From September 3, 2012:
Hey Family!!!
Actually mom.... I have no idea what you were talking about about the earthquake... haha. I didn't even feel anything. there were a few members that said they felt a little something but that's it. It really made the news there?? wow, i guess it was pretty big then! haha.
oh man! i just realized THAT'S the reason the AP's called and asked if we were alright!! hahaha. we really had no clue. you know, we're out in the middle of nowhere. we don't really get much news. hahaha. they asked if we were alright and we had just had some pretty heavy rain, so we were wondering if they thought we got flooded again or something. wow. ok. thanks for the report, mom! haha.
it was also good to hear the report on home. That sounds like a pretty awesome way for the cat to die, although i have to admit i was a little sad that she won't be there when i get home. I was also slightly disgusted. haha. do you guys have any pictures? (editor's note: our family cat had a confrontation with a coyote-not good for the cat-also-we were not at home at the time.)
I CANNOT believe k is starting kindergarten already. time goes way too fast! O is already getting big, too!
This week things turned out pretty well. Elder S has been doing an awesome job leading and I have confidence in him taking lead of the work when I go home. :) He of course doesn't know everything yet, but that's normal. He will learn. This week I learned from him as well. Because I gave him the chance to lead in planning and teaching, we did things this week that I normally would not have done, but things turned out well. We visited alot of members and less actives and potential investigators, and although we didn't have too many opportunities to teach, we did alot of what I call "Christ-like Ministering". haha. Elder S really cares alot about the people and what their needs are. Multiple times this week I saw him offering service and help to those who needed it, even though he didn't have to, and in my mind I was thinking "we have better things to do". We gave lots of blessings this week and lifted the burdens of lots of people, including active members. One active family had an especially hard time this week and on Sunday they called us their "ministering angels" that came whenever help was needed (not because we were asked, but because Elder S felt prompted to go check up on them). It feels great just to be able to help people who are trying to faithfully live the gospel but hit some roadblocks along the way.
Actually mom.... I have no idea what you were talking about about the earthquake... haha. I didn't even feel anything. there were a few members that said they felt a little something but that's it. It really made the news there?? wow, i guess it was pretty big then! haha.
oh man! i just realized THAT'S the reason the AP's called and asked if we were alright!! hahaha. we really had no clue. you know, we're out in the middle of nowhere. we don't really get much news. hahaha. they asked if we were alright and we had just had some pretty heavy rain, so we were wondering if they thought we got flooded again or something. wow. ok. thanks for the report, mom! haha.
it was also good to hear the report on home. That sounds like a pretty awesome way for the cat to die, although i have to admit i was a little sad that she won't be there when i get home. I was also slightly disgusted. haha. do you guys have any pictures? (editor's note: our family cat had a confrontation with a coyote-not good for the cat-also-we were not at home at the time.)
I CANNOT believe k is starting kindergarten already. time goes way too fast! O is already getting big, too!
This week things turned out pretty well. Elder S has been doing an awesome job leading and I have confidence in him taking lead of the work when I go home. :) He of course doesn't know everything yet, but that's normal. He will learn. This week I learned from him as well. Because I gave him the chance to lead in planning and teaching, we did things this week that I normally would not have done, but things turned out well. We visited alot of members and less actives and potential investigators, and although we didn't have too many opportunities to teach, we did alot of what I call "Christ-like Ministering". haha. Elder S really cares alot about the people and what their needs are. Multiple times this week I saw him offering service and help to those who needed it, even though he didn't have to, and in my mind I was thinking "we have better things to do". We gave lots of blessings this week and lifted the burdens of lots of people, including active members. One active family had an especially hard time this week and on Sunday they called us their "ministering angels" that came whenever help was needed (not because we were asked, but because Elder S felt prompted to go check up on them). It feels great just to be able to help people who are trying to faithfully live the gospel but hit some roadblocks along the way.
We also had a baptism of Arnel P. (the part member working student) and next week will have one more, for Arnel G. (the newly married part member husband of an RM in our branch.). Arnel P's baptism went well and was well attended. He seems just like a normal member now, and I gave him one of my white shirts and ties so he can start looking like a "real" priesthood holder. haha. �I am really glad for the baptisms because now I can help elder Solis learn how to work with recent converts and branch missionaries in teaching new member lessons and retention. :)
We also had a pretty good combined youth activity, which elder solis and I ran because our young men's president broke his foot (ouch!). We held a Book of Mormon hero quiz competition and had really funny punishments for the team that lost every round (like writing your name in the air with your butt). We had lots of less actives go and have seen lots of little miracles happening with the youth. They really are a strong-spirited generation and have huge potential. We have been helping some of the young men to exercise their priesthood (one of them baptized arnel p) and we have been trying to help the others to have the desire to stop hanging out with their gangs and smoking and drinking and come back to church. We had one young man that we have been working with since day 1 (Juren A.) FINALLY come to an activity and it was so good to see him build up the courage to come and have a good time.
Sister K is now in my district along with a Sister from Kirvati (An island in the Pacific, close to samoa i think?) because they changed Sipalay to a sisters area. so now it's just the 4 of us, and the new couple assigned here, the Adams couple from utah. should be fun!
We also had a pretty good combined youth activity, which elder solis and I ran because our young men's president broke his foot (ouch!). We held a Book of Mormon hero quiz competition and had really funny punishments for the team that lost every round (like writing your name in the air with your butt). We had lots of less actives go and have seen lots of little miracles happening with the youth. They really are a strong-spirited generation and have huge potential. We have been helping some of the young men to exercise their priesthood (one of them baptized arnel p) and we have been trying to help the others to have the desire to stop hanging out with their gangs and smoking and drinking and come back to church. We had one young man that we have been working with since day 1 (Juren A.) FINALLY come to an activity and it was so good to see him build up the courage to come and have a good time.
Sister K is now in my district along with a Sister from Kirvati (An island in the Pacific, close to samoa i think?) because they changed Sipalay to a sisters area. so now it's just the 4 of us, and the new couple assigned here, the Adams couple from utah. should be fun!
As things are winding down this last transfer, I feel so blessed with all that I have been given and been taught. I know that there are still great things in store for us this transfer though. :) hehe. we will keep on keeping on! I hope you guys have a great week this week! Halong guid, kag palangga ta kamo!!
-Elder Lee
-Elder Lee
From September 10, 2012:
Maayong Hapon sa inyo tanan!! (Good afternoon to everyone!)
It was good to hear from you again.
Right now Elder S and I are really unified as a companionship, because we are both blowing our noses and have colds today. hahaha. I had a horrible fever on Saturday that was up in the 102-103 range. I'm glad you sent me that thermometer a long time ago from America, because I don't know how to convert from Celsius anymore and I don;t know what is the normal temperature in celsius. hahah. it was ok though. I was watching my temperature to see if i had to go get a check up or anything. plus that was the day of the baptism of Arnel G., and he really wanted me to baptize him. I felt horrible, but after lots of prayer, rest, and medication, I got through it and come sunday morning, the fever was gone. the only thing left now is a cold, and now elder solis had got one too. yuckkk.
well, besides that, this week went really well. I am constantly learning new things from Elder S. He really knows how to listen well to people and how help them feel the spirit by testfying of truth. One of his strengths is making others smile. He is doing a great job and i have really enjoyed watching him learn and grow. As long as he's obedient, he will become a great missionary.
It was good to hear from you again.
Right now Elder S and I are really unified as a companionship, because we are both blowing our noses and have colds today. hahaha. I had a horrible fever on Saturday that was up in the 102-103 range. I'm glad you sent me that thermometer a long time ago from America, because I don't know how to convert from Celsius anymore and I don;t know what is the normal temperature in celsius. hahah. it was ok though. I was watching my temperature to see if i had to go get a check up or anything. plus that was the day of the baptism of Arnel G., and he really wanted me to baptize him. I felt horrible, but after lots of prayer, rest, and medication, I got through it and come sunday morning, the fever was gone. the only thing left now is a cold, and now elder solis had got one too. yuckkk.
well, besides that, this week went really well. I am constantly learning new things from Elder S. He really knows how to listen well to people and how help them feel the spirit by testfying of truth. One of his strengths is making others smile. He is doing a great job and i have really enjoyed watching him learn and grow. As long as he's obedient, he will become a great missionary.
We had another baptism this week and the spirit was very strong there. We had some professional singers from Bacolod that came and sang (they just happen to be members and were down here singing at a wedding and volunteered to sing at the baptism) so that was pretty helpful to invite the spirit. haha. the goal is to now work with the branch leaders and branch missionaries to establish new members lessons and help them receive the priesthood and callings. So far it is going well and we feel like the branch really trusts us. By the way, we have one of the best branch presidents i have seen on my mission here. even though he is disabled (only one leg) he visits members all the time and his happiness comes form serving others. :) I'm very glad that I get to enjoy working with the members and less actives here for my last few weeks. I feel so incredibly blessed.
We saw a lot of success on sunday, with church attendance and things that happened. The new couple missionaries, the Adams couple, came and visited, and helped clear up some concerns of our branch president, a ton of less actives came that we didn't expect, we hit 116 attendance (the highest Hinoba-an has seen in 7 years), the youth are getting more active and involved and their class is growing bigger every week, and we had really good correlations with the leaders. We have just seen alot of miracles lately and it has given alot of people here the desire to aim higher.
Because all of our investigators are now baptized, We have been focusing on finding more this week and have seen some good success there, but most of the investigators we have found are still in the "new and potential" category, meaning we are not sure whether to continue teaching them or not yet. Hopefully this week we will see some progress with them so we can start helping them progress towards baptism.
Well, I think that's about it for today. and don't worry, Elder S and I are still very focused here in Hinoba-an. haha. It's just starting to feel like crunch time, a little bit is all.
I love you all and you are always in my prayers!! Halong, kag palangga ta kamo!! kita-ay ta sa lima ka semana!!!
-Elder Lee
"Prepare with Purpose. Teach with Testimony. Labor with Love." - Thomas S. Monson (I heard this quote this week and i really liked it, so i thought i'd share. haha. halong!)
Well, I think that's about it for today. and don't worry, Elder S and I are still very focused here in Hinoba-an. haha. It's just starting to feel like crunch time, a little bit is all.
I love you all and you are always in my prayers!! Halong, kag palangga ta kamo!! kita-ay ta sa lima ka semana!!!
-Elder Lee
"Prepare with Purpose. Teach with Testimony. Labor with Love." - Thomas S. Monson (I heard this quote this week and i really liked it, so i thought i'd share. haha. halong!)
From September 24, 2012:
Hey All!!! Kumusta na kamo??
It was good to hear about everyone again this week! Hearing about all the things you're doing sure makes me nervous about getting back into real life! it's quite a difference from the lives people live here in the Philippines. and Dad, I'm just glad you're the kind of counselor that would be able to do all that stuff for the bishop. :) it really makes a difference. Most of the time, our bishops and branch presidents here don't even know how to do it themselves. I have sure learned alot here about church organization from helping out, translating the church handbooks for them, teaching them how to do things like extend callings, helping them order materials for the branch--you name it! haha.
And yes, we did have a zone conference this week, but sadly, we didn't get to stay overnight. it was quite the opposite of a vacation actually - waking up at 3 am to ride a rickety bus and not getting home till 11:30pm that night. hahaha. but it was a REALLY good zone conference and so worth it. President Lopez is really trying to think of new ways to do things and make things even better here for all the missionaries. It helped give me the spiritual boost I needed to really focus in and finish strong these last few weeks. the mission is focusing alot on finding lately, so we have been applying alot of those principles to our work this week. It has been amazing to see the amount of potential investigators that are just popping up everywhere. We're really starting to feel the spirit of missionary work again in our branch. One of the things I got out of the zone conference was that President Lopez really wants to "double our efforts". The way he explained it though, is that it doesn't mean to double the energy we are using, but to double to results by working smarter. Kinda like a CFL light bulb - same energy going in, greater results coming out. Kind of a neat thought. It's something that we can all apply to our lives i think.
This week we were hit again with some nasty nasty storms, and it's been hard to get out as much as we wanted to. Most the time, if we even are able to get into a house to teach, the rain is so loud we can't hear each other! haha. We also spend about a day and a half helping some of our investigators re-roof their nipa-hut. (nipa is just a kind of plant that they use to roof their huts here). It was really fun to be able to help and learn how to do it, in case i ever want to build a hut in america. hahaha. It really wiped us out though, because we were the only ones working on it (no one else showed up and the father can't climb up onto high places), and most of the time we were doing it it was raining cats and dogs. It was a great experience though. :) haha.
well, i think that's about it this week. I think next week might be my last letter home, if i can't get to writing you guys the week after that. That day (October 8) will be the day I head to Bacolod and try to get all the last minute things done. phew!! I love you all and want you to know that you are always in my prayers!! Halong guid, kad palangga ta kamo!! Kitaay ta sa duha ka semana!!
-Elder Lee
It was good to hear about everyone again this week! Hearing about all the things you're doing sure makes me nervous about getting back into real life! it's quite a difference from the lives people live here in the Philippines. and Dad, I'm just glad you're the kind of counselor that would be able to do all that stuff for the bishop. :) it really makes a difference. Most of the time, our bishops and branch presidents here don't even know how to do it themselves. I have sure learned alot here about church organization from helping out, translating the church handbooks for them, teaching them how to do things like extend callings, helping them order materials for the branch--you name it! haha.
And yes, we did have a zone conference this week, but sadly, we didn't get to stay overnight. it was quite the opposite of a vacation actually - waking up at 3 am to ride a rickety bus and not getting home till 11:30pm that night. hahaha. but it was a REALLY good zone conference and so worth it. President Lopez is really trying to think of new ways to do things and make things even better here for all the missionaries. It helped give me the spiritual boost I needed to really focus in and finish strong these last few weeks. the mission is focusing alot on finding lately, so we have been applying alot of those principles to our work this week. It has been amazing to see the amount of potential investigators that are just popping up everywhere. We're really starting to feel the spirit of missionary work again in our branch. One of the things I got out of the zone conference was that President Lopez really wants to "double our efforts". The way he explained it though, is that it doesn't mean to double the energy we are using, but to double to results by working smarter. Kinda like a CFL light bulb - same energy going in, greater results coming out. Kind of a neat thought. It's something that we can all apply to our lives i think.
This week we were hit again with some nasty nasty storms, and it's been hard to get out as much as we wanted to. Most the time, if we even are able to get into a house to teach, the rain is so loud we can't hear each other! haha. We also spend about a day and a half helping some of our investigators re-roof their nipa-hut. (nipa is just a kind of plant that they use to roof their huts here). It was really fun to be able to help and learn how to do it, in case i ever want to build a hut in america. hahaha. It really wiped us out though, because we were the only ones working on it (no one else showed up and the father can't climb up onto high places), and most of the time we were doing it it was raining cats and dogs. It was a great experience though. :) haha.
well, i think that's about it this week. I think next week might be my last letter home, if i can't get to writing you guys the week after that. That day (October 8) will be the day I head to Bacolod and try to get all the last minute things done. phew!! I love you all and want you to know that you are always in my prayers!! Halong guid, kad palangga ta kamo!! Kitaay ta sa duha ka semana!!
-Elder Lee
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