Week 100!

Week 100

24th October 2016

Everything is okay here, nothing much happened. The 2nd storm didn't even hit us, we just got a few clouds, not too sure about up the north of the Philippines though, I had one Elder in my district who's a bit worried because it struck his province bad, but hoping all is well.

We had 2 sets of exchanges this week. Our first was with the Calamba 1 Elders, and that was good. I worked in their area with Elder De Guia. Our second set of exchanges was with the Zone Leaders, and this time I was in my own area with Elder Agana, who is one of the Elders in my batch.

We had church on Sunday, and the attendance was at 50+ which was great! Really happy with that attendance, even though we had no investigators at church. We also have no investigators progressing, so we have to go out and find some who will progress. Hopefully the end of the mission comes soon, I'm stressed about the lack of progress!

On Thursday we also had emails with President & Sister Mangum. They were cool, we basically talked about me and my plans when I go home. We'll see how those plans work out.

Sorry don't have much to say, and sort of trunky of e-mailing you guys.

Typhoons = Wet Weather

Week 99

17th October 2016

Well the storm didn't hit us really badly at all. We have another one coming in through Wednesday & Thursday, a lot stronger than the last one on Saturday. Don't really know what's going to happen this time around, but we just been told to stay indoors & not go out. It's been raining here for almost 3 weeks straight, and another week of rain seems almost certain. Rain isn't the best for a happy mood.

We have 3 new missionaries in our district, so everyone got to meet the new faces at our first district meeting last Wednesday. In district meeting I gave the workshop this time to set the tone for the transfer, and basically talked about diligence. Well, with the weather the way it is, I don't think anyone will be working much this week. Pretty stressing too, because our area is far away, and a bit too far to help anyone in my district.

Our work was okay. This area will progress very slow at the rate that the work is moving at now. People here are so hard to teach! The area we work in is pretty much all poor people, and drugs are everywhere in the area.

This week was supposed to be a busy week with 2 sets of exchanges, but we'll see how that goes with the weather being the way it is. We also have interviews on Thursday with the Mission President.

First day of last transfer!

Week 98

10th October 2016

This week was okay. It was transfer week, which means today is the first day of the new transfer, and also my last transfer ever! Weird to think that...

Obviously conference this weekend was the highlight. It was a long Saturday though, sitting through 6 hours of video was really tiring, and Sunday was worse! I tried so hard not to black out and sleep through conference, because I know that I needed to take notes of things that were said in the talks. Happy to say that I didn't fall asleep! 

We had a Zone lunch on Sunday in between the two meetings, and there was a lot of food! After conference, we all celebrated 2 of our missionaries reaching their 1 year mark in their missions. It's a big thing, but it's weird to think mine was ages ago, almost a year ago in fact.

Bad news is that our investigator who I talked about last week cannot be baptized again. Her partner came back, and the situation is messy at the moment. While the partner is there, we aren't allowed to go visit the house, because he doesn't want us there. Oh well. Not much me & my companion can do.

Sorry the e-mail is so short, not much happened.  Sorry no photos, computer being not reading my card.

Birthday and last transfer!

Week 97

03rd October 2016

Birthday was cool. I was trying to get away with not having my birthday be a big deal, but my district made it a big deal in District Meeting. They bought me a cake that said "Happy Birthday Elder Crichton" and gave me cards from each companionship. Most of the Zone also rocked up for lunch at Shakeys, and so did the Assistants.

We had a good week, and yesterday we had a miracle at church. We spoke to our investigator who wasn't able to be baptized because her in-active partner & her aren't married. What ended up happening is that brother ended up just leaving the household. Even though it's not ideal for a couple to seperate, her partner was the only thing stopping her & her children from being baptized. We're going to be re-teaching them all the lessons so that they can get baptized as soon as possible. We're all pretty excited!

Conducted another baptism interview yesterday, the lady has her baptism scheduled for Sunday. One thing that amazed me was that she had been going to church since 2009, and not until 2015 did she find out that she had to be baptized to become a member of the church! Taught me that it's really important for members to pass their friends they bring to church to the missionaries as soon as possible, so that non-members aren't left hanging out in the dark for as long as this sister was.

This week is transfer week, which means I have 6 weeks left. It's weird to think how fast time went, but it's almost my expiry date so I'm going to do my best to sprint right until the end.

I'll send photos next week - forgot to bring the card reader.

Last Zone Conference ever!

Week 96

26th September 2016

This week was Zone Conference week! Hard to believe, but I just finished my last ever Zone Conference, so of course I had to make the most of it. I got to bear my testimony as part of being a missionary going home, and well, my name wouldn't be Elder Crichton if I didn't say something "unique" and make everyone laugh, so I told everyone right at the end of my testimony "I also know that I am extremely handsome." I closed straight away after that and sat down. Needless to say people will remember me for a long time, haha. Well, a testimony is saying things that are eternal truths that you know to be true, and me being extremely handsome is an eternal truth, hahahaha. I enjoyed seeing everyone again, especially those I won't see again before I go home. 

Other than that was a lot of work. Tuesday was my exchanges with Elder De Guia, and it was a good exchanges. I got to know Elder De Guia a lot better, and work with him.

Yesterday we had Calamba 3rd branch conference, and our meetinghouse was full!... mostly of stake leaders visiting, I would say they took up half the congregation, but still, it was good to see so many faces at church! All of the leaders asked me what number area this area is for me, and it's weird telling them "This is my last area." It just doesn't seem right that I'm going home so soon, and I almost don't want to go home just yet.

Yesterday we had a miracle as we left the meetinghouse. We walked down to the road, and a jeepney driver pulled over and asked us "Is this the Mormon church?" We answered yes, and he told us that he was taught before in another area, and then they moved into our area. His name is "Toto" and he wants us to go back on Friday, and teach his whole family. He told us that he thinks what we teach is a great message, and wants to start being taught again.

This week will be a normal week! I don't have any exchanges this week, which will let me relax and just focus on my area for the whole week. Got a few things to do, so we will be busy.

My birthday this week haha. We have a District Meeting that day then a pizza lunch with everyone. They will be about 26 of us.

Just washing and whatever for the rest of today... we were supposed to have exchanges but that got scrapped because the other companionship is off to San Pablo.