Tuesday, March 26, 2013

It Is Hot In The Philippines

Last week went pretty good. It has been really hot though.

This week is transfers. I might be starting to train. I will find out Wednesday night what will happen. It sounds like we aren't getting more missionaries for Punta Salong right now because there is no place to put them. We are going to look at places today but I think that it is too late.

This week we did a lot of teaching. We taught Edmon. He is progressing but didn't make it to church this Sunday even though we had some tricycles go to Punta Salong to pick up the people there. Brother Baldos is still progressing. He is praying to get an answer if the Book of Mormon is true. He hasn't got an answer yet but he keeps on praying. We picked up some investigators there this week. Part of the Ortega family isn't members so we are teaching them. One of them is really excited about us teaching them. Her name is Renelyn. She likes the gospel and is telling everyone to come listen to us. Brother Negad wants to be baptized. We started to teach him. He wasn't able to come to church this week but he says next week. Most of our effort is going to Punta Salong right now. There is a lot of potential there. We were looking at all our investigators and found out we have over 30 right now! We are hoping to commit them to baptisms.

For exchanges, the senior companion goes with the district leader and junior companions are together. If it is a district leader, he goes to the zone leaders' area and one of the zone leaders come to the district leader's area. Since Elder Bermudez is district leader, I go to a lot of areas. I learn a lot from these exchanges. This week I went to the Victorias 2 area. I was the senior companion. It was a good experience and I learned what it is like to be the senior companion. It will help later.

I am doing great. I am happy, healthy and love the work. The Philippines is great and very hot. The people are fun to be around and they are always positive.

I love you all,


Elder Nielsen

PS did I mention it is hot here?

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Mango

I attended a funeral this week. They expect missionaries to attend all the funeral services here so we went.

 This week was busy. Monday was preparation day and Tuesday I went on splits. It was a different experience. I went to Caduhuan and served with Elder Sobreviga. He taught me a lot about how important it is to give people commitments. Then we had zone conference on Wednesday and Thursday. President Lopez is amazing. He is really funny and taught us a lot. Did you know the fruit of knowledge of good and evil is the mango? It is because when they man ate the fruit they were commanded to go. haha. It is true. He gave us a lot of insight of how to get baptisms. One thing he wants us to do is teach about agency and how we have the choice to choose our path and if we don't then we can't return to Heavenly Father. It was something Elder Bermudez and I needed for our investigators. Friday we went to Punta Salong and taught Edmon. We taught the agency and he is starting to progress again. Then we went to Ansaldo. She has great faith. We taught faith and how we need to act. We also taught the Negad family. We found out that Brother wants to be baptized!!! We started to teach him. That was all the teaching we were able to do with our investigators this week. None came to church because it was in Cadiz. It was stake conference and Elder Hales and Holland did a broadcast with Elder Evans and Sister Cook. It was really good. One thing that stuck out was Elder Holland gave us an assignment to read D&C 121-123. He talked about Liberty Jail and how it was a temple.

Right now we have no planned baptisms. We are hoping that we will soon.

The kids like to give us high fives all the time. Sometimes the small ones like to walk with you but not too often. Some of them just want to play with you and heckle you a lot. It depends, but for the most part it isn't too bad.

Sorry not much to write this week.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Cooking and Cleaning

We had a very good week. I went on splits with the zone leaders this week. Elder Doane came to Manapla. We did a lot of work and he taught me how to be a better missionary. I learned how to better study. We didn't get to talk to Sister Ansaldo. She wasn't there this week. She didn't attend church. We were sad about that. We reconnected with Elmer. He is doing alright. He really wants to be baptized but he is never home on Sunday. We were hoping. The baptism of Jay-r was great. I baptized him. It was a great experience. We didn't teach Edmon of Felix this week because Felix had work. But we had a family home evening/ fireside at Punta Salong. It was very successful. 35 people came which means we have enough to start a branch here. That means 2 more missionaries. President Lopez is coming on the 24 to check it out and talk about putting missionaries there. We had two investigators come to church this week. Jay-r Equina and Joy Dela Cruz. Jay-r's family is members but he isn't. We asked to teach him and he agreed. We only taught one lesson but he seems interested. Joy really wants to be baptized but we don't give her a date yet because she needs to marry first. We will be talking about that process this week.

 This week we also found out some concerns of some of our investigators. We were lead but the spirit and contacted one of them and then we talked and they opened up there concern. It was a miracle. We are now working with the bishop to solve it and then we have a potential of 5 new baptisms. It is pretty amazing.

Next week we won't do that much work. Tuesday I am going on splits with other missionaries. Wednesday and Thursday we have zone conference in Bacolod. We are looking forward to learn from President Lopez.

 I have now tried some weird food. I have had squid a few times. It is pretty tasty but it is hard to eat because it is like rubber. I have also eaten chicken feet. That was weird. I didn't mind the taste but it wasn't amazing. As far as cooking, we cook on a gas stove. Those that don't have gas stoves cook on fires. We sometimes get fed by members but sometimes we cook. I have perfected cooking spaghetti. We buy from stores and go to the market for meat.

For wash, a member washes nearly everything. When we wash, we wash in basins of water and use two fists to wash. A rock would we nice! Jokes. Our fists work.

I love you all.

Elder Nielsen
 
Last week's baptism
 
 
This week's baptism


 

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Extremely Busy Week

This week was extremely busy for us. We didn't get to do a lot of teaching though because Monday is preparation day, Tuesday was district meeting, Wednesday we went to Bacolod for training, Thursday we had a couple missionary come to check out Punta Salong to see if we can put missionaries in that area, Friday we got to work all day, Saturday was the baptism, and Sunday was church. It was really busy.

 The baptism went very well. It was a good experience. Elder Bermudez baptized for the second time in his mission and I baptized the first. Elder Bermudez has lots of baptisms but they would choose his companion because they were American. Elder Bermudez baptized Sister Negad and I baptized her daughter, Leonalyn. It was very spiritual.

As far as investigators, we had a weird week. We saw Elmer again and he was asking about his baptism. We weren't sure he would talk to us again. He really wants to so we invited him to the baptismal service but when we went to pick him up, he was sleeping so he didn't go to that. He wasn't home to go to church because he had work. We didn't teach Edmon and Felix this week because Felix was busy when we went there. We hoped they would come to church but they didn't show. We were happy though because Sister Ansaldo came to church!!!! It was exciting because she is a longtime investigator. She knows the importance of church but hasn't come but she came. We had a powerful lesson with her right before Sunday. We expressed our feelings about church attendance. We think that was what touched her. Jaymark and Nono, I don't remember if I wrote about them, work at a crab plant owned by a member. They know the gospel is true. They really want to learn. They know the Book of Mormon is true. This week we will invite them to church. We hope that they will come.

Training was really good. President Lopez taught us about our role in bringing people to Christ. I didn't realize how important we were. We are the only ones that can bring people to the path so they can return. Nobody else can. It puts a lot of weight on us.

I love you all. Work hard and remember Jesus Christ and his atonement.

Elder Nielsen

PS. I forgot some stuff. It has been really hot this week. We haven't had any rain. It is the dry season right now. We get little rain.

The language is coming. I am understanding more and more and sometimes I find myself speaking without thinking about what I am saying in English. That means that I am getting fluent!!! I am working to get better. I think that I will be training soon. That is what President wants and he says that all or almost all will train next transfer. I am nervous but I know enough to train. I love you all.