The Death of the Demon Rat

We had another good week in EM Magalona.  Elder Stagg and I are continuing to learn much from each other are enjoying the opportunity to share the gospel.

On Tuesday of last week, I went on exchanges with Elder Mifflin in Bacolod Third Ward.  It was a good experience and I was able to learn a lot from the way they run their area.  Most especially how they plan and carry out their plans to baptize every week.  When Elder Galanza explained the 3-filter system of planning with investigators in the MLC wasn't completely clear.  The benefit of being able to go on exchanges with them, so they can clarify some of their trainings.  The thing I really took from the experience and would like to apply in our area is the way they follow up with their investigators reading the Book of Mormon,.  It was interesting to see how excited their investigators were to share what they had learned fro their study.  Elder Mifflin said that for most of their lessons, the follow-up takes the most time.

We were able to have quite a few investigators at sacrament meeting again, and we were able to have our baptism and another baptismal interview. Everything is setting up well for us to be able to achieve the weekly baptisms all throughout June.  Elder Stagg and I are very excited for the progress and the work in EB Magalona.  One thing that has been a little frustrating is having referrals fall though.  We will show up and for one reason or the other, people can't listen to us.  Then when we come back for a return appointment, they aren't there or something else happened.  But we will continue to try to find new people!

Update on the rat saga!  Wednesday night we rigged the trap perfect so he would walk right into it.  He did, and half of his face was stuck in the trap.  We left him in there to die because we didn't know how to kill him.  Elder Stagg said we should take care of it in the morning, but when we woke up the next morning he was gone.  This thing is a demon!  I was in the shower on Thursday when I heard a scream.  I got out (shampoo in my hair and all) and Elder Stagg is standing on our counter.  He is freaking out and said the rat crawled on his leg while he was writing in his journal.  Anyways, the rat was in our room and I told Elder Stagg to shut the door because it was going to end tonight!  I get out of the shower, just in my towel, holding a butcher's knife and bug spray and locked myself in the room with the rat. I am literally spraying this rat with bug spray and taking swipes at it with the butcher knife (I have video of it), but to no avail.  This thing will not die.  Finally, I just attack it with a bucket and our dust pan.  After a couple of minutes of the craziest adrenaline rush ever, I get it in the bucket.  SUCCESS!  The only problem was we didn't know how to kill it.  It was underneath an upside down bucket and we were debating how to kill this demon.  We decided to drown it and Elder Stagg did the honors.  We walked back inside and what did we see--another rat!  This one is significantly smaller, but still a rat.  We have not yet succeeded in killing it!

Elder Stagg is doing great.  He is gaining confidence in every lesson and is getting very good at the language.  I am loving training one of my best friends.  It's so great because whenever one of us does something to the other, we just punch each other!  Like yesterday, Elder Stagg poured water down my back while I was studying and I squared up and hit him in the sternum.  With Filipinos or other Americans, you can't do that because they will get butt hurt.  We know each other's personalities, so it's not a problem.

We are being exactly obedient and we are seriously seeing the blessings of it.  Our investigators are coming to church and we can even see the blessings happening in our families.  The Lord blesses all aspects of our lives when we do what is asked!

Cole and Elder Mifflin

The Demon Rat

Myke Judiels Martonia's Baptism (Elder Stagg's First)

I Am In The Philippines

This week was great.  We started it off with Election Monday.  Elections are crazy here in the Philippines so President made all the missionaries be in their houses at 4 p.m.  It didn't really affect me because we had our MLC at the mission home.  Elder Stagg went to Bata with another elder whose companion is the other zone leader.

Elder Stagg and I worked hard and were obedient, and we were able to see the blessings yesterday at sacrament meeting.  We had eight investigators at church.  It was such a good surprise and there was even a teenager who we had never met before, but just said he came because his friend invited him. That was good enough for me and we were able to get an appointment scheduled with him for next week.  The bummer part of the week is that our new investigators section was a little low, even though we were able to contact two families who were referrals.  One of the families said we could come back another day and then sent us a text that they would rather not take the lessons from us.  another family was excited to take the lessons, but the father had been drinking and there was alcohol flowing at the house.  We scheduled an appointment next Sunday and committed the brother to not drink so he would more fully understand our message.  He committed, so we will see how that goes!

Elder Stagg is doing great.  He has such a strong testimony and desire to share the gospel.  He is probably more determined to learn the language than any other missionary ever!  He recently has committed to only speaking Illongo outside of the house.  He gave a great talk in sacrament meeting yesterday in straight Illongo.  I know our investigators feel and understand all his words.  It's interesting watching the investigators when he is struggling to get through a sentence.  Even if the Illongo is rough, the investigators are almost rooting for him to succeed.  It's really hard to explain, but very cool to watch his progression.  We really went in depth in our study of how to teach the restoration this week.  I think we spent one day on each topic so that we knew how to teach it and how to help people understand it.  It is such an honor to be able to preach this great gospel with one of my good friends.

The best part of our week was our last lesson.  We had pretty much finished up with an investigator family when the dad comes staggering in.  Absolutely PLASTERED--probably five or six shots passed wasted!  he was swerving around like he was on a row boat in the middle of a hurricane.  He goes on to tell us how ugly he thinks his family is and is like yelling at Elder Stagg saying he is way too handsome and needs to be careful because someone might try and steal him because he is handsome!  All this was in Illongo, by the way.  I understood it all, which means my language skills are getting much better! Elder Stagg couldn't understand a single word.  He kept asking me why the guys was yelling at him.  It was so priceless!  We both took our entire journal entry to talk about that!  Haha!  Anyways, whenever anything happens here, we just say six simple words that explains it all -- I AM IN THE PHILIPPINES! That is just all it comes down to.  The cool thing was that even though he was hammered, Elder Stagg and I both saw what he would look like as a worthy priesthood holder.

Anyways, it was a great week!  I love preaching the gospel!  Hope you enjoy the pics!

Beautiful scenery--gross mucky water!

Bacolod Mission Leadership - May 2013

Our Zone - May 2013

New Trainee

We just found out the transfers and I am staying in EB Magalona.  I am being moved to Zone Leader 1 and I am training again.  I think you might know my new companion--Elder Devin Stagg!!!!

The Good/Not So Good Week

I am going to preface this with I am not sure whether this week was a good week or a bad week.  There were a lot of things that happened that would swing it either way!  You can read this and decide for yourself, but I had mixed emotions about it.

To start off, I was under the impression that the Ugyonan Festival was over on Sunday.  Wrong--Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were the highlight days!  We taught a combined total of three lessons those three days.  I was so frustrated and ready to tear some heads off on Wednesday.  There were so many people everywhere we went.  I heard the phrase "Hey Joe" 47 times on Wednesday alone.  I counted because I just wanted to see how high it would get.  I wish I could say if didn't effect me, and I wish I could say I wasn't angry those three days, but I am an extremely impatient person and I was pretty heated.

One of the highlights this week was the lessons we were able to teach to Brother and Sister Antonano.  I could not have given this man less of a chance to progress when we first met him.  However, I have never had more spiritual lessons than I have had with those two.  This week we taught about the Book of Mormon and then about the Word of Wisdom.  This man has been so prepared that it almost seems a little too good to be true.  He prayed after our lesson and I started crying--and I hate crying in front of people!!!  I just couldn't hold it in.  He is so sincere about finding what is true as far as religion, and when he was praying I felt like it was holy ground.  I felt that he knew he was asking his Father for help on what he should do.  He came to church and said he believes everything we are teaching is true.  I don't care what else I do on my mission, if this man gets baptized, my mission will be a success!  It was a great experience.

Another good thing that happened is that we found two new families to teach--which means lots of new investigators.  We just need to get them to come to church!

Transfers are this week, so I will let you know if anything happens to us.  Love you all!

Cole and the Antonano family