Living the Dream in the Philippines: WEEK 61 - October 16, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody!

This week was soo busy, and this next one is gonna be even more busy. As some of you know, this week was week 6 of the transfer, so it was the last week. We are now beginning week 1, which means all the new missionaries will be heading in. Favorite week of the month!

So last Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges with some of the Zone Leaders. This was the first time in a transfer that we were actually able to fit in exchanges with every single one of the Zone leaders, so we are glad we accomplished that. Quick story. On Tuesday morning I was coming out of the bathroom, and all the sudden I heard a errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I ran and looked out the window, and all I heard was somebody say "Ah patay na" (Oh, she's dead). And saw a guy carrying an old lady off to the side of the road, put her in a triC, and to the hospital. So there was another death I witnessed. Kinda regular here I guess. This time at least the police showed up and investigated it.

Quick cultural thing. So at the start of September, Christmas was already starting to be celebrated, but now, in October, it literally feels like December haha. Christmas lights, Christmas trees. In the store earlier the Christmas music was already blasting. It kinda makes me mad, cuz I used to not like to start celebrating Christmas until the start of December. But here, since there's no Thanksgiving, and Halloween isn't that big, I don't mind starting the celebration a little early.

So on Thursday, we loaded up the truck with lots of supplies (electric fans, stoves, etc.) and we hit the road to Cagayan. Stopped by a lot of the apartments on the way and dropped off supplies. Then when we got to Cagayan area, it just started pouring down. Big ol rainstorm which slowed us down a bit. We finally made to Aparri at about 7. We texted President and told him that we were there and he replied "Elders, go ahead and eat dinner at the restaurant and charge it to the room." We were happy to hear that. haha We made sure not to put too much on the bill though. The workers were laughing because I ordered a nice American meal (burger and fries), and Elder Basa went with the pure filipino food. The next day we had our Zone Conference with the Aparri, Ballesteros and Gonzaga Zones. After that, we hit the road back to Laoag, and ended up making it back before midnight.

(zone conference matching...again)

So Sunday morning we opened up the transfer board, and to our surprise, Elder Basa is staying another transfer! haha That will make 9 months for him as an AP. Also, we are now in a trisome again. Elder Holmes was called as an AP. He's such a nice guy from St. George. We are very excited. Also, there were 2 more office elders called. And one of them is my trainee, Elder Reyes! hahaha That will be a lot of fun. There were tons of transfers made, so we took a while to get the travel instructions all put together. We will see tomorrow if they were explained clearly. On Wednesday, we will be receiving 15 new missionaries! Seven of them are foreigners. So we will orient all of them on Thursday, and they will meet their trainers on Friday. It's weird that this is my third time doing this. Time is going real fast.

(with Elders Reyes & Maharry)

Our investigator, Joyce, called us on Tuesday and asked if we could meet with her for a bit. We met her at the institute building, and talked to her. She expressed that her mom is real mad at her for deciding to get baptized. She told her that if she gets baptized on Saturday, she will for sure not attend the baptism, she will not attend her graduation, and won't even attend her wedding. So Joyce was struggling a bit, as you can imagine. But even with all this anger towards her, no support from her parents, and lots of trials she could be facing in the future, she said she still wants to be baptized. So on Saturday afternoon, she was baptized. She has such a strong testimony and is just a leader. I'm excited to see her progression in the church and to see the windows of heaven opened up to her because of her desire to follow the Savior.