7-30-12

That’s awesome about Patrick! Man I’m  so excited! Tell him to email me and I'll tell him what to expect. I want him to be more prepared than me hahaha

SO this week was... sa madaling salita, pinaka (in other words, most)-the best!

Monday I had a canker sore that rivaled that of the one I had in college. I don’t know if you remember that but it was around Thanksgiving and lasted through Christmas. It hurt so bad. But it’s gone now, so no big deal. I also was feeling terrible on Monday; I had this really bad pain behind my eyes. But that’s gone as well.

Tuesday was sweet, we went walking to this new place and I found out Elder Abuan is so in touch with the spirit, it’s amazing. He stopped at this one house and the lady didn’t hesitate one second to let us in. So we taught her and her dad (who looks like he's 100 years old). Immediately afterwards, her neighbor came home and we taught her to! She was super mabait, (kind)  it was like talking to a member.

Wednesday was a bit frustrating. We went to Dingalan for DDM and had to take a trike all the way there, it cost like 70 pesos. Afterwards we were on our way home (we were lucky enough to get a bus) some really bastos (coarse) lady kept making comments about my nose. Once we started working, we went to Bugnan (the really far area, I’m sending a picture to help understand how far it is.) were teaching a less active (I am kind of sawa teaching them. They know everything they need to do, they just won't exercise faith and do anything.) While we were teaching, we got interrupted by a "Bombay." "Bombay" is slang for people from India who come to the Philippines and loan money to people then charge crazy interest. They're incredibly good at English and Tagalog. He completely destroyed the Spirit of the lesson. After that, one of the members asked for a blessing, and guess who didn’t bring any oil? So we spent a long time walking back and forth to members trying to find some olive oil. ON the way home, I accidentally left our cell phone in the trike

Thursday was much better than Wednesday. Around 8am our branch mission leader came over, then we gave him some money and he went to find our phone. He found it and came back around 9am. At lunch, we went to our branch president’s home for lunch and got haircuts. But it was super sketchy. He looked for some scissors, threw a plastic bag over me, and mentioned he is kind of new at it. We just went behind his house, between him and his neighbors. His younger brother was climbing up coconut trees while I was getting my haircut. I don’t know if you've ever seen a person climb a coconut tree, but man it was way cool.

Friday we taught the guy with the guns. He is seriously the coolest. Before we taught, he told us all about his imported gun holsters from India and United States. I don’t know much about him, but he's totally into some shady stuff.

Saturday.... BEST. DAY. EVER. Remember that time in September when it rained a lot and we almost got flooded? Today was way worse. So at 10:00am, RJ and Harold (our first counselor) came over and worked with us. It was super hot, the hottest it’s been in Gobaldon since I've been here. 11:30, we went to Bugnan and ate lunch at members home (one of the best members in our branch). I love Bugnan, we always get fed, and even the poor people will offer us food. These people have stronger faith than anyone I've ever met. They never miss a week of church. We rested from 1:00 to 2:26 (we are supposed to leave the house very day at 2:30.) then went to work. Our first lesson was a family, but we stopped at a members home, to schedule a teaching appointment for the neighbor. Then she told us to eat dinner at her home. So we taught the family around 3:30. Our plan was to go to a members home at 4:30, teach, then eat dinner then go home. While we were teaching the family, we literally watched the rain come over the mountains into the Bugnan Valley. It was cool to watch, and it was flipping string rain! So we got to the members house, and it was the two of us,  and a Sister , her 2 yr old son, and one investigator. We decided to wait for the other one (our investigators friend) and the rain got stronger and stronger. I texted our zone leaders and told them we might not make it home that night because of the rain. Around 5:00 his friend showed up and we started watching The Restoration, but the tin roof made it so hard to hear. Around 5:45 they went home and we started eating, and a Sister (the place we ate lunch) texted us and told us to go home with Harold, who would be in Bugnan soon. It was the perfect situation:
So we were here in Bugnan at the members home, and they were about to leave to pick up their two daughters from seminary, who went into Gobaldon (the other side of the river) for seminary. We would meet them at the river, and then take a trike back to our apartment. (About this time, peoples home started flooding and the river was getting higher and higher. This is the river where people pull us across, there's no bridge or anything.) So we got the river, and we are waiting for her daughters to show up with Harold. By this time it’s late and all the people who pull rafts have gone home. There was one old guy who said the river was up to his neck, nobody was getting across. So there we were with a worried mom separated by a dangerous river and no way to get home. At 8:00pm, I texted our zone leaders and said we wouldn't be able to make it home. They asked what our options were and they said to take a trike to Dingalan if we had no other choice, but they obviously don’t know much about our area, which is why I included the map for you to better understand. I explained the situation and they told us we can't stay at any members with children, especially girls. But it was the perfect situation. Both of the members daughters were on the other side of the river, and we were stuck at their house with us two, the two of them, and their 2 yr old son. The ZL's agreed to let us stay, so we went back to her house. She gave us some of her husband’s clothes, and then made some more food. I  read from the D&C study guide, then we made our beds, and the rain didn't stop. I also used a mosquito net for the first time ever.  It was so weird,,, I didn't even really feel like a missionary. It was like just being over at someone's house.

Sunday morning we woke up to a breakfast of eggs and rice, super delicious. Then they took us to the river, it was still super high, but old guys were pulling people across. So then we went home, showered again, and went to church.

That’s what happened to me this week

 Love you
Elder Williams

Magulo

Hello Family,

I was writing my letter to President Martino, and thinking about what to write.  Usually I bring my journal with me but this morning was sort of magulo (confused) so I forgot to grab it. While I think of what to say ask me some specific things you want to know. 

Kelsie wants to know if you funny bananas? Plantains? 
We are on the other side of the ocean from you right now so put a message in a bottle and we should get it?!
How are your lessons going?  How is the less active guy doing? I can't think of his name???
Kenz wants to know how the go going?
How is Elder Auban? 

The bananas here are napaka sobrang nakakatawa.( very very funny.)

If you send the bottle before tomorrow night it should get here before I leave Gobaldon. I’ll watch for it in a few weeks. Make sure you don’t put fish food in it so nothing eats it.

The less active guy? He's doing okay but he didn’t come to church yesterday, he went to Dingalan and we haven’t talked to him since.

the go is.... going. 

Here's something cool: Remember I told you we just have a huge tank full of water and we use that to shower and cook food and wash clothes and dishes and stuff? It ran out yesterday, so I didn’t get to shower. And we have no clean water because the mineral water place was closed yesterday. To make things even better, it rained ALL DAY yesterday. It hasn’t stopped for days, and last night it was so cold I could see my breath. 

Elder Abuan is still the best. Transfers are coming up on Aug 8 and I hope he doesn’t leave. Pray for him to be my companion again next transfer!  We had water this morning, but it was super dirty (it comes straight from the river) so we turned it on before we left to wash out all the dirt from the tank. Our laundry nanay (mother) is there now, so she'll figure it out. Right now it’s not too bad, but I haven’t seen the sun in almost a week. Nothing but dark, scary clouds. I can’t upload pictures because we are in Palayan right now emailing and this computer shop is very low scale. totally blows. I wanted to email in Cabanatuan so I could send pictures but the zone leaders wanted to email here because it’s closer. I think I sent some pictures of the apartment already a few weeks ago, but I’ll take some more this week.

We had a branch home evening on Saturday, but we showed up like 45 minutes late because we worked in Bugnan and couldn’t find a cheap trike ride back to the Bayan. Friday it rained so hard we were afraid to leave the house. About the time we were supposed to leave it slowed down, then got worse as we started working. Elder Abuan didn’t get an umbrella and I was kind of annoyed that we had to share.

 

my time is up Pala! i love you! I'll talk to you next week!

(check the sever, i uploaded the video!) :)

Elder Williams

 I think every missionary has to make a cheesy video with their companion!

I can see it in your countenance

Hi! 

First of all I can’t upload pictures to the server because we are in some sketchy internet shop and it won’t let me get onto windows explorer. But I didn’t take a lot of pictures this week so it’s okay. 

Tuesday I was super annoyed the whole day, but it wasn’t too bad. In the morning we taught two new investigators, it’s hard to explain what I felt while teaching them. It was like I never had to stop and think of what I would say next, and there was something inside of me like it was too big for me. I felt sort of pressure inside me but not so much that it hurt. I wish the afternoon was that good, though. Our branch mission leader came with us and talked about how much he missed his mission so he basically talked to everyone and led all the discussions. He's a great missionary but I just wanted to work with Elder Abuan. Then we taught this lesson to a less active.  It rained SO HARD that night, too. While we were walking home, the rain was about a half inch deep on the highway. The highway reminds me of Iona Road going up the hill, it’s kind of sloped but not super steep, ya know? Imagine that with a half inch of rain and what the low spots must have looked like. Totally destroyed our work.

Wednesday was great; we left at 10am and worked on the other side of the river, in Bugnan. We ate lunch at the a members home the best family I ever met. This guy is kind of old, he never graduated elementary school but taught himself to be a carpenter and supplies the whole mission with beds and desks for the missionaries. Every week he bikes 30 minutes to church, and has to carry his bike across the river because he can’t pay to take a ferry across. Then our work got cut short because a huge rainstorm came in again and we had to cross the river back into Gobaldon before the river got too high.

Thursday we had interviews with President Martino, it was the best. I don’t remember if I mentioned this to you yet but Elder Abuan and I started this thing where we get up at 5:30am and read the BoM for an hour, then personal study and lunch we study again. I study different subjects during the day and it makes me feel like I’m in school, I just never go to class. I mentioned to president how much it has changed me as a person, and he said "I can see it in your countenance." In the afternoon I worked with Elder Bellen (one of our zone leaders) in out area, and I realized I don’t know the area like I thought I did, we walked a lot more than we needed to. The best part of the day was at lunch, Sister and Elder Lutz did house checks. Elder Lutz used his pocketknife to fix just about everything in our house and Sister Lutz was so appalled at the condition of our apartment she almost died. She saw we don’t have a shower and said to Elder Abuan "How in THE WORLD do you shower every day?" and Elder Abuan, in his cute, broken, Filipino-style English said "We take a bucket, sister.... and then just put water to our heads." She also was freaking out because we didn’t have a door on our freezer; I told her just about every missionary here doesn’t have a freezer door.

Friday we met this guy named, he's the coolest. He used to live in some rich place in Manila, then his mom got sick so they moved to the mountains to the cleaner air. He makes gun holsters by hand for the police and people in shooting competitions. Missionary Work is seriously the best.

Saturday we want back across the river, to Bugnan and ate lunch at another family there.  It was super-sarap na gulay, but flip their kitchen was COVERED in flies and it grossed me out, it was awful. we worked until 5 and then came back to the Bayan, and went to a bunch of peoples house and invited them to church

Sunday we went to church, and it was relatively quiet, for a sacrament meeting in the Philippines. Afterwards we had a meeting and I gave a workshop to our branch missionaries about the BoM, taught a the less active guy, then went home early to do weekly planning.

ps did you get my package yet? The pictures I sent were from Cabanatuan, I don’t know if I sent them already or not. 

Last requests:

Summer sausage, skittles, cookies.chocolate. beef jerky daw. (daw is a tagalog word for "he said") Elder Abuan would like some Oreo cookies and beef jerky. Elder Bellen said  "high class chocolates; bars. ganoon." Elder Masterson would LOVE some granola.

Ok well my times up now, I’ll talk to you next week.

I love you!

Elder Williams

I am not sure what is going on.....trying to be funny?

Finally made it to the beach!

Hello Pamilya

This week has been awesome! Last Monday completely drained me; I fell asleep like 15 times during nightly planning. But we ate pizza for lunch, it was super delicious! Nothing too special happened on Tuesday, but it rained FOREVER! It was like when Elder Casilac and I almost go flooded last year. Wednesday we went to the district center for our weekly DDM meeting, it took an hour to get there. This zone is huge! To go from one end to the other takes 2 1/2 hours! Then on the way home the jeepney driver took people to their homes, instead of dropping them off on the highway, like proper public transportation should. It would be like if you took a salt lake shuttle home, and it dropped off everyone at their homes. Totally sucked. Thursday morning we cleaned the chapel and played some ping pong. Then we found a new investigator, but she basically knows everything already, but her parents won’t let her get baptized. We taught the first lesson and she already knew everything, it was like teaching a member.

Man I am flipping tired. Also twice on Saturday i tried to talk to two people, they both turned out to be deaf. Both times, right before it happened, Elder Abuan told me to follow the spirit. After that, I told him it was his turn to choose, my signal was weak.

 I weigh 138 now! sister Lutz is great! its weird that Kenzie and Kelsie think the time is going slow, i cant believe how fast it is going. i sometimes think what it would be like if missions were only one year, would you be ready for me to come home? i definitely am not ready to come home yet.

anyway my time is up, i will talk to you again next week. sorry for being late, next week we should be earlier

I love you!

Elder Williams

Elder Auban and Elder Williams

So sweet!

One Year Mark

It is hard to believe we have hit the year mark for Elder Williams'  mission.  Over the past year we have been through all ranges of emotions. The moment we dropped him off at the MTC I was not sure my heart would ever heal.  The four hour drive was tear filled and it was all I could do to turn around and bring him back home.  A few weeks after we left him at the MTC my sister asked me to go with her to Provo and I knew I could not because I  would have a hard time not going to the MTC to find him. It is amazing how one year will change your perspective on things. The ache in my heart has not gone away but I would not want him doing anything else.   Watching Elder Williams grow has been such a great experience and our family loves to see his weekly progress. Our family has been blessed beyond measure and we are so thankful for that.

All of Elder Williams cousins make him a craft every month from their hands 

wow.. okay first of all did you get my package yet? I sent that a really long time ago i feel like.

Monday was just another P-day. generally speaking I don't really like P-days, I just feel so busy the entire day. in the morning we had a Zone Monthly Goal Setting, it went way longer than it should have, I hate goal setting days, nobody ever shows up on time. monday night we went to a birthday party for Chance Flores (the really rich family) and their mom joined us from Canada via Skype.

Tuesday was a regular day, we taught a lesson in the morning to a lady who got married and then baptized last Saturday.

I don't know how I feel about Wednesday. We had transfer announcements in the morning, and it was... okay. Elder Lozano thought he would transfer, he even packed his bags Tuesday night. he's been here six months and we've been together for three so it was basically guaranteed he would transfer. And I wanted to stay in Cabanatuan so bad, I love everything about it. Anyway, I got transferred to Gobaldon, Nueva Ecija. But here's whats so great about it: I'm companions with Elder Abuan!! I've seriously never heard of two companions being companions again, but its happened to me! We spent the afternoon telling everyone I was leaving, but seriously nobody believed us. Not one person. Then I spent the entire night packing all my crap.

Thursday was great, my new area is everything I thought the Philippines would be. Even San Clemente let me down a little bit, but Gobaldon is the best! I don't want to say I regret coming on a mission, but it makes me so sad that you and dad and everyone else may never see what I have experieced over the last year. Sure, you'll see pictures and videos and read my journal, but it's like reading the ensign or going to general conference.

We also taught one of the best lessons ever today. I always know we taught a great lesson by the Spirit when I learn something new during the discussion. We taught the Garcia Family (the nanay washes our clothes and her two daughters are inactive so she invited us over) and trials and how God will never take them away, no matter how much we ask. But he will make them seem light and help us through them. And this is what I learned, it was like an idea that entered into my head and all at once I completely understood everything: Of course God take just take our trials away, because we wouldn't learn anything. No change would have taken place; we would have remained the same. Our course on Self Mastery and Self Control (which means this life we're living right now) would be a waste. How else would we become like God if we never have experience to know good from bad and hard from easy? We will never fix the hole in the roof if rain never fell from the sky.

Friday might have been the best day ever. In the morning we had weekly planning, and the afternoon is one I will never forget. We took a trike to a super-layo area, and we got off next to a river; I couldn't see houses anywhere, so I thought we were lost. Then we walked closer to the river, and about 4 or 5 guys had huge rafts made from tractor tires and wood, they took people back and forth across the river! The rafts were made of six tractor tires and had big planks of wood across them. Then a guy standing in waist deep water (sometimes deeper if it rains) would pull us across. I saw guys with motorcycles and trikes get pulled across. it was amazing. I took a video of it, I'm sending it to you right now.  The place we taught at was super far away from the church, but people out there almost never miss sacrament meeting. Some of them without a tricycle spend up to 100 pesos every week to go to church. I couldn't get people in San Clemente to spend 8 pesos to take a 10 minute bus to the church. that night we ate at the Rudy Family's home, its and old guy and his wife. The tatay never even went to high school but taught himself to be a carpenter and basically built his house by himself. When we went home it was dark and nobody was there to take us across, so we walked across the river. It was only up to our knees, but E Abuan said a few days ago it was up to his waist, and almost swept him away when he was about halfway. I loved San Clemente, but this is an adventure.

Saturday kind of sucked. Our area is great, I love it. But there is only one flaw: We don't have running water in the apartment... It's not as bad as what Kolt Piquet had in one of his first areas, but it sucks. We have a huge 100 gallon tank that just collects rain water, so if it doesn't rain we don't get water. we buy mineral water to drink and use this huge tank to wash dishes and clothes and take a shower. (I didn't even bother taking pictures of our bathroom here, nobody should ever have to see what I saw before I cleaned it. People should never live the way E Abuan and his former companion lived.)I couldn't take a shower on Saturday because we had no water. It sucked so bad. Worst day ever. But we taught like 8 lessons, that hasn't happened in a long time!

Sunday was amazing. We started on time! 9:00am sharp! the branch president here is so great. in San Clemente our branch president showed up at like 9:05, and in Cabanatunan we never started before 9:10. But the church is just a meeting house above the palengke, only like 57 people went to church yesterday. But the missionaries showed up like in 2007 so the church there is super super new. I cant believe how big of an area we have. It takes an hour by bus just to get to the Zone Leaders house, and 2 hours to get to Cabanatuan.

yeah my weight is pretty much exactly the same, but I'm gaining. I don't know how much I weigh, I probably couldn't even guess if I tried. I guess so I am not fat anymore.i got the package with everyone's hands and feet on pieces of paper taped together into one huge paper.  I did get the letters from Mindy's baby blessing, they were awesome. The last thing dad said was "As you come up on your one year mark realize how fast time is going. Don't waste time or miss opportunities." I've been trying to find something to make me motivated enough to not rest during lunch time, and since I got his letter I've done a lot better about not sitting around, especially in the mornings and at lunch.

 well my time is up

I love you!

Elder Williams