Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Friday, June 17, 2011

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.



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