the seventh month of the year two thousand and eleven:

from July 4, 2011:

Hey! Happy 4th Of July!! I didn't even realize it until like... right now. When I get back to America, I am going to be SO patriotic. haha.

I think my report will be pretty short today, my time is sort of limited, because Elder T has alot of stuff to do today. He is not sure yet, but like 95% positive that he will transfer on Tuesday. He has been here for a while. We'll see though! haha.

This last week of the transfer has actually gone really well. Even though last week alot of our strong investigators left (well.. actually.. ALL of them but one. hahaha.) We were blessed to find alot of new strong investigators. And one even ended up moving back! :D In fact, yesterday, we had 3 new investigators at church! Of course, it WAS fast and testimony meeting, so I was praying really hard that no one would get offended, and I did see them looking at the clocks to see when sacrament would end, but overall it was a good experience for them and we had alot of good fellowshipping from the branch. haha. :) The branch is really starting to get excited and active in helping the less-active re-activation effort and the fellowshipping of investigators, so we should be seeing good things happening pretty soon. :)

One that came is named Brother B, who is just awesome. He's a retired teacher, so he catches on to things pretty quick. What I like most about him, is he gets things before we teach them! Like, we taught him by himself at first, and when we invited him to baptism, he said he needed his family to join in the discussions too, because it was important that they were all one faith. We said "great! that's what we wanted too! please!" hahaha. Then when we were in priesthood on Sunday he was talking about how important it is to have a chain of authority (like in the priesthood) before it was even taught! woo hoo! haha. So he is a great investigator.

Another one is L L, who actually has a husband who is American and is being taugth by the missionaries somewehre in Minnesota! So she really wants to be baptized, for her husband, which is good, but our challenge right now is helping her to understand what baptism really means and that this isn't just another religion. haha. She is the one that moved last week, but came back. :)

The other one is brother R I, who is the husband of a recent convert, sister M. We have been trying to meet with him to teach him over and over, but he has constantly come up with excuses, so it has been tough to meet with him. Well he actually came to church on Sunday, so we set up an appointment to meet with him later this week. (I really think that he just doesn't like Elder T, because when he found out he was probably going to be transferring, he was all for meeting with us. hahaha.)

Anyways, this week, we'll see what happens with transfers! I'm pretty sure I won't get transferred, but you never know. haha. That's about all for my report this week.

salamat sa tanan!

Amping kamo gyud, ug gugma ta kamo!

-Elder Lee

from July 11, 2011:

Hey everybody!!
For the 4th of July, we just sang "America the Beautiful" and "The Star Spangled Banner" for our district meeting. I felt pretty patriotic. haha. In our district there were 5 americans and 1 filipino, so we kind of out numbered the filipino. haha.

Well, my news this transfer is pretty big! I was like 95% sure that I wouldn't get transferred.... but I did. haha. I was so shocked! I hadn't said goodbye to anyone, so I ran around that day taking pictures and saying goodbye. I got moved back into Bacolod, so I'm back to speaking Ilonggo. I JUST got used to speaking cebuano and forgetting my ilonggo! hahaha. oh well.

I actually got moved into the mission office. yup! I am the new mission recorder. My job is basically to record all our numbers that come in, enter in baptismal records to the computers, and follow up on people who haven't sent in their stuff yet. It's pretty simple, but you know, if I don't enter in the baptismal records, it does kinda affect people's salvation!

I get a cell phone, and my companion can drive the car, so I feel really cool. oh! and our apartment has HOT WATER!!! Oh my goodness!! It has almost been a year since I showered in hot water! haha. I will definitely be well taken care of here. :D

Really they called me in here to help out the others in the office wherever I can and help keep things organized, since my job is a little less-stressful. haha. All the other jobs are very high-stress. My companion is Elder G, and he is the Supply Manager. there is also Elder S, the secretary, and Elder E the finance manager, and then the A.P.'s. and that's the gang in the office!

Me and Elder G are the main "proselyting elders" in the office, so we are the only ones who pull double-duty -- the office and the investigators. We are supposed to work during the day and then proselyte from 5-9pm. Our ward (B 1st) is AMAZING. I was absolutely astounded on Sunday. They do everything by themselves!! It was just like a ward was supposed to work!! And they don't depend on the missionaries at ALL. They hardly even noticed there was a new missionary! haha. I really am just... amazed at this ward! It totally reminded me of our ward back at home. We even got a few referrals from members on Sunday. I just feel so blessed with this ward! I can't even describe it! I really didn't think this type of thing existed in the Philippines. It is SO refreshing. haha.

Anyways, so that's my new calling. President Tobias said I will be here for 2 or 3 transfers, so this is my new home for a while! It is VERY different to come from the bukid (wilderness) to Bacolod, the "new york city" of Negros Island. haha. But I'll get used to it.
So that's about it for my report this week. I'm still trying to get my feet under me and figure things out, but I think I'll be fine if I just take things day by day.

Halong kamo, kag palangga ta kamo!! :)

-Elder Lee

from July 18, 2011:

Kumusta ang pamiliya ko subong?? :)

As far as my work goes here, I have pretty much adjusted to being an office elder. I've adjusted to speaking Ilonggo again (it only took a few days), but now I have to relearn Tagolog. hahaa. In the office, we talk to alot of people from the area office, so that's always either in Tagolog or English. I am realizing just how much I forgot from the MTC! haha.

We have done some pretty good cleanup work here lately as far as organization and everything goes. We have a pretty awesome group here in the office. It's kinda like we are one big companionship, because we always go on splits with each other and stuff. So it's fun. Right now we are just getting everything prepared for our upcoming zone conferences in 2 weeks. I can tell that I am probably going to gain some weight here though... we have already had 3 pizza parties all paid for by President. haha. It's great. ;)

The work is also going good. The new vision in our mission is to find and complete part member families using new CMIS programs that our secretary just made, which tells us who all the part member families are in a ward. They will announce it at zone conference, so President Tobias wants all of the office elders to find 5 part member families this next week and take pictures with them so he can show the mission that it is indeed possible. We already found 2 yesterday (Sunday), so we've got this week to find 3 more.

Our investigators are going very well too. We have a baptism coming up this Saturday, of a girl named Girly. haha. She is 18, her mom is a member in another stake, and she is living here working for another family in our ward who is very strong. So this week we will prepare for that, and then Saturday it should get done! We are also teaching a 12 yr. old boy named Christian, who is a part-member family as well. Luckily, he speaks Cebuano! Before I got here, the missionaries always taught him in Tagolog, and he didn't understand that much. So it is quite a blessing that I just learned how to speak Cebuano. :) We are also teaching ANOTHER part member family, the Regudos family. haha. The dad and one daughter is a member, and we are teaching the mom and 2 other daughters.

Anyways, this is getting long, so I guess that's my report this week!

I hope this week treats you all well, and that you keep "workin' in the garden of the Lord!" :) There truly is no greater or more powerful work than this.

Halong kamo, kag palangga ta kamo!!

-Elder Lee

from July 25, 2011:

Hello again!!

First off, I really believe that pioneer day is only a holiday in Utah. Even other elders here from America don't know what it is! hahaha. So no, we haven't had any sort of celebration here. haha. sorry!

I have gotten the hang of things at the office. We are always running around doing special errands, so the hardest part is balancing office work and proselyting work. Luckily, the proselyting work has been going really well. On Saturday we had a baptism! Her name is G E and Elder G baptized her. They had been teaching her for a while and she is part of a part-member family. The service was probably the best one I have seen yet here in the Philippines. I am telling you, this ward is amazing! hahah.

We are also in the process of preparing another part member family, the Regudos family. If things go well, they should be baptized in the next few weeks. The only problem right now is that the dad is out of work, so traveling to church is kind of difficult for them. If he finds a job soon, though, they will be just fine. :)

Anyways, not too much else really happened this week that I can remember... haha. maybe next week I will write things down when they happen so I have more to report. haha,

Halong kamo, kag palangga ta ka!

-Elder Lee

the sixth month of the year two thousand and eleven

From June 6, 2011:
I realized today that I am right next to the ocean here, which is in fact the same ocean that is at Dash Point State Park! I have to admit, I touched the ocean with my hand so that I could touch the same water as Dash Ppoint. hahaha. ;)
Anyways, first of all, guihulngan is prounounced "G(as in seagull)-ee-hull-ngan(as in when you say siNGIN' in the rain)." hahaha. good luck with that. It is a great area, though. And actually, I found a sign here that says "LOST island". hahaha. No joke! I took a picture, but, again, I can't get my stinking card reader to work! I'll keep trying though. I have a ton of pictures to send and my memory card is filling up fast. haha.
Right now, the work is going kinda slow. We actually just had a baptism of a mom and two kids on saturday, but that's about it. other than that, we really only have one investigator. haha. kinda sad. The problem is that this week, we didn't really get a chance to work! Elder T found out last minute that he was district leader and had some things to take care of, so I went on splits to an area called Calatrava and he went to Bacolod to be trained. So for 3 whole days we didn't really get to work. well... I did, but not in our area.
It was great to go on splits though. At first, I was really nervous, because my companion is a trainee that has only been here for 3 days, and I was new to Cebuano and not even a senior yet! hahaha. That was kinda crazy, but it turned out great. The trainee, Elder G, was from Tacloban, a place on the island of Mindanau, where they speak Cebuano alot. So the language wasn't a problem. For us, it was kinda like I knew how to do the missionary things, and he knew how to speak to the people. So we complimented each other well. haha. It was a really cool experience for me to try to lead and teach a trainee for 3 days. I learned a TON from this Elder. He's a great guy and we had alot of good experiences with investigators, too! Hopefully one day we can be actual companions or something! :)
But anywho, our branch in Guihulngan is pretty great. We just got done with a branch missionary activity today, where we went with the branch missionaries and the branch mission leader to a cool beach resort and played games and shared spiritual thoughts and tried to inspire them to work. :) So actually, the branch is pretty strong, and really great, it's just for some reason we are lacking in the investigator department. But we will definitely do our best to change that asap. :)
ok so back to you guys.
everyone here is WAY into basketball, so everyone asks me what I think about it and I always have to say... "well... my brothers would be able to tell you, but I wouldn't." haha. They always ask what the team is in Seattle and Ihave to explain what happened to the Sonics. hahah. it's fun.
Anyways, I think that's about it for my report this week. I was really hoping to get to send pictures, but I guess i'll have to find some other way. :-/ oh well.
amping kamo kaayo, ug gugma ta kamo!
-Elder Lee

From June 13, 2011:
Happy Father's day to Dad, before I forget! sorry... no call home, but I can sure email! hahaha.
This week I was able to go on splits to Canla-on, a volcano that is central on the island. Holy COW that area is beautiful! It's about a 2 hour drive through the mountains to get there and I was just in awe the entire time. The work was good too, I definitely learned alot. Luckily in canla-on there are alot more ilonggo speakers too, so I was actually able to share alot more in the lessons. haha.

The Cebuano is actually coming well, though. Of course it will never be perfect, but I am able to have actual conversations with people without my companion translating for me. haha. So that's a plus. I'm way better at understanding than I am at speaking it, though. I still haven't gotten all the ilonggo out of my head so I have to think before I say things. haha.

Well, things are starting to pick up in Guihulngan too. We have done some good work this week and things are starting to roll. Bear in mind I said "starting" to roll, not "rolling". hahaha. We have a few new investigators, probably 4 of which are pretty solid. Really though, we've been doing alot of work with our less-active members and strengthening our branch. We found out we have 500 members, 80 of which are active. haha. So we printed out a list, and got to work finding out who all these people were. Apparently, the biggest problem for why all these people are inactive is because of word of wisdom problems! seriously! Like I'd say 90% of them are because of old habits that came back. It's really strange, I've never seen such a big problem with the word of wisdom before! I mean, usually it's that people get offended, or join other churches, etc. but this is just kinda strange. haha. oh well. w=We're trying to help the branch get active in helping people come back too, because, of course, we can't (and shouldn't) do it all on our own. To help the leaders get active, we've asked them to start giving our callings to the recent converts and less actives that come to church, to make sure they have a responsibility.
It's also been fun doing some detective work and fixing all the problems in our records (the CMIS). haha. There are SOOOO many mistakes. We've been going around and asking about people and figuring our who has moved out of the ward or who's addresses or names are wrong, and who is related to who. And entering it all in the computers. At the same time, we are teaching our ward clerk how to use the cmis.
We've also been teaching a preach my gospel class for our branch missionaries, and that is going really well. Sometimes I feel like I'm teaching at the mtc or something. haha. They are really starting to understand what missionary work is all about though.
Other than that, we've got a big celebration in our branch coming up this Saturday. It's the 25th year anniversary of the church here in Guihulngan (there are sure LOTS of anniversary celebrations here lately!). hahah. so it will be fun. I'll give you guys the downlow next week.
Well, this has gotten pretty long. sorry! haha. But that's about it.
Amping kamo, ug gugma ta kamo!
-Elder Lee

From June 20, 2011:
I don't have much time this week, so sorry if this is short. But basically, the work is still moving forward here in Guihulngan! We have a few investigators that are progressing really well. One is named brother Ho, who actually came to church this Sunday! wooo hooo!! :) haha. He has a word of wisdom problem, so it will be a little longer till he is baptized, but he already has a testimony, so that's very exciting. Plus he works for our branch president, so that's extra incentive to stay active. ;) hahah.
The other is a lady, who is actually ilongga, so I have a funtime talking to her. She lives here and in Bacolod, so she is constantly going back and forth, but when she is here she is staying with a less-active member who is fellowshipping her. Two birds with one stone, huh? ;) haha. Less active, and investigator! She's also progressing really well.
We are also teaching a family. The mom is a less active member, and wanted us to baptize her 8 yr. old son, but we told her NO WAY untill she is re-activated and we can teach her husband too. haha. so that worked well! they are a great family! (oh yeah. ps. the mom's name is mary jane! haha.)
So they are our best investigators right now. There are others, but they aren't so.... progressing. haha.
Recently, we had our 25h anniversary of the church in guihulngan, which was a blast! We did meet a few new prospective investigators that came too, so it was a good tool for us.
I also have to report that I did eat another nasty thing this week. My ward had goat at a party, and I ate goat meat. then, they offered me the EYEBALL! (the "best part") hahaha! I couldn't refuse!! It was SOOOO hard to eat it with a straight face. Eyeball is not very good. haha. Sorry if that grossed you out. haha.
Anyways, that's about it. Amping kamo, ug gugma ta kamo! ga-ampo 'ko para sa inyo pirme!
-Elder Lee

From June 26, 2011:
I have had sort of an... interesting week. hahaha. As far as our investigators here go, it was starting to look really good! but then... boom. 3 of our 4 best investigators literally all moved on the same day! like that! hahaha! I have no idea what happened!! They are not even like related to each other. One left because her husband is in the military and got assigned, one left because he is working out at sea, and one left to live with family. So... we're back to square one again. But it's the last week of the transfer, so we should have a nice fresh start on things pretty soon. hahah. It is kinda weird when you lose investigators that want to continue but can't, but all 3 took their Book of Mormons with them and said they would find missionaries if they can, so that gave me some comfort. At least we're planting seeds, right? haha.
So right now we are back to finding new investigators again. We still have brother Ho, our most progressing investigator, who is coming to church and slowly losing his Word of Wisdom problems, so that's encouraging.
We also recently had a nice little branch council that we sat in, where everybody was yelling at each other. haha. Elder T told me that that was the culture of the cebuano people, that they yell even though they are not really angry, but still it was very strange to sit in there. haha. I know I have no authority over them as a missionary, but I had to stop them a few times and remind them of things. It seems like they want to re-organize all the callings in the branch, so we'll see how that goes. Luckily, they did agree to help us in our less-active member work and in retaining new converts through visits and one unified goal. So that is good. We'll see what happens.
I have a few funny stories too. We were teaching this one couple for the first time, about the restoration. So I showed them a picture of the first vision and was asked to make sure they understood, "Who appeared to Joseph Smith?" they said "God and Papa Jesus." (note: papa jesus is what everyone calls Christ here) Then they said "Wait! I have a question." So i was getting ready for a really deep, heartfelt, sincere question about how to know if Jospeh Smith is a prophet of god or not, and the mom asked and said, "Well there's God and Papa Jesus.... but where's Mama Mary??" hahahahha. It was SO hard not to laugh. It was really difficult to explain to them that Mary is not part of the Godhead. hahahah. man. gotta love it.
I also saw a crazy FLYING LIZARD! Not even kidding! It had little wings like a flying squirrel and it flew right by my head! hahah. I wrote it down so I wouln't forget. haha. OH and in ANOTHER teaching appointment, it was at the most spiritual part of the lesson, and a tiki (a small house-lizard) on the ceiling POOPED on me! hahaha. I saw it and felt it, but tried to pretend like nothing happened. I was just thinking... man... Satan is way too good at ruining the spirit. hahah.
Anyways, we'll see how this last week of the transfer goes. I will definitely work hard. Remember that Heavenly Father is always in control and if we stay on his side we cannot go wrong. :)
Gugma ta kamo! bisan kon lisod kini nga tiempo sa inyong kinabuhiy, kabalo ko nga kabalo ang diyos ang iyang ginabuhat. Amping kamo-ah!
-Elder Lee

MAY 2011

from May 1, 2011:

Soooo... this week has been a very.... interesting week. ALOT has happened. hahaha. For one, the two other missionaries in our house and ward got emergency transferred last Tuesday. We are one of the only houses in the mission that doesn't have some type of leader with a cell phone in it, so for most of the week me and Elder P were just waiting for the replacements to show up (if there were any). We were wondering whether we should work in the other area or not, also. Because for a long time, no one showed up and we had no communication with the mission office! (ps- we have neighbors with a cell phone in case of emergencies, so don't worry. hahaha.) So it was a pretty lonely week, just the two of us at the house. Plus, it has been BLAZING HOT. Normally we have fans blasting and stuff to keep us cool, but our power was randomly going out. It has been doing that since I got here- just unreliable is all. Most of the time we would just go outside and whack the electric box and it would come back on. But on Wednesday our power was out for GOOD. So we had an electrician come and check it out and say we needed to get some parts replaced because lizards climbed in there and shorted them out. So for 2 days we were the only ones at our house, no electricity, blazing hot, and our food going bad.

Well, then we needed to get a hold of the taggiya (owner) of the house because of course WE weren't going to pay for the replacements. We called her lots of times and she said she would come lots of times but never came because it was "too hot" to travel. (sheesh.) So anyways, while all this was going on, I was walking back and forth and a piece of glass broke through my shoe and punctured the bottom of my foot! It bled pretty bad, but I cleaned it out and don't need stitches. haha. It's healing slowly, but it has just been hard to walk around is all. But it's all good. :)

So finally, the replacements showed up on Friday night, the electrician showed up on Saturday morning, and Saturday and Sunday we got to attend broadcasts of the 50th anniversary "Jubilee" of the church in the Philippines. phew! And today we got to buy all new food. hahaha. Soooo... needless to say, we didn't get as much work done as we'd hoped to this week. But this next week will be alot better. I'm sure of it. :)

We did however, get to hear one of our brand new investigators bear a very strong testimony of the Book of Mormon after only 1 time of teaching her, so that was pretty exciting. The Lord works in mysterious ways, is all I can say. I was so not expecting this person to read, let alone pray after the first lesson, but wow, was I wrong! haha.

Anyways, I think that's about it. Sorry I complained so much, but that really was all that happened this week. hahaha. The whole week, me and Elder P just randomly would burst out into "count your many blessings" whenever something else went wrong. haha.

halong gid, kamo!! Magisip kamo sang inyo mga bugay pirme! (Count your blessings!) Palangga ta kamo!!

-Elder Lee

from May 16, 2011:

Kumusta kamo tanan?

I got to see the family from our home stake!! It was so good to see familiar faces. Of course they remember me. haha. Sister G was really funny when she found out I could speak Ilonggo! hahah. I was wondering if they would still remember Ilonggo, and it turns out, in their house the rule is only Ilonggo! Now I have someone to go talk to when I get back at least. hahaha. :) It was really fun. And Brother G will not stop talking about good old times he had with dad! hahah, and all his bad jokes. haha. We had a dinner at their house and they are here till the end of May.

We had the jubilee celebration for the island of Negros this weekend! It was pretty fun. We had a few investigators come. The best part for me was I was able to see all my old friends from Pulupandan!! :D It was so good to see them and get all the updates. If you remember, I was sad when I got transferred from there because we had like 5 baptisms set up for right AFTER the transfer, so I was bummed that I couldn't go. But I was able to see all my old investigators who were baptized!! It was the best feeling to see them all and see the joy on their faces when they told me they were baptized!! They were all SO happy. I feel like that was a little piece of what the celestial kingdom will be like when we all look back on our lives and get to find out what happened to people we knew. :D

The only sad thing is that before the jubilee, I went to buy a new memory card because mine was almost full, and the one I bought turned out to have a virus on it. I took tons of pictures with my friends from Pulupandan on it, and of the jubilee too, but they are now all corrupted! I'm trying to find some way to get them off still. :/ It's pretty sad, but that's what I get for trusting cheap Filipino quality knock off brands! I've learned my lesson. hahaha.

Anyways, we just got back from hiking up to Mambukal today with the SA's from our ward. It was way fun. I'm pretty tired, though. We still have alot to do today, but no way to get around form place to place! It just so happens that today there is a strike for all transportation vehicles, so it is impossible for us to go to Bacolod and withdraw our money or do shopping or stuff. We'll see how that goes. hahaha.

Anyways, my report about the work in Murcia is good this week! But I'll keep it short. haha. Basically, the members have finally for some reason gotten this huge urge to help us and fellowship our investigators!! Right now we are teaching 3 families, and all are doing great and have great relationships with the members. They are slowly strengthening their testimonies and I am sure all 3 will be baptized within the next month or two. We have have good experiences with other investigators beginning to progress too, and this week has just been full of good experiences that testify to me that God knows what he is doing and when the time is right, the work will progress. :)

I have kind of mixed feelings about next transfer. Next week I'll know again what happens. I kind of want to transfer, because I have definitely been here a long time, but at the same time I feel like the work just started progressing. Kinda like Pulupandan did! haha. Anyways. We have just had a very good week full of good surprises, and it feels good. Let's bring on the last week of this transfer, eh? haha.

I hope you all have a great next week! I love you all and you are always in my prayers! Halong kamo kaayo!

-Elder Lee

From May 23, 2011:

Hello my fellow judgement day survivors!!! hahahaa.

I'm hoping you guys know what I'm talking about. It's all everyone has been talking about over here! Apparently some random church in America made a prediction that judgement day would be on May 21 at 6pm. It's been all over the news and everything. I just wanted to say congrats to everyone who survived! hahahaha. Man, you wouldn't believe the weird conversations people have started with us because of this thing! even some members have asked us if it was true. Anyway, I guess that was the biggest thing that happened this week. We have been working hard as usual, and have had a pretty normal week. Our investigators have started attending church on a regular basis, and usually we have about 4 investigators every week now at sacrament. That is AWESOME. :)

So we're actually still not sure if we are transferring or not. Apparently tomorrow morning at our district meeting we find out. It kinda stinks for us though, because that means that today we don't know if we have to buy our groceries or not. haha. I'm still kinda in this.... "should i start packing and saying goodbye? or wait till it's official?" - kind of a phase. I am about 85% sure that I will transfer though.. I've been here way too long. haha. we'll see!

I will keep working hard doing my best to help others come closer to Christ! The Lord's work is truly the best work. :) Tani, sa dason nga pagsulat ko, my mas damo para sa akon sa pagpaambit sa inyo. haha.Halong kamo, kag palangga ta kamo gid!!

-Elder Lee

From May 30, 2011:

Oy! Kumusta kamo! :)

Well, the results are in! I did indeed get transferred. but... not only did I get transferred. I got booted WAAAAY out there. hahaha. I got moved to the complete other side of the island, in a zone called San Carlos. My area is a city south of San Carlos City called Guihulngan (yeah. just try to pronounce that. hahaha). My area is on the very edge of the mission boundaries! Like, if Ii go out of my city, I will probably run into missionaries from the Cebu mission! Normally they only send Filipino missionaries out here. It has been 6 years since anyone in my zone has seen an American missionary! hahaha! The area around here is soooooo beautiful, it's like.. the bukid of the bukid. (bukid means like... wild, wilderness, rural, etc.) I am right on the beach, too. I am in a pretty big city, but it's kinda weird because as soon as you go out of the city you see like jungles and monkeys. It's great.

Anyway, the biggest part about this transfer is that the san carlos zone is the only zone in our mission that speaks only Cebuano! sooo... yeah. I JUST got used to ilonggo, and now I'm stuck with cebuano! haha. It's pretty crazy. Cebuano is completely different from ilonggo, so I have to get used to alot of things again. It feels like I'm being trained all over again! I can only simply bear my testimony in lessons and stuff at the moment. haha. It's kinda good though, because Cebuano is a way more commonly used language than ilonggo. It would actually be useful when I get back. haha. I will definitely need your prayers though as I am trying to learn this language again! haha. :)

I really like our branch though. There are alot of characters and they all seem like pretty strong members. The only problem is that there have been alot of lazy missionaries here in the past, so there is alot of clean up work to do. They haven't had a baptism in a year and a half, but luckily we have one this Saturday! :) My companion is very hard working and obedient (Elder T). Of course I'm his first american companion, so he has all the questions that normal Filipinos have for me too. "is it true that you guys only eat bread in america?" "how do you eat food without rice?" and common misconceptions about Americans. haha. it's great. :)

Anywho, that's about all of my report for this week. We are going to be doing ALOT of finding new investigators this week (we only have 1) and clean up work with our ward. hahaha. It should be a great experience!

I love you all and hope you have a great rest of the week!

Amping kamo dyud, ug gugma ta ka!! (in Cebuano that's take care and I love you!)

-Elder Lee

oh. ps. I forgot to say that a toko fell on me this week. A toko is a very large lizard and it was on the ceiling and fell on my leg. It bit onto my shorts and didn't let go. hahahaha. It was way funny!

APRIL showers bing MAY flowers...but in the Philipines...it's summer....

FROM APRIL 4, 2011:

AYOS!! hahaha. (that means "woo hooo"!)

I love hearing (and reading) the words of the prophets. Recently I have finished Jesus the Christ, so I have undertaken reading all the Ensigns (or "Liahonas") we have in our apartment. We have them way back to 2006! hahah. I also have been reading teachings of Wilford Woodruff, Brigham Young, and Joseph Smith. All very good. We have been busy inviting all our investigators and active and less active memebers to Conference, so I hope we have a good turn out.

This week has been alright. Nothing too big to report, except for the story that I forgot to tell you guys last week! It has started getting pretty hot this week though. April is apparently the hottest month, so we'll see how it goes! haha. We mostly have just been contacting all the referrals that we recieved last week form our "one day mission". Most of them have turned out to be duds, but like I said, it was mostly for the members. hahah. We did get a few promising new investigators though, so we'll see what happens. :)

The story is about an investigator named Alvin. Elder M started teaching him the transfer before I got here, and he is the son of a recent convert. But apparently, before I got here, he used to always run and hide form the elders and was just a punk. He's 18 and just graduated and is in a gang that smokes and drinks and gets in fights and all that stuff. It's actually really common here to be in gangs. And kids start smoking and drinking when they are about 7 even when they aren't involved in gangs. Even little girls! Sometimes it's heartbreaking! Well, last transfer we dropped by a few times, but he was never there so I never met him, just heard about him. We were about to give up on this kid, then for some reason, something changed. All of a sudden we got to meet with him, and he was this really quiet, kinda shy, deep thinker who has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying and trying to make changes in his life. Me and Elder M STILL don't know what happened, but Elder M was blown away at the change in this kid. I mean, before, he wanted nothing to do with the church, and now, he's a golden investigator! You can feel the spirit radiating from this kid. It has been so amazing to see him making the changes in his life and seeing the change in him. He's still got some problems to take care of before he is ready to be baptized, but hopefully within the next few months he will be ready. Hopefully I'll still be here when he is baptized! and for our other investigators too!

Transfers are next week and I really have no clue on what's going to happen. My guess is that either Elder M will stay and train someone new and I will go, or I will stay and have a new senior for one more transfer. I kinda hope I get to stay though, so I can be here for my first real baptism on the 24th of april! (the first one just kind of fell into our hands our first week in Pulupandan, and this one has been delayed a few times to help them be sure they are ready.) Anyways, we are about to go to a really cool cultural festival down here in a few minutes, so that's exciting. So maybe next week I will have some cool pictures. hahaha Well I'm still alive, still healthy, still working hard, and still learning and growing! I think that's about it! I hope everything continues to go well back at home! I'm always praying for you guys!!

Halong guid, kag palangga ko kamo! :) (take care, and I love you guys!)

-Elder Lee

From April 11, 2011:

Hey everyone!!

Well first off, thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and messages!! I really appreciated and enjoyed them. :)

As far as celebrating went, we pretty much just... worked. hahaha. that's the life of a missionary! I did get to have a nice dinner two nights in a row with ward members, but that's about it. haha. I guess General Conference was a pretty nice birthday present, though! ;) And I did get alot of birthday wishes, so that's nice. haha. and thanks again for all your birthday wishes! :)

Well, as far as transfers go..... I don't know yet! hahaha. This time they are trying something different and not announcing it until Tuesday for some reason. That's gonna be kinda rough because if you transfer, you leave Wednesday morning. So there is like... NO time to pack and say goodbyes. It also kinda stinks because... we don't know what to shop for today during p-day! hahaha. Like, we don't want to buy a week's worth of food and have to pack it over with us if we transfer. ugh. anyways, next week pa guid mabal-an ninyo! (next week you guys will know!)

General Conference went really great. I was able to go to all sessions and a really learned a lot. I don't have my notes with me, but I got alot of good quotes and things to think about. :) General Conference is such a great time for personal revelation! That's one thing I have been studying lately. When Elder Teh came for our mission tour in February, He said that every meeting we hold in the church should be a time for personal revelation. And that is really what makes our church different. The fact that we have direct communication with God, through His authority and through prayer, is really what the sets this church apart, and makes it the Church of Christ, led by Him. Anyways, I learned alot of things that hit me personally, so I will try my best to apply them.

Anyways, we were lucky enough to have our two investigators with a baptismal date come to all sessions, too! I was kinda disappointed, because we were expecting about 7 or 8, and only 2 showed up, but still it was good for them. Hannah and Jezel are so ready to be baptized. They have their baptismal interview scheduled for this week, so that's exciting. :)

I did, however, get a HORRIBLE haircut this past week. After I wrote you guys last week I went to a barber here, but.... he should NOT be a barber. There were patches in my head! Bald patches! hahaha. luckily, my tongan roomate, elder t had buzzers, so we tried to fix it the best we could, but it was still way bad. Everyone this week has been saying straight up, "What happened to your HAIR?" hahahaha. Luckily, I don't think I have any pictures. sorry. haha. but it'll grow back eventually.

We did have a few pretty good lessons this week, even though with general conference and other mission-wide meetings we didn't get too much working time. One was with a recent convert who is a widow and a single mom. Her name is sister villianueva. Her kids are horrible to her, and she just has been having a rough time keeping food on the table and going to church and things like that. Normally, I have a hard time understanding the way she speaks, but this time the spirit was so strong that I understood everything and was able to know what to say back. She was bawling and there was just a great spirit present. It was one of the first times I really felt the spirit working through me to say what the Lord wanted her to hear. Not what I wanted or thought was best.

The other experience was the same night. We went to a family for our first appointment with them. The mom is catholic, the dad baptist, the son iglesia ni cristo (remind me to tell you about that church when i get back. basically they are the church of the devil here in the Philippines), and the 11 year old daughter wanted to be Mormon. Well, we had a talk with the parents about how we can't just teach her daughter (obviously it will be hard for her to stay active and strong by herself), and I also felt the spirit working through me very clearly. It started off with them wanting to debate and wanting us just to teach her daughter, but something happened in the lesson and by the end of it, they all had baptismal commitments. It was amazing! And i know that wasn't just me or Elder M. We definitely had the Lord's help.

Well, this is getting long, but basically that is my week. haha. Next week I guess you will know if I get transferred or not or what happens, so untill then, you can just live in suspense. hahaha.

Have a great week, and try to apply what you guys learned at conference, otherwise it will go to waste! Palangga ko kamo, kag halong guid!! you are always in my prayers.

-Elder Lee

From April 18, 2011:

Happy Holy Week, everyone!

Man, I swear, EVERYONE here celebrates holy week. Everything shuts down. Even the members can't do stuff sometimes! It's nuts. hahaha

I guess I'll start by saying that I'm still in Murcia, but I got a new companion! He is my first Filipino companion and his name is Elder P. He's not very good at English OR ilonggo, (he speaks Tagolog) so it makes things interesting sometimes. hahaha. Luckily we have another Filipino in our apartment who is absolutely fluent in English and Tagolog so he serves as our translator. hahaha. But Elder P is a great guy, and I think we will have a great transfer. We are already off to a good start. :) Even though it's the same old area, it feels like a fresh start to me just because of that extra boost of a new companion. We've been doing alot of dropping old investigators that have needed to be dropped and trying to find alot of new ones. It keeps us busy! But it has been pretty fun leading the area this week since I am the only one who knows the people and area. haha.

Anyways, yeah, everyone is WAY pumped for this 50th anniversary celebration of the church in the Philippines. I'm surprised I haven't mentioned it yet! People have been preparing for the past year, and it's going to be in May. I think. or the beginning of June. Not totally sure. hahaa. But it's going to be big, and all the members on Negros Occidental are going to go to Bacolod for it. :D

Oh yeah! and I got my birthday package! it came on tuesday, only 2 days after my birthday! GREAT timing! hahaha. :D I especially loved the pictures, the red robin seasoning (you know how I love my steak fries), cadbury eggs, the cards and notes from friends and everything else! it really made my week! :) now I've just got to ration all that great food till the next package comes! (yeah right! ;)) haha. and thanks also for sending all my facebook birthday wishes.

Hannah and Giselle had their baptismal interviews this week and they passed, so they will be baptized on Sunday (the 24th). The district leader that interviewed them at the end took me aside and said, "man, Elder Lee, I would be SO HAPPY if any my investigators were that strong and that prepared for baptism. good work." they both came out crying of their interviews and it was just a great experience. I'm so excited for Sunday! :)

Other than that, one thing I definitely have learned this week is that it is SO important to know the doctrine of Christ as taught in 3rd nephi 31. (faith, repentance, baptism by authority, recieving the gift of the holy ghost, enduring to the end, and following christ's example.) We've been trying a new way of weaving that into the first lesson and inviting to baptism on the first lesson to really bring out concerns and weed out those who aren't ready. We have been running into alot of really hard-headed and hard-hearted people lately, and it has really helped them realize what the Lord asks of us. It is SO important for people to know why you are there and what they need to do. It is a very true principle that when people know what is expected of them, they will usually rise to the occasion and do it.

Anyways, i think that's about it. I love you guys and am praying for you gihapon! ("as always!") have a great week! and happy easter sunday!

Palangga ko kamo! halong guid!

-Elder Lee

From April 25, 2011:

Ayos! (great!)

For Easter here, things were a little different. haha. I'm sure you guys know that the entire country of the Philippines is Catholic. EVERYBODY. hahaha. So holy week was HUGE here. In fact, it was a little over the top. I was not expecting it to be such a big deal! Before I came here, I didn't even know for sure what week it was! haha. It was SO HARD to talk to people this week. We would spend 2 hours in a neighborhood and not see a single person. The streets were deserted because every day people went to church! The whole day! In Murcia, the plaza was packed every day with activities and games and ceremonies and stuff. So it was really interesting. We didn't really do anything for Easter, except I ate alot of the easter candy you sent me (that's the most important part of easter, right? ;)) haha. Even for church, there weren't any talks about Easter.

The closest thing we had to a celebration was the baptism of Hannah and Giselle! which by the way, went VERY well. They ended up having Sister Moreno upod (join in) their baptism. Sister Moreno just had to be re-baptized because her records were lost. Hannah and Giselle's mom was able to attend and hear them both bear their testimonies after the baptism, so that was really great. We had great support from the ward. It was just so good to see them finally reach the waters of baptism. :)

Anyways, the rest of the work has been going good too. Despite the immense heat! It was SO HOT this week! Summer is really kickin in over here! haha. Because of holy week, one day we decided to take 3 hours and finally cut down the 10-foot grass in our front yard in the blazing hot sun with machetes. It was hard, but it's done now and we got to burn it all a few nights ago. haha.

Anyways, back to the work. hahaha. we have been teaching 3 families lately that have a really high potential. The Hingkos, the Berzinas, and the Oxianas. They are all accepting the gospel, have support from their neighbors (not persecution is what I mean), have good fellowshippers from the ward, and are just great. I'm excited to see them progress. They just have to go to church is all! haha.

Other than that we have a few with goals for baptism right now, so we'll see how they continue to progress. The area is going well and Elder P and I are on the same page, now that he has gotten used to the area.

Spiritual thought for this week: if you have a problem with anybody, or don't know how to handle a certain situation, the answer is to JUST LOVE THEM. That's it. Just love them and do everything out of love.

I hope you know you guys are always in my prayers! Halong guid kaayo, kag palangga ko kamo!!

-Elder Lee

MARCH 2011

From March 7, 2011:

Hey everybody! Kumusta kamo subong nga semana? (how are you all doin this week? :) )
I am really excited to hear how the PBD does at nationals this year! man, it is weird not being there! If I could say one thing to everyone at Nationals, it would be to be a team, no matter what. Even in individual competitions. Cheer each other on and be unified. :) That has actually been a big focus of ours this week in our ward. The Lord has said "if you are not one, you are not mine." oh yeah! and GOOD LUCK!! :D and to all guys going to BYU right now, tell them good luck from me too, and that I miss them and dance a ton! hahaha. (but i'm still working hard.) ;)

(editors note: pictures will be up on Facebook and/or Adam's blog when Sarah gets back from her trip to Europe....priorities-sheez!)

Elder M and I are actually getting along great now! The work is starting to pick up again in Murcia too. We have recently found alot of new investigators which is really good, because we are still trying to work with our normal investigators and all their many problems and roadblocks that came up last week. haha. but things are looking up and I can really see the Lord's hand in his work here.

Actually, we have had to come down hard on a lot of investigators lately, now that I look at it. For some reason, a lot of them have been very stubborn and not listening to us or the spirit. We have one guy who is studying the Mormon religion for his thesis for a theology major in college, so he asks us a lot of questions and does a lot of research. He always thinks about things so logically, which is good, but he is missing the most important part, and that is the feelings of the spirit and prayer. What greater gift do we have here than to be able to receive direct communication with our Father in Heaven?? Well we have told him this over and over but this last week we finally got serious.

A few weeks ago, we met with this 18 yr. old boy who is a member but started going to the Baptist church and plays guitar in the band there. We invited him to come back to church, but he said he has responsibilites at this other church and people are counting on him to be there. Well Elder M flat out said "you don't understand!! you have the priesthood!! you have NO greater responsibility!!" Well, the kid got offended, but Elder M really felt it needed to be said. The next few weeks he hid from us everytime we went to talk to him, but this last week we saw him at a Stake function and he said that he thought about it, and we were right. He thanked us and apologized and is now active again. phew! I guess although it is good to be respectful of each other, sometimes we need wakeup calls. haha.

Anyways, we ended up going to the mountains today again with one of our investigators as our guide. This was a place called "Bugas", and it wasn't as cool as Mumbukal was, but still way beautiful and fun. I did get pretty sunburned though, which was weird because I haven't yet here. Neither has Elder M, but for some reason we both are. haha. oh well.

Well, i think that's about it for this week. I am learning so much everyday, thank you for your thoughts and prayers! I hope you all know that you are in my thoughts and prayers too! Halong guid, kamo! kag maayo nga semana! (take care, and have a good week!)

-Elder Lee

From March 14, 2011:

wooo hooo!! Way to represent, PBD!! and all the PBD alumni too. :D :D It was pretty exciting to hear about everyone doing so well!!

Well this week has been another interesting one. Not too much to report, though. Yes, we heard all about Japan. Plus apparently a nuclear plant blew up over there yesterday, so things are kind of crazy for them. And New Zealand too, a few weeks ago, right? man, that is crazy. Luckily, we don't have any tsunami warnings, just in the northern Philippines. like Quezon and Manilla. phew! haha.

There have been quite a few more brown outs this week, (like black outs but short term and not a whole city), so maybe that has something to do with it. Of course, we have brown outs all the time. At least twice a week. haha. One time a few weeks ago, someone was asking us if god would show them a sign, and as soon as we said yes but probably not a great experience like Joseph Smith, a brown out hit. haha. kinda funny.

Hmmm... Well I can't really think of any cool stories to share this week. haha. We're just pressing on in the work of the Lord, amo man gihapon. (as usual). Hopefully in the middle of April we will have a baptism of two investigators! They are totally ready, they just need to go to church enough times to qualify. I'm not sure if I will still be here though, because that is after this transfer, but we'll see! haha. Good luck to everyone in your endeavors, this week! Have a great one, and God be with you! Halong guid, kag palangga ko kamo!

-Elder Lee

PS- Happy St. Patty's Day this week!! :D

From March 21, 2011:

Hey all!!
So I've got as bit more to write this week. Sorry if last week wasn't very descriptive, I really couldn't think of what to write! but this week I wrote down things when they happened so I wouldn't forget. haha.

Well, to be honest, this has kind of been a hard time for me, but it has kinda been that way ever since I got to Murcia. Things are actually getting cleaned up really well in our area, and companionship and our work here, and I can definitely see the Lord's hand and feel his strength behind me as I do my best and lean on Him. :) I have really began to notice how our success really depends on the little things we choose to do or don't do. As soon as we start to slip on the basic, little things, it is hard to pick ourselves out of a slump, but I have learned that as we feel we start to slip, if we just go back to the basics, we'll be alright. I've noticed that in a lot of other things too, not just missionary work. like dance, or hard classes, or whatever. but like I said, I think it's getting better here. :) thanks for all your support!

Anyways, this week was pretty busy. For one, we pulled together a last minute baptism after church for an investigator of the two other missionaries in our ward. It was crazy! During church, the other two elders were running around printing programs and asking people during the classes if they would speak and stuff. hahaha. it was fun. When it came time to fill the font, it was SO NASTY, that we were rushing to clean it up before church ended! Then we went to fill it up and it only got to like shin height before all the water in the entire building shut off! So I decided to just have everybody sing hymns while they were trying to fix the problems and explain to the investigator what was going on. hahahaha. Luckily, it all turned out to be a really nice baptism--actually, probably one of the best have seen here! I was really proud of us for working together to pull off this last minute baptism! hahaha.

I also learned a lot this week about how dangerous a "pride of knowledge" is. For some reason, lately we have had a lot of theology majors and priests come up and talk to us who have a huge knowledge of the Bible. It just amazes me how we could lay things out so plainly for them, right in front of their faces, but because they weren't listening to the Holy Ghost, they couldn't see it. hm. The Holy Ghost is truly the most important part, and no matter how much we know, we just have to be humble to know the truth of things!

Well i hope you all have an amazing week! keep up the good work everyone! Halong guid, kag palangga ko kamo! (take care, and i love you guys!)

-Elder Lee

From March 28,2011:

This week has actually been a GREAT one for us here in Murcia. for one, we FINALLY had a few of our investigators come to church that hadn't ever come before!!! I swear, EVERY week something has happened to make it so they couldn't come. But after about 2 months, they were able to make it. and they had a great time, too! It really lifted our spirits.

Right now our two strongest investigators are Gizelle and Hannah who are scheduled to be baptized on April 24th (easter!). It's been delayed a few times, just because they need to meet a few more requirements. But our goal lately has been to involve their family more often, who until now have been totally opposed to listening to us. "sila na lang!" (just them!) anyways, we have really had some great experiences with them and have seen their hearts softened because of the change they see in their daughters. They are really great.

We had this cool activity on Saturday called a "one day mission", where all the members spend about 4 hours being missionaries and getting referrals for us! We met in the morning and had a training/orientation, then had lunch, and then split into companionships, divided our area, and went.Iit was great for the members to start to feel the spirit of missionary work. One is even preparing for a mission so it was good to see what it was like! We had a great turn out and ended up with 41 referrals! That is insane! Normally you only get about 5-10 a transfer. Of course, alot of them are not very quality referrals, but I'd say about 5-10 of them are solid. :) Plus it was just a good experience for our group in Murcia.

We also have had good experiences helping our active families in our group (there are about 3) prepare for the temple. We have been working to get everything figured out like, if people have the priesthood or are paying their tithing or not, and have been meeting with one family every Monday to have FHE and help build the dad's desire to go to the temple. It has been going great and the families have shown a lot of growth and gratitude.

The kids here know how to play baseball! Usually, basketball and boxing are the only sports you hear about here, but a few days ago we ran into a group of kids playing baseball in a campo ( a tubo field. oh. tubo is sugarcane. haha.) that was recently plowed. They were playing with rolled up socks, a bamboo stick, and cement blocks for bases! Elder M and I played a few innings with them. They weren't too bad and it was SO FUN! hahaha. (but we are still working hard. ;))

Another cool thing was that earlier today, I killed a pig! yup! well, not really ME, but I took out the guts. It was SICK. hahaha. I'll spare you the details, but it was an experience alright. hahaha. We were making lechon baboy (roasted pig, like at hawaiin luaus) for a tri-zone activity earlier today. So we got a member to help us and it was DELICIOUS. :)

Have a great week, everyone! Remember to count your many blessings. Even if things may be hard at times, Heavenly Father will ALWAYS pull through. Obviously he has the capacity to follow through on his promises, and he will, as long as we are doing our part. :)

Halong guid! Palangga ko kamo! ( Take care! i love you all!)

-Elder Lee

ps- about general conference, we will watch it on april 9-10 here because it is delayed a week. but we will just watch it in english at a local stake center like normal. hopefully we can get some investigators to attend! :)

FEBRUARY 2011!

The LOST EMAIL from January 31, 2011:

NOTE FROM ELDER LEE: here's what you WOULD have gotten that week! I really sent it, I swear! haha :)

----------------------

anyways, my report from this week is ok-lang (just ok).

well for one thing, last week I told you about that family in my ward that is related to someone in the my home stake, di ba? (right?) well this week I made sure to listen to the name. I didn't get it at first, because of the heavy accent they had when they were telling me the names. they kept saying kreepees". haha. so yeah, apparently they used to all live in this ward in Paglaum! Everyone knows them. They have alot of cousins and stuff here. Anyways, I thought it was pretty cool. haha.

As far as our work here goes, this week has actually been pretty tough. We had one day that was just amazing, meaning everyone we set appointments with was there, the lessons with them went great, we found alot of new investogators we felt really good about, and we were getting along awesome as a companionship. but the rest of the week.... not so great. haha. We have just had a rough time. Things have just been hitting all at once. Like as soon as we find good investigators, they go insane on us, and as soon as we start getting our less-active members to go to our branch in Murcia, President Tobias tells us we can't go there anymore for sacrament. Which is strange, because that's the area we are assigned specifically to work in. I mean, we trust his judgement of course, but it has just made things more difficult for us. But I have found alot of comfort in the scriptures and in my patriarchal blessing and other things. Did I tell you I was reading Jesus the Christ? I started it in the MTC and I am almost done now. Anyways, it's a great book. haha. Hopefully this week will turn around. Tomorrow I'm going on splits with our district leader so we will see how that goes! I don't know how to get anywhere in our area! hahaha.

Anyways, last bit of news. Today for p-day we went up to the mountains in a place called Mambukal. It was absolutely beautiful there and we had a blast hiking all day. I can tell I am going to be sore tomorrow, though. We are pooped. After we got the normal tourist hike done with, we decided to go on a 3 hour trek to the volcano here called Canlaon. We found someone who lived way out there to take us up there and he took us through all these "shortcuts" that were really just trekking through a forest with no trail. We literally hiked straight up the face of the mountain. So we got there fast, but it was TOUGH. haha. Well when we got there we found out that we couldn't go to the actual volcano peak without a permit, so we got a ride back down with the nice security guards with large guns. hahaha. It was fun.

Anyways, that's about it. halong guid!

-Elder Lee

From February 7th, 2011:

Tani, amoni and ulihing nga mensahe!!

I also wanted to say that I also found out that a bunch of people know Doctor Jarstad down here from when he came here to do his eye work. He stayed in my ward for a day and a ton of people know him. really small world!!

Well this week was another crazy one. We have still had alot of confusion on what we are supposed to do with our area, since we are currently serving under the Paglaum ward, but in an area with a group that is trying to become a branch. It was kind of a mess, but we finally had an opportunity on Thursday for President Tobias to come and talk with us for a good few hours. He and the Stake President and our bishop all had different visions for this area we are over, so we finally sat down and heard what President Tobias wanted us to do, since we are under his stewardship and not the bishop or Stake President. Then just yesterday President Tobias met with the Stake President and all the important people in the area in a really intense meeting and worked it all out. So FINALLY we all have one unified vision. We know what we have to do now, so hopefully this next week we can put it into action and make the needed changes. haha. That's basically it. Other than that it has just been a normal week of eat, sleep, and work!

Halong guid!
-Elder Lee

FROM February 14, 2011 <3 :

Maayong Adlaw sang Palangga man!

(Happy Valentines Day too!)

Well this week has been another interesting one. For one, we had Elder Teh of the Quorum of the Seventy who is in the Philippines area presidency come and tour our mission. On wednesday we all went to Bacolod and had a 6 hour long fireside with him and his wife. Recently I started a quote book, so I got alot of neat quotes from the conference! He touched on alot of different subjects, but basically it focused on having confidence and being obedient. We were asked to go to the meeting fasting to recieve personal revelation, and I can see that I totally did. It was a great reminder of alot of things. :)

We have had a big week of correlating meetings with the Stake President and Bishop, and now the ward knows what the vision for this area finally is too. At the moment, my companion and I are now working every other day in Murcia and Paglaum, but our main priority is building the ward in Paglaum, not the "almost branch" in Murcia. We have a few investigators in Murcia with baptismal dates for March. It's really exciting when you have people that actually WANT to read and pray and progress. hahaha. So now that we have a good amount of investigators in Murcia, we need to build up our teaching pool in Paglaum too.

It's really crazy to try to explain the reasoning and everything, but basically, we realized that we just simply follow what the Lord, and what his servants, say. I especially realized that when I was studying from "our heritage" about zion's camp in the early days of the church, and how there really wasn't any point to it besides to test the faith of the saints and weed out those who wouldn't build the church. I totally saw that in some of our meetings. Over the past 10 or so years, the plans have changed over and over for this area and the members are starting to grumble about it. They are starting to grumble about things like going a whole 3.5 kilometers more to church. If we remember the early saints, they were moved from place to place like 6 or so different times! way more than 3.5 kilometers. I realized that maybe the Lord is testing the Saints here. Those with strong faith will accept the changes and those who won't... well... they won't be happy. Anyways, it was a learning experience for me and I am at peace with the decisions that were made by our leaders, even if I don't fully understand them. :)

There is one more thing I want to say about this week though, for some reason, we have had TONS of people tell us about their dreams! Like FREAKY dreams, too! It's hilarious! I don't know what it is either, whether its because we are white, or they can tell we are missionaries, or the water here makes everyone loco, but everyone has the need to share with us their latest "revelation". And it happens all the time, not just this week! hahaha! One of my favorites this week: this man dreamed that godzilla was attacking bacolod, and he threw a marshmallow into its mouth to make it sticky and stop eating everything, and then the man decided to lure godzilla and kill it. And for some reason, THAT'S how he knows the Catholic Church is true. I mean, really?!? That wasn't even a joke. He acted it out and everything. And that was just one example. It cracks me up! We get this all the time! hahaha!

Oh yeah! and another cool thing that happened this week was that one night I saw a bunch of fireflies. I actually caught one, too! It was just something i always wanted to do is all. haha. I really love the nature here. It amazes me everyday. There is no way this was all created by chance. :)

Halong guid,
kamo! Palangga ko kamo!

-Elder Lee

From FEBRUARY 21, 2011:

Kumusta Pamilya ko!

Well, as far as this week goes, we are just beginning our last full week of this transfer, and I think my companion and I are finally getting along and doing good work here! hahah. It has been kind of a struggle compared to my last area, but we have had alot of talks and straightened alot of things out. :) Too bad we probably only have one week left. :-/ Next monday we find out what is going to happen. This transfer FLEW by!

Things aren't getting TOO hot here yet. But I can tell it's starting to amp up. Everyone says come March it is full on summer. yikes! hahah. But I've just gotten used to constantly sweating, I think. ;) and our investigators are doing well. We still have about 5 at the moment that we are focusing on, 2 with a baptismal date that is probably going to have to get moved. Our big struggle at the moment (just like every other week), is getting people to go to church!!! I swear that is the biggest problem here. And then once they come and are baptized, to get them to KEEP coming. haha. But like i said, that is our focus EVERY week. So not really anything new. haha.

I had a few cool experiences this week. One was late at night, we were at a park, and a huge group of kids came running up to us. I noticed one was standing off to the side and not talking, so while my companion played with them I took him aside and talked to him. He said both his parents died last year and he is living with his other neighborhood friends making money by yelling "BACOLOD!!!" over and over before a jeepnie (the transportation here) leaves then the driver tosses out 5 pesos and drives off. sadly, that happens all the time. for some reason i was impressed to talk to him about the plan of salvation, so i quickly said something to the effect of "through the gospel of Jesus Christ you can see your mom and dad again." then handed him a plan of salvation pamphlet. he told me he couldn't read but he liked the pictures, and that was that. well, that was 2 weeks ago, and this week he came running up to me and said that he found someone to read it to him. he was so excited. sadly, he's only 7 so we can't teach him, but for some reason i think he will find the gospel one day. :)

The other experience witnessed to me of the reality of the gift of tongues! This crazy old american man came up to us today in the super market and said something like "i'm not interested in your religion, but i have lived here 11 years and you missionaries know more ilonggo than i do in 2 or 3 months! "I am willing to pay ANYTHING to meet with your guys' tutor." We simply explained to him about the gift of tongues and that really, the spirit was our tutor. haha. I just thought it was an interesting experience. We have alot of americans or british people come talk to us and ask us how we learn Ilonggo and what different things mean. It's a great way to introduce the gospel! ;)

I also heard "naturally" by selena gomez over the speakers at the supermarket today and it made me think of Keira. Shout out to the little niece!!


Well i wish you all another awesome week! Halong guid kamo!! (Take care!)

-Elder Lee

FROM FEBRUARY 28th, 2011:

Kumusta kamo!

Well! the results are in. I'm staying in Murcia for another transfer and with the same companion.

This was another good week. Looking back on it, we got a lot accomplished. For one, I rode on a carabaw! haha. that was pretty fun. :D but seriously, this week me and Elder M did some pretty good work. As far as numbers go, in the last week of the transfer we brought the area to the highest it has been for 10 months. So we are all ready for another 6 weeks, where hopefully, we can get it up to mission standards.

It has been a pretty tough week as far as our investigators go. for reals. haha.EVERY single one of our focus inestigators had big problems come up. every one! We are teaching about 4 or 5 boys who are all around 18 (we're teaching them seperately) who one by one have all told us for different reasons that they can't keep meeting with us. Some it is because of their parents. Some because of persecution. But every one of them has said that they know it's true, and they feel really good every time they talk to us, but for various reasons can not join the church or even go to sacrament. So that was kind of disheartening.

Then we have this investigator who really wants to be baptized and is totally into the gospel, but has a kid and is living with his girlfriend unmarried. Well to be baptized obviously they need to be married. Basically we talked to him about prayer and how to make big decisions.

We are also teaching two girls who have a cousin that is a member and lives close but is in a different stake, so they want to go to church there. We had to talk to them about coming to our ward, and continuing there after they are baptized. And there are actually like 3 more inestigators that have had problems, but I don't have time to explain it all. hahah. It's been an exhausting week, lots of surprises for us, but I think things will start to look up soon. :)

Anyways, bring on another 6 weeks, eh? hahaha. I can really see that I have learned a TON this transfer. and me and Elder M are getting along great now, so we'll see how things continue to look up. :) The work of the Lord will go forth! :)

anyways, good luck with all that snow back at home! I miss snow! hahaha. have a great week everyone!! palangga ko kamo kag halong guid!

-Elder Lee

January 2011

From January 3, 2011:

To start off, i just need to say that Disney never gets old and never ceases to amaze me. hahaha. That being said, my New Years went pretty good! We were inside at six and watched Disney movie after Disney movie, so that was fun. Everything here is pirated, so we only had 4 dvds, but there were about 120 different Disney movies on them. We spent the night just watching our favorite clips of things. It was a blast. Then we watched Tarzan all the way through. It was hard to go to bed because of all the noise. I don't want to scare anyone, but people weren't joking when they said that people blow up bombs here...like...LOUD bombs. Remember the "Obooma"? It was like that, except all day and night. hahaha. crazy. I probably saw about 25 or so explosions before I got in at 6, and then people just went nuts. But like I said, I'M SAFE. :) hahah. and I had a lot of fun. It was great to relive alot of childhood memories (the movies-not the bombs).

We have had a few problems though this week. Different types of drama, some of which had to do with ALOT of huge disobedience issues with the other Elders in our apartment.

Another thing I forgot to mention are all the little kids here! They are crazy!! I swear, every little kid in this town knows my name. Every street we walk down, "Elder Lee! Elder Lee!!!", and then they jump on us and try to shake our hands. It's pretty ridiculous and it got to the point that we can't visit some of our investigators on one street because all the kids would literally stampede towards us when we turned the corner. yikes. hahaha.

I got a haircut this week from one of our investigators and although I told him not to, he decided to give me a new hairstyle, so.... it's interesting. For the most part my "tidal wave" is still trying to come through, but it just looks different. hahaha. Everyone says i look guwapo guwapo (handsome handsome) though, so that's good! hahaha.

I am also pretty sure I'll be incredibly tan when I get back. It hasn't even been too sunny here, but I tan easy! In 3 weeks, I have a MASSIVE farmers tan and the tan on my neck is very definite.

I did wanna say though, that one person totally makes all the difference on a mission. Everyone always says that, but I have really seen that apparent this week. We have a few investigators in particular that are just SO ready to hear the gospel, and it feels so great when they are interested in the scriptures and everything! We had a ton of punted appointments (that's when we show up for an appointment and no one is there) with our main group of investigators, so that was kind of disheartening. But in being punted, we found about 3 more families of very strong investigators, so luckily we were able to see what the Lord had in store for us after being punted so much.

Our ward is doing well too. Yesterday was testimony meeting, and although only half the members showed up than normally do, they really surprised us with their testimonies!
Anyways, I think I'm just babbling on now. hahaa. Halong!!

-Elder Lee

From January 8, 2011:

Whoever wants to send me emails that it is totally puwede (allowed), I just can't send them BACK. So... yeah. :) But for whoever reads my blog, I have already gotten letters from becka, erika, and lauren and a postcard from Jason. Thank you so much guys! I'm sorry it may be a while before I write back, though. First off, I barely have any time, and second, I have no idea how the mail system works here. hahaha.

Anyways, in case you couldn't tell, I'm VERy happy this week. First off, for a while we have been struggling hitting our mission goals in numbers for the past few weeks (and by struggling, I mean not even getting halfway there). Well, this week, we exceeded almost all the mission standard's goals! We don't even know how it happened, but it did, so that is pretty exciting. We also have an AWESOME group of progressing investigators. As of now, 3 of them have baptism dates and we're planning on giving out about 4 more this week. woot woot! We had AMAZING sacrament attendance and almost all of our less-active members that we have been focusing on came to church and had a great time. We're making progress with our Bishop and our members are starting to give us referrals! I'm just so pumped! hahaha. The challenge is carrying it on through the next few weeks. I kind oif hope I don't get transferred, but there is a possibility that I might get transferred in the next 2 weeks! yikes! Mostly I don't want to leave cuz then I will miss the baptisms of our 3 investigators!

We also had a pretty crazy opportunity to do service early on last week. On Monday and Tuesday, we had 2 monsoons in a row, so the houses by the beach got flooded really bad, and in the recovery, got flooded again (don't worry though, I'm very safe). Our house is very far from the beach and the monsoons weren't that bad. But one of the houses was an inactive member and her house was nearly carried away. It moved about 50 feet! So when we found out about it we grabbed our Bishop and 1st counselor who are both kagawads (leaders of the town) and got them to help us do sand bags and build back their house with bamboo. It was really effective and felt great to help them out. Plus the town was able to see these officials helping out members of their church. Smart, eh? ;) hahaha. But really, it was a huge testimony to me of how easily our things can all be wiped out. These people now literally have a roof over their head and the clothes on their back. So humbling.

Well I also got to go on splits with the zone leaders this week, because my companion is our district leader. I went to Masville and had an experience all in itself. I spent 2 nights and one day there and learned a ton...like how to play mahjong! hahaha. for reals! Everyone does it here. It's like bingo in Lima. hahahaha. ;) Anyways, even though it's p-day, we still booked ourselves with appointments, so I'm crunched for time yet again.

bali, liwat!

-Elder Lee

From January 17, 2011:

Well, things have been going good here. We hit the end of my first transfer, so I've been thinking alot about all I've learned and done, and it amazes me!

We did have one pretty cool experience this week. We have an investigator named Marchie that we have had since the beginning of this transfer, and were considering dropping. Well on one visit, it just so happened that we had about 4 members upod (come with) us. A few were meant as fellowshippers, but the rest just kinda tagged along like characters from the Wizard of Oz. hahah Well, we had everyone testify to her of the Book of Mormon and then we commited her to read and pray and tell us next time if she wanted to continue. We gave her about a week and when we went to check up,she told us there was a brown out (what they call black outs here. they happen ALL the time), so she decided to read. She didn't read what we left her, but she flipped to a random page and found her answer. She read in 2 Nephi 27:14 (i think) and it talks about having many witnesses testify of the Lord's word, and wo be unto him who rejects the lord's word. hahaha It was kind of ironic, but at the same time a huge testimony to me that Heavenly Father knows his children. Going in, we actually kind of thought that she wouldn't want to continue, which in retrospect was a lack of faith on our part, but I am so glad that I was able to have that experience. Now I won't be so shy when committing people to a "make it or break it committment." hahaha. Because sa tuod-tuod (in all honesty), now I know for SURE that the Lord backs up his promises. :)

Anyway, I ate pig intestine quite a few times this week. It actually is really good. The barbeque here is SO GOOD. hahahaa. Now it's getting to the point where I'll eat just about anything as long as no one tells me what it is till AFTER I eat it, it's barbequed, and I know it's safe to eat. hahah.

I also realized during a lesson we had with a Tagolog speaker that I'm forgetting my Tagolog already! I understand it just fine, but when I tried to speak it, only Ilonggo kept coming into my head! I guess it's a good thing, but it kinda scared me too. oh well.

Well the biggest thing on my mind right now is that we just had transfer meetings and I found out I'm getting transferred tomorrow! So today I'm packing and tomorrow morning I will say goodbye to everyone in Pulupandan. I don't know where I'm going yet, I won't until tomorrow, but i'm kinda bummed, because I absolutely LOVED Pulupandan! Not just cause it was my first area, because I have visited other areas. I love the people, the town, the size, just everything! Plus I'm sad to leave my companion. He is an AWESOME companion and we had alot in common and just worked really well together. Plus, we spent this whole transfer whitewashing and getting to build our teaching pool, and now I have to leave it! We had 6 people scheduled for baptisms in the next few weeks, so I guess I will just have to let someone else reap those rewards. hahaha.dang.

Halong!
-Elder Lee

From January 24, 2011:

phew!! this week has been pretty crazy!!

Well this transfer I ended up in..... (drum roll please...) Murcia!! It is just outside Bacolod to the southeast, so it is really weird being in a very.. "americanized" and city-like environment. Bacolod is so big!

Anyways, my new companion is American too, which is good. We did already have to have sort of a "DTR" though. They call it a "companionship inventory" on the mission. yeah.... apparently he doesn't get along well with any of his companions, and he has had a comp. inventory with every one of them by at least the 2nd day. He has been emergency transferred twice because of that. (ps it is NOT common to have companionship inventories) Luckily I lasted till the 3rd day- better than the others. hahaha. But don't worry, I think we will be ok now. He just likes to be sort of disobedient, and we have very different personalities and goals for the area, but like I said, i think we are finally warming up to each other and we get along pretty well now.

Apparently this area has not been doing well, and has been closed on and off for the past couple years. We are part of the Paglaum ward, which is another nearby city, but there is a small group of members that meet in Murcia every Sunday because it costs too much to go to Paglaum. we have alot of less-actives because of that. They are about to become a branch though, so alot of our focus is helping that to happen soon. Hopefully within the next few transfers. There are two other elders that we are living with that are over Paglaum specifically.

Another obstacle is that most missionaries that come here have heard that it is a "budlay gid" (very hard) area so decide not to work hard. Normally, a companionship should get about 20-25 teachings a week, and last transfer the highest they got was 8 as a companionship, and on average they would get about 3. soooo... yeah. It will be fun trying to work together to get this area back up and running. At the moment we have no investigators, so hopefully this week we will see things start to change. :)So yes, it will be a challenge, but I'm sure I will also learn a TON and have an absolute blast here. It is so fun already. haha. We are very close to the mountains, so next Monday we are going to go up to Mambukal and hike for our p-day. I'll take lots of pictures. :) I'm pretty excited. haha.

So being close to the mountains is a little different than right on the beach! I already saw a monkey and next time I do I am determined to get a picture. haha. I also saw the kind of trees that vicks vapo-rub is made out of! A member in our ward owns a grove of them. It smells SO GOOD. hahaha.

My first experience in my new ward was pretty fun, too. I bore my testimony in sacrament, and afterwards I was told that I was teaching the new investigator/recent convert gospel essentials class. Well since I'm not too sagad (skilled?) at the language yet, it was pretty scary. Well, then I walk in and there is a class of about 15 girls from ages 13-17. Not even kidding. It really got me wondering what the old elders in this area were doing. hahahaha. So I walk in and they all start to giggle and I see "welcome to the ward elder gwapo (handsome) lee" on the board. and the WHOLE time they were saying "gwapo gwapo gwapo!" Not even kidding. I'm not saying this to brag, either. haha. I couldn't get a word in! so then I found out what the topic was. ...Priesthood! hahaha. It was a disaster and I just laughed about it the rest of the day. phew.

Well THEN, I had a really cool encounter! I met a family from my new ward that apparently has family living in Washington! In my home stake!

Anyways, I think that's about all the news for this week.

halong kamo!
-Elder Lee