Elder Head in the Philippines wk 15 One of the hardest weeks of my life!

Hey Pop!
YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO MEXICO??? That's way cool actually. You guys will be more in a climate like mine. It's awesome. You'll love it. :)  I haven't read Bishop's email yet but I'll get right on it. My new comp facebooked you? I don't even know who it is yet. Haha. I've been working with a ward missionary and the Elders from Mandaue 4 this week.  It's so hard though. I don't have a follow up trainer yet. So this week was a lot of tracting. I also had a revelation. I suck at conversational language, and that's half of tracting here in the "Pines is small talk. I'm getting my butt kicked. I cried for the first time in my mission this week cause I felt like there was so much pressure on me. I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders and mine alone. Then I remembered the scripture in Matthew 11: Come unto me all of you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Paraphrased of course but the meaning is the same and that's what I did and honestly I feel so much better now. I know that even tough this is probably the hardest thing I've done in my life, being the lone missionary in Mandaue 1A being only 4 months out, it can be made light through Christ. Also, my new comp should get here this week. Hopefully, But that's about how my week went. Haha. You got new guns too?? I'm glad that mom will now have her own mercenary to protect her around the house. ;) Haha. Love you Pop! Have a good week!

Elder Head

Hey Momma,
Haha! That's Brother Danilo, who must have facebook messaged you. He meant to say I'm the missionary of their ward right now. I STILL DON'T HAVE A COMP.  It's so hard to be honest. Haha. But Zone Leaders say that the AP's told them that my new comp should be here this week. So fingers crossed!! Haha. DOn't worry I'm not kidnapped and it's still a freaking humid oven over here. Haha. So to be completely honest, this week has been probably one of the hardest weeks of my life. So Elder Larson left on Thursday morning so I was just working with a ward missionary. It's super hard though cause the language is still a struggle for me and the ward missionaries don't understand the lessons and I need a follow up trainer, but I don't have one yet. So it's just been kind of a rough week. But it's okay! No big deal. Haha. Even though my burden feels super heavy I know it can be made light through the Lord. I hope my new comp gets heres soon. Haha Love you Momma! I'll write another email as the blog letter. Also there are no garbanzo beans here, which is a bummer. There's also almost no fresh parmesan that will not cost me an arm and a leg. Haha :)

Elder HEad

  

Elder Head in the Philippines - Week 14- Seems like he's been gone forever!!!

Hey Everyone!
I hope that you all had a good week! It sounds like things are going good at home so that's cool! Go Seahawks! Hey Momma real quick....can you send me some Momma-ish recipes to me so I can cook something like you?? Cause my cooking is alright but I just want some momma-ish cooking :) Thanks Momma!

Elder Larson is going home to get knee surgery. It sounds like he'll leave Tuesday-ish, they're still working it out up in Manila because the Pope being there they won't allow any planes to go in or out of Manila til he's gone. It's super difficult and frustrating haha! I don't know his replacement yet. I might end up staying here or I might get moved into a trio. I really have no idea yet. ATTA GIRL! Momma your google translate was spot on. ;) Church was good! Everyone was just telling Elder Larson how much they'll miss him and stuff. This past weekend was Sinulog here in Cebu. That's a Catholic holiday here on Cebu only. They take their  Senor Santo Ninyo and just march behind it on Sunday and just be super loud and get super drunk. It's mainly in Cebu City but it reaches over to  Mandaue as well. So that was loud. Haha. That's awesome! Tell Darren and Andra congrats for me about their sealing! :)

Wherever and with whoever I serve, I'll be ready for it. Haha :) For me I'm just still trying to wrap my head around that I'm coming up on my 5 month mark. Haha, So sorry if there's random spaces, my computer here is kind of  dumb. Haha.

So this week was a lot better than the past few weeks! We didn't have any doctors appointments or anything like that this week so we could actually work the whole week and we got a lot more lessons. Most of them have been "goodbye" lessons for Larson cause he's going to go home this week, but they were super spiritual, so that was good. We did a lot more tracting this week and we found a guy name Xavier who actually came and approached us and asked us to teach him. So we went and had an awesome first visit with him. Then we came back the next visit and his whole family was there. Probably 20 people. They're all being baptized on Saturday. Joke. That'd be great though :) They were all there an they were really really distracting so the spirit kind of left our lesson. Then we went back to teach Xavier again and he just seems so distant. So we're going to go back today and see if there's anything we can do to help him. Just see what he needs. Hopefully we can help him. Other than Xavier, the story of the week has been tracting. I'm trying to do to other parts of our area because our area is pretty big but the past missionaries have just stuck to two parts of our area. They basically sucked it dry to be honest. We try to tract and all the people were like, "Oh yeah we were taught by the missionaries one time, we're not really interested." Then they just invite us to eat dinner with them anyways, so that's nice. We just keep working. Haha.

That's about it! Love you guys!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines Week 13 - Transfer week but not for Elder Head or Elder Larson :)

Hey Momma! I took our gamay lang kwarta sa pagpalit ang scripture case sa akoa ug og karabao belt gihapon. Apan ang bag-ong karabao belt nake, dili maka fit siya naka... So that's a bummer. Haha. Enjoy google translate Momma ;)

So with the temple, Everything was in english. Haha. So no it wasn't confusing :) THAT BURGER WAS SO BIG BUT SO GOOD. Or maybe it was a "Just-okay" burger on American standards, but it was in fact delicious on Filipino standards. :) So we still worked this week cause Elder Larson can walk, he just has to be careful and take it slow. Mom, you haven't seen crazy kids until you've come to the Philippines. They're nabuang! Haha. I love 'em though :) So did Oregon win or Ohio State?? 

So with Elder Larson, he is potentially going to get surgery in a couple weeks, we don't know 100% what's gonna happen with him. But I'm staying in Mandaue with him for another transfer so that'll be fun! We've got good chemistry as a companionship so I'm glad I'll be able to help him through his surgery, if he has it here. He could potentially end up going home and getting the surgery and coming back when he's back up to health. Maybe four months, the doctors are thinking. I don't know what would happen to me in that case. Haha. Maybe transfer or get added into another companionship and I will be the third companion or something.? I dunno. Haha. 

I'm glad everyone is doing well at home! I just watched the video of Edward speaking Tagalog and I think I actually understood it this time. Haha. :) The language is really coming along so much better now. I'm reading out loud in the Basahon ni Mormon to help with my pronunciation and ability to read Cebuano. I'm really being helped out so much though. The Spirit really gives me words sometimes in lessons that any other time, I can guarantee that I would not remember at all. We're so lucky to have the gift of the Holy Ghost with us always. Well that's about all I can think of right now. So have a good week!

Love you Momma! :)

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines Week 12 - A day at the Cebu City Temple :) Blog Editor is lame so this post is a week late!!

Hey Mom! So as you probably noticed. I didn't email Monday... Sorry! We went to the Temple today though and it was SO COOL. I loved it so much. It is absolutely beautiful and we wore sarongs inside the temple instead of normal white shirts so that was a change, but it was awesome as well! So today after the temple we went to this super tasty place called Casa Verde. It has this thing called the Mighty Ton. It's a GIGANTIC Hamburger that can literally feed an army. I'll send pictures later if Larson sends them to me. I forgot my camera.. Haha... Sorry... But they also had this GIGANTIC milk shake too. So obviously Larson, Smith, Amata, and I all got that to share. Except the shake cause Larson and I got our own. But it was SO GOOD. Outside of the fact that I now feel like I'm a thousand pounds. Guess who's gonna freaking kick some butt in push ups and sit ups this week. This guy. Haha. I normally do them anyways. But I'll do more this week. Haha. So yeah transfers are this next week! It seems like I MIGHT be transferred. Cause Elder Larson might have torn his meniscus so he might have to stay in Mandaue for physical therapy and treatment.. Maybe. I'll keep ya posted though. So this week was good until a few days ago when he tore his meniscus. We were riding in a tricycle and he heard a pop and then when he got out of the tricycle he could hardly stand. So he's been kind of on bed rest today and yesterday besides the temple. We're going back to Cebu City tomorrow for his MRI. Hopefully he'll be good. Haha. Okay you're asleep so I decided to make this long. I'll send another one with the blog letter after. Love ya Momma. I'm doing well. Buhbye.

Elder Head

Hey Dad! That sounds like it was a super fun New Years week! How's everyone doing at home? That's good that you and mom are empty nesters and don't have any of us moochers living with you guys anymore. Now the house will actually be clean and you can actually use your basement!! Word of advise though, don't run around in your underwear. That's not a pretty sight. ;) Haha!! Yeah I was just thinking about that this last week about how I was getting a little off focus. I'm working hard on returning to focus. Well I think we should just start now with not emailing back and forth. President Tanner really wants us to start as soon as possible and I think that now is as good of a time as any. Sorry for the random emailing day. We went to the temple today so today was our P-day. So today at the temple I bought a selected hymn book (They didn't have any regular hymn books) and a primary hymn book (It was 3 dollars and everyone here likes to sing We'll bring the world his truth) so I can practice piano a little bit. I'm actually playing that on Saturday at a baptism and singing it as well. They think I have a good voice here cause they're Filipinos and can't really sing well.. Haha. So hopefully I'll be Mozart by the time I get back. Haha. I love you dad! Thanks so much for your example of a worthy priesthood holder in my life. When I went through the temple today I thought of when we went through the first time and how you helped me do basically everything. Haha. So thanks Dad. :) Have a good week and have fun with the super low gas prices!

Elder Head

A hamburger as big as your head!