Finally....pictures from the Philippines! :)

Elder Gagnon and his new companion Elder Glodo meet at the airport in Puerto Princesa

Elder Gagnon with the both the Narra and Puerto zone missionaries

Elder Gagnon with Sister Juliet Ramos and her family

Las Pinas zone Family Home Evening at the Razo family home

Sister Penaranda's baptism with Elder Guarino, Sis. Penaranda and Aljie

Elder Gagnon, Elder Guarino (Chris' trainer) and Elder Guarino's trainer


Hey Guys!
I had a great week last week! Got quite a few new investigators and quite a few are really starting to progress really well! I'm going to start off by saying sorry. I did not bring my camera with me this time because I thought it wouldn't work..... I will bring it next time though and will send a few emails of pictures. I promise. Sige!

So last Tuesday, we emailed first thing in the morning, then that day we taught Sister Lee, Brother Alfred and their neighbors, Tatay Guilliermo, his wife, and Sister Lee's mom! We taught them part of the Plan of Salvation. That was the first time Tatay's wife actually listened in, usually she was too busy, or just didn't want to, so it was nice to see her listen. She participated too and had lots of questions and everything. It went really well. Then we taught Marilou about tithing and she said she has no problem with it. Her baptism is still going to be on the 9th of July and we're really excited for her. After her we taught the husband of a member, Brother Anthony. He is really nice, we taught him a small message about prayer. After that we went finding for a while and that was it for Tuesday.

Last Wednesday we went to see an inactive member who lives at a castle. Yes. A castle. She doesn't think she will come back to church which is really too bad.... It's because the owner of the castle is Italian and has her watch the house all the time. She is really nice though. Don't worry I got some pictures of the castle :P After that, we went finding. But no one is really around.... Like no one at all. Our area is like a ghost town during the weekdays. At night we visited an inactive family. They don't want to go to church, they don't want anything to do with it either. :(

Thursday, the Elders from the Taytay area (an area from our district) came over because it was their Pday on Thursday. They asked to take it on that day because the next day was zone conference, where all the Elders and Sisters from Palawan go to the Puerto Chapel and have a meeting with the Assistants to the President and President Howard. I'll talk more about that after, but anyways the guys from Taytay live 4 hours away by shuttle and on the way there is our house, so they came to our house and emailed here, had lunch with our Branch president, President Bayaras, then emailed and made their way over to Puerto, which is 2 hours away for us. So we only got to work till 5 that day because we had to catch our shuttle ride at that time. We stayed at the Elders house in Puerto that night. That day we taught Sister Marilou from 1 Nep 8 and we also shared a small lesson with Sister Lee and Alfred about going to Church. We didn't teach them about the Plan of salvation because Sister Lee had questions about Church. So that's what we taught :) After those 2 lessons, we made our way over to Puerto.

Friday. Woke up went to zone conference. This would be the last time we would see President Howard and I think it was also his last zone conference so that would have been the last time he had seen a lot of the missionaries. It was a good conference; we spoke about heroes and we practiced contacting and how to begin teaching, which went great. President Howard also spoke to us about how much of a miracle Sister Howard was. And how we really do need to be obedient. He also said that the Manila Mission might split again next year as the Manila mission North and South. I also spoke with Elder Afaga, he is one of the AP's and he said he read my blog, which is funny. He said he found it by accident when he was looking for pictures of the Philippines Manila mission. So, Elder Afaga....if your reading this. Stop! :P Elder Afaga also told me that I was lucky because for a long time when they were doing transfers trying to figure out where everyone would go, he said that my picture was in the Pasig zone, which becomes part of the Quezon city mission July 1st. If Elder Jance(the last Elder here in Roxas) didn't get sick and go home, I would have been there in the Quezon City mission. Haha. So also at that meeting, since it was President Howard's last, he gave every missionary a mission president's blessing. It was a great blessing. And then at the end we all sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again to him. It was pretty emotional. I am really going to miss Presidnt Howard. He was really great, nice, exciting, and really hard working. I also loved his history here. He was one of the first 17 missionaries sent here to the Philippines, he was set apart by President Hinckley and got to watch the country go from like 6 members to 650 000. I'm gonna miss him a lot. After that we just went home, we got back at around 7.

Saturday we did a lot of finding and found quite a few new people. We taught the Plan of Salvation to Sister Lee, her mom, Brother Alfred, Tatay Guillermo and his wife. We invited them all to come to church the next day. The lesson went great. Tatay has a harder time understanding because his main language is Ilongo, which I don't know. But Anne does and she was with us, so she helped him understand. It went really well. The wife of tatay had a lot of input and it was really great. After that we went finding, taught Anthony, and visited a few inactive members. 2 of the families asked for blessings for their sick children, so we did. And Yea. One of the less active families came back to church the next day.:)

Sunday. What a crazy day! K so it started off...I went to go remind Tatay Guillermo and Sister Lee about church. So I did that with a ward missionary, Chris, while Elder Glodo went to remind other people in another part of our area. So we went to church, got there about 8:30 and President Bayaras says "Elder, we need you to introduce yourself to the ward because I didn't get to do it last week." Then he found out that the 1st councellor in the branch presidency wasn't going to come in that day, and he is the only person in the branch who plays piano. So he asked me, "We're also going to need to you to play piano." And this is like 10 minutes before church starts, so luckily they had a simple hymn book there that I used and played the 3 songs for sacrament. Another thing was before church started we had 11 investigators there! So we had a pretty big investigator class. We watched the Joseph Smith story and it went really well. Like really well. Yea. So after church we went on splits, I worked with Chris and Elder Glodo worked with Sam, our other ward missionary. It went alright we went finding and we taught Sister Marilou about Charity, which also went really well.

And that is about it for last week! It was a good week all in all. Please tell Elder Bell I said "Hey", and I hope he is having a great time doing missionary work in greatest place on earth. The last missionary had high blood pressure and apparently he was also a little home sick and wanted to go home... So I do not think he will be coming back. He was out the exact same time as me. We did not get any rain last week. All is great over here in Roxas! We are in a branch, but there was more than 100 people last week at sacrament. So I don't know why it isn't a ward yet.... Anne is also leaving tomorrow. She is moving to Manila tomorrow. The other language, Bisaya Ilongo, is nothing like Tagalog. At least to me it's not. My companion doesn't understand it really. It's a different dialect, so Im sure there are some similarities.

So that's about it for now, I gotta get going... I got your package last week by the way! Thank you! Thank you so much for everything! I love it here on my mission. I'm doing great! I love you all! Talk to you next week! Thanks for everything!

Elder Chris Gagnon

P.S Tell Dad I said Happy Father's day. I know it was last week. But yea! Happy Fathers Day Dad! I love you!

So once we finally got the monkey off me....

Hey Guys!

Sorry I'm emailing a little late, I'm actually doing this Tuesday morning before we go out to work. It has been a great week here in Roxas! It's sooo amazing here! Everyone lives in tree houses made of bamboo. It's super amazing. It's a lot different from the city too. There are not as many people in the streets and not all of them speak Tagalog either. Some can understand Tagalog, but only speak Bisaya. I have a harder time with some of our investigators now. I'll pick it up though. Anyways this email probably won't be too long but, yea....


So last Wednesday I moved in, met some members, and had a great time.


Thursday, I got to meet some of our investigators. We had a member, Anne working with us the whole day so that was great. She is a returned missionary who works with us almost everyday. It's great. So I got to meet most of our progressing investigators. Their names are Marilou, Brother Alfred and Sister Lee, Brother and Sister Ibanez and Tatay Guilliermo. So I got to meet them and we just kind of shared a few small messages with them and yea! It went really great! That night we had a dinner appointment at the branch president, President Bayaras' house. He seems like a really nice guy. He knows english pretty well. Which of course is great:) For dinner that night we had this bamboo thing, I can't remember what it is called and fish. I also tried this small shrimp thing that apparently no non-Filipino likes. I tried it though and it was good. Just a bit salty.


Friday, We had to get food because there was none.... So we did that, then had lunch, then went finding, found some people, then we taught Marilou about baptism and now she has a baptism date for the 9th of July! I'm really excited for her, she is really nice and just understands everything very well. After Marilou we went to another investigator's house, Christine, and we taught her about prophets. Then we went finding for a little while longer, then we had choir practice for the rest of the night because last Sunday was branch conference and the choir was singing for it.


Saturday. Saturday morning was cool. We were having personel study and I looked outside and saw a monkey on top of our neighbors house! So we went outside and got pictures with it. It was cool. It stayed there for a long time too. Sister Anne came to meet us at our house, the monkey was still there so she picked it up, and put it down. I picked it up too. Actually it stayed on me. It wouldnt let go of my shirt and would freak out if I or someone else tried to move it. So once we finally got the monkey off me, we put it down, and tied it to a chair with a leash sort of thing. After that we taught Sister Lee and Brother Alfred about the sabbath day and what goes on in our church. It went really well! Sister Lee actually came to church that day! It was great! So on the way back to our apartment for lunch, we got some bananas, and gave some to the monkey and then let it go. And don't worry! Yes I washed my arms and put on a new shirt after touching the monkey! Anyways after lunch it started raining really hard. And here we're not allowed going out because of the coconuts that could fall from trees and kill us, so Anne ended up going home, and we ended up studying till it was time to go to choir practice again.


Sunday! We dropped by a few of our investigators houses before church. Then we went to church at nine! Tatay Guillermo came, Sister Marilou came and Sister Lee! It was great to see them all there! Branch conference went really well. I got to meet the district president here and yea. Then after that we went out to work. I worked with a new convert and now ward mission leader, Chris. He's really kool, he also knows the area very well because he actually worked as a missionary the week before I got here. The missionary I replaced here is actually home right now in Bacolad.... He got really sick. Which is really too bad. He was in my going home batch, meaning he was supposed to go home the same time as I am..... So it was me and Chris working, and Elder Glodo worked with another Ward missionary and Anne and President Bayaras' daughter. So work with Chris and I went really well. We dropped by Sister Marilou and taught her the plan of salvation. Which she understood perfectly. Then we taught Brother and Sister Ibanez. This was the first time I met Brother. He is really nice and funny. He talks unbelievably fast though. Haha. We taught them the Apostasy and he understands everything. He says he really likes reading the Book of Mormon, which of course, is great! I really like those 2 a lot. After that, Chris and I went finding. We visited a few inactive members and that was about it!


Then Monday was our Pday, but we ended up going to a branch activity. We cooked some fish, some rice, some other stuff. Played sports and that was about it. Then we had a dinner appointment at a members house. We had adobo there. Of course. It was great!


So everything here is really good. I don't know why the pictures don't send. I'll try and get them on a C.D and send them over to you as soon as I can. That's if there is a place that does that here. I don't know. The area I am in doesn't even have an ATM....The closest one to us is in Puerto Princesa which is 2 hours away. So yea...


I actually do not have Sister Canada's address. She doesn't really have one either. It's Maligaya 7 in San Pedro. But Maligaya 7 is huge and they don't have adresses there. But, if you want to send mail to her, send it to the mission office to San Pedro 2nd Ward with her name on it, then Elder Nye will take care of it!


Everything here is great! I had to leave a lot of books behind. I only really brought PMG, my quad, journals, BR, and my mission Book of Mormon. That's about it. I will get everything back when and if I get transfered back to the mainland. Elder Glodo is great! We're working pretty effectively so far. He doesn't really know english but he is learning. He has been a member since birth and is from Tacloban, which is where Elder Guarino is right now. It's going great! Everything is moved in. We're both happy. The apartment is great, unlike my last one! haha! The members here are all really supportive and very involved with the missionaries. I love it here!


Anyways that's about it for this week! Please tell Justin congrats on graduating! I love you guys soooo much and I hope you all have a great week!


Love,


Elder Chris Gagnon

The heaven of the Philippines!

Hey guys!

So last week was pretty hectic, I'm only emailing today because it is transfer week so our p-day is on transfer day, which is Wednesday(today!) So before I say about whether I got transfered or not I will talk about what I did last week starting with Tuesday!

Tuesday was terrible! It started to rain a lot at about 11:30. We only left the house at about 2, because Elder Nye was sick. So we got out taught a few people, knocked on doors at a richer part in our area. I pretended to be cold at one point and one family actually let us in and we shared a good message with them! They wanted us to go back, and we did later on that week, but they were never there. We ended up going back home at 6 because it did not stop pouring rain and Elder Nye was still really sick. So that was about it for that day. We taught one new person in her house and we found a new couple who seemed pretty interested but were gone for the rest of the week.

Wednesday. It still had not stopped raining and that day we were both sick. We left the house at about 11:30 and it stopped raining at about 12. We spoke to sooooo many people that day and no one was interested. We visited an inactive family and we taught them a small lesson about obedience. It went well but none of them seemed to listen.... Then later we taught Charmaine, who lives in the same house as Theresa. We taught a good lesson. She just has a few odd questions..... Like about dreams and stuff. yea. We also went back to a guy that we were supposed to go back to on Tuesday. So on our way he actually found us...and he was drunk..... He started yelling at us and swearing at us for not being there the last night. He used very bastos (rude,obscene) filippino words that I didn't appreciate.... He also gave a rod to his son that was laying beside him, and said "take this because I don't know what I'm going to do with it." So yea. Elder Nye and I told him we would come back another day when he wasn't drunk and got the heck out of there.

Thursday. I was still sick, runny nose, LBM non-stop, I threw up once. Not good. No work. The zone leaders did come back though. They were at the hospital because Elder Jimenez needed an operation for an injury he got a while ago on his leg. Poor guy.... Anyways he said that he was talking to Elder Afaga, one of the assistants to the president, and he was saying that Elder Nye would probably train this transfer, BUT! He said it wasn't for sure. So we were all still wondering.

Friday. We went finding again. Spoke to a lot of people taught a few good lessons. It went really well. We taught one new guy who seemed really interested. His name is Alex. I really liked him. We taught him the restoration. We also taught Charmaine that night again. She hasn't been reading anything we give her. So of course, that's too bad. :( We taught a good lesson and she always offers to pray. So it's going alright with her.

Saturday. We went finding in the morning, found 2 really good families to teach. Then in the afternoon Elder Nye had a baptismal interview. He said it wouldn't be too long because it was just 2 kids. But it ended up taking like 3 and a half hours to get there, do the interviews and come back. The kids apparently had a lot of questions. While I was at the house I met sister Canada's (Mac) girlfriend. They both met at a temple tour which is something our mission does with our investigators, basically we take them to the temple and talk about it, we haven't been able to do it yet. Anyways she was saying that Mac really wants to be baptized. So that was really cool. We planned to teach him but he is always out.

Sunday. We had church, no one came again.... That morning we taught a lesson to Ronnie. He says he doesn't have time to read. Which it too bad... We taught him a small lesson. Nothing big. Then we went to church. Taught a few lessons to one of the families we found on Saturday. I also felt that we should try going back to Jomar, so we did. We taught him a lesson and he says he wants to be taught more but the only day he has off is Sunday... I like him though. I also got pictures with Ronnie and Jomar and his family because I had a feeling I might be getting transfered. I also dropped by Juliet's and got a picture with her family. They were too busy to listen to us though. That night the Zone leaders got home a bit later at about 9:45. They knew everything about the transfers. They said they were excited for Elder Nye because he is going to be training. So that means I was going to get transfered. The way they were talking I thought I was going to get transfered to Pasig zone which becomes a part of the new Quezon city mission first week of July. So of course I do not want to go out there because I won't really know anyone.....

Monday! Transfer announcements! So how they do this is by companionship and they make us say nice things about each other. I had a lot to say about Elder Nye. He was an amazing companion! We had a lot of good times together and I learned a ton from him. So they started with him, said he would stay as a district leader and train next transfer. Then they got to me and said I would transfer to................................................PALAWAN!!!!!! YAY!! So, that is where I am now, the heaven of the Philippines! It is great here. The rest of that day I started washing clothes and packing.

Tuesday I said goodbye to some members and finished packing. It was too bad, I'm going to miss Elder Nye! That night I only fell asleep at 12.

Wednesday. And that was really bad because I had to wake up at 2 to go to the Buendia chapel for 5 to catch a plane to Palawan at 8. So that's what I did. Went there and said goodbye to Elder Nye. I also had to leave one of my 2 suitcases at the mission office because were only allowed 50 pounds of luggage going to Palawan. I also had to leave my guitar there too... :( But I got on the plane, slept a bit, Got off the plane and WOW!! That is really all I could say. It is amazing here! So many trees. There's apparently a lot of monkeys too, I didn't see any yet though. I fell asleep on the 2 hour shuttle ride to my area. My zone is Puerto Princesa and my area is Roxas(pronounced Roahas). My companion is Elder Glodo he is a Filippino and he's awesome. I am sooo excited to be here! Elder Jimenez and Elder Eduria said they both loved it here and it was just beautiful. I'm really happy to be here! It is very provincy. I can't really explain that by email. Haha. It's super kool though. Oh, actually, I did see a boar on the shuttle ride actually. And that was kool I guess. haha!

Anyways so I'm really excited to be here. It is hotter than my last area, but also 10X cleaner and the air is fresh!

Anyways that's about it for this week. I'm pretty much out of time for emailing. Sorry if it was kind of scattered and short. I'm going to try sending pictures from this computer. I love you guys so much! Thanks for everything. Oh and one more thing. I have a few letters that I'm sending to some people. Just to let everyone know! It's probably going to take a really really long time. I also might not get your package for a while. At least another month maybe.

Please tell Justin congrats on graduating seminary! That's great! And please tell Nick Gould Congrats! I love you all! And thanks for all your support!

Love,
Elder Chris Gagnon

P.S. Since Chris hasn't been able to send us any pictures yet, here's a few pictures of Roxas I found on the internet :) Nancy


Here's a map of where Roxas is...it's on Palawan, an island south west of the mainland of the Philippines.

Last week was great and not great...I'm still happy of course! :D

Hey Guys!

Sister Howard is getting out of the hospital this week! I thought I said what happened, but I guess I didn't.... About the 2nd week into my mission, Sister Howard got an infection in the pancreas. I don't actually know all the details, but it got a whooooole lot worse. The doctors actually told President Howard to fly his children over here to Manila because it might be the last time they could see their mother. They also told him that there was a 60% chance of her not living. So President Howard has been extremely stressed,of course. But just a few weeks ago, with a lot of prayers from all the missionaries, and blessings given from President Howard to her AND the First Presidency of the church has been praying for her, she started getting better and last Saturday she was able to walk and take her first shower in 2 months! People at the hospital, whenever they see President Howard, they refer to him as "the husband of the miracle patient". It really is amazing that she lived. They are both finishing their mission next transfer I think. I know next transfer, which is next week, President Stookey is starting, but I think President Howard stays for that transfer or at least half, in order to train the new guy. I'm going to miss President Howard so much.


Anyways last week was great and not great....I'm still happy of course! :D


Last Monday, we did not have our P-day, it was on Wednesday. Last Monday we went looking for an apartment for 2 Elders in our district because they are getting kicked out of theirs....So that's pretty much what we did for that day until about 6:00. We found one really nice one that they were supposed to move into today, but the person called them and said NO. Which is NOT good because they do not have any other apartments and they are getting kicked out this week. The apartment they have there is horrible haha. It's really bad, loud! They have one room which is their laundry, cooking, eating, studying, dishes. Everything. Haha... It's really bad. They needed a new one. The reason they are getting kicked out is because the people in charge of the apartments, one of the senior couples, said they won't pay for that apartment because it's horrible. I think it even leaks now.... It's bad. Anyways after we went looking for an apartment we went to a family home evening at a member's house with a few recent converts that we organized for last week. It was fun, played guitar, ate spaghetti, and shared a message from 2 Nephi 5 about being happy!


Last Tuesday we had interviews with the President in Buendia. So we went there and did that. He told us that Sister Howard was getting better and expressed the importance of talking to everyone. Which was good. Then I had my interview. It's not big or anything. It was good though. He asked me to share a scripture with him so I shared 1 Cor 13:13 which I use a lot when we teach someone about charity. It's one of my favorite scriptures. Charity is also my favorite thing to share about. It really is the most important thing for everything. We spoke about how I was doing and stuff. He said there is a good chance I am getting transferred next week because Elder Nye will probably be training. So this week might be my last in San Pedro
2nd... After that we visited a few people but no one could see us.....We were actually about to share with the Adelina group but one guy just started yelling at us and said "ayaw ko, ayaw ko!" which means "I don't want, I don't want!" We don't know what happened. We havent been able to share with them since, because no one is around....


Last Wednesday was P-day. We got up at 4 and went to the Temple because it was temple day for the city missionaries. It felt great to go, we went to the 6 o'clock session. I love going there! I also got to see Elder Morris. I hope him and I become companions. Or Elder Comish and I. I don't really want to get transfered though.... Anyways after the temple we got food. Oh by the way, the week we got dorian, it was NOT GOOD. It smelled, it made the apartment stink, even though it was in the fridge, and it tasted horrible. We gave it to our neighbors. Because they like it. Haha. It was sooooooooo bad. I was disappointed. But this week we tried Lychee. And it was good. This week we bought Dragon fruit again because Elder Nye hasn't tried it yet. So we're going to eat that later. Fruit here is amazing! That's pretty much it for last Wednesday, We also emailed and did laundry. And that's it!


Last Thursday was bad, we went to all of our investigators and none of them could see us, not Melanie, Juliet, Ronnie, Pacita, the Adelina group, no one....We tried talking to a ton of new people and no one wanted to listen, they were all busy. They would come up with bad excuses too. Someone actually told us, "I'm cooking rice." Ugh. Haha. That night we had an F.H.E at Sister Boco's house with the Fabia family, and the Canada family. Sister Canada's daughter still hasn't come back and she hasn't heard anything from her either. It was good though. I played guitar, of course :). And we sang some hymns. And we shared a message about prayer and played games. And ate spaghetti. It was fun.


On Friday we visited Tatay Lito. He was saying the day before that he hadn't eaten in a while because he has no job, so we bought him 3 kilos of rice. He was really happy! We shared with him after, and well....he just doesn't understand. He has different views about God and how he works. One of his questions was "do we worship, Lord? Or God?" He has different ideas about things. We tried visiting everyone again. But again. No one was around. We taught like so little lessons this week. It was bad. We spoke to over 50 people though that day. No one we shared with would give a return date. Because they don't want to promise to be there and then not be there....


Saturday we finally got to share with Ronnie. He hasn't read or prayed yet. He wants us to keep coming back though. He didn't come to church this week. After him we went finding, had no success, then we had a Birthday party/DA at the Yangs. We watched the Joseph smith movie and ate, and played scrabble. It was fun they had prizes for scabble, we played on teams. There were the missionaries, which was the sister missionaries in San Pedro 1st,Sister Anjum, Sister Fabrigas, then there were the Elders in San Pedro 1st, our room mates Elder Jimenez and Elder Eduria, and Of course Elder Nye and myself. We got last! haha. So we got the worst prize, but then everyone gave us their prizes...even though we told them not to. There was like a box of cookies, Powdered chocolate milk, and little snacks and stuff. So after that we went home, and then opened our fast.


Sunday we had no one at church again. We taught Ronnie before we went and visited the Adelina group, but no one came. After church we went home, broke our fast. Then I got sick from the Adobo we cooked.... So that was about it for that day. It was probably the worst week so far in terms of our investigators. We have no progressing investigators this week. It was soooooo bad. We're going to try and find new ones. We also called Juliet last night and she said that she doesn't want to meet because of personal problems. So we told her if there's anything she needs she can always call us. She said she would text for our next appointment.....


So yea, it was a rough week. We plan on talking to over 200 people this week and finding new solid people to teach. That's our big focus. We will visit some of our other investigators, but we will be more focused on finding. Oh and buying a guitar is allowed, I asked President Howard before I bought it. He just said make sure it's not a distraction. He also let us watch Lion King today as a district activity. So we did as a district. It was good. Haha. He said the rule is that if it is either a F.H.E at a members or P-day and if it is a Disney movie, we are allowed to watch it. After we watched Lion King, we came here and now I'm emailing! Haha.


Yes Theresa's house is 10 feet above the ground, and no I didn't really clean my shoes, I know...gross. But we were really in a rush and it was raining, so it probably got washed off. If not, oh well!


Anyways I'm running out of time. So that's about it for now. I'm going to try sending pics now! I brought my camera and we're at a different internet cafe! So I hope this works! ....p.s. It didn't...they came through as DAT files?! Nancy:(


Tell Justin I said "Happy Birthday"! Please thank Auntie Lynn for her birthday card!! Thanks for everything!


Mahal ko kayo!


Elder Chris Gagnon

Water was almost up to my knees...it was crazy! :D

Hey! Sorry I'm writing only on Wednesday this week! We had P-Day on Wednesday this week, today was the temple day! I had a great time! Forgot my camera though! Sorry! Also I'm sorry I haven't sent any pictures! I'm going to be getting them on C.D when I get a chance to go to the store. The store is far though, it's at a mall that's about an hour from where we live.... I probably won't be able to get it done today because I have a lot of stuff to do! I'm always busy haha! Last week was really just ok. We had a tough week.....


Last Monday I forgot to mention, I bought a guitar. It didn't cost too much. I took out personal money and bought it, and we have been able to use it. It's actually a really good thing. Also last Monday after we left it rained a ton and we had to walk like 30 mins back home, I have never been so soaked in my life! The rain at home is nothing compared to here. I actually lost both my flipflops, picked them up and ran home bare foot, my planner got wrecked.... it's intact but like super dirty. Water was almost up to my knees. It was crazy! :D


Then on Tuesday, of course, we had work, we had to go to Muntinlupa because Elder Nye had to conduct a baptism interview. The person wasn't there though, sooooo me and Elder Lanticese(Old District leader, training now), went back to our area to work. We taught Theresa, about the importance of church. We followed up on how she felt about the last time she went, and she said she loved it and wants to go back! Yay! Then we went magfinding(by the way that's just finding, but the "Mag" is a tagalog conjugation, there are a bunch of different kinds of verbs, "mag" is one of them, so sometimes when using a word like "find" we just add mag to it. I do it sometimes when speaking tagalog E.G: Pwede Po ba kaming magshare ng mensahe sa inyo((can we share a message with you?)) I love the language because people do it all the time. They throw in english words like that all the time. I try not to do it, but sometimes it just happens because I hear it so often) and we found one girl who just argued with us.... It was annoying. It happened a lot to us this week.. Anyways that night we went back to Muntinlupa but couldn't find Elder Nye or Elder Lanticse's anak (kid in the mission). So we just went to his apartment and I slept there. It rained a lot that night too. We got on a jeep and the water was almost level with where you get on the jeep. Waves of water were actually hitting cars behind us and splashed. It's amazing how much water there is when it rains.


Wednesday, went back home and we thought we both needed a haircut, so we got it done that day early in the morning. Then we went out finding, we taught this new woman we're teaching, Sister Olandria. She didn't really get everything. She had a hard time understanding what prophets do. So we keep trying to go back but she hasn't been home as much. We also went to the group at Adelina, the 4 from there that came to church, they weren't all there, so we actually shared with them the Joseph Smith story again, and we watched the small DVD, then reviewed, it went well.


Thursday, we worked with Arjoe Yang, Brother Yang's son who is preparing to leave on his mission in a year. We taught this older lady that we found, and Juliet! We had a long discussion with Juliet, just answered a ton of questions that she had, then she asked what things were bawal (forbidden) in our church. So we taught her the Word of Wisdom and committed her to stop smoking. She said that would be the hardest thing. We have been trying to get back to her to see how it's going but she is never there. It's hard getting them at a time when they are all there, and we don't have a lot of time on our phone to contact these people.... Ugh. Anyways she really loves the Gospel. And She wants her whole family to listen too. Which is great! We would love to teach her whole family! :D


Friday we went to the Adelina group, who weren't there. They don't even have a phone so we can't contact them..... Then we went finding and found Ronnie! Ronnie is the best, super friendly, he lives in like a really small room. I might compare it to your closet if your closet was square, that's about the size of his and his son's house. He lost one of his arms a few years ago, but he is just super kind and always understands everything. Great guy, we taught him on Saturday as well. Then we taught Theresa, we taught the first bit of the Plan of salvation, up until our life on earth. It went great! She really wants to get baptized and knows that this church is true! She has a kid though, who is always crying, I don't know why he was, but this was kinda funny, but not really..... Their house is like ten feet above the ground, it's a squatters house, which is made of just anything, and there's like pieces of wood holding them up. Anyways so this kid was crying, he walked to go outside and took a step and one of the wood pieces gave out, he almost fell through! He just got one leg stuck though, so I got him out, of course he was crying more now though..... ANYWAYS... That night we had a F.H.E at the Canada's house (all of our other F.H.Es we planned for that week all fell through BTW) So we had a bunch of people there. We had Sister Pabia and her family there, Sister Canada and her son, an inactive member, and Sister Boco, all recent converts to the church... all of their families were there as well. Sister Canada's daughter hasn't come back yet either... She's 20 by the way, and no that was not the first blessing I did. I have done a few. I just forget to write all of them. Sorry! Anyways! Elder Nye conducted the F.H.E then I shared a message about loving one another and charity. It went really well. My favorite verse is 1 Cor 13:13. Which Elder Nye later used for his talk on Sunday. Then we sang Love One Another, which I played on the Guitar :) then we played some Filippino games that I learned here, and went home.


Then Saturday another big day, we left early, taught Ronnie about the Book of Mormon which of course went great! He said he would read it and pray about it and go to church(we hadnt even invited him yet, he just said he would come, haha. We were going to invite him though.) Then we taught Theresa about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It went pretty hard because it was raining, and the roof is tin so we had to speak a little louder.. Did a lot of repeating. Once we were done Elder Nye got his shoes on and went outside, the kid was also outside, by the way this kid is always naked for some reason, he never has pants on. So I asked Elder Nye to grab my shoes, he said "yea, just a sec I'm gonna get mine on" and like three seconds later I look at my shoes and guess who was peeing in them.......Ugh. So yea. That kid peed in my shoes.....After that we went to Elder Lanticse's baptism because we were doing a musical presentation, then after that we went to Elder Dela Cruz' baptism and played there. We played I Am a Child of God at both. Elder Nye and I both played guitar. People liked it a lot. Then that night we went to the Razo's. They were that really rich family I went to about a month ago. I was talking to the guy and about ten years ago he was in the squatters, but he worked hard and now he owns a ton of businesses. We had some food, he has a pizza oven and ice cream machine, they fed our whole zone! Then we had F.H.E. with them and played I am a Child of God on guitar. It was fun! Only problem was I still hadn't started my talk!


So that's what I did Sunday morning. I wrote like a bunch of ideas on paper, in english and brought them with me. I spoke second after Brother Boco, a recent convert, husband of Sister Boco. He spoke for about 8 minutes, then I spoke for 15, and Elder Nye spoke for 15. It was perfect! I loved speaking! I just spoke about member missionary work and why it is important. I shared some scriptures, and spoke about blessings I've received while serving. Everyone really liked it. I really liked Elder Nye's talk though. He spoke of requirements we need to have to do missionary work, he spoke a lot about charity which is something he and I have discussed a lot this past week. Unfortunatly though no one came to church because it was raining. We have plans though. Because people think it is too far to walk to church and too much for transport, so there is a railway in the area where we find that goes to the church, so this week we're going to build a cart so that recent converts and investigators on the railroad can come to church. That is our focus for this week, finding the materials and whatnot. It is going to be good! Anyways after church we taught Theresa, who told us that was her last day in San Pedro, and she was going back to her province, so that is really too bad... she actually left too:( We got pictures with her though and got her adress and gave it to President Howard who will give it to the mission president in the other mission, who will give it to the missionaries in that area! :) I know she will find them no matter what!


Anyways that's about it for this email. I will write about yesterday Monday, next Monday because I am out of time. That's great that Justin is having his grad soon and that he gave a great talk and won that award! Great!


Melanie we didn't get to see all week, she has been busy....


I can't go to that picaso site because I'm not supposed to. I will send a C.D with a lot of pics soon, I promise! Please be patient! I am sorry! :)


And that's about it I am out of time! Sorry I didn't get to write more! I love you guys! Please thank Auntie Lynn for her birthday letter, I got it last week! Please tell her I love her and I'm doing great! Thanks for everything guys! Have a great week!


Mahal kita!


Elder Chris Gagnon!