Hurricane Ruby December 7, 2014

Family and friends,

This week was quite an eventful week here in the Basud area. Pday was pretty normal, but we had an adventure of sorts this last Tuesday.This Tuesday, we decided to contact a person that we met a few weeks ago, who's parents were both members (His father has passed away now because of old age). The place that he lives in, San Jose, turns out to really be in the middle of nowhere... We took a Jeep from the centro of Basud to a place called Langga and started down one of the craziest, muddiest paths I've ever been on so far in my whole mission, and get this... there is a huge river at the end of it. It turns out that the river won't be a problem though because there is a raft there. Yes, we got to take a raft this week. It was a pretty cool experience and pretty safe, because it is attached to a rope thing that you can use to pull yourself across the river. When we got to the other side, we asked some people who were there if they knew the guy we are looking for, and they asked us if we were seriously going to go all the way there even though it's already afternoon. (It was about 3 or 4pm) We told them we were still going to go and they told us to just keep going left. They said it would take a long time if we take any right turns. We then proceeded into the depths of the jungle. It was the most middle of nowhere place I think I've ever been in in my life. after 15 or so minutes of walking through the crazy jungle, we found a house and asked the woman who lived there if we were still on the right path. She told us that we should probably leave and come back in the morning sometime because it was still really far away. We decided to go back. 

Everything went fine until we got back to the river. About halfway through the river crossing, we realized that we were standing on the wrong side of the raft with relation to the rope thing. The current of the river pushed the raft to the side and the rope into our sides and almost knocked Elder Bolambao into the river. We went under the rope and Elder Bolambao got pretty wet. When we made it back to the highway, we ran into Elder Morales, the couple missionary from Daet. We had a pretty good laugh when he saw how wet my companion was and when we told him what happened. We are probably going to try a different way to that guy's house next time. 

Other than that, the work is going well in Basud. We have a lot of less-active members who are progressing at least a little bit, and a lot of part-members to work with. One of our investigators is doing really well and we are teaching her cousin  still too. They are really open, and it is really refreshing. It is really nice to have people who are really interested. 

I also have some news about Brother S's friend. We went and taught him right before the bagyo came, and he is doing really well and is able to walk quite a bit now. He says that it still hurts to walk though. The lesson was really neat, and he actually read through the pamphlet we left him and asked a bunch of questions about the Book of Mormon, and who Mormon was. It was really nice to see that he is actually reading the stuff that we give to him and thinking about it. I think we will be able to see a lot of progression from him as his legs heal up completely and he is able to come to church.

The past couple days, as you all probably are aware of, the Philippines was hit by bagyo Ruby.  Fortunately, it hasn't been too bad here in Camarines Norte. I think it is a lot worse further down south. We had to stay in all day Saturday and Sunday. The work took a huge hit of course, but we are all safe, which I guess is the important thing. We just spent all day reading our scriptures (I took a look at the book of Ecclesiastes, which was pretty interesting), reading talks, playing cards, and listening to Christmas music. We also made some pancakes. 

I know that the Gospel is true and that our Heavenly Father loves us and that is why He sent His only begotten son to pay for our sins. I am thankful for this gift and for the opportunity I have to share it with others.

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Love you tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill