Saturday, June 30, 2012

Epic Week In The Life Of Da Beej! :) Received 6-27-2012

Mommaaaaaaa!  Oooooooooooo! (Let go)  Didn't mean to make ya cry, if I'm not back again this time tomorroooooow, carry on, carry on...... Whoops got carried away :o)

Hey y'all!  Pretty eventfully EPIC week in the life of Beej :)  LOTS of surprises, fun, and partying going on here in Batasan 2nd ward.
So yup, we had a baptism this last weekend.  We got to baptize Novelyn after an absolute ROLLER COASTER of a night :) 

The baptism was planned for 6pm so me and Elder Compao stopped by the chapel at 5pm to make sure things were all good to go.  When we got there the baptismal font was already filled..... with yellow, stinky water that looked like it came straight from the river. "No worries" I thought, "We'll just drain it now and fill it back up when we come back.  So we drained the font and then went home so Elder Compao could change his shirt because his red pen had exploded.

When we got back Sister Jonah (an RM and our ward Single Adult leader) was freaking out.  I thought she was just tired because she told us that she had been baptized for the dead 70 TIMES(no joke:) that morning.  But she told us that there was no water to fill the font because the water company had shut off water to the chapel..... WHOOPS.  At this point it was about 5:50 and Novelyn showed up with her family and a friend from their neighborhood.

Elder Hoyo-A, Compao, and  BJ with the great water tank
Someone said we could call a company to deliver the water so we decided to do that.  They said it would take about 30 minutes to send the water.  So we waited... and waited... and waited.  It took the water 1 and a half hours to get there!!  hahaha.  So they finally got there around 8:00 with a great big water tank and filled up the baptismal font with fire hoses.  EPIC!! :)  So yup. That was quite the experience and I don't think I'll forget that baptism :)
 
Baptismal Font Filling Epicness!
Another surprise this week?  I'm getting transferred?!  Pretty quick and pretty sad.  I love this area and the people here are awesome.  Elder Compao has been here for about 5 months so I thought he would be out and I would stay but we're both leaving now.  It's too bad, we just started teaching a few people that are on the road to baptism, I hope the elders that take over for us can help them continue to progress and get baptized.

Also SUPER lame because I'm gonna be in a new area with people I don't know yet for my birthday.  Mama Bagang was gonna prepare dinner a cake and videoke for my birthday next week haha.  AWWW MAN!!!! :P

I was so surprised I'm nowhere near ready to pack and I don't even know where I would want to go next.  Whatever works I guess.  It would be fun to go to the province areas but I had a little of that here and the city isn't all that bad either.  Here's the Zones again.  Take your best guess.  PROVINCE: Montalban, Baliwag, Malolos, SJDM.  CITY: Caloocan, Valenzuela, Novaliches, Fairview.  Remember, even though I've been to a zone I can still go back... hope it's not Caloocan.. haha joke (knock on wood:)  My guess?  Caloocan or Baliwag.... But we'll see :)

So yup.  I'm gonna go say goodbye to the AWESOME people in this ward.  Hope y'all have a fantastimagical week! :)

And yes. I am SUPER jealous that you got to celebrate Strawberry Days without me.  Did you send free strawberries n' cream in the package? :)  Oh ya, haven't gotten it yet but I might get it tomorrow when we transfer.

MAHAL KITA!
Elder Da Beej :)

Mama Bagang! :D














P.P.S-That's cool you sang Called to Serve last week!  Was it just you guys and the priests?  Anyone with a new mission call or that left recently?  Love ya!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Three Baptismal Dates!!!! :D Received 6-18-2012

Hey yous! :)

Hahaha, that was quite the surprise this morning to see your number calling me.  I had just seen that I had missed your call and was wondering "What's going on?" when you called again.  Great to hear your voices and that your staying happy despite a tough week.

Glad to hear that Aunt Chris passed peacefully and that she no longer has to suffer.  She's always been so kind and loving to all of us and I'll miss her.  I think my favorite memory of Aunt Chris was back when I was only 10 years old... maybe younger like 7 and Grandpa Slater and I would mow her lawn.  I was a little shy and didn't know her too well then but she was always so kind to me and I remember having fun with her and her dogs Elvis and Paco :)  There really is great comfort in the knowledge we have that life didn't start here and it doesn't end here either.  The Plan of Salvation is my favorite lesson to teach :)  Hope things go well with the funeral and that you don't all stress out too much.  It'll go great.  Send my love to everyone and let them know I'm praying for them.  Lemme know if there's anything I can do to help.

Left to Right- Aunt Nancy, Elder Powell, and Aunt Chris
Love Ya Chris!!
There have already been 2 typhoons I think but they were mostly in the southern Philippines.  We got a pretty awesome storm last night but that's been it here.  I feel bad for saying it but I'm excited to experience a typhoon :)  There's not too much in the way of natural disasters in Utah so this will be a first for me.  Apparently the flooding gets really bad, especially near the "beautiful" "clean" (...not really:) rivers.  I'll let ya know if we get one.  Haven't heard bout the earthquake, sounds cool though :o)

We're still not teaching very many people but the people we are teaching are progressing a bunch! :)  We've got 3 people that have baptismal dates and 1 person that just needs to get married so he can get baptized.  Woot! :)

One of them, Novelyn Bagang (16), is getting baptized this weekend.  Her family is SO awesome! :)  They're the ones we went to for E. Compao's birthday and we're super close with them.  We call her mom our nanay and she's like our kapatid :)  She actually reminds me a bit of Chelsey haha.  Super fun :)I'm famous in their neighborhood because they own a tindahan(the mini drug store in a house I told ya bout last week) and I always sell stuff for them haha.  The kids are always staring in their windows and yelling Hey Joe! at us :)  So she'll be baptized this weekend.  Woot! :)

Another one is Ronnie Eduria who's 17.  When we started teaching he was SUPER shy and didn't talk at all but he's opened up a bit and is even taking Seminary! :D  Woot!  He's gonna get baptized on July 7.
Another is Andrea Keil.  She's Aleli's(the girl we baptized June 3) cousin.  She's more shy than Aleli but is super nice.  Her dad is a really fun joker and her mom's Catholic but really nice too.  Hopefully we'll be able to teach her mom too.

So yup!  Nothing out of the ordinary going on.... but I did eat a chicken head the other day :)  Pretty pointless.  There's no meat on there but the brain and the eyes really. Hahaha, don't worry I skipped the brain and eyes but the rest was mostly bones.

Go Thunder!!!!  Everyone in the Philippines is either obsessed with Kobe and the Lakers or LeBron and the Heat.  Lame sauce!  Haha, you'll hafta cheer on Kevin Durrant for me.  Another thought.  Not sure if I'm more of a fan of James Harden or his beard... They're both kinda epic :)

Happy Father's Day Pops!!! :D  Thanks for the great example you've always been.  Miss and love ya! :)  It was pretty funny hearing mom say "Happy TatAy's Day" instead of Happy Tatay's Day (More like Tawt-I:)  haha, hope it was a good one for y'all.

PICS
We found a really weird fish on the edge of the river on the way to an appointment.  We only have 3 members and 2 people we're teaching there right now and they don't seem too interested at all at this point.  So I'm not sure if we go there to teach or for the cool riverside walk but it's worth it either way :)

One is Thomas, the one that needs to get married to get baptized.  He's SUPER nice and referred his aunt and her family to us this last week and they seem interested to listen too.... WOOT! :)

The one with the SUPER cute kid is part of the Monreal Family (Thomas is part of it too).  Haha, the cute one's name is Brix and he reminds me a bit of Blakers :)  There family actually reminds me of our Slater family on a family reunion.  They all live in the same house (about 5 of Sister Monreal's 7 kids and then her grandchildren) and they have no power.  Reminds me of camping out with the Slaters :)  The kids all flock to me and hang off my arms and legs hahaha.  It's a blast :)

I think me and E Compao might both be getting transferred next week.  It's really too bad because I already love this area.  The people are so cool and I've had a lot of fun here and I'll miss em if we're both out.  Transfer week is next week so I'll be emailing y'all on Wednesday.

LOVE YA!!!  Have a great week! :)
Da Beej

Happy B-Day Elder Compao-(Received-06-11-2012)

Hiya! :)

So we had another good week :)  We're still trying to get things rolling here but we've got another baptism coming up on the 23rd :)  Elder Montemayor e-mailed me and said that they'll be baptizing 3 of our investigators on the 23rd too.  Woot! :)

It actually wasn't too rainy this week.  Pretty weird.  It was always cloudy and looked like it was gonna storm bad but nothing ended up happening.  Oh well, we're supposed to get 2 more tropical storms this month so it should be fun :)  Didn't end up meeting those referrals cuz they were all too busy.  We're gonna meet one on Wednesday though.  Yup, that apartment is where we live, it's actually really nice for our mission.  For P-days we play bball, wash clothes, rest, and email.  Nothin too exciting.  It's really fun to have 4 in the house cuz there's more people to talk to but it's not SUPER exciting :)  One of our housemates is close to going home and he's really serious and strict. No fun haha, but he's still cool.

That's great that Devin's home! :D  Tell him hi and congrats for me.  Too bad Pam's parents didn't get assigned in the Philippines, would've been fun :)

Haha, other than wanting to dunk myself baptisms are great! haha :)  It's very very cool to help someone find the way to follow Christ and to help them "enter at the gate."  For me, the people that I've come in contact with haven't so much had a 'mighty change' as much as found the right way.  A lot of the people we teach seem to be searching and helping them and teaching them how the gospel's helped my life and how it can help their's is great!
My favorite part of the mission so far is just the growth I've felt; seeing how far I've come and how much Heavenly Father has helped me to get where I am.  The mission's tough but and so is life but as we trust in Heavenly Father and try our best, things work out :)

I'll try and think of my favorite experiences from each area for ya and let ya know next week :)  Obviously there's a bunch of em haha.

Elder Compao's great! :)  We're having a blast out here.  Last week was his birthday and we had a BIG party with our favorite family here :)  They bought a big ol cake for him and made a big lunch for us, it was fun.  The language they speak where he's from is called Ilonggo.  Don't know too much of it but it sounds kinda funny and nothing like Tagalog haha :)  So Illonggo is his first language and Tagalog is his second.  He's fluent in both and can understand English mostly but doesn't speak it much.  He's really into basketball and is a Heat fan.  Me?  I'm an anti-Heat fan haha :)  And I like Kevin Durrant and the Thunder so put my money on them :)

Holy freak!  Every week of sports news makes me more excited to get home and help coach a couple of stars again! :)  That's great that Hunter's getting his chance to pitch again!  How's his hitting?  I'm thinking if Kylee had been there they'd definitely be undefeated!  Man!  It sounds like they're doing better than I did!  Way to go!

Tell Bud happy birthday for me!  I remembered for sure but didn't remember to wish him a good one.  Glad things are goin well for him now job-wise. Hope he can find somethin closer to ya so he doesn't hafta to leave!  Tell hi hey and I'll learn how to make chicken adobo for him before I get home.

Hahaha!  Please tell me you got a pic of her with the old guys! :)  Cool beans

Aww man!  I didn't get the Gpa picture but I bet it was epic :)  Nachoooooooooo!  Sometimes when you are a man.... alone in your room.... you wear strechy pants.  It's for fun.  hahaha!!! :D  I miss it, good times :)  Can't wait to get back with ya and watch it :)

Coolest thing ever the other night haha :)  We've got a family here that's our favorite in the ward.  They're the Bagang family.  The baptism we'll have on the 23rd is Novelyn, Sister's 16 yr-old daughter.  We call Sister Bagang our nanay and she calls us her anak haha.  So Sister Bagang owns a tindahan.  Kinda like a drug store but it's just in a house and people outside walk up to the window and buy stuff.  Last night while we were eating dinner there and they put me in charge of selling things to all the kids in Tagalog.  It was a blast haha, all the kids there are obsessed with me cuz I'm an American so I sold stuff and played with them for almost 20 minutes haha.  Cool beans :)

GUAPO!!

~Peek-A-Boo~

Love ya TONS!!! :)  Look forward to da emails every week!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY POPS!!! Love and miss ya! :)

I'M HUNGRY!!!!!


Pics:
Elder Compao's Birthday epicness
and....
Boog gets bored with a buncha bananas :o)
and....
Cockroach get's the "Ring of Fire" :)
LOVE YA!

Aleli Got Baptized! :D (Received-06-04-2012)

Hiya Ma! :D

Haha, I'm gettin a lot better at taking pictures for ya mom!  This area's REALLY nice and it's actually really close to Montalban, the mountainous area of the mission.  The weed whacking was right outside our subdivision.  The tree lined street was close to our stake center.  The nice white building was next to the entrance of the temple with a bunch of LA's and Investigators at Temple Tour.  The Temple is only about 45 minutes away from us here. Whew!  All answered hehe :)  Don't worry about asking too many questions!  I like answering them for you!

So we had a pretty good week and.... Aleli got baptized! :D  She's 10 years old and visits her Gma during the Summer vacation.  Summer vacation actually ended today in the Pines and she'll visit her Gma every Sunday and go to church here.  Her situation is that her mother has been inactive for a while and her dad is not a member.  We met her mom last weekend and she wants to come back to church so we'll be teaching them when they visit on weekends.  Her Gma actually married a German so their whole family is HUGE! Well... for Filipinos :)  I got to baptize her.  I always feel jealous of the people getting baptized cuz they get to dip their heads under the water.  It always feels perfectly cool for swimming haha :o)

Thanks for the encouragement with talking to people and not being shy it helps :)  We actually got 4 referrals this weekend from members so hopefully we'll be able to start teaching them (Hope and pray:)

Elder Sidillo and Montemayor are doing great.  Elder Montemayor's still in Meycauayan and his companion is Elder Calinog from the MTC.  They're probably having a blast :)  They baptized one of our investigators (May-May Daquioag) on May 26.  WooHoo! :)  Elder Sidillo's a..... Zone Leader! :)  When we split up he trained again and became a District leader and now he's been a ZL for 2 transfers.  Woot! :)  I got the SD card from him and I'll try and figure out the CD thing.  Now worries, they're not full.

Chapman Music's going to NY??? Woot! :D  That would be awesome if they got on the David Letterman show!  Make sure and tape it for me if they do :)  Tell Ashlyn she can do it! :)  Let Hunter and Kylee know I'm proud of their STAR athleticism and to keep up the good work :)

That is SOOOOO cool about your job mom!  You keep up the good work and you'll end up being the District Superintendent or something haha :)  Proud of ya!
Hate to cut it short but I've gotta run do that missionary thing :)  Let everyone know I love em!
DA BEEJ





P.S.
It's VERY rainy.  Supposed to be 3 typhoons in June.
The Keil's house flooded a tiny bit while we were teaching and I ate a footlong while Elder Compao attempted to :o)
Baptism! :D

Much Anticipated Visit From Elder Russell M. Nelson (Received-05-30-2012)


Hiya! :D

How is my fantastimagical family this week? :)  We had a pretty intense week.  Not too many people to teach here and I'm still getting used to the area so things are going a little bit slow.  Elder Compao is a lot of fun still :)  The apartment's not bad at all.  2 stories with a little tiny balcony.  It even has chandeliers in the kitchen!  It's always hot though... Thinking we'll have to buy some Air Con haha.  We've had a couple of cockroaches but the ants aren't nearly as bad as Panghulo and Meycauayan.  There aren't very many lizards at all though :(  haha, no worries.  I'll send ya a picture of it.
So I just tried it on GoogleMaps and if you search "Northview 1, Batasan Hills, Quezon City" It'll show our subdivision.  Then we're the 3rd to last house on Citrine St.  It's the small Orange roof close to Moonstone St.  Good luck! :)

Elder Russell M. Nelson was awesome!  The spirit was super strong with him, especially when I got to shake his hand.  He was super smiley and seemed really happy to be there.  He talked to us about our Purpose as missionaries and how it helps move forward the purpose of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the church, the Priesthood, the Book of Mormon and all sorts of stuff.  Pretty cool :)  Like I said the coolest part was just being in the presence of an Apostle and feeling his spirit.  Not sure why he was visiting the Philippines but we were lucky enough to hear from him.  When he spake to us the WHOLE mission got together to listen to him.  Which means I saw all my companions, friends, MTC batch, the works :)  Fun stuff.  We got a 4-generation mission family picture haha :)  Elder Kessler (Tall guy) is my lolo (Grandfather), Elder Sidillo is tatay (Father), Elder Montemayor is my anak (Child/Son), Elder Green (far right) is my kapatid (Sibling/Brother), and Elder.... on the far left is my tito (Uncle). haha Woot! :)

Devin Eddington is coming home from the mish??  That's crazy!  Time is super slow but super fast at the same time haha :)  Tell him hi and congrats for me.  Wow, 2 farewell talks in a row?  Our wards starting to explode with missionary work huh?  Neat stuff!

Woot!  Way to go on graduating Heather! :D  Umm.... I'm thinking you and Chelsey need to be roommates at Snow. Yup. For sure.  Haha, congrats! :)

Man I'm missing out on the beginnings of a couple future sports stars eh?  Way to go you 2!  Keep up the good work! Did Hunter end up doing that Bantam Ball League?  Hahaha, I remember Fishin in the Dark song!  haha it's stuck in my head now! Blech! :P  haha good times.  Kid looks old!  Pretty epic Avengers fingernails Ky! haha, which one's your favorite?

What in the world?  The basement looks awesome!!  Man, now I feel like I'm missin out on the work, no fair! :)  Looks good, I thought it would never look like that haha.  Pretty nice :)  Awesome pics!!  Like the birdfeeder pops! :)  Keep the pics comin, I love em! :)

So we've hopefully got a baptism this weekend! :D  Her name is Aleli Keil, she 10 years old, SUPER smart, been attending primary for a long time and has been visiting her Gma for the summer.  Pretty excited. Other than her though we aren't teaching hardly any people haha.  Elder Compao only knows a small part of our area because it's the only place they went so we only know a few people in that area and after that we're out of luck :P  There's 3 investigators and 3 LA families... hoping we can find LOTS of people this week so if you're looking for something to pray for, that would be good ;)  I've always been too shy to tell random people about the Gospel but I'm hopin I can shake that off this week :)

Love ya TONS!!!  Let me know if I can do anything for yall or pray for anyone or anything specifically :)

MAHAL KITA.
ElDeR PoWelL

P.S.-That guy in the weeds?  He weed-whacked that ENTIRE field... YIKES!!  I'll never whine in yardwork again! Well... ok ya I will :o)

Sunday, June 3, 2012

On the road again, it's Transfer time!! YIPPEE :D (Received-05-21-2012)


Hiya! :D

So... I got transferred last week... to....... FAIRVIEW!  Good work Pops!  You get the extra piece of cheesecake! :D  I'm in the Batasan Hills 2nd ward which means that there are LOTS of BIG hills and.... A mountain! :D  It's close by where I can see it, but far away enough that we don't go to it.  Pretty sweet :)

Yup, it kinda feels like starting all over again and I'm SUPER excited to have a new beginning and start having fun and doing great things from the beginning :)  The people here are super cool and fun and I'm way excited to start working with them and helping people come closer to Christ.

Transfer day is lots of fun.  All of the Elders that are transferring go to a chapel in the middle of the mission with their companions.  There we have a meeting with the Mission President, his wife, and all the office missionaries.  After they give talks the AP's announce who is being assigned where by Zone.  It's really exciting and I always get butterflies in my stomach haha :)  After you find out where you're going you take your bags out of the jeepney you came in, stick them in the one going to your new home and take off with your new companion and Zone mates.

My companion is.... A Filipino! :D  His name is Edger Compao from Bacolod City.  He said that Mitch Wade had his 2nd to last area in his ward.  Elder Compao played basketball and worked with him all the time haha.  Small world and cool beans! :)  He's in his 3rd transfer and just finished his Training which means I'm a Follow-up trainer.... Cool :)  He's super nice, fun and likes playing basketball even though he's 5 feet tall haha :)  He's pretty good too!

So Elder Compao has been in this ward for 3 months so he knows the area and people pretty well.  His companion was a BIIIIIG Tongan guy from California named Elder Vea.  E.V. was here for 6 months so the people miss him but have warmed up to me pretty quick.  I'm trying to make a good first impression on everybody because it seems like that's a LOT easier than trying to change people's opinions of you :)  Just having fun, being happy, and messing around with everyone we've met so far.  At times I feel a little uncomfortable or out of place with it but it's been a lot of fun :)  Elder Vea and Elder Compao didn't have a lot of people to teach but those that they did focus on have made big progress.  In the last 5 days we gave out 3 Baptismal Dates to people during June and it seems like they'll keep em! :D  Pretty excited about working here :)

The house and neighborhood we live in are super nice!  There are 4 missionaries in our house which is a first for me.  Our housemates are Elder Cresswell (My Zone Leader for the last 2 transfers) and Elder Hoyo-A (A brand new missionary or ang anak ni Elder Cresswell:).  They're both fun and Elder Cresswell's super hard working.  He's going home in August so he'll die in this area :)

If you wanna find out where I am you can look up Batasan Hills, Quezon City on Google or look up Batasan Hills 2nd Ward on LDS.org.  It's almost as far away as I can get from from my first 2 areas and is a BIG city area.  Pretty cool though, it's nice and clean and our subdivision we live in is quiet.  We actually live a couple minutes away from the House of Representatives of the Philippines.  Pretty cool :)

So Elder Montemayor ended up staying in Meycauayan which'll be great.  The people love him there haha.  Guess who his new companion is?  Elder Calinog!!  My comp from the MTC!  Haha, they're both awesome and SUPER funny.  They're gonna do great work and have a BLAST in that ward :)

Holy freaking tawale our family is full of Sports Stars!!!!  That's SOO cool that Kylee won the game in 2OT, (softball), and that Hunter scored FIVE?! goals in one game! (soccer) I'm kinda sorta jealous that he gets to play ball with Big T at age 9 haha.  Sounds like that is a good basketball group for him to stick with ;)

Haha, sounds like that Fingerprinting job is a BLAST! :)  Are you still enjoying it as much as you were?  It sounds like you're having fun meeting all types of new people and seeing familiar faces.  Tell those you see I say hi :)

Wow, it sounds like your a computer genius now!  Labeling pics??  Haha, good work! :)  I'll try and label em when I have time.  And I'll try and figure out if I can fix those other ones.  We'll see what happens :)

SOOO stoked for Elder Russel M. Nelson! :)  I'll let ya know how it goes :)

MAHAL KITA!!!  Sorry if I left questions unanswered, let me know about any new ones next week.

Elder Powell :)

P.S.-The computer doesn't have a program to send you pics.... LAME!  Sorry, next week :)