exciting changes

so first off the computer I'm using is pretty slow so I don't know if you'll be getting all of my pics today. 

But ya yo I can technically call you. We just have to figure out what the heck we'd use to call you. The problem is that we're not really allowed to use members' computers to email but we don't know what that means about calling kay for christmas and mother's day we normally use members' computers. Kay gawas sa members, there's like no place for us to call/video call or anything so we pretty much have to use the members computers if we are to call you. sooo ya we'll see, maybe next pday we'll try but no promises. 

But dang Peyton, Aubrey, and Josh are all back????? I swear they just left for their missions. That's so weird. Although I just realized I'm 1/3 of the way through my mission today.... Pastilan time really does fly on the mission. i'd ask you to ask them for good mission recipies but they all served in 1st world like countries... Ya the cook books you sent require an oven for pretty much everything so that was kind of a slap in the face hahaha. walay ovens diri. 

So the bikes are owned by the mission, like the mission paid for them I guess and then ya we technically "maintain" them with our limited knowledge of bike maintance. 

oh yo and my comp's name is Elder Swain, pasaylo hahah. I thought I already said that. 

As far as finding new people we've mostly been trying to work through Part member families and referrals but we've taught a couple people through tracting so ya we've just been trying different things out to find. As far as service goes, pretty much everyone has what's called an Aja-Aja attitude which is like "what's mine is mine" so like they pretty much just like to do things themselves so ya kinda limited on service opportunities but we've managed to do little things here and there. 

Oh yo i totally got the envolope btw, you can activate the card now. Thanks a ton! Love the pics! 

We actually go all the way to dumaguete most pdays to shop kay there's like nothing in Zamboanguita except small tindahans and sari-sari stores. There is a market place here though so we've been trying to ask members for recipes so that we can try cooking different things. 

I don't really have a favorite person in the branch yet, I really do like all the youth in the ward though. They're awesome. They're super supportive and actually help with the work here a lot. We don't really teach sunday school lessons but every 4th sunday we have to speak in sacrament meeting. So ya for my personal study this week I've just been writing a talk on Strengthening the Family with the Gospel. so ya that's been cool. There's so many examples in 1st Nephi, like morag nearly every chapter.

Sounds like you'll get to have some fun in the Snow... I'm actually really jealous, I miss the snow so much, but I am starting to get really used to the weather. Especially here in Zambo kay it's windy like all the time here so that's been awesome.

Love ya! hopefully I can upload the pics next week or something.

Elder Shirley


I can use google chat for family only and the only computers I could use to video chat would have to be with members

There seems to be something called "google meet" that looks like a video chat thing

***No video chat or phone call this week... still trying to figure it out***

Hello!

The work is doing alright. Still just struggling with finding new people but that'll always be the struggle. We generally bike most of the time unless we're going to an area that's like waaaaay out there, then we normally take a bus. We do have a couple new investigators. So 2 of them were actually medyo former investigators so they actually came up to us in Church and pretty much just asked when they could be baptized so that was awesome. And then we have been running into a ton of people's extended family so we are really hoping that we can start visiting all of these people we keep running into randomly but ya we'll see. The branch is kinda small but I mean ya it's a branch. There church building is nice though kay it was built like 5 years ago. There apparently at one time was 2 sets of missionaries here but now it's just me and my companion. And ya we got "new emails" but ya they're just going to forward everything that gets sent from the old email to this one so don't worry about changing the address or anything. sorry I realized I haven't really been sharing that many spiritual experiences or anything in a while. So ya I guess one of the things that was cool for me this week was the opportunity to really explain how the atonement works to one of our recent converts. Kay usually when teaching about the atonement we don't go super in depth about how it works or anything but since this was like the 3 time she had been learning about Christ's atonement I decided we'd actually explain to her how it works and everything. It was super cool. It really strengthened my faith and kinda gave myself a reminder about how merciful and loving our heavenly father is and how incredible Christ's sacrifice really was. But ya i absolutely love it here. I think that my area might be one of the most beautiful places on earth. I'd 100% move here if I actually had money, a job, and a life. But ya it's just like life here is so much more simple and the nature here is absolutely incredible.

Ah man I miss real pizza.... It's been so long... And I can't wait to meet the puppy we should've gotten like 3 years ago. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that even happened but i mean I can't complain too much. There'll at least be a dog when I get back. Sorry Kinda tired so i'm cutting this short. Just look at my pics, I swear they'll make up for my lack of writing.

Love yous,
Elder Shirley


so quick explanation of the pics from this week. They burn the fields of sugar cane to like clean them or something??? so ya that's what the fire pics are (kay they always burn the fields at night) Then they also always make these rock piles in the fields from when they originally tried clearing the field for the Tubo so we took some dramatic pics on top of the rock piles. And then I also managed to find enough ingredients to make french toast so that was awesome.

yaaaaaaaaaaay bukid!

This past week was pretty fun. I got to go to a lot of fun places in my area. I got to go to Tubo fields for the first time so that was super fun. My area is like crazy fun like it's insane. It's still weird though kay even though I'm in the bukid I still see a ton of white people! My last area had a ton of tourist spots and now this area has a ton of resorts so there's still white people! It's just weird seeing non-filipinos. But ya good times all around. We had a FHE evening at a recent converts' house so we could get to know their family and ya so we got a couple new people there so hopefully that'll work out. Gihapon we commited couple more people to baptismal dates so hopefully we can work with them to help them meet that goal. It's been weird as a follow-up trainer kay it's like I have to know how to do everything kay my companion doesn't exactly know how to do everything but ya it's been a growing experience I guess. Kinda makes me have to do more, like I can just rely on my companion but I have to really push the work forward and act. It hasn't been easy but it's been good.

Yo what's up with the fish memes? walay claro ka, hahahah. Thanks for all the pics. What's up with y'all doing all these adventurous things without me? I don't think that's allowed, you gotta wait until I get back. I'm doing a lot better this transfer. When you get my next letter that's just like 5 pages of me complaining, don't be too concerned. I'm doing good now. But yo ma, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I know i'm early but ya I can't exactly email you on your birthday. Hope you're making the most of your birthday. I'd make you pecan waffles but ya I'm a little far away. Maybe when I get back. I'm kinda out of time so this'll have to be it for now.

Love yall! Hope everything is going great!
Elder Shirley

You were online way earlier than usual ...
it's cuz we have to wake up and get on a bus to email and shop in Dumaguette kay there's absolutely nothing in my zone.... Like it's bukid jud..So ya we generally email first

What are Tubo fields?
oh bitaw, wala mo kabalo bisya. Tubo = Sugar cane

was that the church building where ther basketball court was?
ya that was the church building. pasaylo, I haven't really gotten a good pic of the church yet

Island Life

yooooo my area is awesome!!! So Thursday I spent pretty much the entire day riding buses and ferries to get to Zamboanguita (my new area). I was with Elder Christiansen, Mobanta, and Bowers on the way down to Dumeguete (one of the biggest cities on Negros) and ya it was great. It's so awesome here. It's so bukid and I love it. We got like rice fields, a small town, sugar cane, the ocean, and like soooo much bukid it's amazing. Our area is like huge so we actually are in a biking area so that's been super fun. I think if I were to live in the philippines I'd live here in Zamboanguita. I honestly love it so much. So about my area and companion and all that. So my area is a branch so it has a fairly small number of members here. My companion is Elder Swain and he's from New Hampshire. So since I'm his follow-up training his bisaya is still semi-limited but he's getting there. That's like the super cool thing about this area. It's like bisaya jud. In Cebu the language is all mixed with tagalog and waray waray and just like everything so it's kinda hard to understand people there but here in Zamboanguita everyone just speaks bisaya so apparently I'm like actually pretty bisdak (fluent) and I didn't even know it. Like I can carry entire conversations and totally understand everything that people say. It's awesome, I love it. Still kinda just trying to figure out how to do missionary work but ya at least I can speak the language now hahaha.

Sooo my dengue I think I got from my house in Sikatuna kay there's a ton of mosquitoes by our desks so they bite us the entire time while we study bisan kon we have bug spray on. So ya. So the pic of my back is kay I guess sometimes Dengue discolors your skin and so when I had Dengue my back was the main thing that was affected so like my back just kinda felt broken the entire time so ya I got like this random brown spot on my spine. But ya so when I had dengue my fever spiked to 39.8 degrees celsius and my platelet count dropped below 80 so ya you can ask dad about what that means but in short it was very bad.

I have not got the envelope yet, it'll probably be a while before i do kay ya it takes forever for stuff to get to negros.

I'm doing good though. Finally have another companion I can get along with. I love yall and hope that yall don't worry too much about me. I'm doing much better now and I'm starting to enjoy the mission again.

Love yall!
Elder Shirley














So the tall red head is my comp.



 The guy that we're in a lot of pics with is a priest aged young man that kuyogs us a lot.

And then the dog is like the only golden retriever in like all of the philippines. his name is Linus



The pic with the ocean behind us has Apo island in the background gihapon.

















And the sisters we are with are investigators of ours that live in a community area that is literally paradise.



So if you look at the map of negros the tiny little island is right next to my area so if you zoom in you can probably find zamboanguita







the boy with the knife is the same priest that kuyogs us



What’s on your key chain that hangs on your belt loop?
so that's called puso. It's a mini version of it though. So puso is just cooked rice that they wrap in leaves to sell. So ya I have a couple keychains that have mini puso

my companion just happened to catch a frog