7/9

This last week has been great with a few new investigators that seem promising.  We have been trying to teach a less active member and his nonmember wife and they actually showed up at church on Sunday.  We should definitely start teaching her.  I just hope they will keep coming every week and be available for us to teach them.   

     The other week our apartment door handle broke so we got a new one.  We had to get the key copied because there was only one.  We went to two different places that had key copier machines but none of them had matches for our key.  For a week an a half we had a string of floss attached to the key and the floss was discretely hanging out of a window so we all could get in.  we realized that we would probably have to go to someone who would file it by hand like we did last time.  Last time the keys worked but not super well.  When we went to this other key copier he was actually a lot better than the last one.  Instead of just using a file he used an electric saw thing and then filed it a little.   All of  the keys work okay so now we all have one.      We also did some exploring in the area this week.  We recently got tarpaulin area maps and we realized that a large part of what we thought was the sisters' area is actually part of ours.  This is pretty nice for us because we have a lot bigger area but it really stinks for the sisters because their area is pretty small now and they lost some of their investigators.

     Earlier this week my companion had to take an English test so we went to the senior couples' house.  They are Elder and Sister Porteous from Canada.  It was really great for me because while my companion was taking the test the senior couple was feeding me apples, crackers, and cheese, and gatorade.  

     On Thursday we had another lesson with our one investigator, Aljan.  He had read Lehi's dream and we talked about that.  He admitted to us that he felt something was missing in his life.  He also said he knows that what we are teaching him is good because of the member family he lives with.  He still hasn't been to church but I think he has a good chance of becoming more interested.

     One funny thing that happened this week was while we were out walking one night I was trying to text the zone leaders something when I stepped into a 1x1 foot canal full of the most disgusting black frothy water in the world.  It got all over my shoe and some on my pants.  I was so embarrassed because people around me noticed so I said to my companion  "Okay, lets go!"  What I didn't realize was that when I stepped into the black water it splashed onto a lady nearby who was trying to light her cigarette.  We apologized and we walked away.  It's one of those things that when you look back on it it is really funny.

     On Sunday there was a foreigner in church and we talked with him.  He is from Lehi, Utah and is here on military business.  He might be here for a few weeks.

My companion is doing alright.  It isn't anything huge.  We also get along alright.  We will all meet the new mission president this week when he comes.  The missionaries say he is really chill and has a New Zealand accent.  One funny thing is the philippinos can often speak English really well but it is hard for them to understand different accents in English.  One sister couldn't understand the new mission president. 

Palawan is really beautiful.  I have seen some great scenery especially the mountains that I send you pictures of.  It is even more beautiful up north in el nido but I won't be able to go there on my mission. 

Thanks for the emails mom.

Love,  Matthew

Thats pretty much everything from the week.

Elder Harkness

7/2

 We did a lot of finding this week in the area and found some new investigators.  We'll see if they progress at all. 

     Last week on p-day I did a bit of a food experiment.  Here they have a dessert called Biko.  It is basically just sweet sticky rice.  I tried making my own version of it last week by putting the rice in the cooker and adding sweetened condensed milk.  It actually turned out pretty good.

     Tuesday was another milestone on the mission.  On Tuesday I had exactly one year left on my mission.  

     This week we also did exchanges again and I worked in the other area.  We saw a fruit stand and I bought a watermelon that is yellow on the inside.  I think it tastes better than the red ones we have.

     Another day we had a fun service project in the other area.  We were weeding and clearing out a member's lot of land.  I thought it was really fun.  By the time we were done we had created a 4 foot wall of plants on one side of the lot.  We used sticks, rakes, hoes, and machetes to get it all done.  Afterwards the members fed us.

     We taught Aljan, one of our investigators about prayer and knowing that what we have taught is true.  He is living at the home of a member family so it is a good situation for us to teach him.  Unfortunately at the end of the lesson he thanked us for what we have taught him but he isn't really open about changing his religion because he is catholic.  It makes me a little mad when people just don't get it.  There are so many churches here in the philippines and none of them can compare to our church.  I have seen baptists, 7th day adventists, wesleyans, Jehovas witnesses, church of christ, iglesia ni cristo, etc.  Our church is the only church in the world that is organized from the top to the bottom.  The catholic church here can't even keep its incorrect doctrines straight.  If this church were not true I know that there is no possibility that there could be any other true or complete church.  If our investigators just knew this I don't think they could reject what we teach them.

     This week we also were able to contact a referral from  the sisters in the ward.  We were pretty lucky because we contacted them the day before the moved back to the area of the sisters that gave them to us.  I think this was a bit of divine help.  I'm sure the sisters will have a good time teaching them.  I always think it is fun trying to find people in the area.  Its kind of like an investigator treasure hunt.

--
We will meet the new mission president on the 12th when he comes to Palawan.  I see tourists here but only in certain areas.  There are hotels in my areas but and one resort but we don't go to those places a lot.  I met a guy from Russia who does tourism here.  The branch here is alright but the members don't work with us as much. 

Thanks for the email. I remembered it was yours and dad's anniversary this week.

Love,

Matthew

Love, Elder Harkness

6/25

Last Monday we had a dinner appointment with some members in our area.  It is a father, mother, and their teenage daughter.  Having dinner with them on Monday evenings is a pretty regular thing.  I really like it because almost always they serve huge fish that we completely devour.  I think one thing I will miss after my mission is all the sea fish.  There are so many different types and they taste pretty good.  They really don't taste fishy at all.  This last appointment they told us that their house was haunted by a ghost and then showed us a picture that the teenager had taken where in the first picture there is nothing in the background and in the second picture it looks like there is a ghost with black hair and is actually really creepy.  Sometimes the people here are so superstitious. We asked them if they had dedicated their home and they said they hadn't.  I told them they could dedicate it but they said they were fine and that the ghost was friendly. 

     Also last Monday in the morning we went to play basketball at the church.  When we were done we noticed a group of members from all around Palawan getting ready for a temple trip. When their meeting was over we went to see them.  I was really surprised to see two converts from my last area in Quezon.  They were on their way to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.  They were the two best investigators I have taught.  It was great to see them again because when I was transferred I never got a chance to say goodbye to anyone in the area.  We all got some pictures and then said goodbye.

     This week we also had a fun service project.  We weeded some and digged holes for fence posts.  At the beginning it was almost unbearably hot but we were pretty lucky when it started raining later on.  The rain was great to work in even though we got soaked.  The Philippinos wanted to take shelter because they know that if your head gets wet in the rain you will get sick.  The rest of the foreigners just kept working and got wet and guess what?  None of us got sick.  I guess that myth just got busted.

     We also had President Ostler's last zone conference with us this week.  It was a good meeting.  We talked about the new mission president.  He will be President Fermanis from New Zealand.  I have now spent one year with one mission president and have exactly one more year with the new one.  During the conference they showed some pictures from a recent convert trip to the temple.  I was surprised to see that about 1/3 of the pictures were of people I know from Quezon.  That area was really on fire.  I was so blessed to have gotten go be there when so much success was going on.

-- 

Love, Elder Harkness

Pictures:  1: part of the area.  2: I got a picture of a pet monkey while we were out.  3: A cool spider we saw while working.  These kind of spiders are really big but won't bite you. The little kids like to put two on a stick and have them fight.   4: The recent converts going on a trip to the temple.  I am a little sweaty because we had just finished playing basketball.

I actually didn't get transferred this transfer and am still in the area.  I expect I will be here two more transfers because my companion goes home after this transfer.  I am fine with staying in this area because it is big and we can try going to different areas when we get sick of old ones.   

     I'll be honest right now I'm not having a very good time as a missionary.  The investigators that we baptized never showed up to their confirmation and I am starting to feel like the guy just got baptized because the missionaries have been wanting him to for the past 7 or 8 months.  I feel like we probably just baptized him into less activity.  It makes me so mad when my companions want to baptize someone who I don't feel is completely ready or committed.  It makes me feel like I have no control.  They always say "just have faith" or "just trust them".  Also, another thing that drives me crazy is how the companion I am with right now isn't always obedient and then today when I opened my email from president one part was about how we are supposed to report all disobedience to him.  It just makes me so mad! It isn't worth making my life heck and have a companion that I have to stay with 24/7 angry with me just to report some dumb obedience to president.  Right now I am tired of everything and another year still seems like forever especially when I have to be with companions who have the potential to make my life a nightmare.  Sometimes I just want a break from missionary work but there really never is.

Sorry I am writing another email to you that is just venting.  Thanks for your emails.

Love Matthew

Missionary work is not always fun. Sometimes it's miserable to get up and have to go do it. That is an honest truth. I loved my mission but I felt that way fairly often. More especially when I had a hard companion. In those times you need to think about what you believe. We teach that the atonement can take away people's sins and carry their burdens. Sometimes as a missionary I needed to really decide if I believed that myself or not. Can Christ carry my burdens? It is necessary that you put whatever you are struggling with on the Lord. It requires faith to do that. You need to put your trust in him. If you are obedient and following the promptings of the spirit, then you are exactly where God wants you to be and have all of the tools that God wants you to have. You have talked about how some of the mission rules are dumb or not necessary. While this might be true, working without a willing heart will block you from the spirit's guidance and the comfort that you need to fight your battles.

 Having a disobedient companion can be hard. It limits your ability to do God's work. It is discouraging and makes you wonder why they can't just shape up and make it easy on both of you. In everything that you do, reach out to your companion in love. Even when you are trying to correct his behavior. I never felt good after loosing my temper with a companion. Good companions fight. Just not in the way you're thinking. What I mean by fight is that they discuss problems and work towards resolutions. Bad companions let a problem exist without doing anything. Be a good companion. Communicate how you are feeling with your companion. Let him know that you are discouraged or happy or not comfortable with how the lesson was taught. It is okay to take a minute and just talk with your companion. If they are not going to work with you then let a priesthood leader know. Your district leader, zone leader and mission president need to know the status of the relationship of your companionship. While I was a zone leader we had a missionary that became very disobedient and was wanting to go home. His companion confronted him. It wasn't resolved so he let the district leader know. The district leader let me know and all of us working together with the mission president and love for that missionary were able to correct the bad behavior and the missionary repented and finished his mission faithfully.  

All of this stuff is hard to do. I know that. But it's the right thing to do. I love you and want you to have a good mission. That's why I'm writing this email. You are a good person and will do well on your mission. You will be happy when you look back at what you were able to do in your time in the Philippines. Love, James

6/11

This week was really crazy and different but was good and ended in two great baptisms.  Out of all the weeks I have been on my mission this one had the least amount of proselyting.  On Tuesday we had Zone conference, Wednesday a service project and a baptismal interview that they never showed up to, Thursday two baptismal interviews that they showed up late to.  Friday another failed baptismal interview and we were running around trying to find them, Saturday we had the baptism.   

     It has actually been nice to do some different things this week rather than the usual proselyting every day and it was great to have the baptism on Saturday.  The man that we baptized has been an investigator for about 8 months and couldn't be baptized because he wasn't married.  We finally got them married a few weeks ago and they were coming to church so they were able to be baptized.  It was a great experience. After months of being taught I think I have seen a change in him and he seems like a happier nicer guy. 

     Also this week we had a broadcast from Salt Lake city.  Elder Bednar and a few others spoke.  One of the talks was really focused on obeying even if we don't know or understand the reason.  It was a great broadcast and missionaries from other areas stayed at our apartment because of how far they had to drive.  

     All in all this was a really fun successful week.

--

Love, Elder Harkness

6/4

   This week was a great week and we have been having some good success.  The guy that we got married the other week and his two daughters should be baptized this Saturday.  It has been a good project getting them married and everything because it has gotten ward members more involved with his conversion and in fellowshipping.  It will be good to have a baptism this Saturday because it is the last Saturday before transfers and I am expecting I will be transferred.   

     This week we also got to do a really fun service project. We painted a wall for an elememtary school and Elder Arpon and I cut grass.  They haven't quite invented the lawn mower yet here so we used machetes.  

 Although this week was really good for missionary work and everything this week also was a week of a few disasters.  Last Sunday in the evening it rained so hard.  In one part of my area there is a neighborhood that lives by the ocean right next to a cliff.  When it rained a big chunk of the cliff broke off and smashed a house killing four people.  Everyone in the area living next to the cliff has moved out and are in an evacuation center.  

     Another even bigger disaster that happened this week was a huge fire that destroyed a neighborhood in my area.  I don't think anyone was killed though but we did have a few investigators living there.  One of these investigators was a 79 year old man who was great to teach and he liked listening to us.  I felt really bad for him because his house was completely destroyed.  Everyone in this place has either moved or is living in a covered basketball court.

     

Pictures: 1  Our investigator the day before his house burned down.  Afterwards we were able to give him another book of mormon.

2  The damage from the fire.

3  Service project this week.

4  Weeding out grass

--

Love, Elder Harkness

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