Family

yo i'm not sure if i can call this week but we can kinda message each other in a little while. I'm just going to send out messages to others real quick and then i'll use the hangout thing when i have the chance but you should send me back an email real quick to let me know if you're actually awake....

well crap i didn't actually read your email till now.... I was surprised to actually find myself tearing up in an internetan of all places. Well that's not exactly the kind of news I was expecting to get this week. (my dad is refusing any further medical treatment and his heart seems to be failing) Kinda makes everything else seem immensely less important. But I think that's kinda what i really realized this past transfer or so, that family really truly is an eternal thing. I always "knew" that before but it has just seemed to have had a special emphasis recently. 

Here in the Philippines people of course don't exactly have it as easy as others. Especially here in the Bukid where I serve. everyone has really humble lifestyles. There are a lot of people who just live in small little bamboo huts with not a whole lot else other than basic cooking materials and clothes. But because of that, Family has a very special place in the hearts of the people here. All that people really want is to be with their families. They don't need a whole lot else other than that. I guess I also just started to realize how much the gospel truly has blessed me and my family. That's one of the basic principals that we always share but it was just about a transfer or 2 ago that I really recognized how blessed I've been because of the gospel. I guess I'd really just like to thank you guys (my family) all the much more because of that. I've come across a number of families that I can only imagine how much better there lives would be if they received the gospel or how much more united their families would be if they supported one another more through the gospel. I've only made it this far because of how much the gospel has been in my life because of goodly parents, supportive siblings and their examples, and the love and support of my extended family as well. The gospel truly does bless families. Families truly are made eternal through his gospel. And because of all that, I know that what ever happens, I'll see grandpa again. I only wish I could thank him for how much he's really been a part of my life in helping strengthen me in the gospel. Even if I didn't get to actually spend a lot of my life with him, he's been extremely influential to me and our family and I just really hopes he knows how much i love him and how much I appreciate all that he's done for me.

ya i can't really write anything else other than that,
elder shirley

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
my camera died when we were going up to the falls for our zone activity so hopefully next week I can get the pics from someone and send them to you. but ya there's pics from my exchanges with my zone leader and my speaker that got bamboofied.

9 months na!

yo i just realized i hit my 9 month mark today, that's craaaaaaaaaaazy. Paspas lagi ang mission. That's like the halfway mark for my sister batch, what the heck. I feel like so much has happened but at the same time I feel like I literally just started my mission. Where does the time go? 

Basta, it's been a crazy ride. I've changed and learned so much. I never really understood what to expect for my mission. Nobody was very good at describing what the mission is like and I totally get why kay it's freaking impossible to describe. I can't really describe why I'm so happy doing what I'm doing kay logically I shouldn't be this happy. Like all I really do is face rejection everyday on top of everything else that goes wrong (aka getting worms, Dengue, hard companions, etc.), but somehow I'm still super happy doing the work. I guess there just reached a point where I started recognizing that there's way more blessings in what i do than burdens. Even though the trials seem to outweigh the blessings, I realized that for every trial there really is a ton of blessings that follow, even if we don't seem them immediately. Ya I still can't really describe what the mission is actually like but all I can really say is that it's worth it. It's so worth it. It's worth every rejection, every sickness, every trial or burden that I have to face. The work is ridiculously hard, but with everything that has happened and all that will happen, I know I wouldn't trade anything in the world for this opportunity I have now.

ya that'll be it for now, kana
Elder Shirley
















some sort of homemade forge ...

power outage?  studying by candle light ...

Weeks of March 5 & 12

** I was out of town, so I didn't get his emails posted**

March 5:

cge so ya i didn't email last week tungod sa video call. my emails are probably going to get a lot worse now because of that but I'll still try to write at least a little bit. This past week we visited a ton of members and Elder Swain told goodbye to everyone because he "for sure" was going to transfer. hahaha jokes, after having a farewell party and everything, Elder Swain is staying in Zamboanguita. So ya I'm not training this transfer, probably next though. It's all good though, Elder Swain is a good companion so no complaints there. 

Right now we're just really trying to get our people with baptismal dates to actually keep commitments. Mostly people just have a hard time finding a desire to actually start reading the book of mormon, or going to church, or whatever. Basta it's annoying. Just read the darn book. you'll get all the answers you'll ever need there. It seems so simple but it just doesn't connect with people. Hopefully we can start making progress though with them.

 Aaaaaaaaaaaaand ya I want to videocall now so this'll be all I write for now.

Yup,
Elder Shirley
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** This is a picture I emailed to Spencer.  It's from the Rome Temple dedication.  The photographer is from Deseret News and is a friend of Sharon's and took hers & my dad's wedding photos (Jeff Allred)**

March 12:

but dang that's cool, I kinda forgot that they were building a temple in Rome... But ya dang that's awesome.

This past week was kinda interesting. Elder Swain and I just decided we were going to try contacting any potential person or referral all on one day.... Ya it didn't work out, got punted from everything. BUT the next day we did manage to contact a referral and we started teaching this young couple and a member's niece. They were pretty receptive and open to listening so hopefully that'll work out. 

We also found this Less Active that we had been trying to contact for some time and when we first walked up he just kept saying "I'm catholic, ya I went to your church before, but I'm catholic again." and ya he was boarder-line just yelling at us so we just kinda stood there kay the only thing we had even said up to this point was "maayong gabii" (good evening) which some how triggered this long rant. But ya we basically just told the guy like "hey listen, we just want to help you out, we're not going to force you to sit down and listen to us or anything. We just wanted to see if there was anything we could do to help out." Which then triggered another rant about how life is really hard but ya loooong story short, we were actually joking around with the guy by the end of it. So ya never doubt how meaningful it is to show your care for others, even if all you do is offer to help in one way or another. It helps a whole lot more than you'd think. But siempre there's other stuff that happened this past week but that was probably my favorite part of the week.

Love ya!
Elder Shirley















** Back of a Jeepney?  breaking rules .... **











** He takes LOTS of sunset pictures!  

They are beautiful... **



** Learning/helping make brooms**



**Elder Swain's farewell ... 

Oops!! staying one more transfer!**





**Apparently these are Mango trees ... the newspaper is to protect the fruit somehow?**