28 Dec 2009

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone's Christmas was great! mine was! I got to call my family in the morning, which was great. Surprisingly I wasn't too homesick like everyone said you get when you call home, so that was a big blessing. After we called we went around to member's houses and ate food ALL AFTERNOON!!!!! I was soooo full oh my gosh. My companion looked at me and said "oh yeah, you're only supposed to eat a little bit at each place" I didn't think about that at the first house. I guess its like a challenge for Philippinoes to feed you more when you start looking full. ha ha. And they would rather give you all their food than see you hungry. Elder Lebbon said its like an honor for them to have American's eating their food. Kinda weird but oh well. Then we went back to our apartment at 6 and listened to all the drunks try and sing outside our apartment until midnight, it was actually quite funny. ha ha. Then it was even funnier to watch all our neighbors with their hangovers walking around the next morning. I guess Christmas and New Years get pretty crazy over here! ha ha

Oh by the way. Happy New year to all of you!

Tomorrow we have Zone conference and we have to perform a musical number as a district and we have no musical talent in our district. So that should prove interesting. Elder Lebbon and I had to come to Guagua today to meet the rest of our district and luckily they have a computer shop here that has a backup generator, because all of Pampanga (the province I'm in) is in a brown out (black out) until 6 tonight. So I almost didn't get to email today.

Other than that, we've been teaching, but not a lot. They say that Pampanga is the hardest part of our mission, because the people just really don't care so its hard to get them listen to us. We were walking down the road the other day and Elder Lebbon pointed at just about every house and said they don't like missionaries and they don't like missionaries. So we've been trying to find new areas. One thing I enjoy about Elder Lebbon is he doesn't care so much about stats as long as we have true conversions. And he doesn't waste time going to people that have stood us up over and over. Its been neat to see how he works. Oh and another thing about Pampanga, we get Joe'd a lot more than I did in Zambales.

We had one ol' boy that we taught last Sunday then we went back yesterday and he had his friends there, we thought we were in for a debate but it ended up they were really interested, they just had some concerns about Joseph Smith. It was really cool though.

Another time last week we went to this place called San Jose and they have a hospital there, we started walking out to the hospital and Elder Lebbon said we might as well just turn around there's no one out here, so we turned around and left. Then later that night it turns out one of our new converts daughter had a miscarriage and was in the hospital she was actually asking for us. Sister Arlene (our new convert) saw us but something told her not to call out to us. (Dag gum Satan, I really don't like him) We ended up going back out to the hospital later that night and teaching about the plan of salvation. It was crazy to see how we were in the right place at the right time but we missed a chance because of the adversary. Oh well, it turned out good in the end.

Well I'm outta time. I love you all. Happy new year.

Elder Chase

21 Dec 2009

Holy crap, Friday is Christmas!!!! And it doesn't feel like it! Its still way too hot. I got transferred and my new area is called Floridablanca, its in the middle of the city, and its a lot hotter than San Marcelino because its farther south. I was really nervous about my new companion but he's real cool. He's a buffalo rancher from Oak City, Utah. We just sit around at nights and tell stories, he tells me about the buffalo and I tell him about vet stories, we have a lot of fun. AND I can talk like I used to and not have to worry about him making fun of me! Its great. He goes home in January, so President Aquino says my job is to make sure he doesn't get lazy. We're having a blast! Its a different experience having an American Companion but i love it.

We had our branch Christmas party on Saturday and I got to meet a lot of the members, it was real neat to be able to carry on a conversation with them. Ha ha I took my rope and was roping the little kids it was a blast. Then they wanted to try. I gotta say, the Philippinos are fast learners. it was fun. And they had lots of pancit canton, which is one of my most favorite dishes here in the Philippines.

The branch here is actually kinda weak so we get to try and strengthen it and find new members. We actually had a baptism on Saturday before the Christmas party. We baptized 2 ladies, it was really neat. They gave great testimonies after that, one of them had committed abortion and in her testimony after her baptism (it took us 3 times to get it right and we almost drown her once) that she finally felt like she'd been forgiven of her sins, it was real neat.

Ha ha for Christmas we have to be back inside our apartment at 6 pm. talk about early! But we'll have some time for studying and telling stories. It'll be fun still.

OH, I got to weld the other day!!!! It was so much fun! At our Community Service Project we had a brother who the ward started building a fence for him but then last time all the welds broke on the makeshift frame for the chain link fence, so they got an arc welder when they found out I could weld and let me go to work. Here's the kicker, I was in Sandals, shorts, t-shirt, and all I had was a pair of oxyceltalyne cutting goggles, luckily my eyes didn't get hurt, I've got burns all over my face, and my legs, they kinda hurt! ha ha but oh well, it was fun to do it again. Elder Lebbon says I was an answer to his prayers because he's wanted to get this CSP done for the last month. So it was cool how I was able to use my knowledge from back home to help here. I love it! The welds sure weren't pretty. but by dang they'll hold ha ha ha.

I've got a lot of work to do here in Floridablanca but I'm excited to do it.
Merry Christmas to you all. You are all in my prayers.

Love,
Elder Chase

14 Dec 2009

Hey everyone!

Christmas is right around the corner and I hope everyone is ready for it!!!! ha ha I'm not exactly how they do Christmas over here in the Philippines, but after Christmas I'll let you know!
Last night we went to the Christmas devotional it was awesome, even though I only understood about half of what they were saying. It was really neat to hear the tabernacle choir sing.

This week is transfers and I learned earlier this morning I will be transferred. I'm to be at the Olongapo bus station tomorrow morning at 7 am. early eh! I was a little disappointed. I've been trying to prepare myself for this day, and I thought I had, but it seems I wasn't. As I've had time to think I'm moving because the lord needs me somewhere else and so its alright. Then I talked to president Aquino earlier and he told me my new assignment is to keep my new companion busy. I guess I'm getting assigned with an elder whose time is almost up, so it should be fun.

We had an American couple move into our ward last week and we went out to meet them. Well when we were sharing, we were sharing in English, and I was struggling so bad. Then when I gave the closing prayer I couldn't keep the thoughts going so I had to just talk in Tagalog. I hope that's a sign that I'm getting better in Tagalog cuz it was sure a lot easier to talk in Tagalog than in ingles.

Then last week we had some of our investigators tell me that they could understand me, I've been waiting for that to be said for a long time so it was really cool but I'm still not where I'd like to be.

Yesterday in church we had the primary program, it was really funny. One of the little girls ended up doing a lot of the program and she knew everything by heart it was really cute. Then a few of the girls got up to sing I am a Child of God and forgot the words so the whole congregation started singing with them. It was really neat and the spirit was so strong there! I loved it. Great for my last Sunday in San Marcelino!

Well that's all I've got time for. I love you all, thank you for your support and I hope you all have the opportunity to do something for someone else this Christmas season to make theirs even better!

Until next week
Elder Chase

7 Dec 2009

Hey everyone,

The work is still moving forward here in San Marcelino Philippines. Last Saturday we had the baptism of Sister Jane Fontillas, she was baptized by here cousin, which was awesome, her whole family is iglesia and has been harassing her about her decision but she just told them that she knows the church is true, and she has a special feeling when she goes to church with us. We were very excited. When she bore her testimony on Saturday at her baptism she told us about how she knew that this church is where she's supposed to be. It was amazing.

Then yesterday we had 3 baby blessings, of older children that hadn't been blessed yet, then 1 confirmation (sis. Jane). It was a busy day. oh, funny story, I invited an old drunk guy, he speaks 15 different languages or dialects and he said he wanted to come to church with us. So of course we said that's great! So he came and then during testimony meeting he got up and started preaching about Jesus Christ's Earthly Ministry, it was....interesting to say the least we were listening to false doctrine and I think we only heard a little bit but it was so out there that we didn't need to worry, the branch president was on the edge of his seat the whole time, but it turned out alright. ha ha We were a lil nervous.

Crazy food of the week: are you ready for this?.......last night I had dog yes like the ones that are peoples pets. It actually wasn't too bad. One of the member's had it and I had adobong aso. The meat kinda has a spicy type taste to it. But now I can say that I've eaten dog. ha ha.

This last week we transferred houses into a bigger house that is right next to our old one, its got an upstairs and its a lot cooler. The other house was like a tin can. We were very grateful for the move. The transfer happened because we had the brown out, then the next day we had to go to interviews and we were both out of it cuz we didn't get any sleep so president said "find a new house" then it just so happened that the family next door had moved out. (Blessing)

All my other investigators are doing good, Brother Jonathan (asawa ni Jane) (husband of Jane), we are still working with him, we are thinking we will be able to baptize him before Christmas which would be an answer to our prayers! The members are starting to really help out with the missionary work and we are getting to be a really strong branch I'm excited. We started doing a weekly program for sacrament like we have in the states and everyone loved it. So we will do it again for next week and see if we can't make one for every week.

Well, that's about all I have time for this week. I'll write more next week,

I love you all, and thank you for your support
Elder Chase