Preparing for Area Split

Kumsta galing sa PHILIPPINAS!!! Hello my family, how are you all!? Holy hannah, I can't believe it's P-day already. Blow's my mind. But I have much to catch you up on. So this week has been pretty great. We're still trying to get ready for the split, so it's been really busy. It's kind of hard because, well, no one knows what our boundaries are. Not even the bishop or the ex-stake president, or any other leadership in the ward. Talk about grey areas. Kind of a mess. Haha. So we're trying to figure that out still. My companion goes home in less than two weeks....I'm really excited for next transfer....that's all :) I'm just ready to hit the ground running. So first of all can I just say how awesome my mission president is. We had interviews last week, and he's just so great. He reminds me of dad. I've heard of other mission presidents that when they do interviews just go through the lists of questions, but not President DeLaMare. All he says is, so, how are you doing? And goes from there. He's has a really laid back, open feel about him, but you know that there is a line and if you cross the line, bad things will/can happen. See why he reminds me of dad? :) That interview was exactly what I needed. He just told me to be patient and wait it out for now, so that's exactly what I'm trying to do.

The work is going well. We have about 5 people right now that are for sure baptisms. It's just hard because they can't get baptized til they come to church 4 times in a row, so we're waiting for their church counts so we can set final dates. Jeyer is doing really well. Man, the more I find out about that kid's family the more my heart aches for him. I just have no idea what some people have to go through. We have another investigator, May-Ann, she's absolutely stellar. Such a sweetheart and she really wants to learn. And then this week we started teaching Marvin. Holy hannah, talk about people that have been prepared! So we were just asking for directions so we OYMed him and gave him a pamphlet. He lives just around the corner from us. So the next day we stopped by and gave him a Book of Mormon. When we came back for the first lesson, he's already in 1 Nephi 26 and when we asked him to pray about it to know it was true, he said he didn't need to because he already knew it was. Yeah. So crazy. We haven't extended a baptismal date to him yet because when we went back yesterday, well, he was drunk. Haha. But that's ok! He doesn't know the word of wisdom yet :) It's just cool to see how the Lord helps us with the work so much. I was reading in Jacob 5 and I noticed that with the parable, the Master is already there pruning and preparing the trees before he even calls in the servants. That's how it is really. He prepares them, we just find them.

Spiritual moments from the week: so yesterday I just realized how great church really is. You know how you sit there a lot of the times and you go, yeah, I already know this, or yeah, I've heard this before. Well next time you go to church, imagine you're sitting there with a brand new investigator that doesn't really know anything about the church, all the doctrine, additional commandments like tithing, what temples are all about, about church culture, nothing...it's a whole new experience. I was sitting there with my investigators and it was just so cool because I realized how new all of this was to them and how lucky I am that I've just known it all my life. It makes me so excited for them because there's just so much for them to know that will help them with their lives. And it's great too because then they get additional information that we just don't have time to teach in lessons. It was pretty awesome.

Second one is from yesterday. We went and visited a member family that has a grandson that is a recent convert. We just shared a scripture and then had tatay, sorry, that means dad, actually the grandpa in this case. Anyway, he said the prayer. And during the prayer he just started crying and telling the Lord he was sorry they didn't have enough money for them to go to church and follow that commandment, and how he wished that they could and how bad he felt that he couldn't take his family to church every week. Oh my goodness, it was incredible. You see, this family, they make about 200 pesos a week, that's about 5 dollars. And here, there are some things that are cheaper, but a lot of things are American price. So they don't have much to say the least. And here's the 70 year old man, in their little tiny house, just crying as he prays to God for forgiveness. Holy cow, it was incredible. And you know what, God understands that. He understands the desires we have, even if we don't have the means to actually do it all. It was really humbling.

So questions ......Yes, the sisters are from a different area. So what they'll do is move them to a new apartment because they're putting 4 missionaries in their area as well and then all the missionaries from our two areas will live in our house. We figured out yesterday though that if they do that, they'll be switching out the sisters in either our area or the other sisters area with elders because we wouldn't have enough elders in our district/zone to fill all the leadership positions. So that means they'll be whitewashing either our area or the bago bantay area with 4 new elders. So we'll see where I am after next transfer. It'll be interesting. No, it doesn't make me the senior companion. I still have 6 more weeks left of training, but I will be the only one who knows the investigators, area, ward, etc. Yeah, I have a lot to memorize in the next week and half, lets just say that.

Oh yeah, and white washing means they take out all the old missionaries and put brand new ones in, which means they don't know the area, the investigators, anything basically. You sometimes loose a lot of investigators and potentials when that happens, but the mission is growing so fast right now there's not really an option. In July there were only 85 missionaries here. Now we're at 135 and by January it'll be back up to 186. Talk about a lot of trainers, a lot of new areas, and a lot of greenie missionaries.

When you said you were canning tomatoes and peaches, man I miss our garden. Vegetables and fruits are pretty expensive here in the city so they don't really eat them as much. Personally, that's where I spend all my extra money. I'd much rather buy some apples than stop at McDo for lunch. Doesn't look like I've changed much :) And ps, I think the boys being scared of girls is a good thing....keeps them out of trouble :) And much better for them so they don't have a girl when they leave on their missions.  I love that twit got chosen to represent her class too! Yeah, she's pretty much the greatest :)

Just a few more things because I'm out of time. Will you start printing off the emails I send and also the emails you send to me and keeping them in order? I figure if we do that as we go it won't be such a mess to organize and do later on. P-day is on Wednesday next week because it's transfer week, so email will be coming then. Also, what's Ryan's address up at school so I can write him?  So I also realized my emails are probably longer than Brooke’s and I just sat and laughed. I'm sorry if I bore anyone :) Iyen Lang. That's all for today. I love you all and hope the week goes fantastically for you! Mom, thanks for everything you do. I appreciate it more than you even know. Love you.