Memories of a Mission – Page 10 – "We will work for the glory of our Lord"

Doing a lot of talking

Thursday, January 6, 2005

Today was a good day. We got to teach some good lessons and also got to talk to a lot of people. My Tagalog is improving a lot even just over these last two days that I’ve been senior. As the senior I have to do a lot more talking than I did before. I almost think that I’m doing too much talking and not letting Elder Cox do enough of it. I really have to be careful now that I don’t let my pride get out of control. We got to teach two first discussions off of OYM’s which is a rare occurrence out here. We also taught a good lesson to Bro Villadares about church and about the Ten Commandments. Hopefully he’ll come to church this week. We also taught Bro Andales this week. He’s doing well. We set yet another date for him and again hopefully it’ll actually happen this time. The spirit was really strong and he is really improving. Hopefully he’ll be baptized this month of at least before I leave.

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First day as a Senior Companion

Wednesday, January 5, 2005

Well today is my first day as a senior companion. I guess it went well. I really was blessed today as we worked in my Tagalog and with remembering what had to be done. My new companion is Elder Cox from Idaho. He’s about my height and quite nice. He is in the batch after me and so he’s really good. I hope that we’ll get along well and have an enjoyable three months together. I emailed this morning and my family is doing fine. Elder Fa’oa and Elder Campbell gave us a ride back to the area in the van and so that was nice because we had air con the whole way. We got to teach another lesson to Bro Aldana today. We’re starting to teach him lessons out of the Gospel Principles book because we’re almost out of lessons to teach him. He’s still happy even though Elder Cox is gone and that he’s still waiting to be baptized. We also got to work with Bro Pulido and Bro Viloria tonight. It really is a blessing to have such strong members. I really am blessed even though this is supposedly a really hard area it is really getting stronger by the day and I’m grateful for it.

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Elder Cox’s Last Sunday

Sunday, January 2, 2005

Today, obviously, was fast Sunday. I fasted that I will have the strength and knowledge to be in charge of the area after tomorrow. It was a good fast and I felt the sprit a lot. I also asked Elder Cox for a blessing at the end of our fast and that also comforted and strengthened me. We had a really good fast and testimony meeting. Not only is this Elder Cox’s last Sunday but Eva Tardio is also leaving this week to serve her mission in Cagayan de Oro. Because of this, everybody was realy focused and we had a great spirit there in that meeting. After church, I also found out that the Pulido family, our stronghold in Dagupan, are leaving this week to go to Oriental to visit family. They’ll be gone until March so until then we’ll have a little weakness there in Dagupan. Luckily we still have the Viloria family and so they’ll become our stronghold for now. Tonight we taught a powerful lesson about becoming gods to Bro Andales. I can’t believe that people don’t realize that the whole reason that we’re here is to strive to become Gods. Hopefully that lesson helps him.

Elder Cox with the Pulido Family

Elders Arnesen and Cox with Brother Sergio Aldana

The Elders Quorum (plus 1) Rommel, Bro Oreta, Bro Pulido, Bro Siscar, Pres Isla, Elgie Tardio

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Starting my mission year

Saturday, January 1, 2005

Wow I actually got the year right this time. I think that this is the first time in my life that I haven’t had to scratch it out. Yeah for me! Today was another fairly useless day. We left the San Jose apartment this morning at 8:00 so that we’d be able to make it back to Calintaan at a reasonable time. Well the bus didn’t have a specific schedule and they told us that they would leave when the bus was full. Well in the Philippines that means that you couldn’t fit anyone else on. After about a 2 hour wait in the bot sun we were full. Boy oh boy were we full. Every seat had three people, and isle was packed and all of the roof was full. Elder Cox and I were sitting on a wheel well and so our legs didn’t fit at all and then a woman with a baby sat next to us which only increased the discomfort. Needless to say, I had a really sore bottom when we got back to the apartment. We took a short lunch break and then headed out to the mountain. We were told that the Siscars, a recent convert family, were still having troubles with not drinking. We taught them about the plan of salvation, covenants, that they will become gods if they follow the covenants, and that God is always watching them. It was a good lesson and I could feel the spirit helping me know what to say. We also taught a lesson to the Manzos. Elder Cox told me that I would lead discussion on this one. Well, I learned again that I still have a lot to learn. I get more and more scared about my becoming a senior companion all the time. I hope that my faith is strong enough that the Lord will bless me. I’m realizing more and more how really weak I am of myself. I have a long way yet to go.

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Reflections on New Year’s Eve

Friday, December 31, 2004

Today is the last day of 2004. Tomorrow I’ll start my full year on a mission. For the whole year of 2005 I’ll be totally focused on the work of the Lord here in the Philippines. I’m now here in the San Jose apartment with all the other Elders from the island. We all had to be inside at 2:00 because of the excessive interest of the Filipinos in fireworks. There are already tons of explosions even though it’s not even close to midnight. We had another big party that Bro D’Elmer did for us. We had real hamburgers and also real ice cream. It was good but I honestly would rather have had something at least somewhat healthy.

Elder Cox and I playing our conch shells

The front of the meeting house in Calintaan

My feelings are somewhat close to the surface today because of the holiday and being away from home. I’m realizing more and more now much I love them. Friends are all good and fun but family is so much more important I’m also thinking a lot about becoming a senior companion. I’ve never been so intimidated by an assignment as I am by this one. I’m not sure that I’m ready for this. I’m such a weak person and I’m really being humbled. I have often struggled with doing things for the right reasons. Before when I contemplated this I always thought that it’d be fun to become senior only because I’d be first in my batch but I already hate batch who are training and who are district leaders so I guess you could say that I’ve been put in my place. I’m going to make my new year’s resolution to become more humble and also to become a better friend to people especially my companions. This has been a really good year for me. I’ve really learned a lot and drawn closer to my Lord Jesus Christ. I still am a very proud person though and I still need to work on that. I really love the Lord and I’m glad to be serving him here. I really hope that I can improve myself this year.

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The struggles of addiction

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Satan has so great hold over these people. They literally are his slaves because they are slaves to their addictions. Everybody right now is getting ready to “celebrate” the New Year by drinking the night away. They have absolutely no self-control and often I wonder if the people we’re working with really are converted. The reason I’m talking about this is because we visited Bro Andales again tonight and he was drunk because he’d gone to a wedding earlier and was all drunk. Tardios were there when we arrived and were sharing a message to him. About half way through the message he cut them off and started talking about how he is only a person and how we all sin because of Adam. Just to top it off he had dragged another drunk friend home as well to “hear about the church of saints in the latter days.” I felt so bad for Tardios. They were totally shut down in trying to share with him. Also I felt bad because after they sang to close, Bro Andales asked us to sing. I think they were a little bit offended about it and they were a little discouraged about the experience after we finished. I don’t know how else to help Bro Andales. We’ve taught him, sang songs to him, made him little charts and everything else. He can go for a while without drinking but as soon as the temptation is there he loses all self-control and gives in. I’m all out of ideas of what to do. The rest of the day was good. We had a good visit with Bro Villadares and read with him. He said again that he’ll come to church this week so we’ll see what happens there. We also did some work on the CMIS so that it’ll get all fixed up. While we were talking to Bro Edward about people who are inactive, he told us that they used to use church money to help pay for people to come to church. Also we found that the old elders used to pay people to come to church. This isn’t all about free handouts. Really it’s about hard trials and sacrifice. There are two principles that the people here in the Philippines really need to learn. All they do is sit around and wait for some rich person to give them money. They don’t want to work and try to help themselves.

Singing with Bro Andales

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Hiking to the cell tower

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

First thing this morning we had a zone activity. This time all of the other elders came out here to Calintaan and we hiked up the mountain to where the two cell-phone towers are. It was really hard and I discovered that I’m really out of shape. Also I guess they don’t know how to make switchbacks in this country because we just went straight up the mountain. The incline was probably about 45 degrees and it was really difficult. The view from the top was beautiful. You could see all the way to Palawan. We climbed up to the top of the building up there and took some good picture. When we wend town we ran almost the whole way. Needless to say I was really tired after that. We had to walk real slow the rest of the day because our legs hurt so bad.

On the trail up to the cell phone towers.

The view from the top.

Elders Campbell, Dick, and McCauley on top of the mountain.

Elder Cox and Elder Arnesen on the Mountain

The Mindoro Zone on top of the mountain

Fa’oa, Boucher, McCauley, Pradilla and Dick on the top of the jeepney

We had a good P-day. I made cream tuna on toast and it was really good; hopefully I’ll be able to start putting some variety in my diet. I also took a refreshing two hour nap. For proselyting we worked all night in Dagupan. We taught a lesson about fasting to Bro Aldana. He had a lot of good questions and he understood well. I think he’ll find a lot of power and help through fasting. We also taught about the Word of Wisdom to Bro Moreno Delfino. He really likes to dink but he knows that it’s wrong and wants to change. It might be a long pull but he’ll make it.

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Wasted day (but some beautiful photos)

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Today was an almost utterly wasted day. We spent all morning in San Jose for district meeting and other stuff. We ate lunch at a little restaurant called Mackeys. I was feeling adventurous and so I tried “sweet and sour lapu-lapu.” Lapu-lapu is a really good and really expensive type of fish and I really like it so I thought it would be good in sweet and sour because I like their other sweet and sours. Well, when it came it was a half of the fish still whole and with the head. Anyway, it didn’t have much meat and I wasn’t exactly impressed with it. I was having a hard time eating too because I have a big sore on my lip because of eating too much candy. After eating an emailing home, we did the “Desire” certification for Lennie Tardio. She’s learning how to play the piano and is doing really well. We also made a new certification for her called “Diligence.” Hopefully by March when I leave she’ll be really good and able to always play in sacrament. We wasted a lot of the rest of the day waiting for vehicles and having appointments fall through. We did get to teach a first lesson to Edward Alaman and his wife. He’s already a member but it inactive because he has a word of wisdom problem. Hopefully sister can help him. She’s really smart and asked really good questions and was involved in the discussion.

Half mini-bus half jeepney coming from San Jose

This is a half mini-bus half jeepney on the road to San Jose.

Rice fields about 2 weeks into the growing cycle

So green and beautiful

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Pagsusulat sa Tagalog

Monday, December 27, 2004

Siguro, susubokan kong magsulat sa Tagalog kasi gusto kong makita ang aking paguunlad sa Tagalog. Medyo magaling na ako pero hindi pa talaga. Sana sapat ang aking kahusayan kapag dumating ang bagong kasama ko si Elder Cox. Magaling si Elder Cox na magtagalog pero medyo pangit pa rin ang aking pagsasalita. Nagplan kami kanina para sa susunod na lingo. Ginawa naminang mga adtikain na kailangan naming gawin bago sa Lingo. Talaga binabasbasan kami ng Diyos na marami kaming tinuturuan ngayon. Magaling ang halos lahat ng tinuturuan namin. Binisitahan naming si Bro Villadares sa umaga na ito. Nagturo kami sa kaniya ng pangaliwang lesson. Sinabi niya na magpapabinyag siya, sana sa 9 Feb 2004. Aiwan ko lang kung kayang niya iyan dahil may bisu siya sa alak. Siguro sapat ang kalakasan niya. Ang problema lamang doon sa talikayang ay na wala kaming kasamang miembro sa aming talikayan. Kailingan magsimba si Bro Viladares sa susunod na Lingo. Sinabi na niya na gusto daw niyang magsimba pero wala pa siya. Sa tanghalian kinain ko ang corn at “cup-o-noodles” tapos isang malaking sprite. Masarap at nakakalusog siya. Gayon din sa tanghaling pahinga, ipinagaral ko an “Preach my Gospel” tungkol sa paghulog at paglabag nina Adan at Eba. Sa hapon naman pumunta kami doon sa Cambiswer kay Bro Oreta upang ayosin ang CMIS ng sangai natin. Pagkatapos iyan bumalik kami sa Calintaan ng mabilis kasi kailangan na kailangang magtahi si Elder Cox. Sa hapon at gabi naman pumunta kami sa Dagupan tapos nagbay-bahay kami. Natagpuan naming ang ilang mga tao at may appointment kami bukas sa isa sa kanila. Nagturo din kami kina Quinones ng unang lesson. Ok lang sila. Nagsimba raw si Sister noong ilang mga taon. Hindo ko alam kung bakit tumigil sila sa pagsisimba. Ibinahagi din naming ang isang pamaskong mensahe kina Viloria. Naramdaman ko ang esperitu doon. Masay pa rin sila at magaling din.

Hope you can read this!

Adam27 December, 201421 December, 2014 Calintaan No Comments

Teaching in church

Sunday, December 26, 2004

We only had two investigators, out of the four that we were hoping for, come to church: Bro Sergio Aldana and Bro Selso Lopez. Our meetings were good. In priesthood I taught about testimony and sharing pure testimony. It went well but my Tagalog was really struggling. We had another strange lesson in Sunday school. Sister Maricar Siscar does a good job but she relates things that are very far from the point of the lesson and I’m often really lost. Sacrament was good. We had a really long and pointless PEC meeting. It was actually a branch council and it went really long. Everybody reported, sort of, but nothing was done to help the people that we had concerns about. Oh well, the branch is still making progress even if it is sort of slow. After our lunch break, we went and visited Bro Aldana. He’s still doing well and we just have to be sure to continue to give him strength as he progresses and waits to have his interview with Pres Beck. We also did some work in Dagupan and finished at the Andales family. Brother really still wants to be baptized but he’s still weak with alcohol and still tries to justify his drinking. Hopefully I’ll be here when he gets baptized

This is a really nice note that I got from Nanay Tardio. She has the strongest faith and raised a wonderful family.She loved the missionaries and was a great blessing to the church.

http://mission.arnesenfamily.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Nanay-Tardio-Christmas-Letter.pdf

Adam26 December, 201421 December, 2014 Calintaan No Comments