28 March 2011

Hey everyone,

Well it wasn't quite as big of a week as we had last week. As far as transfers go, we lost our Filipino Companion, Elder Adriano, it was sad, I didn't wanna see him go because he was a great part/equalizer for me and Elder Buckmiller. We are still doing good. We got to work almost a full schedule this week.

We had an old lady pass away in the branch. Mami Mora. It was sad but she is happy again, she's with her husband again. Wednesday, we went over and did a service. On Friday she was buried. It is always great to see members that really understand the Plan of Salvation. Because we saw both, one lady about passed out/fell over a few times as she was bearing her testimony at the service because she was crying so bad. Sister Marivic, who took the deal the best asked us to go help her husband dedicate the grave before everyone else showed up, so we showed up at 2:30 like she said, but the catholic priest showed up early so we missed it. It was kind of funny to see 4 guys with white shirts, ties and bags running down Tabacahuan St. ha ha.

My tip this week for all the people going out on missions: Study as much as you can about the Atonement, it is also known as Grace in the scriptures. Then start applying it in your lives as much as possible. As soon as you do, you will become a lot better missionaries, a lot more effective.

Last Wednesday we had a Zone District meeting where Elder Buckmiller and I did the workshop. We had all the missionaries last week write down what every principle in lesson 1 means to them and how the atonement applies to that principle, then they shared that in District Meeting. We had tears flowing in both district (not from me) and the spirit was so strong cuz they were all teaching from the heart and they weren't really teaching they were bearing testimony about the gospel. So we are going to try and help them become more effective by applying the atonement better. You all should do the same.

We baptized Brother Milan yesterday. It was great. He was so happy and so was his wife!!! Next week he will get confirmed and I am so happy for him. When we were there on Saturday night there were 2 mel. priesthood that came to do their home teaching. That makes the 2 time that I've seen home teaching happen in my whole mission. I was so happy, especially because brother has some more friends that are mel. priesthood.

I've been trying to keep my birthday a secret but its not very good when your companion likes to tell everyone its hard. ha ha

Well that's about all for this week.

Love you all

Elder Chase

21 March 2011

Hey Friends and family.

Well it was another good week here in Olongapo. We had the transfer meeting earlier and that was fun. We always make things a little suspenseful...and the other missionaries always get mad at us. Well we will be loosing our Filipino companion, Elder Adriano, I will really miss him a lot. He made our companionship so much fun, but I guess it means that president is trusting him enough to send him out on his own. We'll know tomorrow where he goes.

I told all the members that I was transferring...but I'm not so they will be so shocked when they see me again. he he he.

If you remember the Elder that got admitted to the hospital last week, he got to come out on Tuesday but he couldn't work. His body was drained. So I got to go over and work with his companion while a member sat at the missionaries apartment and watched Elder Christensen. He got a whole lot of language study in ha ha. As for his companion, he was not an Elder that I was particularly close to or had any desire to be close to because he is a little on the femme side, but for 3 days I worked with him and it really changed my view of him. He has epilepsy and took his rests for way too long and the area was suffering really bad, we interviewed them a few weeks ago and his whole attitude changed. I was having a hard time keeping up with him. He will be alright. Friday Elder Christensen was able to go out and work again so I came home and finished the work in the area.

As for the investigators, we had one pass his baptismal interview yesterday, Milan, he'll be baptized next Sunday. He has had so much stuff to change and remove from his life. He did it!!! The saying, "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes" We are working with some others that are moving closer, Faustino Family. The whole family is listening and the kids are so smart it's ridiculous. They ask some of the deepest questions that I have ever encountered in my mission. ha ha Sometimes we have to go home, research, and teach that the next time we go to their house. They are doing good though.

Things have been pretty interesting with the whole Japan deal happening. I just keep singing "Its the end of the world as we know it... and I feel, fine...." ha ah its fun. One of our new members Rey, has a brother that's in Japan and they haven't heard anything from him since the earthquake so that's a little nerve wracking for them. We're praying for all of them.

Oh, one funny thing that happened. Yesterday morning we were cooking and our propane ran out!! We had half cooked lasgne on the stove, so we needed another heat source. We got the iron from the ironing board and plugged it in and cooked on it. It was pretty ingenious, ha ha ha, and I had to fix the light out back of our house and I didn't even get shocked!!!

This week looks to be an interesting one. A whole bunch of new missionaries in the zone and one sister will be training so we'll meet the new sister.

Love you all, thanks for everything.

Elder Chase

14 March 2011

Hey everyone!


What a great week! Our area got demolished by the Tsunami!!! We've been doing service projects for the last few days!!!! Awesome!!!! Nah just kidding, we got warned about it but nothing happened. Dang it. But we did have Specialized Training, Leadership Training, CSP (service project), an elder admitted to the hospital, a one day mission, news of black market dealers here in Olongapo selling human organs, and a CSP in a river where there was sewage. it was AWESOME!!! I could stop right here and let you all wonder but I'll guess I'll put some explanations behind everything. ha ha.

First of all Tuesday, the Leadership training, met with all the district leaders in our zone as well as Pres. Aquino and the AP's. We were told that we had to do a workshop, so we prepared one. My companion and I heard 2 different things but I figured its easier just to let him have his way that fight him so we went with his plan... our workshop was totally off!! It was so funny. So we "winged it" it turned out alright though. we were able to merge some of the stuff in from our workshop that we prepared so it turned out alright. That's what we call TBS Teach by the Spirit! ha ha. Then we went out and worked.

Wednesday, we had a workshop at Specialized training, That was okay...not much to complain about. Yes another TBS moment, President just asked for questions that the missionaries had and we had to answer their questions, as best we could. Then we worked for a bit.

Thursday we got a call from one of the missionaries that he was sick. We told him to take some medicine and drink more water (the universal answer for when you are sick). Thursday night we went over to their house and funny enough he had puke that looked like mine when I had amoeba and he had a lot of the same symptoms. But we called Sister Aquino said what should we do, and she said go buy some stomach ache medicine and some headache meds. Then said if the next day nothing has improved he should go to the hospital. So we left him with meds and Gatorade and I with a empty wallet ha ha. Then a member called and wanted a blessing too. We literally "ran" from place to place it was a good workout.

Friday we went to a CSP where we were cleaning a river. There was so much garbage!!! Then things really got exciting when one missionary saw poop floating in the water and they all ran for the hills! or the sides of the river and were scared to keep going. I just kept cleaning... yeah. That's me! We cleaned up really good after that CSP. And the Elder that was sick got admitted on that day to the hospital. It was fun running around. He has Dengue and amoeba.

That night we heard news of a cult that was running around the city and the 2 attacks that we had heard were kids that were kidnapped... then their organs were sold on the black market it was kinda gross. So we called Pres. Aquino who ordered an immediate 8 o'clock curfew for the zone and we just saw earlier it will be for the whole mission. Its awesome!!!

Saturday we had a one day mission where we went around to the inactive members and asked if they were gonna come back to church. We went to 400+ places that day. Ouch... I just cut my finger open tryin to punch my comp... in a nice way.

Yesterday we had a surprise baptismal interview for the sisters whose district leader is in the hospital.

All in all it was a great busy week. I hope we can keep it up.

I love you all. Thank you for all your support.

Elder Chase

7 March 2011

Well its a very Bitter sweet moment right now!!!!

Ahhh with Caydyn leaving I'm excited but I don't like that he leaves only 8 days before I go home!!! What is this!? ha ha ha.

Well happenings for the week. I went over to do exchanges with the District leader in Dinalupihan Zone and helped him find some new investigators. This missionary is a great guy he just is a little shy. It was fun. We knocked on a few doors and I really see it as too big of a deal but I was just being my goofy self and making jokes about chasing people, or hiding until they came back out then suddenly jumping in front of them and talking to them. Its kinda like what I always do so nothing new, then later that night we had some teenagers that I think were kinda drunk that yelled, "hey friend, where are you going?" I said "I'm going over there! where you going?" he said, "I'm staying here." so I said, "that's good diyen ka muna" which is like, okay you stay there. Everyone was laughing, then we went to a member and they were doing a family home evening so we got invited and ended up doing the lesson. It turns out that a lady there that I thought I had seen was a member from there that I met way back when I was companions with Elder Lebbon, Nanay Presy. It was fun to talk to her, they told me the news that Brother Lebbon had gotten married and she told me to punch him when I see him again for not keeping in contact with his nanay. ha ha ha. Magingat ka lebs!!!

When we were doing the evaluation at the end of the night I found out that because of continual let-downs one of the missionaries was kind of discouraged, but he was very thankful that it had been a good day of finding. He said that I was the reason, even though I hadn't done anything different or important, I just did the work, and was happy, I showed him something about diligence, and doing the work with a smile. I have kind of been thinking about that lately, how people watch things that we don't know they are watching. So its important, especially as missionaries/leaders in the church, our attitude is a good one, one of a disciple of Jesus Christ.

After the Exchanges, we worked one day in the area, then went to the mission home Thursday morning until Friday afternoon for ZLC, again, it was full of the Spirit, revelation, great stories, and good food. Sister Aquino cooked, so it was great. The only problem I really have with ZLC is we evaluate the key indicators of the mission, or the stats, then talk about them. yeah... I'm not very good with numbers and I usually end up lost in the end. But the other stuff about it is great, especially getting taught from President Aquino, that guy is amazing!

After ZLC we went to our area and got Elder Adriano whom we had left on a special assignment with a companionship in the zone. He was to evaluate them and keep them working hard and making sure they got out on time and everything. It is really nice to have an assistant. We were supposed to be making sure he doesn't do anything bad and isn't disobedient, but he has done wonders for our companionship and I told President that I'd like to help him get up to where he can lead a district by the end of his mission. Based on what I've seen lately he can do it, we're just building his self confidence and helping him realize that its easier to obey than to regret later.

Saturday, we went to a meeting with the Branch Presidents of Dinalupihan district, only 2 showed up because it was raining. It was muddy too because its farm land over there so I got muddy. It was fun. Then we found out one of the sisters in that area was sick so we ran over, gave her a blessing then hit the road to come back to Olongapo. It was a crazy week, but very rewarding. The work is starting to progress more. This week we have training for 2 days so that should be fun and keep us busy as well.

Well that's my report for this week

Elder Chase