10/7/13 Week 5

So first I'd like to apologize about last week. I finally figured out what happened. I guess the company that supplies power to my region of the Philippines doesn't actually own a power plant so they have to get it through some other company in Manila. And somehow, someone forgot to pay Manila. So of course they just cut off the supply. I was only able to email because we traveled to another province for about an hour. It went down around noon last Monday and was out until around noon on Wednesday. And those were some long days. We don't have air conditioning so we have to use some fans to keep us cool. So we had to go two nights without those.  Then of course our water pressure went down so I couldn't get water to the roof to do my laundry. We just went and got a pizza because we didn't want to try cooking in the dark, so Elder Esteves kept saying we were having a pizza party. So almost no water and no power. I started laughing at dinner because it reminded me of the part in Dumb and Dumber when he says, "We have no money! We have no jobs! Our pets heads are falling off!" Nothing was going our way. Anyway, that was what happened last Monday.

The week before we went to Naga for the new missionary training which is kind of a follow up after our first couple weeks in the field. We just talk about how it's been and if we've been having any problems. Nothing to special but fun to see some of my batch from the MTC. Then we went to SM, the huge shopping mall there, for a few minutes to grab some things not available in my area. And I heard Christmas music. Without the break of Thanksgiving, there is nothing stopping them from celebrating early. So it's Christmastime already here in the Philippines. Don't worry. I bought a Santa hat.

As for our investigators we are still having a tough time. Salvador is still shaky on committing to baptism, but we keep trying. One cool experience was that we had a potential investigator that isn't really ever home because he is always working (driving his padyak) so we hadn't gotten a chance to follow up with him. On the way to his house we saw a huge storm coming and Elder Cawit was considering going back to the apartment. But I told him I felt like we needed to go see him that day and that he would be there. So we waited out the rain under some trees and it was coming down hard. But after it lightened up we hurried over and he was home! So we got to teach him some of the first lesson and now he wants us to teach his whole family. We are still having trouble working out times to teach him, but I think it will work out really well. We also had our first lesson with another potential investigator named Ramon. He's a Born Again. He makes gowns for a living. And he's gay. But he accepted the lesson and I gave him a Book of Mormon and he seemed very interested in it. The next day he even asked for one for his friend! We still are waiting to have our next lesson. Elder McBride in my apartment told us that they went to an investigators house and walked in on his funeral. They had no idea anything had happened to him! I haven't been as unlucky as that yet with any investigators. 

Last week we had zone training and I got the belts that I ordered from an RM in Naga! One is made of coconut, another Kamagong wood, and another is Carabao horn. And I got one for Elder Cawit. Later that day we went and looked at some stores around the area so I got to see a bunch of knock off stuff that was way cheap, but nothing I really wanted. I also found out that at our District Conference two weeks ago they had double the attendance from last year. So the Iriga District might finally become a stake after 19 years! And then we get to watch conference next week on Saturday and Sunday because the time difference makes it impossible to do it this past weekend.

As for me, nothing really new. I've been working my way through the Old Testament. Some of those books are a struggle. The Book of Numbers? Just a lot of numbers. Leviticus? The procedure for every sacrifice there is. Chronicles? A bunch of genealogies and names from Adam to David. So it's taken me a while, but I'm about halfway through now. Starting Second Chronicles today. 

This week was actually pretty tough with my companion. He's in the last transfer of his mission so there's a lot of times that I feel like we should be working but he just wants to go back to the apartment early without me really ever getting a say in what I think we should do. Also he doesn't like helping me a ton with the language. So I was feeling really down last night, and I decided to read D&C 122, one of the strongest and most powerful scriptures I've read, which is about how no matter what happens, it's for our experience. Christ humbled himself and suffered more than any of us ever could. Are we greater than him, that we think we don't need to have trials? And it made me think of the story by Elder Holland's son that Mimi and Bubba sent me for my birthday a few weeks ago about how sometimes we are led down a path, so that we can know with absolute certainty that that is the wrong path and we can go back and follow the right one with full confidence. That's how I feel right now. That I am being shown one way to do missionary work that isn't always as it should be, so that after this experience, I will know how I want to really do things and how I want my mission to be.

So that is my message for the week I guess. That things may be hard. You may be far from home, struggling with a new language. Or you may be just struggling to deal with college, or every day life. But everything we go through, everything that happens to us is for our benefit. We must choose how to come out of it and to learn from it and be patient in our afflictions and "hold on thy way...their bounds are set, they cannot pass" the second part meaning that no one and no thing can get to you and tear you down unless you let them.

I hope you are all doing well and I miss you all! Mahal ko kayo! 

Elder Jakob  Van Boerum

Mark 16:15 "...go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

Handmade Belts

Typical Jeepney

9/16/13 Week 3

Every day here I'm getting to see a little bit more of the Philippines. And most of the time it's hilarious. All of the Jeepneys here are painted crazy colors. There's even one I see sometimes that has part of it painted like the Irish flag and says "IRELAND" in big bold letters on it. The driver was definitely not Irish. Even a little. Also I saw my first cock fight. Just a couple of guys on the side of a road holding their roosters by the tail until they wanted to start. Then the other day I had the weirdest meal so far. It's called Dinubua, I think. It's basically pork cooked in it's own blood, and some other stuff. Not as bad as it sounds. Then I also saw some ten year old kid riding one of their water buffalo things they have here. Just going down the road like it was no big deal. All their pigs here are pretty disgusting too. They keep them in little pens with maybe 4 inches of space on each side. If the pig is lucky. That's also the scariest noise I've heard. Some pig screaming when it was pitch black and we were heading back to the apartment. Sounded like it was dying. I also think I've seen more dogs in my 3 weeks here than I have my whole life. There are hundreds, both strays and pets. And none of them are fixed, so they are only increasing. And most have fleas. Lovely.

So this past week was pretty good. Finally had a couple lessons with one of the Less Active families we've been going to every other day. They were an older couple and the husband seems like he didn't want us there at first, but he softened up at the end of the lesson. Then we had to walk through the rice fields to get home and I slipped into a river just calf deep. It turned out to be good though, because when we made it to a road, an old guy asked us why I was holding my socks. We got talking and ended up giving him a pamphlet and he said he wanted to hear what we had to say. So we will follow up with him. Also we gave another Restoration pamphlet to another guy who was just making a fence by choppin some bamboo down and laying it out. 

At nights in our apartment, we usually just talk about random things. Elder Esteves is always way interested in hearing about America. He was trying to convince E. McBride and I that pigs are dirty animals and chickens are great, while we were saying that chickens are stupid and pigs are the smart ones. He just laughed and thought we were ridiculous. He also likes to hear about the animals in America, like bears and mountain lions. Here, the only thing to be afraid of is mosquitoes. And the civil war that I guess broke out last week in the Southern part of the Philippines. But no one here seems to be taking it seriously, so I guess it's no big deal.

My quote for the week comes from Les Mis: "To love another person is to see the face of God" I was listening to my music and that hit me. I love all of the people here. Our investigators and the Less actives we teach. Tatay Pastoral still likes having me pray every time and we are wanting to ask him to get baptized this week. I am supposed to ask in Tagalog, so I hope I don't blow it. Ha. Fermin is still doing great. Always loves to see us. He gets such a big smile on his face which is pretty funny to see when a lot of his teeth aren't there. During one of our lessons with him this week, he tried speaking to me in English and I was trying so hard not to laugh. He would start off a sentence, get two words in then say "Ahhhhh, ano ba iyan? ano? (how they say what the heck, Literally, what is that)" Then he looked up to the sky, "God help me!" Then he would say some word in Tagalog or an English word that wasn't quite right for the sentence. He kept going in and out of English and Tagalog. Even Elder Cawit couldn't understand him! We also went to a baptism on Saturday for an investigator of E. McBride's. She was so happy and it was a cool experience. Squidward talked about enduring to the end. He looked at her and said, "It's dangerous to join the Church" then laughed, "but not in a bad way" Then he said it's because we are always tried in all things when we have the Gospel. We may be persecuted, or tempted. But that is how we become stronger. Her husband was there too and he finally has been off smoking for a week so he may have his own baptism soon. 

Then, yesterday we were out looking for someone that we got as a referral. While we were walking on the street some guy with six dogs following him came up to us, smoking, and shook our hands. He invited us to come sit down, without us saying anything. He had pretty obviously been drinking though. We told him we were from the Church and he said "Oh I have some questions." We gave him a pamphlet on the Restoration and he said, "this, this is good" He then went off about how he wanted to protect his family. At a couple points he would randomly stop talking and look at me and just smile. He also kept saying "Asamatteroffact..." slurred together like that. We knew we couldn't teach him while he was drunk like that so we told him we had to leave, but then he asked us to stay. We just told him we would come back. So know we have a drunk man as a potential investigator.

It's also weird to think that I've been gone 62 days now. Seems like forever ago, but the time has usually gone by fast. I still miss you all back at home. I can tell Elder Cawit is getting excited to go home too. He only has 8 more weeks. But he did tell me he just wants to get a wife and stay on a mission. He loves being out here. To all my friends, it sounds like you are all doing great whether you're in school, at the MTC, or already out serving. It's been awesome to hear from all of you and your different stories. To family, I can't wait until I get to skype you in just three months! I miss all of you and think about you every day. I love being out here and love all of the people so much. That's why I mentioned that Les Mis quote. There is something so special about the people here. There are always so happy even when they have so little. I've been working on translating Brock's quote about wishing he could tell people to be grateful for what they have. These people here really are so happy with what they have, even if it's just their family and a bamboo hut. I've had my hard times, but I've been praying and reading, almost finished the Book of Mormon again. That's helped a lot. I still struggle with the language, but I'm a little more confident each day. I love you all and miss you so much! Happy Birthday to Anika and Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Mahal ko kayo!

Elder Van Boerum

Here are a few pictures from the week:

A hut in the rice fields

 Crossing the bridge to Fermin's

 Jake's church building

 Jeepney ride in the rain

Panorama of the first floor in Jake's apartment