27 Sept 2010

Hey everyone,

We opened the gate of salvation for 2 more children of God yesterday. It was right after church service and after the baptismal ordinance, Sister Cynthia Humilde got up and gave a beautiful testimony about the change that has happened to her.  It was amazing and her daughters and her mom, who are all members, were all crying and I almost did but it didn't happen.  Her husband who is an awesome person also came to church and stayed for the baptism.  He said, after the baptism, to his family that he wants to get baptized and there was 1 other person, their neighbor, and loved it there at church.  After that we walked forever and a day, up in the mountains, and through a resort and through a river to find a referral that the sister missionaries in Alaminos had given us last week.  And when we got there, they were waiting for us, as well as some of her member friends.  It was crazy, they literally live in the middle of no-where! ha ha.  We missed the fireside that we were supposed to be at yesterday but we had fun and it was a lot more profitable to find that referral.

One of our investigators that was supposed to get baptized came down with the flu on Saturday and text the members and said she wouldn't be able to get baptized yesterday, so we told her thats fine.  She'll be baptized next week.  Then on the 9-10 we have General Conference.  If I get transferred I'll be in another Area for it.  If not.  Great!

In other happenings this week, I went on exchanges this week up to Bolinao again.  Me and Elder Berueta tore it up, up there.  Me and him are both  makulit, which means loud, happy, and crazy! It was a good time.

We had members work with us almost every day this week, therefore our lessons with members were way high this week and it gave them all a chance to get better at teaching to prepare for their missions.  Then on Sunday (yesterday) we had 2 priesthood members that said they wanted to work with us this week. Which was a great! I'm way excited for that.  Usually its just the YW that work. Then on Wednesday President Balad is gonna come down and work with us. We're gonna focus on finding the long lost members that are supposedly part of our branch.  It will be busy but I know that we will see the rewards from it, even if we can only get 2 families back to church. 

Well I gotta run.  Love you all

Elder Chase.

20 Sept 2010

Hey everyone,


Sorry, no fish bone stories this week. I was careful about what I ate.

Oh its been a busy week though! Holy cow!(banal na baka) that doesn’t directly translate and make sense in tagalog. On Saturday we went and did a service project at an elementary school. It was pretty fun. We painted, and cleaned and I got to use a hammer to hang stuff up in a classroom. It was actually a decent size hammer too! Ha ha. We had 3 investigators come to it and I think that they all had fun.

Yesterday we had 3 investigators get passed off for baptism. They will be baptized next Sunday. Elder Guevarra, the missionary that interviewed them said that they were all “Ang Galing” which basically means that they were great! That is good to hear because it means that at least most of what we are teaching is sinking in to their heads. One of them is an investigator that has 3 daughters that are members. I am way excited for her. As we were reviewing the baptismal interview questions with her she was struggling a little bit but her husband who had just come from work and had drunk a little bit answered every question about the commandments. He will not be far behind her getting baptized then 1 year after that they will go to the temple. I’m hoping to come back for that.

We gave a baptismal date to a gal this week that everybody says is homosexual. But I don’t know, we taught Law of Chastity and she didn’t say anything to us, but this week we will teach her the baptismal questions and covenants and hopefully if there is a concern we will be able to handle it no problems. It was really neat because when we went there we asked her to pray and she gave a beautiful prayer and actually started crying! I was like WOW!

On Thursday, we came down for yet another specialized training. We had to teach Elder and Sister Ashcraft…in ENGLISH!!!! It was so hard! Oh my gosh! But we got it done. I had a few struggling moments, or as we like to call them, Nose bleeds. But the Spirit came through for me and touched them and us. It was fun with just our Zone, everyone was making comments on how I have been here for so long. Me and one other sister, Sister Suniega, are the pioneers up here. She’s been up here for 9 months and Me, 7 ½ months. Transfers are in 2 weeks but I don’t really feel like I’m leaving yet. But we’ll see. The members start getting all worked up when I mention transfers. Ha ha ha. I suppose that’s a good thing.

We went to a birthday yesterday and I’m happy to say that there were no drunkards there. Absolutely no alak or alcohol. It was quiet but I think sister Dianne had a good time. It helped that her mom had passed her interview that day.

Well I gotta run. Love you all

Elder Chase

13 Sept 2010

Hey everyone

 

Boy do I got a story for all of you!!!  So Monday I had to go to the hospital to get some tests run, don't worry bout that part of it.  Well, I got a check-up at the Doctor and he said fatty foods, salty foods, and sweets are a big No No right now.  So basically he told me I have to fast for now! But he said that I can eat fish.  Which is fine, fish is delicious, so later that night we had a family home evening with one of my favorite members, Sister Jane.  And I was obedient to what the dr said and I was eating fish! Then I ate a fish bone and it got stuck good in my throat and I couldn't get it out! I tried everything. So I text the couple missionaries to tell them what was going on and I might be going back to the ER to get the bone taken out if I couldn't do it myself. So what did they do?...they come and get me.  They wouldn't let me try and do it myself. So at 10:00 at night I walk into the ER and say I've got a bone in my throat and they say, okay take a seat the dr will be here in a minute.  So no big deal.  Then the dr comes and says, oh, sorry we don't have the stuff to take that out.  Our ENT is at a convention in Maynila.  GREAT! So we went to one other clinic place that was open and no one was there to help me.  So I told Elder and Sister Ashcraft to take me home and I'd try and sleep with the bone in my throat still.  I was able to sleep surprisingly well probably becuase of running all day I was exhausted.  Then then next morning we went to the ENT and while we were waiting I could feel that the bone had moved up a little bit but it was scratching harder on my throat.  But I thought to myslef, everyone said eat a banana cuz it will grab the bone and take it down, so we left and went and bought a couple bananas.  One of them went down too easily and availed nothing.  The next one was a little bit bigger and maybe a little too big. ha ha I got it lodged in my throat and started panicing a little bit, then I threw it up a little then swallowed it again and it went down with a little resistance but it did the job, it grabbed the bone too.  When the ordeal was over I looked around and there were probably 25 philipinoes standing around staring at me and Elder Pennock was cracking up! Then we hurried and left and I laughed too. Then carried on with our day.

 

Yesterday we confirmed 3 of our 4 investigators that got baptized last week and I've attached pictures of that.  That was great.  I am hoping they will continue and flourish in the gospel.  There is one of them that I am worried about, the other 3 not so much.  Then I gave a talk about making our homes a heaven on earth.  It was kind of boring.  I'll probably have a chance to speak again and redeem myself.  The sad thing was we only had 8 investigators come to church, usually its up in the 12-15.  Part of that is because we haven't been able to work as much in our area because of meetings this week, we were gone Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, because of meetings.  It showed that the work suffered too. We've got to be working.

 

We had another Investigator that told me that he wants me to baptize him and I was like brother, you have to decide if you want to be baptized before October because I might be leaving then.  He was like I sure hope not.  He is one that we hadn't expected to grow like he has but lately he has done great and is really considering it.

 

Earlier we did a service project with the Zone for one of the Branch presidents in the area.  When we had a big pile of weeds the 2 big americans threw the little american (me) into the pile of weeds. It was fun! but unfortunately my hands are soft and I've gotten a bunch of blisters and cuts.  Oh well.

 

We found a new investigator last week named Jordan Ancheta and he is great! We were commiting to pray to know and he was like I know its true, because you guys leave your homes, you pick up our language and you share this great message.  We are hoping that he will continue to learn and grow.  He works with the Red Cross over here and when the big storm came through last year he worked with a lot of members of the church as they helped the people that had lost close to everything.  I would have liked to be around when that happened. 

 

Well thats all I've got here

 

Until next week

 

I love you all

 

Elder Chase

6 Sep 2010

Hey everyone,

We baptized 5 people yesterday, 4 Investigators and 1 child of record. The little girl that was a child of record was so scared and we had planned that Elder Pennock was going to baptize her but she was so scared that I ended up doing it because she knew me better. The other's did just fine and next week they will be confirmed in Sacrament. The Branch president, President Balad came down with the flu last week, and was not planning on coming to the baptized becuase he felt sick but his counselor didn't come to church so he had no choice. Go figure, someday it is our hope that the members in this branch will step up and realize that you cannot be a normal member, there is no such thing. That is what they want to be, they won't accept callings and most that do, do it for the wrong reasons. We are doing some trainings to help them, hopefully they will understand it.

Last night we were teaching a family where the 3 daughters are really active but the parents are not members, the kids got baptized because their grandma was a member. They have hoped for a long time that their parents would accept the gospel. Well their mom, told us that she wants to be baptized and will be at the end of this month, and their dad, last night said that he wants to be so hopefully we can help him get rid of his drinking habit and be baptized too. I guess the dad was dreaming the other night and talking in his sleep, the kids heard and he said "Elders I'm gonna come with you." So since then the kids have had a hope that his dream would come true. Well it did, last night during the lesson, he said the same thing. The girls and grandma got excited because this was an answer to their prayers. It was really neat. Now we just need to help the brother stop drinking.

On Friday we went and cleaned the church again with President Balad. After that he got sick. It was a good time. This week the youth are planning an activity to clean so we are going over to supervise and make sure that they clean everything; when they have "cleaned" in the past it ended up not being all that clean come Sunday.

Last Wednesday we went down to Santa Cruz again. Its getting expensive, holy cow! But we are learning a lot. For the duration of the training they separated the companionships, Elder Pennock got put with 2 sisters, one that is still new in the mission and 1 that doesn't know very much english. I think it was good for him! He seemed to learn a ton. And he had to talk a lot more becuase I was not there to do it. We go down again on Wednesday for a leadership training.

Until next week

Elder Chase