Week 9 Final Week in the States

Kamusta pamiliya ko?!

 

This week has been awesome, its gone by a bit slower then all of the other weeks, and I suppose my focus wasnt quite where it should be. But it is sooo hard to pay attention in class when you know that the next week you'd be in the philippines. But no this week was soooo cool, Thanksgiving was different, but amazing, the kept us busy and amused.

 

First of all monday was pretty boring, wrapped up our last lesson with Roy, and Willie, told him that we were getting transefered to Cauayan City and theyd be getting new missionaries. Oh I dont know if I told you this last email, but Willie is going to get baptised and is keeping up on allll of our commitments. Ha when we asked him to go to church he was like 'Ya, ummmm can I bring my family" we were like "Heck Ya!!" well in missionarie talk and in tagalog. But its nice to know that we will be teaching real investagators sooon. I know that it will take me a while to be able to understand them, and to be able to talk very well. But I am soooo excited to just get there, I wanna go talk to all the Filipinos even if all I can say is Kamusta Missionaro po ako para sa Ang simbahan ni JesuCristo ng mga Banal ng mga Huling Araw. and then let my comp take over hahaha. ohh by the way you may be wondering this to ng is pronounced nung and mga is pronounced munga mga pluralized things and ang ng sa put focus on a specific word...dependa on whether you want actor object or location focus...way diff from english...astig ito (its awesome)

 

Anyway to the good stuff, First of all we got TWO apostals this week!! Glad I was here over thanksgiving to here both of them. First one was on Tuesday and it was Elder Christofferson. That was most def the best talk I have ever heard live! It was awesome, he said that he had three things that he wished he had done differently 1. Remembered the end result, sometimes we get sooo caught up in doing the work that we forget the people and the conversion and just think about the #'s, soo you know we are still working hard, but we cant be sooo focused on the work that we forget about the people, we go out for CONVERT baptisms, not just baptism, its one thing to be baptised its another to be convert, conversion is a change of heart, and action and desire, without that a baptism alone will not keep one in the church. 2. He said that we need to be willing to aline our will with Gods. And not be afraid when we ask "What would you have me do, or be?" Cause when we ask God that sincerely we are becoming the type of person he wants us to become, Elder C. asked Why would we be afraid to put ourselves in the Lords Hands? Jesus only did the things Father wanted, we can do the same it will be harder for us and we will fail sometimes, but we can still do it! 3. We need the trust of the Members, that doesnt mean being buddy buddy with them but it means having their trust that we can teach people effectily and that we are willing to do whatever it takes to bring others to Christ. He said if the Members help us then we will get more referals and more baptisms. And we will be able to get the ward in on helping the missionary work....He also said a few specific things I liked like "Walk with him and he will sustain you." I tell you as one who knows, he knows you.¨ I dont know I really liked those two quotes that he said.

 

Thanksgiving was great, we had a morning Devo on thursday and the main speaker was Elder Nelson of the 12. He was pretty good! haha, he basically talked about giving thanks. Honestly it was a very very good talk and spiritual, but alot of it was stories and interesting facts, like the Literal transtlation for hallauha is ¨Praise to the Great Jehovah¨. He talked about how the russia was opened up to the missionaries and it was pretty amazing, showed how after all we can do the Lord will go to work, and make up for what we cant do.

The rest of thanksgiving was pretty good to, after the devo we had thanksgiving lunch, which obviously not as good as home, but it was still pretty good, the turkey was very good. After that we had a service project where we made first aid kits that are going to honduras. Then we watched the movie 17 micricals. So overall it was a very good day!

 

Now its on to packign and leaving for the Philippines tomorrow. I very excited and know it will be hard, but thats okay, hard things are good

Week 8

Kumusta Pamilyia!!

 

So ya its week 8 and not much really happened, nothing exciting, no big news...well actually..no...well ya...I guess this is important. I GOT MY FLIGHT PLANS FOR THE PHILIPPINES!!! :) Ahhhhhhhhhhh so excited!! We got them last night, we knew that they would be coming yesterday, we wernt sure when though so we checked like every few hours. Then at dinner our district leader came in and told us that we got our flight plans. When he said that...unbelievebly dinner was no longer important...we all just got up and went outside as fast as possible to open up our flight plans. It was so exciting, order of excitement these past few monthes has gone 1. Endowments 2. Getting Call. 3. Arriving at the MTC 4.GETTING FLIGHT PLANS. It was so awesome, we all started screaming like little girls, and all the other missionaries walking past us were like "whaaa, those guys are missionaries?" hahaha it didnt matter at that time what others were thinking, cause we got our flight plans and we were on the top of the world!! haha

 

Well anyways what are flight plans say is that we are leaving november 28 at 1:30pm from the mtc to the SLC airport, we are flying out at 4:55 and arriving inLos Angeles at 5:55. Its technically a 2 hour flight but because the time change from mountain to west coast it is only 1 hour...kinda interesting. Anyway we leave from Los Angeles 7 hours later at 12:05am...yup a 7 hour layover....haha oh well itll kinda be fun at first. Then our flight goes to hong kong from los angeles and we leave the los angeles airport 12:05 nov-29 arrive in hong kong 7:40am Nov30th I'm not excatly sure how long of a flight that is because of the time changes that will happen but I'm hearing from others that it should be about a 15-16 hour trip...uhhhh hahaha I have nooo Idea what I'm going to do for that long...study the language, study the gospel, study the inside of my eyelids...sorry that was cheesy..haha. Anyway we leave from the Hong Kong Airportat 9:05am nov-30th then arrive around 11:10am in the Manila Airport. Then someone is going to meet us at the airport...and take us somewhere, we are not exactly sure on that yet. We are gonna be in manila for a while I do know that I do know though that we are gonna be able to go do a session at the Manila Temple. So that will be very very awesome! Then I dont know when but sometime we are gonna start our 10 hour bus ride from manila to Cauayan City, where we will meet our Mission President. So yeah very exciting stuff!!

 

Now about calling you guys, only family is allowed, I'd love it if you know you, dad, nicole, nathan and mira were all there. I dont know but maybe after I call you guys if I have anytime left I can call Michelle and Jon thatd be awesome. We will see. However, I do need you guys to send me a call card. I dont know how much time you want to put on it...I honestly have no Idea how they work, maybe you could research that. But I will call you guys, would you rather me call you when I am in the slc airport sometime between 2:30 and 4:00 on the 28th or in the Los Angeles airport sometime after 6:55 on the 28th. It doesnt really matter to me about when to call, so let me know what time works best for you. Maybe I could call you guys at the slc airport then call michelle at the los angeles airport? Idk just let me know what you guys want to do.

 

Other then that this week has just been a normal week, our investagators are progressing quiet nicely, Roy was able to 1. Tell pamiliya siya (his family) about his baptism and they said that if its what he wanted then they will support him. 2. He said that he was able to go to church and switch work schdules with his work friend. We pointed out that the Lord was prepared a way for him. Cause when we told us that he had work on sundays we shared 1st Nephi 3:7 and said that God wants him to go to church and that God will open a way for him if he has faith in him...and what do ya know it worked haha!

 

This week Elder Callister one of the Presdients of the Quorem of the 70 came and talked to us. And he gave us a very very indepth run down of the apostacy. He said that it is so vital that we stress the apostacy to our investagators because if they dont understand the apostacy they arent going to understand the need for the Restoration and the need for Josheph Smith and if they dont come to a belief in Joseph Smith then they arent going to believe in the Book of Mormon. Sobrong mahalaga ang Apostasiya para sa umunawa sila. (the apostacy if very important for them to understand.) He apparently has a few books out there, and if they are anything like his talks then they are good, so I would really encourage you to read them.

 

Anyways Nagpapasalamat po ako para sa mahal ninyo para sa akin, at nagpapasalamat ako para sa oppertunidad mission ito, para sa Diyos alam siya ninyo at Mahal Diyos niya. Alam ko na totoo ang simbahan ni JesuCristo ang mga banal ng mga huling araw, at pagmamahal si JesuCristo sa atin. Alam ko na namatay po si JesuCristo para sa atin at Maarami Kasalanan natin. Mahal Kita!! 

 

(Thank you for your love for me, and I am thankful for this mission oppertunity. As for God, he knows you and he loves you. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is true, and Jesus is loving of us. I know that Jesus Chrit died for our many sins. Love you.) 

 

Ingat Kayo

Mahal Kita

Elder James

Week 7

Kumusta ang Pamiliya ko!

 

Its starting to get a little cold here in Utah. Its gonna be a pretty weird transition from cold Utah to hot hot hot Philippines! The Philippines has two seasons, dry and hot, or wet and not quite as hot but its still really hot. So ya, big difference, Cold dry Utah, wet hot Philippines! That's okay I'm just uber stoked to get there!!!

 

This week was the weirdest week by far, for one reason, we are now the oldest district in the zone. That's so weird it literaly feels like we have been here for 2 weeks. Its weird thinking back to the oldest district that was here just  4 weeks ago and then now knowing that I am in their shoes...idk how to explain it, its just weird. There were 36 new missionaries to come into our zone!! That doubled the size of the zone its huge now!! The district of 4 is now gone, they have probably been in the Philippines for a couple days. They were so cool, I miss them, we have a lot of Samoan missionaries that are in our zone and the other Tagalog zone, and before the district of 4 left all of the Samoans sung a few songs for them. That was awesome, I didn't know that Samoans were such Good singers! Oh and apparently there are a few songs in the samoan hymn book that arnt in the English one. Anyway the good bye was hard but that's okay. Also I should be getting my travel plans next Thursday! I am very excited for that. I'll probably scream like a girl. Its gonna be awesome! Also from what I know is that my last week is gonna be thanksgiving week and usually missionaries are pretty down and stuff because they are away from home during thanksgiving...so usually the Tuesday before thanksgiving they have a apostle come and talk to the missionaries to liven us up...Thad be totally bonkers if that happen, especially if it were like Holland or Eyring or Monson....you know not a big deal or anything I guess.....just an apostle...haha joke long!

 

Our lessons with our investigators have been going pretty good! We taught Roy again this week and he told us that he was having a hard time telling his family that he was going to get baptised. So we tried to comfort him and committed him to telling his family. We read 1st Nephi 3:7 and told him that if the Lord gives a commandment like baptism he will provide us a way to get that done. He said that he would do it, even though he is afraid. I'm guessing his family is not gonna be too happy about it, pero (but) he needs to tell them anyway!!

 

Other then that everything at the mtc is going alright, just trying to keep a positive attitude about everything here. Its kinda hard sometimes when the date for us to leave is soooo close!! But I need to remember that yes you receive blessings when you work, but you receive even greater blessings when you work through the hard times, when you work through the times that you are tired and wore down and don't feel like continuing, when you work hard ALWAYS you will receive the greatest blessings. Kinda like, its okay to seek for good things, but its better to seek for great things, but its the best when you seek for the greatest thing. Well you can use that in everyday life, its good to work hard, but its even better to work very hard, but its the best when you work your hardest! Big thing is just gotta keep the attitude up and the desire high.

 

mamahal po ako ninyo! (I love you guys) 

Mamahal po ang diyos ninyo (God loves you guys) 

Ingat Kayo

Elder Ryan James 

Week 6

Kumusta Pamiliya!

 

So this was another astig linggo linggo (awesome week)

 

This mtc experience has been a pretty good one, we have had some great speakers good teachers, good district times. All and all the mtc has been pretty great, I am starting to get to the point though where I just want to get out of here and go teach some Filipinos! We here crazy stories from our teachers aboutthe Philippines every day. Some of them crazy some of them funny, either way its very obvious in all of them that Father is guiding us through everything. I'm not going to share the stories but just know that I am in good hands. The Lord watches over his servants. Something about the mtc that is well...how you say....different for me is, I have gained a ton of weight!!!!! Ive gained 18lbs!!! Im almost 180!!! Whats really confusing me though is that I'm not even eating as much as other people, and I've gained more weight then them!! hahaha, I guess my body isn't used to this much inactivity. Cause usually everyday I'm doing some sort of physical labor or exercise, but here at the mtc the basic schedule is wake up, eat, personal study, class, eat, language study, class, eat, more then gym...but I play 4 square which takes very little physical exertion...then back to the rez, shower, then relax and wind down a bit, then bed time....as you can see most the day I am sitting on my dairy air. (bum)

 

This week we had some pretty good lessons with our investigators. We gave our best lesson by far on Saturday, we were teaching Roy, we started off asking if he read Joseph Smith Kasaysayan he said that he did, he said though that he didn't receive an ansewer to his prayer. We asked though how he felt bout it when he prayed about it, and he said he felt really good, we explained to him that the Espiritu Santo works with feelings and that we may not receive direct words but that we get a confirmation of truth through the feelings we get from sa Espiritu Santo. Anyway all we wanted to do this lesson was give the baptism invite! So we read 2nd Nephi Kabanata 31:12-13 at 21! we talked about it then we gave him the invitation. To our dismay though he said that he didn't want to be baptised, we decided to ask again, he said no again, then he said that he didn't know if he believed in Joseph eSmith or Aklat ni Mormon, so my companion bore his testimony and it was really powerful and then I bore my testimony then asked him to pray tonight about whether our Church was true and if baptism was right for him. Then my companion said that if he received an answer would he be baptised. And he said yes he would. When we bore our testimonies that was probably the most spiritual moment in the mtc, I know that the gift of tongues was working, because I was able to speak without even thinking, the tagalog words just came out of my mouth. I honestly was not controlling what I was saying. And my companion who..has been struggling very much with tagalog, he had the same experience he was able to speak in tagalog and bear a great testimony. It was awesome, the crazy part was not only was Roy able to understand us but he said that he would pray bout it. So then our next lesson with him on Tuesday we asked him if he received and answer and he said he did and that he wanted to be bapitsed, he said that his family wasn't supporting him but he felt that he wanted to be baptised.

So  that was great news. And a cool side note to that story is that Brother Nuttle, our teacher who plays as Roy told us in a coaching missionary study (thats where our teacher takes us somewhere private and we talk about how we can improve our study) anyway he told us that that was one of the best lessons he had ever received at the mtc, and that Roy had a lot of concerns that disappeared when we bore our testimonies!! That made us feel good!! So ya! Our other investigator Ronnie is getting baptised on monday...so we wont teach him again. I'm gonna miss Ronnie, but we will pick up another investigator.

 

Something cool too, is that my companion and I are investigators now, and Sister Dennis and Sister Westover, the sisters in our district, they are teaching us now. And we got to make up fake people and ya its awesome I really like it. We also are teaching elders, we are teaching Earl and Norman aka Elder Proctor and Elder Nielsen. But ya its really neat being an investigator and being on the other side and seeing what it is like from their prospective!!

 

Something else is Watch out for a Landon Casten or Elder Casten, he is a Elder that is the cousin of Elder Fisher in my district and he just got sent to the Denver north mission. So he has for sure been in Broomfield church building and may have even talked to Elder Gross and Elder Usevitch, since they are the ap's.

 

Nakikita ko po ang patay mga tao...hahaha that means I can see dead people...haha joke long! (only joking)

 

Mahal po ang Diyos

Mahal Kita

Ingat Kayo

Elder James