6 February 2012

Peter's Baptism
Elder Aguila, Peter, Elder Nay

Peter's baptism

Cave in Penablanca

Tricy ride to cave--18 missionaries in 3 tricys!

Cave

Tricy ride

Tricy ride

Tricy ride

Magandang Hapon po!

Kamusta po kayo diyan?

Well, doesn't sound like too much has changed for you over there. Work is still work, going to school still sucks, weddings are still expensive, and babies are getting bigger. Surprisingly enough, not too much has changed over here either! 

Just as expected, Peter's baptism was a success. He went underwater and came out just fine (unlike a baptism we saw on Saturday that an 8 year old got all suited up in white and then got in the water, didn't want to go under so he splashed himself then walked out. Still hasn't been baptized). There was a great turnout of members there, especially for being a Tuesday night, so that made it a little more exciting. He has officially already received the priesthood, made a counselor in the YM presidency, and working with us a couple nights every week. After his baptism there was a bunch of food and everyone who wanted to could come and eat.  I have a bunch of pictures to send to you, but the computer doesn't want to read my card so I guess it will have to wait for next week. 

We are still busy as can be and averaging about 20 lessons taught in a 6 day period, meaning every chance we get to go on splits with ward members we jump at it. Its starting to get a lot more fun here (not that it wasn't in the first place) now that I can actually communicate with people and build relationships with them. Imagine that.

During one of our splits with a member, I found myself resorting to handing out pamphlets/tracting due to all of the appointments falling through. Me and the member I was with (who was just baptized in August and planning on a mission) ended up talking to a young man who obviously didn't want to talk to us and pointed us to an 80 year old Nanay that was standing in the doorway and said talk to her in stead. She quickly invited us in and invited us to sit down, and having gone through this before, I know trying to effectively tract into old people is hard. While sitting down and thinking of what I was to say, she immediately said, "Sorry its been so long since I've been to church." We had no idea she was even a member. I asked her why and she said that she would like to be active again but doesn't have anybody to go with and was too shy/health is too weak to go by herself. I then told her that we would be there to pick her up for church and she said ok. After about 30 seconds of conversation with her, she had already agreed to come to church again! Still being surprised about what had just happened, we spent about 15 minutes talking to her and building up a better relationship. Turns out, she was one of the pioneer members here in Cabagan and stopped coming because one of the members stopped picking her up. She said she was sitting down inside when she heard someone talking outside and decided to step in the doorway to see who it was. When we picked her up on Sunday morning, she was all dressed up and waiting for us. Thats probably the easiest reactivation I will ever have on the mission! What started out as an awkward conversation with someone turned into someone waiting for someone to just pick her up for church.

For P-day today a bunch of us from the Tuguegarao zone went to some cave in Penablanca (different from the other one I went to). The 30 minute tricy ride to it was fun because there were 18 of us to squeeze into 3 tricys, meaning I rode up top on the little metal luggage rack. If I didn't have buns of steel before, I definitely do now! Haha. Those metal bars got pretty uncomfortable pretty quick, especially with the rocks and bumps. It was fun though. The cave was really awesome. For the entrance, you have to maneuver and duck around a bunch of stalagtites/mites and as you go farther and farther in, it opens up more and more into several big chambers, with huge stalagtites/mites everywhere. There were even a bunch of bats in there to keep us company. :)  I wanted to keep going on because it was just getting bigger and better, but the sisters wanted to go back....  I guess the rest will have to wait until I visit the Philippines again someday.

Well thats the exciting things that happened this week. I'm going to try to send everyone a little note because it has been a while since I've been able to reply to any of you. I would love to send one to Kyle and Aimee too but seems how they havn't written me yet I don't have their email address..... (hint hint).

Thanks for being you!

Mahal Kita,

Elder Nay