Liars? No. We Tell the Most Beautiful Truth of All - Week 100. Serving in Sarrat

We went to Vigan with President and Sister B, the assistants and the office crew today. We did some shopping but I didn't buy too much. Honestly, I feel like, if I buy too much, then it's like I am never coming back. Coming back to visit with you guys would be waaaay better than bringing home a bunch of touristy stuff, no? But I did get some things.

Then we went to the zoo. I realized that I hate zoos. The animals are sad. We walked by big holes in most of the animal enclosures. We walked down one street and hey, there's an ostrich standing in among the people! Fun though. I realized that while I was there I really missed Sarrat. Elder O and I really felt like we were back at home once we got back here. Crazy, considering that I had never heard of this place two years ago.

 We had our zone conference this week. We stayed up way late the night before getting everything in order for our training (not procrastinating - there just is no other time for preparing), then we didn't end up giving it at zone conference. But still we got so much direction from conference.  I was amazed this time with how the church works. I think I am generally pretty good with understanding things and I have been here almost two years and know a thing or two about the work. But there are certain challenges with some of our investigators that I have never really been able to understand. But at this conference it was all answered. The leaders of the church really do receive revelation and all we need to do is apply it because that revelation they receive is specifically for us. Cool to realize it so close to General Conference.

We got punted a lot this week. We even had one guy tell us that we are liars and therefore, God hates us. We told him we loved him and don't want to argue and he told us we are retarded. He was so angry - just being near him felt cold. All we do here is go around and share a message with people that lets them know how amazingly special they are and yet they often respond in that way. It's bizarre. Cool thing though - even with a ton of upsetting things, we had so much success this week. We had eight investigators at church and were able to start a Gospel Principles class (we had more investigators at church than members!). It's so amazing to see the changes in those people who are preparing to be baptised  It can't be imagined or faked. I can see how happy they are in stark contrast to the way they were when we first met them.

I was thinking about what to do when I get home. I'm hoping we could go to the temple on the Saturday. I would like to attend Institute, work with the missionaries for one day or even just a few hours. Can you also please make sure we have some rice in the house? I feel a little anxious about coming home but it hasn't really hit me yet. Still have eight weeks to do some good works.

We have some baptisms coming up so that takes my attention. Thanks for your emails this week guys. They always make my day. I love you guys tons. Hope you have a great week!
Elder Dustan

Cashews? Who Knew?? - Week 99. Serving in Sarrat

Hey guys! This week was pretty sweet. Feels like it was only a day though - so short. We had our ZLC on Monday and Tuesday. This time there were no trainings, we just sat around the table and discussed stuff about the mission. Started at 2 and went until 6ish - just straight talking and sitting around the table. It was actually exhausting.  ZLC was good though. It was fun to be with Elders T, M and T from my MTC group. So weird that we will be heading home soon. After our council I was way excited to get back to Sarrat and get to work. We set a new goal for baptisms in the area and it's very big but specific and we are really excited about it. It feels good having a specific goal for baptisms.

We jumped right into it when we got back from Laoag and went to a less active family and set a baptism date for their sons. They were all excited to get back to church and get things in order.

We taught a lesson with a teenage boy who didn't really talk much. When he did talk, it was like a whisper. Then as we were teaching, his mother came out - eyes open really wide, walking with straight posture like she had just been scared stiff but with a huge smile on her face. She came over and shook our hands and then went back inside. Then, as we carried on with the awkward lesson, she came out over and over and over and shook both our hands and went back inside. It was weird and hilarious at the same time.

On Wednesday I went on exchange with  the district leader in Piddig. The fellowshipper who came with us was hilarious This guy would start laughing halfway through every sentence he spoke and he just thinks everything is hilarious. He also showed me where to pick cashews! They grow here!!!! Who knew?

We worked with the new senior couple in our area this week. They are from Idaho but really the sister is from Switzerland as she immigrated to the US. They came and met us here and we went to visit the old tatay and his wife who we water plants for. As we taught them, the senior missionaries took out a quilt which had the Plan of Salvation really clearly quilted into it. When they taught, it was so powerful. They teach so simply and they love the culture so much. They are trying to learn the language and they aren't bad either. They also helped us water the crops and the sister even wanted to copy me and go barefoot. It was really fun. They worked with us the whole day. They were also invited back to the family's place for lunch on Saturday. They made a huge feast (the missionary couple brought some of the meal) and it was awesome. It was all filipino foods and they loved it. They teach so clearly and powerfully, it's amazing. They really taught us a lot too.

We have a lot of good people we are teaching right now. Including a 40 year old father who really wants to listen and learn but he isn't very fluent in Tagalog. He's reading the Book of Mormon though and seems to be grateful to read it. We are doing well here and things are going well. I am loving the people and culture more and more. I love the Ilocano culture and language and foods too and I kind of feel bad for having resented Ilocano in the past. Also I have my last zone conference coming up. Weird!

Thanks for the emails. Love you guys!
Elder Dustan

Going FULL PINOY From Here On In - Week 98. Serving in Sarrat

Hey guys. This week was actually pretty long but went fast - if that makes any sense. Got a lot of good lessons in though, which felt good. I started really trying to learn Ilocano and it's pretty fun. The people here LOVE when you try to speak it. As long as you are trying to speak their language, they won't make fun of you for it. When I learn a new word, I try to make a connection with the word and something else in my mind that will help me remember the word. A funny one is "duggong" which was a pokemon that I remember. It means booger in Ilocano so now I will never forget that one.

We had an awesome day on Tuesday. We had two morning lessons which were amazing. One was with that guy who worked in Saudi Arabia and is now back with sickness. He said he would love to be baptized once he learns the Book of Mormon is true. He is actually reading it and praying about it. We teach him all in English - it's weird. Then we had a lesson with this one guy who had a stroke. We taught lesson one to him and his girlfriend. I realized just how awful a stroke is and it freaked me out to possibly end up like that. They fed us after our lesson (which is rare with a brand new investigator). We had pinakbet which is a big Ilocano dish which I love. It's all veggies and some fish sauce called bagoong. We loved it so much that we decided to buy the ingredients and we cooked it twice on our own this week - way quick and easy to cook.

 We taught a family this week and the tatay doesn't speak much tagalog. He has two sons, 16 and 21. They were all there for our appointment when we went! Tatay and his one son were sitting down with the Book of Mormon when we got there! They are so cool. The eldest son came in a few minutes after we started and he was way into the lessons and then he asked, "Elders... can we be forgiven of all of our sins? And how?" (Gold!) We are going back on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we did language day -didn't speak English all day from waking up to sleeping at night. It actually was tiring. Nothing will ever replace my native language, as much as I love Tagalog.

We had dinner with the N family Thursday night. She is a widow and has a daughter in Young Women. A prospective elder came with us and it was a great dinner. Then as we left, after our lesson with them, I noticed one of my shoes was missing! It took us about 10 minutes to find it and then when we did, it had a big bite taken from the back near the ankle. A dog had some fun with it. I was a little ticked (they are my Eccos) but it also looks pretty funny - it's got a real bite out of it with the teeth marks and everything.

We were asked by a member to go and teach a less active family. We were a little judgmental of this member in the past because he is always late for church. Then we started to notice that he is only late because every Sunday he goes and picks up as many members of this one family that he can talk into coming to church. I felt bad for being annoyed with him. He asked us to help because the tatay of the family wouldn't come. We met him at the house and the daughter said that the tatay was sleeping. So this brother went into the house and woke the man up and brought him out and said, "Sorry, but you need to be taught. This will only take a few minutes." It was a great lesson too. Then when the lesson was over, the brother said, "Every member is told by the area presidency to rescue one person this year. You were baptized before me. I am sad that you aren't at church any more, and you have a lot of sons who need to grow up in the church. I am going to rescue you." (way straight forward, but it worked really well). We went to church with two of his sons all dressed up and they loved it. The brother was just doing his part by trying to get the area goals done as early in the year as possible. He is a good man and we were really proud of him.

I realized yesaterday that in something like 10 weeks I will be giving a homecoming talk. Then I got to thinking about what lessons I have learned on my mission. I am going to keep analyzing that until I go home and see how I have grown. Anyways, I am doing great and I feel good. I am going FULL PINOY this week until I leave, which means I am not eating anything I can get at home - like cereal (my comp loves eating Weetabix) or bread or anything. Thanks for your emails guys. I love you lots!
Elder Dustan

Takin' Some Cues From the Old Man - Week 97. Serving in Sarrat

Hey guys. Thanks for the emails and the birthday wishes. Nothing really big planned today. An older couple in the branch invited us over for dinner but we have appointments and we also will be in Laoag getting food. So we'll just go out to eat. This week was great - well, actually we got punted from almost every lesson that we had planned this week, but when we were punted we were great at finding people to teach. For reals, we found some of the coolest people today.

One is a guy who speaks English fluently and worked abroad in Saudi Arabia but came back because he got sick. While he's here, he's just relaxing and recovering. On our first visit, he had a ton of questions but he was a little difficult to deal with. On the second visit, he had questions too but he was just really excited to learn. Turns out that he had prayed to find out why he had gotten sick, ("why me?") and then it hit him - God planned it so that he could receive the message we are bringing him that he would have never received in Saudi Arabia. He understood the first lesson really well and said he believes it but wants to read the Book of Mormon to be sure (perfect!). He is fun to teach and is a family guy too.

We also met a guy who is way prepared and smart and really good at English too. He used to give seminars at universities. Also, once when we got punted this week, we had a few minutes left and didn't know where to go, so we went up to a house and when they opened the door we just acted WAY excited and outgoing and really happy and when they let us in, it was like they didn't know what hit them. They were a beautiful family too! We actually have about 4 or 5 families we are teaching now which is amazing since it's usually hard to get complete families here. I feel really good about our work this week.

We taught this one girl that has a baptismal date now. We taught her about the Holy Ghost and she explained it back to us so well. She said that sometimes she wakes up in the morning just really happy and excited about the day and she is thankful for all that she has. Other times she wakes up and is annoyed and grumpy. She can tell when the spirit is with her. We are both feeling that now - we wake up every morning just so happy and excited to get to studies and to get out to work. I am so happy I didn't get transferred.

We heard that the southern-most stake/zone in our mission is going to be part of the Baguio mission, so Santa Maria will no longer be a Laoag mission area.

We worked with a couple of newer missionaries this week as they were in Laoag for transfers. It was really fun. They bring a lot of energy to the mission. Crazy to see just how outgoing and talkative these young guys are when they really can't even speak the language. It was also really weird to notice how they all look to me. Not that I am great or anything, it's just that they found out how long I have been out. In the last lesson, the four of us were teaching together and these two were just looking to me to see what I do. I remember being like that too - looking up so much to the veterans and the assistants. It feels like yesterday.

We have two areas in our zone that have been really struggling lately. We have been talking with the missionaries there about it and then discussed what they can do to improve things. Then this week they just went out and applied it all - all the things we said, all the trainings they received - and their work went WAY up. It's such a good feeling to see that, and know that they are feeling that sense of complete happiness and accomplishment. It's cool that my patriarchal blessing says that I will get joy from this work that I will not be able to get in any other way. It's so true - I am really feeling it.

Anyways, I gotta bounce. We have a lot to do. I love you guys and miss you lots.
Elder Dustan

Jesus Must Have Been Tired - Week 96. Serving in Sarrat

Hey guys. Not too much to tell you this week. We just went to work. We're really happy with our work this week too. We have four new people we are working towards baptism with. On Monday we went to teach one of our baptismal candidates. His whole family was being prepared but then his wife got pregnant and is quite sick so she can't come out and listen anymore because she’s too sick. So we are just teaching her husband now. He didn't go to church last week and that was all that was stopping him from being baptized as he is really ready other than that. He also lives a minute away from the church.

We didn't want to teach about Sabbath day observance the day after he didn't go to church because we didn't want him to think we were chastising him. When we got to his house, Elder O started the lesson and then the thought came to my mind,” You should teach about the Sabbath day" and I got that feeling you get in a testimony meeting when you know there's something you should get up and say and you get anxious and your heart beats fast. But before this, we had really decided on not teaching that principle at that time. I didn't want to interrupt Elder O, but still it bothered me and I knew that we were to teach about the Sabbath day. Elder O continued on with the lesson, and then just as I was about to speak up, he paused and said, "Actually, we are going to talk about the Sabbath day." So cool how the spirit told us the exact same thing, yet before the lesson we were both set on not teaching it. It was one of the best lessons I have ever taught too. We felt really good after that one.

I went on exchange in Piddig this week. I remember going there on exchange back when I was in Vintar and hating it. I felt claustrophobic there and felt like the people didn't care. This time I was with Elder M (I was with his brother in the MRC). It was my best exchange yet and I left thinking, "How can I make Sarrat more like Piddig?"

 Elder M goes home on Tuesday as he is done his mission. His goal before he leaves was to get into this HUGE house in Piddig - a mansion that overlooks the valley and the river. The gate was open so we went in. We spoke English to the people there and they let us in and we met the owner. He is a businessman who lives in Las Vegas but was born in Piddig. He said all his associates and doctors and lawyers are Mormon. Then he told us to teach the people who lived on his compound (he was going out) so we did and taught a really cool family the whole message of the Restoration. It was one of the best lessons I ever taught. I will always remember these people. They were so attentive and were so amazed that we gave them something they can analyze to know if what we are teaching is true.

It was a great week of work. Then Sunday, most of the branch wasn't at church. We had branch conference and there was a lot of people but only because of all the stake leaders that were there.  Sunday school was full but we only had eight members there - actually that includes investigators. So we were a little disappointed (and that guy we taught sabbath day observance to and then reviewed it with him throughout the week, and committed him to church attendance like 5 times... didn't go again). So yeah, we are loving our work and getting a lot done and then not seeing many fruits of our labours as of yet. It's exhausting. It's more tiring when you give everything you got to people and then get little response in return. Jesus Christ must have been tired. But we are happy and still feel good about our work. We have at least 6 more weeks here as neither of us was transferred. Our plan this transfer, since we worked like crazy last transfer, is to go balls crazy with the work this transfer and get some FRUIT.

Anyways, I am learning a lot here. Learning how to deal with people, how to love them, how to keep a relationship going, how to go long periods of time without water (our apartment runs out of water often), how to cook sweet food, how to feel and follow the spirit always - lots of stuff. Too bad I only have two more transfers. This is Elder S's (my trainer) last transfer!!! Weird.

Anyways, thanks for your emails guys. I love you lots!! Hope you have a great week.
Elder Dustan

Who Wants Chocolate Covered Meat? - Week 95. Serving in Sarrat

I have the worst sun burn EVER right now! Hurts way bad. All that stuff I said about not getting sun burns in the Philippines doesn't apply I guess, when being out in the fun Laoag summer sun on a beach for three hours. Oh yeah, we went to the beach. We had our Laoag zone activity today and it was great. We played Ultimate Frisbee and one of the rules was that your touchdown didn't count unless you passed it to a sister (of which there are five) to make it fair. It was way fun. Then we played some Filipino games which always include sitting in a circle and having one person lose and mocking them mercilessly - fun too though.  We all brought food and after we ate, we played football on the beach. It was so much fun but too bad our time was limited.

Our week started out with punts - lots of them. We still felt good about the plans we made and about our efforts so it wasn't too bad. On Tuesday we went and watered Tatay R's crops again and got lost in service. Soon we realized we had worked too long and accidentally punted our fellowshipper who had biked to the farthest barangay in the area to work with us. He was pretty upset. We felt awful but it was just pure accident. We committed after that to keep our service to 45 minutes at each visit to the R's so that nothing like that happens again.

On Wednesday we had exchanges with the assistants. I worked with Elder A. He's the filipino elder that was Elder T's companion in Camalaniugan when I was there. I have worked with him tons of times already and it was still fun. He's hilarious. We taught an amazing lesson to a 25 year old guy. he asked amazing questions about the Book of Mormon. He thinks about the stuff we teach and tries to understand. It's marvelous.

 We also went back to this one guy's house that we had tried to contact before but he hadn't been home - only his house help was. This guy has a way nice house ("modern contemporary design") and also a couple of cars. When we walked up to his house that evening, he came out and was so excited to talk with us. He says he is being taught by some other churches and that they all tell him that they are the true church and if he doesn't join then he will be damned. So we went in and shared simply the whole first lesson. We asked, "Do you believe God loves you?"
"Yes", he said. Then we asked, "Do you believe he wants you to return to him?" The answer was yes again.
"Then don't you think that he would TELL you what exactly you must do to get back to him?" Then we shared the restoration and it was awesome. He invited us back. I will always remember sitting there outside his modern contemporary house, a line of bonsai trees behind me, and a nice warm breeze coming in and just feeling so calm and easy with the things we were teaching -  pure fruits of the spirit being manifest. He is such a cool guy too. He does all kinds of things with his son who is 14. They go biking together from here to Vintar, through Laoag and back! It's so great to see a tatay share interests with his son.

We also met a couple from Manila that is staying in Sarrat to help their nanay who is old. They saw us in a jeep a couple of weeks ago after we got some food (from Tacos del Norte, the only "real" Mexican food in the mission!) and were contemplating eating it on the jeep. We opened the styrofoam box and went to eat it but noticed all the people on the jeep watching so we put it away for later. When we met this couple, they were laughing so hard as they told us how it looked from their point of view.

We taught them, and the sister had a book out and was taking notes in the lesson. They gave us some dinuguan which is pigs meat cooked in pigs blood. We ate it last night and it's so good. It looks like chocolate covered meat.

We had a bunch of baptismal interviews this week and were all over the place trying to get to them and also get our own work in. Those interviews are always cool experiences.

Anyway, this was a pretty good week. I learned a lot and feel good about the work though there is not as much progress as I hoped. It would be so cool to show you guys around this place some time in the future and have you try all the awesome foods here. Ninety percent of the stuff that sounds or looks gross is actually awesome. We got two new missionaries in our zone (it's cool that I recognized them from when their profiles came into the office way back). One is a young kid from Utah and on his fourth day in the Philippines he got to go with his whole zone in a rented jeep to a nice beach. That's got to be such a great experience for him. The activity really helped me love our missionaries more - they are really awesome. I get mixed emotions between thinking of me leaving this place on a plane and wanting to cry and getting to the Ottawa airport and seeing you guys and being way happy. But I will be ready. Anyways, love you guys lots.
Elder Dustan