Week 14

Monday. This was a crazy day! Our most progressing investigator had told his cousin that he didn't like our church anymore and didn't want us to come visit him anymore. Which was completely out of the blue. So that night at around 9:15 we waited for him. He finally let us in and told us his family doesn't approve of him being a Mormon so he wants to stop seeing us even though he was super sad because he knows this church is true. So I bore my testimony. I did it in English because I wanted to be 100% sincere and honest. I said that I know this church is true and I am personally thankful now that because of temple work and this gospel I will see my grandpa after this life because my family did his ordinances. After hearing that this man cried, and he picked up the book of Mormon and opened to a random page and started reading. I was on the edge of my seat! I didn't plan on him reading anything specific or uplifting to help. He just started reading so I was worried about what he was reading. What he read was alma 42:31 "And now, O my son, ye are called of God to ^apreach the word unto this people. And now, my son, go thy way, declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mayest ^bbring souls unto repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them. And may God grant unto you even according to my words. Amen."

After that I could just see the spirit affect him, his face went from uncontrollable crying to a calm serenity, then he said we will continue our lessons and he will continue to be baptized. It was one of the most fantastic moments of my life. This is why I am a missionary. 

Tuesday. I had a dinner appointment and ate snail again. you have to suck them right out of the shell and I'm sure one of them had some dirt or something stuck in it. Yay Philippines! (Also we shaved our heads)

 shaved head!

Wednsday. Had a good day and hunted for coconut. It's super fun! You literally pull it off the tree and cut it open and drink right out of it. soooooo good.

We returned to Jun (the guy from monday) he said he is more motivated than ever to be baptized because of my testimony which made me feel good.

Thursday. had our interview and not much else. 

Friday. we caught a chicken and made it fall asleep lol

Saturday: I caught a baby duck and held it in my arms. That night I ate balut which is a developing bird embryo that is boiled and eaten from the shell. And this one neighbor  played Numb by skizzy mars and clint eastwood by gorillaz which was a good day.

 balut

 me eating balut

Sunday: after church we took all the kids and played ninja destruction in front of the church it was like over 20 kids. sooo much fun. I love it here. 

One more thing. Just had to say, that night after last Sunday, we went to visit this lady who was less active but preparing for the temple. She has 5 kids and 4 are gay. She always has no joke like 8-10 gay people at her house constantly. We gave a lesson and she invited us to teach the restoration to ALL the people there.......so we taught it to literally 10 baklas (boy dressed like girls or likewise) I said "brother could you please read this scripture." they all looked confused at me because they weren't boys.....they were "girls." but they all said they would go to church next week....so yea that happened.

Week 13

 sorry its long, its two weeks in one.

Okay so the fourth of July we had a zone p-day and hiked to this absolutely fantastic water fall deep in the jungle, it was so beautiful. The mall is out of our area, but whenever we have zone meetings we get to go to the mall after as a zone.  I saw the trailer for Tarzan, it was playing as an ad outside of a movie theater, that happens because everything here is suuuuuuuuuuper pirated.

Tuesday. we had a zone training meeting again lol so many meetings!!  I just wanna work is that too much to ask for as a missionary? and it was also suuuuuuuuuuper rainy that day, like water was pooling in the streets. Then I got to play with Olaf! that is one of the investigators pet dog. 

Wednesday. really hot and boring day. except we had a fantastic dinner with an investigators who is a chef for a job, the food was so good. 

Thursday. we weekly planned all day, and then we filmed a bunch of stuff with our cameras.

Friday. had a lot of good lessons and I could really feel the spirit that day. I feel like I helped a lot of people. 

Saturday. We got chooks to go. (imagine a fast food place but they just give you an entire chicken.) I miss cold cereal. While working like no joke 30 kids followed us around and called me spider man because apparently I look like the new Peter Parker or something. haha which is dope since hes my favorite super hero. It was fun!

Sunday. Good day at church, we had 7 investigators come so that was dope! Then I ate an avocado shake......literally the grossest thing I have had here. I was trying to not vomit. 

Monday. we went on another hike with the ward this time! This one was longer and a lot more dangerous. I got wrecked and one of the elders had a leech on him. Then we had FHE and that was fantastic! We played different games and everyone here is sooooooooooo funny. If you mess up in each game everyone gets to draw on your face with lipstick. It was so awesome.

Tuesday. Had a district meeting out of our zone which meant we could go and eat at a rice cafe which was fancier than most of the food here. We bought all the American candy and stowed it at our house. Then I did my laundry. I really appreciate washing machines back home.

Wednesday. we had a long day and no one followed through with their appointment so we walked around all day. 

Thursday. We taught three lessons and tracted. Then at the bishops house he fed us chicken head.....literally the head. I ate and tasted the tongue eyes and brain..........well that was new. 

Friday. our landlord broke into our house to fix this door, which is so bawal, so we ripped him a new one when he came back.  He just lied the whole time, and we started this thing to make sure that when we leave we hide all our stuff really well and put a peso on top of the door so when we come back and open the door it falls, if its not there or in a different spot then that means someone came in. But its no big deal, the worst he will do is take money from us and if that happens we will report him to the law. 

Saturday. at our house we fought another huge spider....2nd one this transfer. Other than that just a normal day. 

Sunday.  My oatmeal was really dry. and later that night we went to an investigators house and almost all of her kids are gay and they all hit on us, I was in tears laughing at them. 

Dang chandler looks literally the exact same haha Did he get my munchkin present I left for him? I gave it to Tyren.

Are the nelsons in their new house? I think I asked that before, but I want pics of it next time. How is Jr? Dang I miss that kid. Malcom just went through the temple last week! He is preppin for his mission!

My comp and I are pretty good friends! He's a super cool guy. He said when he gets home he will visit you guys and stuff. and he will ask for sydney or chloes number hahahah, also I have made a lot of friends already, a sister in march wants to visit you guys, and another one in October hahah....soooo yea

Its not really hard to stay on budget, we have as much as a family of 5 would have and there isn't much to really buy here other than just the basic supplies so...

I'm doing fine with the heat and humidity actually. Once you get used to the sweat its not bad.

That's dope that you guys baptized grandpa! I'm so excited~ I wish I could have been there. How are the cousins! I miss them all!

How are all of Isabelle's friends, I miss all those nutty girls. Did Isabelle tell you about the time we all played fugitive? 

I was wondering if Ladonna went on her mission during the 80's? I think they didn't have to learn Tagalog back then, so did she or not? just curious.

How is my room? is it the same or have you changed it yet.

I'm glad you are all having a good summer and helping grandma.

So that's how I've been! I love it here! I thank god everyday for me being here! The people are great and the gospel is greater!   

Love Elder Yarro

Week 12

I forgot my journal this week. so I cant give a weekly update. Next week I will do two!

We had a good week this week, we had 27 lessons 7 investigators at church and talked to 85 people!

 

 Here is a hike we took today! the tree is soooooooo big it looked like it was straight out of something like disneyland it was awesome! We hiked to a waterfall and then cooked lunch and ate it there! it was super good pork! 

 

 This fruit is cocoa beans and you just suck on them. they are suuuuuuper good!

  here is me holding a puppy cause I named it Olaf. 

Lol oh man I miss the crazy stuff at the yarro's. Those videos you sent are great. please send more! Also Zoobs beard is magnificent.  

One thing you should know about. I know you sent a package but it doesn't matter when it gets here, because the mission home only delivers it on certain dates.  So the best way to time it is to send it the last week of every month. haha so for example,  if that package shows up at the mission home on the 15th I still won't see it until next month.... that's okay though, I feel like I am adjusting here pretty well. Just send me like one big package with the stuff. and then do another at Christmas I don't need anymore than that.

ARE CHANDLER AND AUSTIN HOME!!?!?!?!

I love you! and hope everything is going well. 

Elder Yarro

Week 11

Monday: Our landlord and laundry lady are the worst. The laundry lady didn't do a good job washing our clothes, she delivered them a day late and they were still soaking wet so we had to dry them ourselves for like 2 days which meant we had no clothes.  Our landlord keeps trying to find problems with our apartment so we can pay more money on rent.

Tuesday. we went to this new gym that is so cool! It is on the third floor of this apartment building, it's super cool. 

 

 

When we came back from the gym, our favorite landlord was inside our apartment, he told us that we broke the lights and had to pay for them. That was when I realized the power box was open and I flipped the switch, and not surprisingly, all the lights turned back on! Then he told us that we can't put screws in the wall and we informed him that it wasn't us because they were put in a solid cement wall. lol!!!  I heard the song "grown women" by Beyonce and it reminded me of home lol that's a funny song. I saw a lizard eat the head of a dragon fly at an investigators home. and one of our friends in the ward got typhoid. 

Wednesday:  We had our District Meeting, we started by playing ping pong. It was so fun. Then we went to our training check up, which was at the exact same place as last week when we had our zone tour.  We slept over at the same place too.... lol. 

Thursday: I realized this day that reading scriptures fixes stress sometimes. Just focusing on something that is only good and spiritual really helps with the work. We met this investigator who said his eyes don't work because he was outside when it was really hot, and then it randomly rained and became cold. The people here don't know about jack squat about anything medical. We also went to this birthday party and watched them all do karaoke. 

 

 

Friday: I had the best lesson of my life! Our investigator, Jun, cried and thanked us for helping him. He also gave us his disco light and we hung it in our apartment. 

 

 

Saturday: I made pancakes again, and I am officially half way through reading "Jesus the Christ" Its a crazy good book. Then we taught the Law Of Chastity to this 13 year old investigator and that was an awkward first. 

 

 

Sunday: It was fast and testimony meeting. Filipinos here have no idea how to testify, they just get too distracted and tell stories that last like 4000 minutes, so me and my companion went up and bore our testimonies, I have never felt the spirit as strong as I did when I bore that testimony and I know they all felt it too, I saw multiple people cry and talk to me after.  

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO ALL THE AMERICANS, REMEMBER TO KEEP IT REAL FOR THE BEST COUNTRY EVER!