Best Baptism Yet

Not a whole bunch to report on this week.  Elder Stagg and I had the opportunity to help another one of God's children enter the straight way to His kingdom.  That was a great experience.  Mostly because for my whole mission, I have never been able to help fathers progress.  That was something I was blessed with when I was set apart, was that my biggest influence would be to fathers and older men.  This was one of those experiences when my testimony was strengthened that the Lord fulfills all of His promises.  Now we need to get his wife baptized and continue to strengthen them in the gospel.  I have the feeling that one day this man will become a leader in EB Magalona.  He is very hard and sometimes tough to read, but his testimony of the gospel is unshakable.

Tuesday I was very sick and couldn't talk.  Because of that, we didn't go out and I have been coughing up disgusting stuff the rest of the week.  Elder Stagg and I set the goal to have a higher amount of lessons this week, even ought was lost a day.  I am happy to say that we did it!

We found a new family to teach this week.  It's a good thing too, because Elder Stagg and I ran out of money and didn't have enough for the bus fare. We had to walk to their house which was an hour and a half away.  Luckily they were there and they listened! We were blessed again because 20 minutes into our walk back, we saw a member and they gave us a ride home. That was much appreciated because it is so flippin' hot here.

We found out that although we did kill the rat, there are two more.  One is bigger than the one we killed and the other one is smaller.  I just hope they are the same gender . . . the last thing we need is two rats getting freaky and having World War III on our hands.  I am thinking of buying six traps and setting them in a line so that we can trap them in their little corner.  I WILL CONQUER!

Brother Antonano's Baptism

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

President's Training

This week was a good one for us.  We started the week off with President's Training at the mission home.  It is always fun to go there.  We always have one-on-one interviews with President Lopez and he is always in tune with the Spirit to know exactly what I need to talk about.

We were able to have the baptism for Sister Gloria Bolivar.  It was good because it finished the family, at least the ones who are old enough to be baptized!  The best part was that her husband was the one who was able to baptize her.  He is our recent convert of only about 3 1/2 weeks.  We were reviewing the baptismal prayer with him and he was so nervous, but he had it memorized when the baptism came around and it went perfect.  He didn't even need the paper copy we made for him to read if he forgot it.

This week we went on exchanges again.  I went with Elder Fernando in Manta-angan.  He is a very sharp missionary.  He is really trying to learn the language.  Even when people would speak Tagalog to him (and a lot did), he would always reply in what Illongo he knows.

The tough part about the last couple of days here in EB Magalona is that they are having the annual Ugyunan Festival.  It is a lot bigger than I was expecting it to be.  They had live bands every night, so it was really hard to sleep.  Also, with the festival going on, nobody is at their homes.  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we were able to teach a couple of people, but the rest of the days we went to EVERY single person we planned for.  That usually doesn't happen.  We usually run out of time in the day way before we run out of people in our planner.  I am continually reminded about how badly I need to learn patience!

So it is close to the end of the month, which means our support money is running thin.  Saturday our gas ran out, so we couldn't cook anything. It costs us each 600 pesos to refill it.  Right now I have a little bit over 40 pesos (less than a dollar) cash to last me until the 2nd, when support gets reloaded.  We have eaten Uga (little dried fish) for the last three days because it's only 5 pesos for three little fish.  It is disgusting, but you do what you have to do!  I will send a picture of it.  You don't taste the fishy taste if you drench it in vinegar!!! I have some support on my mission credit card that I haven't withdrawn, so I will be able to buy some chicken today when we go to the market in Silay because they take cards. There aren't any ATMs in EB Magalona.

Saturday was National Service Day in the Philippines, so we went to a park and pulled weeds as a ward.  I remember how much I hate doing that!  It is way better in St. George though, because even though it is hot you don't sweat as much.  My shirt was drenched by the end of the day.  Now I have a weird skin rash that is spreading all over my body.  I don't really know what it is, but they are little red patches that are swelled up and itch like crazy!  I am supposed to go see the dermatologist today, so I will be fine.

Just so you know, I hate not playing baseball!  I am going crazy.  I bought a tennis ball and I just throw it against the wall in our house to work on my hands.  I also found a bamboo stick that is almost the perfect length for a bat.  I took that to our apartment and swing it all the time.  I have quite the imagination. I have hit a walk-off homerun in the college world series about twenty times now, so when it actually happens my homerun trot will be flawless!

At the end of this week, I will have less than 14 months left!  I am hoping the time will continue to go by fast.  It has been a good transfer as far as that is concerned.  That is one of the many reasons why I don't want either of us to transfer.  We aren't best friends, but the time goes by fast and I don't hate him, so that's good!

Anyways, I love you guys so much!  Have a great week!

Teaching at President's Training

Uga

Food--One of the best things about going to the mission home!

Great Lesson Learned

This week was another busy week with exchanges.  On Wednesday, we went with the Bata Elders.  I went to Bata with Elder May. It was a good day.

The rest of the week was busy.  We had good success finding new people to teach.  We also have a baptism coming up this next week--Sister Gloria Bolivar.  Her husband was baptized two weeks ago, but she waited because she wasn't ready.  Now she feels all her fears are gone and she is ready.  Her husband just received the priesthood, so he will be able to baptize her this Friday.  I am very excited, as this will be my first complete family baptism.

So I learned a good lesson this week.  Two weeks ago we took a journey to Panoasawan.  It is a half hour away from our church, so we rarely go there. We had a referral, so we went and met this guy (Brother Antonano) who lives on the beach.  He is a fisherman and didn't seem too interested in anything we were saying.  He was watching tv while we were trying to talk to him and seemed to be annoyed.  His daughter moved to Manilla and married a return missionary in the temple.  She wanted her parents to start taking the lessons, so we left a pamphlet with him and scheduled a return appointment for the next Friday.  So that Friday comes up and we had a conflict with another appointment.  We decided that guy wasn't really interested and lived so far away that it would be tough for him to progress and come to church.  We went to the other family instead.  That Sunday we show up to the church and he (Brother Antonano) is there waiting to go to Talisay with us to General Conference.  He was holding the pamphlet we gave him and told us he had waited four hours for us on Friday and we never showed up, so that morning he got on his motorcycle (that we didn't know he had--takes care of the getting to church issue) and comes to church--white shirt and all.  I felt like absolute crap and wanted to beat myself up!  Anyways, he doesn't speak English and the talks at conference were all in English.  We went to visit him on Tuesday, but his wife said he wasn't there.  I was thinking, great--we blew it!  Anyways, we go back on Friday and he is there waiting, still holding the Restoration pamphlet.  He told us he had read it all and wanted us to tell him about Joseph Smith. We taught Lesson 1 to the man and he told us he was a Jehovah's Witness and didn't want to be baptized, just wanted to investigate. Well, he showed up again to church on Sunday.  I cannot believe that even though my faith is weak, Heavenly Father has given me such a great blessing!  We are planning on visiting him again tomorrow and will try to give him a baptismal date.  His wife listens too, but has diabetes and had her leg amputated, so she said she will never come to church.  I told her I would carry her on my back to church if she would come.  She laughed and said she would think about it!  I could use your prayers for this one.  I feel like this man has been prepared by the Lord and I don't want to screw it up!

We have bought the heaviest-duty mouse traps that we could find in Bacolod, but we still haven't caught the rat.  This thing eats the food without setting off the trap.  It is unbelievable!  I feel like I am being outsmarted by a freaking rodent!!!  Do you understand what a shot that is to my pride?? It's a big one! As of now, he hasn't tried getting in my bed again.

I met our neighbor and his wife this morning.  They are very nice people, but I don't know if I will ever be able to look at them or talk to them again!  I told you we had to shower outside, didn't I?  Well, I had heard that the neighbors sometimes get on their roof to pick mangoes off their tree.  So I was washing my hair and I hear what sounds like footsteps on their roof.  I have soap all over my face, so I don't know what to do.  I'm just thinking, there is no way this is happening right now because from the roof you can see right into our shower!  Anyways, I dip the scooper and pour water down right as they turn around and see me . . . both of them . . . and I am buck naked!  It was probably the most embarassing moment of my life!  I figured if I made a big deal out of it, it would just be worse, so I just said "kamusta" (how are you) and kept showering.  They turned around and continued picking mangoes as if nothing happened!  Man, you gotta love Filipinos!  Elder Baladad was dying when I was telling him.  He said it happened to his last companion too, except that he went running in the house.  I don't know who handled it better, but chalk it up for experience!

I love you guys tons!

Elder Baladad and Cole

Bolivar Family

Study Time