Week 11

Kumusta kayo,

This week was great...we getting busier and busier cause elder kelson is getting ready to go home and so he has alot of stuff to do. Ha members keep asking him for stuff. He said that he is gonnna get rid of some of it, like shirts and ties and stuff he doesn't really need to take home, but at the same time it is kinda annoying to him cause people keep asking him for stuff! That reminds me, the begging here is so ridiculous so many people come up to us and ask us for money...no all they do is stare at you and stick out their hand...i would like to help them but at times it like their almost just demanding money. Oh well they do have hard lives here but we aren't as missionaries allowed to give money out.

Anyways I have some very very very awesome news!! I will start at the beginning, Elder Sarignaya and I were together on splits this last tuesday in Baluarte, I was a little nervous for this mostly because Nanay Balagbaggan asked about what tithing was...and Elder Kelson wasn't going to be there to lead the lesson so I had to lead the lesson. So we got there and we started and we just used the Pamphlet to teach, so it could be a little more clear..we teach them the lesson go alright, I tell them that you dont pay tithing until you get baptized, and said that if they get baptized will they follow the law of tithing. They said yes, a couple days ago though elder kelson told nanay to pray about whether she was ready or not to get baptized..so on tuesday when we were over there I asked if she prayed, she said yes, I asked her what she felt and she said...she would tell us tomorrow...okay...? Anyways Elder Kelson and I go back on tuesday and honestly I cant even remember what we taught about...i think moroni 7:32? about how you can accomplish anything if you have faith. Anyways after the lesson elder kelson asks if Nanay got her answer..she said mamaya..which means later..we were like okay...talked to them a little, then right before we left nanay went up got a envelope said it was a "sr" or simple remembrance. We were like...okay thanks..? Then when we left elder kelson and I were like I think she wrote us letter about getting her answer!! And yup..we walked a little further sat on the road next to the bukid and read the letters, she said thanks for everything and our love patience and diligence, then said that she wanted to be baptized before elder kelson leaves!! so we are having a baptism for her this saturday the 18th! Tatay is very upset that she is getting baptized before him, on sunday we went over there and we talked about it and, before this he hadn't drunk for a whole week! Then on sunday he said he was so mad that she was getting baptized before him that he was gonna go drink when we left. Hahaha....oh Tatay. So elder kelson was like, if we have to sit here all night so you dont go drink we will...so thats excatly what we did, we arrived there at 5pm and we left at like 7:30ish...I played chess with his son and got rocked both times, we also talked to them got to know them a bit more...and best of all tatay didn't go drink! haha...i wouldn't really label that as a waste of time...but later elder kelson was like...Did we just take away his agency...idk! Other then that honestly not alot happened with our investigators this week, cause thursday we weren't able to work in our area cause elder kelson had career day in Cauayan at the mission home, so I went on splits with one of the elders in Santiago Elder Garcia. Then friday we had to weekly plan and wash clothes...by hand so that takes like 2 to 3 hours. Then saturday elder kelson is the district leader and so he had to go do a bunch of baptismal interviews...so we were out of our area a lot this week! The splits in Santiago were great though, we taught a bunch of solid lessons, its a bit different working with Filipinos then Americans...but most filipinos are great to work with their all funny!...most of them anyways haha!

Anyways hmmm not else much happened this week, last week I got this cool backpack made out of bamboo, or in tagalog its called Cauayan....hey our mission name is Cauayan...so in English we would be the Bamboo mission! Elder Kelson is in Banue... you should look up banue on google images , its awesome all the missionaries get to go there some point since its in our mission...it used to be considered a wonder of the world, i am here on splits again with sarignaya...oh i do have a funny story about him. So I have a wart on my hand and he saw it and was like hey I can get that off....I've been wanting to get rid of it for quite a while so I was like okay! So last night we were at the ZL's apartment that way elder kelson and valdez could get up early and just head straight up to banue since its such a long drive. So anyways we were at their house last night and what he did was he takes my hand sticks a needle in the wart and then takes a candle and heats up the needle! The needle was on fire and in my hand...it hurt so much...but after like 4 more times of him doing that..it started to ooze and he said that it should just fall of by Wednesday! It better that hurt so much for it not to work haha!

Anyways thats it for this week thanks for everything!
Mahal Kita Elder James!