Hello Hello Hello,
So this was probably the longest week of my mission, a good week just long, and very hard...it kinda sucked... anyway this is what happened. I was transferred! Goodbye Baluarte. Well I knew it was gonna happen sometime. I was transferred to a sick new area, its hard to not compare it to Baluarte, cause it was such a awesome area. But this new area is awesome too, it has somethings that baluarte didn't have. I got transferred to Bagabag, Nueva Viscaya it is sick up here. Its in the mountains...so its not quite as hot, and it is absolutely beautiful, Banue is pretty close by too so we are planning on going up there as a zone in 4 weeks for pday...I'm not gonna lie I am pretty stoked! Bagabag isn't very big, the Branch is small too, the building is really small. We are about 30 minutes outside of Solano the biggest city in the zone. Its nice there, they have a macdo's and a dunkin donut! My new companion is Elder Valdez, he is sick, really funny, he talks soo fast in tagalog its sometimes hard to understand him. He is always happy though and a good teacher, so far he has made me start and lead all the lessons which is nice, but I am still not the best at Tagalog so its kinda hard, but I am learning a lot from him, I got transferred on thursday and found out on tuesday, during district meeting. Packing was kinda weird. What really sucked was saying goodbye to everyone in Baluarte....man saying goodbye to the balagbagans was by far the hardest thing I have ever done on my mission. Ha...ya it sucked! We got there sat down I told them I was getting transferred, then nanay got up and left, she came back, and was like I thought we were gonna celebrate your birthday...haha ya that really sucked. I still miss them, but I trust elder Alfonso, and I know the Elder that got transferred into baluarte, Elder Rapsing, he is a Filipino in my batch, he is awesome, baluarte...and the balagbagans are in good hands.
Anyway I am here in Bagabag and it is awesome, Bagabag is actually a very interesting branch, because it is one branch with 4 missionaries! Sister Carlos told me that if they have enough missionaries they like to have 4 missionaries in Bagabag, because it is such a big area there needs to be 4 elders. There are 2 cities in Bagabag, Lamut and Bagabag. Elder Valdez and I are in Bagabag and Elder Molino and Elder Proctor are in Lamut. So the history of Bagabag is this, it was closed like 5 cycles ago, then Elder Sarignaya and Elder Lasaya opened it up again, then Elder Molino and Elder Valdez got transferred in, so then there were 2 sets of elders in Bagabag, then Elder Sarignaya and Lasaya both got Transferred out then Molino and Valdez became companions, then Elder Proctor and I got transferred and so now there are 2 sets of Companionships again. This cycle is gonna be awesome, one because the work here is pretty good, two because elder Molino and Valdez are awesome, three were going to Banue, four because my best friend in the mission is Elder Proctor we were in the same mtc batch..honestly I'm not gonna lie I was really hoping I was just gonna be in the same zone as him..ha I am in the same area as him thats awesome. All four of us live in the same apartment.
The work here is good, we still need to contact our 15 names. We teach alot of kids, I dont really like teaching kids, but they are our investigators and they are still souls..so we will teach them. Sorry I cant really remember the names of everyone we teach I still am still trying to learn everything but some main people we are working with is Angelica, her family is less active so we are trying to reactivate them while teaching her. She is only 9. We are teaching the Bodigoin Brothers they are in there teens, they are the sons of a recent convert, we are teaching their father too, he is nice, is really smart and has a good desire to learn. Drinks alot daw.
Conferences were great, I love hearing the testimonies of the Apostles, and man the talk by Elder Nelson was great and the ones afterwards too, I cant remember his name but he talked about special kids and how they are special to the Lord. There was a lot of focus on less actives, the members can help with the less actives sooo much, just by reaching out to them, if every member reached out to one less active, the activity rate would sky rocket. Like the activity rate here would go from 25% to 50% then the next year it might go even higher if members did it again and again, till all came back to the Church. Members sometimes are afraid to reach out. But the less actives need them so much to just reach out, a simple jesture, anything really.
We didn't do much for pday it was nice and relaxing. Love those pdays always my favorites. Alot happened this week but I forgot some of it, and just dont have a ton of time sorry.
Oh yeah its my birthday tomorrow, 20 years old...weird.
Mahal ko Kayo
Elder James
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Easter Malapit na!!
Dearest Family,
Welp there hasn't been much better of a week then this it was napaka-successful and fun!! This week seemed to go a little slower then usual, probably because it it the week before transfers and I was watching the clock so much...I don't know for sure but I don't think I am getting transfered!! Yay, I would love to stay in Baluarte for another cycle or two...at the same time I wouldn't mind to be transferred....I'm at this weird point of whether I do or don't want to be transferred. I love Baluarte, the members are great, our work is really really picking up, my companion is great, I am close to Santiago which has everything a missionary could possibly want...napakasiya ako dito, I am super happy here. But at the same time it'd be nice to have a fresh start, a new area, a bigger apartment haha...hopefully a shower...instead of a bucket...I don't know if I told you about that, we shower with a bucket, our bathroom doesn't have a shower, there is a water spicket thingy...so we fill up a bucket and then have a ladle and that's how we shower. Our toilet doesn't flush either we have to fill the bucket up then poor it into the toilet to flush haha, its awesome. But I wouldn't mind a new apartment. So I am at this weird point where I don't know if I want to be transferred or not! Busta I will take whatever the Lord wants me to do. I find out tomorrow if I'm getting transferred, then its pack, magpaalam (say goodbyes) to the members and investigators I want to say goodbye too. Man the Balagbagans is gonna be a hard goodbye whenever it happens. I remember when Kelson said goodbye..... anyway onto the week.
Micah, she is a stud! We started on the Gospel of Christ, usually it'd be faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, enduring to the end. But, skipped to baptism, then our 2nd lesson with her this week we started on faith. Our lesson on baptism was sick. She is like a typical misguided catholic. She believed in baby baptism and didn't know what authority had to do with baptism...but we taught her everything about baptism, how we are 1. Following the Example of Jesus Christ, 2. Completing a saving ordinance/following the commandments, 3. We become free from all of our past sins and are fresh na fresh! She was confused about baby baptism, we told her that babies dont have sin, they are perfect, we showed her 2 Nephi 2:20ish how we are made free from adam's sin through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and we taught her that baby baptism was a doctrine that came from confusion about the doctrine of Baptism because of the Apostasy and how there is no reference about baby baptism in the Bible so the doctrine did not come from God and if it didn't come from God it is not true doctrine! Then we retaught her about authority, or the Priesthood and how to preform baptism you need the Priesthood, we asked her to be baptized on May 5 and she said yes, she has some stuff she needs to clear up before hand like, she smokes and she is living with her boyfriend, they aren't married yet...so we have a little ways to go with her.
We had a Golden na Golden find this week it was awesome, we found a man...or well he found us, we were walking in Balintacatoc to go teach Magicboy, this old guy stopped us he said, he used to work abroad in America, he had his ss card, his green card and a 50cent coin to prove it. Then he said that he used to be and investigator in America, his brother was baptized and is the Bishop in a branch in Cordon. And he wanted us to come visit him sometime. Sooo we went back and visited him, the first 30 mins of the lesson, we sat there as he pretty much bashed on other Church's and there doctrine. I just sat there and laughed...it was all pretty much true. Then we talked about when he was taught before he knows everything, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, Thomas S. Monson, Plan of Salvation. Everything, he doesnt have and problems with the word of wisdom...he said and he doesn't have any other problems. We are gonna start teaching him on April 10..because he is gonna be gone till then..and his baptismal date is April 28..oh yeah we gave him a baptismal date haha. His name is Tatay Jesus Costello haha.
Sarani is doing great we also taught him about baptism and gave him a date for April 28, and I am guessing out of all of our investigators he will be the one that actually hits his date. He really wants to be baptized, he has come to Church 3 times, read all of our reading assignments, asked a question about the word of wisdom, then answered it himself...about why the things are forbidden, cause there bad for your body. We taught him about the W.o.W. he agreed to keep it, I think he will, he is living with all members right now, so he has a lot of support, there wedding date is on April 25. Hopefully they will dress in white twice if ya know what I am saying, that is our goal as missionaries, its more then baptism, its Salvation, baptism is only a step to Salvation, a very big and important one, but you need other things too! So like I said hopefully in a year they will be in white again..in Manila..in the Temple.
Vincent is doing good, we finally were able to Contact him, we taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, gosh he lives soooo stinking far, and the path is soooo muddy, my shoes and pants got destroyed, but the worth of every soul is great in the sight of God, so even if the live in the Boondocks (mountains) and the road is muddy, we go to him. He still needs to pray about Joseph Smith, when we went back yesterday to teach about the B.o.M. he hadn't prayed yet...I really really tried to emphasize the fact that he HAS TO PRAY AND ASK, thats the key, if they dont do it, there is no conversion.
Sarah.....I am this close to dropping her. She doesn't read, doesn't come to church, txts during the lessons, doesn't pray, I went on splits with elder Landeen this sick missionary in my district, man he gave Sarah a smack down, told her what she had to do, I think she was a little offended...but sometimes its necessary to be straight with them. Elder Landeen is a real straight up guy.
We taught Devina Balagbagan for the first time, she is 12, I dont like teaching kids, but it would be awesome to have more of the Balagbagans members haha. Anyway she is super shy during the lessons, out of the lessons she loves us, we asked her to be baptized, she didn't answer so we are taking that as a..teach he some more then ask again....I honestly don't know why she wouldn't want to, she doesn't have any strong ties to other religions, she comes to church, we just need to teach her. I think she is just super shy.....I have some bad news I really don't want to talk about, but Tatay had a slip up, and drank on wednesday...man that just shattered my universe, going from the Pagbilaw's committing Sarani to baptism, to going to the Balagbagans, she tatay passed out because he was drunk...i dont want to talk about it anymore....
Man this sunday we had a little scheduling conflict...a good one but, anyways, we had to teach Tatay Aqino this less active that lives in Sagana, but we also had a lot of appt. in Balintactoc, so luckly for us we had two fellowshippers so Elder Alfonso and Philip went to Balintacatoc, and Brother Pulido the bishops son and I went to Sagana, we didn't really know the excat way to get there so finding him was kinda fun, and man the dogs are mean in Sagana. Luckly they are afraid of rocks, so thats where my baseball back round come in. We finally found him, he lives so far away, but he wasn't there when we got there. But his kid was there and his wife, he is 26 and has a little girl, we asked if we could teach..man i was soo nervous, I've been the junior comp my whole mission, but there i was with a member so I had to lead it, i was nervous, but during the prayer, (I asked the member to say the prayer) I was just praying soooo hard for the spirit, so I could teach, the lesson actually went great, the spirit was strong, I dont know how interesed brother is but his wife seemed very interested. When we asked when we could come back, Brother seemed a little hesitant but sister said Sunday...so I think she is interested. We really focused on families and how the gospel blesses families. It was a good lesson.
Man o Man this cycle went by sooo stinkin fast, things here have been kinda weird, its been raining and raining even though it is technically summer. It was super hot today, cause it rained the past week, so it is super humid and hot ontop of it. My collars are just soo gross when the day is over. Drinking water is soo easy too, I could probably down a liter of water in one sitting. It feels like here you are always wet, either cause it is raining or your sweating. I like the rain though, I like getting wet from the rain it is such a relief from the hot, Filipinos are so afraid of the rain. I love it. I hate the mud though, and here when there is rain there is mud...well i guess thats everywhere.
P-day was fun, we played football, Filipinos dont really understand how to play football....but it was still alot of fun, I am super tired now, its weird before the mission I could have played football all day, now I get tired in like 15 mins...
anyways I love it here, cant believe its already been 6 months, time flies they say. They say that when you hit one year the time just fliiiiieeeeess by, cause by that time your good at the language, you pretty much know how to be a missionary. Your used to the culture and everything...then its just straight up work work work.
Mahal Kita
Elder James
oh yeah can you believe this, there is another elder james in the mission...so there are 2 elder james's and guess when his birthday is April 10, so 2 elder james's in the Cauayan mission with the same birthday...weird....I'm not gonna lie though the other elder james is kinda weird...he eats A lot more then me too. So we aren't exactly the same.
Welp there hasn't been much better of a week then this it was napaka-successful and fun!! This week seemed to go a little slower then usual, probably because it it the week before transfers and I was watching the clock so much...I don't know for sure but I don't think I am getting transfered!! Yay, I would love to stay in Baluarte for another cycle or two...at the same time I wouldn't mind to be transferred....I'm at this weird point of whether I do or don't want to be transferred. I love Baluarte, the members are great, our work is really really picking up, my companion is great, I am close to Santiago which has everything a missionary could possibly want...napakasiya ako dito, I am super happy here. But at the same time it'd be nice to have a fresh start, a new area, a bigger apartment haha...hopefully a shower...instead of a bucket...I don't know if I told you about that, we shower with a bucket, our bathroom doesn't have a shower, there is a water spicket thingy...so we fill up a bucket and then have a ladle and that's how we shower. Our toilet doesn't flush either we have to fill the bucket up then poor it into the toilet to flush haha, its awesome. But I wouldn't mind a new apartment. So I am at this weird point where I don't know if I want to be transferred or not! Busta I will take whatever the Lord wants me to do. I find out tomorrow if I'm getting transferred, then its pack, magpaalam (say goodbyes) to the members and investigators I want to say goodbye too. Man the Balagbagans is gonna be a hard goodbye whenever it happens. I remember when Kelson said goodbye..... anyway onto the week.
Micah, she is a stud! We started on the Gospel of Christ, usually it'd be faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, enduring to the end. But, skipped to baptism, then our 2nd lesson with her this week we started on faith. Our lesson on baptism was sick. She is like a typical misguided catholic. She believed in baby baptism and didn't know what authority had to do with baptism...but we taught her everything about baptism, how we are 1. Following the Example of Jesus Christ, 2. Completing a saving ordinance/following the commandments, 3. We become free from all of our past sins and are fresh na fresh! She was confused about baby baptism, we told her that babies dont have sin, they are perfect, we showed her 2 Nephi 2:20ish how we are made free from adam's sin through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and we taught her that baby baptism was a doctrine that came from confusion about the doctrine of Baptism because of the Apostasy and how there is no reference about baby baptism in the Bible so the doctrine did not come from God and if it didn't come from God it is not true doctrine! Then we retaught her about authority, or the Priesthood and how to preform baptism you need the Priesthood, we asked her to be baptized on May 5 and she said yes, she has some stuff she needs to clear up before hand like, she smokes and she is living with her boyfriend, they aren't married yet...so we have a little ways to go with her.
We had a Golden na Golden find this week it was awesome, we found a man...or well he found us, we were walking in Balintacatoc to go teach Magicboy, this old guy stopped us he said, he used to work abroad in America, he had his ss card, his green card and a 50cent coin to prove it. Then he said that he used to be and investigator in America, his brother was baptized and is the Bishop in a branch in Cordon. And he wanted us to come visit him sometime. Sooo we went back and visited him, the first 30 mins of the lesson, we sat there as he pretty much bashed on other Church's and there doctrine. I just sat there and laughed...it was all pretty much true. Then we talked about when he was taught before he knows everything, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, Thomas S. Monson, Plan of Salvation. Everything, he doesnt have and problems with the word of wisdom...he said and he doesn't have any other problems. We are gonna start teaching him on April 10..because he is gonna be gone till then..and his baptismal date is April 28..oh yeah we gave him a baptismal date haha. His name is Tatay Jesus Costello haha.
Sarani is doing great we also taught him about baptism and gave him a date for April 28, and I am guessing out of all of our investigators he will be the one that actually hits his date. He really wants to be baptized, he has come to Church 3 times, read all of our reading assignments, asked a question about the word of wisdom, then answered it himself...about why the things are forbidden, cause there bad for your body. We taught him about the W.o.W. he agreed to keep it, I think he will, he is living with all members right now, so he has a lot of support, there wedding date is on April 25. Hopefully they will dress in white twice if ya know what I am saying, that is our goal as missionaries, its more then baptism, its Salvation, baptism is only a step to Salvation, a very big and important one, but you need other things too! So like I said hopefully in a year they will be in white again..in Manila..in the Temple.
Vincent is doing good, we finally were able to Contact him, we taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, gosh he lives soooo stinking far, and the path is soooo muddy, my shoes and pants got destroyed, but the worth of every soul is great in the sight of God, so even if the live in the Boondocks (mountains) and the road is muddy, we go to him. He still needs to pray about Joseph Smith, when we went back yesterday to teach about the B.o.M. he hadn't prayed yet...I really really tried to emphasize the fact that he HAS TO PRAY AND ASK, thats the key, if they dont do it, there is no conversion.
Sarah.....I am this close to dropping her. She doesn't read, doesn't come to church, txts during the lessons, doesn't pray, I went on splits with elder Landeen this sick missionary in my district, man he gave Sarah a smack down, told her what she had to do, I think she was a little offended...but sometimes its necessary to be straight with them. Elder Landeen is a real straight up guy.
We taught Devina Balagbagan for the first time, she is 12, I dont like teaching kids, but it would be awesome to have more of the Balagbagans members haha. Anyway she is super shy during the lessons, out of the lessons she loves us, we asked her to be baptized, she didn't answer so we are taking that as a..teach he some more then ask again....I honestly don't know why she wouldn't want to, she doesn't have any strong ties to other religions, she comes to church, we just need to teach her. I think she is just super shy.....I have some bad news I really don't want to talk about, but Tatay had a slip up, and drank on wednesday...man that just shattered my universe, going from the Pagbilaw's committing Sarani to baptism, to going to the Balagbagans, she tatay passed out because he was drunk...i dont want to talk about it anymore....
Man this sunday we had a little scheduling conflict...a good one but, anyways, we had to teach Tatay Aqino this less active that lives in Sagana, but we also had a lot of appt. in Balintactoc, so luckly for us we had two fellowshippers so Elder Alfonso and Philip went to Balintacatoc, and Brother Pulido the bishops son and I went to Sagana, we didn't really know the excat way to get there so finding him was kinda fun, and man the dogs are mean in Sagana. Luckly they are afraid of rocks, so thats where my baseball back round come in. We finally found him, he lives so far away, but he wasn't there when we got there. But his kid was there and his wife, he is 26 and has a little girl, we asked if we could teach..man i was soo nervous, I've been the junior comp my whole mission, but there i was with a member so I had to lead it, i was nervous, but during the prayer, (I asked the member to say the prayer) I was just praying soooo hard for the spirit, so I could teach, the lesson actually went great, the spirit was strong, I dont know how interesed brother is but his wife seemed very interested. When we asked when we could come back, Brother seemed a little hesitant but sister said Sunday...so I think she is interested. We really focused on families and how the gospel blesses families. It was a good lesson.
Man o Man this cycle went by sooo stinkin fast, things here have been kinda weird, its been raining and raining even though it is technically summer. It was super hot today, cause it rained the past week, so it is super humid and hot ontop of it. My collars are just soo gross when the day is over. Drinking water is soo easy too, I could probably down a liter of water in one sitting. It feels like here you are always wet, either cause it is raining or your sweating. I like the rain though, I like getting wet from the rain it is such a relief from the hot, Filipinos are so afraid of the rain. I love it. I hate the mud though, and here when there is rain there is mud...well i guess thats everywhere.
P-day was fun, we played football, Filipinos dont really understand how to play football....but it was still alot of fun, I am super tired now, its weird before the mission I could have played football all day, now I get tired in like 15 mins...
anyways I love it here, cant believe its already been 6 months, time flies they say. They say that when you hit one year the time just fliiiiieeeeess by, cause by that time your good at the language, you pretty much know how to be a missionary. Your used to the culture and everything...then its just straight up work work work.
Mahal Kita
Elder James
oh yeah can you believe this, there is another elder james in the mission...so there are 2 elder james's and guess when his birthday is April 10, so 2 elder james's in the Cauayan mission with the same birthday...weird....I'm not gonna lie though the other elder james is kinda weird...he eats A lot more then me too. So we aren't exactly the same.
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