the road peed on us

Monday, October 3, 2011

Sibunag, Guimaras Island, The Philippines

It's been a good week out here, but which one isn't nowadays?  I really enjoy working with Elder Workman.

Sad Sad Waterfalls

Last week on Monday, it was storming really hard.  So, we of course went hiking to some waterfalls.  The falls are called “Sad Sad” waterfalls, and they are huge.  It was a fun hike to them.  We got a tric first, and then the tric driver gave some brief directions to Elder Workman.  He only heard those directions, and we went on our way.  We walked the way he said to go until we had walked a long time, and still had not come to anything.  We finally caught some folks hauling charcoal through the woods on the back of carrabou.  They told us that we had gone way too far and pointed where we should go.  We walked back and got on the right path.  We reached the falls in maybe five minutes after getting on the right trial.  The waterfalls were just raging, and we had a good time taking pictures and jumping from rock to rock in the river.  The waterfall was maybe as high as a four story building.  Not the kind you canoe off of.

Last week at district meeting, Elder Matthews did not show up. He was feeling real sick.  He had a swollen tongue.  Elder Workman filled in and did a really good job.  He talked about goals and how they relate to faith.  We had a good discussion about it.  I have a really great district and each district meeting is a real recharge for the week.  It's never just regular.

Elder Waggoner in rain gear

It's been a really rainy week here on the island.  Last week we had to ride on the inside of the L3 van back to Sibunag. It was raining, and man just so stuffy in the van.  I was crammed pretty much in the same seat as the driver.  Elder Workman and I had a small lady in between us, and then he was by the window.  We asked if we could roll down the windows because we could hardly breathe.  The driver agreed.  This meant that the rain would get Elder Workman and the driver, and it really wasn't raining too hard at that point.  Little did we know, the rain was not the biggest problem.  The mud on the dirt road was.  We hit a puddle the size of Lake Erie, and that sent mud hurdling into the van through the driver’s window at the driver and me.  We both just got covered in mud.  The driver let out an expression of disgust, and I helped him clean it up with a rag he had while he was still driving.  I was pretty certain that the whole L3 had their attention on me cleaning up the driver, so took the chance to be funny.  I said "nagihi and karsado sa amon."  (The road peed on us.)  Everyone just about died from laughter.  Everyone was quoting it the rest of the drive until we got out.

We were going to have a sweet FHE at the Johnson’s, but it didn't happen because of the rain.  We still went there at the set time, but only one member came, Sister Meyda Rose. So, we just had a lesson about the Sabbath day with a member present.  After, Sister Johnson fed us a billion and a half avocados.  It's not bad, but it was a little much to handle.

We had interviews with President on Wednesday.  They were interviews, not much else.

Elder Workman at beach

Last Wednesday we found ourselves at five o’clock with no place to go.  The circumstances just worked that way.  We decided to try out down by the beach.  We took pamphlets down there, and wanted to try and see what things were like down there.  We only did one lesson, and it was to like twenty people at once.  It was cool, but not the most productive.  We talked to a lot of folks down there, and we figured out how to go out to the islands we have in our area.  We ate at some hole-in-the-wall down there.  I had pancit.

Sister Rita's preacher is kind of giving us some trouble.  He told Sister Rita that if she goes out to our church, then she cannot go back to his.  We decided to pay him a visit.  We talked about how each having the right to choose.  I told the story about how President Horlacher offered to take me to other churches so I could see them.  I added the zinger "The true church doesn't have anything to hide."  He agreed.  It wasn't a very confrontational visit at all, and we have a return appointment.  We even got into him changing churches.  We explained that our purpose is to get people to ask God what the truth is.  Elder Workman asked him "Brother, if you get an answer from God that this church is his true church, will you move to ours?"  He actually said he couldn't because his church is just a smaller part of another one, and they have a mother church that calls the shots for them.  Maybe he was just avoiding the question- we'll get to it next time.

Do you guys remember the deJoya family?  The one with a billion kids that pee on me?  Well, they haven't been progressing, and we haven’t really been visiting them much, but we decided to again.  The lesson wasn't great, but we did get to do some service chopping some wood, and we gave their kid Roberto a blessing.  He's got a nasty infection on his head.

Belinda hasn't been to church yet.  We visited her on Friday and Saturday.  We always have great lessons with her, but she just isn’t keeping commitments.  These two visits were kind of our last attempts with her.  We love her, really, and it's so sad, but she just isn't reading or coming to church.  She has the desire to, and she tells us that all the time, but she just isn't doing it.  Her situation is terrible.  She’s poor, her husband cheated on her, her kids are young teenagers and starting to have some real bad influences.  If anyone needs the gospel, it's her and her family.  We were so sad when we came back Saturday and she hadn't done her reading assignment, and on Sunday, though she promised, did not go to church.  Ouch.

We've been having brown outs all week.  It's been throwing off our sleep schedules.  It's been so hot at night that we just couldn't sleep.  We have made good use of our candles, though.

Saturday was a way productive day.  We had four lessons, which is not a ton, but they were all productive and with a member, Sister Merced.  She's a pal.

First we visited Rita, and Sister helped a lot there.  Then we went to the Johnson family.  The husband joined the lesson, and was pretty quiet most of it until the end when we asked if he had any questions.  Man, he just went off.  It was like he was drunk, but he wasn't.  He was saying the craziest stuff.  One thing was pointed at Sister Merced "You used to be catholic, how could you change?"  He said it in an attacking way.  Then he said another thing along the lines of "I can't be catholic and my wife be another religion."  My response was "O.K., come to church tomorrow too."  He even started going off on Elder Workman and I a little bit, and that got Sister Johnson crying.  Then he said "There is no divorce here, if she joins another church, what can I do?!"  That made Sister Johnson burst into tears.  Sister Merced took over and stuck it to him.  She said "If you love your wife, then this is the church for her" and "You don't go to church anyway, so it means nothing if she goes to another church."  He couldn't really argue with that.  I would never be that bold with someone, but because Sister Merced is local, she can.

Later that night, we went out to Sister Rosario.  She made your Christmas presents.  You're going to flip, they are so cool.  I spent my goat money on them.  I'll send it early November or so. It's way cool.

That’s it for this week.  We went to Iloilo earlier.  The waves were pretty fun in the rain.  Elder Workman and I are doing well.  I give him history lessons as we try and fall asleep.  He hates it.