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