Elder Head in the Philippines - Week 28 - The "burn" of missionary work :)

We didn't hear from Mitch on Sunday evening like we normally do. We knew that it wasn't transfer-time yet so when I woke up around 4 am, checked my email, and still nothing from him I was a little disappointed and concerned. Thankfully, I received a text message from Janel Larson, Elder Larson's mom, telling me she had some pictures to share with us. I told her we were happy to get pictures because we didn't hear from Mitch the night before. She then promptly called and then let me know that on their p-day zone activity that there had been a motorcycle crash and that Mitch had sustained a burn on his calf.  I'm so grateful that she called and told me about this! Thanks Janel! Although this news was concerning, we were happy to know what happened and that not hearing from him was because he and another injured elder had gone to seek medical attention. Janel forwarded the photo of his burned calf. 

OUCH!! Poor guy!!

We were very happy that Mitch got permission to send us a really quick email last night so we knew he was ok :). Mission memories??  Here's our quick email exchange:

Hey Mom! Sorry about emailing a day late. Yesterday we had a zone activity going up to a waterfall and on the way up our motorcycle crashed and I got a pretty gnarly burn on my leg so I had to go
to Tagbilaran to buy medicine for my leg so I didn't really get to email yesterday but we got permission from the Zone Leaders to do it today. :) Also I accidentally gave myself a pretty deep cut on my finger earlier this week. Sige bye! Joke you could email back for a second and I'll tell you more about it. If not I'll just talk about it in my email next week :)

K love ya! See ya later! Bye!


On 4/28/15, MICHELLE HEAD wrote:
Are you ok???? Thankfully Janel sent me pictures this morning and told me what happened exactly?


On 4/28/15, Mitchell Head wrote:
Yeah I'm okay! Elder Larson is gonna send you some pictures from the start of the transfer. :) So what happened was we were going up to the Jagna Waterfalls (which was beautiful and it was so worth it) and we all took motorcycles to the place and the road was a rocky uphill slope at some points so we were riding up and we drove over a rock that wasn't secure so it fell from underneath us and the motorcycle fell over and Elder Larson and the driver fell back onto me. I fell onto Elder Robanakadavu who got pushed off the bike and landed on his shoulder and his shoulder was a little swollen and sore but nothing too bad. But for me my leg got pinned between Elder Larson's body and the muffler (which was super hot to the bare skin and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone) so I
got a pretty good sized burn up my leg. But it's cool cause I still made it to the falls, stayed there for 2 hours, then called Sister Tanner and she told Elder Robanakadavu and I to go to Tagbilaran. Haha.

Then for my finger, I was cutting a root crap to put into my manggo beans that I was cooking and I hit a rotten part of the root crap (Gabi) and the knife slid straight through and caught my finger pretty good.

On 4/28/15, MICHELLE HEAD wrote:
Wow, well I'm so sorry that happened to you! Why are you putting some many people on one motorcycle though?? :) Please keep it bandaged and ointment on it so it will heal properly and 
won't scar! Is your finger getting better?

On Apr 28, 2015, at 10:38 PM, Mitchell Head wrote:
It's okay! The motorcycle drivers wanted to make as much money as possible and a ton of people do it here in the Philippines so we thought it wasn't going to be wrong or that anything bad would happen. Haha. My finger is a lot better but still not 100%. The cut was pretty deep though so I dunno if it's gonna heal SUPER duper quick. I'll heal though. I have bandaids and Sister Tanner prescribed me this ointment that works better than neosporin. Haha. Sister Tanner was a nurse and told Sister Robertson (The senior couple Sister in Tagbilaran who also happened to be a nurse pre-mission) exactly what to buy and then I went a got it from them and she bandaged up my leg and now I'll be bandaging it up for the rest of the week until it's better. The ointment they got for me is the American
grade stuff that they use it the Burn unit in the hospital and should work like a charm. Haha

So I am just about out of time, Sorry I didn't write an email this week, I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive. Just tell the peeps that I'm still alive and that I played piano at church and taught another impromptu lesson and such. Also, I was in the woods this week.....tell Traci she was right about Banana leaves..... Haha

 K love ya Mom!

Happy to finally have a few photos. (Photo cred...Elder Larson) Mitch is serving in a beautiful place in the world!!

Becoming quite a cook :)

Elder Head in the Philippines - Week 27 - This week was super good!

Maayong Odto! (It's noon here right now.)

So this week was super good! We had splits three times this week and I was in our area 2 out of three times. We were able to do a lot of contacting and this week will be a lot of following up. We had a great day on Thursday up in Lobogan which is a part in our area which is further in the jungle. We made so many contacts that day. One of our contacts that we made in Lobogan actually kuyoged (went with us) For the rest of the day. Then we were able to go back and teach him on Sunday with a senior couple here in Bohol because he's a teacher and is super good at English. His name is Noel.

Then on Saturday we were able to go back and teach Fernando. He's someone that Elder Gavin and I were able to meet last transfer but he can only meet with us on Saturdays but he's good. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and that is KEY for investigators to receive an answer. We taught about Heavenly Father because a lot of people here have no concept of the Godhead and it was a super powerful lesson. We invited him to church but he couldn't make it out to church so we're gonna follow up with him on that this week.

It's incredible to me to look back and see my progression on the language and in my teaching since I first left. Yesterday I had to teach 2 lessons in church. Sunday School and Priesthood. I prepared for the priesthood and the Sunday School lesson was just thrown on me and I was able to teach a lesson last minute that WASN'T completely awful! So that was good. :) Tender mercies, hey? Haha. Well that's about it. Love you guys!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Week 26 - SO MUCH WALKING!

Wow! Mitch's package that we sent him 3 months ago FINALLY is in his possession! I'll admit this is when I'm a bit envious of the missionaries serving stateside missions :)

Here's Elder Head's email this week:

Yes I was able to get my package!! The cheez-its were the greatest idea and are already almost gone. Haha. The kids and everyone looks so big now!!! WOW. WHAT THE HECK! IT'S SO WEIRD. Haha

So this week is the first week that Elder Larson and I are back together. This week it's been SO MUCH WALKING. We went to a part of our area called mambo-ol which is an area that I don't think has been really gone to for a long time so hopefully we'll be able to find some people who are ready to listen. Elder Larson actually timed our travel time yesterday and out of 3 hours of work (We could only work 3 hours yesterday because of conference) 2 hours of that was walking to our investigators' respective houses with whom we had appointments. Also, I was also just told from the office that bikes aren't an option for my area because there aren't any that are available right now. They would be worried about giving them to us right now even of they were available because of the condition of Elder Larson's knee, so we're going to try to find some of the members that aren't active in the church any more. So that's our plan.

This week I was able to watch conference! Better late than never, haha. I received emails about how awesome conference was and I still wasn't able to see it yet. It was just like previews to a movie for me, I was so excited to be able to watch! I loved the theme about the sacredness of marriage, the family, and parenthood. Something that stood out to me again was the call for Young Single Adults to get married *Cough* Ryan. *Cough*

But Conference really was just as good as everyone said it would be. Some of my favorite talks were President Eyring's talk in the Saturday morning session about Fasting, Elder Bednar's talk on Peace in the Saturday afternoon session, Elder Hollands's talk about the Atonement in the Sunday morning session, and Elder Uchtdorf's talk on Grace in the Sunday morning session.

I was able to finish the Gospels and will start the Acts of the Apostles as well as finish the Book of Mormon this week. The need for Apostles and Prophets in every dispensation has become so clear to me. If we don't have the loving guidance from God in our lives that comes through apostles and prophets that are called of God, we would surely still be in the state of confusion and spiritual darkness that comes from apostasy. But we are so blessed to live in a time where there ARE prophets and apostles called of God here on the earth and they DO have instruction from on high. I lovingly sustain our leaders in this church and I know that if we follow the counsel of the prophet and apostles that we will "prosper in the land" and will receive blessings that we never could have foreseen.

I love being a missionary!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Week 25 - Transfer week, staying in Duero w/newly returned Elder Larson :)

Hey Dad!

So I haven't been able to see conference yet. I'll see it next week hopefully. So it's transfer week so I'll be getting a new comp! Except he's not new. I'm going back with my trainer so I'll be retraining him in the mission. 

My area is super hard dad. What should I do?

Love ya Pops, I've been thinking a lot of our adventures and missed opportunities I had to talk about the Gospel with you. Get your two cents about everything. I can't wait to go on another adventure with you when I get home. Miss you big guy!

Elder Head

Hey Momma. Sorry I always email you last. I just have to make sure I get them all done so I still have enough time to send you a lengthy one. :)

Tell the kiddies that I love them and miss them! I'll send them another little voice message next month when we talk on Mother's day (Pretty excited to see y'all). I've been cooking some good food lately but I think that last night I didn't cook my fish 100% all the way through cause my stomach feels kind of weird. Other than that I'm great though! My package should get here tomorrow. It didn't get here yet cause there was a mix up at the office or something? I dunno. Hopefully it'll be here tomorrow. :) 

It's super weird that I've been gone for 7 months. It's been going by really fast. 

I'll be back before we know it. :)

K here's my letter now. 

Hey guys! 

So this week was a long week cause it's transfer week! I'm staying in Duero and I'm still the District Leader's comp. The new District Leader is my trainer Elder Larson. He'll just be getting back to the mission so I'll be retraining him back into the field. 

We haven't been able to watch Conference yet which I'm kind of bummed about but we'll watch it this week (Hopefully hopefully hopefully). But from what I hear it was super good! We're so blessed that we have a living prophet here on the earth today and are lead by living prophets and apostles who receive revelation for us in these latter days!

This week we put a bigger focus on the members so that when we bring investigators to church that we can have a better atmosphere for them and get everyone a little bit more organized. So it was a lot of looking for less actives and teaching the active members. 

Sorry. This week was just kind of "Mao ra gihapon". 

Keep the faith

Elder Head