Week 14: Another AWESOME week!

HELLOOOOO!!!

I love you family! Another awesome week is already gone! It is flying by! And Next Saturday we have our first baptism. He is a 12 year old kid named Jofferson and he is really bright. They had just started teaching him when I got here and now he reads and prays and goes to seminary every day. His parents are inactive and they are kind of a pain. Sunday they wouldn't let him go to church for some reason but they generally support him. Just sometimes they do random stuff and I honestly think yesterday they wouldn't let him go. We almost had to postpone his baptism because of it but because of the situation the ZL's and stuff said it was alright.

Our ward is really crazy and kind of contentious when we have our correlation meeting...They were really creating a ruckus about him being baptized because he is a kid and his parents are inactive. It's a pain but we have it worked out with president. Oh well. There are also a ton of awesome members as well.

I am baptizing Jofferson on Saturday! I am really excited and proud of the progress he has made. This is really a bad place to grow up. There is so much bad stuff around them. Hopefully we can save him from a sad miserable life that he might have had if he got into drugs and all that stuff.

We also have another baptism in 2 weeks and we started teaching a mom that seems pretty golden so far! The work is great and the field is definitely ready to harvest. This week we had one of our best days ever, we taught 7 lessons in one day. And then the next day we only got 2 lessons as everyone was gone and busy and stuff. There has been a lot of success and lots of disappointments. It is pretty hard to get people to church. They don't even have good excuses either. We went around to our investigators before church(we always do, this week we just tried to go to more) and they always say they have laundry or they need to cook or something stupid like that. Oh well, we ll just keep praying and keep teaching them, hopefully they will get the big picture eventually.

So we have a very interesting new investigator(kind of?). I OYMed(Open your mouth and intro the message) him on tryke, and he was saying that the BOM can't be more scripture because of the end of Revelations. So I told him that was just for Revelations and then we gave him a BOM and got a return appointment. We then went to him and he is Iglacio ni Christo (or Church of Christ i think) and he kind of wanted to argue but we were able to mostly slow him down. Then we were talking about authority and stuff, and I showed him Amos 8:11-12 about the apostasy and he was pretty confounded. We used both the BOM and bible and he was actually shaking during the lesson(I think he was really stumped). Then at the end he wanted to meet again this week and he said he wants to bring someone(I am pretty sure he is bringing his pastor). And then it was funny he said you can't use the BOM cuz thats not fair. So we were like well is it not true then? He said no I don't mean to say that, it just isn't fair... Well we weren't gonna do that but we made him a deal. If he honestly and prayerfully read Moroni 10 and then prayed about it, if he still didn't want us to use it then we wouldn't use it. He looked like he honestly was going to do it and he honestly wanted to know if it was true. Besides we can still use D & C and the Pearl right? haha No we will use the BOM or just walk out. We also plan on bringing our favorite ward member. He is a former bishop and the current seminary teacher. He is definitely one of the good guys in the ward. He also isn't shy to tell things like they should be and use the fire and brimstone scriptures. Hopefully the brother just reads and prays about Moroni 10 sincerely. Either way it should be entertaining (is that bad?)

Elder Weaver at the waterfalls...



Tuguegarao zone at the Water falls for P-day!

Today we went out of the town a ways with the district and went to a waterfall and they cooked some food, most of us Americans cooked hot dogs and smores. (btw I am already sick of rice). It was pretty awesome. The Philippines really is beautiful. My vantage point so far hadn't been good because I have been in the town for the most part my whole time and the town is pretty yucky and dirty. But there are some beautiful country side and the rice and corn fields are really cool. Not much else to report on. I am having an awesome time here and I love it. I'll answer the questions and comments from the letters now.

Questions:

1. Is transfers next week. What's the scuttlebutt? You staying together?

Ya transfers is on the 10th and we haven't heard a thing yet. I hope we don't get transferred yet. I don't want to leave this area or my comp yet. There is still stuff here I want to accomplish. I love the investigators even when they don't keep the commitments and I hope we can help them along. We were talking about the odds of what happens (33% I get transferred, 33 % Elder Weaver gets transferred, 33% nothing happens.) Elder weaver has been here 1 cycle almost 2, and I have been here almost a cycle now. It is not uncommon for either of us to get transferred at the amount of time we have been in our area. It's all up to the lord!

2. Anything you really miss bad from the USA (besides us, I mean food or whatever)?

By far and number one milk of course. Legit B-ball. We have been playing a few times in the morning at 6 but no one else is out. And we haven't played on p-day for 3 weeks, we have been doing other stuff so I haven't played a real game in a while). Watching Jimmer Fredette and football. Supposedly like no one watches the super bowl here. They don't really have a lot of really chocolate here and every one says no where in the Philippines is Dr. Pepper or Reese's of any kind.

3. How's your conversational Tagalog? Can you chat about the weather or whatever?

Uh not my strength to say the least. I am pretty good at talking to people and asking about their family and stuff and then introducing the gospel but I don't know a lot of stuff about that. Every where Ii go though people say one of three things. Hey Joe, Whats you name!? and Ano ang height mo?(whats your height) oh yeah and matingkad ka! (you're tall!)

4. How's the weather? We have been 65 and sunny in the afternoons lately -- perfect!
Its warming up. The afternoons aren't great and I usually get pretty sweaty but the evenings and mornings aren't bad. I usually sleep with a fan on me. (More to keep the mosquitoes off me than to keep me cool)

5. How many missionaries in your mission? How many zones? Is there one area everyone wants, and one area no one wants?

150 or so missionary's. And I think 6 zones. Nueva Viscaria has the banau rice terraces and Santigao is supposed to have really awesome ward help and members. Roxas or Alisha are supposed to be the lamest because there is just nothing cool there and it is far away from big towns with good food and stuff.

6. Tell me more about those breakfast breads and other bakery stuff there. You know I have a weakness for that.

Honestly the pandesal and these little cookies called Krinkles (they are like little chocolate cookies in powdered sugar) are the only thing I like. Pandasal is awesome though. It is dirt cheap too. Donuts are in a few places in town but they aren't that great and a pain to get to( far away and stuff).

7. You and your comp get along well. What kind of hobbies did he have BML (before mission life)?

He is awesome. Really generous and selfless. We have a great time and work hard and try to be as obedient as we can. He was a big time video gamer and skate boarder he said. And flash and other computer stuff.

8. "Saw the pictures of the donuts you guys had. Those looked yummy. Seems like the Carlos' are pretty good cooks. Do you get to go to the mission home every week? It's 2 hours right?"

We didn't have any donuts!! We weren't there! Ya sister Carlos actually is the author of a baking book or something... She showed it to us. That is pretty awesome. No, we don't go to the mission home very often. I went there on my first day and then for the trainer/trainee meeting so I've only been there twice. Both times they gave us awesome food though. The next time we would go there is maybe transfer meeting or on the 12th for zone conference. Our first zone conference the President came to Tueguaro.

9. "Marcus and Laura found out they are having TWINS!!!! I think they are due around your birthday. Super cool, eh?

That is awesome. Tell em – congrats and I am super excited for them!

10. "Do they do Valentines day there? Do they have candy hearts and all the usual stuff we have here?"

Ya they have it but it's not as big a deal here I am told. I haven't seen any valentines stuff at stores or anything.

11. So did you pass the room inspection?

We have never been inspected yet but we are both kind of messy so we kind of need to clean up....

12. I want to see pictures of your place. You'll have to figure out how to mail us some home or something.

Ok i was planning on getting some pictures onto a CD today but our activity took way too long so I got no time left after this

13. Well the weeks keep flying by. Are they for you too!?

Oh yea, i love it here!

14. I have really enjoyed reading your mission mama's blog. You even showed up in one of the photos!!!! You look like you are enjoying your time there. Are you getting to know all the other elders? Are you doing pretty well with the language now?

Ya the language is alright. I certainly have a long long way to go but I've got enough to work with and contribute I think. It really will be a minimum of 6 months before I am there.

Alrighty, Again i love you all and pray for you every day. Glad to hear everything is mighty fine back at home and that the Jimmer is sweeping the nation and that they beat SDSU! Have a great week talk at ya next week!

Love

Elder A.J. Griffin