5/28

I can't believe the trip to belize was a year ago.  It doesn't seem like a long time ago to me.   I am also excited for my year mark.  One year isn't forever like two years is.  I think it would be fun to work at Cooke city again after I return.  Honestly, I think James is going to be really bored this summer just himself.  I was never bored there because I had all the other cousins and had a great time doing hikes and canoeing but I think I would get bored and lonely by myself. 

Thanks for the email.  Also, could you see if you and dad could get my debit card figured out?  It stopped working.  I went to the website earlier but couldn't get it figured out.  Because of that I really don't have much computer time left at all.  Thanks

Love, Matthew

5/22

I never thought that I would ever be getting two people married but that is what we did yesterday. Our investigator on the left wearing the white shirt has been an investigator for a long time but isn't married to his wife so we finally scheduled a day and when to the Justice Hall and got them married.  Him and two of his kids will probably be baptized on June 10 if they come to church the next two weeks.

The missionares from the puerto princesa zone.  Our district became a stake recently and we had the first stake conference.  Elder Boen, and area seventy came and it was a great stake conference.

I think that on this point of my mission/life I can conquer almost any food.  Here I am eating the philippino delicacy, "Balut"  It is a fertilized duck egg and the duck inside is 17 days old.  It was so gross but I can't really say I've been to the philippines if I haven't tried balut.  It didn't taste to bad but there was definitely a duck inside and the texture was really gross.  All philippinos like it and they eat it with salt and vinegar.

This last week I went on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Rushton from Utah.  We had to do something awesome so we went and ordered this huge pizza and ate the entire thing just ourselves.  You can also see the near empty pitcher of fanta behind it.  It was a fun exchange and after we were completely stuffed from eating this pizza we were forced to eat more food given to us by some members for their daughter's 1st birthday.  I was stuffed.

This last week was pretty adventurous in the area.  We have been working a lot with finding less actives and part member families.  I think that is really the only way to do it.  It is so much easier to get a baptism if a member works with you or they have some connection to the church.  One day we were looking for an inactive member but couldn't find him.  The next day while we were out we stumbled upon him when we got invited to a birthday party dinner.  It is cool how we eventually find the people we are looking for.  We are now teaching his non-member wife.   

     We I had a good exchange this week with my district leader in my area.  We worked really hard and rewarded ourselves with a huge pizza and ate the entire thing.  It was pretty great and also pretty expensive.  I will have to wait until next month before trying something like that again.

     This last week our branch also became a ward The Puerto Princesa 1st ward.  Our new bishop is an Australian who lives here with his philippino wife.  He is the only white person in the whole ward.  He also doesn't speak tagalog.  Most people here are alright with English but there are some that don't speak it.  I don't know what he will do when he has to interview someone who doesn't speak English.  

     Recently the other elders in the appartment have been talking about how I have never eaten Balut, a philippino delicacy.  It is a fertilized duck egg with a real duck inside.  One night we were walking down the street when a balut vendor was riding his bike toward us.  My companion wanted to buy one.  The vendor was a less active member and I told him I would buy one if he came to church that Sunday.  Later that night we cracked open the balut and I gave it a try.  I just don't know why people eat that stuff.

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Love, Elder Harkness

5/7

We had a Family Home evening with some members and ate this huge fish.   It was really good.

A giant fish head!  the members had already sold the rest of it.

Me with the other elders at the top of Bakers hill.

Last P day we went to a tourist spot called bakers hill.  There were a lot of statues and things to take pictures of.  There was also a really good bakery there.

This past week was transfers.  I am still in Puerto Princesa but have a new companion, Elder Arpon.  He only has three months left or two transfers.  That means either this will be my last transfer here or I will be here in this area for a long time.  Elder Arpon is from Leyte.  His language is warai warai.  One cool thing on my mission is that I have never had a companion who's native language was the same as another companion.  1st companion Bisaya, second companion Pangalatok,  Third companion, Ilocano, and now my fourth companion's native language is Warai Warai.  There are so many languages in the Philippines. 

    Because transfers were this week it was pretty long and lots of missionaries stayed over at our apartment which of course resulted in sleep deprivation.  One cool thing was two missionaries that were serving in Quezon, my first area were being transferred to Manila and I was able to follow up what has happened since I left.  The 22 year old sister that we baptized is still active in the church and wants to serve a mission.  Her 18 year old brother that was baptized the week after I left is now the young men's president and also wants to serve a mission.  The family with the mother and four girls that we baptized are still active as well.  I was really happy to find that the people we baptized in my first area are still active and going to church and that some of them may serve missions.  

     As for this area it is a lot more tough but we have been seeing some success.  Last Sunday some new investigators that we only taught once happened to show up at church and seemed to have a good experience.  Another investigator that we have been working on also showed up with his family.  We are working on getting him married.  I think we should be seeing some success in this area over the next few months.

       

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Love, Elder Harkness