Ghost Hunting and 17 months

Monday Nov 26

This morning we had zone goal setting, my LEAST favorite part of being a missionary. After Email and lunch, we had a district activity at the Philippine Carabao Center, it was so much fun. Then E Garcia got his hair cut and I talked to some riff-raff and invited them to learn about the Gospel, but... no dice. We had FHE this evening at the Costales Family and brought Nanay Borre, a less active, and her son, an investigator. Elders Bell and Mosquera also came with us because we have DL/ZLC tomorrow, so they're sleeping here tonight. Right now we are all sleeping side by side in our room on the floor. We're going ghost hunting later, E Bell and I put baby powder all over Elder Keene's room because lately he's been hearing the ghost walk around his room

Tuesday Nov 27

Well, Elder Bell and I caught the ghost! but that's later.. Today we got up around 5:00am so we could go to Cabanatuan for our ZL/DLC. ZL/DLC was great, we talked about the life of Jesus Christ and how it affects us. Every time we have a meeting with President Martino, I always leave feeling so happy. The Assistants gave a great workshop about Christ like Attributes and told us to prepare ourselves for Christmas Zone Conference. I tried to sleep on the way home but Elder Bell and I just talked instead. When we got home, I found Elder Keene listening to music and laying on my bed. I guess he was too sick to work. So we bought him medicine, and he thinks he got robbed because his money and the utilities fund are missing.

OK back to the ghost:

 So before we went to bed, Elder Bell and I agreed we would wake each other up if we heard or saw anything. I laid in bed from 10:30 to 12:30, and about that time we heard a pounding noise in the floor, but we weren't sure what it was because we didn't know where it came from, so that scared us enough that we didn't sleep. Around 2:30, Elder Abrenilla (Elder Keene's companion) got up and walked out of the room, and I said to Elder Bell: "Elder Abrenilla is going to die!" He went to the bathroom, and instead of coming back and going to sleep, he walked into the kitchen, and I knew for sure he was dead; because hey, its 2:30am and the kitchen is close to the piano that the ghost plays sometimes. So we watched him turn the light on and just stand there for about 10 seconds. After that, he turned it off and walked back into the room. Then he stood in front of the closet, opened it, and shouted "May Tao!" which means "there's someone here!' I know I'm not crazy, because Elder Bell saw all of this as well. I asked him about it this morning, he said he didn't remember it at all. I think he's been sleepwalking. Case closed! And we didn't even have to use a vacuum!

 Wednesday 28

Today we had a zone training meeting and explained all about what we learned at ZL/DLC. Afterwards, we ate some cake (happy birthday Elder Verano!) and went to Manila Grill (a kind of lame restaurant). I was annoyed about the cake because nobody wanted to leave, then they forgot my order at Manila Grill, plus they forgot my order and didn't cook it, and the jeepney on the way home played loud music while we tried to make phone calls about the zone t-shirts. When we got home, Elder Keene shared some JIF peanut butter, and everything that ever bothered me went away. Then I felt bad for being annoyed about everything, and the day ended up being really great.

Thursday 29

We had a zone CSP, it was so much fun. We painted the Barangay Hall in San Anton, Elder Bell and Elder Mosquera's area. We all got home late because it took so long to paint, but we still had pretty good work. Everyone else told us they were exhausted from the CSP so didn't work as hard as they would have if there was no CSP. Then we taught a less active, Tatay Bustos, and he made silly jokes about me being a short American

Friday 30

Weekly planning was so easy, which rarely happens. Today I worked with E Abrenilla, my kabahay, in his area. We walked through the squatters area, it was so sad. It was just a bunch of poor people with dikit-dikit bahay. I don't know which Filipino leader let this happen, but people here just live in cement squares. We were supposed to eat dinner at a less actives house tonight, and when we showed up, she said she just back from San Jose, so she wasn't able to cook. I was so tired, right after planning I went right to sleep.

Saturday 1

Nakupo! its almost christmas! THe elders in munoz branch 1 had a baptism today, almost nobody showed up. Afterwards we had lunch at a members home, and they took us to this really far area called LingLingay after lunch where we are holding a sacrament meeting every week because there’s a lot of members but they can’t go all the way to church every week, its way too far. President Martino said if we can keep a steady attendance of 40 or 50 every week, he'll send a request to the Area Presidency to build a meeting house there. I probably won't be here to see it, but it'll happen someday. We had dinner at a really rich member’s home; it was sort of like a catered dinner because it was so fancy. I ate until my stomach was about to burst, I had a hard time walking home tonight.

Sunday 2

We had the special sacrament meeting today, it was great! I was surprised at how many showed up. There's one old lady who was baptized almost 30 years ago, she was so happy that we had a sacrament meeting for her and her family. The Forts came with us as well, they're going to keep track of the progress there.  They made eggs, tomatoes, and ampalaya with tuyo for dinner, and we ate by candelight with our bare hands. It was the best dinner ever.

Anyway my time is up, I’ll talk to you next week

Tell McKenzie to email me!

I love you!

Elder Williams

11-25-12

hiiii..............

Monday

We went to the milka kreme place today (I think I sent you some pictures) and ate ice cream and drank REAL MILK, which I haven't had in over a year, it was amazing. Then we  went to our branch presidents home for FHE with the Munoz 1 elders, he fed us tons of food and I spoke English with his 4th grade son, I was impressed at his skills. During our planning, Elder Lieshman (the Assistant to the President) called and asked me about the work in Guimba Zone and how things were. It was a good talk but man he just talks forever!

Tuesday

We tried to go tracting this morning and met some really mean people. Today was the first time since I've been in this country that people wouldn't even talk to us. One guy wouldn't accept our message because he said our church was an abomination because we portrayed Jesus with long hair (1 Cor 11:14). We had Tenola for lunch, one of my favorite ulams. Then we were supposed to have a dinner appointment at this less active families home, but she was in San Jose and didn't get home on time, so we wasted about an hour doing nothing before we decided to leave. And it got rescheduled to next week

Wednesday

We had DDM today in Munoz, its fun to have DDM in Munoz because we have a high council room with carpet, so we usually blast the air conditioning and take off our shoes. Elder Lieshman (the AP), worked with us today. At first we thought he was going to be really stiff and kind of a 'fun-sucker'.  But we actually had tons of fun! I smashed his finger with a can of sardines for an object lesson, and an old Jehovah's Witness guy asked us what we believe, to which we replied: 'We believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and through His Atonement all of mankind can return to Heaven.' Then he said 'Oh, well as it turns out, we share the same beliefs. So... Why aren't you guys Jehovah's Witnesses yet?'

Thursday

Not much happened today. We had a dinner appointment in the afternoon, but before that I shared a spiritual thought with them (Alma 8:19) and they all laughed and thought it was pretty funny. Every time we eat at members I used my hands and my companion uses a fork and spoon, then they laugh and say something like 'oh, marunong pala si Elder  Williams magkamay!'

Friday

I worked with Elder Nery today in Munoz, it was fun, but I ended up doing most of the work because he is still really new. We stopped at 7-11 on our way home and I bought a stale donut so I could change my 1000 peso bill into smaller bills for pamasahe. Elder Bell did a baptismal interview in Munoz 1, so we had 4 foreigners in one house tonight. We had planned on going ghost hunting, but Elder Keene was feeling sick so we just had kwentohan until 10:30 and then I went to bed.

Saturday

We had a baptism today, and when we showed up to set up the font it was really dirty (I don't know how that happens), so I had to clean it. I ended up performing the baptism (even though I really didn't want to, I think a member should have done it instead). We went to LingLingay again and taught all the less actives again. Then to end the day we visited the Baldovino Family and we didn't even teach; after we ate dinner ,we waited for our BML so he could teach with us, and while we were waiting for him to join us, I think I fell asleep because elder garcia woke me up and said 'its almost 9, and we still have to take a jeepney home'.  Well nobody showed up so we just went home. On the way home we got stopped by some trike drivers who I thought might be drunk but I wasn't sure. About the time one of them said 'This one... brother. I take you to your home. You just sit here to the ba---. uh... sumakay ka dito sa likod. you understand to what I'm saying?' I decided we should just walk.

Sunday

Today after church we had PEC with president martino, which is a meeting with the district presidency and all the branch presidents, and we talk about the work and the less active people who are coming back  to activity. After the meeting we were waiting for a branch missionary to work with us, so we talked with sister martino for awhile, I really enjoyed it. Then we taught this one investigator and his girlfriend (who is a member of the other branch) joined us in the lesson, it went pretty good. We were supposed to end the day with a birthday party at a members home, but he canceled on us and so we visited a recent convert and had juice with crackers instead.

I love you!

Elder Williams

11-18-12

hiiiiiiii. So there’s a reason I'm so far behind in my letters... I haven't been keeping up very well in my journal since Elder Bustillo got transferred. I write down important things in my planner so I can record the details in my journal but because of transfers and ZLC and everything else I've been way behind. But eventually I'll catch up so don't worry! Today we went to the Philippine Carabao Center I'll upload some pictures.

Carabao is tagalog for water buffalo I think... I don’t know but they are everywhere, they breed them like cows here.

I saw the picture of Dallin Baker with his mission call, that’s so awesome!! Man it’s weird that when all my friends get home all their younger brothers are leaving and I'm still here.

The work in my new area it’s great. We had a baptism two weeks ago (but my camera was full so I didn’t get any pictures) and we have one this weekend, so I’ll take pictures. It’s certainly not as hard as my last area, I really enjoy it here.

Nov 12

Today we went biking at the college, it was fun but the bikes probably haven't been used in 50 years. Sister Dullete didn't know how to ride a bike so we taught her how. Afterwards we went to the Philippine Carabao Center, CLSU Extension. It’s like a small branch at the college for research students. Afterwards I got a haircut and we had FHE at this less active members home, it was fun and all but we played this weird counting game and every time you lose you  get charcoal smeared on your face.

Nov 13

There was a storm today, but nothing too bad here because we're away from the mountains and far from the shore, so it was just rainy. But by the afternoon it was gone. The less active we visited yesterday helped us work today at a part members home, all we do in this mission is baptize mga bata because the Area Presidency wants us to focus on part-member families, so we just reactivate part member families and baptize their children. At our last appointment we tried to teach this family, but their daughter lost her cell phone and they were in the middle of arguing about it when we showed up so we just left and said we'd come back another day

Nov 14

We had DDM in Guimba today, which was fun. I like this zone but we always have to travel. I want to go back to Cabanatuan or Camiling where I pay 10 pesos for transportation instead of 50 pesos. Then for lunch we ate Jollibee and I had Shanghai Rolls with extra rice. We also taught a recent convert family today, they fed us a snack that was bread ,but it looked like a banana cut into fourths down the center. It was good I guess, I don’t really know what it tasted like. 

Nov 15

I worked with elder Bell today, best day ever. It’s been over 6 months since I've been able to work with him, today was great. Some old guy yelled at us today: "Hey, where are you walkin-walkin??" So we talked his ear off in English. When we could see he was having a hard time, we switched to Tagalog and he was surprised and gave me a weird high-five after that. Like his hand and mine didn't make full contact, but his hand kind of slid down to my elbow. it was great. Then some drunk guy told me to teach him the gospel but I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. He was using some weird mix of tagalog/ilocano/english, I kept asking this kid on the street what he was saying. So taht was a lot of fun. Then we went back to the place where the family argued about the cell phone and they fed us spaghetti and we talked about the Cebu mission, that s where our Branch Mission Leader served. I guess for them they could watch Disney Movies on Christmas. That would be fun but make me so trunky.

Nov 16

We ate lunch today and Elder Garcia ate so much I thought his stomach was going to explode. He's getting really fat and comments on it all the time, but in their culture it’s okay to mention how fat someone is. Today the wind blew our neckties up and I saw his shirt, the buttons were about to burst.

Nov 17

Today we went to this really far place and met about 15 families who are less active because they can’t pay for a trike anymore. They all told us for years they've wanted to come to church but if they don’t work they don’t eat, so they are super nahirapan. Anyway we took all the branch missionaries and some trikes and went out there and told them to read the Book of Mormon again.

Nov 18

Today 165 people came to church, that’s the highest attendance I've ever had in my entire mission. The second highest was in San Clemente with Elder Casilac, we had 156. I found out today this church has a basement; it’s a bit creepy and super hot because nobody uses it. This afternoon we went back to that far area, (it’s called LingLingay) and held a special sacrament, I guess our branch president got special permission from the district president. For dinner we ate at a members home, we had Chicken and Pork Adobo. Then her husband asked me about the premortal life and said Satan was better than God (read Moses 4:1) because Satan came 'before' God. So I had to explain to him that’s not what it means. He didn't get it for like twenty minutes. Yeah the ice cream comes from water buffalo milk. Next time we go I’ll take more pictures for grandpa. Today I didn’t take too many because I'm 100% sure you've all seen cows on a farm but next time I'll take tons of pictures

well now I’m out of time so I’ll talk to you next week. I love you!