Excitement and Adventure, Always

Hey Family, and everyone else!
I don’t know what to say about this last week, I don’t know where it went! I remember emailing and now we are here again, I shall try to figure out where it all went. Tuesday was a normal Tuesday. Went to Distrisct meeting in Victorias, It takes forever to get there now, half the road between Cadiz and Manapla has been torn up, so it really slows the Ceres down. Then we headed out to the branch area when we got back to Cadiz in the afternoon. There we found little success. We were able to meet with Nitnit, she is the babysitter of the grandson of one of our mission moms here. She is pogressing really well and has a baptisimal date for May 22.

Wednesday we met with the Romero family again. They are all doing well. Kristine is still strong after her first month as a member, and tatay (dad) is doing well preparing for his baptism. We had to move it to May 22 because he is still working on dropping coffee, though he is doing really good. The rest of the week didn’t go so well. Thursday was alright, but that’s it. Not much happened on Friday. We had a CSP in Silay, down near Bacolod. So it took a while to get there and we had to get up early to make it in time, but we were on time! For the CSP we cleaned an ancestral house. Just like dusting and stuff, wiping it all down. Afterwards we got a tour, not all that fun. It was a very Americanized house and family, so it was like touring a home back home, like “This is the Place.”

One success we have had this week was that a former investigator that moved out into the mountain four days before his baptism is back and remembers nearly everything. He continued reading while he was in the mountain. Missionaries aren’t allowed to go out to the mountain… We are nearly done reviewing and then he just has to come to church and he can be baptized.

Saturday we were able to meet with Joel. We havent seen him since last transfer. When we saw him last he had had such an awesome change and knew exactly what he needs and wants to do. It was just so cool. He is a very simple guy and he just has this great simple desire. Unfortunatley, he started talking to his mother about that. Even though he is 27 he lives at home, it’s tradition, and it’s one of those “under my roof, my rules,” and his mom is a “born Catholic, die Catholic.” So she said that he can’t go to church or continue with us, which is why we weren’t able to meet with him. It really is terrible to lose him like this. He did say that he is still reading when he’s at the house we teach at, away from mom. We told him it’s good that he is respecting his mom, and that he should continue to read and pray that his mom will have a change of heart. I have faith that he will be able to continue some day, he’ll do just fine.

Saturday was a fun day. In the morning we went to the Branch President’s house. He lives pretty out there, not too far, but not all that close. He lives next to and works at this place called Balay Alibangbang. “Butterfly House.” So he took us on a little tour. They have a swimming pool! It looked so tempting, it was hard. They also have birds and this big koi fish pond with a big waterfall, and of course, a butterfly dome. It was fun to see all the stuff and just spend some time with the Branch President. It has a picnic area too with these cool cabanas. We also walked down the highway a bit farther to find a partmember family’s house. They had been traveling to the church to meet with us, but we decided it would be better to just go out to them. It really isnt that far away and it was just nice. With a bit of work we found their small house and shared with them. His name is Joseph, he’ll be ready for baptism in no time. His family is way active and he already knows everything because he’s been going to primary for most of his life already, they just forgot to get him baptized…

Sunday was Stake Conference here in Cadiz Stake. It was incredibly interesting. Some of the talks were good, I just have to remember that it’s for the stake and not myself. They are on a different level that what home is like. The Stake President’s remarks at the end were really good though. He talked about being full-tithe payers and proper preparation for temple recommends. “Bishops, prepare your members, I’m tired of saying ‘No, of course you can’t go to the temple.’” That is basically what he said, in a mix of Ilonggo and English.

Today was alright. Rode an air-con Ceres down to Bacolod, mostly just to pick up a package for Elder LeChem, and to enjoy the glory of Chow King and their Halo-Halo. Then got some groceries and caught another air-con back to Cadiz. That was really good, because it started raining on the way back, and if we had been on a normal one-stop they would have closed all the windows and door and it would have become a moving sauna, more than the entire country already is. That is torture, had to sit though it once already. But no, we had the comfort of air-con. And now we are here emailing!

Well, that’s my week, full of excitement and adventure, always. Oh, so about being punted, when we are punted we go to our back-up plan, when that fails we try for less-actives in the area, and when that fails we either run to one of our three mission moms, get a snack, or stare at the expanse of the ocean while sitting on the beach. But we only do those as last resorts, we try all sorts of other things first.

Oh, so we go to our mission moms because they love us and lift up our spirits. They are always fun to be around too, all three of them are really good cooks too. In fact, Elder LeChem’s birthday is this Saturday and we are celebrating at one of their houses, we are paying for it, she said she’d cook it all. It’s gonna be really fun.

Jurrasic Park experience: We were walking down the road and it was a light rain. To our right is a half cement half barbed wire wall, and on the other side there was a goat tied up and making goat noises. So I turned to Elder LeCheminant and told him that if a T-Rex came and ate the goat that we “must go faster.” It was awesome! We both laughed.

Well, I still like hearing about what you all do back home without me, it may seem boring but I like to here it. Well, until next week!
Elder Phelps