Record investigators and Zone activity

I think this will be a short email because I accidentally left my journal back at the house and it is pretty hard to remember everything I did this week. 

     We had two baptismal interviews and should have two baptisms is Saturday.  This last week was pretty successful.  We had 14 investigators at church this Sunday.  That is the highest I have ever had.  One of them was someone we have never even taught but we just talked to them while we were out.

     We had somewhat of a vacation this week if you can call anything on a mission a vacation.  We went to Narra for a Zone activity.  President Ostler let us watch the Chronicles of Narnia (but only if we talked about all the symbolism).  It has been years since I saw it and back then I didn't understand all the symbolism.  Later Elder Ramos and I spent the night with the Aborlan elders.  The next day we had a zone meeting.

     The rest of the week we basically just taught lessons and walked lots of places.  I wish I knew how far we walk each day.

--

Love, Elder Harkness

Missionary work

Recently we have been working a lot with the branch missionaries.  Sometimes it is really good because they become friends with our investigators but sometimes it is better without them (especially when some of them just act like immature teenagers).  Usually it is really good to have them.  They try to speak English to me.  I think that they know more English vocabulary than I know Tagalog vocabulary but  I think I can speak tagalog better than they can speak English.  I just can't really have conversations with anyone unless it is about the gospel. 

     Yesterday I started talking to someone to see if he would be interested in hearing our message.  This is part of the conversation:  Me:  We're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. . . . We know that because of Jesus Christ we can live with our families forever. . .   Could we share our message with you?  Him:  Sorry, we're Christians.  Me:  Oh! we're Christians too.  We're from the church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day saints.  (Honestly, did he not hear anything I was saying to him?)

     We went to a funeral this week for the branch president's father in law.  I was asked to speak on the Atonement and didn't know before so I quickly prepared some scriptures and what I was going to say.  When I gave my short talk the words just flowed out and I felt the spirit so strong  I couldn't help but smile while I was talking.  It was a great experience.

     This last week we also taught a lesson to two kids, probably 11 and the other one 12.  The lesson went great.  They are also coming to church pretty frequently.  If I could I would spend my entire mission teaching people from ages 8 to 15.  They are not prideful, stubborn, rude, rejecting, and don't bible bash.  They are also willing to keep commitments.

     On Saturday we went to the market to OYM (open your mouth) people.  Basically share a short message.  There were a lot of native palawans there.  When I asked them where they are from they tell me they are from the mountain.  A lot of them are farmers and grow corn.  They have their own religion and language but they speak Tagalog too.  They are also seem to be generally really friendly.

     This last week I saw some more people training their roosters to cock fight. In real cock fights they put spurs or other sharp objects on the roosters' feet.

--

Love, Elder Harkness

My birthday and round two to Panitian

After P day was over last Monday Elder Ramos and I went to go teach a lesson with some of the branch missionaries.  The branch missionaries are between 15 and 22 years old so they are a good help when the investigators are around that age.  We taught one lesson to one of our investigators that is progressing really well.  After the branch missionaries surprised me with a cake because it was my birthday.  It was pretty fun. 

     Tuesday we got invited to dinner and it was pretty good.  When we came  back to the apartment the other elders told us about how they cast out a devil earlier that day.  I was a little bit jealous because I think it would be cool to do something like that.

     Thursday we went around trying to teach lessons to investigators with one of our investigators to help us.  It really helps in lessons to have more than just two missionaries.

     Saturday was round two with panitian.  The drive was about 25 minutes on a trycicle with a total of seven people.  Motorcycles are a lot stronger than I thought.  We were trying to find a member who hasn't been to church in a long time.  We weren't able to find who we were looking for but we did find an inactive member that we didn't know about.  He hasn't come to church for a long time because he is too poor to pay to travel there.  He seemed really poor.  His shirt had holes in it and his jacket was way too big for him.  There was also a girl there who wasn't a member.  We taught a lesson to them.  At some points during the lesson the girl seemed to be holding back tears.  I think their lives are hard.  When I asked her what she wants most in life she said she would like to go to church.  I feel really bad for these people because they can't do the things we sometimes take for granted or complain about.  The longer I am on my mission the more I realize how dumb it is to take things for granted.

     Sunday I taught the gospel essentials class.  It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  It was really cool to be able to teach a lesson by myself in Tagalog.  Later we went out to try to teach lessons.  I saw some people training their roosters for cock fighting.  I have never seen cock fighting before but it seems to happen a lot here.  There are a few cock fighting rings around Quezon.

--

Love, Elder Harkness

I haven't really noticed a difference in the weather here.  Some days are hot and others are a little bit cooler.  We might have some bad rain tonight because there is a tropical depression that might hit Palawan  I think that tropical depressions can turn into typhoons but this one  probably won't.  The weather is a lot more crazy in Manila I hear.  

Love, Matthew 

on P days we just eat lunch, email, shop, and then go back  to the apartment for laundry.  we might have a little free time but it is still a nice break from missionary work.

Christmas and New years

We had some good success this week and seem to have some good investigators. 

Wednesday was the sweatiest day of my mission so far.  At one point my shirt was pretty damp.  After getting home I took a nice cold shower.  One investigator we visited is progressing amazingly.  We found her about three weeks ago and she has already been to church twice and has read the Book of Mormon up until 2 nephi 17.  It is awesome.  She is very interested in the church.  The only problem is if her "guardians" won't like the church.  They are gone right now and were gone when we began teaching.  It shouldn't be a huge problem because she is 22 and doesn't need anyone's permission to be baptised.

     Thursday was a very successful day.  We were able to teach 6 lessons.  It was also transfers today and I will be staying in Quezon at least until mid February

     Saturday was a fun day because curfew was 6:00 pm.  They just wanted us to be safe for New Years eve.  We had snacks and played some games so it was really fun.

Sunday I was pretty tired in the morning because of a bad nights sleep due to the noise outside.  At church we had 11 investigators attend.  It was awesome!  I have never had that many at church before.  Elder Ramos and I also taught the the gospel principles class.

A dead rat I found under my desk

Loading up everyone to go to the beach for the Christmas Party.

At the beach

A guava

We found this giant spider outside with an egg sack underneath it.

   

First Christmas

This last week the branch had a christmas party at Roma beach.  We got to go with them and it was fun.  We loaded a ton of people into a giant truck and drove about 30 minutes to get there.  The scenery was beautiful.  The food was also pretty good. 

     On christmas we got up and opened some presents then went to church.  After we went out and tried to teach some lessons.  We have some really promising investigators and should see some more baptisms in January.  

--

Love, Elder Harkness

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.

Our adventure to Panitian in the middle of nowhere.  There was great scenery.

A turtle we caught in our yard.

muddy pants.

Mission Tour

 I am afraid this week will also be a short email.  But hopefully next week will make up for it.   

     Monday we were in Puerto Princessa for mission tour.  We had Elder Haynie, an area seventy, speak to us.  It was pretty good.  Tuesday we had our christmas party.  It was really fun. We played some games and sang songs and had a christmas play.  I also got a tie pin and socks.  After the Christmas party we took the 3 hour drive back to Quezon.  Elder Ramos was so carsick he threw up multiple times.  I felt bad for him.  I was surprisingly not carsick at all.

     The rest of the week has been pretty ordinary but still pretty good.  We realized that some of our best investigating families actually are related.  We will probably try to find all of the extended family members and see if they will be interested.  It is a little crazy to find out that they are all related and are all pretty good investigators.

     We got a new investigator this week just in time for the rain to start pouring down.  We were walking around trying to find new people when we saw this man sitting in the doorway of his house.  He told us to come in and really wanted to listen to us.  After the lesson it was still raining and there were rivers and streams popping up all over the place.  It was pretty fun to attempt to stay dry.  

     Last night Elder Ramos and I were out talking to people when we came across a semi-drunk guy who was pretty friendly.  He said that me and my old companion, Elder Beltran talked to him on the street and set an appointment with him and then never showed up.  I honestly can't remember that but he does look familiar.  Since we see and talk to so many people each day I can't always remember them and they are sometimes surprised when I don't remember them.  This happens especially with trike drivers.  Anyway, we told him we will come back and we will see how it goes.

     

--

Love, Elder Harkness

I will skype you all for christmas.  We don't have an official time but It will probably happen on monday morning for me or sunday evening (Christmas evening) for you.  Can you guys send me the skype address?  I think I might need you guys to make me a skype account and then send me the username and password when you email me next. 

     I am doing pretty well but I am still worried to skype you all.  Even though I have almost been on my mission 6 months I still sometimes get homesick.  It isn't as bad as before though.

     Thanks for the email.  I got the christmas package last monday.  Thanks so much.

Love, Matthew  

Out working in the rain.  I had to get a picture.  Notice the stream and the soaked pant bottoms and the good attitude.

A recent convert moved up onto this hill that overlooks the land. 

This is how they do the power lines in some places here.

We came across this snake that was at least 6 feet long on the side of the road!  Luckily it was dead.

While walking through the market I saw some red bananas and so I bought them to try.

 This is how we get to houses over muddy areas and over the ocean.  It is kind of dangerous and once a piece of the wood I was standing on broke off and I dropped a few inches.

​