Week 29

Monday. Pday we had absolutely no money whatsoever. sooooo we just waited and slept until we got the call about it coming it.

Tuesday. was the real Halloween here. its super weird because instead of just trick or treating they turn the cemetery into a carnival and everyone goes and get drunk. pretty much no one was home today.

Wednsday. we had our District meeting. I went on a split with Elder Siafitu, my companion had leadership training in san pablo  until Friday. Siafitu is pretty cool hes new though not even done with training so I pretty much did 100 percent of the talking it helped me boost my confidence in my tagolog skills. 

Thursday. We had a good bunch of lessons. but mainly lots of OYMing. it was hard because our power AND our water shut off and my companion was having some hardcore LBMS cause he was still adjusting to the food lol it was bad I had to hear his scream every time he went because he didn't  have water to....like do stuff. we played a lot of pool waiting for it to come back on so we could shower, and I lost 3 games in a row. I suck at pool 

 

 

Friday. We traded again and did our usual work. lots of oyming no lessons......

Saturday. we did some more work and my companion did a nice thing for me while I was chilling. he did my laundry for me, and shined my shoes. Kids a champ. I love him. 

Sunday. It was fast Sunday. that's always hard, when we came back after church I learned a great lesson in procrastination,  I put my laundry in the tub (absolutely HATE doing laundry here) and got too lazy to do it because it takes me 2 hours. so I put it off after a week. turns out the laundry soap has bleach in it that soaked in my clothes and ruined pretty much all my pants....except one pair. The pair I was using during the week......sooooooo I need some pants hahaha can you send some money?  im just gonna buy some black jeans or something until I get more

 

there aren't any highlights from my week to tell, lol we go door to door and get shut down door to door...... like that's my life in this area right now. I'm emailing my president about how this place might need to have the missionaries pulled to refocus the work in better areas, I know I'm trying my best but its hard to stay 100 obedient here because its sooo boring. lol I'm trying hard though no worries there.

 

 

 

I am reading a bunch of conference talks from our sr couple here. they are live savers for real. 

 

oh gosh Im so sorry about Isabelle and her neck surgery,  lol tell her I love her

 

Love you all

Elder Yarro

Week 28

I just went as a missionary
Monday. We had normal pday, and no money so we just chilled.

Tuesday. we cooked and ate squid for the first time, it was alright. then we went out proslyting and chilling. it was fun. found 3 new familys to teach and went to this random ladys house who invited us in to her birthday party and fed us. 

Wednsday. we had some members finally fellowship with us! and after I found a kitty and took it to the apartment and fed it some powder milk and tuna then let it sleep out of the apartment. 

Thursday. I named the kitty Sylvia. then we had zone interviews! i love president and sister mangum they are the best!

Friday. after work we had some trick or treaters come and ask for candy but we didnt have any...so we gave them some ramen packets and jesus pamphlets! YAAY they loved them hahaha they were all dressed up and stuff too. 

Saturday. We were trying to get the branch to come with us to meet our investigators and invite them to come to church but they just hid from us. 

Sunday. no investigators showed up to church.......again. but we had our sr couple come and go to church at our branch they are great! after they took us up to lipa and my companion got his patriarchal blessing. after that they gave us pb&js and we got ready and worked after it was a good day!

yea I dunno. its a little better, still feel like I have two hands tied behind my back wit the work cause they branch isnt doing anything

 

I talked to my mission president and he just told me to keep praying and not give up, He's just so nice and whenever I go to the big missionary meetings it makes me feel like I'm not alone in this ya know? like there are 150 other people struggling just as hard as me

 

I just found out that a man we had been teaching is gay, I had a hunch that he was experimenting (you have no idea how common that is here)  

sorry no pictures right now! next week I promise! 

Love you all

Elder Yarro

Week 27

Monday. we played games at the stake center in lipa! still dealing with the typhoon. there was sooo much water everywhere.

Tuesday. we were on exchanges I was with elder salazar. we got punted alot so we went house to house tracting. loooooong day.

 

 

Wednsday. the new typhoon hit and nothing really happened at all. I tried making ramen and ended up burning my thumb and cutting my pinky.... lol some good bowl of ramen. 

Thursday. I put shoe glue on my cut thinking it was just normal super glue.....the biggest difference is shoe glue gets hot when in contact with air....the pain of my burning open flesh was magnificent lol I screamed. 

 

 Friday. we got punted more because of the typhoon so we tracted

Saturday. was a fantastic day. loooots of new families to teach. it was a good day.

Sunday. we gathered the branch missionaries and had a "come to jesus" meeting they talked about how it was hard to trust cause they had crappy missionaries back then, but we fixed it and they all want to help now. So I'm excited for the work in this area now! 

 

 

 

Its kinda boring here, I just walk around and talk to people and mostly hang out in the apartment be cause of the typhoon.  We try to help as much as we can but the people here are so self conscious about their stuff they never accept service, I begged someone but its just culture here,  its really hard here, oh well, I'll be fine hahaha

I cant believe Chandler is dating Justine! hahahahahahahahahahha oh my gosh I miss that kid! hahahaha

 

Love you all

Elder Yarro

Week 26

Monday. Not much happened we just napped and went out at 6 and worked the rest of the day.

Tuesday. Normal proselyting day. worked 1-9 then after had a mini munchkin marathon. 

Wednesday. had a district meeting and then exchanges with the Assistant presidents. One of them is Elder Lynn, who is from PG and graduated in 2014 after talking a bit I found out not only we had a lot of the same friends but HES BEEN TO MY HOUSE BEFORE, WE HUNG OUT! so he and I are like best friends now. that was one of my fav moments. 

 

 

Thursday. Was my 1/4 mark in the mission. In celebration I burned on of my ties. and filmed it. then after we went to work

 

 

Friday was a normal day also. we went to work in Coliat. which is an area that had 40+ less actives. all of them one big family.

 

 

Saturday. we worked in sandalan, then after we hid in the apartment because we had a typhoon. her name was karen hahaha

Sunday. we had church then hid some more from the typhoon but went out and worked after a while

 

 

First Typhoon!

Dear Philippines San Pablo Mission Family, I am writing to inform you that we are currently being impacted by a moderate typhoon named Karen. The Church has been observing this storm for days and has made numerous preparations for its arrival. The main track of the storm is north of our mission. We are experiencing high winds and heavy rains as the outer edges of this typhoon are currently being felt. I have asked for the missionaries to stay in their apartments and not be out during the worst of the storm. All our missionaries are in safe, secure locations and prepared for the impact of the storm. They have been instructed to keep their cell phones charged. We have a calling tree in place for rapid communication across the mission. Each missionary also has cash to use, if needed, in an emergency. If the storm compromises our electrical or Internet infrastructure, you may receive your email late next week from your missionary. Be assured, I will be constantly monitoring the situation, and my first concern will always be the safety of the missionaries. We love each of them! Join us as we pray for any in the Philippines who may be impacted by this typhoon. We pray for their safety and protection. If there are any further developments that would impact our missionaries, I will let you know.
 Regards,President MangumPhilippines San Pablo Mission

Dear Philippines San Pablo Family, I am happy to report that Typhoon Karen has cleared our mission as of this afternoon and all of our missionaries are safe and well. The impact to our mission was minimal with localized heavy rain which created some flooding in lower areas and moderate winds. We have another typhoon building off of the coast of the Philippines which is forecasted to be stronger than Karen. It is projected to hit land on Wednesday and it will be even further north of our mission than Karen was. I will send an email Tuesday evening to give you an update as we prepare for the storm. You can rest assured that we will take all appropriate steps to ensure the safety of your missionaries. Keep us in your prayers as it relates to the approaching typhoon, but even more so that we will have great success sharing the glorious message of the restored gospel with these amazing people of the Philippines. 
 Regards,President MangumPhilippines San Pablo Mission

Week 25

Monday. We mainly just chilled and did laundry.

Tuesday. We tried to work but my comp hasnt been feeling well so we have been in the apartment.

Wednesday. we had district meeting and then went to the hospital to get my companion diagnosed. they said he was fine. lol

Thursday. TRANSFER DAAAAAAAAAY! my companion elder mumuad left to lucena and my new companion elder purawan. hes pretty cool but a laid back sports type. I kind of have to get at him for work stuff. which is fine. i guess just annoying cause now I have to watch him on top of this whole area. no pressure. 

 

 

Friday. we have lots to do we taught lots of lessons and visited a lot of members inviting them to watch conference. Then we spent the night talking about rap lol

Saturday was conference!!!!!!!!!!! so good!!!!!!

Sunday was even more conference!!!!!!!!! what a great weekend! so nice to just take a break from all the stress and feel the spirit and hear the words of love and encouragement from the men and women who love us all so dearly. my comp tried to go out and buy lunch but I wouldn't let him... so irritating 

 

 

We bought some bleach and finally got our bathroom clean!

So here is a thought on another way Christs grace is sufficient.

Life is the game that doesn't place by its own rules. in other words life isn't fair. life is hard and has expectations that are really straining on most people so they get stressed and sad. they mainly just get worried that they wont meet those expectations.

now take Christ. the man who was perfect and did nothing but help other people his entire life. he did not deserve to be beaten or tortured in a way to even todays standards would be brutal and then killed and disrespected. he did not deserve that. that is unfair....but in the other direction. 

so now because of Christ we have balance of fairness with his grace. by using his grace. we can make the game that doesn't play by its own rules. much easier to play. sorry if this is confusing I am dying in this tiny computer shop thats sooooooo freaking hot and there are cigarette smoke everywhere. 

Love you all

Elder Yarro

Week 24

Monday. we started our morning and as we were cleaning our water faucet broke so we turned off our water and t talked to our landlord. he said "ill try to fix it." that was the last we saw of him that day. We didn't work because we were waiting for him all day at the apartment. landlords here suck

Tuesday. no water and the power shut off. lol we couldn't shower or use the fan to stay cool....so we just baked from 6:30 am to 4pm....  then we went out after he finally showed up and fixed it. 

Wednesday:  We had District Meeting, and that was fun! We ate at the mall and after went out to work, and just got punted by 4 lessons so we just talked to people and tried to preach to teach all day with no success. 

Thursday:  We worked all day and luckily our support arrived because we both had 20 pesos left haha that's what I call budgeting. we celebrated with eating at a restaurant

Friday:  Had weekly planning and got punted 4 times again.... its really hard because you can't teach girls only unless you have one more boy 18 and older with you. but the branch isn't helping us. That night I gave my comp a priesthood blessing because he found out he has low blood pressure and we have an appointment at the doctor today. 

Saturday: My companion cooked me breakfast, it was super nice of him! Then we had another FHE with this less active family. We played fruit salad and used the lipstick. I got some on my face too which means I wasn't that good. haha and after we helped clean the meetinghouse (because we are not a ward) for church the day after! That night I got to talk to my dad (trainer) before he went home the next day. by this time right now he is in the mission home getting an exit interview. I miss that dirty boy. 

Sunday. fast Sunday, what a pain. lol I skipped breakfast and lunch but my comp ate lunch and was teasing me with food and tempting me to end my fast early but I kept my ground cause I love this gospel. and all was well. we had a really spiritual message with Amy (one investigator for 8 years) and yea pretty good week. 

I need a pic of me with a random girl, dont care who. can you send me one. cause there are soo many girls who are getting crushes on me no matter what I do so I want to have a picture of my "girlfriend" so they will back off lol

 

My Tagalog is coming along, but I'm not fluent yet, you;ll get to see at Christmas!!!!

 

Im like completely over all the stomache problems now! thanks for the prayers! and also with the package. can you send me some more ties!  

 

We have crazy doooooope thunder storms here! and the clouds are unreal too

 

OH I FORGOT TO SAY! my comp got transferred I get my new one on thursday they tell me a name. but thats all i know!  He is filipino. he is vasaya. they are from the south like Mindanao

 

I also think I might try to get a job at the MTC when I get home for that summer teaching Tagalog. because I get payed 12 an hour and get to go home everyday at 8 and I wont have work Sundays. Thats a good job! I dunno this is all just dreams. I still have 15 months.

 

hahah I want to prepare the best way for my future life. I am learning and gaining new tools and thinking concepts from the gospel to prepare me. I know it. Also I had a dream I was am EMT going and helping a crash in provo canyon. dont know what that means....

 

I have been praying and the one goal I have from the mission is to come with an idea of what I want to become!

 

Have to go

Love you all

Elder Yarro