Baptisms!!

Monday, July 14, 2014

Dear Everyone,

Brian in a Tree

This past week has been bitter sweet. It was sweet because we had two baptisms. But it was bitter because the Raras family (they really aren't the Raras family but that's where we taught all of them) moved to Pangpanga. In other words we can't teach them anymore. :( That and we just had a really hard week last week. I feel like it’s part of the opposition in all things. When we have the most success Satan tries his hardest to make us falter by the way side. That is when your faith is truly tested.

So last Monday night was kinda frustrating because we taught one of our less actives and we both lost our tempers a little bit with him. He told us he didn't have enough money to go to church and we told him to stop buying beer and then he would... it worked out because the next day we made up with him. But he still didn't come to church. :/

Tuesday was a pretty good day. President Balledos came and interviewed Gina and Shareen for their baptism and he gave them the ok. :) We were pretty stoked. The rest of the day was pretty normal. We just taught some lessons but nothing special.

Wednesday we found 2 new investigators and they seem really sweet. Ellen and Robert. We found them in a new part of our area we hadn't been to yet. They were fairly receptive and we are going back to them sometime this week. It should be good.

Thursday I had to go to San Fernando for a District leader conference. It was really good. I learned a lot about marriage in the Philippines which is really complicated to be honest. haha They can't get divorced here. We have to be able to work with that because sometimes they separate and have kids with someone else but they are not married... yeah...

Brian, Elder Alonzo, Shareen, and Gina

Friday was just hard. I'll just leave it at that because all we did was walk around all day. It was hard.

Saturday was good because we had two Baptisms! :D Shareen and Gina were both Baptized. Elder Alonzo baptized them. It was awesome. It was kinda funny because Gina was scared and her knee kept coming out of the water so it took them three tries to get it right. haha.

Sunday was another hard day. Church was great and we had a less active family come to church that we weren't expecting, the Doctulero family. It was way cool. That night we didn't get a lot done. I don't know why. It's a little strange but we'll figure it out I'm sure.

Well that's all for now. Mahal kita!!!!!!

Elder Christensen

Some Kids Brian Met in His Area

From a Separate Email

* Can you us more about Gina and Shareen?
Well they are both 23. Gina has a daughter named Paula. So we had to make sure she could get baptized but we worked that out. They are just really good friends and we would teach them at Shareen’s house.

* What was a great teaching experience you had this week?

Maybe the one last night with the Doctulero family. Brother hasn't come to church in months but he just up and decided last Saturday that he was missing out on some blessings so they came to church. And when we came to their house that night he was joking around with us which he neverdoes... I mean never. Haha it was super cool to see the change.

* How is Edwin doing?
Well he has been in Manila so we haven't seen him for a week.


* I asked Brian about different tropical fruits he has had.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan

Rambutan? It's actually starting to be Rambutan season again. I had a lot in Baguio my fist few months here but haven't had any since. It is amazing not going to lie. The shell can be a little annoying but it does taste pretty awesome.

Big purple avocados? Not really but I have seen them around.

Mango catsup? No, but I have banana catsup all the time. It's awesome.

Green mangos? Those are everywhere. I mean everywhere. We eat those all the time. We dip them in stuff. To be honest when I first got here to Santa Cruz we had all you can eat Mangos. They were amazing but then it started raining and we didn't get any more. But for a while there people would just give us mangos, as many as we wanted for free. :D

Guava? I've had a lot of Guava too but we only get it when people give it to us.

Jackfruit
http://whatvegetarianseat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/jackfruit.jpg

Other fruits I haven't mentioned? Jack fruit. It's this huge fruit that grows everywhere. It's sweet and you have to put oil on your hands before you eat it because it’s so sticky. But it tastes pretty awesome.:)

* You said you received the package. What did you think?
I loved it. Beef jerkey is always good and thank you for the hi chew's and the sour patch kids we can't get those here. I've been giving away my butterscotch too, but the ants have also gotten in to them. :( But it's all good.