Last email

Hi family!

It's Monday and we just got back from a last zone activity so that's why I'm on pretty late. I only have a few minutes before we've got to run , but a couple of significant things happened in the past week that I want to share before I forget. 

..it's actually Tuesday now. I'm in the office about to get interviewed and then take off for Manila. Elder Tolman called us yesterday while we were emailing and said he needed to get a haircut so I had to go with him to get one as well and we didn't have time to email again , so now is the only time I have. So I've got to be pretty quick. 

So this week was pretty normal and fast. Went on my last exchanges with Asingan , and then on Thursday Elder Hyatt got called to be the new Assistant to the President! We got a call from President asking us to head to the office and we had a quick talk with us , explained a few things , and then called Elder Hyatt to take Elder Tolman's spot. So from there we ran to San Manuel and picked up Elder Dela Cruz who became my new and last companion! He's a really good missionary and I've known him for a while. So I've had the opportunity to work with him over the past few days and show him his new area and things he has to do as a zone leader. Friday we got a temporary addition to our companionship , which maybe I'll talk more about in person , but it was really special for me and a really good ending to both of our missions [well his isn't over just yet]. And Friday night we taught an amazing lesson to the Andar family and extended baptismal dates. They accepted with excitement and look forward to their baptisms. A job is keeping one of them from attending , which hurts everyone else , but her faith is strong enough to do what's right. The Spirit was really strong right from the beginning when we sang and Brother and Sister Tolentino came with us. Saturday we had a really short day as a baptism at 5 cut in through almost all of the work , but it was a really nice service and we were happy to have a baptism. Elder Hyatt baptized and I got to be part of her confirmation on Sunday. Sunday's church was really nice as well , but the possibly one of the strangest things of my mission happened later that night. 

Our first appointment that we had planned was the Garcia family. We had met Brother Garcia as we were walking one day contacting some less-actives. We asked him for directions to someone who supposedly lived nearby , and partially drunk , he stated that he was a member. [This was last week] So me and Elder Hyatt went back to them and we met brother , his mom , and his two kids. Brother kept blurting out random doctrines about the church and what not , and to be honest we were pretty astounded at how much he still remembered despite being about 20 years inactive. His mom was very against the church at this point , despite being active back in the day , and his two kids were so incredibly shy and only came in after he sternly told them to. The oldest is Christopher - 21 and then Christina - 13. They were both , again , super shy and wouldn't say very much. Anyways that lesson was pretty horrible because of the mother and brother blurting out random things every two seconds and ruining any flow we could get going ... so we left without much hope. But we did learn that neither of the kids were members and Christopher mentioned he was taught in the past. So okay - once more fast forward to last Sunday. I had just thought I would more or less show Elder Dela Cruz their house , seeing as they're members and part-members , and maybe we'd be able to teach. So we luckily find it again Sunday night and Christopher surprisingly answers the door. He then immediately tells us to come in , so we're like ookkayy .. and enter. He goes and gets his sister immediately and they sit down in front of us. We ask him repeatedly if his dad is home and finally he says he's drunk. Then in stumbles Brother Garcia ... indeed , drunk. And rambles on for about 10 minutes asking us many times who we were and stating how he was a member. After he finally leaves I ask Christopher if he had any questions before we started and he instantly pulls out a Bible and Book of Mormon , puts them side by side , and asks "which of these is the most correct book on earth" . So we realized that this was going to be a bit of a different lesson we asked if we could start with prayer. After the prayer we ask Christopher where his question was coming from and he completely opens up. He tells us how he was taught really in depth by sister missionaries back in 2009 and how he almost got baptized. He said he had a hard time accepting the Book of Mormon back then ... and then in stumbles brother again. Another 8 minute rambling and then he leaves. It ruined a bit of the mood , but then Christopher picked up from where he left off. And then it got ... weird .... Brother then stumbles in again , only like 3 minutes after the left before. Now remember , he is completely completely drunk. This time he's holding a kitten by the neck and body and then attempts to wring it's neck! Luckily the thing jumped free from him somehow but it was screaming. He then enters the room and by the impression in his shirt it's obvious there's something he's stunk down the front side of his pants ... after 3 or 4 minutes of rambling he leans back and it becomes obvious that there was a gun sticking out of the front of his pants. The three of us kind of just got silent as the feeling in the room completely changed and now the feeling of uh... what do we do comes over us. He messes with Elder Dela Cruz and our companion a bit , and then won't leave. Keeps rambling on and all the while staring at us. But eventually he does leave. So this was the decision ... to leave or to stay. So we just kind of look at each other and decide to stay. We invite Christopher to continue where he left us and he makes the remark "I think there's a Spirit that doesn't want you to teach." But we still asked him to continue and this is where everything changed - he went in depth telling us about how he was taught and how when the sisters left and he went to his church and knelt down and prayed. After the prayer of him asking over and over again if the things they taught were true he came to the feeling that if the missionaries ever came back he would accept what they were teaching. But they never did. So he said he spent 2010 and 2011 regretting not acting on what they were teaching and he missed the church and going to church and what not. So he said he was thinking about the church a lot lately and then he was so surprised to see me and Elder Hyatt there last week that he didn't know what to say. So ... in the end , Brother Garcia never came back into the room and we had a solid 30 minute lesson with him , and somewhat his sister , about the Book of Mormon and him promising to continue studying and listening. 

So , that was one of the strangest and really amazing experiences of my mission. Coming only two days before I go home. It's amazing how to the Lord will use you to find the elect and what you'll be put through in order to teach the message. 

Yesterday , we had an awesome zone activity in which we went hiking up near some falls and ate what's called "Budal Budal Fight" which is rice and ulam divided into three teams and you eat it on banana leaves with your hands. First time to finish wins. No one was able to finish all the food but me and Elder Nieman and Velasco and Harrison were able to eat for the longest , ha. Anyways that was really fun and we ended the day with another amazing lesson with the Andar family about the Atonement and it's motivational powers. A really great last lesson for my mission.

So this is the testimony I'd like to leave , seeing as my time is about up. I'm so incredibly grateful for the two years I've been given to serve here in the Philippines. I don't know what I was thinking before I left , but there is no way I could have expected any of this to happen. I'm so grateful for the Atonement , the First Vision , the Book of Mormon ... all pillars of my testimony. I know the Church is true and I now understand what that means. Thank you , Mom and Dad , for getting me on a mission and helping me to serve. For all the motivation and support. I love the Filipino people and know this call was inspired of God. And I know from two years of personal experience that any single person with any slight desire to know if this work and church and Gospel is true only has to read a book and ask in prayer if it is. The Spirit is real. It will bear testimony. 

I love you all and can't wait to see all of you again. 

Love,

-Elder White

Family email

Family!! 

Second to last email .. weird. Sorry I didn't email yesterday , I was at the career workshop all day so I didn't get a chance to email. Basically we had to wake up at 6 , get ready , go pick up the sisters , drop Sister Urbano off with Urdaneta 2 sisters , then Elder Mayes , Hyatt , Nieman , and Elix dropped me and Elder Tolman and Sister Garnace off in Dagupan for the workshop. It's this really nice 4th floor of a building that's called the ERC [I'm pretty sure we have them in the states as well] .. anyways we basically sat for 8 - 9 hours [with a 1 hr lunch break] learning how to make "power statements" and "me statements" and talking about ourselves and how to present ourselves for interviews and what now. I'm not going to say it wasn't helpful .. but having said that ... a very big waste of time. Then again I might just draw upon that vast wealth of knowledge when I'm interviewing to be a billionaire.

So that was my monday. After that we took a bus home and talked about how weird it'll be to board that same bus again in a week. I like my batch a lot and it's always so fun to see them [oh yeah - that career workshop was for all the leaving batch , so there's 15 of us] After we got home the 4 of us [me , Elder Mayes , Hyatt , and Tolman] ran to a family home evening in which they fed us one of my favorite ulams that I'll be cooking a lot when I get home called 'Bicol Express' . After that we squeezed in one more lesson before 9. Now I'm here at the office emailing because my companion has already emailed and so I get to use the email computers.

QUESTIONS NOW:

1.  Do you want me to buy you some garments before you come home?  I don't know if they sell them at the Manila temple, but if they do they probably don't carry all the same selections of fabric because it's always hot there.  If you want me to buy you some I need the size for your bottoms.  I assume you wear a large top.  But there are quite a few fabric options so maybe you'd rather wait and get some when you're home and you can decide.  Let me know...

 - They have plenty of garments here in Manila we can buy. 1 Pair of garments is about ... 60 - 70 cents. So depends on you guys , what you'd rather do. We can load up on like 10 pairs here or just buy them back home. If you want to buy them back home my waste is a SHORT - MEDIUM and I like the mesh bottoms. The top I wear a dri lux or cotton and I'm a medium. 

2.  Do you want me to buy you a pair of jeans because I don't think you have many clothes left here.  Don't stress because you will get my credit card and be able to shop as soon as you get home but I thought you might want one pair to put on.  I know it probably won't be the exact style you want but one pair?  What size?

 - Um .. no - if we want we can buy a pair here , everything is a lot cheaper! yay!

3.  I got an email back from Cody's mom early in the week and she said that she couldn't think about housing yet because Cody was coming home "tomorrow"  -- so he's just home this past week.  I started filling out your application but I need Cody's birthdate to put him down as a roommate for you.  She said in her email that she didn't know what track he had yet.  I'll get in touch with her again tomorrow and hopefully she or Cody will respond.  When I talked to the person at The Ridge Apt's they said they still had quite a lot of rooms available so I haven't been too worried.  If I don't hear back from her this week I'm going to go ahead and sign you up without Cody because I don't want to leave town not having done that.  

- I don't think this was a question.

4.  I heard from a friend today at Stake Conference that transferring to BYU Provo has just gotten much easier (apparently it was nearly impossible before) because of the new mission ages and the gap it's leaving.  Good news for you.  Get A's this next semester and you should probably be able to get in.

- Yay!

5.  You can leave your big suitcases in Urdaneta when you leave for the temple because we will be back on Thurs to meet your mission president and Sis Engels.  Can you please tell them that we are leaving Manila on Thur about 9 am and will go to Urdaneta.  Hopefully we will be able to meet them.  After that you can take us to wherever you want.  We have hotel reservations in Baguio for Thurs, Fri and Sat night and will go wherever you want to those days.  I have a little something for the Monahan's and for the Engels'.  Sis Engels has been so wonderful in her communications to me -- 

 - Okay - I won't tell them. They're actually standing right next to me.

6.  Make sure you get all the details for where (I know the temple but where) and when we meet you.  I can't believe I'm even writing about this.......

- Um I'll write again next Monday , but I'm thinking about 3 or 4ish Manila Time we'd meet up on the temple grounds. It's pretty small , so it'll be easy. Plan for 3 , though , I guess.

7.  Was there anything you wanted me to do for you?

 - Nothing! Just bring that Infinite Atonement [with my name on it :) !] besides that I'll just see you in a week.

So I've actually gotta get going pretty quick here because I shouldn't be on here for that long. My companion is just hanging out and we still have to go grocery shopping , but it's been ... a fast ... week. As always. We've got a baptism this saturday , which we're excited for and we had an amazing day last Sunday , actually , which I guess I'll talk about. 

So here in Urdaneta the time blocks are backwards , so Elders Quorum is first , then Sunday School , then Sacrament. So after Sunday School all we had was 2 investigators and a less active that we had expected to come out of a ton. So we were a bit bummed , but we go outside to wait for the investigators that we prayed would be coming. Elder Hyatt then comes up and goes did you know that Sister Gascon is here? We were so stoked because their family is awesome but they live super far away from the church and we didn't honestly expect any of them to come. But sister came and that's a huge step for the rest of them to return! So then I'm waiting outside for a few minutes as sacrament is about to start. So I kind of just bowed my head and said a silent prayer hoping they would come. Elder Hyatt then walks out and we go inside , kind of upset all the ones we had hoped for didn't come. As we walk in we then see one of our investigators sitting down on the back pew! There was Sister Ramirez! hahaha. We didn't even see her slip in , she must have attended relief society and sunday school and we just didn't see her , she just looked like a member. So we sit down next to her [she's this pretty wealthy woman from Canada that we met on the street and we didn't think she was very interested but it was really inspired how we met her and she came to general conference last week! and this week again!] So as we were singing the opening hymn our other three investigators came in ! Elder Hyatt got up and sat next to them during the meeting and I sat next to Sister Ramirez. It was just such a funny experience because I felt like I was sitting next to you , Mom! She's this like upper - 40s and really quiet and like I said .. kind of wealthy .. and it was so funny just sharing a hymn book and singing like she was any other member. At the end of the meeting she just stands up and says 'thank you' and leaves. I couldn't hardly catch her. But we expect big things from her. So that was the little miracle I saw last sunday. It was really awesome to have 6 investigators there and progressing. This area has been really good , though really fast.

So I think that's all I have time to write about for this week. The rest will have to wait for questions in person. I love you all , look forward to writing again next monday and look forward to seeing you all in my country!!

Hope you're up for a lot of food!!!

Love you all,

-Elder Austin White

hey

Heyo ...

So I've got to be relatively quick here but we've had another super fast week. Time is ticking and I don't have much left but I love where I am and am enjoying the work here. A lot of stuff is progressing really fast here in Urdaneta and we've seen tons of little miracles in the last month here. A few cool things that happened this week is last Wednesday Bro. Tolentino [I recent convert that's amazing and just understands the church] came and went with us to an appointment with these few sisters that we're teaching. They're all above 25 and have tons of questions. They've been taught strong doctrine in other churches so often ask a lot of doctrinal questions and don't always accept our explanations. So it was amazing having Bro. Tolentino there because they understood him so well because he comes from a different church , even the church they're in. So the next day we had a church tour and Brother Tolentino couldn't confirm if he could come or not and we weren't sure if the investigators would come. But .. exactly at 4 there the investigators were , but no brother tolentino. So we go in and start the tour and within minutes he shows up. He was such an important addition to the tour and it went amazing. The Spirit was super strong in the Sacrament Hall and we taught them a small lesson in there in which everything was super peaceful and they felt amazing. Lastly we showed them the family history center and they were stoked to use it.

Another cool thing that happened is that me and Elder Hyatt contacted this lady on the street a couple weeks ago. We got to talking for a few minutes and turns out she had just gotten back from Canada that morning! [no coincidences] so we gave her a Book of Mormon and said we'd come back. Elder Hyatt went back on exchanges with Elder Nieman and it was an okay lesson they said. Then we went back again last Saturday and had a pretty good lesson about the BoM. We invited them to church , but they didn't seem too interested [very filipino wealthy , though]. So yesterday as we're greeting members from all over the stake for general conference we were shocked to see these two ladies and a couple kids walk in! They actually came and watched the first sunday session of conference. Unfortunately I don't know how good their experience was seeing as it was in english , and kind of loud at parts... but hopefully they felt the Spirit.

Conference was amazing and I personally liked the Saturday session more than Sunday , but Elder Holland's talk was ... Elder Holland , amazing. The highlight talk of Sunday. I'm going to relisten to President Packer's because I couldn't hear it that well , but he's always my favorite speaker. Also I have a feeling he'll probably pass away before the next conference. Other awesome talks were Elder Christopherson , Elder Oaks , President Uchtdorf , Eyring ... there were a lot. But we were surprised , but kind of understand , that Elder Oakes was given so much time to talk. [Voting time is pretty close..]

Also! I didn't know that Brother Gay is now a 70. That's amazing. [that is him right ... I haven't seen him in a long time but he mentioned he was a mission president in Africa. So that kind of confirmed it for me] Anyways his talk was really good as well.

Besides all that I'm excited to see you all , members are excited to meet you , and I still love the Philippines. Deciding a major has become a lot easier over the past two years but I'm still thinking.

Also I got to go back to Binalonan on exchanges last Friday which was super fun.

Also - Mom - My signing up for classes will either start Nov. 5 or Nov. 16 , looking through the website I got two different answers.

LOVE YOU ALL

BYE!

ako ay pinoy

Magandang hapon po sa aking pamilya!

Are you boning up on your tagalog? I hope so. You'll be here soon enough. I hope all plans will work out , but no matter what happens it'll be fine. 

I've had a pretty quick week and time is only going faster. We find find find and try and teach teach teach. Pretty much a regular missionary life. But there have been a few cool highlights this week. 

First off we're working with this recent convert family that's so super strong. They're only about a year old in the church but they're so excited to go to the temple , despite having almost no money to do so. They're faith is just strong enough to pay the pamasahe [transportation money]. So it's been a lot of fun teaching them and helping them , and the husband who is still really young is giving us referrals like crazy. He's very very excited to share the Gospel. So that was our Monday and Thursday night work.

Tuesday ... was Zone Interviews. That was pretty awesome. Me and Elder Hyatt gave our workshop about Gospel Studies and studies for our investigators and it went really well. The zone got a lot out of it and we're excited to see some changes in their studies. We often make the mistake , as missionaries , in just reading the scriptures and what not in our personal studies and sometimes companion studies and not studying for those we're teaching later that day. So that was our focus to have more investigator-focused and important studies. It's impacted our lessons and we're excited for the zone. 

Sorry this email is kind of distracted ... I'm emailing you guys ... andddd watching this Press Conference with Elder Holland and Nelson about the AGE CHANGING FOR MISSIONARIES! We saw this yesterday on one of the office computers but we were freaking out , haha. That's so so awesome. So many more sisters are going to serve and they are giants in the work! We're really excited. In our zone , alone , the two sister companionships are the hardest working and pump out strong converts. Missionary work needs so many more sisters. Not to mention it will foster generations of really firm families as so many more RMs will be marrying. Again .. stoked.

So yeah , besides the zone interviews we then - the very next day - gave two more workshops to the zone about stuff we had learned from the Zone Leaders Council meeting. So we basically had to take the info they taught and teach it in our own way. We gave one workshop to a district leader and we took two. Our first one was okay , but the second one was amazing. The revelation hit us the night before between 10 and midnight. We were just running on adrenalyne the next morning , seeing as we were lacking sleep , but it turned out so so good. The topic was Becoming a Disciple and there was an insanely strong spirit in the room and we talked about stuff , read stuff , recited stuff , did stuff. All in all we felt super close as a zone and a couple missionaries started crying , ha. It was just a really special moment in the mission and we know we'll see some outward and inward affects soon. 

Other than that it's just been a really fast-paced week that I don't have too much time to write about. 

So I think that'll suffice for this week. 

I'm still doing really good and try not to think about the end too much , but have accepted it at this point. All there is , is to keep working up until the last minute. It's been quite and a journey and I still have a little road to go.

Thanks for everything , love you all.

-Elder White

p.s- please give me a shout if you've gotten a letter [outside the family]

You've got mail

I'm watching some video about something called a "no cussing club" ... I really don't like the word "cuss" haha , it's pretty obnoxious to me. Anyways - how are you all doing?! I'm doing pretty good. Woah .. apparently this kid got death threats and bomb threats because he doesn't want people to swear .. hahah.

Okay .. so I've had a pretty good week. Nothing too too exciting , but I'll see what I can get out of it. I'll be honest though , these videos are distracting.
We've had a week of firsts , seeing as we've had to contact so so many people. It was our first week in our new area and we've had a really awesome few days. We've met some people that want to be baptized already , some that really do not , and a loottt of less actives. I've realized lately that it's a really big blessing that I was given a passion for less active work , because more and more I keep realizing that there are a lot of elders that do not really care for teaching less actives. It's really only investigators that they focus on. But I really do love teaching all these people that haven't been to church in a really long time , and though we get rejected and hid from from about 80 - 90% it's still so much fun when you teach a family that actually wants to come back. It's the same feeling as an investigator but instead you can be a bit more bold to them because they already know what it is they need to be doing. So we've contacted about 16 new families this week of less actives in our area and trying to weed out the ones that don't really like us , haha. Sometimes you get a part of the area that all of the people and tindahans and neighbors are super nice and helpful ... other times you get areas that are pretty "bastos" haha or not very accepting. But you power through nonetheless. It's been a lot of fun living in the big house , as well. Such a different experience .. I often forget what the Philippines is like when inside the house because it is so super nice. It kind of has to be , though , because it's where all the new missionaries stay their first couple nights when arriving to the Philippines. Unfortunately I won't get to see any of them because I'll be gone by then.
So the little different things that have happened this week... I actually got to go on exchanges with Elder Mayes this past Tuesday so that was a lot of fun working with him for a day. He's a really good missionary but truly shines more in training and workshops than he does in lessons. He's a born leader. Really good characteristics. Other than that we really just walk around a ton trying to find people on our ward directory list. We walked about 4 or 5 miles the other day [wearing horrible horrible rubber shoes..] out into this nowhere land in order to find this woman ... turns out she's in the opposite side the Philippines. Ha , at least we know now. That's kind of what we do , just track them down and try and get them to trust us so that we can teach them and reconvert to the church. Again , I really love teaching these people and find them so much fun to be around. There's a lot of things to complain about about the country but there's no use in it. Missionaries complain a lot about things they can't change and we really shouldn't ... it's so much more enjoyable just seeing the country and people act as they do and loving them for it.
We had the opportunity , also , of having ZLC this past Thursday and that was pretty awesome. The Assistants and President Monahan gave good workshops. President's especially , being on discipleship , was really good. We'll be relaying that information to our zone on Wednesday .. so it's been difficult trying to prepare for those workshops. Not to mention our workshop tomorrow that we present at the zone interviews. We've had some good experiences , though , in our preparation so we're excited to give them.
But me and Elder Hyatt had a talk after ZLC about the being a disciple workshop of President and it's been his message since he's gotten here. To really convert ourselves to a higher plain. It's fed perfectly into this personal study chain I've been following now for about a month that I'll write about eventually once I have it perfected. I love the scriptures , though , and have found some amazing stuff when you know what you're looking for. When your mind is focused on a certain thing you find mountains of scriptures that support your thought. Revelation.

Besides all that we've been good and I'm getting healthy! We've been running like crazy [because my love handles won't lose themselves!] so I want to get rid of some of my stomach and get my discipline back before heading home. Whiiich is still a long ways a way. A lot can happen in a month. BUT! I am excited to see you all ... I'll admit. Unfortunately I'm not quite ready , yet , to come home.

Mom: Nothing yet about my track and I wish you had booked the Nauvoo House despite not knowing ... either way I would have headed out there! :( I wouldn't have stayed home even if I hadn't been accepted into that track. But whatever , we'll figure something out. Thanks , still , for all you're doing. And yeah , that's plenty of time to see my areas. You guys are bahala for the plans. I just want to go to church in Baguio on Sunday and maybe be in Urdaneta the saturday before. But we can work all that out , it doesn't seem too difficult.

Trevor: don't wear my clothes ...

That's all... bye!
-Elder White

p.s- please email me if you've received letters as of late! salamat