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.

day 341 Happy Birthday!

hello family! This week was Ok. Nothing really special nothing really terrible. Sometimes my weeks are just routine. Maybe to spice up my weeks, ill just dance to all my apointments. Like when someone tells me to eat poop, ill just break into a dougie or something. hahaha. 

this week we visited one family many times to try and get them back to the church. No luck. they just cant get out of their house. Our investigators are still doing ok. Brother p. is going to be interviewed by president at stake conference in a few weeks. im excited and hope he passes. He told us about his experience as Commander Roy, of the NPA. he said the only laws of the jungle are the ten commandments. everything else goes. kinda crazy.

Yesterday, we saw the news and there is a hurricane thats hitting us right now. it has been raining non stop for many days now. also, Yesterday, was my first EaRthQUakE!!!! IT was so soooo cool. i was sitting on my bed and everything just started shaking really bad and there was this noise that sounded like everyone was going to die! haha it was a scary noise. perhaps more scary than the actual earthquake. hehe. well after it stopped i jumped up and grabbed my shoes and ran to elder villanueva who was laying down, and said. Elder lets go! He then said... That was tiny!!! go back to what you were doing... hahaha i had no idea what to compare it to so i assumed it was a big one. well i went around telling all the other missionaries that i felt my first earthquake. i felt cool. hahaa also its been a brown out for a day and a half. its impossible to sleep in a brown out. jeez...

well for my birthday, i took a snooze this morning. then ate a tuna spicy sandwhich. then i went birthday shopping. didnt buy anything cuz im gooing to tacloban tomorrow. for zone conference. maybe something better will be waiting for me there.

well thats about it for this week. 

Love you all!\

Christian

Questions:

What is something you struggle with now that you're dl?

Uhhh....finding is still super hard. like tracting. ive never done it before and now the focus of the mission is changing so we are like going crazy in tracting.

Do you remember the Nauvoo temple dedication?  We went to the stake center and had white handkerchiefs...

I remember waiving things around, i thought it was cuz someone died. haha

Are you celebrating your bday special?  Do any members know?  Does your companion know?  Are you going to burn a shirt?  We put some mula on your card last week for your bday.  Hope you didn't have use it all for travelling.  Tell me what you did to celebrate..prolly just move and wash huh?

Not really. its really hard to celebrate when its just two... i dont think i will burn a shirt. i need all of em hahaha. i have yet to do laundry. so thats prolly what ill be doing for the rest of the day. Thanks for the kwarta!!!

Have you gotten Ana's package yet?

Not yet, im going to tacloban tomorrow so hopefully it will be there.

Can you send me any pictures?

sorry,.. not today. when its brown out we can only go to the internet places that have genorators, and this one wont let me use a usb...

Do you feel old?

-- i feel way old!!! what the heck!! i feel like i could kick the bucket any day now...hehehe

day 334

Hey polks!!!\

hey this week we had zone  meeting on tuesday, and a baptism on friday. we are currently looking for a new apartment cuz our electricity and water and rent are waaaayyyy to high for us to be able to live there. im almost out of money and i have to go to tacloban next week for zone conference. oh well the lord will provide. There has been a brown out for the last two days. it could last for a week. last night, there was absolutly no sleep. its way hot, you sweat your...head off,and the mosquitos eat you alive.so in my tired and hot and sweaty state, i went on a cockroach killing spree. at around 2 in the morning, i heard one running around on my floor. i jumped up, grabbpede the alcohol and the  lighter and went to town. i killed around 20 last night. they are about as big as your thumb... huge suckers.

well that is about it for this week. pretty week but it was just a normal week.

Much love

Christian

Do you ever have to teach anything on sundays? 

Ummm... in this ward, i dont have to do  anything but speak every third sunday.

What was your district lesson on this week?

we had zone meeting

How was your baptism of the little girl?

it was good. it started super late but it still happened.

Do you ever lead the music?

nope. only in district meetings and what not

What was special to you this week?

Elder Holland spoke at a devotional at dixie college yesterday.. it was a good talk.

Is it getting chillier?  in the mornings?

Nope...... Its sooo hot... always...

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