January 9, 2012

silly scripture of the week is leviticus 14: 5-7

things to help prepare future missionaries: buy miniaturized scriptures. it will be much easier on your back while walking. also, try to get a miniaturized preach my gospel made at kinkos or something. also read CH13 of preach my gospel and use the CMIS (ward list) when you get in the field. especially in the Philippines.

good food:

tupi- cake with egg filling

inasal - kinda like shish kabobs

chorizo - pork wrapped like a sausage and has pineapple or something in it\

chicharon - pork rinds

when i get home i want to get a lot of the good pictures of jesus that i've seen here on my mission and post them up.

well nothing much this week. my birthday is coming up soon. Jan 30 i will turn 21. yay for me.

January 2, 2012

silly scripture of the week is exodus 32: 25

happy new year. well new years was just another night for me. we had to go home early, which i liked, and we cooked sweet and sour pork. we did a good job at that. transfers came and went a while ago and i'm still in Himamaylan. the city park had a lot of fireworks for sale that night and people everywhere build "cannons" (kinda like potato launchers except they have no potatoes) in order to make as much noise as possible that night. luckily our house is not near the town square, where everyone was shooting of fireworks. but there were still a lot of explosions. all the explosions mixed with the smoke from the sugarcane fields kinda made this place feel like a war zone. (they burn the fields after harvest to get rid of bugs and weeds)

a good snack that i want to cook when i get back is kombo - banana, egg, flour, sugar, deep fried.

through my experience trying to learn the language i have gone through many companions that didn't really help me very much. for the most part, i think that is what it will be like in any mission where the people don't speak a widely used language. hiligaynon is so uncommon that they don't even have a doctrine and covenants or pearl of great price. only the book of Mormon is translated. there also aren't any language objective books or even dictionaries for this language. well in my opinion, the best way to learn the language is first through using it, but then through study, is to read the book of Mormon in your mission language and translate it into English. it is a humbling experience because you are going through the exact same thing that Joseph smith did but you are also helped with the spirit. plus it's really deep.

December 26, 2011

silly scripture of the week is Exodus 32:19-20

well things have improved in the house and I'm no longer at ends with my companion. it was a lot of the cultural differences between American and Filipino elders. it is something that every American elder has trouble with.
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt,
His name is my name too.
Whenever we go out,
The people always shout,
HEY JOE

Whoa, we're half way there
Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer
Take my hand and we'll make it I swear
Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer

well i've hit the point of no return in my mission. i'm at my halfway point in my mission. or i'm starting the junior year of my mission. i've done a lot of work but now i'm going to have to step up soon.... i don't want to. i've had a lot of success so far 26 baptisms aint to shabby.

thoughts right now have turned to what is going on back at home but i never get any news from home so there isn't much to think about. pretty soon i'll be going home and then i'll have to figure out how to work and live in the real world. maybe i'll go back to the college and career center to figure out what to do. maybe also go to the honors center to try to get a scholarship. maybe return to long snapping and try that and maybe walk on somewhere.

some nice foods that i like here are.

Uga - dried fish jerky, deep fried
Barquillo - kinda like a straw but made out of bread
Yumi - cake with egg filling

we had a christmas ward party a few days back. it was fun and great. i had a lot of the young women in the ward hit on me.it happens a lot here in the philippines. they love my big nose.

December 19, 2011

 am very excited for transfers next week. i am hoping for a transfer. i am at the end of my rope with both my companion and elder Lopez (one of the other elders in the house). when i talked to elder Lopez about him taking my stuff without asking, he got mad and started acting rude towards me. it hasn't helped at all, he's only been escalating the situation by his actions, words and attitude. i have had to use a lot of patience and charity and love to keep from making things worse.not only that but elder Reyes is buddies with him and is very contentious. leaving me stuck against two very prideful people. both elders have been rude to me this whole transfer and elder Reyes has been absolutely no help in learning the language or progressing in anything for that matter, we haven't had companionship studies this whole transfer except for the week where we did and all he did was tell me that i suck at the language. i have learned a lot about having patience this transfer, it has been what has kept me from making things worse. i have tried handling it as best as possible but things do not look like they will improve. i think a lot of the problem has to do with cultural differences which have been difficult to work out. it is very difficult living with a Filipino companion.


apparently, there was a big storm the went through the Philippines. it didn't really do much to my area. to be honest, i didn't even use my umbrella that day because it was just really cloudy and nothing else.

for Christmas, we have no plans and no gifts. what happens during a Filipino Christmas is a lot of people use fireworks. like for the past few weeks. there have been fireworks going off everyday here in my area. mostly just noise makers. it is REALLY annoying. also, it's still hot. the weather has been the same everyday for my whole mission. hot and humid with a chance of rain.

i want to transfer because the aforementioned problem with two very prideful people. but also because there is no lock for our front door, nor clean filters for our water. the things i have to deal with...