"And if it so be that you should labour all your days...and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" - Week 87. Serving in Laoag

Hey guys! Weird that I will be talking to you in two days. We've been busy cleaning everything up after Christmas zone conference. One of the elders had a little trouble when the mission vehicle they were driving was hit by a tricycle (don't worry, no one was hurt. Actually the elders ended up teaching the woman who had been a passenger in the trike!). So we have had less work and lots of distractions. Saturday was our first "full" day of work. We decided we would go around and visit every single focus family we had as well as our recent converts. If they weren't home,  we left a note of encouragement inviting them to church.

We really wanted everyone to be there for the last Sunday before Christmas. We felt so good about our work. Not a lot of lessons but we still met most of the focus families and we felt like our letters to them were really good. We stopped by M and H's too. Elder M and I had taught them earlier in the week and committed them to be at church on Sunday (they have struggled with that lately). They said they would and then M said, "Actually Elders, I might be busy. We are doing our uling and I have to be there on Sunday." (uling is Tagalog for charcoal. They make a huge fire under ground and then when it's done they sell all the charcoal). Then E got way mad at him and said, "What's more important - God or uling?" When we dropped by Saturday night, they both said that they wouldn't be able to go because they had no pamasahe (money for travel). So we told them that we would meet them at their house at 6:30am and walk with them. It's about an hours walk to the main road that goes to the bridge that goes to Laoag Centro. They were surprised that we would do that. So we met them and walked to the main road and then they had just enough to get a jeep from there. It was a long walk but they are so fun to be with that it passed quickly. I gave E that toy rubber pig with the eyes that pop out when you squeeze it (the one you sent in the Christmas  package) and she thought it was the best thing ever invented. I have never seen someone laugh so hard.

We visited a family on Saturday night that is preparing to go to the temple but they have been MIA for a while. We walked by and saw the tatay with a beer bottle sitting with some other guys drinking. It was so painful to see. They didn't notice that we walked by. We were so discouraged. Once we got to church on Sunday (after walking with M and E), not ONE of the focus families that we visited came to even one minute of church. I felt really drained, like I just got tired of putting my all into everything and getting no results. We were really disappointed in those that said they were going to come for sure. But the upside was, remember that tatay we saw drinking? He was there with his whole family! So we got multiple proverbial kicks in the head but there was also some reward for our efforts.
Anyways, can't wait to talk to you guys. I love you lots.
Elder Dustan

"...and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love..." - Week 86. Serving in Laoag

Happy huwebes p-day! It feels really weird to be having p-day right now. I feel like we need it though since we have been going saging (bananas) trying to get things ready for zone conference and running on little sleep. The week has kind of passed in a blur so I will have to stop and think what has happened.

Maybe I will just start with most recent. We had zone conference. It was a pretty good one. There were two zone conferences with the mission split into two groups. TONS of people were there. We were the lucky ones assigned to help out with BOTH conferences. We also had dozens of elders sleep in our apartment... so messy.

We got very little teaching in due to running errands for zone conference. I'm proud of Elder K and I though. We managed to get some key lessons in even with all that. Every chance we got we would go out teaching. We had a great lesson with P and his wife, She has kind of stopped progressing. Whenever we would teach, P would just steal the show and go on and on talking in English about deep stuff. S would just look off into space and look bored. Then this past lesson we went over and spoke with P a little bit alone. We said that we wanted to teach S some basic doctrine with no stories or additions,  just pure doctrine. We played Jenga to start and they loved it! Then we related it to the apostasy and did the simplest clearest apostasy lesson ever. S was loving it.

For zone conferences we did service at the provincial hospital. It's way more sketchy than the other hospital where that guy died beside us. I wrote up the proposal letter to the hospital and then we went there and did a total of 4 hours between the two groups. We weeded, painted and cleaned. We even got to wear those cool yellow Helping Hands vests that the church has for service projects. While we were there, we met the parents of one of our less actives. They said that their grandson (the less active's son) was just admitted to the hospital with a really high fever. We are teaching the man and his girlfriend to help them get married and for her to be baptized. They asked for help so we went to give a blessing. There is a senior couple here so Elder K asked if the senior elder would like to join us for the blessing. He said he would love to and came with us. Good thing too because we had no oil with us but he did.

The mother and baby were in a room on the far end of the hospital. It looked like a ghetto hospital. The windows were partly smashed in, the washroom was a pit and everything looked filthy. We gave the baby a blessing and we felt really good about it. The mother  is pretty cool. Her boyfriend is so nice and loving. She has generally been pretty quiet as we are still kind of new to her so teaching there sometimes feels a little awkward. The last lesson we had there though, was so good. We taught about the Restoration. Usually teaching that lesson here is a little tough because we get so excited about it and most people we teach it to don't really seem to care. I'm still trying to figure it out. So what we did is we drew pictures as we talked and linked it more to why we needed a restoration rather than just telling them that it happened. She really loved it and understood it. She has a baptismal date now and is really excited about it (it's way off in March though, so that they have time to get married).

After service at the hospital we went carolling. We went to the house of the family with the son in jail and the daughter who just gave birth. They are so poor - the poorest I have ever seen. We carolled there with about 20 missionaries. We also brought them a few kilos of rice and some other Christmas foods.

The next thing we did at zone conference was musical presentations by zone. The other zones were really good. Laoag zone (us) did three songs put together into one and they were all reggae songs and sung in a reggae choir style. It was pretty cool. Then President wanted each zone to have special numbers outside of their regular zone presentation. He lent me  his guitar (it's a fairly new, well built classical guitar) and told me to play a song because he heard that I can play. I fooled around on the guitar a bit the week before the conference but I still had no idea what to play. So I left it to last minute and ended up playing Redemption Song by Bob Marley (went with our zone theme I guess) as it was one of the only songs I remembered how to play. I got two polynesians to sing with me.

Yesterday we turned left in a place where you aren't supposed to and we got pulled over. Elder M was driving. We all just spoke straight English to the police officer. He tried to speak English and struggled really bad and then got another policeman to come over who was equally bad at it. We were returning chairs to the chapel at the time and were to meet the bishop there. So we told the police that we were in a hurry and needed to bring the chairs to the bishop, at which point they let us go. Drop the word bishop and you can do pretty much anything here. But afterwards we all felt bad so later we went back to where we were pulled over. We were only going to apologize and pay the fine but they seemed scared to see us (especially elder M - I don't think they realized how big he was when he was sitting in the truck the first time) so they kind of started running away. We caught up to one of them and apologized and then asked if we could pay the fine and he said not to worry about it and said we could go (I think he was still scared).

Anyway, that's my week. Thanks for the emails, AND I got your packages! Thanks so much, you are the best - I love you all tons.
Maligayang Pasko
Elder Dustan

ps- I think I will be transferred this time so I am way excited for that! I feel like I am in my teaching and speaking prime right now and it feels great, so I am excited to get more time to do that.

So That's How They Get the Milk in Those Bags! - Week 85. Serving in Laoag

This week feels like a full month it was so long, but lots of stuff happened. There was no crazy weather here. It just rained for a bit (my first time getting soaked in a while. I kind of miss it).

Monday we got called to go to Batac to help the sisters there withdraw their money as they said it wasn't working. I have been there but haven't driven around there much. It was way nice. It's the birth place of former president Marcos and they have monuments and stuff. The sisters got in the back seats of the truck so we rode in the bed of the truck. It was really funny to see people almost crashing from staring at us.

Tuesday we went out to work early, at around 9am and then worked until lunch. We had no appointments that early so we just went finding. It was so fun. We went to one house and there was a cow standing in the yard just slowly chewing on a big clear plastic bag. When the person came out we started off with, "Is that what your cow usually eats?" and they were pretty friendly to us from the start.

On Wednesday we heard all about that typhoon that wiped out Mindanao and Palawan (one of our brand new sisters is from Palawan. Poor girl had her home wiped out). We were issued a warning too. As it left Palawan it went north and was headed straight for Laoag (I saw it on Google Earth - it looked like it decided to specifically hit Laoag). Then yesterday it was the supposed to make land fall. We waited and it never came. We were told that it had weakened. I looked on Google Earth again and the entire thing had just dissipated. I guess your prayers are working really well.

This week for was pretty sweet as far as teaching goes though. We got punted by everyone that knows us but found 13 new investigators! The other night we were walking by a BBQ stand in the middle of nowhere and they called to us. it was just two women and then there was a guy sitting in the back. Then once we started talking, the guy came over too. Then after a little bit they called their friends and family over so we taught the whole group. One girl there has a family of 15 and they live under the same roof with some of their extended family which makes them 24 under the same roof! We are going back on Wednesday and they are going to feed us!

We went out yesterday and got punted and then turned down this random road. It was all fields and shacks. We kept walking and all of a sudden we saw this HUGE house. We went over, talked to them, they invited us in and then we taught them. It was an older filipino man and  a white kid. This man lived in California and owned a place that takes care of orphans. The white kid was brought to his orphanage and he loved him so, at about 1 year old, he adopted him. He has blond hair and blue eyes and grew up in the Philippines. The kid was way excited to see other white kids (it was like Tarzan). He was a finalist in Philippines Got Talent and he sang us two songs. He's really good. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and have a return appointment.

Right after that we went to another house that we contacted a while ago and they were so excited to see us.  We talked with them for a while and they are one of the single coolest families I have ever met. They are Baptists but also said that they don't reject the word of God when someone tries to build on their knowledge. They also asked us if they could come to church. They were so excited to read what we left them and we are going back next Sunday. So this has been a great week for work. I feel like we are finding some people that are really prepared. I attached a photo of the family I just mentioned. They actually took a picture with us, each with an individual shot with us and then group shots where they did all different poses. It was so fun. There was no room on the bench and Tatay had nowhere to sit so Elder K jokingly patted his lap and said, "Right here Tatay!" He laughed and sat on his lap! It was way funny.

I'll let you know when I know about the Christmas phone call.
Love you,
Elder Dustan

Sprechen Sie Tagalog? - Week 84. Serving in Laoag

Hey guys. I don't think I have anything really eventful to tell you from this week. Not too much happened. Lots and lots of office work to catch up on and getting everything back on track after being away, so less teaching this week.

 We are teaching this one family - the tatay is the one who got a kidney stone and was diagnosed with diabetes all at once and was way sick. They live in a little house with their junk shop right on the side of the highway going to the airport (right down the street from the mission home). The one daughter has a little boy who just turned 2 years old. He runs around everywhere with the kind of goofy run that little kids do where they stamp their feet with every step. He also puts both arms out any time he runs. He never walks but only runs no matter where he is going. Anyways, he doesn't speak yet. He's way talkative but it's just pure gibberish. Fluent gibberish. I did decide however, that the little boy probably speaks fluent German. Someday a German scholar will walk by and hear this little child speaking the most fluid German and saying the most profound things.

We had a sweet lesson with M and E. They had kind of lost the excitement they had when we were teaching them before and they hadn't been to church in a few weeks. We had one lesson where we played a game that only Elder K and I knew how to play. It had a bit of a secret to it that they didn't know. So we demonstrated it and asked if they wanted to know how to do it. They were way excited and said yes. Then we taught them how and they were so excited that they learned how to do it. Our lesson was on the purpose of missionaries and church attendance.

They both said some pretty profound things. E answered questions perfectly and you could tell she meant it. Marvin, when asked what he would do if no missionaries were coming to his house any more said that he would need to go to the scriptures and to church more diligently to find the word of God. He also asked about going on a mission. We taught them that we and the teachers at church share the doctrine of Christ which is the way to return to live with God. The only way it works is if you USE what is taught to you. They loved that point. Anyways, they are doing well. I love those two.

We found and taught a man from China this week. He is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, and English. He has a HUGE house and yard and he wants to sell it and move to Manila to retire. He asked if we could help him sell it. We told him we aren't allowed to do that but that we are here to teach and not to sell. He gave us the measurements of his house and yard anyway and told us that if we find someone who will buy it he will give us five percent commission! So I could be raking in the pesos, haha!

When I first got to Laoag we taught a young less active guy. A while back he had gotten his mission call, went to the MTC but then came home . After that he went a little less active, mostly from being shy and from work. When we taught him he was so nice. Then he went away to Cagayan in Santa Teresita. Just before I came back from Manila he showed up at church with a girlfriend who was pregnant. I sat beside him and chatted with him. We also went to visit him and turns out his girlfriend gave birth. So we visited and then explained to her who we are and what we do and why we do it. Then we asked if she would like to be taught and she said yes. She's way nice. The next week at church we said,"See you Saturday!" Then he said, "I was hoping you could come on Tuesday too. Can you just come twice a week instead?" We're really excited about them.

I love you guys tons!
Elder Dustan

Experiences On a Plane, In a Prison and In the Temple - Week 83. Serving In Laoag

I've been back in Laoag since Thursday. The doctor cleared me to go back as long as I return to Manila in two weeks for an ultrasound. Then I talked to the MRC guy and tried to get the earliest flight to Laoag that I could. They told me that I would be able to go back on Saturday. So I went to the temple after that and was just walking in as the MRC guy came running up behind us and told us they had booked plane tickets for that night and we needed to leave now. It was Elder V, Sister F and I, going to the temple but Sister F had already gone in. I felt bad because when the sister was finished in the temple, she would come out and wait for a long time until she realized we had left.

Anyway, I went to the airport, got on a plane and got back to Laoag at 10pm Thursday night. On the plane I had a window seat and there was a couple sitting beside me. The woman was in the middle and she was having a hard time working the reading light. I was surprised when she asked me if I knew how to work it. Most people try to ignore an LDS missionary that they are stuck beside. After I helped her, she was taken aback that I speak Tagalog (she spoke English to me). Her husband started asking questions and we talked about beliefs - it was awesome. They were so nice. They were married last year and were going to Laoag and Pagudpud for a vacation. I had bought four hard cover triples while I was at the MRC for some of our families we are working with but I gave one to them and they were so thankful. The guy works at a call center in Manila and it turns out the call center is in the Mall of Asia which is exactly what I want to visit. So he said he would show me around if I can get there on my way home in May.

Speaking of which, there were a few changes while I was gone. One was that we don't use hotels here anymore. Missionaries leaving or arriving just stay in the mission home, office apartments or other missionary apartments, so when I arrived, our apartment was all in a disarray from the departing missionaries and also from thanksgiving feasts.

 Second is that the MTC change from the 9 week program to the six week program has caused all missionaries from February onward to have their release dates moved back by 3 weeks - point is I am no longer coming home at the beginning of May but I will now be leaving Laoag near the end of May. Sorry if you already booked time off. I also have to re-do every travel plan for missionaries leaving from February to May now which will take a while. I'm okay with it though.

After I got back to Laoag we told tales of our time apart. Friday is the day when the new missionaries get paired up with their trainers and go to their areas. We issue them their planners, training things, pillows, etc. However, while I was away, we had run out of pillows. We spent Friday trying to get everything in order and only got to teach one lesson. Then we went and bought some pillows and brought them to the few missionaries we could. It sucked that a bunch of the new missionaries had to spend their first night in the mission field sleeping with no pillow.

We visited one of the focus families on Saturday night. They have been evicted from their home and moved back to their old house that burned down. We went to find it and when we asked where they lived, we were pointed down a random alley way at the back in the ruins of a house. It had a tiny piece of sheet metal for a small roof that covers maybe a tenth of the house at most. And there was their daughter, a young mother, in this place not worthy to be called a shack, sitting on a "bed" with her new born baby. Cool thing was she still had a smile on her face. She is a really awesome girl. She still takes time to read the Book of Mormon but has to do it in a certain spot at night because that's where their neighbour's light shines as they have no light of their own.

 While we were there, two fights broke out on the street and I felt like I was truly in some ghetto. The nanay asked us to visit her son in prison so on Sunday we went to the Laoag prison to visit him. It was a weird experience. One of the members who came with us was wearing yellow and was told she was not allowed into the prison in yellow. Not sure why. We went in and got searched and had to show some ID. They let us in to a kind of courtyard and there he was.

He looked terrible. As we walked over, a bunch of guys behind some bars started yelling, "Hey Joe! Hey man!" We went over and found a spot to sit and talked with him. At first we didn't know what to tell him. We chatted a while and then finally he asked if we could teach him. We taught about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. I told him that when we are faced with a trial, it means that God knows we can overcome it which is the only reason why he would let us have that specific trial. The bigger the trial, the more you are capable of. He never thought of that before and really appreciated it.

We told him that we would pray for him and if he was totally honest with everything, then things would all work out. We also told him to take the time to repent of anything needing repenting of and use the time to draw closer to Christ. We gave him a miniature Book of Mormon (which is now called a Jail Book of Mormon). We will go back next week to see him again. Funny that another member came over and said hi to us in the jail. He's imprisoned as well.

I has a really cool experience at the temple while I was in Manila. I was doing initiatories as I had done the day before as well. As I was doing them, I noticed a couple of errors for two of the names. I wasn't sure if it was even my place to say anything to correct it. I thought maybe it was just in my head, but no, I was positive that one thing was said wrong for one of the names, and the other one didn't receive the priesthood like he should have.

As I finished the names, I was wondering what I should do about it. I then felt prompted to just go and tell them. It made a bit of a stir with the workers and I had to explain the problem several times. As they were discussing what was to be done, this one temple worker came in who I had met before and who was a really sharp guy. So I explained it to him and he said, "Okay, we will just re-do those two names. So that's what we did.

I felt reallllly good as we re-did those two names. It was a feeling that can't really be explained - one that I have never felt anywhere else. So that was my cool temple experience.

The incoming missionaries were really great - some really good ones there. A new store opened yesterday in Laoag called Pure Gold. It's pretty much a  Pinoy version of Costco. We will be shopping there today. I will miss going to the palengke though.

So that was my week. As for my health, I feel okay. My side is still sore but I am taking the meds they gave me every night. Hope you are all doing well. I love you guys.
Elder Dustan