June 1st- Still Being Chased by the Monster in the Jungle and Book of Mormon Placement Challenge

Hello Family!

I'll first answer your questions

Dad: Are kids as obsessed with their cellular devises as Americans are? Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, etc.... Actually yeah, but not as bad as America, I'd say. A lot of kids here obviously don't have any technology, but Facebook and Twitter are pretty big here.  I haven't seen snapchat really. 
Mom: What are you doing about your shoe situation or lack thereof?  I bought a pair of rubber shoes, which like 75 percent of missionaries use here.  I bought them for about the equivalent of 8 dollars.  They should last about 4 months I heard.  
Connor: *He's asleep.  No question from him*
Oliver: What was you latest dream about? Do you ever dream about being in America, or do you ever dream in Hiligaynon?  I actually remember my dream last night.  All I can remember is that I was on some small tropical island (I know, weird, a dream about a tropical island while in the Philippines) and then we were like these futuristic soldiers fighting some people but it was only for training.... basta, I can't really remember my dreams very well. But, yes, apparently, according to other missionaries, I sleep talk in Tagalog and Karay-a and Hiligaynon.  A lot of American missionaries do actually.  
Chloe: What is your favorite verse in the scriptures?  Um, that's really tough to say because I have so many, but I'll share one of the scriptures that I really liked in my studies this week.  Just to give you guys an idea, our personal study schedule changed in this mission lately.  So, we have a goal to read the 4 standard works in one year, which comes out to about 7 pages a day.  So for the first 35 minutes of personal study, we study the assigned 7 pages.  Right now, I'm in Ezekiel... Almost done with the Old Testament!!! Anyways but for the last 25 minutes, we study the Book of Mormon.  It's kind of interesting, we aren't allowed to study any other texts in personal study, just the standard works.  But, I read in Ether 6 about the story of the Jaradites after they had built a boat and they were crossing the waters to go to the promised land.   4 And it came to pass that when they had prepared all manner of food, that thereby they might subsist upon the water, and also food for their flocks and herds, and whatsoever beast or animal or fowl that they should carry with them—and it came to pass that when they had done all these things they got aboard of their vessels or barges,and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God.
 5 And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters,towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.

6 And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves  which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

 7 And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.

8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease toblow towards the promised land while they were upon thewaters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.

For me, it just seems like to be in that boat would be kind of a terrifying experience, especially when you read verse 6, even though their boat didn't break, but they really didn't have anything to trust in but the Lord.  And they did trust in the Lord.  Even though they had to go through some time in a hand made boat with furious winds and being buried under the sea because of "mountain" waves, in verse 8 it says that the winds never ceased to blow towards the promised lands, and I think that we can learn a lot from this passage about the purposes of hard times or trials in our lives.  In this experience, God gave them trials, but those trials always pointed them in the right direction and lead them to their ultimate goal.  Anyways, you guys can get what I'm getting at, but yeah, that was one of the highlights from my personal study!

So, I had a great week!  It's still wicked hot and humid, but we are approaching the rainy season and also typhoon season, which is supposed to kind of start in June, but we have already had a couple of them. 

By the way, the cat-snake demon thing is there every night...expect for one night, the other two Elders wanted experience it, and it wasn't there, but we have actually figured out that it is actually two different creatures, and one of them is in fact a kitten. The other one, don't really know yet, but that's the one that sounds like a demon that wants to eat our souls.  It's so scary though, and funny at the same time,  we walk by and the kitten starts of really quite and gradually gets louder, meow, meow, meow, meow, and then when you get close, the brush starts rustling and then weird noises happen, and then we just sprint away hahahah.  I don't know.  It's their every night!

So, last week, President Aquino put on the announcements that there had been a Book of Mormon placement record in the mission at 54 Book of Mormons in one week.  We are supposed to give 7 a week, and that's all we are supplied with, but we found out that we have a bunch of English in our apartment which you can't really use, but we used it anyway.  We placed 65 in our area and the other two as well in our apartment, 65.  It was really a kind of a fun week though because, you know us, we took it as a challenge.  Every day, I would just pack my bag with Book of Mormons and then just go out.  We gave a lot to the members to give out as well because I think that might have been the most effective way to use English.  It will help them get excited about missionary work.  Any referrals we get, we can replace with Tagalog when we get cargo.  Anyways, President Aquino said that he would take anybody who could take down the record out to eat at ocean city in Iloilo, which is pretty much the nicest restaurant on this island, so yeah, we are pretty pumped hahah.  

Transfer day is this week, but President Aquino emailed me saying that he looks forward to seeing me at MLC, which is after transfers, which pretty much confirms that I'm SAFE from transferring haha, but we will see. 

Oh, I forgot to tell you last week. Do you guys know who tyler haws is?  He was the star basketball player for BYU the last couple years, and he is way good, he should be drafted into the NBA this draft, but he served his mission here in the Philippines, in Manila.  And he served in a unit where Sister Alberto is from, a sister missionary here in Kalibo.  She says they were pretty good friends especially because he reactivated her Dad in the church.  So pretty cool huh?  And then he gave her his jersey and now she said she's going to give it to me! haha, so I'm pretty pumped.  It's just kind of cool.  

Anyways, that's about all I got for this week. The picture sending thing wasn't working a while ago, but I'll try again.  

Oh, and about college things, if I work before winter semester, it would probably be in Algoma, right?

Elder Robertson

Loading up the Book of Mormons in the pack.

May 25th- Being Chased By a Strange Creature and Getting Shoe Stolen by a Dog

Dad: do the Filipinos hunt animals or having hunting seasons?  I haven't heard of any sort of hunting season here.  I don't think it's allowed.  People here just eat fish, chicken, and pig, sometimes beef.  
Mom: can you tell us a funny story?  So, last night, we had a lesson and then when we were leaving, we were putting on our shoes, but I couldn't find one of my shoes.  So, I guess a dog must have taken one of them or something.  We went back this morning and it's no where to be found, so now I have no shoes left.  I came to this mission with three pairs.  The two black ones are wrecked and now a dog took one of my last pair.  That shoe had my one custom insole for my ankles, so I don't really know what to do about that.  I'll be fine without them though.  Maybe the worst part is though is that we had to walk home maybe 2 miles because there were no more tricycles.  I borrowed a pair of their flip flops but all of their feet are so tiny so the shoe didn't cover my whole foot. So, it was a little painful to walk home.  Oh, and we got chased by some weird animal while walking home.  We heard something in the grass making some really weird noises.  Kind of like a cat-snake.  haha.  And then it came out and started chasing us.  We just started sprinting away from it because it was coming for us.  I still don't really know what it was.  It had big eyes and ran on 4 legs.  It kind of had big ears too.  It was like the size of a cat kind of, but we both agreed that it definitely was not a cat.  It ran really weird, kind of like a monkey would.  hahah. We both kind of have different descriptions of it but we can both agree that we have never heard anything like it before and that it definitely tried to eat us.  hahah. 

Connor: what was your favorite thing when you went to Nauvoo?  I just remember the pioneer trek being really fun because it had rained a bunch and it was super muddy, but Nauvoos awesome.  It has a cool feeling and of course the temple there really brings a special spirit. 
Oliver: When you talked about the Filipino choirs, do they sound like the Asian people singing on the Christmas Story?  Yes, exactly like that. 
Chloe: what is the closest temple? And do people get to go very often?  There is a temple in Cebu.  There are regular temple trips, but usually in order for someone to be able to go to the temple here it takes a lot of financial preparation.  Also a trial of faith usually.  

So, on Tuesday, Elder Beticon went on splits with 2 of the sister companionships on an assignment from the President because they were having some contention problems, but it was so weird because we had to go in their apartment and stuff and then just working with the sister missionaries was so weird.  It was weird haha.  My first experience of that.  

Oh, we had a service project this week.  We helped build a concrete house, but what we did was pretty brutal.  We moved a pile of dirt and rocks from outside the walls, to about 20 feet away, inside the walls, and all we had to work with was two shovels, and a bunch of concrete mix sacks, so Elder Beticon and Elder Palzario would fill the bags with dirt and Elder Tracy and I would carry the sacks and dump them out.  We did that for 3 hours in the sun. And it is so hot here right now.   One day I think it reached 42 celcious which I think is close to 110.  And it's humid.  So brutal.  But, I have a little more respect for all of the construction workers here, but I really think that someday, I could make a LOT of money off of the wheel barrow here.  

Hmm, oh, the weather has been really weird in our area.  We are quickly approaching the rainy season, but it still hasn't come.  But, for the last four days, there have been massive black clouds to the south with tons of lightning and thunder, but no rain.  Above us is just blue skies and sun and heat, but to the south has just been thunder and lightning for 4 days.  It's kind of weird.  

The missionary work has been really good this week. We gave a Book of Mormon to these three girls, maybe 23ish  at a barbecue stand, and followed them up four days later and they had read so much of the Book of Mormon, and they understood well what they read, which is impressive for Filipino's.  They were frustrated at me because we didn't go back for four days because they had so many questions and things that they didn't understand.  It's awesome.  I underestimated them when I first met them, but they are awesome and really have a lot of questions about the gospel.  Our first lesson with them was almost 2 and half hours just discussing the Restoration and what they read in the Book of Mormon.  It's just a lot of fun for us to teach people that are actually interested and keep commitments and ask questions.  A lot of times, people really would rather be doing something else than talking with us, which I guess is understandable.  Anyways,  that's about all I got for this week!  Hope you all have a great week!

He has wanted to send us a picture of just how huge the spiders are in the Philippines.  He apologized for this one being kind of small.  Wowsers!

Chicken roosting in the house.

A cute kid felt sorry for Stuart for not having mango trees in Wisconsin so he gave Stuart a mango tree.

Some housing built for people who were displaced from Typhoon Yolanda.

Stuart said this dog was the softest thing he has ever felt.

The extreme opposite.  One of the many very sad dogs in the Philippines.  This was one thing that really startled Stuart when he first got there.

May 17th- Testimony that Families Can be Together Forever

Hey!  How's it going?

That's crazy about Oliver. I just remember running a 5:35 in 8th grade and being pretty proud of that.  Keep up the good work!  How's Connor's baseball season going?

Mom: what was the most spiritual experience this week? We started teaching this family last week.  They have the mother, the father has passed away, two daughters, one 20 and the other 19 and then a male cousin who is 18 years old.  They are very active in the Catholic church, but they have expressed a lot of interest in our message, especially about life after death (the father passed away) and also about how Jesus Christ established his church and what happened to the organization he created after he died. I've been able to learn a little bit about how the Catholic church started, which is actually kind of useful information, but I'm just really grateful because Elder Beticon is very good with the New Testament.  But, I myself have taken some time to really study out about the Great Apostasy and the Earthly ministry of Jesus Christ.  But, anyways, I really love this family we are teaching.  They are some of the most religiously learned people I have taught yet, but yet they are so polite and ponder everything we teach.  Last night, we taught about the Restoration.  We talked for 2 hours with them about Joseph Smith and the role that the Book of Mormon has in our conversion.  We ended the discussion and talked about how nobody can know of spiritual truths without prayer.  I told them that there are so many things that we can't prove about religion.  Nobody can prove the creation. Nobody can prove the Joseph Smith saw God the Father and the Son. Nobody can prove the Book of Mormon, but it easily seen that this has all been done in the wisdom of God.  All we can do is follow the council that the scriptures gives us, to ask our Father in heaven.  We told them this and then bore testimony that God does answer prayers and we know the Book of Mormon is true because of prayer.  We also bore testimony that families can be together forever through the gospel. The spirit was so strong, and I know they could feel it too.  The mother gave the closing prayer and asked for understanding because she knows that they don't understand the gospel and scriptures perfectly.  I'm really excited for this family because they are really showing sincerity in wanting to know the truth, and that's when the spirit can touch their hearts. 

Connor: at what age to most teenagers start to date there?  To be honest, I have no idea, maybe 14 or 15, but dating here is really weird.  I've seen some dates where they sit on a bench and then just text each other.  It's really weird. 
Oliver: how good are you at the piano? Can you play with two hands?  Yeah, I can play with two hands. I'm getting pretty decent. I play the simplified hymn book, but some of the hymns I can play straight out of the hymn book. 
Chloe: what is the most common instrument there?   I would maybe say the guitar.  A lot of people like to sit on the beach in their little huts and drink and just play and sing native songs.  It's pretty cool, minus the drinking haha. 

So, we had one lesson this week and one of the neighboring house was doing videoke, which is basically karaoke, but the speakers were so loud and I forget what we were teaching, but I almost lost it because it was so bad. They were singing that one song, 21 guns.  Yeah, it was bad.  I got the giggles bad.    

May 10th- Pictures Stuart Sent on Mother's Day

Stuart was able to send quite a few pictures to us after our Skype call.  Yay!

Church in Kalibo

Elder Palazario

Dried fish...Not one of Stuart's favorite things to eat.  He says it's like eating bones.

What happens to their nice white shirts when sitting in the trikes.  Rust and dirt.  Stuart says he misses washers and dryers the most.  It takes him several hours on his p-day to wash his clothes.