Service!

This last week on Tuesday I taught my very first district meeting ever.  It was way easier than I thought and we almost ran out of time.  I hope people learned a little something from what I said.  I felt like everything I said they should already know but I did see some people writing some stuff down in their study journals so I think I helped just a little bit. 

On Wednesday I took a van to the mission home for new leaders training.  The meeting was good and lasted til 3.  Everything they said in the meeting was good but the best part was all the pizza we got to eat for lunch.

On Thursday, we actually got to work in our area for half the day because we had service.  We harvested corn again...  It's getting a little out of hand with all the service we are doing.  While harvesting the corn this week I cut my hand pretty bad and had to stop harvesting because it was bleeding so much.  I didn't get a picture though because I forgot my camera back home.

On Friday I went on splits with Elder Volpe from North Carolina.  He's one of my buddies from way back when I was in my first area so it was cool to see how much we've progressed in the language and to catch up.  We taught a less active for the first time and when we walked in to the front door her husband says, " parihas ba ang biblia natin?" is our bible the same?  He was holding the Book of Mormon.  We taught his wife and he just sat there and didn't say much because he is deaf.  He isn't a member but he did tell us that he reads the BofM every night so we're going to try and teach him somehow.  

On Saturday we had another service project in Solano.  We tore down the wall of a house with hammers and then cut bamboo in half.  We then used the bamboo to rebuild the wall we tore down earlier.  

It was a good week doing tons of service.  It also seems like the church right now is really focusing on service.  They just posted a really good video on LDS.org about service the church does.  Go watch it.

I'm out,

Love ya!

Elder Tribe

Getting Punted is still the Lord's Work

After I emailed you last Monday night I was playing Boogle with the Queniones family.  While talking about transfers and what was going to happen to the other missionaries in the zone, I got a call from President Rahlf, calling me to be a District Leader.

This week we postponed the baptism of Reynante and Dandan again.  Reynante broke the WofW and missed church.  It was a huge bummer to find out he broke the WofW, but it was a bigger relief that he told us instead of hiding it the whole time.  We extended their baptismal date to September 20th so hopefully they'll be prepared by then. 

Right now in my area we are really struggling with active members that are going less active.  It's starting to honestly kill me!  Right after we teach them the other members tell me they go buy coffee and are going to other churches.  We are getting pretty bummed with all the things in this area.  It's not progressing now and hasn't progressed for over a year but still working like none other to try to see a little improvement.

This week for some reason I noticed people telling us they've felt something with us they haven't felt in other missionaries.  It's been said by more than three people recently.  I guess me and my comp have a third companion with us, the spirit! haha

Cooking w the Branch President

Lunch w Sister Ivy

Love you guys! 

Punted!

Like the title says we got punted like crazy this week!  Almost everyday and it killed us.  One thing that was really good this week was all the service we were able to do.  This week we were able to help two families in their farms.  The first family we got up on Thursday morning to help weed a egg plant patch.  After we weeded the patch the brother killed two chickens and cooked them up for us to eat.

The second service we got to do was harvest corn with the Valdez family.  The harvest of corn with the Valdez family was probably the funnest thing we did all week.  We would walk up and down the isles of corn while throwing the corn we picked into piles, then we would come back and load a cart with the corn we picked that was being pulled by a kalabaw.  It was pretty sweet riding the cart everywhere plowing through the corn.  It's Filipinos tradition to have everyone leave their house full so we killed another couple chickens and had a good lunch.

Last Sunday night we had a really good lesson with Reynante our investigator with the baptismal date.  Reynante is probably the most ready baptism I will ever have or the most converted.  He said some really cool things to us in our last lesson and I'll just put them right here: Pag nabinyagan ako sa simbahan gagawin ko ang lahat. When I'm baptized in the church I'll do everything. paano ko papalakasin yung testimony ko How do I strengthen my testimony?

He is truly ready for the gospel and wants to serve a mission.

This week we had a training fireside led by the missionaries, it had a great turn out of 14 people.  Hopefully the branch will progress because it hasn't progressed in a really long time.

Well it's also transfer week this week and I'm not transferred of course because I still have to finish training! 

Well got to go!

Love you guys!

Batad

Sorry I'm emailing late again.  

This week we had some really good lessons especially with Reynante and Dandan.  So with Reynante and Dandan we weren't really sure why they wanted to be baptized.  We were thinking it was just to make sure they kept their job because their boss is a member.  In the lesson we just talked about how this is their decision to be baptized and only be baptized if you know the church was true.  They both told me the church was true because they prayed about it and that they are really excited to be baptized.  The sad thing is I have to tell them I have to move back their baptism again because there are district conferences on the 16th of August.  Reynante is awesome and I feel like we are brothers.  He calls me bayaw or brother in law because he saw a picture of Meredith and likes her.  I told him that I'm going to give him Mere's email address. ha-ha

This week we retaught bro. Gary Tumitit for the second time, a part member family.  When we saw him this time his leg was all burned and cut up because he crashed on his motorcycle because he was drunk.  We talked with him about the BofM and left him 3rd Nephi 11.  Hopefully he'll read it and come to church so his family will be able to go through the temple someday. 

 

This week on Monday we went to Batad. 

 It's just a little farther than Banaue and a lot better.  The hike in Batad is known to be really hard because it is pure steps almost the whole way.  The hike goes into a village and then you pop out into the rice terraces which look like an amphitheater.

  If you keep walking through the amphitheater and up and down another mountain you make it to a waterfall.  Because we can't swim, we just felt the mist from the waterfall.  

The hike in at first wasn't too bad but the hike out almost killed me.  Elder Allred and I jogged almost the whole way out and back to the top.  At the top we waited for another 3 hours for the rest of our group, but while we waited we played with a monkey.

Dog and monkey fighting

 

On the way out we got stuck and said a prayer.  10 seconds after the prayer, a back hoe is pulling us out of the mud. 

Waiting for the back-hoe

 We made it back safely and took a well needed rest.  This morning when I got out of bed I almost fell over because my legs are so sore.  When we got to district meeting today it was funny to watch everyone walk around because we are all so stiff.  

Love, Elder Tribe

I've been sitting here for a little bit now not knowing what I should write in my email because I can't remember what I did.

We've been basically just doing the same things this week like we did last week.  We did have Zone conference this week in Bambang.  The zone conference was about the restoration and was really good.  President Rahlf talked about everything from scriptures, talking about the restoration, to Joseph Smith being in jail on false charges from a member of the church.  It was a really good meeting and I learned a lot.  They also sang to me at the zone conference for my birthday and gave me a limited edition Cauayan mission temple recommend.  It's pretty cool and has a picture of the Banaue rice terraces on it.  If you want to see more just click the link 

Chicken Coops

Investigators front yard

Selfie

  ->  http://philippinescauayanmission2013-16.blogspot.com/

For Reynante, Dandan, and Mary Rose we are going to move back their baptismal date probably to the 16th of August because they don't seem to be ready enough and sister Mary Rose has been with her mom in the hospital for the past week so we haven't been able to teach her.  Brother Reynante in the lessons does say some pretty cool things though.  Here's one thing he said:  "I can't wait to get married in the temple."  He said some other cool stuff but I forgot what he said.

We also got denied this week with one of our investigators that's a Muslim.  We challenged her to be baptized and she told us she is okay with us teaching her and her going to church but she doesn't want to get baptized.  I just think it'll be a little bit more time and she'll be baptized some day if the missionaries keep going to her after we get transferred. 

The rainy season is here right now and it's awesome!  The weather is cloudy so it's not as hot and when it rains everything cools down and makes it way nicer out side.  I did lose my umbrella the other day which stinks so half of my body has been getting wet during the rain storms because my companion and I have to share an umbrella.  

I'll try to write a more interesting letter next week but I do have pictures this week to kind of make up for it!

Sorry I don't have any pictures this week.  The USB to my camera is broken with a virus.

This week on Friday we had a service project in Bagabag about 5 miles away from our apartment.  The branch President here is a marathon runner and invited us to jog with him to the service project.  We got up early and jogged almost the whole way until the Branch President told us to stop running because he had a cramp and so we ended up taking a jeepney the rest of the way. When we got to the service project, it was out in the middle of nowhere and our project was to pick corn.  We started picking corn around 7:30 a.m. to around noon.  While picking we would take little breaks where the other helpers would be cooking and boiling corn over a fire.  We also picked some cucumbers and ate them with vinegar and salt.  I think I'm turning into a Filipino because I love vinegar.  After we finished we came home where I rubbed alcohol all over my legs after because of all the ant bites and corn paper cuts. 

Sorry, I really can't remember what happened this week.  My letters going to be really boring.

Our three investigators who have baptismal dates came to church this week.  They all are doing good.  The other day I asked Brother Dandan if he would pray and he was kind of hesitant at first and didn't want to pray, but when our other investigator Brother Reynante asked Dandan "Don't you want to be baptized?"  All Dandan did was nod his head and start praying, in English too!  We teach all three of them together and I really hope they are preparing themselves for baptism.  I can't emphasize enough how important it is to read the BoM and pray about it.  I've probably told them a thousand time they need to read the BoM.  They probably are beginning to think it's the only thing I know how to say in Tagalog.

I don't really know what else to write about this week.  Tell Grandma Newman I got her letter and I promise I'm going to send her a letter back.  

I love you guys a lot.

The picture I

sent to you was taken by a member.