threesome week

Monday, December 5, 2011

San Joaquin, Panay Island, The Philippines

This week was a breeze; it was really fun, and went by quickly. 

Elder Eror leads District Class, and he can be pretty funny.  He had us do a "Whose line is it anyway?" version of practicing OYMing.  (OYM stands for open your mouth and offer your message.)  It was so funny.  We drew locations that he had chosen, and we had to fit in the phrase "Merry Christmas" as many times as we could.  The locations were hilarious.  They included in a catholic cathedral during mass, in a market, in the male bathroom, in an emergency room, and a few other locations.  My favorite was the one in the male bathroom.  Elders Lowry, Eror, and Domincel were in the role play.  Two of them stood against the wall acting like they were in the act, while Elder Eror joined them, and OYMed them.  Elder Domincel was sitting in a chair off to the side. I was afraid the sisters would have a cow, but they just laughed.  The purpose of the role plays was to show that there are some situations that aren't appropriate to OYM.  We sure learned that.  When we did the emergency room OYM, I was the dead person lying on the table. 

Elders Lowry & Eror in Miagao

Work with Elder Lowry was fun.  He's really a good missionary.  He knows the language well, is so smooth, and teaches to needs.  It was such a breeze.  We worked as a threesome from Monday until Friday morning.  We did good work.  On Tuesday we worked in my area, then Wednesday we cleaned his apartment and worked in his area, and then worked back in our area on Thursday.  The Miagao apartment had needed a cleaning for a long time.  We spent most of the morning getting it done.  I cleaned the bathroom!



Barangay Nadsadan, where we went to look up a referral



On Wednesday night we received a referral from the ZL's.  They made it seem like it was pretty urgent, so we re-arranged our plans to go contact the referral the next morning.  It was so freaking far.  We walked for at least an hour out into the bukid.  Not just out into the bukid, but up into the bukid.  We went to a barangay called Nadsadan.  We arrived in the barangay and started asking around where this person's house was located.  At one house someone just shook his head while we talked to him - almost like he didn't want it to be there.  People up there were so shy.  When we arrived at the right house, the people hid.  It was kind of ridiculous that we'd walk all that way, and then the people would hide from us.  So we turned around and went back.  We hitched a ride with a motorcycle.  Sitting on that regular-sized motorcycle were three full-grown missionaries and one full-grown, half-drunk Filipino, driving through mountainous dirt roads.  Sometimes this mission gets crazy!  I have a video of it. 

Friday we went to transfer meeting. Elder Workman is Elder Lowry’s new companion.

a less-active's monkey

On Friday evening we visited a less-active way up in the mountains.  It wasn’t as far as that referral, but it was still far.  We rarely visit her because she is so far away.  In fact, this was my first time there.  The lesson went well, but the coolest thing is she had a huge pet monkey!  It was wild, so we couldn't touch it, but I did get a good picture.  Monkeys are so cool. 

On Sunday we went to pick up some investigators who said they would come to church.  We had told them the day before that we'd go with them to church, but could not pay for them.  When we got there, they expected us to pay for them.  Ugh.  Also, the parents weren't going to come, and neither were the older siblings.  We ended up taking 7 kids to church, the oldest being 16.  We rented a tric for 50 pesos, and it got us all to church.  The kids seemed to enjoy primary - up until the primary president disappeared.  After that, they just wanted to play basketball. 

I got a haircut today.  It's pretty short, but doesn't look too bad.  Whenever I have gotten a hair cut here, people move my part way over to the side of my head instead of where it's always been.  I kept on having to ask the guy if I could use his comb so that he would cut my hair with the part in the right place.  I've usually just said "cut it" and let them go at it, but this time I really watched what they were doing. 

There is this dessert treat here called ice candy that I love.  I eat it as often as I can.  I can make my own, too, so I'll show you when I get home.  Anyway, this week we had peanut flavor ice candy!  I had my doubts at first, but that stuff was so good!  We had about 5 each. 

On Sunday, we got rained on pretty good.  Everyone was shivering.  I loved it. 

We got a sweet referral from one of our members.  The referral is a family.  The father of the family just got back from the marines.  He was wounded in Mindanao and retired early.  He said that he gave up drinking and cigarettes, and just wants to spend more time with his family because that's what is really important.  We shared our "gospel blesses families" lesson, and he loved it.  We have a service project there on Thursday morning.

Happy birthday, Dad.  I hope it is a good one.  I'll be at your next one!

I love you all

Tuesday night, Elder Eror stepped knee deep into mud.  He actually couldn't get out without leaning over and getting his shirt dirty.  He was caked in mud.  I fished out his shoe for him.  We got him washed off at a water pump, and then continued working.

Scott, the Turkey

Monday, November 28, 2011

San Joaquin, Panay Island, The Philippines



Scott, the Turkey

The first cool thing we did this week was buy a turkey.  We bought it for 400 ($9) pesos each.  We had been asking around for a while, and last Wednesday we realized that the next day was Thanksgiving and there was a turkey out there somewhere that was going to be our Thanksgiving dinner.  We realized, first, it was not ours yet, and second, we didn't know where it was.  One of the less active families in our area directed us to a small barangay in the mountains.  It wasn't too bad of a hike, but definitely off the beaten path.  We went looking for a guy named "Hikot."  We asked around, and eventually found him.  We explained what we wanted, and he took off charging down a hill with his shirt off, making turkey sounds.  It was the coolest.  Hikot reminded me off the Mexican guy on "Nacho Libre."  He was so excited for us to buy his turkey.  He gave it to us for a great price, and we named the turkey "Scott."  That's Elder Lowry's first name.  We kept Scott in our side yard, and even bought some feed for it.  Elder Lowry and Elder Gowey took care of the turkey after Friday night.  We ended up celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday.

We have both been feeling that we need to focus on less active families here in San Joaquin.  Of course focusing on baptisms is more fun, but less active work is what this area needs.  The less active rate is outrageous here.  People tell us about less-actives that we can’t find on any list.  We teach a lot about family prayer, family scripture study, church attendance, and endure to the end.  It's a different kind of work, but it's pretty rewarding.  We had some folks come to church this week that haven't been there for a while.

On the way to a less active family, we walked by a lady waiting for her kids.  She said something like "Good afternoon" in English, and we said something like "maayad nga hapon" to her in Kinaray-a. She was like "Woah, you know Kinaray-a?!"  We ended up talking to her for a while.  When her kids arrived, we walked back with the lady and her family.  It was just a regular, casual, nice conversation - pretty fun, actually.  When we arrived at our destination, we slowed down a bit and asked if we could visit her family sometime.  She said no, but in a nice way.  We just took the no, and said it was great to meet you.  I like that.  We could have pushed them, we could have maybe gotten an appointment sometime in the future, but it may have ruined the nice pleasant walk we had with them.  So we just left it at that, and maybe in the future some missionaries will go to their house and they will remember us.  That's why I like Elder Eror.  He's not going to push someone into anything.

I went to the doctors on Friday.  In fact, Friday was way crazy.  We first went to Iloilo for a District Leaders meeting.  While I was there, I asked if we could get some money for my doctor appointment.  They had none.  It's the end of the month, and the office is out, so I had to pay for my doctor visit by myself.  I can get it remembered later though.  The doctor appointment was stupid.  When I first walked in, the lady was talking about TB and I didn't even know she was talking to me.  I literally asked "Are you talking to me?"  She said "of course" though she had not yet looked at me.  I asked her why she thought I had TB.  She said because of my symptoms.  I asked her what symptoms, becuase I have none.  She said "Don't you have a cough or a runny nose?"  I have nothing.  She sent me to get tests for TB.  I agreed because doctors are the people you let rip you off.  ("Let the wookie win" I guess.)  So I paid a lot for an x-ray and a shot in the arm.  The x-rays of course came back negative, and she told me to come back in today for the arm to see if my arm had swelled up from the shot.  I didn't go back today.  Anyway, she prescribed some meds for some mucus build up or something, so I bought those meds.  She also asked me to get some nasal spray.  I had already spent a lot, so I just will get the nasal spray when I get the reimbursements.  The lady eventually said I probably just had a build-up of mucus in my nose, so we'll leave it at that.  I'll take the pills, but if they don't work . . . oh well.  But I think they will work.

I also ran into Elder Workman at the hospital.  After we bought my meds, we ran into Elder White.  He and his bata (trainee or "kid" in Ilongo) were in Iloilo doing medical stuff too.  We ate at McDonald’s and caught up.  It was so nice to see him.  His bata lives by Coachella, and has attended the music festival a few times.  I hope I get to follow up his bata or something so that I can crash at his house during Coachella '13.  Elder White was my ZL on Guimaras and he's way cool. Actually, he's going home soon.  His parents arrive in two days.

After that, on Friday we went to buy shoes.  We were in a hurry and it wasn't the best selection of shoes.  I found some I liked and tried them on.  I walked a bit in them, then looked at the price tag.  There wasn't one.  I asked someone how much it was.  They took the price tag off of another pair of shoes and put it on mine.  It was a good price, so I went with it.  I paid for them.  Then the lady realized the shoes were two different sizes!  So i just said never mind, I'll just return them.  It was such a hassle to get a refund.  Not only that, but it took like 20 employees, and they all were just suggesting I buy these other shoes, or these ones, or try them on again see if you like them.  They were doing everything to not have them returned.  It was so frustrating I eventually told them directly “I just want my money back.”  I'm sure they were just scared of getting their boss.  The boss eventually came and authorized the return.  I explained to the boss it was my fault, and that the workers were very helpful - even though they annoyed the crap out of me.  So, I didn't get shoes on Friday.

We then went to Tigbauen to do a baptismal interview.  During the interview, I went with Elder Domincel and taught an investigator of theirs.  Turns out he was mostly deaf, and didn't understand a word I said.  After the lesson, he asked me if I wanted to shoot his makeshift gun.  I passed.  After that, we did a baptismal interview in Oton.  That went well, and then we went to Miagao and got prepared for Thanksgiving dinner!

We got back and cooked.  With four elders cooking, we got dinner on the table in under thirty minutes.  Elder Lowry bossed us around, he's the only one with any cooking experience so we listened to him. For dinner we had watermelon, peaches, corn, gravy, homemade mash potatoes with chives, root beer, mango flavored juice, bananas, rice and one dead turkey named Scott.  We wore Scott’s feathers at dinner.

The next day, Elder Eror had to go to the bathroom real bad.  It seems that Scott gave him some trouble.  We had to ask complete strangers, on two separate occasions, if we could use their bathroom because it was an emergency.  I guess we ask complete strangers if we can teach them about Jesus so it's not that much weirder to ask to use their bathroom.

We got a load of referrals yesterday.  One member took us to all his neighbors.  We taught a 15 person lesson outside by the beach as well. That was a cool format to teach, but it was no sermon on the mount by any means.

We also found someone who just moved to our area and was being taught by the missionaries somewhere else before she moved. That was definitely more than coincidence.  We will teach her tomorrow.
Today we “dropped” a few things.  Elder Gowey is going home, so we dropped him off.  I dropped my old shoes in a dumpster.  And, I dropped a camera.  Yes, while I was looking at a camera in the store, I somehow dropped it.  It hit the ground, but there was no damage to the camera.  It was the one that I wanted to buy, and I was testing it out.  I, of course, was NOT testing to see how high it bounced, but I sure found out.  The camera was perfectly fine, but they still wanted me to buy it.  I liked the camera, and it was the first I'd asked to look at after going to four or five shops, but I hated being forced to buy it.  We even got kind of serious about it with the lady.  If there is no problem with the camera, why do I have to buy it?  I didn't sign anything to say I have liability if you let me see it and so forth.  I ended up buying it because I liked it and I am a representative of Jesus Christ and wasn't about to just walk out.  I don't know how it works in the Philippines.  I thought it was "If you break it, you buy it."  The camera didn't have any mark on it from being dropped, and it worked just fine.  Though Elder Lowry and Elder Eror laughed at me, I don't feel bad about the camera, I like it well enough.  I withdrew a bit extra when I bought the camera just in case Sister Pagaduan insists that I buy the nasal spray.  I’ll be fine for a while.  I bought new shoes too.  My heel was going through the other ones

Elders Eror and Lowry, and Scott the Turkey

Sarah's package came.  I won’t dig into it until Christmas.  Also, Dad, your trip to Virginia makes me darn jealous.  Mom, I have a fiance?  Where was I?  Oh, right, playing my guitar.  (A reference to the movie That Thing You Do.)





frogs, forgiveness, and flickering

Monday, October 17, 2011

Sibunag, Guimaras Island, The Philippines

To protect privacy, the names of most people in this blog have been changed.

Our district leader, Elder Matthews, is from New Zealand.  He's pretty cool.  In most districts, meetings are just reading Preach My Gospel and then practicing teaching.  He’s done them differently. He (when he's here) gives the best lessons.  Last week was no different.  It was a good week, and I think it started at last district meeting.  I left that meeting super pumped to work, and that's what we did.

I got my shoes fixed, too.  The guy who fixed them was pretty much crazy.  He speaks crazy English at us.  He has long hair, and sits on a stool in a crowded, third-world pool hall.  I like him though.  A lot of missionaries have gone to him through the years, and he calls us "his friends."  He fixed them for 250 pesos (about $6.25). (I got the "friend" discount.)  They look brand new, but feel a little funky - not too bad though.  I got to watch him fix them.  By watching him tear it apart, I got to see how close to torn apart they already were.

Elder Workman and I are running in the morning, we're doing pushups and weight lifting and crunches in the evening.  I've been sore, but sleeping well.  I outrun Workman, he out-muscles me. 

I've started reading the Book of Mormon again.  I'm taking it super slow.  It's kind of fun taking it this slow.  In a week's worth of personal studies, I'm only in 1st Nephi 15. 

A couple of days this week, I've found frogs in my running shoes.  I'm paranoid about even putting on sandals now. 

We have a member, Sister Maria, who was formerly less active.  She just recently got active, and this week we went and shared with her about sharing the gospel with others.  We talked about the tree of life, and how Lehi wanted others to eat it too.  It was a good lesson, and afterwards she came with us to some neighbors of hers.  We got punted, but it was way cool that she came with us to work. 

We did a CSP at Rosario’s on Friday.  We helped her weave stuff.  It took three hours to do half a piece of weaving.  She's way cool, and we kept up conversation for about two hours.  The last hour she cooked us some stuff.  It was a very relaxing CSP, and I really got a greater understanding of how hard her life is.  After we did service, we got to eat at her house.  She and her husband had cooked us pork and boney fish.  We ate it and loved it. 

On Friday, Sister Merced joined us for a few lessons. We got punted pretty hard, so we decided to go tracting.  It's really effective to go tracting with a member because the people feel more comfortable letting us in.  Plus, Merced is pretty well known in the community.  Our tracting went so bad!  We first contacted a crazy Baptist old man who made no sense.  We tried to find common ground with him and explain the restoration, but he would just yell out bible verses at us that had nothing to do with what we were talking about, then he’d recite them from memory.  We were happy to leave that lesson. 

Then we tracted into two old, senile ladies.  One had previously tried to poison me with her version of "candy."  I recognized her, and realized we were in for a treat.  It was one of the funniest lessons ever.  When sister Merced went to pray, one of the old ladies went and sat by her.  I didn't realize why at first.  But when Sister Merced started the prayer, the old lady said every word that she said.  We tried to explain to her that she didn't need to do that.  Then Sister Merced tried again.  The old lady followed again.  We were dying, laughing so hard.  We pretty much bore our testimonies and left a pamphlet with them.  We didn't think much would come of it.

We taught Sister Johnson tithing on Saturday.  Sister Merced met us there.  Ann, Sister Johnson’s daughter, was there again.  We went over some things we had previously taught her, and she remembered them very well.  We then moved onto tithing.  We did it by an object lesson.  That seemed to go very well.  Sister Merced’s testimony about it sealed the deal.  It was an amazing lesson.  Sister Johnson was so excited when she learned that the money didn't go to any pastor or somebody.  When she read what tithing was used for in the pamphlet, she said something like "well of course, you need that."  We also explained about if you don't pay tithing, you're not in trouble, but you just forfeit blessings.  She was surprised at that remark.  It was such new idea for her, I think.  You don't account to man, you account to God.  So many people here have been to church their entire life but never thought that way.

We taught Sister Belinda later that evening.  We taught her about repentance.  We mentioned a little bit about forgiving someone and she looked like she had a question.  Elder Workman asked her if she had a question.  She said no, so we went on, but we could tell she had a question.  It really seemed to be on her mind.  So we asked her what her question was.  She said "no, no, go on."  We did, and finally we said "Sister, what's on your mind?"  The spirit was telling us that we had to get that question out of her.  She finally asked.  "Do I have to forgive my husband?"  Elder said "Let’s turn to Matthew."  I knew exactly where he was going.  I said "It's in the sermon on the mount."  We turned to Matthew 5:44.  As soon as we read it, that spirit came in like a tidal wave.  She was almost in tears.

Sunday at Chruch

So that brings us to Sunday.  Let me say this.  I had no idea what was going to happen.  The highest number of investigators that I've seen at church here in Sibunag is two.  That was, until yesterday.  There were seven investigators there!  Belinda and her two kids, Rosario, Sister Johnson, and get this - those two old senile ladies!  WHAT THE HECK!?!?  There were 20 people there!!!  More than a third were investigators!  Our minds were blown.  All the members more or less panicked, but we managed to get through it.  Sacrament meeting was just about worthless - it was super hot, and the speakers weren't prepared, and they spoke in slow, soft voices.  Sunday school was way good though.  Some lady from the stake was there.  Her lesson was "perfecting the saints," but for the sake of the 7 investigators changed it to "perfecting the families."  She saved the day.  

Something funnyhappened.  Brother John still hasn't fixed the wiring in the church, and the wire to the one light started smoking, and the light started flickering.  It was one of the moments that you will either cry or laugh.  I chose laugh. 

I got some way good news from Tangalan, my last area.  Fred, gay Fred, got baptized!  That makes me so happy.  I got so much grief about wanting to teach him.  Also, that family we were teaching before I left got baptized, plus a few other people I knew.  Pretty cool. 

It's been a cool week.  Sister Johnson is getting baptized this Thursday!  She wants to do it down at the beach.  We went down yesterday to talk with the owner of a resort to make sure it was okay to do it there.  He was more than supportive.  We also messed around a little too long down there, but I've got some great pictures.  We have four others with baptismal dates.  We may give Sister Rosario one as well.

P-day at the Beach

This morning we went down to a prime beach.  We had a good time.  We got star fish, and played ultimate frisbee with a ball on the beach.  We ate delicious shrimp, and went exploring in the shallow water and sand.  It was one of the best P-days of my mission.  It was also probably my last P-day with Elder Light.  He'll most likely be transferred this week.  It's possible I am too, but I don't think so.

a few pictures



Eder Workman and a boy we had given a blessing



on the dock in Sabaste



a rice field in our area

chokeholds and conference

Monday, October 10, 2011

Sibunag, Guimaras Island, The Philippines

Please note: to ensure privacy, most names in this blog are changed or omitted.

To start off, this week we had one of the most bizarre experiences of my mission.  We were working in a remote area, and after finishing a lesson, we received word that Sister X did not want us to come by.  We love her but she had not been progressing, so earlier in the day we had prepared a lesson in detail just for her.  We asked the messenger why, and were told that her husband was home.  That was a little alarming because we had been told that her husband was out of the picture.  He had cheated on her, and also chased her around with a machete.  She really hates him, and just judging from what we’ve heard, he sounds to be real shmuck.

We told the messenger that we were going anyway.  I wanted to meet her husband.  As we went over there, I filled in Elder Workman about his guy.  When we arrived, the husband was rummaging violently through the house.  I asked if he could step outside, and if we could meet him, and he semi-yelled stuff at is.  Neither Elder Workman nor I understood what he said.  We stood there talking to their 14 year old son.  Sister X arrived from some other neighbor’s at that point, and was concerned that we were there.  She said that it was not a good place to be, and we had to leave before things got out of hand.  We wanted to make sure everything was going to be ok, but she just wanted us to leave.  

We asked her to come out to the road where she could talk with us more freely.  On the road, just a ways off, she told us that her husband was looking for a card of some sort, was acting like a demon, and she wasn't afraid to die.  She tried her hardest to get us to leave, but we refused.  In fact, I felt the spirit saying to stay.  She really wanted us to go, but both Elder and I knew we were supposed to stick around.  We reached an agreement with her that we'd stay on the road, about 30 feet away, unless it got out of control.

It quickly got out of control.  We had only been waiting about two minutes when we heard a ruckus.  We heard the husband and Sister X screaming at each other.  Elder ran to the side of the road to get a better look.  He then put his bag down and ran down to her house.  I dropped my bag and followed.  A male neighbor yelled at me to not get involved, but the other neighbors were yelling at Elder Workman for help.  When I got there, the husband had Sister X in a chokehold, and Elder Workman had the husband in a chokehold.  Another neighbor came running and yelling at us.  I got distracted by her because I couldn't understand what she was saying.  (Yelling in Hiligaynon is hard to understand.)  Next look I got was of Elder Workman setting the husband down on the ground.  He had choked him just enough to make him snooze.  Sister X yelled at us to leave before he got up.  

I stopped a motor that was passing, and we hopped on.  On the way, I called the police.  We intercepted them on the road, had a brief conversation with them, and then they sped off again.  We went home and called the AP’s, and then president called us.  It was taken care of very nicely.  Our landlord called the Mayor, President said that we did the right thing, and it really hasn't been much of a problem.  The police let the husband go that night, which was a bummer, but they say they got it all worked out.  Sister X has even told us how thankful she was for us being there.  I really hate the way some husbands treat their wives here, and it was kind of cool to have done something about it.

Elder Workman was very cool headed through it, too.  He was ready enough to get involved without a second thought, but at the same time was measured in his response.  I think Elder Workman showed great restraint by not responding too strongly.  I don't know how clear it is from the earlier paragraph, but the husband was hitting Sister X before Elder Workman laid hands on him.  So, that was quite an event. 

on the way to General Conference broadcast

This week we also had General Conference.  That was great.  It also meant that I got to catch up with Elder Lowry.  We talked multiple times.  He even lent me a blues gospel CD.  I loved the conference.  It means so much more while you're on a mission.  Everything is clearer here on a mission.  Like the idea that “if you follow the commandments you get blessings” wasn't so clear before.  I knew I had blessings, but I didn't recognize what was a blessing and what wasn’t, and I didn't know which blessings were a result of following the commandments.  As a missionary, it's so darn clear.  Not only in my own life, but also in the lives of our investigators.  

I was listening to the prophet and apostles, and when they were talking, I was thinking "yeah, that's so true."  One of my favorite things said was "though this time may be like the times of Noah in sin, it has one major difference, there are those in this time who are willing to uphold the word of God."  Cool. 

During Priesthood there was some excess talking going on, so I sat with Elders Light and Matthews to get away from it.  Priesthood was so good.  Watching it alone was weird, but made me feel grown up.  I felt like I was dad kind of.  Anyway, all the talks were excellent.  One person told a story about a man who had only converted one person on his mission and what that meant for that one person and his family.  It made me get kind of teary eyed, and that doesn't happen much.  I thought of the folks that I've taught and helped on their way to conversion during my mission.  After conference, I was so happy, and we all were. We went to a burger place called "crave burger."  After Elder Light and I ordered, we went and got some ice cream together.  His dad does that too.

That night we had a big sleep over at the Molo apartment.  We played UNO and other stuff.  It was fun.  Elder Workman and I had previously made up a song about teaching a monkey.  The highlight of the song is the monkey sounds that I do.  I do them way loud.  We sand it to all the elders, and they just about died of laughter. 

Sister Johnson came to conference!  Let me tell you how hard it is to save seats in the Philippines!  It's hard, but we did.  Sister Johnson came with the church members from our Group, and they arrived pretty late.  They were timid about walking all the way up to the front to sit down, but I pretty much made them.  In the back of the cultural hall there was a lot of talking, but in the front of the chapel everyone was listening.  Sister Johnson seemed to have a good time, although I don't think she understood much.  (The broadcast was in English.)  In the second session, she even kept Elder Workman awake.  We introduced her to President and Sister Pagaduan.  We introduced Sister Johnson as "our mom in Sibunag," and Sister Pagaduan as "the mother of all the missionaries."  

On the way home, Sister Johnson joined all the missionaries.  It was funny because she kept running off, and all the missionaries would get on a boat and be like "Where is she?" and we'd have to tell the boat guys to wait until Sister Johnson came running on.  Sister Johnson's daughter is committed to baptism too, but hasn't been able to go to church for two weeks now.  She did get this next Sunday off though!  Whoo!!  We are way excited about them!       

We actually had a great lesson with Sister Johnson and her husband this week.  We taught them the law of chastity and the Word of Wisdom.  We taught them in a cool way.  We talked of course about the blessings of the Word of Wisdom, but the blessing we focused on was having a clear head.  We talked about how that would bless their marriage.  When we taught law of chastity, we talked about the family that God had approved. We talked about how two people can improve their marriage through dates, spending time together, working together, and going to church together, and then talked about what things can ruin a marriage: pornography, drunkenness, and adultery.  Elder Workman and I sometimes have lesson that are a train wreck, but other times they are way great.  What’s great is that when a lesson is a train wreck, we talk about how to improve it. 

One thing really ticked me off this week.  Our Group Leader said that he didn't like that we had gotten involved with Sister X's husband.  He told us "You guys move area every so often, but this is my Group and I have to live here.  You should have thought before you got involved.  What if people think badly of Mormons?" I actually rolled my eyes, and I didn't even realize it.  He asked me what my problem was.  I gave him our Mission President’s number and told him to call it if he had a concern.  Elder Workman was kind of appalled at the Group Leader’s reaction.  He was like, "This is what my dad taught me, and I won't let a man beat a woman."  I did apologize to Brother John. 

I have a bulge in my throat.  I've already talked with Sister Pagaduan about it.  She told me to take vitamin C pills.  We'll give it a week or two.  I can feel it when I swallow.  It's not too bad, but if it gets worse, I'll do something about it. 

There's a lot of extra stuff happening this month.  We already traveled to general conference, and I have to get my shoes repaired again.  Also, it's a five Monday month, so that means that I have to budget for five weeks.  We have a two day Stake Conference in Iloilo.  Also, we are hoping to go to the island in our area next week and eat at the resort there.  Apparently there is awesome seafood there.  

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.