This is Where I Need to Be

Well, That is quite the exciting news about Stuart. I was talking to Elder Reidhead last week about that. I told him that I was surprised that Stu hadn't proposed yet. But now he has. That will be way weird to get home and have him be married. It doesn't come as much of a surprise though.

Um, no I haven't eaten dog yet. It's not really as common as you might think, and there are actually a lot of Filipinos that havent eaten dog and don't want to, like Michael Tilanas. The strangest thing that I have eaten is adidas which is Ilonggo for chicken feet. That was alright, it was inasal style (kabob, grilled). There isn't much meat and there are a ton of tendons.

I did appreciate that dad sent his email, even though it was short. It still means a lot.

This last week was awesome! We had a ton of good days, and we have awesome investigators. We had some really good lessons. There is this group of young men that were referred to us by the Tilanas family that we have been trying to get them to come to church, due to busy school schedules we only actually taught them twice this week, but the lessons were good and on Saturday night they said they would come to church, and they did! It was awesome to see them all there. They are a good group and they really enjoyed church.

The other big thing this week was baptismal interviews for the Tilanas family and Salve May Francisco. There were five of them total the interview was Sunday night at 6 and they are going to be baptized on Saturday and Raffy and Maravic are going to get married this week too (so that they can be baptized). I was talking with Elder Scott, our district leader who interviewed them, and he said he was way impressed with our investigators, again. He is also the one that interviewed Michael Francisco and Dimple Tilanas. I am impressed by them all the time. Yesterday in our Gospel Principles class that we teach to investigators and recent converts (and all the rest of the youth which is only like three others) Raffy offered the sweetest dugang (addition) to the lesson. It showed to all of us his testimony and his depth of understanding of the gospel. The lesson was on the sacrament and what it means. Raffy's addition tied it all together in such a great way.

Raffy has also played a big part in the young men that we have been teaching. because they all know the Tilanas family and although what Michael says in the lessons is good I think that when they hear Raffy testify it means more to them. Michael is the educated serious one and Raffy is also educated but he is cool and relaxed, so it hits them a bit different to hear this stuff coming from him.

Oh they celebrate Valentines Day here too. It is a bit different, but pretty much the same, with Filipino twist, as with everything else here.

Another busy week back home but nice to know that you are all doing well. That's funny that Nat was supposed to wear the cow suit. I'd love to see a picture of that!

Well, I love you all. Miss you all, but this last little bit, meaning the last two or three months, has just confirmed to me that this is where i need to be and I'll be home soon enough, too soon if you ask me.

Oh, so this last Tuesday we had Mission Tour and Elder Teh of the 70 and the Philippines Area Presidency was the one to come. His training was awesome. I took sooo many notes and some of my notes are things that were never said out loud, but those are the best, straight from the Spirit. So after the lunch Elder Teh had picked a bunch of missionaries that he was going to interview. It came as a surprise, but I was one of those that was picked. Interviewed by a General Authority and the first question he asked was about you all. So now he knows all about my family. It was a good interview, just talking. At the end he asked if I had any questions for him, and sadly I couldn't come up with a single thing! Even later that afternoon when they stopped by our apartment because they were in La Carlota. It's a good thing we keep our house clean! He liked our house and said that it was clean. His wife commented on some of the snacks we had and that one of them was her daughter's favorite. All in all it was a good experience. Elder Teh is cool.

Okay, love from the Philippines!
Elder Jordan Phelps

PS in the next package some more mesh garments would be nice. And of course beef jerky and m&ms, cashew nuts are good too. That's all I can think of. Thanks! Love you!

Michael Tilanas, Dimple and Michael Francisco. Michael Tilanas was the one baptizing

The Tilanas family. Michael and Dimple at the two wearing the baptismal clothes. Nanay, Zenica, and Jerica are the other three.

Elder Clark, myself and the three.

Our zone (most of it) last transfer.

I Love Missionary Work

2/6/11
Well, this week wasn't as good as we were hoping, but we did do really well. As mom said, the Tilanas family is turning quite golden, they didn't start that way and they aren't perfect but they are amazing. This week the Tilanas family gave us a bunch of referrals, they just keep bringing them in! So we got 6 new investigators, all male, which is what the branch really needs. They are really good, didn't come to church this week, but they will next week. They all ask good questions, simple but good. They understand well too.
Elder Reidhead and I are doing great. We are rather different, but we still are great together, we do have much in common too. He is really funny and can be really spiritual too. He likes to work hard and really likes the area.

Agency makes things hard sometimes. You want this so bad for the investigator. You pray for them, you plan for them, you encourage them, promise them blessings, and they still might choose to not do it. Those are really sad moments. But there are also others that are the exact opposite. You do all of that and they do choose to change their lives and follow Christ. Those certainly outweigh the other ones. Even though the rejection and the investigators not progressing are more often, the other is just so much better that you forget about the rest.

There was an experience we had yesterday that I think you all will like...
We stopped by at the Tilanas family and only Raffy (22) was home, we were looking through our list of all the members and trying to find them so we were asking Raffy if he knew any that are in the area around their house. Then I asked him how to get to one of the other areas and he told me. Then he said that his basketball team had a game there right then, but he wasnt there because it was Sunday. I love Raffy! Him saying that made me so happy. I'm not sure he knows it, but he has a great testimony. He and his "wife" are filling the papers for their marriage so that they can get baptized.

I love missionary work. I is the toughest thing I have ever done, but it is so worth it. I wish so bad that you all could meet the people I have met here. I know we'll all see each other sometime, it will just probably be in the millennium. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I have seen the effect of the gospel on investigators, members (active and inactive), missionaries, and most importantly myself. This is amazing and I wouldn't trade the experiences I have had here for anything in this world. Hopefully there are many more to come.

Elder Phelps

I Love This Area, I Love This Work

1/30/11
This week was pretty good. Some really good things happened, some funny things happened, and many spiritual things happened.

So the good. We got a good amount of lessons, not as much as we would have liked, but it was still good. The lessons that we got were way good too, and our investigators (most of them) are progressing, well too. We have a baptism on Feb 19 so we are getting things ready for that too. It was going to be five people getting baptized, but the fifth didn't come to church this week and it was his second absence in the four week period, so according to the rules here, he can't be baptized, but he will later. He had a good reason that he wasn't there, and he has been coming to church for a while now, so we just have to wait another four weeks. But the four others are all good. They are Michael Tilanas' mom, brother, and brother's wife (soon to be. They are going to get legally married the morning before the baptism. At least thats the plan and it looks like it will work) and then Micheal Francisco's older sister. It's going to be great. The four of them, it's like they are already members, just need to be baptized.

Funny, but also good thing that happened. Nanay (Mom) Tilanas got home from visiting two of her daughters that are in Manila. Yesterday while we were at their house she was on the phone with one of them and sitting next to me. She asked her if she would go to the Mormon Church next Sunday and then kinda shared her testimony about going to church. It was great. It was also the way she said it that was funny. I can't explain it though.

Spiritual things that happened, aside from pretty much every lesson we had this last week. We have been visiting the in-active members in the area around Michael's house. Micheal told us that he wants us to get him first when we are going to do that so that he can come too. Having him come has made quite the difference in our visits to inactives. The group is getting bigger too. Not too big though. But other members are saying that they want to come too. So when we tell the inactive that the members of the church want them to come back, we have proof of that because we have a couple of them with us. Our experiences with the in-actives has varied, but they went well. We are going to continue to visit them. Also yesterday Michael bore his testimony and talked about coming with us to visit in-active members and basically said that others should be helping too. Many agreed with him.

The attendance at the branch this week was amazing too. 55! It was full! I have never seen that high there. The highest was two weeks ago at 44, and that is the only time it has been above 40 while I have been here. We also track how many recent converts are coming to church, and recently we have been getting 8/10 or 9/10, but this week it was a solid 10/10! I was looking around and then whispered to E Reidhead, "We might have all 10 recent converts here." And sure enough, the official count showed that all 10 were there.

I love this area. I love this work. Especially when you have awesome members that are also excited about the work. Such as Michael and his family. They are all awesome. We also have a recent convert that is going to be getting ready to go on a mission, so he wants to come with us, which is fantastic! We just need to find more investigators in the area around where he lives. And that is turning out to be harder than we thought, but we are finding a couple.

Tomorrow we have mission tour, that's where a member of the Area Presidency comes and tours the mission. That is going to be fun, then we also have a fireside with him later that night. So it will not be that good of a day with lessons taught, but we will be spiritually charged and ready to go out and share the gospel! So it's going to be awesome.

Love you all,
Elder Jordan Phelps

Transfer Week

1/23/11
Wow, sounds like a good week back home. Things went well here too. Last week was transfer week, the actual transfer day took place on Wednesday this time. They are trying something new, and it worked really well so it will probably stay that way. So here is how Wednesday worked. The La Carlota and Bacolod South zones met at the San Enrique Checkpoint. And there we found out where the transferring companion were going. Then they all caught Ceres and headed to their next checkpoint where they would meet their new companions. Then we waited for our new companions to arrive. My comp is Elder Reidhead. He is from Snowflake, Arizona. Elder Daniels is his trainer and said that he is really cool, and he is. Its also cool that Elder Daniels is in our house too. So Elder Reidhead was coming from far away and didn't get to San Enrique until just before noon, but I had good company while I was waiting. Elder Hernandez was there, he is back and I haven't talked to him in a long time so it was fun to catch up. The rest of the week was pretty normal. We didn't get quite as many lessons as we had hoped for, but we still did good.


Sunday was really good. We got two investigators to come to church for the first time. And we had the highest overall attendance the whole time I have been here- 44. A disappointment though was that the less-actives that we had visited and they said that they would come to church, didn't come... We were saddend by that. So we went to their houses to talk to them, but they weren't home.

We went and visited one of the investigators that came to church for the first time later that night. After the lesson she started talking about her experience at church. I had asked her how it was before we started but all she said was that it was nice. Now she talked about how she had prayed for a sign that she could/should go to church, from what she told me she kind of made the sign happen. She chose that she would go, so she came with the Tilanas family. She said that as soon as she entered the building she was comparing her feelings there to the ones she had when she attended the Catholic. She said that as soon as she entered she wasn't worried anymore. The things bothering her and all her worries were gone, she just felt at peace. She said she really liked that feeling and felt that God had shown her where she needed to be.

It's when I hear about experiences like that that I don't feel shy or doubting when I promise people that they will feel peace, the Holy Ghost and God's love for them when they come to church. In the same lesson Michael and his mom were there and shared their experience with coming to church. Those were really cool to hear too. The Tilanas family is awesome! Although Nanay (Mom) has seemed to develop this need to feed us, even if we aren't teaching them that night.She and Michael came to some other appointments with us and then we were going to head home. Nanay asked if we were going to stop by the house, I said that our appointment with them was tomorrow, she still just asked "So, are you going to stop by the house?" She knew that our curfew was still an hour away. So to answer the question I flipped a coin. Jose Rizal, the Philippine hero on the piso, said that we would stop by the house. and that resulted in us getting food.

Well, we are looking forward to a good week, and we have some (more) new referrals from the Tilanas family to teach. Our investigators are doing great and I love teaching them. Sharing with them the gospel message.

Michael is still undecided if he will serve a mission, I'm going to tell him that if he converts his girlfriend, who lives in Brunei and is a Muslim, when she comes to visit in April, then he doesn't have to serve a mission and he can continue in his awesome missionary work just here in Ayungon.

Well, love from the Philippines. Man, the hot season is getting closer, and we can feel it.

Elder Phelps

Proud of What was Accomplished

1/16/11
So, this last week was very good. Elder Clark and I are really proud of what was accomplished. We set high goals in spite of having zone conference on Friday, so we thought we might not hit them. We planned lessons for after zone conference, like you should even though it is nearly impossible to get back from ZC at a reasonable time. We had the goal to get 4 lessons with a member present that night. And despite the odds we did it! We were so proud of that, and that we were still on track to hit our goals. Saturday we had a baptism for Michael Francisco and "Dimple" Tilanas. It went really well. Michael Tilanas baptized the two of them, good birthday present from his sister. Saturday and Sunday though we weren't able to get the lessons we needed to meet our high goals, but we still did really well and got really close. Mission standard for lessons per week is 25, our weekly goal was 21, and we got 17. 14 with a member.


Sounds like you all had a great week, except for dads cough. Lots of sleepovers going on. In the mission sleepovers are called exchanges. and you switch places, so it is still just two of you. They can be fun too.

So, for our TV on New Years we borrowed the projector from the District (Stake) Center. Worked great.

Michael has great desires to do missionary work, here in the branch and he is really considering going on a mission. He has until he is 25. Last night his mom and he brought up the issue of in-active members and he said that he wanted to really help us in that too, which is great of course. His mom told us that the RS has visiting teaching planned for the 29th and they asked her to come with, she asked us if that was allowed, and we said yes. So she is going visiting teaching with them. Dimple also said that she wanted to go on a mission, she still has a ways to go. Mom doesn't really want them to, because she is nervous for them, like you are. So I told her about how you feel about me being far away, and that made her feel a bit better about it.

Well, I guess I should tell you the results of transfer announcements, transfer day is on Wednesday now, they are trying out something new. Should work well. But the result is that Elder Clark is transferring and I am staying. Which is just what we were expecting.

Love you all!
Elder Phelps

A Good Week and Always Interesting

1/9/11
Well, this last week has been a good week, and as always interesting. Elder Clark and I had set some really stretching goals for our lessons and investigators at church. In the end, we did not achieve our goals. But we did push ourselves and got higher numbers than we would have. The goal was to have 12 investigators attend church, we got six, which is good. We set even higher goals for this next week, and now that we have our good base to build off of, we can totally get it!  Elder Clark and I are doing just fine. We have tons of fun together.

I dont think I have ever mentioned the Tilanas Family yet, but Michael (24) is a recent convert, of just over a month. I could take a whole email to tell his story, but that will have to wait. I'll just tell you about what he is doing now. He has invited his family to listen to the message, and now one is being baptized this Saturday. The rest of the family is doing great! They come to church every week and love it. They have also invited their relatives that live next door to listen and have now been coming to church for three weeks and are progressing. Then they surprised us and invited their other neighbors to start listening. They didn't come to church this week, but we'll get them next week! Michael also told me at the end of one of the lessons that he wants to invite more people. Some of his sisters are living in Manila and Japan, so he wants to contact them and have them listen, or give us their info and we can get it to the missionaries in the area. Michael is WAY awesome, possibly the strongest recent convert in the mission.

Okay, so the Elder Gruninger story. He is from Kaysville, went to Davis High. His dad is full Canadian and his mom is full Greek. He likes My Big Fat Greek Wedding because he understands it all. So he's pretty much as American as you can get. So the emergency transfer wasn't that bad. They took him and made him the new Assistant to the President, which they were going to do the next week anyway, so it just moved the plan up a week. We do miss E. Gruninger and we ordered him on the order sheet from the office, along with a cherry pie...

Because of health concerns around every corner we carry these small bottles of alcohol to fight disease and death and dirt and... small children's hands, who knows where those have been.

Hope you are all safe and warm in your winter wonderland back in Utah! The summer season here is just around the river bend, and then it will be back to being ridiculously hot, every hour of the day, and night.

So, pictures, the computer has done something weird to my memory card, but there is a member in La Carlota that is good with computers that can fix it.


Well, love from La Carlota!!

Elder Jordan Phelps