Elder Head in the Philippines - Bogo City :)

Mom and Pop,

I'm still super sorry about last week. It's been kicking my butt this last week. It won't happen like that again.

So I've now reviewed your emails from last week and now feel confident that I can answer your questions.

*Ahem*

Last week Pop asked, "Are you a Zone Leader now?" Yes I'm a Zone Leader now here in Bogo. Last week we had a leadership meeting down in Lilo-an so I took the 2 hour bus ride from Bogo to Lilo-an on Thursday of last week, then we did it on Monday night, then we turned around and did it again on Tuesday afternoon. Buses are fun. Haha. I met a French fellow named Phillip and we talked for the entire bus ride on Thursday. He committed to read the Book of Mormon after I shared to him one of my favorite verses: 3rd Nephi 9:14.

UPDATE. I got my package from Grandma Vonnie on Monday night and it was intact. Let her know and I will also send her a thank you note. :)

Mom asked last week, "How's the area? (Give lots of details)" So my area is here up in Bogo City reaching out to the bukid (remote areas). We've been focusing our efforts in a part of our area that's closer to the city and has a higher population of members for us to work with called Gairan. It's been pretty hot, so I've been getting darker, but not sunburnt (SWEET). We get a lot of support from the ward and have people to work with us most days. I don't have any pictures of it because me camera died this week and is now charging in the house, but the area is beautiful.We ride a tricycle into and out of the area but walk around our area during the day. Our house isn't too bad either. We have termites in our stairs going up to the top floor, where we sleep, but we can live with that for the moment. We live close to the ocean and have a cool, ocean breeze at night when we sleep. We have a terrace at the back of our house (I say terrace, but it's not really a terrace. It's more like a baby deck. But that might be the meaning of terrace and I just don't know).

Another one from Mom, "How's your companion? How long has he been serving?" So my companion's name is Elder Mangrobang from Tarlac. He's super kind and easy-going. We get along really well. Also, he's a really hard worker which I like. We push each other in the work. He's my batch going home so he'll go home in August with me.

Another one from Mom, "Needs from home?" Short answer: Nah, I'm all good.

Another one from Momma, "Do you have a lot of stuff to do in the branch?" Not really. The branch is really well run. All we really have to do is get investigators of the church to come and everything else gets taken care of. It's really nice. Haha.

Last question from Momma "How was your week?" Okay! So this week I was able to go on exchanges with one of the district leaders companion in our zone to do a baptismal interview for on of their old investigators (There were sisters that were added to their ward last week so their technically the investigators of the sisters that were almost completely taught by the district leader.) Anyways. The investigators were great and they were baptized on Saturday. We attended that one leadership meeting on Tuesday but had to be there in Lilo-an on Monday night to get to the meeting on time. We did a TON of tracting this week, which was hard, but we have a few people that we met who look like they have some real interest in our message. There were also some others that were not as interested... Haha. But we'll be following up on them all starting tomorrow.

The branch missionaries think my laugh is goofy and make fun of it. But I think it's hilarious when they try to impersonate it. It's a good time.

Earlier today we were able to do a CSP with a medical foundation for children with cleft lips and for adults with cataracts. So we did mainly translating because it was foreigners that volunteered and came from the states. But it was really fun!

I hope that this letter was big enough and detailed enough for you to rescind that swear word from your latest letter Pops. Let us all speak kind words to each other. ;)

I love you guys and I'm really grateful for you that you still emailed me even though i was a jerk last week. Haha.

I love you! Happy late anniversary!

-Elder Mitchell Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - #phoneprobs :)

Hey Mom and Pop!

So funny thing happened this week. So here in the Philippines, the church has an account with a cell phone company with all of the numbers of the missionaries on one shared account, so it's all kind of just grouped together with all the numbers that the missions have access to. When I work with the phones of missionaries here I see a lot of random problems that need solutions in diverse ways. To fix those problems, I use my phone. Well, just yesterday my phone stopped working. Completely stopped. It said that my SIM can no longer be read. So I called the phone company and inquired about it. They said that my number has been activated via email to a new SIM card. YEP. Meaning that another mission may or may not have accidentally hijacked my phone number from me. Which makes it REALLY hard to do the phones in the mission when I no longer have a cell phone.

Anywho, This week we had a few meetings and got the rental checks sent out for this first quarter of the year. Thank goodness.

We did a lot of finding this week and have found three different families that we hope to start teaching this week.

I got my October package! Finally! Whoo! Thanks so much. :)


Love ya!
Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!

As we started coming up towards the new year, I saw it as a time for reflection. To see where I have improved and where I must keep improving. One area that needs improvement is in my goal-setting, being that I can't seem to remember my goal from last year..

So I'm hoping that will change this year. Haha.

A few days before New Years, we were given deep fried pork leg to eat from some members, and naturally, I chose to play with the pig foot afterwards. Haha.

We were able to watch one Disney movie as a zone for New Years because the streets aren't really super safe for us at New Years, so we watched the Good Dinosaur. A cool part of that movie for me was when the dad said to his son, "If you can find the river, you can find your way home" and as a missionary I found a spiritual connotation for that in a sense, that if we can find the Living Water, we can find our way home. If we don't find the Living Water, we don't have hope. May each of us search deeper for the river that leads back to home this year. I testify that Christ is that river that can take us home. There is no other way there, but through Him.

Happy New Year!

-Elder Mitchell Head

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 :)