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
