16 April 2012

Magandang Hapon po!‏

Kamusta po kayo!?

Happy birthday to me! Not surprisingly, just because its my birthday, not too much has changed! We started off the day by having an absolute blast washing clothes, then moved on to our next exciting activity of cleaning the apartment. We spent a couple hours just cleaning our bedroom alone-to give you an idea of how absolutely disgusting the room was, while we moved everything and swept, we swept up several long girl hairs (hopefully from the sister missionaries.... Haha). Now, the last time sister missionaries were in there was about a year and a half ago. I'm guessing that's probably about the last time the place has ever been dusted or really swept. Not to mention the random trash laying around. We decided to take a break and have lunch and email, then when we get back we're back to cleaning some more. Conveniently, we have apartment checks this week so we didn't really have any other option than to clean today. Nothing that says happy birthday like cleaning other people's dirt and garbage all day! Hopefully next week we'll do something more exciting though to make up for it. There isn't really any special or weird birthday tradition here, pretty much just like at home with being able to pick dinner and stuff like that.

It has been really extremely super uncomfortably hot all day every day. To make it even worse, our apartment is just an oven and traps in the heat and it is colder outside than it is in our apartment. At night I woke up a couple of times because my back was too sweaty so I turned over to let it dry out. Good times. Last night Elder Llorin and I just laughed at ourselves when we tried to go to bed because we knew it was going to be futile trying to sleep. Even all the Fillipinos are complaining about how hot it is-that's how bad it is. But I do have good news-people are actually telling me I'm starting to get fat! Ha! Wouldn't that be weird? 

In Roxas there is a place where they make backpacks and fanny packs and stuff for super cheap. There are some just as good as quality as my mountainsmith and can be customized to whatever size and accessories you want, only for about 400 pesos (about 10 bucks). Too bad I paid about 80 for mine at home!

The area here is definitely different than in Cabagan. It is a lot more rural and the people here are much more poor. We teach some people in their grass huts smaller than our living room overlooking their rice fields. Rice fields is the way of life here, and it makes it difficult to find people home to teach during the day because everyone is out in the fields. But the good news is that when people are home, we are super busy and have lots of appointments. People are especially busy now because its harvest season.

Going to church was a little different than normal to say the least. The meetinghouse is probably smaller than our apartment and there aren't any rooms to teach classes in except for the 2 small bedrooms. When church started, there was a grand total of 15 people there, but by the time sacrament started, it got up to a whopping 25 or so. And what a surprise, I was asked to speak over the pulpit. Because all the talks didn't go very long, church was only 2 and a half hours instead of 3. It is definitely an interesting experience, and a lot of the work will be focusing on increasing the faith of members and the less actives. 

Not to worry about the eggnog that was sent-it did make it through customs. I will probably chug it later tonight. And it works out well because the last American that was here left his unopened traditional birthday cake frosting here. 

About the street cards, you don't need to send anything like that because they are all free here through the mission. And if you can find my credit card, go ahead and use it. I hope you remember where it is because I sure don't! Feel free to treat yourself to a new car or something with it. Haha

Thanks for all your birthday wishes and emails, sorry I don't have time to respond to them very quickly. Happy b-day to Jenna too! Crazy that its already been a year. 

Mahal Kita,

Elder Nay

9 April 2012

Magandang Hapon po!

Kamusta na kayo?!

I guess I wasn't meant to be the one to break the record of being in Cabagan the longest. Once I found out for sure that I was being transferred on Tuesday afternoon, I spent the last day and night in Cabagan visiting my recent converts and investigators that I have known for a while. When I visited them I shared with them in Alma 27:25-26 about how we are filled with joy when we share our conversion story with others, then basically had a little testimony meeting with all of them and had them share what they had learned from the time I have been with them. It was a great experience to even hear the investigators that havn't been baptized yet share what they had enjoyed from the simple things such as learning how to pray and read the Book of Mormon. At transfer day, it was fun to see everyone again because my whole batch from the MTC was there and I even got to give Elder Allen a pat on the back and talk to him for a few minutes. It was great to see that Elder Landeen (batch from MTC) took my spot in Cabagan and I know he will be able to make it even better. Now I am the follow up trainer of a batchmate of Elder Aguila in the promised land of the Roxas zone. I knew I was heading off to a fun start when after we threw the luggage on the top of the rented jeepney at the transfer meeting and got in, people had to get back out and give it a push so it could be clutch started. Reminded me of great times of pushing the jeeps halfway around the block. Then in the jeepney floor there were decent sized rusted holes to see the road beneath that I was just hoping the extra weight of my foot wouldn't cause it to break through. I am now in the Maliig area with Elder Llorin. Because of conference I haven't been to church in the meetinghouse yet here, but I am told "it will be an interesting experience". When I first arrived I had to haul out boxes of trash and clean up the apartment to make it somewhat safe before I fell asleep that night. Today that was also our P-day activity-cleaning. We got the place looking okay now, but I think after next weeks P-day activity of cleaning will finally make it reasonable. I couldn't believe how disgusting missionaries have let that place get. I don't think it's really been cleaned in well over a year. I am told there are even worse apartments too. The apartment itself isn't too bad, just needs to be cleaned up a bit (or a lot). But, I will definitely miss the Cabagan apartment. Elder Llorin is very nice though and I can tell this is going to be a good cycle because we see eye to eye on a lot of things. He is a Filipino from the San Pablo region. He is also a good cook so I have been getting a lot more decent food.

I got your package this week. It was opened and inspected by the U.S. Customs, but I think everything is still there and in good shape. Thanks for officially inviting me to Bryan's wedding too. I have been practicing some of the magic tricks to be able to show off to little kids. And of course the sugared goodies are a welcome invite. 

My SD card that I've been using finally became victim to the virus filled computers here and now my pictures can't be read by anything except for my camera. I might just send it home in an envelope and let dad mess with it. Luckily I bought a USB and backed them all up about a week before it crashed so there are only a few that I would lose if worse comes to worse. I also have a couple extra SD cards so I should be good until the next virus makes its way over. 

Easter here wasn't anything too special because i'm in a smaller area. But I'm told that the flogging and people hanging themselves on crosses and stuff was going on in Roxas which is about a 30 minute jeepney ride. The only thing here is that old ladies were singing some verses in the New Testament starting at about 5 in the morning until about 11 at night. It reminded me of the mosques in Egypt. And luckily for me, our apartment is right next to where they were singing. 

Well I think that's about all I have time for today. Thanks for writing and for being you!

Mahal Kita,

Elder Nay

2 April 2012

• 
  

Magandang Umaga po!

Kamusta na kayo?
This week I am emailing a little earlier than usual so I might just have to read your emails next week. We started out the morning playing a little basketball with a bunch of members and it was another humbling experience to see how absolutely terrible I am at it. Every one thinks I am amazing because I am American and 6'2", but they were in for a nice surprise! It really is surprising to see how popular basketball here is. There are hoops and small courts everywhere (streets, fields, random cement pads) and I always love to see the ones that are rigged up to a tree. Most Fillipinos are surprisingly good at basketball and follow the NBA and NCAA much more closely than I ever did. Everybody knows the Utah Jazz and the days of John Stockton and Karl Malone.
This is most likely my last couple of days here in Cabagan because transfer days are this Thursday. Who knows, maybe my 7 and a half months here will turn into 9! They say the record here is 11 months for one missionary so we'll see if I can beat that. Haha. Just to be safe though, I've already started my goodbyes and giving away a lot of stuff to make my packing easier. I didn't realize how much extra crap I brought with me here! Haha. It's been fun though to be here so long and especially to see the area grow so much from since I first got here. I've been passing around a book of remembrance to several members and investigators that I've been working with for a while so I have their information.
The unusual cold and rain has now left and I think later today it will be back to the blazing heat of the summer here. It was over 7 days of not seeing the sun so it's kind of weird to see it now. I tell people I wish it was the same weather as last week and they think I'm crazy. One of the days it rained for about 12 hours straight which was fun. Especially because we didn't have an umbrella. Good thing we're waterproof though! Haha. And no, my waterproof shoes are no longer waterproof because of the huge holes on the bottom. Tops are still good though! They've still got a little life left though before I slap some tire tread on the bottom. Everybody that saw us walking around in the rain as if it was nothing told us we were going to be sick the next day (one of the weird wise tales here is that if you get rained on, you will get sick). And what a surprise, the next day, we did NOT get sick!
As usual we were extremely busy this week and I even beat my last record of lessons taught in one week, which is now 31. It is summer break here so not as many people are in school which makes it easier to teach and also there are several members that are able to work with us more often so we can go on more splits. It was kind of weird this week because I feel like I was on splits with ward members more than I was a companion with Elder Aguila! It's kind of nice to be able to cover twice as much territory though and we are able to visit people that live more on the outskirts of our area that we couldn't visit before. I didn't realize how absolutely huge our area is until earlier this week. It's probably over 30 kilometers big north and south, and who knows how many kilometers east and west. All I know is that it is a couple of "sees" big-that is as far as you can see, then as far as you can see again. I was able to visit a little town on the bottom of the mountains and nothing but pure fields of rice and corn and banana trees. I was only there for a couple of hours but it was fun while it lasted. One of our investigators that will most likely be baptized this month said something interesting that I thought I would share. She has been an investigator since December and just last week was able to completely leave the coffee. I asked her how her prayers were lately and she said much better than before. When I asked her why she said it was because she started praying more for other people rather than herself. It's great to see how much something as simple as teaching someone how to pray can make them feel so much happier and bring them closer to our Heavenly Father.
Hopefully you all had a great conference weekend, and I'll try to do the same this week.
Mahal Kita,
Elder Nay

26 March 2012

Magandang Hapon po!

Kamusta po sa inyong lahat!

Welcome to this new and wonderful Monday! I've recently had a couple people ask me what time it was back in Utah and it's still weird to me to think you are still in Sunday night when it is Monday afternoon here. It has been a great break from the heat these last couple days. It reminded me of Utah and how the weather can change so quickly. Several days in a row I was starting to think it was the hottest I've ever been and wiping away so much sweat, then later that night an unusual cold front came through and it has been like winter again for a few days with a decent wind all the time, and probably about 75 degrees with constant cloud cover and light rain every once in a while. The last couple nights I've even had to turn off the electric fan and close the bedroom window! Except turning off the fan can always be a risk because if the fan is off, the mosquitoes are able to find their way to the ear and waking up to that wonderful noise of a bug flying in your ear. Everyone else is having to bust out the jackets and hats, but I'm loving it! 

That's kind of funny that the old scooter is finally in working order again. The real question is, even though the oil isn't spraying on the legs when you drive, does the speedometer work? That would be a bummer if it did-I was just getting good at guessing speed! But that's great news that the old Potato is still clunking (literally) along. Who knows for how many more days though! Haha. That's pretty ridiculous that gas is about 4$... I think I would drive the scooter everyday instead! Here people are complaining about how gas is high being about 60 pesos for a liter. Pretty sure I'd much rather pay that than the 4$! 

That's weird to me that conference is this week. Well, at least for you folk. It will be weird to see so many white people at one time again when I watch it next week. 

It's kind of fun for me at this time of the year because now all the fruits are coming on in full force and are everywhere. Earlier this week one of the Less Active families we were visiting grabbed a couple of big coconuts from their trees then chopped it open for us as a snack. After drinking the juice inside, they gave me a spoon to start scraping out the insides. I had never realized that papayas were so big! I'll probably start diving into some mangoes this week. 

Not too much has changed in that we are still completely booked all the time and the whole week for me is just turning into appointments that are all meshing together. Some of the investigators that we got from referrals are pretty awesome now and even though we've only met with one of them a couple times, she was excited when we finally gave her a Tagalog Book of Mormon and now she is already well into it and taking notes in the back. It's interesting to see how something that seems so simple as a book can change a person's life. I taught one of our new referral's for the first time and even though he was slightly drunk from coming from a fiesta, he still was very interested and asking questions such as why the Book of Mormon was important. It's also surprised me why so many people are afraid to pray for the first time. I frequently have to spend several minutes trying to convince people why they need to pray at that time and how to do it correctly. 

I tried to send a few pics but as luck would have it, the computer doesn't want to cooperate. Maybe next week.

Good luck with everything you're doing on that side of the world. 

Mahal Kita, 

Elder Nay

19 March 2012

Magandang Hapon po sa inyong lahat!‏

Kamusta!

It has been quite a week for us here in the Philippines! As a result, it feels like it was just yesterday that I was writing you last. I'm sure mom feels the same way. :) We have been busting our butts off out here and it was interesting to count up our lessons and totals for the week to see the fruits of our labors. This has been the busiest week I have had, teaching a total of 27 lessons. For several weeks now every hour of every day has been filled with appointments and study or some kind of meeting. Tracting is now a thing of the past, as we just go straight from lesson to lesson because if we stop and talk we'll be late. But sometimes, we have some people come up to us and start up a conversation. We are still waiting for our order of extra Books of Mormon and pamphlets to arrive because we have now run out and some investigators keep asking us, "When are we going to get our Book of Mormon?". It's always a challenge during our weekly planning sessions to figure out who we are going to go to and how many times during the week. Because of so many different investigators and less actives we are visiting, we are having to reduce the number of times we visit them to 1 or 2 times a week, and sometimes even on an every other week basis. It has been fun to see the Cabagan area just explode with people that want to be taught and learn more. The average church attendance has also increased by about 35 since I have been here. But, a lot of that is also due to the members here having an increased desire to go out and do missionary work too. We always enjoy having members ask us if they can join us and as a result of some of them working with us so often, they have said their desire to go and serve a mission has increased, including the recent converts. I think my days here in Cabagan are numbered seems how I've been here for 7 months now and it will be sad and weird to leave this area to experience a different one. We didn't really realize how tired we were from working so hard until we started falling asleep during studies. I can't really think of any particular hysterical or spiritual moment this week because it has all just kind of blended together. 

It sounds like your week has been similarly busy with going to Georgia and such. The whole flying out of Provo thing sounds like a pretty slick deal! Hopefully by the time I go home next year the Church will be able to just ship me there instead of Salt Lake. I have to laugh at mom for being famous for her southern accent. A while ago a met a new Elder and couldn't help but ask where he was from because of his accent and turns out he is from Tennessee too. I'm glad you were both able to make it to the top of your grueling "hike" to the top of Stone Mountain. That's fun how you got to come home to a big snow storm. Reminds me of when we got back from the cruise last year and we were in our flip flops and pajamas driving through the huge snow storm from Vegas. Good times. You'll probably be in better shape than I am by the time I get home! I guess the only advantage I'll have is being an expert sweater. With the summer coming into full swing, the sweat rags are being used more and more. 

That's awesome that Mom is renewing her EMT again. I think Mom is going to die as an EMT for Mapleton Ambulance. I don't know what the city will do without you when you finally decide to pass on the batan to someone else! 

Well, sorry to be boring this week. Nothing but lessons, lessons, and more lessons, with a lot of sweat in between. Ingat!

Mahal Kita,

Elder Nay

12 March 2012

Tuguegarao Zone with Sister Monsalud as the chef of the day!

Tuguegarao Zone 

Zone Days at the Mission Home

Each quarter President Carlos interviews each missionary. During this quarter President Carlos decided to invite each zone to come to the Mission Home. The zone traveled by jeepney or vans and arrived by 10 am. While president was pulling out one missionary at a time, we asked one of the best cooks in the zone to teach their fellow zone missionaries how to cook one or two dishes. Everyone helped and lunch was prepared. Each day brought a whole new recipe of delicious food.
After the cooking class and lunch we showed 17 Miracles (a great movie about the Wiley Martin Handcart Company). Missionaries could play board games (Uno, Mexican Train, Clue, etc.) We also played Concentration on a giant concentration board. As teams matched musical phrases or tempos we would stop and talk about them or beat out the pattern. By the end of the game missionaries felt more comfortable leading the music in our meetings. It was a full day but so much fun to spend a little time with each zone! (copied from Sis. Carlos Mission blog)

A dog with some awesome eyes

Frederick's baptism

Frederick's baptism

Fireside with Elder Nielsen

Magandang Hapon po!‏

Kamusta po sa inyong lahat!

I am in the process of sending a few pictures but it is slower than molasses so hopefully you'll get everything before I have to go to sleep. 

From all the pictures I saw that you sent, everyday seemed to have a smile on during wedding day so I guess that is a good sign. Maybe its just because after about 6 hours of pictures smiles just get plastered onto the face! Haha. I feel bad I couldn't help participate in the car "decorating" but I'm glad it managed to get done without me. I guess by the time the next Nay wedding takes place will be when I am on the receiving end of the "decorating". Can't wait! Kind of weird that I'm now officially a lone ranger. But, I guess I don't have to say that to the EMPTY NESTERS. I guess you really aren't empty nesters yet because you still have Milo, and he is pretty much like taking care of a little kid. I'm going to have to agree with Dad and say that the fun part sounds like it was the day before the wedding when all the boys got to go shooting guns! Haha. Sounds like a "blast" was had by all. Hopefully you got to say hello to my glock for me in the process, it's probably feeling a little lonely. I feel honored that Jenna spent a little time talking to me during the week. That must have been weird to have 2 little babies in the house at once! Mom was probably feeling a little overwhelmed and ready to see them leave.... Joke! 

Things on this end of the world havn't changed too much. Still fully booked every hour of every day. We did have a one day mission here in Cabagan which meant all day Saturday we had 10 other missionaries and all the stake high council and several members that decided to tag along from different wards. In all we probably had about 50 people helping us out to visit the less actives. It was also miserably hot and not a breeze to be had, but everybody stayed around. I think the water we were drinking was going straight out into sweat. By the end of the day, we were very exhausted but it was a great turnout. It is kind of fun to slowly see the number of less actives come back to church. The new focus is starting to pay off. 

It was also great to see the Nanay of Peter finally come to church. She has been listening and has always participated in the lessons ever since we started teaching Peter back in October or so, but for some reason has never made it to church. This last week I got a little more annoying and bold with her and she told me that she was perfectly fine going to the Catholic church in the afternoon and listening to our messages because she always loves to hear the word of God. I told her to try coming at least once and just because she came it doesn't mean she would have to be baptized. But just like in all the past times she gave a definite, "I'll try". I then told her that we would be coming by at 8:15 to help her "try" to get to church. She told me she would just see us there but I knew exactly what that meant. After telling her we were coming by whether she liked it or not, she said ok! She seemed to really enjoy it especially because it was ward conference which meant that the sacrament meeting was actually conducted like it should be and had good talks. 

And about my goretex shoes-if you can scam a warranty out of it awesome but if not, I'll just wait until they are a little more destroyed then get some tire tread put on the bottom for a hundred pesos or so. 

Well I think that's about all I have to share this week. Have a fun week and don't forget who you are and where you live!

Mahal Kita,

Elder Nay

5 March 2012

Magandang Hapon po!‏

Kamusta!?

Well I was hoping to send some pictures this week but it looks like I got one of the "special" computers that doesn't quite want to cooperate. Maybe next week. After spending about 20 minutes fussing with it I decided to just start typing instead! 

It has been another great and incredibly fast week. We had a real special treat as we got to meet with Elder Nielsen once again. This time it was a special training for just missionaries, and he did it in 2 different sessions so there were only half of us there (about 70). And don't worry, after thinking really hard, I was able to refrain from speaking to him in Tagalog again. His wife was there too and it turns out that her mom grew up in Mapleton too. Small world! He started off the meeting by introducing the concept of using agency to ACT and not wait to be acted upon. When we aren't active, we're just subject to have other people act on us, which makes us so much more vulnerable to do things that we shouldn't be. Then he gave some interesting statistics about the Philippines. In the last 50 years, there have been over 659,000 baptisms, 77,000 which have been in the last 5 years. That is a great number, but unfortunately only about 115,000 are actually attending church every week. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there is a big difference between the 2... Which is why Philippine missions are now different as they are more turned into reactivation missions. The church isn't looking for quantity, we need quality. Everything we do is now revolved around working with less actives and trying to bring people back to church, especially the priesthood. The church here is lacking so much worthy priesthood that it is becoming more and more difficult to fulfill the necessary leadership positions. Looks like too many people have decided to wait to be acted upon rather than acting. They are confident however that the amount of baptisms will not suffer, because as people are reactivated, they will want to work on completing the family and getting them baptized. 

He also discussed the process of personal revelation, which is the most unique thing in our church. If He answered a 14 year old boy's prayer, He can answer anyone elses. But, it all starts with having the faith and actually asking for what you need/want. If we don't act, nothing is going to happen. Then it is up to us make ourselves more vulnerable to receive an answer by doing the things we are supposed to and searching the Book of Mormon. He brought up that all sections of the Doctrine and Covenants came from a prophet that ASKED in prayer certain things. 

The last 45 minutes or so was just dedicated to a question and answer session which was very interesting. Why is it that we can always think of things to ask a general authority, then when it comes time to ask, the mind goes blank? Any type of question was fair game so it was interesting what some people came up with. And of course, his answers were always enlightening.

It's hard to top that day of the week, so the rest of the week was just a regular day of the week booked with appointments and going on more splits to cover more territory. It's getting hard having people give us referrals and less actives that we want to be able to go to, but they are on opposite ends of the area and it is hard to justify the travel time and expenses, while we can have just as many appointments closer to our apartment. It really requires prioritizing the time and who is progressing the most. The sacrament attendance was up to 145 yesterday, so if that keeps up, there is a good chance that the ward will be split. 

Today we made a special trip down to Ilagan for their zone activity. It was more of a zoneS activity because there were missionaries that came from all over the mission. I think we tied for the longest travel time of about an hour and half. The ride down was fun because it was on one of the cheap "chicken bus" where the floors are rusted out that I could see the road beneath me. It is the last activity I got to have with Elder Tangi before he goes home next week. Crazy he's already leaving! He'll probably come up next week to visit Cabagan one last time. 

Happy Birthday to my favorite sister tomorrow! I guess I can take this time to point and laugh at all of you now for having to be in fancy clothes and have pictures taken for an entire day. It should be fun though to have everyone there for a little bit, including Bill and Carol! It will be interesting to see who Bill chooses to pick on since I won't be there. Ashley could be a fun and unsuspecting target. :) Haha have a fun day getting married!

You asked about my shoes-well, the gore tex ones are pretty much shot on the bottom but still have a little bit of life left. I only use them if it rains which doesn't happen very often anymore because it's not typhoon season. I only use the softer ones that seem to be holding up really well, especially since I've had them for about 3 years now. My heels have some lovely callouses on them from having to live in them all day and walk so much.

Well, until next week.

Mahal Kita, 

Elder Nay