Christmas

How's it all going over there in America? Hope y'all are doing awesome . Hopefully y'all had an awesome Christmas. Christmas was pretty cool over here in the Philippines; had lots of fun. So to begin the week off, we had an awesome mission Christmas party in Tarlac. The mission was split into two area for zone conf. One in Cabanatuan, and the other in Tarlac. We got to go to the Tarlac one. It was pretty fun. In the morning we had skits that each zone had prepared. We had one of a family going to a Christmas party, and then we sang a song, 12 days of Christmas, but missionary style. After that we ate lunch, and then had the spiritual side, and a really nice meeting.

After the meeting, we raced home, 'cause it was also our ward's Christmas party. We got there a little late, after all the games and stuff, and just in time for the food. So that was pretty fun.

Thurs. and Friday, we both normal work days, other than the fact that I got to call home. It was lots of fun to talk to y'all, and stuff like that.

Saturday, we were invited to a Christmas eve party at a member's home. We went, and they had tons of food. Lots of spaghetti, and rice, and chicken, and turkey. I was really excited to try the turkey, seeing that it's been a while since I had it. Little did I know what I was getting into. I know we talked about food when I called you guys, and I told you all my stories that made you all cringe but seemed pretty normal to me, but this turkey has to take the cake for the most nasty thing I've ever eaten. First off, the turkeys here don't come from the store, they raise them, so they don't have very much meat on them. Second they don't have ovens here in the Philippines, so they boil them. Third, some times food isn't hot here, and this turkey wasn't hot. I was so excited when I saw this turkey that I had them cut me off a big piece and put it on my plate. Like I said earlier this turkey doesn't have very much meat, so it was just skin, and I think fat, or something like that. Oh boy, that was nasty, like eating rubber, but with a nasty taste. I tried eating with rice, but I was still having the hardest time getting it down, so I just put it off to the side of my plate and thought I'd come back to it after I ate all the other good food. Bad idea. I got really full on this other good food, and then tried to eat this nasty turkey skin, and it just wasn't working. I couldn't not eat it, 'cause this guy had just killed his pet to feed me, so I tried my best to eat it. But anyways to make a long story short, when the guy who cooked it turned his back to me, I hurry and threw the turkey to the dogs that we close.

After this terrifying experience with food, we had a gift exchange, which was pretty fun. It was nice of the family to include us in on their little Christmas eve party. Then Christmas came. We went to the church in the morning, and only about 50 members went to church. I played the piano, and Elder Bendoy gave a talk. After that we went to some members house to eat. I was still recovering from my experience the night before, so I wasn't feeling that well, but to make sure and not offend anyone, we stopped by the members to eat. One thing that's different about the Philippines, and American Christmas is that in America we open presents, and here they just cook food the whole day, and feed anyone who comes to their houses. Went to a few and got full. The only hard part was at a few houses there was papaitan, or the stuff I told you guys about with the goat insides. So that was another test, but I did pretty good at avoiding that, and was able to eat the really good tasting food.

Then today was pday, wow, how time flies. Elder Bendoy and I went to a really cool place here, called the Isdaan, or fishing place in Cnglish. Tons of fish, and the restaurant has tons of cool stuff. Statues, and fish, and the restaurant itself is floating on water, pretty cool place, and now I'm emailing the family. Just wanted to wish y'all a Happy New Year, and tell yall that I love ya. Until next week, take care.

Elder Farnsworth

Exchanges

Wow, this week has been an interesting week... for the most part it has been a good week though. This last Tues. we went to do a house check for some elders in the Vargas area. They are trying to find a house in their area where they can move. So we went down to their house and met some contractors who are going to work on their house, and tried to get things settled there.

After that the Elders in Vargas informed us that they needed to have one of their investigators interviewed for baptism. So we had a emergency exchange, where I worked with Elder Elep in our area, and Elder Galvez worked in their area. Elder Elep and I had a really good time. He's a really big guy, but a really cool elder.

After the we had the exchange I went to pick up Elder Galvez in the other area, and when we got back to our area, we found out that the other Elders in house had had a little misunderstanding. Anyway I'll try my best not to drop any names or anything, but lets just say that Elder Galvez and I had a different type of emergency exchange after that. I've been working with one elder in our area, while Elder Galvez has been working with the other elder in his area. It's been kinda interesting, especially 'cause the elder I've been working with for the past week is another foreigner, but we've had lots of fun.

Then today was pday, and not just a regular pday, but they've brought back pday!! We used to have meetings and stuff in the morning on pday, but they've finally decided that that was enough, so we finally got a full day for a pday. This morning we went and played pool, which was really fun, and now I'm emailing to my family. Anyway, it's been a pretty good pday.

Well that's about all the news I got for this week. The church is true, and I love yall. Take care.

-Elder Farnsworth

Happy Birthday!

How's it going over there in where ever yall are? Everything is going pretty good over here in the Philippines, except for the fact that I've been informed that my family email for the last time didn't get to yall, sorry about that. Hopefully it gets to all of you this time.

So this last week has been a pretty normal one in the mission feild, except for the fact that I turned 21!!!! Ya I am now officially a lalaki! (which means male or man in Tagalog). I guess I should explain that one. So anyway the tradition here is when a boy turns 21 he is officailly a man; it's only 18 for girls. So anyway, it's happened, and now I'm a lalaki.

This last Tuesday, I was able to go to Angeles for a meeting. It was with a bunch of other elders and the Mission President. It was really fun, the best part being the food and hot shower, but the meeting it self was pretty interesting. We just talked about the mission, and how it's going, and stuff like that. At one point during the meeting, we brought up the fact that we don't really have a pday any more. I and some other elders that are kinda old in the mission are the only ones that remember a pday with out any meetings, so we talked about how we miss that and hoped it would come back. I don't know if anything will happen, if they'll bring back pday or not, but hopefully they will.

We came home to Sta. Ignacia on Wed. We were able to meet the new couple missionary after the meeting. They took us to lunch. They are really nice, and we had a good time. Elder Roberts is one of the missionary couple. He's a really tall guy, just look at the picture I'm sending yall. Elder Galvez,my comp., is only up to his stomach, kinda made me laugh. The rest of the week was really normal. We worked and taught some lessons and stuff like that. We did have some really good lessons though. One of them, a recent convert, asked us why Nephi killed Laban; at least he's reading the BofM. We also meet a lady this week, taught her a lesson, and then she went to church, so that was pretty cool.

This last saturday was also my birthday. We found out that a little girl in the ward was also having a birthday, so we decieded to combine our birthdays. We had their dad buy some pizza on his way home from work, and then had a party. It was pretty fun.
Sunday was another day of church. Went to church, it rained really hard, so the attendance went down a little bit, and that's about all that has happened this last week. Well, I guess that's about all that's happened, just wanted to let you all know that I love yall. Take care and stay strong in the faith.

Flooding

How's yalls week been, this week has been one to write in journals. If you just want to know why look at the pictures I'm sending you, the funny part is we were only able to teach 3 lessons.

So the story starts last Monday, since that was the last time I got to write to everyone. Last Monday night we had a family home evening at a members house. It was a good old fashioned FHE, with a short lesson, and a lot of games (that's how they do the FHE's here in the Philippines), After that we came home and went to bed, it was raining at the time we went to bed, but nothing to worry about.

We woke up the next day, and it was still raining. It was actually raining really hard, and the wind was blowing pretty hard. The ap's came to hopefully work with us and move some elders out of our house. There used to be 3 areas living in our house, the elders in Ward 1, and then us in ward 4 and branch 8, but they split our area and put some new elders over there, so we found a house for the Ward 1 elders and kicked them out. We moved them into their new house and it was pouring rain, and the wind was blowing supper hard. Everything worked out okay with the move, they got into their house.

Later that day President Martino texted us and told us to tell the zone to stay inside 'cause of Typhoon Pedring. So we texted all the zone and told them to stay inside. At about 6 at night the sisters texted us and told us that their house was flooding. We asked if they wanted us to come over, and they said yes, so we got the couple missionary, Elder and Sister chase to take us over. We made it about 1/2 way in their care, and then the water got too deep on the road to go. So Elder Burog and I got out and had to walk about 1/2 a mile through water up to our calf, or waist depending on where we were. While we were doing this it was raining really hard, so we got really wet, and it was at night, and 'cause of the flood there was no lights. Well after a while we made it to the sisters house. We got there, and there was no flood out side, but inside there was about 4 inches of water. The said they wanted to sleep at the chases house, so they grabbed their stuff and we walked out, back through the flood. ON the way out Elder Chase called us to tell us that he was going to take Sister chase back to house, to make more room in the car. After a while Sister chase called back to tell us they couldn't make it through the flood, and that it had started to flood at their house, and at our house (they're pretty close).

We continued our hike through the flood and made it to the highway, where the stake president picked us up and took us to the church. Then Elder Burog and I and Elder Chase went to our house. The stake president drove us as close as he could, and then we walked back. We first went to Elder Chase's house. As we were walking there I lost my flip flop in the flood. (the water was moving really fast), so I ran about 100 yards trying catch the thing. We finally made it to their house, and the water was about up to mid calf. We turned off stuff, and then grabbed some stuff, then hiked to our house. The water was really deep outside our house, to your waist. We then walked in and water rushed in. Luckily the door in the front had been holding the water back a little, making it a little slower getting in. The hard part was closing it once we got inside, but we managed. Everything that was one the ground down stairs got soaked. We went there earlier 'cause we went to the sisters house, and the other elders had moved out that morning, so no one was in the house when the flood came to move stuff up. My suitcase got soaked, and all the clothes, and letters in it. Book of Mormons, or Books of Mormon, got soaked, almost one box. Liahona's and beds, and lots of stuff got wet. We moved what we could, I then grabbed my camera and started taking pictures, and we grabbed some clothes so we could sleep at the church. Inside the house the water ended up getting about to my knee, so it got pretty deep. When we left to go back to the church, the water had gotten pretty deep out side.

As we were walking back to the church, we were helping push cars, and trikes that got stuck in the flood. As I was helping a trike get through the flood, my flip flop came off again, but this time I stepped something sharp, I think it was a piece of glass, or a nail or something, but it cut my foot up pretty bad, and all this happened while I was standing in the dirtiest water you can ever think of. We were right next to a gas station, and gas was leaking into the water, then it was washing up all the water from the septic tanks and stuff. Ya it was pretty gross, anyway we walked to the church, and finally made it out of the flood.


At the church we found a place to clean up my foot. The only problem is we couldn't find anything to wrap up my foot with, so they got a clean rag, and I wrapped it up. The only problem with that is we went outside to by some food, and it got wet again, so when we got back to the church I wanted to change it, so I wouldn't have flood water on my foot. The only problem is that I didn't have anything else to bandage my foot with. Band aids wouldn't work, so this is where the story gets a little funny. The only thing we could find to bandage my foot with and keep the blood off was a pad girls use when they have a period (don't ask me what those are called). So I was walking around the church with that thing on my foot, at least it gave a laugh to all the evacuees at the church. We ended up staying the night at the church, I really didn't sleep at all,or at least not more than 30 minutes.

In the morning I went to the back of the church and took some pictures of the houses out back, we also had a meeting with the sisters and the couple missionaries, since our houses got flooded. After that we went back to the houses and cleaned them up, which was quite a job. Later that day at about 3 pm I went to take a nap, I didn't wake up until 4 am the next morning, guess I was a little tired.

The next day we had a mini transfer, so Elder Burog and I spent the whole day at the church, waiting for missionaries to get there and then tell them where to go. The new elders in ward 4 got there, and we showed them to the house. On Friday, we went to check on members, and help them if they needed it. The flood was pretty bad. Guess what happened is all the rain here, and mostly up in the mountains had caused the flooding. There's a pretty big river that runs by here, the Pampanga river, and there is one of the biggest dams here above Cabanatuan. Anyway all the gates on the dam had been opened to the max, and water was still going over the over flow, so that's why it flooded down here. We had investigators and members houses that were completely covered with water, but haven't heard of a death yet. Guess towns and cities down stream got it a loss worse than here in Cabanatuan, like one of my last areas in Cabaio.

This last Saturday another typhoon came through, so we got to stay inside again. Then on Sunday I actually meet an english guy, and talked to him for a while. Today was a pretty normal pday, except for the fact that I wrote a really long email. Anyways, sure love yall over there, still safe over here. Kinda cool that I can say I survived the flood. They said that another typhoon is coming today, so I might have another story next week. Anyways take care yall

Elder Farnsworth

Pizza

How yall doing? Everything is going pretty good over here in the Philippines. Had a pretty good week, and had quite a few investigators come to church, so that was pretty cool. And the highlight of the week was that during sacrament

meeting, our rest hymn was hymn #209, or Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Yes, that's a Christmas song, and yes, it's still Sept. But here in the Philippines, we start Christmas a little early. In fact here in the mall they have Christmas trees, and they have Christmas music playing,and the houses are starting to put up Christmas lights. Kinda funny.

This last tuesday was also the birthday of Elder Burog, my comp. We bought a cake, and some ice cream, and had a member cook some food for us. All in all it was a pretty good day. Sure got full. Seemed like every house we went to we got fed food.Then the rest of the week has been a pretty normal week. We had a little CSP on Thursday, where we helped a lady clean off her walkway. It had a lot of moss on it, so it was kinda slippery. We scrubbed that off, then she fed us, which I call a fair trade. One thing I really like about this area isthere are a lot of members here that feed us. In some of my last areas, we didn't get very much food, but here we seem to get more.

I also went on an exchange this week with Elder Greenwell, or an elder in this zone. We had a pretty good time. It's always interesting when two Americans work together. First off, all of my comps. have been Filipino, and probably will be until the end of my mission. It's just weird to be walking down the street and then talking English to someone. It's even more funny to see people trying to listen to us and try to understand what we're saying, even though they can't. After the exchange on Thursday we had an interview on Friday. One of our investigators got interviewed and if everything goes as planned he should be getting baptized this coming Saturday, so hopefully that happens.

Saturday was just a normal day in the office, taught some lessons, and stuff like that. On sunday we went to church, as usual. We had quite a few investigators show up, 12, so that was really cool. It always feels good to have an investigator come to church, especially 12. Hopefully they had a good time and all that.

Then today was p-day. We had a meeting this morning, then had a basketball tournament. It was super hot, about 88 degress with something like 90 percent humidity, and direct sunlight, but we still played, and actually had a pretty good time. After that we went to Pizza Hut (yes they have Pizza Hut in the Philippines) and ate a pizza! It was awesome. Haven't tasted

something that good in a long time. After that we came to the internet shop, and I'm now emailing family. Anyway the church is true. We are so blessed to be members, so love yall.
Elder Farnsworth

General Authority, Baptism, and Bad Doctor

Another week has come and gone in the mission field, and it's been full of work, fun, and eating rice. This week we had a general authority visit, a baptism, and my companion got really sick, so it was a very interesting week.

So, Elder Ardern came and visited the mission last week. The night before the Baler Zone came to our house to sleep. Because they live so far away from Cabanatuan, they come down the night before and stay at our house. Brought back memories of when I was assigned up there, and coming down. I remember saying, "I hope I never get assigned in Cabanatuan" 'cause the house was dirty, and it's kinda hot. But now I'm assigned here, and we cleaned up the house, and I'm loving it. We had a really awesome meeting before the zone conf. with Elder Arden that was just for zone leaders. It was just about 10 of us and a general authority teaching us so it was really cool. One thing he said that I really like is he mentioned the verse in D&C where it says "many are called, but few are chosen." he then said something that hit me pretty hard, which was "those who are chosen, are those who chose God." So that made that verse a lot clearer for me. After that we had an awesome Zone conf. and the food was really good--they finally cooked something different. For a year and a half it's been the same dish, but they finally switched things up.

Then after that Elder Ardern wanted to tour two of the closest houses. Turns out our house, and another elders house were the closest to the chapel. Elder Ardern came and toured our house, which was actually okay. We had a little warning, so we cleaned up a little bit. And they were really nice, and we were able to take a picture together. They then didn't know how to get to the other elders house, so we took them over there. Then after the house check, we went outside, and Elder Arderns wife saw the Ice Cream Things here, and thought they looked so cute, she just had to take some pictures. (They're still pretty new here in the Philippines, not used to stuff like that). Well since she had them stopped, Elder Ardern had to buy some Ice Cream, so we had a 70 buy us ice cream. (Yup his picture is in the Ensign). Don't worry I kept the wrapper.

Then on Friday, we went on splits. Elder Adrus came and worked with me, and Elder Burog went and worked in the other area. It was a pretty fun split. The next day Elder Burog came back home, and he went straight up to bed. He looked really sick, so I made him take his temp. and it was 40 degrees cel. which if you convert it is 104, so that was a little to high. He took some Tylenol and it went down a little. He didn't feel like working, so we stayed in the house. The only problem is we had a baptism at 7 that night. Anyways after a while the fever came back, so I went into my doctor mode, and gave him 3 pills of ibuprofen. After a while we went to the baptism, even though Elder Burog wasn't feeling very well. The baptism was awesome. Sis. Eliza and Sis. Destiny got baptized. The ward did everything really well. I got to conduct, so that was fun. We even had a couple missionary come, the Chases. Everything went successful there, and after the baptism, elder wasn't looking good at all. His eyes got really puffy, in fact in the picture you can kinda see it. But anyways, Elder and Sister Chase took us to the hospital, 'cause there is a Dengue scare here, which is kinda a dangerous disease, that you get from a mosquito. We went to the hospital, and turns out he just had strep throat, and that he either is allergic to Ibuprofen, or it was an over dose (I gave him 3, and he's only about 100 pounds), anyways it's a good thing my comp. is a pretty nice guy. He didn't get mad at me for giving him Ibuprofen or anything like that, but I guess there is a point of being to nice. I was just trying to be nice, but turns out my comp. is allergic to it.

Then on sunday, we missed Branch 8 'cause he still wasn't feeling very good. But since we have two areas, we were able to go to church in the afternoon. We did get there a little late though, missed the opening song, and I play the piano, but they understood. So I went up and played the sacrament song, which went well, but the funny thing the first councilor told me while I was playing, that I was going to be the first speaker. So that just broke the record for the least amount of time I've ever had to prepare a talk in my life. It was kinda interesting. Can't wait for the time they break that record. Always makes me laugh when that happens, (it actually happens quite a bit.)

Then today was a pretty normal p-day. We set some goals, ate some food, and had some fun. Anyways, it has been a pretty good week (at least for me, Elder Burog didn't have quite as much fun). Looking forward to another awesome week. Anyways the church is true--let's tell the world. Love yall

Elder Farnsworth

New things

Wow, another week has come and gone in the mission field, and it's been a pretty interesting one. The best part is we got to go to the mission home this last Tues. for a meeting. It was kinda funny 'cause I felt like I was back in America. American food, Air conditioning, and the best part hot showers. We ended up staying the night there, it was pretty good. One kinda funny thing happened. I guess all the missionaries in the whole world, or at least here in the Philippines are getting DVD players, the portable kind. So they gave them to use this last Tues. We get to use videos that the church has made for missionary work during Comp. and Personal study. Kinda interesting. It's been kinda weird being able to watch something at the apartment, but I guess it's just how the missions are moving. They say in a few years they think every Comp. will have a laptop. but I guess will see.

Then on wed. we came back to Cabanatuan. It was a pretty long bus ride, and they only played one song the whole way. I don't know if any of you have every heard of Charice, but she's a Filipino singer, and because she is Filipino she is really popular here. Anyways they played one song the hole bus ride, and it was really really hard not to yell or scream in pain or something like that. It was really dramatic, which is probably the reason I'm writing to y'all about it.

Other than that, the week has been really pretty normal. we worked hard. We actually should be having a baptism this up coming week which means next week I'll hopefully be sending pictures to you all. It's a nanay, and she's really cool. In fact in two weeks we should be having another baptism too. One investigator that has been coming to church for the last 2 years is going to be baptised. She hadn't been in the past 'cause she isn't married to her husband, but this last week she got married, so she should be getting baptized in the coming weeks.

This past Sunday we also got to go to church twice, well I guess it'll be like that every week that I"m here in Cabanatuan, 'cause we hold two areas, which means we go to church twice. It makes for a long Sunday at the church, but it's actually really awesome. It's fun to see how different the wards are, and the best part is you get to take the sacrament twice, which means twice the blessings, or at least that's what Elder Burog told me.

Well family, that's about it. The church is true. If there is one thing is one thing I"ve learned on my mission it's that. We are so blessed to be members of it and to be led by a living Prophet.