Getting to know the area

Week 67

07 March 2016

Week was really good! Spent most of the week going around and working, getting to know the area, and getting to know the people here. The area is pretty different from the last 3, so again, more adjusting to the way the people speak especially. I was pre-warned about the Batangas slang thankfully, so it's been pretty cool.

Tuesday we hit it off with some work. We first visited the recent converts of my companion and his trainer, and they live faaaar as! Their barangay is called "Bunducan", and they basically means in English "Area of mountains". The name just sounds far, haha. We came back, I fell asleep, then went to work closer to home.

Wednesday was our first district meeting of the transfer, and it was good. There are only 2 foreigners in our district, me and Elder Valentine, straight outta Fiji, and his accent is thick Fijian haha. Always good to hang out with the other islander Elders, because it's always chill.

Thursday we hit it far again, this time for some investigators. This time though, we WALKED all the way home! It was hot as, and by the time we got back to the apartment at about 12PM, me and my companion were dripping with sweat, it was gross!

Saturday was an early as start. We had service in an even farther barangay, helping a member and her family build a new home. We basically all day were moving dirt into the house to level out the ground in the house, while outside we were leveling the ground to make it even. We left at mid-day, then slept for ages because we woke up at 5AM. It was good though, a good excuse to get out of the proselyting clothes for sure.

Yeah, so the branch here is really big. I was talking to the Branch President, and their average attendance is sitting around 215-220 people at church every Sunday. The chapel is is always full, and I thought to myself "How can I help this branch grow when it's sitting at an average attendance like that?" Well, my goal is to have them opening to the back every Sunday, so I'm going to be working my butt off for sure.

Another cool thing about the branch is the amount of missionaries they have out in the field, and the amount of RM's, and stuff like that. A sister was just set apart yesterday to get ready to leave to her mission in Canada, and she will be the 10th missionary out serving right now. They also have another 5 in the mode of preparing, and the excitement here for missionary work is awesome.

Definitely a big change to what I've been used to my whole mission.

This Wednesday is Zone Conference, so I'm gearing up for that. Pretty excited, because it's in Lipa, and Lipa is huge! I want to go check out the stores, and then go eat at the new Burger King they built in September/October last year. A couple of my previous companions are in my tri-zone, so it'll be cool to catch up with them and see how they're doing. I think we may have to sleep over in another area tomorrow, because our area here is waaaay far away from everything else here in the mission. We're like 30 minutes away from the border to Cavite mission, haha.

The rest of the week is work, and yeah we'll see how it goes! We have a baptism coming up on March 26, and another one on April 2, so here's hoping that the investigators continue progressing like they are. We also are planning to schedule a baptism for April 9, so we can have back-to-back-to-back baptisms this transfer.