way good. I reinterviewed that one kid, WOW it was awesome!
But while I was interviewing my comp went with goobies comp to teach this other family, who brought there pastor of inglesia, he came out just in ahh lol it was funny, he was just amazed at what just happened, they straight like got all there doctrine, he said the guy was like straight devilish haha it was funny, me and goobie were just laughing at what he was saying, we have all experienced it lol it just happens here in the phlipines cause there is so many churchs.
The best part of the week though again was our attendance at church, I don’t take any credit at all but our work had been SHOOTING up latly, its just nuts, and yesterday we got 102 people at church, it use to be like 45-50, its so awesome. And then we are getting a lot more progressin investigators going now and its just awesome! Loven it.
Man the mission is flying, this week was crazy, I just wrote the jest of it all there is so much more inbetween, im learing a lot from investigators, just watching them progress and everything is just such a humbling expeiraince, looking at people give up life long habits cause of this gospel and all of it is just way cool. Love it, couldn’t go any of it without the HUGE help that im receiving. Thanks for the prayrs J

Well…. This was another pretty cool week, but when ur serving in the philipines u have to just sit in ur apartment not to have crazy experiences all the time. Well Tuesday we had our district meeting and it went pretty good, it was kinda weird cause it was the last one with all of us together but actually like pretty much no one left so I was way excited for that. Oh and the best part was when I was in my accounting with Elder hardman and his comp they were way excited and they said I defiantly made the right choice by failing that kid and right now he is just taking it all in and doing a ton better they said, man that made me feel SOOO much better it was awesome. then we went to cauayan and a little kid tried to pick pocket my comp it was really funny and it was so obviouse lol dumbo! wednsday was pretty cool man I am just forgetting everything that happened, I know we blessed a girl and she thought she had some kind of bad spirit in her cause she said she went to all the doctors and stuff and none of them knew what to do and she was way sick, then we blessed her and the next day we went and she said she was all better, sometimes we don’t even recognize the little miricles that a loving heavenly does for his kids… then right now we are teaching some kids that are doing so much better, its soooo weird teaching them and getting them off of ciggerets and drinking and stuff when we are the same age its just so weird but its cool too, this week are work really started to pick up a lot it was nice, we are getting a ton more people coming to church and progressing investigators and god is really blessing us for our work right now, it does help too that we average over 30 lessons every week, so that is nice, we really do work hard but we just work like everyone should its not that its overdue or anything… we have also been blessed with some awesome people that our helping me with my own testimony so much, we have this one investigator we just found and she is really investigating our church she is just looking so hard for what is true in this life, u can just tell she has been into church stuff her whole life and she always has good questions and its so intimidating to teach her cuase ur defiantly going to get ur stuff tested but we’ve sjust received a ton of help and its so cool, she is going to church and stuff so that is awesome. which reminds me, pres and sister carlos came to our church this week, is was way way cool, I always love seeing them, but it was a huge surprise too. Plus I had to give a talk in sacrament again and he was ther but that was alright it was a pretty good talk and I didn’t prepair anything, I just wrote down a bunch of verses, that the best way to teach anyways, just share a verse and testify of it. That’s it. Then with our lesson that night she was crying telling us how she just wants to know whats true and that’s why she asks so many questions and stuff and I just loved it it was just a uncredible feeling, I havnt felt a stronger spirit except in the temple. We also taught this girl last night that said no one loved her and she just wanted to more and get away and she was like 65 it was like she was just lookin at her life and seeing nothing, and so I just shared a few verses how god knows and loves her and anything and she was crying to but she was trying so hard not to, its just so cooling sharing how much god really knows and loves us, its stregethns my own testimony about it. Then we are also teaching this other guy our age to he said he hasn’t been to church FOREVER but we got him to go last week, he walked really far to just to go it was soooo aweomse, he is pretty funny to, he is just so chill and is just one of those guys that is always happy and smiling, and there was this one time, I pretty much treat the kid like I have known him my whole life, but I went in his room and he was totally pretending to sleep so I said something and his stomach was just going back and forth like he was laughing I was like I saw that get up and come work with us, so he just got up and started to work with us lol it was only like the 3rd time I met him but he actually came and worked with us and it was jut funny. Elder Jackson couldn’t belive it haha it was pretty funny. I just cant explain it, I just love these people so much and each one I see at church or progressing in any way its just aundescribale, and plus right now we have a lot of that going on, peole just growing, so its sooo sweet. Love this gospel, its does nothing but awesome things for every life its able to effect. Then we also went on slits with the ward again, that was cool, we had atleast 20 people just walking around with us it was nuts but its helping the ward out and the ward is really starting to grow right now. It was sweet, yesterday we had a meeting with them and we showed them who we were teaching and what we needed and im pretty sure they were pretty impressed that we had so many to teach even though we only but like half up there lol so it was cool, one of the RMs was like “ One thing is for sure!,… ur wifes are going to be WAY BEAUTIFUL!” lol I just started laughing it was funny, but I don’t take any credit, all success is given to us from god, I just know god is seeing our works and blessing us for them, im very thankful and I just keep seeing how small I really am in this work, its soooo sweet!



Sorry, im like 90 percent sure most of this doesn’t make since but its cause I typed it really fast and just through ideas out there and hopfully u can understand it J

Hey fam, this week was pretty legit… lets see, first we had a ok Monday, just got things done then we went and had a pretty sweet family home evening, this lady asked my to show her family how to do it so that’s what we did Monday night then we went and taught some less active families. Then Tuesday we had district meeting and it was way legit and my district is kickin trash so its way cool. Plus I stiniking love them, then after the meeting we all went and ate together at this sick restraunt and ate some kind of weird pizza that was really good. Then I met the Zone leaders and me and pincoc had a split, so I worked with him the whole day and it was soooo nice to have another missionary to teach with it was just awesome, then we just talked a lot, this is the same guy I lived with at the begging of my mission in the same howuse and so me and him are really tight and it was a way good time, then me and jackson got back together and went and worked our tails off again, man we worked really really good this week I felt really good about it its just that the people we are teaching arnt really going anywhere, but its all good it’ll work out, we are doing a pretty good job and all we can so im not to worried. Then wednsday was pretty sick just cuase we made some weights with some old paint cans cvement and a metal bar, but there legit there a good 60 pounds maybe and then we have this place that is kinda set up like a bentch thing so I use to to bench I just have to do a TON of reps but its good, so pretty much I am working out really good every morning now so its feels really good and im loveing that. Then Thursday we walked to the moon and back, its was seriously soooooo far but it was good, we have a pretty fast walk lol so its all good. Yesterday was defianlty the highlight of everything though, even though we had good lessons and stuff it was defianlty the best cause we had 90! People at church, it has almost doubled now that me and elder jackson have really been getting after it, I wanted to cry I was so happy, I have just grown a knew love for each and every member and I just want this SOOOO bad for them. So I was soooo happy. Then we are also starting to get the members pretty excited about this work too so yesterday I had like 15 people work with me lol just go to less actives and stuff, it was nuts, and it wasn’t just kids it was like grown ups and it was cool then we had a bunch go with jackson too so we did splits and it was just really cool. But that’s pretty much my week without the details, man everything is just going really good. We come home EXHAUSTED everynight and it just feels so nice. Im loving it, man we have transfers this week too but I am pretty sure that me and jackson are going to stay comps for one more cycle atleast then I don’t know what will happen. Im cool with staying with him, he is a hard worker too. Welll tahts pretty much my week, I cant believe how the time is flying now, its nuts, right now im with my distric and were going to go hang out after this so I am pretty excited, love ya all, hope everything is going good at home!

Training the Trainers and New Missionaries

Sister Carlos -
Our specialized training for trainers and new missionaries was delayed for several weeks, due to the typhoon. So this week we had our 7 amazing trainers and their new missionary companions come in for a day of training. After a joint session the groups separated. The new missionaries were led by our two able assistants, Elder Paco and Elder Bayles. Elder and Sister Breese also took part in their training. President and I spent our time training the trainers. We asked each trainer to share with us something they admired about their new companion. They blew us away. This new batch of missionaries is top knotch. Every one of the trainers told us that they were learning from the missionary they were supposed to train. We still laugh when we think about Elder Riner's statement as he described his new companion Elder Jackson. "He's a stud!"

This is a view of some of our trainers. President Carlos says that the most important leadership job in our mission is being a trainer. Good trainers are fundamental in setting a strong foundation for new missionaires.

Well this week was another pretty full week. So it started off I guess last Monday, it was a pretty good p-day and stuff but it was raining so hard… but anyways one time we relised that there was this girl following us and she was POOR and it was just weird but I told it was nuts we finally got in this tricycle to go home and she was like “get out” and I was like heck no and she was like I am going with u and im like NO WAY lol, but she was stubbord and wouldn’t go away and she just waited and then she was like crying when we left, it was weird im pretty sure she wanted to come home with us…. cause she didn’t want our money…. but then Tuesday was NUTS, I had district meeting and a ton of interviews for baptism and it was nuts, it was a way cool experience to be able to interview people but it was horribe, so its really rare that u have to like fail someone in a interview, but it was my FIRST day doin it and I had no choice, the kid was just straight up not ready, I felt soooo bad but he really wasn’t ready, I was like MY LUCK L. But district meeting was pretty good and everything. Then Wednesday was crazy. We had our trainee/ trainers meeting and it was just us and president talking about all our experiences with them and how we can do better and stuff it was just really cool, man pres is sooo nice I love it everytime we get to go over there, there was this one time that I was just standing there and he called me into his office just to give me a candy bar and tell me he can see I am maturing a lot since he first got here and that im becoming a strong preisthood holder, it was way cool man, but the whole thing was just pretty fun. I also got to see some awesome people and stuff it was legit. Then Thursday we had splits with someone else in my district and it was cool. I went with elder elis and it was nuts cause it has been raining sooooo much here its crazy so it flooding in our area in some parts and we saw just houses like full of water it was sad for them! I felt bad! And then we walked a TON! Then Friday we got back and it was a good day, we just worked and worked and worked again and then we saw these old women fishing and talked to them, I recorded it and I am excited to show u it cause its sooo funny I would send u the pic but I just pluged in my camera and it shocked the crud out of me, they said that its ok but I don’t trust it so I don’t want to plug in my camera again, but these old women were way legit u will laugh when I send it home to u. then Saturday was kinda the same. We just worked a TON again and it was way good! Then at night it was funny we accidently got a ride with this drunk van driver and then we got out to to help this other drunk but u had tiped over his motor, I lifted it up for him then u just here ihim trying to start it but he cant! So then like 5 min later we see him walk past us and he was like, “ it didn’t want to start so im just leaving it” lol it was RIGHT in the midle of the road and I felt bad for the guy so I went and I got it and pushed it to the nearest tindahan and just told the owner to give it to the guy the next day. But it was funny cause then we ended up teahcing that guy later that same night , not him but his family, and in the middle of an intence discussion I was like “ do u have any questions u want to ask me?”: and he was like I DO and he ws like “ who pushed my bike to the tindahan?” and I told him I did and he said thanks and gave me high five, we laughed so hard, but the best part was he wnet to church the next day, he was acctually just a member, just has a problem with the word of wisdom. It was nuts, then Sunday came and it was a good day, we killed it again and it was a fast and testimony meeting, it was just such a awesome Sunday cause we have been teaching soooo many less actives and a TON came to church and I was just so thankful, so I HAD to bear my testimony even though I didn’t want to but it was awesome! MAN this whole week was just legit, we worked our butts off this week, our numbers and pretty high too, I think we got like 36 teachings in this week or something, plus we had district meetings and trainier meeting and splits, so we worked our BUTTS off. It just feels so good though, the week FLEW! And was SOOO tired though every night, one time my comp was saying the closing prayer and I fell asleep then I woke up and I was like AMEN< and I looked at him and we just started laughing lol it was pretty funny, that happens all the time though its funny, but the missin is good. I feel really good about everything right now and it all going aweosme, and the branch is started to get excited about the work now too so it should only start getting better! LOVE YA ALL

Alright so ill just tell a little about my week real quick. Well this week has been pretty bomb actually. We had a good p day last week and then we got to work, Man I have seriously been workin my butt off, I cant expain how tired I am by 8 o clock its nuts! Im loving it though. Im really starting to get lost in it, the weeks are like days now and then here I am emailing u guys again, but this week was really cool. We had a zone meeting which was sick and then I got to interview my district, it was so awesome, its so crazy but I LOVE each one of them and like im just as worried for any of them as for my work and my self its cray, this week I will have my first interview for baptism so pray for me haha… but im really excited I know its going ot be a awesome opportunity. Then wendsday we worked all day! Then thurday we had exchanges, I had to go with this kid in my district that was kinda struggling and man I swear we had the best day ever, the kid is a stud with a TON of potential u just have to know how to work with him, but I prayed a TON for this split and that I would be abe to help him out and god defiantly answered that pray, man it was one of the best splits I had, and we really only got to teach one guy and we KILLED it, it was so awesome, we commited the guy to be baptized and he really wanted to and said he would go to church and everything and man it was just such a good lesson for two people that have NEVER taught together, its so nice having someone to actually teach with, my comp obviously cant do that yet but its ok he is growing sooo much and its cool to watch that happen. But the split was just awesome, I got to stay in the apartment with 4 hours, and that was like the best night, we just messed around and hardman my batch wasthere and we just hung out and talked and it was just awesome. Them we came back, then Saturday we had a baptism, and guess what… Pres came to our baptism…. it was nuts, I mean he has a WHOLE mission he can go to at any time and he comes to this one, then he brought a AP and 3 zone leaders with him…. It was crazy, and then just cause he was there allthe sudden no one would speak or wanted to do anything it was nuts, but elder Jackson got to baptize the kid, SOOOO awesome I was glad he got that opportunity. And then pres said it was a good baptism and its just always soooo aw\esome to see pres I love the guy. Then he gave me my PACKAGE! Man I was soooooo jacked, thank u so much, it was all I could do to keep put it aside and go straight to work but that is what we did and I was so glad I did cause we had AWESOME lessons that day it was just a good day, but I watched the vedio, I just got done watching it here too, man I love it, payton is way fast lol and then it was so sick to watch all the kids play games and stuff and man CARSON is still such a NUT!.. man that was awesome though. I loved it thank u sooo much. But pretty much me and elder Jackson are just tearing it up, I mean we are doing the best we can with what we can, the only thing that we are strugging with is getting the ward to help us but im trying to fix it and ive been getting some meetings set up so its good, even though its like pulling teeth … J. Pretty much im loving it all sooo much, im surprised how much a am growing. Its just all SUCH a humbling experience, everything. Just how much I NEED my god in everything I do and how we pray atleast 20 different times a day and just thank him and ask for his help and just always talking with him and feeling his love for these peope we teach like really loving them and wanted to help them out SOOOO much, not for another number or to take up time but just because u LOVE them, its sooo cool.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

So this week was weird, we lived with no electricity for soooo long it was crazy but we finally got to get back to work so that was awesome. Man our work has been awesome, we don’t rest at all we are always teaching or finding or studying or something, but were always busy and its cool. My comp is a stud, I love the guys that get right out of the MTC, being in the field and always being denied and seeing it all a thousands time KILLS it for u i dont care how good of a missionary u are it kills that spark that u briong to the field with u, but I love being able to train, its so cool, soooooo hard lol but I love it. Plus he is a way cool guy. So anyways for some reason this week was all about the pastors lol, we taught so many pastors and people that just wanted to fight its nuts. But its all good experiances, man my testimony grows so much, knowing about other peoples faith makes ur testimony grow so much about ur own, I have not met ONE person, AND IVE TAUGHT A TON MORE PASTORS THEN THE NORMAL MISSIONARY< and they all come to the conclusion that were all going to be saved, of course I tell them, in a nice way, that there wrong that they cant be saved in there church but they are just always to prideful and set to even REALLY listen, so its always just to bad! But it was cool. Man I have been able to teach a grow a LOT pretty much having to do it all myself in the teaching, my comp just doesn’t know the tagalog, he knows his stuff real good he just cant speak tagalog of course, but he is getting better and I hope he can continue. Man I wish I could write half the funny things I see in a week to u but I just forget im just use to it, but there was this one time were we are walking and its mid day and this guy is waisted and we pass eachother in the middle of knowwhere and u could see that he had peed his pants, man it was funny, we just completely avoided that guy, Then there was this one place that we found that was in the middle of knowhere and everyone was just staring at us, then we sat outside and started teaching and by the end the 2 people we started talking to ended up at like 10, it was sooo cool and intimidating for me but it was cool too, man when we left it was like all eyes on us and I cant tell u how many girls there were just sitting there trying to talk with us, I swear it was everyone in the village, it was jkust we were the only white people to be there for a while. Trees and stuff are all jacked up because of the typhoon but that is it, everything is pretty much back to normal but this wendsday were suppose to have a another littttle one hit again but its tiny. My birthday was ok, man it was so weird, we just worked a TON and couldn’t celebrate but it was all good, just kinowing in the back of my mind I was now 20 was CRZY though, then all day on chelseas birthday that’s all the just poped in my mind, its crazy. But anywyas, that’s mostly my week, just a ton of teaching and stuff and it was just a BUSY full week, ive been SOOOOOO TIRED

Typhoon News Article

Typhoon Megi (report off the internet)

CAUAYAN, Philippines — Typhoon Megi inched away from the Philippines on Wednesday after killing 19 people, as relief workers scrambled to deliver aid to remote towns that were devastated by the storm.

The governor of the hardest-hit province of Isabela, Faustino Dy said that residents in three coastal towns had suffered massive damage to their homes and were left with limited food supplies after huge waves washed away roads.
"Their food supply is only up to Sunday. But going there is very difficult. There is no road to reach them," Dy told reporters in Cauayan, the closest city to the worst-hit towns.
Dy, who had flown by helicopter to the devastated areas, said that as many as 20,000 people were affected.
Many of them had survived by fleeing into the mountains before Megi hit, he and other officials said.
Regional social welfare chief Arnel Garcia said the government planned to send food and tents to the affected towns of Maconacon, Palanan and Divilacan but that both air and sea travel were dangerous.
"Helicopters have to pass through the mountains and the mountain ranges are often covered with clouds," Garcia said.
US ambassador Harry Thomas said in a statement that US military personnel and equipment that was already in the Philippines for a joint exercise would be diverted for typhoon relief.
"My embassy team is in constant contact with Philippine authorities and NGO (non-governmental organisation) representatives to determine how we can be of further assistance," Thomas said in a statement issued by the embassy.
Megi smashed mostly farming and fishing areas of northern Luzon with gusts of 260 kilometres (160 miles) an hour on Monday, making it the strongest typhoon in the world this year.
The three million residents of Isabela province and other areas of the Cagayan Valley farming region were the worst hit.
The government raised the death toll to 19 on Wednesday, up from 14 the previous day, after more detailed reports from around Luzon were compiled.
The civil defence bureau said it was still sheltering over 10,000 people in evacuation centres across northern Luzon while roads were being cleared.
Although the typhoon was already over the South China Sea, the government weather station said it had remained almost stationary on Wednesday, hovering over the western coast of the Philippines.
The typhoon, which is still packing maximum gusts of 210 kilometres (130 miles) per hour, is expected to continue hovering throughout the day before moving northeast towards southern China, the weather station said.
The first level of a four-step storm alert remained in effect over several provinces in the northern Philippines due to continuing rain from the typhoon.

well lets just write a little bit about my week. im going to start before the storm even though thats probably all u care to hear about. But i had my first District metting this week and that was really cool. it was kinda weird but man what a awesome oppurtunity to learn and grow and stuff wow, it was cool getting to talk to all of them with just there comps and stuff. then teaching the whole district was really cool too. but the whole things was just a good e xperiance. then the next day i had a split with elder hardman, and that was fun, we had soooo many oyms and i have noticed that whenever u just look for people something funny always happens just cause the people here are so funny.
Then later that same night we went to someone we just find and were returning to and everyone was druck except the mom and she told us to come in and i was just talking to her and they were appaligizing and stuff it was funny and then while im talkin to mom one of the guys gets up and leaves and i didnt even think anything of it but i knew he was way druck, then we left and i was lik WHERE ARE MY SHOES, and i was looking and looking but they werent there then i was like, "UM mom i think he took my shoes" cause thats what u do here u call everyone mom dad or brother and sister ol, but then she ran after the guy and she comes back with my shoes in her hand, it was so funny. but then anyways the next day i get my comp back and i felt bad cause i sent him off with a full blown philipino that didnt know any English but they did ok. then we saw a sweet cock fight that day, it was SICK i was so jacked and i cant wait to send the vedio home, man i cant to get into at home but i cant :(. but then like friday night i got a text that we had this huge super typhoon coming so saturday we just bought stuff to prepair then we went to the zone leaders and spent a few days, it was aweome to just talk with them but i hated just sitting in there. Finally the storm hit and it was cool, it was
way strong winds lol the trees are ALLL jacked up and then it lasted like one day and we woke up and then just started cleaning stuff up and helping people then we got a text and they said we could go home and work. so thats what we did, but the things is where we live we stll dont have any electricity its been forever now but we should get it soon, right now im in the city so i can emial, but we had to come here to get fresh water cause we are out at home, and then we take showers with like a 2 gallon jug lol its so horrrible haha but i just keep telling myself its all apart of the experioance. I love the mission, we are tearing it up, me and my comp and we are working so hard. but u guys dont have to worry about me, im not going to get hurt out here, i was not ever even kind of worried for some reason. Love the mission, hope everything is ok at home. And mom dont get me anything huge for Christmas PLZ< all i need is a little package with like pics of something, then like put money in my account so i can buy stuff and snd it home for christmas. Thats what i want, just money so i can buy u guys stuff im just in the mission i dnt need anything here....

WHAT A TYPHOON!

WOW! What a TYPHOON

So now we are officially residents of the PHilippines Islands. We've gone through our first Typhoon. This one hit at a level 4 in Ilagan and Cauyan areas--the highest level is a 5. Most of our zones south of here just experienced some winds and heavy rains. But here in Cauayan we had winds at 150 mph. I've never seen anything like it and the winds were even stronger in Ilagan.
All missionaries are doing well. Some are currently without power. The past two days we've been helping our missionaries move to suitable housing as a number of their apts flooded or the windows/roofs were blown out. All of these elders or sisters are happy and have plenty of food and water. They are busy rendering service to those in need under the direction of their branch leaders.

I always felt safe and so it was kind of exciting to watch from our vantage point here at the mission home. But today I went to an area that used to be lush and green and in every direction I looked there was not one leaf remaining on any plant. Just huge trees without leaves. It was quite eerie. I saw home after home completly devestated. Yet, I saw people out trying to saw off broken limbs to use as new support beams and all with smiles on their faces. These people are so amazing. WE've been without power and Internet for 2 days but it all just turned back on!

I will try to post some photos and video in the next day or two. THank you for your prayers. We could FEEL them here. We have so much to be thankful for at this time.
THIS WAS POSTED BY SISTER CARLOS THE MISSION PRESIDENT"S WIFE

TYPHOON UPDATE

Typhoon Update

The Typhoon is now scheduled to touch down at 8 am this morning (Monday). It is currently 6:45 am and we are experiencing lots of rain. Our mission is currently in it's path but we are still praying for its path to change before it hits.

In the meantime, we have moved many of our missionaries to other missionary apartments. They have all been instructed to stay indoors and wait out the storm. All have food and water on hand. They will report back as soon as possible after the storm hits so that we can get an accounting of how everyone is doing.

We feel a certain peace about this all and believe that Heavenly Father is watching over our precious flock of missionaries. We feel your prayers. Thanks so much!

SUPER TYPHOON

Super Typhoon

The church has alerted us that a Super Typhoon (now called Megi, but will be renamed Juan once it touches ground) is headed to first touch down in Cagayan Isabella. That is the heart of our mission. We are busy asking that every set of missionaries has sufficient food and water for the next few days. Any of the missionaries in low land or mud slide areas are being moved in with other missionaries in safer apartments. Parents, please be assured that we are doing everything in our power to make sure all of our missionaries are safe. All know that if it hits they are to notify the mission office of their safety at the earliest possible moment.

In the meantime, we are praying that it will bypass Luzon. The estimated arrival is sometime Sunday afternoon or evening. We will update this blog as we receive more information. If we lose power we will update it as soon as it is restored. Please join in our efforts to call down the windows of heaven and help to divert the path of this possibly catastropic typhoon.

A Newbie

On Thursday Oct, 7 i gave birth to a 155 pound 6 ounce, Elder Jackson
. It was cool, this week was freakin hecktic! First me and my old
comp went everywhere before he left, and it was raining and everything
and it was just miserable but we walked SOOO much it was crazy, and I
ate so much cocanut and drank so much of the stuff inside I could have
puked but it was so good and I loved it, but then thurday, right when
I got there it was so awesome, u just start talking to EVERYONE its so
cool to see everyone and stuff I loved it so much but then like right
away the office elders got me and told me that Pres wanted me, so I
was kinda neveouse. But It was cool he just showed me everything again
and told me everything and gave me this little note telling me I was
going to be distric leader and it was cool, then in the thing I was
the last one out of everyone to get called and everyone was pretty
shocked lol cause I got a kid and became DL but it was cool. Then I we
ate and everything and went home and I showed him around, then it
started raining and stuff so we got soaked, on his first day. But its
just been a really cool week, then Friday we had this one distric
leader training and thy just gave me stuff and taught me how to do
everythjing it was weird and really boring but I needed it and I
learned a ton about being a leader and stuff so it was cool. Then
Saturday and Sunday of course where absaultly awesome we watched the
confrince which was sooo cool and I loved it and learned a ton. Oh ya
and everyone in my distric is really cool, one is elder goobie, he
just got done with being the office elder and he is a really cool
missionary I thought he would go straight to being a leader but I
guess not, then I got hardman, my batch, so I was way excited about
that cuase our birthdays are on the same day so I am really excited to
celebrate with him, plus I love him, then there is elder Elis, those
are all the leaders anyways all there comps are philipinos. But there
all cool and im really excited for my distric. But having someone knew
brings back so many memorize, now it seems like ive been here my whole
life and I am teaching him everything lol. He is the coolest kid
though and im so excited for our cycle or 2 here. He is from
California L.A. and he is just really cool. But that is pretty much
the just of my week, it was pretty hecktic and we hardly got any time
to work but it was all a good experience.

oh and we had a baptism this week i forgot to say that lol

This week was pretty cool. It started off with district meeting which was ok, but after we had a interview for a baptism, which passed, but we kinds went on splits for 2 sec so we werent just waisting time and me and Lien went and taught, we got back home with a note on the table that said we were having splits, it wasn’t cool. So then we finally ended splits and then the next day we had fingure printing, so every foriener in our mission met at the mission office, it was so cool to see all my batch and naylor and everything I lived it. And then pres called me in and he showed me his transfer board, I was like WHAT but it was just to show me how is in my knew district, I love our knew pres and how he does things, he showed me that and then showed me that im going to be TRAINING I was so shocked, so if he didn’t make any changes that’s what im going to be doing next cycle, I am excited and scared and then really shocked that god trusts me this much, I all the sudden have a ton of responsibilty and I know im going to be way accountable for it all but im really excited at the same time and I know I will grow and learn sooo much from it. So then we went home and then it was Friday, I got to baptise ERICKSON it was so awesome, I cant explain it, dad knows but man its such a different feeling when ur doin it MAN I love the mission. And the Saturday we just worked a ton, and Sunday was the same, we didn’t get to work as much this week cause of all the dumb things but its ok, I loved the baptism and everything. Man yesterday I relised that EVERYONE here has lice, im glad I just noticed but I wonder if I have it, GROSS, but whatever. Dude living here is seriously like camping, everyone showers in the middle of there house on rocks man its weird, yesterday we walked up to 2 houses and the grandma was either waching and had no top on or cleaning with no top on but I was like WHAT the heck. But the mission is going good, we tried to bowl this morning but it was shut down now and there going to go to a cave, I think my comp wants to go but its disobidient, I don’t want to do that. But I got to read my patriaritcal blessing again this week, for like the 20 times and man I love it sooo much. ALL of it. But that is pretty much my week, I have grown a ton this week and my testimony is growing so much ever day, last night was cool, we went to a mebers house just to stop by and then my comp was like elder will u share something, and I was like what, and he was like just pick something so I was like ok, so I shared about the sacrement and then at the end she was like ok, And then she was like well I havnt been takin it because im shy but I guess ill take it now, I was like J I knew I got the lesson from the Holy Ghost!

A Trip To The Emergency Room...Again

Me and my comp get along way good, he is just SOOOO layed back and stuff so its cool. and my teaching is going good, but i just ask a TON of questions to make sure they got it... But we are doing good, our zone leaders did a surprise check on us and then watched our weekly planning and they said we are doing really good and were being really good examples for our whole zone and they bring us up in there meeting and stuff with the pres and other zone leaders so thats good to here that were doing everthing right, but this week was hard man it was just not as good as the others but this coming week is going ot be awesome! we went to this festival this week that was fun too. but that is about it it was kinda a slow week but thats ok, this cycle is already almost over, did i tell u i might get a cell phone, pres just told me that.
well they gave me some shots and numbed my toe then they just cut like a fourth of my nail off. it was kinda painful, but only for a sec or two. oh i saw i dead guy earlier, man i almost forgot that, while i was waitin for my toe i was in the emergency room and then comes in this 50-55 year old guy and he was DEAD he looked dead, and then they told the wife that there is nothing they could do, it was wierd seeing a dead guy again right if front of u and it was said watching them tell her there is just nthing they can do and her kinda crying, he had drankin the night before then took a nap the next day and didnt wake up.
alright mom i have to go, i think about ur stinking birthday everytime the 2nd gets brought up witch is a lot for some reason, have a good birthday, love ya Elder RIner

Alright so my week was alright. Our district is way cool. We had splits this week though and that was defiantly way different, I mean it was cool but I wouldn’t mind it if we didn’t do it again lol just cause it seemed like we didn’t get anything done and then it killed our KIs and our work. But it was cool still I got to work with Lien and its way crazy being able to speak English all day its cool but I relised I really like talking tagalong all day too. But I have gotten way sticking good at pingpong haha cause me and lien play all the time while we are waiting for a interview to finish instead of just sitting and talking we play pingpong and weve both gotten pretty good, and then its pretty funny cause I talked to the philipinoes and they thing they know English but they cant uinderstand ANYTHING when were playing or just talking regular cause its so different and fast they say J. So we baptized 3 more this week, it was a pretty good service and it was pretty fun, they said something that surprised me they all said that they feel like there brand knew and that they are really cleansed from there sins, it kinda surprised me for some reason, I just thought it was way cool. Yesterday was pretty cool too. We wanted to go on splits but we didn’t have enough people to split so we walked EVERYWHERE man I was so tired by the end out the night I fell asleep withing like 2 sec as soon as I hit the bed I was asleep it was crazy. But I had a talk yesterday in church in sacrament meeting, I was suppose to be the closing talk but the other 2 didn’t show up so I went first and then the 2nd counseler is a RM and he talked to but It was funny cause we had a brown out and so it was SOOO hot and there wasn’t any mike but I forgot and I was all asking why the mike wasn’t working and then everyone laughed at me, so I was practicually yelling, and then of course my whole talk was in tagalong and then also I had forgotten I had a talk until like 30 min before so I made a real quick talk on faith but it was really good I think, its funny how much I have grown since my fairwell talk lol it was so much better and I might have put 15 min in it lol. But my comp said it was good, he said it seemed like I was a pastor cuase it was so loud, he was in the very back and he heard everything. But last night was funny to, on our way home it was way dark and I was so tired but we came up and then all the sudden there was a guy just laying in the middle of the road and this is a UGLY dirt road practicly like a irrigation road but ther wasn’t any irrigation, and I didn’t know if he was dead or past out drunk, so I got out my camera to get a picture and then he looked up kinda and my comp was like “are u ok?” and he just layed bac down it was so funny the guy was straight waisted! But that’s pretty much my week, oh and we had a sweet service project forever we cut grass that was as tall us us with sword things, I kid u not and it was big lol but it was way cool, my and pincock just sat and talked like the whole time when it wasn’t our turn it was way cool. Man I wonder what else im forgetting… oh well that’s pretty much my week, its been pretty good and we have good things going good in the area so im excited.

Well this week was kinda cool but mostly boring haha I don’t even know what to write, I had my first district meeting here in the zone, elder pincock is my zone leader and I love talking to him, we talk all the time and its way cool. Its crazy how close u get to people in the mission, like last week I saw elder hardman and elder Naylor and it was the the coolest thing in the world, I swear none of us could stop smiling it was so stinking cool I loved it, we just talked about the knew areas and old investigators and then we are suppose to meet up later in Santiago at mcdanalds, I guess before we even met elder Naylor gave a note to a sister missionary in our branch to give to me and it she did Tuesday and it said to meet there at mcdanolds, idk its just way way cool seein everyone, expecially old companions. Our work this week was pretty good again, I got to go on splits and that was pretty cool, being able to speak in English and everything, I was laughin last night cause I was thinking, even if I wanted to speak in English I cant haha. Oh so yesterday the first counseler came up to me and I have to give the closing talk in sacrament meeting next week. But its way easy its not like I don’t do the same thing everyday. Yesterday we found a duck in the middle of the road and caught it but we saw who dropped it, so we had a plan to give it back but now that I think about it we left it at are investigators house lol, its ulam now J. Well that’s about the week, besides all the stinking teaching and stuff. Man its still crazy how much we walk, but I love it all I learn a ton every week when I think about it and im way thankful.

RATS!

So how was life at home? Another week in the mission… oh btw I forgot to tell u last time that I got ur package and I was way jack thank u very much, but I was way disappointed that there was no pictures lol that’s what I was looking forward to the most lol but its all good. Well me week was pretty good. First of all a 70 came and talked to our zone for zone confrerence, that guy is like me knew idol. That is exactly how I want to be when I grow up haha guy was just awesome and so spiritual and it was so awesome to see someone so high up like that, sometimes when ur out here u get pretty cocky cause u relies how little everyone knows and we learn a ton as missionaries, just cause we get a ton of experience. So I guess I was getting a little cocky but u could tell that he was just years and years of awesome studying ahead of me and plus the 12 apostles teach these people lol so its just way cool. It was probably the highlight of my week, along with out 2 baptisms. And then our work was really good this week. We teach so much, expecially me, I cant believe how much I teach everyday lol its so awesome cause I love it but its still really crazy, we got 31 member pres lessons this week, 14 with dates and 11 at church, our numbers are way stinking good so I am excited for that but I know its not all about numbers, but our work is going really good. Ive already made a stinking ton of friends to in my knew area, is awesome I love it.
But I have to admit for about 2 days I got back into the spiders, I was going to avoid it completely, then guess what, I met my old comp and he had caught one and brought it to this meeting just for me, so of course the first spider I found we fought and I won, and then it just went down hill from there lol that Ill I wanted to do lol but I stopped cause I don’t want it to become a distraction lol even though it wasn’t interfering our work yet I can see it maybe become a prob so I just stoped J.
Well what else… we had this drunk guy come flying into one of our lessons all loud and he grabs me and he is like else, I just got one question for u, how me gods are there, then I said one and then he was like YES that’s what I told those stinking eglesia ni christo, there is no such thing as one true church, then I was like nope, there is still one one, and then I showed him and in the end we just kicked him out lol he was just crazy. The girls were scared for there life they all left, then some came back but it was cool.
I read matthew again, and john this week, I feel really bad, I know that the BoM is better then the bible but I am so much more into reading the bible right now that I havnt read the BoM for a while, plus I still havnt had the time to finish Jesus the Christ, I even study everynight when we come home, there is just to much to study, and I love it all, I got to thinking why do I need to know this stuff, why is reading so important, but u know what I noticed, everytime im debating between two things of doing, a verse pops right in my head and I know edsactly what I need to do and what the scriptures say and what jesus would want, and I do that like 15 times a day I kid u not and it just always pumps me up, so that is one reason I have personaly found in my life and it is just so cool to be able to do I cant explain it, I love it, the mission is so stinking hard but I love it so much!
lots of these people are passaway and i am like WHY why would u do taht, and then i figure out that almost all of them werent planning to go on a mission untill like last second then they just went, for me i have known and prepaired my whole life just for my mission so its way way more important for me then it is for them. oh man i didnt talk about mcdanolds, i ate MCDANOLDS i felt so stupid in there lol cause i had the biggest freakin smile ever and i couldnt stop, it just reminded me so much of USA, im going to have the stupidest smile on my face forever when i first get home, santiago is huge, it was so stinking cool!!!
my apartment isnt any better, rats destroyed the inside of my suitcase and ate my oatmeal lol its so horrible, they broke my zipper and everything, but i can fix it all. and my shower is a down grade its just a bucket and a big bucket to hold the water, mom its SOOOOOOO cold u dread it everytime u have to take a shower... but ill send pics...

A New Area

Well this week has been pretty freakin crazy I don’t even know where I can start. Saying good bye was kinda hard but it wa really easy too I was so ready to leave but then when the people ur teaching are like “man u where suppose to baptisme me” its hard and then saying by to all ur converts and just giving them that last piece of advice u can, man it was crazy. My comp was pretty to leave though lol I loved him as much as I could but there was things that just bugged the crap out of me and im just glad I got through it, me and god did a way good job with him I think, the last thing he told me was, “ You trained me well don’t worry”, cause I didn’t want him going passaway and I was worried about people I left but it was seriously i trained that guy lol. My last night we had the funeral for that guy we killed (they gave him a blessing that he would die cuase he was really sick a nd old), it was weird, we were talking if we need to talk to pres cause we killed a guy or something lJ. alright so my new area, so it not the prettiest area but that is the last thing I look for in an area, my bishop is SOOO awesome, he picks up all are investigators and brings them to church, we already have a ton of baptismal dates and then I brought some things with me I have learned and we got like 5 more lol so this cycle will be a lot of baptism its so cool teaching people that actually listen to u and aren’t just trying to hide, that’s all I got use to over there in mabini, pincock is my ZL now I love that guy and miss him he said the same thing to me, and my knew comp is cool too his name is elder rause, and he is a stud, he isn’t the most obedient guy, but there isn’t a pure obident guy in all of my zone, I am seriously going to struggle its going to take all I got just to stay obideint, its cause the missionaries here are SOOO cool, there called spartents, it means that u work HARD but u have fun too, meaning ur passaway and u do passaway things, and the thing is they all get a lot done and there good missionaries, I already have a ton of friends, but there passaway too lol, so im going to do my best to stay obedient. But I am really excited for my area, being the leader is a lot different though, I didn’t know it would be, I thought it was just the same, but everyone looks to me here for everything, I taught are whole class yesterday for like a hour with nothing planned and we only got half way through the lesson. But im way excited for my area, its HUGE, and there is no tricycles, we WALK sooooo much, that’s like the first thing everyone told me when I got called there, but its alright I love walking, its just that its soooo stinking hot. Ok there is my week, now im way excited to here about the fair, I think my body is like way use to the fair, thats all I could think about all week, it was all I could just to concentrate on my real work J hope everything went all right.

Man this week went really fast, I don’t know why it just did. Not to much happned just a bunch of missionary work. Man it was crazy though last Monday I watched a guy dieing, he was literlay just slowly dieing and there was nothing they were goin to do about it. It was the weirdest feeling ever just seeing this guy on the very brink of death and all I wanted to know was what the heck he could be thinking of, one of his lungs calapts and it looked like it was SOOO hard for him to breath he was fighting for ever breath, it was way crazy. We had something pretty funny to, my comp is just dumb sometimes lol but we had a first lesson and guess what we taught?!?! Law of chastity, dumbo lol but it was actually pretty much a really good lesson and I was going to connect it to the restoration but she was just not ready lol her mind was probably like WHAT the heck who are these people, but she committed to live it so it was good I guess. We also got some more baptismal dates and stuff, are work is improving every week so I am way happy about that, my comp is always way shocked at are numbers, I think there kinda knew to him J, but something else happened that was cool this week, ok so here they have these awesome spiders and there way cool looking like there legs are all different colors and stuff sometimes and there real cool, there about the size of a quarter, and what u do is u catch them at nght and then u make them fight eatchother. U get a stick aout a foot long and u put them both on in and they fight, its really cool ill have to record it sometime but I got to do it. Its crazy the spiders crawl all over ur arm and then sometimes they jump so u grab there web and pull them back on and make them fight. It is SOOO cool. My comp is to scared to do it, if they bite u I guess u just get like sick or something. Not sure but it was way cool. My personal study has always been one of the best parts of my mission and I love it so much I learn a ton all the time. But yesterday I was reading or studying something and I thought about Christ being the only begotten. I started to read the Pearl of great price, man it is so awesome I love it. I remember a part that I read at the beginning of moses 1 lke verse 20 somthng when moses sees the everything and he is like “woe, I cant believe how small man kind really is, I never even knew that” that’s pretty much what I interpreted it is and it is so true and I don’t even have to see it like he did to know its true I trust him and then when u read there in Abraham about time, and how there is no start or end and stuff u just cant grasp it is so out of here. This earth life is SOOOO small its crazy. Well anyways tahts my week, pres also came and talked with us, he said I am moving and probably going to be a leader, or atleast senior next transfer, sweet.

Not a whole lot happened this week, are teaching numbers and stuff were really good so I was way happy about that but nothing real special happened, Except for our baptism, oh man baptisms are so awesome, I got to baptized Remi Joy Delacros Andres, man it was so awesome, Elder Farley was there and he said we never look more studdly then when were baptizing lol it was so awesome, and she is way strong she will be a big help for this ward and im pretty sure she will stay strong! But early this week was kinda cool, I did this job that was like rouging wheat but in palay and in a foot of water and a foot of mud, it was kinda hard but it was ok, we just were all talking with each other in the bukid it was kinda fun, but then we accidently missed District meeting, Oops J but it was cause last week they changed everything up and made district meeting a day earlier so we missed it, oh well I heard they didn’t even have it cause we wernt there haha. Man something else funny happened this week, while I was in the shower room I heard our neighbor singing and I was like what the heck, and she was singing “You raise me up” haha in English and of course the only place u would here that is from us and I was laughing so hard but I thought it was really really cool. Oh man we had another funny thing happen too now that I think about it, we were coming home from a far away place and it was way dark and stuff and then this motorcycle with a side cart passes us and is like get on, so I just followed my leader lol even though its bawal and they were WAY drunk, we even crashed, the guy drove it straight off the freakin rode, so we pulled it back on the road and switched drivers and I told them I would drive but they said that this guy wasnt drunk, LIE, and then it turned out the first driver was a member, I thought he was a good strong ember too L but then Sunday I served sacrament and I served it to him and he denied it so I was happy for that. But this week has just been pretty good, now im just setting everything up for my comp to keep the work going, cause really all I start and find now he is going to have to finish, it kinda stinks but it doesn’t matter who does is, as long as it gets done! Oh and then this morning I saw a kid digging through our burt garbage with a sack over his back, it kinda reminded me I live in a 3rd world country…

Just Another Day in Paradise

Well, another week. Not too much happened this week to be honest, except my tagalong is getting better because I have no choice he really doesn’t know ANY English. We have a lot of investigators right now, and pretty soon were going to be having a ton of baptisms, actually seminary just started and in one day we had ten referrals and we keep just getting more and more but there all like 13 or 14 little boys, so I could be getting a TON of baptisms but there is no way I’m going to have all those baptized boys go inactive and have that on my conscience so were going to meet with their parents. If their parents will listen too then that would be awesome. But if not the kids can just keep taking seminary and learning about our church and hopefully get baptized when their older. But really this week hasn’t been so adventurous like the others. A ton of walking and contacting and stuff it’s pretty boring but I die every night when it’s time to go to bed. One of our investigators gave birth to a dead baby this week. She fell and didn’t really think too much of it but her stomach was hurting for three days then she gave birth and it was dead. Way sad and weird but I think they already buried it and everything. It was actually our investigators kid that is already a member and always listens but she is like 28 or something. Well that is really it. Besides a bunch of teaching and walking and things I don’t want to type, I am really starting to like my comp. he is pretty funny, he is way way cool and I love him.

A NEW COMPANION

when i read that we should be getting good referrals this week mom my mouth dropped, we got the best referrals i have received my whole mission that really really want to be baptized.. haha crazy! (I had just wrote and told him we had been to the temple this week and that he should be expecting some good referrals. HAHA)
Oh man this week has been a, well i don’t know what it is really called in English but its baligtat in Tagalog lol, it like flipped upside down or the opposite of my whole mission. Its nuts i have went from the BESt comps ever to one of the most disobedient missionaries in the Mission.LOL its kind of funny, i was soooo scared at first but i am sooo thankful for it now, i know there is a TON i am going to be able to learn from it and i know i will be able to help him. But holly cow he is disobedient, we listen to NOT good music, he has a cell phone, if it wasn’t up to me i think we would work a good 3 hours a day lol. But i have realized nothing really matters besides he is willing to go out and work when i want and come home late at night when its the right time. Of course i want to tell him THAT MUSIC IS NOT APROPRIATE but i really really don’t want to be on bad terms with my comp so ill endure and ill put subtle hints and stuff and i think i can help him out a lot. U know ur comp is bad when ur zone leader comes up to u after and is like, “just love ur comp" i was like NO lol and then pres must know too cause he came to our ward totally unexpectedly yesterday and was like, how is ur comp, is he working? lol so i am pretty sure he knows about him But besides that... i got to meet our pres, he is sooo awesome i love him so much. He has surprised me twice now. First he shows up way randomly to our district meeting and randomly interviews 5 of us, and every one of the others had something in common but me, they were all leaving, he just called me in to talk with me and stuff it was weird but way cool i loved it. He said that he has been praying about me and says ill get a lot of good opportunities in my mission, so that’s cool. i love him SO much and his wife is just as cool, SO cool. she cooked me my pizza and gave me root beer and brownies and ice cream to eat with it... i love them SOOO much. And then the work has been good. We have a ton of progressing now its soooo awesome i will probably baptize like 8 in these 6 weeks, pres told me this is my last cycle. So i am working my butt off now trying to help it out before i leave. OH I LOVE THE MISSION.
(Are the little boy and girl you baptized still going to church?) oh heck ya there soo strong, and did u ever get that other pic i sent? Of my other baptism, mike and nanny cita. There strong tooo, everyone i have baptized so far is way strong.
(Do you need another package?)
ya, i almost killed my comp, i prayed for patience lol cause last night he ate my fastbreak, i was SOOOO mad inside, the only important things in the package are candy bars and pictures, just don’t forget that stuff. and just send the cheap like 13 dollar one it doesn’t have to be big
(Hum. You must be preparing to live with a wife! They break you in by giving you a guy to figure out first before they will give you a wife to try and figure out! Ha-ha)
I don’t want to get married anymore, alright mom take care, good luck with everything luv ya! Thanks for the support

A New Mission President

About my week… well I got to meet my knew pres this week; Oh we’re so lucky, he is way way cool and I’m really excited to have him as our pres. We got to have interviews and meet his wife and everything, she is way way cool too. That probably made my week that they are just so cool. Man this week flue, it’s getting faster and faster I can NOT believe that this week is already over its way crazy I can’t believe how fast it’s flying. It’s really starting to speed up now and it’s pretty cool. We have some good investigators and were finding knew ones and the work has been going really good. I’m defiantly getting a new comp this week ha-ha so we will see how that goes, I hope so bad he will want to work. Naylor has been an awesome comp and it’s going to be pretty different with him gone, he has been with me my whole mission in the Philippines. We had some pretty funny things happen too. We got to teach a preacher that was way cool. He couldn’t argue with anything we said and just had to believe that there was no such thing as one church. He asked if it said anywhere in the bible the one church we should join and he wouldn’t accept anything but in the bible so I was like. WASTE OF TIME. And then we are teaching this one lola (grandma) and she asked if she could pray, in English! So she did, I literally almost bit my tongue off I was biting it so hard, just so I wouldn’t laugh, it was absolutely horrible, as so and we were out of there sight we were laughing sooooo hard. And I can’t believe how much we have been walking lately, every day its crazy! But it’s good too. I started learning Ilocano a little bit too, its way awesome I want to learn it SO bad. Dude halo halos are the absolute best! u love them, u don’t have the right ingredients I don’t think to make its though but maybe, its way good though, they don’t put any ice cream or anything just so u know it’s just shaved ice. Its like shaved ice with condensed milk and evaporated milk, then u put the other stuff in there like pineapple and bananas, some kind of jello balls and then just other stuff, then sugar too. But the biggest is the first three. They are pour but it’s just life here and it’s not like anyone starves to death they just don’t eat the greatest foods. And it’s crazy how nice they are, even if they have nothing they offer to feed us and then they cook the BEST meal for us I feel bad eating its crazy . I studied a lot of things this week. I am mostly studying about what we will teach later in the day and then go really into it but I studied a lot about the plan this week and I've just found awesome scriptures to use and then as u learn deep into the doctrine it makes it easier to teach it even just the gist of it its really cool. Mom my teaching has SHOT through the roof this transfer, there is no comparison, u can just see the people really really listening and I ALWAYs want to teach I hate walking or just messing around. Its way cool the desire I have gained to teach now. It’s probably just cause its way easier to teach then stinking walk We go about 3 times a week to each house we are teaching. And ya it is cool we get to teach a lot I would be so mad if it wasn’t like that. And in a day sometime 4-6 so it’s not a ton but it’s alright. We def have the highest numbers in our district and we should have the lowest cause our area is so small I swear I have talked to ALL of mabini well of course we oym, and there are some cool people like that, and we see people run away from us alllll the time, its sooo funny I mean I have seen people straight BULT for cover u would laugh so hard I miss everyone too but this is where I am suppose to be and everyone knows that too, elder Holland said "I’m glad ur home sick, he said the Christmases that my kids were on their missions were the hardest ever but the ones after they got back were by far the greatest" :) I’m excited ha-ha but take care I love ya have a good week

The Rainy Season Has Arrived

i just ran into the table, u can see it on the picture with al the bloode on the ground. it was weird, i really was lie not freakin out at all i thought the whole thing was just kinda funny, but my comp was EvERyWHERE and then all are neighbors were too i was actually pretty funy.
ya i did, and it was like not a hospital lol it was crap and it cost like 35 bucks or somthing lol no insrance, it was just all horrible, i kid u not i got SOoooooo many shots and it was all right in the midde of the thing the guy filled it up FULL three times and put it all into my leg, that was the worst part then when he was sticking i could still kinda fill it lol then i got more shots and it was just a mess lol
hahaha yeah they are pretty stickin funny. DONT loose them plz lol but did u see me jump into the bukid? HAHA oh and ya i got s bunch of
stiches, i didnt want to tell u tell it was healed and its healed now i just got a sick scar, everyone thinks its the coolest but its just
ugly, but i had to like force noone in the office to tell u lol

oh ya a ton, it is awesome, and yesterday was the best ive ever taught ever it was so sticking awesome,like u have not idea how bad it was at the begging of me and naylors comp, it was so bad, i mean it was just soooo hard, but now its so much better and verses just pop in my head all the time now i love it, yesterday

we had this girl we were teaching that just looked like she wanted to kill us, and then she got her bible and then i showed her everthing i was talkin about and then it turned out really good and she is going to pray about js and stuff, she was way hard but it ended up really good.
um no we didnt have any this week, but we have atleast like 8 lined up and then we should probably get even more this week

, i wonder who isgoing to be next comp, oh me and naylor are going to plant rice today, its going ot be soooooo hot.

This week has been pretty good. The highlight was deffiantly our baptism, i got to baptise a mom and a brother this week it was awesome, i was kinda worried about mom i just didnt know how strong her testimony was cause she is PURE illicano, she understands tagalog so we could teach her but it was hard for her to talk back but after we baptised her she bore and AWESOME testimony, oh i got the chills it felt soo good, and then the boy will stay strong too he is probably going to go on a mission! oh the funniest thing was at the baptism, as u can tell from the pics the mom is pretty short and big, well when i baptised her i got her way under, elder naylor said, but when she was coming up she couldnt catch her footing and i had to do all i could not to laugh, same with naylor, but i love being able to do the prayer in tagalog. Did i ever tell u how i blessed this nanny, i tried to do it in english but it i forgot my english at the time so i ended up just doing it in tagalog, the funny thing was after i blessed her she crossed herself, i laughed so hard it was horrible. that happend like 3 weeks ago. Everyone asks for blessings here... Yesterday i had to teach class at church with elder naylor. i was way nervous but it ended up being really good. Me and elder naylor have started eatin way good, before it was either can foods and rice or nothing, but now we are mixing it all up and we eat somehing diffrent all the time and its way better now. we also started working out again but its soooo hard to work out out here i dont like it at all but naylor really wanted to do it so its all good. This morning we played a ton of basketball, i thought i was going to today, its a way diffrent game out here i thought i was going to die, its not that u run out of breath eather its just that it is sooooo hot and we play right under the sun. the craziest is that the philopinos play either bare foot or with just sandles, can u imagine, i step on feet all the time but it doesnt even hurt them, and its not like it slows them down at all either, its just nuts. But anyways this week has been awesome, my tagalog gets so much better all the time and im way exited for that, we even had a split and my comp was PURE tagalog no english but we talked the whole day and there was no language barier it was pretty cool.

i do swim to every appointment, but actualy this week wasnt as bad except for last night but seriously it rains like u wouldnt believe but we still work and sometimes the let us in, but i dont have to use the foot stuff. iam not gaining any weight, but i am ok i dont need too. um we dont ride trycycles our area is small enough to walk. and i walk a TON. u woudnt believe. Dude mom this week was soooo awesome mom
oh man so this week has been a FULL stinking week. Alright so first of all me and elder naylor decided we were going to set a knew record of OYMs cause it was horrible., together wehave litterlay talked to all of Mabini so we just decided we were going to talk to them all again, cauase we were lacking investigators, so we did it. Dude the old OYM record for our mission was 118 and elder Naylor knows cause his trainor was a AP and all he wanted to do was brake that record but he couldnt. But anyways we worked our freakin butts off and we got 171, DUDE!!! we killed the old record. Im pretty sure were going to get yelled at but these OYMs were all leggit, we were ALWAYS looking and talking to EVERYONE we saw, and the thing is a oym is offer ur message and even if ur talking to 10 poeple that counts as an oym so even though are number is 171 we talked to like 500 stinking people, and they were all really good ones and we wrote all there names down so we cant get in trouble, this has been the BEst thing in the world for my tagalog and my teaching, i love the mission any weakness u have u find and it slaps u right in ur freakin face but i have been perfecting all my weeknesses through setting goals and man my teaching has gotten sooooo much better in one week its nuts and my tagalog. Oh im soooo close, i just need vocab, my vocab is already pretty good its just when u talk to freakin preiest, they have huge vocab, wich reminds me, we kinda got in a fight with so witnesses, it all starting cause he was ike hey i have a question for u, as we were walkin by, and so were like what, and he was like how long was it from when adam last saw god to christ birth, i just freakin laughed. but he was like oh your dumb u guys dont know anything about the bible come to my house and ill teach u some things. oh man , but i am starting to get realy good with using scriptures, i have starting memorizing a lot of them and like everything someone says i can think of a scripture now, its really cool, and that just started this week. yesterday was funny, first of all i was SOOOOOO close to throwing up at a member house it was bad! if i would have that would have been so bad, it is like this rice that they boil and it all like slimes together ands its really horrible but its there desert and there so proud of it but its HORRIBLE. but by some miracle i finished it and we left imedianty that nanny is so crazy she literally FORCES food into my mouth, and its not regular food its like freakin the weirdest plants in the world. oh and then i was oyming this one lady and she was a freakin NUT cases lol. she was like what is that on ur face and i was like its because i sweat all the time, and then i tried to offer the message and she was like no i cant i have a calling to and i was like whats that and she was like i heal people and those things on ur face are evil spirits and they are trying to take over ur face because ur extremly guapo HAHAHa and of course i was getting the biggest kick out of this so i was like, "OH crap,What do i need to do?!?!" hahaha and she was like u need to wipe cocanut oil on ur face in this wierd way and then u need to put boiling water on ur face, and i was like alright, i was like can we set a appointment to come back and she said no we needed to do it right now, and then i looked back and my comp and this family is looking at me wierd and i just started laughing, and the family was like " Man u have to have reallly good tagalog to be able to talk with her" lol i guess they all know she is kinda crazy. Oh then this story, Ive repented so dont judge me, but this guy was just freakin drunk and he kept calling me over and i was by him and im like this is close enough i aint going there and he was trying SOOOO hard to get me to take a shot, he was like " Come on man i want to be ur frinds and if u take a shot ill go to ur god next week" lol u woulnt believe how drunk this guy was. and his frind was just as drunk and funy, man it was so funny, and so i was like no and he wouldnt stop so i was like, u do it first, and so he starting filling up his cup and then he stopped and i was like WHAT? come on that is nothing and so he put a ton in a drank it and i was laughing so hard and then we just left. Oh this week was so good. crzy experiences, met crazy people, everyday i came home freakin DEAD exhauster.
Got to LOVE the mission

man i got that package this week, thank u so much that was way awesome! i was so shocked but mom u need to figure out this mailing thing u need to use those one boxes where u just pay for how big the box is then u stuffed it, the vedio was sooo awesome me and elder naylor watched it and i loved to so much. this week has been really good, lots of wierd stuff has happened and its a way big change being with elder naylor but i love it so much more. We went to the sabue (Temple) dedication thing sunday and saturday they had some kind of other celebration deal for it, it was pretty leggit. The best part of this week has been the language though, i am not saying i have it but i can say whatever i want and i understand 90 percent of everything said, now i just need to extend my vocab really but i am way excited for it. OK so this week was nuts, rainy season starts now and when i say that i mean it STARTED, like every night but one or two we came home at night completely soaked to the BONE like just completely, its ridiculous but its alright the only thing i feel so bad going into houses so wet and then when it rains everyone just shuts down its kinda funny how stickin scared it seems like Philippians are scared of the rain, but it literally makes rivers how hard it rains and im not exaggerating, so thats kinda cool, i am pretty excited for the work this week too cause me and naylor are going to find a lot...a lot a lot so we will see what happens, its going to be hard work but it will be good for us. This morning was interesting, so me and naylor wake up at 4 to run to the other zone to play basketball but my ankle was to jacked up so we got a tricycle and then we went and played, it was way way fun, but then we returned and the elders had gotten robbed the night before, its funny there is 4 elders and really only 1 got way way robbed like lots of money and camera and bag and just stupid stuff like that, the best part is we talked to the cops and they know exactly who did it lol but they arnt going to do anything thing cause they know that the guy these guys work for is way high and that they have a ton of guns so the cops arnt going to do anything about it, lol o the Philippines. But the work is going so good, i am learning sooooo much and i am not just saying that, i am really learning a ton and i see God in all my doings all the time.

its 1 dallar to 45 pesos just so u know ( I have all his money in his checking account. After the other Elders got robbed he decided I better not leave much money in his account)


we are in a diffrent town right now cause its way better, this is like the only one that has a pizza shop lol i get to eat PIZZA, thank u so much for the package i loved it. Every package has to have some kind of pics or vedio or somthing but that was way great. Oh ya ashton has gotten bigger and so has cassi a little and then kellon oh my gosh he is a little fatty now and he has grown so much bigger and taller i couldnt believe it. Oh and it didnt make me homesick at all i mean i think about it but it just maked me want to work harder then come home to that after 2 years lol, um ya i use my crocs and i had to buy knew shoes, i already went through those onse lol, everyone one says i walk fast, if missionaries are saying that, i have a problem lol
just so u know i am pretty good with regular food situation, like they have alright stuff and right now i am just lacking because i am living in the boneys, the biggest things in packages are like the candies and the pics and stuff.
the prophet dedicated it, i dont get to go to the temple this whole two years, and it was our church for the whole philippines sunday. Mom i have to go, love ya, cant wait to here from u next week, thank u again for the package it was aweomse, and make me a knew account before i get robbed please.