Dear Pamilia,

It is officially the rainy season here, I dont know if it is technically the rainy season, but since there is like a monsoon every single day, its pretty much rainy season to me. I sent a picture of how bad the rain is, when it gets really going. I took this picture on Friday, it was about 5 in the afternoon, we had just gotten out of a appt at Tatay Pong a recently returned less active. And we were on our way to the Fernandez family, when it just suddenly started raining, luckily there was a tindahan (a little store thing) there that we were able to hide under for about a hour until the rain stopped, the rain kills our work, because everyones roofs are made of tin, and so the rain is super noisy, and then we are soaked on top of it... i hate rain.

We had another fairly disappointing week again as far as work, when we do teach the lessons are usually awesome. There are a lot of cool things that are happening in our area, the first is Matramil Hipolito, the son of the Elders Quorem president in the ward, Matramil was less active, but now he has come to church 3 times and is reading the Book of Mormon is in 2nd Nephi, and he is working with us, he is 20 and is planning on going on a mission. I am not sure where his new desire is coming from, nothing we did, a switch or something just went off and he decided he wanted to come back to the Church.

Another cool thing, is a lot of the contention in the ward is starting to go down, I have seen and heard about a couple of people asking forgiveness during church. Like the Branch Presidents wife, who a lot of the people in the ward have a grudge against. She asked forgiveness from sister Ferrer the other sunday, they both started crying it was kind of funny.

I am trying to stay as positive as possible, but it is hard going out everyday, realizing that you will probably only teach one lesson, and walk around all day, my legs hurt so much last night when we got back from work. There are some very exciting things here though, the people that we are teaching are pretty awesome though. You learn to really appreciate lessons here in Jones, my whole mission lessons came really easy, we didn't really have to work hard to get lessons.

Something I am gonna work hard on, is loving the people, thats all I can really do sometimes, is just when we go inside of peoples homes, just loving them as much as I can. Sometimes when we get to appts, I am super tired from walking so much, I feel like just sitting there for a few minutes and relaxing, not focusing on the people there. If I just show my love to the people, maybe that will make a difference.

There is some exciting news this week, and some even more exciting news about August. Elder Tah, a member of the 70, and the Area President, is doing a mission tour here in Cauayan, he is arriving tomorrow, we will have a special missionary devotional on wednesday, he is gonna randomly go to some apartments to check them out, we cleaned our apartment earlier, but I dont think he will come to ours, its really far away. Also he will be randomly interviewing some missionaries. Thats kinda scary, I hope I dont get picked to be interviewed... I guess it would be cool, talking to Elder Tah one on one... its just kinda scary.. Also something that is gonna happen in August is, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Bishop Dean M. Davies of the Presiding Bishopric, Elder Brent H. Nielson of the Seventy and Area Presidency are coming to the Cauayan mission to do a mission tour. I am so stoked, a Apostle, the Presiding Bishop, and a member of the Seventy are coming to Cauayan. They will also do a special missionary fireside. We will probably get to shake hands with them and stuff. I am pretty excited for that one... maybe they are coming to see if the Cauayan mission is ready for a Temple... haha probably not but that would be awesome.

Anyways, as far people that we taught this week, we taught Brother Aquino, a less active Melchz Priesthood holder, and he two kids. The lesson was awesome, it was are first lesson with him. All we did was share a script thought in 2nd Nephi 31:20. The lesson was awesome, he said that he really misses coming to church, he actually almost started crying, he barely held it back. His daughter was way into the lesson too, she is like 14 maybe, his son was pretty interested too. We taught them on saturday, they said they were gonna come to church on sunday, but they didn't, but the son did.. so that was cool that he was able to come to church.

We haven't been able to teach Sister Quijas again, we taught brother Quijas last night, he is awesome, he just needs to kinda push his wife a little into getting more into the Church and stuff, sister is super catholic though... so she will be a tough cookie.

We taught sister Fernandez, she is awesome, when we got to their house the Book of Mormon was out and she said that she was reading again. Apparently their family was super active back in the day, it just that brother got a job and has to work on sundays. So first of all we are gonna focus on sister and her kids, and if they can come back, brother I think eventually will. The Rebuca family, a active family in the ward is working with them.

The rebuca family is awesome. The other day President Rebuca came out and worked with us, he told us his conversion story, it is pretty awesome. Back in the day he was a baptist. He was at his grandpa's house and saw a Book of Mormon on the shelf, was curious about it, started reading it, but as soon as he started to read it he got a head ache, then he tried again, same thing happened. Then a couple days later he tried again, but prayed before he started. He read the whole thing in like a week, he read it two more times, in ilokono, then found out where the LDS church is in Jones, then went, the missionaries met him, gave him a tagalog Book of Mormon, he read that again, the missionaries started to teach him, in the first lesson he asked if he could get baptized... eventually he got baptized, and his wife too. After one year excatly they went to the temple got endowed and sealed there. Pretty cool story.

We also taught the Abarquez family, they are pretty legit, the are less actives and they have been to church three times straight.

We having been teaching a lot of members, to strengthen them and to try to find out where less actives are and asking for referrals... we are slowly finding people... it will just come to a matter of being able to teach them...

Next week during Church elder Lasay and I are speaking, I am not sure what I want to speak about, either Forgiveness, or the Book of Mormon. I am thinking the Book of Mormon, they're a lot of members who haven't read it yet.

I am pretty excited for this week. To meet and learn from Elder Tah. To keep on trying to find people to teach... I think that they're always people ready for the gospel in every area, we just need to work hard, do what we are supposed to do and rely on the Lord. If we have the spirit it will tell us where to go, like it did for the missionary Nephi in the Book of Mormon, its says that the Spirit led Nephi from place to place on where he needed to go, if we can qualify for that same spirit it will do the same thing for us.

I am loving being a missionary, Elder Lasay my companion is great, I am growing and learning more with and from him then I think I have from any other companion of mine. The cycle is already half way over.

Thanks for all of your love and support,
Elder James

Dear Pamilia

 

Cant believe it is already pday. This has been one fast week. A lot of walking and being disappointed though. We did have some small but very sweet successes though!

 

First I will tell you the story of Tatay Quijas, then the story of what happened last night! So there is a recently returned less active here named Tatay Quijas (kay-has). He is awesome, a giant rather scary looking Filipino, but is suuuper nice and protective of everyone. A super faithful member. But this is why he went less active. Last year the ward clerk, who in the middle of a baptism yelled that the lady saying the closing prayer was not worthy to pray in Church, and that she should be dis fellowshipped. Well this was very rude, and as a clerk he has no authority to say that. Tatay Quijas was there, and thought the same thing, so he charged the Clerk, punched him twice in the face, and chased him all the way around jones. If you ask me the clerk deserved it. The members here love Tatay Quijas, and last cycle he became active again... he is loved so much here, people started crying when they saw him at church! Anyway we are focusing on his wife a nonmember, who is a devote catholic, who has a fairly hard head. We finally got a lesson in with her last night. After the prayer, it entered into my mind to really focus on families, so during the whole lesson, lasay and I were really really focusing on the importance of families and especially the importance of the gospel to families. We were very personal with the lesson. I felt like i should share family pictures with them that I carry with me. That was the first time I did that my whole mission. The lesson was really focused on eternal families. It was super strong, the spirit was sooo strong, it was a very personal family based lesson. I think that sisters heart has def been softened, she was quiet (which is unusual). I am excited to go back. After the lesson e. Lasay and I talked about it, he said that after the prayer it too entered into his mind to focus on families. It was cool that the spirit was coordinating with the both of us at the same time. 

 

We tracted into this family called the Pascual Family, we actually haven't taught them yet, but during the oym they were very receptive, and wanted us to come back. I am super excited for them, during the oym I felt something different. Maybe it was just me, but this could be a awesome family. 

 

We found this less active family, the Fernandez family, we taught them on Friday, about keeping the commandements. That lesson was also awesome, in sisters prayer she asked for help in returning back to the Church. The 2nd councelor of the ward lives close so most lessons we will take him with us. I am really excited about them. If they are fellowshipped they will def come back!

 

We got punted alot this week, we only taugt 6 lessons. It was a very humbleing week. President said that if you get punted a lot in one day you should take a snake brake, needless to say we have been taking a lot of snack breaks.

 

We have some great prospects though, the Aquino family, a part member less active, the Dela Cruz family, another part member less active. We have had lessons set up with them but, both fell through.

 

We oymed the mayors house, that was a scary oym, but they let us in, and it turns out the aunt of the mayor, all of her kids are members and married into the temple. We are really trying to teach her. We have a cycle goal to teach the mayor, haha probably wont happen... but we have been in his giant house twice, and everyone their loves us. We also found out where the vice mayor lives. We are gonna go look for him some day. haha The Carlos's told us to not be afraid of tracting into big houses. They might be prepared too!

 

We are teaching the Ebarquez family. They are awesome, have been to church 2 weeks in a row, are less active. And really want to go to the temple. Yesterday we taught about the temple. Sister almost cried. She really wants to go, but her husband a less active, drinks, smokes and gambles on cock fights... (still haven't seen a cock fight yet...probably a good thing).

 

The problems in the branch are getting better. The president is learning what excatly he is supposed to do. The contention has stopped, and the gossip has been stopped too. People realized that its gonna take a branch effort to fix the branch. The help of the Gottfersons a couple missonary here has been really inspiring. If people fulfill their responsiblities this could be a very awesome branch. There are some awesome awesome members here, there just is a lack of unity and collective effort.

 

But this week has been good, we got attacked by a goose, hiden from, and have walked a marathon. Trying to keep spirits high though. Looking for the positive things. Its only been one week here and I have learned alot.

 

I love my mission and wouldn't trade it for anything, so all of you priests and prospective missionaries, just know that if you come out here you will never regret it, it will be the greatest experiance of your life. There is no good reason to not go on a mission.

 

Elder Tadena news: The operation went well, he has been sent to Manila, to the Missionary Recovery Center, he will spend a month there then go home. He will be released honorably.

 

Oh yeah, I talked to the missionaries in Bagabag, they are teaching Willy Bodegon the father of the Bodegon brothers, they said that he is going to churhc! Awesome! Hopefully they will complete the family. Funny side note, Elder Lasay (who is awesome... probably my favorite comp yet!!) he used to be assinged in Bagabag just before me and he taught sister Bodegon and her daughter, they got baptized, elder Valdez and I taught her sons, they got baptized, now Eldr Jackson and Elder Cauayan are teaching the father... three sets of missionaries but the family will be completed!!

 

For pday all the missionaries that helped with Elder Tadena were invited to Cauayan for a bbq, oh man, bbq ribs and hamburgers. It was awesome! The chicken was soooo good. and we had dr pepper, imported from USA... that was awesome.

 

anyways love you guys, keep Elder Tadena in your prayers,

Elder James

Dear Family,

This week has been nuts, the most tiring and hardest emotionally, physically and spiritually, and mentally week of my mission. I was emergency transferred. Because Elder Tadena got hit by a motorcycle, I am not sure what happened because elder Crowley and I were on splits in Lamut, but basically from what I know Elder Tadena was walking with Valdez and a motorcyclist didn't see them, and hit Tadena, his foot is broken, as soon as it happened they called us, we came back, saw that his leg was super swollen, called sister carlos, she told us to go to the hospital in Santiago so crowley went there with him, elder valdez and I went to the apartment and got some of tadenas stuff, then we went to the hospital and stayed there over night with Tadena. Then went to Cauayan on Wednesday, President told me I was going to get emergency transferred because of what happened. Tadena got surgery done on his leg, I think he will probably get sent home.

I got transferred to Jones, in Alica city. The area is in very rough shape. The Branch President is still trying to learn what a branch President should do, their is a lot of conflicts in the branch, its a pretty delicate situation, there are almost no investigators, and a couple less actives that we are working with. It is a really hard area, they usually only average 6 lessons a week, which is hard going to 6, when your averaging 25 your whole mission. I am super excited though, I know that even though the work might be harder, there is always that one person, one person that could just be our miracle, I dont know who it is yet, but we are gonna be working hard and trying to help the branch as much as possible, and find as many people as possible. A lot of our work may not show up in the numbers, but everyday we will be doing some thing to help this little branch out. There on average is about 30 ppl who come to church here.

My new comp is elder Lasay, he is awesome, he maybe my favorite comp yet, I love him, I have enjoyed working with him alot. He has been awesome. Super nice, a lot of trust in me, funny, no complaints, a real desire to work and obey rules. He is gonna be awesome to work with.

This week has been pretty rough but it is nice looking back on, I think even just this week I grew a lot, it kinda required it. I remember what L Tom Perry said, "Come what may and Love it." That is what I am really trying to do in this situation.

I love you guys, sorry my email is sooo short. Next week I will write more, tell you more about what we are doing, but its almost 5 now we gotta go. Bye.

Love you,
Elder James

Dear Family,

This week was the last full week before transfer day, transfer day is thursday, I don't know yet if I am getting transferred. Its always one of those scary things as a missionary after you have been in a area for a while, and then transfer day is coming close up. We have had a lot of success here and seen a lot of awesome miracles. Whether I get transferred or not I will never forget the people that we taught here.

This week we found a lot of cool new people, and we actually saw a cool new miracle, at least it is a small one to me.

I will start off with this cool new less active that we found. Her name is Sister Carbonel, she is married and we tracted into her. We were behind tuao north, and to the right are tons of corn fields, and we were walking and the houses we few, it wasn't a house to house sort of deal, and we passed this one house, and there were two older men and a women outside, I said to Elder Tadena that we should stop and oym them, he said they were busy, I was like, lets oym them anyway, so we go to oym them, and we ask if we could introduce ourselves to them, and sister was like "Oh hey Elders, I will go get some chairs." She leaves gets some chairs, elder Tadena and I look at each other like, I think this is a member, we started talking to her. It turns out that she moved to Auroa and got married there to a less active member, then they moved back to Tuao North, and stayed less active. She said that she really wanted to come back to Church but she was just really shy, she knows most of the Single adults there though. She said if she didn't get married she might be on a mission right now! We couldn't teach because there was no other male there, the two earlier went and hid in there houses or something... But she said we could come back on Saturday when her husband was there. I actually didn't because elder Crowley and I did splits in Lamut. But Tadena and Valdez did, and they said the the lesson was great and that sister was gonna come to Church on Sunday...she didn't but thats okay, we only taught once, once we get start teaching consistently then hopefully she and her husband will return.

We kept teaching Tatay Vallayos, he is a very interesting man. A man of strong opinions. He knows a lot about the gospel, but there are some principals, that he is still confused about like repentance, he said you can only repent once in your life.. we didn't argue with him about that but we will probably bring that up in other lessons. But something cool that happened with him this week was that he has a girlfriend, that just had a stroke, and she wants to be taught, she is 46 years old and has already read the whole gospel principals book. We have taught her twice this week, the lessons were awesome, but Tatay Vallayos, is really good at getting off topic, and he is super talkative... he gets into deep doctrine that doesn't need to be discussed at this point in Sister's conversion. Sister wasn't able to come to church because she just had a stroke and so she is still having a lot of health problems there, and she wasn't feeling like going to church. But Tatay Vallayos came to church, that is his 3rd in a row, he is close to returning.

Valen, she had her baptismal interview this week, she failed. Valdez interviewed her, he said that she doesn't have a very strong testimony of Joseph Smith, before the interview I just felt like she wasn't ready either, I told that to Tadena... he didn't really listen to me though... that was kinda frustrating. In the end the right decision was made.

We taught the Bontayon family again, man I love that family so much, brother is awesome, they finally opened up to us, they said that back in the day they used to be strong members in the ward, they were sealed in the Temple, Brother was a member of the District presidency. But they told us why they became in active. The missionaries literately drove them in active. First a rm, came back to them and married their daughter without even telling them, infact the Branch President performed the marriage and nobody told Sister and Brother Bontayon... well to be honest I don't want to get into it all, but they were treated very unfairly by the missionaries. One time they didn't have any money for food, so brother was forced to work on Sunday, a Sister missionary saw, went up and chastised brother, and said that if he continues something bad will happen in his life... then he had a stroke a few weeks later... its like whats wrong with the missionaries, its really embarrassing. Everyone in the area really looks down on the Elders now. President Tae, the Philippine area President, said to President Carlos awhile back, if the Lord can't trust in the missionaries, who can he trust in... well the Bontayon family and their neighborhood can't trust in us... that's gonna be Elder Tadena and mine new task, restore the trust to the elders and ward member in that family and neighborhood. 

Elder Crowley and I taught Tatay Magno last night, that was a intense lesson, we showed up and we didn't know what we were gonna teach, it was cool cause in like 30 seconds elder Crowley and I made this awesome lesson plan, we shared Enos 1:27 about Salvation... awesome versus, then we were like how do we gain this Eternal life, we opened up to Moroni 7:34, about faith, repentance, and baptism, we said that this is the gospel that the Lord prepared for us to gain Salvation, and if follow this Gospel we would, but there is one more vital part of this Gospel that we have to follow, Enduring to the End, and we opened 2nd Nephi 31:16..i think.. about enduring to the end. We asked tatay, what he was feeling, he said he felt pain when he heard that because he knows he is not doing what he needs to do. Elder Crowely and I both testified of Repentance, and that he is never completely lost... it was a awesome lesson. We will see what happens though.

I love being a missionary, this cycle has been awesome, I have learned so much, sorry the letter is kinda short, but we are running out of time. I love you guys thanks for everything.
Elder James

Oh yeah something else cool, one of the new missionaries arriving on thursday is from Bangladesh, he is the first missionary ever to be called from Bangladesh, its really exciting, he is serving in our mission.

Dear Family,

Hello hello hello, this has been quite a week, super busy, it really kinda affected our week. On thursday we had District meeting, then we had this thing called CLS it was training for this new language program for Filipinos to learn English. Because if you know english here you have a high chance of being successful. Its like in America, its really good to know spanish. Then on friday we got this sick dinner appt. It was at the old Branch Presidents house, and we had lechon baboy. Its where they take a whole pig and slow roast it over a fire... oh man it was soo good, I ate so much pork. And that took a good chunck out of our day. Then saturday we were in Solano from about 2-7 because it was District Conference (like Stake con.) we had the Priesthood session, and then the adult session. Man the second session was sooo good. A sister in the stake taught about the Atonement. It was awesome. She did a great job. Something new that I realized, was the savior suffered every single temptation that has ever been felt, and not only felt them, but overcame them. Only Jesus could have done that, that is proof right there that he is much more then just a normal man, because how many temptations does the normal man feel then give in to temptation and sin... The Savior felt every temptation and didn't give in to he smallest one!

Anyways, we still had a good week, nothing really happened out of the ordinary. We haven't been able to get back to the rodrigo family. We started teaching this new kid named Andrew Bodegon. The cousin of the recently baptized bodegon's. He is only 10, I really am not a fan of teaching kids, but if we baptize him, it will complete the family, and we would be the ones that need to teach him since he isn't a child of record anymore. But the process of teaching him should be pretty straight, since he has support and a desire to get baptized.

We weren't able to teach Julius this week, he wasn't home all week, it was funny our first lesson with him I remember him saying that he wasn't a busy person... he is turning out to be a very busy person haha.

Sorry I dont really have much to email about this email this week is gonna be really short to, we just got back from Banue, and so we dont have much time. It was okay at banue, once you see it once thats about enough... kinda boring the second time.

Elder Tadena and I got into a bit of an argument this week about a rule.. on Wednesday we did splits with valdez... so there were actually three of us, elder crowly was in cauayan, but elder Tadena and Valdez said that we could teach women if there were three of us. The rule is though that you cannot enter the home if a women is there with no other male over the age of 18. And in one of our appts. there was no male in there house. So I told them we couldn't go in. They thought that since there were three of us we could... we had a bit of an argument about that. We have made up and apologized now, but on wednesday emotions were a little high... haha but alls well that ends well right?... that was actually the first (and hopefully last) argument I have gotten in my whole mission.... feeling anger like that, whether your right or wrong, stinks, it ruins the mode, the spirit leaves, and are just walking around all day in a bad mood.

Well sorry the letter is short, I love you guys, thanks for everything. Just keep me updated on stuff, and such...

Mahal ko kayo
Elder James 

Dear Family,

 

This week was probably one of the harder weeks in Bagabag, there were days where we got punted from every single lesson, out of like 10 planned. We still taught alot this week and had a lot of success but, tuesday, wednesday and thursday, were hard, alot of walking and not a lot of teaching. We did a lot of tracting and finding, we found a cool new less active to teach and a cool new family that has some potential that we are teaching... I was talking to elder crowley about it, and he was like 'If the Lord wants you to walk all day and talk to everyone you see, then thats what you do, if he wants you to teach a million lessons then thats what you do. No matter what it was a very tiring week!

 

The Bodegon Brothers all got baptized, the baptism was a success. I was a little scared at first because, the baptism was scheduled at 4, and we showed up to the church and the font wasn't full yet, and there was no water. It was probably a city wide thing where there was no water, but finally we got water and the baptism just started a little late! They are pretty awesome, they got the priesthood on sunday, and I also had the privilege of confirming one of them.

 

We taught Aljon Acosta, my excitment for him is diminishing, he is kinda lossing interest, we are teaching him and he is listening but, he just still doesn't have that faith about Joseph Smith, which is a fairly easy concern to clear up. But his main concern is he doesn't have any support from his family, his dad is out of the picture, his mom said we could teach him but she isn't 'supporting' him as in, listening too, going to church and such. So if he got to baptism he would have aboslutly no support, and could potentialy fall away easily. We will definatly keep teaching him, but we have to focus on him gaining a belief in Joseph Smith.

 

I dont know if I told you about this but the Reyno family, this new family that we tracted into a few weeks, well they are now hiding from us. Everytime we go there, there son comes to the door and says no one is home, one time I went around the side of there house and looked in through the window, and saw sister in the living room, then we went to the front doo and knocked, there son came out and was like, they went into the city. I was like, well where is your mom, he said she wasn't there. I said, I saw her earlier, he didn't say anything, so we said we would come back a different day, then left. I dont understand it, we had two great lessons with them, they were very receptive to our message and said that they would pray about Joseph Smith, brother even compared himself to Joseph Smith, and they said they would try to come to Church too! Well people still have their free agency.

 

We started teaching Tatay Valloyas, he is pretty awesome, he really understands the Church, he is a less active, he just got offended, because he is very straight up with people, one time he thought someone was wrong about a principal and they got into a argument and he kinda didn't come back, but we have been teaching him, he has come to church 2 weeks in a row. We have had great lessons with him.

 

We had a great lesson with Julius this week about the B.o.M. we committed him to be baptized, he said yes! The only problem is he wants to be baptized in Taiwan, where he mom lives, his mom is a member. That is nice and all, but, who knows when he is gonna be able to go to Taiwan. Plus something of eternal matters shouldn't be put off for any reason, if someone is spiritually ready. It should be a fairly easy concern to clear up. I mean he could always go to the temple with his mom, once he gets to Taiwan.

 

We started teaching the Rodrigo Family, we tracted into them, they were awesome, really open to the message, asked a lot of good questions. We will see how they go, but if we keep on teaching them then we should have some hope there.

 

Tatay Magno is starting to fall back again. I dont know what is happening. We had a great lesson with him last night. It was super bold, Tatay knows what he has to do, he just has a million excuses of why he isn't doing it. Last night I told him, that there is nothing more important then this gospel, it would be better to go without food then to not follow the commandments of God. Cause even though it may be hard right now, at the last day you will recieve tons of blessings and inherit eternal life... thats just the simple fact of it, no matter what excuse someone has, it doesn't matter, no excuse they could possibly have is more important then the Gospel. Nothing should be chosen over the Gospel.

 

I think I have told you about Nanay Valmores in the past, she is actually starting to make some good progress!! We were almost close to dropping her. But yesterday we taught her about the Book of Mormon... again.. and before the lesson we just followed up with her, followed up with her prayer about Joseph Smith, she was like, elders I think las night I got my answer. She explained that she just prayed, and she felt like something different but good, and happy and peaceful. Then at the end of the lesson she was like. Elders what do I need to do to be able to be Baptized... well Nay, that is a excellent question. The lesson about the Book of Mormon was really good to, the spirit was really strong.

 

We got a couple of referrals this week that I am pretty excited about contacting.

 

This week we got a lot ahead of us, we have zone meeting on thursday, and district confernce on saturday and sunday, kinda looking forward to that. Should be a very fast week.

 

We went hiking earlier today, it was a lot of fun, really hard, I am exhausted... that is the reason why my letter is kinda bad.

 

Oh Manny Paquio lost yesterday, he is like the pride and joy of the Philippines, one of the best boxers ever. But he got k.o... I just want to let you know I didn't watch it, but, obviously it was a big topic here in the Philippines.

 

Thanks for Everything, love you guys.

Elder James

Dear Family and Friends,

First I want to apologize for not sending a email last week, there is a good reason why I didn't. After the second black out here, the power was out for a couple hours, so proctor and I just went back home, washed clothes, then we had a fhe at a members house at 6. So I am sorry that I didn't send a letter home last week. But skyping was awesome! I really enjoyed it, next time is Christmas! It will come faster than you know...time flies out here on the mission. In 4 months I will have officially have been out for a whole year!! Holy smokes time is so fast as a missionary. It doesn't seem fair how fast it is sometimes.

So transfers were this week, and man there were some huge changes to the mission, and we some transfers that happened. First of all, Proctor, Molino, and Valdez all got transferred, I was the only one in the house that didn't get transferred..haha suckers! But elder Valdez only got transferred to Lamut, so he is still in the same house and branch just in a different area, I am still in Bagabag, I got my new companion his name is Elder Tadena, he is a Filipino, he is awesome! Pretty funny, mature... not gonna lie valdez was pretty childish, its nice to have the change of maturity in comps. Elder Valdez is still a good missionary, he is just probably the most childish missionary I have ever met. Elder Tadena is pretty awesome, he is the new district leader in our district. He is a good teacher, at freaking great cook!! And he has a good desire to serve and follow the rules. He isn't the best at english, but his tagalog is super clear and easy to understand, which is nice cause I can understand almost everything he says. I've gotten to the point in tagalog where I understand almost everything just still working on my speaking ability. Which is coming! But elder Valdez's new comp is Elder Crowly, he is sooo sick, he is such a hard worker, it is his last cycle here, he was a zone leader in Cauayan for like 6 months, him and Valdez are the new Zl's here in Solano. But every night we do splits, because Lamut is so far away that they need to come home early around like 6ish cause rides home are hard at night, so around 6 we meet at the house and do splits, Valdez and Tadena usually go to the less actives in the area, and Crowly and I tract, we destroyed this one area this week it was awesome. I come home sooo tired every night, Crowly works like a dog, I am learning sooo much from him already. This is gonna be a great cycle.

So the Lacaden family is still doing good, sister is reading the book of mormon and coming to church. They had their baptismal interview on Saturday and passed it, no concerns, they know everything pretty good. Man I hope I am still around when brother gets here, in august, he sounds super interested, and it would be sooo sick to complete that family, sister says, every night she calls him, and tells him everything that we taught her, and he is interested apparently. Her baptism is the 26th, so that should be fun.

The bodegoen brothers have been a little bit harder to teach, were pushing their baptismal date back to June 9, just because we haven't been able to finish all of the lessons with them, they are interested, and believe in Joseph Smith, they only problem with them is its hard to get all 4 of them there at the lesson all at once so we haven't been able to teach them as much as we want to. But once we finish the lessons, they should be fine, as long as Nanay Bodegoen is active, which I think she will be, she has a really strong testimony, is reading the Book of Mormon, and comes to church. We really want to teach her husband but he is always busy, and when he isn't busy he is drunk... so not much oppertunity there, if we could get one lesson in with him, maybe we could start teaching him more. He is open to it, and he is really nice, he has the coolest mullet I have ever seen. haha

We started teaching this one guy who is gonna be soo sick, I am thinking gonna be like another Sister Lacaden. This guys name is Julius Blance, on tuesday he went up to elder molino when we were in Solano, and he asked if the missionaries could come to him and start teaching him. He just happens to live in our area, he lives soooo far away. Elder Crowly and I were on splits, and so we went to him on saturday for our first contact, it was fun trying to find him. Cause you get out of the highway at this little place called Bakir, and there are a bunch of Tricees there waiting to give people rides out to some of the farther villiages. Or Barangys in tagalog, and so we were going to Nangalisam, and it is a good 4 kilometers out there. But the fair all the way out there for two people is 70 peco's... ya right. Elder Crowly and I decided we were just gonna try to walk it, so we are walking as fast as we can and we get to paniki a little barangy, and we see a tricee driver, ask him how much it is to Julius Blance's house, they say 20 peco's... we gladly take that, we get taken straight to Julius's house, and he is soo open, his mom is a member and working abroad in Taiwan, we were looking around, we didn't see any cig buds, so I dont think he smokes, didn't see any empty beer bottles, or any beer at all, so I dont think he drinks, he had like 3 Mormon novels, a Book of Mormon, a lesson 1 pamphlet and a Teaching of the Prophets: Joseph Smith, book. We taught him such a good lesson, he is soo interested. We didn't give him a baptism date but we asked him if he comes to know our Church is true, if he will be baptized, he agreed to it. I am stoked to teach him, he said that he is going to come to Church on the 27th. He couldn't yesterday cause he was going out of town, to take his brother back to where he was going to be studying.

Tatay Magno wasn't able to come to Church this week because he was cooking for this wedding. He was in charge of cooking 100 kilos of Pork. which is like 202 pounds!!

We had a lot of success this week and I am learning a lot, my tagalog has already gotten a little better this cycle. This could be one of my best cycles! I sure am gonna try.

For pday, we didn't really do much, just cleaned out the apartment really good, tomorrow is apartment checks.

Thanks for everything, I love you guys.
Elder James

Dear Family,

Holy Holy Holy, this week was awesome, I know I say that every week, but this one...was awesome! For a few reasons! 

First of all I went on splits with Elder Proctor, we had to get special permission from president to do this splits, cause Elder Molino wanted to work a day in Bagabag because he wanted to say goodbye to the members and investigators before he gets transferred. Molino and Valdez were nervous to ask prez for permission, but proctor and I figured, if you don't at least ask the answer is definatly no, if ya do ya at least got a chance. So we asked and he said yes. Anyway that was really fun, proctor has a really hard area, its full of hard core catholics, and lamut is pretty far away from the Bagabag chapel, so you have to get people to go all the way to Bagabag to go to church, so its a pretty hard area. The language actually went better then expected. It turns out Proctor and I might actually be comps next cycle, I dont want to get my hopes up, but that we be awesome, Proctor and I have talked about how we would do it, what we would improve, and stuff like that... 

Anyway on to our investigators and less actives we are teaching. 

Tatay Magno, that dog came to Church!!! Holy smokes, when we were waiting at the doors at church on sunday and we saw him pull up to the Chapel, I was bonked out of my stinking mind! We ran out to greet him, he had a big smile on his face. This might have been one of my happiest times on the mission, was watching that man walk into the Church. The members fellowshipped him awesomely! He is really good friends with Brother Baluabal this really rich guy in our ward. It was awesome seeing that dog at church. 

Sister Lacden and Erica are still doing awesome, sister Lacden is soooo ready is ridiculous. She said that she prayed about Joseph Smith, she said after her prayer her mind seemed really clear, and she felt peaceful, and went she went to sleep, she had the best sleep that she had in a long time, and she said that she took that as her answer that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet. She just really gets the Gospel, we taught baptism to her last night, and she basically said she knew that she needed to be baptized and that she wanted her whole family to be baptized too. Her husband is working abroad in Korea, and we asked if she told him yet, she said yes, but she would do it again just to be sure. Because it wouldn't be very good if he got home and Sister is just like, "Hey I'm Mormon now." Haha she understood that and she told her husband and he didn't have a problem with it. Sister also said that she had been taught twice before, but she just didn't get the gospel, and she just didn't feel anything, she said this time things really started making sense and the Gospel was a lot Clearer. She wanted to bear her testimony on sunday, but said she was too nervous. Her baptism is on the 26th, all we have to teach her are the Commandments, but I am not really nervous for any of those, I doubt she drinks or has a problem with the LoC. When it comes to commandments in the Philippines Tithing is always the hardest. Cause, alot of Filipinos are already poor, then they need to pay tithing. Its a hard thing to ask, but its just a way to show our faith. Do you really think the Lord needs our money. Tithing more than anything is a act of Faith! 

The bodigon (sorry there is always a different spelling for their last names...I really don't know how to spell it.) The bodigon Brothers are still doing good, they are starting to pay more attention. They are actually starting to understand it and get more into the lessons. They are coming to church, and doing all of the reading assignments. Their really a great group of kids, I could see this one being a future missionary. Renzo, that kid is a stud. The most interested one out of them all. 

We have been teaching this girl named Valen, I don't really get her, she is interested, and she comes to church and reads and stuff, there is just something about her I don't get. I don't know how really interested she is. We need to give her a baptismal date, but it probably wont be till like late June or something. I think the difference is, is there are some people like sister Lacaden, where their faith just sky rockets up, then there are some like Valen where it's a little slower and harder... I don't know we will see. 

Nanay Torio came to Church again, that was awesome, it was her 3rd week in a row. And to be counted as "active" again in our new program, they need  to come back 4 weeks. Her daughter Valorie also came too, it was her first sunday, but she finally got sunday mornings off, at her work, she works from 8-8 everyday!! And she is only like 19ish... kawawa siya di ba! 

I got to teach primary this sunday, that was fun, the Primary 2nd counselor asked me to teach it, her husband is less active, so we are trying to teach him, but he still refuses to join the lessons. I don't know what we are gonna do to get him to listen... but anyway Sister Bayom asked me to teach primary about Ammon and how to become like him, it was pretty fun. This kid slipped a note into elder Proctors pocket after class it was soo funny! Hahah it said, You guys wait, we are gonna box after Primary, at the playground both of you wait out side. haha that was great! Kids are the same here as they are there in America! 

Oh yeah I actually forgot to tell you about this in my last email, on saturday...last last saturday, we did a service project, and we were going along the highway cleaning up the sides, and I was cutting down the weeds and stuff with these cutter things, and I accidently stepped in a ant hill, and got bit like 30 times...no joke on my legs, hurt so much. Then Saturday we were at Angelica's house and elder valdez and I were hiding from her, I was behind a big tree, I jumped out, and my right foot landed on something uneven, and I rolled my ankle super bad, It still really hurts, it was hard to walk on it, and got pretty swollen. It was just a bad roll, its not sprained or anything. 

We finally went to Banaue!! The 8th wonder of the world, it was awesome, sooo stinking beautiful. It would bonk you out of your mind if you saw it, I took some pics but they just wont do justice. I also bought some really cool souvenir  . Next cycle we are going to go again, I am gonna get some more. They have some really cool wood carvings. I bought this really cool nativity set. Thats your Mothers day gift, Happy Mothers Day Mom! Love You. Unfortunately for you, you dont get it till I come home. I am gonna try to get a little souvenir's for all of you. They have tribal war masks, that are awesome, that I can hang in my man cave when I am older. 

Anyway Love you all thanks for everything

Elder James

P.s. Happy Mothers day to all the Mothers out there. Or in Tagalog Maligayang Araw ng mga Nanay

Hey Family,

Its this time of week again, dont get so excited...

Oh first of all, he is finally born! Beau, glad to hear that he is doing good, and michelle is doing good, when you gonna start the baseball workouts. Gotta get him started early. This week was awesome, do you remember how back like 2 months ago I would always say how fast time was going. Ha That aint nothing compared to how fast it is moving now! Time is going soooooooooo fast its unfair. We are working hard, and we are playing hard...and still following the rules of course. Valdez is still his same good ol up beat never down, always laughing sorta guy.

I would like to say this, I beat elder Valdez in chess. And proved that he is just as bad of a sore winner as he is a sore loser! Hahaha when I beat him he was like"inantok na ako" which means he is tired. haha then he went to bed. We have played chess many times since and he has beaten me everytime. But I got him once and that is all that matters! I am getting alot better too. Our evenings are turning out like this... getting home at like 9, nightly plan, eat dinner, play chess until 10:30 and then go to bed frustrated haha its really fun though.

This week was awesome as far as our work goes, we made our 2nd contact to that oym Nanay Samora, haha she is a very talkitive lady, we would be talking and out of nowhere she would just start talking... like I was talking about how the gospel will bless her family, then all of the sudden she was like, I will have to do a lot more studying before I change my religion... she is really nice.

We gave baptismal dates to the 4 bodegoen brothers, they came to church again, they really understood the plan of salvation, they are really nice kids, better then some of the young men in the ward already. We had a fhe at their house this week it was awesome really fun, the dinner was interesting though. It was this weird ulam (rice topping) it looked normal till you really looked at it, it had pig skin and intestine, chicken liver, you know that weird thing on the top of roosters heads...they cut that off and put some in... then it had sweet potatoes and a little bit of pork...nice... i got that on my plate... ate it all up, i have learned the trick out here of eating gross stuff, just make sure you have some water or juice or something, put the food in your mouth, act like your chewing, look happy, then toss it down with a swig of water or something... genius! I am not going to lie though, chicken liver is pretty good, something I wont eat though is something with blood in it, in most philippine missions its against the rules to eat it, the only way i will eat pig blood is if it is served to me... and i absolutly have noooo other option. Blood really isn't good for the body, your stomach cant digest blood. I really hope I never have to eat that.  I'd rather eat dog or balute.

We also gave a baptismal date to Sister Lorna and erica her kid, she is the aunt of russel. Anyway she is soooo sick, the most ready person I have ever taught. One day we came into teach her and the first thing she said was, can you guys give me a blessing my head is really hurting.... I didn't even know she knew what blessings were. But it fit in awesome with our lesson we were teaching about prophets and the priesthood, and how we couldn't have given her the blessing if we didn't hold the priesthood. Everytime we teach she has great questions. One time we were teaching and we finished and asked if she had any questions, she was like ya i have one, there are soo many churches out there, how am I supposed to know which one is true....boooom! Well sister its a little thing I like to call james 1:5 it was awesome fit in perfectly with are next lesson, about the Restoration. It was such a sick lesson, we had two fellowshippers with us that just booooom nailed their testimonies in there....the spirit was sooo strong! Then we asked if she had any questions, she said no we committed her to pray. We closed the lesson. Then she was like elders I actually do have one question,...we were like uh oh, cause the way she said that was very weird like she was bringing out some dark concern... nope she was just like i know we aren't members yet but can we have an fhe at our house on wednesday! Heck ya we can! Gosh I am so excited for this woman! There is no investigators class in our branch so our investigators just join the usual sunday school class. And sister asked us on friday if we could get the reading assingment for sunday school so she wouldn't be so lost during sunday school! Can you believe that! Man this lady is awesome! So ready.

Sister Torio went to church again this week it was awesome, she said she had a friend that is a less active that really wants to come to church, but is afraid because she thinks that ward wont accept her since she fell away, then sister torio was like, no when I went to church this sunday it was my first time in a long time and they were very welcome! Which is awesome, we have a pretty solid ward, its just still kinda small.

Sister tolintino came to church again this week! Awesome! it was her 3rd week in a row, and sister bagorio and her cousin mary jane and her sister pauline and her friend valen a new investigator of ours came to church. Awesome!

Something that wasn't so awesome, is we decided to push angelica's baptismal date back, she one just isn't solid yet, we went over the baptismal interview questions with her and she just really struggled answering them. She has a desire though. What she really really needs is some legit support, if her father and mother would both come to church, it would be easier for us to let angelica be baptized, but we are afraid that after her baptism, her mom is gonna stop coming to church, which means we just added another less active to the list. So we are gonna re teach her but really focus on her parents and getting them to come back to church!

We had a awesome lesson with Tatay Magno last night, the spirit was soooo strong, tatay almost cried, the spirit was leading that lesson 1000%! We were coming home from Lorna, and elder valdez was feeling really really sick, so I left him at the apartment, it was about 8, proctor and molino were with him, then Francis our fellowshipper came with us, this kid is a stud! He is 18 and is better at teaching then a lot of missionaries. His papers are in, anyway we go to magno's house and Francis was like, what are we teaching him, I was like i dont know, a script thought long. We go in sit down, we decide to teach about faith, oh a little backround on magno, he is a elder, and last year called to be the 2nd councilor in the bishopric, he was set a part then soon fell inactive, started drinking and smoking again and not coming to church, the missionaries have been teaching him a long time, tatay is real nice and wants to come back but there is something always going on on sundays...but there is really a concern that he hasn't come out with, I think he is afraid to come back because he fell away so hard. Anyway we open up to ether 12:6 talks about the trail of our faith and how our faith needs to be tried before it is legit faith. A idea comes into my mind that i have never thought of before, i was like Tatay if you were on a cliff and Jesus told you to jump what would you do, he was like jump, i said why, she said casi si Jesucristo ang nagsabi which means because Jesus said so. Then I said if Jesus told you to jump but you didn't would you have faith, he said no, then I talked about the need to trying our faith, then Francis talked about how we strengthen our testimonies and the blessing of faith. Then at the end I had this thought of how to commit him to coming back to church, totally directed by the spirit. I was like Tatay back to the example if Jesus told you to jump you would jump and try your faith right..he said yes. Then I said Tatay I dont know why its hard for you to come to church, it is hard for you and I dont know why, but Christ loves you, he died for you and he wants you back, Jesus wants you.  But you need to show your faith to Him, you said if Jesus told you to jump you would jump, well what if Jesus showed himself to you right now and said "Tatay Magno will you go to Church May 6" what would you say...Tatay said yes. Then I said tatay Jesus himself isnt here, but I can feel his presence and his love for you, He is here in spirit, and I was called of God to be a missionary, and as a Representive of Christ, (showed him the picture of Jesus in the front of the B.o.M.)...Will you go to Church May 6 to show your faith for him. Tatay said yes, you could tell the spirit was really workin in him. His prayer was awesome, in it he said please help me to come back to Church on May 6...man that was a awesome lesson, we will see if he come to Church. I am thinking we are gonna go pick him up on Sunday morning, make it a little easier on him.

Anyway that was the week for ya, didn't do much for pday just relaxed.

Mahal ko kayo,
Elder James