tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7501667547920275892024-03-13T10:45:44.684-07:00Elder David Jones' AdventuresLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-45571768667205778242011-12-11T22:33:00.000-08:002011-12-11T22:32:55.938-08:00Fw: Bon Voyage<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hi! :D<BR><BR>So... Like. Yeah. This'll be my last email and stuff... Cool, huh? ;P<BR><BR>I started the process of packing my stuff earlier this morning. It's going to be a bit of a chore, especially washing all of my clothes, especially since I've been hanging out in this apartment since June. So all my stuff's a bit scattered across the apartment. :D<BR><BR>We've been working to build the area up, and it's looking pretty strong now. We've found a number of new investigators through the members that have strong potential. Sis. Theresa Zamora is just about ready for baptism. She's been to church four times in a row now. Bro. Zamora and Sis. Cleofe are now officially active again, meaning they've attended church four weeks in a row. We've been getting interviews and things taken care of for Trisha Cleofe and John Chris Zamora, both eight, and they're scheduled to be baptized as well on the 24th, along with a few other primary children. It's a pretty good feeling being able to leave the area strong. Mostly because I know how it feels to enter an area after a missionary just went home and have no progressing investigators. :P<BR><BR>Bro. Sam Artates, from P-Que 4th, was baptized last weekend. He's Sis. Dublan's brother-in-law. I'm really happy about it, because one of the goals Elder Swainson and I had set a few months ago has been realized. The Dublan Family and the Artates family (Sis. Marisa, Sam's wife, is a member, but was less-active), have all become active members of the church. I wasn't in the area to complete the work, but I'm really happy they're all active now.<BR><BR>I felt kinda bad yesterday. At church, all the members were like, "Hey, Elder, you're leaving on Saturday, right? You need to come over to our house for dinner! When are you coming over???" Our evening schedule for the week quickly filled up, and I felt bad having to tell other members, "Um... actually, our schedule is... completely booked... Sorry..." D: There were even a few members from P-Que 4th who wanted to hold family home evenings for the last time before I went home, but I had to say no, just because I would've felt bad if I went and turned down members from Bicutan, where I'm currently assigned, to go visit members from my previous area... ^^''<BR><BR>A large part of me doesn't feel like I'm leaving yet. o.o I don't think it will really fully set in until I'm on the airplane or already at home. I've been doing missionary work for so long that it's hard for me to imagine doing anything else. I'm gonna miss the mission a lot, and I'm especially going to miss the Philippines. The people here are super cool. I'm also going to miss being able to speak Tagalog to anyone I want. I'll apologize in advance for not being able to speak English anymore by the time I get home. :P<BR><BR>In other news, I'm probably gonna add like 150 friends or so to my Facebook when I get home. ^^'<BR><BR>...And then, of course, there's a few things I'm not going to miss when I get home. Like the pollution. And the noise. And the traffic. And everyone staring at you as you walk by. And having people shout "Hey Joe!" or "What's your name?" or other such nonsense at you as you pass by them. Such things start to get old after a while. >.> But other than that, I'll really miss the Philippines.<BR><BR>I finally learned how to cook adobo! :D Elder McGowan taught me. It took me long enough, huh? ;P<BR><BR>Tell Grandma and Grandpa happy 50th anniversary! :D :D :D<BR><BR>Also, Happy Birthday, Richelle! :D :D :D<BR><BR>Tell Bro. George thank you for sending me a topic and stuff so I don't have to just blabber on aimlessly about stuff that happened to me on my mission. :D<BR><BR>Aaaaaanyway, that's about it. Siguro magkita na lang tayo sa Sabado. Kita kitz! :D Ingat kayo lagi! Mahal ko kayo!<BR><BR>With love, and for the last time,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-16119505235161469912011-12-04T21:22:00.001-08:002011-12-04T21:22:21.610-08:00Fw: Two weeks na laaaaang! :D<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D<BR><BR>...Didn't get an email from you today... :/ But that's okay, cuz I'll be seeing you in two weeks anyway. :D<BR><BR>So, Elder McGowan's trainee is Elder Meyer, from Indonesia. He's a pioneer missionary -- he's the first missionary from Indonesia to serve anywhere besides Indonesia or Singapore. His last name is Meyer because his dad's half-German. He's kinda crazy. ;) He kinda reminds me of Jared George. But he's pretty fun. I think he might get along fairly well with Darcy and Richelle if he were to ever meet them, because he's also addicted to anime and manga. ^^'' His Tagalog accent is almost perfect -- the Indonesian accent is apparently almost the same, and there are several words that are the same, like "bunso" and "sakit" -- now he just needs to learn all the vocabulary and sentence structure and stuff.<BR><BR>One of the more stressful things for me about missionary work is trying to introduce a missionary to a new area. But it's been okay so far. I'm mostly just trying to make sure that they don't get lost once I leave. :D<BR><BR>The Zamora family came to church yesterday, even though it was raining. One thing about the Philippines is that usually if it's raining, people like to use it as an excuse to not go to church ("We didn't have an umbrella! Of course we couldn't come to church!" >.> ), and so I was worried that the Zamora family wouldn't be able to come. But they showed their faith and went anyway. They were lucky and got a tricycle right away when they went, so they didn't get too wet. Bro. Zamora was like, "The Lord will provide." I was impressed.<BR><BR>The members thought it was weird that there were three of us missionaries that showed up at church yesterday. ^^'' They were like, "Wait.. Aren't there usually two of you?" They did their whole sacrament meeting in Tagalog again today (they usually do the announcements and things in English, but occasionally, Bicutan does it in Tagalog), which was a nice first experience for Elder Meyer. He looked pretty lost the whole time. Hehehe... ^^''<BR><BR>It's still really weird to think about the fact that I'll be coming home in two weeks. Like. I'm not even really sure what all I'm gonna do when I get home. Like. I'll probably sleep a lot in the first couple days. And... Facebook everyone I met on my mission. And stuff like that. Maybe freak out every once in a while because I don't have a companion. o.o But like. Other than that, I'm not really sure... ^^' It'll be weird.<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it for this week. Ingat kayo lagi! See you in two weeks. :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-27464285035925596542011-11-30T11:37:00.001-08:002011-11-30T11:37:14.237-08:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Well, classes look perty gud so far. Bro. Klein did tell me to make sure to reserve 11:30 to 2:00 open every day for ensembles, and I noticed that the symphony class is only Tuesday and Thursday, and the chamber brass class is only on Fridays. I'm not sure, but it sounds like he might have actually wanted us to just leave 11:30 to 2:00 open everyday so that way regardless of what ensembles I end up in, he can place me in those classes after auditions. You may want to email him to double-check... :/</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, things have been going fine. I went to the going-home activities the past couple of days. It was fun. We attended an employment resource center workshop, went to the temple, had a few devotionals, and ate pizza and doughnuts. :D Not necessarily in that order. ^^'' President Stucki officiated in our temple session. It was all a really spiritual experience.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I was wondering how exactly they were going to work out the transfers, since I'll be going home mid-transfer. I was pretty much expecting that Elder Ranoco and I would just stay until I went home, and then he would get a new companion somewhere along the way. But the way it worked out was Elder Ranoco transferred to Manila Zone, and Elder McGowan will be coming to Bicutan to "shotgun train". He'll train a new missionary here, and I'll act as a tour guide, showing them where all the members and investigators live until I go home. Not exactly what i expected, but it works. ...I never actually got to finish the 12-week training program with either of my trainees... >.> One went home, and the other one transferred out 3 weeks before it was finished...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Oh well. It'll be fun anyway. I already knew Elder McGowan from back when we were in Cavite. He's pretty cool. We'll get his trainee tomorrow. It'll be my third time going to the mission home to pick up a trainee. And my second time going to the mission home this week.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So, yeah. That's my fate for the last two weeks of the mission. I'll play the role of tour guide until I slowly fade into obscurity and then disappear. It'll be fun. :D</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, that's about it for this week. Until next week, ingatz!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Love,</DIV> <DIV>Elder David Jones</DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-71525353337487492072011-11-29T17:45:00.001-08:002011-11-29T17:45:03.834-08:00Fw: Happy Thanksgiving<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>... o.o Last week was indeed an interesting week... Hope you can get the van fixed up soon.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Glad to hear that Richelle didn't die. :D And, yay, now we'll have a relatively new convertible! :D Yaaaaay! ;P</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>That's the thing about Manila traffic. It may be the CRAZIEST thing you'll ever see in your entire life, with cars and jeeps and GIANT LOUD CITY BUSES and stuff coming from ALL DIRECTIONS and CUTTING EACH OTHER OFF and SWERVING IN AND OUT OF LANES and stuff... but everyone's used to it. Everyone here who has a license is good enough at driving to avoid getting SMASHED IN THE FACE WITH A GIANT LOUD CITY BUS. Mostly. So stupid stuff like people pulling out of gas stations without looking to make sure they're not going to broadside some poor girl on her way back from school just doesn't happen. ...Often. (First of all, little girls on their way to and from school here usually walk. Or take jeepneys). There are still occasional accidents, but they're surprisingly rare. Elder Ranoco says that it's because people are afraid to get into accidents because repairs are expensive and most people don't have insurance. ^^''</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, Bro. Klein, the horn teacher, emailed me again. He says that I should be able to participate in a large ensemble and a chamber ensemble (small ensemble) right away. He says I should probably start on a lower horn part until I regain enough strength to move on to higher horn parts. He says it should take me about a month or so to regain my embouchure strength and about a semester to regain the touch and skill I had before my mission. He says to leave the 11:30 to 2:00 block open for ensembles, which I will audition for the day before classes begin. So go ahead and sign up for one "large group" and one "small group" ensemble, and we'll work the other details out when I audition. Also, sign up for french horn lessons. I went ahead and indicated french horn as my primary instrument, though eventually, I would like to sign up for a jazz ensemble as well. For now, the jazz improvisation class should work. I'd also like to take the scoring and arranging class.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Other than that, just fill it with whatever other required classes I need to take. If I hate the way it turns out, then it's only for a semester, and then we can work on fixing it and stuff. ^^'' It's a little bit harder when I'm way out here in the middle of nowhere and can only look at it once a week.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I sent the housing contract through the mail, so hopefully it should get there within a reasonable amount of time.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This week's been interesting for us, too. Last last Sunday, the day before I wrote, a member dropped by the Borinagas' house before church to remind them to come, which, ideally, is great. Unfortunately, things turned really sour really fast. Sister Borinaga left for a few seconds to go look for John Klein, who was hanging out with friends. As she was coming back, the member, who she'd left alone in the house, had started heading out, saying he'd probably better get to the church, because he needed to help with the sacrament. When Sister Cynthia got to the house, a cell phone was missing. Cynthia called the member back and demanded to know what happened to the cell phone, but he said he simply didn't know. It's a difficult situation, because he's the only one who could possibly have taken the phone, but he claims that he didn't take it. Since then, it's started a humongous downward slide, and now I'm not sure if we'll be able to continue teaching the Borinaga family. Cynthia is understanding enough and wants to continue going to church, but is afraid of a possible conflict with the member's family, who are not members (and who are also drug dealers), John Klein is okay with continuing, but has the same concern as Cynthia, and also hasn't been making much progress in keeping the Word of Wisdom, and Margaurette, Cynthia's daughter (the cell phone belonged to her), has lost all trust in the members and, as far as I can tell, has lost all interest in investigating the church. :/ So, because of the unfortunate actions of one member, we're about to lose all hope in ever baptizing the Borinaga family.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>...Yeah, it's been kinda stressing me out. :P</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But on the brighter side, one of our investigators, Sister Theresa Zamora, has been progressing really well, and will probably be baptized with no problems on the 24th of December. Those kinds of investigators are really nice. ^^'' I won't be here any more for the baptism, which is unfortunate, but that's not really as important, just as long as she gets baptized and stays active.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We've also been working pretty hard on reactivating the Cleofe family, who was baptized about 5 years ago or so, but fell inactive due to a few issues with members. The bishop's been getting pretty involved in reactivating them, too (Have I mentioned? Bishop Cabrera is really on top of things. I've been pretty impressed with his work here in Bicutan Ward). Brother Cleofe came to church last last Sunday, and the whole family came to church this last Sunday. It was like, Yaaaaaaaay! :D As far as I can tell, they plan on coming back to stay. We've been trying to work on getting them back into good habits, such as Book of Mormon reading and going to church and family prayer and things, as well as clearing up a few doctrinal concerns that hadn't been fully resolved when they were being taught (yesterday we taught them about the Godhead, which they had questions about, and we encouraged them to remove a Santo Nino statue from their home, an old Catholic tradition). President Stucki, as well as the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, has been emphasizing reactivation and retention, which are equally important as baptisms. The angels in heaven don't sing any less for those who come back from inactivity than for someone who is newly baptized.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We went to a place called Divisoria today, which is a huge shopping center in Manila. It was crowded. And somewhat stressful. And some would-be tricycle driver tried to swindle us by charging us 220 pesos for what he originally said would be a 20 peso ride. We got in his face about it, and he lowered the price considerably, though we still paid more than we should've. Jerk. But it was kinda fun anyway. And I bought some cool stuff. :D</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, I'm about out of time now, so that's about it until next week. Next week is transfer day, though I don't think anyone in our apartment will transfer. Hopefully not.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Not a lot of time left here in the Philippines. I'm doing my best to make the most of it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>See you soon. Ingatz!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Love,</DIV> <DIV>Elder David Jones</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>P.S.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Less than four weeks na lang! :D</DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-33926736210248196332011-11-14T19:21:00.001-08:002011-11-14T19:21:52.583-08:00Fw: greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hey. :D<BR><BR>Sorry this email is going to be a bit short... I again spent most of my time trying to figure out BYU schtuff. ^^'' Anyway, I printed out the housing contract, and I'll get that mailed out as soon as possible.<BR><BR>When I opened my email today, I got an email from the same lady that was emailing me before about other stuff, titled, "Incomplete application," in which she was like, "You need to complete your application for Winter Semester blah blah blah", then another one saying, "We just received word from admissions that even if you were to complete your application now, it would be denied cuz it's too late and stuff." It sent me into a momentary panic in which I then went and checked all my application status and stuff online. After a few minutes, I was like, >.> "...I already completed my application. They already accepted it. Thanks for scaring me, you jerks..." :P<BR><BR>There was a health insurance waiver thingy that I had to fill out. They were just making sure that I have health insurance. So I filled it out. Good thing I had that health insurance card.<BR><BR>Anyway, I emailed Bro. Klein, the french horn instructor, and asked him what classes and ensembles he would recommend for the first semester. I also accidentally said "transfer" instead of "semester" in my email. >.> I've been a missionary for too long.<BR><BR>November 23rd is actually a P-day, because of temple day, but I'd still like you to take care of registering for classes for now. Wednesday will technically be Tuesday for you, so you'll be able to get my email next week before registration.<BR><BR>Anyway, it's good to know that everything will be in order for when I get back. Thanks for taking care of things. :)<BR><BR>... I love giving talks while I'm jetlagged out of my mind. :D You have no idea. It's great fun. Well, let me know what exactly they want me to talk about so I can start throwing something together. ;)<BR><BR>I'd write a bit more, but I'm already well over time. ^^''<BR><BR>So.... Until next week, loff you all! Ingatz!<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR><BR>P.S. Five weeks na lang!!! :D<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-37756614715152518232011-11-07T18:52:00.001-08:002011-11-07T18:52:11.585-08:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hey. :D<BR><BR>Sorry, my email's gonna be a bit short, too, since I just spent most of my time trying to figure out BYU stuff. :P I just got an email today saying I've been placed on the Winter/Spring track, and I'll take the Fall semester off, pretty much just like we wanted. :D It had me go online and accept the offer and stuff, so I did so. It said it's currently declaring my major as "General Studies" for right now, so we'll have to go declare an official major and schtuff before registering for classes. My "I-number" is*********, my BYU-I username is*******, and my password is ********* (I tried going for something a little more simple, but they insisted on making it obnoxiously complicated. :P ). The Music program thingy says that people who enroll as a music major will be placed as a "prospective music major" for the first semester, so as far as I can tell, for this semester, I should just declare "Music" as my major, and they'll take care of other schtuff... Any of this stuff that you can take care of for me would be greatly appreciated. :D Classes will start on Wednesday, January 4th, and there's apparently some "Get Connected" orientation program that we need to go to on Tuesday the 3rd, before classes start.<BR><BR>I probably stared at that for too long trying to figure out how all that stuff works. ^^''<BR><BR>Anyway..<BR><BR>Last Wednesday we got to hear Elder Ardern speak at the Manila Mission Tour at Buendia Chapel. He's from New Zealand. He's a pretty funny guy. He talked a lot about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it testifies clearly about Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and stressed the importance of teaching all of the doctrine to our investigators. He also mentioned how important it is that we make sure that our converts stay converted and stay active-- retention and reactivation are just as important as conversion. <BR><BR>Elder Ardern told me to tell Mom thanks for making me learn to play the piano. ^^' I'll extend the thanks to Grandma, too, for teaching me how to play. Salaaaaamat! :D<BR><BR>After the mission tour, I also heard some good news. Brother Glenn Maniling, one of my first converts in my first area, went inactive maybe a week or two after his baptism last year because he got a job and had to work on Sunday (weird.. that was about a year and a half ago... o.o ). I was pretty sad when it happened, since he was a great investigator back when Elder Leavitt and I were teaching him. But I got word after the mission tour that after maybe a year of being inactive, he's started coming back to church. He's received the Aaronic Priesthood, and he's working with the missionaries a lot now and preparing to serve a mission. Yaaaaay! :D I was really glad when I heard about it.<BR><BR>And then, Thursday morning, I died. D:<BR><BR><BR><BR>...<BR><BR><BR><BR>...Or, that's kinda what it felt like. ^^'' I got sick and had to stay inside all day. Took me till Saturday to fully recover. I hate it when that happens.<BR><BR>Our investigators have been struggling quite a bit lately to come to church, and there was a bit of a misunderstanding between the Borinaga family and some of the young women in the ward which we'll have to try and resolve this week. We're kinda having to take a bit of a step back this week and sorta start over with our investigators' progress. Their baptismal dates have been set back to December 10th, the week before I leave. Hopefully, they can make it by then so I can still be here for the baptism, but even if not, it's their progress that's important, not my presence. ^^''<BR><BR>Congratulations to the band for another great year! :D Yaaaaaaaaay North Thurston!!<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it for this week. Hopefully we can get all the college schtuff figured out before too long. Love you all!! Ingatz! :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-58596778388214279582011-10-31T06:00:00.001-07:002011-10-31T06:00:15.688-07:00Fw: It's time for the spooks to come out!<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hiiiii! :D<BR><BR>We went shopping today at the local mall, SM Bicutan, and there were a bunch of kids all dressed up in costumes. Nothing elaborate, mostly just masks and light-up devil horns and things. ^^'' A lot of people have been selling random Halloween stuff out on the street for the past couple days. Halloween isn't as big of a holiday over here, but the kids do still go trick-or-treating. All-Saints Day is a bigger event, where everyone traditionally goes to the cemetery to visit their deceased ancestors. It's great and all, but it often means that investigators and members like to go on vacation for a few days, leaving us with no one to go teach for the day. :P<BR><BR>I'd send pictures of what I'm dressing up as for Halloween, but it'd look exactly like all the other pictures I've sent so far... ;P And I'm lazy and don't feel like sending pictures. :D It's okay, you'll see them all in a month and a half anyway.<BR><BR>Darcy and Richelle did a very nice job on the Zelda costume. :D<BR><BR>>.> Heeeyyyy.... Darcy stole my Davy Jones costume...<BR><BR>Scaring the sinigang out of little kids in a zombie costume sounds like so much fun... :D<BR><BR>Things have been improving in the work lately. The members have started giving us more referrals, and things have been picking up a bit. A lot of the members are really willing to help. On Sunday Bishop encouraged the members to share the gospel with their friends and gave them copies of the Book of Mormon to give to people.<BR><BR>Our investigators have been struggling lately in coming to church. The baptismal dates we've had set for the coming weeks will have to be moved back to December so they can better prepare. :/ So we'll be focusing more on helping them get to church.<BR><BR>We went back and taught Jestoni and Jay Ann again for the first time in a while, and we were able to talk with them better than we were last time. Jay Ann still doesn't want to be baptized, but we got a better idea of why. She said she's not very active in the Catholic church, since her kids are obnoxious, and so she doesn't really want to change religions because she doesn't feel like she can promise that she'll be active in our church, either. It's a good enough reason, and so we promised that we would help them to become more spiritually active and invited them to come to church this coming Sunday. I figure we'll just help her become more active in the true church, and then once she feels stronger, we'll bring up the invitation to be baptized again.<BR><BR>Hope the band does well at Auburn. YOU CAN DO IT!!!<BR><BR>You know what's fun is no one in our apartment knows how to cook. So we've all been living off of canned food for the past couple weeks. It's been great. ;D We've been trying to make sure that we buy fruit and vegetables, too, so we don't die of malnutrition. ^^''<BR><BR>Elder Ardern, of the Seventy, is coming to Manila this week for a mission tour. He's the one who talked about setting priorities and using time wisely ("There's got to be something more productive you can do with your time than catapulting angry birds at a concrete wall...") at General Conference. We'll get to meet him and hear him speak on Wednesday.<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it for this week. Only a month and a half to go... Ingatz!<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-73066272467207935912011-10-24T17:43:00.001-07:002011-10-24T17:43:31.449-07:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D<BR><BR>Things like slippery leaves covering the ground and freezing cold rain seem like foreign concepts to me right now... O.o It's still as hot as the blazes over here and just as muggy as it is any other time of year, with an occasional (though not as frequent as they were about a month ago) rainstorm. Coming home to cold, wet, rainy Washington is gonna be weird. Good thing I've got a giant umbrella and a pair of rubber shoes that I bought at the mall. :D<BR><BR>We got to go to Lhujay and Ehlona's baptism on Saturday. It was a pretty cool experience. Since I left, Tatay Dublan has received the Priesthood, and he was the one to baptize his kids. Lyka Dublan, who was baptized on July 31st, was one of the speakers for the baptism. She gave a short, simple talk on faith and repentance. It's really cool to see the whole family returning to full activity in the Church. I'm really looking forward to them being sealed in the temple, hopefully next year.<BR><BR>President Stucki has actually passed a new rule where you're not supposed to go back to your old areas for baptisms, because you're supposed to focus your efforts on your own area. But I got permission to attend the Dublans' baptism, as long as we brought investigators with us. So we brought the Borinaga family. :D They enjoyed it. It was a good spiritual experience for everyone.<BR><BR>...Unfortunately, the Borinaga family then wasn't able to come to church yesterday. In fact, none of our progressing investigators were able to come to church. I'm still not sure why yet; we haven't been able to go back and visit them yet. Hopefully they'll be able to keep coming in the future.<BR><BR>On Friday, we were invited to give a small presentation about the Church at a local high school, since the topic of their social studies class (araling panlipunan) was world religion. It was pretty fun. It was my first time to give such a presentation, so both my companion and I were kinda nervous, but it turned out well. It got a bit.. weird.. at times, just because.... Well, picture a tall, white, gwapo American giving a presentation in front of a class full of teenage, Filipino schoolgirls. ^^'' Yeah.. After the presentation, they insisted on taking pictures. (They also wanted to know my facebook address... I told them no). It was mostly fun because I got a chance to see what school is like here in the Philippines. It's kinda cool. It's all actually pretty formal (though occasional jokes keep the mood light). The first thing that happened when class started was everyone stood up and said to the teacher, in unison, "GOOD MORNING, MISS!" Then they all turned around to face us and said, "GOOD MORNING, VISITORS!" I was like, O.O "AAAH!!" A lot of the students had prepared assorted presentations and things, some of which were highly amusing (including a "Dora the Explorer"-themed one, and one where they were pretending to give a "weather report" using a map of the Philippines and pictures of the sun and clouds and things taped to long pieces of wood. Hehehe). Whenever the teacher had students answer questions, they stood up and answered her formally ("So, class, what issue was discussed in their presentation? Marvin?" "Ma'am, the issue that was discussed in this presentation was the raising of prices of vegetables in the Philippines!") It was a cool experience. Afterwards, we had an opportunity to sit down and talk with some of the teachers. They thanked us for coming, saying it was a good experience for the kids, since all the other stuff they discussed is the stuff that they always talk about every time. This was an opportunity for them to hear something new (and an opportunity for them to see a gwapo American in their school... >.> ) We gave the teachers copies of the Book of Mormon and told them how to contact us, in case they were interested in learning more.<BR><BR>...It also turns out that the school we gave a presentation at is the same school that Lyka Dublan goes to. We told her at the baptism that we visited her school. She seemed to think it was kind of weird. ^^''<BR><BR>In other news, occasionally the jeepney drivers keep accidentally giving us extra change, because apparently they think we're students, who usually get a one-peso discount.. And then there was one time when I gave the driver a 100-peso bill to pay for a 16-peso ride, and he gave me back 104 pesos as change. I was like, ... O.o "What the devil...?" and gave him back the extra change.<BR><BR>The French horn instructor at BYU-I has been emailing me occasionally, saying he's excited to work with me this year. He says that there's not as many French horn students coming in for the winter semester, so he's requested me to start on that track. He also gave me a few tips for how to start work on rebuilding my embouchure strength when I get back.<BR><BR>...I guess I'm singing in the Christmas program when I get back. ^^'' Should be fun. Singing is one of the only things I've been able to keep up to speed while I've been out here, so as long as the Christmas program isn't that hard, it should be fine.<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it. Until next week, ingatz! :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR></SPAN></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-27439325867413321762011-10-20T06:49:00.000-07:002011-10-20T06:47:45.628-07:00Fw: Yay, BYU-I!<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV>Herro! :D</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Yaaaaaaay!!! Got accepted!! :D I figured I probably would, but I was still getting kinda nervous about it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This has been kind of an interesting week. The Borinaga family is still doing pretty well. There was one lesson last week where we were teaching about faith and repentance, and Cynthia, who's a bit of a basket case, randomly started chewing on her son, John Claine, about certain things he needed to stop doing. John Claine's really not a bad kid. His main problem is he's getting caught up in the wrong crowd and making some mistakes. Elder Ranoco and I thought it was completely unneccesary to sit there and chew on him like that. :/ On Sunday, we almost thought they weren't going to make it to church, and that we wouldn't have any investigators at church. But then it turned out that a member brought a few friends from school, and then Cynthia and John Claine showed up in the middle of Gospel Essentials class. It was like, "Yay, you're here!" :D It was great, because the lesson in Gospel Essentials was perfect for that family. The other day, we brought a few of the young men to their house, and they made pretty good friends with John Claine. John Claine had a bit of a relapse with alcohol the previous night, because he was invited to a party by friends, and Justin and Ian, who we brought with us, were able to relate really well and give him some advice. It was a good experience for them.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>On a bit of a sadder note, one of our other investigators, Sister Jay Ann, pretty well turned us down yesterday. She and her hopefully soon-to-be husband (another live-in case), Jestoni, had been making really good progress. Jay Ann had received a pretty firm answer to her prayers, and had developed a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. On Sunday, we discussed baptism with them, and they understood the importance of it really well, as well as the importance of having proper authority to baptize. Bro. Jestoni was all for being baptized, but Jay Ann, though she seemed she wanted to, said she wanted to think about it, saying her dad might not be happy about it. So we gave her a bit of time to think, and came back yesterday. When we showed up yesterday, I could tell something was wrong. She didn't smile when she greeted us. She seemed tired. Her countenance had changed entirely. Then, when we asked her if she'd given it some thought, she said, "No. I don't want to. It's never entered my mind to convert to another religion. I was born a Catholic, and I'll die a Catholic. My whole family's Catholic, and that's just the way I'll stay." I was shocked. We asked her again if she believed if Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and if this is the true Church of Jesus Christ, and she said, "Yeah, I believe in everything you're saying. But I don't want to change religions." The baby then started crying in the other room, so she went to go take care of her, and disappeared. She didn't come back out to face us again. We were shattered. Jestoni was just as surprised as we were. She hadn't said anything like that to him before. The rejection was sudden and unexpected. We invited Jestoni to come to church on Sunday, and he said he would. He also said he'd talk to Jay Ann. I think someone talked to her between Sunday's visit and yesterday's, possibly someone from her family or whatnot, and convinced her not to get baptized, possibly even threatened her. Based on her reaction, based on her sudden change of attitude, it really seems like she didn't want to say what she said to us. I'm not ready to give up yet. We'll keep trying to encourage her to rethink her decision.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Just goes to show that even now, in the last few months of the mission, there's still challenges that await me. I'm hoping we can overcome this one, because I really like that family, and I don't want to drop them.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I won't be travelling home alone. Actually, most of my batch is going home on the same day. Most of them are going for the same reason, college, but some of them are just going home so they can be home for Christmas. :P I don't imagine that they'll all have the 8-hour layover at Taipei, though, and I'll be the only one going to SeaTac airport. For travel purposes, being alone is probably pretty unavoidable, and it should be fine.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Transfer announcements were kinda amusing on Monday. No one transferred, except two of the sisters.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I find it hard to understand why wanting to be on the same track as a sibling to save on travel costs and reduce fuel emissions by carpooling isn't an acceptable reason to request a certain track. :P But I suppose that's not my call. Hopefully we'll be on the same track anyway.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Question: Mom, Richelle, and Darcy, what are your ring sizes? I need to know by next Monday for confidential reasons. Special mission prerogative. Or something. ;P</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I do too remember what snow and ice are! It's that stuff you have to scoop out of the freezer every once in a while so your hot dogs don't get lost forever and die of freezer burn. :P</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, it's getting pretty close. This is my last full transfer, then just half a transfer left, and then I'll be heading home. I'M LEAAAAVIN! ON A JET PLANE! DON'T KNOW WHEN I'LL BE BACK AGAIN... ;P</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>...Ahem, until next week, then...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Ingatz! :D</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Love,</DIV> <DIV>Elder David Jones</DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-77978868573642326282011-10-12T17:22:00.000-07:002011-10-12T17:21:01.876-07:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D<BR><BR>I can tell by your emails that you're all starting to get trunky. ;) Huwag! I'm not allowed to get trunky yet, I still have 2 and a half months or so left!<BR><BR>...I got my official "trunky letter" (flight plans) the other day, too.. D: I guess I get to chill in Taipei for 8 hours while I wait for the layover flight... :P What's weird is I'll be leaving on Saturday, December 17th, travel for 20 hours or so, and then show up there on Saturday, December 17th. @.@ It's gonna be weird...<BR><BR>I've been doing my best to keep my mind off it, though, and just keep truckin'. I don't have a lot of time left here.<BR><BR>General Conference was pretty cool this last weekend. We weren't able to get a lot of investigators to attend, because the Stake Center in Kabihasnan is REALLY FAR AWAY from Bicutan, but it was cool nonetheless. I like stake events, cuz it means I get to see all my old friends in P-Que 2nd and P-Que 4th. :D It's weird... I know almost half the people in the stake now... o.o Cuz I've been here since the dawn of time. ;) I really liked one of the talks in the priesthood session (I forget who gave it). He said that the Lord knows every area you will be assigned to, every companion you will be assigned with, every person you will talk to and teach, and each member you will meet on your mission. He has a specific plan for every missionary, certain people He wants that missionary to influence or be influenced by. I've really realized how true that is. I've learned a lot from every area, every companion, every investigator, every experience. It's been a blast. :D<BR><BR>We've been teaching a somewhat broken family, the Borinaga Family. I'm pretty excited for them. They've been taught on and off for a long time, for around 15 years or so, but things have just kept getting in the way before. Sister Cynthia is a real troubled woman. Her first husband, a foreigner, left her years ago, and her second husband, who's Japanese, lives in Japan at the moment, and they're trying to arrange their passport & visa stuff so they can live together (I'm not exactly sure how that one worked out.. Apparently, her husband doesn't speak a lick of English or Tagalog. They communicate by sign language... o.O ). Her oldest son, John Clane, who's seventeen, has been getting caught up lately with the wrong group of friends, and has been getting carried into smoking, drinking, and drugs. Cynthia's a pretty.. eccentrically stressed woman.. But she believes that this is the true Church, and is grateful for the help that we've been able to offer in keeping their family together. John Clane has expressed a desire to change, to keep himself away from sin, and to make his mom happy. They've all agreed to be baptized on November 12th.<BR><BR>I'm glad to hear that the band is doing really well this year. The show sounds REALLY cool. :D Congratulations, everyone, and keep up the good work!<BR><BR>...We have a new car?? o.o Cool! :D Reminds me, I'll need to get my license renewed before I run off to college. ^^''<BR><BR>Congratulations to Chris Hensley and Caleb Anderton on receiving their mission calls! :D Probably one of the greatest decisions you'll make in your lives. Being a missionary is so cool. :D<BR><BR>Congratulations also to Aaron and Kaleena for their marriage! :D Good luck! Wish you a happy marriage!<BR><BR>HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSH!!! :D :D :D<BR><BR>Hmm... You're probably right about the laptop. I can probably wait till I get home.<BR><BR>I don't know if I wanna take the van to Idaho.. It's big and bulky... ;P Either way, a road trip sounds like so much fun! :D 'Specially since you have no idea how cool it will be to drive for miles out on an open highway with very little traffic. Around here, you can sit in a jeep or a bus and ride for an hour and a half and hardly get anywhere because of all the traffic. :P The temple is probably about as far away from Paranaque as Tumwater is from Lacey, but it still takes at least 45 minutes to get there.<BR><BR>I'm looking forward to being home for Christmas. :D A lot of the members are kinda disappointed that I'll be going home before Christmas, but while I wouldn't mind spending Christmas with them... I think I'd like to see my family again. ^^''<BR><BR>Anyway, next week is transfer week. Transfer announcements will be kinda fun.. "Since almost everyone in the zone is training, and just got here / switched areas this last transfer, everyone will stay except like 2 people..." I like that a little better than "Hi, everyone! :D Every area is getting shotgunned! Have a nice day."<BR><BR>I love you all! :D Until next week, ingatz!<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR><BR>P.S. I'm starting to think it'd be a bit easier if I just wait until I get home to show you the rest of the pictures... ;P<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-34087228078144099522011-10-03T17:52:00.000-07:002011-10-03T17:51:30.143-07:00Fw: Onsa mana, oi?!<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hello! :D<BR><BR>Things have been... interesting...<BR><BR>After Elder Swainson left on Sunday, things were pretty gloomy around the apartment, since it was just Elder Morris and I, but I kept thinking, "Well, at least I'm still in Paranaque 4th Ward," which I've grown pretty close to. They're really fun. ... But then that got taken away, too.. ;P Monday night, after I emailed, President Stucki called us and told us we would both be training (which we kinda saw coming), but then he told us that he wanted us to switch areas, and have me work in Bicutan, while E. Morris would work in P-Que 4th. I was like, ... D: "But I don't wanna..." We then spent Tuesday and Wednesday going around and showing E. Morris where all the members live and saying goodbye to them and taking pictures and stuff. I'll miss them a lot.<BR><BR>So now I'm in Bicutan, still within the Paranaque Zone (we didn't even bother switching rooms in the apartment or anything. It would've been too much trouble). I've now worked in almost every area in the zone that you can work in (the other two are sisters areas). I'm just missing P-Que 1st and P-Que 3rd. ;P Things have actually improved quite a bit since we got our new anaks. I'm training Elder Ranoco, from Tagum City, Davao, and E. Morris is training Elder Tabal, from Cebu. They're both pretty cool. Elder Ranoco is really humble, and so far, really fun to work with. He speaks Bisaya (which is similar to Cebuano), and has taught me a few words, such as "Onsa mana, oi?!" (which approximately translates to "What the heck is that?!"). :D The Bicutan members are cool, too. Their chapel is TINY. We're trying to fit about 140 to 150 members into a chapel that's built for 60. :P And it's almost literally hidden inside a maze. o.o Shotgun training (training a new missionary in an unfamiliar area), which is usually a very difficult task, has been made a little bit easier by the fact that the ward missionaries in this ward are really active, especially Bro. Junsel (it's kinda funny, because his name sounds kinda like 'Jones'... 'Jonesel'...), and they've been showing us around the area so we don't get lost. ^^'' Which is good, because Bicutan is another maze, not unlike my first area, and there are a number of Muslim regions in our area, such as Maharlika Village, the kinds that if you end up wandering through, or worse, tracting through, there's a risk of getting shot. :D So it's good to have someone with us. ^^'' A few of the members already know me, from stake events and from family home evenings with Sister Eadimay, which she invited her relatives from Bicutan to.<BR><BR>We went to Tagaytay again this morning. It was fun. :D We ended up going to Picnic Grove this time instead of People's Park in the Sky, which actually turned out being even cooler than People's Park. I took lots of pictures and bought souvenirs for everyone, since this will probably be my last time to go to Tagaytay on my mission. Hope you like them. :D<BR><BR>...Hope no one minds that all they get for Christmas is random trinkets from the Philippines... ^^''<BR><BR>So yeah. Despite the transfer and changes and everything, things have been looking up.<BR><BR>I got an email from the Music chairman at BYU-I, asking me what my primary instrument is so they can arrange things to instrumentally balance the different groups. It's nothing sure yet, but it is a good sign. Especially since he said, "When you are accepted...", not "If you are accepted..."<BR><BR>I bought a new camera after I finished my email last week, and it worked great. ...Until Sunday, when half the screen went all weird and crap for no reason. It still takes pictures just fine, but you can only see half of each picture. ;P So I'll go get it replaced later after I finish emailing.<BR><BR>The storms and things haven't been so bad. Just really windy, and a lot of rain. The thing you gotta watch out most for is large pieces of tin flying off of people's roofs. But it doesn't happen very often. We actually probably wouldn't have worked on Tuesday, since the wind was pretty scary, but I had to go say goodbye to everyone, so doggone it, we were goin' out! ;P Bicutan doesn't flood that bad, either. Only a little. Not like P-Que 2nd did. o.o<BR><BR>Before I leave here, I might actually try and find a laptop here to use for college, instead of looking for one after I get home. They're cheaper here, and they're decent quality, as long as you make sure to buy them someplace legit.<BR><BR>It's starting to dawn on me just how close the end is coming... o.o With me leaving early and stuff, that means I have less than three months left. I'm, of course, excited to see you all again, but I'll really miss this place. I'll just have to make sure to work my hardest in these last few months and race to the finish. It's weird.. I'll leave here on December 17th, and then travel for a looooong time, and then get home, also on December 17th... It'll be weird... o.o<BR><BR>...And then I'll freeze to death. ^^''<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it for this week. Ingat kayo lagi. Di na matagal, magkikita na rin tayo. :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR><BR>P.S. I'll send pictures sometime. ;P Honest.<BR><BR><BR></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR>.</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-30826111215152750622011-09-26T09:38:00.000-07:002011-09-26T09:37:24.516-07:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">H'lo. :D<BR><BR>Admittedly, things have fallen apart just a little bit lately. :/ Elder Swainson talked to President Stucki this last week, and they determined that he needs to go home for some personal reasons. He can come back after six months and continue serving where he left off, but for now, he has to go home. His flight left about two hours ago. Elder Tatoy, who also lives in our apartment, also had to go home last Friday. It's been pretty hard, especially after how much I came to love and respect Elder Swainson. He's a great missionary, and he has great potential. I'll miss him a lot.<BR><BR>So yeah.. Morale's been pretty low lately. :/ We're in a bit of a transition phase right now. Elder Morris and I don't have companions yet. President says we'll get them on Thursday. In the meantime, we've arranged to go on splits with ward missionaries so we can manage both areas, Paranaque 4th and Bicutan. Which means for the next few days, I'll be the only elder working in P-Que 4th, with no official companion. It's gonna be weird. o.o<BR><BR>There's also 6 new missionaries coming in this week (which is weird, because they don't usually send new missionaries in halfway through a transfer), so I might end up training again. So will Elder Morris, which he's super scared about. He's still relatively new in the mission.<BR><BR>Ai.. So yeah, that's the current state of affairs.<BR><BR>The Paranaque Stake put on a roadshow this last weekend, which was really cool. They went all out, with all kinds of fancy props and costumes, especially Paranaque 2nd ward. P-Que 4th put on a cool show about Teancum going and stabbing Amaleki with a javelin. Darren Misalucha played Teancum, and it was awesome. :D They had a part where the Nephites and Lamanites were fighting, and suddenly a phone started ringing, and the battle paused for a few seconds so someone could answer her phone, then it resumed again. The two teams had health bars, too, and the Lamanites' health bar slowly decreased as the fight went on until the Lamanites lost. Hehehe. :D P-Que 2nd put on a super-cool show about 3 chosen warriors who had to go fight magic weapons to defeat an enemy tribe. One of them ended up having to go fight a giant fish thing. It was cool! I had trouble identifying individual members of the ward, because they were all wearing masks. A few of them came and said hi to me after the performance, still wearing their masks, and I was like, "...Uh..." Then they took the masks off, and then I recognized them. ^^'' All in all, it was a really cool performance. It was a lot cooler than I thought it would be.<BR><BR>Lhujay didn't go to church yesterday, and neither did Tatay, so we're going to postpone their baptism for a little while. What we'd really like is for Tatay to baptize the kids, but if he doesn't come to church, it's not going to work out. :/ So, we'll keep encouraging them.<BR><BR>My camera's dying and being retarded, and it's annoying me, so I think I'm going to get a new one again.. :P<BR><BR>Mah birthday package finally came in this last week. :D Mmm... Caaaaaandy... :D The Snickers bars and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and everything actually made it here in fairly good condition, and I stuck them right in the refrigerator so they won't melt or get eaten by ants. :D Snickers bars and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and the like are like gold here in the mission. Mmm... Gold.... ^_^<BR><BR>It's good to hear that the band's doing well. Anytime that the football crowd actually listens to the marching show is a good thing. What's their show again this year? You've probably told me, but I've forgotten. :P Go, everyone! YOU CAN DO IT!!! :D<BR><BR>Pagaling ka, Richelle! ;( And everyone else who caught the flu bug.<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it for right now. Hope everyone's doing well. Ingat kayo lagi! :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-4165071978390344222011-09-19T19:21:00.000-07:002011-09-19T19:20:06.155-07:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D<BR><BR>So, things have been... well, uneventful this week. ^^'' Elder Swainson caught some sort of virus and has still been sick all week. :/ So we basically sat around the apartment. All week. ...Yeah... Got kinda boring after a while. :P But he's feeling better now, so we'll kick it back into gear starting tomorrow.<BR><BR>Lhujay and Ehlona Dublan are still on track for their baptism on the 1st of October. They came to church again yesterday. Tatay Dublan wasn't there, which was a little disappointing, but Sister Dublan said that they've arranged his schedule so he can come every other week. Hopefully, we can still arrange things so he can be the one to baptize his kids. Even if we have to move the baptism back a couple weeks so he can be the one to baptize them, I'd rather do that than have someone else baptize them.<BR><BR>One of the families we're teaching is pretty interesting. It's two sisters, Aya and Yoko (whose names, when put together, form "Ayoko!", which means, "I don't wanna!" Hehehe...), and their little brother, Eira. The two sisters are members, but their little brother isn't yet. They're living right now with their cousins, Joy and Emily, who we're also teaching. Their parents live in Japan. Their mom is Filipino, also a member, but their dad, a non-member, is Japanese. The three siblings grew up in Japan, so they speak fluent Japanese as well as fluent Tagalog. It's weird, cuz sometimes they'll speak Japanese to each other, and I'll be like, "... :D ? Konichiwa? Mushi mushi?" I thought Darcy and Richelle might like that.<BR><BR>The Sister missionaries in our zone texted us a referral last week, someone they'd talked to on the bus, but we weren't able to contact them, cuz we were stuck inside all week. But it turned out that we didn't have to, because the referral, Sister Lilia, went to church on her own yesterday, and brought a friend with her. A bunch of people in the ward got pretty excited about it-- "Elders, did you hear? There's an investigator here who came to church on her own!" "Elders, did you meet the new investigator?" "...Yes, we talked to her, thank you." "Elders, I think there's a new investigator! She said she came to church on her own!" >.> "Yes, thank you..." Sister Lilia recently has recently been having problems with her husband (who's also Japanese, ironically enough...), and finally had enough of it a few months ago and left. She's living with a friend now. She wants her family to come back together again, she wants things to work out, so she accepted the Sisters' invitation to come to church when they met her on the bus. It was kinda funny; I didn't recognize her name at first, and was wondering why she was there, who had invited her, and whatnot, but when she mentioned where her husband lives, Spratley Island St., I recognized the address and looked in my planner where I'd written down the Sisters' referral and asked, "Um, is this you?" "Yeah, that's me!" "OH, you talked to the Sisters! THAT'S why you came to church! I get it now!" So now she wants us to go try and teach her husband so her family can come together again. We'll do the best we can, and in the meantime, we'll also go try and teach her and her friend as well. Problem is, her friend who she's staying with lives in a squatter's area, which doesn't have an address. So her house is kinda hard to find. But, she did give us her phone number and said she'll come back to church next week.<BR><BR>Last Saturday, we went to the temple and got to witness the temple wedding of Jonah DeGuzman, my recent convert from Boni 4th, and Lue Cajardo, who used to be the ward mission leader. It was really cool to be able to see them sealed in the temple. I've participated in a proxy sealing before, but never a live sealing. It was cool. I was expecting to have to change into white for it, but they just handed me a pair of white shoes. o.o Huh? Apparently, just the two getting sealed have to change into temple clothes. Those who are just attending don't have to. Okie. The DeGuzmans were really happy to see me. Nanay DeGuzman has a temple recommend now, too, and was also able to attend the sealing. Elder Campos (now Brother Campos) was there, too. Tatay DeGuzman, who's not a member yet, also came. Hopefully, the missionaries can start teaching him soon, too. I asked Bishop Acosta, who also attended, about some of my other recent converts, like the Lopez family, Sister Suzet being my first convert, and the Sy family, and he said, "Yeah, they're still active. Have they hit a year now? Hmm... I guess we should get them through the temple prep classes..." "Yyyesss... Yes, you should..." So, hopefully, I can attend a few more sealings before I go home. :D<BR><BR>So, anyway, that's been the goings on lately. Btw, the financial aid peoplez sent me an email saying that there's a few issues with my application that need to be resolved before I can be considered for financial aid. I was going to go check it out, but I need my Social Security Number, which I don't have memorized anymore... :/ Sorry. I don't know if sending my social security number by email will be a good idea, but could you at least go on and see what issues need to be worked out? Thankz. :D Here's the link: <A href="https://fafsa.gov/FAFSA/app/fafsa?key=nQ3LVNeZVfqRZWnRgRUTsQ==" target=_blank>https://fafsa.gov/FAFSA/app/fafsa?key=nQ3LVNeZVfqRZWnRgRUTsQ==</A><BR><BR>That's all for now, I think. Tell the band I said hi, even though almost no one there knows me anymore. :D Also, tell Sister Richard I said hi, too. Love you all! Ingat kayo lagi! :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR><BR>P.S. I haven't sent pictures in a while, have I? I'll have to get on that sometime... Maybe next week. ;P<BR></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-70961542275661458022011-09-12T11:31:00.000-07:002011-09-12T11:29:50.015-07:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"> <DIV style="font-color: black"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D<BR><BR>Well, the start of this transfer has been fun so far. Elder Querubin finally got back from Ireland yesterday, so he's working on getting settled in with his anak and starting work in his new area. Yesterday, President Stucki called Elder Laureano. There was an issue in another area, so they emergency transferred Elder Laureano over to Makati, and transferred Elder Tatoy back here to Paranaque to work with Elder Morris in Bicutan Ward. Which is funny in two ways, because first of all, they just decided to shotgun the only other area in the district besides mine that hadn't been shotgunned yet, and also, Elder Tatoy and Elder Morris were just companions last transfer. So basically, Elder Tatoy took a four-day vacation in Makati, then came back to Paranaque to work with Elder Morris again.<BR><BR>Also, we just found out like 5 minutes ago that President Stucki thought I should focus more on training Elder Swainson, so apparently, he made Elder Querubin the district leader and stepped me down for now. Works for me. Makes it so I can focus more on my own area.<BR><BR>Elder Swainson's been sick the past couple of days, so we haven't been able to work much. He did force himself to go to church yesterday, but that was about all we were able to do. So we've been doing a lot of sitting at the apartment and resting. Gave me some time to write some letters and update my journal, which had been gathering dust for some time now. Now it's up to date! Yay! :D<BR><BR>The entire Dublan family came to church yesterday, including Tatay and all of the kids, for the first time in maybe eight years. It made me really happy to see them all there. Sister Vanessa Dublan's sister, Marisa, and her husband, Sam, have started coming to church lately, too. One of our goals is to see that entire family return to full activity before the end of this transfer, which ends in mid-October. Another goal is to have the Dublan family sealed in the temple for time and all eternity, hopefully sometime next year.<BR><BR>Hanz and Mona also passed in the papers to get a CeNoMar (Certificate of No Marriage), which they need for a marriage license. Now we just wait.<BR><BR>So yeah. That's been the goings-ons so far. It's really exciting to see the progression of investigator families as they grow steadily closer to the Lord. That's one reason I like staying in areas for a long time. I honestly wouldn't mind staying in this area until the end of my mission. I really like it here in P-Que 4th.<BR><BR>This Saturday, I have the privilege of witnessing a temple marriage. Sister Jonah DeGuzman, one of my recent converts from Bonifacio 4th Ward, in Makati (actually, Makati East Stake now. It used to be in Makati Stake...), will be getting married to Brother Lue, one of the other members in the ward (he also used to be the ward mission leader back when I was in the area). I'm pretty excited for it. :D<BR><BR>It's slowly setting in on me just how close the end is... Only four months to go. Before too long, I'll be freezing to death in Olympia! Yay! :D It's weird to think about. In some ways, it doesn't seem like I've been out for almost two years. Feels like it wasn't that long ago that I stepped into the MTC...<BR><BR>But anyway, that's still a little ways off yet. Still got 4 months!<BR><BR>That's about it for now. Love you all! Ingat kayo lagi!<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-44432352674951514632011-09-07T18:16:00.000-07:002011-09-07T18:14:59.847-07:00Fw: Hello, from Lacey, Wa.<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"> <DIV style="font-color: black"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hello! :D<BR><BR>Well, I guess I'd never really had a chance to look much into the BYU-I music program. I didn't think they even had one. It sounds better than sitting around at home wondering what to do next, anyway, and after a year of that, it's a lot easier to transfer to BYU Provo than it is to get in as a freshman. So I don't have to do anything more for the application for BYU-I? Go ahead and send in the application, then. Thanks.<BR><BR>I was actually feeling a bit hopeless about when I get back home after I got the rejection letter from BYU. Wasn't sure what I was going to do. But now that I know that BYU-I actually has a music program, I guess it's better than nothing. :)<BR><BR>Plus it means that if I get in, I'll have an excuse again to go home a few weeks early and spend Christmas with family! Yay! :D<BR><BR>So things have been going pretty well. The whole Dublan family came to church this last Sunday, except Tatay. Sister Vanessa said that they're working on getting Tatay's schedule changed at work so he can go to church, too. If he does, it'll be the first time in about 8 years since his baptism. He didn't stay active long after his baptism--not even long enough to receive the Priesthood. It'll be really cool to see him come back into full activity after all these years. If possible, what would be really cool is if we could get him to receive the Priesthood before Lhujay and Ehlona get baptized so he can be the one to baptize them. We'll see.<BR><BR>Hanz and Mona talked with Bishop at church the other day, and hopefully they can get the paperwork started under way before too long, and, with luck, they can be married and Hanz can be baptized on October 15th. Hopefully.<BR><BR>Claire's boss has started getting annoying. Their agreement before she took the job was that she could go to church every Sunday, but recently, they've gone out on Sundays to "take care of something important" or whatnot, leaving Claire at the house to watch the kids instead of letting her go to church. :P We'll try and work something out.<BR><BR>Something kinda cool happened that I forgot to mention last week. Apparently, Jobelle, my recent convert from Paranaque 2nd, mentioned at one point that she felt like quitting--she didn't want to go to church anymore. She said she felt like the members--the other young women and whatnot--were all plastic. She didn't like their attitudes. So she wanted to quit. Elders Gillette and Bagahansol, of course, tried to encourage her not to quit, but what convinced her to keep going was her two older sisters. They're not members, but they helped her realize how stupid she was being, saying, "What kind of faith is that? What kind of attitude is that?" They mentioned that if you have a boss that you don't like in a job, you shouldn't just quit immediately, but should try to work things out, bear with it, be patient. What more with a religion that you know is true? So, now, she's still active and goes to church every week. :D<BR><BR>This has been the craziest transfer week ever. President Stucki took a look at the transfer board and just shuffled the whole thing. Half the areas in the whole mission have been shotgunned. Elder Swainson and I are one of few companionships that didn't get changed around. In the P-Que Zone, P-Que Wards 1, 2, and 3 all got shotgunned, meaning that the elders in each area all got transferred and replaced with new elders. Elder Labinpuno is the new District Leader in P-Que 2nd. He's only been in the field for 3 months. He's also training a new elder, in an area he's not familiar with. He's... pretty nervous about it. I'll probably go on exchanges with him sometime within the next few days and show him where people live and where everything is, since I used to work in that area. Elder Sutter and Elder Jacinto are the new zone leaders in P-Que 1st. They're also shotgunning. And Elders DeGuzman and Mohammed didn't leave a lot in that area. They've really got their work cut out for them. The elders working in P-Que 3rd aren't here yet. Elder Querubin will be training in that area, but he's currently in Ireland. >.> He lives there. His visa fell through, so he got deported. They're waiting for his visa applications to pass through so he can come back. He'll hopefully be here sometime next week. In the meantime, P-Que 3rd will be dead for the next week.<BR><BR>Elder Gillette got transferred to Palawan. :( It's kinda sad.. Now I'll never see him again here in the Philippines. By the time he gets back off of Palawan, I'll probably be home. :/<BR><BR>So, yeah. o.o Things have been kinda crazy. But this transfer should be fun, because the missionaries now in the P-Que zone are all pretty good. Hopefully, the huge changes should help build things back up. We spent a good part of today showing Elders Sutter, Jacinto, and Labinpuno where their apartments are, since they're new (Elder Sutter used to work in P-Que 2nd, too, but doesn't know where the P-Que 1st/3rd apartment is.<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it for this week. Glad everyone had a fun vacation. Yosemite looks beautiful. Until next week, ingat! :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR><BR>P.S. You know what would suck? Getting rejected from BYU-I, too. Let's hope and pray that that doesn't happen. Thanks. :D<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-49500319181431100542011-09-01T09:22:00.000-07:002011-09-01T09:21:13.568-07:00Fw: Who needs subject lines, anyway?<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"> <DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=dajones@myldsmail.net href="mailto:dajones@myldsmail.net">David Andrew Jones</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, August 31, 2011 12:56 AM</DIV> <DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=l.l.jones@comcast.net href="mailto:l.l.jones@comcast.net">Lisa Jones</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>Subject:</B> Who needs subject lines, anyway?</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D<BR><BR>Glad to hear that everyone's enjoying their vacation. The random rainstorms that you've been talking about, both at the family reunion and in Florida, are not unlike the random rainstorms that blow through Manila every once in a while. It's hot most of the time, but occasionally, a random typhoon will just show up out of nowhere and soak the living daylights out of everything and flood the city, then it'll go back to being hot. It's pretty routine around here. ^^''<BR><BR>Things have really started to pick up lately. Our efforts have started to really pay off, and a lot of our investigators from before are starting to come around. Hanz and Mona obtained forms last Friday so they can get some of the certificates they need to get married. Hopefully, we should be able to process everything by October, and then they can finally get married. We visited Delia yesterday, who's been taught on and off for about six months now. She says she finally feels that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is the true church, and this is the path she really needs to follow. Her review has finished for an exam she's taking at the end of September, so she can start coming back to church again. We've found a few new investigators with great potential, Joy and Emily, and Catherine and her family. Joy and Emily seemed really interested in our messages about the effect the gospel can have on our families, and they've understood and accepted the things we've been teaching so far. We haven't been able to teach Catherine yet, but she seems really interested in the gospel. The Dublan family is doing well, too, and I'm hoping we can get them all to come to church this Sunday.<BR><BR>Yesterday was probably our best day so far this transfer. Elder Swainson have changed the focus of our studies lately so that we can better help him to prepare to teach the missionary lessons themselves (before, we've been focusing more on how to be a good, effective missionary, with things such as planning, working with the members, teaching by the Spirit, but hadn't really been able to focus a lot on the missionary lessons themselves), and he's been improving a lot faster. Yesterday we both felt the Spirit guiding us as we taught, and it was a very productive day. I'm hoping we can keep that sort of energy with us as we work.<BR><BR>The training program is a 12-week program, so the transfer announcements next week won't be a surprise. We already know we'll both stay for another transfer together. Which is good. I like working with Elder Swainson.<BR><BR>So the work's going well. Of course, that's really what I need to be focusing on most right now. Today, though, I got hit with some bad news. My application didn't get accepted at BYU. So... Now, I'm honestly not sure what I'm going to do when I get back home. At any rate, since I'm not going to be attending the winter semester, I'll probably just finish out my mission and then figure it out from there.<BR><BR>It's kind of a bummer.. :/ But for now, I'll just try not to let it affect what I'm doing here.<BR><BR>In other news, I'll probably be getting my birthday package tomorrow. :D I actually haven't quite finished off all the Skittles you sent me in the last package, but I'm always open to more random goodies. :D I'm still working on the Skittles.<BR><BR>So, now we're entering September, which means there's only about 4 months left. We're closing in on the home stretch.<BR><BR>Love you all! Hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation! :D Inggatz!<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR>NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-69121237638634633242011-08-28T17:53:00.000-07:002011-08-28T17:52:39.428-07:00Fw: Hello from Nevada<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"> <DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=dajones@myldsmail.net href="mailto:dajones@myldsmail.net">David Andrew Jones</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, August 22, 2011 2:12 AM</DIV> <DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=l.l.jones@comcast.net href="mailto:l.l.jones@comcast.net">l.l.jones@comcast.net</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: Hello from Nevada</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hello! :D<BR><BR>Hope you're all having a fun vacation and schtuff. Sounds like a lot of fun. Tell everyone I said hi. HIIIII!!!! :D<BR><BR>...Just wondering... Did Josh not come with you? How's he doing lately? I haven't heard much from him.<BR><BR>Btw, how was band camp? Did Richelle tag along for any of that? Did everyone have fun? Was it amazing?<BR><BR>This week was pretty good for us. Two of our investigators, Dick and Eadimay Car, came to church together for the first time. Eadimay's been attending with her relatives in Bicutan Ward, which is next to us, for a little while now, but yesterday was Dick's first time. He seemed like he enjoyed himself. He's a pretty cool guy, but has a lot of questions. There was one lesson a few weeks ago where we spent the entire time trying to convince him that if he wanted to know if the Book of Mormon is true, he needs to pray about it, but he wouldn't commit to it. But then when we came back the next time, he said he'd actually tried it, but at that point, hadn't felt anything yet. He's been making pretty good progress, and so far, has been accepting the doctrines we've taught him, especially about the Plan of Salvation.<BR><BR>A lot of our investigators are kind of going on hold at this point, waiting for things to happen before they can be baptized. Hanz and Mona still need to complete their marriage requirements before they can be married and Hanz get can baptized. Hanz has been busy with work, but he says he'll take a day off sometime in the coming month to take care of the things they need. Another investigator, Delia, is finishing up a review for an exam that will take place in September, and after that, she'll be able to start going to church again. Another, Rubilyn, has gone to church every week for the past six months or more, and wants to get baptized, but wants to talk to her parents first, who live in the province. She'll take a trip in early September to talk to them, and hopefully she can be baptized after that. I'm hoping we'll be able to help them accept the ordinance of baptism before too long, but in the meantime, we're just waiting on some things to clear up.<BR><BR>Ahm, about the cooking thing... um... Yeah, I can still count the number of dishes I know how to cook on one hand... ^^'' The deal with Elder Magbanua before about me teaching him to play piano in exchange for him teaching me to cook... yeah, it kinda fell through... Wasn't enough time to do either. But I can cook adobo okay (I can do it better if I have a recipe), so at least I'll be able to say I can cook SOMETHING Filipino by the time I get home. ;P<BR><BR>Ooh, and I know how to cook rice! :D<BR><BR>They'll occasionally ask me to play the piano in this ward, though there's a few people who know how to play in this ward. It's not like back in Paranaque 2nd, where there was no other pianist, so I doubled as the ward pianist (most people were like, "Aw... now we don't have a pianist..." when I got transferred). Someone mentioned, though, that a few of the pianists have started showing up late on purpose so I can be the one to play for sacrament. I guess they like my style. ;P<BR><BR>The Musical Fireside in May will probably be my last one. Elder and Sister Swenson, the office couple, were the ones in charge of the musical firesides, and they'll be going home in October, and between that and the change in mission president, there probably won't be another opportunity for another fireside before they go home. :/<BR><BR>...I guess I'd better actually get that scholarship application stuff taken care of soon, since September's coming up quick. I'll try and get it done after I finish this email, if there's time.<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it so far. Hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation. :) Ingat kayo lagi.<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR>NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-69908955810984168712011-08-15T19:07:00.000-07:002011-08-15T19:06:03.346-07:00Fw: After 19 months it's getting hard to come up with clever subject lines.<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D</DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I woke up last Wednesday morning and all of a sudden, I was 21. o.o It was weird. ...I can legally drink now! :D ...I might get hit by lightning if I ever do it, BUT, it's legal. ^^''</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For my birthday, it was mostly just work like normal. We mentioned to our investigators that it was my birthday, and they were like, "Oh. Happy birthday!" Hanz and Mona bought me a cake. :D It was nice. All in all it was a fun birthday.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Claire's baptism on Saturday was really nice. She was really happy about it, happy that she's been cleansed of the things she's done in the past, happy to be able to start a new life. I'm glad for her. We helped Hanz and Mona pay tithing yesterday after church, and Lyka Dublan also payed tithing. Lyka's also started working on her Personal Progress. Yes!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We haven't had a lot of success lately in finding new investigators. We've been looking. We've been trying to use the ward directory to look for less-active and part-member families, but most of the members we visited were either not home or had long since moved. :/ So we'll start trying new tactics this week, and hopefully we'll be more successful. Our other investigators are doing okay, but a lot of them don't have a lot of time to meet with us, so we can only visit them like once or twice a week. A lot of our other investigators are also only available at night, which gives us a lot to do at night, but almost nothing to do in the afternoon. :/ We're working on it, though.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Tell Kelsey and Claire congratulations for me. I wish you both happy, successful marriages. :)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think it's weird, though, that like. Everyone I know is getting married now... Kelsey, Claire, Alicia, Kelly, Dolly... Heck, Richelle might go off and get married before I get back, for all I know... ^^''</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, that's about it for now. Love you all! Until next week, inggatz!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Love,</DIV> <DIV>Elder David Jones</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>P.S.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One of the people in my district, Elder Morris, was wondering how Jacob Delimont managed to send a butiki home in a pop can without it dying... o.o </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also, on that note, tell the Delimonts, I'll missss yooooouu!</DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-10217932759938617632011-08-08T17:48:00.000-07:002011-08-08T17:47:27.779-07:00Fw: Happy Birthday!<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D<BR><BR>Happy Birthday to meeeee... Happy birthday to meeee.... Happy birthday, happy biiiiiiirthdaaaaaaaay!!!!! Happy birthday toooooo meeeeeeeeee!!!!! :D :D :D<BR><BR>...Yeah, that's how they sing it here. They don't even bother with the name. ^^''<BR><BR>I hope Darcy enjoys her cruise. :D I think it'd be so cool to go off and spend some time out on a faraway island where the culture's different, and you get to see new things and meet new people.<BR><BR>...Wait... >.><BR><BR>I imagine it's much more tropical over there in the Bahamas, though. ^^'' Not quite so much pollution...<BR><BR>Tell Mr. J I said hi. HI!!!!! :D Good luck with band camp! And to the marching band (which by now probably consists of a bunch of people I don't know), GOOD LUCK! YOU CAN DO IT!!!!<BR><BR>Send Uncle Brent my regards. Pagaling ka na! Get well soon! Sana hindi kailangan putulin... :/<BR><BR>Got a card today from the Lacey 2nd Relief Society. Thank you, everyone!!! :D I recognized most of the names on there, except... I don't remember Sister Hopkins... It's been a while since I've been home... :/ Have I met her before, or is she new to the ward? At any rate, wish her good luck for me in her preparations for a mission. :D<BR><BR>We've started teaching the rest of the Dublans' kids this week. Their son, Lhujay, likes to hang around a lot with friends and play computer games. Sister Dublan is really hoping we can get him to kind of change his ways before he gets too caught up into the wrong group of friends and gets into trouble. He still goes to school and everything, he just likes to wander off with friends a lot. We've mostly just been helping him feel comfortable around us, making friends with him, and encouraging him to read the scriptures and pray and go to church. Sister Dublan wasn't able to get him to go yesterday, but we'll try again next week.<BR><BR>Claire's getting pretty excited for her baptism on Saturday. We'll have her interviewed tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure she'll pass just fine. She's really humbled herself, and she's completely broken her old habits. She's really ready for baptism, a true convert to the church.<BR><BR>We've been focusing our efforts on finding again, since we're sorta running low on investigators again. The mission is taking a turn towards working with members and referrals, since those produce the most sure and the most lasting conversions and baptisms. A number of members came and talked to me yesterday, saying they're working on preparing referrals for us. Hopefully our work will really start picking up again before long. This week we're going to visit a number of less-actives and part-members, a few of which were referred to us by the members.<BR><BR>My anak, Elder Swainson, has been doing pretty well so far. He's a good missionary, and a great person. He has a good attitude about missionary work and a great love for our investigators. His only real struggle so far is the language. He has a hard time understanding people. I've been doing my best to translate for him and help him learn faster. It's going pretty well so far. It's kinda cool; a lot of the things that I've gotten used to by now-- jeepneys, tricycles, butikis (little lizards that hang out on the walls. They're pretty much everywhere) and other Filipino cultural oddities-- are still new to him, so every once in a while, he'll see something that I've already started to take for granted, and he'll be like, "Wooooaaaah!"<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it. I don't have too many big plans for my birthday on Wednesday. :/ Work pa rin. But we'll do something fun, like go out to eat or something. We'll make it good. :D<BR><BR>Good luck to everyone! Hope everyone's having a nice summer! We're having a nice rainy season over here! ;P Inggatz! :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR><BR>P.S.<BR><BR>Picturz!!! :D<BR><BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#666666></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-28568496020267398352011-08-01T10:14:00.000-07:002011-08-01T10:13:34.250-07:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D<BR><BR>So we were standing in line at KFC today, and this foreigner asked us where we were from. So we told him where we were from, and then he mentioned he was from Germany. So, just for fun, I asked him, "Sprachen sie Deutsch?" to which he answered, "Naturlisch." Then he said a bunch of other things to me, to which I responded, "... :D ?" I dun't speaks Germans anymore... ^^'' Hindi na ako marunong...<BR><BR>Ahem, in other news, I went into labor on Thursday, and now I have an anak. I'm a tatay now! :D His name is Elder Swainson. He's from Alberta, Canada (he brought a bunch of maple leaf refrigerator magnets and stuck 'em to the fridge when he got here). It's pretty cool, eh? He's been fun to work with so far. He reminds me a lot of me when I first got here: He can speak Tagalog relatively well, considering he just got to the Philippines on Wednesday, but he has a hard time understanding what people say, especially since a lot of people are so soft-spoken here. The ward's really helped welcome him in, especially the single adults. We visited the birthday party of a member yesterday, and we joked around a lot with them and made friends with them (especially our ward mission leader, Bro. Siege, who's kind of the class clown of the single adults). Training a new missionary is kinda stressful, but it's fun. Elder Swainson has the right attitude about everything. He's a good missionary. He has a great desire to serve. His only real barrier is the language. I'm glad I get the opportunity to help him.<BR><BR>They've started a new program for trainers and trainees. The goal of the program is for the new missionaries to be able to, if called upon, train a new missionary after only 12 weeks in the field (2 transfers). It's a pretty intense program, setting the standard pretty high. I was a bit overwhelmed when they first introduced it. It's a good way to stay focused during our studies, since it pretty well outlines the things we're supposed to concentrate on in our work.<BR><BR>Sister Lyka Mae Dublan was baptized on Saturday. Bishop is really happy to see the Dublan family coming back to activity in the church. The baptism was really spiritual; both Lyka and her mom, Vanessa, gave strong testimonies about the truth of the gospel and about the positive effect that it's had on their lives. I'm really happy for them. The next target is going to be the rest of the family, especially Tatay Dublan and the other kids. The whole family attended the baptism on Saturday and seemed to enjoy it. Their next oldest son, Lou-J, and their next oldest daughter, Liona, are 10 and 8 years old, respectively. We just need to get them to come to church with the rest of the family.<BR><BR>Claire is still doing well. She came to church yesterday, even though Hanz and Mona weren't able to (it rained really hard yesterday morning, so a lot of people didn't come to church. Attendance was cut by maybe a third. Happens sometimes). She still hasn't had any problems with smoking or drinking since the day she decided she needed to quit, and she's agreed to keep the other commandments as well, including tithing. She's excited for her baptism on the 13th.<BR><BR>Hanz and Mona told us they have a problem in their family that they're trying to work out, and probably won't be able to be married until October or November. They haven't told us what exactly the problem is, but they said they'll tell us when they're ready to be married. :/ I'm hoping to be able to find out what their concern is soon so that we can help them resolve it if we can.<BR><BR>Tell Uncle Rob and his wife congratulations for me. :)<BR><BR>I'll try and look for a nativity set. Christmas starts in October here, so I should be able to find one before I go home. ^^'' Ask everyone else what sort of things they want me to bring them when I get home. I was thinking of getting caribou belts (really awesome-looking belts made out of caribou horn) for Dad and Josh, souvenir hats, things like that. Let me know if you want anything specific.<BR><BR>Nobody here has a card reader, so I'll send pictures next week na lang. ^^''<BR><BR>Until next week, ingatz! :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-68961104496625490522011-07-27T17:42:00.000-07:002011-07-27T17:41:47.996-07:00Fw: Better late than never<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hi! :D</DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Good thing it's a Wednesday week...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I hate this keyboard. It's the kind of keyboard where they moved some of the keys around (put the backslashes in the wrong places and whatnot), and it's driving me crazy. :P</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This week's been pretty good. I'm really happy with the progress of our investigators so far. Claire unfortunately gave into temptation last Tuesday and had a few drinks with her new boss, and when Mona and Hanz came home to find her drunk, Mona yelled at her and chewed her out. The whole experience made Claire realize that what she did was wrong, and that if she wants to maintain a good relationship with her family, especially with her sister, Mona, she needs to stop. So she did. She's stopped everything now--smoking, drinking, coffee, gambling, everything. Hanz has made similar changes in his life. He's also stopped gambling, and he's stopped watching porn. He now has more time to spend with his family, he now has time to go to church. Claire got a job as a live-in cook, and fortunately, can still go to church and we can still teach her occasionally, so her progress will not be hindered. Hanz and Mona, after wavering a bit, have recommitted to shoot for early September for their wedding and for Hanz's baptism (they have a quite a bit of paperwork they need to get together to fulfill all the requirements for a marriage license, so they were thinking of putting it off till December. I was like, "NO. THAT'S TOO FAR.")</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm really really happy with the progress they've made so far. I think they're probably some of the first of my converts who have completely turned their lives around like this. Most of my other converts only had to make a few minor changes in their lives to prepare for baptism, like quitting coffee, etc., but Hanz and Claire have made huge changes to live according to the commandments of God. When we taught Claire about the Law of Chastity, she was like, "You know, Elder, almost all of those things you've mentioned that aren't allowed--gambling, tatoos, buttloads of earrings, immodest clothing--I used to do." The thing that's probably the most amazing about their conversion is that fact that they made almost all of these changes in their lives BEFORE we even taught them that those things are against the commandments of God. They just sorta realized on their own when we started teaching them about the gospel that those things are wrong, and that they need to stop.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Our other investigators are doing well, too. Lyka Dublan will be baptized this coming Saturday. The Dublan family has been getting more and more involved in scripture study, coming to church, paying tithing, etc. They're pretty excited about Lyka's baptism.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One reason I really like working with part-member families and referrals is that with regular tracting, if you show up at some random person's house and try to invite them to come to church on a first visit, more often than not, they won't do it. It often takes them a good couple of weeks of teaching before they'll even try going to church, if they do it at all. But if you go visit a part-member family, especially if the members are active, you can often successfully invite them to come to church on the first visit, and they'll come that week. They already know people at church; they already have a support system. Those people gain a testimony much faster, progress much quicker, and become much stronger than any other converts. Such was the case with Hanz and Claire, and such was also the case last week with Mac Mac and Carla Geli, who we visited and taught for the first time on Saturday night, and then came to church the next day for the first time in years (they've been taught before, but it was a long time ago). The work's been progressing very quickly lately.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I had to say goodbye to Elder Casio today. He's been transferred to Naic, and I'll be staying another transfer--actually, most likely another two transfers. I'll be training a new missionary, fresh from the MTC. I think his name's Elder Swainson. I haven't met him yet. I'll meet him tomorrow at the mission home. My companion for today is actually Elder Magbanua again. He's going to train this transfer, too. We have a bunch of meetings and stuff to go to today and tomorrow in preparation for training. President Stucki takes the trainer position very seriously, viewing it as the most important leadership position in the mission. I remember how hard the first few weeks in my mission were, and they were made harder by the fact that my trainer wasn't the greatest in the world. I'm going to do my best to make sure my anak has the best experience I can give him for his first two transfers (they've started a new 12-week training program, so it's pretty certain I'll be with my anak for two transfers). I'mma be a tatay now! :D (Currently, I am what they call "pregnant," in missionary terms. I'm about to have a kid, but it hasn't come out yet, so I'm still "pregnant." Hehehehe.... ^^'' )</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, that's about it for this week. I honestly can't think of anything in particular I want for my birthday. Just send me cool stuff. :D ... >.< Sorry, Richelle, I keep forgetting to pick a landscape picture for you. Next week! Promise! ^^''</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In the meantime, you guys should start thinking about what sort of souvenirs and gifts and stuff you want me to get for you here in the Philippines before I come back home, because it's coming up pretty quick. Mga 5 months na lang.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Love you all! :D Ingat kayo lagi!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Love,</DIV> <DIV>Elder David Jones</DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-8925991208983187722011-07-18T18:15:00.000-07:002011-07-18T18:14:11.224-07:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Guten tag! :D<BR><BR>The weather's been pretty squirrely lately.. Last week, like I'd mentioned, it was pretty wet and rainy and stuff, and got kinda cold at night. Now it's just been freakishly hot. O.o It's weird.<BR><BR>We extended a baptismal date to Hanz and Claire this week. We'd originally planned on giving Claire the goal of July 30th, since she'd already been to church twice and has a testimony and, as far as we knew, was pretty well ready for baptism, while Hanz, who needs to be married to his wife first before we can baptize him, we would give the goal of later in August, around the 20th or so. We extended the invitation to them, asking if they would be baptized, and they both said yes, they wanted to. Then we started talking to Hanz about what their plans were as far as their marriage went. He said they're willing to be married and make everything legal and stuff, like it's supposed to be, but that they're wanting to save up money first before they get married. As we were discussing it with him, Claire spoke up suddenly, saying, "Elders, I want to get baptized, too, but the problem is, I need to be able to repent first." She then admitted that she smokes, and that she sometimes gambles, too. I immediately thought, "Ah! Okay, so the 30th of July is too soon." We reassured her that repentance is always possible, and extended a baptismal date for the 13th of August. What was most impressive about it was that we hadn't even taught them about the Word of Wisdom yet, nor about how gambling is against the commandments. She already knew it was wrong, and understood that she needed to stop before she could get baptized. We've become really close to that family, and they're really grateful for our visits there. They told us that since we started sharing the gospel with them, they've had a greater desire to do good. Claire also stopped drinking (before we taught about the Word of Wisdom), and, while before she would occasionally wander off with friends up to no good, now she just stays at home and helps around the house. I'm really happy for the progress they've made so far.<BR><BR>We also talked more with Hanz and Mona about their plans for getting married. They want to get married, but before they just weren't sure when. They said they wanted to be able to save up some money, and so they were looking more towards December or January. I was like, "...Ahm.... no, that's too far," mostly because I wanna be able to actually still be here in the Philippines to attend their wedding. They've been living together for 5 years now, so I wasn't sure why they felt they needed to wait until December. Upon further questioning, they mentioned that the wedding ceremony itself would probably be really expensive, so they wanted to be able to save up some money to be able to pay for it. I was like, "...You know, the church holds wedding ceremonies for basically nothing... Why not just do it in August or September?" "...Okay." We need to finalize things with them, but it'll hopefully be around the 27th or so of August. :D Now that we've pretty well got them committed to it, now we have the fun task of taking care of all the paperwork and stuff they need to get married. Funfunfun.<BR><BR>We got to meet President Stucki last Wednesday. His style is a lot different from President Howard's, who was usually a lot more energetic when giving messages. President Stucki's a lot more calm and serious about things. He knows what he's doing, though; he knows a lot about the gospel and about missionary work, and I think he'll do well in leading the mission. I talked to him in my interview about going home early in December, and he said that probably shouldn't be a problem. Now I just hope my application gets accepted. He didn't mention anything about what would be happening to me next transfer like President Howard would tend to do, so I have no idea. I'm hoping I'll stay another transfer (I'm not a fan of only being in an area for one transfer), but nothing is certain. We'll just have to find out next week at transfer announcements.<BR><BR>Anyway, that's about it. Say hi to the Maughan family for me and say congratulations to Tannar on his mission call, if you get the chance. :) Also, hope Richelle enjoys her new job with the Warrens.<BR><BR>Love you all! Until next week, ingatz!<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-16999105747600902102011-07-11T22:07:00.000-07:002011-07-11T22:06:51.795-07:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hey! :D <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Good to hear that no one died on the Fourth of July! :D (Though it sounds like a few people almost did... ^^'' )</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Those bikes sound like a lot of fun. Jealous. ;P (I actually wish we had bikes here in the mission. They would make travel cheaper and easier. Oh well..)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It's been raining a lot here recently. You know what's really not fun? Taking a shower after it's been rainy and cloudy for a long period of time. I may have mentioned before that no apartments ever have water heaters, and after a period of time where the sun hasn't been out to heat the water up, it makes the water turn FREEZING. D: Like taking a shower in ice cubes...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It's been cold in general here. Which is nice during the day, because it means it's not BLAZING HOT like usual. But it gets pretty chilly at night. Especially when all we have for warmth are sheets. o.o</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I went on exchanges with Elder Morris on Thursday (this transfer has been my first time actually being able to go on exchanges with my district since I've been a district leader. Previously, my districts have all been pure Sisters, so exchanges were pretty well forbidden... ^^'' I made sure to bring that up in leadership meetings, too: "Well, I guess I can't really offer many insights on exchanges, since my district is pure Sisters, but I think it's a great idea!" :D ). One of their investigators, Ryan, is really cool. He understands and accepts the things we teach him, and he really wants to know the truth. He always has lots of questions--a true investigator.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>While we were on exchanges, apparently Claire told Elder Casio that she would be leaving Friday morning to go to Makati for work. I was pretty sad to hear about it, since she was also a really good investigator. So it was a pleasant surprise when we visited on Saturday to find she was still there. "Hey! Nandito ka pa!" Apparently, she decided at the last minute not to take the job in Makati. She'd heard that her boss wasn't a nice person, and her mom didn't want her to go out all the way out to Makati to work. So now she's staying here instead. Yaaay! :D</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'd still like a picture of Aunt Melissa so I can show it to Claire. She looks a lot like her.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We've also been making a lot of progress with Sister Mona's soon-to-be husband, Hanz (not entirely sure why he has a German name). They've been living together about 5 or 6 years now, and have two kids, but aren't married yet (which is part of the reason Mona went inactive). We'll fix that, it'll just take some time. Hanz went to church yesterday, and enjoyed it pretty well. Both he and Claire have pretty strong testimonies about the church. Only a matter of time now.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Rovelyn's coming along alright. Again, she already has a testimony and wants to get baptized. She's just scared of what her parents might do if she does get baptized. We're encouraging her to fast and pray about it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, we'll get to meet President Stucki this Wednesday. I imagine he'll have a much different interviewing style than President Howard did. We'll see how it goes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>After this email, I get to perform the saddening task of deleting all the songs off my mp3 player that aren't hymns or Mormon Tab. :( A few of them I'm justifying, like the Paul Cardall CD, which we bought at the temple, and which has the title of "Sacred Piano," and some of the John Schmidt arrangements of Christmas songs. The others I'll just have to wait 6 months before I can listen to them again. Things like Enya and "The Washington Post March" and "The Machines" are kinda hard to classify as "arrangements of hymns." ;P</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I honestly don't really know what I want for my birthday... o.o You already sent me socks, and that was really the only thing I needed. Just more pictures and candy, mostly. Sorry, Richelle, I haven't been able to decide what landscape picture I want painted. I'll try and get one to you next week.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, that's about it. Love you all! Until next week, ingatz! :D</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Love,</DIV> <DIV>Elder David Jones</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR></SPAN> </DIV><BR></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-2351325419276345092011-07-06T18:18:00.000-07:002011-07-06T18:17:24.234-07:00Fw: Happy 4th of July<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Herro! :D<BR><BR>Happy Fourth of July!!! :D We celebrated on Monday by taking an American flag to district meeting. We used a tree branch as a flagpole and walked from our apartment to the chapel with Elder Leavitt, dressed in a red tie, white shirt, and blue pants, leading the way, bearing the flag. There were five of us Americans (and Elder Bills, who's also white, but from New Zealand), all meandering down the road with an American flag. Needless to say, we got a number of weird looks. :D ...Which isn't too much different from normal, since a lot of people stare at us as we pass by anyway, since we're white. ;P Then, after the district meeting, we went to Shakey's pizza and had deliciously expensive pizza to celebrate. Mmmm... Expensive pizza.... ;D<BR><BR>...Not too many people here blowing themselves up with fireworks, though. ;P That's what New Year's is for.<BR><BR>President Howard went home on Friday. :( I'll miss him a lot. He was fun. So now we have a new mission president, President Stucki. I haven't met him yet. There was on opportunity to meet him last Saturday at the temple tour for investigators, but we didn't have any investigators that we could bring with us, so we didn't go. From what I hear, he's pretty cool. He's established a few new policies already, probably based on instructions he received from the First Presidency. First of all, caribou belts, which are really cool-looking belts made out of caribou horns, are no longer allowed to be worn in the mission. The reason is, there was apparently a group of missionaries in the Quezon City Mission that had formed a sort of "let's be disobedient" group, and they used the caribou belts as sort of a symbol for their group. The First Presidency wants to stomp out any sort of secret combinations, so caribou belts are off-limits. Second, the only music he's allowing is Mormon Tab and variations and arrangements on hymns. Which kinda slays half the music I brought, including all the John Schmidt CD's you sent me. :/ Kind of a bummer, but that's the way it goes.<BR><BR>The work is finally starting to pick up a bit in our area. The two part-member families we found are really starting to progress. The one family, the Gonzaga family, went to church without us even teaching them a single lesson. They were always busy with their sewing shop, so we couldn't teach them, but we told them where the church was, and they came. The other family across the street came, too (except Sister Monalisa's husband, who had somewhere he needed to go), including Mona's sister, Claire, who we met on Friday. Claire is really receptive to the gospel. She really enjoyed church on Sunday, really felt the Spirit. She really has high potential as an investigator, and will probably be baptized. Unfortunately, she informed us on Monday that she's going to be working in Makati, starting next week, and will be staying there. She'll only be able to come back here once a month. :/ Bummer. She'll still get baptized, I'm sure. Just... in Makati. Not here. What's interesting is that she looks a lot like Aunt Melissa. I was actually wondering if I could request a picture of her so I could show it to Claire (who thinks it's weird when I tell her she looks like my aunt, since she's only 24. Hee hee hee...)<BR><BR>We've also started teaching another investigator, Sister Rovelyn, who's been going to church and been taught by missionaries since January. She already knows it's true, and wants to get baptized. She understands the importance of the gospel and everything--she's a good investigator. The problem is, her parents, who live in the province (I think she said Batangas), don't want her to get baptized. I had at first assumed that she was underage, so there was nothing more we could do about it. Then we found out that she's 19, and thus free to make her own decisions. So we've been stressing to her the concept of agency, and how she's free to decide for herself. She really wants to get baptized, she's just afraid of how her parents might react if she does. I'm willing to give her as much time as she needs to decide, simply encouraging her that baptism is the only way to Eternal Life.<BR><BR>Anyway, so that's what's been going on over here in Pinoy-land. Today marks 18 months in the mission. 6 months na lang. It's weird being on the downhill slide. o.o <BR><BR>I don't think I'll need my license here. If I ever get called to be an AP, an office elder, or a teaching assistant, I'll let you know, but that's not terribly likely, and those would be the only real reasons I can think of that I'd need it.<BR><BR>I'm looking forward to giving those electric bikes a shot when I get home. :D Actually, there's a number of things I'm looking forward to when I get home, but I won't go too much into that. ^^''<BR><BR>Anyway, can't think of much else to talk about. I'll get to meet President Stucki next Wednesday, so hopefully my first interview with him will go well. Until next week, ingat! :D<BR><BR>Love,<BR>Elder David Jones<BR></DIV></DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-750166754792027589.post-919571383532057612011-06-27T07:08:00.000-07:002011-06-27T07:07:14.912-07:00Fw: Greetings<DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Hey! :D</DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Don't have a lot extra time today, so I won't write a ton.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The first full week of the transfer so far has been... Hard... :/ So far, we don't have a lot of people to teach, and finding is honestly not my favorite activity in the mission. Starting fresh with no investigators is a bit discouraging.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>After a few unsuccessful days at the start of the week, we were planning on picking things back up on Friday and work hard and find new people to teach. We've been trying to focus on part-member families, who have a better chance of being baptized than straight tracting. When we went out on Friday, it was raining. It was raining hard. We got hit by some typhoon or something, and the rain came down in buckets. We ignored it for the most part at first, but then when we reached a certain part of the area and the road was flooded knee-deep as far as the eye could see, I was like, "Ahm, no." :/ The last time we tried crossing floodwaters to reach an appointment, we ended up not being able to come back home until the next morning. So we retreated back to the apartment for the rest of the day. Then I woke up on Saturday with a minor fever and couldn't go out then until the evening. Yeah... :/ It's been kind of a rough week.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It's taking a bit of time adjusting to the new ward, too. Everyone here is nice, of course, but I kinda miss the familiar faces of my previous ward. Every other person I shake hands with at church, I'm like, "I don't know you yet... I don't know you yet... You're not familiar yet..." I'll get over it eventually, of course, it's just... taking some time to adjust.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Sunday after church, though, we had a glimmer of hope. The members gave us a few leads, so we went to go contact some of them after church. As we were looking for the house of a less-active member, we stumbled upon another family. We asked them for directions, and they directed us across the street to where the right house was. Then the man we talked to asked if we were Mormons, and we told him yes. He said he was a member who used to go to church in Cavite, in Naic, but moved here a few months ago and didn't know where the church was. We told him there was a member family who lived close by who could show him exactly where the church is on Sunday. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, since he had accidentally left his copy at his old home. Then we went across the street to visit the less-active member who was referred to us. Sister Monalisa has been inactive for about 4 years now, and wouldn't immediately tell us why. We talked with her for a while, though. She had before been a very active member in Quezon City. Elder Casio asked her if she missed going to church. She started crying. She then admitted that she had done things in her past that she was ashamed of, and had stopped going to church as a result. I was happy to invite her to start coming to church again and to begin the healing process of repentance. She agreed. Both families are part-member families.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>President Howard is leaving this Friday. :( Our zone conference on Wednesday was basically a last opportunity for him to say goodbye to the mission. I'll miss him. There's certainly going to be a lot of changes once President Stucki gets here on Friday.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, that's about all the time I have. I got the socks you sent. :D Now I'll probably never run out of socks again. ^^'' I also got the mountain of candy you sent with it. :D :D :D I might make myself sick... ;P</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Love you all! Ingat kayo lagi!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Love,</DIV> <DIV>Elder David Jones</DIV> <DIV> <P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica','Tahoma','Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT color=#666666><BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14105858576699159901noreply@blogger.com0