Mission Adventures in the Philippines: August 17th, 2015: Visit from Brother Waggoner and Service Project

Hello everyone!

So first, I'll just answer your questions

Dad: is the church emphasizing keeping the Sabbath Day Holy? I would say so. That was the topic this last Sunday. I would say that for the most part, members are good at keeping the Sabbath Day holy as well. Maybe the biggest emphasis is put on paying tithing. It's something that members overall struggle with here. As group leader back in Culasi, President Aquino asked that I was teaching it or at least emphasizing it every Sunday.
Brooklyn: are board games popular there? For the most part, no. But, if they have board games, sometimes they play it.
Mom: have you thought about what you want to do as a career? I do think about it, but I'm really still pretty up in the air about it.
Seth: how many lessons do you teach a week? And how do you get investigators? Members, tracking, media? As a zone leader, we don't get as many lessons as I used to because a lot of the time, we spend time out of our area, but maybe an average right now is 30 lessons or so. A good week is 40. And investigators generally are really easy to find. It's just a matter of getting quality investigators where you can teach them at members' houses and have fellow shippers. We don't really use media at all though. We used to have Facebook, but missionaries abused it, so there is no more of that.
Stephanie: what was something that has made you laugh this week? So, Elder Tracy's birthday was yesterday and tonight, we are having a ward activity that is kind of for his birthday. He is buying all of the food, so the thing is he is expected right now to replace one of the other zone leaders who will be transferring early to the office for training, which would mean Elder Tracy would have to transfer early too. We don't know anything for sure though, it's just gossip, but yesterday after church, they missed a call from the APs, which we all started freaking out because we thought it was because Elder Tracy was transferring. It would have been perfect timing. Anyways, he was panicking because it could mean that he would transfer right before his party that he has already put some money into for food. And all of the members are planning on attending. Anyways, it was so funny because he was panicking. Eventually the AP called back again and told Elder Tracy that he had something to tell him. At that point Elder Tracy was about to give up hope, and then all it was was a birthday call because they apparently had the same birthday. It was pretty funny because it was such good timing and we all thought that he was transferring.

Bree and Chloe: how talk are the trees there? They are normal height I guess. Most of the trees though are coconut trees.

Hey, so about the paper, the other paper he gave me was already three hole punched. i have a hole puncher here, but it's kind of cheap plastic, but it works. It's just one that I got at the MTC. If you could get three hole punched paper or just punch it there, I think that would be best. As far as hygiene products, maybe the only thing that would be nice is deodorant. You can buy good deodorant here, but its so expensive, like 7 dollars a stick-expensive. Other than that, I'm good! Thanks a bunch!

That's a bummer about stake conference though. That's a good meeting. And that's so crazy that Madison Jones is already home. That's so fast haha.

So about school, I'm going to apply to BYU and I probably will need your help on that. I don't really know when's the best time to go in though. I was thinking fall just because I don't really see any reason why to wait, but it seems like you want me to go in for winter semester. I'm fine with whatever. I'm not really worried about adjusting at all, but it would be nice to work a little bit before. I just don't know where I would work.

I had a pretty cool experience this week. I came home one night and Elder Tracy told me he wanted to show me a picture of someone he had met that day, so he showed me the picture and it was Brother Waggoner! He was one of my teachers in the MTC! Apparently he was in Kalibo and knew that Elder Tracy and I were in New Washington and came over, found some members and then called Elder Tracy (he taught Elder Tracy too) and they had dinner together at the member's house. I was pretty bummed because we had forgot a phone and they had tried to contact us, but it was ok because the next morning we met up with him and his dad and had breakfast together. It was kind of cool because we got to catch up and then we had a pretty lengthy conversation about looking back, how the MTC experience could have been better and then we talked also about teaching less-active members. It was really good. I actually learned a lot of stuff that I wish I would have known a long time ago. In Culasi, there were no less-actives, so I had never had any experience teaching them and then I got to New Washington with hundreds of less-active members and my initial reaction was to turn to PMG and that actually has basically nothing about how to work with these members that have been offended, or became members for the wrong reason. I really appreciated our conversation with Brother Waggoner because he is a really passionate person who really cares about the work and even though he was on vacation to visit all of his old converts and stuff, he was also getting feedback on how he can better do his job in the MTC. He's a good guy. Anyways, I was pretty excited over all of that.

Anyways, that's all I have time for today just because I got a lot of stuff that I am working on right now, but I really liked all of the pictures you guys sent. You all are goons haha.

Ingat kayo

Elder Robertson