After going grocery shopping and to the market last Monday, we find this awesome billiards place next to where the missionaries used to live before they changed houses. Its in the back of a store and there is just one table so us 4 elders played for an hour! Im still not good at pool but it did remind me of playing all the time at the Hardy’s when I was a younger! We also deep cleaned the house and washed all of our clothes. It was super fun being with the kabahay the whole day and doing anything and everything we needed to do.
On Tuesday, I was able to get back into my running habbits! We live about 3 minutes walk away from an old stadium that had a track! Now the stadiums underground rooms are used for school classrooms and they dug up all the track, leaving behind a rocky field and a gravel oval. So in the morning, Elder Lloyd and I have been going there and as I run the track he runs stairs and does other exercises. Its super effective to wake up and get active and also effective in pushing me not to eat unhealthy food and to run faster haha. My Nikes are still holding up too which is perfect. (Thanks Runners Soul!)
After we got back to the house, we got ready and went to a district meeting in one of the neighboring districts in a town called Lapaz. We sat in on their District Meeting and then Elder Lloyd gave a rally good workshop on the scriptures and solving our concerns through the God’s word. Elder Lloyd is super knowledgeable with scriptures and all of the Elders in Lapaz are too! We ate some miki after and then went to work in San Antonio. Minda is getting closer and closer to baptism every week. She loves coming to church and has really good questions for us always. I feel at home when we are at her house because she is always making sure we have food and water and anything else we need. She told us that if it was raining too hard when we are there, that we will just stay at their house for the night instead of walking home and wasn’t joking hahah. Ill have to visit when I come back and have her keep her word!
On Wednesday, Elder Decosta and Elder Fenn, two office Elders, came to Bangued to drop off all the supplies for the zone. They didn’t know where the other Elders houses were so I rode with them in the morning to Lagangilang and Tayum. Once we dropped off their supplies, we went back to Bangued, picked up Elder Lloyd and went to Lapaz again for their supplies! Then got back to Bangued and worked there the rest of the day.
Thursday, we went to Tayum to go to their District Meeting, which was also very good, and then we interviewed a lady who is getting baptized in Lapaz next week! Before a baptism, the person wanting to be baptized has an interview where the interviewer makes sure that they have been taught everything by the missionaries and that they understand what baptism is. She passed with flying colors and is super excited to be baptized next week! Because it was pretty late when we finished in Lapaz, we weren’t able to visit the barangay Sagap but we will try to next week! Instead, we met some new people in San Antonio and were able to read and explain with them the Book of Mormon and the importance of the Book of Mormon.
On Friday, a typhoon rated Signal 2 was coming in to Abra so we were told either not to go out or to stay close to our house so we just worked in Bangued. Although the typhoon was hard in other areas, it didn’t affect us at all so we were able to finally work the whole day! We met this really cool family who has gone to multiple churches trying to figure out what they want and where they should be! They had a lot of really good questions about Christ, His Church, the Book of Mormon, Prophets, and much more! Hopefully we can go back and visit them this coming week!
Saturday was also a full day of work! One of the members here in the Branch got very sick out of nowhere and was taken to the Hospital so we went to visit him. He has anemia and needed a lot of blood. Here in Bangued at the local hospital, if you are given blood, you can either pay for it or donate blood to replace what you used if that’s easier for the family. We talked to President Bangal, and next week, some members of the Branch, and some of the missionaries close to Bangued will be coming here to donate. Foreigners aren’t allowed so we asked the missionaries in the zone and close to Candon if they would be willing to come and they were! So next week we will be helping Brother Roy replace the blood at the hospital and hopefully he will be able to go back to his house and rest/recover there.
I have learned so much as a missionary and continue to learn every single week. I love seeing how ready people are to help here in the Philippines. I love their kindness and their humility and I hope to be able to obtain those attributes and carry them with me the rest of my life.
We had a zone activity earlier and it was so much fun. I love the missionaries here in the Bangued Zone. Everyone has a smile on their face and make others happy. Elder Lloyd and I are going to San Fernando tomorrow to have a meeting with Elder Schmutz of the Seventy along with other missionaries in the mission. We will leave at about 7am, get there around 12, have the meeting till 5, get back to Bangued around 10:30, and then all the Elders in the zone will be sleeping in our house because on Wednesday we all go to Candon to have a Conference with Elder Schmutz and the rest of the mission. So we will leave at about 6:45 am, get their around 9. Meet until 1, get back around 3pm and then get to work and make up for the travel time! I love being busy and I love being just a little stressed haha. It keeps me focused. I love you all and hope you all have a great last couple days of August. Where is the time going??
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Elder Pitt
