Week 40

Monday! so we had this huge family home evening of like 20 people and it was a huge success we met tons of new people and asked to teach their families. we played uno and had lots of fun!

 

Tuesday! We went and taught all the new people we met the night before and it was awesome!Then we hunted some buko! we took our machetes and cut them open and drank their inards (buko is coconut so no, I;m not a cannibalistic freak) 

 

Wednesday! We had district meeting and we ate at this place called panciton it was delicious. but kind of awkward because the waitress kept hitting on me, they like American boys here. I kept telling her about my "girlfriend" but she didn't care. but hey discounts!

Thursday! We had weekly planning. then we had exchanges and I went to Boac, We did service and I sliced my finger open!!! AWESOME!! then we went back and cooked mashed potatoes and gravy with chicken freak it was so good.

Friday! We tracted all day it was hard because their area is struggling. It's okay though they are great missionaries.

Saturday! We returned and taught and gave a book of mormon to this guy named Rally, he's really cool and just a nice funny guy. He is a catholic and used to teach gospel at the high school near his house but he feels like a lot of Catholics are hypocrites and the doctrine is weird.

Sunday. we ate dinner at a members house and then Rally called and told us that the BOM was the best thing hes ever read and wants to be baptized super bad.

Love you all
Elder Yarro

Week 39

Finally a skype!

Week 38

OH BOY GUYS YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE HOW CRAZY THIS WEEK HAS BEEN HOLY CRAP.

wish I got a tshirt for surviving a catagory 4 typhoon on an island in the Philippines!

okay here's some context. last Sunday around 3 am a big typhoon his (her name is Nina shes a jerk) she has 150 mph winds. From what I heard it was so bad the island was considered in a state of calamity. "Following the devastation wrought by Typhoon Nina, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan ng Marinduque has declared the entire island-province of Marinduque under a State of Calamity. Acting on the recommendation of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC), the Sanggunian under..."

anyways it pretty much wrecked the entire island. We finally got power for a little while yesterday and water. So all week we literally have been building houses and being disgusting. We have been boiling water and sweating. It's probably the best part of my mission so far.

So Monday morning. (the night before I stocked up on food and put all my district under one house so we could all be safe) the 5 of us woke up at 3 am to the typhoon and it was crazy. We kept making jokes and videos all night hahahah. we only slept like 3 hours,  and during that time a giant tree fell onto our door so when we woke up we could not go outside. so we went to the kitchen and grabbed a bunch of kitchen knives and machetes and went to work on the tree,  it took us about 3 hours before we could get out. After that we spent all day checking the other apartments and building houses for people around. We tried to sleep in Boac again but no power made it hard cause it got hot as frick

A man we knew from the neighborhood was killed. 

Tuesday. about the same. We went and hauled water for one of our members to fill her bathroom and built more roofs. They fed us boku. and it was delicious. they finally fixed the main roads so we could go to different barangays and check on our other apartments and luckily no damage. It was fun and lucky the zone leader has a car which made everything so much easier,  also we went with the district leader to different areas to assess damage of members. saw some pretty devastating stuff.(no sleep so hot) 

Wednesday. hung out at the church with some of the members as we all used the gas generator to charge our phone and stuff. (I used a members laptop to email my family to tell them that I'm alive) then after I packed up and left for San Pablo because I got called to become a trainer. (luckily the ferry's were up and running) went and slept in San Pablo (no sleep also)

Thursday. I went and picked up my new trainee his name is elder Mismash and he is from Utah! we hung out in Lucena mall and I ate my first real meal of the week. Mcdonalds!!! (surviving off of ramen and water before that) then I taught him how to like.....go to the bathroom. aaahhh the reward of being a parent. slept in Lucena ( still no sleep cause not enough beds.)

Friday. We finally got back to the island but waited at the port for 2 hours. then we had a brutal 4 hour boat ride to the island. I finally I went back to Boac to pick up my laundry. then tried to skype my family because I heard that Boac was getting reports of power in the center of town. that was a failure it was shutting off like 5 times.

Saturday. Finally got to call instead of skype because there were no good cameras ahahaha then we got power in Mogpog.  I finally got to sleep the night before new years. I slept from 7pm to 6:45Am got a very fantastic 11 hours of sleep.

anyways this week has been absolutely crazy. I have seen some awful heart wrenching things some very bad things happen to good people and this beautiful island got hurt. But being a part of the thing to help make it better and help these people has been one of the best moments of my life. I love this church and these people.

Love you all
Elder Yarro

Week 37

Hey guys so im alive, so you guys would not believe how these last few days have been hahah but long story short we are looking at 2 months no electricity. im training so ill be in the mainland tonight around hopefully 9 ish (my time) to skype. so try to get on by then. love you all. keep it real. and dont eat grass.

Love you all
Elder Yarro

Typhoon #2

Dear Philippines San Pablo Mission Family,
I am writing to inform you that have a Tropical Storm (Nock-ten) approaching our mission and by the time it reaches us, it is projected to be a Category 2 or Category 3 Typhoon (Nina). We have been observing this storm for a couple of days and are making preparations for its arrival. The main track of the storm is just north of our mission. We should experience high winds and heavy rains. We anticipate that we will start feeling the initial impact of the storm Christmas morning and it should clear our mission by Tuesday night. I have asked our missionaries to use wisdom and 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. We are fortunate to have Senior Couple Missionaries in each of our mission zones who will also be watching over your sons, daughters, and loved ones.
If the storm compromises our electrical or Internet infrastructure, your scheduled Christmas calls may be impacted. If so, you will be able to reschedule them to another time once services are restored. Also, 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 Mangum
Philippines San Pablo Mission


I am happy to report that Typhoon Nina has cleared our mission as of this evening and all of our missionaries are safe and well. The overall impact to our mission was moderate with localized heavy rain which created some flooding in lower areas and moderate winds. Our two islands, Marinduque and Mindoro, were the hardest hit areas in our mission. Many of our members’ homes suffered damage to their roofs and a few homes were total losses. The Filipino People are amazingly resilient and the cleanup and rebuilding efforts are already underway.

If your missionary was not able to call or Skype due to loss of internet or power, they will be allowed to reschedule with you. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me
Regards,
President Mangum
Philippines San Pablo Mission

Week 36

Okay so I have a lot to catch up on so I'm gonna do this real quick because we are actually EXTREMELY busy this week out here.

Monday. We had a zone p-day, went to this swimming hole and had an airsoft war it was fun to get to know the zone more. too bad that wont be happening again (ill let you know more later)

Tuesday. we didn't do much just went out and taught lessons and cleaned the apartment. 

Wednesday. We had our Zone training meeting, I gave a talk about personal study in the scriptures. I mainly talked about that everyone should have some kind of system to help their brain focus when they are studying instead of just reading. I feel really strong about this and that is why I'll never just have electronic scriptures when I'm home. GOOOOO PAPER! Then we all went to Boac to film this little video for zone conf, we did some OYMing in the bayan because fiesta was going on and there were a lot of people walking around. It was super fun!

Thursday. I made some good chicken adobo for lunch (I'm really good at cooking it now) so glad I learned it, it will probably save me in college lol. then we worked with this member and visited our members and let them know about the primary program this Sunday and that we have a practice this Saturday.

Friday. we had exchanges with the Zone leaders, I was with elder Snyder. He was a nice guy from Jordan Utah. he's been out awhile so he's really fun to work with. also my watch broke at 1:25 so all day I thought it was like 1:30. Then when I found out it was like 5 pm. I was so happy that I felt like I skipped like 4 hours haha

Saturday. We cleaned our apartment again, its really hard cause we still don't have water until night time. then we just went to all our RCLA and investigators and invited them to church. 

Sunday. we had our primary program and it was awesome! as always I love watching it. same here as back home, lovely and hilarious at the same time.

Love you all
Elder Yarro

 

Week 35

Monday. We went to Boac and fished with them.

Tuesday. we went out and had a normal day of work and lessons. We have one progressing investigator, she's really cool and wants to get baptized all the time.

Wednesday. we had our normal district meeting, and then I had an exchange with elder Striusmka. he's a super cool California born American.I'ts so nice to talk and hang out with an American every now and then. it's hard to explain, just something different about it.

Thursday. at the end of the exchange we had elder Genterone from Cebu cook some spaghetti for us. he is an UNREAL cook. after that we went back home and went to teach and preach like missionaries do. 

Friday. we prepared for this baptism, it's a member's kid, they asked us to prepare the service and my comp to baptize him. so we went and typed up the service and then invited members. 

Saturday. we had the baptism it was great and spiritual as always. I gave a workshop about enduring to the end. it was good, just the usual how enduring to the end is awesome and can be hard too but because we were baptized and have the gift of the holy ghost we can make it easier. then MARIBEL came. shes our best progressing investigator. so after we taught her, and we asked her how she felt about the baptism and she said it was beautiful and she wants that and started crying it was awesome! I love being a missionary.

Sunday. we taught a member named Rico, he is stuck in a wheel chair and his village is too far for him to go to church so we go and bless the sacrament for him every Sunday. He's really cool and he knows magic tricks. Then we packed to head out to Lucena the next day I was stoked because I'll be sleeping in my first area where I trained. and hope I get to see my old converts and friends from the ward.

Love you all
Elder Yarro