COMING HOME

Ill just tell you about my last week in person mom. I have a huge farewell party tonight. Im going to ball haha i already know it. Im leaving my family for the 4th time....
Well mom i better get going. I love you and i cant wait to see you! im soooo excited to go to the temple too!!!! see ya in a few days. Thats weird to say!

man your guy's week seems like it was FUN! that is so sweet. Man im glad jord will be there to see me. I just want to see fam and friends! Man, im not going to say im not excited to see you all, but MAN mom, our work is going SO good. We had our transfer meeting this week and that was fun. Got to see a lot of old friends and comps and stuff. But for the most part everyone is noobs man. Everyone i know has pretty much went home; its not like it use to be... This picture is one sick thing that happened though. I have a great grand child in the field now. That is Pretty dang rare, but that is that picture i just sent you. Me, Jackson, jackson's kid and jackson's kids kid. It was pretty cool. Then the other people was the class of our investigators. thats only a few of them. One family had to leave after Sacrament meeting and then the kids were in there own classes. There was too many of us for the room. Next week we are moving into a bigger one. I kid you not mom. Our investigators, plus all their kids, made of over 1/3rd the people in our ward right now. It was SOOOO sick. Just really humbling to see so much progress. I bore my testimony in both ward yesterday. It was good. I loved the chance to leave that last testimony of mine with everyone. All my investigators were shocked. A lot of them didnt know i was going home. Its so sad cause they all talk about it now and tell me how much they're going to miss me and stuff. Its so hard! i Love these people mom. Im just not ready to go home. All in all the week was just awesome. All our key indicators were way high and our work was just full. Its awesome!!! Im just going to keep it up. No slowing down. Im going to try to even do better if at all posible this week. Last one, why not right :). Alright mom i love you. Hope everything continues to go well. Have fun picking daniel up.

Well mom i dont even know where to start with my week. Its been so awesome/ its flown!!!! its crazy how fast it is going. We are teaching a bunch of awesome families right now and they are all starting to progress! we had atleast one member from each family at church yesterday and in every case it was the father. Its just been a ton of blessings mom its so crazy. Man i love all the people we are teaching right now so much. Its going to be SOOOO hard leaving them mom its going to stink. Just yesterday we were going around and it had to be the biggest anti-trunky day ever! it was crazy. We had some awesome lessons, and the best one was with the father and his daughter; that, at first, i was sure were never going to progress. Then after a series of some of the best and most clear lessons i have ever taught to anyone, they started to soften their hearts, and now, they are starting to develop some really strong testimonies. Yesterday we taught the plan of salvation and where we go after this life. The lesson was incredible. Everything just went aweosme and they understood it all which brought a lot of questions up, that we were able to answer. So the whole thing just made complete sense. At the close of the lesson we had the father say the prayer, and it was one of the most humble but spiritually led prayers i have heard on my mission. Just really sincere. Im not read to come home mom. Im going to miss those moments soooo much. I dont know if ive ever felt the spirit so strong. It was just awesome. The whole week has just been like that. THe week FLEW by man i couldnt believe it. We continue to build up our teaching pool but all hours of our day are pretty much full at this point so its awesome. Man i couldnt express to you how happy i am to be wehre i am right now. I love ya mom. Im excited to see you in a few week, but for now, i have a TON more work to still do. Take care and good luck with state.

Four More Weeks

Dude that is SOOOO sick! 34 yards??? that is awesome dad. Sounds like you defiantly did your homework this week. Matt sounds like he is still tearing it up too. Man im jacked. i hope you guys go all the way, I thought about this game a lot this week haha,
kinda hard to stay concentrated on the work lately. Im doing my best though. We added two more dates this week and we now have 11 investigators with dates and 13 went to church yesterday. God has been blessing us with a ton of success. The weeks have just been FLYING by too i cant believe it! Man im not ready to come home though. im loving it out here.
We had to go to this career workshop last wednesday and i got to talk and visit a little with all my batch. They are studs man. Its going to be hard saying by to everyone. Good thing thats still a few weeks away.
Well i dont know what else to tell ya. The work is going AMAZING and i couldnt ask for more.

Man let me tell you i am NOT ready to go home haha. We'll see how it goes but for now its like the farthest thing from my mind. I know its unavoidable but its really not registering to me right now that its getting closer and closer. Im pretty sure its just going to sneak up on me and just going to happen. But im not to worried about it right now. We have so much awesome work right now mom its SICK!!! im so excited for our work. We have like 6 awesome families we are teaching right now which makes up about 25 investigators that are all starting to progress. We'll see as we start to get a little farther into it but for now things are looking good. We have 9 with dates and should be able to give quite a few more in these coming weeks. Im so excited. Its really keeping us busy and we only plan on adding to all this success! Im loving the work right now. Im on the last chapter of Jesus the Christ and the book has been one my favorites ever. Its such a sick book and ive learned SOOOO much from reading it and its caused me to ask a lot more questions, and, consequently, learn a lot more about this gospel. Man i love it! i love how it all makes so much sense and how as i keep studying it, i just come to love it more and more. It really gets me pumped about the work, and by time our studies are done, im so ready to get back out and work again! we had some really really cool lessons this week with some investigators. We are starting to use a lot of analogies in our lessons to make it more interesting and make it easier to understand. Its been effective. Its pretty sick and its been way fun and successful. As you can see the work is going aseosme. Id love to tell you all about it but i only ahve a limited amount of time. Basta the work is going awesome, my own testimony is growing so much, and im not at all ready for this to be over :). Love you mom. THanks again for all your support and for the awesome letters!!!

THE 24TH IS A POPULAR BIRTHDAY!

TRAINING ELDER LANDEEN


Sunday, November 6, 2011
The 24th was a Very Popular Birth Date
We had four missionaries who celebrated their birthdays on October 24. One was serving far away and the other three happen to be serving within an hour of the mission home. Elder Riner approached President about the possibility of the birthday elders coming in for a special birthday lunch. Since their birthday was on P-Day, President thought that was a great idea. He asked the elders what they'd like to eat and they quickly said enchiladas. Now making enchiladas in the Philippines is no easy task. First it's very difficult to find tortillas (but we did) next there is no enchilada sauce for sale (but we found Emerils favorite on the Internet) next its hard to find good cheese (but we had recently been to Manila and brought back a suitcase full) and nobody sells refried beans (but Sister Shaner brought some dehydrated ones from home). So we didn't have any excuse to say no. President made his famous Mexican rice and I made the enchiladas. I made my mom's famous applesauce chocolate chip cake for dessert. Each birthday elder brought his companion with him so we had 6 for lunch. It was a lot of fun. I can honestly say they all left stuffed to the brim!

Anyways, our week was pretty sweet. We have been working as hard as we can but it has rained everyday this week i think. Literally its been pouring all week and we come home soaked to the bone just freezing. Its just kinda annoying cause no one that doesnt know you wants to let you in, and everyone that you do makes you come in, but your soaked so you feel bad. The people here are so nice though. If you dont have a umbrella they make you take theirs, even if you dont want it or you just met them for the first time and there is a good chance that we might night be able to bring it back. Its so cool, theyre just the nicest people ever. My comp and I have defiantly been blessed with some progress this week, and we got a lot of new people to church for the first time and we have a lot of people progressing right now. It sucks cause im not going to be able to see any of them get baptized but that doesnt really matter to me, basta they get baptized! We've been trying really hard to get our ward active in missionary work too. ... We've been having a ton of fun with the work and i cant BELIEVE how fast this last week FLEW! Well thats about it for my week. Lots of progress, loving it and it continues to jsut fly by. Love ya all and hope you have an awesome week!!!
we went back to the same group of people we taught last week, and they want us to teach them, but due to the rain we weren't able to all do it again, so we'll see if we can do it this next week. We did happen to find another HUGE group of people though haha. There are probably about 20 of them. They listen intently and ask good questions but we'll see what really happens with them. Its just so hard trying to get them all to understand it when you can't really focus on their particular needs. but i have faith that good things will come out of it and they want to go to church, so if we can really get all 20 of them there it will be the coolest thing ever!!! did i tell you about the kid im living with? he studied at Harvard before his mission and is smart. We went on splits this week and i got to know a little bit about him so that was cool. He doesnt like to be known as that kid that studied at harvard but he cant seem to escape it.... But we got a lot of new families to church this week and its sweet. I hope we can get them all baptismal dates this week.

TRICK OR TREAT

. Man this week has been a pretty successful one. God just all the sudden blessed us with a ton of success and we are now teaching a LOT of people that are really interested in learning the truth. And the best part is that they are all families. We just gave a family of 5 all dates to be baptised Dec 10. My last Saturday in the mission :). We should have a bunch more to add to that list pretty soon. This week we had some aweosme lessons too. In That one picture with all those people, we actually had taught all them at once. And that is only about 3/4 of them too a lot of the grown-ups arent even in the picture haha it was seriously more then 40 people. And the lesson went so good and they were so into it that we gave them a baptismal commitment that when they knew that this message was true, if they would get baptised? and they all said yes haha and were way interested and wanted us to come back. So tomorrow we are going back again to teach them all :). We've actually had a lot of success like tht this week. We would have had a TON of investigators come to church too if it wasnt POURING rain. So next week we are counting on getting a lot of more peope to start progressing and to go to church. I have been really excited about our work lately and even though i dont think ill get to end up harvesting most of this, im just interested in being able to be a part of it. I want to help as MANY people as i still can while i still ahve the time. Ive just been having a blast. We have still been finding a lot but mostly its just getting back to people and getting them progressing. We just barely got back from cauayan cause we went trick-or-treating up there and it was awesome. I love president. He is SOOO good to us!

SANTIAGO STAKE IS SPLIT!

SantWhat a wonderful experience, to witness the division of Santiago Stake. Elder Nielson and Elder Ardern came to attend the conference. We were fortunate to be asked to pick them up from Tuguegarao and drive them to Cauayan where they spent the night before the conference started on Saturday. With a few extra hours on Friday afternoon, they graciously accepted President Carlos' invitation to meet with some of our missionaries. Those who were serving in areas nearby were invited to come spend a couple hours. It was the most uplifting and enlightening meeting.

Elder Ardern with the New Santiago North Stake Presidency, next is the Santiago Stake Presidency and Elder Nielson


In the mission home
The Conference was held on Saturday and Sunday and it was awesome! There is now a Santiago North Stake and a Santiago Stake. After the Sunday session the Stake Relief Society President prepared a wonderful meal before there was a special meeting with the youth. Later that night we drove the elders back to Cauayan and they had dinner at the Mission Home with our senior couples. It was a wonderful evening full of great lessons and laughter!

On Monday morning we invited the Assistants to come to breakfast and enjoy spending at little time with the brethren before we drove them to the airport. This was truly a wonderful weekend. It's so thrilling to see the church grow in this part of the Philippines.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY!

Well we had a Awesome week full of great work! And it payed off this sunday. We were able to get a bunch of investigators to church> I was so excited and so was my comp. We have had some of my most spiritual lessons too. It just has been really good. We have had investigators just explain to us how the holy ghost made it manifest to them the truth of this message and its just such an amazing process to see happen as they explain it too you. We have this one guy who is just crazy. He yells like all the time and all he really really wants it to feel peace in a world full of turmoil and troubles. Then we asked him if he had tried to read the book of Mormon to escape from his problems and he then explained to us how he actually had, he had himself forgotten until we asked, then he told us how he felt and how aweosme it was and he described exactly what he himself was looking for from our lessons with him. It was so awesome and humbling to have him tell us these things. Man just being apart of this everyday is so awesome. Its been rough having to study for 4 hours every morning with this new training program but its been awesome and some how ive been able to stay awake and have really successful sessions even with it being that long. We have a lot of families we are teaching and to see full families accept this gospel is awesome. It reminds me how LUCKY we really are. Which i know i still dont fully comprehend how lucky we really are but im so thankful, until this point, we have all been strong. Thats so awesome. Everything has just been going really good. We had to go to the doctor to get my chest xray for going home. I also got one of my last interviews with president this week and that went amazing.
... Man my birthday today was the best mom. We played some sick football. You should have seen the present they gave me Ill send it next week or somthing... U will laugh so hard. After football president fed us mexican food. Sister carlos is a really good cook and it was SOOOO awesome. It was a way sick birthday. I love president sooo much he is so good to me. He spoils me way more then i deserve....

CARABAO

Only in the Philippines...
Sister Shaner was teaching a woman recently whose husband is a rice farmer. Sister Shaner mentioned something about the carabao and this lady said, "You mean you don't have carabao's in the U.S.?" She was so shocked to hear that Sister Shaner had never seen a carabao. She asked "Well, how do you get any work done?" Sister Shaner explained that we use John Deere--a tractor.

HE'S COMING HOME!

I received Elder Riner's flight plans today! It's official! He will be flying into the Pasco airport at 11:00am on December 16th, 2011. We all have had experience with these long flights so you know that sometimes that means 11:00pm or maybe the next day. HAHA But that is the plan for now. You are all invited to the airport to welcome him home and to his Homecoming talk on the 18th. I will keep you posted on any changes.
Daniel will be coming home the 9th of December so we are also excited for that too! What a month.

A VISIT FROM GENERAL AUTHORITIES

... This week we had 2 general authorities come here to our stake conference to divide our stake into 2 and to speak. It was awesome. U remember that one guy that had a thick accent that talked in conference the other week. He was here haha and i got to meet him. He was from like new Zealand or somthing and the other was Elder Nelson from Twin falls idaho. It was aweosme to see them. It was also way awesome to see our stake split. My old bishop was teasing me cause i was here for the branch when it split to 2 wards and then for the division of the stake too. He told the new stake president i shoudl have to speak. I told him haha i dont want to speak that would not be cool. Especially if there are general authoritys there. It was pretty dang cool though. We had some sweet teaching appointments this week. One person we found tried to pay us for our study with them haha. I told my comp he should of took it but he just shook his head haha i was just messing with him. We were able to give some sweet blessings this week too and had some awesome lessons with some people! i love being here apart of this work. Its been really hot though man. It drains you and you just get all sweaty!
That is sick chelsea came home. Who did she hitch a ride with??? YA! its nuts that i have only had 3 areas haha i dont know of anyone else in my mission that has ever been like that. 4 is not very many at all and i only had 3! But im way cool with that. I hate moving areas and i love it this way. Its just an answered prayer for me... My comp is doing pretty good with the language... He is defiantly getting better and we;re having a lot of fun and getting a lot of work done. We are really starting to build up our teaching record and should be getting a LOT of people to church pretty soon. All we are teaching are families so that is AWESOME and we are starting to get the ward pumped about our work too :). Man that is crazy that chelsea already is getting into dating... I mean i think all that free food will be nice for her but i remember reading that she wasnt going to date the first year??? Sounds like everything is going pretty good at home.

THE MTC BATCH

POWER!

YA we were the onse sister Carlos was taking about we just barley got power like last friday night after having a brown out for 10 days... Everything in our fridge just went horrible and there was mold all up in it so we just didnt open it tell the other day and then it got GROSS!!! we cleaned it earlier. It was not a fun job. My comp is cool. We get along great and we've been working hard. This week we got like 16 new investigators and a few of them are really starting to progress. We are really building up a nice teaching pool again and im so excited to see what kind of things we are going to be able to do with these next 7 weeks we have together. So everything is going really good! Having 4 peopl in a apartment is hecktic of course but it is WAY fun. Everything has been going really good as far as the work and im excited to see waht we can get started for us in this next week. We are working hard right now trying to fill all hours of our day with productive work and seem to be doing a pretty good job with that thus far. Everything is going great!

AN UPDATE FROM THE MISSION HOME

RIVER FLOODED BY TYPHOON PEDRING

Two typhoons in one week, but third one was diverted
We did suffer through two typhoons last week. Another one was predicted for this Wednesday but it's course changed and it went south. We actually had few rain clouds that day but nothing much. Some of our missionaries are still without power, but most have it back now. It seems like the worst hit areas were around Santiago. We were there on Tuesday and surprised to see so many huge trees uprooted and the river so swollen. All of our missionaries are now back in their apartments. We are very grateful that the third typhoon missed us!!! We Feel Our Savior's Love.
This weekend is General Conference. We view it a week late since we are a day earlier than the US. We are all excited to be spiritually feed this weekend!
I'm way behind on blog updates and will try to rectify that in the next few days! It's been a very busy couple of weeks. A new wonderful batch of missionaries, zone leader council and lots more. Thanks to all for their love and concern for this mission.

A TWO TYPHOON WEEK

GETTING A NUMBER FOR AN INVESTIGATOR


A RECENT CONVERT'S HOME AFTER THE STORM

THE CHURCH WAS A MESS BUT SURVIVED. MANY PEOPLE SLEPT THERE AFTER THE STORM BLEW THEIR HOUSES AWAY

HITCHING A RIDE TO SAVE SOME PEOPLE FROM THE STORM



Alright, so this week was a CRAZY one. So last tuesday we woke up to a really loud noise that turned out to be sheet metal getting blown all over by the wind. So i got up to check it out and it was pouring rain and the wind was strong. So we went out and fastened everything down we didnt want to fly away, then we went inside and started studying. After Personal study we couldnt stand it anymore, and even though the storm was raging full boar we went out to save some lives :). we never got a text we werent suppose to and i couldnt stand the thought that our investigators houses were just getting mobbed in the storm, so we put on some clothes and went out to see what damaged had already taken place. As soon as we left the gate it was BAD. there was telephone lines flying everywhere and a HUGE tree had fallen on our neighbors truck and just smached it and destroyed the telephone wires. It was bad. So we climed through all that and went to one of our investigators house we had knew would have gotten destroyed by such a storm. We were right. When we got there it was completely gone. I have some pics ill send to u later but it was BAD> i felt so bad. So we went to the front and found them. Dad was happy as ever just laughing and asking how we were doing. We told him we were just worried about him and how he was. As soon as we found out he was fine we went to the church to see how we could help. We found a few bishops and the gave us a little update. Then we went back out to our other investigators. Almost everyones house was completely destroyed. Sheet metal was flying everywhere and cords were too. While all this is going down we, as Zls, are getting all kinda of calls about everything, trying to get everyone safe and what not. Plus that was the day we had to announce transfers and so we had to get that list and send it to everyone while we were under this little shack, it was the only place we found service. It was all Nuts. Eventually the storm died down and we werent sure were to start with everything. We went and checked on a few other people who also just got destroyed and it was crazy. One of our recent converts house had completely gotten wiped away, as in there was no more house. I think we have a pic of that too. At the same time everyone was getting flooded like crazy. So me and my comp went and bought machetes to help get trees out of the way and houses all cleaned up. It is like the most effective tool after a storm haha its funny. eventually we got home and we soaked to the bone, freezing, and exhausted from it all. We took like a Hour rest then went back out. That was just tuesday. Wednesday we continued to clean and help people but at 2 o'clock we went to a fireside for the Departing Missionaries. Thats the pictures i included in this email. It was so sad to see these guys go. I love them and 2 or the 3 were my comps that i had become tight with and the other i was his DL for a while and we got close too. It was all pretty sad to see them go but it was awesome at the same time. THen thursday we just worked and got a few lessons in after doing osme more service. Friday we had transfer day and thats when i got my knew comp, elder Landeen. He is a stud and is brand new. Im really excited for our cycle together., He is from West Jordan, Utah. He seems really excited for the work and kinda has the same point of view of what he want to get out of his mission which makes everything aweosme!!! Transfer day was aweosme. I got to talk to pres and he almost made me cry. He was praising me way to much, more then i could ever deserve. I was so excited to get stepped down and just become a regular missionary again with no callings. Its the best feeling ever! Just being a regular missionay and training is the best calling i think there is in this world. I love it so much and im so excited for the work we are going to get done this cycle. I got to sit and talk with some of my old comps too. My son, Elder Jackson is now a zone leader and comps with Elder Hardman and they are going to tear it up. Pres loves Jackson and thats why he gave me my comp he said, cause my last kid came out so good and he knows this one has great potential too. Im so excited. Then... Saturday we woke up again to ANOTHER crazy storm. People just got torn apart again! We went out and helped everyone we could again and it was just horrible. I have HATED not being able to teach but loving that we have been able to help so many people out. Sunday we had a good work day. Its hard though cause we have to teach with candle light only due to the block out we have had for almost a week now. It kinda stinks but is kinda cool at the same time. So there is my week in a nut shell. So many other things happened too i just cant really write them all cause its just too much. The lord has been really protecting his missionaries and none have gotten too hurt. I Love being out here and i hope we can get everything back to normal so we can acctually start working again. But the news is we have atleast one more coming in a few days. We'll see... Well i love you all and im thankful for all your prayers. Know that god is watching over all of us. THANK YOU!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Another Typhoon is Heading Our Way
We just got word that another typhoon is due to hit our area pre-dawn tomorrow morning and is now categorized as a Level 3. Level 3 will bring high winds and lots of rain, but nothing that should keep us down too long. We have evacuated a number of our missionaries to higher ground as lots of rain is expected. All other companionships have been instructed to have several days of water, food and candles on hand. We are prepared!
Most of us just got back power since the typhoon on Tuesday. We will update this blog if we have power as soon as it passes. Please join with us in prayer that these storms will be tempered and somehow diverted.

Thanks to all for your concern.

TYPHOON PEDRING

Typhoon Pedring
We received word that a typhoon was headed our way but it was categorized as a Level 2, which means lots of rain and wind but nothing too crazy. In the middle of the night it was elevated to a Level 3, still nothing compared to the huge Typhoon Juan we had in October 2010. The worst part of this typhoon actually bypassed us and swerved more towards Manila. So there is lots of flooding and problems in Manila. Throughout our mission we have had massive tree damage and lots of brown outs (no electricity) there are a few areas where missionaries have been moved because of flooding, but all in all we are in great shape. We feel very fortunate! (The mission home and office has been without electricity since yesterday morning 32 hours so far. We have a generator so we have a few lights, refrigeration, fans and the Internet! Many of our missionaries are using candles for the next few days. Luckily the temperatures are cooler than normal so the heat isn't too bad.
Our sources in Manila told us that we could go ahead and send our departing missionaries on the bus this evening. They say the problems in Manila are more in the side roads and that the major highway to Manila is passable. So with a prayer in our hearts for a safe journey we put our 11 belved departing missionaries on the bus. Tomorrow they will go to the Manila temple and then catch flights, buses and boats to their homes on Friday.

Well my week went ok. We did have some training stuff that happened. We had our zone conference this week and it was awesome. Makes me want to become better. I really love our president he is so good to us missionaries. You can really tell that all he wants is for us to be successful. For the rest of our week our work was super slow. We have been finding a ton these past few weeks and nothing is coming about it, but we cant really control that. We're just going to keep doing it until our teaching pool is full again. But due to those kind of problems we weren't able to teach as much this week. We have a ton of good things still happening though. We have some awesome investigators that are really ready for baptism, they just have little problems we still have to work out first. But they are awesome and once we can get over these problems they really will make some great members. Its just kinda frustrating. Sometimes it just seems like were stuck with them and there isnt thing else we can do. But almost always God provides and it ends up ok. I love being out here. The work is going great and even though we arnt getting as many lessons and stuff, we are still working as hard as ever. THanks for all the love and support. Its so important in this work, i really need it. LOve YOU!

PARADE IN SANTIAGO

this week was a pretty sick one. We had a lot of good things go down. As far as our work goes, we are still doing a pretty good job. We continue to do all we can to help our investigators and stuff and its going really goo. We have some sick investigators. The only problem is, they all have hard problems to overcome and stuff. Like stopping there bad smoking habits. And getting their papers ready to get married. Just a bunch of things that are pretty dificult to do. Its frustrating but ok at the same time cause they all will be amazing members when they do become members and pretty much all of them are families. Last wednesday we went to our leadership meeting and it went great. Learned a ton and i got to talk with president. He is a stud. I always love being around him. I got to talk to a bunch of old comps and stuff. It was legit. I relised that all my old comps that are still in the field are leaders and were at that meeting. It was sick. So for these pictures. THe first one is of a baptism we had. Her name was gracia and she was a part member. She had a strong testimony and chose me to baptize her. It was good. She will be a good member too. The o9ther pictures were all taken that same day. The once where we are with all those police were sweet. We ran in a parade full of over 200 police and then 2 american missionaries. We ended up jogging 11/2 Kilos and it was perfect cause it lad straight to our next appointment. Then later that night we met this guy in this other picture. He is the funniest guy ever. He lived in american since he was 13 and has traveled the entire world. He was way nice and fead us lamb that night. We really dont even know him but it was fun talking to him and getting to meet him. Then the other is just us and a few members. Our fellowshipper, Jeff, is going on his mission now in Indonesia and is leaving this saturday sp we took some last minute pics with him. Im going to miss that punk, ive really gotten to know him good over these last several months.
Well as you can tell everything is going awesome. THe work continues to role forward and we are having fun in the process. Love ya all and wish ya the best. Take care!!!

WET, WET, WET

Well this week has been another full one. We had a lot go on and it just made the week fly! Last Monday we had a pretty sweet p-day playing football and stuff, but when it came to the work that evening we got poured on! I think about 4 out of the 7 night we just got rained on like crazy. Its not fun. Tuesday we had our district meeting and found out who was being transferred. I was SOOOO happy when I found out I was still staying here. The rest of the day I was just way excited I didn’t have to say goodbye to everyone and pack and stuff. Everyone has been giving me a ton of grief cause ive been here so long but I love it… Thursday was transfer meeting and I got to see and talk with everyone. It was weird seeing some people for the last time! At the meeting all my batch moved up and there are now 5 of us zone leaders and 1 A.P. haha. That’s pretty cool. Visiting with them all was way worthwhile. We also got instructions from president to find a new house to move into ASAP cause he is going to put 1 more set of missionaries in and our house right now is not big enough for 4. So that was one thing we really focused on this week and we actually did find one. It was be nice to move into it. Im not sure how long ill be there but im hoping the rest of my time here. Saturday was one of the busiest days of my mission. In morning we had 2 serve projects. A house we had to check out, and a interview we had to go too. One of the service projects we did was just my comp and I and we moved this HUGE pipe thing of cement from one place to another. It was by pure tactic we were able to maneuver it and it was SOOOOO HEAVY!! It was fun though. The inverter view went well and she will be baptized this coming Saturday. We also met up with president and he took us out for McDonalds. It was SWEET. Its funny how mcdonalds is the biggest treat here haha. Then right after that we attended a baptism that went pretty good. The whole week just seemed pretty dang busy. It made it fly, and it was fun, but I’m cool with things kind of slowing down a little bit. Our work is still going awesome and we still have a lot of great investigators. The work is just moving on. Im so glad I didn’t get transferred and am already nervous for this coming transfer. I hope I get to just end here!!!

I just want to make the best out of my time, and untill now i can say i have done that. I dont want to ruin it here at the end and i have not plans too. I want to actually become way better. i love it here. Its kinda getting hard just cause we've been finding a lot lately and people just aren't letting us in like usually. I feel like its just a test, and we are finding some people sweet people so no time is wasted.
This week was pretty sweet. Tuesday we had a good district meeting, then went and got a lot of good work in. Wednesday was equally successful and we got to the house right at 9:30 we worked all day. The entire week was pretty much like that. Just exhausting. We fell asleep without eating again the other night we were so tired. Within 20 min of us getting in the house we were out haha. Sunday went good cause we got a lot of work done and all our investigators are going awesome. Im still just loving it up here. Lot of work has been going on and i love being a part of this. My testimony about this church and its teaching is constantly growing and i love how its changing point of view on life. Its awesome.

Well the week has been going awesome. We did get a lot of good lessons in and it made the week fly. This week we had splits, i ending up going with the new kid and it was hilarious. It made me remeber being new and stuff and brought back a lot of memories. It seems like i was just there and at the same time like that was a LONG time ago. Hard to explain but it was a good day. We got rained on quite a bit this week. Wednesday we woke up to a text that there was a huge typhoon on its way and we needed to make sure everyone is safe. We were suppose to get nailed but all the sudden the storm just took another direction. But it was still really really rainy and we got soaked everyday. They yell at us for not using unbrellas but we hate them and when its as rainy as it had been they dont even do anything. But besides that the week went pretty dang smoothly. Lots of teaching and finding new people to teach. We have a lot of potential right now we just need to get them all progressing! im still loving it though. We are getting a lot of families to accept it and its just making it really really awesome. Families are the best.

Well ya asked what i had taught this week, i dont even know how to answer that question. We taught a lot of diffrent kind of lessons. We have a lot of investigators on diffrent phases of the repentant and conversion proccess so we have been teaching a lot of diffrent kinda of lesson, but they have all been way good so its been really really fun and rewarding. We are still kinda struggling with getting some people to come to church. Its not even that they dont want too. They actually really really want too! its just that every week somehting comes up and then they dont end up making it. Its kinda frustrating but i love them and they're worth the trouble cause they are all families and i LOVE teaching whole families! The work has just been going really smoothly. Its been SOOO hot latly though. From about 10 to 5 its just way way way hot and you sweat soooo much! its really annoying sweating so much in your white shirt and tie and stuff, then having to teach while dripping sweat is kinda a diffrent experience... But we deal with it :). I still love being out here and apart of it all. God still has really been blessing us and work continues to move forward. We had our zone meeting this week. That went pretty good. Man i dont even know what to say these days. Everything has just been going really good! i love it all and im thankful to be here.
Love ya mom. THanks for the letter it keeps me updated and for some reason just hearing that everything is going ok and that everyone is doing alright makes me want to work so much harder. Thanks for everything Have a Great Week!

The Rainy Season 2

Well the week was another awesome one. Lots of things happened and they were all good. Last tuesday we had some splits with one of our new district leaders here. I was able to work with him and it was sweet! we had a good time and got a ton of work in. We have been having the craziest storms ever lately but last tuesday we were walking in the middle of no where and all of the sudden we got surrounded by a huge storm that literally just appeared and it was SO cool to see just rolling in. Like nothing i have ever seen. Cant really explain it, its just cool. Thats pretty much how its been lately, it gets really really hot in the day, as in overbearing. Then all the sudden, sometime in the afternoon, we just get POURED on. Its weird but pretty cool too. Man i dont know exactly what to write about my week. Basta a lot of good stuff it happening. We still have a lot of good investigators and continue to add onto that. We had a sweet baptism this last saturday who was SOOO ready and her husband really want to be baptized now to cause he saw a pic of the temple and really wants to get married inside it. He is a cool guy and im excited to get him ready now too. Besides all that though no injures or sicknesses, its all just going good. The Zone is still doing way awesome and we had another 8 baptisms last saturday and everyone is continuing to find more and prepair others so it just keeps cycling through. I love it, they're all AWESOME!

ELDER RINER AND ELDER VALDEZ

. This week was so good. ZLC meetings, Baptisms, the zone is doing great, no problems, we have another baptism next saturday. Its all going way good.

Thanks for the info mom that was great. Sounds like it was quite a wild week, that makes them FLY. The transfer went way awesome. Sending a comp home was weird but getting another stud made it all better. My knew comp is way cool, and a hard worker. Im so excited for this cycle, but im kinda scared. I know it going to FLY:(... I DONT WANT THIS TO BE OVER. This week was wierd. We had a bagyo that was a number 2, it was pretty strong, but we never got the lock down text, so i went out and worked.... it was funny, everyone was telling us to get indoors cause the sheet metal was going to cut off out heads. It was a reasonable concern, but... it was way to fun walking out side getting SOAKED to the bone and teaching people in the middle of a bagyo. They couldnt believe we were still working. Needless to say all my stuff has just been getting soaked, that isnt fun. Besides that though we received a ton of new people in our zone that i am excited to meet and im really looking forward to what kinda things we can accomplish this cycle as a zone. THe zone is doing better then it ever has, and i just dont want that to change. our work is also going really good. We will have 2 more baptisms this next week and we have been finding some new potential investigators so im really excited for our work. No complaints. I know i am getting way skinny though, everyone reminds me of it everyday, but there really isnt anything i can do about it.... I just get sick and its all gone... im not to worried about it though. ima just get big when i get home.

Man im loving it out here mom, the work is awesome, my comp is a stud and i am always just way happy. Hope everything at home is going good too.

BANUE RICE TERRACES

Man my comp is going home in 2 days. Its nuts, i cant belive it!!! But im also excited for my knew comp. We're going to own. We have so many investigators right now that are progressing and the work is just going awesome. God continues to bless us with a ton of work and people that are ready. So we had 6 baptisms this week and we put together a Stake baptism that went really good. Our whole zone brought all the investigators and we had over 18 baptised in our whole zone. Which is a TON just for one week!!! President came and it went really good. Dang it i want to send you these pics but i dont have the cord. next week ill defiantly have to. But besides that not to much has happened. And at the same time a lot has. I went on 2 splits this week trying to train and help other missionaries and they both turned out really successful!!! i love being a missionary, and a leader so i can help other fulfill the purpose too.
Banue was so sick mom, i loved it. Its a story for another time though, we are low on time and i had to write all you guys. Next week ill send you a bunch of SICK pictures. Love ya mom, thanks for all ya do!!!

man i wouldnt have tooken stud in, i would have just shot him... Its just like that, they always die. When i get a dog i will make sure its safe first. Man that stinks though. i feel bad for all these dogs of ours.
Well sounds like things are a littly hectic at home... Glad i dont have to deal with taht worthless nonsense... Well are work went great this week. We had our zone meeting which went awesome. After it i got to have a little interview with president which was awesome too! i love him so much, he is just an awesome guy. After that it was our zones turn to do "apartment checks" so that took up a lot of time... It was cool and all but we have a TON of work... In the end it all worked out great. Our biggest goal was to get people ready for their interviews this last weekend, which we accomplished, and they all Passes so far. So as of now we have 5 people that will be baptised and there should be one more that is being interviewd this tuesday. So everything has been going good. ON top of all that, we have also been finding some new investigators that are ready for the gospel so we were able to give other people some baptism goal dates too. The work just keeps on rolling... And thats exactly how i LOVE it. Im so glad i still ahve another cycle here. if it were my choice i would just end my mission here... My comp is hanging in there. His last cycle is exactly how i want mine to be. You would never guess he goes home in 9 days! i love it, its good. So everything s going good. Im loving the work, and even with the distractions we still got a TON of work done. THese people that are about to be baptised are amazing too. they're all very ready for it and im excited for this weekend. We are actually having a stake baptism so its going to be great. A ton of people are getting baptised. The zone is doing amazing right now too. Numbers are higher then EVER, and its just so cool. Well the missions going great. it jut keeps on rolling with no signs of slowing down. Thanks for everything, i love ya, stay safe!!!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

We do tract whenever we have time but right now we dont really have time cause our teaching pool is full! So when are you guys going on this trip? sounds like it will be fun! Its the 4th right now and i asked pres for permision to watch the other side of heaven. he said we could so thats what we are going later. Sounds like everyone is staying busy at the house. thats good. love to hear that your all doing good!
Well this week was pretty sweet! we had a lot of time to work and stuff so it was great. We ended up having quiet a bit of lessons and 20 of our investigators went to church yesterday. it was SOOO awesome! We should have a lot of baptisms this cycle and a ton next cycle too. i think we have 14 with date. and these others that are going to church should have a date by the end of the week. 4 of our investigators passed their interview last saturday so they will all be baptized this following week. god has really been blessing us with a ton of work. we even found a knew family that wants to be taught. we only visited her friday, and she went to church on sunday. She is so cool and wil defianlty end up getting baptized with her family. im excited to start teaching her this week. But the whole week was just awesome. im really excited about our work here right now. The only bad part about this week started sunday morning at about 3:30. i woke up really sick again with a high fever :(. I went to church feeling like CRUD and just had to endure. When we got home i tryed to take a nap but my head was killing so i checked my temp and i was only like 102.6. My whole body was just really week though. i took some medicen which helped me work for a little bit but i eventually had to come home and just rest. All yesterday my fever refused to leave. Last night was one of the worst nights of my life. I didnt sleep more then 2 hours, i was pukeing, and just felt horrible the whole night. This morning i felt a little better but i still need to rest. after i email im just going to go back to the house a rest, then were going to watch the other side of heaven. so that will be nice.

SAN JUAN DAY

man it sounds like everything is going awesome at home. thats so awesome to hear as a missionary...

Well as far as my week goes, i never seem to have to much to say except everything is going GREAT. im just so humbled for all the blessing that we are receiving. its just a humble experience seeing so many people progress and just being blessed so much that u feel like its to much! we have 14 baptismal dates and 16 of our investigators went to church yesterday. All of these dates should DEFIANTLY end up getting baptised too, its just all about getting them past their problems and then getting them a STRONG testimony. We even had about 4 that were GOING to get baptised moved away. so that was pretty disappointing but we are almost overwhelmed as it is so i have NO complaints, i know they will still all end up getting baptismed too. so last tuesday edwards came and that was sweet. First, all the leaders of the zones had a 1 hour meeting exclusively for the leaders. that was awesome, really learned how to help others and be a really good leader... then after that everyone came in and we have a amazing 4 hours of a strong spirit and lots of learning. I dont even know what to write about it, basta, it was fantastic! after this we ate like kings! im going ot get so fat when i get home. good food is SUCH a treat here, and when the chances comes around, there isnt any holding back. we also had a fireside that night that he taught at and it was for parents. it went really good to and i learned a lot about dealing with kids... pretty worthless knowledge for me write now, but i figure it will come in handy some day :). The rest of our week after that went pretty smooth too. One of our elders got sick so we had to visit and take care of him for a little bit, so we had interferences with the work, but nothing to much, and we still ended up with about 40 lessons taught. it was a good week!
So this week we also had a sweet holiday called "san juan day" its like john the baptist day and its just like an excuse the kids use to through water at u as u go by. we had a rude introduction to this day. That moring we were goin to ramon to observe there weekly planing and i saw this guy with a bucket of water, cocked, and ready to through it. By time it really crossed my mind i was soaked! we were inside a van too. i had no idea about it either and if he would have stopped the van i probably would have went over and put the kids face in the bucket, i was MAD. But later we figured it out and bought water guns, which we use to shoot other people :). its a SWEET holiday. This morning we went and played football. it was sweet! on the way home we saw this sweet wreck. this guy on a motorcycle trying to swerve and miss the dog that ran out in front of him, and wasnt quiet able to make it. the dog died and the guys motorcycle slid across the road while it went tumbling after it. it happened write infront of us. fortunately the guy walked away. the dog was dead, but thats what it deserved. Man i wish i really had time to write you all the things that really happen here haha. but i would never have the time for that :(. INGAT!!!

thanks for the letter it was awsome. sounds like summer has defiantly started! the trek sounds like its going to be fun. i laughed at what you said about kellon being carries by everyone but his own father haha. you also asked if i had gotten hurt from in our csp; Nah, that was way fun though,
My week has been another awesome one! We had a lot of things happen. last tuesday we got the transfer list, and i found i wasnt getting moved! i was so excited! i dont wana move, its not cool, and now this meens i automatically get 2 more cycles here. can u believe i have only had 3 cycles and will probably only end up with 4. i personally love it this way!!! wendesday we went and droped a kid in our zone off that was going home and got to see everyone; it was way awesome! we just said good bye, and it was way wierd knowing i was going to see them for the last time, cause i had come to know the majority of them. Thursday we went to cauayan again and attended the transfer meeting to see who the knew people in our zone were. This next cycle is going to be another awsome one, im stocked! then friday and saturday we worked. Saturday night was HORRIBLE though. That night i had gone to bed with a splitting head ache and woke up in the middle of the night just FREEZING. i turned off my fan and got all roled up in me covers with my head all inside and i was still shivering i was so cold. i could NOT sleep. then i looked to see if my comp was cold and he was all sprawled out with his fan on full blast. i had such a bad head ache and couldnt go to sleep for ever, but in the end, ended up getting a little, and then woke up the next moving and went straight to church. i had the worst head ache the whole day and felt way week, but we i was able to deal with it. we also got a ton of work in and it turned out to be a awesome day, besides the fact i felt like garbage the whole day. i woke up this morning feeling a lot better though and i hope it will go all go away soon so it doesnt affect out work. But i have a FUNNY story, its not really funny but its interesting. so yesterday we had splits, and i was teaching at one of our investigators house. it was going good, and tatay was listening really good, when all the suddend i noticed there was atleast 10 diffrent rats running everywhere, all shapes and sizes from HUGE chicken eating ones to little babies jumping across my feet. it was sick, they would fight and get all over everything, and they eat there chickens. I was so destracted by them i just had to ignore it and then keep going with the lesson. but im pretty sure i saw atleast 20 diffrent rats and they were all diffrent. good thing i aint scared of them or i couldn'd have done that. BUt its all apart of living here. I love it here. This is my comps last cycle and he wants to make it a good one. we have to much potensial its crazy.

SERVING OTHERS CAN BE FUN!

Mom i got that package a long time ago... it was awesome thank you very much. im not sure what i want in the next one. just more pics and the scar remover stuff. You dont even need to load it with candy cause i dont wana get fat. ive actually trimed all my fat off and all the women here are getting mad at me now and saying i looked a LOT better when i was bigger. But thats just how it is here. if ur FAT then your healthy. i kid you not and im not exaggerating at all... so, ya just send whatever. maybe u can send a bottle of vanilla so i can make cookies and stuff they dont really have vanilla here... and u should send pudding mix... and like browny mixes and stuff. just mixes and we'll figure it out here :)>
Man we, even as leaders, are able to teach more, or as much anyone else i know... its just blessings though, god has really, really blessed us with success. But we have to use up a lot of time on our calling though too... this week we had district meeting, Service project and interviews we had to do this week that kinda distracted us from our work, but still, we were able to get a LOT of lessons in and ended up with around 40 or so... its just really been awesome, but it really makes the time FLY!!! this is the last week in the cycle and thursday is transfer day. im still not sure if either me or my comp with be moved but either way it doesnt really matter, to be honest, i really dont wana go!!! we have soooo much potensial. yesterday we had 17 of our investigators go to church!!! that is a TON. The work is just going really good right now, thats about all i can say about that. Its crazy how true our church is. i started reading the hand book of instruction and its funny how all of it is mostly based off of common sense. I also, in the little free time we have, started reading this aweosme book that a proffesor at byu wrote called, "Believing Christ" its soo good i would love for you to read it, you would LOVe it! but it just talks about how most young people, and even some old, dont really grasp the true essence or root of our faith. they believe it but dont fully understand it. it just explains how much we REALLY REALLY need christ in our lives and how everything should be focused off that. its just somehting u have to read, then it makes so much sense! its just a really good book! i, for one, did NOT know a tenth as much about christ as i should have or now do, before my mission. But now that i have learned, and studding all about him and his life, it makes is so much clearer, and life is just better... Christ is the center of my faith and ive just been really thankful for all i have learned about him, and his role, in my, and our salvation. I also, most likly, would have never figured all that out if i didnt come out here. my mission has helped me sooo much, i LOVE it. i couldnt put into words how thankful i am for my mission and all i am able to learn, and mst of all, that im able to serve. THanks for the support mom, i love ya, hope everything continues to go well at home. INGAT!!!
PS this picture is from our last service project i jumped off the roof into the pile of sand... it was SICK!!!!

SPECIALIZED ZONE LEADER COUNCIL-- THE MISSION BRAIN TRUST

On Wednesday our zone leaders arrived by 4:00 pm for an overnight zone leader council. We called it our Mission Brain Trust where our leaders put together their ideas to change some of our mission policies and direction.

They came prepared to speak about a quote from President Monson which says, "Never let a problem to be solved overshadow a person to be loved." When they arrived they were handed a list of top concerns for our mission. They were asked to select the top 4 and rank them in order of importance to them. From that we selected four topics. Then the zone leaders selected a plastic egg from a bowl. In it was their team assignments. We had four groups of four elders. Their team captains then drew out a card with their assignment. Each group was given 90 minutes to create a presentation expounding on their topic, they could use lds.org as a resource and ask for help with object lessons etc. Their presentation was to be interactive and at the end they should have an action plan in place that each zone could roll out in the near future.


After a delicious dinner of President's Chicken Cacciatore and a big green salad, the first two groups did their presentations. Wow! They totally blew us away. They were so insightful and well done! We were totally impressed.

EMERGENCY! I NEED RECIPES!

SO WE GOT THIS URGENT TEXT FROM COLTON TELLING US TO GET ON THE COMPUTER BECAUSE HE NEEDS TO TALK TO MOM RIGHT NOW! WE WERE IN SEMINARY GRADUATION FOR CHELSEA AND TEXTING HIM TO SEE WHAT WAS SO URGENT. HE WROTE BACK AND SAID WELL IT WAS KIND OF AN EMERGENCY BECAUSE HE WAS SO SICK OF THE FOOD THERE HE WAS GOING TO DIE IF HE DIDN'T GET SOME RECIPES! HAHA THATS THE KIND OF EMERGENCIES I LIKE!-Janae
man you all must be BUSY haha. you were the only one i got anything from, and from what you wrote i seemed like you were in a hurry too... well im glad its like that. thats awesome. i hope everything went good with the graduation and stuff too. man that really stinks for chelsea! what i dumbo man that would have been nice for them both to be working there with the gas and everything. she better find another job somewhere around there she needs money!
Well the week went really good. i did not lose to cobbs in pingpong, i didnt even play pingpong and if i did i would have destroyed him... we played basketball, then when that was done we watched rescues down under. MAN I MISS DISNEY so much. that night there was so cool though it was aweosme being able to talk with them all...
As far as our work its been AWESOME! we had a ton go to church again and we had a ton of lessons even with that big meeting we got over 40 lessons and have so many progressing investigators its almost overbearing. but we can do it, im just really really thankful for the trust god has in us, the blessings are just pouring in!

DOG

Well earlier this week i had a split with our district leader that is Samoan. it was a sweet split, i loved it. We ended up having a ton of lessons and it just learned a lot together and i learned a lot about him. we had a good talk about goals and stuff and ended the split REALLY good. Then, after that, actually before that, we had a Zone meeting that went really good. i was happy with how it went. we set up a huge game, that game were they have to find a bunch of clues and it ends up leading to the prize, ya, that; and it was fun! We also had something called. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE this week. it was also pretty dang fun, full of games and just stuff we can use in our mission that isnt directly related to missionary work, but can make a diffrence. like budgeting and exercising and being prepaired. just a lot of little things. we had 2 zones all meet here in santiago so i got to see a lot of other missionaries. it was way cool. Friday is a historical day for me, it the day i FINALLY got to eat DOG!!! it was funny, it was the snack of a bunch of drunk people. some how i found out of heard that it was dog they were eating, so i asked to confirm; it was! so i asked for some and they gave it to me. it was SO GOOD. it really tasted really good i kid you not. but i was just excited because at last, i had now tasted DOG :). so quiet a bit actually happened this week that kinda distracted us a little from our work. but, even with all that, we still ended up getting a ton of work in, and had one of the best weeks EVER. yesterday was SOOOO awesome. we ended up with my personal record high of 20 people at church. it was so awesome. there was a TON. god has just really blessed us with a lot of peolpe that are ready for the gospel. SO it just been way awesome. and not just our work. but the whole ZONE has improved a ton this week. the kis were like higher then they have been all year and you can just tell that everyone is getting more focused on the work. its aweosme. i LOVE this work. i also had a pretty SWEET testimony building experience this week, when we ended up being led to the house of a Jahovas witnesses priest... his is only 25 too but really smart when it comes to the bible. it was cool being about to share with him, but we also how found out a TON about there religion too. he is a way good teacher and i personally learned a lot from him, but one of the biggest things i have learned from my experience there was the truthfulness of the verse in the scriptures where it points out that the bible will be changed and end up being a huge stumbling block for many. man i can totally see how they could get soooo confused. they base everything they say off of what they read, but there is just so much missing and so much that they just dont completly understand. i remeber just testifying of a living prophet and how he guides gods church so there wont be any confusion and ire, and just he over all importance of living prophets. it ended up really good. we left feeling pretty good about it all. there were some times were it got really intense though ahah it was so cool, like you could see them getting frustrated and kinda mad but we tried our best not to bash and just to testify. SO, even though there was a little yelling from there part, it never got to out of hand. we actually have a return appointment again. this will be the 3rd. im excited. we left them a book of morman cause they gave us there other "simplified" version of the bible and so i really want to see if they read the book of morman at all cause before they were really confused about it. Well the week has been exciting, and awesome. next week we will have 3 baptisms of 2 of my most BELOVED investigator, i really LOVE them and they are SOOO ready to be members of this church. Love ya all, hope everything is going good.

A VISIT TO MABINI

MAN BUMBER about that 4 by 1, im sorry about that that is too bad! sounds like everything went pretty dang good though. i love hearing about it, i cant belive its all going by so fast, track will be over by next week and then everyone will be graduated... WEIRD! Oh BTW, before i forget. if you could send me some dermitex or something that would help me get rid of this scar on my leg i would be very thanksful. i was looking for some stuff here but its really expensive if i buy it here but i need to try to get it off before it get to long. THANK YOU!

Well my week has been CRAZY. so much stuff has happened this week now that i look back on it. but some how, despite it all, we were still able to get a LOT of missionary work done. Tuesday was weekly planning and a ton of work. Last Wednesday we had a huge meeting again with all the missionary leaders in the whole mission, that was fun. we talked about knew principles that they want us to focus on in our zones and districts and just how we can make the mission better. These things are always way aweosme and i always learn a ton i wana take back to my zone and teach. The only bad thing was that, that meeting almost took up the whole day. we just got home and went straight to work untill night time! We also got SOAKED that day. its now the rainy season and it rains a TON. it gets scorching hot during the day and then rains at night, as in POURS down rain, you get soaked... But its all good as long as they will still let us in to teach. Thrusday we had to do our weekly planning because friday we went and observed at others. we observed at one of our district leaders who is in a harder area and is struggling to get it going. it was good. at first we got lost and couldnt find there house but after asking a few people, and doing some oyms :) we found a member her lead us to the house. it went good. Saturday was the day i got to go back to MABINI!!! man that was so fun. we left the house at about 9 and went to ilagan first and stoped at the closest store our hole region has to a AMERICAN store... it was awesome. i was flabbergasted :). we stopped there to eat. we ate at a SWEET restraunt but it was pretty funny cause we were eating with our hands and im pretty sure a lot of people were suprised haha. just imagine and these philipinoes using utensils but the 2 Americans are eating with their hands :) it was cool. then we finished up there and went straight to mabini. it was a LONG drive but soooo worth it. we got there a little early so we went around to some of the people i baptized and they were way excited to see me :) it was SICK. they are all way strong. but i found out they all knew i was coming cause they had announced it last sacrament meeting. ive never seen so many people attend a baptism here in my life haha. and one of the best things was one of the people that was baptised was the husband of my the women i baptised a long ago. so now there complete in the gospel!!! he was all illicano so we couldnt teach him before but an elder got assigned there that knew illicano so it worked! the coolest thing was i wrote them about 2 months ago and told them not to worry that i knew tatay was going to get baptised. then when i got to nannays she said he had read my note and then the elders started teaching him and he wanted to get baptised. i knew i felt impressed i needed to write them! but that was soooo cool. remy joy is now the young womens leader over there and is doing awesome and the other big family i baptised are way strong! man i cant really explain how happy i was to see them, and way more to see how strong and awesome they were. the only bad part of this whole story was the way home.... MAN the way home was horrible. we were rushed on time and had to get on a bus or we were going to sleeping in illagan so we jumped on a FULL bus going to manilla but that passed through santiago. i ended sitting in the middle isle on a bag of feed... and my comp sat in the middle on someones luggage. it was SOOO uncomfortable and then the worst was it was dark and in the front they were playing a, had to be, rated R movy that was stupid and was the only thing u could see unless u looked straight down at ur feet. so it was sooo hard to avoid that. plus it was unconfortable and we couldnt lay down to sleep. it STANK, i was so jacked wehn we got off. oh, and another thing was while we were on it a earthquake went off. you've probably heard about that. we didnt really feel it because we were on the bus but all the other missionaries felt it :), no one got hurt though so it was all good. then sunday we had a good day. got a lot of work in and a lot of good investigators. god is really blessing our work here and i love it. we had a lot of distractions from our work this week but despite all that we had and aweosme full week. it was just all missionary work which is the best! well i think this letter ended up being really long... we'll i love you all and i hope that you have an aweosme week. INGAT!!!

man it sounds like a BUSY week! that is crazy. man chelsea is getting close to graduating hu?... wow that is wierd. i cant explain how fast time is flying right now! its crazy. its cause the work right now is AWESOME. god is blessing us a ton with a bunch of good investigators that are ready to progress and its awesome! we had 12 go to church yesterday and have 10 with dates. we should have had a ton more go too but we;ll get them there next week. but the work is really going awesome right now and its just really humbiling and im way thankful for the success god is giving us here right now.
Im WAY excited to go back to mabini this weekend. that is going to be way fun! and ive had 4 philipino comps mom.... there is way more philipinoes then americans. but i guess thats just kinda how its worked out for me... im cool with that too i love my comps. this ones name is troy ellis. he is cool. really smart and funny. just a really good comp, doesnt get mad or anything easy and has pacience maybe i can develop taht atribute from him in our time together :)...
Im glad u guys like those videos and stuff. the next onse we watch all be there with you :( man i cant believe thats how close its becomeing... CRAZY. but ya i need to start workng on my stuff when i can, it would be nice to get it done while this guy is my comp, he knows how to do all that and he can help me out and hook me up.
well everything in the field is going really good. were going to have a big meeting with all the leaders again in the whole mission, that will be cool. in our batch there is 6 of us and from what i know 3 are going home early...
i almost forgot to mention, we also had that jubilee celebration here, it was so fun, we had this huge parade were a TON of mormans dressed up in suits and we road all over santiago and we were included. then we went to the colisium were the actually danced and it was sweet! they were good and we watched a TON it was so cool. but after, randomly, a thousand girls asked to get pictures with me... they dont really respect the fact im a missionary, just the FACT that im good look'n.... hahaha love ya