day 327

This week in the pines.

I gave my first District training. It was legit. i loved it. It was bout Jesus and why he is our chosen saviour and all that great stuff.

work is continuing as usual. nothing really amazing or really horrible.. I went on splits with Elder Ostrich. (thats what all the members call him.) We had so much fun. My mission is changing again. instead of the rescue mission, we are going back to good old knockin doors.(well in my case, yellin at em) :) i dont remember if i told you, but we dont knock on any doors. they would break. we just stand outside and say "Good, Good" or in waray "Maupay" haha its funny.... we have a baptism this week. Her name is C.. she is 12. she is pretty darn cool. she asked me to baptize her so it should be fun.

Brother P. is still doing stellar. he is coming to church every week. He needs to be interviewed by President, but other than that, he is on his way to being baptized. we had a ward home teaching day on saturday. it worked. who knew, that if you do your home teaching, People will come to church... we had two huge families that we (the missionaries) have been working with forever come to church. it was really nice.

well thats about it. hope you have a great week.

Love you

Christian

Questions:

How was your first district lesson?  It was on Jesus?  like what?

up there

How often do you give those lessons?

i will give em every district meeting, so like every tuesday.

How long does it take you to cut grass with knives and machetes?  All day?

hmmm.. well if you know how to do it, half a day. but us... all day. :)

Do you plan to do service...what do you call it...CSP...every week? or multiple times a week?

we are told to try to get two service projects a month. we had planned this last one, but not really any others.

Jens wondered about the earthquake if there was any damage to clean up?  

i emailed him bout that.

And I wondered if you didn't have any residual damage with a tsunami...where did the earthquake move? just in the ocean?  won't it do some damage sometime else? or maybe the next earthquake will be worser...am I making any sense?

i dont know any of the specifics, i dont get to watch tv... haha... oh.. speaking of tv. a lot of the members are discussing mit romney and the other monkey guy. its kinda fun to stay semi updated on that...

How do you travel to Tacloban? How long does it take you?

we travel via van service. it takes about 6 hours... forever long

day 320 Transfer Week!

this week was a welcomed week.(i dont know if thats a word but oh well.) I was looking forward for this week for  the 6 weeks prior. ha. i endured. whoo! well we got transfer news on wednesday and when i saw that he was transfering and i was staying, i had a party in my brain. :) (I laughed outloud when I read this)I love this area. i love it here so much. i love the people. Brother P. is still doing so great, he came to church again. im so excited for him. so we packed on wednesday and left thursday morning for the transfer meeting in tacloban. I wouldnt have had to go had i not been called as a DISTRICT LEADER!!!!!! whooooo! hehehe I had some trainings in tacloban so i had to accompany him. i love it. i cant wait to give my training tomorrow. Its about Jesus. \

     so after the meetings, we traveled back to catarman, and as we were about an hour or two outside of catarman, the ZLs texted us asking if there were any injuries from the earthquake. we were driving during the quake so i didnt even get to feel it! i was kinda dissapointed cuz it was a huge one!!! elder ostler told me about it. so we got to catarman and everyone was evacuating to the mountains and higher ground. we dropped the sisters off and there was a police man who told us that the tsunami warning had been called off. so we just went home. we werent scared cuz we live on the second floor... but the whole thing was pretty cool. no damage or anything to any of the buildings. so saturday we had a CSP. it was planned from the week before. we just cut grass. lots of it. with knives and machetes. ha so primitive.

well that was about it for this week.

Love you.

Christian

Querstions:

Ok...drumrolll...who is your new companion?  Where is he from?  How long has he been out on the mission?

Ok. new Comp: Elder Villanueva. he is from mendanao. he is from an area where there are no white missionaries. they all get kidnapped. He speaks Ilongo. He also knows Cebuano and tagalog. He doesnt know waray though. so im helping him with that. he is only 4 months into the mission so hes pretty new still.

Are you training? is it harder than you thought?

nope

did you (the mission...pres. andaya) get calls or wonderings from moms in the states wondering about their missionaries? or is it standard to email in a case like this every time?

im not sure what happened. the zls just texted us and told us that president wanted us to email our families letting them know we are ok.

who has been your fav companion so far?  

I love elder Mahoni.

What do you like about your new one?

He is obedient. he cleans the apartment. he is nice.

Have you been in a primary there?  what do they do?  sing songs?  Record me a song  

i have  not been to a primary yet. they sing in english here.

day 318 update on Christian

Dear Mother, i dont know if you know or not, but there has been a 7.7 magnitude earthquake here in catarman and the surrounding areas. I would just like to inform you that i am ok. There was no damage around us. Actually, i wasnt even here when it happened. we were traveling back from Tacloban. There was a tsunami warning last night, but it has been called off. there was no after effect from the earthquake. President Andaya just wanted us to let you know that we are ok. If anything else major happens between now and monday, im sure ill let you know.

I love you

day 313

..Hello, this is the mom...I've started school...which means I'm gone from 6-4 on Mondays...it pains me too to not read their emails first thing Monday morning...  I will still post on Mondays, just not super early.

... on saturday we met with brother P. im not sure if i have told you about him or not but ill tell you again. He used to be a captain in the NPA(New peoples army) he was a cold blood killer. he has one arm, he is a man of large stature and he looks  very threatening. this was the second lesson ive had with him. The elders have been working with him for about a year and he has yet to go to church. but the last lesson i had with him i just felt the spirit soooooooooooooooooooo strong. like the strongest on my mission during a lesson. We had no plan going in to the lesson. i was freaking out.. so i just started asking him questions. i opened up my scriptures and turned to a scripture in 3n 9: 13 and 14 i think. Holy cow... that was the spirit.. this was like another world. it was sooo cool. We talked about how Jesus can heal you if you come unto him. He then said, wow, this scripture really helps me see that all my problems can be solved through Jesus, or The Church. Its like Jesus is the doctor and he is giving me medicine. But... the medicine will only work IF you take it. Fetch mom. SO COOL. He then said "We are going to Church tomorrow." On sunday, HE CAME TO CHURCH!!! We had a lesson in Gospel essencials that just was amazing.He told us that on saturday, he was laying on his bed looking up to heaven, and he said: "God Help me with my life, i have nothing. Not 5 seconds later, the missionaries showed up on my doorstep."   So cool. Especially to know that God had answered his prayers with me, not even knowing that i was going to be a part of this mans life. We are going back on tuesday. i cant wait.

Ok and as far as transfers go, we will get news on wednesday. It was a big joke by the sisters that we would get news today... hahaha silly sisters. Oh... speaking of sisters, we moved them out of their appartment on friday morning. it was fun.

well thats about it for this one. i love you mom. and family. and friends. and dog. i also miss the cold. its to hot here. always. not a break from the heat. im sitting in a room with a/c....... sweating... sad....

Questions:

And also..you said that you didn't have a new pictures to send me..I'll take some old pictures then.  So are you saying that on your camera right now, you have sent me everything you have taken?  that's not very many pictures that you've taken.  did you take any in the hospital?  nate wants wild dogs? 

ha im sorry. im a slacker on pix... i have some i will get them to you. this internetshop doesnt allow me to use the usb.

Your hair looks so nice all the time...who cuts it?  A member or some business?

uhh... i just walk around down and find the cheapest place. and then i cut it. :)

How long has/had Elder Theobald been in Catarman?  Do you think that he's ready for a transfer too?

he has been here for 6 months. Too long.

day 306

so this week, its one week closer to transfer day.this week we had two CSPs. Community service project. It was nice to work outside breaking stuff and building stuff. Our first one was clearing a tree of a member. They had overhanging branches over their house and they were scraping the roof everytime the wind blew. so we used a machete to cut them down. it was really kinda just wingin it. it was still fun. the next one was building a house... or just putting up walls. i just nailed peices of plywood to the create the ceiling. got a few blisters from that. it was super fun to use a  hammer.  Other than that nothing really memorable stood out to me this week.

Im ready for my companion to transfer. Elder Ostler told me that he would be transfering. so at least i will get a new comp.  i have lots of plans for this area. tons of ideas that i can apply once he is gone...The APs asked if i am ready for a leadership position, so i think i might just take over the DL position here in catarman. My other idea is that because ive been to tacloban so much this last transfer, president might move me closer to tacloban. Im not sure.. its not too clear. we will get transfer news on monday, so hopefully it will be before i email you so you can know!

 

We have been working out in a gym here with one of the members who was runner up to mr philipines... so he knows what he is doing. HOLY COW IM SOOOOO  SORE!!! we work out every three days.. or at least try to if time will permit. im gonna be buff :)

\

we also had an awesome pday today. we had a zone activity. We played Soccer, bball and ping pong. it was baller. 

well thats about it. i dont have any new pics for you. Next week we are invited to a fireside of Quintin L Cook next week. well i love you

Love Christian

Questions:

Tyler said that he thought your itouch might be lost and we're thinking of sending another/different device to you.  Would you know where it is? or where to look for it?  And I just barely sent your package a couple days before you had asked about your itouch...sorry bout that.  I also just bought a bunch of thumb drives, if you'd like a brand new one without any virus' on it with all your music on that.

eh,, one with a screen and a speaker would be the absolute best. even if its a smaller one. but ya...

Ok picture questions:

sooo cool.  I thought that the whole family was getting baptized (minus the dad) so the two older girls, the mom and the little boy.  Did your companion baptize them? before or are they going later?  I thought maybe they would do the whole family together in ocean, but just those two did huh?  

the two girls are already members. it was just the dad mom and boy that werent...

And who are the other people there?  Are they friends of theirs?  Members?  Is the dad there?  Is the other gentleman there to be the other witness? so he is a member?

they are all members. dad was not there.

It also seems like Pino people don't like to smile much?  Is that the case?  Are they happy that they got baptized?  hehe  

Of course they are happy,... just not smiling people for pictures.

You mentioned that you had another brown out.  How often would you say that you had those?  And when you say everyone...does that mean just on your island? or all of philippines?

we have brown outs here maybe twice a week. its just catarman and surrounding areas.

One time I asked how you were coming along with the languages...I actually meant...which languages are you comfortable conversing in?  

yes, in both languages. more so in cebuano, cuz ive been longer, but im fine in both. im studying tagalog right now. there is no waray book of mormon, so we use the tagalog one.

How was your kidney stone..did it pass yet?  How did you mitigate your pain?  

well i havent had any pain, i think it might have passed sneakily, or just without me noticing. it was prolly lots smaller than the first. or the meds melted it. im still taking meds. for three months....

Best food this week? 

potatoes and velveeta :) but pino food, Lechon manock. Fried Chicken. the whole thing.. they just chop it up and you just dig in with your hands. great times.

day 299

Hey folks. well this week wasnt anything special. really nothing exciting happened. English is getting harder and harder. ugh... oh... here is one thing that was kinda cool. We went to a little culture thing put on by the high school. it really wasnt anything cultural, but it had some debates in tagalog, some dances to justin boober music, and some little around the world fashion show.

we have an investigator that is doing really well. she is 12. she is super bright and awesome. she should be baptized on sep 14. hopefully she can make it with out any problems.

We still need to talk to (the dad) and see if he is still interested in becoming a member. its sad that his whole family are members and he isnt.

I got your package! it was awesome. We made mac n cheese yesterday for lunch. holy crap. that was good!!! all the licorice is gone, as well as the jerky.yum. thanks :) 

By the way, were you able to find my Ipod touch at all??? 

well i love you have a great week!!!
LOve Christian
 
well thats about it for this week. ill send some photos now. so adios and have a happy day.

Questions:

Was the ocean water warm?  Is it salted?  (is that a dumb question? are all oceans salted?)  What if you didn't baptize in the ocean?  Where would you do it?  Are there fonts in your church?

OH man... the water was sooo warm!!! it was saltly.:) uh... well we normally would do it in the church cuz there is a font, but it wasnt working.. if the ocean wasnt an option, we would prolly go to bobon, the next closest area to ours. they have a font.... well actually, the brown out was for everyone, so... it would have had to be done in the ocean, or the next day.

Do you have any questions about any Olympic event?  We didn't really see any pinos get a medal...but we did see them walk in the parade.  I think there were like 11 athletes.

i got to see a few things... some diving, and some of the womens soccer game, it was the japan game. i saw just a few seconds of it.

How're you feeling?  Did the last stone pass?  Are you keeping them? Getting them analyzed?  so you know what to stay away from?  You shouldn't have anymore for awhile now...at least until you get home (isn't that a fun thought?)

im feeling fine, i think the second stone is making its way out now, cuz its starting to hurt when i pee...they get lost in the toilet. i dont have a net or anything to catch them... we are in the pines... its not that high tech here...:)

We were (not really) kinda worried about the flooding there.  I guess it was mostly in Manilla and in the Cagayan area.  Do you feel any residual or is raining profusely too there?

when i was in tacloban, the sisters in my area told me about the flood. it also flood catarman too. it was about a meter high.(3ish feet). when i got back it was all gone... my area floods everytime it rains... the draining systems here suck... its not been raining to much other than like two weeks ago.. but the rainy season is coming up. starts in like octobor or september. well thats about it so 

day 292

well this week was a great week. we had really great work, and finally had our baptisms. i got to baptize the mom and the little boy. the father wasnt ready yet. and it was in the ocean!!! how cool is that?? i dont have my camera with me right now. i forgot it. but it was a fetching neat experience. the waves were huge!!! soooo coooll!!! 

On saturday, i passed one of the stones! it was terrible!!!  also at the same time, the other one fell from the kidney. so now its making its way to come out. so prolly later this week it wont be to pleasant.

so today im in tacloban for my follow up check up with the doc. we played dodge ball with all the zone leaders of the mission. it was soooooooooooo fun!!! we took paper shreddings and put them in a bag then taped the bag shut. then wrapped paper around it again then more tape. they had girth to them so you could chuck em... but they were super soft so they didnt hurt. it was amazingly fun. im sooo sore right now!!!

well thats about all this week. i love you lots take care :)

Christian Smith

Questions:

How was/were the baptism/s?  Awesome!!

They were awesome!!!!!! check letter

Did you get to do more things this pday? play more?

yes check letter!

I'd love to have a picture of your companion right now...right now. like take one of you both and send it to me. right now.

i dont have my camera right now.

Ok, so aren't there some sisters in your zone? how come they aren't in the picture too?  Cause they don't wear ties?

it was just a picture of the elders. with the matching ties

Sorry more questions about the broom playing picture...are there 3 filipinos in the picture? the one guy with the cut off sleeves? are you the only missionary in the picture?

the guy with the cut off sleeves is elder theobald. only two are pinos... we are doing service and its fetch hot and you get soaked and super dirty...

When does Elder Ostler come home...we'd love to go to his homecoming.  I think in the next couple months right?

he goes home in november.

What do you wish would happen this week out there?

uhhh.... get more people baptized! haha tough goal.