Hello family and friends and whoever else reads this.My week here in Paete-Pakil has been another one for the books! Yes, it has indeed.. The only bad news that I have for you is my companion is transferred, which SUCKS!! For 3 reasons... Reason 1. My comp rocks and we have so much fun and work so hard together... Reason 2. I am probably gonna be training... For Real.. not just Follow Up... Reason 3. I dont want a new companion. But oh well, all is done in the wisdom of the more wise than me. There must be a reason why this transfer is happening. But yeah, what's done is done and it'll be all good!! So, family about my week..
Lets start with Tuesday:
So we had an appointment in the morning with Rosemary Isla, one of our investigators with a baptismal goal date, but it fell through.. Me and my comp think she is getting cold feet about her baptism because lately she has been punting us. But its all good... We had a back up. We went to the Lusonia family and visited them. 2 Single women who I have never met before.. they are inactive and we shared a spiritual thought with them.. They committed to come back to church, but like clock work the ol' filipino "ugali" (way / personality) kicked in and they didn't come.. Oh well, we did our part. Then after that we went by a Member's house, Sister Marisell and we taught her nephew, Rinell lesson one.. He was way receptive and liked our message.. The only thing is that he lives like 2 hours away in Columba so we aren't gonna be able to c
ontinue teaching him.. but were passing on his information to the missionaries in Columba, so hopefully we planted the seed :)... After that we went to Nanay Abcede and Nanay Buhay.. We taught them the second lesson and "Our Purpose in life" (I think that's the translation) and we tried to commit her to baptism.. She said that she wasn't ready and that she needed more time.. So were gonna give her more time.. Then we went down to a place called "Las Vegas" haha... And contacted a referral from a member, Tina and HOLY MOLY, there was like 11 teenagers who listened to the first discussion.. It was awesome, we handed out all of our pamphlets and got 11 new investigators in one sitting.. BOOM! Then after that, feeling very accomplished, we went to our favorite burger stand, BIG MAK and each got a 2 foot long hot dog and pigged out! It was a successful day naman!So Wednesday, was District meeting.. When we showed up to the chapel we had 2 new sisters in our zone. They were pulled out of an area in San Pablo and they are re-opening an area in Siniloan zone which is exciting!! Our zone is growing!! I had the opportunity to teach a workshop.. and me being the ONLY american in my zone I taught it in Tagalog. It went suprisingly well and I got a lot of complements on it :).. My workshop was about setting goals. I basically related that missionary work functions on a series of g
oals, and that if we don't set goals, and set goals for our goals, we cannot be successful missionaries. I related to them that we need to have a vision of our goals and we need to be able to see the end before we start. If you can see the end, you can do it. It was way cool and we all felt the spirit testify of the importance of goals.. I really like teaching other missionaries, I feel like I have a lot to offer them. And as I plan and prepare every day I truly do feel empowered in this work and I feel like me, my companion, and my Father in heaven are all working as one to make my mission a success and to bring the hearts of the people of Paete unto repentance and acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I Love it!! But, anyways, after district meeting we went to Longos, and taught Christian Dalde, and JR.. The one that I offended last time.. I talked to him and aplogized for calling on him to read when he didnt know how, he said that it was ok and that he should have told us that he couldnt read. So yeah that went way good. Then we stopped by Jo-Ann a (previous.. DAH-ting) investigator and taught her lesson one all over again, it went well but she is super busy all the time so we'll see if we are able to continue with her.. Then we stopped by Mary Jane and taught her about repentance.. And she dropped a bombshell on us, she spilled the beans that her and her husband werent married.. Which basically gives her no hope to get baptized.. Her husband (or partner if you will) was married before, and as you know, there is no such thing as Divorce in the Philippines so she won't be able to marry her partner EVER.. Which means that unless she gets out and leaves her partner, her home, and 3 kids there is no way that she can be baptized. So yeah, on transfer day I am gonna talk to the AP's about what we should do there. But yeah.. that was my Wednesday.. It was good and bad and stressful haha..Thursday, Weekly Planning! We talked about what we should do with our investigators and made lesson plans for the week, updated the area book and drank a lot of coke! woot! haha.. After that we stopped by Nanay Carmen and taught her the 3 kingdoms of glory and committed her to baptism.. and she accepted!! woot! She has a baptismal goal date for July 3.. I hope she keeps her part of the bargain and follows through with her commitments! Then after that we went back to Rinell and he was mad that we forgot to bring him candy lol.. He is only 13 and loves candy haha but, we taught him and had no problems there. Then we went straight to Christine and Erica, two little girls about 10 and 12.. We learned that her mother was a former nun and that she said it was forbidden for them to get baptized.. Well I wasn't about to take no for an answer so, I asked the little girls if we could meet their mother. It turns out that she was a really nice lady and very humble. She told us about her experiences as a nun and we shared stories for a little bit.. Then I popped the question if we could teach her a short lesson.. and she agreed, which was awesome! So now we are teaching their whole family, I hope they continue to progress. But yeah, that was my Thursday
Friday naman.. On friday morning we went to Pangil and helped clean a school for the morning.. it was fun to get out and serve. we basically cut the grass and pulled the weeds of the kids play ground, it was fun. But friggin HOTT!!!!!! And after we got done with our service, the heaven's opened and it rained harder than I have ever seen it rain in my life!! So we went to a few of our appointments but 2 of them were flooded out and yeah, our work was a failure.. There were no Jeeps so we couldnt go to the area of our appointments so we gave it up and turned in early that night.
Then came Saturday.. We finally reached Rosemary and taught her about tithing and she had questions about her baptism. This was kinda discouraging because after every principle we asked her if she had any questions but she always answered "Wala" or there is none.. But now all of her questions are coming out as she is getting ready to be baptized. So were having to scramble to answer all of these questions and resolve all of these hidden concerns that she never told us about.. We might have to move her baptism date but its all good.. All is done in the timing of the Lord. After Rosemary we went to BIG MAK again and got some burgers, stopped by the apartment and got some water then went to Longos again to teach JR and Christian Dalde.. The lesson went well and some of their friends listened so we got a few new investigators there! It was fun!
Then came Sunday... What a day!! We had church and Nanay Mary Jane came to church which was awesome!! But she brought her kids with her and one of them had a huge red mark on his face in the exact shape of a comb.. so, it was obvious that he had got slapped in the face by the comb.. so when we took him to primary I asked him what happened and he said that his mom got mad at him and hit him with a comb. So it seems theres a lot more going on in that family then we know.. but yeah, That is her business and we are not supposed to meddle in family affiars.. But after that, me and my comp went to Santa Cruz so my comp could get his Patriarical blessing. It was far! like a 2 hour drive.. But something really cool happened there while Elder Dela Pena was getting his blessing it started pouring rain.. I thought that it was raining on the church and stuff, but when we went out the grass was dry and the whole area around the church was dry and there was a hole in the clouds above the church and a ray of sunshine seemed to be shining down on the stake center. It was amazing!! I took my camera out to take a picture and yeah.. THE BATTERY DIED!! but it was cool!
Anyways, now were to Monday!
We woke up early this morning and went to a river and had a little picnic.. It was a lot of fun but we couldn't swim haha.. the place reminded me of Havasupai. It was way cool.. We had lunch and yeah.. I'll let my pictures tell the story.. my hand hurts from typing so much haha..
I love you all!! Thank you for everything!!!!
Elder Hansen
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