My how time flies

I was reflecting on the week the other day and realized that the first week of school is now over. It seems like school had just gotten out! My how time flies, and yet can still drag sometimes. This last week went by pretty fast. One of our branch missionaries left on his mission on Friday. He was the one to always work with us (because he was so close to leaving). He went to Bacolod on Friday to be set-apart by President Tobias and then fly to Manila, stay the night in a hotel then enter the MTC Saturday morning. Wednesday was his farewell party. It was a nice presentation of musical numbers, messages given and a couple of games. We were running a little late to make it on time, but we didnt feel too bad because we had the guest of honor with us. He had worked with us that day.

I've now learned how things are just a little bit different in the Manila MTC. It's all basically the same, just a few changes. One, they dont have people coming in every week. Two, everyone is only there for three weeks. Three, it's all just one building.

We obviously have people from different religions come to church with us here, but we invite them of course! Either way, I've seen similar things. Some investigators want to just take it in for themselves and be in the lesson, and if they have a question they will ask. It's great once they feel comfortable to do things themselves in the church. They willingly go to the classes and participate in the lesson by asking questions and adding their own comments. Naturally not all investigators are like that or get like that really fast, but I have seen some that are and did.

I also reflected on my email from last week, it being ridiculously short. I remembered how I am a man of few words, the mission has changed that little. I still dont say much, but what I do say is plain and simple, and if my Ilonggo is correct, easy to be understood. I did notice earlier today that I made a lot more comments in district meeting than in all the district meetings from the last four transfers, even if the comments still followed my "man of few words" pattern.

Tomorrow we have a special "Zone Conference." It's not really zone conference, it's mission tour! Elder Ko, the second counselor in the Area Presidency is touring the mission, and our zone's day is tomorrow. So we get to get up early and head to Binalbagan (I sure hope I spelled that right). Oh, I rode a Ceres for the first time in a little over three weeks this morning; it was an awesome experience! The rush, the crazy driving, the being tossed side to side passing everything else on the road. Gotta love the Ceres!

Since there is never any really big changes in mission life, it's always the same day to day, you lose track of time. Without the fact that I have to turn the calender over and you all telling my about the changes back home I would find it hard to believe that time is even moving. But the timer on the computer is also evidence that time still flows. My birthday is coming up soon, less than a month now! When you asked about my birthday i was throw off, thinking it can't possibly by my birthday yet! But it is. It seems like just yesterday I turned 19 and started working at Meridian Title.

Well, as always, hope you all have a good week. Good luck to Kathryn, Natalie, and Andrew with the second week of school! And to all others who may be in school to and happen to be reading this! Until next week!

Elder Phelps

Mariel's Baptism

Well, this last week flew by, despite some challenging days. We did have a successful baptism on Saturday. Mariel is now a baptized and confirmed member of the church! It went really well. Many attended and the program went very well. I was the one to preform the baptism.

This last week had its tough challenges because there is this one area we go to every other day, but in the now two and a half weeks I have been here, we taught three actual lessons out there. We decided we would give it another chance on Saturday, and if none of the investigators were home or lied about being busy we wouldn't come back. So we aren't going back. We are moving our work to a different neighborhood. It was kind of disappointing, but I guess the people just aren't ready there yet.

So, weather has been interesting too. Rained a lot. On Thursday it rained for just about 4 hours straight! It changed in intensity, but it was raining nonetheless. My umbrella and I have become really close friends, but the mud and my shoes are friends too, and that is not fun.

We are really working on trying to find new investigators, which is still hard. The people here are still very hard. We often get the response, "Katoliko kami!" We're Catholic. Then they won't listen to another word we say. Also people will let us in for one visit, then when we come back, it's nothing. They aren't home. They are "busy." Trying hard to work through all of that. This week I'm a little short in things to say, but I did remember my cord and will send pictures!

Elder Phelps

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Other pictures

Lola and Paulo

Dennis and Roxanne

Remata Family

Bacolod North Zone

Zone Meeting, Zone Activity, Tropical Waterfalls

Well, everything is just fantastic here. Elder Panilagao and I get along really well. We are both different but still good for each other. I have learned lots from him already. Our apartment is practically perfect in every way. It's a second story apartment. It's not all that big, but the perfect size for just the two of us. An up and downside is that it is right next to the highway. That is a good thing because it makes it easy for us to get places. It's a bad thing because occasionally it will be noisy at night with cars driving by. The Catholic church is also pretty close, and every Saturday and Sunday morning stating at 5:30 they play this recorded bells song from their bell tower. It's really loud and early. But then again, we never sleep in on Saturday or Sunday. But we never sleep in anyway!

The area is doing just fine. We have investigators, and that's a good thing. There are days that just stink though. Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday we go out to this area that is kind of farther out there, and recently everyone that we go to out there hasn't been home that day. So we walked all the way out there for nothing... But there are other days where everything goes well and we end the day feeling really good.
We have a baptism this Saturday, Mariel. She is a really good investigator. Always reading and attending church, she also is attending seminary. She is also always excited for our visits, and it's not just because we are that awesome. She is excited for the gospel.

Today we had Zone Meeting and our Zone Activity. We rode up in to the mountain on a jeepney and had lunch there. Then hiked down to some waterfalls, and hiked back up. It was really fun, even though it was raining. It was hard to hike in my flip-flops especially since one of them broke.The hike back up also showed me that even though I have lost weight, I am not "fit." Sure, we walk EVERYWHERE but that did not help for hiking. It was still a lot of fun. And I have now seen in person, tropical water falls. Yes, I took pictures, galing (but) I forgot my camera cord today...

(Picture added 8/23/10)

I am excited for the coming week. Baptisms, investigators, walking, ending the day ridiculously tired, but still cooking rice and noodles before going to bed. It also sounds like you all have quite the exciting next couple of weeks coming. Good luck with all of that!
Elder Phelps

San Enrique, La Carlota Zone

And the transfer result is......!
San Enrique, La Carlota Zone.

I have moved down south to the Municipality of San Enrique. It's much much smaller than my lovely city of Cadiz. The people here are different too, and there are a lot less. They aren't as open. They don't respond to us too often when we say good afternoon to them. But we are looking to fix that. I truly appreciate not having to transfer until now. I hate packing! But it all went all right. My new comp is Elder Panilagao, another filipino. He's from near Quezon City. His first area was also in Cadiz, a year ago. Oh, about the map, if you can't find San Enrique just look for La Carlota, we are 7 kms west of it, on the coast.

So, last week in Cadiz was fun. Visited investigators and members telling them that I won't be there next week. Sad but also happy moments. Sad because I had to say good bye, but happy because I have friends to say good bye to. It was really just work as normal, except Thursday. In the morning I washed everything, boy did my hands hurt. In the afternoon it was all dry, then packed it all up.

Another thing that I mean to tell you every week, but keep forgetting is about my weight. I found a scale the other week and weighed myself. We wont say whant I started out as when I left the MTC. But in the six months that I have been here I have lost 40 pounds! All my shirts are baggy now and if I don't wear my belt I can easily slip my pants off with out undoing them. Cool!

Still getting to know the investigators and members here, but it has only been three days. We went on splits the other day and it was a good chance to get to know the branch missionaries. Yes it is just a branch here in San Enrique, and the meeting house is tiny! The one in Cadiz had a ward and Branch and was the Stake Center, so it was pretty big, for a church here on Negros.

Well, thats all for this week!

Elder Phelps

Knew it was coming...Elder Phelps is transferring!

Good to hear from you, even if it was a crap week. Our week was looking to be pretty bad, but it turned out just fine. I'll explain that later.

Well, there have been things I've been meaning to tell you for months now, but I forget every Monday. So it started quite a while ago, but I eat fish now, and rather frequently, and with my hands! But we eat lots of things with our hands.  Basically if you don't want to use flatware you dont have too. I love this country! Also last week we were walking home one night and I looked up at the moon and there was a rainbow in the moonlight. It was sooo cool! It was small, but very distinct. I also think its time that I tossed in my two pisos about rain since Elder and Sister Ferrin both have. Rain here is different than any rain I have ever experienced. It gets really hot and humid when it rains, it is rarely a relief from the heat. Everything gets wet if you are outside, no avoiding it. And it is really hard to do laundry during the rainy season. We wash by hand outside and then hang our clothes up to dry, and with the rain coming pretty much everyday now it is really hard to get your clothes dry. But we also love the rain somedays. We like it when it rains at night, then its cool when we sleep. but during the day its still stupid hot.

This last week Elder Ventigan and Elder Luthi had training in Bacolod Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. So Elder Hinckley and I were together for those three days. Things went pretty well too. It was way nice to have an American companion. You can talk about different things with Americans than with Filipinos. It was refreshing. We have extended baptismal dates to quite a few of our investigators and some for sure will be baptized, at least close to the date, but there is a downside too, but we'll get to that later.

So, this is what we have all been waiting for. Today was transfer announcements and Friday will be transfer day. And the results are....... Elder Phelps is transferring! Elder Ventigan is staying and training! So we have to wait until next week to find out where I will be assigned. I'm sad to be leaving Cadiz after 6 months here. I have a lot of close friends here. Lots of people to visit before I leave, members and investigators. I'll make new friends in my new area. I just need to stop myself from crying at family home evening with the Ceniza family later today. good luck with that!
Elder Phelps