Week 9

Kumusta kayo,

This week was great probably one of the fastest weeks so far! but great. We got some decent work done, a little disappointing at times. Either cause investigators not being home or not keeping commitments or what not. But thats okay it was still a fun week.

First things first Balagbaggan of course. Their doing alright, there is some good news then some bad with them it kinda been hard, cause Tatay Balagbaggan has hit a wall he isn't really progressing anymore and he is still having a problem drinking...like everynight, he said its hard cause if his knees weren't messed up he could keep busy, but he cant do anything cause his knees are jacked. So he sits around everyday and is always bored. Then when his buds come around and ask him if he wants to drink he does because its better then sitting around. We don't know what to do with him, and now we are at the point where we cant drop him, 1. because we love him and dropping him would be so stinking hard for us, 2. because Nanay is just boosting forward in her progression. and if we dropped Tay we couldn't teach Nanay anymore! Nanay is doing so good, she has come to Church 3 weeks in a row, she tells the other missionaries that come to her house to go away. And yesterday when we were teaching them about baptism, we didn't really commit them to a date but we told them about it told them that it was necessary. So we taught them about that then Nanay before we left said that if she was to be baptized she would have to be sure that this is the true Church. She says she thinks it is but isn't 100% percent sure, cause she doesn't want to baptized just to be baptized, she wants to make sure its what she wants, so she doesn't flake out after she is baptized. So we were stoked when she said that, cause she is right she has to come to know for herself.
John Nicole, we weren't able to teach him at all this week, both times that we went over to his house he wasn't home. And he didn't show up to Church on sunday he went into Santiago to spend the weekend with his Fam, cause he is living in Balintacatoc with his Grandparents. So since he didn't come to Church, his baptizm date of Feb 18 is gonna have to be moved back. Because the rule here in the Philippines is you have to come to Church 4 times and you can't miss Church once or else you start the 4 weeks over.
Sister Villanazo wasn't home when we went to go teach her on tuesday or thursday, and she also didn't go to Church, so her date is getting moved back.
Sarah stayed with her aunt all week so we weren't able to teach her either, and she also didn't come to Church, so her date is gonna get moved back too.
Richard...yay good news, he asked his dad if he could get baptized, and his dad said yes. So were gonna dunk him the 18th. Since we gave him a date, he always says in his prayers now that he is gratful and excited to be baptized! So thats cool!
We picked a new investigator this week it was awesome, her name is Rosanna, what happened is we were going to Sarah's house to teach her, she wasn't there so we decide to head back to the apartment, and eat dinner. On our way back, this one lady yells, "Hey why haven't you returned?". I was like what, I have never talked to you before. Apparently Kelson and his old comp oym-ed her before and got a return appointment, but then when they went back they couldn't find her home. Anyways we turn around talk to her set up a return appointment, find where her house it and then on thursday we go back to teach her. We show up and start talking to her, and out of nowhere like 20 kids show up. And just stare at elder kelson and me, they start touching me and my hair, it was weird...I was like what are you doing?? Anyways we decide that before we start teaching we should just going inside, and teach her and her brother too! Anyways most of the kids leave, we start teaching a super strong and spiritual lesson, way solid. All of the kids eventually return, and actually come inside and just start staring again. Anyways we close it, get a return appointment and leave, that was a bazaar experiance, that has never happened to me before. All those kids stared at me like I was an alien haha, they just stood there, mouths open, eyes big, hands to the side, staring...haha. The life of a white person in a third world country! You literally cant go anywhere without someone saying something, or staring.

Now this week we also found that we have a mouse problem! There is mouse poop in our apartment and I saw it one time when we came in at night. So what we did was, one night we wanted to have a little taste test. See what it liked. So we got a piece of paper put some peanut butter, mayo, macaroni salad and a piece of sandwich on it. And we set it out at night to see what it liked. It took the whole entire sandwich, and some of the macaroni salad, none of the pb, or mayo. So then the next day we bought a mouse trap at the palanke. The first night we put macaroni salad on it, and some how it ate some of it without triggering the mouse trap. So then the next night we put a little piece of old chedder cheese on it, but it got all of the cheese without setting off the trap!! I dont know how, its a little wizard. Before we left the apartment this morning we set it up again, I hope we go back to a dead mouse! That'd make my pday.

Anyways for pday what we did was, Philip got a job at a local bakery. So he invited us to go and work with them him at the bakery this morning. So we went there and tried to help make bread, and failed, it was hard, I couldn't do it, it was fun trying though. We tried some Pandasal bread which is this super super tasty Filipino bread! So good, I am def gonna miss that bread. Anyways that was great the people who worked there were of course nice. They also fed us breakfast.

Welp thats basically the week for ya! Thanks for everything and all the support and stuff!
Mahal Kita
Elder James