Miracles in Luna

Oh man what a busy week I just dont know where to start! Seguro I will start with Tuesday when Elder Golle and I found out that.. Elder Golle is transferring! Usually that isnt a big deal, but because I am being trained you are usually with your trainer for the first 12 weeks. Instead he transferred to Baloan, which is crazy because its the city right next to us, and the missionary from Baloan is my new companion Elder Moreland!  
Elder Golle and I are still in the same district so we will see eachother often, and Elder Moreland is super cool. This is his last transfer so he is going home in august! Just like Elder Golle and I, Elder Moreland and I get a long really well and its really helpful that we completely understand eachother and our thoughts when we are planning or teaching!! One cool thing I really like is that we always speak Tagalog to eachother throughout the day except when I dont know how to speak correctly, its super important... OR when we want to tell a funny story and we want to tell it in English! (Its usually the last one) haha but it is really good!! Most of the week was spent helping Elder Moreland get acquainted with the Branch and the area but I will sum up this email in our story of Saturday, hands down one of my favorite days in the mission field.

So background story, we have these two investigators who's uncle is the Branch President, their mom works in the middle east so they live with their grandparents and come to church every week, love the teachings, and are so so smart. Cara and Zed are their names, I think i have mentioned them before.
So their mom, Caroline, has not allowed them to be baptized, she isnt a member but about 10 years ago almost all of her family joined the Church and she was hesitant. We found out last week that Cara and Zed are moving to the middle east with their mom for a couple months and then coming back to their grandparents and that Caroline was coming here for a couple weeks first to visit. We had planned to speak with her and the kids about the baptism and see out her reasoning. We talked to her the first time on Wednesday, she was super nice and said that she would ask her children what they wanted to do and to come back Saturday. So here was the plan: If she says yes, their baptism and confirmation at church would be July 2nd and 3rd, then they move July 5th, and come back next February.
When we got to their house she told us yes, she was okay with them being baptized here, and that she wanted to find the church nearest to their house and the missionaries near their home as well where she lived so that they would have members they can meet and ask questions/ learn which is AWESOME. She is 100% supportive and willing to help the children grow which you need to have before you can be baptized!
One BIG problem: They are moving back to her house on June 28th.. And you have to be confirmed on church when you are baptized.. Which meant that the baptism had to be that day, Saturday! Now the small problems: Its pouring rain (darn rainy season) they need to be interviewed by our zone leaders to make sure they are ready, the Branch President is at a meeting in San Fernando (one hour away) and we have to call our Mission President because they are children so President Balledos needs to give us the okay. But we dont have a phone because of transfers.. Its also 4 pm and the sun sets at about 7.
We got a lot of work to do!! So when the going gets tough the tough get going and we go to work!
We started off using a neighbors phone to call everyone and figure out if this is possible, then we went back to our house to get everything together and wait for the zone leaders. While we were waiting it started raining super hard, it was about 5:50 and they still  werent there.
Elder Moreland and I decided to say a prayer in which we asked our Heavenly Father to help us out, because we needed it. Elder Moreland prayed for the rain to stop just for enough time to have the baptismal service in the Sea and for the zone leaders to arrive.
About 10 minutes later the ZL's arrived and we went to Cara and Zeds home. As we took a trike to the home the rain stopped. And when we got to the house the Branch President was there and all of their family as well. Cara and Zed passed the interview phase and we got dressed for the baptism. Their mom was super excited and very happy for them. The baptism was beautiful. At the sea, the sun was going down about to disappear, but the lightning on the horizon illuminated the whole sky, with strikes about every 3 seconds, it was insane. After the baptism, we had their grandfather give a testimony and as he did, he turned to Elder Moreland and I and told us that he had been dreaming of this day since Zed and Cara started living with them. He never though it would happen, and was so grateful with tears in his eyes he said "Salamat, salamat, salamat" (Thank you, thank you, thank you). The whole day was tough, stressful, busy, and I was worried like crazy. But seeing Cara and Zed have huge smiles on their faces and their whole family together for the baptism.. words cant explain how amazing the feeling was.
I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is here on earth and was restored through Joseph Smith, I know without a single doubt that Our Father in Heaven was watching over us that day and made it possible for Cara and Zed to be baptized. Never have I felt so much the hand of God in my life, giving me the ability to help others come unto Christ than that day. I am so grateful that I have the chance to be a servant of The Lord and Represent Him in His work. I love being a missionary, I love the Philippines. And I love you all. Have a great week! And I cant wait to talk next week!


Crazy Pictures but a crazy week so it fits!!
--

Elder Pitt

I hope everyone is having a good week, I know I am and last week was great too! Not much happened this week so no crazy stories or experiences.. Which just means that next weeks will be even more exciting right? haha As you all probably know, the NBA finals were this week, and if you didn't know, Every. Single. Person. In. The. Philippines. Loves. Basketball. It is exactly my cup of tea (besides the part where we dont watch the games!) But every where we went, people were talking about the games and the drama and what team they were rooting for! I kid you not, families become torn apart during the Finals haha if you are a child rooting for the Cavs, and both your parents like Steph Curry, you might want to find a friends house to stay over for dinner so that you'll get a meal! Haha just kidding.. maybe.. but as I was saying, everyone loves basketball! And a lot of our lessons and examples have used basketball which again is straight up my alley! Whether its about "staying in bounds" with following the commandments or "needing to have a lot of practices before the big game" connecting going to church weekly before baptism, it connects the people! (and I get to talk about basketball!) One pretty cool thing that happened was that I was asked to teach the members of our Branch a Temple Preparation Class to help them prepare for the temple! I was really worried at first, because being a new missionary I dont really know Tagalog as much as I would like to, but it went really good! Church is so good on Sundays, and we have been having a lot of people coming to church!
Like I said not much has happened, but having time every morning to study has been a huge blessing for me. I was never a big reader nor was it ever my choice to sit down and read a book, but since my mission, I have read I think 5 books through! That might be more books than I read in all of high school! haha (sorry teachers)
The last book I read is called "Unstuck" by Robert Reynolds, who is the brother of the lead singer for Imagine Dragons! The book is all about "How the Savior frees us from our favorite sins." And how we can change our hearts and our minds to focus on loving others and doing as though Christ would do, instead of focusing on becoming upset with ourselves when we sin.. Because every one sins! In the words of Hannah Montana Nobody is perfect!!
Back to the book, I finished it in 5 days, it is a super easy read, and SO powerful as well!  He talks about having a hard heart and how that halts us from changing. One sentence he writes is "Like any item with a warranty from its manufacturer, hard hearts must break before they can be replaced." I just think it is really cool how straight forward that sentence is, if we want to change something in our lives, the change starts in our hearts, and our surroundings will follow. Im sorry I didnt have any more to talk about! But I hope everyone is doing good! Here is a picture from this morning: We have to take a trike from Luna to Baloan, where there we take a bus to San Fernando to get groceries and email on P day because Luna is too small for us to get anything.. The trike drivers refused to take anyone because they were watching the game hahaha. We had to wait till the end of the first quarter to take a trike, and I kid you not I think we broke to sound barrier flying down to Baloan so that the driver wouldnt miss anything haha. Have a great week everyone! Love you all!
--

Elder Pitt

Kumusta kayo?

Hows everyone doing? Life in The Philippines is same old, same old.. Amazing! We had a lot of business to ted to this week and it was super fun while doing it! We will start off with Tuesday night when we got a call from two sister missionaries who live about 15 minutes away, why did they call? There was a snake in their house! They 1. Refused to go inside. 2. Demanded us to go there and get the snake hahaha. Elder Golle and I started biking their way and he says quietly "Elder, I hate snakes." I started busting up laughing and so did he, and then I told him if it was a spider we wouldnt be going anywhere near that house but snakes are okay with me! When we arrived at their bahay, they were in the landowners house and told us to immediately go get the snake. So, Elder Golle stood at the door and I walked around trying to find it. Not going to lie, my heart was pounding a little when i was lifting up the pillows our moving the furniture haha but I simply could not find the snake! And then, i found it in the bathroom. I wish I had taken a picture, but the snake was about the size of a my finger and it was dead! Again, i cant lie, and I need to say that yeah I was kinda dissapointed because I really wanted to tackled this huge task of serenading a cobra and leading it out of the house. But instead i just picked it up put it in my hand and walked out of the house, nonetheless victorious! Then the next day, our zone leaders and Elder Golle and I had to look around to find the sisters a new apartment to help them feel a little bit more safe and make sure no other snakes were going to be disturbing their studies or sleep!
There wasnt much else that happened until Friday at the baptism of Onica! It was so beautiful and the baptism was held on the beach into the South China Sea! I will try and send pictures and i hope they go through! She was so so happy and everyone was in such a cheerful mood. It was so spiritual and you could feel the love our Father in Heaven has for every one of us.
Danny Mipa is literally the man! We talk to him almost every day just running into each other and it makes my day! He is really loving the Book of Mormon and prayer!
Speaking of prayer, On Sunday about 10 minutes before Church, our branch president asked me to give a talk on prayer!
I have always heard stories about people who have been asked to give talks right before church and how they felt so unprepared! I feel that too! hahaha it was good though! I ended the talk by reminding all of those in Church that I was a new missionary and if they didnt understand the Tagalog i was saying, to pray about my message later to know what I said. (I thought it was funny seeing how my talk was about prayer, but most of the people didnt get the joke hahaha) All in all this week was awesome again! I really hope the pictures are coming through, Luna is an amazing area and it is so humbling as well. One good thing about it here is that because it rains every. single. day. it gets cooler at night so sleeping like a baby is once again occuring! haha Have a great week everyone! Be safe and remember, Mahal tayo ng Diyos!



--

Elder Pitt

Birthday Week!!

Hello everyone! The last time we talked I was 18 but now I am one year older and wiser too! This last week was awesome! We had a meeting with the entire district and after we had a boodle fight! Its where you take giant leaves and put them on a table, then take rice, meat, drinks, mangos, and anything edible you can find and throw it on the leaves, after that everyone just stands around and fights for as much food as you can eat.. Let me tell you missionaries can EAT so it was awesome! (and a little competitive hahaha) During the week we were able to meet a lot of really awesome and amazing people. Most of the people here have lived here their whole lives its crazy! We met nanay omo.. Shes 103! It was awesome she wakes up around 10, sits around all day, has her great grandson get her whatever she wants, then goes to bed. THE LIFE! We also met a lot of people who wanted to know more about Christ, we told them they came to the right place haha, On Friday we went on an exchange, where the leader of our district and his companion, exchange with other companionship. Elder Moreland and I worked together that day and it was so so fun. First off, he is really cool and knows so much about Tagalog so I was able to ask any and every question I had, also, we just talked and talked while we walked and talked about home and life! He lived in Utah for College so we talked about school and the States! He is also super funny so we just fed off each other the entire day haha. On Saturday we had a half day mission for our Branch! Any member who wanted to come, came with us to different members houses to invite them to church the next day or give service! It was super fun, the Luna Branch is so awesome. On Sunday it was my birthday! Some how someone found out in our Branch and they sang hay birthday to me 3 times! 3 TIMES hahah i felt like the ipod was stuck on repeat but they sang in english so at least I knew the words right?? The greatest part of the day? 9 people that we have been teaching came to church! It was acked and the members were so welcoming and helped everyone get to where they needed to be! This friday we have a baptism! Onica is 10 and just moved in with her mom and aunts family who are members and I swear she knows more than I do she is so smart! She said she wanted "the americano" to baptize her so Friday is going to be another great day I cant wait!
One thing I wanted to really talk about today was our investigator Danny Mipa! I cant explain how much I love that guy! He is the most humble soft spoken man I have ever met. And without a doubt, he is the poorest man I have known in my life. I asked Danny if I could talk about him and he was all for it, Hes 26 and works as a fisher man. After his work he walks around finding glass bottles to turn in for money than goes to his small single person home and counts to see if theres enough money for dinner. If not, only rice will he cook. We met him and have been teaching him, and on Sunday after church I asked "Danny how was church?" (In Tagalog) and he looked at him, pointed to his heart and in the little english he knew he said "It feels very good when i am with us at church. This is my first time, I want to come back tomorrow."
If only we had Church everyday I would bring him there. He loves reading from the Book of Mormon and never knew how so much good can come from just one book! Elder Golle and I both get so excited when we run into him because although he is so so shy, he always has the biggest smile on his face talking to any one.
All those times people didnt want to listen or made fun of us for wearing ties dont matter when youre with people like Danny, who are finding out more about themselves and the love our Father in Heaven has for them. Its a blessing just to know Danny Mipa.
The rest of the birthday was awesome! We had a cake from a member given to us and SO MUCH FOOD! I had to bust out the thanksgiving pants after the many meals we were given hahah, I love the work here and wouldn't want to be doing anything else on my birthday! One thing that I loved talking about was our Articles of Faith, which outline the basic beliefs of our Church! This week was great and it will be a great week to come! I hope these pictures come through, sometime they are iffy! Have an awesome week everyone!
Love,

Elder Pitt

Basketball and Rain

hope everyone had a great week! Ill start this email off with Tuesday when one of my favorite parts of the week occurred! We were waiting for the Sisters in our area to arrive for a dinner appointment we had set up in a barangay right next to a basketball court. As we were standing by the court I was watching the guys play a game, and one of them saw the tall white "americano" and started yelling "hey Joe! Hey Joe! Whats your name! You like basketball?"

I said oo (yes) and they all started to laugh, then they started to talk a little bit a crap about how Americans arent as good as them at basketball hahah. Then my chance came. One of them said "you want to play one on one Joe and learn how to play?" I looked at him, took off my bag and went into the court where everyone around starting laughing and gathering around. Elder Golle knew exactly what I was thinking when I looked at him and he said to the players in Tagalog "If Elder Pitt wins, we get to share a message with you about Christ, but if Elder Pitt loses, he will buy all of you soft drinks and candy!" (Now i didnt plan on buying ALL of them so much candy and soft drinks but i agreed anyway haha). I played a kid named Ernesto to 7 points, make it take it... He said I could have the ball first and I made two 3 pointers in a row then a lay up to win. (The form is still good coach!) Everyone was laughing SO hard and freaking out! Ernesto was shocked it was so funny! I looked over at Elder Golle and he was laughing almost rolling on the ground the game went by so fast hahah. The coolest part was that they were all excited to hear the lesson as well. Almost imiedialty after the game ended they all come over and sat around waiting to hear our message which we werent even sure we were going to teach or not. It was an awesome lesson with them, they all had a lot of questions about who Christ was and why he was so important. They also asked where our church was and what time it started. It was seriously so awesome. And then we feasted our hearts out at the Family Home Evening with the Sabado Family. 

On Thursday we met with Danny Mipa, who stopped us one day to ask us what we were doing walking around in white shirts and ties. Danny really loves Christ and he know so much about him. He also knows a lot of English Bible verses that he always says during our messages that connect to our message. Danny wants to be baptized when he "knows for sure we are true" gotta love that small english vocabulary but you gotta love more his enthusiasm and his work ethic so that he will know if our message is true and worth something. He reads the Book of Mormon and prays every night. I hope he comes to church with us on Sunday. 

Speaking of Church, our church here is amazing. Because it is so small it isnt considered a chapel, it is considered a meetinghouse. And about 4 months ago they averaged 19 people going to church on Sundays. Yesterday.. there were 47 people there. Honestly I cant say its been our efforts that have helped bring more people the worship our Father in Heaven as much as the members of the Branch! So many of them want to help us out in helping others, and on Saturday we are holding a half day mission for the branch! Each person going will come with us to meet other people in the Branch and to help them around their Bahay (home) or offer a spiritual message. Luna Branch is awesome, theres no other words to describe them! This week we also ate with the Ramerez family at a family get together for their daughter who was turning 10! We ate Lechon Baboy (roasted pig) and it was so so good. Not as good as McCary's Meats but still delicious! As i type this im sensing a theme of food here, please dont judge hahah The Filipinos love to feed missionaries and do whenever they can. If they only have a little bit of rice left, not even enough for their families to all eat that night without going into the next town to buy more, they still insist that you eat. It is amazing. 

I love it here in this very small, very hot town. It has been raining a lot and lightning lights up the night sky every night. Its beautiful. I hope everyone has another great week! 

One thing I'd like to share is a passage i read in a book about prayer. It saud that

:Prayer is the key to opening and going through difficult trails, it is not used to open a single door once a day, but to be used to open many doors,everyday. 

Ingat!

-Elder Pitt 

Another Day Another Piso

Hello everyone! As recommended by Mr. Mario Midili, i will try and make this email shorter hahah. This week was so good!! We met the entire zone on tuesday and there is a missionary who actually just finished his mission here from Richland! Cant seem to get away from the bomber pride,,, its everywhere! haha. Elder Golle worked our way around our area trying to meet as many members in the Branch as possible. Weve really grown close to the Branch President and his family and it has helped us a lot in finding out where everyone lives and also advice about the area! Tuesday night was awesome, in the morning i was still adjusting to life here and was kinda frustrated with the heat and food and all.. then we took a trike back from meeting the zone and I saw a car with Washington State license plates! WHAT? I freaked out but Elder Golle was so confused why hahaha then that night we went out to get dinner and i met a guy wearing EWU basketball shorts! Gotta love the 509 pride in my heart hahaha. Also, I ate Balut! Surprisingly enough it was masarap! (delicious) and it was so good i might have gotten a second one too! hahah We ate balut, chicken intestines and rice and ulam. So so good! Who would have guessed it would be so good haha i guess the Filipinos did! The rest of the week every day we went out finding new people to teach! Everyone here is so nice and willing to listen to our message. They help me a lot when i mess up speaking Tagalog which is good. Every single night it thunderstorms like crazy and the lightning is so bright! We only had rain during the day once, and the rain felt so nice! It gave us a chance to cool off from the heat! Elder Golle and I find things to work on or practice as we walk. Some of the houses are about 1/4 a mile away from other houses, and then in some areas, its about 2 miles from a barangay and then in the barangay there are hundreds and hundreds! As we walk, I speak Tagalog and he speaks English and we correct eachother! His accent cracks me up, then i think about how bad my accent probably is and i become very humbled haha. I love having time every morning to study scriptures, or church works. It helps me so much prepare for the day and learn more about Christ! I was never a big reader but I am already starting to love books and read ones that other missionaries or are Mission President have us read!

We were walking through a barangay one day and i gentleman stopped and asked us if we wanted to buy any of his fighting chickens! He said he would listen to our message if we took a tour of his chickens it was so funny hahaha.

We have two children who live with their grandparents in our branch, Cara and Zed. They are awesome! They are 11 and 9 and are so so smart about The Church! Thy want to be baptized so bad but their mom who lives abroad is against it for now. Hopefully she will change her mind, its a tough situation but its okay because at the end of the day I know that life is still great! Quick shoutout to the one and only Shellz Pitt, mom happy birthday!! (coming soon)!!!

On saturday we will be going with members of the Branch to help give service to those in need! Hopefully We will be with someone who likes to speak English hahah! Everyone knows english but prefers not to talk in english, they feel self conscious about sounding wrong and im like cmon guys are you kidding me! Im wrong all the time! hahaha The snacks are delicious too! Because we are in such a small city there isnt a 7/11 or gas station so there arent any american snacks, (reall missin those kit kats and snickers haha) but theres a twinkie look alike called and Fudgee Bar. They are so so good!! Elder Golle and i will rock paper scissors almost everyday to see whos buying the fudgee bars that day!

I love it here. Its a great place with greater people. I hope my pictures go through! Im still trying to figure out the best way to send pictures from my camera, each computer shop is different! Take care everyone and make sure to send my mom a happy birthday message ;)
--

Elder Pitt

First week in the Phillipines

Hello from the Philippines! Lets start this email off on Wednesday when I got to host Malerie.. Or should I say Sister Pitt into the MTC!! The work is an awesome work and I'm so happy I got to see her and the rest of my family when they dropped her off! So on our way to the airport we took the Front Runner and were getting off before the Front Runner went past our stop.. Elder Katutu forgot his bag in the train- (you are all allowed to roll your eyes because I did as well)- and so he got back on to grab it.. Pretty good idea right? Forget a bag, go back in and grab it.. Well I dont know about the FrontRunners in Kiribati but the ones in Utah dont really wait that long so the door shuts while hes in there and starts to leave!!!!! I dont know what happened inside the train but he must have done something loud enough to make the driver stop and open up the doors hahahaha. We didnt know if we should have all hugged him because we were so worried or beat him up but it was a good experience ill say that! We flew from SLC to LA, hungout in the airport, ate Panda Express.. Twice (no judgement please) and hung out for a couple hours! We met the BYU Womens Volleyball team at the aiport, They were headed to Hong Kong as well! After the food coma subdued we then hopped on the plane to head to Hong Kong! Fun fact of the day: Cathay Pacific Airlines, the airlines we flew, has never had a plane have mechanical failures of any kind when there has been a missionary on the plane! So with 21 missionaries and the BYU volleyball team, im sure the captain could feel that we were in very good hands! hahah So get this, we left the aiport about 11:45 ish on Wednesday the 4th, and landed in Hong Kong on Friday the 5th! I apologize to all native-Mexicans because i missed Cinco de mayo in its entirety! The Hong Kong airport was super gorgeous! And the flight to Manila from Hong Kong went by super quick, which is what should have been expected after a 15 hour flight hahaha. The Philippines is amazing! Its so gorgeous and the people are so nice. I have been here only a short couple days and already feel the genuine love people have for each others. 

The Philippines MTC is right across the street from the B.E.A.utiful Manila Temple, if you havent seen what it looks like, google it! It is so much bigger in person as well! On Thursday we met with our Mission President, President Balledos! Hes awesome and so is his wife! We were assigned our Trainers for the next 12 weeks and my trainer is Elder Golle! He is from the Philippines but I dont remember where! Every new missionary received a trainer and their assigned area. All f the trainers were already previously assigned in their areas so they ha lessons planned and peple t talk to and all that good jazz.. BUT (theres always a but am i right) Elder Golle and I were assigned t open a new area!! So what does that mean? 1. We have no knowledge of where anything is, 2. That includes our apartment, 3. We have no plans or people to talk to 4. We dont knw who the church leader in that area is, and 4. The Lord is on our side!! 

Our area is Luna, la union. It is very small and the neighborhoods are separated into what is called a Barangay or a Rimos! It is also very very hot and humid! But that is okay hahah. The first day we were here we cleaned the entire apartment because no one had been living there before and it was SO dirty! I can only describe the feeling i had about how dirty it was with the example of my feeling when i had trashed my house after school and i heard the garage door start to open, meaning my mom was home and she was about to kill me! hahah (love yah Shellz) 

On Saturday we went around and met with the members of the ward and the Branch President of Luna. President Ramirez is a really cool guy and very smart. He expressed his concerns to us and told us to stop by whenever for water or food while we are walking.. I have a feeling we might take up his offer haha! 

Sunday was our first Sabbath Day with the Luna Branch! The meetinghouse is very very small. I taught Young Mens and Elder Golle taught a different class so it was just me and the young men!! I will be humble and say yes my Tagalog is terrible hahaha but they helped me out and corrected me whenever i said something wrong! It almost turned into a game of who could correct Elder Pitt first hahha but they are awesome. 

Like i said the meeting house is very small. There are about 3 rooms and then a bigger room in the middle where we all meet as a congregation for sacrament meeting. Its very hot with everyone in one room, no AC and very close to each other. BUT! It was one of the best meetings ever. People here have a very rough life and it is difficult for them to make it to church but there faith is so strong and some how The Man upstairs makes it possible! 

Most of our zone is Filipino and the missionaries close to us in our district are all Filipino except one so I never really here English unless its my thoughts. Its good because i am always around the language that i am trying to learn but hard because i dont always know what is going on. Time and hard work will change all! I love it here in Luna and I absolutely love the people! Everyone here either makes fun of me for being white or loves me because im white hahhah!

BASKETBALL COURTS EVERYWHERE! So whenever we pass one and a teen calls me "Joe" or "Americano" ill play a quick game of one on one and 90 percent of the time i can hold my own lol, everyone here is shorter than i am so rebounds are no problem. A big thank you to all of the basketball coaches i have had to prepare for this mission!! I miss you all and would love to here from you all! Have awesome weeks!! 

Elder Pitt