4/21/2014--Easter French Toast Fiasco and More

I will start by explaining what I mean what happened with our Easter dinner. Elder Sonderegger and I like to make french toast, so we decided to make that our easter dinner. The french toast turned out fine, but I can't say the same for the syrup... We totally boiled it way too long. I think it was up there at soft crack, if you know what I mean. That was a real sad thing. The pics are actually from the previous times we had french toast and not from Easter, if you are wondering though. Elder Sonderegger has the Easter pics. I think he is going to have to get us a new pot... (he is the supply manager for the mission). Sounds like Easter was pretty enjoyable at home too. It really just felt like a regular Sunday for me here. We did, however, have 3 investigators come to church this week. We picked one of them up and brought her with us. We were hoping that her less-active mother would join us too, but she didn't want to this week. Hopefully she will come soon. Our second investigator is about 10 years old and his father is a recent convert. The third is his cousin. We were really surprised to see her at church (or at least I was.) I didn't think that she was very interested, but you just never know. She is about 14 years old. It is neat to join others on their first time at church. I am getting to like the ward more and more too.

I really think I ought to get back into reading the Book of Mormon like I did when I read through it super quick. I really learned a lot. Dad's comments about Mormon made me think about it a lot. I actually just finished the church history book, "Our Heritage" this week. It was pretty good too.

We had some good success with a referral this week.  We were referred to a 20ish year old sister who had just lost her mother recently and her family. She has been really receptive as we have been teaching her about the plan of salvation. It is really neat to see things like that work out so well. 

In other news, this week was holy week here in the Philippines, which just means that people close their stores on Thursday and Friday and maybe Saturday, and that there are little to no jeeps on Friday. I didn't see any of the people crucifying themselves or anything like that, though. It has been really hot this week. Maybe that just contributed to the normalness of the week. 

I was just thinking about the adobo recipe I gave you a while ago. I don't think it is the best. The Zone Leaders made us adobo the other week, and it was way better. I think I would try adding some sugar to the recipe I gave you if you want to try it again, or you could probably find a better recipe online. 

I think that is going to be about it for me this week. I know the Gospel is true, and I am so thankful that I have it in my life, I really don't know where I would be without it. 

I love you guys tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

                                              Mt. Isarog

                                                                 Easter French Toast

4/14/2014

This week has been another crazy week in Naga City. 

We actually had the opportunity to attend a funeral for a less active member this week. It was a nice service, and it definitely made me think a lot. I thought about how important it is to have an eternal perspective. There really aren't any endings for us in this world, just short interruptions. It helps me to make it through the everyday trials that I face here. 

I have an exciting story that goes along with the funeral too. I sort of jumped out of a moving jeepney and landed flat on my bum... Of course, I had to be the one to stop the jeep... When I told the driver to stop, he pulled over like he was stopping and kinda slowed down, so my companion jumped off, and was fine, but as soon as I started jumping off, I found out that the driver wasn't stopping. The jeep started accelerating as I jumped off. I hit the ground feet first and  then knocked onto my bum. Ouch. Hopefully that doesn't happen again anytime soon. 

We have 3 investigators with baptismal dates now. One is the 9-10 year old son of a recent convert. He is doing really well, but they still miss church sometimes, so his date keeps having to be moved back. The other two are husband and wife. They have a 3-4 year old daughter too, but she isn't old enough to get baptized, of course. When we invited them to get baptized, the sister actually started crying. It was really wonderful and the spirit was strong. 

I really liked conference a lot. I didn't bring my notebook with me, and I am kind of having a stupor of thought about it right now, so I will try to bring it next week and talk about my thoughts about conference next week. I really liked the priesthood session though, as well as both of the Saturday sessions. I was super tired after conference and work was over yesterday.

I love you guys tons and hope you have a really good week! 

4/7/14

I'm excited for you guys to be starting a family missionary plan. You will have to let us all know about how it goes. I am super excited for conference too. We don't get to watch it until next weekend... It sounds like everything is going well back home, and I'm glad to hear it. 

I actually have a joke for all of you guys at home this time: Anong bansa ay hindi sa akin at hindi sa iyo? (Which country isn't mine and isn't yours?)

Wait for it...

Kenya!!! It is actually really funny, I promise. (Kenya sounds like kanya, the tagalog word for his or hers.).

I hope that you are able to get up from rolling on the floor laughing after that one, because I still have to tell you about the brownout. In case you are wondering, a brownout is basically just a power outage, and I am told that they are usually planned here. This past Wednesday we had a brownout that lasted from before we woke up (so maybe like 6 am) until at least 8pm. We had no electricity in our apartment, and therefore no water, because we use an electric pump to get water to our apartment. It was super hot, but we were still able to work like usual. When we got home at night we grabbed some snacks from the apartment and went and ate them on the roof of the apartment and watched to see when all of the lights in the city would go back on. It was a real relief when we got power back on. I am told that the brownout was nationwide and was done to save power etc. I'm not sure what I think of that. 

We actually got up early on Sunday, 5:45ish AM, in order to go and pick up a less active member and take him to church with us. When we got to his house, he asked if we were going to pick up  another family, an investigator famliy who he is friends with. We weren't planning on picking them up too, but we are really glad that we did, because two members of this family came to church with us (A lot of them were sick). It is really wonderful to see the happiness that the Gospel brings into others' lives. The 16- year- old investigator that we took with us told us that he had a really good feeling during church. It was really neat to share their first time at church with them. I think they are really going to progress a lot now. 

We meet so many new people all the time. It is really neat how many people are actually willing to listen to us here in Naga. People seem much more open here than they did in my last area. 

I just want to say thank you so much for how supportive you guys are of me on my mission. I am very thankful for the wonderful examples you have been to me growing up. 

I love you guys all tons,

Elder Benjamin Merrill

3/31/2014

It's been another crazy week. :)

I guess I will start on the final news from the Calabanga ward. This one is about Tatay. I am told that his wife said that he can "absolutely not" get baptized. I actually didn't get to be there for this conversation though. I am really sad to hear that. That is a really hard situation. I can't believe that that she won't let him get baptized... I guess our hope is that he will be able to fully accept the gospel in the next life. 

I am in Naga 3rd ward now, in the city. It is really different to be working in the city, but it is nice too. I am excited to see how everything ends up working out for us here in Naga. I have a feeling that we are really going to be able to turn this area around. 

I really loved the package. Especially the Nutrigrain. I forgot that those things existed. I love them. a lot. If it's alright, I'd like to request one of those big Sam's Club/Costco style boxes of them in my next package. I really appreciate the package and the notes from you guys. You can expect responses in 6-8 weeks, depending on how the mail goes.

Maybe I will tell you about some of our new investigators here. We met a lady when we were walking around talking to people and trying to familiarize ourselves with our new area. She was selling green mangoes, fried peanuts and yema. We decided to by some of her wares. The yema was delicious. She has about four sons who are all really nice. We haven't met her husband yet, but we hope he will be there when we are sometime. It is kind of hard to schedule lessons... We also have started teaching another sister who sells food on the street. She sells fried bananas and fried kamote. They are really, really good, and only 6 pesos a pop. She hasn't ever had the chance to get married, and she hasn't been super receptive to our message, but she is really nice to us, so we are hoping she might have a change of heart of sorts soon. 

I think I will tell about one more.  This man and his wife had been found by the previous elders, and are super nice. They are friends or family with a couple of older less active ladies who all come and listen when we teach. It is really amazing to teach them with all of their less active family members there with them. I always feel the spirit really strong when we teach them. It is really neat. 

I know that the church is true, and that Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and that His work and glory really is to bring about our immortality and eternal life. I am so thankful for the wonderful Earth He created for us to live on.

I love you guys tons,

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Ben's new district in Naga Third Ward

3/24/2014

Transfer announcements came this week. I'm leaving Calabanga. It really feels like I just got here. I can't believe how fast time is moving sometimes. I will definitely miss it here, especially the beautiful views of Isarog, and the nice ocean breeze. I will definitely miss the members and our investigators too. I feel like I am ready to move on though. I am so nervous and excited to see what happens tomorrow at the transfer meeting. Should be very interesting.

This weekend we got a lot of dinner/ lunch appointments. I am so stuffed right now. It is awesome. I really like the food here. We got a lot of fried chicken.

Unfortunately, due to my companion's sickness, the work kind of slowed down during most of the week. Things are still going really well with Tatay . He is really a nice man. I really hope that his wife will let him get baptized. It would be a real shame if she will not let him.

We have plans to hire a member to take all six of us out to Naga for the transfer meeting tomorrow as well as all six of our suitcases. I am interested to see how well we all fit. Should be pretty great.

The family we are working with is still doing really well. The dad is such a funny man, because he always speaks English to us, and is actually pretty good. He is at the point where he is really losing his accent, but he still says things in an awkward way sometimes, so it is pretty funny. I hope that he will be able to marry his wife. He has attended church for like three weeks in a row now, and we are very happy to see him becoming active again. Hopefully his daughter's baptism will follow soon. It is a wonderful thing to see people coming back to church.

In other news, it has been raining for a few days now, so it has cooled down a lot. I woke up this morning freezing cold. It was a wonderful feeling.

I hope everyone has a good week back home!

I love you tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Ben's district in Calabanga

3/17/14

This week was kinda a rough week for the work here in our area. We lost one of our investigator families, as well as another one of our investigators.The nanay of the family told us about how she usually tries to hide from us when she sees us coming, but she can't get away fast enough. She said that she didn't want to change religions, even though she felt good when she prayed about Joseph Smith. She told us that she doesn't really want us to come back. Our other investigator's father told us she is going to be away for a month or so to take care of her sick grandma. It sounds like a crazy story to us, so we think it was them trying to get us to stop coming over.

I thought I would share my Tagalog tracting techniques at the beginning of this email because I am going to be employing them a lot over the week, due to the handful of investigators that we lost this week. So here it goes:

The first thing I do do is say, "Tao po!" which means "people!" or "Person". This is the equivalent of knocking.

Next, I usually say good morning//afternoon/evening  "Maray na Aga/hapon/banggi po." (That one is in bikol.)

Then we ask if we can introduce ourselves, "Puwede po ba kaming makipagkilala po?" or "Puwede po ba kaming magpakilala sa inyo po?"

Then, we are either told that they are busy, or belong to the Iglesia, or we get to introduce ourselves "Kami po yung mga missionaries ng The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, dinadala po namin ang mga mensahe tungkol kay Jesucristo. Gusto po namin na makapagbahagi po sa inyo at sa inyong pamilya" and ask for their name, "Ano po ang pangalan n'yo? 

We then usually either proceed to teach then or find out when we can come over and teach them next, "Kailan po kaya yung pinakamakomportableng oras para makapagbahagi po kami sa inyo?" 

Usually if they set an appointment for later in the week we leave a pamphlet, introduce it, and ask them to read it. "May ibibigay po kami sa inyo. Tungkol po ito sa yung ibabahagi namin sa inyo. Gagawin n'yo po ba siyang basahin?"

That is pretty much it. I wish it were as easy to do as it is to type. It usually gets easier after the first couple houses though. 

 I also remember how Dad used to say his thing in Korean when we knelt down for family prayer. I was thinking it might be fun for you guys to try learning, "Let's pray!" in Tagalog/ Bikol. Tagalog: "manalangin tayo!" Bikol: "Magpangaje kita!" (The j sounds like a j in English). That will be fun, right?

I am pretty excited to see what happens come transfer day (and to get my package). Should be a lot of changes. I hope we can get a lot of new investigators this week during all of our finding. We are still doing really well with Tatay . We found out exactly how old he is too. He is 86 years old. Nanay has been gone for a few weeks by the way too. She is visiting her sibling who lives out in Siruma (really far away) and shouldn't be back for a few weeks. We hope that she will come around soon and let Tatay get baptized.

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well now. Just in time for spring break to be over... Don't have too much fun being back at school.

Love you guys tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

3/10/14

I really liked Dad's insight about how the Nephites never attacked the Lamanites in their strongholds. I remember noticing that in my last reading of the Book of Mormon, but not really thinking much of it at the time. I also remember really thinking the piano analogy.

In my scripture study this week, the Israelites finally got out of Egypt. I just can't believe how much Pharaoh hardened his heart. His heart must have been really hard. I think it helps me see that as hard as the hearts of some of the people we teach are, Pharaoh's heart was even harder, and Moses was able to, with a lot of help, to listen to what God was telling them.

Things are going pretty well with all of the people that we are teaching though. Tatay  is continuing to be very receptive with all of the messages that we have been sharing with him, and  the less active man, whose daughter we are teaching actually came to church this week. (He hasn't been in a really really long time.) We got another one of our investigators to come to church too. She is the one who seemed like she was always busy before, but now has started finding more time for us. We had one of the nearby members pick her up on her way to church. I think that she believes that the church is true, but does not really have a testimony of why it is important to go to church. Hopefully we will be able to help her with that. I think what we need is to do more finding. It is still pretty scary for me, but it usually yields results. We have a lot of tracting planned for this week, so wish me luck.

I hope everyone has a great week there. I will talk to you next week.

Love you all tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill