Last Minute Transfer - Week 56. Serving in La-lo

I don't have a lot of time to write so I'm sorry if this is short. I will get to the reason in a second.  We have all been asked by President to write a one page letter about what the atonement means to us and give it to him this week. We just kept wanting to write facts and stuff and I had no ideas and then I prayed and I had a dream about it. I won't explain it now for the sake of time but it really laid out my view of the atonement very simply. It was great. Not only that but we are teaching a less active sister and she was asking questions about Christ and the crucifixion . We shared some scriptures and then I shared my dream with her and it really helped.

We did a double exchange in Magapit this week and I worked with a missionary from Utah and he was way cool. Just everything about this country makes him either laugh or smile. I learned a lot from him.

Sunday night we were told that we are both being transferred to Lal-lo!!!! So in ten minutes we are moving. We had yesterday to pack and today to clean and just like that, we're gone from Camalaniugan. We don't even get to say goodbye! I love the people here so much. It feels like I am leaving you guys again!
Transfers aren't until next week but it turns out it's kind of an emergency transfer. So Elder S and I will be opening an area again. It has been a sisters area since way before I got in the mission. Since we don't have any training set up this week, we will have a full 40 hour week to get to know our new area!!! I am way excited for that.

 We have our last interviews with the president this Friday. I feel sick in the pit of my stomach thinking of them leaving. I have really grown to love them.
So that's all I've got for now. One week before transfers and we get emergency transferred to Lal-lo - wish us luck!
I love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Elder Dustan

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to GATTARAN - Week 55. Serving in Camalaniugan

Hey my dearest pugots. Missed you lots this week. The week started off way promising too. Of course, first was my phone call with Mum which was awesome. Then we started bleaching our veggies as we used to just wash them like back home. Hopefully  it will help minimize the intestinal issues that are so common here among missionaries. The apartment was all clean and nice and then we went out to teach.
We taught two sweet less active families. One family with two young boys are very quiet and when we ask them anything they whisper back and forth to each other to decide what to answer. But they are soooo cute. They have nothing, as their house is made of scrap metal, particle board and hung up carpets. All that they have for decoration is a picture of their children. The other family just had a new baby who got sick and then got the mum sick. We blessed her and when we went back she said, in a matter of fact way, "The priesthood is very effective"....quite, yes. They are pretty down to earth. Both lessons went perfectly - guided, clear, in unison, a real discussion, and motivating. We felt really good about them.

We wanted a third one for a 100% day (3 in 3 hours - not number hunting, just being tipid (frugal) with God's time). However, we got stopped by a little man on the way to the next appointment. He was walking towards Lal-lo and asked us if we could help him get to Gattaran - that's really far and it was already 6'ish so vehicles at that time are rare. Turns out he was selling chickens or pigs in Camalaniugan and his "friends" or co-workers left him. He seemed like he might be mildly handicapped as he was pretty slow but nice though. So we stood with him and tried to wave down anything with wheels to take him to Gattaran (if he walked it would have taken several hours - well into the night). No one would pull over. Some of them just thought we were waving and others were rude (it's common courtesy here to pick up hitch hikers). After a while we realized it wasn't working. We decided to say a prayer - all three of us together. The guy seemed a little weirded out by it at first. But exactly as the prayer ended and we turned around, there was a bus driving towards us with GATTARAN written on a big sign on the front. I have never seen one of those go through Camalaniugan, just the ones going to Lal-lo. So he got on and that was it. It was great!

We went to the district meetings for both of our districts this week (there are only two in most zones now as they made everything smaller to be more manageable. That was a while ago. There used to be three or four though). It was a great experience. Part of the training was on getting along as companions. We told them it's a preparation for marriage. "If you can't get along with a companion, you aren't ready to be married." we said... some were a little freaked out by that. They loved it though and learned a lot.

 After both meetings, we came back and planned quickly for some stuff we have coming up in the area and zone. We worked after that  in brgy Sapping which is by the river. A HUGE storm came out of nowhere and we were out working in it! We went to see a member family that lived by the dyke and the wind came down the river, took the rain with it and just pounded us. I actually had a hard time walking and had to just stand still for a moment. The rain also bounced off the dyke onto us and brought all the dirt with it....it was sick. Then the lightning was way close so we ran to our next appointment and didn't even bother using a payong. I haven't been soaked like that in a while. I wish you could experience the lightning here, it's like the movies.

We had exchanges on Thursday and got back to the apartment after meeting at the junction and I could barely move. I got so sick. So from Thursday to Saturday we didn't work as I was too sick. I miss being able to curl up on the couch when I am sick. Here there is nothing to do but writhe on the floor or rock in the fetal position. Anyways, we are making lots of progess in the area. I am still happy with the work, with my mission and myself. I love you guys LOTS and have been thinking about you even more lately. Strange, when I learn more about Christ I feel closer to you guys and think about you more.
 Love you lots!!!
-Elder Dustan

What? A Little More Off the Sides you say? - Week 54. Serving in Camalaniugan

Hey guys! I found a place that sells MUFFINS! They are way good.
I just got a haircut. An old man cut it for me. What they do here with haircuts is they buzz the sides over and over and over again and then they barely touch the top. It's almost painful for them to cut the top part. They hate it.....don't know why.
 This week we had zone conference. My companion and I were in charge of the training and it went well. We put a bunch of sticks with different colours on each at the front of the chapel and then got three volunteers. They were to pick one and then I was to tell them what would happen as a result of their choice (as each colour had an affixed consequence). All the elders' choices resulted in push-ups and jumping jacks. Then I got the sisters to ask Pres. O what colours they should choose. When they chose the colours he recommended, they got candy. The message, of course, is that every commandment has a blessing affixed to it. So when we are asked by God through His leaders to do something, we should be grateful as it is the safest course and we will be blessed. We stressed that the new mission president is going to be the new mouthpiece for God here in the Laoag mission.

I focused a lot on that principle this week - doing small, simple but important things that often get missed and I felt the spirit better. I feel great.
This week, now that I'm in my second year, I have actually been thinking a lot about how sad I will be to leave this place. Not just the place but the work. I love you guys but I am so happy here.

I don't have much else to write today. I was just so involved in planning zone conference this week that I can't think of anything else.
Keep doing the small and simple things - they add up to big things.
-Elder Dustan

Over the Hump Already! - Week 53. Serving in Camalaniugan

Monday night we went to visit the single dad I mentioned last week and seven members came with us! We all sat with him and his kids and talked. We showed our pictures from home and then we taught about the atonement. It was a good lesson. He said he wants to go to church. Then a member family gave him a bag of rice! Way nice of them. They are one of my favourite families here.
 Zone Conference is on Wednesday. We are doing the training and there are 2.5 zones attending. We are making a few small changes to things each zone conference to get everything in order for the new mission president when he comes in July.

We caught a bus to Laoag at around 4am and it was an ordinary bus (no air conditioning). That means that it's cheaper and everyone rides on it. They pile rice sacks in the aisles, buckets of fish, veggies, everything. And they fit at least 20 more people than it has seats for so we were on a stinky, sweaty bus for 6 hours.

 We got a ride back with President and Sister O in the car after zone conference as we got new mattresses.
I had a really great experience with the sacrament and fasting this past Sunday. We often don't use that to its full potential. I teach all the time that less active members need to come to church and use the power of the sacrament but I wasn't doing it effectively myself.
President O also had all the elders give each other priesthood blessings before closing our fasts. It was a powerful experience.

 The old man we've been teaching moved. We went over there and the man who owns the junk yard where he lives told us he went back to where he came from and won't return for two months. I was sad to hear that but I prayed really hard for him and I know that he will be looked after.
 I love you guys and miss you so much. I will see you in less than a year. Although, I wish I had more than a year left as I have so much more to do and learn.
-Elder Dustan

Too Much Banana & Not Enough Mango - Week 52. Serving in Camalaniugan

This week was straight-up bananas. Actually, speaking of bananas, we have been eating tons of them.....actually kilos. We had almost 3 kilos in 4 days. I don't know if that's healthy, but they just go bad so fast. Our transfer focus for our companionship is to follow the Word of Wisdom - and we mean FOLLOW it. Not just the bawals (restrictions). We have been doing it this week and I feel great. We go for a 20 minute run every morning. We jogged up bantay. It makes Currahee look like Saskatchewan - way steep. Everyone stops and stares and a few of them shout at us. They all workout for a living I guess, so they have no need to jog. I imagine they all wonder what we are running from.

It is the close of mango season. I love those things. But back to the craziness of the week. It started with us getting punted by EVERYONE. We visited everyone we know in the area and got only one lesson in - lots of walking! This week has been the hottest week I have ever experienced in my 22 years on the earth. I finally got a sunburn too. The air is usually too thick for the sun to even get to me. I have worn sunscreen once or twice way back when I was a greenie, and only now do I get a burn - not a bad one though.

We ended up on all kinds of back roads and grown-over paths that I had never been on before. As we were leaving a less active member's house in the middle of nowhere, their little litter of baby ducks followed us. When we would stop, they stopped. Then we'd walk and they would follow. We took one step, they took one step too. It was like a cartoon. Maybe it's a sign that the family needs to follow us back to church.

I had a good week of exercising my priesthood too. I had one experience that  I can't really go into, but through it, I learned the connection between the Holy Ghost and the priesthood as well as the calming power of the spirit. It also really showed me the power of the priesthood.
We filled a ditch in our yard with cement this week. We had no tools so we mixed it and set it with our hands. Filipino cement is one part dirt, two parts cement. I also learned how to make two new pinoy dishes. One is called puki puki, an Ilocano eggplant dish.

We found a dying kitten in the back yard. We set it on a towel, and nursed it back to health, or at least kept it alive until it's mama cat came back for it. Cute though.

We visited with one of our investigators yesterday. Because of family issues, he's recently been left alone to raise his 5 kids. He has a 1 year old baby and his other little daughter can't go to school so that she can watch the baby while her dad works. He was really upset and cried a lot. Filipinos are often too "mahia" (or shy) to ask for help but he was sufficiently humble, swallowed his pride and asked us for help. We told him to pray and then write down on paper any ideas he has of what he could do about his situation. Then we prayed with him and gave him a hug. I can see the amazing effect that a simple hug and prayer had on him. Love needs to be shown.

Then we went to get the members together to help him. We saw it as a great opportunity to show people that this is Christ's Church. We went to a member and asked her to cook for the family (this being one day after she cooked for the whole branch council and district leaders). She said she would be happy to do it. I caught a glimpse of what the people of Zion in Enoch's time must have been like. Anyone who jumps at the chance to help any member of our heavenly family is of Christ. I have never felt any greater thrill than helping others. Just by offering that hug to our investigator, I got a bigger thrill from God's mercy and love than I ever would on any thrill ride, any worldly pleasure or any selfish desire.

Thanks for all your prayers guys. Love you lots!!!!!
Elder Dustan