Hello everyone! Ill try and make this email short and sweet! This week was really good! Elder Moreland is almost done with his mission and we are pushing ourselves to his very end leaving nothing behind! Hes an awesome companion and missionary!! On tuesday we had Zone Training and during the zone training President Bangal came! He gave an awesome lesson on working hard and making sure our desires are the same desires of the Lord! I am really liking President Bangal and all of his insight he gives us. We ended up having an awesome day on Tuesday, We met a bunch of new people and talked to so many people this week! One of my favorite lessons this week was with this older couple, Felix and Delores! Felix was in the navy and had a plethora of stories to tell us. As we were talking he would cut us off and say something along the lines of "1967!! I WAS IN MANILA IN THE NAVY!" And would continue his story on. We weren't sure if he was actually listening or not but we kept teaching when Prophets of the Bible were brought up! He brought out his Bible which was written in the Ilocano language, read the verses we asked him to read from the Bible about prophets, and then after we explained that there were again Prophets here on earth he said "Okay. I will come to your church now."
We were both like... Okay. Its at 9 on Sunday! It was really cool because we weren't sure if he was paying attention or not, but something about the verse he read struck and cord and put him way into our lesson!
Everyday Elder Moreland and I have this goal of talking to 30 new people a day. On Saturday we were planning out our day and I asked him what our goal was for the day, he jokingly said "72!" And I semi jokingly write it down and agreed! Then, as the day went on we seemed to be crossing paths with all new people! Everyone was out and about and we were able to count up at the end of the day and see we talked to 131 new people! In only about 3 hours because a rain storm came and everyone went inside!
The best part about all of that? Its also the most embarrasing. We talked to about 25 ish people all on this basketball court hanging out.. About an hour later we passed by the court again on our bikes.. Im sorry this story doesn't end in a basketball game but it does end good! As we passed them they all said hello and about 20 yards down the path, Elder Moreland stopped riding his bike and looked towards the sea, not knowing what he was doing and why he abruptly stopped i went to stop ad fast as i could too...
But when I hit my brakes, my front brake locked up, I went chest first into the handlebars and then flipped over the bike! Not only was all of my pride in my biking skills out the window but ALL of the people who saw ran over to make sure I was okay! Discouraged, and with about 25 Filipinos all around me making sure I was okay, Elder Moreland was busting up laughing and couldn't help but just watch and laugh! All is well and nothing serious happened, but I probably wont be passing by that basketball court for a couple weeks haha.
I did a lot of studying this week and read this quote that I thought I would share with all of you! It is from Dallin H. Oaks and says:
"Desires dictate our priorities. Priorities shape our choices, choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming."
I loved the chain that he explains and how we can see that the thoughts and desires we have, will be what we become! So aim high! If a goal is to talk to 30 people a day, try and push it to 72.. and before you know it you will have met 131 new people. The sky is the limit, especially when we speaks the Lord's help as we go through our lives!
Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!
I will try and take some more pictures next week!
--
Elder Pitt
Monday, July 25, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016
Rain Rain Rain
Well the rainy season doesn't disappoint! It has now began to rain in the mornings as well as in the nights! I really can not complain though because it makes the weather outside just a little bit colder, which is always a good thing! This week was a little bit slower than usual, the rain really messes up Luna because half of the labor here does not work in the rain, I can see how that might be frustrating haha. The people of Luna are still the best, we have gotten to know our neighbors really well and its been fun to talk and keep up with their family and all the things they are doing! Because our house doesn't have running water, we get water from a pump outside and see them almost every morning, the tatay (dad) is super funny and so so active its insane. On Wednesday, we went to San Fernando to meet our new mission president, President Bangal. He is super awesome and excited for the work! I loved President Balledos although I did not have many opportunities to speak with him. I hope I have more, and know i will have more chances to talk with President Bangal and learn from him! It is really fun to have mission conferences because you get to meet other missionaries in the mission and there is never a dull moment during the trainings. President Bangal and his wife are so nice and funny too! Not only was the conference good but a member of the ward in San Fernando made food for all of us. Bless her heart. It was delicious.
Almost every day Elder Moreland and I make our food, by that I mean Elder Moreland makes the food but ill cut up the ulam and wash the dishes to help haha, but this week I cooked the adobo for us! It turned out pretty good too! (look ma, im doin it!) Who knows, maybe being a chef is my calling in life... updates to come!
On Saturday we had a service project at the meetinghouse for Branch Conference on Sunday! Our morning was spent pulling weeds, and cleaning the outside of the meetinghouse! I think my favorite, and also least favorite part of it was when I was pulling weeds, tuck my hand into a group of tall weeds, just to find that there was a cactus plant at the bottom! It didn't take but 1 seconds for me to know that I immediately regretted my decision of not wearing the gloves I had brought haha!
One cactus needles really knew that I needed to learn a lesson and decided to go right in between the tip of my finger and my finger nail. Honestly I have to commend my precision because it was right on target! The needle went in about half the length of my fingernail, and then I had to grab a hold of it and pull it out from under the nail!
Lessons are learned in the mission field for sure! I will never forget to wear gloves again hahaha! But all is well and my finger no longer hurts!
We had a Family Home Evening with the neighbors of the sister missionaries in our area, one of the daughters is special needs and could brighten up any ones day with her smile and her laugh. We played games and had some delicious dessert after, all the while watching her laugh and have a great time. It really brightened my day and my week.
During my time to study the language this week i focused on the term "i believe" which is "naniniwala ako". When you look at the actual translation, the root word is tiwala, which means trust. The literal translation is "moments of trust distributed over time". And I love the way that correlates with "I believe". Sometimes having a belief in something comes after we test our trust in it! In the Book of Mormon, Ether Chapter 12 verse 6 ends with ' I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
We trust when we believe, we believe when we trust. We have to sometimes take that leap of faith, or substituted, leap of trust, in order to grow and become stronger. That is something I have learned very much so here learning a new language. If i never spoke to people I would never learn, but I know Heavenly Father wants me to learn, and wants to help me learn, so when I go out daily and speak to those, I know without a doubt He is helping me. And we all need His help in our lives every day.
I love you all! Seek help from The Lord this week in all you do and be safe! Take to you next week!
The sunsets are always so gorgeous!
Service Projects bring out the best in you!
San Fernando, MacDonalds, Pizza.... Langit?
--
Elder Pitt
Almost every day Elder Moreland and I make our food, by that I mean Elder Moreland makes the food but ill cut up the ulam and wash the dishes to help haha, but this week I cooked the adobo for us! It turned out pretty good too! (look ma, im doin it!) Who knows, maybe being a chef is my calling in life... updates to come!
On Saturday we had a service project at the meetinghouse for Branch Conference on Sunday! Our morning was spent pulling weeds, and cleaning the outside of the meetinghouse! I think my favorite, and also least favorite part of it was when I was pulling weeds, tuck my hand into a group of tall weeds, just to find that there was a cactus plant at the bottom! It didn't take but 1 seconds for me to know that I immediately regretted my decision of not wearing the gloves I had brought haha!
One cactus needles really knew that I needed to learn a lesson and decided to go right in between the tip of my finger and my finger nail. Honestly I have to commend my precision because it was right on target! The needle went in about half the length of my fingernail, and then I had to grab a hold of it and pull it out from under the nail!
Lessons are learned in the mission field for sure! I will never forget to wear gloves again hahaha! But all is well and my finger no longer hurts!
We had a Family Home Evening with the neighbors of the sister missionaries in our area, one of the daughters is special needs and could brighten up any ones day with her smile and her laugh. We played games and had some delicious dessert after, all the while watching her laugh and have a great time. It really brightened my day and my week.
During my time to study the language this week i focused on the term "i believe" which is "naniniwala ako". When you look at the actual translation, the root word is tiwala, which means trust. The literal translation is "moments of trust distributed over time". And I love the way that correlates with "I believe". Sometimes having a belief in something comes after we test our trust in it! In the Book of Mormon, Ether Chapter 12 verse 6 ends with ' I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
We trust when we believe, we believe when we trust. We have to sometimes take that leap of faith, or substituted, leap of trust, in order to grow and become stronger. That is something I have learned very much so here learning a new language. If i never spoke to people I would never learn, but I know Heavenly Father wants me to learn, and wants to help me learn, so when I go out daily and speak to those, I know without a doubt He is helping me. And we all need His help in our lives every day.
I love you all! Seek help from The Lord this week in all you do and be safe! Take to you next week!
The sunsets are always so gorgeous!
Service Projects bring out the best in you!
San Fernando, MacDonalds, Pizza.... Langit?
--
Elder Pitt
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
4th of July in the Phillipines
Happy Fourth of July everyone!! Elder Moreland and I started off this morning the only way we should, by belting the National Anthem and chanting "USA USA USA"! Its probably a good thing that it is just Elder Moreland and I in the apartment or we wouldn't have had happy roommates! Nothing too crazy happened this week but it was really good! One of the days, a member of the Branch, Brother Ragaas, offered to work with us! It was really fun and we both love Brother Ragaas like crazy. He's so nice and genuine and loves missionary work! OPne super good part about the whole thing was he is a trike driver so we didnt have to walk or ride our bikes in the heat! A lot of people here in Luna speak more Ilocano than they do Tagalog so having Borther Ragaas with us to speak their first language to them was a big blessing.
Tagalog is hard, and Ilocano sounds even more difficult but learning both here will help me be able to communicate better!
Today Elder Moreland and I are going to try and find a BBQ place so we can chow down on some food for the Fourth of July! There was supposed to be a typhhon yesterday but it died down before it came into the land and it was just hard rain instead. Close call though right! I cant wait to see what its like in a Typhoon, probably less crazy then it sounds but oh well!
Like I said we didnt have anything crazy come up this week, but we did get a new mission president! It was sad to see President and Sister Balledos leave because they were so nice and welcoming to me and all of the new missionaries just a couple weeks ago, but I am super excited to meet President Bangal when that time comes!
Im sorry this email is so short I will try and make it longer next week! This week I really tried to focus on my Tagalog and speaking (correctly) as much as i could. One of my favorite Tagalog words is the word for "Conversion" which is "pagbabalik-loob"
Pagbabalik-loob literally means returning to the inside, which really got me thinking about what conversion is. I really like that term because before we came to earth we were with our Father in Heaven. As we work here on earth and learn more about His plan for us, we convert, or we return to what is inside of us. Tagalog is beautiful and has so much meaning in some words, thats just one example! When we are coming closer to Christ through praying and reading the words of God, we are also returning to ourselves who we were before our life here on earth.
I hope everyone has a good week and an AWESOME Fourth of July!
This is how to take a dysfunctional zone picture, and we also found an american flag in one of our closets, and needed some decoration on the wall! Elder Moreland was really excited for the flag (as you can see in the pictures)
--
Elder Pitt
Tagalog is hard, and Ilocano sounds even more difficult but learning both here will help me be able to communicate better!
Today Elder Moreland and I are going to try and find a BBQ place so we can chow down on some food for the Fourth of July! There was supposed to be a typhhon yesterday but it died down before it came into the land and it was just hard rain instead. Close call though right! I cant wait to see what its like in a Typhoon, probably less crazy then it sounds but oh well!
Like I said we didnt have anything crazy come up this week, but we did get a new mission president! It was sad to see President and Sister Balledos leave because they were so nice and welcoming to me and all of the new missionaries just a couple weeks ago, but I am super excited to meet President Bangal when that time comes!
Im sorry this email is so short I will try and make it longer next week! This week I really tried to focus on my Tagalog and speaking (correctly) as much as i could. One of my favorite Tagalog words is the word for "Conversion" which is "pagbabalik-loob"
Pagbabalik-loob literally means returning to the inside, which really got me thinking about what conversion is. I really like that term because before we came to earth we were with our Father in Heaven. As we work here on earth and learn more about His plan for us, we convert, or we return to what is inside of us. Tagalog is beautiful and has so much meaning in some words, thats just one example! When we are coming closer to Christ through praying and reading the words of God, we are also returning to ourselves who we were before our life here on earth.
I hope everyone has a good week and an AWESOME Fourth of July!
This is how to take a dysfunctional zone picture, and we also found an american flag in one of our closets, and needed some decoration on the wall! Elder Moreland was really excited for the flag (as you can see in the pictures)
--
Elder Pitt
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)