1-27-2016

 

TUPA-sheep-

 

I'll be sure to take a picture of a jeepney this week for all of y'all... or there is the easier way of just looking one up on Google ;) Anyway, I was talking to Elder Q and he said that this last rainy season there were two days that they couldn't go out and proselyte and then a week with no work because of service due to a typhoon :O Anyway, that would actually be awesome... just burn off some CDs with church music and stuff! This years EFY music is really good ;D

I hope that all of y'all are staying safe and warm out there in Virginia! It's been crazy to hear how much show that you guys got!! How about school, did they cancel for a really long time?? xD

Oh, first... CRAZY awesome story! I was walking by this house and I legit listened to them playing Country Roads or whatever by John Denver! It was probably my favorite thing to hear this whole week! :D

This week has been kind of rough, but it was an overall great experience! I suppose that I'm going to start at what is on my mind most right now... and that is the funny fact that Mormon Standard time... is actually Filipino time!! Why do I say this? Because every Sunday we're supposed to start at 9... that's the time that we tell everyone! However, EVERYONE shows up late and so we start Sacrament meeting each week at 9:15! And then it's always interesting because the microphone is really quiet and Filipinos are the softest speakers ever... so I can barely hear what it is that they're saying! But it's going okay :) I've gotten to a point in these past 3 weeks that I'm able to understand what we're teaching in a lesson and what it is that my companion is sharing... the only hard part is that I can't speak this language to save my life! However, it is coming.. and I know that i'll be able to share this gospel effectively with all those around me in the coming months!

Crazy experience for this week was when we were walking from an appointment to the church... over an hour walk on a cement sidewalk road. And so it was really really hard and hot for about 10 minutes before probably one of the most unsafe things I've done... a truck with a bunch of Filipinos stopped next to us and offered a ride, so Elder Q and I hopped on the back and they took us to the church building! The unsafe part is that i was standing on the literal back of it, and we went at least 30 miles an hour... but, obviously I'm safe here emailing you! So I didn't die!

Another crazy story is our walking through a shallow river... we were at another appointment, a really long way back to the main road... that is if we had taken the normal route, but by cutting through this river, we were able to cut probably 30 mintues off our walk! Did I mention that we do a lot of walking here? xD

Anyway, I have one more pretty fun story about the... M. family! We found them when going to refill our phone card and OYMd this store owner (also, there are individual businesses literally EVERYWHERE... like out of peoples homes!) and we've been teaching them for a while! I can tell that Nanay is really interested and Tatay was too, that is until we extended a baptismal invitation and he hasn't talked to us since. But Nanay has been really receptive and I just love to go and teach them! :)

Love y'all so much! I'll email next week! Stay safe and warm, don't forget to pray together every day and read the scriptures! While they are very simple, I find that they do provide the daily fuel to our fire of conversion :)

-Elder Morris-

ps- those two other Book of Mormons are the two other languages that I'm going to be around for the next... until I come home. Ilicono and Pangansinian! xD

 

 

I was reading Shannons email and she said she learned that you LOVE radishes and were eating them whole in the car and I realized that I really miss radishes and vegetables right now... we don't have too many vegetables out here xD

Isaacs first baptism

I love getting y'alls emails :) I've had another interesting food this week... though I don't really remember what it was called... so I'll try to get the name for yah next week :) It's funny that you bring up my pants... because that reminded me to tell you that I'm actually starting to develop a rice gut xD xD It's so crazy to be here and have rice with all of the meals just about... oh well! Anyway, it's really an awesome opportunity to have lessons with investigators every single day and help them to come unto Christ! The only problem is that nobody every follows through with commitments  so even if they commit to baptism, they still have to do a bunch of other stuff!

Something that might be good for a package would be the plantain anti itch stuff you always made, or a recipe or something! I've been getting home every evening with some 3 or 4 new mosquito bites! (word of the week Lamok- mosquito and Manok- chicken) And maybe also... I don't know! There's not really much that I can't get out here, and for a cheaper price than back home in the states! A haircut was 38 pesos... so less than a dollar :O Oh my gosh, I heard from the Utah parents some unofficial news, which is so so exciting! I think my favorite part about all that is that they're always going to have that hilarious story about how they met xD xD It's also so great that you guys got to go do a temple session with S, I bet that was a neat experience :) 

So, this week isn't really much different from last week! I don't really know where to begin, so I think I'm just going to kind of ramble on about a bunch of different experiences! So we walk just about all day every day here, or ride jeepneys around... which is really fun but it takes a long time, every day is pretty hot and dry, which actually reminds me that it has not rained since I got here... not going to lie, I expected a lot of rain!!! Anyway, so we were teaching this investigator the Restoration, this was our first appointment... and it was so awesome, we extended a baptismal invitation for sometime in February (because of the baptismal requirements here for people) and he literally said yes and then proceeded to ask what time it would be!! (Of course though, that was all in Tagalog so I didn't understand too much... but I got the point :)P) Other than that... this week was pretty long and I'm coming along a little bit better in the language now :)

Oh, one more thing that I really really have learned... Filipinos are not afraid to point out a big pimple on someones face... xD

I'm having such a wonderful time out here though, as long as each day is... at the end I always feel like there's never enough time in the day to actually get everything done!!

Well, that's all! I love you guys so much, can't wait to hear from you next week :)

Love,

Elder Morris

Wow, it sounds like your week has been really crazy! I hope that y'all are staying warm and safe! I always love hearing about all that is going on, keep being awesome :) I'm so grateful to have an email every week from all y'all :)

This week has had many many things happen, so I suppose that I can always start with my highlights! :)

First off, there was a baptism for one of our investigators this last Saturday and it was probably the best experience in my whole life, it was small and just the one old Nanay. It would have been two baptisms, but her sister decided to not be baptized because her children don't want her to be... but anyway, I know she'll be baptized one day, especially since she comes to church every single Sunday :)P And afterwards, she bore her testimony... I couldn't quite understand this little old ladies speaking let alone in another language, but I felt the spirit so strongly and she actually started to cry! The joy that comes into someone's life when they come into this gospel is just so so amazing!!!

While teaching this week we found 15 new investigators and extended 18 baptismal dates... it's so crazy how willing people here are to listen to the Gospel, we'll just see how well they are at actually following through with commitments and finding out for themselves if this gospel is true! I think that it's just hard for them because of the poverty mostly that people don't come to church and don't follow through with all their commitments. But the people here are really so so kind!

What else? OH, I tried some interesting foods this week... Balut, which I have a video if this will let me send it... surprise surprise that it's actually really good, especially when you salt it! xD Second, Adidas... no I didn't each shoes... adidas is chicken feet! Also... really surprisingly good xD And lastly, one that you might actually enjoy is Bola-Bola, the only way that I can describe it would be vegetables mixed with an egg and a few other things and then fried... quite literally my favorite food here so far! That's my food wise adventures for this week!

The language is starting to come very very slowly, and it really doesn't help that everyone is speaking really fast and will try to talk to me... I don't quite understand anything in any conversation... but during a lesson I'm able to understand what my companion is saying! :) Speaking of companion, Elder Q is awesome... he's helped me alot to overcome some of the stresses here and to enjoy learning the whole new language... that and he cooks for me all the time, and is a really good cook! Even if we do have rice with every single meal xD

Scripture for this week is DC 50:24-25... I think that's the right reference :)P But I like how it talks about after we have light, if we keep following Christ and God with all our commandments that we're promised more and more light until the "perfect day" :) I know that this gospel is true and if we truly keep pressing forward and following the things that we know to be true, and strive to learn more... that there is always always more light that we can have in our lives :)

Until Next week! Love you guys so much,

Elder Morris :)

Also maybe for the package- The RM and other church movies?? Because we have DVD players in our apartment and are allowed to watch good movies like that, RM, Home Teachers, Church Ball, etc. :)

YER AN ARRTIST!!!!!!

I had a pretty hard time focusing on the way to Rosales in the Jeepney... because the driver was playing Hotel California and other Classic rock songs xD

1-4-2016

I aboslutely loved reading your emails! I'm so sad that Starsha died... she was my favorite goat in the whole wide world! Though I suppose replacing her with Lady is really great :) It sounds like there are many many adventures that have been happening around there, I hope that y'all stay safe! Keep me updated on everything even if I can't respond to it all, just know that I read it and love hearing about everything going on! :) Just by the way, the food here so far I've had a lot of rice, dried fish... and spaghetti xD No Balut yet, but I'll have some one day and send y'all a video of my eating it ;) Soooo... I am officially in Urdaneta and actually out proselyting every day now! It's a really neat experience and my trainers name is Elder Q. He's a native Filippino who speaks 4 different languages... which helps because apparently the people here speak more Ilongo than Tagalog... which totally doesn't help! These past few days have been pretty rough, everyone speaks the language and tries to talk to me.. but I don't understand a word that they're saying! It's probably the hardest culture shock that I have ever experienced! But other than that, it's such a beautiful place here! My area is called San Leon in the Rosales zone... the Branch here is so small! But I'll get to that in a little bit. First, our apartment... it's actually pretty big! It's a small house with concrete floors! The water for the toilets don't work, so we fill a bucket with water that is used to flush! Also, there isn't toilet paper, so I went right out to buy some when I heard what they do instead.... literally... this is one of those places where people use their left hand to wipe. I just can't even xD The shower is very low power and is always cold... but it's our apartment, I gots to get used to taking cold showers every day now for the next two years of my life and probably eventually be forced to use the... cultural way of cleaning...

ANNNNNYWAY, I got here and there were two sisters having their baptismal interview the next day... needless to say, I get to baptize one of them next Saturday, which is a remarkable experience! They are the sweetest people, both are really old :) Which sort of leads to the branch, it's so small... there were 84 chairs set up for sacrament meeting, and they weren't all even filled! I mean... it's really really small! But then later, I got to see the list of members that have been baptized in the area... 6 pages of people... lots and lots! From what I've been told, there ARE 700,000 members in the Philippines... but that 500,000 of them are less active. Which is really sad! A lot of the work here that we're going to be doing is just helping less active members come back to church! I have no idea why though so many are less active, people here love religion... quite literally! Every single Jeepney and trike just about, have some sort of picture or something about religion! Which I actually don't mind TOO much because that makes it really easy to talk to people about religion and share our beliefs!

I love you guys so much! Thanks for being the best family in the world, I'll email you next Monday :)

Much Love,

Elder Morris