"It's been 6 months already since I entered the MTC!!"

Hello again from the Philippines.  Well it's been plenty hot here for the last 3 weeks or so.  We'd say high 80s to 90s.  Good job Kolsen, keep up the good work in soccer and keep taking those piano lessons.  Well, congratulations to Cassie Howard whatever new last name she has.  Emma, you don't have to worry about dating because it's bawal until I get back.

Well what can I say about this week...we haven't moved into a new apartment yet.  March na lang! (In March now!).  We're busy every hour of every day still, but we had some good insights about planning and evaluating that will hopefully help us get the most out of our time.  So when Kolsen asked about doing service to help people I decided to look for opportunities.  Well on Wednesday we were talking with some guy who was weeding and I just started pulling along side him.  We were able to finish the little section he was doing and he let us speak to him.  He didn't seem too interested at first, but then he asked us why there were so many churches on earth.  The Apostasy pretty much sums that up.  We started talking a little about Jesus Christ establishing His church though, and then the guy told us he had to go somewhere.  So the lesson there is to teach to the people's needs especially when you get an opportunity like that to teach someone (pretty sure the Spirit put that question in his mind).  Hopefully we can meet him again to answer that question.  Sheilla came back from Manila!!!!! We're really excited about that and got to teach her on Thursday.  She's still as ready for the gospel. We taught a family with our fellowshipper and extended a baptismal invitation.  They accepted, but they want to study the Book of Mormon a little more first before we set a date.  

We had ZTM and we got pumped about our purpose and how we can touch the hearts of our investigators to help them come closer to Christ.  Valentines was an interesting day because I realized something on that day...It's been 6 months already since I entered the MTC!!  Time is flying way too fast.  I don't feel like I've learned enough for it to have been 6 months already.  And to top it all off, I must've eaten a bad mango or something because I got lbm.  Happy 6 months!!!  We taught the Ramirez family and were able to teach tatay the Word of Wisdom.  He committed to quit smoking, but said he needed to do it gradually because it's hard to stop cold turkey.  So we said 1 a day this week and next week none.  He was a little surprised at that, but we know he can do it.  Great Sabbath day.  All our Recent converts came (they always do) and Sister Ramirez came with her daughter Jellamaica (that's a first for her).  It was only them, but it was great to see investigators that truly have a desire to be a part of the Church.  Sunday we were able to work with a recent convert named Bro. Calibuyot.  His daughter in law is the daughter of one of our investigators named tatay Norberte and he insists that we have an Ilokano fellowshipper.  It was pretty stinking awesome all of the things Bro. Calibuyot said (like savoring the experience of the true Church of Jesus Christ and if he came one time he would get to feel what that's like.)  Afterward he said he felt really invigorated and filled with the Spirit so he's going to come with us every Sunday now!  Rani and Janette Ramos are doing a lot better with the Word of Wisdom, but Rani complains a lot about his body feeling different  and it being hard to sleep now and he wants the alcohol because it's like his medicine now.  We told him he's got to overcome the addiction if he ever wants to feel good physically and spiritually.

So it's still really hard out here, but we're trucking along everyday.  There's progression going on here, just more slowly than I want.  Well that's all I've got for this week.  Oh quick little insert.  We just had an earthquake here that shook the computer shop.  It was pretty cool to feel one actually, I wonder where it originated and how strong it was.  Well have a good week everyone.

Mahal ko kayo lahat!

-Elder Egan

Here's a family (yep they're all family and they live in this little complex of houses) that we teach.  We don't teach them all, but there's quite a few that sit in and listen to us talk about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation.  We have a lot of people here asking for a copy of the Book of Mormon, especially in Ilokano.  They love hearing our message and they all had a picnic lunch and fed us just before this picture.  The only problem is that they don't understand that there's only one true church on the earth so they don't see a need to come to our church.  We're still working on how to handle that one.

The Work is Progressing...

Naimbag a aldaw!  Or in other words, good day!  I loved hearing all sorts of great stuff from the fam.  So thanks for all the things that you've written and thanks for the thoughts and prayers.  Sounds like you had a great trip in Cancun.  That's sweet you got to see all of the Nephite/Lamanite temples in Cancun.  Helaman sounds like an awesome guy.  I'd really like to see the temples in Southern America from sinaunang Amerika (that's ancient America in Tagalog book of Mormon speak).  So who won the Super Bowl??  Who was even playing in it??  I voted for the 49ers just so you all know.  So it sounds like Kolsen did a good job even if I didn't get to give him any super neato experiences.  Good job bro.  I never had Bro. Petersen, but I know him a little bit from seminary.  Emma, Emma, Emma.  She'll be fine at driving, just keep practicing.  Good old Mia.  I'll have to take a look at that moment once we're in heaven.  Olympics are going on?  Well there hasn't been much talk about that at all, it's not like the Phillipines is known for outstanding athletes though.  They have a gay olympics here in Pagudpud... there are plenty of them to participate.  Bawal na manood.  (bawal to watch t.v.).  It's super sunny and hot here, trust me you'd get tired of it (it beats the cold though).  That sounds like the Danny I know, kudos to him.

It's true about taking generations to establish a good foundation for the Church to grow and for children to grow in the gospel.  I was talking with the Second counselor in the Branch Presidency and he talked about how when he first moved here there were about 30 members that would attend sacrament.  50 was a miracle.  Now there's around 80.  It's definitely grown and there's people who are now starting their families and giving their children the gospel from when they are born.  Missionary efforts may seem slow sometimes, but every moment of it counts!  Thanks for the words about the setting apart.  I forgot a lot of that, but it brings back a lot of things that I felt and thought at that time.

Hey that was really nice to get an email forwarded from Elder Snow.  That's a pretty neat experience, there's been some experiences like that here...but more just crazy things.  Russians and Filipinos think alike when it comes to what church you should go to.  There's people here that say they know the Book of Mormon is true, but they say they believe the same thing in their old church and God won't mind if they just stick with that.  It's like a lot of people don't understand the Apostasy even though in history we can see this time of the world known as the Dark Ages which correlates pretty much exactly with the Apostasy time period.  But yeah there's a lot of Jehovah witnesses here too and about a billion different versions of the Bible (each one more and more messed up than the first). A lot of people actually understand that there's a whole lot of different translations of the Bible and not each one says the same things about certain points, what they don't get is the part about God giving us the Book of Mormon so we could know the fulness of His Gospel.

Quick story on that.  We went out to Caparispisan (it's a pretty far out area that looks like Jurassic park) and when we went to teach a couple of our investigators, we found out one was in the hospital and another went to Vigan (that's basically my old area) to work and left his wife and four kids here and they have to use credit to buy all of their food now.  We were exhausted because we had been walking around a long ways and we were starting to wonder if there was anyone that even wanted to listen to us.  We decided to try one house that we had previously had a bad experience at.  Well this time we found the tatay there and he's never at home because he works as a security guard nearly 24/7.  Strangely enough, this man wanted to know who of all the churches was right (sort of like a young boy named Joseph Smith).  He knew the Bible was different for every religion, but he didn't know how to find out for himself.  So we introduced him to the Book of Mormon and told him he could ask God to tell him which church is true.  So we committed him to read and pray and hopefully we can find times to teach him again.  Then we got to teach another guy we hadn't been able to visit in a while and a couple of his friends were pretty interested.  And then (lots of and thens) a guy offered us a ride in a van back to sentro.  He talked a little about religion and asked if it was alright to visit our church during our meetings.  We said of course he could.  Unfortunately he didn't come, but the free ride was still nice.  

Perfection is an interesting concept.  There's something that somebody told me once and I've pondered on it a lot.  People always say here that we aren't perfect.  Everyone knows that (or should).  When we think about mistakes we've made it would be easy just to say "well I'm not perfect" and give up.  But the thing that's interesting is the Jesus Christ commands us to be perfect like our Father in Heaven.  He always provides a way for us to fulfill his commandments.  That way is the Atonement.  When we are using the Atonement and looking at the mistakes we've made saying "well I'm not perfect, but how can I get better" it's called repentance.  Through true repentance we are becoming more like the Savior (a.k.a. perfect).  Perfecting ourselves a little bit each day is part of repentance.  We can perfect things in our own personal capabilities and capacities, but we can't be completely perfect because we have a mortal body subject to physical and spiritual death, but because of the Atonement we will have a perfect body due to the resurrection and on conditions of our repentance we will be made perfect through the grace of the Redeemer.  It's interesting to look at that in terms of the Atonement and the Plan of Happiness.  Beautiful isn't it?

Well that may or may not have seemed like a bunch of blabbering on.  Hopefully the latter.  Work has been progressing along here.  We have reached a record high of lessons taught this week.  We still fall short of our goals sometimes, but they're helping us stretch ourselves and improve.  Little by little we will have success.  The Lord has plans for all these people and we just need to make sure we're worthy instruments to help bring about those plans.

So on a note about service that Kolsen mentioned... people here are kind of selfish about letting you serve them.  I'm pretty sure there's actually only been one time here where we've actually been able to help someone and we really had to persist before they let us.  Every time we offer to help they say "huwag na, kaya ko." (Don't, I can do it).  But that's a great way to try and find people to teach.  Even if you don't get the chance to serve, people appreciate the offer and it can open up a conversation where you can bring up the gospel.  

So I guess I'll wrap this up now.  When I'm homeless I think I'll come live in the Philippines ;) That one's for you bud.  If the car wash isn't available you might as well use a bucket for your shower like I do.  Love you bud.

Mahal ko kayo

-Elder Egan

A Valentine for Christopher from a recent young convert

Lessons to Learn...

Helo to all family and friends, kumusta?

Well it's been a somewhat crazy week due to the hospital trip and such, I feel like I was just emailing the other day.  So I forgot to mention some interesting news about transfers.  We have a new Zone Leader here and his name is....Elder Lynn!  I can't believe he followed me all the way up to Pagudpud just to be my Zone Leader. What a great guy.  We'll have a lot of fun catching up about Cabugao.  One more exciting bit; remember the pictures of the apartment? (the rather pangit (ugly) one).  Well we're moving out soon!  All the missionaries are moving out either this week or next into a new apartment.  It'll be like being in Cabugao again!

Enough about that, let's talk about the good stuff.  We went to Caunayan again and first off we gave a guy a copy of the Book of Mormon.  He told us thank you like a million times for giving him something to read.  I hope his whole family is that excited about it.  Then we went to the Lagalo's again and they were excited to see us and asked why we didn't come the other day.  We said sorry because Elder Ramsay had to go to the hospital and it messed up our schedule and we felt bummed because they invited a whole bunch of people over to hear us and we never showed up.  Sayan! (what a waste).  Tomorrow we're going back for sure though.  Tons of people out there are willing to listen.

We had a District meeting about helping people overcome addictions.  It was really good and then the thought occurred to me that we can use a lot of that to help people overcome the addiction of missing church.  It's become a huge problem lately and yesterday for the first time in a while we had 0 investigators at church.  It's heartbreaking.  Well while we're on the sad stuff I might as well mention this next experience.  One of the coolest guys that lived a lot of the gospel (including the Word of Wisdom) told us he hadn't read and he didn't want us to come back anymore because he was more interested in focusing on being a born again Christian.  I really appreciate that he was being honest with us instead of hiding or trying to make excuses to avoid us, but at the same time it was sad becuase he hadn't done his part in trying to know.  We bore strong testimony that he needs to read it and ponder it in order to know it's true.  We left him with the Book of Mormon and I sincerely hope and pray that he reads it, for now he isn't ready yet.

Thursday we got to work with the best (well really the only one too, but still the best) fellowshipper in the branch. Bro. Carlo!  He's such a hard working and gospel loving guy.  We had a really good lesson with one of our investigators with a baptismal date and then another girl that has lots of questions about the gospel.  Two of the greatest lessons this week by far.

And then things got hard again.  The next day we had a lesson where the Spirit just wasn't strong at all and the nanay refused to show any interest.  So we cut it short to go find a way to teach where we could have the Spirit. The next lesson was much better.  We were dropped by that investigator on Saturday, but before his lesson we were having amazing finding and teaching opportunities in one of our weakest areas.  We got a lesson to people that we hadn't been able to teach since I'd been here.  Then we found a guy who had no religion and he wanted to know if we believed in the Bible or something else.  We got to share to him about Joseph Smith's experience and the restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth and how the Book of Mormon is the additional word of God that helps us know that this gospel is true.  I thought that was a great lesson.  Then on Sunday after we had been dropped by the investigator the previous day, had 0 investigators at church, and then ended up breaking our fast early because the branch brought food for a baptismal service we had (that was a really great baptism though), Elder Ramsay got frustrated because none of the branch was doing anything to help clean up after the lunch and one of the branch presidency was telling him he broke the sabbath since he was sweeping the church.  Elder Ramsay made a smart comment to him and you could feel the spirit...the spirit of contention.  So we tried to learn from that and try to handle things more like Jesus so we have the Spirit of Truth with us.  And then I screwed up in the lesson we had and tried being a little too aggressive in saying that this is the only true church. I try too hard sometimes to say that not all churches are right.  Jesus only taught one faith, one baptism but people tend to think that means whatever you do as long as you had faith and baptism Jesus will be alright with that.  I just don't want to lose these investigators like we lost the other one on Saturday.  Unfortunately I was a little too bold and less loving than I should have been and the Spirit in consequence was not strong during the lesson.  

Well I hope we've learned everything that we need to so we can keep growing and progressing.  It's still hard and tiring, but every time a child smiles and someone's life is made a little brighter by the missionaries it's all worth it. I imagine Jesus smiling right alongside the kids every time and I can't help but desire to be more like him and to help others receive his saving grace.  Love the mission, every day is the great day.

Mahal ko kayo lahat

-Elder Egan

A Hospital Adventure

Hello pamiliya!!

So there's been some concern about why I didn't send an email last week (and yesterday).  Let me explain, no, there is too much.  Let me sum up.  So last week we went to do emailing and the computers were really slow.  It took forever just to load the email page and then we couldn't read any of the emails, just see that we had some.  So we left and tried every other computer shop in Pagudpud.  Turns out we lost internet connection right as we were trying to email.  Bummer naman! (naman pretty much = !).  So we didn't get a chance last week.  Now to explain why we couldn't yesterday is going to take some more time.

Friday after lunch Elder R said his stomach felt bloated.  We thought he just ate a lot.  So we went out to teach and coming back he said it still felt that way.  Little blessing that I'm just realizing now, a truck driver gave us a ride from where we were teaching which happened to be really far out in the bundok (mountain) and we would have had to walk a long way.  But we went to a members for MCM/FHE/dinner.  Well Elder R. said he felt a little hot and dizzy and needed some air.  So we waited outside a bit and then went back in to eat, but Elder R's stomach was hurting again.  So he had just a little bit of energen (it's like hot chocolate packets but with oatmeal and protein stuff) and then lied down.  The members said he might have an ulcer so we were about to go get some hyoscine pills for him, but Elder R couldn't walk very far without his stomach hurting really bad.  So the member went and got some and he just lied down while we cleaned up dinner and started FHE.  Well he decided he'd better go home because of how he was feeling and we got about 50 yds down the road when he said he couldn't walk anymore and we had to get a tricey back to the apartment.  We told President and he sort of freaked out (since Sister Barrientos usually takes care of that but she left to go visit her sick father).  So Elder R just rested and we were both pretty exhausted and just fell asleep.

Next day he said it was still like that and he felt like his intestine was all blocked up.  So that Elder J. gave President some instructions and told us we should go to Laoag hospital if his pain still persisted by .  Well it did and miraculously the office elders were up in Pagudpud looking at a new apartment for the missionaries here when we decided we needed to go to the hospital.  So we packed some clothes and left and when we got there the doctor's first observation was appendicitis. So he was admitted into the hospital and hooked up to an IV and told not to eat or drink for a day.  So thus began our wait in the hospital.  3rd world hospitals are exactly like they sound: 3rd world.  So the food they gave him was very measly and we were basically trapped in prison cell for 2 days (well it was a prison cell with tiles and a nice bathroom).  President came and checked on us Saturday and Sunday night (he brought McDonalds when Elder R. couldn't eat so it was all for me :) ) and the sister that works at the mission home came and brought us better meals every day. Sunday morning they said it wasn't appendicitis because the appendix was softer and not swollen.  So he had to stay there on Sunday and they said he could be released on Monday if the pain went down.  

We got a lot of studies on Sunday.  I read a good deal of the Bible Dictionary.  It's fascinating.  Most of the time we were bored out of our minds though.  (I did write a letter so look out for that!).  Monday they said he could go, but none of the office Elders were in Laoag to pay for the bill and as such we had to wait in the prison until 3:00.  He had a UTI and we needed to go buy some drugs for him and by the time we got on the bus it was 5:00 and arrived in Pagudpud around 7:00.  So today is our P-day instead of yesterday.  And what's more fun is that we're really poor from that adventure until the mission can reimburse us.

So there you have the last few adventurous days.  It's been fun.  What else... well it's been a whole two weeks so there's plenty to say.  So last Sunday we went out to Hannah's resort and had a Zone activity.  It was really fun and I would send pictures, but I can't exactly do that because my pictures from that and a lot of other ones are all missing now.  That sucks...

We went out to Caunayan this last week and that was interesting.  It's way far, but there's a ton of people that were willing to let us in and listen to our message.  I have a feeling that it will become a very good place to go and work.  We had exchanges on Wednesday and I went with Elder D. We had a lot of fun, but it was stinking cold and that's why I'm wearing a jacket in the picture.  He's a really good missionary.  We were going to go to District meeting the next day and exchange back, but there was a landslide that blocked the passage through to Claveria so we just cancelled District meeting.  That was a bummer too because it's nice to go and learn from our leaders and have spiritual meetings with other missionaries in the District.

Well that's about all that I think I have time for, but I'll tell you a quick bit about a guy named R. He's S.'s mister right now (they aren't married yet).  He has problems with the Word of Wisdom and he drinks about every night.  Before I got here he was smoking everyday, but now he's down to about 10 pesos a week.  We taught him the Word of Wisdom straight up and told him he needs to start coming to church again and give it up.  He said it's hard since he works everyday from about 8 to 8, but he said he would.  Well we were in the hospital and the Zone Leaders told us he came to church!!  That's pretty huge and we'll follow up with the Word of Wisdom when we can teach him again.  Our work has been paying off.  We increased our lessons by 20 from lat transfer and we have been finding a lot of new investigators.  It's funny though, the lessons go up and then baptismal dates and church attendance goes down.  We'll just have to work harder to fix that!  Quick update with Sh. and L's family.  Their parents said by April they can start coming to church because their jobs won't be as busy.  We told them that's good, but not good enough.  We encouraged them to try now to get work off.  We don't think tatay's drinking as much anymore and they just seem happier right now.  Thank you for your prayers and keep it up.

I got that scripture email and that was awesome.  Soccer sounds like it was fun.  I like hearing stuff like that.  Keep me updated and have fun in Cancun.

Mahal ko kayo lahat!

Welcome to the Jungle!

The "prison cell" at the hospital. There may have been boredom, but at least the bathroom was a welcome change!

Zone activity at Harrah's resort

-Elder Egan

"this week has been...a test and trial"

Hello po pamilia!  I loved reading the emails from everyone. That's what I'm talking about!  So the soccer tournaments in Vegas will be fun and I'm sure Mia will just terrorize the Snow cousins. Speaking of which, how is their new house??  That's good that you get to enjoy some time in Cancun and take a little break from the rest of the kids.  Sounds like the normal Egan family to me, just a little shift due to me being in the Philippines.  Dad gets to go to Florida for a conference after Cancun!?  How much more tropical can you get?  Well I guess you could come to the Philippines ;)

Sige (ok), help the missionaries as much as possible even if that help means you're doing home/ visiting teaching to a less-active family.  It might be that dad goes out with them for 1 or 2 hours. Basta just help them.  The work progresses so much faster with member help.  In our branch we just got classes organized the way they're supposed to be (primary and Sunday school for kids are pretty much just squished into a big class) and just barely got a branch mission leader called.  We have a really good fellowshipper named Bro. Carlo that works with us every huewbes and that guarantees us a lesson if people are home.  That's it right now for our fellowshippers though; could easily double the lessons if more people would work with us.  Even if it's a small contribution (1 or 2 hours) if 50% of the members gave just that, there would be a fellowshipper at every lesson that's in our closest area meaning we would have about 16 more lessons a week.  By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Emma, Emma, Emma.  The whole 18 thing was serious; that way I can make sure she doesn't get some punk of a boyfriend a week after she turns 16.  You may most definitely send the songs on a thumb drive, however if you're sending them for us to listen to in our apartment, I would highly recommend a cheap little ipod/mp3 ($20) because that will work with the speaker we got for me.  Unfortunately I don't hear anything from my high school friends, and I don't know if they hear anything from me...I get to hear from the ward missionaries though which is great.  

Sige na, this week has been...a test and trial.  The work here is hard and tiring.  It's sad to say, but our area is the hardest probably in the zone I'm in and we get the least lessons by far.  We have a lot of strengths though, for example our church attendance is very good because we have some golden investigators (it's just that there are only so many times in a week you can visit them).  It somewhat goes back to the fellowshipper issue.  We actually have the second highest number of other lessons, but our member present lessons are single digits for one month.  We find a lot of new investigators but there's always one thing lacking: a person of the male gender.  Now I'm not trying to blame anyone or anything for how hard it is, it's just the situation we're in is hard.

We give 110% everyday, we're literally working every minute of every day.  We can't seem to find enough time to do everything that we need to do in the day.  It's been pretty crazy for both of us.  But we had a really good Zone Training on Thursday about using our time wisely.  Using the Area Book and really organizing the work here.  That seemed like a perfect fit for us.  We ended up spending 2 and half hours extra on weekly planning to try and organize everything.  We're still going to give 110% and we're still going to be tired everyday, but the area here will start to progress.

We have had a lot of problems with investigators that we thought were progressing too. We have just one that's actually progressing now (Sister Ramirez).  I'm not sure how we can help people see the need for going to church.  It is tough walking around all day and getting punted for most of it.  1-3 lessons a day seems to be our average now.  It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life by far and it seems like a lot of it goes nowhere.  My companion asked "does anyone even care?"

I'm so glad that I was able to be there for him just like he is for me.  I told him that truly we're giving our all and a lot of it goes unnoticed and sometimes it's hard to see why we're doing this.  But I also told him that there's one person who knows and cares about every individual second of our lives.  That person is the Savior.  I've come to appreciate even deeper the Atonement.  He suffered below all things.  He knows every single hardship and problem that we face.  He will be so proud of my companion for the way he has worked his hardest to fulfill his responsibilities even if we didn't get to teach another lesson for our entire mission.  He knows us better.

I want to tell a story real quick about some of the recent converts we have that were baptized before I got here.  Sherwin is 13 and she is the oldest child in her family.  Her brother Lawrence is 11 and he's the youngest.  Their father died and their mother has since remarried a less-active member.  Sherwin and Lawrence have gone to church every week since I've been here while their parents have never been.  Their mom hasn't been baptized for that very reason, she works on Sundays whether it's at the house or at a job.  She has to work though because her husband is a drunk that right now seems to be drinking all their money away.  Ever since Christmas we have found that the less-active is drinking every night, expensive alcoholic beverages too.  We were able to teach them once and he said that their family hadn't eaten for 3 times that week and he had just drank a bottle of gin.  Sherwin and Lawrence read scriptures every night, but their parents don't.  They are setting the example for their parents.  They both deserve much better than that and I wonder if they ever feel like the Lord isn't blessing them for their efforts.  They're an example to me too.  Whenever you feel let down in life and you feel like it isn't fair, this might be a good story to read again.  Think of these two Filipinos that live in a very poor house with a father that drinks their money away, and then think of how much you have.  These are some of the happiest kids I've ever seen as well.  They have the gospel and they love it.  I know that they're family will be so blessed when their mom and dad decide to start living all of the gospel.  

Well it's been fun to write about this and even though it's hard, this is the best experience I've ever had.  I've already had enough joy to make up for any more hardships I could face the rest of my mission.  I love you all and miss you very much.  I would hope you would pray for this family specifically as well, the Ramos family.  

Mahal ko kayo lahat,

-Elder Egan

P.S. Hi Mia, love and miss you too! 

 

 

 

"...life keeps on keeping on"

Well happy new year uli (again)!  It's been crazy and I have about half an hour to try and write this from figuring pictures and my ipod out.  Speaking of which, I seem to have run out of room on mine so I can't put any new music on it.  Bummer naman!  So if you're feeling like sending a happy new year package, a new one (maybe with some appropriate songs) would be awesome, if there isn't a package coming soon then I'm perfectly content with what we've got.  Oh and maybe send one of those electrical plugs that you can put a usb cord into because the thing I got back in America doesn't work.  

Sounds like life keeps on keeping on just like it does here.  That's really sad to hear, Bro. Carling is a great guy. With pictures, I would like hard copies if that's possible, but they have printers here and it's cheap to print things so that works really well too.  Nope, no piano playing unfortunately; there's just not enough time to try and coordinate that.  So we managed to get through and withdraw money for the month today and we have 380 pesos from my emergency fund to spare!!! It's about 40 (some people say 42 some 43) pesos to a dollar.  Buying power is huge here.  You can get a weeks worth of groceries comfortably with 1000 pesos per person and then extra expenses for food puts you at about $25 US per week with food.  It's dirt cheap to get some things, I bought 3 pens for around 50 cents earlier.

So this week has been stressful with the money situation, but Elder Ramsay is a really good and caring guy and he's making sure that we're taken care of and we've put all that aside and just gone about missionary work and it's been a very good week.  We didn't really party on New Year's Eve because it isn't exactly pwede and we were just too exhausted anyway.  We had a lunch and dinner given to us on New Year's day which was a huge blessing for us.  We got some haircuts too and a lot of the little kids have been saying I look like Spiderman now. I'm still waiting for the spider senses to kick in though.  One more cool thing, I had a dream this last week and I said one word of Tagalog: Dagat!  It means sea and it would take too long to explain why that was the word I said in my dream, basta (can't really translate that because there is no real English word for that) I count it as somewhat dreaming in Tagalog.

So an update with the work.  We had a baptism for Jenny Ann Ramirez.  She's 11 and definitely knows that the gospel is true.  The other Elders had a baptism too so it was double the spiritual goodness.  Jenny Ann is from a family that's pretty big, but at home is tatay, nanay, Gesser, her, and Jemima.  Gesser is going to be baptized on the 25th of January as long as he doesn't miss church for two weeks.  Tatay works in Cabugao (my old area!) but he's really far from the chapel so he can't go to church when he's working.  Nanay always comes without fail.  This family knows it's  true and they've been prepared.  Tatay still needs to work a little on the Word of Wisdom and hopefully we can figure out a job situation so he and his wife can be baptized together.  One of our most committed investigators named Sheilla leaves for Manila today and won't be back until May.  It's sad that she'll be gone for that long, but when she comes back she's going to get married to her live in and then be baptized, that's a goal she set for herself.   I wouldn't be surprised a bit if she finished reading the Book of Mormon  and started into Doctrine and Covenants maybe by the time she comes back.  John Paul and Menchy are the neighbors of the Ramirez family and they have shown a lot of faith and interest in the gospel as well.  We just finished up the last lesson we had for them: tithing.  They had no problems with that whatsoever and are willing to pay when they get baptized.  The hard part about that is they need to get married as well and it's expensive, so we're trying to figure that out as well.  It's a lot of fun to work with and teach these people.  You can really see a change in people's lives and I look forward to more experiences like the baptism last Saturday.

Mahal mahal ko po kayo lahat!  Thanks for the prayers and thoughts.

-Elder Egan

Ramirez Family

The Work Goes On...

Hello pamilya! Naragsak nga baro a tawen!  It's New Year's Eve tomorrow and things are bound to get crazy.  We have a curfew of 5:00 p.m. and we think the celebration is going to be crazier than Christmas was. Speaking of Christmas, I was so glad I got to call and give a belated Merry Christmas finally. It was pretty stressful this week trying to manage that and time for our investigators as well as all our personal needs.  Well in a nutshell it's been crazy trying to settle into the new area and to top it off, we haven't budgeted very good so it'll be interesting to see if we even have money left over at all. (just to give you an idea I had a 3000 peso emergency fund that's half way gone now after paying for food. As long as we have enough money to get to District meeting in Claveria we should be fine.)  It's still a great day though and always a great week!

Speaking of great days, Saturday and Sunday ended up really nice especially in light of how Christmas went (to put it euphemistically it was wet and we didn't get to teach any lessons, but it was still a great day too!). We had a lesson with Bro. Gladwin who is a really intelligent Filipino that doesn't really have a religious affiliation but he reads the Bible everyday and believes in personal revelation from the scriptures.  We talked about the Apostasy and Joseph Smith and somehow we got talking about how he wants to strengthen his relationship with God and a little about the Plan of Salvation. We encouraged him to read and pray and if he does he'll get personal revelation. Great lesson.  Then we taught John Paul and Menchy. They're getting married today (they have two little kids already) and they both came to church yesterday which means they can be baptized in three weeks!!!! (assuming they keep coming to church).  I'll also talk about the Ramirez family. They live right next door to JP and Menchy and both of their families are really poor the only difference is that the Ramirez family has a ton of kids and grandkids.  Nanay and Tatay ate really fast to they could come over and listen to us talk with JP and Menchy. That's a pretty good indication of how much they love us and love hearing our message.  The Ramirez family can be baptized in two weeks if they come to church as well, but their daughter Jenny Ann really wanted to be baptized and she has been to church every week since before I've been here so we decided she could.  

On Sunday we got to teach to another really great couple that wants to get married soon and then baptized.  Their names are Rex and Shella.  They came to church as well and Shella really has a desire to be baptized.  She read all the way into Alma in only 8 weeks!  She loves the gospel.  I taught the gospel principles class since the Branch is so small here and our lesson was on tithing.  After class Shella asked Elder Ramsay to get her a tithing slip so she could make a donation even though she's not a member yet!  That's some serious faith in the Lord.

Well I'm looking forward to some exciting things in this area and the work is progressing even though it's been the hardest this past week and probably just as hard this week.  Thanks for the emails, those were perfect.  Thanks for the support, prayers and love ibinibigay ninyo sa akin (you give to me).

Mahal ko kayo lahat

Happy New Year!

-Elder Egan

P.S. I can't believe you're doing another high school get together and going to Cancun.  Sounds like Christmas was good and simple.  So I feel fine on my own, I hardly ever cook because everyone I've been with has been better than me, but I made French toast this morning :) I would say make Kolsen wash the dishes by hand more often because I really wish I would've just jumped in and done it sometimes.  It's pretty much what I do when my companion is cooking.  Learn how to budget money and time...better to learn that one earlier.  Basically like dad says, learn to work hard.

P.P.S. Everyone here that has seen a picture of Kolsen with long hair thinks he's a skater punk. Girls like shorter hair on guys. I hope he likes girls more than I did in whatever grade he's in now, they're more fun.  Emma can't date until she's 18 though, sorry.  It's good she's friends with Carlee again now stay like that! And be friends with Mikalyn and Kaden's sister (freak I'm already forgetting people's names).  Mia has always been a little bit of a diva, but she's a cutie...maybe you should send a little picture of her being cute to me because I bet the kids here would love to see a little American girl. (and I want more pictures, old ones too).

 

The new digs in Pagupud

Elder Egan sleeps on the bottom

Hmm...could be worse??