email ng pamilya!

Heyo -- I'll try and make this email a little bit better than last week , haha , that was way boring. I forgot to mention [i think] that we had LTM last week. That's Leadership Training Meeting - a meeting for district leaders and zone leaders. It was actually a lot of fun , ha. You get to see so many of your friends in the mission and President Jensen gave a pretty awesome workshop about doctrine. The new focus our mission is taking is a very doctrinal push. President Jensen feels like we're not teaching the doctrine as clearly as we need to be to the investigators and less-actives , so we have a two month preach my gospel "cleansing" [ha] going on. Our studies are a heavy heavy dose of preach my gospel and we're redirecting the way we teach and stuff. It's actually kind of awesome how much I learn every time I open Preach My Gospel again. I've read it tons of times and studied it a lot , but it's like the scriptures... as situation change , meanings do as well - and more things stick out to you. [I'm getting distracted with I'm a Mormon videos] We're actually back in Baguio today , as I wasn't able to get the contact solution that I needed last time. So we got permission to come back up. We just ate lunch and during which ran into half of our old zone , haha , so since we both used to be here in Baguio it was way fun , obviously. We've made close friends with the elders here so it's like a mini-reunion hahaha. Gosh, looking at that from a non-mission point of view must be incredibly not exciting. This video is actually pretty sweet. http://mormon.org/me/3PTR Anyways , let's talk about my week a little bit. It was pretty sweet. This area is starting to rock , to be honest. The Branch Presidency is so new and willing to work that we're working miracles through the help of the miracles. Honestly , every week we see new members coming back for the first time after years of inactivity. We've made it a mission for ourselves to find every less active in the area and invite them back. A solid amount of people , really do only need an invitation. But we're working with so many families and priesthood and it's a testimony every day to see how humble these people area. To be honest , I'm so thankful to be out of Baguio. It was an amazing experience to be here in Baguio , but it's greater impact was to refresh my view of people down in the provinces. In La Union and Pangasinan. People area incredibly humble down there , sometimes really rude - haha , but still very humble. They will open to you as soon as they trust you , and will bear their soul when asked. Other than that we've also had a bunch of referrals coming for us , in which we're able to teach investigators again- after stabilizing the less active families. It honestly is a very inspired focus, President Teh was right on the money when they decided on this new direction. But it's so strange to teach investigators again - hahaha. It feels like I don't know how to do it anymore , because you really can't teach them the same as less-actives. The LAs already have a background in the church , so you are allowed to be a little more bold to them and straightforward , as with investigators you are their first interaction with the church , so you must be very careful in everything you say. The Philippines is very much a battle of the religions kind of area. To be frank , you've got our church , Jehovah's Witness , Iglesia ni Cristo , and Born Again. Then the rest is Catholic. Everyone groups us , naturally , with the other 3 - because they've never been told the difference , but that's understandable. But the 90% who are catholic have just developed this mentality that they now understand more than the rest that your church doesn't matter. Even after admitting they believe in the Book of Mormon , first vision , modern day prophet .. it's still a "whatever your church is .. it doesn't matter" . Haha. [I like this one , too - http://mormon.org/me/2T5N ] So yeah , that's why I love less actives. Almost all of them still have a testimony of the church , it's just our job to remind them. Besides that , me and my companion had a really cool discussion about the law of consecration the other day and it's meaning and everything. It's really interesting to look into to the impact it will have on members and everything. He says the first and second quorums of the 70 are now consecrated as well. So , in my opinion , it will make it's way to all the quorums and then stake presidents maybe and so on. Anyways ... the mission is still awesome. Time is flying by and it scares me each and every day. I think 15 months just went by the other day and I really don't like it. Members remind me all the time ... and I really really don't like it. Ha. But I love this time , and now I gotta go. LOVE YOU ALL!@#!@ -ewhite

this one is crazy boring.

Gahhh I don't have like anything to say , hahaha. I need to start emailing every two weeks.

This week was pretty good. On Monday ... got my haircut ... yay... hahaha. Then on Tuesday we had district meeting in Agoo. I went on exchanges with Elder Bolen , who was in my zone back when I was in my first area. He's the batch behind me , and got into the MTC the december after me. He's a really good guy from colorado and went to weber state to play football. We're trying to convince him to come up to BYUI when he gets home , because the missionary he's training right now went to BYUI as well and we're making plans for a reunion one day. The guy he's training is just like Tanner , it's way way funny. Except he's a bit taller and has blonde hair. Otherwise spot on.

Sorry I don't have too much time to email today , there was a bunch of other things I had to take care of. I ordered some things offlds.org a few months ago and just got a response back saying my card was on stop ... I didn't get it. But it's all well I think.

How's CT today? It's getting hotter here in Agoo , but that just means I'm getting darker - which is good.

Anyways , our exchanges were a lot of fun , being able to catch up in how the past 10 months of the mission have been and his apartment is them two and the two zone leaders. So being able to sleep at a house with 4 elders for the first time was [in a really dorky way] fun for once , haha. I've been pretty unlucky in my string of apartments , not yet being more than two of us. It's way crazy with 4 or more elders , but makes things more fun. Also Elder Shultz is one of the zone leaders and he'll be going to BYUI when he gets back in june as well , so we're all making plans , haha.

After our exchanges we came back and switched back then got to work. We got really lucky this week and didn't get punted very much ... putting in a lot of work.

Come Sunday we got to see the fruits of our labors , as so so many less actives came back. This area is honestly amazing in how humble the people are. The men are so willing to return , they just need a little help and a little support. But this reactivation work is so much better than teaching investigators , haha , because you see your efforts not being wasted every day. But even through little , short visits ... so many come back.

We're still working with the Buscas family , who is a lot like our family , haha , except there's is a bit more messed up. The parents and kids DO NOT get along very well and it's really hard from a 20 year old missionaries point of view to fix that.

I'm honestly so sorry in how boring this email is ... I'll make up for it next week , I promise. But I really think that's all I've got for this week.

I'm still doing good , health is fine , and the weight fluctuates every day ... haha ... but the stomach is growing and growing! I might be pregnant. Hmm ... what else. Nope , that's all.

Sorry ... really!

haha love you all

picture

this was from a year ago... but still on the mission.

There's dozens of us. DOZENS!

Short email.

Seeing as I've just spent the past 45 minutes chatting with most of
you that read this , ha.

Really no new news here. Still in Damortis for 6 more weeks and pretty
stoked , the work is way sweet here and so is the area. Except the
ocean is crazy tempting. When it's ridiculously hot outside and you
see this amazing water like-water outside ... it makes you want to go
swimming , ha. But I suppose my bucket showers are just as good.

This past week we had district meeting on Wednesday , in which our
zone was reduced in half because so many had gone home the day before.
Weird. But Elder Shultz [zone leader] gave a short workshop and then
announced the transfers. He wrote my name on the board amongst the
transferring , but I didn't really believe him. Haha , good thing
because then he erased all of the names except one ... only 1
transferred out of 14 haha. So that was ... boring ... and then we
went to mang inasal which is a chain restaraunt here with good grilled
chicken and unlimited rice ... so you eat until you're really really
full ... that costs 2.50$ . Umm ... that's about all the news I've
got. Oh yeah , my companion got really sick Monday and Tuesday , had a
fever hit 103.6 - so I got to play doctor again for a couple days ,
then on wednesday until saturday I got sick. Fever only hit 100.7 ,
but I felt so ridiculously light headed and sick to my stomach for
about 3 days. Don't worry , we still worked all day every day , haha.
Those were fun days.

Friday found out I was called as district leader again...

Saturday was the national broadcast from the area presidency.
President Teh and his two counselors. They announced the new focus to
all leaders across the country and gave instruction on how to best go
about it , so incredibly helpful. This week has actually been amazing
for less active work. In the few weeks we've been here we've hunted
down and found over 50 less active families. So many amazing
experiences with them , and there was this one [Arsenio and Natividad
Doctulero]. It's been a few years since they've been at church. The
first time we found them , Arsenio was drunk [he's probably 50+ and so
is his wife]. We tell him we'll be back on Tuesday. Come back , he's
sober [but maybe a little tipsy] , basically just were friendly for
like 30 minutes and shared a really short short message. Come back on
Thursday , his wife joins. Out comes the fact that he has a word of
wisdom problem , so we give him a blessing to overcome it. Come back
on Saturday- BOOM , fresh new haircut , he's sober , wearing glasses.
Needlesstosay we were so happy to see him and his wife and two
grandchildren at church on Sunday. Some of these people literally only
need love to come back. They're such awesome people , but they're
easily led away.

During the branch council meeting the branch president was like , I
think we've all noticed all the less actives coming back to church ...
we'd like to extend a thank you to the missionaries [prideful , but it
felt good to be noticed , ha] . So yeah.

Here's a quit status on the philippines:

Membership: 659,000
Active / Average Sacrament Attendance: 144,000
% of Young men between 21 - 26 that served missions: 4%

We're doing some clean up.

The country and everything in and about it is amazing , it just needs
a little help.

Also ... MOST IMPORTANT PART OF EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ::

David Archuleta apparently has come to the Philippines as "his way of
serving a mission" [I'm pretty sure those were his words] and he is
starting a TV show on their main channel which will be aired every
day. I'm pretty sure this will help the church here ... he's really
famous here , ha. Also , he's speaking Tagalog. HUGE!

`e.Wh1te

I'm getting dark.

Ha , at least a little. The sun is strong in AGOO [my city mom]. It's not my actual city , but it's the biggest city around and very close to me. About 10 minutes. My actual city is Damortis , La Union. But Agoo , La Union will probably pop up. I'm up here in Baguio with my companion and 4 other elders. We took a trip up here to get a few things we need and to buy the blow darts you guys requested. I got 5 more and will send them off after I leave here. I'm actually so tired right now , haha. We just went at it in bowling a couple hours ago and after two games we were pretty beat , but Elder Bolen [my rival in bowling] wanted a 1 on 1. Hahaha so tiring. I couldn't get a single strike like the whole game , all 9s and so hard to even clean up with a spare ... until the 10th frame I got two in a row and thought I had him beat but he threw down a spare , strike , strike. It was intense hahaha. Boring , I know ... but that's exciting to us. There's a very large old white man here with a young filipina sitting next to him bored , hahaha. It's weird. So yeah , that's been our day so far. After here I'll send home the package , a couple letters , and then get our shopping done.

So how's everyone doing?

My week has been pretty crazy. We've just been meeting every less active in the area that we can. We had a goal of meeting 5 families and we ended up finding 18 , hahaha. Taught like 28 lessons ... 20 of which were to less active. That's very much our focus , and it's quite awesome. We get dropped from appointments a lot more often and after like two lessons they'll start hiding from us , but we've been having some success. We've narrowed down our focus to 5 families and 2 of which have the most humble fathers I've ever met. It's actually really inspiring. They're so willing to come back to church , but just need a little help. Not to mention it has honestly been the most spirit rich experiences of my mission bearing down hard on these people but lovingly and bearing strong testimony. Most are actually endowed and sealed , but for one reason or another life sets in and they get mixed up and stop coming. But it's amazing how there are so many people as well that just need a little love. Like I said , we visited 18 families and shared just short messages with them and a bunch came back ... after years of not going to church .. they just needed to be noticed a little. That in itself is the largest thing I've learned. Okay , this internet shop is killing me with it's music. I think it somehow acquired my old playlists.

It's also nuts how many people will be going home soon that I know. Elder Bentley [whose one of my zone leaders here and with me today] will be going home in two days. I met him my third day here in the Philippines and remember asking him how much longer he has and if it feels fast. He wasn't even quite to one year ... and now he's going home. Insane. Elder Faber goes home in 6 weeks and just so many others. Half of our zone goes home this week so it'll be a completely new zone next transfer. I'm not sure if either I or Elder Jacinto will be transferring , I don't think so. We both just got here and get along well and are in the process of correcting the area and bringing it back on track ... so I'm not sure. But whatever happens I'll be happy with it , I'm sure. I've yet had an area that I haven't loved or a companion that I haven't learned from. Even the ones that tested me , ha , looking back there's a lot more I learned from them.

Quick Backwards Culture Time!
- Filipinas have a really funny way of saying the words "AS IN" to show emphasis. The tagalog language has a lot of english that's just randomly mixed , and that's one phrase. They'll say something like ... mabaho siya AS IN mabaho! [translation]: he smells AS IN smells! hahaha. It's so funny. Also in tagalog if you want to ask if someone does something [as in often] it's just in the present tense form. example : kumakain ka ba ng isda? which means do you eat fish. But because they directly translate it , even the super fluent filipinos will say "are you eating fish" ... as in ... are you currently eating fish , haha. So whenever I'm asked if I'm eating fish or eating balut or eating whatever it is they ask. If they say that to me in english I'll usually look at my hands confused and then reply not currently. Sometimes they understand , ahaha.

Letters I've received this week:
1 from Grandma
1 from June
1 from Sister Sturgess
1 DearElder from Andrea

THANK YOU!

Mom and Dad , still waiting for a handwritten letter from you guys , haha , but it's okay.

Hmm what else. Funny things that have happened lately... I bashed my head sitting down to the computer here ... my companion cooked our package noodles last night and mixed two different types which he thought was okay to do. Unfortunately one required water , as in a water base soup , and the other was just flavored noodles. So he cooked both the flavored style and when we ate it was as if someone had just poured a bucket of salt on the noodles. Our stomachs were killing after the first bite , hahaha. You need that water to balance out the salt content and it was so so horrible , ha. Oh , also I bought a gift for Trevor that I saw. I'll just bring that home. I think I'm just gonna send home the blow darts today. I notice that trevor has been wearing my sabres hat and the old buffalo bills hat that was said was signed by Jim Kelly , but I'm not sure if that was true. No but seriously , I have gained a lot of weight. It's so hard to lose weight here with all the rice and stuff. But we're dieting , running , and stuff .. so we'll see what happens.

I think that's all I really got this week. It feels funny to be back in Baguio.
Keep the mail coming and I appreciate any kind of dear elders , letters , or any type of love.

Love you all ,
Elder Austin White

email ko po.

Heyo

Definitely just spent the past 20 minutes looking up old pictures on Sister Jensen's blog! So I apologize if this email is slack a lackin. As I responded to Courtney , and I'll say to all , I'm heading up to Baguio next Monday with a few other missionaries to get some stuff we need [including contact solution] I'll swing by the market and pick up a few more things , including a bunch more blow darts. I'll see if they have any better ones than the ones I sent. And I'll hit you up with so more ammo , but as I'm sure Dad has concluded ... those little darts are really easy to make. I'm sure he could make those ... but I could probably buy them cheaper.
Today we were in Agoo for a zone activity. It was just basically make up a game and we'll all play it. So as a zone we played like 8 different games and it was actually really hysterical. The sisters came up with this one game for the Elders in which we broke up into two groups and had to sit in a circle facing one another. Then lie down one on another as they slowly removed all the chairs. By the end of it your legs were burning from holding the weight of a 150 lb elder ahead of you , haha. But all in all it was a lot of fun. I guess I'll talk about my week a little , but first - questions.

1. Contacts - nope I'm good for now. I'm going to get my contacts to stretch the full two years ... I think I can do it. I still have a good amount left I think and I only change them about once every two months , or so I try. They still feel okay , and the contact solution and case I use cleans them really well so they don't hurt during the day.
2. As I think I mentioned last week , but may be mistaken , Elder Soderquist is in my batch and was in my room back in the MTC. Right now he's in the Mangaldan Zone I'm pretty sure. Incredibly incredibly nice. His brother is in Ilo Ilo and is his twin.

Btw - did Caitlin or anyone else get my letters? I sent Caitlin's to her house because I figured she'd be home around the time she got it. Also June should have a letter or two down in Maryland.

My week has been pretty good. Last Tuesday was Zone interviews and during my interview President Jensen pretty much just apologized for emergency transferring me , but was like ' as I'm sure you've figured out , there were some problems with some of the former missionaries that we needed addressing ' ha. It was a good day and it's an opportunity in which you can ask President any question you like. So I asked him if Jesus drank wine , haha. A silly question but I keep hearing so many different opinions. I like what he said , and it was pretty much what I had thought as well before. Also I got my package that day! Thank you so much , geeze! You keep sending so much. I've pretty much finished that small book of stories and stuff and haven't had even a second to pick up the Dead Sea Scrolls or the other Elder Holland book , but I'm excited. I'm almost finished with the first EH book , about 60 pages left. Same with the E. Oaks book. Thank you so much for everything. You're seriously good until I get home. No need for more , haha. However , Andrea's been slacking on the dear elders!!!! Gotta pick that up , haha.

I actually thought about you guys coming here after we hung up and I might like that. My mission president would release me , but I've still got a very long time to think about that. A family of whiteys would shock the nation , ha. Anyways that's still so far away.

My whole week was basically just spent with less - actives. We've found three families , in which the fathers are possibly the most humble people I've ever met. So kind and so willing to come back , but they just don't know how. It's a really really amazing position to be in to be able to bring the light back into their lives and to help them come back to what they still know to be true. Often the reason is ... offended. Unfortunately. But large steps are being taken to help them back. Even with one man who loves the church but doesn't want to come back because his two sisters offended him when their mother passed away. Well last Saturday we helped organize a little New Years Eve celebration at their house in which they spoke to each other for the first time in 3 years. It's a very amazing position.

Other than that I've been doing really well here. We go running about every other day , and I'm trying really hard to get rid of these Donald White-like gut that keeps forming. I usually run while my companion watches from the basketball court , haha. My companion is still really awesome and actually about 6 of us just went to this photo studio they found a couple weeks ago , and we just took some amazing amazing photos. You'll all be proud. I'll be sending those home next week , hahaha.

My new years was pretty good as well. Saturday we spent with less actives , and Sunday was Fast and Testimony meeting only. The testimonies were pretty strong , except for this one member who chastized the former district president for offending him [he did it in a sly way , haha] a few months earlier and then saying how he hopes to be a leader one day hahaha. We were pretty shocked at the content of his testimony , but I suppose a testimony nonetheless. After which we got punted from about every appointment , seeing how everyone was still pretty hung over from the night before or not home visiting family or others. Then we went and found a former investigator who right as we said 'hello' continued to tell us how she was busy , tired , come back a different day , and then everything that is "bawal" or not allowed in our church. Including shopping on sunday and drinking and stuff ... we were once again pretty shocked at her animosity and I suppose audacity , haha. We had only said hello. After that little incident we had a dinner planned with the former district president [we didn't talk about him being chastized (he probably didn't know that we understood)] and his family. Instead it was just me and Elder Jacinto eating as they explained they'd be eating a few hours later , hahaha. It was okay though and the food was crazy good. Then as we were leaving they were like here ... take all this home , in which they gave us so much food and an entire plate of desert. Filipinos are kind.

We had a curfew Satuday and Sunday of 6pm , because it's pretty dang dangerous after that with fireworks and drunk people. So we just read and watched a couple movies and went to bed , haha. Then at 12AM were awoken to all the fireworks and watched for a while then went back to bed.

THATS ALL!!

That's all I got for this week , I think.

BACKWARDS CULTURE TIME!!
- filipinos do NOT want to get dark. they will hold a tiny receipt of paper over their head to prevent even a little.
- they want to sit AS CLOSE as possible to the front on a bus , but in church will sit AS FAR AWAY as possibly from the podium , so that they fill the back rows but only a couple sit in the front ... awkward.
- when getting on a bus , they won't slide over but will just shift their legs a little bit so that you can uncomfortably slip by and sit in the middle.

that's all , really. I love you all! Send me lettteerrrssss I love leeetttteerrrsssss!

-Elder White!

p.s - did grant get a carabao belt?