18 months.

tao po!( it’s the equivalent of knocking on a person’s door. Most people here don't have doors you can knock on, so you just say 'tao po' which translates directly to 'person please!' but really it’s just used as a way to say there's someone at the door)  we're early today!! Because my companion and Elder Keene's companion went to Cabanatuan (they need to get an x-ray before they go home) so me and Elder Keene are emailing early so we can go home early. BTW, I came back to Munoz. Elder Verano has a companion now. Elder Garcia are companions again. Transfers are on the 23rd of January Elder Verano's new companion is Elder Retaga. PS is dad awake? if he has time please tell him to email me .also McKenzie and Kelsie.

I've grown to love Elder Fort a lot. He talks ALL THE TIME about everything from cars to World War II to the changes in the Temple endowment during his lifetime. 

But Elder Fort  is really smart and I like it when he and I have conversations about deep doctrines of the church. 

So I got an email from Blas(his college XC coach) and Alex (from college) and now I don't know if I want to come home. I think I've become accustomed to life as a missionary I hate the idea of changing gears again and relearning another culture all over again.  Blas just asked me if I was ready to train and how much I could run and if there are mountains where I live. Alex is going to school and running at ISU. 

 Jan 7

I hate P-day. This morning we went biking as a zone that was pretty fun. Afterwards, we showered at the house in Munoz; I miss it already. Then I tried to take a nap, but just as I was falling asleep, E. Verano woke me up and we went back to Guimba. Once there we emailed (which I loved even more than usual). I was really stressed for most of it because I had to do a DL and ZL report, then I forgot to save the DL report and ended up having to do it over again. Afterwards, I got my haircut, and this is what happened: We went looking for Cut Salon, a big chain here that offers 38 peso haircuts instead of 40 or 50 pesos like other places. I didn't know where it was, so I asked some trike drivers who were just tumatambay on the street corner and one said "Right there! There's a bunch of places there". I explained to him I wanted a specific place and not just any shop; I was trying to save money. About three times he tried to say something like "Just pick one over there, they all cut hair!" To which I replied. "Hindi ito basta-basta, magpapagupit ako. Mahirap lang kami, magtetepid ako ngayon." (I'm not looking for any old barber shop. I need to find Cut Salon because we're poor and I need to save money). After the haircut, we went to a birthday party, then FHE at a members house. We ate adobo nang may pinya, so sarap! (with pineapple, so delicious)  

Jan 8

Work was great today. We met a guy who coughs like he just swallowed flour but he smokes like a chimney. He was a nice guy who said he doesn’t believe in God but we got him to pray after the lesson. This morning we went to the computer shop and completed an online course about family history, but some people here can't remember the day or year they were born, accessing records for their dead ancestors is near impossible. For dinner we ate at a members house again and watched the D&C videos. Also, we stopped to talk to this two people tonight who were having a conversation, and as we started talking, one of them got on his motorcycle and took off without a word.

Jan 9

This morning was my first DDM with only sister missionaries, I've never been in a district with only sisters my entire mission. We started at 9am and finished early, so we went to Jollibee for lunch, after lunch, I had tons of time to read; it was the best. Around 1pm I took a 20-minute nap, then read until 2.30. We got punted a lot today. It happened so much we were only able to teach members. Nagtatanim kasi ng sebuyas! We had dinner at a members home: sisig with petsay. Super sarap! Now I'm so tired right now I could die.

Jan 10 

I didn't get much personal study time today, nakakalungkot! (what a pity)  And super nakakaasar ang buhay! For lunch, we had fritong tilapia, then around 4pm the APs called and said I'm going back to Munoz! We went back to the house and I packed my stuff, then read Jesus the Christ (which I finally finished today) until the APs showed up to take me back to Munoz. Now that I'm back, I don’t feel like I even left, but I really missed Munoz a lot

Jan 11

What a day! I had lots of personal study time today, which was great! We went to Bical and found this family who let us teach, this new family gives us hope. It was great to see everyone in Munoz again; I'm so happy to be back. It really feels like I just went on an exchange for a day. In the words of Ice Cube, circa 1990 "I got to say it was a good day"

Jan 12

This morning we got punted a lot, so we ended up going to a far area I didn’t want to visit, but it turned out great! We found a less active family who doesn’t go to church. This evening was the annual Philippines Area Broadcast, where the area presidency reviews the past year and sets goals for the coming year. We ended the day with a baptismal interview for two of our investigators.

Jan 13

Today after church, we ate lunch and went to LingLingay for sacrament. We're getting less and less people to come to church, but hey, taniman na naman kasi. (but they were in the fields) When we got back, we helped some members find music online to sing for district conference in a few weeks, and didn’t get to work until 5pm.  Ay buhay. (is life) What a week.

Love you Elder Williams 

He will work miracles

Elder Williams had a really crazy and busy week last week so we did not get a really good email to share.

Hello! We went biking today so we're kind of late! I hope you're still awake because I have SO MUCH to tell you.  Well Blas hasn't emailed me or anything yet, but I got transferred! Remember how I was in a tripanionship? Well our other companion was in the middle of his training, so now I am his trainer. Elder Garcia's companion is a kid from San Antonio (Elder Bells area last transfer) and he is waiting for his mission call. My companion is AWESOME!  Anyway, I'll only be here until Jan 24 then I'm getting transferred. Yeah. Right now I'm a Zone Leader/District Leader/Trainer. We went to Munoz this morning and I miss the heck out of it. I hope Elder Garcia and I are companion’s again next transfer and I get to go back to Munoz, but we'll see.

1. Right now I'm in Guimba.

2. My companion is Elder Verano

3. Not yet, but maybe on the 17th or 29th

So where is the companion of Elder Verano? Or where did he go?  I am a little confused about all of this.  

1. Elder Verano's companion is Elder Nery, who ran away. tumakas na siya. 

2. We can't be alone as missionaries, so Elder Verano became me and E Garcia's companion (that makes us a tripanionship)

3. Last week, we found a person in another branch waiting for his mission call, so he became E Garcias companion

4. Elder Verano and I came back to Guimba on Thursday

Dec 31

New Year's Eve na naman (once again)! This morning I skyped my parents, it was... different. I really enjoyed it a lot, but now my family seems like such a distant, almost... foreign thing. My mom didn’t even cry when I said goodbye. I wanted to get everything done today early for P-day because it’s BAWAL (LIMITS) to leave our house after 6pm (they don’t want us to get hit by fireworks). I planned on sleeping since we have ZLC tomorrow morning. But today is also MCR Reporting day, and Guimba 3's reports are a mess because Elder Nery left and didn't teach his companion how to do the reports. Once we got home, I did laundry and ate tons of food, most of which the members gave us. Now we're just sitting in our room listening to videoke on one side of our house and music coming from the other side.

Jan 1

So last night at 10:30, I listened to fireworks for about 4 hours and around 2:30, Elder Garcia and I got up and went to Tarlac (because the mission home moved last week). We waited almost an hour for a bus and I was so cold! I know that's weird considering where I am, but hey, it was windy. The new mission home is a mansion pala! I couldn't believe it when I showed up, it's so much bigger than the one in Angeles. Today, President Martino and the APs taught us about Teaching as the Savior Taught. There wasn't any deep doctrine like last time, but it was the best. I absolutely love ZLC. The house is huge! It has two rooms with twelve beds each (four bunkbeds of three), a "General Authority" room and a master bedroom. Both the General Authority room and master bedroom have a balcony that looks out over the golf course. After planning tonight, we had a pull-up contest (the installed a pull-up bar on President Martino's balcony). One Elder got 16, President Martino got 12. I don’t ever want to leave the mission home

Jan 2

This morning started with a short message from Sister and President Martino, and then we all went to the mission office at the Tarlac Stake Center to get supplies. Once there, we basically didn't do much because we waited for Elder Tischner, the office staff, to check the post office for packages and other missionaries to take care of other things. Everyone on the Cabanatuan side of the mission (that includes us) ate lunch at NE Pacific, nakakatrunky! It reminded me of all the fun times I had when I was companions with Elder Abuan. We got home around 4:00pm, and had a dinner appointment at 7:30, so we didn't get much work done today. Kuya Baldo worked with us, he's great. We ate dinner at President Pajarito's home. I got strep throat last week and it still hurts a bit to swallow food. Anyway, we had some karne and so nagasgasan ang leeg ko. I had a hard time eating and they thought I didn't enjoy the food

Jan 3

 We had a Zone Training Meeting, best ever! We taught the zone everything we learned at ZLC and ended with a real teaching situation. We split the room in half and they taught Elder Garcia and myself as we are. So those who taught me taught a ZL in Guimba with a real concern. If someone had asked me before the meeting if I understood repentance and the Atonement, I'd have said yes. Our discussion was very personal, but my knowledge and testimony of these two things has increased 100 fold. I have a testimony that the Atonement changes lives. We could study it for a lifetime and maybe never fully understand, but if we believe and trust in God, He will work miracles in our lives.

At lunchtime this RM from about two years ago came to our house with his wife, it was weird. The APs came to work today, but I went to Guimba 3 to be E Verano's companion, so I didn't get to work with them. Guimba is great; I’m exhausted. I was falling asleep today in most of the lessons. I miss Munoz already

Jan 4

This was one of the best mornings ever. I studied the New Testament for an hour; we had comp study, weekly planning, and then ate lunch. We finished weekly planning early, so we were done eating around 12:05. From 12:05 to 1:20, I read Jesus the Christ. Then I took a nap until 1:39 (because E Garcia called me). After that, I read The Teachings of Joseph Smith until 2:30. And I loved every single minute of it. Tatay Castillo, the BML here, took us basically everywhere this afternoon on his trike. Our last stop was a less active, Joel.  Now I'm tired beyond belief. I just want to go to sleep and never wake up

Jan 5

Today we had a two hour comp study as part of the (relatively) new trainer and trainee’s course for missionaries.

 Well my time is up, thanks for the email time. I love you!

Elder Williams

 

SKYPE

12-24-12

hii! Sorry we had a ridiculous zone activity today, I didn’t get my package yet, maybe next week at ZLC.

Would it be easier if I just skyped next week? President said we could do that, and I think it would make it easier because it’s a Sunday night and everyone will be home.. We have a meeting at 9:30 on Wednesday...

well... the problem with going later on Wednesday is that it’s no longer Christmas here, so we are back to a regular day of work.  I don’t know why, but Christmas isn't as big of a holiday here in the Philippines. Tomorrow we're probably just going to visit members, but it’s weird because I don’t feel like its Christmas at all.

Dec 18

Tuesday was the best ever. We had Zone Christmas Conference in Cabanatuan, and I got to see a lot of missionaries; mostly new missionaries that I had never seen before. Most of the Conference was focused on Jesus Christ, which inspired me to continue my reading of Jesus The Christ (which is probably the best non-scriptural book ever written). It has made such an impact on me, I get up at 5:30 and read it while Elder Quilaquil (my kabahay) [housemate]   lifts weights, because he's afraid of the ghost in our house (which may or may not actually exist. Both Elder Keene and Elder Quilaquil have reported suspicious activity). Today was also the last time I will ever see Elder Abuan. Nakakalungkot kasi! (what a pity) But I  got to see some members from Gabaldon!! (One of them had an interview with President Martino) and also from Cabanatuan (remember that cute little kid in the suit? Him and his mom stopped by after the meeting was over.)

Dec 19

This morning for work we tried to tract in this new area na Elder Garcia heard about but has never been to, and then we found out there's basically not any people there, so that was fun. Then we taught a recent convert who was "baptized into activity" as Elder Fort (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite Senior Missionaries) would put it, and he said he's been reading the Book of Mormon, he was so excited to tell us what happened and everything he's learned about it. This has been happening for about a week or two, and every time we go to his house, it just feels different. It makes missionary work so great when I get to see people turn their lives around.

Dec 20

Today we had a hard time teaching, because the college in town (CLSU) had a light parade and fireworks show in celebration for Christmas, and basically everyone attended. At one point we had some free time on our hands, so we got a few less active names and tried to find them, but most of them had moved houses. We asked a group of tricycle drivers (which is really like talking to a bunch of high school kids in the mall parking lot. They're not up to anything productive and probably doing something bad) about one less active, and he says "who gave you that name? where did that name come from?" and we told him na it came from our Branch President and he said "That guy died like 5 years ago, maybe more." So that was a fun experience. I enjoyed that 'wild goose chase' (is that a real expression?) looking for a dead man..

Dec 21

Today we basically didn't do any work. We had weekly planning in the morning, and a Christmas Party in Linglingay (The place where we are holding a special sacrament every Sunday afternoon). It was so much fun, we had games and a TON of people showed up, I wish that many people would come to church every week. Why is it that people will drop everything to come to activities or parties, but almost none of them would go to the trouble of changing their work schedule to be able to go to church? We had a ceramic bowl that they used as a pinata, it was filled with candy and people smashed it. They put blindfolds on these kids, and they looked like they were getting attacked by bees. Me and the First Councilor in the branch had to stand in front of them and catch the stick while they swung so they didn't make contact with any of the other children.

Dec 22

We did less work today than yesterday. around 2:30 we went to the chapel for our real Christmas party and helped them set up. It was great, the games here were WAY better than yesterday. This one game was a sack race for kids, but the sack was huge! So one little kid would take a loop around the gym, and when he got back, he would take another kid with him (instead of getting out of the sack and giving it to him) and the two of them in one bag would do a loop. With two kids, they did okay. With three kids, they could manage. At four kids in the sack, they were falling over , but still made it around one loop. When they had five small children into one empty sack, it was a complete disaster. They couldn't get all the kids to stand up together simultaneously. After the party, we went to the shop and printed some reports for our meeting on Sunday (we should have printed these reports on Friday, but we forgot.)

Dec 23

We spent the morning at church making copies for our SMC meeting in the afternoon, we ended up only making it to Sacrament Meeting, and we were almost late. After lunch, we had a meeting with President Martino and the Branch Presidents about the work, he was much more satisfied with the work we did this month than last month. Remember the Bombay that everyone made fun of a few weeks ago? we got him to work with us today, he took us around in his trike all day so we didn't have to take normal transportation. After planning, we made a graham cracker dessert for our Zone Activity on Monday

Dec 24

What a day... We wanted to have Zone Biking at 8am, but the Sisters showed up about an hour late. By the time we got to the place with the bikes, they were all out. So we made phone calls and talked to people and tried to get bikes, but no dice (look at that! Even I'm in a foreign country and I can still use expressions in English). Anyway we couldn't find bikes, so I taught people how to speed walk (I learned that in college, but maybe I told you) and we went back to our apartment. Once there, we all cooked lunch outside and ate the dessert, then everyone took off and left us to clean up. Which is why we are so late, because the San Anton Elders showered at our apartment which put us behind, and then Elder Garcia's family called and he talked to them for awhile. I'm just glad that P-day is almost over.

Ayway, my time is up! thanks for this great email time, And I cant wait to talk to you next week.

I love you!

Elder Williams

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Elder Lozano and Elder Williams

Elder Lozano Elder Williams

Elder Bustillo Elder Williams

Elder Williams and Elder Leishman

Elder Williams and Elder Auban