I Love This Work, Though it is Hard Sometimes

Sounds like you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. Pretty eventful on your end. I wish it would have been more eventful here. The week was really slow, still not much success. We tried really hard this week though we have little to show for it, but Elder Whitman does have several new blisters on his feet. My feet have become totally immune to blisters, they just dont happen anymore, but my feet still do get sore some days.

Our Thanksgiving was pretty good, for being in the Philippines. We did solve our potatoes problem, we just used real potatoes! Boiled six large (filipino large is american medium) potatoes and mashed them up. We also had a can of corn and bought some gravy mixes. We couldn't cook our own chicken, we dont have the tools necessary, but Chooks to go (a rotisserie chicken place) is right next to our apartment so we just bought it there. We actually buy Chooks at least once a month. Get the big chicken and it lasts us two and a half meals. We also found this Jell-o No Bake Cheesecake mix, so we borrowed a pie tin from this store we buy stuff at all the time. The cheesecake was SOOOOO good! Mom would have hated it, cherry was the only flavor they had. But we both loved it.

I got my Christmas package today in District meeting. Bishop Cardall sent it when they got here. I opened it after the meeting and the sisters all commented on how good the new ties look. Whoever picked them out (mom) did a good job! They look great. The socks look good too. I pulled out the pictures you sent and passed those around too, everyone said that Kat and Nat are really beautiful, at least all the sisters said so. Shared some of the truffles with everyone too. The recorder is great and I listened to parts of the recordings you all made, there does however seem to be one thing you overlooked, the recorder doesn't connect to the computer... so I can record my voice, but I cant send it to you... yeah... Otherwise I would be sending you my voice this week.

I love you all, wish I could be there for Thanksgiving, but I'm doing the Lords work, so it's all good. I love this work, though it is hard sometimes, but that is what makes it work. It has such a spirit too, as long as you are doing the right things. The people here are great and I love them, even though some days they can do some really annoying things. Some days getting "Hey jo"ed just stinks, other times you can just brush it off.

Thats cool that Kat's friend's brother is coming here, He'll love it. Mom is right about the snow. We get rained on a lot and it slows things down and there is no way to avoid getting wet, but at least it isnt snow and we dont have to shovel it.

I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!
Elder Jordan Dean Phelps

Planning to Celebrate Thanksgiving as Best We Can

So, I signed on and I didnt have any email, it was just a tad depressing, but then mom's email popped up and I was happy again. I'm glad she had a great birthday. Yes, I knew that last Harry Potter was two parts, They have theaters here so I had seen the posters. I think I saw a copy of it earlier, but it usually takes about a week. But if you want a decent copy you wait at least a month. Yeah, learned that from members. They had a copy of Iron Man 2 two weeks after it came out.  We showed up at their house while they were watching it. The video was terrible quality, couldn't see a thing, the audio was Portuguese, and the subtitles were Chinese! It was really funny.

As far as the work goes, it is still tough, but we are working on it. Things are looking up though. We got a good list of less-actives we should visit, and received a referral that might be good. We spoke in church yesterday, we do pretty much every third sunday, and since Thanksgiving is on Thursday we decided on giving thanks as our topic. We explained to the congregation what Thanksgiving is and why it was our topic. Yeah, told them that Americans have a day devoted to stuffing ourselves with soooo much food and playing football. But we added that the whole family gets together and we give thanks. Our talks went really well.

We are planning to celebrate Thanksgiving as best we can here in the Philippines and on missionary support allowance, so it's gonna be tough.  But we will have fun doing it. We found an instant Cheesecake mix, so that is going to be our pie and we are going to buy a rotisserie chicken for our turkey. Still trying find a way to do the mashed potatoes, we actually want to eat no rice for our Thanksgiving. I'll let you know how it goes next week.

To answer your question about using a cell phone when we were locked out, yeah, in our mission the only people that have cell phones are the office staff, zone leaders, and sisters. There have been too many missionaries abuse the cell phone to let everyone in the mission have one. It's different in each mission, but we get along just fine without cell phones, we just ask to borrow a members cell when we need to text.

Now I got Dad's email too. Pretty much the same stuff, just different focuses. Yeah, I have been out for over 11 months now, I hit my year in just under a month, which also means that Stuart will be home in less than a month. Man, I feel like I haven't seen that guy for two years or something, but I still have to wait another year to see him. No, I havent seen Bishop Cardall yet, maybe sometime this week or next. I'm keeping my eye out for them.

Oh, funny thing, Elder Whitman's former best friend's name is Jordan Dean. That's his first and last name, so I thought that was funny. When I told him that my middle name was Dean we both thought it was funny. That was a while ago though, just thought I'd tell you all that.

Well, that's all for this week!

Elder Jordan D. Phelps

Breaking in Without Breaking Anything

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! Hope it's a good one. (didn't even need dad's reminder. Like I could forget a birthday, let alone my own mother's!!!)
I know that the last week's letter was short and rather disappointing, but with the help of Elder Whitman there is a surprise in the email I sent to Mom. Hope you all like it. Almost as good as calling home...

So this last week we had exchanges with our district leader, Elder Escalona. He and Elder Clark came to us, Elder Escalona stayed with Elder Whitman, and I went back with Elder Clark. We all had successful days and were able to get much accomplished. Elder Clark's area is called, I can't spell it, but it's kinda in the middle of nowhere, and rice feilds and mud everywhere. My shoes and the bottoms of my pants were covered with mud. Elder Clark said to me, "Now you know why I always have mud on my pants." Yes now I know. The laundry water got so dirty when I washed that pair, looked like chocolate milk when I poured it out. So Wednesday morning we were to return to our assigned companions. The original plan was that Elder Clark and I would come back to San Enrique, but either Elder Escalona forgot that, or changed it without telling us, so when we got to the house in San Enrique, there was no one there and we were locked out.

So after waiting a while for them to come back, we thought really hard.  And it hit is how we could break into the house, without actually breaking anything. The window just to the right of the door is slats that rotate to open, with some work we got it open then removed two of the slats so that we could fit my head, arm, and a mop that had been left outside through the window.  Then used the handle to unlock the deadbolt, which is all our door has. So now we were inside, and starving. So we made some fried rice. Then planned how we could intercept Elder Escalona and Elder Whitman in the plan that was layed out for the day, and got to them and then went home.

We had a baptism on Saturday, Reizler Cris Doce Belleza, he is 10 and his grandma is a member. We had been teaching him for a while and finally got him baptized. Things went well, I talked about the picture taking in my recording. Then on Sunday we were able to get him and Kenjay and Helbert confirmed. So all in all a successful week, though it could have been better.
Mom is right, we are in "hunter" mode now (Jeremiah 16:16), we just are practing our skills still. They got a little rusty. Gonna have to bring out all the guns, pull out all the stops and just get to it!

So, package, no dont need anything, but, if you still have time, you should prepare a photo album of what you all have been up to this last year, so I have some new pictures of you all.

Um, you asked about laundry, about a year and a half ago, the church hired members to do our laundry, but too many of them weren't paying their taxes, the government found out and the church said "no more". Now, if a laundromat exists in your area, you can use it.  You drop off your laundry and they do it all for you. But pretty much only Bacolod has those here on Negros. So we do it in a large basin in our bathroom, I have pictures. Your hands can really hurt after a good hour of laundry!

There is a little present on this email. With the encouragement and help of Elder Whitman, I recorded my voice on his recorder, thought that you might like that. It's cut short at the end though. Enjoy!
Elder Jordan D. Phelps

PS There is another Elder Phelps here in the mission, just be sure to include my first name in anything that you send to me.

Down Spirits

I'm glad to hear that the Nissan Maxima that was stolen was found, and in good condition too. It's not like there is any radio or good parts to steal from it anyway. Someone probably just needed a quick ride and took what they could get.

Well, this week has been... not so great. We didn't feel good, not like sick, but down spirits... We felt abandoned, by members and to a degree, investigators. One went to Bacolod for the week, another was sick all week and gets x-ray results tomorrow. But we were able to get some lessons in!

We continue to try and find new investigators, but it isn't working too well. The people just avoid us... so hard to just talk to them. When we do get to talk to them, they give these little excuses as to why they don't want to listen. Some think they have to pay for our lessons, others think that we will take like three hours, but after we clear those up as untrue, it really just comes down to that they don't want to listen.

At the start of a new week, we have once again set our hopes high, but not as high. It's good to have high goals, but also reasonable for the circumstances.

Well, I know that was a short one, but I really can't think of anything else to say...
Elder Phelps

Halloween

Well, it has been a very interesting week down here in San Enrique. Not a particullarly good one. Members were busy ALL week and couldn't work with us. We seem to be losing investigators too. Trying to find new ones, but it is a slow thing here in San Enrique. People try and avoid us, or lie about wanting us to come back. But we are still trying! Trying for referrals too. We've been talking to a bunch of members asking if they have friends that might want to listen, or just anyone that they know, and if no one comes to mind, find some one. The lesson in Sunday School was from Jonah, "Sharing the Gospel with the World." Went very well with us asking for referrals.

That's cool that Bishop and Virginia are coming here. It would be cool to see them. Some advice, if you come to San Enrique, km 35 south of Bacolod, Take the Hinigaran Bulilit Ceres, or drive your own car. Just wait at the Church, right on the highway, and we will pass by multiple times in one day. Also the next transfer day is December 10, just fyi.

Citizenship in the world is a beast to get done. Kudos to those that finished it. Hated that badge... Well, I am the counselor for the swimming merit badge. You're just gonna have to get a new one for now.  I've heard that "The Drowsy Chaperone" is a really good one to see. As far as musicals go, we listen to "Wicked a lot", and we both sing along! Elder Whitman picked up the songs really fast.

Halloween isn't much of a holiday here. There were some places that had decorations up, but they also had their Christmas decorations up back at the beginning of September... There was a Halloween party just down the street from our house last night, for all the young people in the municipality. It was really loud, and went really late. We were not able to sleep very well, and then had to get up early to go to District Meeting. Yup, that's just how it is here.

I know it sounds kind of strange, but I haven't spoken at a baptism here. We get members to speak, then normally one of us does the baptizing and the other is one of the witnesses. We like people to speak on baptism, Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. We really emphasize endure to the end, because that is a huge problem in the Philippines.

That's all Folks!
Elder Phelps