Week 62 - Typhoon Kappu - No word from Elder Swensen

Cauayan

Friday, October 16, 2015

Typhoon Kappu

As you may be aware there is a tropical typhoon, Kappu, heading towards the Philippines. Our missionaries have been alerted to prepare for a storm. Their preparations will include but are not limited to preparing for possible flooding, checking their 72 hour kits, having emergency cash in small bills, and charging their cell phone.  We have a line of communication in place. 

The storm is expected to make landfall at about 2 AM our time on Sunday morning, October 18 at a category 4.  It looks to change to a category 3 as it moves inland.  The track of the storm right now has it entering at about the center point of our mission around Cauayan, and then traveling through the center northward.  We expect wind, rain, flooding, and probable power outages. When the storm has passed and all missionaries are accounted for, we will let you know.

We use a site called Weather Underground to follow the tracking of the storm. I will post updates as possible on the FB page as well as the blog.  Be aware that I won't be able to do that if we lose power.

Thank you for your prayers--for the missionaries and for the Filipino people.  This is harvest time and there are many whose rice crops are not quite ready for harvesting.  We are anxious for them.

 

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Typhoon Update

Sunday Morning, 7 AM:  The storm made landfall at about 2 AM in the coastal area of Dinadiawan/Baler at a category 4 and is now slowly making its way westward and then will turn north.  It came in further south and is expected to be over the southern part of our mission today as a category 3.  It is predicted to weaken as it turns northward over the next two days, but we still expect to continue to have heavy rain, strong winds, flooding and loss of power.  The storm is very slow moving.  I will post another update later today.  Thank you for your prayers!

 

Sunday, October 18, 2015

 

Sunday Evening Typhoon Update

The typhoon came ashore north of Baler in the Auroroa Province about 2 AM on Sunday morning as a category 4 storm.  Over 10,000 people were evacuated from the areas nearby.  This is not a part of our mission, but we share boundaries here with the Angeles Mission.  All of our missionaries that were in flood-prone areas were evacuated Saturday afternoon.  The storm caused flooding, landslides and overflowing reservoirs.

All of our missionaries are safe and accounted for.  The storm is moving slowly, but has decreased in intensity.  We still expect periods of rain and flooding in places over the next 2-3 days before Lando officially exits the Philippines.  There are still some power outages and there will be some clean-up, but we are grateful that the damage was very limited in our mission.  Thank you again for your prayers!

Week 61 - Transferred to Cauayan

Cauayan

So I have been transferred to Cauayan 2-B.  My new comp is Elder Cruzit.  This is his last cycle and so President wanted me to be his last companion, but he said I could still train after this cycle. This cycle is super weird though. We have a General Authority coming and so we had to adjust our transfer schedule. So this cycle is only 4 weeks long, and the next cycle will be 8 weeks long. After that it will be back to normal.

The apartment here is really nice though. In the apartment is the 2 Zone leaders. E. Seuli and E. Treyes. But Elder Seuli will be going home too after this cycle so I will get a new zone leader. My DL is E. Castillo. I don't know where the mission pres goes to church, but he attended the General Conf. with us.  SO yyeah.. The STLs are in our branch as well.  There are a ton of new missionaries in this zone, after E. Cruzit and Seuli go home I will be the oldest missionary in this zone. Which is really crazy to think about. I only have about 8 months left. Time is going way fast here.

So if ya'll want to send a package I'm game with it. Honestly what you should send though is maybe memorabilia that you can only find in Utah. Just so I can give something cool to my companion at the time. Other than that you could just send a bunch of different candies. I don't really miss any foods too much that you guys need to send. Maybe, like mac and cheese or something like that. That would be nice.


Elder Cruzit and Elder Swensen

Roommates and ZL's, Elder Treyes and Elder Seuli



Elder Cruzit,Valen Castillo, & Elder Swensen

 

Map showing Cauayan, the home of the mission.

Week 60 - Last week in Ramon

Ramon

So I am getting transferred. Both me and E. Manalili will get transferred. What will probably happen is a zone leader will step down and train in the area. I want to get transferred anywhere but Cauayan or Ilagan. Honestly those are like the 2 most boring areas in the entire mission. I wouldn't mind going back to Tuguegarao or to Roxas or even Alicia, but honestly anything is fine with me. Other than that, things with Danica are going great and I'm pretty sure she'll get baptized by the following missionaries. This was our last week and we worked way hard. We got 65+contacts and 30+lessons. So we're leaving the area in pretty good shape.

Week 59 - Pastime of the little kids (Lice).

Ramon

haha That's actually pretty funny. I'm pretty sure I have lice. Everyone has it here. Like it's a pastime of little kids to pick out and kill lice. It's pretty much impossible to avoid it too. Like with splits, sleeping in other beds, and all the stuff. So I just don't think about it XD

Anyways this week we did have the baptism. On Friday, morning there was no work or school so we were able to get all of that dealt with. We do have one more potential baptism, but it'll probably be for one more cycle if we are still here. I think I've already told you about her. Her name is Danica. Her boyfriend is a member and she comes to church every so often, but she's not in town on weekdays and even some weekends, so it's pretty hard to get in and teach her. So I guess we'll just see how that goes.

We had Zone Conference last Thursday so ya'll should be able to get pix from that. There was an awesome pic of me and my batch so you should try to find that pic. I also have some other pics from zone conference, I'll upload those as well. Transfers will be on October 7th. I know the new AP E. Cruz and I ate lunch with him at zone conference. I told him to transfer me to Alicia sooooo hopefully he will do that XD. I also wouldn't mind going to Roxas, or down south. Anyways that's about it for this week. Take careeee Love you all

Mission buddies at Zone Conference

Santiago North Zone
Back:  Elders Navarro, Warren, Swensen, Canencia, Costacio, Paea
Front:  Elders Santos, Manalili, Sisters Saragoza, Wiiri, Elders Llanda, Glassie

Fun and Games at Zone Conference

Birthday Celebrants.  Tanner is hiding in the back.

Week 58 - Happy Birthday Buddy!

Ramon

Heyyo. This week has been pretty fun. We will for sure have our baptism on Friday of this week. We will have her interview on Thursday. We honestly got told by President that the both of us will be getting transferred. So that's pretty interesting as well. I hope I get transferred up to Tuguegaro South or to Alicia.
Anyways, in other news we had another sister tell us she wanted to be baptized. So that really sucks because there may not be missionaries here next cycle and I'm not sure the members will teach her. So it's really pretty sad that that's happening. We haven't had really any success with less actives at all these 2 cycles, but our recent converts are all doing great. So that's pretty great. Anyways that's about all the news here. Talk to ya'll next week .

Happy B-day buddy! You're our favorite player!

Week 57 - Thanks for the bucks Grandma!

Ramon

Heyo sorry we were busy yesterday we didn't get to email, but I got permission to email today. We are having a great time here! The member are still being a bit crazy. They don't want to have meetings with us or work with us or anything like that. Which is a little disappointing, but it's all good. We have a couple of members that feed us and still talk with us which is nice ^_^ Other than that Jessa had to have her baptismal date moved back because she wasn't able to come to church last week. So on the 26th of this month we'll have her baptismal date.

Also Grandma keeps sending me letters with one dollar bills asking me if I'm receiving them! So you can tell her I am receiving them and tell her thanks, I love her, and give her a kiss for me XD. Other than that, I tried withdrawing from my personal account earlier for my Birthday so we could go out to eat, but it wouldn't let me withdraw, I don't know if you blocked my account or what, so just let me know what's up there! Anyways I love you guys! we only have 15 minutes here so we are out! I'll message next week I promise!

Week 56 - Birthday coming up

Ramon

Hey yo, what's up. Really not a lot happened this week. We are still teaching Jessa. We still plan to get her baptized. My birthday is coming up. Hopefully this one will be better than the last :p I already have a bunch of dinners and lunches lined up. So I guess we'll just see. It's crazy how fast time flies here. I only have 9 more months. It's awesome. After this cycle I only have 6 more cycles. That's insane hahah Other than that, this week is probably gonna be the same as last. Nothing much planned for this week. Same old same old. Anyways ya'll take care this week.