Elder Head in the Philippines - Week 11- we miss you buddy!

Hey Guys! So Merry Christmas! I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas traditions and such. For me I spent my Christmas eve moving. Don't feel bad though cause our new house is SICK. Christmas was good as well! We got fed by one of our members. They are freaking good cooks. It was a slow week for work cause not a lot of people outside of the church wanted to talk to the missionaries this week. Even if we are two gwapong puti nga americano. Haha. Also I gave my first talk in Sacrament meeting on Sunday in Cebuano. It was on Missionary work, of course. Haha. It was good though! Sorry that I don't have any funny stories this week. I hope that you all have a great week. I love you guys, the church is true, Happy New Year, and Stay Classy State of Utah.

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Week 10 Merry Christmas!

MALIPAYONG PASKO SA INYONG TANAN!  (MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL)

So this week was still slow. We're working on tracking a lot this week, hopefully things will pick up a little bit. The language is coming a lot better now which is helpful for me in tracting and teaching! Lately we've been looking for more people to teach which is hard, but we know it'll pay off. So funny story. We were teaching a lesson to some of our investigators this week and they said something that "Blew my mind" but I didn't know the direct translation for that. So I said that my mind exploded. But with the word for explosion, if you put the emphasis on the wrong syllable (Freaking hate english. There's basically no wrong way to spell anything in Cebuano as long as it sounds right.) the word becomes SUPER inappropriate. Guess which one I used. Yeah. Dili maayo. But they thought it was hilarious and just laughed at me. It's a good thing I can laugh at myself. So I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember to thank our Father in Heaven for the greatest gift anyone could have given us. Our Savior Jesus Christ and that we can all remember the reason for the season. I love you guys! Also, the church is true. 

Love, 

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines week 9 - Happy Birthday Mitch!!!!

Happy Birthday Elder Head!  Eh.....it was alright. I was sick for half of my birthday so that wasn't too great, then when I felt well enough we went out to teach. It was super difficult to find people to teach, so I guess you could say that I've had better birthdays :) Haha! Thank you for all the birthday messages....they were pretty sweet! We are working hard to find people and during our planning session tonight will talk about ways to make this more effective. We had a lot of Christmas parties this week and it was way fun! A zone Christmas one where I got to see people from my MTC batch like Foote and Borrego so that was great! We had the ward Christmas party on Saturday too. This week though we were focused on helping one of our investigators Sister Francis get to church....and....SHE CAME TO CHURCH!! WHOO!! She's been investigating since September and are so happy that she finally came to church. Today we are going to go up to Liloan and play basketball with the Liloan zone for P-day so that'll be fun. Sorry, I am out of time! Later!

Elder Head

A side note from Mom:

So Mitch's birthday was for sure different than any other that he's had up this point in his short 19 years.....he was out sharing the gift of the gospel on his birthday. What a great opportunity that is! Also different for him this year is that he had not a gift to open himself from his family! (insert crying face emoji here)  Our Christmas/Birthday package has still NOT arrived!  Good thing we sent it International Priority with an arrival time of 6-10 business days! (insert sarcastic emoji face here if there is one) The package was sent on November 20th, by my calculations, 18 business days have now passed! UGH!! I really hope and pray that it will show up before Christmas. It also appears that as of February 2015, missionaries will only be able to send one email to a person who writes them....no more emailing back and forth. This is NOT being done to make things difficult or frustrating for the missionary or their loved ones but is being done so that the focus on the work that they have been called to do can be done with as few distractions as possible. (insert crying face emoji here too) It does make me a little sad but I totally understand why too. I will learn to adapt......I guess ;)  We love and miss Mitch but are so grateful that he's serving the Lord in the Philippines! 

Happy Birthday Elder Head!

Elder Head and Elder Larson working??

Elder Head in the Philippines week 8 - Typhoon Ruby :)

Hey Guys! So I'm not dead. Buyag. Bagyo Ruby really didn't hit us here in Mandaue. The mission helped us out a lot. It was supposed to hit us around 2am Sunday morning but ended up changing course and we got a lot of rain. But we prepared like it was going to hit us because we had no idea. But we're safe and sound! Hopefully it'll continue to be safe. The only real damage that Typhoon Ruby did in our area was push back our sacrament meeting a half hour. They also only held sacrament meeting. We used the other 2 hours to prepare and practice our Christmas presentation as a zone for the Mission Christmas party on Thursday. We had some missionaries from Bogo stay with us. Two Filipinos. Other than that is was really slow this week. Our most progressing investigators dropped us. So we have to start from scratch, really. Sorry to be so short today but not a lot really happened this last week! Transfers happened and I'm still here. I think I already told you all that though. This week was super slow. I'll just write a really super good letter next week. So stay tuned. Sorry again. Posaylo i ko! Have a great week!

Elder Head 



We received an email from President Tanner on Friday morning.  He informed us about all that was being done to safeguard the missionaries from this typhoon, this was a wonderful email to receive! We were grateful that they were prepared and ready not matter what! Missionaries learn so much while serving and this was a great reminder of that.  Be prepared :) It's still hard to believe that Mitch is half way around the world! His birthday is on Saturday! #96daysdown #only634daysleft??? #timeisflyingby #not #skypingin17days9hours22minutes!!  We love you, Elder Head!!!

Elder Head in the Philippines - Week 7 I sure miss my cute boy!!

Hey Guys! So sorry about the late email! It's transfer week this week so our P-day is Wednesday instead of Monday. We'll be back to normal next week. Good news, I'm still in Mandaue with Elder Larson for 6 more weeks! So that'll be good. So I'm not gonna lie, I was just a little homesick this week because of the holidays, but I'm over it now! For my Thanksgiving dinner, Elder Larson and I went to 7/11 and got an ube ice cream. This week was the Primary program here in Mandaue! My favorite song that they sang was "I Am a Child of God." They enunciated the "f" SUPER hard on "of" so it sounded way funny. But they really did such a good job. It went over a half hour though so it was a LITTLE long but they're super cute so it's okay. Haha. So our recent convert Sister Joana, just moved out of our area and out of our mission too. She's in Cebu City which is part of Cebu mission and she didn't tell us until a couple of days before she moved. So we have to refer her to the Cebu missionaries to teach her the Recent convert lessons. Which sucks. A lot. Haha. Also, word on the street is that there's a big typhoon that's headed or way that could do a lot damage to us. Which is scary. We're going to some of our members today to help them reinforce their "hobbles" as they call them. There's a chance that the storm might pass us and just go north to more ocean and not hit anyone, which is the best case scenario, mao lagi, but if not it could do some damage they say. So this week we taught our investigators about prayer and it just made me think about how our Father in Heaven really does listen and help us know what to do and gives us comfort. I was thinking about how in the MTC, I was a little homesick and all I wanted was some Graham Canyon ice cream because that's what my mom and I got a week before I left and every time I tried to get it before, it was already gone. Then on my last week, I prayed hard. I was determined to get that ice cream. I just wanted it sometime before I left. Then my last Sunday, I walked into the cafeteria and went straight to the ice cream counter and lo and behold, there it was. I was so stinking happy! So Heavenly Father wants to bless us, all we have to do is ask. He'll give it to us if it's for our benefit, even if it's something as silly as Graham Canyon ice cream. So have a good week!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines week 6 - 1st baptism :)

Hey Everyone! 

So this week we had the baptism of Sister Joana and I had the opportunity to confirm her as a member of the church. It was such an awesome experience. I was so nervous but it turned out okay! I meant to do it in Cebuano, but I accidentally did it all in English cause I was more nervous than I thought, but luckily she knows english and I used simple english for everyone in the congregation. So that was the highlight of the week. The rest of the week was a little tough. Some of the people we've been teaching lately have lost interest and others were more interested in who was teaching rather than what was being taught. Nagingon sila ngadto ilang mga amigo nga mga uyab mi nila. (They were telling their friends that we were their boyfriends, which is dili pwede) So that wasn't good. So we're going to go talk to them and see if they're actually interested or not. I struggled with the language a lot this week. Some days I'm super VisDak and other days I'm basically useless in the language, which is hard but I know that with practice and with help from our Heavenly Father, it'll come. I ate Durian pie this week, yeah. It wasn't good. The people were all like "Oh you'll love it! It's the fruit of the gods! You're so lucky!" Yeah it wasn't good. I ate the whole thing though cause I didn't want to offend but it tasted like foot. So funny story, this week we were tracting out in Cabancalan and we found this family who is super awesome and they're very accepting of us. But they're super devout Catholic. The mom gets up every morning at 2 AM to walk around with their Virgin Mary statue and takes it to the other members of their congregation's houses so they can kiss it and receive blessings... Basta, we were talking with them and they took us to their prayer meeting. It was super weird but we couldn't stay cause we had a dinner appointment but we were just sitting in a room with them with a shrine up to the virgin mary up at the front and we were just talking with them about churches and religion. Then we left before things got too weird for us. It sounds like the start of a joke though. What do you call a room with 10 Catholics and 2 Mormons... I'll let ya'll figure out the ending to that one. Haha. The church is true! Have a good week!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines -week 5 is a little slow :)

Oh what's up everyone? So this week was kind of slow. Haha. We had Stake Conference on Saturday night so we had the Priesthood session that night and right after we had the adult session. Which were both good. We had Elder Collado come who is some sort of general authority. I'm not sure if he's an area 70 or a member of the second quorum of the 70 or what, but he killed it. He was super adamant about how the Filipino members need to all be full tithe payers which is definitely a good goal, I think. We'll have the baptism of Sister Joana this Saturday! WOOHOO. I'm super stoked. I love Filipino food but on Tuesday we went to eat dinner at the Bailey's house, and man I miss American food. Well, technically Mexican food. The Bailey's are an American family from Utah here on business. They go to the Talamban ward because that's an English ward but they're in our ward boundaries and have the missionaries of this ward over sometimes for fun. They can't have the missionaries in their ward come over because their ward is in the Cebu Mission so their house is out of the mission boundaries, but they cooked enchiladas and it was super good. Well enough trunky stuff. So on Sunday Elder Collado slipped into some Tagalog during his talk and at that time he was talking about following the commandments, and I guess the Tagalog word for follow is like "libong" or something, which sounds JUST like the Cebuano word for "Go poop" so his talk sounded like "Kinahanglan ta sa paglibong sa mga kasugoan" So I was super confused. Like why would we poop on the commandments??? Then Elder Larson told me that it means follow or something in Tagalog. So that happened this week. Haha. We're working hard to find new investigators so hopefully this week we'll be able to tract out in Cabancalan a little more. Sigi. That's about it for this last week! Love you guys! Have a super nindot week! 

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines week 4 - I made it. I did it. I ate balut!!

I made it. I did it. I ate balut. It's official. I'm a filipino now. Jokes lang. But I really did eat balut this week. It wasn't my favorite to be honest, there's this SUPER hard white part inside the egg, which is gross. But I took it like a champ and ate the whole thing. Baby chick and all. Atta boy. Basta, hey guys. So this was a super cool week. We did a lot of tracting out in Tipolo which is a part of our area and we met a whole bunch of people who could potentially become investigators, we're praying for 'em. There's a Tatay named Arthur Pakadin (I call him Tatay Pakadin) in our ward who has been inactive for a few years in our ward that we've been visiting the past few weeks, and this week he came to church for the first time in years and received a big welcome from the ward. So hopefully he'll keep coming back. This ward is so great about missionary work. If the missionaries bring someone to church, they all go and introduce themselves to them and just make them feel so welcome, which helps us out a lot. It makes them feel like church is a welcoming place. A place where they belong. Because we all do belong. :) This past week we challenged some of our investigators to a Book of Mormon reading race, to help them start reading, and I am getting my butt KICKED. They read so fast, it's ridiculous. Haha. Its okay though because the winner gets a coke is all. Which is 7 pesos. Which is like 15 cents. Haha. Anyways. Today we had a Thanksgiving devotional which I spoke at in front of all the missionaries that are in our mission on the main island. It was only a 3 minute talk though, and it was in english. I'm a lightweight. Haha. Basta, it was way cool. So we've been teaching the Alibo family who are a Catholic family a lot this week. They're super eager to learn and I love them. They're the reason I ate balut. So we were almost done with our lesson with them and then this salesmen rode by on his bike and he was selling balut. Then Elder Larson called them over cause I hadn't eaten it yet. So because we were teaching them, I tried balut. It was gross so I tried to be strong and keep a straight face, but I failed. They laughed super hard but it was a good bonding experience for us. Haha. So that's about it. Ang Simbahan ni JesuKristo sa mga Santos sa Ulahing mga Adlaw mao ang simbahan mismo ni JesuKristo. Ang Basahon ni Mormon mao ang pinakatinuod nga basahon diri sa yuta. Si Joseph Smith mao ang usa ka tinuod propeta nga gitawagan sa Dios. Si President Thomas S. Monson mao ang tinuod nga buhing propeta diri sa yuta karon adlawa. Have a good week everyone!

Elder Head

We were emailing back and forth with Mitch last night and it seems that he is really enjoying his time doing "the work".  Cebuano is coming along and he has a great companion/trainer in Elder Larson! Elder Larson takes a lot of pictures which his mom sends to us....awesome! He was looking forward to going to Liloan for the devotional as they were stopping for lunch at MacDo (McDonald's) So he was going to order fried chicken and gravy with rice and a cheeseburger. 

Balut - He did it..he ate the whole thing!

Don't know what this is?? Yummy I'm sure!

Studying so hard he fell asleep??? But his hairdresser mom
only noticed his really short haircut....first one in the Pines!

Kids love the Elders!

Christmas begins whenever a month ends in "ber"!!!

Elder Head in the Philippines :)

Hey Guys! So far so good. I'm not dead. This week went by ridiculously fast. We taught a lot of
people this week! The most progressing investigator that we have is a sister named Sister Joana who
lives in Tipolo. She's been to church the past five weeks but didn't start taking the missionary lessons
until this week. She's already committed to baptism and will be baptized on November 22nd. Malipayyong kalag kalag! Halloween here is like three days. Kalag Kalag (Halloween), followed by All Saints Day, then followed by All Souls day. I don't know much about how they celebrate
besides that they sleep in the cemetery. So this weekend was a little slow but we taught a lot of 
lessons during the week and worked really hard. It was a good week! The kids here are so funny. They love the missionaries. They all call me Elder Ulo cause that's Elder Head sa Cebuanp and they will freak out every time they see Elder Larson and I. So this week I finished 1st Nephi and started 2nd Nephi. I challenged one of our investigatrs named Sister Frances to a race to finish 2nd Nephi. She works at a little tindahan (It's like a lean-to convenience store thing. It's hard to explain) so she has all day to read so I'm PRETTY sure I'm gonna get killed but hey, it'll get her reading, right? Haha. 
Filipino food is the best. Especially Mango floats. I can't really explain them, other than they're the best dessert in the Philippines. We taught the Alibo family the first lesson this week. They're a happy family out in Tipolo which is a part of our area. They're super awesome and ask a lot of questions which we're happy to answer of course. So we went to talk to a less active sister in our ward named Sister Sala who's husband died earlier in the week, except I didn't know she was less active. I thought she was not a member but her husband was. So at the end of the lesson I almost started to extend the baptismal commitment to her... "Buhaton ba nimo mosunod sa ehemplo ni JesuKristo pinaagi pagpabunyag.." But Elder Larson closed our lesson before I got the chance to and walking out I was like "Pastilan, Elder! I was just about to commit her to baptism! Unsa manat oy??" Then he proceeded to tell me about how they were talking about how she and her husband were sealed in the temple and how he's in a better place and I just misunderstood the whole part of that lesson. Awesome, right? So that was a close call. Haha.

Basta, have a good week! Kitakits!

Elder Head

Elder Head Goes to the Philippines Chapter 2 - Menduae 1A 1st Area:)

Hey guys! So I made it, to my area. Buhi pa ko (I'm alive still) So this week was quite the adjustment. I got to my area, Mendaue 1A, on Wednesday night and went straight to bed. Thursday we had to move houses first thing in the morning, which was lame. But we just moved down the street from our old house so it wasn't bad. There's a SUPER poorly tuned piano in our apartment so I've been plunking out horror movie hymns (They're church hymns played on a terrible piano, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone) but I'm getting a little better at piano, so that's good. Thursday night we went to Cabancalan which is a subdivision in Mendaue to teach the Fabe family. So the way to Cabancalan there's this bog which usually isn't that deep, but it was pouring rain earlier on Thursday so it was deep. We have to walk across rocks over the bog on the way to Cabancalan which is cool. Basta, (Anyways) so my first night on my way to my first lesson, I slipped off on of the rocks into the bog and my left leg got stuck up to my knee. (Insert laughing/crying face emoji) It was disgusting. Then we just kept going after I got unstuck and I slipped off another rock and my right leg went into the water. So I stunk in my first lesson. But the Fabe family are a member family and we were gong to teach Bethshiba who just got baptised and as soon as we got there to their little lean-to house (bungalo they called it), I told them in broken Cebuano that it was super funny cause I slipped in the water and then without saying a word Nanay (Grandma) went and grabbed a bucket of water and they helped me wash my feet for me. They are truly some of the nicest, most caring people I've ever met. So Cebuano is hard. Especially when they speak super fast. But It's getting easier to understand. I love the kids here. They're so cute, haha. My favorite is when I go for a high five and instead put my hand in a fist and say "Pabo" which is "turkey" sa Cebuano.They always laugh and then do it to me right after. For some reason a lot of kids don't wear pants though, haha. So we ate dinner at two dinners with members this week. The Perez family who is the first councilor in the bishopric, and then at Sister Sarah's house for the next night. At the Perez's house I ate a whole sili pepper, which is SUPER hot but it was tasty after the burning sensation subsided. Sunday was excellent. So the stake that I'm in has their church in the backwards schedule, so priesthood/relief society, tapos Sunday school, tapos Sacrament. I bore my testimony in Cebuano and it was probably the shortest testimony I've ever given. It went well though! I started off with "Maayong buntag" to which they all replied "maayong buntag" which caught me off guard. Then I said "ako si Elder Ulo" and it took them all a second to think and then they translated it, I heard "OH! Elder Head na!" with a few giggles from the congregation and then I just did a simple testimony sa Cebuano. Then they had a self reliance work shop, which is good because there's a lot of poverty in Mendaue so they're helping a lot of people. Tapos na, we had a luncheon thing and it was good. except for the bulad. Which is just dried little fish. And a lot of them. That wasn't my favorite but I ate it like a champ! We've been teaching a lot of lessons and I've been humbled a lot by both the language and the people. Also, I've taken quite a few bucket showers since I've been here. Which is SO DANG COLD. But I love it. I got one of our paper back bbook of Mormons and started reading that and marking the references to, the teachings of, and the attributes of the Lord. I'm only in 1st Nephi still and it already looks like a coloring book. I love it. The Book of Mormon truly contains the fullness of Christ's gospel. It points to him on almost every page. Have a good week! The church is true. Gihigugma ko sa Philippines. Gihigugma ko kaninyo. 

Elder Head aka "Elder Ulo"

Elder Head with President and Sister Tanner

At the Mission Home waiting for the area assignments

Enjoying a Filipino rainstorm!

Elder Head Goes to the Philippines - Chapter 1 :)

Hey guys! 

So good news, I'm alive and well. The plane didn't lose my luggage (Although airplane food is the absolutely awful.) and in case anyone is wondering, traveling for 24 hours straight is the worst. But its okay. We arrived here at the actual MTC at 1:30 am Philippine time. I don't know the actual math for how long I was up that day, but it was SUPER long. Trust me. So the next morning we got up and had breakfast. Filipino breakfast is weird. In the absolute best way. It was so good. I've had rice with every meal here but I'm assuming/hoping I'll just get used to it. That day we went proselyting in Quezon City with the Tagalog elders. Which was hard because ya know, I speak Cebuano. But it went so well! I felt the Spirit so strongly. We taught a lola named Sister Barbosa for the second time so we taught her about the first vision. I was basically useless cause like I said, I only speak Cebuano. But I can testify to you that gifts of the spirit are real cause I had the freaking real deal gift of tongues. I told a lot of the Joseph Smith story and she actually followed along. Of course the Tagalog companion had to clear up some of it (he retold most of it and told it better than me) but they understood me! Then I went and testified in Cebuano at the end of it. :) Which was SO COOL. I could really feel the spirit. :) Then we went to our next lesson with a part member family and we taught Grace. Grace married a member and they have 1 little girl who is probably the cutest little girl ever. So we taught her about the Priesthood and I actually participated in the lesson again (sa Cebuano) and she actually understood me this time, even though she only speaks Tagalog! So nuts. So the rest of my time here has been pretty boring besides proselyting. But I loved it. The Philippines is so beautiful. I went to the Manila MTC for five days to do some immigration things and tomorrow morning I will be flying out to Cebu. I'm super nervous and DON'T want to fly again but I know that it will be worth it. :) So my favorite scripture for the week has been 3rd Nephi 9:14. Nasayuud ko nga pinaagi ang pag-ula ni JesuKristo nga makabalik kita sa pagpuyo uban sa Dios ug ni JesuKristo usab. Nasayuud ko nga gihigugma kita sa Dios ug nga mipadala ang Dios ni JesuKristo sa pag-ula para atong mga sala. Christ's arm of mercy is extended towards us. He will come unto us if we will come unto Him. :) Have a good week!

 

Elder Head

Peace from the Philippines!

Mitch said this is the SICKEST Mercedes....haha ok Jeepney!

Last week in the USA for 23 months and 23-ish days ;)

Hey guys! So this week was a really solid week. It was the last full week here in the US for me. Lain kaayo. Basta, there's an Elder here at the MTC right now who's from the Philippines who I talk with a lot named Elder Perez. He's the man. He's learning English and I'm learning Cebuano so we practice our language with each other. He talks in English mostly and I talk in Cebuano. But most of our conversations go like "How are you?" Maayo, ikaw? "Good! Thanks! What's your favorite food?" Akong paburrito kaon sa mga cheeseburger. Ikaw?... etc. So we don't really get that deep of conversations going but any practice is good practice! I leave on Thursday. So that's cool. This last Sunday we had a devotional and a guy named Vai Sikahima and he was the man! But the best thing this past week was PROBABLY Conference. Even though I wasn't able to feast on the usual Conference Sunday breakfast, I was fed... spiritually. (Insert laughing/crying emoji cause I thought that was so funny when I first typed it.) But it really was such a good conference. I took super good notes. Not that you would be able to tell at the moment cause I'm drawing a blank on which talk I liked the best but The 5 (or 6... ambot [I don't know] which it was) steps gaining spiritual confidence was one of my favorites because everyone, no matter how old or young can use some extra confidence. I also really enjoyed President Eyring's talk about preparing priesthood holders. Cause I'm about to be a n00b in about 6 days in the 'Pines and will be trained. So I was just like "Hey that's me, I'm getting trained." But honestly it was a great week :) That's about it! The next time you'll hear from me I'll be in the Philippines eating dog and stuff. Have a good week! 

Daghan gugma,

Elder Head

Mitch's last Friday in the USA!!

One month down in the books!!! 23 more to go!!

Hey everyone! So this week was pretty similar to the last few weeks. Except a lot more fun, interesting, and exciting. So we got to skype Filipinos on Thursday and I learned something. I understand nothing. So I've been working a lot harder on the language and working with my teachers to improve! I have the whole first vision memorized in Cebuano. So that's cool. Also, I GOT MY FLIGHT PLANS! So I'll ship out on Oktobre 16. I'll leave at 3:35 am (Insert gun emoticon thingy here) But I'll land first in Portland, Oregon, then I'll be off to Tokyo, Japan, and then I'll be in Manila, Philippines! BUT according to my flight plans I'll be in the Manila MTC for another 5 days... Haha. But I'm freaking out! The MTC has flown by! But anyways. I am in 3rd Nephi and JesuKristo is just visiting the Nephites and he talks in verse 14 about how his hand of mercy is ALWAYS extended towards you. Nasayuud ko nga Gihigugma kita ni JesuKristo ug makakuha atong mga sakit away (I don't know away sa Cebuano. Sorry about that...) ug nasayuud ko nga makapasaylo kita para atong mga sala nga pinaagi si JesuKristo ug pagula niya para atong mga sala. Nasayuud ko nga kini mao ang tinuod nga simbahan. Conference is tomorrow so make sure you look for me in the Priesthood Session choir! (Joke lang. The one week of choir I missed was the week they picked who'll be singing in the Priesthood Session...) So don't actually look for me but look for how the talks apply to you. Because each talk given during conference will apply to you in some way or another and it's our job to figure that out. So focus up and pay attention! Nahigugma nako kamo! Have a great week! Watch Conference!

-Elder Head

This photo must have been when he was skyping with the filipinos
and didn't understand a word that was said...maybe :)

Temple walk....we like his Fast Sunday tie!

MTC week 3 - Mitch says it's going by fast but as his mom....I'd disagree!

Hey guys! So problem, I seem to have forgotten my patriarchal blessing at home. Will you please mail me a copy of it? :) Thanks! I've hit my 3 week mark and it's weird! I love and miss you guys so much but I love it here and there's no place I'd rather be. This is going by so fast. I kind of suck at writing in my journal (insert awkward face emoji....?) So this week was basically exactly the same. The temple rededication was so awesome! I hope you got to see it. We also heard from Elder M. Russell Ballard on Tuesday so that was great! Bad news. We're singing in the priesthood session of conference, but the day we had the opportunity to sign up, I didn't go to choir!! So I'm going to try my best to still be in it but it's really a slim chance though. So I'm sorry momma you probably won't get to see me on tv. :(  I can't wait to just get out into the field. I'm getting kind of sick of the MTC. Haha. Thanks for the pep talk Pop! It was just what I needed today :) Nasayuud ko nga tinuod ang simbahan ug pinaagi ang pag-ula sa JesuKristo magbalik kami sa Dios. Have a great week and mahigugma ko kanato! 

Love,
Elder Head

Temple walk Sunday! 

Haha! Maybe I should scale back on the care packages :)

Nap time??

MTC week 2.....All is well :)

Hey guys!

Sorry about the short letter last week. I was sick and was too lazy to type out a better one so I apologize. Haha. So this week was the same as last week basically. Except we heard from Elder Richard G. Scott. So that was kind of cool. But he came and spoke on Tuesday in our devotional and (as expected) killed it. We got a new batch of missionaries going to the Philippines this week who are learning Ilongo. I haven't really had the chance to talk to a lot of them but they seem cool! We said goodbye to the old Ilongo district on Wednesday so that was less awesome. They're all great guys and will help a lot of people. I know it. Sa linguahey sa maayo kaayo. (The language is very good) That was a translation for all you n00bs out there. Haha joke lang. (Joking) I suck at basketball. Like really bad. But the Filipinos love basketball so I feel like I have to get better so I don't lose to a bunch of guys who's average height it 5' 3". So I've been running and playing basketball during gym. Also, in case you haven't already heard, the food isn't great. It's not bad, but definitely not great. I've been spoiled cause my Momma is the best cook in the country, so that was a crappy adjustment. But I'm over it. It's cool. Haha. Alright well, nihigugma ko namo. Tinuod ang simbahan. Gihigugma kita sa Dios. Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Head

Elder Head and Hermana LeSueur!!

Oh man...No hug! A handshake will do :)

Looks like Mitch received his "care" package from last week!

Modeling his first haircut from a stranger and not his momma!
I offered to meet him at the park across from the MTC next Friday
for a quick haircut but he couldn't wait....oh well :)

MTC - 9 days in :)

We heard from Elder Head again today! It appears that Fridays will be our favorite day of the week......P-DAY!!  We emailed back and forth a little which was nice and this is what we learned today.  Mitch has a really bad cold and is sick. He reassured us that he's fine and is taking medication and is feeling better.  He is learning a lot and working hard to learn Cebuano.  He's seen Emma LeSueur a couple of times! He saw her at a devotional on Tuesday. She happened to be sitting by some people from his branch. So when they saw each other they got excited and ran up and talked until the meeting started. Now those guys in his branch think she's his girlfriend, even though he's explained that they are just close friends! It so great that they got so see each other! Hermana LeSueur leaves the MTC on Monday morning! There are 6 people in his zone that will be going to his same mission. He is really enjoying his time in the MTC thus far :)  His letter for the blog is very short today because he is sick but an added bonus is he sent some pictures! Here is his brief (very brief) commentary for today:


Hey guys!

So this week has gone by so much faster than the first week.  Its still good here. Just exactly the same I guess. Bored. Just kidding about being bored. Cebuano is hard, but my companion and I are doing well with it. I think I'm gonna keep this letter kind of short because I can't think of anything to say right now. So yeah. Have a good week! Tinuod ang simbahan!

Love,
Elder Head

Sunday Temple Walk

Mitch being Mitch :)

Some of Mitch's zone. Elder Ho Ching, his companion, has the yellow tie on

Elder Foote

I'm sick???

Elder Ho Ching

Studying hard!

We drove down to Provo to send care packages to our missionaries :)  Somehow we ended up by the MTC....what are the odds!