Week 16 (Oct. 27, 2014 San Leonardo, Philippines)

Sige. Alright. Uh huh. Okay. Alright. Sige. Let's get to it!

Monday Morning was another "Zone Activity" I got to play the Piano for
about 15 minutes and then watch a bunch of other missionaries play
full court b-ball for the next 2 and a half hours. On the bright side,
they threw the ball over the wall and lost it :P Later that evening, I
got a haircut from a Members Uncle. The guy used to be a barber with a
shop about 20 years ago, but retired. Now he just loads up a wagon
with a stool and his haircutting kit, and drives around town in the
morning yelling "GUPIT!" (Haircut). He's like 70+ years old, deaf, and
walks around in Boxer shorts and a T shirt. The only things he's ever
said to me is "Matangos na Ilong" (Pointed Nose). Pretty much the
sketchiest/coolest haircut I've ever gotten :P

Tuesday was pretty awesome. We got three new investigators, two of
them we met at church the previous Sunday. I don't know how that
works, but it does :P Jeric, Kevin, and Roman/Omen. Jeric is the
Cousin of a Less Active who is returning to church, and Kevin and Omen
are friends of John Robert, our other investigator who brought the
Less Active to Church.

We got another New Investigator on Wednesday. Her name is Faith, so
naturally, I refer to her as Pam (Faith in Tagalog is
Pananampalataya). She's the neighbor of a Previous Investigator and is
interested in religion in General. We're hoping we can narrow her
interests a bit, or at least her beliefs. She seems willing to follow
up on any commitments we extend to her, but we've yet to follow up.
It's been a busy week. :)

Thursday's big Whoop-de-doo was another CSP! Jeric's cousin, the Less
Active (Jonah's her name) has a mom. Her mom has a garden. Her mom's
garden has weeds and random clumps of dirt. Missionaries have shovels,
gloves, garden hoes, and machetes. Sounds like a Service Project made
in Heaven, huh? Basically, we just went crazy with the machetes,
hacking at weeds and grass as if they'd disgraced a whole row of prime
planting ground. Then we got the shovels and hoes, churned up the
Earth, and removed the remaining bits of leaves and roots. It was fun
:D

We found yet another New Investigator on Friday. Richard Barlis. He
has a Twin Brother, but he left in the middle of our lesson and didn't
come back, so we didn't count him. Richard is Jonah and Jeric's
neighbor. Raymond is Richard's Twin. I'll expound on this later.
Anyway, I got to try out an object lesson that is less for 22 year old
Richard, and more for 10 year old Jeric, but Richard enjoyed it as
well, and it teaches the doctrine, so I call bonus points. Ya!

We had yet another CSP on Saturday, but the ground wasn't so packed
and firm, so now fancy tools. Just pulling up weeds with our hands and
screaming at Fire Ants. Grrrrrrrr............... -.- We did move some
dirt around. We seem to do that a LOT as Missionaries. We moved it
from one side of a wall to the other. And then we moved different dirt
from the other to one side of a wall. Ya! Productive!
That afternoon, we had a reactivation meeting. Linggo Linggo, dow. As
we finished a lesson about Faith to a Family that was Active a month
ago, they got super offended, assuming we were accusing them of having
no more faith in the Lord. In reality, our Group Leader opened his
scriptures, read the first highlighted verse he saw, and we expounded
on it. Sheesh, chill-ax kid. Elder Maestrado and I just laughed
afterwards :P

On Sunday, we did that same thing my Home Ward did in St George. We
had Ward Conference and the Primary Program, all in one. We had some
investigators attend for their first time this Sunday. They said it
was more like a Market than Church :( The Primary Program was good,
they all spoke and sang in English, but it was super Chaotic. I hope
we can convince them to come to our normal meeting next week.

That's my Weekly re-cap! I'll try to be more thorough next week. Love
you all!! Thanks for your love and support!!
Elder Syphus


I look like I am in pain because I am. Sunburns hurt. But Batman makes it better :)

The Conde Family upgraded their Christmas Tree!! Pogi Si Cliff

This is Janna, a little girl in our ward. I'm not sure what she's riding, but my first thought was either an Alpaca or Llama. Other opinions were horse and donkey. I think you could still put it in your farm. I would. That thing is a party by itself :D

 Janna riding her undetermined pink animal thing. I claim alpaca.

 I forgot to wear Sunscreen during our CSP on Thursday. I was in the sun for four hours. I know, because I had a watch.

 Zone Pic Pagkatapos ang CSP. Jonah is in yellow.

 They prepped a Fiesta for lunch. Here's everyone just loving life.

 Food :)

 What does this tree remind me of?

 When it's not a fiesta, it's this. Mmmmm :)

 Don't worry though. We slice it and fry it, and serve it with eggs.

Ward Fireside last week. 15 in attendance, 9 had to be there. Yay!