Christmas in the Philippines

Hello Po everyone!

This week went by so fast for me. We did some service projects because of Christmas. Christmas Eve and Christmas was fun and low key. It didn't feel like Christmas to me but it was still a good time. 

It was a little hard trying to find people that weren't busy with their family or friends on Christmas and Christmas Eve but we found some new people to teach! 

On Christmas day I don't think I've eaten that much food in my whole life! We got fed all three meals of the day and ate so much food. Here Filipinos go all out when it comes to holidays so there's always a ton of food. They always tell us to eat more and more. I think it's funny. 

Our Christmas went by fast. I learned some caroling songs that they sing here and even though my voice is pangit (not that good) I tried to sing them but it was bad and I just got made fun of but I don't care haha. 

(spiritual thing)
A couple of days ago I prayed that I would understand The Book of Mormon better and be able to use it more when I teach. During one of Elder Dumanjug and I companionship studies we tried to focus on The Book of Mormon. As we continued to talk I kept thinking of scriptures we could read and this just continued until we were done. When we were done he said to me "There's something missing in me. I need to find it. I need to find it in The Book of Mormon."

I'm not sure if that was my answer to my prayer but I had a really good feeling about it. If we want to understand The Book of Mormon we simply just need to put in the work and read it and The Holy Ghost will help guide us. We just need to continue to read. Heavenly Father answers our prayers in so many different ways. We just need to listen! 

Yesterday when we went out to work the first man we talked to was a referral we've been really trying to get and we asked "dito po ba si peter?" (Is Peter here?)? He responded and said "busy si peter" (Peter is busy), and then he said he's too busy right now and too busy for God. I was so shocked. First of all he was speaking English (I think he was drunk) and second of all I was just shocked because of his response. I tried my best to not chastise him and my best to love the dude and try to make a return appointment. I thought that was a funny experience that turned out good!

Love you all. Hope everyone has a happy new year and make sure to not do anything stupid! :) 

-Elder Espiritu 

Service project

Christmas Eve at President
Fermanis' 1st counselor's home

Princess (one of the member's granddaughter)
and I haha don't think she likes me 

Our house Christmas card

New Transfer

Woohoo 2 days until Christmas but Merry early Christmas to everyone!

So this week from Tuesday to Thursday I was in Manila. It's crazy that I'm training. I feel like it was just yesterday when I met my trainer at the mission home, but training is going to be fun. 

I met my new companion on Wednesday. He's a Filipino and his name is Elder Dumanjug. He's 19 years old and he's from Mindanao Misamis Occidental Ozamiz City Philippines. The language he usually speaks is Visayan (another dialect here) or English. Luckily he's really good at Tagalog so that helps a lot. His family converted when his Dad was 16 so he is born and raised in the church.

He's really cool and being his trainer, we learn a lot from each other every day. The first day we were together he kept telling me how excited he is to go do missionary work. I think it's really funny he always says he loves English and he really likes my American accent and wants to get one like mine haha. He says he's learning a lot and he's really enjoying the work so far. 

Because we didn't get back to our area until Thursday we only got a couple days of work in. And those days were just me showing him around the area so he could get more familiar with the members and the people we're teaching.

We had one experience yesterday which I thought was pretty cool. We were working with the ward missionaries. We went to a girl that hasn't been to church in a long time. So we shared a scripture with her and invited her back to church. It was kinda quiet for a sec and she then just started crying. She told us she really wants to go to church but she has no one to go with. The ward missionaries were so loving and they said they are willing to pick her up on Sundays so they all can go to church together. 

A lot of people think that no one is there for them, but it's our job as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to invite others to come closer to Christ and really understand who He is. And as members we need to be welcoming to anyone who is coming back or that is new. We can't be judgmental but be willing to love everyone that comes into our church. 

I was really impressed with the ward missionaries willingness to offer help to this young girl. I've gotten pretty close with a lot of the ward missionaries here and they all are awesome and I'm super grateful for them and their willingness to work. I wish I was more like them before my mission. 

It was a good week and I'm doing good out here in the Philippines. I'm still loving it. Merry Christmas again to everyone!

-Elder Espiritu 

My new companion (Elder Dumanjug)
and I at the airport 

Some pics from the flight
back to Palawan from Manila

Elder Derder and I with
some of the new missionaries 

Elder Derder and I 

Elder Cabrera and I. Everyone says
we look alike but I don't see it 

just mobbing 

Working with the ward missionaries

It's Transfers & I Found Out Some News

December 16, 2019

What's up everyone!

This week was kinda the same as last week. haha Nothing new going on. Still trying to find all the members in our ward. 

I was a little sick some of the days this week but I'm better now so don't worry mom. :) Our area is really big, so it's nice trying to find a lot of new people. A lot of the people here are students that stay in these things called boarding houses so sometimes it's hard to find people with some free time. But it's okay. It's still really fun here in this area. So we're gonna continue to keep going trying to make this area better and find new people to teach. 

This upcoming week is transfer week and I figured out yesterday that I'm going to be training a new missionary. wohoo that's gonna be sick. That means Elder Nimenzo is going to transfer. I'm gonna miss him. He is a great missionary!

I don't know who my companion is yet but I will know on Wednesday. I'm going to go back to the mainland on Tuesday and I'll meet him on Wednesday. It's gonna be a good experience training a new missionary. I know Heavenly Father will help guide both of us while we are a companionship. I'm really excited! 

This week we had our ward Christmas party and a district Christmas party. They were both really fun. It's crazy. This is gonna be my first Christmas away from my family but Christmas in the Philippines will be nice. It's weird to me that there's no snow here. It's still really hot here every day but I'm excited for Christmas here.

One spiritual experience this week for me was at a devotional with the old mission president of my mission. It actually was my cousin's mission president back then when he served here (Blake Packard). His name is President Ostler. He came here to our stake in Puerto and he and his wife spoke to us. 

President Ostler talked about how our trials in life will help us become stronger. Even though I've heard that a billion times in my life it really made me think. He later talked about even if you follow the gospel of Jesus Christ and are obedient to all the Commandments you are going to have trials in your life no matter what. But from those trials we can continue to learn from them and help us in our life. Especially when we make mistakes. 

As Christmastime comes around let us continue to think about Christ and what He did for us. Obviously we are excited for the gifts and traditions that come with Christmas but we can't forget our Savior. 

Before my mission I never really understood the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what it can do for your life. I don't think we realize the amazing gift our Heavenly Father gave us with the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Through Christ's Atonement we can become clean again and again and again. I'm so grateful for that. None of us are perfect but because Heavenly Father loves us so much He gave us the greatest gift. 

I invite everyone to continue to use the Atonement of Jesus Christ in your life and feel the happiness it can bring as you strive to change and become more like Him. 

I love you all hope everyone has a safe and fun Christmas break. 

-Elder Espiritu

Ward Christmas Party

Elder Burke and I were in the MTC together
now we're in the same district 

 

Went to a beach in another area when I was
on exchanges with Elder Larson  

some kids in our ward

Elder Yumul is going home.
He stayed at our house last night.
He was my first zone leader back in Manila 

some Elders from my district 

our district party 

Christmas Zone Conference and Exchanges

Dec. 9, 2019

This week was a really good week. I attended my first zone conference in Palawan. There's a ton of Filipinos here on Palawan then there is on the mainland. So it was really cool seeing and meeting all these new missionaries. 

This zone conference we had our conference in the morning and we had a Christmas devotional later in the afternoon. We had a really good discussion about the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and I learned so much about our Savior Jesus Christ. 

After our zone conference we had lunch right across the road at this hotel. It was really fun. There was a ton of food and we watched a slideshow of pictures from this last year. After lunch we went back to the chapel and played some games like pictionary and charades, and we ended with each district singing a Christmas song. It was a really good zone conference and it got me excited to celebrate Christmas. It's gonna be a lot different here but I bet it'll be fun.

In my mission right now we have 5 Ap's hahaha It's kinda crazy! 3 of them are actually AP's so they help president with everything. (Elder Ibanez, Elder Berger, and Elder Milne.) But the other two are traveling the mission and are going on exchanges with some of the missionaries here on Palawan and on the mainland for their last transfer here. (Elder Harris and Elder Dial) 

The day after zone conference they came to our house to do exchanges with Elder Nimenzo and me. That day I was with Elder Dial. He's from South Jordan Utah and he went to Bingham and he played lacrosse. We got along really well haha. 

He's such an awesome missionary. I learned a lot from him about why goals are so important. Before I didn't really have any goals but now I have a couple so I'm gonna try my best to work on those. That day we talked to so many people because one of my goals was to be more willing to talk with everyone because everyone deserves to hear the gospel. Elder Dial helped me out with that, which was really good. 

One cool story that happened when I was with Elder Dial. We went to a part of my area I haven't been to yet called San Jose. We were trying to find some families there that haven't been to church in awhile. 

The first person we talked to was this old Nanay around 70ish. We asked her if she knew this family and she said no, but she said her daughter was a member and turns out her daughter was the other family we were looking for. That was really cool. After that we tried to talk to Nanay a little more. We figured out her husband just passed away in August. When she was telling us about that she got very emotional and started crying. She told us how much she missed him and how hard it's been without him. 

Elder Dial asked her a powerful question. He said, "Nanay do you believe you will see Tatay again?" And she got even more emotional and said yes I hope so. She let us in and let us teach her a little bit. Elder Dial and I talked about The Plan of Salvation with her. The spirit was so strong and it was a  touching experience. 

I'm having a good time here. Love you all and hope you have a good week. :)

-Elder Espiritu

We found these kitties close to our house there was
like 20 of them just right in the middle of the road

Elder Seranilla from Chicago. He's Filipino but he grew up in America so were like the same 

Shout out to my mom for sending me
two Christmas packages
(sorry I opened them early)

Zone Conference

Elder Nimenzo, my companion

Elder Larson is a zone leader so we had a car!

This is the transportation here
on Palawan they're called multi cabs 

Pics from my area

Elder Macarilay and I we knew each other before the mission. We roomed together at this thing at BYU. He's from Bountiful Utah

Elder Panuncio and Elder Berger.
They trained Elder Hedman, my trainer 

Doing Our Best to Find People to Teach

Hi everyone,

This week was about the same. Nothing really new happened so not too much to update about. We're focused on finding new people to teach and, I was sick and we weren't able to work for some of the week. So sorry short email this week. (but I got pics so don't worry) I just wanted to share a scripture that I really liked. Especially with it being close to Christmastime.

3 Nephi 18:24 
"Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed."

We should take Jesus Christ's counsel in this verse and try to apply it to our everyday life. Continue to ask the question "Am I trying my very best to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ by following His perfect example"?

I challenge everyone to continue to be a good example to others and helps others come closer to our loving Savior Jesus Christ, and just be happy and not be fake. Be a true and strong disciple of Christ. Especially with Christmas coming around the corner. Try your best to be a light unto the world and help others as well.  

I'm grateful for everyone's support that I get every week. 

I love everyone and hope everyone's doing okay! 

-Elder Espiritu 

Notes from our video chat with him:

Typical day: 

Wake up at 6:00 am 

Pray and read 10 pages of Book of Mormon

Breakfast (usually oatmeal or eggs) 

Exercise 

Personal Study (study the Bible & scriptures)

Companionship Study 

Out the door by 10am

Appointments or Finding until 9:00 pm

In apartment by 9:00 pm 

Bed by 10:30 pm 

He still laughs at how people look at him funny when he tries to speak in Tagalog because of his American accent. He usually tells them, “Lumaki ako sa America.” (I grew up in America). They usually say,”Ah, makes sense.” 

He, being a jokester, a couple of times for fun, he would say when people notice his accent, “Oh, I’m from Cebu.” Cebu is where his Mom, Belenda grew up and speaks a totally different language than where he serves. Most Cebuanos speak with an “accent” when they speak Tagalog (the national language). 

Anyway, a few times, he’s told someone he’s from Cebu, they would call his bluff by talking to him in Cebuano (Visayan)!!!

The Philippines has 8 major languages and over a hundred dialects. To unite the Philippines, in 1937 the President of the Philippines declared “Filipino” (Tagalog) as the national language and requires it to be taught in schools. Without Tagalog, Filipinos will have a hard time communicating with each other. Most Filipinos are bilingual or trilingual. The Philippines is the 3rd largest English speaking nation.

One of the members that work
with us a lot named Rodel. He's 16 

The front of our house 

our Christmas tree

a certain part of our area called "Irawan" 

we had to cross the bridge to get to a member's house (these little kids hauled across but for me it was so sketchy) haha