Mother's Day

Making faces at Elder Williams

That was fun! Will you still tell us about your week?  You look really good!

I’m glad you think I look good, because I’m just a big fat missionary. I am doing reporting right now but it should only take a few minutes then I will write a big-ish letter. 

It probably is fine to be "fat" as a missionary, If you can call 140lbs fat.   It will be good to have you writes a little so I can post to your blog.

I’m just worried because Blas used to periodically pinch our stomachs at practice and would get mad if we had any body fat because it has zero effect on our capacity as runners.

I noticed grandpa just fell asleep when he wasn’t talking. Did you record our video chat this time?

Monday we had a huge FHE with over 50 people, most of them little kids who were starving for attention, it was way fun. We also went running but I think you saw the video

Tuesday night we were walking home and a kid about 20 and another girl were standing on the side of the road and the girl shouted "where are you going?" because she assumed I don’t speak a word of tagalog. So we used it as an opportunity to talk to them. as soon as i started speaking tagalog she got all shy and left, so we just talked to the guy. They were from Baguio city so it didn’t really go anywhere but at least we talked to them

Wednesday we had DDM, and Elder Montierth (from California) has a companion who is awful at English. He had to give a workshop and tried it in English, it was hard to follow. But it was still a pretty good day.

Thursday our work got destroyed. A huge storm came in and we had to run back to our house because our laundry was hanging up outside and it was getting all soaked. So then we waited out the storm in our house. It was so bad the Zone Leaders texted us and asked if we were doing okay.

Friday I worked with Elder Montierth and we did tons of work. it was easy to approach people because they basically invited us over. It’s one thing to see a missionary, they stick out so bad. But an American missionary in the Philippines is rare. (Some people here have never met a white person before. It would be like if a person black as night moved to star valley or Colorado). So when you put two American missionaries together, it’s like a beacon you can see from space. It was definitely a good day

Saturday was a pretty boring day, and it was hard. We didn’t teach much and just walked around looking for people

Sunday Elder Lozano skyped his family, but he is from Bacolod, they speak Ilongo, Cebuano, and Tagalog there, so his conversation was just a big mix of languages, I have no idea what they talked about. I also met some teenagers who thought they were funny and said "Hey Joe!" (Super common for Americans here, missionary or not), so I walked over and started talking about what we do as missionaries as fast as I could in English. They got overwhelmed and had this really worried look on their face and one of them walked away. But then I started speaking tagalog and they were actually really interested in what we have to say, we're going back next Sunday.

10 months

I got the package this week! And two letters that you sent in April. I don’t know what happened but I have them now. McKenzie’s letter was sweet; it was better than a handwritten letter because I could imagine how she would say it. And Kelsie drew some absolutely fantastic pictures.

What?? Districts is this week? Didn’t Kelsie email me like two weeks ago and ask who she should train with? I went running today for the first time in months, it was great. we got up at like 5am and went to a nearby high school. It was just a gravel track but it was well worn down and gave me a chance to run by myself. I can’t do that at a park or in a neighborhood because missionaries have to always be within sight and sound of each other. It was sweet to run by myself; I definitely need to because I’m getting way fat. 

This week was great, Monday we had family home evening at a part member home, it was the two fat kids i told you about. At first they hated it, they don’t like it when we teach, but we played games afterward and they loved it.

Tuesday one of the kids, Jander, worked with us for the day. He was so tired at the end of the night I thought he wouldn’t make it home. We went to a birthday party at the Flores family (a family with three daughters. the wife is in Canada and the father is a sort of less active/ returning member who served a mission a long time ago).

Wednesday we went to the only place in our area that is bukid and got caught in a rainstorm. I killed a giant spider because it jumped at me. I don’t feel one bit bad about it.

Thursday I realized how many less actives live in the ward boundaries. It seemed like the whole day we never had to walk more than a minute to find a less active family. Elder Lozano took me around to some less actives I’ve never met before, they are all over the place!

Friday was way fun. Brother Flores worked with us the whole day, he's so smart! I never felt like i had to explain to him the lessons, he just knows how to teach. It’s amazing how many less actives are returned missionaries, and they still know so much about the gospel!

Saturday we had a baptism (I’m sending pictures on the server) of a kid named Jonas, he's only 9 or 10. his mom went less active but came back after teaching her for a few weeks. We didn’t do much teaching on Saturday but the baptism was great.  On Sunday he showed up to church in a suit and tie with nice shoes! I was so proud of him until the end of church; he was barefoot wearing pants and a white t-shirt

Next week we will probably leave our house at the 10:00am and email around the same time as we are right now. Does that work for you? You’ll have to email me the information to get logged onto Skype.

PS  here’s my birthday list of things I need:

Pants, Skittles, Mormon tabernacle choir cds, Jerky, More dress shirts (same size)

Can you also send some toffee flavored cookies from Geraldine’s? Tell Kenzie the ones I always used to eat that she couldn’t have. I miss those so much. But wrap them in tinfoil not plastic because its super hot here.

 Well my time is up, I will see you next week! I love you!

Elder Williams

It’s super hot

Monday night we went to a funeral for a less active member, Elder Lozano cried but I didn’t really know him so I wasn’t too sad. It’s so hot here I started sweating during our nightly planning. Generally at night any part of my body that doesn’t have the fan blowing on it sweats. I certainly will not miss the heat when I leave

Tuesday was cool, we visited a less active who married a guy from Louisiana, and he’s super white. But he's in the navy so I didn’t get to see him. But they are so rich!  It was almost a culture shock just to come from rice fields and dirt floors to here, but this was like being at home. It was... weird. 

Friday I worked with Elder Owen, he's a new elder from Alpine Utah and he has only been here about two months. it was fun, I just taught some lessons by myself because he couldn’t talk to anyone. Then I made him eat balut, he didn’t really enjoy it.  Nothing else worth mentioning happened this week. Just some more missionary work

Also I sent a few pictures but I don’t dare send anymore. Twice now since I’ve started emailing my computer has shut down and erased all my work. I don’t know what happened but I don’t want anything to get ruined so I just sent a few on the server

The work here is awesome, way better than San Clemente. But I hope I get transferred, because we have one member who works with us a lot and he’s awesome, but the week of transfers he is leaving on his mission. We get fed so much here. I only cooked breakfast at home this whole week. And with Filipinos, if you just ask to come over and eat they are totally okay with it. If a missionary in America said "hey can we come over for dinner?" I’d be a little reluctant to say yes.

It’s super hot. I hate it. This morning I was standing in the shower and my forehead was sweating. It’s supposed to be cooler in a few weeks, but we'll see.  I think what will happen is me and E Lozano will stay together for another transfer, which I wouldn’t mind at all.  I don’t know if it’s the teaching that makes me a better person or just everything that a missionary does the entire day that helps me. We read scriptures every day for an hour in the morning and then share them with everyone the rest of the day. I think it’s the scriptures not the teaching that changes people.

 well my time is up, I'll talk to you next week. I love you!

Time goes fast

  Are you settling into your new area?  Tell us about some of your investigators.  Do you ear better now that you are in a nicer area? Do any members feed you? Do you have a flushing toilet? Are you getting letters yet?  We are feeling really bad that you have not gotten them.  How many lessons did you teach this week?  Who is your favorite investigator?

This new area is so awesome. People here are so rich, I can’t believe it! Every one of our investigators has electricity in their house, and I have only been to one house with a dirt floor. But I love the work here and my companion and I get along great. But I don’t know how much longerIi can take this heat. It’s supposed to be 38C  and over 80% humidity this next week. even the Filipinos are having hard time with it. 

We taught 42 lessons this week.  We don’t have a flushing toilet, but the zone leaders do! I do like this apartment better, it was hard at first to get adjusted because its way different than San Clemente but I like it.  My favorite investigator is a part member family the Family, an old grandma and her daughter are members and we are teaching these two kids, 12 and 14.

 Tuesday we had interviews with the mission president, he came and visited us in Cabanatuan it was really fun. He and I talked about Cabanatuan and I told him how much I like it. He also mentioned how fast my mission would go, and he was right. I can’t believe how fast the time goes here.   Sorry I didn’t have much to say today, I’m just doing a bunch of stuff and finishing some paperwork before my 2 hours is up. I put up some pictures on the server, but I don’t know how many

I love you!

Elder Williams

(1 year and 11.5 weeks)

At home here

This week was great! I feel so.... at home here. I told you my last area was rice fields and dirt floors and homes without electricity. After a few months I loved it. Here they have 2 malls, and cars everywhere. Yesterday we visited a family and they had a personal computer, laptop, and a wii! It’s just weird because I came from a place that was so poor. I’ve noticed there's not really a 'middle class' here, people are either super rich or super poor. It’s so strange still, but I love it.
We live with two other missionaries, I really enjoy it. It’s more fun because there's always someone to talk to and it never gets boring at night.

This week was intense. On Friday the temperature got up to 36.5C in Cabanatuan. We almost died. Saturday we had a baptism, it was so cool. i don’t know if you noticed from my pictures or other missionaries blogs, but we baptize a lot of children here. The reason for that is because people get baptized and then are inactive, so their children never get baptized. Eventually, a set of missionaries comes around and finds a less active family with children who have never been to church, and the parents agree to let us teach them. it happens all the time here. In fact, Pres. Martino wants most baptisms to come that way because the Philippines Area Presidency told him we need to find less actives and bring them back. it doesn’t do any good to baptize a person if they're going to be less active in a month.
I’m having problems using windows explorer. I probably won’t send pictures that way this week.
The city life is weird. I don’t like walking down busy streets, but it’s nice to sit on couches with pillows instead of bamboo stools mad 50 years ago.

Transfer!

Bro and Sis Roberts

So... I got transferred last week. I’m in Cabanatuan right now, it's the best ever. I love it here. Thursday we spent most of the day transferring, but had a lot of time to do some work. I didn’t even get to unpacking until Friday morning. People here are super rich because it’s a big city. We have a small area that’s like San Clemente with the rice fields but not much. We visited one member and he had a huge two-story house with a big screen TV and couches and nice furniture. It was almost like another culture shock, coming from an area where it’s not rare to have dirt floors or no electricity in the house. My new companion is Elder Luzano, he's the best. We spent Saturday and Sunday watching general conference, and last night we talked to a guy on the street and he invited us to come talk to him, so we went into his house and he is super rich also. He had a pet monkey and it was just climbing all over everything, he didn’t even care. I think he paid someone to train it, it was the best.

The barangay I’m in is called Kapitan Pepe.. Other than that I don’t know much about the area. Its sooooo confusing! i still don’t know where anything is. I'll send pictures in a little while, I have to do some paperwork first and write my letter to President Martino. The apartment is sweet, its two stories and way better than the house in San Clemente. The internet cafe here is way better than San Clemente, its super high tech with nice computers and everything. General Conference was the best, I actually saw President Martino at general conference, I don’t know why he came from Angeles to Cabanatuan to watch it, maybe he had a meeting or something

  They don’t know what Easter is here, and they also don’t know what ST Patrick’s day. I forgot to tell you earlier I took all those Easter and St Patrick’s Day stuff on Wednesday night and put them on the thumbtack board and left them for Elder Basilans new companion. He thought that was the best thing ever.

Also on Wednesday night we had a farewell party/fhe for me in San Clemente, it made me so sad to leave. but I'm not as sad as I thought I would be. Its like when I first got to San Clemente, I only missed home when I wasn't working, and so far I have been super busy since Wednesday.

Elder Williams and Elder Roberts

9 months

ang saya-saya namin!! (don't translate that, it will say something like 'fun fun'). it means something along the lines of "we are so happy" which sounds awkward in english but makes perfect sense in tagalog. it actually was the best week i've had in a long time. Tuesday elder basilan started leading the area because it’s our last week together and he is in charge. I did the same thing with elder casilac, it’s a lot more fun as the trainer. Tuesday night we went to the zone leaders house to sleep because i had the meeting on Wednesday in tarlac. I am uploading pictures right now to windows explorer for you to see. Wednesday was so much fun, the meeting we had was a really good time and then we ate at McDonalds afterwards. Around 7 the bamban elders were supposed to come to our house but didn’t show up until 9, I thought they walked but it turned out they worked late and then took a motorcycle. I was seriously worried because they said they were walking but took forever.

Thursday we worked in baracbac, and usually we take a bus but today we walked. I have a couple videos and some pictures of our trek; it was really interesting because nobody really knew where we were going. Today was also the first time it set in that I am actually leaving this week. I might never go back to that place ever again.\

Friday elder bell and I worked in san clemente, and did a lot of work. Then we had a dinner appointment, and they basically got mad at me because we haven't been eating at their house every night. I guess here it is cool if you ask someone to come over and eat, but in America, it looks bad when you invite yourself over to dinner. i wish i would have known that 12 weeks ago, we would have saved tons of money

On Saturday, i thought it was going to suck, but napakaganda pala ang araw! elder bell and i caught a ride with the Roberts to bamban so we wouldn’t have to pay for a tricycle and could hang out while the Roberts did house checks. Elder Basilan was angry the second i saw him, but it had been 24 hours since I talked to him, I could not have possibly done anything to make him angry. i later found out he was mad because one of the members thought he just wanted to go to bamban instead of eating at their house, but we had exchanges planned way before the dinner appointment. So it was just a misunderstanding. he wasn’t actually mad at me, but still in a bad mood. So during lunch i told funny stories and made jokes (like hiding his shoes in our food storage) to make him cheer up. Then I gave a workshop to our branch missionaries, and it went much better than expected. I could be elder basilans companion forever if every day was like today.

Sunday was my last Sunday in san clemente, but I’m not too sad about it, it hasnt quite set in that i'll be leaving. Later on Sunday evening we went to the Narne's for FHE (I’ll send pictures) and it was definitely my last day there. it was hard to say goodbye but there's nothing i can do about it now.