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
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Althought you don't deserve this!!
I'm not sure why I have no emails , I'm sure it's on my side. I'll check again later. ..it better just be on my side!
So this week was a lot more exciting than last week , I promise.
On Monday after emailing we headed to the Palengke [which means like market or wet market] to try it out. We usually just shop at the SM , but we were sick of buying from the SM and waiting in ridiculous lines. So we went exploring. Ended up finding a ton of Ukay-Ukay's which is basically small outdoor shops of tons of used clothes ... which I have no idea where they come from. But they're mostly all hysterical. Most come from donations from the states and stuff , or other companies ... for example a company predicts the winner of a super bowl and prints 5000 t shirts to sell right after the game ... oh whoops they lost after all ... which means they send them to the philippines to sell for the price of printing so they don't lose any money. So yeah , some of the stuff we found was hysterical , but more importantly we found a ton of ties for way way cheap that are just as funny as the shirts.
After words we went shopping for veggies and fruits in an effort to rid our systems of pancit canton ... which is basically cheap noodles so easy to cook riddled with MSG ... I've decided I no longer want cancer ... so I'm banning it from my system. Also I just saw my picture on Sister Jensen's blog , haha ... I was fatter then. My weight fluctuates a lottt on the mission depending on what I'm eating. Anyways so yeah , we found a lot of good fruit for cheap that I'm sure you may be able to find in chinese markets in the city ... but I'd never seen any of this stuff before haha. It was all way good , of course.
Tuesday - we had exchanges with E. Heninger and his companion came with me in my area. His name is Elder Lobitana and is a pretty dang bold missionary haha. He actually kind of commandeered the lessons from me , but I forgive him ... even though he's way way new. If you're reading sister jensen's blog you'll have known that a baguio / typhoon rolled through and danggg haha. The Laordan family was the first family we taught on Tuesday and it was a great , great lesson. We met their oldest child , who goes to school about 10 hours away but was home this week on vacation. Her name is Amira , 19 , and wow she has really smart questions ha. So anyways we taught them about baptism again because that's how the conversation rolled , and before we realized we had been there over an hour 1/2 answering questions and refortifying testimonies and what not. It was just a really good lesson and they strongle committed again to baptism on oct 29 ... but I don't think they understand yet what they have to do before they can be baptised ... which is come to church 4 times in a row and a series of other things. Baptism requirements are strict in the philippines , but they're awesome.
Wednesday was okay , Thursday was okay ... met some new people as we went exploring through mud , haha. Taught a kind of awkward lesson to someone who wasn't very interested but her nephew was , whose 18. She was like awkwardly grinning the whole time , like I know the truth ... please leave now haha. Anyways , then Friday rolled around and we headed back down to Urdaneta for the real new missionary training meeting , which was pretty awesome. President Jensen is always a great great speaker and gets you pumped to be a missionary. Afterward something very important happened. HA! So we went to the office and of course talked with Elder Faber for a little bit , and as always I was like Faber you gotta start using your authority as office elder and convince PJ [pres jensen] to let us be companions! He's like I literally tell him every day. So then president jensen comes in and talks with us for a bit , and Elder Faber is like grinning his Elder Faber grin , and is like president me and elder white have something we'd like to talk to you about. And President is like what is it , elder faber!! Are you going to tell me your attraction to each other? AHahaha , do you have something you'd like to confess. And he's like ahah president , we feel the time is now to become companions , could it work out. And I didn't hear everything they said next because I had someone else asking me a question - but then President told him on his mission his mission president asked him who he'd like to be companions with , because his best friend was in his mission as well , and he was like Elder Tanner , President ... and his mission president was liek alright .. consider you guys companions. And then he was like I went from 180 to 165 those couple months because we worked so hard.
.... So. I don't want to get my own hopes up , but I'm pretty positive I'll be companions with him before he goes home hahaha. We're pretty stoked. Anyways we then got home that night and taught the Laordan family another time , because they weren't home on Thursday ... they do that alot hahaha , they tell they'll be home and then just aren't there. Okay... now saturday.
Wake up , winds are that bad .. rain isn't that bad ... get a text from President Jensen , says all missionaries are to stay indoors because there's a huge baguio coming in. We're like uhhh what... we have so many lessons today. So. We had to stay inside all day long , even though there was liek no rain or wind because it was all down in Pangasinan ... we were restless. But we watched a bunch of christmas movies , with our christmas lights on , and sang christmas songs. I ordered a couple christmas movies from lds.org. Then we caroled our neighbor apartment and shared with them the christmas story from luke 2 hahaha. It was a funny end to the day , but a pretty upsetting day.
Sunday .... this is the main feature of the story. We wake up , study , and get out of the house. We had a plan to head to Crystal Cave , one of the barangay's [like neighboorhood] and go by all of the less actives and investigators in that area so they'll finally come to church. We went by about 8 or 10 houses and then finally came to the Laordans. We didn't have plans to go to them , because they told us on Friday they'd be in town at that time and would go straight to the church. But we went by their road and were like , eh why not. So we head down a very steep road , down a muddy path .. and get to the their house. And they're there! It was like 12 : 05 and they open the door and like Elders! They were like we're about to get ready , hold on a second. So they continue to take the next 45 minutes!!! to get ready. As we patiently wait outside. Then apparently the grandma was coming to who we'd taught a couple times , awesome awesome. So we head up to the road ... it's like 12:55 now at this time ... church starts in 5 minutes. And we proceed to wait for 35 minutes for a jeep!!! Nothing came by , and when it did they were all full. Finally after so many silent prayers one finally rolls by that accomodates... all 10!! of us. Oh man... We got their neighbor whose a member / kind of less active to come as well and fellowship that day. So oh man , 10 of us packed in and headed to the church. Finally get there , our ward mission leader whose awesome was waiting outside for us , and we awkwardly yet awesomely pile in during Sister Rehbaum's testimony , it was fast + testimony meeting. And they had reserved the very front pew for us , ahahaha. Everyone saw us and were like daaaaang , tons of investigators. So then the next 5 or 6 people to give testimonies apparently knew the Laordan family!! It was so awesome , and they were so happy to see them there. Afterwards so many people came up and fellowshipped immediately , the bishop was like shocked at how many people we brought so kind of tried to show off hahaha , it was just awesome. Then gospel principles class was possibly the worst ever , ahaha , as this 19 year old pre-missionary and his father like patronized and spoke so condescendingly to our investigators during the class .. I didn't get it. But in whole the day was amazing. They met so many old friends they hadn't seen in forever and I think they had a really good experience.
So yeah. That was the highlight of the week. It was an action packed week and things are looking up. Then again we got dropped from one of our IBDs because her husband , whose a member has apparently been teaching a different church for the past year hahahah and doesn't want to leave because he gets to play guitar there .... gah 22 year olds haha. But it's okay , he'll come around.
It was just an amazing end to the past 2 months of trying to get this family to church. Unfortunately the husband couldn't come , but he will. I love love love this family and they have become like family to me. I'd love for you guys to meet them one day. So keep praying and keep them in your thoughts!!
- Mom send me more updates on Brandon , how he's doing with everything ... and I better have more emails next week or I'll be doing some chastizing!
..now I'm off go buy some survenirs ... hope you all like them. I'm trying to find a cheap shipping option as well , but it's all about 2600 pesos per kilo I think. That's pretty dang expensive.
Love you all , and good bye!
-Send me letters. OH!!!!
DO NOT SEND LETTERS TO THE OLD BAGUIO ADDRESS!
If you do , I will not receive them. Please send to the New address.
Elder Austin White
Philippines Baguio Mission
PO BOX 7
San Vincente East
Urdaneta , Philippines
2428 Philippines
BYE
So this week was a lot more exciting than last week , I promise.
On Monday after emailing we headed to the Palengke [which means like market or wet market] to try it out. We usually just shop at the SM , but we were sick of buying from the SM and waiting in ridiculous lines. So we went exploring. Ended up finding a ton of Ukay-Ukay's which is basically small outdoor shops of tons of used clothes ... which I have no idea where they come from. But they're mostly all hysterical. Most come from donations from the states and stuff , or other companies ... for example a company predicts the winner of a super bowl and prints 5000 t shirts to sell right after the game ... oh whoops they lost after all ... which means they send them to the philippines to sell for the price of printing so they don't lose any money. So yeah , some of the stuff we found was hysterical , but more importantly we found a ton of ties for way way cheap that are just as funny as the shirts.
After words we went shopping for veggies and fruits in an effort to rid our systems of pancit canton ... which is basically cheap noodles so easy to cook riddled with MSG ... I've decided I no longer want cancer ... so I'm banning it from my system. Also I just saw my picture on Sister Jensen's blog , haha ... I was fatter then. My weight fluctuates a lottt on the mission depending on what I'm eating. Anyways so yeah , we found a lot of good fruit for cheap that I'm sure you may be able to find in chinese markets in the city ... but I'd never seen any of this stuff before haha. It was all way good , of course.
Tuesday - we had exchanges with E. Heninger and his companion came with me in my area. His name is Elder Lobitana and is a pretty dang bold missionary haha. He actually kind of commandeered the lessons from me , but I forgive him ... even though he's way way new. If you're reading sister jensen's blog you'll have known that a baguio / typhoon rolled through and danggg haha. The Laordan family was the first family we taught on Tuesday and it was a great , great lesson. We met their oldest child , who goes to school about 10 hours away but was home this week on vacation. Her name is Amira , 19 , and wow she has really smart questions ha. So anyways we taught them about baptism again because that's how the conversation rolled , and before we realized we had been there over an hour 1/2 answering questions and refortifying testimonies and what not. It was just a really good lesson and they strongle committed again to baptism on oct 29 ... but I don't think they understand yet what they have to do before they can be baptised ... which is come to church 4 times in a row and a series of other things. Baptism requirements are strict in the philippines , but they're awesome.
Wednesday was okay , Thursday was okay ... met some new people as we went exploring through mud , haha. Taught a kind of awkward lesson to someone who wasn't very interested but her nephew was , whose 18. She was like awkwardly grinning the whole time , like I know the truth ... please leave now haha. Anyways , then Friday rolled around and we headed back down to Urdaneta for the real new missionary training meeting , which was pretty awesome. President Jensen is always a great great speaker and gets you pumped to be a missionary. Afterward something very important happened. HA! So we went to the office and of course talked with Elder Faber for a little bit , and as always I was like Faber you gotta start using your authority as office elder and convince PJ [pres jensen] to let us be companions! He's like I literally tell him every day. So then president jensen comes in and talks with us for a bit , and Elder Faber is like grinning his Elder Faber grin , and is like president me and elder white have something we'd like to talk to you about. And President is like what is it , elder faber!! Are you going to tell me your attraction to each other? AHahaha , do you have something you'd like to confess. And he's like ahah president , we feel the time is now to become companions , could it work out. And I didn't hear everything they said next because I had someone else asking me a question - but then President told him on his mission his mission president asked him who he'd like to be companions with , because his best friend was in his mission as well , and he was like Elder Tanner , President ... and his mission president was liek alright .. consider you guys companions. And then he was like I went from 180 to 165 those couple months because we worked so hard.
.... So. I don't want to get my own hopes up , but I'm pretty positive I'll be companions with him before he goes home hahaha. We're pretty stoked. Anyways we then got home that night and taught the Laordan family another time , because they weren't home on Thursday ... they do that alot hahaha , they tell they'll be home and then just aren't there. Okay... now saturday.
Wake up , winds are that bad .. rain isn't that bad ... get a text from President Jensen , says all missionaries are to stay indoors because there's a huge baguio coming in. We're like uhhh what... we have so many lessons today. So. We had to stay inside all day long , even though there was liek no rain or wind because it was all down in Pangasinan ... we were restless. But we watched a bunch of christmas movies , with our christmas lights on , and sang christmas songs. I ordered a couple christmas movies from lds.org. Then we caroled our neighbor apartment and shared with them the christmas story from luke 2 hahaha. It was a funny end to the day , but a pretty upsetting day.
Sunday .... this is the main feature of the story. We wake up , study , and get out of the house. We had a plan to head to Crystal Cave , one of the barangay's [like neighboorhood] and go by all of the less actives and investigators in that area so they'll finally come to church. We went by about 8 or 10 houses and then finally came to the Laordans. We didn't have plans to go to them , because they told us on Friday they'd be in town at that time and would go straight to the church. But we went by their road and were like , eh why not. So we head down a very steep road , down a muddy path .. and get to the their house. And they're there! It was like 12 : 05 and they open the door and like Elders! They were like we're about to get ready , hold on a second. So they continue to take the next 45 minutes!!! to get ready. As we patiently wait outside. Then apparently the grandma was coming to who we'd taught a couple times , awesome awesome. So we head up to the road ... it's like 12:55 now at this time ... church starts in 5 minutes. And we proceed to wait for 35 minutes for a jeep!!! Nothing came by , and when it did they were all full. Finally after so many silent prayers one finally rolls by that accomodates... all 10!! of us. Oh man... We got their neighbor whose a member / kind of less active to come as well and fellowship that day. So oh man , 10 of us packed in and headed to the church. Finally get there , our ward mission leader whose awesome was waiting outside for us , and we awkwardly yet awesomely pile in during Sister Rehbaum's testimony , it was fast + testimony meeting. And they had reserved the very front pew for us , ahahaha. Everyone saw us and were like daaaaang , tons of investigators. So then the next 5 or 6 people to give testimonies apparently knew the Laordan family!! It was so awesome , and they were so happy to see them there. Afterwards so many people came up and fellowshipped immediately , the bishop was like shocked at how many people we brought so kind of tried to show off hahaha , it was just awesome. Then gospel principles class was possibly the worst ever , ahaha , as this 19 year old pre-missionary and his father like patronized and spoke so condescendingly to our investigators during the class .. I didn't get it. But in whole the day was amazing. They met so many old friends they hadn't seen in forever and I think they had a really good experience.
So yeah. That was the highlight of the week. It was an action packed week and things are looking up. Then again we got dropped from one of our IBDs because her husband , whose a member has apparently been teaching a different church for the past year hahahah and doesn't want to leave because he gets to play guitar there .... gah 22 year olds haha. But it's okay , he'll come around.
It was just an amazing end to the past 2 months of trying to get this family to church. Unfortunately the husband couldn't come , but he will. I love love love this family and they have become like family to me. I'd love for you guys to meet them one day. So keep praying and keep them in your thoughts!!
- Mom send me more updates on Brandon , how he's doing with everything ... and I better have more emails next week or I'll be doing some chastizing!
..now I'm off go buy some survenirs ... hope you all like them. I'm trying to find a cheap shipping option as well , but it's all about 2600 pesos per kilo I think. That's pretty dang expensive.
Love you all , and good bye!
-Send me letters. OH!!!!
DO NOT SEND LETTERS TO THE OLD BAGUIO ADDRESS!
If you do , I will not receive them. Please send to the New address.
Elder Austin White
Philippines Baguio Mission
PO BOX 7
San Vincente East
Urdaneta , Philippines
2428 Philippines
BYE
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