Elder Head in the Philippines - Too busy to write last week- Happy Birthday Mitch! #skypein5days

Thanks for the all the pictures. Yikes. The kiddies...they're all so darn big now! Jeeze, that snow looks absolutely beautiful. I can't believe it's been 15 months in the blistering heat. Haha. Right now it's rainy/bagio (typhoon) season so it's so unbelievably humid. I've been doing my own hand washing of my clothes lately because it's easier to just do it myself than find a ride to the mission home with all my laundry in tow each week, but it's so humid that my darn clothes just won't dry! I've been donning damp clothes for the past few days. Haha. They get more dry after I iron them but there's still a kind of sogginess to them. Haha! I walked by a poster in the mall for the new Star Wars movie and it was super sakit. It looks so cool. Haha. So last week was SO hectic. We had the Christmas Conference in the mission which I didn't get to stick around for the whole time because we were doing this or that or running this errand or making sure we had enough chairs and then buying tickets for every missionary to return to Bohol. I took some pictures, but the majority of them are in Elder Bayot's camera. And he just went home. So I'll hope for an email with some of the pictures from Christmas Con. I took a few of the set up which was also fun. We set up a Christmas tree, but it didn't turn out very American looking, which is sad because the only ones who worked on the tree were the two Americans. I was actually kind of proud of how it turned out even though we were rushed! Haha.

So for Christmas Conference, we started on Wednesday night, gathered the entire mission from Bohol, Cebu, and Camotes to watch the Christmas Devotional with everyone staying over in the houses close to Lilo-an afterwards. This meant I needed to make up a list of where the entire mission was going to sleep for a night, making sure all the zones are still relatively close together so they could easily coordinate to get everyone to Lilo-an again the next morning by 9.

Check.

We then set up right afterward, getting everything decorated, which was super fun. I'll send my pictures. The next morning was a mission devotional with 4 speakers. President Tanner chose 2 missionaries who were relatively new and 2 missionaries who would be going home in the next week. It was so cool to see that even though 2 had considerable less bags under their eyes than the others, the same fire for the work and love for the Lord was constant in all 4 talks. There were musical presentations from each zone, some being better than others, and I performed a solo for our zone, O Holy Night (that being the reason the others were better...Haha) Just kidding. We did well too :)

After Christmas Conference ended, we had to get everything ready for the departing batch of missionaries, so Saturday I really didn't get a P-day. The Filipino missionaries will take an English test, just like grammar and stuff. It's not really a big deal if they don't pass, but it could help them a lot with getting a job after the mission if they get a good score on it. I was proctoring that last Saturdays I wasn't able to do much else because we had a batch of 16 missionaries going home who were all Filipino. Each test takes about an hour. There's a practice test the missionaries will take too. We spread it out for Friday and Saturday. So kana. That's why I couldn't email last week, I'm sorry. But thanks so much for the birthday wishes and the cute pictures!

On my actual birthday, we were pretty busy with the departing missionaries and some other vehicular things, so for like 2 hours, I sat in a Filipino DMV and just worked on the computer for most of the day. After that we had to do a coordination meeting with the Assistants to plan for the ACTUAL departure home for the out-going missionaries the next day. To be honest, I was not jumping for joy, which was really selfish of me. I thought to myself, "Worst birthday ever", but it was truly needed and I got over it quickly....in the same day, even.

The next day, we had some missionaries miss their flights. Yep. We were super blessed to have one of the workers at the airport be a member though who offered to pay for their tickets on the very next flight out. Nindot tender mercy.

We took all the trainers to the mission home to meet all the new missionaries, when Elder Jimenez & I drove all the trainers that were Elders to the mission home, we saw a little boy get hit by a motor (A guy driving a motorcycle) on the bridge going to the mission home. The guy wasn't wearing a helmet and the poor little kid (probably about age 7) wasn't wearing a shirt, so they both got some gnarly road rash. The little kid didn't look both ways before crossing the street. They both were ok but really scraped up and sore.

Then, the NEXT day, we had Transfer day. Oy vey!! Haha!

We got a call in the morning of transfer day from Elder and Sister McNett around 7:30am saying that the battery on their truck died, so they had no way to get to the office because President Tanner was on Bohol with his family with one car and the Assistants were going to the port in Cebu City with the others to pick up missionaries coming over from Bohol. Elder Jimenez and I manned the office for the morning until the Assistants got back and picked up the McNetts.

I just noticed how super ridiculously long this letter was, so if you made it here, thank you. Haha!

When it rains, it pours. It was basically a tropical typhoon of busy stuff these past few weeks. I haven't even been able to work in my area for the last two weeks because of the craziness.

I've been able to see a lot of tender mercies in the past few weeks as well too, and I'm grateful for that. But, boy, AM I tired. Haha.

Yep. Love ya. Haha.

Elder Head

Hey Pops! 

 It's been raining cats and dogs here in Cebu. We've got a couple big storms coming in (Typhoons) so we're feeling the effects of it through the rain only. But it's like constant rain right now. haha. Take it easy shoveling all that snow, Pops. Just drink some hot chocolate or something for me. Or some actual milk. The milk here sucks. Just ask Ryan. Also, eat some christmas goodies too. I kinda rambled in my email, so if you and mom want to make some revisions, feel free. I'm super excited to see you guys this next week. It's super weird to me that the Skype is already here. I'll only have one more after this......  I love you Pops. Thanks for your example to me.

Today I'll actually be able to work in my area!!!!!

-Elder Head

Funny message from the Cebu East Mission Facebook page :) I sent a screenshot of this & sent it to Mitch.
He said this about it, "Oh man, I know exactly what Heather is talking about. Traffic that day was HORRIBLE and we were also in a hurry to get them to the port so it was doubly hectic. Haha."

Happy Birthday Mitch!!

Elder Head in the Philippines - Looking forward to the mission Christmas Conference....MTC batch reunion :)

MAAYONG PASKO.

So this week we started the A Savior is Born Initiative here in our mission and it's so good! The website is extraordinarily well done as well as their presentation of the message. If you haven't seen it yet, I'd suggest you all go to christmas.mormon.org to watch and learn about the true reason for the season. I especially liked the video Imagine a World Without a Savior. The church just really does such a good job with their public relations. I'm grateful to be serving here at this time where technology can be used to help further the work. It's such a blessing! 

Other than that, we've been just doing the preparations here in the office for the mission Christmas Conference next week. It's not been too hectic here, which is good. It'll be the Christmas Conference next week where the whole mission will get together to learn more about our Savior and to watch the Christmas Broadcast. That'll be pretty fun to have my whole batch on the same island again. 

I'm also grateful to get to celebrate our Savior this month. It's exciting to me to still be out here serving during Christmas time. To be turned out towards other people instead of turned in towards myself. Such a great experience.

I'm grateful that we have a Savior, that all is not lost. That we can be forgiven because He lived. I'm grateful for Him whom I represent at this time in my life. For His love. For His grace. 

-Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - I Stand All Amazed :)

Hey fam!

I Stand All Amazed

As I was sitting before bed this last week, I thought of just how weak I am. I have so many shortcomings as a person, I've made so many mistakes in my life, I've had so much wasted time on things that were of no real worth. I thought of just how selfish I really am. 

I'm so grateful that the Priesthood has been restored to the earth so that worthy males may bless the lives of others around us. That through the priesthood, we may turn out of our own little, one dimensional plane of thought and focus on others. For me, I get caught in the 1st dimensional thinking a little too much. 

Earlier this morning, the sisters in the Lilo-an Stake were gathering here at the Stake Center for a Women's Conference. The Sister missionaries assigned in the stake were also invited to attend. A companionship of Sister missionaries came to the office asked if their investigator could sleep in here while they attended the conference because she wasn't allowed to sleep the night before. The office would be the quietest place for her to be during this and would be the best place for her to rest.

We agreed and waited for probably 5 minutes while the Sisters went to get their investigator. When they returned, in walked the most frail human being I had ever seen in my life. It looked like she hadn't been able to eat a full meal for the past week. She looked exhausted from both lack of food, and lack of sleep. 

We offered her some food and let her sleep on the couch in the front. She stayed there for about an hour with the Sisters stationed right at her sides. After about an hour, she said she couldn't sleep. So one of the sisters asked us if we could give her a blessing. 

I was asked to give her the blessing. First we explained to her about the Priesthood, about priesthood holders, and about blessings. Then we blessed her.

She seemed to be at peace after that. She's still here in the office resting. I'm so grateful for the blessing of the Priesthood. I've seen it bless my life and also the lives of others around me. I've been surrounded with worthy priesthood holders my whole life and am grateful for their examples. The Priesthood is not a status or a title meant to lift us above others, rather it's the means by which we lift others to where we are. Just as the Savior said, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister", so was man given the Priesthood to bless the lives of others. 

I'm grateful to have been given that opportunity. It was humbling to me to have been given the opportunity to work on behalf of the Lord to bless one of Heavenly Father's children. Even though, we may be weak, we still be a means for good in the lives of others if we just forget ourselves and focus on those who stand in need. If we look, we can find ways to "comfort those who stand in need of comfort" daily. Have a good week. :)

-Elder Mitchell Jeffrey Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Happy Thanksgiving :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully, you guys will eat lots of turkey and stuff. I'll probably just end up eating some balut to celebrate.

This past week I gave my first district meeting which was super scary, but turned out pretty well. It was based on one of the conference talks from last conference called "Let The Clarion Trumpet Sound" by Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer. We compared it to testifying contacts like how every time we courageously invite people to learn more about our Savior, we are sounding the clarion trumpet. We then discussed about techniques and we practiced. We'll see if it was effective or not when we get back the Key Indicators this week.

Other than that, this week was a whole lot of waiting. We waited on the insurance company to get back to us about whether the van was totaled, or if they can repair it. I'm thinking it'll be totaled because the car was pretty mangled.

Other than that, it was a pretty easy-going week. I'm hoping things will kind of slow down here soon. This past year has gone by so quickly.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for the time I've had here and for the opportunity I've had to come to better know my Savior. To know that He loved us enough to become the way for us to return to our Father again. I'm grateful that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored again in it's fullness here on the earth, that through the changing, cleansing effects of the Gospel, we can become clean. I'm grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who created a plan for us to grow, and become as He is. I know They live. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Elder Mitchell Jeffrey Head

Mitch the cockroach slayer - no light saber needed :)

Elder Head in the Philippines - "the BUSIEST week of my life" :)

Hey Fam!

Oh man, football playoffs. Tell the kiddies that I'm sad I won't be there for it, but tell them that I'll be there next year. Heh heh heh.

We moved out of that bed bug house, so I don't think I'll have a problem anymore, unless they follow me into the new house. I hope not. In my new house there's some super sketchy make-shift weights that I've been working out with. So we'll see if I can get a little form again these next few months.

So this past week was the absolute BUSIEST week of my life. I'll give you some background information so you can better understand why. In my new assignment here I'm covering mainly 3 aspects of the work: Missionary housing, missionary phones, and missionary vehicles.

Missionary housing: With transfers, there are a lot of people moving into new areas and looking for houses to live in and some find really nice houses for a good price. Then the other missionaries hear about it and now their house is suddenly uninhabitable and they think they have to move as well. Oh, brother.

We also recently found out from one of the landlords here that in her contract made by the old housing and financial secretaries, there was a clause that went a little something like this: We the Philippines Cebu East Mission will buy three (3) air conditioning units for the Lilo-an 3 house. We, the party above mentioned, will give the said three (3) air conditioning units to the lessor for installation. After termination of our contract, the three (3) air conditioning units purchased by the lessee will become the property of the lessor.

Well we didn't know that. So when the new senior couple got here we took one of the three air conditioning units from that house to the house of the new senior couple, thinking that it was our property because we bought it. Right? Wrong. She brought to our attention that clause that we were unaware of. I then brought to her attention the fact that she owes our mission php 20,000 because a default in our contract that she made months before. So now I'm in a wrestling match trying to find even with this landlord. That'll be my focus starting next week because..

Missionary Phones: We started giving out some new phones to the missionaries just because they stopped making the style of phones we were using before. Because the other missionaries are now seeing the new-style phones (which are actually not as good as the style we had before) all their phones seem to be breaking at the same time. Weird. Just kidding. I don't think it's on purpose. I think that the other phones were just old and are going out and it was just timing is all. But we've had to buy a lot of new phones for the missionaries this past week. Also, each transfer there are normally some areas that open, and others that close. So each transfer we have to set up and reset phones, which is super kapoy (Kapoy means tiring, I also sometimes just use it as like time consuming). So that took forever on Thursday, but we got it all done. Speaking of Thursday...

Missionary Vehicles: To better talk about this, I'd like to share small parts of what I wrote in my journal from the past two days.

Thursday, November 5th, 2015. My first official day as the Cebu East vehicle coordinator. One of the cars in our mission was totaled today. No serious injuries to the missionaries and no third party involved. Seems to have just been due to a mechanical failure in the steering wheel. Still waiting on the area to learn the procedures for this.

Friday, November 6th, 2015. More insurance companies, YAY. I got in touch with our insurance broker about the procedure and it's not too crazy, just kinda kapoy and time consuming. Lot's of hoops to jump through. Talked with parents over the phone. Talked with the area over the phone several times. Missionaries are still doing okay.

We've made progress but the past two days were probably two of the most kapoy days of my life. Just coordinating with everyone on trying to get this situation taken care of.

Good news: Heavenly Father spared the lives of those four missionaries because that crash looked REALLY bad and they were fine. They directly exited the car, knelt down and said a prayer of thanksgiving. And, only 7 weeks till Christmas.

I might just make that my letter for this week

But Mom I think yesterday was the absolute most tiring day of my life. I didn't even know where to start. Tender mercy: while cleaning off my desk yesterday morning, wondering what in the world I was gonna do about that, I stumbled upon a printed out paper from May that had the email conversation of the old office couples with the insurance company that had the name and contact information of our insurance broker representative. That started getting me in the right direction. The Lord will truly provide away if you just follow what he says with faith. He will give us the means to accomplish any task that is put in our way. No matter if they all are on your plate at the same time or not. I just realized that little mercy that He showed me yesterday. I know He lives and shows us proof by His tender mercies He daily gives to us.

The only break I get nowadays is when we get to go out and work at night. It's like Heaven. I forget all the missionaries calling me for this and that; I forget all the problems with apartments, cars, and cell phones; and I just focus on inviting people to come unto Christ. It's so nice. It's really my only rest.
I haven't started my application for BYU yet. If you need reasons, please see the writing above. Haha.

Love you. I'm glad you guys have had a relatively low-key week.

Elder Mitchell Jeffrey Head

P.S. Last thing for today, earlier this week I went to KFC for lunch and they were playing the theme from "Christmas Vacation". It totally reminded me of home. Haha. Good times.

Elder Head in the Philippines - Term & Conditions with a healthy dose of bed bugs???

Hey guys!

So good news, my feet are still attached. 10 toes and all. I did, however, get bed bugs this week. Turns out I'm slightly (very) allergic to bed bugs because I woke up in the morning 4 out of 7 days this past week with some pretty huge appendages. Day one, my right hand and left middle finger. Day two, my left hand and my chin. (I kind of wished that day one and two would have been together so that I would have had some nice, numb, boxing glove-looking hands. I would've been like a skinny, allergic Rocky though.) Day 3, my right wrist and tricep and bicep were super swollen (It looked like I started lifting again but quickly went away, awe man.) and Day 4 was the smallest being just my left index finger. We made an assault on my bed, bed sheets, pillow case, and the floor surrounding it with this bug killer called permethrin. It seems to have done the trick because two days have passed and no more swelling or itchiness. 

In other news, this is the lame-duck term here in the office. The trainees are now doing all the work, and the old office workers are just looking for stuff to do. I'll be setting up the receipts and such for the housing payments and reading the contracts made with the landlords to better familiarize myself with the terms and conditions. I never thought I'd actually read a terms and conditions thing in my life. So I'm gonna train my Lawyer-Eyes for these documents. That's about it. We're just about to send another batch of missionaries home on Wednesday and pick up a new one right after. IT'S THE CIRCLE OF LIFE. 

That's about it for this week. I've restarted the Book of Mormon and just finished 1st Nephi. If anyone would like to race me to finish 2nd Nephi, let me know. I'm starting today. 

Keep the faith.

Elder Head

Bed bugs = swollen allergic hand :(

Elder Head in the Philippines - Feet buffet....only $1 ;)

Hey!
So this week I was able to baptize one of my old investigators in Lapu-Lapu because he requested that I would do it. Unfortunately, there were no pictures. But it happened. I'm telling you.

We did some more training this week for Elder McNett. He's doing really well. He seems to get it. Now all that's left is just to teach him about the insurance company, and that should be about it.

I really can't think of much more this week. It's just been a lot of running around and problem solving and training. The usual thing. One cool tender mercy this week was that on Wednesday, we finally went and got a bike fixed that's just been taking up space in the office for months. Five minutes after we got back from the bike shop, we got a call from some missionaries saying that their bike was broken and they needed to switch them out the next day. That was some perfect timing. It's cool that as soon as we got it done, that was then it was needed. I fell blessed that it wasn't needed that time when before it was done. That was a cool thing this week. Just really little, but needed. I hope to better keep my eyes peeled for little tender mercies like that more in life.

That's really it. Other than that earlier, we got our feet messaged by little fish who ate little particles of dead skin off of us earlier. That was cool. It was about the equivalent of $1 as well. I'll keep you posted if my feet start to fall off because of the $1 feet buffet for fish.

Later!

Elder Mitchell Jeffrey Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Good to hear from Mitch again :)

Hey Momma!

So these past few weeks have been all training! My replacement got here to take my spot as Financial Secretary so I've been showing him the ropes once each time and then letting him do it after. If he needs help, I help him. But if not, I let him do it his way. It's working pretty well and he is catching on really well! His name is Elder McNett from Coalville, Utah. He loves to hike and can fly planes and has a lot of neat stories. He's really fun to talk to.

So we got everything worked out with Aetna the day before Elder and Sister McNett got here which was perfect timing. I'll be showing him how to do that this week.

Conference was last week. Oh man.

I really loved Conference. I enjoyed how they called everyone to just be better, to improve, to progress, and to become who we need to become. I especially noticed a lot of things in myself that I need to change. It all started with self evaluations. I can't wait to work on the things to help me become the person that I have the potential to be. Along with changing myself, conference helped me change the way I like to do planning. In the past, we would just kind of say what we thought that they needed. But because of the talk by Elder Renlund, we've changed our planning to asking ourselves for each person we teach, "What does God want this person to know, feel, or do?" And it's really helped change the way we plan and teach. I'm so grateful that God loves us enough to give us exactly what we need to hear through living prophets and apostles in this day and age whom he called.

We were able to go to the temple this week as well, which always makes the weeks better.

Sorry for the lack of metaphors in this email. I'll try for next week.

Elder Mitchell Jeffrey Head

Elder Head & Elder Saluta

This beautiful photo was taken before they entered the temple.

And when they left a couple of hours later. #philippineweather

Elder Head in the Philippines - Accountability

Hey Momma!

So this week, I've been thinking a lot about accountability. Mainly because this week I've been trying really hard to figure out how to get the mission reimbursed for it's many medical expenses through the church's insurance partner "Aetna". We just got a reading back from Aetna about the Philippines area's usage of Aetna and we found out that we are the ONLY mission that's not getting reimbursed for it's medical bills. The reason is because we just didn't know how to do it. So that's been my week. Trying to figure it out. Haha.

Anywho, accountability. I was reading in the scriptures during personal study yesterday and I received revelation. Now this piece of revelation is not anything new, or earth-shattering, but it just kind of hit me. Every person, will return to the presence of our Savior to be judged of our works: to be held accountable of what we have done with this life. Whether they are ready or not, we will ALL return to his presence. Which is a scary thought. What if we're not doing what we must do? What if we are not living to the fullness of our potential? What if we're just going through the motions of this life and missing out on all the learning opportunities the Lord has put into our path? I then was reading in Preach My Gospel, and confirmed it.

I'm so grateful that we've been given the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can repent, and truly make the changes we need to make the most of this life. I know that for me, personally, I do not want my return to the presence of Deity to be like this Aetna thing was. I return only to find that I was the ONLY one that didn't improve on my time here, only because I did not know how. I'm also very grateful that the Lord has given us this time to prepare to return to His presence. I'm grateful that He's given us this General Conference to be led by our inspired leaders on how to improve our time here.

I pray that we'll all pay attention, not to just what they say, but to what the Spirit will say to us. What changes we need to make. Where we need to improve. Then I hope we'll have the humility to make those changes. I know that our Father will prepare ways for us to make those needed changes, if we'll just take some time and tell Him what we want to do to be better, to improve, to become. I'm so grateful for repentance, that even the worst of people can change and be refined by the healing touch of the Savior. I'm so grateful for inspired leaders who receive revelation for the church and the Gift of the Holy Ghost that we can receive that revelation personally for ourselves.

Love ya.

Elder Mitchell J. Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - The circle of life.....as a missionary :)

IT'S THE CIIIRCLE OF LIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE. AND IT MOVES US AAAAAAAAAAAAALL.

Please excuse the corny introduction. That's exactly what I saw this week though. On Monday, there was a final dinner for the departing batch of missionaries, then Tuesday they all had a temple session together as their batch and the foreign missionaries went straight to their flights afterwards. After that we returned to the office and loaded up the truck with all the luggage of the local missionaries for their flights the next day. Then the next day, I witnessed the circle of life. 

Elder Saluta and I woke up at 3 am to take the missionary with the earliest flight home, stopped in real quick at McDo for breakfast, and then went back to the airport to take the rest of the departing missionaries their luggage. As I was talking to the missionaries, they all just seemed tired, and not just because they woke up at 4:30 to get to the airport by 7:30, but they just gave all they had for the past 18-24 months. They seemed so seasoned, and wise. About wiser than any other 20-25 year old can look. They'd seen so much, felt so much, loved so much, and lived so much in the past little bit that they just seemed ancient to me. 

Then, after leaving them to go to their final resting place, we went to the other side of the terminal to pick up the new missionaries. It was WEIRD. It brought me back a year to when I first got here, excited, nervous, still adjusting to the slurping in of soupy oxygen, full of energy and life, and a truck load of other emotions. Speaking of truck loading, after we loaded up all their luggage into the truck Elder Saluta and I were charged with the task of going to S&R and buying a truck load of food for lunch. Background of S&R, it's basically Costco. Which is GREAT. I was blown away with all of the similarities. They even have a Costco-esque pizza. So good. 

Anyways, we took every thing to the mission office and then went to the mission home. When we got there, I was reminded of the nervous excitement that came with seeing a bunch of seasoned, super-cool trainers. I had a quick reunion with my batch, Elder Borrego, who is training and for the first time in his whole mission is being assigned on Cebu island. Afterwards, I gave some announcements about finances (Don't waste your money, This money came from the sacrifice of many people who care and love you, Yes there is room in you budget to get haircuts, etc.) and then just mingled with the trainees. 

There was one trainee who was kind of a loner I noticed, so I talked with him for a while, then that while turned into basically the entire day. It turns out that he has only been a member of the church for 1 year and is the only member in his family. He's kind of shy, but told himself from the time he was baptized that he wanted to serve a mission. He was nervous and had a lot of questions about the mission, all of which I tried to answer to the best of my ability. Then, the coolest part is that later that night when they found out their trainers, it turns out that his trainer was also just a member for a year before his mission too and had a testimony before, but now has a burning testimony of the gospel. I hope that he adjusts well. 

Then, just as tradition states, all the trainers and trainees had ice cream with their trainers before we took them all home to start their missions. So in one week I was able to see the missions of some excellent missionaries and disciples of Christ come to an end and see a group of eager, young missionaries start in this cycle of Christ-like service, the truest and most fulfilling work anyone could ever do. I'm grateful that I've been blessed with the opportunity to take part in this work. 

It was so cool. 

Elder Mitchell J. Head


Mitch sent these pictures this week with his own captions! 

GINORMOUS hermit crab outside of the mission home. I wanted to take it home. But, alas, no pets!

Elder Bermoy and I at the Hayags'. Elder Saluta was taking the picture.

Elder Saluta's selfie.

Like wut??

 Elder Torres-Garibay new missionary 

Elder Head in the Philippines - Deep thoughts from Mitch :)

Hey Mom and Dad, I'm trying to update Family Tree real quick because it's my P-Day and it doesn't look like Ryan is on here under your children. I added him, but will you mind updating him for me? Or better yet, can you tell him to put in his own information on here. Tell him to look at some of our family, it's really cool to see our heritage. I'm grateful that Grandma and Dad have been so diligent in their family History. I'm sure you are too Momma, but I haven't had the chance to look at your family history yet. I think that's so cool that you and Dad had the opportunity to be sealed for Grandma and Grandpa Chambers in the Draper temple. That's really so neat. Also, please find a picture to make as my profile picture on Family search where I don't have braces. Really anything else would be great. Okay so I've looked at your side now too. Try and upload some pictures for our family and for Grandma and Grandpa and especially Grandma Alice. I think it'd be so nice if you'd take some time to update her profile. You have so many memories of her and now you have so many pictures of her from her life. Would you mind sharing some of them on Family Search? I feel like I knew her, but I didn't really know her that well when she was young and I'd really like to. This would be a great way for me to be able to know more about her even from half way around the world. Thanks Mom, I'd really appreciate it. :)

I'm really sorry for the skimpy emails lately, I feel like there's just always so much we need to do here. It's hard to keep a good track of time. This week however seems that it's already longer than the last two, so far so good. This past week we were doing exit interviews for this batch of missionaries who are about to go home, and oh man it is so weird. So basically the procedure is that we take their excess support that they've received from the mission, then we get them enough cash to make it through the week and get them home, then we do the ceremonial punching of their support card. In a lot of the interviews, they gave me some words of wisdom. Almost all went a little like this. Work hard, be obedient, and use your time wisely because you'll be going home before you know it.

It got me thinking about how true that is. This time seems like it'll never get here when you're young, when you finally get here you'll never run out of time (If you're doing your mission right, it'll be in the best of meanings. But that depends of the standpoint of the individual missionary.), then you wish you had more time to keep doing the work, then before you know it, you're already homeward bound once more, and for the rest of your life you can look back with love and fond memories of your time here.

Which is similar to our lives here on earth. Before we came to earth, we waited with eagerness and anticipation, feeling this time would never come. When we're here, we think it'll never end (the YOLO mentality). Later in life, we look back and think of the time that's left and how much we still would like to do with our limited time. Then we're homeward bound once more. I pray that we are using our time wisely here. That we work hard, be obedient, and make use of our time doing the things that will bring us the most happiness.

On my mission, I've seen a lot of different kinds of happiness but there are three that come to mind at this moment. Temporary happiness, such as the happiness of a child who get's a peso snack; Fake happiness, the charade of happiness of people who use means of alcohol to do away with their problems to become happy; The last is true happiness which, coincidentally, is the kind that lasts. True happiness is the kind of happiness that comes from a life of obedience to God's laws, from having a clear conscience of guilt from sin, from doing those things that will qualify you to have the Spirit with you in your life, and from the confidence that you are doing the things that will qualify you to live in God's presence with your eternal family for time and all eternity.

I know that true happiness comes only through obedience to all the laws and ordinances of the gospel and through following the counsels of our God. I'm grateful for the opportunity that we can hear the counsel for us from our Father in the upcoming General Conference. I'm grateful for living prophets and apostles this day that give us guidance from on high. I hope that as we prepare ourselves for this, we will review what has been shared in the last Conference, and take a personal inventory. See if we've made the changes we need to, to become who God wants us to be. I know that if we follow the counsels of our leaders, we can meet the full measure of our eternal potential.

Also, I'm sorry that it's so late, but Happy Birthday Dad. Thank you for your hard work. I have fond memories of all the opportunities you've provided for me. I'm grateful for your example of magnifying your calling. I've seen you as a Young Men's President twice, a member of the bishopric twice, a Sunday school teacher, and now as a secretary to the Stake Presidency. In every calling, you've been so diligent and it has not gone unnoticed. Thank you so much for your love for me, your example for me as a priesthood holder, and thank you for your fatherhood. I love you and can't wait to attend your 52nd birthday.

Love,

Elder Mitchell Jeffrey Head

This is called a Budol fight. You eat off a banana leaf and you
eat with your hands which is much more lami (Sarap [tasty])
That was last week :)

My shoes have bitten the dust. Haha. I stepped in some dogs's deeds
and they got inside of the cracks of my shoes and I can't get it out. Plus
a happy, little family of red ants have made a nest in the cracks of my
right heel. So that's great. Haha. I've been rocking some cheap, rubber shoes.

Elder Saluta and Elder Black

Some great Filipino friends :)

Elder Head in the Philippines - Baptisms and defensive driving :)

Hey Momma!

The baptisms went really well! There were minimal problems. :) One of the baptismal candidates slipped on her way out of the water and is now a little embarrassed, but she got over that very quickly and is doing well now. :)

This past week we celebrated Elder Black's birthday which was great! Our Recent Converts held 2 different parties for him. But the only problem was that in both parties they bought Mocha cakes. SO we couldn't eat any cake.. Haha. But we were so grateful for them and their love for us, especially for Elder Black. Haha.

This week we also held a District Leaders Conference in the mission home. So that was ALSO super busy for the office.

I got my license this week. WHOO!!! But driving in the Philippines is super hard. Haha. You always have to be aware and watching because there ARE NO RULES. Like people are passing left and right, going as fast as they want, motorcycles just go wherever they please, it's madness. But I'm getting a lot better at driving defensively. Haha.

Sorry about the short letter. I'll forward to you the pictures that Elder Saluta took from this week. Thanks! Love you!

Happy birthday dad!! SOrry this can't be long. Something came up that we have to attend to so our emailing time is getting cut a little short. I hope you understand and know how much I love you. I'm so grateful for the great times that we've had going through canyons together and for your support for me through all your life. Plus you have shown me such an excellent example of hard work which I'm so grateful for. Thank you and I love you!

ELder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - One year!! Another busy week-somethin' bout a truck :)

Man, Mom. I am QUITE the letter writer. I wrote a killer letter to Grandma Cheryl, Grandma Vonnie, and a little pep talk to Mikayla via email. Haha. Just kidding. I just felt the spirit more when I wrote today, which is weird but I guess it's true that the Holy Ghost can guide us in every aspect of our lives if we'll just listen. Haha. The only problem is, I only have 10 minutes to write a letter today. Haha. But I'll try to make it a good one. I haven't seen my package yet, but since I'm here in the office, there'll be no delays in getting it to me when it does come in. Haha.

So this week was SO BUSY. It is the end of the month so we had a lot going on. We had the new support period start, so we had so many calls of people saying that they had problems with their support, like not all of it got to them or they forgot their PIN number, or whatever else. So that was fun to work out. Then we had a lot of other purchases and things I had to write off for our Mission Leaders Conference. And I had to sign 24 checks off at the bank. I'll get my driver's license this next week so I can drive the truck to do all our work after this which will be nice "Somethin' bout a truck, in the Philippines..".

So about the Mission Leaders Conference, we had all Zone Leaders come to the mission home to discuss happenings in the mission, what we are doing to promote productivity in the work of the Lord, and hear workshops from the Assistants to the President and President and Sister Tanner. It happens once a month, but it is SO tiring for the office when it does happen. They bring all the paper work for the mission and everyone comes and talks about how they need new bikes and everything and anything else. Haha. But its a great experience that I could be a part of the meeting and I could learn from the great leaders in our mission.

So later today, we'll have 5 people be baptized. :) Sister Anne, then the Hayag family. They're so great. I'll send pictures next week. :)

Love you!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Mission office training :)

Hey Mom and Dad!

So in the office, our P-Day is on Saturday.

This first week here in Liloan was SO tiring. It was a real adjustment. Haha. There's a lot of new things I had to learn. The day that I got there, we started to work. Writing off credit card receipts and other transaction, ordering checks, tracking purchases made by the mission, redoing area adjustments for missionaries, and we have an area to work in as well. It's pretty busy. But I love it so far. My companions, Elder Black and Elder Saluta, are both such excellent teachers and I've already been learning so much about finances and especially about missionary work.

We had an office meeting at the mission home on Friday and we were fed spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread, corn, and REAL milk for lunch. It was the greatest thing ever. As well as just seeing the bigger picture of just how many things need to be working in harmony to even allow the mission to run is just amazing.

We are living in the transfer house, which is a pretty big house and is pretty nice as well. It even has a shower. On Wednesday (my first full day in the office) I was so tired after work that directly after planning I accidentally fell asleep on the mattresses down stairs in our apartment, missionary clothes and all. I woke up at like 1 am, got up, took out my contacts, brushed my teeth, and got into my ACTUAL bed. This work is surprisingly tiring.

In our area it's just sakto. There's not too much city, but we're also not in the middle of nowhere. The people here are so nice and even though we can't work the whole day and work only in the evenings, we're seeing success here in this area. We'll hopefully have 5 baptisms next week. A family that they met tracting, and a family member of another member in our ward.

I'm super tired, but grateful to be here. I've felt so much help and support here, from my family here in the mission, my family at home, and my family in my Heavenly Home.

So that's it! Sorry that I don't have pictures this week. My card reader is at the apartment still. Also, about contacts, don't worry about it. I'll be good. This is only the second pair of new contacts that I've used on my mission. Haha.. So I've still got like 1 and a half boxes left for each eye. I do need some more solution though. I can't remember if I took 2 containers of it, or just 1. Are the packages on the way?

Love you!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Baptisms, goodbyes & a transfer $$ :)

So we've had a very abnormal week. On Friday, we found out that I'm actually going to be transferred tomorrow. Which is different from the transfer day of everyone else. The reason for this is because our financial secretary, Elder Black, goes home next month and I was chosen to be the replacement as financial secretary. The reason that I'm being transferred in the middle of this transfer is because he needs 1 month to train me with all the financial stuff and computer stuff and yeah. I'm kind of nervous but excited to do it. I'll learn a lot from Elder Black and Elder Saluta (The companion of Elder Black right now). We'll be in the office every day until 3 pm and afterwards, we'll go out to work.. Elder Saluta and Elder Black are both pretty long here in the mission so they're pretty seasoned teachers. So I'll be in Liloan instead of Pajo ward starting tomorrow. So I'm being Emergency transferred tomorrow. It doesn't mean that there's an emergency (I'm not dying Mom, I promise). It's just an irregular transfer that wasn't announced initially.

That means that this week was my last week here in Lapu Lapu. Which makes me sad, but I'm excited to help out the mission. The past few days have been goodbyes, which was SUPER sucky. I don't like goodbyes. We'll say goodbye to the rest of my recent converts today.

On a good note. We had 2 baptisms on Saturday, Brother Arnie Mangona and Sister Ilonah Dela Cerna. I baptized Arnie and Ilonah was baptized by her father-in-law, Edgar Dela Cerna Sr. Then on Sunday night, we had a family home evening with them. I love their family. The Dela Cerna's have been like my family here in Pajo. I'll miss this ward.

I'm grateful for this opportunity that I had to serve in Pajo. I'm also grateful that I've been given the unique opportunity to be the financial secretary here in Cebu East. I'm praying that I'll be strengthened by the Lord to help me to accomplish what's been asked of me.

Love,
Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Things are good & handsome :)

Hey Everyone!

So cool story, we got to go to Mandaue to see one of our investigators get married to his girlfriend so that he can be baptized. WHOO! Brother Marvin, Sister Laila, and baby Krisha are super nindot ("beautiful" as translated by Google).

Also, while we were in Mandaue I saw one of my investigators there at the stake center and he was baptized now! It was super awesome to see him. He always goes and works with the missionaries now which makes me happy.

In other news, we stopped at one of our investigators houses to teach him about the Word of Wisdom, but we couldn't teach him. Because he was absolutely drunk. Like drunk as drunk can be. So we set a return appointment with him and left pretty quickly. So that was kind of ironic this week. Haha

Elder Sapla is super gwapo. In fact, he set that as one of his goals this week,

Elder Head: "What are some of your personal goals for this week that I can help you with?"

Elder Sapla: "Elder, I want to be more gwapo (handsome). I even wrote it down."

He's super funny. Haha.

We should have 2 baptisms this week. Sister Ilonah Delacerna and Brother Arnie Mangona. So hopefully there will be more pictures this next week.

That's about it!

Elder Head

Mitch's district @ Mactan Shine before tranfers last week.

Elder Head met up with Brother Xavier, one of the investigators
 from his 1st area, whom has since been baptized :)

Elder Head in the Philippines - Transfer week & Temple Tour :)

SO.

Elder Sapla and I are staying for one more transfer together here in Pajo! The only problem is that I'm getting a little chubby... Joke. But they do feed us a lot here. Which is nice.

This past week we took a temple tour with some of our investigators. We did it with our Zone Leaders Elder Bayot and Elder Noquiao. We had 5 investigators come to with us which was super awesome.

So cool story. One of our investigators (Kate age 15 [her brother is a member]) just completely changed. Like 180 degrees. In the lessons before she was super shy with us, but after the tour of the temple, she just was SUPER tuned in to our lesson and she read like every day and even took notes of our lesson. It was the absolute coolest thing. Her baptismal date is August 29.

This week has been a lot just OYM (open your mouth) and talking with people. In our area in Ibo, we have so many people to teach, Less Active Members, Investigators, and Recent Converts. But in the other part, Pusok, it's basically a ghost town. Haha. So we are talking with a lot of people and have some return appointments for this week so hopefully we can even out our teaching pool.

So Elder Foote and his trainee are both being transferred together to Bohol. Elder Foote is now the District Leader over there and Elder Pairat (His trainee) is going with him. So I'm sad Elder Foote and I are no longer in the same district, but it was sweet while it lasted. Haha.

That's about it!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Stepping up planning & Tillamook ice cream :)

Hey Momma! 

So I tried to send 4 pictures but none of them would load so sorry for the delay here.

So this past week, we had to watch some movies for the first 12 weeks program and Elder Sapla and I decided that we really need to step up our game when it comes to planning. 

Also, this past week Elder Sapla and I have been trying to really focus on the Book of Mormon for our investigators, which is really frustrating sometimes because most of the people we teach either just forget to read or don't like to read. Then we ask them if they have prayed and asked if it's true, of course they say they haven't because they haven't been reading. So we've been REALLY stressing the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. In my life I've truly seen the fulfillment of the promise of President Ezra Taft Benson that the Book of Mormon will shield us from the temptations of the Adversary in our lives.

I tried to send you a picture, but it wouldn't load. Wednesday, we were fed by a member this week from America, Brother Doug Seymour. He made us spaghetti and then he bought Tillamook ice cream. It was basically the greatest dinner I've had in the past 11 months. Then he didn't have a freezer so he gave the rest of the ice cream to us and it was super delicious. It was a much needed break from seeing cheese ice cream.

This week is the last full week before transfers so next week I will be emailing on Wednesday.

Sorry for the short letter! I spent most of the time trying to work out the pictures from this week, but they just would not load. 

Love you!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Busy.

Hey Momma!

So our schedule is super weird this week because we went to the temple and we don't have a lot of time. Plus I just found out that Sister Simkins had to go home early because she got a stress fracture in her femur. So she wrote me a letter and I wrote her a decent sized letter in return, plus I wrote President Tanner a decent sized letter as well. So I don't have much time. I sent you some pictures from this week so I hope that'll make up for it. We baptized Derick this past week and his family will follow him now soon. Love you Mom. almost 11 months now! WHOO!

Love,

Elder Head

Hey pops!

I'm glad you all had a good time celebrating Grandma Alice's life. Sad I missed it, but I'm doing some stuff that's PRETTY worth while. We had another baptism this week. His family will be baptized soon after as well. They are now investigators with a baptismal date. So that's promising. I love the temple. We went earlier. Make sure you and mom are taking advantage of having so many temples so close to our house. Go once a week with her. Don't miss that bonding time with your wife. :) Also, our family history on family tree.org is looking pretty skimpy on the side of Grandma Vonnie.. Just saying.. Haha.

Love you POps. Miss you. :)

Next package, send me a little paperback book of mormon with some of your favorite verses marked and your testimony written in the back. I think that'd be SUPER cool. Tell Mom and Ryan to do the same. Extend the challenge to the kiddies so they'll start to read the book of mormon too. Love you.

Elder Head

Super sized w/ Elder Head & Elder Foote