sweet!
rad, i like birthdays. partys. for peter. I will eat cake for him
later tonight. (i have cake.. somehow).. really.
wait? heidis getting married? thats werid.
um, about that missionary youth program.. thats really cool. I was
talking with a sister missionary, on our way back from zone
confernce... about a missionary plan thing. But the stake plan wins..
(berifly, they went on 2 day camp, had a "mtc", studyed, got into
companion ships, had a p-day. then after wards, they went to members
houses (who were ready for them), and taght a lession. her younger
brother is 14 or something. anyways, if your intersted, (meaning dad
being the only one remotely intersted), email me about it... but you
seem is be buzy for now. (my twist was thinking sometihng like this,
on the beach leadership training... maybe even just arranging to teach
members, around that area...) anyways)
so some rad stuff here.... i dont know if i menchen this already or
not... but the philipines is pretty rad. Oh right, but something
really cool. So i noticed the other day, while we were walking.. about
7:40 pm .. i looked up. And I could see 2 palm trees over the path...
and about 1000 stars in the sky. I remember i time i paid money...
real money, to look at fake stars (a light show thingy...). (although
it might have been worth it there was very soft chairs).
later, there was a brown out, (meaning no power.) it lasted about a
day... we stopped to pick someone up at the church about 7pm... looked
up... 1 billion stars... i didnt know there were really that many.
then while i was sittin there, i focused my eyes (i think blue eyes,
see light better, or something like that), well then i saw like one
ka-trillion. it was pretty sweet. I dont even know anything about
asanameny (star-people), but it was not hard to see the constlations.
Like i have seen orains belt... But now it was super obvoious who
orain was, and it wasnt just a random belt named orain. I could see a
big bow, maybe orain owns a bow, and there was a obvoius coyotee. i
dont know what any of the rest were called... but now i understand,
that people that study stars, didnt just make up a bunch of
constations... you can really see them... you just have to be rad like
me, and be in the phlipines.
Something else, the SA (18-25) year olds told me the other day, that
they would fast for me this next fast sunday. Yes. I asked why. they
said it was ter-dish-an. That all the missionarys here, they get dear
john-ed here, and they help by fasting for it. Yah. actally some how i
dont see this being unrealistic... well somehow... i have gotten one
already... sorta (it was from john). heh, or maybe not.
oh so, maybe this is nessarry... i have been getting lots of
letters... yes! i am the radest. But i am very lazy. I havent sent
replys in a long time. I have a bunch almost done, or started, or
finished.. some i wrote in decemember, and i resently found a list of
people i had goals to write.. jan 8, jan 15... yah one day ill send
letters. one day.
Oh, so resently i got a letter, with... 7 letters inside. the first
one written in Oct. yes.. anyways, from these letters, and older
ones... i realise people actally read my letters. Also that I complain
alot. And dont ever say when things have gone well. I have a bunch of
letters, asking how me and elder yap are doing... I complained the
first week or two.. but after that we became really good friends.. i
geuss i should have wrote that part. He is someone i am going to try
to contact after the mission. heh. (also i am senting a picture of a
letter send to me.... dont do that. dont write 105 lines one side of
paper. dont do it. but it was really funny. every line of it.
)[also... here something to do. instead of writing a letter in oct and
not sending it till feb.. i have a picture of a letter that, got to
the mission home, the day before zone conference... which means i got
it right then... rad.]
Last random thought, before i get to... something else. So, they tell
you here... dont drink the water. its true. I know. I did it. I felt
just like we (me and jimmy) did after we drunk the water in egypt... i
guess only jimmy can really appichate that.
ok soooo i really shouldnt stay here too much longer... so ill just be cheep
heres what i wrote to my mission prez..
We are having good success with tatay Marsalo. He has avoided
ciggerettes for 5 days now in a row, and he is working towards his
baptismal goal date at the end of march. Im exicted for that. He has
been coming to church. He was having trouble finding time to read, but
the last couple of times, he was showing us were he was reading. Super
awesome.
The rest of our investigaters haven't started, or are not coming to
church now. Sorta sad. But we have hope for a couple of them still.
Tatay Madesto, is a really cool guy. He is really intersted in our
message, espeally after teaching about the plan of salvation. We had
the branch president meet with him, on his request. He hasnt been
reading, as much as we would have hoped.. and he hasn't made it to
church yet. But we will keep working with him.
Nanay Ursla... really nice. pretty much progressing. She was coming to
church. Her biggest concern is her coffee. But she has been working on
it. I think she has gone 3-4 days now with out it. She keeps talking
about how she is gettting old, so she should die. so sometimes its
hard with her. But she does want to be baptised.
things are doing fairly well, yah... maybe next time ill actally write
things .. that are more rad
dickinson--
ps. we went bowling at place, where behind the pins was a guy setting
them up. We didnt get him though.
Hello.
mooooo.
um, I am in the... mexico! not really. philipines still.
um, yes. so i didnt keep track of what i did this week, so... i mostly
forgot. but ill see what i can come up with.
well first, ill give you what i send to my mission prez.
This week has been full of new things. Still fairly new to the area,
and this is my first trasfer of my mission. but we had some successes
this week.
Tatay Marsalo, really cool. He has been coming to church regualrly. He
has a testimony. He wants to be baptised. Hes problem right now is
that he still is smoking. But this week he has brought it down, to 1 a
day. some days none. I know he wants to be baptised, when he asked us
a question. He was saying how him and his family were going to go on
vacation for a week, and were going to miss church here. They said
they might be able to go to church, were they were going... if we miss
going to church here one week, does that mean we need to pospone the
baptism? I thought that was cool. We are hoping for a baptism on Mar
26. But he will need to compeletly stop smoking by the Feb 26 first.
Another cool experence. Tatay Madesto. Fairly new investigator still.
We were teaching about the plan of salvation, and he had a very
strong spriual experence. Oi! I should have written this down
before... doe. Well I remember walking out, a little speechless. While
we were there, he understood the purpose of us, the purpose of church,
and the purpose of life. And, he expressed it to us. After we got
started, we didnt have to say much, we mostly just listened. Still
hasnt come to church, but he expressed a strong interist, and said he
was wanted to talk to our preist, to see whats this chruch really
about. (we told him who the branch prez. was.) istig siya.
With the language, its still growing. And I am starting to notice that
when i put my effort in, it grows alot faster. I have been having 10
words everyday to learn, and actally learning them (well trying at
least). I have also learn if i try to listen, even when I was pretty
should i couldnt understand... i understand and learn. I guess its
ovbious, but yah. Kinda like when your on the freeway, and looking at
divideing lines, and its just kinda a big blur. But when you really
foucs, you can see the individal lines. Sorta like that.
Anyways I think I am learning to speak and teach more and more
everyday... sometimes i go a little insane trying to figure what
people are saying, and to be able to come up with a helpful answer...
But i guess I dont need to understand what i am going to say, just
that I say what they need to hear... um yes. it just works that way
out here, heh.
Yah, so i have been working on the language a ton this trasfer so far.
Espially this week. In one of the picture, is the white board in our
appartment. Alot of missionarys, use it to keep track of their
investigaters and stuff. We werent, so i desided to use it as a
language study board. As you can see on the board, there are lots of
L1P1, L2Q3.. etc. I have been trying to learn the lessions. yah. I
should have done that before the mission, or at least in the MTC. yah.
Well I guess I kinda had an idea, but going with the missionarys
before the mission might have helped me learn to teach it. So now I
have a basic idea how to teach a couple of the lessions, and
vocabuarly for them in tagalog. I also have a notebook that is filling
up fast sentances, questions, sriputes, scibbles, questions, crossed
out again... and stuff. I also have a section of 50 words. The plan is
to learn 10 words a day (5 general words, 5 lession vocab)
tuesday-saterday, and then review on sunday/monday. so far so good....
but the first week is always the easy one, week 2 is the hard week...
so far so good though.
Something else, is that we work with the group of single adult kids
all the time. So I am trying to learn from them. And now they want to
teach me. So good news. well sorta. Last night we had our huge dinner
appointment, were all of the 12-15 SA guys and us go eat... at some
guys house, maybe hes in the branch presidentcy... or something.. doe
lol. um yah. Anyways, one of the guys, kevin (well and ingo too) was
trying to convince me that there is tagalog, and mondern tagalog.. His
modern tagalog, was talking in 3rd person, saying stuff like, he said,
that I heard, that you him said, that you like food. right. anyways,
Then he taght me a bunch of werid words. throwing some words like "I
smell" in there. hahaha werid kids, but i did learn a ton, just
because i was talking alot. actally kevin reminds me of john a ton,
and ingo is very similer to spencer.... something, my roomate at
school. oh say "bag tit ak' " its means your cool. prolly.
hmmm
Food! about the tons and tons of sent food.
Started to use the food. I am starting to think I like american food.
And that I just got used to eatting rice everyday. Still rice is
deilous.
I made some of the natures burger. But there was no burger in that! So
while i was cooking, i desided to toss in an egg. and not make it into
a patty.
it tasted like... turkey stuffing?
ok.. so i like candy and stuff... but who put in the suger-free
lifesavors? I was a little sasisshous (sa-spish-iss). since lifesavors
are just suger. thats it.
I looked at the back, And it has a warning label, "Consumtion may
resalt in a laxidive effect" Well of course, take out the suger, add
laxidives.
anyways, I am still eating them... just more carfully.
In the scriptures I came across a verse, that i think i send home
before, but i like it. If you are planning on going on a mission, this
is a good verse for a plak i think. DC133:(well 57 too) 58. its about
missionary work. anyways. haha.
Also a more serious note, In the book of mormon came across something.
Its more of a personal thought, but i thought it was cool. In the Book
of Omni, i belive its amaleki, in verse 25. he is telling us to belive
in a couple things. One of them being speaking in tongues, and
interpreting of tonges... why would he say that, unless he belived
that himself? I am thinking that In the book of mormon times there
were a bunch of different lanugages, kinda like here in the
philipines... prolly the written language of the plates was different
then what people used in the day to day life. in Mosiah 24:4 it hints
on having at least a couple languages. I havent checked, but i have a
guess, that when alma is teaching, or when the sons of mosiah are
teaching, that they also had to learn all sorts of funky languages. I
am not sure how this helps me, but at least I know am not the only one
trying to learn a language.. Also, I am glad I dont have to write some
funky egyptian language on metal plates.
well here is a little bit whats going on here.
hmm i guess thats it for now.
Elder Dickinson
ps. extra extra todd smells.
real p.s. um so this is mostly for heidi... dont grow a mexi-stash
(mustach). its not in. Someone here thinks its in. Its not, its nasty.
I dont think i have the guts to tell her though.
hello.
I am in the philipines! hurray!
um ok.
So this last week I was trasfered to San Jose zone, and my area is San
Isidro. its...
`San Jose is... in Lusan (the big island of the philipines), in my
mission.... in nueva ecija provence. I think its in the top of the
mission. sorta middle (from east to west).
but first...
I heard andy went swimming. swimming the 200 is ... the best. yah. And
the 500... also. hahah thats a lot of racein. also Thats rad about
andy. 1.01 is really fast. plus it looks like your is better at the
distance races then you are at the short too(well or you just desided
to kill your self for fun). istig talaga. (cool-really... or really
cool).
Also, I heard jimmy is working now.. haha. you have to go to work now.
ok ok.
My companion is Elder mandoñahan. He is the distict leader in our
district. I think he speaks english just fine, but he doesnt. Which
has been good for me. Also I think, just havnt been speaking
english... like maybe 10 words a day. Pretty cool guy. knows how to
play the guitar... which will be important later.
the zone is about 16 people i think(hmm maybe 20). Its a lot for me.
we have 4 sisters in our zone. One, sister Decato who was in the mtc
with me. actally in my distict at the mtc. that was a cool surprize.
The area is hotter than my last one (hey my english is getting better
than not then), But That may be that its just leaving winter now. my
companion was in balar before, and he says its really bad in taga-init
(hot... place? i think thats summer). super humid there. So... yah we
arent near the ocean at all. The only area yata (i think), near the
ocean is balar.
travel... well so far, we are staying within a close area to our
house. the area appently didnt have any investgaters last trasfer, and
my companon and his last companion, found a bunch. I have used a
tricycle once, and a jeepnee to get to the city. about a 10 mintue
ride. (for a zone gathering... just earlyer).
For food, appently we have 3 dinner appontments set every week, and a
lunch appontment. yum. Not really sure what i am going to cook yet.
maybe some rice.
hmmm living quarters... yes. in a mintue.
so I didnt know how i was going to adjust to this area. But I have
really fast, for a number of reasons. Don't get me wrong, I really
like my last area, but there are just somethings... that they didnt
have. But there is alot more... temptions here.
So for the people. There are people here. check. I dont think i have
seen people with in 4 years of my age in my last area. maybe like 2
(guy or girl). In my branch there are about 16 guys from the ages of
19-25. They like to hang with the missionarys alot. I think 6 of them
are RMs. One owns a guitar. And a couple of them play. rad. service
projects ... alot gets done. Also I have notice that people, actally
look better, when they own more then 3 shirts, that they wear everyday
(like in my last area). I am mostly talking about girls. Everything is
fine actally. but they seem to try to hit on me alot. (espally the
members... just like some of my friends back home.. haha hitting on
the missionarys...hahaha).... well so far I just gave them lucy's
informtion (for facebook), cause i figured lucy wants to talk to
people... in the philipines... right. oh well. haha.
My ward has a chapel. And a huge attendence. like 130 or something. I
think that might be one of the highest in the mission. We have church
at 8:30 am, and do everything backwards (phristhood, class, scarament
meeting). I gave a short introduction at scarament meeting... short as
in, i went up to the stand, just said my name and yah.. ... maybe i
should have expanded on that.
This keyboard right now is bugging... balh! stupid space bars all
funky, and all of the letters on gone on the keyboard (like you cant
see them). i just wanted to complain real quick.
sige, um so for my living quarters... well we can have water at night
(unlike in my last area), which is good. We have a water tower outside
for just us.. i think. And we have a braker (like the ones at
grandpas) that is hanging out side, which we filp if we want to turn
on our water pump. its alright. We have 2 couchs. which... are mostly
useless.. since, no one can come over. the bathroom is inside the
house, which is good. (actally very good, becuase i forgot my towal in
carbonatuwan, and too cheap to buy a new one (for like 2 bucks... well
we will be going down there in a couple weeks). heh. um the bathroom
is ... well
the bathroom shower handle is gone, so i think it doesnt work. But we
have a bucket, with a little bucket(tabo), and .. well its the best
way tto shower anyways. the toylet... its great. To flush it, you
actally have to load the water into the back, because, the in-water,
isnt connected. But! it has a lever to flush. its great. And last but
not least... it has a toylet .. Seat! this deserves a monment of
silence...
...
...
Do you know how h.... silence...
...
..
ok um,
so yah, i got a package. Which was something i was going to complan
about...but maybe i wont. I really dont need a pound of chicken gravey
mix, or 1/3 pound of yeast... Well I will use them somehow. And the
pictures were really cool. um ok i geuss i am saying...
I am one of the cheapest people I know... And it really defeats the
purpose of me, being cheap, when you send 80 pounds of food. anyways..
also... i am one to not throw anything away... and so all of my bags
have rips in them, because i am too lazy to toss things out. soo i
guess i am saying probllly dont need to send anything... at least for
a while.
anyways... now that, thats out of the way... so the package was pretty
sweet. like for real. because the cininmmin exploded, over everything
in one of the pakeages, and for the first day the air tasted like
cinnimin. now just our food does when we eat at the table. its actally
a pretty good smell. And ill really find a use for all of the foods.
(well... i am still cooking rice everyday... so maybe lots of
different rice toppings).
um, something also rad. the 1st concalor in the branch, is one of our
eating appointments every week. He used to play guitar and owns one.
He also said that missionays used to borrow it and that if we wanted
to.. it would be fine. i think we might take it. at least weds-fri.
yes... Also now happy about packages. about the guitar muisc at
christmas.
About teaching. my companion doesnt want me to just not teach (like
his last companion, who has been out a lot longer)... so hes helping
me teach. or helping me study, and then telling me to teach. hes
actally been really helpful.
so....
some thing also good, about the 15 young men/SA what every, is it
makes it much easyer to do missionary work. becuase we just grab one
of them to help.
so...
the other day we went on a split. my first split away from my
companion. me and a guy, who later i found out his name was kevin (a
RM), went to Orsala. or something (er-sa-la). I didnt know who this
was. never seen her. Later i found out she is like 75. I thought..
well here goes nothing... then there was nothing. she wasnt home. Then
we went to the church, where he and others had a dance practice for
some church event. Successful split.
Well something cool about the 15 youngmen/SA people, is they are
really friendly and stuff. CSPs are huge. We have had all of them at
an appontment once, where after wards we all went to a dinner
apponiment. ... there was a lot of rice eatten there (there was a
couple people just dropping places of rice and ulam on the table...
and you had to be pretty fast.... allllllllot of rice). Later today,
we may go play some basketball. One, good thing... slash bad.. is they
all like to play dota. And they keep inviteing us to play. I told them
that I dont think thats what i am suppodes to be doing... plus i have
played too much dota.... like if i play another game now, or even
after my mission, i think my head might explode.
anyways soo we'll see how i do.
hmmmm ... yah,.. in short. cool area, lots of temptaion, has a toylet seat.
Elder Dickinson
ps... i didnt take any pictures. i will some time.
hmmmm bye
mooooooooo!
hello, um, I am in the philipines! oh right. I also realised it was...
my birthday. (i forgot, it was earlyer this week, because days and
weeks seem to last longer when you do stuff everyday, and get up
before 11.)
well.... here something i was talking to sherry about...
that lanuage thing... that is exactly me right now. besides when i am
reading emails, and then typing, i have a really hard time with some
english. but i also have a really hard time with tagalog. hahaha soo
true. Some thing you wrote about just coummitating, and not
traslating. thats me right now. but still hard though. I also have a
theroy.. I think my taglog is better then i think it is... the problem
is that is
my understanding isnt as good as it could be... meaning my taglog is
right,... but i dont understand what am saying... yep. its werid right
here in this spot.
oh well I just got the trasfer annocement, i am going to my 2nd area
tomorrow. In our mission we have trainee, follow up trainee, and
co-senior. I will be with my first co-senior companion tomorrow. or
thurs.
and
to heidi about 'james' the leagad here in my city (and neghboring areas)
about running... ok so there is this dude. white guy. lives in this
area. is a leaged amoug the philipines in my area. Everyone seems to
know of him. And they super respect him. all I know is he knows
tagalog and ilkano (the native here) lanuage super well, he goes
running and biking through these areas alot, and that his name is
james. running. makes you rad. Oh also, he only wears ... like a big
belt thinging. thats it. and has a really big beard. like a cave man.
I asked if that is normal anywhere, to my companion... he said no.
oh anyways... i heard dad ran a marathon??? thats crazy. i think just
on his own.. but... for like 7 hours? i dont know if i understood
right... but he is rad. more then i have ever ran...
the end.
Oh! i found the defintion of 'mabaho' it isnt stinks; its "ill-smelling"
yep. heidi mabaho.
To larrys family, because i was inpressed with the nerd-ness of my family.
thats awesome about derek and spencer in the chess tornaments. I
played in a chess tronament once... i was a sub. And i won one game.
The other guy was cheating my getting help from his mom. And then mom
(grandma) stood up, and she stoped, he got scared, and a couple pieces
fell down. I put them back on, and then i got check mate. I thught
about it earlyer, and relised that, i am not sure if i put them in the
right place... oh well i cheated less. haha.
Also super awesome about dereks baptism.
dad asked about trasnfers:
about the trasfers. How the mission works now.. every thing is on a
6-week trasfer system. the most common is to be in a area for 3
trasfers (4mounths) (like this time for me) and have 2 different
companons (they pass the area to you, you pass the area to someone
else). 4 trasfers (6 months) is the next most common. here you could
have 3 compaions (like 1 T. then 2 T. then 1 T.) or 2 companions (2 T,
2 T) or other combination. After that the most common its just 2
trasfers (3 months), (1T, 1T). 1 Trasfer is rare in a area, usally
special reason only. also 5 trasfers (its heard of, but very rare).
I figure Ill have 5 areas for my whole mission and about 10 compaions
(well 11 if you count the MTC).
also, was thinking about how my speed game that jimmy put up for
sale... 58 more people thought my program was worth a doller, than
jimmys pick the nose game. i am rad.
ok well there is some random stuff, that people might want to know,
um ok well here is whats up with, me.
as i was mentching before, i am being transfered. we are going to meet
in carbonatuon and then go to my area. My area is san hosea
(maybe..)well thats the zone. i forgot wwhat it was. And i forgot who
my companion will be. oh well. someone knows. prolly.
also, i had a plan, this time, instead of writing random stuff, i was
going to structor my email to make it more readable (so far, i am not
doing too good., i guess late is better then never)
so monday (jan 31) p-day. email (last week)
FHE- Rocapor family.
um, here I gave the lesson. My idea was to teach something... but i
didnt really make since. sorta like, repentance or chooseing the
right, or not ... knowing. anyways. They couldnt understand me
anyways.
But I made some drawings first. i had a piece of paper with 2 paths,
one lead to a hut and a family, and one lead to a dragon. Well I didnt
know how to draw a dragon... well sotra. I started with a s, and then
a more differnt s. sooo pretty much i drew tragdor. The house/hut...
actally looked a ton like the houses with tragdor too. That i didnt
plan.
Anyways we played some games, one were we dumpped water on someones
head if they got .. the right anwser. like a guessing game. I learned
some tagalog this way too.
Tuesday (feb 1)
After studys - double punted! meaning both of the places were going,
werent avilable.
but we did talk to some people, or 'oym'. meaning we talked to them,
told them what we are about, and tryed to get a return apointment. One
was carrying a very large bowl, for collecting fish, the other was
doing the landery.
Later after lunch. we taght Jerem Garino. about L2Q2. (plan of salvation).
We then took Jerem with us, and we teaching. yes he is an investigater.
We when to teach sister Luna. I wrote. 'read'. I dont remember
anymore, that was so long ago now.
Then we went across town to Escardos. When we got there, we were just
going to leave, because there was a moive on. But then they turned the
movie off, so we had to stay. There was also about 20 people there
too. well 5 of them were little kids. ...well little kids are easier
for me to talk to, because.. i have learned you dont have to use
words, if you dont want to. So I started by pointing to my nose,
ilong, then my eye, mata, ear, tanga. well i always say ear wrong... i
dont think its actally tanga. then they corrected me, and we started
talking. I am rad. (something i am realising... people try to respect
people here, so they dont like to correct my tagalog... my plans of
speaking bad tagalog to learn are ruined! well little kids still
will.) We then gave a short message.
Weds (Feb 2) (groundhogs day)
In the morning I desided to make a spritial learning/impressions
jorenal. In person study i learned learned a ton about prayer (at
least for me). (mos 11:23-25)
We had 8 lessions. buzy day.
In the first one in the afternoon, Elder yap had me start. And I
failed. Eventally Elder yap, just taght the rest of the lession. After
that one, I desided, i was going to just be optimisic about my
teaching, and try to talk to the person. After that I still started
the lessions but they went a ton smoother.
people keep telling me I cant leave. One person, Jen Depale, a former
investigater (mom of one of my converts, jomark) came up to me. She
said that I should request a extention. Then she said that She would
get the neiborhood to build a wall of people and not let my ride
leave. I told her, i dont know if thats a good idea. Then she told me,
to mail her a letter, and she would visit, and kidnap me. yep i am
rad.
When we were teaching a investigater, wein lachica. I disided to start
with... do you have any questions for us? She says yah, actally. so
why do you as missionarys always tell people like me to come to
church? is it because your numbers are too low or something? So we
desided to teach about sabbth day.
Later I ask a question or say something, i dont remember wat it was,
but she responds with, hmmmm well so when does your church end? I win.
Another investigater, Olive.. something. she is a former investgater..
who never came to church before. We read a scripute about being full
of the words of Christ. Then later I say something like, "food is good
and makes us full. .. and scriptures are yummy." didnt really make
since nor did my tagalog. Then she was like, well I think i understand
now, I think i should read that reading assienment., yah, that would
be good, then i will be full. I was very confused what just happened.
For lunch, I had made a very delisious fried rice. with everything.
onion, garlic, tomato, egg, rice, cabbage, pineapple, carrot, potato.
it was very yummy. Later there was left overs. The leftovers tasted
like leftover pizza.
About Jerem. He is 18 old. I had made a book mark for him, from a
picture of Christ. He missed the baptism last week, because, he was
reading the book of mormon. He stayed up till 4 am once reading. He is
in 2 ne 16. thats rad.
I got a package for my birthday.
It was from a friend, very unexpected. But pretty sweet non the less.
(ow, my fingers are tired now)
There was a good amount of dry jello. thats good. 6 boxes. And some
cards, letter, and this collection of missionary letters that made it
to facebook. I saw a picture of my roomate craig, who is in
florda,tampa mission, doing the thumbs up with his roomate...
ghhahagha.
I showed that to my branch mission leader. He like most philpinos, i
think, understand basic english from school, but dont use it. So he
was reading first from something Reid Jones, my elders quorm Prez,
back at school... something like, every sunday we eat
burritos,(getting our mexican on).. hahaha he asked me what that
ment... haha, i was unable to explain.haha
Thus.
We had a CSP with Jerem. we cut down some plants. Then we found out we
cut down, Jerem's moms kamoti plant. doe. We then got a coconut, and
made a coconut drink. Then we went down to beach, because we couldnt
leave... his mom was making us food. yum.
later we talked with some people who were bragging about how they used
to hide from the missionarys, and run into the forest. (hmmm i think i
am runnning out of time, doe).
Our last lession that day, we went to an inactive members house the
curezma. We desided to talk about enteral marriage... tthen we found
out they had already been through the temple. Then we invited them to
a FHE... well our branch mission leader did. That would had been fine,
but we alreay had an apponitment.. doe. oh well, they still gave us
cookies.
Friday
We had our last weekly planning as compaions.
At lunch time, we had a splits. someone cooked fish. Its wasnt too
bad. but i dont tihnk i was supposes to eat the little bones. oh well.
Me and an amereican elder worked together. in our mission that is
really really rare.
First we went to a guy, who calls himself, blind and the bulrrly eye.
When we were teaching him, just started talking. I some how used some
words that i had never could figure out before, very well. I know they
made since, because after we were finshing, he wanted to get to know
me now.
tryed an oym. Got denied.
taghouht micha. she is a 11. She also had 12 other primary kids
there.. haha that was intersting.
(skipping...)
wait. I was giving purple goo.. but, this purple goo was good. unlike
last purple goo.
Elder Lofgren, gave a nickname to one of the little kids, 'taba'.
which really just means fat.
later we taght more.
(hmmm really out of time)
ok well on Sat.
we tryed to oym a swidish guy. failed. he gave us an evil eye.
We did oym an old man, who was 85, making brooms thou.
other stuff.... nagbangsit. its ilikno for mabaho, Its used like heidi
is nagbangsit.
I had a pretty cool experence the other day. Me and Elder Yap, went to
an old former investigater. The rest of the family was sleeping, or
gone, but we shared a message to lola (grandma) and a child. Elder
yap, wanted me to start the lesson to help me I guess. As we were
talking with her, before we started, I had desided to teach something
else. After the prayer, I just started to talk. I don't even remember
what the lession was on anymore. After giving a piece of knowleage,
asking some questions... Elder Yap starts. And It seems he knew
exactly were I was going, and thoughts i hadn't even started towards.
Obovlisly, he was prepared for our topic, even not knowing what it was
before hand. He pulled scriptures as, if we planned it this way. it
went very smoothly. After we ended, after the prayer... we were about
to leave, and we desided to ask, how do you feel right now. She told
us that she felt really good, and that she felt a warm feeling in her
chest. I was a little speechless to hear, someone say that, in that
way... we testifyed about the holy ghost. She also said that she
wanted us to come back, and wrote down the scripurtes we read. We gave
her some more, because we saw how ready she was to learn. I think
about that... and think, how did that happen... but actally I know.
um, more random stroys about tagalog. um,
oh rocapor- lession. the little girl there, said that i was going to
tell a story. sooo i went for it. I told a story about Prez. Hinkley
told everyone to read the scrptures, and how i finished on dec 27. I
tahought a bunch in that lession. I wote"gonna miss those guys'
lots of stuff on monday.
got a haircut, got hit on by a 2nd grader. cool FHE. I had to ...
With Rocapor family. I had a pleasent suprize. We were going to have a
FHE, with the rocapors, and a couple other resent converts. We had
everyone execpt for tatay. They said he is reading. So then they had
me go over and to get him. He was reading really. He was in jacob 5. I
was very impressed. He said he was tired... but eventally he came. I
hate telling people that they should put the book of mormon down.
um pretty much last lessions, some really cool. and good byes. um
oh, the elders in our zone were getting really mad at each other over
somthing dumb. so i desided to use this fight, thing, as a language
study... i dont think i helped.
pretty much i am being trasfered... and i will never write this much
again the end.
elder dickinson
ps. that wooden cow was given to me. I am rad.
hello people.
um, well this week has been ... well fairly normal. we had a baptism
which was rad. It was in a little river near by. Our mission prez, was
coming to our zone, so we waited for him to get there. He has his
visiting family with him too.
I am feeling good about my tagalog now... i had i really hard time
figuring out how to say, what is your name. in english. or how are
you. (ooooooh maybe 'who are you?' shoot, i dont know anymore what
would make the most since in english anymore ... really i dont.) what
ever. (to the mission prez. family).
I also conducted the meeting, and tryed to do the whole thing in
english. nope. I forgot how to say the word 'and' and other words like
that. So it didnt make since to anyone.
um, also because the mission prez. came up here, he brought our pouch
with him (the mail). I was really really suprized to see a package,
come for my birthday, as i was i knew i wasnt getting pouch till feb
8. ( i havent opened it yet... i wonder what it is). And the fact that
mom was talking about sending a package... but not yet (well... now
appartenly). It was from a friend of mine, so that was pretty cool. I
also got a letter from, my roomate criag (serving in florada), hyram
dickinson, daivd + family, larryd + family, and a couple others.
pretty sweet. I was actally pretty tired, and sorta losing foucs. so
sweet. um yah one of the letters was pretty (well as a missionary we
would say) 'bold and loving'. haha. It was really cool.
Oh! about the letter from larrys family. it was pretty sweet. I really
liked something spencer said. "Hi LUke, you are a fishhead! you are
not a missionary, you are a fishhead! that's my story.. THE END"
wiat no not that one.
from Lindsey. (first, becuase lately I have been trying to do better
as a missionary, and stuff.. its hard theres a lot of stuff your are
to do and stuff. so when I got the letter i was talking about before,
It got me thinking, but whats really going to, and has started to help
me change, is what lindsey said.)
Lindsey : You'r on a mission.
ohhh right. its sorta werid how that simlple statement is more
powerful then, all the explaning in the world...
(actally... this is just like when i try to teach lucy how to swim. I
had just passed a swimming lessions teaching class. I tryed with her
for a couple times. The last day I took her, dad came. She needed to
swim a 50 to join the swim team. (across the pool and back). She was
having all sorts of trouble. dad just watched, and then at the end,
right before we were going to leave... he just steps in and says...
lucy, i will give you ten bucks if you swim across the pool and back.
And she did it! I still dont understand how that one worked. she join
the swim team the next day. I dont know,.... i guess i was trying to
hard).
Anyways.... well I dont know why i just wrote any of that. but, now i
will write intersting things.
well, here is some stuff i sent to my mission prez.
Hello, so this week we had our baptism for jorell carbonell. Which
you were in attendence. That was very successful, and we have a
successful confermation too. Jorell has now finished the introduction
sections of the book of mormon, and is now starting 1 ne chap1
With Jerem garino... He suprizes me each and every day. We asked him
why he missed the baptism, he told us that he had forgotten what time
it was. Then he told us, it was because he was reading the book of
mormon. He is now in 1 ne chap 14 (i think... he reads too much to
keep good track). Another day he said he had stayed up till midnight
reading. He is 18. Part memeber. this last week he and his family
came to church. His family left after 2 hours, and we invited him to
stay for the third. He did. Then after wards, he walked about 30
mintues to his house. He is awesome.
Tatay roheilo is a funny guy. We were teaching about the importannce
of going to church, and started talking about the scarament. We asked
if he had taken the scarament. He said no, because he wasnt a member.
.. then he said they count the the members right? and thats the amount
of bread thats passed out? I mean I see brother ray counting the
people every sunday. hehe. I am really going to miss that guy.
those are some of my investigaters. jerem is pretty rad. We invited
him to work with us... and he still does. pretty rad.
next week i think i will be transfered, but yah.
um right my birthday is soon. Lots of birthday greetings so far .. rad.
um i dont know. writing... wrininggg
oh right, our branch is rad, we ran out of room in the church, and had
people sit out side.
no i didnt have anything to do with that. People just ... started coming again.
Oh! jimmy was just telling me about something super rad. And i will
brag. um, so we all know that jimmy is a nerd. But! there more. jimmy
put my speed card game (onthe computer) (which i made for a contest,
to get a free t-shirt), on the windows phone store. my program has
earned 60 bucks! I am the radest!
um, i feel like i havent put anything useful in this letter. oh well.
um oh right! there was a guy who kept leaving church after scarment
meeting. tatay rocapor. (the family i baptised). he said he had to
chop some wood. so i told him we would help him. Well this thurday we
cut some wood. a ton. Well actally his kids did it. because, of like
200 pieces we chopped up, i cut like 3. The wood here is super tough!
oh well, he came to class this sunday. i am rad.
well... um, things are doing good out here. um yeah. i am rad.
Elder dickinson
Hey, everyone
um, I am in the Philipines! hurray!
so what happened this week?ummmm....
Well, not a ton has changed latly, I still fall asleep during our daily planning at 9:30. (I sent a picture of a good example.)
um I am starting to realise that, not a tons different from philipines and back home. Example. I saw a dog run over to a diper, that was in the middle of the street. it seemed to have been ... eaten earlyer. But this dog was not after it, to eat. It seems he just wanted to move the diper to a move confortable part of the street, and then to roll on its back, back and forth on the diper. I am sure that must have made him feel good. sorta like spot.haha.
um but really it doesnt feel as four-an anymore. Maybe i am just getting used to it.But for my tagalog.. this last week has made all the difference. ... well in reality, my tagalog hasnt really improved very much. But .. I didnt realise that earlyer this week. So I was able to talk to people.
It helped that I changed my study tacitics too. Instead of studying for lessions or more of what if situations, I started studying for.. example, (BRT) or talking with jerem before the lession (studyed stuff like, surfing, movies, and questions about his work in bagio). So much easyer.
Another thing I did... was a littttle craazy. um So people keep telling me, study 10 words a day, or study 5 words a day.. little by little you will learn tagalog. Well I usally try that for a week, and on day on I have 8 words, and by day 3,i am at 2 words, and i cant really remember them, or find a time to use them.... so I figured if i couldnt learn 5 words in a day,... what about 500 words in a week? well thats what i have been doing. I took a couple hours and found, i think over 500 words, and I just try to study them, every day. Well, so far, I can tell you that for sure, I have at least learned, 0 of those words 100%. But, I now can reconise them from what people are saying. so I think its helpful.
Also, in this time, where i forgot I didnt know how to speak tagalog, I started making convertions with people. And I figured something out. If I am making convertion with someone, with the purpose of listening to them, People actally try to listen to me.(instead of trying to use them as a dictionary). And people still can understand, even if the tagalog is 100% correct. (also people now are speaking the 10 words or 100s they know in english, to help me try to understand... its sweet!).
Still, its hard for me to jump into a converstion, or talk when there is 3 or more people there (including me), but when there is just 2,and i can control the converstion.. its sooo much easyer. (yes there is a lot of hand signs and waveing of the arm, and acting like a chickin and stuff).
The other day I had a converstion with one of our investigator's dad (jerem is in a part-member family). I felt like dad (my dad) in the way I was talking... or maybe he sounded like dad... or maybe its was just a dad(larry) converstion. We talked about work,and his family, our family, coconuts and the ocean... or something. I dont know exactly what we talked about any more but the language isnt really a barrior anymore.
OH I also learned something, that I should have known a long time ago (someone just menched it today too, paul, i think.) When I am trying to learn a word, or to speak... not only will i prolly say it wrong.. I have to say it wrong, if i really want to understand. cause if i say it right, no one says anything, and i dont know if they understood,or if it was sorta right... But When talking about ...i dont know... eating, and trying to figure out what fork is, all i have to do is say, "ohhh you want me to eat the rice with the chair." then they tell me what it is, and usally give an example indirectly. (or other times i say things backwords on purpose just to see if it should be forwards,or someother way.) And if I have no idea, I just make up some sounds and try to act it out. I Never ask, "what is this in tagalog"anymore. ether no one understands, what i am saying,or they ignore it. Maybe this is how grandpa can get around anywhere in the world.
anyways theres a little bit about my language... actally, I got a one more thing.
so there is word in tagalog "sa-yang". Some here, a philipino, asked me how to say this in english. its sorta means, ah too bad, or only if that didnt happen. But then he asked if the english translation is "tisk tisk tisk tisk" (or a very quiet clicking noise with your mouth 4 times while slowly nodding your head)....true. English is the werid language.
ok so this week we should have a baptism. It was scudled for friday.. but the mission prez. is coming on this way, and today asked if we could move it to saterday and to the river (instead of the batsmal font). hmm well we'll we might have a baptism in the river this week. (this is for jorell, 11 year old boy. Him and his cusins really like larryD's familys photos, and asked for a copy of merindas.hehehe. I eventally gave the group of them, a photo of all 6 pictures in it.haha. They also all really like cassie)
Another investigater we have is jarem. He is from a part member family. His brother is on a mission.The family is inactive mostly... I think because they are fairly far from the church. We went there to teach a friend of his sister's,and he kinda just showed up too. Hes the only non member, in the family. In a lot of ways he reminds me a lot of andy, in the fact that He is really quiet. And had a lot of problems too...like drinking and smoking and coffie. We really werent sure where this was going to go.. but he's been really awesome. He is 18. he dropped out of school a couple years ago. In the last week, he has done like 4 reading assiments, which most people we teach never really do the readings. He has dropped a bunch of friends that he drinks with, and has quit drinking and smoking and coffe. Another cool thing about him, is that another one of our new investigaters last week was a friend of his, so we invited him to come with us. Its like a 25 mintue walk from his house to a bigger part of town (we live, the church, and his friend). Well his friend didnt really go anywhere... but we invited him to work with us again. He said sure. yesterday (sunday) he worked with us for the 3rd time. He worked with us yesterday from 3-9. Istig! I dont know if i have ever worked with an investigator before.. but what ever. I think he will completely get rid of his drinking (well we arentsure if he has yet), soon and will be baptised after i leave the area.
hmm well mom is emaling me now.. .so i will just hit send.
luke
Helllllooooo.
aye, sweet! danel is a follow up trainer. I am a follow up trainee
right now. really cool to hear.
um, thats crazy, that jeremy is taken off. um, thats pretty sweet thou.
well heres some stuff i wrote to my president today... [with some additions]
This week we should have the interview for jorell carbonel [11 years
old]. He was
confused why we moved his baptismal date, but we know now that he will
be ready for the baptism. Things are going good with him. Actally we
have been giving little reading assinments with him, and he has been
reading them. This week we also have a CSP suchulkaled with him.
Roheilo, hasnt been progressing as much as we would have hoped. He has
been fairly buzy in the bukad (or rice fields). We also found a fairly
big concurn, besides the WoW. His testimony, even after proabliliy
having 100 lessions with different missionarys, isnt very strong in
the restoration. We tried to address his concorn, but... well, i think
hes doing better. I think he has lost hope with other things too. Well
we will keep working with him.
Jearm is another investgater who is now progressing. He is 17 and has
a WoW problem. He is a part-member family too. He is pretty quiet, and
is hard to get to answer questions. he also dropped out of school, a
couple years ago. Still he has been reading the reading assienments.
this week he was at church too.
This week at church was crazy! we had 74 people come. this was very
unexpected. Lately we havent been have PEC, and many times we end
church after 2 hours, because everyone has already left. Some how,
we.. had a ton. We had I think, 5 or 6 less-active familys come. We
had a inactive convert of about a year ago, show up. I have never
seen him at church before (elmer david). We had the biggest youth
group show up, including investigaters. We had 2 priests bless the
scarament, which has never happen before (usally we have a elder, and
a missionary elder). We had a very full youth class (instead of none),
and adult class. We had 2 older members,(like 60-70 age) who i have
never seen stay past scarment meeting, come to class. One of them, has
to walk with a cruch. (I actally sat with them, trying to see if they
could hear, and they are funny people). um Our elder quorm president,
who i have only seen once in my...14 weeks here, come. He actally ran
the elders quorm which usally doesnt happen. Well, sorta. He didnt
have a lesson prepared... so he points to me and tells me to teach.
uhh well, i went for it, and desided to talk about home teaching.
After getting it started, i pass the class off to a member, who knows
how to speak in tagalog, and take charge. We now have 7 sets of home
teaching companionships (I have heard of hometeachers here before, but
noon... (uh english... before..in the past). We also had a PEC, and
the branch president was talking about getting other callings ready,
and helping the visiting teaching get started. We (kami, The
missionarys) will be now heading a fireside next week on hometeaching
and visiting teaching. Maybe it had something to do with the district
conference last week.. but i did not expect this at all.
ok well not many addtions. um what else...
ok so family rocapor, the family that was baptised under me and elder
natual. Mostly doing good, tatay is going back to a couple WoW, things
but all in all things are good.
but, as we were just talking about jeremy earlyer... i noticed
something last time we were there. One is that tatay rocapor reminds
me of jeremy.. sooooo much. pretty much the same person. except that
he is prolly 40 or something and has 6 kids.
One of his kids, richard... is exactly like mattew from the ward at
home. like in 100 ways.
its pretty hard to get home sick here.
oh something else, my companion. He is sooo much like mark. like, i
have only really found one big difference. He is like mark in the
fact, that he is actally fairly smart, but the way he .. just is, no
one really realises it. Also in the fact that he likes to tell you,
what you dont want to hear. hehe. oi. which is a problem sometimes,
because when he speaks in english, he is sooo scarcastic (like
sarcastium doesnt really exist here... but i think whoever he learned
enlgish from was very sarcastic. ..) the reason this is a problem.. is
that like mark, he is really good at getting on my nerves... but
UNlike mark he doesnt like things bluntly and stright (very phlipino
thing i think), and he doesnt like react well when I bluntly say that
what he is saying is dumb, and that he is being dumb. So thats a
problem... hahaha, yah like last night he was super mad at me. But he
is quick to forget too. soo I think i figured out what to do... just
never speak english with him... so he cant understand when i am
getting bugged, and then he wont continue saying werid stuff.. that
might work.
about some of the work this week. Um well so a lot people actally
remembered there commitments to read and stuff. that was rad. um we
are teaching a man who is like 92. He really reminds me of grandpa
headman. not too much thou. He was in World War (the big one). heh. um
he also has a pretty sweet hat that says that. he was to be baptised
before, but on the day, he didnt want to traval to the district
center, to the font (about a 30 min. drive. the missionarys found out
later it would have been fine to do it in the nearby river.) Right now
he hasnt been to church in a while thou.
oh well, ummm well something dad asked was about the baptisms here. so
yah, in my area we usally go to balar, to the district center.
um actally about my area... i think its the smallest town in the whole
mission. Besides little tinahans (or little shops at peoples houses...
which there are tons here), there isnt much. On thusday, there is a
palanki (pa-lane-ki) or fruit market.. set up. there is a couple of
shopes
Well
