Email!
This is what I'm watching.
http://mormon.org/me/13G1
I just talked to you all! About a couple of hours ago. I'm glad you all enjoyed the gifts. I'll try and get back up to Baguio , but we're not allowed to leave our "zone" without permission from the Mission President , and then on top of that you need a good reason. But I will need to get more contact solution , so hopefully that'll pass and we'll be able to head up in a couple weeks. The sumpit [blow dart]'s are about 100 - 150 pesos each , but I'll haggle it down and try and send home a bunch more. I hope they're won't be any customs fees on them though. If I send home like 10 of the same thing they might think it's for profit ... hopefully not though. That's a pretty small item.
How was everyone's Christmas? I'll try and explain in more detail my Christmas here. Saturday after we hung up me and Elder Jacinto headed to the church and proceeded to meet a bunch of members. I was blown away by how many kids there are. It's ridiculous. This area has had a spree of children baptisms [by missionaries that just go for the numbers] and so it really is silly how little priesthood there is. By the way , Mom , I completely understood that you don't care about the numbers - that wasn't my concern. I just don't even like thinking about it , and you really caught me off guard by asking , ha. It's a sensitive subject for any missionary and it feels weird saying. So , I'm sure you understand. I've talked about every one of them in my emails during my mission , so they're all there I promise. But this isn't exactly The Other Side of Heaven ... haha. Anyways , so this area has had so many children baptisms that shouldn't have been allowed because their parents are still inactive. But that's our work. Bringing EVERYONE back to church. We've identified the familes and we're working hard to get them back.
There's many different reasons as to why people go inactive in the church in the Philippines , but most often it's offense. No money for transportation and other issues are big , but not big enough if they want to go to church. They have to lose that desire or have it be offended out of them. That's the common theme of our visits. So and so said this ... so and so did this ... he and she stopped coming to visit me ... and so forth. It usually consists of us listening , apologizing , and straightforwardly telling them to come back. In a loving way , of course. In Baguio it sometimes worked on the first visit alone , but sometimes we had to chastise. Here , we've seen some good things happening already. We visited the Casabuena Family for the first time last week on a Wed or Thurs. Shared memories from their conversion , the missionaries who found and taught them , all that stuff. It helps them remember the feelings they had. Then we taught a short message and invited them back. They live about 4 KMs away. Which I think is about 2.5 miles. As we got to church on Sunday , we waited about 25 minutes for anyone to show up. One by one they come in , we shake their hands , and as we look up - there they are. It's been a very long time since they last came to church , but all they needed was an invitation and motivation. We're not sure how they got there , seeing as they have very very little money ... but they were there.
So that's been the new focus in the Philippines , and it's really enjoyable.
Btw this is what I'm watching right now:
https://lds.org/youth/video/a-work-in-progress?lang=eng
[fellow filipino!] quezon city mission
So yeah. Back to Christmas Eve. After the Christmas Party [which was incredibly silly , ha , we went to a really really poor family out in the bukid who we found on accident that used to be investigators. We shared a message with them and tried to brighten their Christmas Eve a little bit , as they literally had nothing. I won't say the picture that I took - seeing as you probably won't be happy with it , haha - but it was their Christmas Eve Dinner. After that we headed home [curfew on christmas eve , day , new years eve , day is 6pm] and were invited over to dinner by our neighbor who is the landlord. It was a really good dinner. Then wrote our talks and went to bed. [and I opened up the pajamas! I did save them for christmas eve]
Christmas Day we woke up , got ready [cold bucket showers are actually nakakamiss ... meaning I missed them] and went to church. Gave our talks , and after sacrament meeting [that was all the church for the day] went out to work. Found 3 of our focus families and invited them back. After that we headed to our Branch Presidents house and ate dinner with a few other members , then headed home. Read a little then went to bed. It was actually a really good Christmas. Really quiet , but really good. I missed you all , obviously , but I'll only get one of these in my life - so I was glad how it was spent. Helping others and thinking about Christ.
Other than that I'm doing pretty good! It's hot here , but I love it. There's a lot of work , and a lot of time left to do it! Don't talk to me about coming home! Haha I'm not sure if I ever will. But I did think about you guys coming here after we hung up and I'll think about it in 9 months. My mind might change. I'd be released by my mission president here ... but again we'll think about that in 9 months.
I love you all , MERRY CHRISTMAS! Thanks for everything , and I'll talk to you next week.
... I can't believe how fast that phone call came and how fast the next will be as well. crazy.
INGAT KAYO LAGI!
Monday, December 26, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Heyo
Christmas is soon.
LETS TALK ABOUT WHERE I AM!
So yesterday , we were at church and everyone as like Elder White! you're still here! You'll be spending Christmas here! And I was like yeeeeeep. But I was wrong. Hahaha. After church we head home to pick up the cell phone we had forgot before church [good thing we grabbed it] then headed to our first lesson. Right as we're about to say the prayer the cell phone buzzes , so I glance at it ... and ... it wasn't the best news,ha. President Jensen had texted us and he says "Elder White , you're being transferred tomorrow morning. The APs will call you later with the information. All will be well." Hahaha that's all. So my heart sunk as realization set in that I'd be leaving just a few days before Christmas. Anyways after a hectic hectic night of trying to tell a few people I was leaving , then packing all night we woke up this morning , headed to the bus station , and headed down to my area. I'm in Agoo Zone - Damortis. It's pretty close to Baguio and I'll actually be going back up tomorrow for the Christmas Conference in Baguio. I was pretty bummed [kind of a lot] that I got transferred before Christmas , but I'll do what they ask of me, ha. This keyboard is horrible. Anyways I learned last night that my companion was going to be Elder Jacinto! He came up to Baguio with me as his first area , and just got here [his second area] two weeks ago! He still has no idea where like anything is so we're basically opening up an area , hahaha. It'll be a fun experience and there's so much we have to fix. Past missionaries were a bit ... unmotivated. But he's an awesome worker and way way happy and nice. Also it's FLAT! here ... so I'll finally be able to go running in the morning. I'll be getting rid of Baguio Fat I promise.
So that's my big news right now. I love the heat! Haha it's so humid and I've missed it so much. The apartment is okay and the neighborhood feels like a typical Utah neighborhood , haha. Also next to me right now is Elder Tolman. He's in my batch and me and him became trainers and district leaders together , he's way awesome and hes training an american , district leader , and opening an area right now haha. That's a work load. Right now I'm not the district leader anymore and pretty happy about that for now , haha. Being so new to the area and everything here would be hard to juggle that. I'm sorry for this poor english structure ... I can't form sentences really. Anyways. That again , was the big news.
This past week has been pretty awesome. We had so many less actives come to church yesterday and it's such a good feeling. Helping people remember their baptismal covenants and the excitement that came along with that and then seeing them actually return is incredibly fulfilling. It's missionary work with instant gratification and results! Haha. It was really really sad leaving the area , especially our apartment complex. Our manager and her family have been investigators for like two years and are so incredibly sweet to missionaries. They love missionaries but love obedient ones even more. So we got really close to them over the past 5 months and they cried a bit when I left , haha. It's just a really awesome place ... and if money permits me in the future I would love to be able to come back to see them. Other than that , though , Baguio isn't the most personal place in the Philippines. People down in the low lands are more personal [humble] and get close to missionaries. In a way it was really good , it makes leaving easier. But it's really so hard to leave an area. You become so attached with everything , and then to be Emergency Transferred as I was is like ripping you away from all of it. But ... not mine will but thine be done , ha.
That's another thing. I've been digging the Bible lately and really getting a lot out of my personal studies. Elder Holland and Packer have become idols of mine in their speaking style and the particular revelation they receive from the scriptures. They find things that are so blatant but I never would have thought of. So that's what I've been trying and have found some great stuff in Mosiah chapters 21 - 28. So that's been really rewarding as well.
I donno , just ... I'm at a spot in my mission that I'm grateful for everything. I have the maturity [that could be false , ha] to see the blessings in so many things. Even the trials. We had suuuch a hard day last Friday as we worked with a missionary that just got home. He's so so cool and was an assistant in Manila , and we taught 2 lessons the whole day. Walking around trying to find less actives for 8 or 9 hours... and 2 came through. It was so hard going home that night because we were so tired ... but as I prayed later on I just felt so grateful for everything , ha. Even the trials. I've come to feel trials are a compliment. When we have them it's Heavenly Father pretty much saying [in a non-blasphemous way] "this is my kid ... he can handle what I'm giving him" So yeah. I've just been feeling really really happy lately. Thank you for contributing to that with all your letters , emails , packages , and everything!
Hmm... what else do I write here. I think theres still another package coming mom! Don't worry , there's still that! And I'd so much rather spend Christmas reading Jesus the Christ and the other books you sent than opening presents! But thank you thank you , I know you love me haha. I'm actually currently wearing the watch Dad sent for last Christmas. I didn't think I'd wear it till I got home , because it's brilliant , but I decided to wear it yesterday. Also I forgot how much I stick out in Pangasinan , hahaha. I'm actually in La Union I think right now but its all the same. I just mean below Baguio. Up there people aren't too shocked because that's vacation central. But down here... wow. Hahaha.
Hey! Please tell Debbie thank you for the dear elders! I can't believe I've forgotten until now , but I love reading her news. No matter what it is. And Andrea if you want to Dear Elder me more awesome talks [look up speeches of the year - BYU Devotionals ...those are always the best] But Ive been trying to send out as many letters as possible , but it's so hard with so little time. hayaan nyo ako!
So yep. I think that's all my news right now. Nothing really funny has happened this week. It was sad saying goodbye to my son , but he's grown now and must be on his own! I'm really excited about this new area and hopefully we can help the branch and people here. I'm sure our Christmas will be pretty quiet , haha , but I'm going to go but some Christmas dinner stuff ... hopefully a bit more exciting haha.
That's all I've got for now. I'll call you guys next week. Please patch June in if she wants , and it'll be reeeaaallllyyyy weeeiirrrddd talking to you all haha.
LETS TALK ABOUT WHERE I AM!
So yesterday , we were at church and everyone as like Elder White! you're still here! You'll be spending Christmas here! And I was like yeeeeeep. But I was wrong. Hahaha. After church we head home to pick up the cell phone we had forgot before church [good thing we grabbed it] then headed to our first lesson. Right as we're about to say the prayer the cell phone buzzes , so I glance at it ... and ... it wasn't the best news,ha. President Jensen had texted us and he says "Elder White , you're being transferred tomorrow morning. The APs will call you later with the information. All will be well." Hahaha that's all. So my heart sunk as realization set in that I'd be leaving just a few days before Christmas. Anyways after a hectic hectic night of trying to tell a few people I was leaving , then packing all night we woke up this morning , headed to the bus station , and headed down to my area. I'm in Agoo Zone - Damortis. It's pretty close to Baguio and I'll actually be going back up tomorrow for the Christmas Conference in Baguio. I was pretty bummed [kind of a lot] that I got transferred before Christmas , but I'll do what they ask of me, ha. This keyboard is horrible. Anyways I learned last night that my companion was going to be Elder Jacinto! He came up to Baguio with me as his first area , and just got here [his second area] two weeks ago! He still has no idea where like anything is so we're basically opening up an area , hahaha. It'll be a fun experience and there's so much we have to fix. Past missionaries were a bit ... unmotivated. But he's an awesome worker and way way happy and nice. Also it's FLAT! here ... so I'll finally be able to go running in the morning. I'll be getting rid of Baguio Fat I promise.
So that's my big news right now. I love the heat! Haha it's so humid and I've missed it so much. The apartment is okay and the neighborhood feels like a typical Utah neighborhood , haha. Also next to me right now is Elder Tolman. He's in my batch and me and him became trainers and district leaders together , he's way awesome and hes training an american , district leader , and opening an area right now haha. That's a work load. Right now I'm not the district leader anymore and pretty happy about that for now , haha. Being so new to the area and everything here would be hard to juggle that. I'm sorry for this poor english structure ... I can't form sentences really. Anyways. That again , was the big news.
This past week has been pretty awesome. We had so many less actives come to church yesterday and it's such a good feeling. Helping people remember their baptismal covenants and the excitement that came along with that and then seeing them actually return is incredibly fulfilling. It's missionary work with instant gratification and results! Haha. It was really really sad leaving the area , especially our apartment complex. Our manager and her family have been investigators for like two years and are so incredibly sweet to missionaries. They love missionaries but love obedient ones even more. So we got really close to them over the past 5 months and they cried a bit when I left , haha. It's just a really awesome place ... and if money permits me in the future I would love to be able to come back to see them. Other than that , though , Baguio isn't the most personal place in the Philippines. People down in the low lands are more personal [humble] and get close to missionaries. In a way it was really good , it makes leaving easier. But it's really so hard to leave an area. You become so attached with everything , and then to be Emergency Transferred as I was is like ripping you away from all of it. But ... not mine will but thine be done , ha.
That's another thing. I've been digging the Bible lately and really getting a lot out of my personal studies. Elder Holland and Packer have become idols of mine in their speaking style and the particular revelation they receive from the scriptures. They find things that are so blatant but I never would have thought of. So that's what I've been trying and have found some great stuff in Mosiah chapters 21 - 28. So that's been really rewarding as well.
I donno , just ... I'm at a spot in my mission that I'm grateful for everything. I have the maturity [that could be false , ha] to see the blessings in so many things. Even the trials. We had suuuch a hard day last Friday as we worked with a missionary that just got home. He's so so cool and was an assistant in Manila , and we taught 2 lessons the whole day. Walking around trying to find less actives for 8 or 9 hours... and 2 came through. It was so hard going home that night because we were so tired ... but as I prayed later on I just felt so grateful for everything , ha. Even the trials. I've come to feel trials are a compliment. When we have them it's Heavenly Father pretty much saying [in a non-blasphemous way] "this is my kid ... he can handle what I'm giving him" So yeah. I've just been feeling really really happy lately. Thank you for contributing to that with all your letters , emails , packages , and everything!
Hmm... what else do I write here. I think theres still another package coming mom! Don't worry , there's still that! And I'd so much rather spend Christmas reading Jesus the Christ and the other books you sent than opening presents! But thank you thank you , I know you love me haha. I'm actually currently wearing the watch Dad sent for last Christmas. I didn't think I'd wear it till I got home , because it's brilliant , but I decided to wear it yesterday. Also I forgot how much I stick out in Pangasinan , hahaha. I'm actually in La Union I think right now but its all the same. I just mean below Baguio. Up there people aren't too shocked because that's vacation central. But down here... wow. Hahaha.
Hey! Please tell Debbie thank you for the dear elders! I can't believe I've forgotten until now , but I love reading her news. No matter what it is. And Andrea if you want to Dear Elder me more awesome talks [look up speeches of the year - BYU Devotionals ...those are always the best] But Ive been trying to send out as many letters as possible , but it's so hard with so little time. hayaan nyo ako!
So yep. I think that's all my news right now. Nothing really funny has happened this week. It was sad saying goodbye to my son , but he's grown now and must be on his own! I'm really excited about this new area and hopefully we can help the branch and people here. I'm sure our Christmas will be pretty quiet , haha , but I'm going to go but some Christmas dinner stuff ... hopefully a bit more exciting haha.
That's all I've got for now. I'll call you guys next week. Please patch June in if she wants , and it'll be reeeaaallllyyyy weeeiirrrddd talking to you all haha.
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Sunday, December 11, 2011
family TREASURE
Hello family.
SO! I enjoy getting all these emails telling me how boring my emails are , hahaha. I'm sorry!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not exactly bungy jumping or free scaling mountains all day. I walk on cement up and down hills and talk to people about spiritual things , hahaha. I'll try to add humurous things in more , but now that the culture has stopped being so shocking for me ... nothing seems funny anymore. I will say this though. When filipinos turn pages... it's not like regular people in which we find the corner or at least a side and turn it slowly. It's a pinch and turn... page by page. Or you can also choose the grab the spine technic , and brush the pages with your thumb until you find the page ... both work. The filipino style is to spasmically open to any page , then continue to use all 5 fingers in a spider-like pinching technic of the whole page and turn page by page ... even if you're 300 pages off ... they'll go page by page crinkling every single one. It's hysterical , but at the same time I hate lending out my book of mormon or bible or stuff to have them read. I must first find the page for them , then give it to them. And then , even sometimes , they'll change the page and flip back. Usually when searching for a page they'll over pass it by like 50 pages ... then go 40 pages in the opposite direction ... then 30 pages back in the first direction ... until them finally find it. That's humor.
So. My weeks been pretty good. We actually just got back from bowling again. I got 5 strikes and a spare in my last game. ARE YOU PROUD OF ME?! I blow the filipino minds here with my hook. Though I only bowled a 156. That's three weeks in a row now we've gone bowling , and I'd go every week of my mission if I could haha. It was just us and the Quezon Hill Elders , which is Elder Matthews [phil/aus] and Elder Abarte. Elder Tan and Abarte didn't want to play a second game , so me and E Matthews just went at it. It was way funny , because everyone else in the alley came to watch our game by the time we were at like the 5th bowl. I guess it's not every day you see a white boy and a half white boy bowling in the pilipinas. Elder Matthews is pretty good as well. So yeah , that was pretty interesting to me haha. I miss bowling with Cody back at school. We'd go like 3 or 4 times a week when it was just us in the tiny bowling alley and spend about 5 dollars , which got you like 3 or 4 games. Crazy cheap. I actually miss Idaho a bit. As I talk to people about school I realized how blessed I was to go up there. I don't know how much I like Utah and Idaho was just quiet and really the place I needed to be the year before my mission. I'll be excited to go back in however many months ... again I refuse to count.
Yeah , so last week after we were done shopping we headed to the zone leaders and got the letters [THANK YOU JUNE! And always sister sturgess ... she's amazing in how despite being fairly aged she still remembers to send me a card like every month.] Alsooooo got the PACKAGES! Two of them. Thank you so much. I'll be honest in that I opened up all of them except for two marked for Christmas Eve. Also I gave Elder Tan the 12 or 13 for him. I think there was 13. But I only opened them , because I kind of think I'll be getting transferred this week and I can't take two extra big boxes with me. But thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you oyouu !!! Everything was awesome and way too much. The shaver is so so good hahaha. I shave usually while in the shower ... without a mirror ... so you saved me so much time and pain every day , hahaha. I'm still using like a dull razor blade because they're not cheap here. The Helicopter thing was hysterical and so hard to fly hahaha. I'll try and bless the life of a child here with that. Speaking of which - sometime before I go home please send more CTR rings. Kids LOVE LOVE LOVE them. They feel so special to have a ring. Most hide it so they won't lose it. But what else ... everything was just awesome. Two new books .... so excited. I love Elder Holland and Elder Oaks is a brilliant speaker. Thank you again. Elder Frandsen [one of my zone leaders] has an LDS BELIEF book as well , and that's fun to read. You should look into it so I can read it when I get home haha. I've become addicted to learning. It's funny how that has changed so much. I've always loved learning , but gospel learning has become a passion. I only like want to read about the gospel , it's so fulfilling ... weird.
Anyways , just thank you. Everything was awesome and it felt just like being home seeing all that wrapping paper , haha. Also the notes on the chain ... mom! You do too much hahaha , that must have taken so so long. Thank you so much though. Please tell each one of those people I love them and thank you.
Yay! Haha , I'm glad you got my package. Please save something for June as well ... there's a bunch of stuff in there. Caitlin as well if you can ... really anyone you can think of , haha. But yeah ... don't get mad at me ! Hahaha just laugh at the gifts. That's all I wanted. Nothing too serious of a gift , just asian.
So yeah , my week has been pretty good. The highlight was exchanges with Elder Frandsen on Friday. We taught a bunch of good lessons , and then one very very cutting lesson to a less - active that keeps promising to come to church , but won't come. She's so sweet and it hurt so much to chastize but we did it with love and ... SHE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY! So did another less - active member that we've been working with for like 3 months. It feels so so so good when they come back , so much better than investigators , honestly. It was just a brilliant sunday as well. We fasted the whole day for less actives to come , and they came. Church was awesome , the sacrament tastes better and is more meaningful when you're fasting , we had a very important ward council meeting after church , then the First Presidency Christmas Devotional was so so good. Especially the First Noel song. I was slapped in the face with positive emotions with that one. MoTab really helps me feel the spirit stronger than anything else.
Anyways , that's all my news for this week because I'm out of time.
June- I'm sending a letter out today
Caitlin- I'm sending your letter to your home , cuz I don't know when you'll be leaving Utah
Thanks for everything , for all your love and prayers!
Mom , if you can take care of the long distance stuff on your side that'd be a lot easier. You mentioned last may that you could get a long distance thing way cheap .. it'd save me money and time. But if it's more complicated than very simple I can just take care of it on my end. I'll probly ET phone home on christmas day , in the morning when I wake up ... maybe. Or maybe christmas eve. Just tell me when you guys are all around , or the best time.
Okay - love you all!
[ps I'll know this week if I'm being transferred. PRAY FOR ME!]
-Elder A White [parang general authority na ako!!!]
SO! I enjoy getting all these emails telling me how boring my emails are , hahaha. I'm sorry!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not exactly bungy jumping or free scaling mountains all day. I walk on cement up and down hills and talk to people about spiritual things , hahaha. I'll try to add humurous things in more , but now that the culture has stopped being so shocking for me ... nothing seems funny anymore. I will say this though. When filipinos turn pages... it's not like regular people in which we find the corner or at least a side and turn it slowly. It's a pinch and turn... page by page. Or you can also choose the grab the spine technic , and brush the pages with your thumb until you find the page ... both work. The filipino style is to spasmically open to any page , then continue to use all 5 fingers in a spider-like pinching technic of the whole page and turn page by page ... even if you're 300 pages off ... they'll go page by page crinkling every single one. It's hysterical , but at the same time I hate lending out my book of mormon or bible or stuff to have them read. I must first find the page for them , then give it to them. And then , even sometimes , they'll change the page and flip back. Usually when searching for a page they'll over pass it by like 50 pages ... then go 40 pages in the opposite direction ... then 30 pages back in the first direction ... until them finally find it. That's humor.
So. My weeks been pretty good. We actually just got back from bowling again. I got 5 strikes and a spare in my last game. ARE YOU PROUD OF ME?! I blow the filipino minds here with my hook. Though I only bowled a 156. That's three weeks in a row now we've gone bowling , and I'd go every week of my mission if I could haha. It was just us and the Quezon Hill Elders , which is Elder Matthews [phil/aus] and Elder Abarte. Elder Tan and Abarte didn't want to play a second game , so me and E Matthews just went at it. It was way funny , because everyone else in the alley came to watch our game by the time we were at like the 5th bowl. I guess it's not every day you see a white boy and a half white boy bowling in the pilipinas. Elder Matthews is pretty good as well. So yeah , that was pretty interesting to me haha. I miss bowling with Cody back at school. We'd go like 3 or 4 times a week when it was just us in the tiny bowling alley and spend about 5 dollars , which got you like 3 or 4 games. Crazy cheap. I actually miss Idaho a bit. As I talk to people about school I realized how blessed I was to go up there. I don't know how much I like Utah and Idaho was just quiet and really the place I needed to be the year before my mission. I'll be excited to go back in however many months ... again I refuse to count.
Yeah , so last week after we were done shopping we headed to the zone leaders and got the letters [THANK YOU JUNE! And always sister sturgess ... she's amazing in how despite being fairly aged she still remembers to send me a card like every month.] Alsooooo got the PACKAGES! Two of them. Thank you so much. I'll be honest in that I opened up all of them except for two marked for Christmas Eve. Also I gave Elder Tan the 12 or 13 for him. I think there was 13. But I only opened them , because I kind of think I'll be getting transferred this week and I can't take two extra big boxes with me. But thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you oyouu !!! Everything was awesome and way too much. The shaver is so so good hahaha. I shave usually while in the shower ... without a mirror ... so you saved me so much time and pain every day , hahaha. I'm still using like a dull razor blade because they're not cheap here. The Helicopter thing was hysterical and so hard to fly hahaha. I'll try and bless the life of a child here with that. Speaking of which - sometime before I go home please send more CTR rings. Kids LOVE LOVE LOVE them. They feel so special to have a ring. Most hide it so they won't lose it. But what else ... everything was just awesome. Two new books .... so excited. I love Elder Holland and Elder Oaks is a brilliant speaker. Thank you again. Elder Frandsen [one of my zone leaders] has an LDS BELIEF book as well , and that's fun to read. You should look into it so I can read it when I get home haha. I've become addicted to learning. It's funny how that has changed so much. I've always loved learning , but gospel learning has become a passion. I only like want to read about the gospel , it's so fulfilling ... weird.
Anyways , just thank you. Everything was awesome and it felt just like being home seeing all that wrapping paper , haha. Also the notes on the chain ... mom! You do too much hahaha , that must have taken so so long. Thank you so much though. Please tell each one of those people I love them and thank you.
Yay! Haha , I'm glad you got my package. Please save something for June as well ... there's a bunch of stuff in there. Caitlin as well if you can ... really anyone you can think of , haha. But yeah ... don't get mad at me ! Hahaha just laugh at the gifts. That's all I wanted. Nothing too serious of a gift , just asian.
So yeah , my week has been pretty good. The highlight was exchanges with Elder Frandsen on Friday. We taught a bunch of good lessons , and then one very very cutting lesson to a less - active that keeps promising to come to church , but won't come. She's so sweet and it hurt so much to chastize but we did it with love and ... SHE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY! So did another less - active member that we've been working with for like 3 months. It feels so so so good when they come back , so much better than investigators , honestly. It was just a brilliant sunday as well. We fasted the whole day for less actives to come , and they came. Church was awesome , the sacrament tastes better and is more meaningful when you're fasting , we had a very important ward council meeting after church , then the First Presidency Christmas Devotional was so so good. Especially the First Noel song. I was slapped in the face with positive emotions with that one. MoTab really helps me feel the spirit stronger than anything else.
Anyways , that's all my news for this week because I'm out of time.
June- I'm sending a letter out today
Caitlin- I'm sending your letter to your home , cuz I don't know when you'll be leaving Utah
Thanks for everything , for all your love and prayers!
Mom , if you can take care of the long distance stuff on your side that'd be a lot easier. You mentioned last may that you could get a long distance thing way cheap .. it'd save me money and time. But if it's more complicated than very simple I can just take care of it on my end. I'll probly ET phone home on christmas day , in the morning when I wake up ... maybe. Or maybe christmas eve. Just tell me when you guys are all around , or the best time.
Okay - love you all!
[ps I'll know this week if I'm being transferred. PRAY FOR ME!]
-Elder A White [parang general authority na ako!!!]
Sunday, December 4, 2011
ako ay pilipino!
Aloha.
How's your week been?
Mine's been okay!
Guess where I am.....................................
BAGUIO!
Haha , no one got transferred. We were pretty shocked. At first I thought it was a joke because they did it in a way that made me think I was getting transferred. Ahah , but as they were telling the times the jeep would be coming around to pick everyone up , they didn't include us. I was like uhh... am I seriously not transferring and they're like nope. So a flood of emotions came through , ahaha. I was like uhh why am I goingto be here for 6 months hahah. But then I got way way stoked to have Christmas here. The members are a bit more well off , meaning the offer will be a bit more hearty haha. Also the manager of our complex and her family are my favorite people in the Philippines , so it'll be way funny having Christmas there.
BUT! I might be trasnferred in like 2 weeks... ha. It's awful. I've already built myself up for the crush of not transferring , and now I don't want to leave until after Christmas , and there's a good chance I'll be out of here by the 18th'ish. Because they were supposed to call two new Assistants but they only called one [Elder Heninger] [my old District Leader]. So there's a good chance [because I've been here for a long time] that I'll be transferred in two weeks when they call the new assistant. Obviously not that I'll be the assistant , but they'll be abunch of switches in the mission as one steps up to AP , one steps up to Zone Leader , District Leader , and so forth... so I'll just be thrown somewhere else. It's a bit upsetting , but I'll do whatever's asked. So me and Elder Tan are still together right now and working miracles in Burnham 2 , haha. No , but last Saturday and Sunday were stake conference and it was really good meetings ... and on Sunday we had a lot of Less-Active "Returning Members" come back. It's a really good feeling to see them slowly remember church and how they used to feel. Elder Misalucha was the visiting speaker , and is a pretty good speaker. He's an area authority here , and apparently the wife of his uncle is a really famous singer here in the Philippines and he helped convert them both. Also President and Sister Jensen came up for both days , so it was good seeing them and hearing their messages. It was basically... bring back all those you let go astray , haha. The Philippines isn't exactly Utah for hometeaching ... and testimonies are shaken quickly ... especially when it doesn't coincide with their job. But they're great people. Elder Misalucha told a pretty saddening story , though , of visiting a ward in Honolulu a few years back and the High Priests Group Leader telling them that only about 15 out of 30 of the High Priests were there. The other half were less - active. They let their jobs come before everything else because they wanted the " american dream " of multiple cars , a big house , and so on. So what had happened is that wives had divorced them and slowly they divided themselves from the church. They were all filipinos. The saddest part was they were all former bishops and stake presidents he said. Crazy.
So that's our work here. Bringing back the lost sheep. Because as the poem goes ... it was a sheep , not a lamb that went astray in the parable Jesus told ... and so forth. You bring back the parents , many baptisms of children , spouses , and relatives will follow. It's a great new focus and will change the culture of the entire Philippines for the better. A few good quotes of Elder Misalucha:
He's 100% Filipino and he said "This is why our nation is poor. When we treat laws and commandments as suggestions , you get chaos."
Also a few jokes he heard that he doesn't like about marriage , but the rest of us laughed haha.. "Marriage isn't a word , it's a sentence... a life sentence."
" When you hold a woman's hand before marriage , it's love. When you hold a woman's hand after marriage.. it's self-defense."
" Year one of marriage- the man speaks , the woman listens. Year two of marriage- the woman speaks , the man listens. Year three of marriage - both speak... loudly... at the same time... and the neighbors listen."
ahahah it cracked me up.
Anyways , back to Wednesday. After our district meeting / finding out whose getting transferred we took a lot of pictures [as pilipinos do] and then we had Jovelyn's Baptism! I didn't bring my cord today , so I'll send the pictures next week. But it was way way good. Elder Tan baptized and Jovelyn was way stoked. She's a 19 year girl that's living at a member's house and has come to church for about 6 months now. She's also crazy crazy shy , haha , but doesn't show it like regular people. She does more embarrassing things , hahaha. So during her testimony , even though it was only like 30 people there , she would read like two sentences she had written down then like look up , high pitch scream then hide behind the podium for 15 seconds , hahahaha. It was so funny. She did that like 4 times. After the baptism the Retuta's [the family she's staying at] took us out to really good chinese food. [DIM SUM JUNE!] ...it was way nice of them.
So besides that , we've basically just been telling people that I'm actually not transferring , and finding out the reason why I didn't transfer... because about 20 people prayed that I wouldn't!!! I blame their faith.
Anyways that's all I got for now , I think.
1. Packages - I haven't gotten any yet , but I think they're at the ZLs house ... I'll let ya know next week.
2. Phone Call - I'll be calling probably Christmas Day for me , so it's Christmas Eve for you guys ... I'll buy a calling card if you want , or I can give you my cell phone number and you guys can call me if you can get a cheap 5$ plan thing. Depends on you , just let me know by next week.
I think that's all. Love you all!
KEEP UP THE EMAILS! June still wins for the most!
...ps why is Dad by himself? Haha ... no companion? That doesn't seem according to mission rules.
How's your week been?
Mine's been okay!
Guess where I am.....................................
BAGUIO!
Haha , no one got transferred. We were pretty shocked. At first I thought it was a joke because they did it in a way that made me think I was getting transferred. Ahah , but as they were telling the times the jeep would be coming around to pick everyone up , they didn't include us. I was like uhh... am I seriously not transferring and they're like nope. So a flood of emotions came through , ahaha. I was like uhh why am I goingto be here for 6 months hahah. But then I got way way stoked to have Christmas here. The members are a bit more well off , meaning the offer will be a bit more hearty haha. Also the manager of our complex and her family are my favorite people in the Philippines , so it'll be way funny having Christmas there.
BUT! I might be trasnferred in like 2 weeks... ha. It's awful. I've already built myself up for the crush of not transferring , and now I don't want to leave until after Christmas , and there's a good chance I'll be out of here by the 18th'ish. Because they were supposed to call two new Assistants but they only called one [Elder Heninger] [my old District Leader]. So there's a good chance [because I've been here for a long time] that I'll be transferred in two weeks when they call the new assistant. Obviously not that I'll be the assistant , but they'll be abunch of switches in the mission as one steps up to AP , one steps up to Zone Leader , District Leader , and so forth... so I'll just be thrown somewhere else. It's a bit upsetting , but I'll do whatever's asked. So me and Elder Tan are still together right now and working miracles in Burnham 2 , haha. No , but last Saturday and Sunday were stake conference and it was really good meetings ... and on Sunday we had a lot of Less-Active "Returning Members" come back. It's a really good feeling to see them slowly remember church and how they used to feel. Elder Misalucha was the visiting speaker , and is a pretty good speaker. He's an area authority here , and apparently the wife of his uncle is a really famous singer here in the Philippines and he helped convert them both. Also President and Sister Jensen came up for both days , so it was good seeing them and hearing their messages. It was basically... bring back all those you let go astray , haha. The Philippines isn't exactly Utah for hometeaching ... and testimonies are shaken quickly ... especially when it doesn't coincide with their job. But they're great people. Elder Misalucha told a pretty saddening story , though , of visiting a ward in Honolulu a few years back and the High Priests Group Leader telling them that only about 15 out of 30 of the High Priests were there. The other half were less - active. They let their jobs come before everything else because they wanted the " american dream " of multiple cars , a big house , and so on. So what had happened is that wives had divorced them and slowly they divided themselves from the church. They were all filipinos. The saddest part was they were all former bishops and stake presidents he said. Crazy.
So that's our work here. Bringing back the lost sheep. Because as the poem goes ... it was a sheep , not a lamb that went astray in the parable Jesus told ... and so forth. You bring back the parents , many baptisms of children , spouses , and relatives will follow. It's a great new focus and will change the culture of the entire Philippines for the better. A few good quotes of Elder Misalucha:
He's 100% Filipino and he said "This is why our nation is poor. When we treat laws and commandments as suggestions , you get chaos."
Also a few jokes he heard that he doesn't like about marriage , but the rest of us laughed haha.. "Marriage isn't a word , it's a sentence... a life sentence."
" When you hold a woman's hand before marriage , it's love. When you hold a woman's hand after marriage.. it's self-defense."
" Year one of marriage- the man speaks , the woman listens. Year two of marriage- the woman speaks , the man listens. Year three of marriage - both speak... loudly... at the same time... and the neighbors listen."
ahahah it cracked me up.
Anyways , back to Wednesday. After our district meeting / finding out whose getting transferred we took a lot of pictures [as pilipinos do] and then we had Jovelyn's Baptism! I didn't bring my cord today , so I'll send the pictures next week. But it was way way good. Elder Tan baptized and Jovelyn was way stoked. She's a 19 year girl that's living at a member's house and has come to church for about 6 months now. She's also crazy crazy shy , haha , but doesn't show it like regular people. She does more embarrassing things , hahaha. So during her testimony , even though it was only like 30 people there , she would read like two sentences she had written down then like look up , high pitch scream then hide behind the podium for 15 seconds , hahahaha. It was so funny. She did that like 4 times. After the baptism the Retuta's [the family she's staying at] took us out to really good chinese food. [DIM SUM JUNE!] ...it was way nice of them.
So besides that , we've basically just been telling people that I'm actually not transferring , and finding out the reason why I didn't transfer... because about 20 people prayed that I wouldn't!!! I blame their faith.
Anyways that's all I got for now , I think.
1. Packages - I haven't gotten any yet , but I think they're at the ZLs house ... I'll let ya know next week.
2. Phone Call - I'll be calling probably Christmas Day for me , so it's Christmas Eve for you guys ... I'll buy a calling card if you want , or I can give you my cell phone number and you guys can call me if you can get a cheap 5$ plan thing. Depends on you , just let me know by next week.
I think that's all. Love you all!
KEEP UP THE EMAILS! June still wins for the most!
...ps why is Dad by himself? Haha ... no companion? That doesn't seem according to mission rules.
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Last week here
Family.
How was your Thanksgiving? Miiine wwasssss ... good? haha. Just another day , I actually don't think I even realized it was Thanksgiving. Why do we celebrate that day again? Was that the day we grew a lot of food and then ate it all? So every year we now celebrate that day by eating a lot of food we cook and then sleeping a lot? Haha I miss that. It's been a good week , except for the past few days.. which I'll talk about in a little bit.
By the way , such a good video.
http://bcove.me/e1jzh39n
No , mom , I haven't received any packages yet - but they're probably waiting until transfer day to give them to me. That way if I'm transferring I won't have to bring them down from my area and then over to another. Also nothing yet from the primary of the Newtown ward , but hopefully that too is just down in Urdaneta.
I take it , also , that you guys haven't yet received my package. Keep an eye out for it , hopefully it'll get there within another week or two. My memory card is inside the cloth thing. It's like a fabric , it's bundled up in that. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised at what I've sent , haha. You may - MOM - open the package before Christmas and wrap up the presents and give them away ... whatever you guys want to do. Don't get angry at me if you hate the gifts , hahaha. I loved them.
Anyways , right now I'm emailing from town. We had a zone activity today directly after studies that was bowling. I'll send off some pictures next week.
BTW- VERY VERY IMPORTANT. DID YOU GUYS SAVE THE PICTURES FROM MY OLD MEMORY CARD. I WANT TO DELETE THE PICTURES , BUT OBVIOUSLY WON'T DO IT IF THEY WEREN'T SAVED. ALSO THE VIDEOS. PLEASE RESPOND. thank you.
So yeah , it was pretty goofy because we got some zone t-shirts and the zone leaders bought angry birds hat/beanies. I don't have the slightest clue why Angry Birds is so popular , but it's ridiculous. I'm sure it's even more popular here than it is in the states. Anyways so we bowled a couple games , and it was fun. It was 4 v 4 v 4 and our team won both times. Me and Elder Matthews [the Pilipino/Australian] carried our companions , haha , who have never bowled before. Took a lot of pictures , as pilipinos do , and then headed out. Then we went to Pizza Hut to meet Sister Rehbaum who treated me , Elder Tan , and the two zone leaders to lunch. She's obviously very nice. So that was fun , and now we're emailing. But now I'll back up and talk about my week.
So Tuesday we had a Zone Conference. Now this was a bit of a mission-changing moment for every mission in the Philippines , and maybe soon-to-be world... so ... kind of important. Sister Jensen gave a good few remarks , and then President Jensen stood up. He's a really good speaker. But after about 30 minutes he finally told what his message was. The Philippines is no longer focusing on baptisms. .......I'll repeat that. Every mission in the Philippines is no longer focusing on baptisms. Our work is now soley focused on bringing back all those that keep going astray, and we will find , teach , and baptize through those efforts. We will obtain referrals through teaching these less active families , or baptize their non-member family members. We were pretty shocked. This comes directly from the Area Presidency , and even further up to the First Presidency. Apparently in the past 5 years , the Philippines has only kept about 20% of it's converts. That's horrible. So we're now Full Time Home Teachers , ha. Wards , and especially branches , here don't do home teaching. They don't know why or maybe even how. So that's the goal of President Teh [area president] to change the culture of the Philippines. To get this nation reading , and keeping those we convert. We will be playing a new role in the wards and branches in which we serve and will be pushing these leaders to magnify their callings correctly. It's an exciting step forward , and honestly feels good. By no means is it easy to baptize here , but it is easy to lose the fruits of your efforts. People just don't understand how to nurture their testimonies , because no one helps them to understand. So that's our effort , to guide these people to the temple.
So that was the big part of Tuesday , since then we've cranked out so many lessons with Less-Actives and Recent-Converts and it will continue to be the focus of our work until I leave , I'm sure. It's fun being able to immediately see the fruits of your labors with them , as a good number actually do come back. They just need to be invited.
Now Wednesday was district meeting , so we pretty much spent the whole time brainstorming ideas of how we can do our work more effectively in our rescuing efforts. It was a good meeting.
So that was really all the exciting news for this week. On Saturday , our investigator , Lyn , had her interview and passed. So she'll be baptized on Wednesday - we're excited for that. Also on Wednesday we'll find out whose transferring. I'm not 100% positive ... but about 99.9% that I'll be leaving. I'm a bit sad , but am ready to get back down to Pangasinan. Part of me misses the heat and the people and flow of life is just completely different. It's like Fairfield County compared to any other county in the states. Some aspects are nice - but the work is better where the people are more humble and willing.
So... here's some fun news. On Saturday my stomach was hurting a bit , but I didn't think much of it... it seemed okay. Then Saturday night I ended up waking up three times to sprint to the bathroom. After having like convulsions have the night because my body would go from freezing cold to boiling hot , I finally awoke at 6:30 feeling like I'd just been hit by a truck. Everything ached , ha. So I took my temperature , 101.4 ... showerd [so so painful] then laid back down. Took an Alaxin [pain + flu reducer] then went back to sleep. Awoke a million times , but got up at 11 feeling ... okay ... so we went to church. [phew - my streak is still unbroken] During Sacrament Meeting the sickness came right back , so we left right after the meeting. Got home ... my temperature had climbed back up to 101.5 , took medicine , and passed out again. [Oh... while in between taking trips to the bathroom every 15 minutes]. So now , when we got to bowling this morning I had eaten , maybe , a combined 200 calories in two days and felt so tired , so weak , and hurting ha. At least , now , the problem is just my stomach hurting a lot and the fever and flu has gone away. So that was like the first official time I've gotten sick on my mission is a big way ... dang.
So yeah , that's my email for this week. My next email will probably be from a different area.
Love you all ,
-elder white-
How was your Thanksgiving? Miiine wwasssss ... good? haha. Just another day , I actually don't think I even realized it was Thanksgiving. Why do we celebrate that day again? Was that the day we grew a lot of food and then ate it all? So every year we now celebrate that day by eating a lot of food we cook and then sleeping a lot? Haha I miss that. It's been a good week , except for the past few days.. which I'll talk about in a little bit.
By the way , such a good video.
http://bcove.me/e1jzh39n
No , mom , I haven't received any packages yet - but they're probably waiting until transfer day to give them to me. That way if I'm transferring I won't have to bring them down from my area and then over to another. Also nothing yet from the primary of the Newtown ward , but hopefully that too is just down in Urdaneta.
I take it , also , that you guys haven't yet received my package. Keep an eye out for it , hopefully it'll get there within another week or two. My memory card is inside the cloth thing. It's like a fabric , it's bundled up in that. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised at what I've sent , haha. You may - MOM - open the package before Christmas and wrap up the presents and give them away ... whatever you guys want to do. Don't get angry at me if you hate the gifts , hahaha. I loved them.
Anyways , right now I'm emailing from town. We had a zone activity today directly after studies that was bowling. I'll send off some pictures next week.
BTW- VERY VERY IMPORTANT. DID YOU GUYS SAVE THE PICTURES FROM MY OLD MEMORY CARD. I WANT TO DELETE THE PICTURES , BUT OBVIOUSLY WON'T DO IT IF THEY WEREN'T SAVED. ALSO THE VIDEOS. PLEASE RESPOND. thank you.
So yeah , it was pretty goofy because we got some zone t-shirts and the zone leaders bought angry birds hat/beanies. I don't have the slightest clue why Angry Birds is so popular , but it's ridiculous. I'm sure it's even more popular here than it is in the states. Anyways so we bowled a couple games , and it was fun. It was 4 v 4 v 4 and our team won both times. Me and Elder Matthews [the Pilipino/Australian] carried our companions , haha , who have never bowled before. Took a lot of pictures , as pilipinos do , and then headed out. Then we went to Pizza Hut to meet Sister Rehbaum who treated me , Elder Tan , and the two zone leaders to lunch. She's obviously very nice. So that was fun , and now we're emailing. But now I'll back up and talk about my week.
So Tuesday we had a Zone Conference. Now this was a bit of a mission-changing moment for every mission in the Philippines , and maybe soon-to-be world... so ... kind of important. Sister Jensen gave a good few remarks , and then President Jensen stood up. He's a really good speaker. But after about 30 minutes he finally told what his message was. The Philippines is no longer focusing on baptisms. .......I'll repeat that. Every mission in the Philippines is no longer focusing on baptisms. Our work is now soley focused on bringing back all those that keep going astray, and we will find , teach , and baptize through those efforts. We will obtain referrals through teaching these less active families , or baptize their non-member family members. We were pretty shocked. This comes directly from the Area Presidency , and even further up to the First Presidency. Apparently in the past 5 years , the Philippines has only kept about 20% of it's converts. That's horrible. So we're now Full Time Home Teachers , ha. Wards , and especially branches , here don't do home teaching. They don't know why or maybe even how. So that's the goal of President Teh [area president] to change the culture of the Philippines. To get this nation reading , and keeping those we convert. We will be playing a new role in the wards and branches in which we serve and will be pushing these leaders to magnify their callings correctly. It's an exciting step forward , and honestly feels good. By no means is it easy to baptize here , but it is easy to lose the fruits of your efforts. People just don't understand how to nurture their testimonies , because no one helps them to understand. So that's our effort , to guide these people to the temple.
So that was the big part of Tuesday , since then we've cranked out so many lessons with Less-Actives and Recent-Converts and it will continue to be the focus of our work until I leave , I'm sure. It's fun being able to immediately see the fruits of your labors with them , as a good number actually do come back. They just need to be invited.
Now Wednesday was district meeting , so we pretty much spent the whole time brainstorming ideas of how we can do our work more effectively in our rescuing efforts. It was a good meeting.
So that was really all the exciting news for this week. On Saturday , our investigator , Lyn , had her interview and passed. So she'll be baptized on Wednesday - we're excited for that. Also on Wednesday we'll find out whose transferring. I'm not 100% positive ... but about 99.9% that I'll be leaving. I'm a bit sad , but am ready to get back down to Pangasinan. Part of me misses the heat and the people and flow of life is just completely different. It's like Fairfield County compared to any other county in the states. Some aspects are nice - but the work is better where the people are more humble and willing.
So... here's some fun news. On Saturday my stomach was hurting a bit , but I didn't think much of it... it seemed okay. Then Saturday night I ended up waking up three times to sprint to the bathroom. After having like convulsions have the night because my body would go from freezing cold to boiling hot , I finally awoke at 6:30 feeling like I'd just been hit by a truck. Everything ached , ha. So I took my temperature , 101.4 ... showerd [so so painful] then laid back down. Took an Alaxin [pain + flu reducer] then went back to sleep. Awoke a million times , but got up at 11 feeling ... okay ... so we went to church. [phew - my streak is still unbroken] During Sacrament Meeting the sickness came right back , so we left right after the meeting. Got home ... my temperature had climbed back up to 101.5 , took medicine , and passed out again. [Oh... while in between taking trips to the bathroom every 15 minutes]. So now , when we got to bowling this morning I had eaten , maybe , a combined 200 calories in two days and felt so tired , so weak , and hurting ha. At least , now , the problem is just my stomach hurting a lot and the fever and flu has gone away. So that was like the first official time I've gotten sick on my mission is a big way ... dang.
So yeah , that's my email for this week. My next email will probably be from a different area.
Love you all ,
-elder white-
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Monday, November 21, 2011
weekly...thing
Ayoooo
Email time.
What if I just spoke in Tagalog for the entire email ... how ANNOYING would that be , hahaha. You'd have to look up every word and guaranteed no translator would pick up like 50% of what I'm saying. Anyways , how are you all. Good? good. I did a bit better this week , I didn't wait till the last 20 minutes to write my letter , hahaha.
First off , let's do some awards real quick!
June- wins again for number of emails! I prefer that way , June , with a lot of little emails haha. It's like a lot of christmas gifts... everyone wants quantity not quality , haha. But thank you for all the emails , continue!
Caitlin- I got your package last week! So awesome , thank you. Hahah the tape cracked me up and it was way cool hearing from all you. Also everything about it , especially the calendar was way way sweet. So thank you!
I have not yet gotten a package from the kids of the Newtown Ward :[ but maybe it's coming soon. I'll keep looking. I'm hoping for something soon!
This is for Dad:
http://mormon.org/me/1N0F/
Also mom , you don't need to send so many packages! Haha. But I do thank you for it!
This one's kind of cool:
http://mormon.org/me/1NZF/
No, but seriously. I can't focus. I'm a Mormon videos keep me pretty distracted. These are far too enjoyable to watch.
This one's for June:
http://mormon.org/brian/
How's everyone's week been? Mines been okay , haha. I like having our pday on monday , that's really important. Sunday is always the most stressful day , because it's the day we wait... hopeful.. and sometimes hopelessly for our investigators. We're quite rarely surprised , haha. So when the doors close at sacrament meeting and so so many of our hopes are crushed... the sacrament feels very good. It comes at a very appropriate time. Right after we realize how many of our attempts at changing lives didn't really work for that week , it's a good feeling to be able to just start over. Anyways let's start back a bit.
Monday was a regular day , and we only got one lesson in , but we ended up just trying to talk to a lot of people. Tuesday was district meeting ... and my district is pretty funny. I won't go into details , but basically there are things called special cases , which are baptisms. Special Case means President Jensen needs to review it before they can extend a date for them to be baptized , because of one reason or another. Anyways... my whole district thinks they can baptize people who aren't allowed to be baptized just yet , and I get to tell them no on district meeting day , hahaha. So I tell one district that I'll talk to the zone leaders about it , after doing so I textd them and told them sorry but their investigator will have to wait for a few more weeks. About 10 minutes after sending that text I get a reply telling me that apparently I have no right to tell them what to do and i WILL be interviewing him on saturday and he WILL pass and WILL be baptized the following week ... hahahahaha. So I didn't bother responding and just forwarded the text to the Zone Leaders and let President and them get involved and solve the matter. The next day I text them about a reminder and get back the kindest most " nothing happened" kind of text ever , hahaha. A mission is funny.
Our investigators are okay , but it's so hard to help progress the people we just talk to and let us teach. Members are the key in everything. So now we're having to teach members the important of not being shy and then helping them in do their missionary work. They generally want to do it , they just need some help. Also we're trying to track down every part-member family and bring them back to church and help get baptized their non-member family members. It's a more successful thing in the Philippines because people very easily fall away from the church. You do everything you can to solidify their testimony , but unfortunately jobs and other things often STILL come first. They use the phrase "oh the Lord will understand" .. hm :\
Anyways the family you're talking about Mom , is still awesome and will probably be baptized in Feb when they have more time .. but right now they're not ready to make the sacrifices that we're asking of them. But we're working with a different family , right now just the father .. but the rest of the family will join soon. He's way awesome and so so so funny. Unfortunately , he's very involved in his church , but he loves the doctrine and new things we teach him. He's astounded that he's never heard any of this before , and he's like this is so much better , hahaha. But his brother or uncle is his pastor and the Philippines is , as I said , incredibly self-conscious. So... there are so so so many social concerns of what people will think. Anyways we love them and are doing our best to help them along. He loves having us over.
That's another thing ... EVERYONE KEEPS FEEDING US! hahaha. This has never happened before , but we literally eat at like every appointment. It's ridiculous , I'm gaining so much weight. You cannot deny it because they immediately think you hate what they cooked. So you have to eat as little as is still polite and then blame it on your stomach or the climbs in Baguio for why you don't eat more , haha. Unfortunately , the real reason is we'll be eating about 4 more times before the day is over. And I mean meals. Rice + ulam. Geeze. I'm not exaggerating. So ... Elder White is getting tubby again , haha. Especially the face. Don't worry , I'll become bulemic before I come home [jooooooooooooooooooooke]
hmm... what else.
Does EVERYONE yet know that MY ADDRESS IS NOT IN BAGUIO?
Please , make sure.
I'll probably be transferring next next Friday , but you never know. There's a chance I train again , there's a chance I don't transfer ... so we'll see what happens. But I'm about 95% positive I'll be leaving Baguio.
I'll miss being home for thanksgiving , again , but here.. it's obviously not a holiday , haha. I'll probably eat rice and some kind of ulam for the meal. No worries , I like. Filipino food is generally very very good. But it's creepy to think that I'll be home next year for thanksgiving [unless I exteeennndddd ....................... we'll see] I wouldn't mind extending for another month.
Question to mom and dad: HOW MANY REFERRALS HAVE YOU GIVEN OUT IN THE PAST 10 YEARS?! I bet you could count them on one hand. Prove me wrong , please! You'd be shocked who will accept the gospel.
Okay , I think that's all I've got for now.
I love you all. Send me letters if you love me!
I got all your dearelders so far , thank you thank you thank you. Andrea... that one talk you sent me is actually awesome. I was SHOCKED. President Packer made an amazing point there that I loved. He adores the idea of understanding , as do I.
Okay, read your scriptures , say your prayers !
-Elder White-
Email time.
What if I just spoke in Tagalog for the entire email ... how ANNOYING would that be , hahaha. You'd have to look up every word and guaranteed no translator would pick up like 50% of what I'm saying. Anyways , how are you all. Good? good. I did a bit better this week , I didn't wait till the last 20 minutes to write my letter , hahaha.
First off , let's do some awards real quick!
June- wins again for number of emails! I prefer that way , June , with a lot of little emails haha. It's like a lot of christmas gifts... everyone wants quantity not quality , haha. But thank you for all the emails , continue!
Caitlin- I got your package last week! So awesome , thank you. Hahah the tape cracked me up and it was way cool hearing from all you. Also everything about it , especially the calendar was way way sweet. So thank you!
I have not yet gotten a package from the kids of the Newtown Ward :[ but maybe it's coming soon. I'll keep looking. I'm hoping for something soon!
This is for Dad:
http://mormon.org/me/1N0F/
Also mom , you don't need to send so many packages! Haha. But I do thank you for it!
This one's kind of cool:
http://mormon.org/me/1NZF/
No, but seriously. I can't focus. I'm a Mormon videos keep me pretty distracted. These are far too enjoyable to watch.
This one's for June:
http://mormon.org/brian/
How's everyone's week been? Mines been okay , haha. I like having our pday on monday , that's really important. Sunday is always the most stressful day , because it's the day we wait... hopeful.. and sometimes hopelessly for our investigators. We're quite rarely surprised , haha. So when the doors close at sacrament meeting and so so many of our hopes are crushed... the sacrament feels very good. It comes at a very appropriate time. Right after we realize how many of our attempts at changing lives didn't really work for that week , it's a good feeling to be able to just start over. Anyways let's start back a bit.
Monday was a regular day , and we only got one lesson in , but we ended up just trying to talk to a lot of people. Tuesday was district meeting ... and my district is pretty funny. I won't go into details , but basically there are things called special cases , which are baptisms. Special Case means President Jensen needs to review it before they can extend a date for them to be baptized , because of one reason or another. Anyways... my whole district thinks they can baptize people who aren't allowed to be baptized just yet , and I get to tell them no on district meeting day , hahaha. So I tell one district that I'll talk to the zone leaders about it , after doing so I textd them and told them sorry but their investigator will have to wait for a few more weeks. About 10 minutes after sending that text I get a reply telling me that apparently I have no right to tell them what to do and i WILL be interviewing him on saturday and he WILL pass and WILL be baptized the following week ... hahahahaha. So I didn't bother responding and just forwarded the text to the Zone Leaders and let President and them get involved and solve the matter. The next day I text them about a reminder and get back the kindest most " nothing happened" kind of text ever , hahaha. A mission is funny.
Our investigators are okay , but it's so hard to help progress the people we just talk to and let us teach. Members are the key in everything. So now we're having to teach members the important of not being shy and then helping them in do their missionary work. They generally want to do it , they just need some help. Also we're trying to track down every part-member family and bring them back to church and help get baptized their non-member family members. It's a more successful thing in the Philippines because people very easily fall away from the church. You do everything you can to solidify their testimony , but unfortunately jobs and other things often STILL come first. They use the phrase "oh the Lord will understand" .. hm :\
Anyways the family you're talking about Mom , is still awesome and will probably be baptized in Feb when they have more time .. but right now they're not ready to make the sacrifices that we're asking of them. But we're working with a different family , right now just the father .. but the rest of the family will join soon. He's way awesome and so so so funny. Unfortunately , he's very involved in his church , but he loves the doctrine and new things we teach him. He's astounded that he's never heard any of this before , and he's like this is so much better , hahaha. But his brother or uncle is his pastor and the Philippines is , as I said , incredibly self-conscious. So... there are so so so many social concerns of what people will think. Anyways we love them and are doing our best to help them along. He loves having us over.
That's another thing ... EVERYONE KEEPS FEEDING US! hahaha. This has never happened before , but we literally eat at like every appointment. It's ridiculous , I'm gaining so much weight. You cannot deny it because they immediately think you hate what they cooked. So you have to eat as little as is still polite and then blame it on your stomach or the climbs in Baguio for why you don't eat more , haha. Unfortunately , the real reason is we'll be eating about 4 more times before the day is over. And I mean meals. Rice + ulam. Geeze. I'm not exaggerating. So ... Elder White is getting tubby again , haha. Especially the face. Don't worry , I'll become bulemic before I come home [jooooooooooooooooooooke]
hmm... what else.
Does EVERYONE yet know that MY ADDRESS IS NOT IN BAGUIO?
Please , make sure.
I'll probably be transferring next next Friday , but you never know. There's a chance I train again , there's a chance I don't transfer ... so we'll see what happens. But I'm about 95% positive I'll be leaving Baguio.
I'll miss being home for thanksgiving , again , but here.. it's obviously not a holiday , haha. I'll probably eat rice and some kind of ulam for the meal. No worries , I like. Filipino food is generally very very good. But it's creepy to think that I'll be home next year for thanksgiving [unless I exteeennndddd ....................... we'll see] I wouldn't mind extending for another month.
Question to mom and dad: HOW MANY REFERRALS HAVE YOU GIVEN OUT IN THE PAST 10 YEARS?! I bet you could count them on one hand. Prove me wrong , please! You'd be shocked who will accept the gospel.
Okay , I think that's all I've got for now.
I love you all. Send me letters if you love me!
I got all your dearelders so far , thank you thank you thank you. Andrea... that one talk you sent me is actually awesome. I was SHOCKED. President Packer made an amazing point there that I loved. He adores the idea of understanding , as do I.
Okay, read your scriptures , say your prayers !
-Elder White-
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Hi.
Heyo
So...
I get to this point like every Monday. I do a million other things... and then don't want to email , hahaha.
To be honest this wasn't that exciting of a week. Tuesday was district meeting , it was okay. Giving workshops is fun. We then went on exchanges this Burnham 1 elders. I worked with Elder Lobitana in his area and Elder Courreges came to our area. It was alright , but their house is STOCKED with food. It's crazy. Elder Courreges had quite a nice job before he came on a mission and he's not afraid to spend the eanrings , ha. Anyways the next morning we met back up at a place called the Pancake House which is suuuch good food. Wow. Elder Courreges paid for us all , because he can , haha. He probably spent about 20 dollars or so on all of us , and it was such good food. Pancakes. Wednesday was okay , Thursday , okay... oh wait. Wednesday ... a 19 year old who just got his call came and worked with us. He's kind of prideful ... like very. But it's not his fault , he was raised that way. His father is very addicted to his understanding of the scriptures , and so is Job [ his name ... ] Anyways. Our first appointment was a really important one with someone whose slowly accepting the teachings... and what does Gob [ or Job ] do? He deep doctrines her , hahaha. It was such a mess. We literally cut him off before he drove her too far away. He didn't understand what he did wrong , and we were like man ... you have to slow down. Anyways the rest of the day was okay and he didn't talk so much as he did. During that lesson he cut us off and the investigator off like 6 times. [ oh yeah june - investigator means someone who we're teaching who is investigating or kind of like checking out the church ] Anyways , Thursday was okay , Friday was okay , Saturday was okay , Sunday was okay .. haha
Really , nothing too exciting. We met these couple gangsters who are from Tacloban who came to Baguio to change and find a new life for themselves. They're 2 brothers , 21 and 18 and crazy humble. Anyways they're awesome and we're slowly teaching them and they're loving it all so far. They weren't able to come to church , though , yesterday which was a bummer. Sunday morning we also went to Sister Ibays again who lives in the Zone Leaders area , she's way way rich and feeds us every sunday morning before church if we want to go. Or rather her workers feed us , ha.
The area is starting to pick up , and we're really starting to feel and see all the blessings come through. It's hard being this patient just for one little thing to come through , but that's life. Patience and Humility. We'll be having a baptism on the 30th , which we're excited for as well. Hopefully me or Elder Tan will be able to be the one baptizing.
Okay , that's all the boring news for this week. Here's some good news ... I'll be sending off the package later! There's a couple surprises inside , haha , and you guys can divide the spoils as you like. Just don't give any of it out until Christmas. I'll be putting my memory card in , though. So you can find that when it first gets to you [hopefully by christmas!]
Anyways , here's some other things I thought of
BACKWARDS CULTURE TIME!!!!!!!!
It's been a long time since I last did this. Here's some stuff.
1] Every filipino runs around with a towel hanging out the back of their shirt because they're afraid of sweat drying to ultimately causing a cold , then flu , then killing them
2] seat bowls are rarely lifted up to urinate
3] they will NOT shower right after running because they believe they'll get sick if water touches them when their body is hot.. even hot water
4] umbrellas are used very very often when the sun is out
5] in macdo you just leave your tray on the table ... they clean it up... actually everywhere
...there's so much more but I'm drawing a blank
I had a big list built up in my head last night
anyways this email is crazy short , but I had a lot to do today during email , so I apologize. Hopefully the package will make up for that. IT'S GOT PICTUREEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS [memory card]
How's everyone doing?
BYE!
So...
I get to this point like every Monday. I do a million other things... and then don't want to email , hahaha.
To be honest this wasn't that exciting of a week. Tuesday was district meeting , it was okay. Giving workshops is fun. We then went on exchanges this Burnham 1 elders. I worked with Elder Lobitana in his area and Elder Courreges came to our area. It was alright , but their house is STOCKED with food. It's crazy. Elder Courreges had quite a nice job before he came on a mission and he's not afraid to spend the eanrings , ha. Anyways the next morning we met back up at a place called the Pancake House which is suuuch good food. Wow. Elder Courreges paid for us all , because he can , haha. He probably spent about 20 dollars or so on all of us , and it was such good food. Pancakes. Wednesday was okay , Thursday , okay... oh wait. Wednesday ... a 19 year old who just got his call came and worked with us. He's kind of prideful ... like very. But it's not his fault , he was raised that way. His father is very addicted to his understanding of the scriptures , and so is Job [ his name ... ] Anyways. Our first appointment was a really important one with someone whose slowly accepting the teachings... and what does Gob [ or Job ] do? He deep doctrines her , hahaha. It was such a mess. We literally cut him off before he drove her too far away. He didn't understand what he did wrong , and we were like man ... you have to slow down. Anyways the rest of the day was okay and he didn't talk so much as he did. During that lesson he cut us off and the investigator off like 6 times. [ oh yeah june - investigator means someone who we're teaching who is investigating or kind of like checking out the church ] Anyways , Thursday was okay , Friday was okay , Saturday was okay , Sunday was okay .. haha
Really , nothing too exciting. We met these couple gangsters who are from Tacloban who came to Baguio to change and find a new life for themselves. They're 2 brothers , 21 and 18 and crazy humble. Anyways they're awesome and we're slowly teaching them and they're loving it all so far. They weren't able to come to church , though , yesterday which was a bummer. Sunday morning we also went to Sister Ibays again who lives in the Zone Leaders area , she's way way rich and feeds us every sunday morning before church if we want to go. Or rather her workers feed us , ha.
The area is starting to pick up , and we're really starting to feel and see all the blessings come through. It's hard being this patient just for one little thing to come through , but that's life. Patience and Humility. We'll be having a baptism on the 30th , which we're excited for as well. Hopefully me or Elder Tan will be able to be the one baptizing.
Okay , that's all the boring news for this week. Here's some good news ... I'll be sending off the package later! There's a couple surprises inside , haha , and you guys can divide the spoils as you like. Just don't give any of it out until Christmas. I'll be putting my memory card in , though. So you can find that when it first gets to you [hopefully by christmas!]
Anyways , here's some other things I thought of
BACKWARDS CULTURE TIME!!!!!!!!
It's been a long time since I last did this. Here's some stuff.
1] Every filipino runs around with a towel hanging out the back of their shirt because they're afraid of sweat drying to ultimately causing a cold , then flu , then killing them
2] seat bowls are rarely lifted up to urinate
3] they will NOT shower right after running because they believe they'll get sick if water touches them when their body is hot.. even hot water
4] umbrellas are used very very often when the sun is out
5] in macdo you just leave your tray on the table ... they clean it up... actually everywhere
...there's so much more but I'm drawing a blank
I had a big list built up in my head last night
anyways this email is crazy short , but I had a lot to do today during email , so I apologize. Hopefully the package will make up for that. IT'S GOT PICTUREEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS [memory card]
How's everyone doing?
BYE!
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Hey
Good morning!
I'll be honest , I'm quite impressed with the amount of emails I received today. SHOUT OUT! Junie - A++ , many an email a coming from her. The rest of ya!! I still love you , haha.
No , I'll be honest , I'm constantly distractd with this little mormon movies on Lds.org andmormon.org and stuff .. it's difficult to really type out a solid email haha. This is the one I like a lot that I'm watching ... Junie , you may like it. It's cool animation. I'm sure you know the exact term for the type of animation , haha.
youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dNYpXZIN_c&feature=player_embedded
It hasn't rained too much this week , so that's quite joyous. haha. No , but we taught a lot of lesons ... what usually happens is we'll get punted [they will hide or purposefully not be there or say come back another time instead of just saying they're not interested] haha , but although we got punted so so many times we were still able to knock out like 28 lessons. Things are started to come through , we're really seeing the Lord's hand in all that's taking place. We're finding tons , teaching tons of new people , dropping those that are not interested , but still working with some great potentials. One thing ..
this is touching http://lds.org/pages/mormon-messages-gallery?lang=eng#opportunities-to-do-good
about Baguio is that eventually you'll run into someone who actually knows their religion. So , from time to time , we'll have very refreshing conversations and discussions of faith. I'll actually have instances where I'm able to use the Bible and they'll honestly be open to the connection it makes to the Book of Mormon. Honestly , the biggest thing that I love about everything I teach is that it just makes sense. So so so many people here leave the catholic church [where they all come from] and venture off to Born Again , Church of Christ , Iglesia ni Cristo , or Jehovah's Witness. But almost every one eventually comes back to the Catholic Church. For two reasons. 1] It demanded too much of them and 2] there was absolutely zero conversion. That's why people leave the church , there is no conversion. But what happens in these other churches is that it's just their interpretation of Bible scriptures. One person interprets it one way , another a different ... and they in turn build two churches. That's the entire Philippines. But what I am saying is that what I love the most about our church is that it Just. Makes. Sense.
everything about it ... just makes sense. Nothing is based on interpretation lang , but on things that make perfect sense ... all backed by a book. A book in which you ask God , you will know if it's true or not. I can understand perfectly how some people don't feel the spirit of it's truthfulness , or that don't want to join. I understand that , now. Not everyone is meant to join the church , not everyone will accept it in this or the next life time. There are just some that won't. But for the honest seeker , it's a wonderful thing.
This past week has been fun , but nothing too miraculous has really taken place. We've had some good lessons , and as I was saying before , teaching some people that really turn into spiritual and educational lessons. I don't feel myself trying to simplify the teachings , but really letting their delve in it's [ I'm lacking a word here to describe what I'm thinking ] ... like many weaves ... anyways. It's hard to describe. But it's not deep , it's not complicated , but intricate [IYAN!] So we've had a bunch of fun lessons like that. On Tuesday after district meeting I got to go on splits with a Phil/Am that doesn't speak Tagalog hardly at all. He's a way good guy , though , and his father ... steady yourself for this ... cured himself of cancer. Apparently he researched this machine that uses electricity that you attach at the wrist , to kind of zap his body twice a day for a month or two. It apparently kills cancer and AIDS. Skeptical as we all may be , the doctors gave him a less than 10% chance of recovering , and after two months the signs of cancer were gone. And 7 years later nothing has returned. I was a bit dumbfounded , but I'm in no position to argue. He said the guys name was Bob something that created it. Anyways , that was a fun split.
When we met back up with our companions we went to a restaraunt that is supposed to be an old american ... something ... type diner. Hahaha. They've got every era ... Elvis , Michael Jackson , Marvel Comics , James Dean , .. and many more. Like pictures all over the wall and stuff. Anyways for 245 Pesos [that's a ton of money for us ... about 5 dollars american] there was an all you can eat pizza and pasta option. Me and Elder Esling were tricked into it , haha. The pasta literally was horrible Almost torture swallowing it ... but the pizza was way good. By their regular prices we both ate like 500pesos + each. I think the restaraunt might take down that option if we keep going back. They kept trying to push the pasta on us , because it's so much cheaper for them ... but it was horrible.
Anyways , let me give you a few more details here.
A "Regular" Day:
6: wake up , run
8: personal study
9: companion study
11: language study
12: lunch
1 or 2: start to work
930: plan for tomorrow
1015: journal
1030: pass out
... dinner isn't always an option ... haha.
Anyways .
Yesterday was Fast and Testimony Meeting at church.
And ... every speaker spoke about missionary work , haha. It started with an old man , which was really just about the book of mormon .. but then an RM talking about his mission , next RM about his mission , next RM about his mission , next RM about her mission , next RM about his mission , my companion .. about his mission , ... and then , yes. Me. For the very first time in my entire life. I bore my testimony during fast and testimony meeting in sacrament. It was a different experience , haha. I really am not nervous to give a talk , or talk to people , ... but that one shook me. It's funny how it was in Tagalog , although everyone else spoke in english , ... bearing testimony is just easier in Tagalog. But in lessons if I really want to get my point across I've got a stern american english voice. It's a secret weapon! Haha. No , but it really was a cool experience.
Anyways , being a district leader is just like being a missionary ... because you are a mission , haha. You just have a couple other responsibilities. I teach workshops during district meeting , interview the other missionaries weekly , receive and talk to them about how they're doing and then am kind of a mediator to the zone leaders. It's a fun thing and I love my district. Though there is a ... hard headed texan ... who has been in the mission 20 months and doesn't yet speak Tagalog. I don't think he wants to learn.
Okay , well I think that's all I got for this week.
Junie , no letters yet but keep the emails coming!!
I also want: [selfish] mormon movies , haha. About missionary work. So like , we've got the best two years here. But if you can track down The RM or The Other Side of Heaven , or movies like those ... those are allowed here.
Okay , love you all! Stay safe , eat you veggies!
-Elder White-
I'll be honest , I'm quite impressed with the amount of emails I received today. SHOUT OUT! Junie - A++ , many an email a coming from her. The rest of ya!! I still love you , haha.
No , I'll be honest , I'm constantly distractd with this little mormon movies on Lds.org andmormon.org and stuff .. it's difficult to really type out a solid email haha. This is the one I like a lot that I'm watching ... Junie , you may like it. It's cool animation. I'm sure you know the exact term for the type of animation , haha.
youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dNYpXZIN_c&feature=player_embedded
It hasn't rained too much this week , so that's quite joyous. haha. No , but we taught a lot of lesons ... what usually happens is we'll get punted [they will hide or purposefully not be there or say come back another time instead of just saying they're not interested] haha , but although we got punted so so many times we were still able to knock out like 28 lessons. Things are started to come through , we're really seeing the Lord's hand in all that's taking place. We're finding tons , teaching tons of new people , dropping those that are not interested , but still working with some great potentials. One thing ..
this is touching http://lds.org/pages/mormon-messages-gallery?lang=eng#opportunities-to-do-good
about Baguio is that eventually you'll run into someone who actually knows their religion. So , from time to time , we'll have very refreshing conversations and discussions of faith. I'll actually have instances where I'm able to use the Bible and they'll honestly be open to the connection it makes to the Book of Mormon. Honestly , the biggest thing that I love about everything I teach is that it just makes sense. So so so many people here leave the catholic church [where they all come from] and venture off to Born Again , Church of Christ , Iglesia ni Cristo , or Jehovah's Witness. But almost every one eventually comes back to the Catholic Church. For two reasons. 1] It demanded too much of them and 2] there was absolutely zero conversion. That's why people leave the church , there is no conversion. But what happens in these other churches is that it's just their interpretation of Bible scriptures. One person interprets it one way , another a different ... and they in turn build two churches. That's the entire Philippines. But what I am saying is that what I love the most about our church is that it Just. Makes. Sense.
everything about it ... just makes sense. Nothing is based on interpretation lang , but on things that make perfect sense ... all backed by a book. A book in which you ask God , you will know if it's true or not. I can understand perfectly how some people don't feel the spirit of it's truthfulness , or that don't want to join. I understand that , now. Not everyone is meant to join the church , not everyone will accept it in this or the next life time. There are just some that won't. But for the honest seeker , it's a wonderful thing.
This past week has been fun , but nothing too miraculous has really taken place. We've had some good lessons , and as I was saying before , teaching some people that really turn into spiritual and educational lessons. I don't feel myself trying to simplify the teachings , but really letting their delve in it's [ I'm lacking a word here to describe what I'm thinking ] ... like many weaves ... anyways. It's hard to describe. But it's not deep , it's not complicated , but intricate [IYAN!] So we've had a bunch of fun lessons like that. On Tuesday after district meeting I got to go on splits with a Phil/Am that doesn't speak Tagalog hardly at all. He's a way good guy , though , and his father ... steady yourself for this ... cured himself of cancer. Apparently he researched this machine that uses electricity that you attach at the wrist , to kind of zap his body twice a day for a month or two. It apparently kills cancer and AIDS. Skeptical as we all may be , the doctors gave him a less than 10% chance of recovering , and after two months the signs of cancer were gone. And 7 years later nothing has returned. I was a bit dumbfounded , but I'm in no position to argue. He said the guys name was Bob something that created it. Anyways , that was a fun split.
When we met back up with our companions we went to a restaraunt that is supposed to be an old american ... something ... type diner. Hahaha. They've got every era ... Elvis , Michael Jackson , Marvel Comics , James Dean , .. and many more. Like pictures all over the wall and stuff. Anyways for 245 Pesos [that's a ton of money for us ... about 5 dollars american] there was an all you can eat pizza and pasta option. Me and Elder Esling were tricked into it , haha. The pasta literally was horrible Almost torture swallowing it ... but the pizza was way good. By their regular prices we both ate like 500pesos + each. I think the restaraunt might take down that option if we keep going back. They kept trying to push the pasta on us , because it's so much cheaper for them ... but it was horrible.
Anyways , let me give you a few more details here.
A "Regular" Day:
6: wake up , run
8: personal study
9: companion study
11: language study
12: lunch
1 or 2: start to work
930: plan for tomorrow
1015: journal
1030: pass out
... dinner isn't always an option ... haha.
Anyways .
Yesterday was Fast and Testimony Meeting at church.
And ... every speaker spoke about missionary work , haha. It started with an old man , which was really just about the book of mormon .. but then an RM talking about his mission , next RM about his mission , next RM about his mission , next RM about her mission , next RM about his mission , my companion .. about his mission , ... and then , yes. Me. For the very first time in my entire life. I bore my testimony during fast and testimony meeting in sacrament. It was a different experience , haha. I really am not nervous to give a talk , or talk to people , ... but that one shook me. It's funny how it was in Tagalog , although everyone else spoke in english , ... bearing testimony is just easier in Tagalog. But in lessons if I really want to get my point across I've got a stern american english voice. It's a secret weapon! Haha. No , but it really was a cool experience.
Anyways , being a district leader is just like being a missionary ... because you are a mission , haha. You just have a couple other responsibilities. I teach workshops during district meeting , interview the other missionaries weekly , receive and talk to them about how they're doing and then am kind of a mediator to the zone leaders. It's a fun thing and I love my district. Though there is a ... hard headed texan ... who has been in the mission 20 months and doesn't yet speak Tagalog. I don't think he wants to learn.
Okay , well I think that's all I got for this week.
Junie , no letters yet but keep the emails coming!!
I also want: [selfish] mormon movies , haha. About missionary work. So like , we've got the best two years here. But if you can track down The RM or The Other Side of Heaven , or movies like those ... those are allowed here.
Okay , love you all! Stay safe , eat you veggies!
-Elder White-
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Pitcha 4 and letter!
Hello , hello , hello.
First off...!
1] Things Elder Puti wants for Pasko [christmas]
- teeth whitening kit
- electric razor (ONLY IF THERE'S AN EXTRA ONE NOT BEING USED! DON'T BUY ONE!)
- awesome gospel books (hint hint.. journal of discourses..)
- Lot's of awesome talks put onto a usb!
- Lovin
- An Easy Piano-Learning book.
2] This has been a bit of an interesting week.
I'm sorry , so this is my only time to do many things ... including watch videos on mormon. org. So a bit distracted , haha.
Anyways it started with Monday.
Oh man... I do not feel like talking about my week .. this week , haha. Okay I'll try and focus.
So on Monday after emailing , we ate pizza with the Quezon Hill Elders which is always fuuuuuuun. Anyways , after we got home we pretty much went straight to work which ended up being ... an okay lesson. Anyways , that's a boring day. Let's go to Tuesday. So Tueeesssddaayyy , I gave my first workshop. We had to go to the church a bit early for a meeting with the zone leaders , and then afterwards I gave a workshop about understanding ... which was a pretty fun experience. I've given workshops before but this one felt more fun. Anyways , after district meeting we went to work in which we dropped by a taxi driver we had met a month or so back. This was the guy who immediately started asking about polygamy , president kimball , and a bunch of other stuff. So he wasn't exactly ignoring us , but we weren't much of a priority. Anyways we got way lucky to catch him and he was like yeah you can share. So we walk inside [it's kind of like an orphanage , but different] and then met one of the kids whose 20 , and Jun [the taxi driver] was like CHRIS STAY! Ha , so then we met him... and apparently he's incredibly good at english and has a very deep understanding of the catholic religion. So we introduced the book of Mormon to him and answered a ton of questions , tried to keep the lesson flowing in a spiritual way , but it ended really with him trying to debate rather than ask questions ... so we bore our testimonies a million times , told him to read the BoM if he's at all curious and said we'd come back on Friday.
Most of this week was really spent doing two things , trying to find new investigators and preparing Joshua for saturday. But then on Thursday we were like , let's go by the Laordan Family [who is that family you're asking about mom] and FINALLY the mom and dad were both there with their kids. This is a miracle because they've been so busy lately and have never been home. So we were crazy lucky to catch them. So the lesson was okay , and the spirit okay , but we really were just trying to understand their desire to be baptized and the Book of Mormon and everything. And basically they all still really want to , the mom's testimony of the Book of Mormon is awesome ... but in my opinion they're not yet ready to make the sacrifices needed to be baptized. So we're trying to help them as best we can , but it will probably happen in February or so .. at least after Christmas. They're home about 1 day out of the week because of their business in a place about 4-5 hours away and are getting even more busy because of Christmas. So keep praying for them , but they most likely will not be able to get baptized during my time here. But they're still an awesome family with a strong testimony and desire to help their family.
So then on Friday we had our meeting with the Ward Mission Leader and then went back to Chris after that. That turned out to be... weird. Haha. Apparently he spent the few days inbetween to read anything he could about Joseph Smith and the church before we got back ... we resulted in tons of questions about polygamy , " the mormon war " , and a bunch of other ridiculous things. Basically we would try and ask an actual question , and he would reply with something dramatic and then ask another rhetorical or ridiculous question haha. It was alright though , at least a new experience. He said he'd read it and come to church sometime ... haha we'll see.
Anyways , now here's the last important thing. On Saturday... Joshua got baptized!! That's the 9 year old who we've been teaching his family since july. We got his mom to come back to church and Joshua finally got baptized. It was a happy day. We had to be there early because I had to interview two of the investigators of burnham 1 elders ... they'll be baptized on Saturday. During the intervew with the first guy , whose 27 and has come a looong way in his life I asked him to bear his testimony and share why he wanted to be baptized , and wooow that guy has a powerful spirit. That was an awesome experience. Anyways , at the baptism Joshua thought I was going to be the one to baptize him .. so when we told him he was pretty bummed out. The ward wanted one of the priests to do it... not sure why :\ but its their ward. So after that we went back to their house for a small celebration they wanted , haha , and then out to work.
We also asked our neighbor's daughter , whose 14 , also they've been investigators for about 2 years now ... they're the coolest family in the world but can't be baptized because if they do they'll lose everything ... their boss is supplying living , school , food , everything for them. And if they get baptized they'll get kicked out. Anyways , we asked her if she thinks we've gotten fat. She was like '' Elder Tan.... yes. Elder White... no. You've lost weight. I was like WHAT! No no , I've definitely gotten fatter. And she's like no not really ... " pero tiyan mo... bagsak! " ahahahaha. Basically that last part means "but your stomach ... destroyed " hahaha. I've gotten a big belly here due to all the climbs. My legs have become rocks but my stomach continues to grow!1 We're working on it. Diet and running , promise.
So that's really all I got for this week. We're about to start week 2 , which means 5 weeks left in Baguio for me! I'll definitely be upset to leave , but I do miss Pangasinan and the heat. No mom , I'll definitely have a new companion at christmas.
I love you all. Please send me the talks I neeeeeed those. I thought I'd have em by this week............................
Love you all , send me letters!
[thank you all for the letters you have sent. Make SURE everyone knows my new address. letters are pretty much not being accepted anymore to the address here in Baguio. That's very important!]
First off...!
1] Things Elder Puti wants for Pasko [christmas]
- teeth whitening kit
- electric razor (ONLY IF THERE'S AN EXTRA ONE NOT BEING USED! DON'T BUY ONE!)
- awesome gospel books (hint hint.. journal of discourses..)
- Lot's of awesome talks put onto a usb!
- Lovin
- An Easy Piano-Learning book.
2] This has been a bit of an interesting week.
I'm sorry , so this is my only time to do many things ... including watch videos on mormon. org. So a bit distracted , haha.
Anyways it started with Monday.
Oh man... I do not feel like talking about my week .. this week , haha. Okay I'll try and focus.
So on Monday after emailing , we ate pizza with the Quezon Hill Elders which is always fuuuuuuun. Anyways , after we got home we pretty much went straight to work which ended up being ... an okay lesson. Anyways , that's a boring day. Let's go to Tuesday. So Tueeesssddaayyy , I gave my first workshop. We had to go to the church a bit early for a meeting with the zone leaders , and then afterwards I gave a workshop about understanding ... which was a pretty fun experience. I've given workshops before but this one felt more fun. Anyways , after district meeting we went to work in which we dropped by a taxi driver we had met a month or so back. This was the guy who immediately started asking about polygamy , president kimball , and a bunch of other stuff. So he wasn't exactly ignoring us , but we weren't much of a priority. Anyways we got way lucky to catch him and he was like yeah you can share. So we walk inside [it's kind of like an orphanage , but different] and then met one of the kids whose 20 , and Jun [the taxi driver] was like CHRIS STAY! Ha , so then we met him... and apparently he's incredibly good at english and has a very deep understanding of the catholic religion. So we introduced the book of Mormon to him and answered a ton of questions , tried to keep the lesson flowing in a spiritual way , but it ended really with him trying to debate rather than ask questions ... so we bore our testimonies a million times , told him to read the BoM if he's at all curious and said we'd come back on Friday.
Most of this week was really spent doing two things , trying to find new investigators and preparing Joshua for saturday. But then on Thursday we were like , let's go by the Laordan Family [who is that family you're asking about mom] and FINALLY the mom and dad were both there with their kids. This is a miracle because they've been so busy lately and have never been home. So we were crazy lucky to catch them. So the lesson was okay , and the spirit okay , but we really were just trying to understand their desire to be baptized and the Book of Mormon and everything. And basically they all still really want to , the mom's testimony of the Book of Mormon is awesome ... but in my opinion they're not yet ready to make the sacrifices needed to be baptized. So we're trying to help them as best we can , but it will probably happen in February or so .. at least after Christmas. They're home about 1 day out of the week because of their business in a place about 4-5 hours away and are getting even more busy because of Christmas. So keep praying for them , but they most likely will not be able to get baptized during my time here. But they're still an awesome family with a strong testimony and desire to help their family.
So then on Friday we had our meeting with the Ward Mission Leader and then went back to Chris after that. That turned out to be... weird. Haha. Apparently he spent the few days inbetween to read anything he could about Joseph Smith and the church before we got back ... we resulted in tons of questions about polygamy , " the mormon war " , and a bunch of other ridiculous things. Basically we would try and ask an actual question , and he would reply with something dramatic and then ask another rhetorical or ridiculous question haha. It was alright though , at least a new experience. He said he'd read it and come to church sometime ... haha we'll see.
Anyways , now here's the last important thing. On Saturday... Joshua got baptized!! That's the 9 year old who we've been teaching his family since july. We got his mom to come back to church and Joshua finally got baptized. It was a happy day. We had to be there early because I had to interview two of the investigators of burnham 1 elders ... they'll be baptized on Saturday. During the intervew with the first guy , whose 27 and has come a looong way in his life I asked him to bear his testimony and share why he wanted to be baptized , and wooow that guy has a powerful spirit. That was an awesome experience. Anyways , at the baptism Joshua thought I was going to be the one to baptize him .. so when we told him he was pretty bummed out. The ward wanted one of the priests to do it... not sure why :\ but its their ward. So after that we went back to their house for a small celebration they wanted , haha , and then out to work.
We also asked our neighbor's daughter , whose 14 , also they've been investigators for about 2 years now ... they're the coolest family in the world but can't be baptized because if they do they'll lose everything ... their boss is supplying living , school , food , everything for them. And if they get baptized they'll get kicked out. Anyways , we asked her if she thinks we've gotten fat. She was like '' Elder Tan.... yes. Elder White... no. You've lost weight. I was like WHAT! No no , I've definitely gotten fatter. And she's like no not really ... " pero tiyan mo... bagsak! " ahahahaha. Basically that last part means "but your stomach ... destroyed " hahaha. I've gotten a big belly here due to all the climbs. My legs have become rocks but my stomach continues to grow!1 We're working on it. Diet and running , promise.
So that's really all I got for this week. We're about to start week 2 , which means 5 weeks left in Baguio for me! I'll definitely be upset to leave , but I do miss Pangasinan and the heat. No mom , I'll definitely have a new companion at christmas.
I love you all. Please send me the talks I neeeeeed those. I thought I'd have em by this week............................
Love you all , send me letters!
[thank you all for the letters you have sent. Make SURE everyone knows my new address. letters are pretty much not being accepted anymore to the address here in Baguio. That's very important!]
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Hello
... we need to talk.
Those are some famous words.
...but still... where'd the lighter fluid come from? [alam ba ninyo?]
How've you guys been. I find myself listening to the I'm a Mormon video by Brandon Flowers a lot on mormon.org . Mainly because it's a way to listen to the Killers while emailing haha. But it's a coolio video , he's an interesting guy.
So how've you guys been? I've had a pretty okay week. By the way I really want those talks ... especially the Mortal Christ. That's one of the best talks I've yet heard.
I'll share a few experiences I've had this week.
I've found , really , that my weeks are more or less the same , but occasionally have some slight differences.
If I had to title this week it would be Understanding. That's been.. a focus , ha. It's been the only word really running through my mind all week. But I'll ellaborate on that a little bit later. First , Wednesday was transfer awareness. This is where we find out whose transferring. As expected , we knew who the three were so no surprises. Elder Heninger is now out of here , it was nice having him as district leader for a while. This is the second time we've been in the same zone and we got to hang out a bunch while he was here. So after transfer meeting me and Elder Tan head to our first appointment ... and this was an old man we had met a few days before. This was the guy that we just immediately asked where his house was , haha. His name is Felix Felomono. So as we come down the stairs to the main barangay road [barangay.. is hard to explain. Kind of like a biig neighborhood. We ran into Brothe Bentayen who had a piece of paper in his hand. He was like hey elders where ya headed , we're like to Felix Felomono , ya met him? And very very casually he goes 'oh yeah! ...he's dead. ....................................................... what? .......................................... Hahaha we had no idea what happened , and he's like yeah ... yeah died on tuesday. The piece of paper he had in his hand was a sign up sheet to donate some money to cover their debts because he was a pretty poor man that appartment instead of buying food only bought alcohol. He just didn't eat. Wow. So... we figured from that ridiculous coincidence we've got a pretty good referral for the spirit world. Sent now.
So that was weird.
Then Friday was transfer day. Oh , also we started running this past week .. haha .. we got sick of adding on chub , so Wed and Fri we went running in the morning ... pilipinos run very slow hahaha. And break every 200 feet. So I had to be a bit patient , haha , but it's all good. Friday we ran over to the apartment of Elder Heninger and Elder Lobitana to say goodbye and it was farther than we expected , haha , it took a while. But I saw an old man out running too wearing a BYU sweatshirt. Definitely got that from an old donation thing. Also Friday was our meeting with our ward mission leader , whose actually way masipag... which means... like hard working? anyways he's way cool and the hardest worker I've yet seen as a ward mission leader. That might because he's a return missionary and has been a bishop in antipolo , which means you're good haha. So yeah , we've been planning this Mission Fireside for last Saturday to finally spark some ward involvement in the mission process. The idea was for all the members to bring a neighbor or family member or friend or something and we would watch the joseph smith movie ... just a friendly and easy way to share the gospel. So... come saturday... about 10 or 15 members came... haha. And nobody brought anyone... hahaha. Wow. So nothing was really accomplished by it , though we tried to weeks and reminded everyone. But... no one's perfect , it's alright.
Also something new that happened this week that has never happened before... we found and dropped an investigator within a week , haha. I finally feel like I'm maturing a bit as a missionary in that I can feel the fear coming off a lot. The fear to talk to anyone , anytime ... to drop investigators that aren't interested , and so forth. It's fun. No , but this guy was cool but that's what I was saying earlier is that the theme for this week has been understanding. We've been trying to think of what our weakness has been , why no one is progressing , and we realized is we're not loving the people enough to be deadly honest with them. So we've tried all week to be so incredibly clear with the message and it's definitely helped. That one guy , we taught him three times .. but after the third lesson he didn't want to progress further than us sharing with him and so we kindly said goodbye and may try again in a month or so. But when urgency becomes more important the blessings flow more steadily.
The area is awesome , but a challenge. It seems as though no one is interested , but we just haven't spoken to everyone yet. We need to talk to about 80 - 90 people before we finally find someone who is interested past "magandang mensahe lang" or ... "just a good message" ... which almost everyone says. I'm so sick of hearing that , haha , because no one Understands the importance ... so that's what we've been focusing on.
Other than that I'm doing well , and happy. Faber goes home in February... that's insane , and please do not remind me of my one year mark , haha. Tell me I have a year left when August rolls around. I'd rather not think about that because I still don't believe it. I just walked into the MTC 3 hours ago.
Selfish time ... things I need:
- teeth whitening kit [doesn't exist here]
- books! [good ones!]
- awesome talks [If you want an easy way , download them and then upload to a usb and send me that USB]
- nothing else!
haha that's all I want. I love reading , I love learning , I love the work.
I think that's all I got for the week , always short on time. Love you all and I'll see you in three years!
-Elder White-
...ps- I'm now the district leader.
... we need to talk.
Those are some famous words.
...but still... where'd the lighter fluid come from? [alam ba ninyo?]
How've you guys been. I find myself listening to the I'm a Mormon video by Brandon Flowers a lot on mormon.org . Mainly because it's a way to listen to the Killers while emailing haha. But it's a coolio video , he's an interesting guy.
So how've you guys been? I've had a pretty okay week. By the way I really want those talks ... especially the Mortal Christ. That's one of the best talks I've yet heard.
I'll share a few experiences I've had this week.
I've found , really , that my weeks are more or less the same , but occasionally have some slight differences.
If I had to title this week it would be Understanding. That's been.. a focus , ha. It's been the only word really running through my mind all week. But I'll ellaborate on that a little bit later. First , Wednesday was transfer awareness. This is where we find out whose transferring. As expected , we knew who the three were so no surprises. Elder Heninger is now out of here , it was nice having him as district leader for a while. This is the second time we've been in the same zone and we got to hang out a bunch while he was here. So after transfer meeting me and Elder Tan head to our first appointment ... and this was an old man we had met a few days before. This was the guy that we just immediately asked where his house was , haha. His name is Felix Felomono. So as we come down the stairs to the main barangay road [barangay.. is hard to explain. Kind of like a biig neighborhood. We ran into Brothe Bentayen who had a piece of paper in his hand. He was like hey elders where ya headed , we're like to Felix Felomono , ya met him? And very very casually he goes 'oh yeah! ...he's dead. ....................................................... what? .......................................... Hahaha we had no idea what happened , and he's like yeah ... yeah died on tuesday. The piece of paper he had in his hand was a sign up sheet to donate some money to cover their debts because he was a pretty poor man that appartment instead of buying food only bought alcohol. He just didn't eat. Wow. So... we figured from that ridiculous coincidence we've got a pretty good referral for the spirit world. Sent now.
So that was weird.
Then Friday was transfer day. Oh , also we started running this past week .. haha .. we got sick of adding on chub , so Wed and Fri we went running in the morning ... pilipinos run very slow hahaha. And break every 200 feet. So I had to be a bit patient , haha , but it's all good. Friday we ran over to the apartment of Elder Heninger and Elder Lobitana to say goodbye and it was farther than we expected , haha , it took a while. But I saw an old man out running too wearing a BYU sweatshirt. Definitely got that from an old donation thing. Also Friday was our meeting with our ward mission leader , whose actually way masipag... which means... like hard working? anyways he's way cool and the hardest worker I've yet seen as a ward mission leader. That might because he's a return missionary and has been a bishop in antipolo , which means you're good haha. So yeah , we've been planning this Mission Fireside for last Saturday to finally spark some ward involvement in the mission process. The idea was for all the members to bring a neighbor or family member or friend or something and we would watch the joseph smith movie ... just a friendly and easy way to share the gospel. So... come saturday... about 10 or 15 members came... haha. And nobody brought anyone... hahaha. Wow. So nothing was really accomplished by it , though we tried to weeks and reminded everyone. But... no one's perfect , it's alright.
Also something new that happened this week that has never happened before... we found and dropped an investigator within a week , haha. I finally feel like I'm maturing a bit as a missionary in that I can feel the fear coming off a lot. The fear to talk to anyone , anytime ... to drop investigators that aren't interested , and so forth. It's fun. No , but this guy was cool but that's what I was saying earlier is that the theme for this week has been understanding. We've been trying to think of what our weakness has been , why no one is progressing , and we realized is we're not loving the people enough to be deadly honest with them. So we've tried all week to be so incredibly clear with the message and it's definitely helped. That one guy , we taught him three times .. but after the third lesson he didn't want to progress further than us sharing with him and so we kindly said goodbye and may try again in a month or so. But when urgency becomes more important the blessings flow more steadily.
The area is awesome , but a challenge. It seems as though no one is interested , but we just haven't spoken to everyone yet. We need to talk to about 80 - 90 people before we finally find someone who is interested past "magandang mensahe lang" or ... "just a good message" ... which almost everyone says. I'm so sick of hearing that , haha , because no one Understands the importance ... so that's what we've been focusing on.
Other than that I'm doing well , and happy. Faber goes home in February... that's insane , and please do not remind me of my one year mark , haha. Tell me I have a year left when August rolls around. I'd rather not think about that because I still don't believe it. I just walked into the MTC 3 hours ago.
Selfish time ... things I need:
- teeth whitening kit [doesn't exist here]
- books! [good ones!]
- awesome talks [If you want an easy way , download them and then upload to a usb and send me that USB]
- nothing else!
haha that's all I want. I love reading , I love learning , I love the work.
I think that's all I got for the week , always short on time. Love you all and I'll see you in three years!
-Elder White-
...ps- I'm now the district leader.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Heyo , weekly email.
This may be a bit distracted , I take this opportunity to watch videos on Mormon.org. I miss this , haha. HOW ARE YOU ALL!? Mom , you're back in the states ... I'm sorry to hear that. Haha , I prefer asia. Though I still don't understand anime. So let's talk about General Conference real quick ... who was stoked about that? That was a pretty awesome general conference if I do say so myself ... I know that was a couple weeks ago , but I'm still going over my notes - it was way good. Oh yeah.. we had a personal general conference here last Saturday. Wow. So good. Elder Holland , Elder Callister , and Elder Teh came and spoke. Meeting Elder Holland was obviously pretty awesome , as was meeting Elder Teh again and Elder Callister for the first time. I'll talk about that a little later.
So this week was hard , but always good haha. We got punted alllllll week long. We found 15 new investigators last week , but we got a second lesson with only a couple of them. It was rough. But Tuesday we came out of district meeting feeling pretty good and it was sunny for the first time in a while so we were in a mood to talk to everyone. After doing so for a while we came across an old man. And I'm sure why but I decided for a new approach , haha. The first thing we say I say "where's your house!?" hahah and he's "why?" "and we're like we're gonna teach your the truth" ... and then he started bauling! Haha I have no idea why but then with like lips quivering tells us how he needs a friend and is so poor and stuff , and we're like take this book ... read it ... we'll be back on Friday. But when we came back he wasn't home , haha , it was too bad. But we met a few other people who were home when we went back. So we'll see what happens there. Filipinos are way funny , you can be so blunt with them and they'll often prefer that over trying to get to know them and stuff. But the worst part is that filipinos are so incredibly insecure. I think I said that last week , but I'm getting tired of it. Why can't they just be honest if they're not going to be there. But no , they'll say "balik kayo!" which means come back another time and when we do ... they hide or are purposefully not there. It drives you nuts ... if they're not interested just say so!
So yeah , that was a majority of our work this week. Investigators come and go , and it's difficult in Baguio to get anyone over the idea that they need to come to church "TO BE SAVED!!!" . Usually we get the "isang lang and diyos, bruds." which is ... there's just one God , brothers... meaning your religion doesn't matter. In a sense that's very true , but people aren't accustomed to the idea that faith takes works. Anyways , so that was basically my week , not the most exciting but it's still being done in the Lord's way. I've been spending most of my personal studies recently trying to figure out what success means. The stupidest thing a missionary could ever do is to relate success with baptisms. It is naive and rarely happens , thankfully. But besides that I've been thinking how to measure myself as a missionary in order to improve. Is it how much I feel the spirit in my life , how much I feel the Gospel effecting those I teach , my own conversion , my own obedience... and so on. Preach My Gospel outlines it briefly , but I'm not comfortable with that short of a definition. What I found that I loved was actually in the Bible Dictionary. I finished the Book of Mormon for the second time last week so I'm trying to branch a little bit back into the New Testament and I loved the explanation about John the Baptist. Let's think about his life a little. He's a great prophet/man who has the aaronice priesthood. He's given an incredible responsibility to prepare the world for the coming of the Savior. He's the very last watchman to be called before Christ comes and so he spends all his time gathering a group of believers and ultimately followers. Then Christ comes ... and what happens? John the Baptist becomes a nobody. Of course he understand who Jesus Christ is , but how would be react if we were him? Even two of his followers , John and Andrew [I think?] left and became two apostles and were given authority than his. He then continued to live his life preaching but to almost no avail. He then gets thrown into prison and people doubt his conviction and his devotion to the Lord. So I'm not sure why that struck me , but I was thinking how amazing of a person he must have been. To have had a huge following of people , to feel so important , and then be left alone and die alone. But he followed with exact obedience to everything the Lord asked him to do and never questioned , murmered , or was upset with having the spotlight stolen from him. He was never given the authority given to others to baptize , in fact his baptisms were all done over again because it was only the baptism unto repentance and not for the holy ghost. That's sucess. Exact obedience and a clear understand of purpose. I've wondered periodically what my role is as a missionary , if I'm called to plant or harvest. And I've realized it's not the least bit important. There's a ton of ways to determine one's own success , but it never has to do with a standard or with anyone else. So that was one thing I loved reading. Also I've realized the importance of humility in the work. That's something I always have to watch and control , even in the small things.
Okay ... time is short so I'll talk about the Elder Holland conference. Basically we got there , anddd got front row ... or pew ... ha. But it was awesome. So so awesome. Finally the general authorities and Sister Callister showed up and we took a mission picture and then filed back into the chapel. Elder Gillies , an assistant , then conducted and Elder Holland told him it was the sweetest and most dedicated conducting he'd ever heard then kissed him on the cheek and told him he's conducting general conference in April hahaha. Then Elder Teh gave a short 5 minute remark and wow... I don't know why but instantly I was slapped in the face with his spirit. Then Sister Callister gave a great 5 minute remark , Elder Callister ... and AMAZING 5 minute remark , and then... the Legend... an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself .... EEELLLLDDDEEERRRRR HOOOOOLLLLLLAAANNDDDDD. Wow. You guys thought you had a good one with Elder Bednar. Try being a missionary and having the greatest speaker on earth pound at you for an hour the importance of your calling , what you are doing , and what not to do. I quote ... "Don't you go home and tell STUPID STORIES! of short-sheeting your companion or other hi-jinks that you shouldn't have done in the first place!!!" Oh man. I love his boldness. Then the line ... "You do not .. YOU DO NOT! have the right to damage the image of a missionary" Oh man.... so so good. Anyways , I can't say everything he said but I'll say that I'm quite confident when I went to sleep saturday nightafter getting home that was the most tired I've yet been on my mission. And we did nothing ... the only reason is because Elder Holland's spirit drains yours. It squashes it and makes it work.
I can't begin to explain how blessed we were to hear so personally from an apostle , and Elder Holland nonetheless. He shook all our hands and then later told us that was his interview with us , ha. He's like it doesn't take long ... 5 - 10 seconds only. But I can tell more about a missionary in 5 seconds of looking into their eyes than an hour of interview. ...wow.
Okay , I'm out of time but two things I wrote down to remember.
1. PLEASE! Inform everyone of the change of my address. Especially Sister Sturgess. That sweet woman still sends me cards , haha she's awesome. But the last few have still been to the old baguio address.
2. Tell June it's been like weeks now and no word... no excuse.
3. Write me letters , ASAP!
That's all.
I love you all , I'm all smiles as always. This work is incredible and ... has made a difference , haha. Hopefully I'll be able to send a package off soon.
-ELDER WHITE!!!-
This may be a bit distracted , I take this opportunity to watch videos on Mormon.org. I miss this , haha. HOW ARE YOU ALL!? Mom , you're back in the states ... I'm sorry to hear that. Haha , I prefer asia. Though I still don't understand anime. So let's talk about General Conference real quick ... who was stoked about that? That was a pretty awesome general conference if I do say so myself ... I know that was a couple weeks ago , but I'm still going over my notes - it was way good. Oh yeah.. we had a personal general conference here last Saturday. Wow. So good. Elder Holland , Elder Callister , and Elder Teh came and spoke. Meeting Elder Holland was obviously pretty awesome , as was meeting Elder Teh again and Elder Callister for the first time. I'll talk about that a little later.
So this week was hard , but always good haha. We got punted alllllll week long. We found 15 new investigators last week , but we got a second lesson with only a couple of them. It was rough. But Tuesday we came out of district meeting feeling pretty good and it was sunny for the first time in a while so we were in a mood to talk to everyone. After doing so for a while we came across an old man. And I'm sure why but I decided for a new approach , haha. The first thing we say I say "where's your house!?" hahah and he's "why?" "and we're like we're gonna teach your the truth" ... and then he started bauling! Haha I have no idea why but then with like lips quivering tells us how he needs a friend and is so poor and stuff , and we're like take this book ... read it ... we'll be back on Friday. But when we came back he wasn't home , haha , it was too bad. But we met a few other people who were home when we went back. So we'll see what happens there. Filipinos are way funny , you can be so blunt with them and they'll often prefer that over trying to get to know them and stuff. But the worst part is that filipinos are so incredibly insecure. I think I said that last week , but I'm getting tired of it. Why can't they just be honest if they're not going to be there. But no , they'll say "balik kayo!" which means come back another time and when we do ... they hide or are purposefully not there. It drives you nuts ... if they're not interested just say so!
So yeah , that was a majority of our work this week. Investigators come and go , and it's difficult in Baguio to get anyone over the idea that they need to come to church "TO BE SAVED!!!" . Usually we get the "isang lang and diyos, bruds." which is ... there's just one God , brothers... meaning your religion doesn't matter. In a sense that's very true , but people aren't accustomed to the idea that faith takes works. Anyways , so that was basically my week , not the most exciting but it's still being done in the Lord's way. I've been spending most of my personal studies recently trying to figure out what success means. The stupidest thing a missionary could ever do is to relate success with baptisms. It is naive and rarely happens , thankfully. But besides that I've been thinking how to measure myself as a missionary in order to improve. Is it how much I feel the spirit in my life , how much I feel the Gospel effecting those I teach , my own conversion , my own obedience... and so on. Preach My Gospel outlines it briefly , but I'm not comfortable with that short of a definition. What I found that I loved was actually in the Bible Dictionary. I finished the Book of Mormon for the second time last week so I'm trying to branch a little bit back into the New Testament and I loved the explanation about John the Baptist. Let's think about his life a little. He's a great prophet/man who has the aaronice priesthood. He's given an incredible responsibility to prepare the world for the coming of the Savior. He's the very last watchman to be called before Christ comes and so he spends all his time gathering a group of believers and ultimately followers. Then Christ comes ... and what happens? John the Baptist becomes a nobody. Of course he understand who Jesus Christ is , but how would be react if we were him? Even two of his followers , John and Andrew [I think?] left and became two apostles and were given authority than his. He then continued to live his life preaching but to almost no avail. He then gets thrown into prison and people doubt his conviction and his devotion to the Lord. So I'm not sure why that struck me , but I was thinking how amazing of a person he must have been. To have had a huge following of people , to feel so important , and then be left alone and die alone. But he followed with exact obedience to everything the Lord asked him to do and never questioned , murmered , or was upset with having the spotlight stolen from him. He was never given the authority given to others to baptize , in fact his baptisms were all done over again because it was only the baptism unto repentance and not for the holy ghost. That's sucess. Exact obedience and a clear understand of purpose. I've wondered periodically what my role is as a missionary , if I'm called to plant or harvest. And I've realized it's not the least bit important. There's a ton of ways to determine one's own success , but it never has to do with a standard or with anyone else. So that was one thing I loved reading. Also I've realized the importance of humility in the work. That's something I always have to watch and control , even in the small things.
Okay ... time is short so I'll talk about the Elder Holland conference. Basically we got there , anddd got front row ... or pew ... ha. But it was awesome. So so awesome. Finally the general authorities and Sister Callister showed up and we took a mission picture and then filed back into the chapel. Elder Gillies , an assistant , then conducted and Elder Holland told him it was the sweetest and most dedicated conducting he'd ever heard then kissed him on the cheek and told him he's conducting general conference in April hahaha. Then Elder Teh gave a short 5 minute remark and wow... I don't know why but instantly I was slapped in the face with his spirit. Then Sister Callister gave a great 5 minute remark , Elder Callister ... and AMAZING 5 minute remark , and then... the Legend... an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself .... EEELLLLDDDEEERRRRR HOOOOOLLLLLLAAANNDDDDD. Wow. You guys thought you had a good one with Elder Bednar. Try being a missionary and having the greatest speaker on earth pound at you for an hour the importance of your calling , what you are doing , and what not to do. I quote ... "Don't you go home and tell STUPID STORIES! of short-sheeting your companion or other hi-jinks that you shouldn't have done in the first place!!!" Oh man. I love his boldness. Then the line ... "You do not .. YOU DO NOT! have the right to damage the image of a missionary" Oh man.... so so good. Anyways , I can't say everything he said but I'll say that I'm quite confident when I went to sleep saturday nightafter getting home that was the most tired I've yet been on my mission. And we did nothing ... the only reason is because Elder Holland's spirit drains yours. It squashes it and makes it work.
I can't begin to explain how blessed we were to hear so personally from an apostle , and Elder Holland nonetheless. He shook all our hands and then later told us that was his interview with us , ha. He's like it doesn't take long ... 5 - 10 seconds only. But I can tell more about a missionary in 5 seconds of looking into their eyes than an hour of interview. ...wow.
Okay , I'm out of time but two things I wrote down to remember.
1. PLEASE! Inform everyone of the change of my address. Especially Sister Sturgess. That sweet woman still sends me cards , haha she's awesome. But the last few have still been to the old baguio address.
2. Tell June it's been like weeks now and no word... no excuse.
3. Write me letters , ASAP!
That's all.
I love you all , I'm all smiles as always. This work is incredible and ... has made a difference , haha. Hopefully I'll be able to send a package off soon.
-ELDER WHITE!!!-
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Monday, October 10, 2011
heyo
Hey , so thank you for more emails this time , ha. Mom it was fun to read about China , but I'll be honest I don't have much time now so I'll try and get in as much as I can.
First : my questions
- Did Caitlin , June , and Travis ever get my letters? I'm getting silence from all three of them! Ha , actually I think Caitlin said she got it I'm just waiting for hers. And I haven't heard from June in a long time ... and I have no idea if Travis has gotten either of my letters.
That's all. All's been well in Baguio , but increasingly busy. Training takes up so much of your time , haha , and I feel like I never have any free time any more to do anything. Which really is better though , more focused. This week was a bit crazy because we had something going on each day other than proselyting. Monday - Pday , Tuesday - District Meeting , Wednesday - MCM , Thursday - weekly planning , Friday - Zone Interviews , Saturday - conference + priesthood , Sunday - conference. So it was a bit of a different week. Unfortunately we haven't been able to meet with the Laordan's since they last came to church last Sunday ... they've been out of town like all week in Dagupan and Mountain Province ... so every time we drop by there's always just their 12 and 13 year old there , and we're like uhh alright .. just tell them we dropped by. Haha. We text them all the time with little response .. but that really is their attitude. It's like they don't care and then we get into the lessons and it's the most personal , spiritual experience you could possibly imagine. So they're killing my mental stability right now , but I love them... that's the problem ha. We've been finding like crazy because all of our investigators just lose interest so fast. It's easy to get a first lesson here in the Philippines , because everyone's like alright ... word of God ... no problem come in. Then we share with them something different from their beliefs , and when you come back for the return appointment it's "next time na lang" which means like ... next time.. na lang haha I donno how to translate that. Like come back another time. That's one problem here , they don't really understand what you're saying and how you're any different because they're are so many jehovah's witnesses and iglesia ni cristo that go from house to house confusing everyone. They're just like what's different about you than them ... you're just going to tell me I won't be saved if I don't join you. So we have to like disassemble these barriers and then work our way back up trying to educate them a little about the bible they claim to believe in , ha. It's a complex ... how people can have such a devout faith in something they are too busy to read. Explaining how the Book of Mormon is not the bible is hard enough. But pilipinos are seriously awesome , and I love them ... that's the problem.
So this week on Pday I found a blowdart , and I'm going back to buy more! I'll be sending those home ... so don't shoot eachother but they're stupid fun. Also they work ... we're going hunting later. I'm on a search , though , to find Christmas presents so I've got to take out some Christmas moolah. Tuesday's district meeting was good as always , and the whole week has been pretty regular , nothing spectacular. There is so so so so much rescue work to do here with the less-actives , President Jensen apologized to us at the training meeting a couple weeks ago. He was like I understand everything in Preach My Gospel talks about baptizing , but we need to shoulder the ward's work as well and do their home-teaching for them. Home teaching is a program that DOES NOT work in the Philippines. They don't understand how to do it , and thus it does not get done. So the missionaries do it all , and just as we build up the less-actives trust enough to come back to church he gets offended again by some insignificant tiny thing. It's hysterically horrible. That's another thing ... I love pilipinos , but they are so incredibly insecure. Especially the teenagers. They'll try and show off to all of their friends, but when approached they back down so so quick and every person here is incredibly unsure of himself. It's impossible to get past the social concern part of their conversion because it's never , well what does this doctrine mean to me , but more of what will my uncle's uncle's neighbor's mom think about my decision... yeah.
Anyways the week was good and Elder Tan is still a great missionary. We're trying to find everyone and anyone who will listen , thus we talk to everyone and try and get members to help... which doesn't really happen haha. Baguio is a bit different , I do miss the humility of Pangasinan. But it's great up here and I love every minute of it. On Friday we had Zone Interviews , in which President Jensen comes and conducts a short interview with each missionary to see how he's doing. It always makes you feel good and you can ask him anything you want , including deep doctrine haha. But during which our zone leaders gave a unique workshop about loving our investigators and everything which was a good change of pace from regular workshops.
But let's talk about conference. We didn't really have many investigators come to church , which was a bummer , but the talks were obviously so so good. My favorites were President Uchtdorf's talk about humility , President Packer's talk to the youth , and Elder Holland's scolding but awesome remarks in priesthood hahaha. " You older folk , don't you sit back yet , I'm not through with you yet " . But President Monson gave some pretty awesome remarks and I was blown away about a second temple in Provo. That's nuts. I think I had some other favorites as well , but those are the ones that stand out in my mind. Also Elder Callister's talk was pretty good. In between sessions on sunday we went to a very rich members house in our zone for lunch , and she invited all the missionaries , so it was a joyous event ha.
Okay well I think I'm out of time , so I'll try and send pictures next week and hopefully be able to get a package out within October. Elder Holland comes to speak to us on Saturday so I'll go into detail about that next week.
Love you all and good luck!
- Elder White
First : my questions
- Did Caitlin , June , and Travis ever get my letters? I'm getting silence from all three of them! Ha , actually I think Caitlin said she got it I'm just waiting for hers. And I haven't heard from June in a long time ... and I have no idea if Travis has gotten either of my letters.
That's all. All's been well in Baguio , but increasingly busy. Training takes up so much of your time , haha , and I feel like I never have any free time any more to do anything. Which really is better though , more focused. This week was a bit crazy because we had something going on each day other than proselyting. Monday - Pday , Tuesday - District Meeting , Wednesday - MCM , Thursday - weekly planning , Friday - Zone Interviews , Saturday - conference + priesthood , Sunday - conference. So it was a bit of a different week. Unfortunately we haven't been able to meet with the Laordan's since they last came to church last Sunday ... they've been out of town like all week in Dagupan and Mountain Province ... so every time we drop by there's always just their 12 and 13 year old there , and we're like uhh alright .. just tell them we dropped by. Haha. We text them all the time with little response .. but that really is their attitude. It's like they don't care and then we get into the lessons and it's the most personal , spiritual experience you could possibly imagine. So they're killing my mental stability right now , but I love them... that's the problem ha. We've been finding like crazy because all of our investigators just lose interest so fast. It's easy to get a first lesson here in the Philippines , because everyone's like alright ... word of God ... no problem come in. Then we share with them something different from their beliefs , and when you come back for the return appointment it's "next time na lang" which means like ... next time.. na lang haha I donno how to translate that. Like come back another time. That's one problem here , they don't really understand what you're saying and how you're any different because they're are so many jehovah's witnesses and iglesia ni cristo that go from house to house confusing everyone. They're just like what's different about you than them ... you're just going to tell me I won't be saved if I don't join you. So we have to like disassemble these barriers and then work our way back up trying to educate them a little about the bible they claim to believe in , ha. It's a complex ... how people can have such a devout faith in something they are too busy to read. Explaining how the Book of Mormon is not the bible is hard enough. But pilipinos are seriously awesome , and I love them ... that's the problem.
So this week on Pday I found a blowdart , and I'm going back to buy more! I'll be sending those home ... so don't shoot eachother but they're stupid fun. Also they work ... we're going hunting later. I'm on a search , though , to find Christmas presents so I've got to take out some Christmas moolah. Tuesday's district meeting was good as always , and the whole week has been pretty regular , nothing spectacular. There is so so so so much rescue work to do here with the less-actives , President Jensen apologized to us at the training meeting a couple weeks ago. He was like I understand everything in Preach My Gospel talks about baptizing , but we need to shoulder the ward's work as well and do their home-teaching for them. Home teaching is a program that DOES NOT work in the Philippines. They don't understand how to do it , and thus it does not get done. So the missionaries do it all , and just as we build up the less-actives trust enough to come back to church he gets offended again by some insignificant tiny thing. It's hysterically horrible. That's another thing ... I love pilipinos , but they are so incredibly insecure. Especially the teenagers. They'll try and show off to all of their friends, but when approached they back down so so quick and every person here is incredibly unsure of himself. It's impossible to get past the social concern part of their conversion because it's never , well what does this doctrine mean to me , but more of what will my uncle's uncle's neighbor's mom think about my decision... yeah.
Anyways the week was good and Elder Tan is still a great missionary. We're trying to find everyone and anyone who will listen , thus we talk to everyone and try and get members to help... which doesn't really happen haha. Baguio is a bit different , I do miss the humility of Pangasinan. But it's great up here and I love every minute of it. On Friday we had Zone Interviews , in which President Jensen comes and conducts a short interview with each missionary to see how he's doing. It always makes you feel good and you can ask him anything you want , including deep doctrine haha. But during which our zone leaders gave a unique workshop about loving our investigators and everything which was a good change of pace from regular workshops.
But let's talk about conference. We didn't really have many investigators come to church , which was a bummer , but the talks were obviously so so good. My favorites were President Uchtdorf's talk about humility , President Packer's talk to the youth , and Elder Holland's scolding but awesome remarks in priesthood hahaha. " You older folk , don't you sit back yet , I'm not through with you yet " . But President Monson gave some pretty awesome remarks and I was blown away about a second temple in Provo. That's nuts. I think I had some other favorites as well , but those are the ones that stand out in my mind. Also Elder Callister's talk was pretty good. In between sessions on sunday we went to a very rich members house in our zone for lunch , and she invited all the missionaries , so it was a joyous event ha.
Okay well I think I'm out of time , so I'll try and send pictures next week and hopefully be able to get a package out within October. Elder Holland comes to speak to us on Saturday so I'll go into detail about that next week.
Love you all and good luck!
- Elder White
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