Well, I'm not transferred so that means I'm going to be six months here in Lamut.  I was kind of looking forward to getting transferred just to have something new, but I guess I'll make the best out of it.

On Tuesday this last week we had interviews with President Rahlf and Sister Rahlf.  In the interview with President he reviewed who was in my district and read off their names.  When he was finished reading off their names he said, "well, no problem there.  I think you need a little more trouble."  Then he asked if I needed anything and that was it.  Sister Rahlf is just super nice and asked what my favorite hymn was and then gave me a sucker! haha She is super nice!  

After interviews and district meeting I went on a threesome with Elder Volpe our Zone leader because his companion had a meeting in Cauayan.  It was the busiest I've ever been my whole mission and not with work.  We traveled the whole zone in one day because of everything that was going on with missionaries.  We got up early and headed to a sisters apartment to give a blessing.  Then we went back to the apartment and then left again to Villeverde to give a baptismal interview to President Pasqua's dad who's been investigating the church for 35 years.  He passed the interview and then we headed to Solano because one of the missionaries got possessed or something crazy.  She kept passing out and then would wake up and say weird things.  When we showed up it looked like she was just staring off in the distance.  Elder Volpe gave her a blessing and then blessed the house.  She's okay now I think. That was a really good day just to mix things up a bit in the schedule. 

This week Reynante was baptized but it almost didn't happen.  The night before the baptism we went over to teach him and he seemed super upset about something.  He wouldn't tell us why, but we figured it was because the baptism was in Solano and not here in Lamut, in the river. (We didn't baptize him in the river because the rain and wind were really strong.)  We later called and texted him and he still said he wasn't sure because he really didn't want it in Solano.  The next morning on Saturday we called him one hour before his baptism was supposed to start and told him it would only be our branch, not Solano's branch's too.  I guess he was just shy, but when he figured out no one else was coming he decided it was okay.  We took the Balubals jeep to Solano and he was baptized.  Elder Saguire baptized him and I confirmed him the next day in sacrament meeting.  

Balubal family

Baptism

Lunch before

Sleeping on the job

That's basically my week.  

Love you guys,

Elder Tribe

Still Overrated!

This week we were getting texts like crazy from the AP's telling us there was going to be a signal number 2 storm heading right over the mission.  They told us to have our 72 hour kits ready and to move apartments if our apartment was in a flood prone area. We didn't have to move apartments but we were still prepared with our water, candles, canned tuna, and rice.  We got a text telling us we could go to church on Sunday.  But at 6 P.M. we had a lock down until the next morning on Monday.  

We went to church yesterday at the new location in Lamut because the other building in Bagabag is under construction.  The new location is a garage with wood dividers with wheels to create the class rooms after sacrament.  We weren't expecting a ton of people to show up but by the end of the meeting a lot of people were standing in the back.  It was a great sacrament and our Branch President, President Quinones, got released.  We had a couple less actives show up to church and the fellow shipping they received from the members was the best I've ever seen my whole mission.  The members came up and hugged them.  It's probably one of the best sights to see good fellow shipping while a missionary. 

The work right now in our area is getting slower and slower, so it has been a little frustrating.  We've been contacting a lot of people but they just seem to disappear after we talk to them.  We're going to go back to some people we contacted the other day and hope they still exist.  

Right now in the Philippines it's the BER months SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER and DecemBER.  They are already playing Christmas music and getting excited for Christmas.  Every hymn we've sung recently in church or anywhere has been a Christmas song!   It's pretty ridiculous here! haha  

This morning because of the Bagyo (Typhoon) it was a little chilly at 82 degrees and a lot of the older people had blankets on outside and they kept saying Gumiginaw ako or I

First pit bull I've seen.

'm chilly!  I might die when I get home just because the basement is so cold.  

Reynante is getting baptized this week on Saturday.  I think it'll also be my very first baptism in a river which I'm super excited for!  Check that off my mission bucket list!  I'll get some really cool pics next week of it too!  

Love you all!

awan ko

I came in to the computer shop expecting to start writing all of you but then I just got stuck watching videos from lds.org.

So the area this week was awesome and crazy at the same time. 

 

But before I start anything about my week, I got a text yesterday telling me that my first area in Alicia has been announced to become a stake!  I'm so happy for them and I want to go back so bad even considering the terrible apartment.

Tour with the District Pres.

So this week or actually yesterday we got a tour of a part of our area that we had never been to before because the whole time we thought no one lived there.  The district president took us on a tour of Salamague and introduced us to the LA's (less-actives) and some of his referrals.  When we talked with the LA's the main reason they stopped going to church was because the church moved to Bagabag which would probably be a 46 peso jeepney and tricy ride.  46 peso's isn't really that much but when I learned that they only make 12000 pesos in five months or roughly 54 dollars a month, every cent counts.  The best news was to tell them we would now be going to church again in Lamut!  I really hope that we will see our work progress now that we have a church here in Lamut.

Now with some of the crazy stuff we've been seeing lately.  The other day while walking to one of our appointments we saw a group of people gathering, looking up the road to where our appointments are. When we got a little closer we saw a man inside his van getting punched in the face over and over again by some one who he had just hit with his car.  While the guy in the van was getting punched, a person on the side of the road picked up a rock to throw at the van, but then he was tackled, so he couldn't throw it.  When we walked by, watching everything happening I saw the man getting punched and he looked pretty out of shape. They were both lasing (drunk) so I didn't feel bad for either one of them considering they were both driving drunk. (Driving drunk in the Philippines is one of the peoples past times here!)  The other day I saw a guy driving really fast and he was swerving all over the place.  When he got a little closer he looked like he was a sleep but I think his neck was just tired so he had his head resting on his left shoulder. It's pretty funny to watch, but also really dangerous.  We tend to get off the road when we see one coming so don't worry!

We had some really good FHE's and dinners the last couple days that I'll be sending pictures of!  

Companion at District Pres poultry house

Get Close to God not drugs

Mahal ko kayo!

Got on this afternoon and had 33 emails so I was pretty happy!

We had service again this week but this time it was for the church.  We cleaned out the garage of a really big house in my area because next week we're going to church there.  The other chapel in Bagabag is getting renovated because it is the ugliest LDS church I've ever been in.

The best part out being a DL is getting to do all the interviews for people getting ready to be baptized.  This last Sunday I interviewed the Espiritu family.  They looked all pretty nervous for the interview.  I interviewed a ten year old girl first and she was crazy smart and knew every answer to my questions.  At the end of the first interview she walked out and said "EASY!"  Then I interviewed the mom.  The spirit was so strong and it was amazing to hear her conversion story and how she knows this is the true church.  The things she had to do to change to join the church no matter how hard it was was amazing in itself.  It strengthened my testimony a lot and just made me think how grateful I am for the Gospel and all it has done for me in my life.

Our teaching right now is pretty slow but we had a good lesson with Reynante and Dandan where they said if their baptism was tomorrow they would be ready which was a relief to hear.  Reynante also told his family about him getting taught by the missionaries, so I referred his family to the missionaries in Solano.  

The church is true!  

Harvesting Rice

Rare empty jeepney

Teaching Sister B

Elder Tribe

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!