SEPTEMBER 2011

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From September 5, 2011:

Well this week was actually a great week! We have been playing basketball most mornings with members in our ward so that has been nice. We decided we were all getting too fat. We'll see how long these morning games last. haha.

We have been able to spend most of this week outside working. On Sunday we had stake conference so it was a good experience for pretty much everybody. We had a few less active members come back for the first time and had a good experience. President Tobias took all the recent converts and taught them, so that was interesting. I don't know how it went, but he said that our recent converts were all pretty strong, so that's encouraging. The R family is doing great, and we gave them a few Liahona magazines from the office to read and they LOVE them and are now going to subscribe. We have also been keeping up with our part member family work. Right now all of our investigators are part members except for one I think, which is a whole family. It is pretty great :) We don't have any baptisms soon, but our investigator pool is pretty steady right now. We just need them to come to church!

Man, time sure goes by fast! I can't believe I am already in the middle of my 2nd transfer here. I was just told that I am staying a 3rd though, so no surprise there. haha. I think Elder G might be the one leaving :(. Anywho, we are already starting preparations for the next transfer, for arrivals, departures, transfer day, etc.

Well I should go now. I hope you all have a great week, and remember to reflect the light of Christ in everything you do! I love you! Take care!!

Halong, kag palangga ta kamo!
-Elder Lee

From September 12, 2011:

Maayong Udto! (good noon) Even though I am sure it is pretty far from noon there. haha. Not too much to report this week as far as the work goes. We were expecting 3-5 investigators at church and none of them came! It was really sad. Their families said they were just sleeping at home, so they really had no excuse. So we will definitely follow up on that asap. hah. It was a really tell-tale sign though, about whether they were truly searching for the truth or not. I understand everyone has their agency, but it's just hard when we can't FORCE people to go to church. hahaha.

We did however, have a few random new investigators just pop into church, so that was interesting! We had never met them before, but apparently they had been tauight in 2008 by missionaries and thought it would be good just to go to church agiain. The sad thing is, they said we can't continue teaching them because of familiy opposition. In fact, they said if we even go to talk to their family their family will curse us... I don't really know what that means, but I get the point. haha.

We did also have a cool new investigator experience this week. One night, we had about 6 or 7 lessons set up (specific apppointments) with people, and one by one they all fell through. Every last one. 7! I was just like, are you serious? haha. So we went tracting for a while and still had no success, in fact some VERY rude people shouted at us and stuff. So it was pretty depressing, but then we came to this one house. It was a huge house, so we thought it was going to be another rich rude person, but we tried it anyways. Well out came this teeny tiny dirty little man, about 30 years old. He said he was watching the house for his relatives for about a month and he was the only one there, so we taught him. Turns out his brother died a few months earlier and his wife was having trouble with her job, so he prayed for some help about 10 minutes before we showed up. It was an amazing lesson and the spirit was really strong. Sadly, we cant continue teaching him, because he lives somewhere else, but we wil refer him to the missionaries there. It was just a great experience and I really saw why we had such a depressing day. :)

We also had cool experience this week with a new missionary that came in! She is from Pakistan! The first middle eastern foreigner in this mission. Her name is Sister S and she is way cool. Her English is not very good, and she knows NO tagalog, so she had a hard time at first. But then she made us all Pakistani food and sang us Pakistani songs and it all turned out ok. haaha It was just neat, is all. One of the perks of being in the office.

Well, today is my companions bday, so later tonight we will be cooking alot and eating and going to members houses for family home evenings. It will be great. :)

I'd better go, good luck with everything, and remember what is most important! Can't wait to hear from you again! Halong kamo, kag palangga ta kamo!

-Elder Lee

From September 19, 2011:

hey!

Sorry for the late email today, I have had a crazy day and really no time to write. I just wanted to let you know I am still alive and kickin. hahah. I will find time later this week to give you a full report. Thanks for your emails, love you all!

Halong, kag palangga ta kamo!

-Elder Lee

From September 20, 2011:

Hey!!
I'm sorry I didn't get to writing you on Monday. I will explain. First of all, the government here gives me high blood pressure. hahaha. It's so lame! All the time! At the moment we are trying to help an investigator get married who has been an investigator for about a year because it is so complicated and dumb here! haha. no WONDER no one is ever married here, it's way expensive and way complicated.

Anyways, my most recent experience with the government was on Monday, when I was supposed to write you. I was going to get my drivers license. I spent all day standing in different lines, taking drug tests, getting all the right papers and forms and passport stuff filled out, but what happened, was when it came time to get my license, they got scared because my Washington state driver's license said "intermediate license" on the top and they didn't know what that meant. I took like an hour trying to explain to them that there is no difference, that my license was still valid and the only difference is that Washington state put those words on the top. haha. It was so lame! Another Elder from Utah got his, but I wasn't able to. They said I had to wait till the boss of the licensing place got back from a trip in San Carlos on Wednesday and ask him. So I will be going tomorrow and getting my Filipino driver's license!! :) (by the way, i hope this information doesn't scare you mom. I won't be driving too much. It's just in case there is an emergency and they need me to drive. haha) I love my home state and all, but this really made me wish I was from Utah. haha. So anyways, when we got out of there it was 5:30 and we had 30 minutes to shop and email before our appointments.

Other than that, I had a really great week last week.

Before I forget, I got your package last Tuesday, the day after my last email. Thank you SO MUCH! It was AMAZING! hahah. Everything I needed or wanted was in there. I don't know how you do it, Mom. I especially liked the pictures from K and S. My roommates are still trying to figure out exactly what it is they drew. haha. And the articles from S's mission thing! Those are way good! I can't wait to get the next batch! I've been able to use some of the stuff that was written there in recent trainings with Elders. I also have been using that cool picture of Christ passing the sacrament. That is great, because that kind of art really hasn't gotten into circulation yet here. It really helps remind us of what sacrament is all about, huh? so, again, SALAMAT GID KATAMA!! :) (thank you so so much!)

As far as the work went this week, we were able to teach a lot of lessons and find a few new potential families, but when it came down to it, we were disappointed again on Sunday. We were expecting 3-4 investigators and no one came. We even went to pick them up from their house before church and they said they had funerals to go to or what not. I mean, that's understandable, but it really opened our eyes as to how serious these investigators are about the gospel. We decided that if they don't come next week, (of course we will do EVERYTHING we can to get them there), we will.... "set them aside". (we don't like to used the word "drop")

I did have an AWESOME opportunity to go with President and the AP's to a 2 day specialized training in Cauayan and Sipalay, though! I don't know why they chose me to go, but it was amazing. We went to the very bottom of the island almost and had traning with both the Elders and the auxilliary leaders in those areas. I learned a WHOLE LOT and have been using what I have learned since, and it has been great. We spent one night in a fancy hotel, and had great food the whole way. haha. It was just a great experience. I don't really know how else to describe it. haha. The topics were investigators attending sacrament meeting and using the CMIS lists to find part member families, unordained priesthood, and unbaptized children, and in the process helping the ward clean their records. One thing that was cool was that I was able to work with a whole bunch of different Elders in their areas and give pointers and tips and stuff on how to improve. It is weird because I still feel like I am new sometimes on the mission, but then I look and almost half the mission is younger than me! crazy! But there were lots of great experiences there. I have already written a lot though, so I will spare you the details. haha.

Anyways, we are starting to get super busy again at the office, preparing for departures, arrivals, and transfers for next week. We'll see how everything turns out, I guess! haha

I hope things continue to go well for everyone back at home! Remember that I love you and pray for you always! Can't wait to hear from you!
Halong, kag palangga ta kamo!
-Elder Lee

From September 27, 2011:

Hey all!
Thanks for the update Mom. As usual, it was top-notch. :) haha. So D is in the MTC now, huh? You should definitely give me his email if you have a chance to grab it. It would be great to be able to talk to him about his experiences as a missionary! I think we have 3 Elder Lee's out right now from our family, no? I'm sure Grandpa Lee is happy! I don't actually remember a time when the Lee clan HASN'T had missionaries. What in impact on the world, no?

I did a lot of thinking about that topic of tolerance myself when i was assigned in Murcia, way back in January. I think I came to the conclusion that we can't be stuck-up about our standards, but we can't give in to the world, either. So basically, just do everything as Christ would. That seems to be the answer to everything, huh? ;) haha.

This week is an interesting one. Transfer week always is. haha We have already got a few new Elders to help out in the office, who will be replacing a few of us, and rumor is, there is more to come later on this week. Nothing is really sure yet, except that I am staying and Elder G is going. As far as companions and other people coming in, it is all up in the air. That makes is kind of difficult when planning out your week and things, but I'm sure it will all turn out OK. We are a lot more prepared this week than we have been in the past.

We did have a new investigator come to church yesterday, M and he is about 19 years old, so that was pretty surprising! :) We met him because he was taking English classes at another ward here in Bacolod and then went to church there. The missionaries there called us and referred him to us. He is really sincere about the gospel and sharing what he is feeling, so that is awesome. The only problem is, the ward thinks he is weird. He is kind of a rocker type, with long hair, and I can't even count how many people came up today and said they thought he was a girl! That will be our only challenge with him I think, is finding a good fellowshipper.

On a sadder note, we had to "set aside" a few of our investigators this week. We have been working with them for a while, but no progress. It is hard sometimes because you really grow attached to people, and they love having you over, but when they don't keep their commitments, it's a sure sign that they are not completely ready yet. We can't continue to spend time with them when there are other people ready to accept the gospel NOW. Maybe someday they will be ready, but only Heavenly Father knows! So next week will start a new transfer, with new companions, and basically a whole new set of investigators. It will be good to take a fresh look (especially with new members of the office) at our area and ward and see what else we can do. I'll let you know how the craziness goes and what ends up happening next week.

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy General Conference and receive personal revelation from the words of the prophets! It is my firm testimony that if we go to conference with something in mind that we are sincerely looking for an answer to, someone will touch on that subject at general conference and we will feel the Spirit tell us what we need to do.

I love you all and pray for you always! Halong, kag palangga ta kamo!

-Elder Lee

PS- The special edition of the Ensign for this month is amazing! I would definitely encourage everyone to read it through thoroughly and ponder the importance of the Book of Mormon in our lives if they haven't already. :)