Week 53: I'm Here To Teach and That's What I'm Going to Do!

Making Dudol from Sugar Cane and Crushed Rice

  Alright so this week was… fast!! As it is probably very well known I am very good at misplacing things. I hadn’t seen the expensive music speaker that I use for two days so I asked around (I asked my companion and our landlady) and none of them had seen it. I mentioned that the usb playing my music had all my pictures from my mission and then kept looking. After about 10 minutes I found it where I had been looking for the last two days (somehow it magically reappeared once I complained) and so I went to tell my companion and Sister Carms- the landlady and she had gone to the police to find it!!! I had to call her and tell her I was so sorry that she had gone through so much fuss- within the short time span she had gone to 4 different houses asking all the people who had been around the house lately if they had entered our apartment and taken anything! (Our apartment‘s front door broke so we have not been locking the doors because if we do we won’t be able to get back in) so it was a highly plausible thought that it had been stolen. To make up for the stress we went to the Vigan zoo today. I got to battle a raptor, sister Bustarde was flirted at by a peacock, and sister Carms went on a trip in the yellow submarine.  All in all it was an average day in Vigan. Also… idk why but all the foreigners I see are either missionaries or 60+. I have only seen 2 who did not have grey hair and i'm not so sure if that was natural or not… I don’t get it.

Anyways, work this week was nuts. Isn’t it always nuts? It's just a matter of trying to keep up with everyone. We got a referral from one of our members (how incredible is that?) and actually the person they referred to us has been going to church for several months and has only just lately expressed a desire to be baptized!! We both thought he was a member!! Wow man, and our lesson with him was a bit hekkledy-peggledy. It was Sunday night and we had gone to their house twice but they were not home so after working for several hours and texting them we went home. Then 5 minutes later they showed up at our door asking to be taught! Yeah, that’s crazy. But we walked with them to sister Carm’s house and taught them there. It's just fun to say here in Sto. Domingo the investigators find you!! Haha. We think that Zeus, the referral that came to our door, will be ready for baptism this month which is amazing!

Also I think have found out the foolproof steps to become less active in your faith!

1)      Stop reading your scriptures

2)      Don’t pray, and if you do just say the same thing over again… He should hear you better if you just repeat yourself right?

3)      Why bother going to church? All the people there are not perfect! Not even the missionaries! (GASP)

This list reminds me of the ‘101 ways to be completely miserable’ by John Bytheway that I read in jr high and my teachers pulled me aside and asked me if I was depressed. That was fun… anyways this is honestly the one quick ticket to lose faith and even question if you ever had a testimony in the first place!!  Honestly, I think if everyone- no matter what faith- would just read, pray (like the heart wrenching or at least reflective prayers) and regularly attend church the world would INSTANTLY become a better place. But… that little devil on your shoulder gets the best of you. Kick him off! You don’t need him weighing you down!! Geez.

Missionaries seem so scared to drop investigators. Idk why, because when we dropped one of our investigators this week (like a sit down you-haven't-been-reading-so-or-going-to-church-so-we-are-not-teaching-you-anymore lesson) and honestly she so understood. She promised to start reading and so we told her we would come back in four weeks, if she had not read and prayed to know what we had taught was true then we would not come back. It’s harsh but at least she knows just how important our time is. I’ve only got 6 more months and Im not going to spend it sitting chatting, I’m here to teach and that is what I’m going to do.

From the dino but kicking, and ice cream addicted missionary,

Sister Eldredge

(IDK= I don’t know) so if you don’t know what idk is idk either hahaha

Sister Carms gave us sticky rice.  It's cooked in a bamboo stick and then you whack it really hard to open it!

Week 52: Bernne-Lynn & Enard's Baptism

Baptism of Bernne-Lynn and Enard

Week 51: Meeting an Apostle of the Lord

I live with an American. Yeah, she was born and raised in the Philippines but she is more American than me. Today in our groceries we bought root beer and vanilla ice-cream. We are sort of spoiled… but she buys a small root beer every day (or every week) and doesn’t eat rice in the morning like me. People always joke that we were swapped at birth and that she is actually an American and I’m actually a Filipino. If that is true then I’m one white Filipino… so much for my dreams of getting tan…

            So the reason I emailed on Tuesday is not because I’m pasaway (disobedient) but because when you are an STL and you have an all day meeting on Monday and you have to travel Sunday night and Monday night (3 hours both ways) … except we missed our stop so we accidentally ended up in Vigan at 9pm… with no transportation… but we caught a trycee that was willing to go back to Sto. Domingo. At first I was thinking “well we wanted to come to vigan for p-day anyways so I guess we will just stay at one of the sister’s apartments tonight…” It was a rather funny experience, and I’m just glad when I was riding on my own my first week here that I didn’t miss my stop! So that means we got to have our p-day on valentine's! Idk how your valentine's day went but for us sister Bustarde got a cold and passed out as soon as we had done our shopping and emailing. So vigan will just be next week I guess! Haha But we got to meet with our progressing investigators. (So my first week here- the 6th- I said we had like 5 baptisms coming up this week… no they just had not updated their four month calendar of who they had extended Baptismal Goal Date’s to… so yeah) The Gona family is amazing. The two older brothers remind me of characters out of the novel I was writing before my mission (and that I will resume when I get home) so that means they are a bit of jokesters. The ages go like this: Berny-lynn (18) Elunard (17) Eiyahn (15) and Enard (10) We know that the oldest and the youngest will be ready by the 25th of this month but the middle boys will need more time. That’s not a bad thing its just too bad they weren’t all ready at the same time. (Their parents are members but the father is Less Active).  

            I’m still trying to adjust to the new area;  I’m meeting people who I know their nicknames (sprite) but not their names (Espirita.) Luckily I can still pass off as new and I’m slowly making a branch pedigree chart by writing down everyone’s names and who is related to whom. But i'm slooooowly getting my bearings. Because i'm an STL that means I will be doing exchanges 3x a cycle. (a cycle is 6 weeks) an ‘exchange’ is when we basically just exchange companions for a day and we work in each other’s areas for a day. I will be traveling to Vigan and Sinait then in my 5th week of being here I will lead the area with sister corpus… yes I am the STL for my old STL!! She thinks that is just hysterical. However being in a leadership position means hearing about all the problems. I hope I can simply encourage and show how to be a successful missionary. So long as my Zone knows sister Bustarde and I care for them then they will take our advice to heart- hopefully!

            Another job of an STL is giving trainings in our Zone Training Meeting once a month. This month I talked about Christlike attributes and… personally I had a great time preparing and giving the training/ speech but I feel like the audience –my zone- was slightly comatose… I’ll see what I can do to be more interactive next time. They say “you tell me  and i'll forget, you teach me and I’ll remember, you show me and I’ll never forget.” So let's hope this works out.

            Now for David A Bednar: we traveled by about 7am and arrived about 11am in Laoag. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then ran to the chapel. We were told to be there by 12:30 but we are glad we showed up so early so we could get good seats. It wasn’t some long talk he had prepared like a mini General conference, it was “I gave you reading assignments, what did you learn?” “What did you learn that was not said?” it was incredible, because it was all just the spirit and all that we learned was from God! I want to incorporate that type of teaching in my missionary work, especially the agency on asking questions. He always would say ‘may I ask you a question?” and “If you don’t want to answer this that is ok.” He was very much about ‘you have agency and I will not force you to interact.’ Which is funny as before the conference a sister sat down in front of me and begged me that if she got called on that I would save her and speak up.  You know I have no problem talking. The  best part afterwards was when David Bednar shook my hand and thanked me for the comments and questions I posed during the conference, and then Elder Smoots (of the 70) and his wife wanted to know how to pronounce my name! My thing is though when Elder Bednar thanked me I totally froze and was speechless. I didn’t say ‘thank you’ back to him or accept the thanks he gave me! Dang it!!

            In closing we had 11 investigators show up to church today and 6 LA’s. One of our investigators Im not sure why he came but it may be because he thinks sister Bustarde and i are pretty but he participated well in the classes so I hope that i'm wrong. I did not get to mention that Kim Umawid, Natally Batulayan and Ethan Repolosa got baptized in Batac the last two weeks! I'm so proud of them and I wish I had pictured but I’ve got nothing… (speaking of nothing my old usb got a virus and i have lost all of my old pictures!! Everything. It sucks but now i'm sending all of my pictures home and that way i'll have a back up I guess.) Next week I’ll have pictures of Berny-lyyne’s and Enard’s baptism and coming soon is Eythan and Elunard!

From the sister who is 2 weeks behind in her journaling because she reads too many liahonas,

Sister Eldredge

Mom:  Did you find your name tag in time to meet Elder Bednar?

Mikella:  No i didn't, i got a rental for the face to  face  it's got someone else's name on it but with a sticker for my name. i'll have to give it back when my new one is made

That's Me Asking Elder Bednar a Question

Week 50: I've Lost My Identity, But I Know Who I Am

Homes and Rice Fields

This week I went from thinking I know everything to thinking I know nothing and back up to being pretty confident with my knowledge, to add to the fact that my new Zone Leader (the guy that is helping me and my companion Sister Bustarde take care of the missionaries in our area) is Batman. I thought he was Bruce Wayne but no he is batman. Then I took a turn for the crazy and became an interpreter for the day… or two. Then I lost my identity and found out who I am. That about sums up this week.

        So… Let’s start with last Tuesday. The brgys (or communities) here all have very confusing names like “Quimmarayan” and “Lusoc” and I have no idea who lives where but once we get into the lessons that is when I know what is going on. It’s pretty incredible but I basically always know what is being said in the lessons… unless they go off in Ilocano, and if I don't know what is going on then I just defer them to sister Bustarde! Hahaha she hates that but she loves it too. We have also started speaking English on even days and Tagalog on odd days (not in lessons) and she is very sneaky about it. I will forget its English and she will just go off in Tagalog and i'll respond in Tagalog until a few minutes later I catch on. It’s nice to finally understand what is going on (for the most part.)

        Batman, or Elder Jones, in all honesty when I first saw him- I didn’t like him. He just looked disobedient and he didn’t bother speaking in Tagalog, just straight English. So at first I was a bit of a jerk to him, but then I actually listened to him and it turns out he is one of the most obedient missionaries, he just lets everyone think he is disobedient.

        I ran into another elder who gave me the whole run down on how the ZL is Batman and how the AP (assistant to the president), Elder Ernest, is Superman. It makes sense but I don’t think I can explain it. However something stood out to me yesterday as we attended a Missionary Leadership Council (MLC) and I looked around I realized something about leadership. There are the people who are simply born to lead, like yours truly (I'm kidding!!), and then there are people who are put into leadership positions not because they are good at it but because it will make them better. For example. I would never get up early and cook food unless I knew I needed to do it for someone else. There are a lot of things, good things that I would not do if not for someone else. I honestly don’t know if I'm in a leadership position because it’s just what I was born to do or if I need to shape myself up, but I know that I will learn from it. And that what it’s all about *clap clap*

        In church I ran into a deaf young girl who was having a hard time expressing herself to the members and the members who were speaking very loud and slowly to her (like that will magically help her hear.. but they were trying which is what  matters) so I translated for her, however. I know ASL, American Sign Language, and she knows TSL, Tagalog Sign Language, so we kept getting confused. Their word for Jesus is different than our sign for Jesus and so we really just ended up passing notes. So I was a slight translator. I also translated some Tagalog words to English for my Filipina companion which both weirded us out.

Sister Bustarde: “What is Partake in Tagalog?”

Me: “Tumangap”

Sis B: “…”

Me: “Why do I know that and not you?”

I also lost my name badge on my first day in my new area. I have packed all my things up and unpacked them and tried it again… but nothing. I borrowed sister Bustarde’s extra name badge for a while and that really confused the members and the people we were teaching so I taped some lined paper on with my name written down and that was tacky fun. Elder David A Bednar (one of the modern 12 apostles) is coming to meet with us on Saturday and I have a tacky name badge. Yay… But I was able to get my name printed out so now it kinda looks official instead of tacky it's just strange. I’ve already ordered a new one but I’ll get it in March.

I'm very excited as I might see some of the YSA from Batac at the face to face with David A Bednar, and I know it's gonna be awesome. There will be an official Church Magazine Photographer so we were all told to ‘dress spic and span and smile and participate’ if we wanted to end up in next month’s Liahona. So you know this beautiful face is gonna be in a magazine! Hahaha

From the sister who is lost  (I have no idea where I am) but is found (I know who I am)

Sister Eldredge

My Nephew Has Arrived!! Born February 6 at 1:27 am.He's 9 pounds 13 ounces, William Michael Eldredge. One week old now! If any of you are familiar with Ranger's Apprentice then you know where the 1st name comes from. i'm so proud of my nerdy brother.

We have the same pictures on our scripture cases!

Week 49: Transfered from Batac to Santa Domingo, and a New Companion Sister Bustarde

So I have gone there and almost back again this week. However that is the last story I want to share for this week.  First I would like to talk about how Batac will soon have three new members: Kim U, Natally B and Ethan R. Sadly they are all rather young but their testimonies are very matured Kim and Natally will be baptized on the 11th and Ethan on the 18th… the catch is I will not be there! I have officially left my home in Batac and am now currently in Santa Domingo. It was literally only yesterday where I was sitting in the Domingo’s home and now I’m in a town with their name! Crazy stuff. It was rather heartbreaking leaving Batac. Kim kept asking me if I would be able to return for her baptism and some members cried and I cried and then I had to travel Monday morning so I couldn’t meet with any of them to say goodbye! So I might as well tell you about the ‘there and back again’ hobbit reference.

I took a bus headed to Vigan- on my own gosh that was scary- and got dropped off on the side of the highway. At first I was a little panicked about where to go and what to do until I turned around and realized the bus had literally dropped me off AT the church. Then My new companion came and picked me up and… guesses what?!? They had been told I was coming tomorrow!!! I could have stayed in Batac an extra day and… the past is past. I only cried a little about that, but we are good. Then we got back on the bus and started heading back the way I just came!! I was so confused.  Sister Bustarde (my new companion) and Sister Duddly (her old companion) Hopped back on a bus and I knew Dudly was going home and I know that the mission home is in San Nick… which is past my old area Batac so for a moment I thought we were going all the way back to Batac and then to San Nick and I was both excited and my wallet was hurting a little at the thought. But we stopped after 30 min and picked up another missionary who will be staying with us until tomorrow so we will be a trysome for now I guess!!!

About Batac:

Ed is progressing incredibly and he accepted the baptismal goal date of April 8 and is excited as ever to attend church and even beats us there every week. The Ward is just stoked to have him and he is progressing with incredible speed as he reads the Book of Mormon on his own and has questions to ensure that he caught the gist or even good questions on specific points!

Nanay Salbation Espiritu passed away Saturday 5:30 pm just after some members came and visited her. She always told us she was 96, but we found out that she is actually 80+ she liked pulling our legs on that one! Hahaha The Espiritu’s are receiving incredible support from the ward and Edgar Sr is sloooowly progressing towards activity, and we are just thrilled that he is trying.

A young man, Giovanni, who was on and off less active has officially become fully active in church and even bore his testimony this last Sunday!  It was 100% Ilocano so I have no idea what he said but he did have a giant smile on his face and I felt the spirit.

I saw an Articuno this week. It was only a baby one though so it was only about the size of my face and a gorgeous sky blue. Yes pokemons exist and they are living wild and free in the Philippines. I tried to catch it on camera even if I forgot all my poke balls but it's so fast I only caught the memory of getting to see a legendary classic pokemon. In all actuality it was a wild bird that looks a hecka lot like an articuno but its fun to pretend.

About Santo Domingo:

We will have 1 baptism on the 11th, 3 on the 18th and I think one more the week after here. I'm going to do my best to get to know these people and the area and how to get around. This is a ‘group’ which is… ok so there are ‘groups’ (anywhere from 3-80 people) then ‘branch’ (80-100) and then there are wards (100+) This is still considered a group but has gotten up to the ward numbers, they just lack priesthood to enable them to make that step. So I guess my goal here is to help gather the priesthood! Activate less actives and find people who are ready to convert! Obviously I’m going to talk to everyone still.

About me:

I have said on and off about my emotions and how at times I even consider that I might have depression. I have been speaking to myself positively for several weeks and praying with only gratitude for my blessings and asking to bless my investigators. I’ve been trying to turn outward and not focus so much on myself. I also talked to my mission president about it and we had a great talk and honestly as soon as I stepped out of his office I feel like I have lost a thousand pounds.  I feel like I can take on ANYTHING. And I know that is cliché but that is exactly how I feel; which is a good thing as I have just become the STL of Santo Domingo! Sister Bustarde and I are the new STL’s and i'm glad i'm not going to be the only one doing this!  But you know even if it was just me with the assignment of STL I’ll always have the Lord.

To make my week even better my older brother and my sister in law just had their first baby. And i'm just giving a quick shout out to them and how much I love them and their new baby boy, William Michael .

Week 48: "There's a Non-Member Sitting in the Chapel. He Wants to Meet You."

    Magandang umaga po sa ating lahat! (or hello to everybody for you English speakers)  This week went by really fast, but mostly because I slept through most of it. I caught some sort of stomach flu so I honestly was sleeping if I wasn’t teaching.  Not only that but this week our ward had an activity almost every night this week, mostly geared towards reactivating the less active or those who were beginning to go less active or visiting those who are less active due to health problems. We also had some investigator-based activities that had quite a turnout.  We honestly have only found three potential investigators these last 6 weeks and we have had to drop several of our investigators as well so our teaching pool has dropped to almost less than 10. That’s not good. So we have been doing some really inventive things to try and find people who are actually ready to hear the gospel and act in faith. But so far, the sickness has probably something to do with it, nothing. However this Sunday we had some members come up to us when we arrived at church who said: “There is a non member sitting in the chapel- he wants to meet with you.” Yeah, we were pretty dang excited. We all but ran up those stairs to the chapel to meet Ed. Ed was visited briefly a few years ago by some couple missionaries  and out of nowhere decided he wanted to learn more- now.

           Batac ward is trying to split into two, but to do that they need more male members that are worthy to hold the priesthood (the power and authority to act in God’s name- this power is usually used to give blessings by putting their hands on the other person’s head for the sick, give blessings of comfort, and to receive revelation on what to do in administrative things. There are other responsibilities of the priesthood but this isn’t an essay on trying to define ‘the Priesthood,’ it’s an email from a sister missionary. So if you have questions ask a priesthood holder, ie. An adult male member of the church in your area or ask the missionaries in your area.) in order to split. Not to mention since I got here in Batac the baptisms have mostly consisted of children whose parents are members, and young teens. So, that being said the ward just about flocked to Ed in excitement. He seemed really surprised by the warm welcome, but enjoying it all the same. He even wanted to meet with us after church to begin the lessons! So we will just have to see how this goes with lots of faith and prayers.

           Some of you have been asking about Nanay Salvation Espriritu. I can’t remember if I mentioned it but she is 94 years old. When I first got here in August she could recognize faces- if the lighting was good- and hold a flowing conversation about her past and genealogy. The day after I wrote down her pedigree chart her mental health began to fail. Now, she has gotten to the point that has been called (in Doctor Who anyways) as ‘ghosting.’ She isn’t mentally present anymore, just repeating random words, normally the name of her son, who takes care of her. I felt like I had stepped into Silence in the Library at some points as she was ghosting. Hopefully her mentality will strengthen but if not it may be a tender mercy for her. We are now currently focusing on her son Edgar, and his son JayR. JayR is 100% active in the church. He attends seminary and all three hours of church and has tons of friends in the church and I love listening to his testimony. His father however is still a work in progress. He has the testimony but work and some addictions are giving him a hard time. He has an incredibly humble spirit and lessons with him are powerful, even if he doesn’t have much to say.

           We are still working with Rosie and I hope she will continue to progress, but every person is different and they all come with different sets of interests, problems and testimonies. It’s learning to know what to say and when to say it, but if you just follow the Spirit and do what He says then you don’t have much to worry about. Honestly sometimes I wonder why life is so stressful. Really all we need to do is try our best to show gratitude for the Savior and His indescribable gift he has given to us. He didn’t pay it half way and expect us mere mortals to make up the rest, He paid in full.  (That is the literal translation of Pagbabayad-sala ni Jesucristo- the Tagalog version of atonement- the payment of our sins by Christ) Life shouldn’t be THAT hard, but if it was easy there wouldn’t be much meaning behind it. If I could become an Olympic ice skater in a day I wouldn’t find as much joy in it if I didn’t work at it and earn that achievement. Same with life. We have to work hard at it and sometimes we want to just give up (and it would be so much easier for us personally if we did) but we don’t. We don’t give up because of what waits for us at the end. So if you have a deadline, meet it; and if you have fears know you are loved. if you have a race run it, run it like Benedict Cumberbatch or Tom Hiddleston are waiting for you at the finish line. Because someone even better than that is there: Jesus. And man, He gives the best hugs. It's hard now or it may get hard later but the end result is better than ice cream. Don’t ever give up. You don’t have to do it alone “Because our Heavenly Father will be in the ring with me. And together we will win 5000 pesos and with it we will buy a big bus to take the orphans to parks and places like that. I’m serious!” (name that movie) But in all seriousness, you can do anything if you have Him on your side.

From the sister who is out finding investigators

Sister Eldredge

Week 47: Kalabaw & Mangoes

       

  Day number 357 of my imprisonment, the mangoes are once again ripe but it’s too early in the season for their plans of revolution. We have begun stockpiling umbrellas to ‘nip it in the bud’ so to say (name that movie/ musical/ book) though we are yet uncertain of our victory. Naw, just kidding, though today is the 357th day of my mission (thank you calculators) which is nuts.

         Things that happened this week: not lessons! Joke! We had some good lessons this week and we had some really bad lessons too, but that is just how it goes sometimes. Me and my companion are still trying to adjust to the new missionary schedule (study time is flexible so we actually can study at different times to better fit the needs of the investigators in our area) which is just in time as one of our progressing investigators is only available at 1pm, when we are usually just starting our studies.

         Ethan is pretty young, and a member of a part member family, but due to his mother’s partial activity he knows just about nothing of the church, and about the same for the bible. So it's interesting starting from the bottom with him and helping the family move into full activity. That being said it's also fun as Ethan’s family is from Manila so he doesn’t speak all that much Tagalog; so he’s mostly English speaking! So I'm having a blast with that and my companion is not. But she is really smart and depends upon the Spirit well so I know she will be fine. This may be an opportunity for her to realize how I feel in most lessons! Haha.

           

Despite having found only about 1 person who we feel will actually be willing to take the lessons in the last 4 weeks of finding the work is really progressing. We are shaving down on the Investigators that are not quite ready yet and focusing on those that are- this is limiting our teaching pool, but giving us more time to find those people who have been prepared. That’s the fun thing about The Work. This Gospel and this church are for everyone. Literally every single person on this earth now, in the past and those not yet born; this church is for them and they are made for this church. That is the result of it being the TRUE church of God. He wants to save everybody; you just need to stick to His rules. Kinda like how a parent would love to take their kids to Disneyland (I know my parents do haha) but if the kids are rowdy and are not ready for that… sad day! So we are out inviting people to ‘Spirit Disneyland’ and sometimes people are too busy to go which is sad because I know it's hecka fun, and way better than any fleeting happiness you find on earth. This is the stuff that is for eternities.  

           In other news I got charged at by Kalabaw. If Maleficent turned into a cow instead of a dragon that is what she would look like; its big, black, and got super cool horns. It does not look so cool when it charges at you. Luckily it was tied to a giant mango tree so it couldn’t charge for very long and got rewarded by a bunch of green mangoes falling  on its head so then it just ate the mangoes instead of us.  So hooray for short attention spans!

            This Thursday we had 4 members contact us asking if they could work with us- it was nuts! We had a great time on splits and I hope that we can continue to help the members in their desire to learn how to, and do missionary work.  Language wise I go from days where I feel just about fluent and others where I get politely reprimanded by other missionaries or by some well meaning members to focus more on my language study. I guess it's like drawing, I know I can but sometimes that talent just leaves- especially when I'm nervous.

The thing is, Filipino’s have almost no concept of accents. It's not really in their vocabulary. And I'm not kidding. Most of the time a member or an investigator or whoever will say: “Oh my! Slang!” What they mean is “By golly, my dear fellow I can’t understand your accent!” so that will be added to the list to do:

1) Learn the language

2) Lose the accent

           We had a baptism this week from  Batac B (my area is Batac A) and boy what a convert! She was introduced to the gospel through her member boyfriend who was very avid in expressing that while he introduced her he didn’t convince her to join. She bore her testimony beautifully after her baptism and the spirit was very strong. It was an incredible night, and I know it's one Allyna (the convert) will never forget.

           Well that’s all!

From the sister with an umbrella of steel and Kalabaw repelling mangos.

Sister Eldredge