356 days left!

okeydokey... well this weeeek.. we had a bunch of lessons, actually, we beat the sisters in  lessons this week. pretty nice feat. uhhh district meeting as usual, wednesday thursday friday and saturday as usual, im really not remembering anything that was awesome from this week. Monday, we had a district activity. it was fun. we played pass and badminton, and 4 square, i taught that to some of the people here and other missionaries and they just love it. we played chess and then ate food... really quite a boring week filled with just working and stuff. Sunday was prolly the highlight of the week. we had 6 investigators at church, not including the 4 that usually attend. so as far as investigators go, its doing awesome. we should be having a rather big baptism sometime soon. Brother Ponce will be interviewed this friday at zone interviews and hopefully the next week will be baptized. He is such a swell guy.. Ill take some pictures of us so you can see him. but other than that, it was a normal week, no dogs, no lizards, no snakes... i am going to go to the "pet store" later today... hahaha that should be fun..

 I love you tons and look forward to next week.

LOve you!!!!!

Did the dr's ask you what your diet is?  Did they tell you what to avoid?  Are you drinking enough water?  Too much soda?  I wonder if you were here if you would've gotten them too...I wonder how long it takes to accumulate one of those stones?  I wonder if it's the diet you had here before you left? 

ya i told them that i just eat rice meat and bread. they said, ok, but drink more water... they said avoid preservatives, extra salty foods ect...

Best thing this week?

sunday. attendance was high, lots of investigators, returned members... good church day.

What are you doing for thanksgiving?  but they don't really have that holiday huh?
umm... i dunnno its gonna be my first one here... i might just buy a chicken and eat him.. thats prolly the best i can get here. or the closest i can get..
no.. they dont... they have weird hollidays here... like in a few days is All souls day. its gonna be crazy... i dont know if we will be allowed to work..

363 days left! We have hit a one year mark!!!

Dear mom,

This week was zone meeting and stake conference. Tuesday, we started the day with our zone meeting. It took forever. after that, we had choir practice. My zone was the choir for an RM reunion. We sang a song called How great will be your joy. It was pretty bad... we are not great singers.. i wish i was talented with singing.... hehe  so wednesday and thursday were pretty much normal days. Thursday, we planned to visit Brother P. We got to his house and he was outside without a shirt. Probably working on his garden. anyways, he shouted at us as he saw us and it was the wierdest thing... i dont know how to describe the way of his shout... it was as if he was drunk... so my companion and i looked at each other and said, "i hope he is not drunk".... we walked up to his door and luckily for us, he was sober. he shouted cuz he said he missed us so much. we then had our lesson and talked about conference and just kinda reviewed it. then friday, we had a buch of people over at our house. almost the whole zone slept in our apartment. it was fun. one of my batch, Elder Leutze was there. his father sent him a package for his one year. we played with the balloons and streamers... we then tried to buy some banana bread but bought the wrong kind and we were kinda disappointed.. then the APs came and slept over too. it was a big party! both the APs have been my zone leaders and im pretty close with both of them. Saturday, we worked with the APs and got soaked by the rain. sunday, we had our stake conference. President andaya and his wife spoke, also the 2nd councelor from the Cebu temple presidency came. it was nice. 

Ok.... here is the bad news... Brother P. didnt show up to stake conference. He told us he had a three day all day shift for work and couldnt leave. but at his house he told us he would be coming to church. It was a really hard day. i was really really sad that he didnt come. Especially cuz President was there and ready to interview him. So on Nov 2 President is coming back up for Zone interviews and hopefully, he will be able to make that date as well.

well Ill tell you this.. This week was a real Testimony builder for me. I prayed  and prayed for help with several people in my area, and literally less than five minutes after my prayers, they were answered. Holy cow. it is so cool when your prayer is answered almost instantaneously. I know that  God DOES answer prayers. like it says in James 1:5 ask God, and he will give to all men liberally. God will answer prayers.

well i hope you have a great week. and continue in the faith.

I love you.

Christian

I have one question about the other Elder Smith...I'm pretty sure he's wearing your clothing yeah?  

Yeah he is.. we just got back from tacloban and he didnt have a change of Pday clothes

Best thing this week?

All the investigators we asked to be baptized this week, said yes!!!! so hopefully we will be having a large baptismal service in the coming weeks. WHOOOOO!!!!

day 362 Pictures galore!!

 Dear mom, 

this last week has been pretty relaxing. i spent a few days recovering so that i can fully recouperate. i feel great now.i dont know whats going on and why im getting these dumb things...but im ok now.

so really i didnt do much this last week. i went with a future missionary to complete his dental and medical stuff... we went to the dentist and had his check up and in order to complete the required parts he has to have quite a bit of work done... the total bill is around  9000 pesos. about 200 bucks... its so cheap compared to america. he is getting a full set of prostetic teeth. so he should look pretty legit after. right now is the hard part, searching for the money to pay for it. the bishop and other members are helping a little bit, but there is still a ways to go.. but we are working hard.

all the investigators are still doing great, and Brother Ponce will be interviewed next week. i sure hope he passes. He is still coming every week. we are astounded at how many investigators that are just poring in and wanting to be baptized. i love it here.

By the way, i didnt transfer, so im still here in catarman. :) we have zone meeting tomorrow, im kinda excited for that. it should be fun.

Well thats about all for this week.

Love you

Christian

Question:

I forgot to ask last week...did you get ana's package?

Yea!!!! i got it. I love it soooo much!! i wore the jersey and like a hundred people asked me to trade shirts with them!!! i love it.

I love the service questions:  so I'll ask again...Favorite service moment this week?

some guy dropped his bike and i picked it up for him.. :) hehe

How're your investigators coming along?

They are doing swell!!! we should have a largish baptism sometime soon. im super excited.

What's the plan now stan?  are you being transferred to tacloban? closer to the medical facilites?  

still here in catarman.

What did the dr's find out?  Were/are they able to "melt" the stones?

Well i peed it out in the hospital, and they kidney infection is now healed. so yea im all good now. The stone was huge!!!!!

Best thing about your companion in catarman? or if you have a new comp if you're in tacloban

ummm... he is really funny. he is kinda fruity too... he makes me laugh and is a really nice guy.

(Enjoy...It's a treat getting all these pictures from him!!! )

the food was a zone activity, its noodles with rice and fish

 the girls was at a ward activity, as soon as i pulled out my camera, everyone wanted to take a pic with me.

 The chicken is GIANT... like its the biggest chicken ive ever seen. holy cow...

 Then my socks... they all got ruined in the wash.. hehee

 This is my food stock... were Broke hehehe.

the other is us cutting the grass.

the other one is Elder Smith. he is from california. hes new in the zone.

 then we are eating sugar cane. All the penos say, "look at the americans chewing wood.

Then a little frog that i caught. in the grass

This is the frog.. just a better view.

  this is some of our zone at the Cutting grass project.

 the next one is traffic. its pretty great here. 

 The next is Lechon Baboy. or a BBq pig.. yumm.. from Bishops 2yr old daughters bday party. and the cake for her... nice huh..

day 355

soo.... this week has been kinda hectic...tuesday wednesday and thursday, we devoted a lot of time to just "tracting" we really are no good at it, mostly cuz we just started... but we have given out tons of BOMs and have lots of return appointments. it kinda funny, cuz no matter what, the hospitality of these people is grand. they let us in at almost every door. or at least hear us out. so its kind of nice and relaxed. Occasionally  we will get someone who absolutely hates god and just wants to bash us in the face with worldy garbage. such as the big bang theory... 

Friday.... i woke up and boom... i started feeling terrible again. then i started throwing up because of the pain... so i knew exactly what is was... more kidney stones... i went into the hospital at around 9am. they told me that i had an infection and giant stones. this time in my right kidney. so i just got out of the hospital today and sister and president want me to go to tacloban tomorrow... i might transfer too.. cuz ive been here for 4.5 months. so we will see where the wind blows... im ok so no worries, i will have more tests done in tacloban and actually get the stones measured. they dont have the technology for that here...hehe

On a good note, we contacted a family, and gave them the first lesson, and they all wanted to come to church..SWEET.. also we are visiting a family that has been inactive for 12 years.. they are coming back to church.. its so exciting. this area is great. i love it. Our other investigators are still doing great. 

The sisters in my district had a baptismal candidate ready for an interview. so it was set for wednesday at 10 30.. so the sisters called at 930 and said "hey, uhhh our candidate(jean) just got threatened  that if she goes to the interview, her best friend(fish face) is going to hate her..." so they tried to to call her and couldn't get a hold of her.. so they thought that she wasn't going to baptized because of this. so i just went to the church and waited for them. then while we were waiting, jean walked by, randomly and out of the blue, then we ran out and grabbed her before she could leave. then the sisters came and talked to her for like an hour. then we finally had our interview... so the girl(fish face) who was going to hate her has a crush on me... so she thought that by jean going to this interview, she would steal me away from her(fish face)... so to satans dismay, she was baptized on saturday. Hooray Team LDS

 

Well thats about it for this week. ill keep you updated on conditions and hud.. I love you. 

Love Christian 

Questions:

Did you get to watch any of  the sessions?  Or the better question is when do you get to watch them?  

we get to watch them this weekend.

Did you get any letters from any little people?  Like the Bayless'?

Not yet...

Did you get that ipod thingy?

Ya its really cool!!

Favorite service moment this week...

uhhmmmm... im helping people here in my ward fill out there mission papers and get all the dental  and medical stuff taken care of! its fun! 

Had any weird food yet?

i ate pancit canton with liver. like ramen noodles with no soup. LIVER IS GROSSSSS!!!!

Ana I forgot to ask him about the package....sorry 

day 348

Hello folks of P-town. or anywhere else you are.

This week was pretty cool. on tuesday we went to tacloban for Zone Conference. it sucked. i hate the vans now... i almost puked like 199 times. so we got to tacloban and i just felt sick all day. then wednesday was no different. i was feeling car sick all day. then it was time to go home. wednesday night we left at 7pm and took the bus this time. SO MUCH BETTER!!!!! we got home at 2am but i felt great! i dont care that its longer, i just care that i dont get sick... it was basically like a school bus but Ghetto-er... then thursday we collected pictures from all the RMs in our area for a fireside on the 19th. then friday we worked and got some referrals and contacted them. one is a lesbian(tomboy in pilipino) and one is a madre... she is like a nun... she went to italy for 5 years for her study and what not. but she gave that up and has been coming to church. its great.  Brother P. is still doing great. he is awesome...

So we are moving...we are waiting approval on our new apartment, but we should be able to leave later today or tomorrow. Our apt. now is awful. the water and electric bills are soooooo expensive... like 25 bucks!!! hahaha that's sooo expensive here. haha... so we cant afford to live here... we found a new home with free water but we still pay electric. also its a lot nicer place too. 

Sunday we had 4 investigators at church. its awesome... also we visited a sister who is in active. she is a member but her late husband wasn't  she is only about 30 and has 3 kids. she told us that she keeps seeing her husband even though he is dead... like little visions.. we told her that she needs to do his temple work. she was like... You're right elders... so she is going to start coming to church and preparing for the temple trip.

also, we had a family who has been inactive come to church yesterday cuz the wife woke up and had a scary dream and said, we're going to church tomorrow. so they did their laundry at 3 in the morning so they could make it on time. it was really cool.

today i'm getting a haircut.

that's about it for this week in the Pines...

Love you

Christian

Adi says hi.  He is chewing a new bone that dad got him yesterday.

Hello back!

Questions:

Congratulations on feeling your first earthquake, I don't know if I've ever felt one or if I have just tiny tremors from a far away city.  What was the number?  do you know?

it was so small.. not over a 3 for sure...

You said that you had a spicy tuna fish sandwich.  How do you spice it up?

Chili corned tuna mom... hot tuna in a can :)  (Iuhh I don't get it)

I guess you got Ana's package?

Nope... it wasnt there.... maybe tomorrow or wednesday cuz the ZLs went to tacloban for ZLC

Did you ever buy anything with your kwarta?

Im going to on Wednesday. i was gonna buy it today, but they sold it... its a little ipod thing... its pretty cool

Did I say happy birthday correctly in my last email?  Malipayon Adlawan

.....they really dont have "happy birthday" in this language... they just say happy birthday... that is just a direct translation of "happy day of birth"... 

Did you get a cake? or brownies? or candles? or anything?  

Nope...OH... elder ostler bought ice cream after district meeting... it was swell.