Last week we watched a broadcast for all missionaries. The broadcast was the Missionary Executive Committee having a discussion where they would watch little segments of talks to missionaries and then there was a coordinator who would ask the committee questions on how missionaries can be more effective, or what they should do if they are faced with certain problems. It was good, one thing that I took from it was that Faith is a principle of Action, faith is not complete if it is idle. Faith is the belief that something is real, and if we believe that the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is real than we need to prove it through our continued effort to draw near to him, to repent and become more like him. The counterpart is that Fear is a principle of Inaction, if we are afraid that we cannot do something we do not try, which means we never improve. They spoke on this in regards to knowing if someone is ready to act on the answers/lessons that they receive, if they are not going to act, their faith is not ready yet; that maybe we should spend time finding other interested people.

Also they changed our P-day schedule, Preparation day, for all of those who don’t know, is normally Monday. It’s a day when missionaries do everything they need to:  washing clothes, haircuts, grocery shopping, emailing home for 2 hours, and fun activities if they have more time. After the conference they announced that All missionaries' pdays around the world would start at 8AM, and go until 6 pm, when we need to go out proselyting.  This is an awesome change because before we had 3 hours of studies on Mondays, meaning we go out at 11. They are hoping that giving us more time will prevent us from going to the store on other days even for quick trips. Also on regular weekdays, we have freedom to choose when we do studies, in the morning, midday or night, because of course in different places in the world they have different schedules. Here, everyone takes naps at noon because it is too hot, where as in the morning people are awake and actually friendly. Me and my companion are gonna start waking up an hour earlier, so we can take a nap at noon because everyone else is asleep too, mas maserap ang tulog sa tanghali.

This past week I also had the opportunity to companion exchange with Elder Faingaa the new missionary that has been being trained by Elder Maners, who is in my batch. He came to my area and throughout the day I was able to see how he has been getting a grip on the language. He'd told me before we went out to work that I should lead in all the lessons and he'd join in when I wanted him to. I came to realize that his language skill is just a little bit higher than Elder Maner's when we first got to the Philippines, but he's been here for 2 months now. Before we became trainers President Bengal told us that this is the most important calling in the mission. Comparable to when you let your kid go into daycare or have a baby sitter come over for the night, you’re putting your child in someone else's hands. Of course we're adults, but our mission age when we first get here is young, we don’t know anything. And it depends on our trainers to teach us to be obedient, learn the language and the lessons, so that we can then have a successful 2 years/18 months. President Bengal said that anytime we have interaction with other people we influence them, and God has sent his children down to earth to be influenced, hopefully for the better. We are members of the church and as friends have a responsibility to influence people for the better through our examples, to teach and edify, and to give helpful direction when needed. 

A sweet spider that makes an X in it’s web. They call it a pari pari spider, or priest, because the white X looks similar to a crucifix.

 

Also the pig we roasted at a members house. Before Elder Beck left his old area he gave money to a member to buy a pig and roasted it, all the missionaries of our district were invited to attend and have a feast. It was super good. 

  

Also us at McDonald's, me going crazy, enjoy :) (Tiegue is 2nd from right)

  

Tiegue is the one being "tossed" into the water