9.28.2009
Hey everyone,
The work is going great here in the Philippines. After 36 hours of straight traveling we finally got to the mission home in Subic Bay. I even got to teach both lesson 1 and 2 and the Word of Wisdom and about tithes and offerings to this Philipino he lives in Angeles, his name is Mike Lecap. It was pretty cool.
My new companion, Elder Erispe, is a native Philipio from Mindanao. And a great cook and missionary, we are opening up a new area that has been closed for the past year or so. Its fun and a great experience.
For the past 3 days it has rained non-stop and they make rubber shoes here and because we have been wading in water up to our knee's, I bought some to try and save my leather ones. It was so fun, on Friday a typhoon came in and it was a signal 2 (the highest is a 6 and there's no houses left in a 6) but it was pretty crazy we were walking down the main road and I was drenched, head to foot and my umbrella was doing me no good whatsoever. It was a blast!! The work must go on no matter what and we were gonna keep working. And I love the rain so I had no problems with it!!!
The exchange rate here is like 47 pesos to the dollar so it was kinda cool feeling rich but we had McDonald's today for lunch and a double with cheese cost me 143 pesos. That food tasted so weird. We eat rice with EVERY meal Its awesome. I've tried tuna and eggs, sardines and eggs, and Tilapia (bones are horrible), and a lot of adobo. The food here is great.
dearelder I guess is just like regular mail it takes 2 weeks to get here then anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks after that for me to get it because it goes to the mission home
Philippines Olongapo Mission
Elder D Chase Westwood
140 Km. National Hwy, Mangan-Vaca,
2209 Subic, Zambales
Philippines
Its fine though. I'll send letters out but just know the info in them is 2 weeks old.
Thank you so much for all of you who made it possible for me to be out here. I pray every night for all of you.
Love,
Elder Westwood
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
9.21.2009
Hey everyone,
Well today has been an awesome day so far here in Provo, Utah, Its a magandang maganda (Beautiful) araw (day) and I'm leavin the MTC today too so that definitely helps things out!!! It was a great morning for the temple too. It is so nice when you can go in there not really having to worry about anything. I love it! Last night we had a Zone Testimony meeting and it was amazing how strong the spirit was there.
Oh, cool deal: so there's 60 missionaries going into the Philippines today, then there is another 60 coming into the MTC next month sometime. There are so many missionaries goin there its crazy. We figure the lord is making a big final push to get all of the Philippines done so we can concentrate on China here in a bit when it opens up cool huh!? I'm so excited to be a part of this great work.
I'm so excited to get off of the plane and start talking to people. We have been told over and over TALK TO EVERYONE so that's exactly what we plan on doing.
Elder Holland came last Tuesday and talked to us. I felt the spirit more with Elder Scott but Elder Holland is such a powerful speaker and he has a great love for missionary work and it shows. He said that his mission affected every great thing that happened in his life, and I know the same thing can happen to me. If I serve with all my heart might mind and strength. Many miracles will come to pass from missionary work and as we work to crush Satan's kingdom we bring thousands of people unto Christ. Joseph Smith gave his life for this church and if it came to it I think most of us here at the MTC would too (don't worry ma, that's highly doubtful it'd come to that) This is such a great experience.
My new address is
Elder Daniel Chase Westwood
National Highway
Mangan-Vaca, Subic Bay
2209 Zambales
Olongapo, Philippines
Letters from what I've heard will take bout 2 weeks but I've heard that dearelder.com kinda works over there. Check the blog and my mom will post on there the easiest. You can also all email me but I can't email you back, is the only thing. dcw12@myldsmail.net
Oh and if any of you send me packages, put pictures of Mother Mary on the outside or Pictures of Jesus, then they usually don't get opened before they get to me :) well I gotta run.
I love you all. God Be with you till we talk again
Elder Chase
Hey everyone,
Well today has been an awesome day so far here in Provo, Utah, Its a magandang maganda (Beautiful) araw (day) and I'm leavin the MTC today too so that definitely helps things out!!! It was a great morning for the temple too. It is so nice when you can go in there not really having to worry about anything. I love it! Last night we had a Zone Testimony meeting and it was amazing how strong the spirit was there.
Oh, cool deal: so there's 60 missionaries going into the Philippines today, then there is another 60 coming into the MTC next month sometime. There are so many missionaries goin there its crazy. We figure the lord is making a big final push to get all of the Philippines done so we can concentrate on China here in a bit when it opens up cool huh!? I'm so excited to be a part of this great work.
I'm so excited to get off of the plane and start talking to people. We have been told over and over TALK TO EVERYONE so that's exactly what we plan on doing.
Elder Holland came last Tuesday and talked to us. I felt the spirit more with Elder Scott but Elder Holland is such a powerful speaker and he has a great love for missionary work and it shows. He said that his mission affected every great thing that happened in his life, and I know the same thing can happen to me. If I serve with all my heart might mind and strength. Many miracles will come to pass from missionary work and as we work to crush Satan's kingdom we bring thousands of people unto Christ. Joseph Smith gave his life for this church and if it came to it I think most of us here at the MTC would too (don't worry ma, that's highly doubtful it'd come to that) This is such a great experience.
My new address is
Elder Daniel Chase Westwood
National Highway
Mangan-Vaca, Subic Bay
2209 Zambales
Olongapo, Philippines
Letters from what I've heard will take bout 2 weeks but I've heard that dearelder.com kinda works over there. Check the blog and my mom will post on there the easiest. You can also all email me but I can't email you back, is the only thing. dcw12@myldsmail.net
Oh and if any of you send me packages, put pictures of Mother Mary on the outside or Pictures of Jesus, then they usually don't get opened before they get to me :) well I gotta run.
I love you all. God Be with you till we talk again
Elder Chase
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
9.14.09
Hey everyone,
1 week in counting! Holy cow this time has just flown by. We got our flight plans this last Thursday! I leave the MTC next Monday at 4:30 then I leave SLC airport at 8:25, fly to LAX then I have a layover there till like 1:30 in the morning. Then we get into Taipei Taiwan 14 hrs later. Then we have a 2 hr flight down to Manila, all in all we figure its about 23 hours of travel time, its gonna be a long day. Ha but it should be a fun one, I don't get to be Elder Perry's companion on that day so that kinda blows but I'll get over it.
I'm still a lil worried about the language, but all of our investigators in the Teaching Evaluations say that we are way good and ready to go but we'll see, I'm still figuring that I'll get off the plane and not have a clue what anyone's saying, oh well, I'll get the language down in about 3-6 months is what they say. Ha ha
This last couple weeks we have been hosting, thats when the new missionaries come into the MTC and you take em through the process of checking in and finding their room, and classroom, its fun to watch them. I'm glad I'm on this end of my MTC experience though. However, the MTC has been an amazing experience. I think I've got just a lil taste of what its like to be a General Authority in the sense that you have the spirit with you all the time. I love it.
Oh, its been funny to see people from Highland that I knew about 5 years ago here. They recognize me and a few of them I've recognized. It's been neat to catch up with old friends.
Well i gotta run, I love you all. Thank you for everything
Love,
Elder Chase
Hey everyone,
1 week in counting! Holy cow this time has just flown by. We got our flight plans this last Thursday! I leave the MTC next Monday at 4:30 then I leave SLC airport at 8:25, fly to LAX then I have a layover there till like 1:30 in the morning. Then we get into Taipei Taiwan 14 hrs later. Then we have a 2 hr flight down to Manila, all in all we figure its about 23 hours of travel time, its gonna be a long day. Ha but it should be a fun one, I don't get to be Elder Perry's companion on that day so that kinda blows but I'll get over it.
I'm still a lil worried about the language, but all of our investigators in the Teaching Evaluations say that we are way good and ready to go but we'll see, I'm still figuring that I'll get off the plane and not have a clue what anyone's saying, oh well, I'll get the language down in about 3-6 months is what they say. Ha ha
This last couple weeks we have been hosting, thats when the new missionaries come into the MTC and you take em through the process of checking in and finding their room, and classroom, its fun to watch them. I'm glad I'm on this end of my MTC experience though. However, the MTC has been an amazing experience. I think I've got just a lil taste of what its like to be a General Authority in the sense that you have the spirit with you all the time. I love it.
Oh, its been funny to see people from Highland that I knew about 5 years ago here. They recognize me and a few of them I've recognized. It's been neat to catch up with old friends.
Well i gotta run, I love you all. Thank you for everything
Love,
Elder Chase
Thursday, September 10, 2009
9.7.09
Hey Everyone,
2 weeks in counting!!! I'm so excited/nervous. The time here has flown by and I'm pretty sure I've quadrupled my knowledge in the past couple couple months. Holy cow. We get our flight plans this Thursday. We are pumped.
Yesterday, they split our branch in 2 I'm not surprised since we were over 100 elders and sisters, and we were the biggest branch in the MTC. It was a sacrament of mixed emotions. One of the Branch Presidency, Gary Stott, that I was very close to got called as the Branch President of the new Branch, so that was sad but I'm happy for him and I know he will do an amazing job.
We also had Mission Conference yesterday, one elder from my branch named Elder Simmons is a music major and he is an amazing violinist. He played Abide with Me Tis Eventide. It was beautiful! It ALMOST made me wish I could play something. Oh well it was really neat and our whole district was front and center, we were so proud of him.
Our learning is mainly focused on verbs now and conjugations. They have kind of a set of root words then you conjugate them to say what you want to say. For example, to go is Punta, to say I went somewhere it is Pumunta or Pinunta, then Present tense is Pumupunta or pinapunta, and future tense is pupuntahin or Pupunta, all the words are like that it gets fun.
We have to make our lesson plans very simple. It is hard for me because there is so much I have to say about the gospel and it is hard to condense it into small simple sentences but it'll be what they understand. Its a struggle but its fun.
Oh, I haven't ever told you but my district is pretty sure that one of our teachers one of the 3 Nephites he is a stud and always has the spirit with him when he teaches. It is awesome. He has some great spiels and we love to hear them. Then we just got a new teacher this past week, a native Philippino named Sister Rather, She married an American and has been in the US 4 months and is now teaching us Tagalog. Preach my gospel says there is nothing better than speaking with a native and we get to learn from one every day so we are very fortunate to have her and she is very very nice!
On a worldly note, How bout the BYU game. 14-13 with 3 minutes left!! One of the teachers here was getting updates, so we were too. That was awesome. Then we heard about it from our branch presidents too. It was really funny.
Well I gotta run, hope everyone is doing great. Love you all.
Love
Elder Chase
Hey Everyone,
2 weeks in counting!!! I'm so excited/nervous. The time here has flown by and I'm pretty sure I've quadrupled my knowledge in the past couple couple months. Holy cow. We get our flight plans this Thursday. We are pumped.
Yesterday, they split our branch in 2 I'm not surprised since we were over 100 elders and sisters, and we were the biggest branch in the MTC. It was a sacrament of mixed emotions. One of the Branch Presidency, Gary Stott, that I was very close to got called as the Branch President of the new Branch, so that was sad but I'm happy for him and I know he will do an amazing job.
We also had Mission Conference yesterday, one elder from my branch named Elder Simmons is a music major and he is an amazing violinist. He played Abide with Me Tis Eventide. It was beautiful! It ALMOST made me wish I could play something. Oh well it was really neat and our whole district was front and center, we were so proud of him.
Our learning is mainly focused on verbs now and conjugations. They have kind of a set of root words then you conjugate them to say what you want to say. For example, to go is Punta, to say I went somewhere it is Pumunta or Pinunta, then Present tense is Pumupunta or pinapunta, and future tense is pupuntahin or Pupunta, all the words are like that it gets fun.
We have to make our lesson plans very simple. It is hard for me because there is so much I have to say about the gospel and it is hard to condense it into small simple sentences but it'll be what they understand. Its a struggle but its fun.
Oh, I haven't ever told you but my district is pretty sure that one of our teachers one of the 3 Nephites he is a stud and always has the spirit with him when he teaches. It is awesome. He has some great spiels and we love to hear them. Then we just got a new teacher this past week, a native Philippino named Sister Rather, She married an American and has been in the US 4 months and is now teaching us Tagalog. Preach my gospel says there is nothing better than speaking with a native and we get to learn from one every day so we are very fortunate to have her and she is very very nice!
On a worldly note, How bout the BYU game. 14-13 with 3 minutes left!! One of the teachers here was getting updates, so we were too. That was awesome. Then we heard about it from our branch presidents too. It was really funny.
Well I gotta run, hope everyone is doing great. Love you all.
Love
Elder Chase
Thursday, September 3, 2009
9.2.09
I love the temple. I can go up there and just escape for a couple hours and I can feel at piece. It gives you time to think and pray. I think its a great thing to devote your time to.
Kyle (Broadhead) is so lucky! I'd almost rather serve a service mission, like if the church had a division just for missionaries that helped with natural disasters and clean-up that would be amazing. I know that I will get a chance, and I am so excited for those times.
My suit pants got a hole in them and I had to fix them myself. Its not a world class job, but the hole is closed. Then my temple pants lost a button so I had to sew a new button on, it was pretty cool. I'm gonna be a professional seamstressman by the time I get home.
This week is flying by, just like the rest of them. But that's better than dragging by.
I hope you all have fun at the cabin!! Even if it is without me.
Love you all, take care
Elder Chase
I love the temple. I can go up there and just escape for a couple hours and I can feel at piece. It gives you time to think and pray. I think its a great thing to devote your time to.
Kyle (Broadhead) is so lucky! I'd almost rather serve a service mission, like if the church had a division just for missionaries that helped with natural disasters and clean-up that would be amazing. I know that I will get a chance, and I am so excited for those times.
My suit pants got a hole in them and I had to fix them myself. Its not a world class job, but the hole is closed. Then my temple pants lost a button so I had to sew a new button on, it was pretty cool. I'm gonna be a professional seamstressman by the time I get home.
This week is flying by, just like the rest of them. But that's better than dragging by.
I hope you all have fun at the cabin!! Even if it is without me.
Love you all, take care
Elder Chase
9.1.09
Things are so crazy up here. With only 3 weeks left it is crunch time. We have to learn all we can and try to get ready to visit with people in the Philippines.
Grandma sent me some cookies, like the ones you make, you can send me some too if you'd like, I gave the sisters 4 cookies. 2 for each, come to find out that the one sister ate all 4. It was funny. But yeah, feel free to send Dr. Pepper or cookies anytime. seriously. I would love you into the eternities even more than I already would.
Sorry if I haven't been writing as much with things being as nuts as they have been and me keeping busy like I have been its been hard to. I still love you and I haven't forgotten about you. But every time I'm not in class I'm studying. There's still so much to get done.
How was Ramey's wedding? I want pictures!
Oh, my 4 wheeler will make it up to the cabin, and if it doesn't its down hill the whole way so you can roll it back down if it doesn't make it up. I honestly think you'll be fine. just don't go in the snow with it and you'll be fine. Caydyn, oh ye of lil faith. How dare you think that the mini-chump can't make it up the hill to the cabin. I hope you all have fun up there without me! Ya Jerks. Golly Gee.
Gary Stott is going to call you or dad at the house, just so you know.
Oh and hows my truck?
Oh, there are some pictures on the way that I'm sending today. I'll send more when I take some.
Love you all
Mahal Ako ninyo
Elder Chase
Things are so crazy up here. With only 3 weeks left it is crunch time. We have to learn all we can and try to get ready to visit with people in the Philippines.
Grandma sent me some cookies, like the ones you make, you can send me some too if you'd like, I gave the sisters 4 cookies. 2 for each, come to find out that the one sister ate all 4. It was funny. But yeah, feel free to send Dr. Pepper or cookies anytime. seriously. I would love you into the eternities even more than I already would.
Sorry if I haven't been writing as much with things being as nuts as they have been and me keeping busy like I have been its been hard to. I still love you and I haven't forgotten about you. But every time I'm not in class I'm studying. There's still so much to get done.
How was Ramey's wedding? I want pictures!
Oh, my 4 wheeler will make it up to the cabin, and if it doesn't its down hill the whole way so you can roll it back down if it doesn't make it up. I honestly think you'll be fine. just don't go in the snow with it and you'll be fine. Caydyn, oh ye of lil faith. How dare you think that the mini-chump can't make it up the hill to the cabin. I hope you all have fun up there without me! Ya Jerks. Golly Gee.
Gary Stott is going to call you or dad at the house, just so you know.
Oh and hows my truck?
Oh, there are some pictures on the way that I'm sending today. I'll send more when I take some.
Love you all
Mahal Ako ninyo
Elder Chase
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)