24 December 2012

Magandang Hapon po!

Kamusta at Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!

Merry Christmas Eve! Pretty weird that I will get to talk to and see you in 2 days. It seems like I just barely skyped you like a month ago on Mothers Day! Somebody must have pushed fast forward on time. I don't like how fast time is going by. I can't believe Ben is already home. I still remember when he left just like it was yesterday. Make sure and give him an extra howdy from me. 

The Christmas package still hasn't come, so I'm guessing it is just being really slow because it is Christmas. There are also several other missionaries in the same situation, so I don't feel too left out. And if it never does come, at least it will be a nice Christmas gift to a Filipino postal worker. Haha. 

Mission Christmas Party

Last week was busy with ward and mission Christmas parties, and this week is also going to be busy with visiting a lot of people and their preparations for Christmas/New Years. Almost our whole day tomorrow consists of visiting people that invited us to eat. It should be interesting trying to work and share any messages because pretty much everybody is going to be busy with friend and family parties. 

We also have plans to provide a miniature Christmas to a super poor family. In this family, the Tatay was baptized many years ago but has been inactive ever since the local branch was merged with Tuguegarao Ward 2 and can't/not willing to make the extra sacrifices with time and transportation to go all the way into the city (a common concern we come across). Over the last couple of years, he has been bedridden due to some sickness and infection in his hip and is very weak. They have wanted to take him to the doctor for a while now, but can't afford it. He relies on his children to take care of him and make food every day, because his wife is working abroad and won't be back for another couple years. They live in a very small, modest bamboo house with no electricity, only using a couple candles at night. The oldest child is 17, married, lives about 45 mins away in the mountains of Penablanca with her husband, and is the one paying for the schooling of her 3 sisters and food for the family. Every time we go there to visit, we want to share a message to bring them closer to God and feel more happiness in life but we never have anybody to work with us, and tatay is too weak to join any lesson. We asked them if any members have been by to visit them, and they said not for a couple years. We then asked them what their plans were for Christmas, and they said they don't have any money to prepare anything special, but that is okay because the only thing that matters is that they are together. With the support of some other missionaries in the zone, we are going to carol to them and take some small gifts and provide a decent lunch. It should be a memorable experience for all involved. It is very humbling to see how blessed I have been throughout my whole life.

Earlier today we went to Cabagan to do a baptismal interview, and when we got to the church I was surprised to see many members and people I knew because it also happened to be the ward Christmas party. It is always fun seeing people I worked with before. And now I can actually have good conversations with them because I can actually speak Tagalog now. Haha.

Well, I will see you all in a couple days. Don't forget to take time and remember the true meaning of Christmas-giving simple acts of service to others because that is what Jesus Christ would want us all to do. Just like President Uchtdorf said, we can't expect to feel the Christmas spirit if we don't have it in our own hearts. 

Mahal ko kayo!

Elder Nay

17 December 2012

Magandang Hapon po!

Kamusta!

Elder Lasay and Elder Nay unloading their new fridge.

Well, between transfer week and moving apartments, I think we have spent more time traveling and sitting in meetings than actually working in our area. My new area and companion is really awesome. Believe it or not, I am still here in Tuguegarao Ward 2 and still with Elder Lasay! Haha I think I am destined to stay long periods of time in my areas and with my companions. By the end of this cycle, I will have been in this area for 6 months. I love staying in areas though because I get to know people a lot more and see their progression. The good news is that I get to stay in our new apartment that we found! We are almost all settled in by now, and it is a much better place. Now we actually live in our area and within walking distance to a lot of our appointments. And we don't have to try to go to bed with drinking parties right outside our bedroom window all night and living in the hot and stuffy city. It really is a miracle that we were able to find our new apartment. Finding potential apartments here is a lot different than from back home because it is 100% off of people knowing other people that are renting, or seeing it yourself-definitely no real estate agents or any kind of public advertisements. We had been asking everybody we saw and asked all the members to help us look for several months, but nothing was working out. We even made it a conversation starter in our tracting efforts, "Excuse me, do you know of any houses for rent around here? Oh really? Thats too bad... By the way, we're missionaries...." Haha. Eventually, President Carlos even politely reminded us that we NEEDED to find a new apartment sooner than later, so one night we set our entire schedule for just looking and asking people for a place we could rent. Before we left, we prayed that we would be guided to find an apartment we could rent. As soon as we got off of the tricy about halfway into our area, we went to the first house we saw which happened to have people on their front porch. We were surprised when they told us that there was one just a couple houses down the street. On our way to check it out, we joked among ourselves that it would probably be like all of the other ones people had told us about that were far from church standards-no running water, unsealed roof, sketchy surroundings, etc. When we saw it, we were shocked because it was a legitimate rent-able place, and even had a contact number on the front door. We immediately texted the number and they agreed to come and meet us within a few minutes to check it out. The landlord is even super nice and easy to work with, which is another rare thing here. After a few days, the Shaners came with the paperwork and final approval, and the rest is history! We definitely had a little extra help from above finding that one.

First off, that is way cool that Aimee is pregnant again! And I should actually be home to meet my new niece/nephew after birth (just barely...haha)! 

I had to give a talk yesterday in church, and it is weird to see how used to speaking I am now in front of people. I remember the good ol' days of Young Men's, and getting assigned to talk in Sacrament meeting was the worst nightmare ever. Now it is surprisingly easy and not nearly as intimidating. 

Just yesterday, we were blessed to find a great new investigator. Even more exciting, it is a male so we don’t have to worry about not being able to teach him if there is nobody else present. We found him by making our usual rounds of follow up visits with some of our last contacts, and getting the same usual result of them not being home or not being able to teach because they are busy or there is no other male present. After following up with one of our last contacts, he said we couldn’t teach him, but just as we were leaving he told us to go to his friend’s house across the street because he was interested in learning more. He told us we had talked to his friend before, but Elder Lasay and I knew neither of us had talked to anybody else in that area with his description before. Nevertheless, we were happy to have a new and unexpected referral and contacted him immediately. When we arrived, a young man fitting the description saw us and immediately stopped what he was doing and let us into his home. After some conversation, we realized that he had been taught by missionaries several years ago and had apparently seen us walking around his friend’s house and mentioned to his friend that he wished we would visit him too. We only taught him a simple first lesson and focused on the How To Begin Teaching, but he was eager to set a return appointment. It is interesting to realize that even if we are walking around and seemingly being “punted” all day, no effort is wasted and the Lord is still preparing people for us. The Lord's work is hastening and it is a pleasure to be a part of His army of restoring Christ's church on the earth. He hears our prayers, and is always there to help us despite our problems. The best way to serve Him, especially at this time of year, is going about "feeding His sheep" and doing good deeds for other people.

Well, it is time to head, but I am looking forward to our skype on my Dec. 26 about 8:30 in the morning. Hopefully I will get to talk to every one! 

Salamat po sa lahat,

Mahal ko kayo,

Elder Nay

10 December 2012

Magandang Hapon po!

Kamusta!

What a week. I think every time I say it was a busy week the next week just gets busier. I feel like we barely had any time to work in our own area this week because of going to Cauayan for training, Christmas devotionals, and a day of attending baptisms in the zone. The Christmas Devotional by the First Presidency was awesome, hopefully you got to watch it. If not, it is always online. I love listening to the music just as much as the talks. They've got some skills! Haha. The Cauayan mission is also sponsoring a Christmas Devotional for every Stake/District in the mission, which was last Friday for us. It was way cool (but then again, everything is planned by Sis. Carlos!), and the missionaries had to perform a couple songs, and the Shaners tagged along with their great musical abilities. Elder Shaner played his violin, and they did several songs which were awesome. I was super happy when we had 2 of our investigator families show up, because even though it is a sacrifice for people to make a trip to the stake center from our area at night, they were definitely in for a treat. The last song we did was "I Believe in Christ", which was kind of fun because its not a typical Christmas song, but then again its a perfect Christmas song because that is what Christmas is all about-Christ. The Spirit was super strong and it definitely helped build my testimony that Christ truly is our one and only Savior.

Not really sure why everyone is freaking out about the whole typhoon thing... If it was up to me, I wish there was a typhoon every week because it makes the temperature to a blistery 65 degrees and a nice breeze. Just as long as it doesn't directly hit Cauayan... Haha. I have loved the cool days and good nights sleep. There really hasn't been much rain here, just perfect temperatures. 

Earlier, we spent several hours getting our apartment all ready to be packed away. Tomorrow, the Shaners are coming with their truck to help us move into our new apartment. It will definitely be a nicer place and keep us from having to travel so much everyday. At last, I will be able to live in an apartment that I found! Haha. But, transfers are on Thursday, so I may only get to live in it for 1 day before being transferred. It will be nice to just spend Christmas here, but, it's not exactly up to me. I've been here for 4 and a half months, so odds are starting to add up against me. I'm guessing the package should be here by then so I can probably pick it up this week. 

I'm happy to Skype any time that the most people will be available, because I do want to be able to talk to everyone at least for a couple minutes-even if everybody is scattered across the U.S. If it works out for everyone, maybe lets just plan on my December 26 about 9AM. Probably be about 7PM for you... Just let me know if that is okay with everyone. If your Christmas eve will be better, we can do that too.

Anyways, thanks for your letters and support. Good luck to mom having her neck hacked at this week.

Mahal ko kayo!

Elder Nay

3 December 2012

Magandang Hapon po!

Kamusta!

I will have to be quick today because we went on a hike this morning and don't have much time to email because we still have to wash our clothes (by hand of course) and be ready to work in less than 2 hours. The hike wasn't anything too long or strenuous (at least for me and my Nay legs haha), it was just up a "mountain" (really a big hill), but it did have a really beautiful view. We got up at about 4:30 in the morning so we got to see the sun rise above the mountains and saw beautiful sun rays coming out of the clouds on the valley floor below us. It felt good to get out and go on a little hike again and see some nature. On the top of the hill there are some really primitive houses probably smaller than our food storage room. We had a little barbeque up at one of the houses and then we had to go down a steep hill to the stream to fetch some water to use to wash plates and stuff. Glad I don't have to do that every day. Haha. We even saw 2 little kids leaving to walk down the huge hill to make it to elementary school. Quite the hike just to go to elementary school. One of the most memorable parts though is I can officially say I have ridden in the back of a big dump truck  Haha there were 12 of us waiting on the side of a rural highway forever so we could flag something down and the dump truck with no load in the back was the first thing that stopped. It was pretty awesome. I am getting quite professional at hitchhiking because we have to do it several times a week just to get back at night. We just stand out on the side of hi ways with our thumbs out waiting for someone to have pity on us.

I think the highlight of our week was on Saturday, when we spent the entire day doing a baptism interview, witnessing our own baptism, and training the Stake leaders and bishoprics. We probably spent 20-30 minutes training them about the importance of hanging on to the recent converts and the importance of keeping them involved. Several years ago, I would have just laughed at the idea of presenting training to a bunch of church leaders for that amount of time. But, everything turned out well and I never even seemed nervous about doing it, and we wished we even had more time to train them even more. I suppose that is one of the extra blessings of serving a mission-makes you a lot more self confident. It was definitely a day where we both couldn’t help but go to bed a few minutes early because of such a mentally and physically exhausting day running from place to place. We were able to have a very spiritual experience as we witnessed how prepared this individual was and the strong testimony he has. I had the privilege of performing the interview while Elder Lasay just sat in the room, but during the interview his desire to become a member was made very apparent by his testimony he shared of each principle in the baptismal interview questions. There was no doubt in my mind that he was ready to be baptized. The Spirit was definitely in the room to confirm it, and even Elder Lasay could feel it. Being the one entrusted with the responsibility of determining this person’s readiness for baptism makes me appreciate my own baptismal covenants and desire to fulfill them better. 

It was very rewarding to see that the Tatay of these 2 primary girls (ages 9 and 11) made the commitment to make himself worthy and prepared to perform the baptism on his children. Elder Lasay and I had to practice with him several times the process of the baptism and helped him memorize the baptism prayer, but it was super awesome to see him come from being less active, quitting his smoking, and making the extra sacrifice to come to church. This family is very poor and it is a big sacrifice for them to make it to church each week. Whenever I think or hear of an excuse of not being able to make it to church, I will always remember the Pader family.

Well, sorry I don't have time to write more. Maraming salamat po for your emails and support. Not going to lie though, that is kind of cool mom got to cut open dead people and practice amputations-because I'm sure that is a skill she will use often... Haha. Makes the term Graveyard Grace sound even more fitting. :) 

Mahal ko kayo,

Elder Nay

P.S. be thinking about which time and day you want me to skype