ha ha well first of all my area did split in two like i thought it would which was exciting. there are now 4 elders there. im not one of them ha im now in my 4th area. its a place very far away from cabagan. its called dupax del sur in the province of nueva vizcaya and its well up in the mountains! its absolutely beautiful here. it s nice and cool at night and very quiet as opposed to cabagan thats a million degrees always. it was hard leaving all those people we were teaching and being busy all the time. for 2 reasons. 1 reason... siyempre i love them all but another is because our area book is nice and clean. and empty ha were opening the area. it used to be part of area dupax but they split it in half, there hasnt been any missionaries here in a very long time. years if im correct. so the field is ripe already to harvest ha ha. 

my companions name is elder pingol. he is a philipino and its going to be a good companionship im very excited for this cycle! times already flying by and  the months are passing like weeks. weeks like days, days like hours, hours like minutes. etc....
he is from a place called laguna and he is definately a big change coming from elder hawlader. my companion knows the gospel and speaks tagalag! its crazy how that seems like a miracle to me right now. 

there is a tatay that lives here his name is tatay collantes man he is the most masipag ( means like hard working ) with missionary work that i have ever met! he knows like everyone and hes been trying to set up appoointments for us with everybody he meets ha ha. hes a little crazy but his heart is in the work and we are very blessed to have him as our branch mission leader here in dupax del sur. 

they have a whole bunch of dialects here. mostly ilocano, they also have some sinnay, igarot, and ibanug. (luckily they almost all speak tagalag also) it will be crazy coming home and only speaking one language after sacrament meeting being conducted in elglish, ilocano and tagalag all mixed together ha ha. 

i hope everything is good with you there. things are good for me here im happy and greatful for all these great opportunities that the lord is giving me. like how we are going to start a meeting group up there where we only hold sacrament meeting... probably in a bamboo hut , or under some trees or in a small house if we get lucky. i would just never get to experience those things if i wasnt here. its a testimony builder ya know why? because sometimes we think about investigators coming to church and it being perfect and they will like the church and be comfortable.,, and at first i was turned off by the idea about meeting under a tree. but then i realized. the church started with how many people in a small house? they had persecutions and all those sacrafices... why? well because the same spirit that is in a nice chapel will be in a small meeting house and a small group of people gathered under a tree to partake of the sacrament is just as important to god as a whole ward. petty cool when you think about it. 

well i love you all take care ill update you on things next week! mahal ko kayo ulit... elder landeen

 hello bishop heres my experience for the weekly missionary thing...
we have been teaching this family (les active) they are all members and all inactive (noon) theres only a father mother and son that live there right now but there are more members in the family that are living in manila that are members also. when elder aguila and i first went to their house they hid from us for almost 3 weeks. we cornered them a few times and the lessons were good, but tatay was NOT a low hanging fruit. he had all the problems i could think of, he worked on sundays, he was ofended back in the day and he was now drinking and smoking. members made jokes a lot that itll be a miracle if they come back. and ill admit at times i also wondered if he would ever make some progresion. ive been here a little over five months and every week 2 or three times we have been there. reading the book of mormon and doing all the things we could think of to get the spirit back in his life. i remember 1 time we had a lesson with nanay and gilbert( the 14 year old son) who hadnt been going to church for over a year and were sometimes attending a born again christian church. this was when brother chua was my companion. we had a lesson about what we can do to help tatay make the steps to be active again and we set goals for them to start praying for him every day and showing him a good example of reading the scriptures and so on... anyways on saturday a miracle happened. out of nowhere a letter arrived at his work, making him change schedule from weekends to weekdays. we had a appointment set but we both felt to just cancel it and go to the vinaraos,,, this was one of the most powerful lessons and times ive felt the spirit in my life. we were guided in everything to say with what schriptures to use and at the end they all comitted to come to church as a family. and they did. they had such a good experience at church that they all promised to come every week and start working towards... the temple. ( this was one of the key lessons in them deciding to come to church ) during the closing prayer of the lesson i felt a joy that almost took over my body it was not something ive felt before it had to be liike what happened to ammon when he ran into alma after their very long mission. i cant believe it still william vinarao came to church. promised to get rid of his vice and come as a family every week. i cant even express my grattitude that i was able to be like ammon said an instrument in the lords hands. this area has been well hard for me personally with a lot of things but now ive got the answer to the prayer i prayed about 4 months ago. yep i did do whats right and even though the members didnt like me for it gods proud of me. what an experience. 

hello that experience i sent you was the highlight of the week. so im feling pretty blessed right now. and also the work with dan and jorami mansiban. this couple is well this is one of them that grows your testimony that god called you through a prophet. i fel a special closenes with dan that i havent felt with other investigators. i love all of them of course but this is diferent. like i know him is the only description it really does sound corny and like its from an lds fiction book but well its how it is. yesterday we somehow comvinced the second councilor and bishop to go on splits with us... i went with bishop and the second councilor to the mansibans and elder hawlader went with marlon ( an rm in our ward ) i saw some true repentance and humility that just hit me deep inside with many memories of myself. he said something in our lesson that well... grows my testimony (like i said earlier) he said slowly and quietly while not really looking us in the eye... "i really want to change and i know i can, but i really need your help i cant do it alone" . if you knew dan.... hes a ladies man a cock fighter hes pretty well of financially has many friends and well like anyone living that life style./.. pretty full of the pride of the world... he wasnt just at the great and spacious building in lehis dream he was the owner... but i saw well true repentance. manifesting before the church that he is repenting of his sins and humbling himself before god. ah i cant even write these things my words are lacking. but anyways for anything not sure if they are going to go on a mission.... dont be an idiot. again i repeat dont be an idiot. 

i hope things are all good there in the wonderful place you live. this is gonna be a wek of change for me i dono if im staying here to see gilbertson be baptised on saturday, or if my area is really going to be split and what part of that area im going to be assigned in... what a cool experience. its like christmas... who am i going to spend every second o fhte next 6 to 12 weeks with? how exciting ha ha. well i love you all take care keep on truckin... elder landeen

kamusta po kayo mga minamahal kong kapatid, nais kong sabihin sa inyo na buhay pa rin ako, humihinga pa at mayroon na po kaming internet na medyo mabalis. bale sana maganda nd sulat ko sa inyo ngayon.

like the tagalag intro?
 sorry about last week man that was a pain in the ()(). i think ill give you all a few updates on how things are going here in cabagan. and what changes are going to be happening here in the next coming weeks. 

on transfer day my area is getting split in half, theyre adding 2 more elders into my beautiful castle of a house and cutting my area in half. this is exciting and stinks at the same time. excitng because the investigators we have in both halves will be able to be focused on better but stinks because well helf of them i wont be able to be teaching anymore. and then we will have to be starting from having jam pached days to ah crap what are we gonna do now... i havent been there in a while im not all that excited to go back ha but it will be great to experience it again. 

i wanna talk a little about dan and jorami. i dont think ill tell you everything about them bcause its long but long story short dan is a lot like me and jorami is a very nice but different and loud person. i love them very very much. i talked about dan before but i dont think i ever talked about jorami. its interesting being in a missionaries shoes teaching and counceling people almost twice your age about how to change their life. dan has had a long life of well sin. starting when he was a kid hes been there and done that. enough said ha. and some hard big choices have been made and ive seen in his eyes what a would describe as what alma must have felt (to a certain degree) after the angel appeared to him and he realized and acceptied how wicked he has been. i can see a real desire to change, but the helplessnes that satan so freely gives to us all after he has wrapped us in his chains. i remember something i once heard that the feling of being square with god is one of the best feelings in the world. i know thats true, i would like to add my testimony that the feeling of knowing your not square with god but not knowing how to change yourself is one of the worst. the feeling of hopelessness because for so long youve chose the wrong you end up believing the lies whispered in your ears that maybe you cant really ca\hange. and theres no way..... i can see it in his eyes and it makes you just sad inside. the pull of addiction, the peer pressure, the guilt of past transgressions is just weighing him down. yes you can hide it well but at night when your about to go to sleep theres the real you wondering if you have any hope. this is dan right now. 

im so greatful for the savior because if it werent for him poeple like dan and me wouldnt have any hope. im greatful that no matter what it is youve done you can make it right. and im glad im here. i got a text the other night and wow ive been in the field for a year now.. so that means 14 months in the mission. and im glad with where i am. no matter what kid of problems or discouragement we feel in life or while your out serving its a comfort to know that the savior has already felt it and made a way for you to do what he asked. training a bangladeshi has been stinkin hard. to be honest sometimes its like taking a little brother that doesnt speak your language out to teach people, but ive learned more from this companionship than i have from any other one. its a big world out there many cultures and many problems but one faith one lord and one baptism for them all. i think the best way to describe a mission, for me, is a big karma experience for all the bad things you did to other people. it helps you understand people. oh thats what mom and dad felt t\when i didnt go to school and i said i did, and thats why god said through a prophet dont steady date when your young, im really glad im here. 
anyways ive rambeled on with basicly no direction just a bunch of jumbled thought. just wanna say i love you! take care ill write again next week. elder landeen

well i timed it, i waited 48 minutes for my email to load. so i cant reply. the joys of the philippines, we looked for 20 minutes for a computer shop with internet, we finally found one and man  its given me a new test o fpatience. i love you all ill update you on things next week sorry! elder landeen

hello everybody

lets

get

started

it was a great week. many successes that are hard to describe and some things that make you very sad inside. ill go ahead and shared a few of them with you.

first of all the investigator i talked about a few weeks ago karmencita. we had a great lesson with her on saturday and the spirit was strong and she comitted to tell her family she wanted to be baptised and she would come to church and she shared her testimony how she knows that its all true..... 

she came to church. after she attended church at catholic. she hadnt talked with her parents about her coming to church and she said she didnt know if she could. and then this morning she texted and said shes decided to started serving in her own church and shes sorry that she cant join.... which makes me think a lot about agency and choices. gods very intelligent and patient with us. i cant begin to understand how he can watch all of us screw things up so bad sometimes and just wait and watch patiently.. this lady knows its true felt it in her heart feels it when she reads the book of mormon and feels it when she comes to church.. but the family pressure is just not something she can handle,. the trial of the faith is hard... it makes you sad to watch people that you know feel the sirit and know the truth to turn away from it. 

next on a brighter note. we had sister maricel pelo come to church for the first time in over 4 years! ive been teaching this family for the whole time ive been here and marical when i first got here would leave the second we came. and then if she was there she wouldnt speak to us. wouldnt even look at us. then somehow one day soething just happened. she started listening. then slowly started reading the book of mormon. and then finally yesterday she came to church. bishop didnt really believe it happened he was very shocked. its a long slow process but wow its rewarding that first week they finally come to church. her and her 3 children only attended sacrament meeting but they said they would be back next week again. ive really learned one truth here. reading in the book of mormon is the most important thing anyone can do in order to stay on the strait and narrow,. thats why nephi and lehi saw in their vision the "rod of iron" and people "holding fast to it". what does this rod of iron represent? the word if god. the scriptures. ive been working with less actives for about 8 months now. and ive seen in every single situation that as soon as they started reading again in the book of mormon... they started to gain the desire to come back to church. i guess thats the blessing of "holding fast to the word of god" it really helps to keep you on the straite and narrow path. 

the next is dan and jorami. dan likes cock fighting and gambeling. thats his big trial now in batteling the natural man and having his desires changed. (mosiah 3 19) man satan does a good job on decieving the world. look at all the things that seem so harmless at first but turn into addictive habbits. hes very good at what he does. 

thing continue to progress here. in about to the 1 year in the field mark. ha. wow. crazy. hope you all are good and enjoying the weather! mahal ko kayong lahat.. elder landeen

kumusta po tatay ( hi did how are you )

this week on newsroom philippines cabagan edition we have an exciting weather forecast of rain. diferent kinds of rain. in the words of forest gump we have big rain little rain big old fat rain, sometimes rain that comes in sideways, sometimes its basically just a mist that your walking into. not rain but litirall like your walking in a big mister . it floods up above our ankles at least 1 time a week. earlier we played volleyball in the rain that was fun. sometimes it is really rediculously hot in the morning and then thats how you know in the after noon it will rain really hard. and sure enough there comes the rain. 

as far as typhoons like whats happening in manila nothing like that has happened since the first of my mission last september. things in manila are very sad the new elder that came in talked about how when they left the airport it was all flooded even just right outside the airport doors. very sad. 

thats the weather report for this week ha. 

the work of the lord is going forward! always and then sometimes seems like its going backwards. sometimes i have like realizations as im walking around here in the philippines. like wow am i really on a mission? and about the book of mormon like what elder holland said. its hard to imagine how someone could really make up a book like that, its too good for a bad man to write it and theres really not an honest man that would do it unless it was true. its weird how sometimes in life your testimony seems to go up and down. but well i guess thats what the whole walking by faith is. 

theres a family here in cabagan thats such a great family temple cealed and everything they just have one thing that they just cant quite get their minds over, they have a little store that they sell all sorts of things at they just wont close it down on sundays. it makes you see what a blessing it is to have the day of rest the lord has given us. this family pays tithing and always helps members when they need it and thats thier justification for keeping it open on sundays but man they are missiong about on such a great blessing it makes me a little bit sad. im glad that i grew up in a house that we learned to keep the sabbath day holy. were not perfect but we did it. so once again thank you for that. 

 these are just some pictures. the big muscle man is gilbert,. he was supposed to be beptised on saturday but he started drinking again so we had to move his date. and the other is romel and my companion elder hawlader. anyways i llove you and talk to you next week keep me updated on the merit news... elder landeen

helloo!
to start off yes heavy rain is a part of life. and its not something i
write about because it is normal ha and i dont htink about it any
more. as far as a baugio (typhoon) cabagan has flooded a few times but
that happens a lot. the baugio must have been farther north than us
here in cabagan. im glad that im not in manila mission they have had
some really bad flooding the past while (the members are saying from
the news) in tagalag kawawa sila ( like poor them they are having a
bad time )

its kinda late i wanna just share with you a little experience before
i go. yesterday at church there was a sister that we found a few weeks
ago karmencita. she is having a hard time with family problems they
are very catholic and they dont want her to come to church here. (she
is in her 30's by the way ) anyways every week she tells us she wont
be coming to church but every week somehow she ends up showing up. and
she always seems confused why. she says there is something that wakes
her up early sunday morning with some excited feeling that she
described as making her legs move and get herself ready to go to the
church. she almost seems upset when she gets there. why she says over
and over, and then finaly yesterday family problems were bad and even
neighbors were giving her a hard time. the members of her church were
texting her telling her they miss her in the choir, and they want her
to come back, and if you think about that that would be hard for
anyone to leave when your a part of something like that. sunday
morning she said i wont be there im going to catholic church and we
believed her this time and then towards the end of sacrament meeting
she arrived looking different. i went out into the fawyer and she
immediately asked me what is it about your church that makes me come
here, she said theres no band, no dancing and guitar ( thats the kind
of "worship" that she is used to and loves) and she said what is it
that you have here that makes me come every week i dont undewrstand.
she really wanted to know what it was. and so i said of course,,,, we
have the spirit and this is the true church, and you know that and
feel it in your heart., and she admitted that thats true, and then
left.
its just another testimony about how christ is the good sheppard and
he is working in the hearts of the children of men. its helping them
to open the door and trust in him is the hard part. feeling the spirit
and knowing isnt enought. they have to act on it.l thats the hard
part. im just greatful to see that ive very feww times here seen the
spirit working on someone this strong and im greatful to be a
witrness. \

anyways out of time love you all talk to you next week elder landeen