Kamusta

Kamusta Everybody,

 This past week has gone well! My new companion is great and we have been finding lots of success. 

 We have found some new investigators through some of the less active members in the group here. One of them named Judith is awesome, she is really excited about the gospel and wants to be baptized. Her friend came to visit her this past weekend for her birthday and Judith invited us over so that we could teach her too. 

 On Thursday we had to go to Calapan so that I could get a picture taken for the government here. We went to this mall type place and there were a lot of white people there. All of them avoided us and did not want to talk to me or any of the other American elders. There are a lot of old men who come here and marry really young Filipinos. Most people call them dirty joes. The other day one of the American elders in my District yelled at one of them "Hey Joe!" The guy was really confused when he saw that another white guy had yelled at him but his wife laughed.

 Our area is really starting to pick up and I am excited to start getting some baptisms here. We have one coming up this Saturday that should go well.  I hope everyone has a great week and is doing well. 

  Mahal Kita

    Elder Merrill

Sunset!

Kamusta Everybody,

 This past week has gone really well! Life and missionary work out here on the island is alot of fun. This past week we went out to San Pablo to go to a meeting and  had perfect timing on the boat ride, right as the sun was setting.(picture)

 I am also loving having a bike. I finally got it all fixed up and now it works well. Its really nice not having to pay for a tricycle and we get to appointments much faster. 

This past week I also saw several of the Native people here on the island. Luckily the guy I saw was walking towards me so all i saw was the front end of his loincloth... and not his rear. 

 In the area we are trying to focus on finding new investigators. Most people here are either very Catholic or belong to Iglacia ni Cristo. We are also looking for a new meeting house which is great because it means that more people are coming to church. before there was only around 10-15 people attending but now its more in the high 20's! Hopefully soon we will be become a branch. 

 Other than that not much is happening. I hope everyone has a great week!

 Kita Kits

     Elder Merrill

Island of Mindoro

Kamusta Everybody,

 This past week has great but a little hectic. First of all, I got called to be a district leader so I got transferred to Mindoro, one of the islands in the mission. Tuesday I said good bye to many of the members and investigators and then also got all of my things packed up. Then Wednesday I traveled all day. Lopez, my last area is on one side of the Country and then Mindoro is on the other side. We had to go to the Port in Batangas and then take a boat out to the island. 

 My new companion is Elder Cordova and he doesn't speak any English. So in the course of the next several weeks my Tagalog is going to significantly improve. Hopefully!

 The area here is really pretty.  There are only a few members so we are just a group. Our meeting house is a rented building that is super small but the members have made it look really nice on the inside. All of the members here are really friendly and doing good missionary work. They want to convert their friends and eventually become a branch.

 We also have bikes here which is fun but kind of a pain in the butt. The Elder who used it before me was a larger person so I have spent the past several days fixing it up.

 Thats about all for this week. I hope everyone has a great week.

  Mahal Kita,

     Elder Merrill

 (I hope you enjoy the picture..afterwards, the monkey took a bite out of the pages from Nephi to Alma :) 

Basket Weaver

Kamusta Everybody!

   This past week has gone pretty well! We have seen really great progress with a lot of our investigators and we’ve also done some fun service projects.

    It has been great because the Masaoay family will be able to get baptized soon. Last month Brother Masaoay was working in construction and couldn’t attend church. However, he has now decided he wants to start his own restaurant.  His wife has also been listening to the discussions, and so they have been attending church as a family. 

  We also found a new investigator who is 76. It is absolutely amazing because he can read! Most people here over the age of 60 can’t see very well but he can even read the small print in the pamphlets. We gave him a Book of Mormon and by the next day he had already read 3 chapters. 

 On Saturday we helped one of our investigator families weave baskets. I thought that it wouldn't be too hard but in reality it was REALLY difficult…. the stupid leaf things break easy and then you have to tie them together so it doesn't look ugly. I think she appreciated our help and hopefully the company that sends that baskets to America will buy mine. So if at Pottery Barn you see a woven basket that isn't too pretty it could be the one I made. :)

 Then earlier today we helped a family go and cut down bamboo to build a house. We went to some land that their friend owns directly behind the huge cemetery here and cut down the bamboo.  We also drank some buko juice and made some neat straws out of the smaller bamboo pieces that worked really well. I have been impressed with how intuitive the people here are. They can survive off the land for everything that they need. 

 Well thats about all for this week! We'll see if I get transferred this week or not!

   Mahal Kita

      Elder Merrill

Cracking Knuckles

Kamusta Everybody,

 This past week hasn't been too eventful. We had great progress though with our investigators and lots of them came to church. 

 One great experience that I had was working with our investigators Margarito and Precy. They both are ready to be baptized and will be able to after they get married next month. The fact that they are getting married and have a plan is a major blessing. Most people here have lots of complications. They either don’t have a birth certificate, they have older siblings unmarried (the culture here is that you can’t get marred before an older sibling) or they aren't in a financial position to pay for the marriage license.  Margarito is also doing really well in trying to overcome his smoking addiction. The past few days I have been trying to give up the simple habit of cracking my knuckles. In order to be able to better understand how tough it must be for him to quit his addiction.  It is almost impossible for me to stop doing a simple thing like cracking my knuckles, so I really admire him for his determination to give up smoking. 

 Earlier today we also went on a hike to the mountains on the seashore. It is really pretty over there and we rode these homemade cart things called Skates on the rail road. The view was really pretty and I came back with some great pictures, a few neat seashells and a nice sunburn. 

 Other than that nothing of any significance has happened in the past week.

I hope you all are doing really well and feel the love of God more in your life this next week.

 Mahal Kita

    Elder Merrill

American Made

Kamusta Everybody!

 This week has gone really well! We’ve been working with a lot of our members and have found some new investigators that are really interested. 

 One of the members in our ward who had been sick with cancer passed away this week. We went and visited the family and tried to help with the preparations. Here in the Philippines if somebody dies, they keep the body at the house for 3 days and people come and visit. Some of the people gamble and they play games and have food. It is kind of  like a party. Then for the funeral itself we all walked to the cemetery  and watch as the people put the coffin in the ground and then cover it in concrete. The funeral itself is really bleak but the Plan of Salvation gives us all hope and knowledge death isn't the end. 

 We also helped one of our members make coal, which is a really dirty job. After the wood/coconut shells sat for a few days and burned we helped him pack it all into bags. It wasn't too hard of work but by the time we were done there was a big crowd of people watching the guwapo (American) bag coal. He sold the bags for a little bit more than usual and told people it was because it was "American made”.

 Other than that not much happened this past week. Earlier we went and found a spot for a hike next week so I will send some pictures next Monday. It should be a lot of fun.

 I hope everyone has a great week and is doing well!

  Mahal Kita

     Elder Merrill

Happy New Year!

Kamusta Everybody,

  This past week has gone really well! We had lots of good lessons and I have some fun experiences to share. 

   First our recent converts are doing really well. Sister Ramos had her two older kids come home for the holidays. The oldest daughter, Darlyn (who isn't a member), was really interested and we taught her several lessons. She committed to be baptized and was reading from the Book of Mormon every day. She went back to College though on Saturday so the missionaries over there will get to continue teaching her.  Sister Ramos has also asked me to help her with her family tree so she can go the temple and be baptized for her grandma. 

  The older nananys in our ward have also given us a lot of referrals. Between the 3 of them they went out tracting on their own and found 5 part member family's who we are now teaching.

  We’ve also had a lot of dinner appointments this week, which was great because that doesn't happen too often. It also means that I had the opportunity to try some new foods. First, one of our investigators made us a green pudding /jello thing with fat chunks of banana in it. I also helped one of the members make some soiman, a sticky rice thing that you dip in sugar and wrap in a banana leaf (picture). It looked easy to do but wrapping the leaf was tough. I made two of them and the members told me that because “I made it I had to eat it" The ones I made didn't look very pretty but they tasted just fine. 

  Well that’s about all for this week. I hope you all are doing great and have made/are keeping your New Year’s resolutions!

 Mahal Kita

   Elder Merrill