Week 18

Monday. We had family home evening and played a game where you write on a piece of paper and everyone tries to guess who wrote it. I lost because I'm so different from all the Philippines

Tuesday. We had district meeting in Lucban, then after found this Italiano restaurant that had some pretty good calzones.  I started getting a sore throat as we started working, Satan is a BOBO

Wednesday. Started getting sicker and sicker, we met this RCLA who went to the hospital because he had heart problems and no one in the church visited him so he got super hurt about it and left the church. We told him that the people didn't know because he didn't text them. but he wouldn't have it.  We also had another good lesson with our new member JUN he was struggling a bit so we gave him a blessing and he said he wanted to bless the sacrament this weekend so that was awesome. 

Thursday. One of our investigators kind of went missing, last thing we heard was that she was taking care of her boyfriends mother at this house, that was like 3 weeks ago so we went out to find her. After a few questions and really good revelation filled guesses we found the house and we found the place she was staying at. She was surprised to see us and we told her that God cares about her and she needs to come to church and prepare to be baptized, it was a good lesson. That night we had an exchange, this time I was with elder Jalova who is my batch. We were in the manilla mtc together. and I'm going to Lucban for the day. When I showed up they were in the middle of fiesta! Imagine a rave but more Spanish. so fun.

Friday. Had exchanges I helped and taught a lot of lessons to people and it was just a good day. a nice change of pace from normal things. 

Saturday. we baptized 5 people. 4 kids and one nanay. I did my first baptism ordinance it was really fun but I was nervous and ended up doing it really good so that's dope. Then right after I changed my clothes I received a call from the AP That I will be transferred this Thursday to IBAAN LIPA. I was sad at first cause I feel like the work here isn't done, but that's okay, the lord knows whats best. 

Sunday. the ward had me give a small testimony cause I was leaving so that was fun. I just said thank you for everything and they all felt the spirit. then we taught kisha and she is back to progressing. she said she wanted a temple marriage and her boyfriend isn't best for her.

Wish I could have been at Grandmas funeral, it was so pretty. I hope it wasn't too sad, shes in a happier place and in a years time she will experience joy that she could never imagine! (but maybe that;s just the missionary in me) it is sad and change sucks sometimes, but look at it this way, after we are all sealed. its just like a small break, you will see her again. Glad my cutout made it though

Keeping it real out here in west phillies. love you all see you next week!

Elder Yarro

 this is my exchange and pday with elder naylor who is soooo funny 

Week 17

Monday.  zone pday. had a lot of fun games and played mafia. 

Tuesday. had zone training meeting we talked to this lady about her fasting and she had a vision from god so that was weird.

Wednesday. we had just a long day of work.

Thursday. was a normal day and had weekly planning

Friday. we had to talk to a investigator and talked him into not stabbing his family with a knife. yea....that kid was weird.

Saturday. we cleaned the baptism font and had interviews at the church. I played volleyball with all the kids while they went down. That night was junes batpism, my first baptism!  We had lots of fun I gave a spiritual workshop about testimonies and it was really good.

Sunday. we had church and I saw a cat carcass. 

This is Jun, our first baptism, hes great! It's funny because for the last 5 years there were only sisters in this area, and the last baptism was 8 months ago. They were all averaging about one a year. We are here now and we had 1 last sat and 5 this coming sat. lol elders rule!

Next time Tanner asks you where I am, tell him that I'm out saving lives in a country further than he was in his mission. I calculated and its 10,000 kilometers away! SCIENCE!!!  hahahah lol

I will most likely be transferred soon,  I could go anywhere in the mission. my trainer says I'll probably go to another zone and be partnered with a leader of some kind, then after be like a zl or dl on a island which would be cool. I would love to be on an island,  I feel I could help there the most, president says he sends missionaries there who he trusts can handle the situation, cause he can't go there often.

There are spiders everywhere, I hate it cause my companion always chases me with them. screw that noise!

Love Elder Yarro

Week 16

no letter from Nick, the internet was down

Week 15

Tuesday: we went to a district meeting, and we got a new frying pan! AWESOME!!!! lol we also taught the law of chastity to this family with  12 and 10 year old daughters, when we got to the pornography part, her mom all of a sudden interrupted us and said "yea Ive seen your browser history." and they just got soooooooooooo mad and embarrassed and they walked out of the room so it was just us sitting there. Elder Munn are I trying not to die. sooooo funny. Later we managed to get them back and finish the lesson so, so that was good!

Wednesday: Long day, really hot and hard. 

 

 

Thursday: we got bored in our apartment and just randomly moved our furniture around so now the beds are in the kitchen and the desks are in our bedroom. lol.

Friday: we visited a member who was an american that married a Filipino and came here to live. They were fighting over a tree in their front yard, she said it has a dwarf in it. and he said its just a tree......mission life. She also told us if we ever pee on a tree we have to say "tacky tacky poo." so we don't get kicked in the crotch or something. 

 Saturday: Baby Simon (the most adorable baby) jumped in my arms and started smiling at me, he is my favorite youth here. Then we had a Family home evening at another members house. It has been a pretty dope week so far! 

 

 

Love Elder Yarro

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