Friday, September 30, 2011

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.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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.

Monday, September 26, 2011

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!

Monday, September 19, 2011

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!!!

Monday, September 12, 2011

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!!!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

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.