Matthew's adventures in the Philippines: Trek to Panitian

This last week was really good with getting new investigators and people coming to church.

We had a zone meeting this past week so back to Narra. After a good meeting we came back to the house. After we got back to the house we still had 45 minutes to go out and try to teach. It wasn't successful but we did find some of our investigators and recent converts walking home from seminary.

Wednesday we got 4 referrals from an excited drunk guy we met on the street. He called all his friends over and told them to listen to us. The drunk people here are so nice. I also bought a bunch of bananas. There are 3 main kinds of bananas here. A thick kind, a small kind, and a long skinny kind. I don't know the names so that is what I will call them. The long skinny kind comes in green and yellow and it is my favorite but is also the most rare. The bananas here are practically free. The average is one piso per banana or about two cents.

Thursday was somewhat of an adventure. We have known about two families with inactive members that live in an area about 20 minutes away by trike in an area called Panitian. We assumed that we would take a trike out there, somehow find the families, and then walk all the way back because we didn't think there would be any trikes out that far.

We grabbed a trike and started heading out to Panitian. I started to get a little worried about having to walk back because we just kept going farther and farther. Eventually we went far enough that I started getting really concerned about having to walk back so we just told the trike driver to let us out there. We were out in seemingly the middle of nowhere with just a few houses and a lot of rice fields. We talked to a lady that was out in front of her house and she gave us a few directions. We started walking in the direction she told us to go and then asked some other people if they knew the families we were looking for. One of them told us to walk ten minutes the way we were going and that they would be near a high school. I had some doubts that there was a high school anywhere near but we kept walking. After probably an hour and a half of walking, searching, and asking we found a boy who took us to the house of one of the families we were looking for. When we got to the house there was a 14 year old girl who recognized us. She told us that she had been going to church but I really doubted that because I swear I have never seen her in my life. We asked her some questions about the branch to see if she was lying and she wasn't. We weren't able to find the other family but know the area that they live in so I guess we pretty much went out all that way for nothing. The good news is that we were able to find a trike to take us back. It was a good adventure though.

Friday I had a cool experience talking to some people. Elder Ramos and I came to a house with four people out front so we both decided to each talk to two. I began talking to a man about the church. He was nice and friendly and I was actually able to have a five minute conversation with him. I understood almost everything he said and was able to speak back to him. It was great. He kind of wanted to bible bash but nicely. He asked me about what day the Sabbath is on and I came to find out that he was a seventh day adventist. I feel like that is the only thing adventists ever talk about is how saturday is the sabath. It is probably because if they are wrong (which is true) it would destroy their religion. I don't know how anyone could know that Saturday is really the seventh day. I just told him that the only thing that matters is that we chose one day of the week to worship.

Saturday we continued reteaching the Gerarmans and afterwards they fed us dinner. I really like the Gerarmans. They are really nice and love to feed us. I tried chicken liver for the first time. It was definitely interesting.

Yesterday we had 6 investigators show up at church which was really good for us. One of them was Angelito Lepalam, the guy who has had all the lessons but his leg is hurt. I think it is getting better slowly. I just hope he will continue coming to church so he can be baptized.

That is pretty much all for the week. A few people just came over to watch me type without looking at the screen or keyboard. I think they are impressed.

Love, Elder Harkness

We also have a mouse/rat infestation in our house. We set out some sticky pads and caught one the other day. The only problem is that the sticky pads don't kill the mice.

Thanks for the email and the pictures.

P.S. I really need the skype address. I will be skyping christmas evening for you. Around 8:00 am for me. I don't know what time that is for you guys.