Beginning of Typhoon Season

This week was slow as we thought it would. We had a hard time finding people to teach because of the midterms and we have entered into typhoon season. We got hit pretty hard with rain this week. Right now it is clear but the past 3 days it was heavy rain. I need a new umbrella because 2 of the poles broke on my other one.

We had a great baptismal service for Lionel and Sister Esposo! It was very spiritual and they are great people. The branch is very supportive of them and are really helping them. Lionel even worked with us yesterday. He wanted to see what we do so he came with us and helped us. It was a good experience for him. He is already talking about his mission!!! Bytheway (John), I am both us are still in Guihulngan.

Kyle and Mary Jane are good. We couldn't teach them this week because they were busy so we will try again this week. We went to the Galanza family this week. We took our branch president and he shared his thoughts about baptism and shared some verses from the Bible about baptism and how infants don't need to be baptized. It was good but I don't think Brother Galanza was very happy to hear it. He is very firm about being Catholic. We also taught Paskil this week. We made a lot of progress on them. We found out where they were in the teachings with past missionaries and found out a lot of his beliefs about religion.  We now know more about the direction we should go. We also started teaching a referral. We were given her name 2 times. The first we text her and she refused but the second time a member told us her name and we went to her house, not knowing it was the same person, and contacted her. She found out it was the same person and she is willing to listen. She has been to church before so we just have to build on what she has learned. Her name is Mary Grace. We went back to Yuriza this week. She is still confused so we told her to write down her questions so when we return this week we can answer them. We can't continue Irish's baptism because her dad wouldn't sign the baptismal record. We will continue to teach her and hopefully he will change his mind. She is ready for baptism so we just have to wait for her parents to sign.

As far as the area, we have a lot of coconut trees here. We live close to the mountains so we walk up hill a lot (both ways in mud up to our waists or maybe the middle of our shoes). It is a big city for this side of the island. We have a big college here. It is the 3 most recognized in the Philippines. Lots of teachers and students live here. It makes it hard because we start to teach and find out they go home on the weekends so they don't come to church. The beaches really depend. Some are really rocky and some are good sand. Some of the water is clear and some is really dirty. It depends on the spot.

One thing you have to know is a city here is like a county back at home. What we call a city is a barangay  or a sitio. Those depend on the area. A barangay is bigger then a sitio. The people are really good here and when they are converted, they really help with the work. We get lots of support.

This area we eat a lot of rice and chicken. We get some vegetables but that is the bases of our diets. (It is making me fat. I am about 170 now).

I think that is about it.

I love you all.

Elder Nielsen