26 April 2010

Hey everyone,  

 

Wow what a great week.

It started off a little slow. Tuesday 3 of us waited at the Alaminos Bus Station from 7:00am-7:30pm waiting for our new companions to come in.  All the elder companionships up here had one transfer.  I stayed here and my companion transfered.   While we were waiting at the bus station the sister missionaries came over to give us a message from President Aquino and I asked the new sister, Sister Anderson, if she had eaten balout yet.  She said no not yet, I said, you wanna try. She said no not yet.  So I said, alright I want one I'll just show you how to eat them.  So I went over, bought one, then showed how to drink the broth type stuff, then get all the shell off, then you take a bite.  I took one bite, then asked her if she wanted to try it and she stood there, thought for a second, then said yeah, can I just try a little piece. I replied with a smile, "no, but you can eat this half." ha ha after a moment she said "okay" ha ha YES!!! So we got a video of her eating it, it was so funny! I told her next time she was going to eat the whole balout.  She said it wasn't too bad. Her mother (trainer) was not very happy with me.  ha ha But I figured, you gotta at least try it once.  This week we're gonna get my new companion to eat one. 

 

My new companion is from San Diego California.  His name is Elder Pennock.  He used to play soccer and I don't hold the soccer or the California against him at all. ha ha.  He is still new here in the Philippines, this is his 2nd area and his 2nd transfer.  That means that he's only been here for 6 weeks.  But he is masipag (hard working), actually for only being here 6 weeks he is picking up the language really good.  He can say almost everything he wants, he's a little slow about saying it but he can do it almost all in Tagalog his accent is really funny though.  I wish I coulda caught it that fast, but hey, he can only get better.  I have to teach a little more and explain things when the investigators don't get it but he is doing really good and I actually don't mind it at all. Some people have actually mentioned that its hard to get me to shut up.   Elder Pennock is not afraid of anything, he'll talk to anyone.  Yesterday, we saw a guy walking down the other side of the street and he looked like he was drunk.  I told him to go invite him to learn (I2L), then I turned my head for a second. When I turned my head back he was headed over there to talk to him ha ha it was so funny.  He went over shook his hand, asked him how he was and what he was doing.  I laughed so hard, but it just goes to show how good of a missionary he is.  No fear! I wanna be like him when i grow up! ha ha. 

 

On Saturday we had 2 baptismal interviews and both candiates passed with flying colors! So next Sunday we will be having a baptism.  Both are very excited to become members.  One, is a part member and the other, I don't know how they found her becuase her house is out in the boondocks but she has a strong testimony and wants to serve a mission.  Their names are Jhonalyn Castil and Glenda Taganap.  It should be good,  then we are working with this other family, hopefully they will be baptized before the end of this transfer. I'm crossing my fingers.  One of the kids is a strong Christan.  For the last month or so he has gone to his church, then comes right to our church after and attends sacrament.  Its so cool.  Even if his siblings aren't there he likes to come to feel of the Spirit, but he's too young to be baptized by himself.  Even though he has sat through almost all the lessons.  Him and his sister want to be baptized and are very smart,  they have understood everything but because their nanay (mom) won't magsimba we can't baptize the 2 kids without her.  It kinda blows so we just keep praying and fasting. 

 

The elections are pretty close now and because of that we as missionaries have to be very careful.  Next Monday is the elections and the town is busy and all the canidates have got posters everywhere. And there are vans everywhere that have big posters on them and big loud speakers that drive around blaring their music and political spiels to try and get people to vote.  Its ridiculous. For our protection we have to stay inside all day on Monday.Its going to be so boring! But I'll get caught up on my Book of Mormon reading ha ha.

 

Well everyone, thats all for this week

 

Until next week

 

Elder Chase

19 April 2010

Hey everyone,

Wow, what a great week! wow.  We baptized Edralin Cave yesterday, I thought that we were just gonna confirm him next week in Sacrament but when I got back up to announce the program for the rest of the meeting  he motioned to me that we were gonna do the confirmation too. So I announced that then he was like, your gonna confirm right? I was like...yeah. I am ha ha.  The only problem was that during the baptism, there was this one member that thinks he's pretty hot stuff and I had 2 priests from the branch come up and witness and he comes running in and pushed the priests out of the way and told them in a very rude way that they couldn't do it because they were not Melchizedek Priesthood.  Then he ordered me to be the other witness. So it went on and needless to say I was not feeling very Christlike towards him.  Because I knew that priests can witness but I let it go.  But when president said that I was confirming I realized because of my attitude I didn't have the spirit so I was like oh no! so I had to do some quick repenting and hope that God would forgive me so I could continue.  It was a learning experience. Even though people do stuff to us and make us mad, we can't let it affect our spirituality.  ha ha This mission experience is a big learning experience. 
In other news, it was a pretty good week. We taught quite a bit, and found some new investigators.  That has always been one of my weaknesses is finding people but it actually wasn't too hard this week.  It was fun too.

You guys rock! That was an awesome birthday package.  I am savoring the Dr. Pepper, and I have to hide it cuz technically its bawal. I mean against the rules.  ha ha But its only small proportion so its okay. ha ha I'll repent later.  The rope you sent was a lot of fun.  I took it tracting one day and I lost the spirit, so I kinda figured that was the Lord telling me if I wanna play don't play on his time.  ha ha But its still fun around the house.  Grandma and Aunt Cindy sent me packages too and they put lots of chocolate in them but it was all melted ha ha.  It was funny, but my did they taste good, then I got letters from grandma and grandpa westwood too.

Cuartocruz is transferring today and I'm gonna miss him.  He is such a funny kid but I know he's gonna be a great leader here someday just because I've seen how fast he progresses.  Interviews went good, I asked President a ton of questions. But it was really good.

I hadn't eaten balout for about 2 weeks before I got sick and I ate 5 the other day.  They were way good!


I think thats about it for this week. We'll have another 2 baptisms on May 2 so I'm excited for them. 

Thank you all for everything, until next week,
Take care,
Elder Chase

12 April 2010‏


Hey everyone,

What a great General Conference that was! I couldn’t believe how strong the sprit was when we were listening to them. I also caught quite a few talks that were directly to me. Namely the talk by President Uchtdorf about patience. Ha ha. I was able to see all of the sessions except the Sunday morning, I was playin usher and looking for investigators. Ha ha.

I am doing much better than I was last week. Thank you all for your prayers. I’m not quite back to 100% YET! I probably would be but I didn’t exactly follow the Dr’s orders to the T because I figured that my area had suffered bad enough without us there last week so I kinda felt like we needed to go work last week and I think because of it I’m not totally healthy yet. I’ll overcome this though. Ha ha. Another funny thing about the Philippines. The Dr’s don’t tell you everything you need to watch out for with the medicine they give you, I found out on Wednesday that I was supposed to say out of the sun ha ha. I guess my skin gets extra sensitive to the sunlight because of the medication so I had a lil reaction but nothing serious. And I’m done taking the meds so its okay now. As long as the amoeba are out of my system, which I will find out next Wednesday.

President Aquino said that maybe I got the amoeba a long time ago then they were just sitting dormant in my intestine, then because of the Typhoid fever my immune system was down and that’s when they like to make their presence known. So… I’m pretty sure I know where I caught the Typhoid from but I’m all over now. I’m sure glad that I took the typhoid pills before my mission, because I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t had the immunity in me I’da gotten a lot worse a lot quicker.  I haven’t gotten mail or packages for about 2 ½-3 weeks now because I’m so far from the mission home but tomorrow I’ll get it I’m pretty sure because we have interviews and president and sister Aquino, and the assistants are all coming up.
Bani, My area is doing okay now. There is no doubt that our work slowed a lil because we were not there but one cool experience was, this Friday we went to one of our investigators and he suggested that we go over where there were some more people, so we did and then people just kept coming and coming. I think in the end we taught about 15 people, my mission president told us because of my situation I was only to got teach the lessons then go home and do not walk. (the dr said the same thing(not to walk)) so I was worried about if we were going to loose people because of it but I learned that the lord provides a way if we are doing what we are supposed to. We need to get our key indiators up so that president can request more missionaries, and so because of that we have something to show for t he week. It was really neat.

Next week we are planning to baptize brother Edralin Cave, the teacher. So hopefully I will be able to report good news about that next week

I’ve got some awesome news to tell you! Guess what!...are you ready… okay, we played basketball this morning. And of course I didn’t really wanna play because I’m not very good at basketball. But I figured I’d give it a try. And guess what! I made 4 points! And my team won! Cool huh!? I was pretty dang proud of myself.


I’ll continue to help the area progress and I hope to see more miracles come to pass. Thank you again to all of you.

Until next week

Elder Chase

5 April 2010‏


Hey everyone,


What a hectic week! It started out with no money. Normally the last week of the month we get our support money for the month and my companion ran out a while ago, so we've been running on mine for a while. Which isn't a problem. Then there was a problem and we weren't able to get our support on the Monday, so they said, you should have it on Tuesday. So as luck would have it, and after spending all morning thinking about food. The couple missionaries came to our apartment and told us the money was in our accounts ha ha, so we went and withdrew it.

Well later that night I had a fever of 102 it went up and down for about 2 days, on Wednesday I went to the doctor and he said I had a dehydration fever and gave me some prescriptions and sent me on my way. Then Thursday my head hurt so bad I went to the hospital. They admitted me and took some stuff to do tests on. Later the doctor came back and said that I had ameoba in my large intestine, which explained the stomach cramps. Ha ha. Then he told me to be careful what I drink. I have no idea where it came from. Then later that night they told me I had typhoid fever too. I was like yeah! Go big or go home! Ha ha. They ran a catheter into me and pumped me full of dextrose, lactated ringers, and metronidazole to kill the ameoba. It was a lot of fun. I never was very gentle on the dogs I pulled catheters in but I know what it feels like. And it hurts like the dickens! I think I need to be nice now! Ha ha She (the nurse) said she would try and not make it hurt cuz it was my birthday but it still did. Ha ah a wreck on my 18th birthday, The hospital on my 20th, we'll see what happens on my 22! Should be exciting.

So at length they released me and gave me about 7000 peso Dr. bill. Which is the equivalent of about 140 dollars. There's nowhere in America that you could stay in a hospital overnight for 140 dollars but the American ones are a lot nicer. Ha ha.

Now I'm just to rest and to take my meds. And after about a week or so I should have no problems. It was really cool to see, I hadn't gotten a blessing until I was at the hospital. And later that night at the hospital my fever broke and my condition improved immensely. That was really cool to notice.

After I got released, the couple missionaries took me to their apartment so I could take a shower cuz the water got shut off at our apartment, then they cooked sloppy joes, and butterscotch brownies, and they had Pace salsa and queso dip! It was an awesome birthday lunch, especially after having been sick all week. They are awesome. I can't even repay them for how nice they have been to me.

So, yesterday at church, we had no investigators at church including our baptismal candidate. Whose baptism was supposed to be yesterday afternoon. The branch President, Elder Cuartocruz, and I all felt that something was wrong. So after sacrament, Elder Cuartocruz and I went out to his house, to see what was up. We hadn't been up there at all that week cuz I was sick. After talking for a while, we found out that he had had a problem about 4 years ago and he has repented for it and everything. So thats not the problem, but during the interview it was brought up and maybe pushed a lil too hard and even though its not an issue, because such a big deal was made of it. He just said the thoughts have been replaying in his head and he asked us to reschedule the baptism. He just said that he didn't feel like he was worthy at the moment, or in the right mind set. I asked him if he still knew the church was true, and he said yes and he still wants to be baptized, so that was great. We gave him a blessing and right as soon as it was done he said, “I will be okay.” I knew it, he knew it, and Cuartocruz knew it. Now we just need to wait. He'll be okay. And its because he has had a true conversion to the church and he truly has unwaivering faith. He knows that its just Satan thats bringing back those thoughts and trying to discourage him. So we're good.

Thats about all for this week

I love you all, and thank you for your prayers and support

Until next week,

Elder Chase