July 29, 2018

     I don't know why but I have just put off emailing you as long as I can.. It's not that I don't love you or anything but I just don't really have that much to say. We did have district conference this week which was really fun. We had a member of the seventy come who was super fun and nice but I am not even gonna try to spell his name. Just know that he is Filipino and I really liked him. Last Monday elder Kapeli and I bought a cake to celebrate our 1 year mark and the worker just looked at me like I was crazy when I said put happy one year on the cake. So then I had to explain myself but whatever.  Tuesday I went of exchanges with elder Kapeli and we had a blast. He was always laughing and having a good time so I really enjoyed my time with him. He says he will be going to byu so maybe you'll get to meet him because I promised to teach him how to snowboard. Wednesday we did a csp at a members house in pamplona. they are super nice and old. they live here half the year and Seattle the other half so they are trying to get their house ready for that. clean up the yard and stuff. So I had a good old time hacking at all this undergrowth with a machete. They also made us pancakes with mix from America that was so so good. other than that it was a pretty normal day probably because I honestly don't remember anything that happened on it. Thursday was weekly planning which was a party as always. We have really been striving to step up our weekly planning so it took us a long time but luckily I had snacks. Friday of course was district council which I love. the workshop was on preparing people for baptism and it went pretty well. We also found out that one of the people that we had plans to baptize, Judy an, is moving to Manila for work... sad day :( but she says she will continue while she is there and probably get baptized there so whoever the missionaries are out there are freakin lucky.  Sturday we walked a freakin ton. but all of our planned lessons fell through. some days are just like that I guess. but we were able to talk to a lot of people so that was fun. Sunday was district conference which was great. lots and lots of people came but we didn't all really fit in the building. thats all good though I guess. 

they just keep getting shorter

Well I am glad that you all had fun. Kate says I can go back with mom and dad so I guess she didn't have a great time and ken I can't believe you actually said it was nice to do something not spiritual... Anyways the high light of my week was getting my 1 year mark package on my one year mark!! I loved everything in it especially the pictures and letters. I almost have enough pics to fill up my whole photo album. By the way did I mention that I show those pics to people I teach? They love them. I am trying to think about anything that is super cool or exciting that happened this week but I am drawing a blank. We did have Zone Conf. which was super awesome. All about how we can be better missionaries and how we need to give every last bit of strength we have every day to the Lord. By the end of the day we need to only be running on strength that the Lord gave us. I decided it might be a cool thing to try out so  Saturday I really gave it all I had. It was really cool because although I felt myself getting tired the latter it got the less I noticed it until when we finally got to the house and then I was just dead tired.

1 year left

     As of tomorrow I have 1 year left on the mission. It has gone by way too fast for me and I am sure it has gone fast for you as well. I feel like I just got out here but I don't think I qualify as new here in the mission any more. This week was pretty good. For sure the highlight of my week was celebrating dad's birthday. I had mentioned it offhandedly to our investigator, Nica, and her mom a little while back and when we went to teach them on Friday they had made cupcakes and some other food. They even sang to dad (they said I counted because I am his son and he isn't here). It was so cool of them. So to pay them back we are baptizing her this Saturday :P. It was pretty funny to me because I didn't do anything for my own birthday here and nobody celebrated but I did celebrate for dad. I had exchanges with Elder Isaksen this week which was a blast. He is batch with elder Brown so this is his last transfer. He lives up in Coeur d'Alene ID. I had a great time with him and we also got to speak at a funeral. It was exciting because our Branch President just told us we were there to support and surprise attacked us with the fact we were speaking. To make it more exciting the person who died wasn't a member so most of the people that attended weren't either. We mostly just talked about Jesus and because of Him we can be together again. We did end up teaching the daughter of the guy that died again, later that week. I had met her in the town centro and talked to her about a month ago and given her a Book of Mormon. So that was pretty nifty. My fourth of July was pretty normal but I did see an American flag which was cool. 

July 1, 2018

Hey this week was pretty crazy. First off I am the District Leader here in Pasacao. Lucky for my my district is totally awesome. Elder Olayon is my new comp. You might remember him from mothers day because you all got to see him then. The other two elders in my district are very nice as well. One of them, Elder Isaksen is going home this transfer. He was also a Zone Leader in Naga for a while so he knows how things need to go which is great. Elder Olayon was assigned in Pamplona for 6 months so he has worked here before so it is nice to not have to help him in a completely brand new area.  Tuesday we were mostly at the office. I had my training and then took my district back to our areas. The other two elders are opening the area so they didn't even know where their house was.  Wednesday was a little more normal but we had to travel to another area that night and sleep there.  Thursday I had a district leaders training in Naga. The other area's district leader and I got up early and traveled out there and left elder Olayon and the other district leaders comp to work there. The meeting was pretty good and I learned a lot about how to be a good leader. They also had ribs for lunch and I haven't had food that high of quality for a long long time. It was awesome. Friday was my first district meet and it went really well. My workshop lasted the whole time it needed to and I feel like we all learned something so that was great. Saturday Elder Olayon baptized a kid in the ocean. It was a child of record so not super exciting in missionary terms but still awesome. the kid was afraid of the waves and it ended up taking a while but still ocean baptism.  Sunday of course was fast Sunday which is always fun. The testimonies of members are always great to hear.