Monday, January 31, 2011

well this week was awesome. i could easily tell u everything but that would take forever and we only have like 2 hours so ill just tell u some sweet stuff that happened and some stuff i learned this week. so we had this one REALLY REALLY awesome lesson to this guy that is a seventh day and to be honest wants to do the write thing but kinda drinks and smokes and stuff. so this was our third time teaching him and it was awesome. so the time before we had comitted him to pray and ask is joseph was a true prophet (just like we do to EVERYONE) and so i asked how it went and he said it was good. and he believed he was a true prophet. so then i went into how knowing that was so important and if that is really true and he is a true prophet it means this is the only church that has that awthority that was restored and he needs to get baptised with it. so i asked him to get baptised. then he was like, ive already been baptised, and he is old and his WHOLE family is 7th day and stuff and he keeps sayiing like all our doctrine is the same and he really wants to be baptised in this church but its pretty much the same and he will just go back to his church ahahah. the cool thing about this whole dumb experience was the spirit that was there. the guy was like, on the verge of tears, and he goes off saying, " u know what elders i am very thankful for u, u have really changed me. i use to be a preist at our church and i was really active and i was do really good. but then i got into some smoking and drinking and pretty soon everything was gone. i stoped goiomng to church and i just got lost in doing these bad things." then he said," i have had TONS of other missionaries, from all the diffrent kinds of churches, but u have been the first one that have really helped me out. he said, ever since u have gotten here i have felt the spirit, look, feel that, he is with us right now, and i have been able to quit all my smoking and drinking and i just dont want to do it anymore, i have really changed and really pray hard now and stuff, and im so thankful for u, and this saturday, im happy to say, ill be going to church for the first time in years...." i was like SOOOOOO MAD, and very happy at the same time. of course we went on about this athority, but at the same time we dont want to just throw it in his face that his is wrong and it will do nothin for him ahaha but im hoping in our next visit we will be able to share with him the BoM and he can get a testimony of that too. i guess i was just so thankful for the spirit that that guy had felt, it was a really cool experience, after it all i said a prayer, and i just wanted the best for the guy and thats pretty much what i said to god and when we were done he was crying.
Another thing that happened this week came while i was just studying and kinda thinking. here i love to study all i can, even if it means getting up earlier then 6 thirty or not eating breakfast, or not cleaning at night cause i just read scriputers tell i cant keep my eyes open, i try to study as much as i can. But in this perticular study time cause i relised something that has had a impact on me this week that im so glad god let me know about. in my mission i have came to the fact that god doesnt have to bless us. he wants to, he loves us and he wants to, but its really important that he test our faith too and doesnt give them to us all the time even when we really need them. so in my mission i have always relied on blessings coming from obedience and trying my best always and hoped to have those blessings. but i have alsways really tryed not to expect any. i remeber beofre my mission i really expected blessings for doing good things, like if i read the scriptures god was going to do everything else for me or if i prayed for gods help, once a week, right before my football game for his help, he was defianlty going to give it to me. but i have learned that is defiantly not true! and now i have hope that they will come, but dont expect them. and that was good, and i kept doing everything i was suppose too. but the thing i noticed while studying is that this thought had actually backfired on me, because i couldnt, with assurance, expect a blessing after i did somthing, it made me not want to do it, and i didnt even relise i was doing that untill i was studying and god just kinda let me know. i had just relised i had kinda faded away from doing things just cause its good and not for the blessing that follows. EXAMPLE: like giving my comp the bowl with more ulam on it, even though he always takes the one with more every chance he can, and like studying a extra 15 min while waiting ofr osmthing while everyone else is goofing and stuff. u know juat all those things that know one owuld ever know about except god. But now, i've relised that its not about getting the blessings, its about doing the better thing. being a virtues person is always the best. Ev er since ive noticed this ive gone back to being that person again that does those things, not knowing or expecting that god will bless me, but just do it and god will take care of what he wants. i guess i just wanted to share that cause, idk, its just a cool little thing i learned for myself and i know it will help anyone who uses this concept in there lives too. just do the right thing, let god take care of the rest. plus u just become a better person and u just feel better.
the mission is awesome. i love it, i dont wana go home. some times me and jackson talk about it, and school and stuff. NO i dont want it. but its all good ill just make sure its the best 2 years i could possible give and i feel really good about the one that is already down... love ya all, take care. man i hope this makes since, i cant speak in english very well anymore....

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Elder Riner's Faithful Companions



Elder Riner's Faithful Companions

Last P-Day Elder Riner came into the office asking if we knew a place he could get his shoes resoled. Last August he had them done. I studied these shoes and saw that the tops were no longer attached to the bottoms. I also saw that the bottom was worn through. There were holes in the soles and small rocks were lodged in the bottoms. These shoes tell me alot about Elder Riner. He is a workhorse. He happily trudges through the bukid (rice fields) day in and day out serving his investigators, members and fellow missionaries as their district leader.
These shoes have been faithful companions to Elder Riner. They have served him well--I'm not sure they can be resoled another time!

Monday, January 24, 2011

LARGE IN STATURE

so it sounds like everything is going pretty good at home. i think, its always been crazy, i thought it would calm down a TON without me there, who is the trouble maker??? man im sure that the hawkins family isnt liek that or all those other crazy morman families. but for ours i dont think there is really anythingu can do, its just in our blood i feel to be wild like that.... so i hope the week is going good. hey mom u need to send me a usb full of pictures, that calendar was awesome but i want some more pictures. please try to send me some of like me in football, like in pads or somthing or like basketball of track. send me like a senior pic or osmthing i wana see if i have changed, im getting way fatter haha idk what to do its out of controle haha buts its all good, idk, im getting stronger too so its all good with me, its just everyone that really knows me from the start of my mission gives me so much crud now! well mom keep up the good work. i love ya, i always think of u too, but its always a good thing, like somthing i learned from u or somthign haha. have a good week.

Monday, January 17, 2011

DEAR JOHNED!


well mom its been a good week. so pretty much i am deciding
that i need to try this. ive thought about it a lot haha and kinda for
a long time. its defiantly not disobedient to write back and forth
like we do but i think it makes my think about u guys more then i
should. i always fight to keep my mind on the work and i think this
will be something taht will help me out a little bit more. but its not
cool cause talking to u guys for like a hour is the best of my week
except when i have awesome experiences. but i totally know what u said
is true about if u put god first everything will just fall in place.
even if the blessings dont come right away, or even in this life. so
chelsea is going to byui ha? man that is going to be hard haha im
never going to be able to see her, im like 90 percent sure im going to
byu utah unless god tells me other wise. well mom i hope everyhting is
going good at home. i got the package and i LOVED IT haha it was
aweosme. the songs are legit too. oh and btw u need to send that USB
back so i can send this one too u, its almost full again with pictures
and ull lovethem haha. well mom thanks for everything. keep up the
good work, ur the best mom and i always use u in my teaching cause ur
the one that taught me everything i first originaly knew haha

Monday, January 10, 2011

BURNING OF THE PANTS


Well, it was a pretty sweet week. Tuesday we had a sweet Distric meeting. My I love our district, it makes being the district leader so easy when theyre all so awesome. Like the whole distrcit is just cool and there is no disobedient ones so I love it J. Then Wednesday was pretty sick, me and elder sanders went to that one huge meeting in cauayan again where every leader in the mission meets… it was sick, I saw a bunch of batch, Naylor, Pincoc, it was all way cool, didn’t want to leave haha. But I leared a lot that I was able to take home with me and use and I cant wait to share it with the district. Plus I hit me one year mark this week, that was sweet, ill send pictures later. We burned my pants, they were trash anyways. We had the best baptism I have ever witnessed in my life. We baptised Aderacion finally, it was so awesome. She started like crying in the font before she was baptised and it was all SOOOO good. Loved it, I was so jacked after it was done. Then Sunday we had to go to our district confrence, which was awesome just cause we had a ton of investigators go. And we saw everyone, like my whole district was there, and we all went out and ate afterwards. It was just a good week, our investigators are all really really awesome. God is blessing them all with answers and we are really able to focus on all there problems so we can get them baptised, so it had all been really good, and even though it seemed like we had no time to work in our area cause I had so many district leader things to do, God made it all happen and it was just way smooth and we ended up getting a ton of teaching in this week.

Sunday, January 2, 2011



man my week was nuts mom, i love my president
here is my week
Man I had a pretty crazy week; I guess it all started last week
right after we got done emailing, my comp lost his camera. Actually he
didn’t really loose it it just got stolen, we left to go to the
bathroom for no more then 2 min cause it was closed, and when we got
back his camera was gone, and it was a mess, it really wasn’t cool I
felt bad! Then Tuesday we had district meeting. It was a pretty good
one but the craziest thing was that I found out I wasn’t moving… man I
really thought I was but im way happier im not. The only thing is that
I am still with elder Jackson, man this will be our 3rd cycle, that’s
pretty rare. Then also both our zone leaders left and we got 2 knew
once which is pretty rare too, it was crazy. We also had a interview
for a baptism which didn’t go as planned surprisingly and she needed
to get interviewed by pres, which we did and she will be getting
baptized this Saturday. Wednesday was we had the craziest thing happen
to us. We went to this family to teach that that lives in the middle
of nowhere. And every time we go there, there is this crazy old women
that lives on her own in this shack, like literally I do not know how
she stays alive I kid u not it is nuts. But we also pass her going to
this family and she is always talking to herself but we just walk by
and she doesn’t notice us. But this time as we were walking by she
stated talking to me, and at first I didn’t notice cause she never
talks, but then I turned around and she was going off about her life….
Man it was sad, this women is OLD and she lives alone and she is
straight CRAZY. So she goes off like in this rhyme kind of rhythm like
memorized thing, it was nuts, then she was like “Sir, give me, pera…”
which means money, and it was just funny cool and sad all at the same
time to listen too, she when off like that for 5 min, and so my comp
gets out ten pesos to give her, and like grabs her had to put it in it
and she wouldn’t take it she just kept foing off in tagalong it was so
weird, then she days how she just wants something to read, so I gave
her one of out pamphlets and she FREAKS out, she took it and just
looked at it, and her eyes got HUGE cause she saw jesus on the front
and she started going off in an ilikano prayer , it was funny, she
was like baling, so then I was like “ elder, give my another one, im
going to blow this womens mind” so I got another one and I gave it to
her, and she took it and looked at them both and just went off, we sat
there and she was just like praying or something like crazying at the
same time, it was weird so we just kept going and then like 10 min we
could still hear her haha it was nuts, so then we go to this family
and found out they weren’t there and they were at the friends across
the river, so we go over there and we see them and ther house was in
the middle of nothing. So we figured out how to get over there, and
there was no other way except by crossing the river, so we took off
our shoes and crossed haha it was crazy it was the freshest water and
it went up to about our knees haha it was sweet, when we got over we
found out they were DRUNK! Man were they drunk, it was bad, then they
forced us to eat there DISTCUSTING pancit, it was not cool. So we did
and it was so funny, cause they were so drunk and just out of out
minds, me and elder Jackson were cracking up so hard cause this one
guy couldn’t even talk he was so drunk and he had no front teeth at
all and he had the biggest smile looking at us, oh man it was the
funniest thing in this world we were busting up. So finally we shoved
the pancit down our throats and got out of there, it was so funny, as
we were leaving that one extremely drunk guy was right by us and I was
like “ elder watch, these ones speak alien”, then I went off in alien
to him and he spoke it back, elder Jackson was busting up, it was
hilarious. So that was our crazy experience over there. Friday was
NUTS, pres and the 2 assistance came over to observe our weekly
planning, it was intimidating but awesome, and he said we did good.
After that we ran and I ate the grossest thing I have ever eaten thus
far in my mission, it was pig intestines that was cooked in the
grossed broth I have ever taisted, they made it more bitter on purpose
is what they told me, like u cant believe how bitter it was, elder
Jackson couldn’t do it, I forced it down, the broth was so gross it
made the intestines, taste delicious! Man I got stomach problems after
that meal, it was so bad. Then from there we went straight to my
district meeting that I had with the knew zone leaders, that was
awesome. There cool and it was just a cool little meeting even though
it is way way boring. Right when that was done we ran home, got cloths
and ran to the cauayan, pres invited us to go there for new years, it
was the best, we stayed up until like 1 thirty, eating American food,
playing games, basketball, football, pingpong, everything and the food
was AMAZING, then we watch, “ the greatest gift” which was awesome!,
even though I had already saw it once before at home. Right after the
movie it was about 11:30 so we went outside, it was nuts, I have never
seen anything like it, sooooo many fire works going off in every
direction for like 3 hours straight, it was the coolest thing to just
sit and watch with a bunch of other missionaries, I will never forget
that! So it by time it was pretty much done it was late, soeveryone
started getting ready for bed. Farley, hale and me all slept on the
couch and just told stories tell we went to sleep, it was funny cause
there was a bunch of beds left but I wanted to sleep on the couch so
bad haha I loved it!!! When we woke up it smelt SOOOO GOOOODDDD< pres
made pancakes and sausage and eggs and everything else for us, the
best breakfast I have had in FOREVER< then I took the first hot shower
I have taken in the Philippines, it was amazing, I cant explain to you
how spoiled u are to have hot water showers every day, I did not want
to get out, it was crazy. So then after we ate we went home and just
started working. We found out that crazy women we met on Thursday
burnt her house down, me and elder went there and I was like “ WHERE
IS HER HOUSE?” then we just looked at eatchother and started laughing,
then we found out she burned it down … Sunday was awesome. We ha 111
people go to church, our church was FULL  it was way nice, we also
had a lot of investigator go to church, loved it! Man my week was
awesome, it was like to much haha but I loved it, man it was crazy,
even though the party was so much fun, and it was like I was in
America again for about 6 hours, I missed the work and was so ready to
just get home and go visit and teach my investigators, I relised I
loved the work more then anything and even though that was all good
and fun and I loved it, it was still way better to get right back to
the work!