kumusta na kayo. sana okay lang at buhay pa. im happy to let you all know i am still alive and my health is back to normal. ive made it past my ban of dairy products which was super hard cause thats about all we eat at the house in the morning is eggs. but i did survive it and now im right back to egg sandwiches in the mornings. everyone keeps telliing me i got so skinny but i think that they are imagining things ha. but anyways ive got a story to tell you so here goes.
i had a really crappy experience this past week that was pretty hard for me. it was the first time its happened to me while ive been here. the pascual's that ive been teaching forever ever since i got here in santiago have told us they dont want us to come to teach them anymore that they are going to stick with being catholic. any of you missionaries that have seen that its like a slap in the face, you wonder how that can happen. how do they decide to not accept it. there were so many times in lessons there that i know the spirit was there, and i know that tatay knows that its not the truth doon sa catholics but they still made that choice,. and its really made me think and wonder. what went wrong. why didnt they get a testimony and why didnt they choose to follow the things i know that they have felt. keep in mind that they had accepted a baptismal date, they had been to church they had seen recent converts bear their testimony of how they learned the church is true and how they felt the spirit,.,,.... so what went wrong.
i was reminded of a talk i heard by David A Bednar of the 12 apostles and he quoted 2 nephi chapter 33 verse 1. 1 And now I, Nephi, cannot write all the things which were taught among my people; neither am I amighty in writing, like unto speaking; for when a man bspeaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.
2 But behold, there are many that aharden their bhearts against the Holy cSpirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught.
Elder Bednar stressed the word unto and how that he specifically chose that word unstead of into because people have the choice to recieve the holy ghost or reject it. i was reading their teaching record and i noticed a big flaw there were many time that there wasnt any prayer and thinking back it came down to the whole all we can do is invite them to come unto christ and they have the agency to choose if they will accept the invitation or hindi. its hard for me. thinking back on how hard my heart used to be i wonder how the savior feelts when his people he came to save dont accept him. i want more than anything for these people to understand it but they have to accept it. and if their hearts arent receptive to the holy ghost they wont be able to recieve an answer, i gues only god knows when we have real intent and a broken heart. thats the qualifications right. ?
tatay pascual was one of my favprites and to see him close a door to happines and truth because of doubt and heardness of heart, or maybe fear of comittment... just hurts! and it realy points me toward the savior when he had his friends leave him to carry his cross and suffer while they were all sleeping. its well its almost too much to think about. tatay pascual has been baptised 4 different times in various different churches. hes expressed his desire to find the truth and how he knows the churches he has been atending are not the fullness of the truth. but even a desire and knowledge like that i guess doesnt mean you are ready to make the changes needed to commit to the truth. he did say that he hopes there comes a time when he will be ready to commit. he didnt necessarily shut any doors and i hope and pray that sometime he well to be frank pulls his head out and realizes that he knows exactly where the truth is.
i share that experience with you cause it just kinds opened my eyes on agency. we all belive this is true so lets just follow it and think of the savior a little more everyday. he died to give us the chance to even have a possibility of happiness and without that hope we are nothing. so lets use it. well i love you all and i hope this wasnt too boring ha. ill let you know what happens. transfer day is on thursday so im gonna have some changes in the people im living with. elder valdez has been my friend here for most of my time here im kinda sad that hes getting transfered. elder kelson is also going home this week and man all the people in my zone that i got close with are leaving this week. things go by so fast but i think ive got at least one more cycle here in santiago so unless president throws me a curve ball ill still be here next week. ill let you know what happens. but anyways mahal ko kayo..... elder landeen
Monday, February 20, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
ugh
ok ill do the best i can to write this letter i dono why im feeling super super dizzy and dont wanna throw up anymore im over that ha ha,
so as you know i got food poisoning. i dont know what sister carlos actually said but im pretty sure i know where i got it. im already alergic to the pilippines and a nanay gave us crab to eat so i said i better now eat it im allergic to it so because their culture here is force feed you even if its going to give you food poisoning... she gave me some chicken wings. and i figure thats what it must have been because thats the only thing i ate different than my comp.
as for the symptoms ugh man it wasnt very fun at all. i just woke up tuesday morning at 6 00 and went into the bathroom and just felt like something was going on inside that shouldnt be. the the lbm and throwing up stated. i threw up among other symptoms associated with food poisoning all morning frobably about 10 times just between 6 and 10 then when i threw up it was just a whole bunch of blood so i figured i better call sister carlos. after that the assistants to the presedent drove down and picked me up to take me to the doctor in cauayan and i was just so dizzy and sick i could barely walk straight. so he told me i needed to go and have a few nights stay in the hospital because im super dehydrated and blah blah blah. after they did some tests they found out ive got some ameoba friends livin inside me and said ive probably had them for a while. i never have felt completely healthy here but i mean with caughing all the time i just sorta got used to it but maybe thats why ha. but anyways they just pumped me full of antibiotics and now im taking pills that will kill them.
the stay there like dad said man it was a vacation other than the whole vacation thing i just layed around and slept in airconditioning all day, i got to go and take a hot shower in the mission home man it was great im gonna have to remember all i have to do for a hot shower is eat some bad chicken and then im on my way ha ha
i always try to be careful with food and water but i mean what am i really supposed to do. halimbawa(example) when i asked the llanetas if the water was mineral water or well and she said that it just came out of their pump, i told her were not supposed to drink it. background knowledge these people barely have enough money the afford food for themselves but becayse of stupid customs they have to feed guests. but anyways she left and didnt come back until she had found someone that had mineral water she could buy for me. what i mean with this either you eat or theyre offended. bottom line ha and even the doctor said that he said its hard to be careful what you eat cause if you dont eat what they give you youll offend them ha,. so i do my best but theres only so much i can do
other than that there was one more thing about the hospital that was weird. having girls my age come and take care of me without my companion there. man that was weird,. i wasnt alone the whole time but a lot of the time i was and ha it was just crazy. when they took the iv out she was like holding my hand and it just felt wrong ha ha. but anyways now im outa the hospital and i dont plan on going back. no promises though ha.
well thats all i really have to say this week cause well that basically was my week bein sick and loosing a whole bunch of the weight ive worked every day to gain. but on the bright side it was better than my last hospital visit that turned into a lot longer than an overnight stay so im greatful for that. well take care all of you ill work on having something better to talk to you about for next week. mahal ko kayo elder landeen
so as you know i got food poisoning. i dont know what sister carlos actually said but im pretty sure i know where i got it. im already alergic to the pilippines and a nanay gave us crab to eat so i said i better now eat it im allergic to it so because their culture here is force feed you even if its going to give you food poisoning... she gave me some chicken wings. and i figure thats what it must have been because thats the only thing i ate different than my comp.
as for the symptoms ugh man it wasnt very fun at all. i just woke up tuesday morning at 6 00 and went into the bathroom and just felt like something was going on inside that shouldnt be. the the lbm and throwing up stated. i threw up among other symptoms associated with food poisoning all morning frobably about 10 times just between 6 and 10 then when i threw up it was just a whole bunch of blood so i figured i better call sister carlos. after that the assistants to the presedent drove down and picked me up to take me to the doctor in cauayan and i was just so dizzy and sick i could barely walk straight. so he told me i needed to go and have a few nights stay in the hospital because im super dehydrated and blah blah blah. after they did some tests they found out ive got some ameoba friends livin inside me and said ive probably had them for a while. i never have felt completely healthy here but i mean with caughing all the time i just sorta got used to it but maybe thats why ha. but anyways they just pumped me full of antibiotics and now im taking pills that will kill them.
the stay there like dad said man it was a vacation other than the whole vacation thing i just layed around and slept in airconditioning all day, i got to go and take a hot shower in the mission home man it was great im gonna have to remember all i have to do for a hot shower is eat some bad chicken and then im on my way ha ha
i always try to be careful with food and water but i mean what am i really supposed to do. halimbawa(example) when i asked the llanetas if the water was mineral water or well and she said that it just came out of their pump, i told her were not supposed to drink it. background knowledge these people barely have enough money the afford food for themselves but becayse of stupid customs they have to feed guests. but anyways she left and didnt come back until she had found someone that had mineral water she could buy for me. what i mean with this either you eat or theyre offended. bottom line ha and even the doctor said that he said its hard to be careful what you eat cause if you dont eat what they give you youll offend them ha,. so i do my best but theres only so much i can do
other than that there was one more thing about the hospital that was weird. having girls my age come and take care of me without my companion there. man that was weird,. i wasnt alone the whole time but a lot of the time i was and ha it was just crazy. when they took the iv out she was like holding my hand and it just felt wrong ha ha. but anyways now im outa the hospital and i dont plan on going back. no promises though ha.
well thats all i really have to say this week cause well that basically was my week bein sick and loosing a whole bunch of the weight ive worked every day to gain. but on the bright side it was better than my last hospital visit that turned into a lot longer than an overnight stay so im greatful for that. well take care all of you ill work on having something better to talk to you about for next week. mahal ko kayo elder landeen
Monday, February 6, 2012
crazy week
well here we are again. sitting in the computer shop is great because.... its air conditioned ha masarap. theres 9 other missionaries right next to me all writing home. some on you tube ha and some writing letters to president. just thought id add that little thought.
saturday and sunday were probably the greatest and most stressful days here so far. the greatest because well we baptised 3 families and got to watch a recent convert baptise his son and bless the sacrament for the first time. and the most stressful well youll find out from the story.
it all started about two weeks ago. as the baptismal date was getting closer we figured we better figure out if theres gonna be eenough baptismal clothes. we asked bishop and he said your in charge of that so good luck basically ha. so then when we found the baptismal clothes they had.... all but 3 of them were broken the zippers wouldnt zip up. and the ones that werent were probably made specially fit for goliath. they must have forgotten that giants died out way back in old testimony times. so we had a problem. we started texting around all the different elders to see if we could borrow some and we found a re accuring problem that everyone is kulang (lacking) in the baptismal clothes department. so finally the ramon elders (theyre about 30 minutes away from us) said they have a whole bunch we can use. and we didnt have any time do go and get them until saturday morning the day of the baptism. we got there and we found another problem. they also thought that giants were still being baptised lately ha all the clothes were huge! and the ones that were usable were dirty. so we just said well well figure out what were going to do later whether these short pilipinos are going to just wear these huge clothes or what....
so we got back from ramon did a whole bunch of stupid paperwork for their baptismal records and then went out to remind the members to show up later. this is when it got stressful. ali alis wedding was scheduled for 5:30. when 545 came rolling around and they still werent there we started to get worried and then when 600 hit and everyones asking where the couple is, and were asking where the quan are they,,, as well as the other couple that is supposed to be baptised.... but then finally ali ali's showed up. their wedding started probably about 625 and went until 700. ( it was supposed to be about 10 minutes ha ha) but we had another problem. deguzemans still werent there. you can imagine that when its about 715 and they were supposed to be there at 530 our hearts were sinkin pretty fast and then they finally called and said they just barely got out of a meeting at work. so i told them to get their butts moving and get here asap. ( siempre i said it nicely ) we started ggetting everyone suited up, and well they were huge but they worked. then sister ali ali ha shes super short and there was only on e that would fit her. problem was the zipper didnt work. so.... we improvised. she clipped it closed using those clip things for stacks of papers. were about to start and finally the deguzemans show up! by now its almost 800 ha (it was suposed to start at 600, did i mention that ) but the miracle happened they all showed up!
after they were all baptised it was time for their testimonies. and well probably the greatest thing ive ever seen. every one of them had their own testimony that it was all true. they all found out in their own way but it was all just a complete miracle. i wanna share a little bit of what sister deguzeman shared with us.
she said five years ago she remembers she started praying that got would give her a way that her family would have time for each other on sundays to go to church and be together. she said that he was always out of town with work monday through saturday and then sundays he would go out drinking with friends. she said she just wanted to go to church as a family so bad but didnt know how it would ever happen. she said one day she came come from work and her husband said two americanos came to the house earlier., 2 elder yata ( maybe ) and she said that she knew it was mormons and they were gonna try to get her to come to their church.( she must have had some sort of knowledge about elders before ) and she said that at first she didnt want to listen and it was really hard for her to open her heart to any of it. she didnt want to go to their church because her whole life she was catholic. ( which is very understandable now that ive been out here ) but after time she said she started to pray slow at first that maybe what they are saying coulbe be true just a possibility at first that maybe it could be true... remember that in alma 32 we learn that if you would just try the experiment on the words and plant the seed,.... so thats what she did. she planted a tiny seed of faith in her heart. then she said that after time and more prayers she started to be more open to it. she said it was so hard for her to open the book of mormon. because of course her whole life it was the bible only. but because she had planted the seed it started to grow, her testimony started to grow. her heart began to change. and being the missionary on the other side of this witnessing this all from begining to end and then hearing her side of it and then all the background story of a prayer of faith 5 years ago, was just man something else. but anyways she said that she knows for herself its all true and just bore a simple testimony of truth.
this same change of heart i got to witness on the other investigators also. so as you can imagine it was a pretty special night. then sunday morning came and it was time for their comfirmation. 800 church starts. 825 church really started and still no paz family. so as you can guess anxiety ulit! it was time to get them confirmed and they were confirming brother ali ali and giving him the gift of the holy ghost. then..... paz fimally showed up. all and all they are members now, washed through the atoning blood of christ and have a new start.
later that night when asking them how they feel what was their experience. every one of them told of a similar experience. happy, like something ive never felt before, like i was floating in the sky, brother deguzeman was tryiong to describe how he felt while he was being confirmed and couldnt find the words.. finally he just said the hair on my arms was standing up and i just was ..... and again no words. common these. i prayed many nights that god would bless them with the spirit to know that what theyre doing is right. and everyone of them were blessed with exactly that.
the moral of this story, that god does answer prays. somrtimes it take 5 years like with sister deguzeman or 3 years like it did with my parents praying for me. or the fervant prayer of a missionary trying to help people accept the gospel. but he amswers them. always.
it was a great week. lots of other things happened but i figure that will about due until next week. now its right back to worrying about all those that promised but didnt end up coming to church and have been canceling appointments and well the never-ending struggle to try to teach these people how to be happy. sa inyo lahat alam ko na ang mga bagay na ito ay totoo. sinabi ni Joseph Smith na and aklat ni mormon, ang pinakatumpak aklat sa buong mundo at isang tao ay lumalapit sa dios sapamamagitan ng mga tuntunin sa loob kaysa sa mga ibang aklat sa buong mundo. alam ko talaga na totoo iyan, napansin ko sa mga buhay ng mga tao noon saturday at sunday na kung bubuksan mo ang inyong puso sa ebanghelyo na ito, magiging bago kayo talaga at alam ko talaga na ito ay totoo. nagpapasalamat ako para kay JESUCRISTO at para sa kanyang pagbabayad-sala. siya and aking pagasa at tagaplagligtas. sundin ninyo ang kanyang ebanghelyo at ipinapangako ko sa inyo lahat na magkakaroon kayo ng kapayapan at kalagayahan sa buhay kahit ano ang nangyayari sa inyo. itan ang layunin niya, habbang may mga pagsubok tayo, tutulungan niya tayo KUNG mananampalataya tayo sa kanya. mahal tayo ng dios at nagpapasalamat ako para sa pagkakataon na ito, na ibahagi ang mga salita niya sa mga tao dito sa pilipinas.
there just a little tagalag for ya. good luck figurin out what it means ha. mahal ko kayong lahat, at ingat hanggang sa susunod na lingo! ( take care until next wee) elder landeen
saturday and sunday were probably the greatest and most stressful days here so far. the greatest because well we baptised 3 families and got to watch a recent convert baptise his son and bless the sacrament for the first time. and the most stressful well youll find out from the story.
it all started about two weeks ago. as the baptismal date was getting closer we figured we better figure out if theres gonna be eenough baptismal clothes. we asked bishop and he said your in charge of that so good luck basically ha. so then when we found the baptismal clothes they had.... all but 3 of them were broken the zippers wouldnt zip up. and the ones that werent were probably made specially fit for goliath. they must have forgotten that giants died out way back in old testimony times. so we had a problem. we started texting around all the different elders to see if we could borrow some and we found a re accuring problem that everyone is kulang (lacking) in the baptismal clothes department. so finally the ramon elders (theyre about 30 minutes away from us) said they have a whole bunch we can use. and we didnt have any time do go and get them until saturday morning the day of the baptism. we got there and we found another problem. they also thought that giants were still being baptised lately ha all the clothes were huge! and the ones that were usable were dirty. so we just said well well figure out what were going to do later whether these short pilipinos are going to just wear these huge clothes or what....
so we got back from ramon did a whole bunch of stupid paperwork for their baptismal records and then went out to remind the members to show up later. this is when it got stressful. ali alis wedding was scheduled for 5:30. when 545 came rolling around and they still werent there we started to get worried and then when 600 hit and everyones asking where the couple is, and were asking where the quan are they,,, as well as the other couple that is supposed to be baptised.... but then finally ali ali's showed up. their wedding started probably about 625 and went until 700. ( it was supposed to be about 10 minutes ha ha) but we had another problem. deguzemans still werent there. you can imagine that when its about 715 and they were supposed to be there at 530 our hearts were sinkin pretty fast and then they finally called and said they just barely got out of a meeting at work. so i told them to get their butts moving and get here asap. ( siempre i said it nicely ) we started ggetting everyone suited up, and well they were huge but they worked. then sister ali ali ha shes super short and there was only on e that would fit her. problem was the zipper didnt work. so.... we improvised. she clipped it closed using those clip things for stacks of papers. were about to start and finally the deguzemans show up! by now its almost 800 ha (it was suposed to start at 600, did i mention that ) but the miracle happened they all showed up!
after they were all baptised it was time for their testimonies. and well probably the greatest thing ive ever seen. every one of them had their own testimony that it was all true. they all found out in their own way but it was all just a complete miracle. i wanna share a little bit of what sister deguzeman shared with us.
she said five years ago she remembers she started praying that got would give her a way that her family would have time for each other on sundays to go to church and be together. she said that he was always out of town with work monday through saturday and then sundays he would go out drinking with friends. she said she just wanted to go to church as a family so bad but didnt know how it would ever happen. she said one day she came come from work and her husband said two americanos came to the house earlier., 2 elder yata ( maybe ) and she said that she knew it was mormons and they were gonna try to get her to come to their church.( she must have had some sort of knowledge about elders before ) and she said that at first she didnt want to listen and it was really hard for her to open her heart to any of it. she didnt want to go to their church because her whole life she was catholic. ( which is very understandable now that ive been out here ) but after time she said she started to pray slow at first that maybe what they are saying coulbe be true just a possibility at first that maybe it could be true... remember that in alma 32 we learn that if you would just try the experiment on the words and plant the seed,.... so thats what she did. she planted a tiny seed of faith in her heart. then she said that after time and more prayers she started to be more open to it. she said it was so hard for her to open the book of mormon. because of course her whole life it was the bible only. but because she had planted the seed it started to grow, her testimony started to grow. her heart began to change. and being the missionary on the other side of this witnessing this all from begining to end and then hearing her side of it and then all the background story of a prayer of faith 5 years ago, was just man something else. but anyways she said that she knows for herself its all true and just bore a simple testimony of truth.
this same change of heart i got to witness on the other investigators also. so as you can imagine it was a pretty special night. then sunday morning came and it was time for their comfirmation. 800 church starts. 825 church really started and still no paz family. so as you can guess anxiety ulit! it was time to get them confirmed and they were confirming brother ali ali and giving him the gift of the holy ghost. then..... paz fimally showed up. all and all they are members now, washed through the atoning blood of christ and have a new start.
later that night when asking them how they feel what was their experience. every one of them told of a similar experience. happy, like something ive never felt before, like i was floating in the sky, brother deguzeman was tryiong to describe how he felt while he was being confirmed and couldnt find the words.. finally he just said the hair on my arms was standing up and i just was ..... and again no words. common these. i prayed many nights that god would bless them with the spirit to know that what theyre doing is right. and everyone of them were blessed with exactly that.
the moral of this story, that god does answer prays. somrtimes it take 5 years like with sister deguzeman or 3 years like it did with my parents praying for me. or the fervant prayer of a missionary trying to help people accept the gospel. but he amswers them. always.
it was a great week. lots of other things happened but i figure that will about due until next week. now its right back to worrying about all those that promised but didnt end up coming to church and have been canceling appointments and well the never-ending struggle to try to teach these people how to be happy. sa inyo lahat alam ko na ang mga bagay na ito ay totoo. sinabi ni Joseph Smith na and aklat ni mormon, ang pinakatumpak aklat sa buong mundo at isang tao ay lumalapit sa dios sapamamagitan ng mga tuntunin sa loob kaysa sa mga ibang aklat sa buong mundo. alam ko talaga na totoo iyan, napansin ko sa mga buhay ng mga tao noon saturday at sunday na kung bubuksan mo ang inyong puso sa ebanghelyo na ito, magiging bago kayo talaga at alam ko talaga na ito ay totoo. nagpapasalamat ako para kay JESUCRISTO at para sa kanyang pagbabayad-sala. siya and aking pagasa at tagaplagligtas. sundin ninyo ang kanyang ebanghelyo at ipinapangako ko sa inyo lahat na magkakaroon kayo ng kapayapan at kalagayahan sa buhay kahit ano ang nangyayari sa inyo. itan ang layunin niya, habbang may mga pagsubok tayo, tutulungan niya tayo KUNG mananampalataya tayo sa kanya. mahal tayo ng dios at nagpapasalamat ako para sa pagkakataon na ito, na ibahagi ang mga salita niya sa mga tao dito sa pilipinas.
there just a little tagalag for ya. good luck figurin out what it means ha. mahal ko kayong lahat, at ingat hanggang sa susunod na lingo! ( take care until next wee) elder landeen
Monday, January 30, 2012
this weekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
hello everyone its been a week full of excitement so hopefull i can get all the thoughts out! lets give it a shot...
first off.... i got bit by the ali alis dog the other day ha ha it sucks. so if within 11 days the dog shows any sign of sickness or rabies i have to start with a series of rabies shots. all in the butt. not all that excited about that. ive started a new little hobby. s\theres stray dogs everywhere and im kind of bitter about being bit so ive made myself a a flipper crutch as granda hardcaste calls it. or for those of us that werent born in the age of the dinosoars a sling shot. ive really been enjying my time with my new friend ha ha teach those dogs to bite me.
we have a few baptisms cming up this saturday and theyre big oines. im so excited i cant een say it. first off....... after weeks and weeks of effort we finally found a way for ali ali to get their marriage papers done \. so this saturday they are being married and then staight to the baptismal font. second the deguzemans. this is anouther couple we have been teaching for a long time that we found through tracting actually ha. its something that noone that hasnt been on a mission would understand really to see someone youve worked with for so ong go from foubting to being afraid to come to church to the first time to praying in sunday school and comitting to pay tithing and reading in the book of mormon. man its crazy. next we have the Paz family. they have 8 children, 2 dont live at home, one does but isa never at home so we werent able to teach him... but the 13 year old julius and the 9 year old win win aong with their parents are going to all be baptised ( their other three kids are too young for baptism ) and thats just amazing. a family. then the son of the llanetas that were baptuised in decenmber will be baptised by his father this saturday too. tatay and nanay llaneta went from hiding from the missionaries and refusing to listen to eing to first ones to church every week... full tithe papers and tatay is using his frienthood to baptise his son,,, and he \has also come with us to teach some of our investigators about tithing e\because his testimony about it is so strong he wants to share it with people. its absolutely crazy.
im loving the whole stress of training thing ha its super hard and at the same time super rewarding. i have a really different training style than elder riner had on me. i make hm teach a lot of the lesson at least half. this has been helping him become better at teaching and has also added to my anxiety level ha just because im always worried about the investigators of course. ive been learning a lot lately about just trusting in the spirit. none of us out here are perfect teachers and if we learned anything from brigham youngs conversion,,, it wasnt untal a man without elequence had born pure and true testimony to him that he believed. all we have to do is stay clean and worthy of the spirit and give it 100 percent and the promise to us is that if we desire that we will have his spirit and power unto the convincing of men. ginoon din the people have a part to open their heart to it if they didnt opent heir heart they wont feel the spirits voice. so for short its a very complex simple thing teaching the gospel ha ha.
what else happened.. we found another whole family we are beginning to teach. the pascua family. they are kapit bahay ( next door neighbors ) to the degusemans and we started teaching them this past week and man they are absolutely golden investigators. they asked basically any question you can think of that s music to a missionarys ear... and then some. questions like why are there so many churches now, what is the preisthood and who holds it, whose your living prophet, will you teach us about the book of mormon, why is jjoseph smith important and more. and we have only taught them twice! man im excited for them they seem so honest and sincere to just learn the truth. hopefully im seeing it the way it really is!
yesterday ( sunday ) we had a rough teaching or lack of teaching day. we got punted from 9 essons in a row ha everyone of our progressing investigators that we could teach on sunday we went to and then either tatay wasnt there or nanay wasnt there or theyll be back later ha an it was great. but then maybe it had a reason. we went to a pretty far barungay to talk to one of the less active members we are going to start working with and we hadnt planned on going to him at all and the past other times we had gone to him he was at work but this time we went and taught him about the priesthood and about him recieving the melcesidec priesthood when he ecomes worthy and i say a real desire for it, his son had been sick for 3 days with a fever ( if only there were home teachers visiting so someone knew about it ) but anyways we were able to give him a blessing and ya know it was a ton of walking and dif\sappointment but maybe it happened so wed go out there and bess a sick kid. i dont know of course the will of god but i like to think those kinds of things happen for a reason. then we went back to two other appointments that were just great lessons. it was just a pretty cool little experience.
well thats all i can think of for now ! things are great ill let y\you know about their baptisms next week ! mahal ko kayong lahat! ingat elder landeen
first off.... i got bit by the ali alis dog the other day ha ha it sucks. so if within 11 days the dog shows any sign of sickness or rabies i have to start with a series of rabies shots. all in the butt. not all that excited about that. ive started a new little hobby. s\theres stray dogs everywhere and im kind of bitter about being bit so ive made myself a a flipper crutch as granda hardcaste calls it. or for those of us that werent born in the age of the dinosoars a sling shot. ive really been enjying my time with my new friend ha ha teach those dogs to bite me.
we have a few baptisms cming up this saturday and theyre big oines. im so excited i cant een say it. first off....... after weeks and weeks of effort we finally found a way for ali ali to get their marriage papers done \. so this saturday they are being married and then staight to the baptismal font. second the deguzemans. this is anouther couple we have been teaching for a long time that we found through tracting actually ha. its something that noone that hasnt been on a mission would understand really to see someone youve worked with for so ong go from foubting to being afraid to come to church to the first time to praying in sunday school and comitting to pay tithing and reading in the book of mormon. man its crazy. next we have the Paz family. they have 8 children, 2 dont live at home, one does but isa never at home so we werent able to teach him... but the 13 year old julius and the 9 year old win win aong with their parents are going to all be baptised ( their other three kids are too young for baptism ) and thats just amazing. a family. then the son of the llanetas that were baptuised in decenmber will be baptised by his father this saturday too. tatay and nanay llaneta went from hiding from the missionaries and refusing to listen to eing to first ones to church every week... full tithe papers and tatay is using his frienthood to baptise his son,,, and he \has also come with us to teach some of our investigators about tithing e\because his testimony about it is so strong he wants to share it with people. its absolutely crazy.
im loving the whole stress of training thing ha its super hard and at the same time super rewarding. i have a really different training style than elder riner had on me. i make hm teach a lot of the lesson at least half. this has been helping him become better at teaching and has also added to my anxiety level ha just because im always worried about the investigators of course. ive been learning a lot lately about just trusting in the spirit. none of us out here are perfect teachers and if we learned anything from brigham youngs conversion,,, it wasnt untal a man without elequence had born pure and true testimony to him that he believed. all we have to do is stay clean and worthy of the spirit and give it 100 percent and the promise to us is that if we desire that we will have his spirit and power unto the convincing of men. ginoon din the people have a part to open their heart to it if they didnt opent heir heart they wont feel the spirits voice. so for short its a very complex simple thing teaching the gospel ha ha.
what else happened.. we found another whole family we are beginning to teach. the pascua family. they are kapit bahay ( next door neighbors ) to the degusemans and we started teaching them this past week and man they are absolutely golden investigators. they asked basically any question you can think of that s music to a missionarys ear... and then some. questions like why are there so many churches now, what is the preisthood and who holds it, whose your living prophet, will you teach us about the book of mormon, why is jjoseph smith important and more. and we have only taught them twice! man im excited for them they seem so honest and sincere to just learn the truth. hopefully im seeing it the way it really is!
yesterday ( sunday ) we had a rough teaching or lack of teaching day. we got punted from 9 essons in a row ha everyone of our progressing investigators that we could teach on sunday we went to and then either tatay wasnt there or nanay wasnt there or theyll be back later ha an it was great. but then maybe it had a reason. we went to a pretty far barungay to talk to one of the less active members we are going to start working with and we hadnt planned on going to him at all and the past other times we had gone to him he was at work but this time we went and taught him about the priesthood and about him recieving the melcesidec priesthood when he ecomes worthy and i say a real desire for it, his son had been sick for 3 days with a fever ( if only there were home teachers visiting so someone knew about it ) but anyways we were able to give him a blessing and ya know it was a ton of walking and dif\sappointment but maybe it happened so wed go out there and bess a sick kid. i dont know of course the will of god but i like to think those kinds of things happen for a reason. then we went back to two other appointments that were just great lessons. it was just a pretty cool little experience.
well thats all i can think of for now ! things are great ill let y\you know about their baptisms next week ! mahal ko kayong lahat! ingat elder landeen
Monday, January 23, 2012
whew
kumusta everyone. i just got back from a way cool trip as a district we went to this place called aglipay and went down into the coolest caves ive ever seen! ive got a buncha pictures ill sent in a little but just had to let you know about that.
bein a trainer is super fun and super stressful ha. my comp is a hard worker and a pretty good teacher ive been really impressed. he has a hard time with all the studdying and i think he is homesick while he is at home he seems pretty miserable wehile were at the house i dont really know what to do there but when we get out and working he is super happy so thats good.
my work with the less actives is going okay we actually are going to start working with this couple to get them to the temple. the brother has been a member since youth and the sister for about 2 years and i just dont think anybody has even talked to them about goi9ng but i could see from how they treated each other that they wanted it so that is what we decided to share with them. and... theyre going to start working towards it !
ive noticed a common problem about everyone on the list of names the ward council gave to us to atart working with.. that if people would just do their home and visiting teaching there wouldnt be any problem here!!!!!!!!!! so all you people just do it its suck a small thing that makes a big difference.
we have some baptisms coming up this coming february 4. the paz family ( sana depending on if nanay comes to church and can be interviewed by president carlos before then ) and the de guzemans. (this is for sure they are so ready man this family is ... well i just love em )
we had to move te date of the pascuals because tatay is having some doubts and doesnt have as strong of a testimony as we thought he ddid. he was a part of a religion called dating daan... which means the old way. their pastour guy is a guy names soriano and he is an expert at the bible and basically just talks crap about every other religion and ah man hes such a big problem here. we randomly sometimes have people ask us so where exactly is kolob, or so why did joseph smith have 43 wives and why do you think gods name is elohim blah balah blah its like where in the world t\did they find that out.,..... oh yeah this soriano fool. but anyways ill let you know what happens with them.
im enjoying life here its hard bein in charge my tagalag is okay i can get around just fine but im still a ways from fluent my grammer isnt all that great so its good i have a pilipino companion.
what else has happened.... man i dont even know so much is floating through my head right now! thats about it that i can think of. ill let you all know next week if the baptisms are set for sure or if they will be moved. well mahal kita! elder landeen
bein a trainer is super fun and super stressful ha. my comp is a hard worker and a pretty good teacher ive been really impressed. he has a hard time with all the studdying and i think he is homesick while he is at home he seems pretty miserable wehile were at the house i dont really know what to do there but when we get out and working he is super happy so thats good.
my work with the less actives is going okay we actually are going to start working with this couple to get them to the temple. the brother has been a member since youth and the sister for about 2 years and i just dont think anybody has even talked to them about goi9ng but i could see from how they treated each other that they wanted it so that is what we decided to share with them. and... theyre going to start working towards it !
ive noticed a common problem about everyone on the list of names the ward council gave to us to atart working with.. that if people would just do their home and visiting teaching there wouldnt be any problem here!!!!!!!!!! so all you people just do it its suck a small thing that makes a big difference.
we have some baptisms coming up this coming february 4. the paz family ( sana depending on if nanay comes to church and can be interviewed by president carlos before then ) and the de guzemans. (this is for sure they are so ready man this family is ... well i just love em )
we had to move te date of the pascuals because tatay is having some doubts and doesnt have as strong of a testimony as we thought he ddid. he was a part of a religion called dating daan... which means the old way. their pastour guy is a guy names soriano and he is an expert at the bible and basically just talks crap about every other religion and ah man hes such a big problem here. we randomly sometimes have people ask us so where exactly is kolob, or so why did joseph smith have 43 wives and why do you think gods name is elohim blah balah blah its like where in the world t\did they find that out.,..... oh yeah this soriano fool. but anyways ill let you know what happens with them.
im enjoying life here its hard bein in charge my tagalag is okay i can get around just fine but im still a ways from fluent my grammer isnt all that great so its good i have a pilipino companion.
what else has happened.... man i dont even know so much is floating through my head right now! thats about it that i can think of. ill let you all know next week if the baptisms are set for sure or if they will be moved. well mahal kita! elder landeen
Saturday, January 21, 2012
its a PINOY BOY
hello everyone its been a fantastic week here in the rainiest place in the world so ill get straite to it
im now a tatay (father) ! my new companion is a pilipino straight from the mtc in manila, he is from a place called tanay rizal i guess its bout an hour away from quezon city (to be honest i have no idea where it is ) its so crazy going from a trainee, to being in a 3some with zone leaders to being a trainer ha but man im lovin it.
one thing i love about [ilipinos ( well i guess most.....) is theyre super humble about things. he was super super tired when we first met up at transfer day and he was pretty homesick too. but now after hes been out a few days hes making the adjustmant quickly. always after lessons he says is their anything i can do to improve? and at the end of each day hes been so happy and so thankful for all hes learned and man its just honestly nice being able to teach someone something unstead of being with someone on the last month of their mission thats got the world figured out. its a lot easier for us to work together this way because well im still pretty new and hes brand new so were both learning a lot everyday with each other.
its now 2 americans (me and elder valdez, probably one of my favorites in the mission) and two pilipinos (my comp elder Garcia and elder valdez's new comp ander vinas) in our house its been quite an adjustment. i hate to admit it but theres just such a culture difference that is almost impossibe to do anything about. when were at home they like to talk to each other and then me and valdez end up talking to each other. maybe its just because its a new situation im hoping that that is all that it is. but any how its been a change but not in a bad way., we had to bust out the rice cooker for the first time since ive been here hha. and its been nice to have elder vinas because he can cook some good pilipino food.
our investigators are doing great. almost everyone came to church. one thing that ive been struggling with though. they all believe its true but havent prayed to know for themselves. and havent done all that much reading in the book of mormon. i think to myself how do you know its true if you havent read it and havent prayed, so i figure they must believe what were saying and our testimonies. that is good they believe, but without a testimony of their own, without their own spiritual witness they wont be able to stay active when the trials come. so lately ive been focusing on praying about the book of mormon. their baptismal dates are getting closer and closer and my anxiety for them is getting higher and higher ha but in a good way it just makes me want to help them more and have our lessons be better so i study and pray harder. in some ways the anxiety thing i guess can be a strenght ha ha.
one thing that happened this past saturday has changed a lot of how the rest of my mission will go. thay had a nationwide broadcast from the area authorities about the new missionary corriculum here. its probably the best thing thats happened in the pilippines as far as the church goes in a long time. the pines is one of the fasting growning part of the church in the world but man the retention rate is absolutely horrible. to make a lont story short.... after these investigators were not going to really be looking for new investigaters. 100 percent focused on re activation. in my ward alone almost have the ward is inactive or less active. so this is sorely needed. and as far as baptisms goes we are basically instructed to only teach people through referrals and part member families. pretty crazy stuff! im so excited for it though we are so busy i dont even wanna sleep because were teaching so much. i feel bad for people in stateside missions theyre a lot tougher than i am. ive only had like 1 person blatently reject me the whole time ive been here, most people are too nice to say anything they just dont keep commitments and dont show up to church and you eventually stop going to them because they dont really care about it. but anyways i respect all you state siders i couildnt do it.
anyways its been a great week very stressful and full of excitement and change. the ali ali family thats been waiting to be married for about 6 months before they can be baptised is at this moment working on finishing their papers so they will soon have a marriage and baptismal date. probably the collest family ever. well i cant say that cause i love everyone here man i love em. anyways i miss you all! mahal na mahal ko kayo at excited ako para sa mga bagong balita sa susunod na lingo! (new news next week) ingat po sa inyo lahat! ! ! ! ! !
im now a tatay (father) ! my new companion is a pilipino straight from the mtc in manila, he is from a place called tanay rizal i guess its bout an hour away from quezon city (to be honest i have no idea where it is ) its so crazy going from a trainee, to being in a 3some with zone leaders to being a trainer ha but man im lovin it.
one thing i love about [ilipinos ( well i guess most.....) is theyre super humble about things. he was super super tired when we first met up at transfer day and he was pretty homesick too. but now after hes been out a few days hes making the adjustmant quickly. always after lessons he says is their anything i can do to improve? and at the end of each day hes been so happy and so thankful for all hes learned and man its just honestly nice being able to teach someone something unstead of being with someone on the last month of their mission thats got the world figured out. its a lot easier for us to work together this way because well im still pretty new and hes brand new so were both learning a lot everyday with each other.
its now 2 americans (me and elder valdez, probably one of my favorites in the mission) and two pilipinos (my comp elder Garcia and elder valdez's new comp ander vinas) in our house its been quite an adjustment. i hate to admit it but theres just such a culture difference that is almost impossibe to do anything about. when were at home they like to talk to each other and then me and valdez end up talking to each other. maybe its just because its a new situation im hoping that that is all that it is. but any how its been a change but not in a bad way., we had to bust out the rice cooker for the first time since ive been here hha. and its been nice to have elder vinas because he can cook some good pilipino food.
our investigators are doing great. almost everyone came to church. one thing that ive been struggling with though. they all believe its true but havent prayed to know for themselves. and havent done all that much reading in the book of mormon. i think to myself how do you know its true if you havent read it and havent prayed, so i figure they must believe what were saying and our testimonies. that is good they believe, but without a testimony of their own, without their own spiritual witness they wont be able to stay active when the trials come. so lately ive been focusing on praying about the book of mormon. their baptismal dates are getting closer and closer and my anxiety for them is getting higher and higher ha but in a good way it just makes me want to help them more and have our lessons be better so i study and pray harder. in some ways the anxiety thing i guess can be a strenght ha ha.
one thing that happened this past saturday has changed a lot of how the rest of my mission will go. thay had a nationwide broadcast from the area authorities about the new missionary corriculum here. its probably the best thing thats happened in the pilippines as far as the church goes in a long time. the pines is one of the fasting growning part of the church in the world but man the retention rate is absolutely horrible. to make a lont story short.... after these investigators were not going to really be looking for new investigaters. 100 percent focused on re activation. in my ward alone almost have the ward is inactive or less active. so this is sorely needed. and as far as baptisms goes we are basically instructed to only teach people through referrals and part member families. pretty crazy stuff! im so excited for it though we are so busy i dont even wanna sleep because were teaching so much. i feel bad for people in stateside missions theyre a lot tougher than i am. ive only had like 1 person blatently reject me the whole time ive been here, most people are too nice to say anything they just dont keep commitments and dont show up to church and you eventually stop going to them because they dont really care about it. but anyways i respect all you state siders i couildnt do it.
anyways its been a great week very stressful and full of excitement and change. the ali ali family thats been waiting to be married for about 6 months before they can be baptised is at this moment working on finishing their papers so they will soon have a marriage and baptismal date. probably the collest family ever. well i cant say that cause i love everyone here man i love em. anyways i miss you all! mahal na mahal ko kayo at excited ako para sa mga bagong balita sa susunod na lingo! (new news next week) ingat po sa inyo lahat! ! ! ! ! !
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
new years
well here it is 2012 lets start the count down to the end of the world! i wouldnt mand bein here on the end of the world cause boy do they know how to put on a firework show.. hands down the coolest fireworks display ive ever seen we sat on our roof and watched and everybody was setting them off everywhere! in every direction non stop it was like a war zone ha we had ashes and stuff raining down on us the whole time. i heard over 500 people got hurt from either fireworks or getting hit by stray bullets. which is crazy but its no wonder the fireworks they have here arent like brand name or anything people man them and sell them themselves ha but they are so cool here. they have stuff ive never seen like fire crackers that you lite like a match, strike on box. and theyre twice as powerful ha, but yeah new years here was great.
as for the rest of the week im super sick right now but we had s pretty successful week. im not sure what to even write ha because i just talked to you last week. my investigators are doing good tetay lleneta bore his testimony yesterday for the first time he was super nervous but did a great job. all of our baptismal dates have been moved to february. i really hope they dont have to be moved again. its kinda hard seeing people make dumb little decisions with big consequences i never really appreciated how much of a difference to our lives little choices make i mean just one shot of gsm ( alcohol here ) means you cant be baptised for another 4 weeks, such a simple thing with such big consequences. sorry this is kinda short but my heads spinning ha so i cant really focus on what to say. well ill talk to you all next week im gona upload some pictures for you mahal kita elder landeen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)