Week 77 - Lost wallet

Cauayan

Hey, I lost my wallet. I just spent all morning looking at all the places I've gone. I don't think I'll be able to find it, but I'll keep looking. Sorry we weren't able to net last week.  I've uploaded some new photos in my dropbox.

Other than that, this week was awesome we found a new family and teaching them was great! Hopefully we can get them to come to church next week. They love what we teach them though. There house is right across the street from Grace's. She hasn't been able to come to church for 3 weeks now, so that sucks, but we are going to keep teaching and try to help her come to church.

Me and doc are halfway done with the training now. Time goes by way fast. I can't believe it's already been 6 weeks. 

Week 76 - Fellowshippers are great!

Cauayan

Hey sorry we didn't have any time to email yesterday. We had a zone activity at a river. It was way fun. We also went to a museum. They had cigars that had to be jokes. Some of them were 2 or 3 inches thick and 3 feet long. haha I can't imagine anyone wanting to smoke those.

The work this week was okay. We only had 2 investigators come to church, and Grace wasn't one of them. She was out of town, but she said for sure she is going to come next week. We finally got some young women fellowshippers to work with us and it went great. She responded way well to them. They really helped her answer some questions so it went perfect!

That's all that really happened this week. I pulled my big toe nail out. During our zone activity I hit it somehow and it was completely filled with sand, I was scared it would get infected so I just pulled it out.

 

I love you guys take care this week. 

 

Cauayan Zone Activity

Zone Activity at the beach

Week 75 - Falling to sleep with our clothes on.

Cauayan

This week was good for work. Most everyday both me and my companion fell asleep still wearing our proselyting clothes. This week, on Sunday, we went and picked up Grace from here house so she could come to church. It was the first time I tried that during my mission. It was good though. She made a ton of friends and now she's super excited to come back next week. So I think we may actually have a baptism this Feb., but we'll just see.

Yeah I do have to do baptismal interviews, but there hasn't been a baptism in my district since I became District Leader. So, I haven't been able to interview anyone yet. 

Week 74 - The new District Leader

Cauayan

So being a district leader is actually quite easy. All I have to do account all the elders and sisters in my district before District meeting and then I teach district meeting. I think  training is a lot harder than being a district leader.

This week we thought Grace was coming for sure to church. We had her assigned a ride and everything.  Then the person we asked to give her a ride forgot or something and wasn't able to get her so that sucked, but Michelle finally came to church.  It really surprised us but it was awesome:) My comp is doing great, and I hope we will get a baptism before next cycle, but it dones't look like that's going to happen but I think we will get one next cycle. The area is just so hard, but we are still working hard.

 

I was also wondering if you could put a little money on my card I wsa going to buy treats for my district and a couple of our investigators. anyways thanks guys, I love you

 

Another photo of Elder Doctolero's batch.  It is huge.
He is standing next to the Mission President.

 

Week 73 - New Anak and a new calling.

Cauayan

Hahahaha I became a district leader as well. hahaha wew. Maybe the church really isn't true hahahahha joke joke joke. Seriously when president called that night I didn't believe him, but here I am. hahahha My trainee is really cool as well. I don'\t know if they have pictures on the blog yet, but his name is Elder Doctolero.

He's awesome, but supppppppper shy haha he still doesn't talk to me very much, but he's breaking in slowly. I'm having a good time, but training is actually pretty hard. Actually he's reaallllllllly good in lessons. I was surprised eh haha but He's awesome.  He is from Bulacan. I don't know if that is the right spelling... but something cool... haha.  He worked at a call center before he came here.
I feel like it's going to be a great 12 weeks.

Friends form Ilagan Zone.
Elder Swensen and Elder Enuake on transfer day.

Elder Doctolero's Batch arriving at the ariport

Elder Doctolero in the back

And Elder Bautista, Tanner's Tatay or Trainer, is going home

Week 72 - Christmas Skype

Cauayan

We got to talk to Tanner this week.  He is doing very well and found out he will be training next month.  He says his area is hard, but the members are great and he likes being able to talk to and see the Mission President every week.

Christmas call with Elder Swensen

New Trainers Meeting

Week 71 - Christmas Week in Cauayan

Cauayan

Only word from Tanner this week was to set up date and time of his Christmas call, but we have found pictures on Facebook.

Cauayan 2 Branch Christmas Party
You'll have to look hard to find Tanner, but he's there. 

Week 70 - Mission Christmas Devotional

Cauayan

Hey what's up?

So every thing is going great here.  It sucks though, this week all of our investigators digressed rather than progressed. We don't even know what happened. 2 weeks a go we had 3 plus investigators and now we don't have any. I guess it's just part of the job. Hopefully this week will be better. We are going to try to drop Grace and Michelle for a week. so when we return they will be super sensitive to the strong spirit. Another struggle is a lot of our investigators work at the mall during December and they are all super busy, so it's hard to teach and it's hard for them to come to church. 

 

So I had a cool idea tell me if you guys like it.  It's pretty cheap to make and print jerseys here. So I was thinking we should make a family Real jersey.



Cauayan Zone -
Back:  Elders Higgins, Olsen, Fernandez, Swensen, Lee, Balneg
Middle:  Elders Castillo, Frei, Monilla, Navarro, Treyes, Posadas
Front:  Sisters Heve, Porter, Ethington, Montejo, Canlapan, Mariano, Allen, Maroket

Zone Christmas Skit - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Christmas Lunch

Elder Balneg in bottom right corner

 

Week 69 - Christmas is coming.

Cauayan

I got sick again last week. We weren't able to go to church. I had like a flu or something.  I was basically just throwing up all Saturday and Sunday, but this week we've got our Christmas devotional on Tuesday, so that should be fun.  We also have FHE at a less actives house.  On the 19th we have a Branch Christmas party too.

We can't find a good enough net shop to upload pictures. I'll try to send them through email. but I think it will still be too slow. We'll try again next week. Things were good this week.

Cauayan District Activity
Elder Higgins, Castillo, Balneg, Swensen, Monilla, and Fernandez
Sister Allen, Canlapan, Maroket, and Mariano

Jefferey Martinez, Elder Swensen and Elder Balneg



Week 67 - Elders from Davao are way cool!

Cauayan

This week we had a ton of success! We had three investigators attend church and we have five progressing investigators! Things are rolling quite nicely here! Nothing much has changed with the work it's about the same old. Elder Balneg is easily one of my favorite companions. I don't know what it is, but all the Elders that come from Davao are all way cool.

Honestly there isn't many things that I want a medium package would probably do. Make sure you just include CTR rings as well, this time add a couple of Tagalog rings as well! Other things that might me good are Pilot G2 pens. Those are my favorite, but they don't sell them here.

Maria Christina Danao, Elder Castillo, Fernandez, Balneg and Swensen

 

 

Week 65 - Awesome New Companion, Elder Balneg

Cauayan

My new companion is awesome. His name is E. Balneg from Davao. This November we have 2 baptisms scheduled. Graces Flores and Michelle Malari. Grace went to church for the first time last Sunday, it's so great to see her progression:) Michelle went last Sunday but wasn't able to make it yesterday. So hopefully she comes to church next week, so that we can still have that in November.

Mom: So are you feeling any better?  Sorry, I'm a little worried.  :) 

Yeah it's gotten a lot better. It turned into like a whole body infection. Like my sinus got infected, I got boils, and lesions and rashes and like everything possible. Sister Rahlf had me sleep in the mission home all Tuesday. It was crazy. but it's way better now

Elder Balneg, Melanie Baua, Elder Swensen

Transfer Day at the Cauayan Tranfer Point.

 

Transfer Day

 

Week 64 - Paalam Elder Cruzit!

Cauayan

So nothing changed this week. We didn't get much work done this week, because Elder Cruzit is going home and he wanted to visit all the members. So we've done a lot of visits with active members. President Rahlf told me that I will be a follow up trainer next cycle. So I will be finishing the training of a Filipino elder. He said I might also train next cycle. I also have a reallllly weird sickness. I have lesions on my arm, I have a huge boil on the back of my neck, my whole body aches and I already did one full round of antibiotics, but it didn't help much, so now they are going to put me on two different antibiotics for another round. ya'll should send me an Alta shirt in my package, but make sure it's medium! Large is wayyy to big for me now XD

 

Anyways I'll message ya'll next week with my new companion and send pictures. Love you! 




Final Zone pics with Elder Seuli and Cruzit

 

Week 63 - Giving Blessings and Receiving a Blessing from Elder Switzer

Cauayan

I did get my birthday package. Thank you. Sorry about the delay. We couldn't email because of the Typhoon and because it's been a supppper busy week. Last Monday we had a district activity and then a member called and asked for a blessing. We didn't even end up having time to shop. Then on Tuesday we had to clean the apartment before work, because a General Authority is here and he checked a couple of apartments.

 

The General Authority was Elder Schwitzer. He spoke last General Conference. Yesterday he also picked a couple people to interview. So I ended up being one of them, and he ended up giving me a blessing. So that's a pretty good story huh?

 

Anyways yesterday after our zone conference with Elder Schwitzer, we went to one of our progressing investigators, Grace Flores. After our lesson about what our purpose is on earth, her dad came in. Her dad isn't a member he was also pretty drunk but he talked for about 10 minutes straight about how he wanted us to go there everyday to fill Grace's mind with good things. It was pretty funny. It was funny too because he would ask us questions and then when we were about to answer he would interrupt us and just say "wait wait I'm not finished." and then we would explain why he was asking it and then after about two or three minutes he would forget the question he asked and then after he was done he just walked out of the room. So now we are going to go to Grace's house everyday.

 

Also things you could include in the package: Maybe T-Shirts that say Utah or anything that is cool memorabilia from Utah. Also if you guys could grab some of those metal oil vials that would be great! I can't find any here at the Manila Temple.

 

Anyways I was able to interview with President and he said that I was doing well and that he's going to give me another special assignment and then in my last area I'll train. Honestly I don't even want to train. I keep telling him I don't want to train, but I'll do whatever the Lord wants me to do.

 

I love my area, comp, and the other elders in my house, but there's just not a lot to do here in Cauayan. There are also a tonnnnnnnn of new missionaries here. This is where a lot of people train. I'm actually only the third oldest missionary here in my zone, so I guess I'm not really the oldest veteran here :P
 

The one sister from back in the MTC emailed me. The one that I played russian egg roulette with. She's just about to finish her mission :P It's crazy too because sister Hamblin goes home in December as well. I'm getting closer as well. I think I only have 8 months left or something like that :p

That's all I have for the last 2 weeks though. Take care

I love y'all



Cauayan Zone with Elder and Sister Schwitzer

Batchmates, Elder Einfeldt, Elder Lott, & Elder Swensen



Elder Swensen with his tatay, Elder Bautista



Mission friends, Elder Swensen, Glassie, Seuli, and Enuake




Cauayan Zone Activity



Zone Activity