PHOTOS, PHOTOS, PHOTOS

small Jack Fruit



Sometimes, Missionaries have leadership meetings in areas that they served in earlier in their mission ... and sometimes, they get to see people from that area!

Sometimes you get stuck in the mud ... even cows ...

Elder Jones's favorite tie

Sometimes missionaries take naps ... aren't they cute when they sleep?!

Apparently missionaries LOVE taking pictures of bugs!

Sometimes, it's raining so hard you have to find a giant leaf to use as an umbrella!

yep, more bugs ...

mostly missionaries serve, but sometimes they get to wear the yellow vest...

LOTS of times, missionaries get to see AMAZING sunsets ....

This missionary is very proud of the shirt he designed ...

uh huh ... more bugs...

too bad I can't load the VIDEOS!!!

There is a CRAZY one of a little boy PLAYING with huge spiders!!

Tuesday September 10, 2019

Alright well this week was a little bit better. We finally had some of the people we're teaching come to church! They've wanted to come to church for a long time now, they've just been really shy about going because it's far and they thought they wouldn't know anyone. BUT it turned out really good! The mom and one of the sons of this family we've been teaching came to church and they loved it! They told us that they felt really welcomed and felt really good about being there. It was really inspiring to watch members come up on their own and talk with them. We didn't have to introduce them to anyone because everyone was already coming and introducing themselves to them. Just know that something as simple as introducing yourself can go a long way.

This week we've also just decided we'd look for returning members because we've been having trouble finding anyone new to teach. Well in just one day we found some really cool members that haven't been visited by anyone in a while. It's always a little interesting trying to contact members that haven't been to church or who haven't been visited in a while because you never know what to expect. But ya let's just say it definitely worked out this time. We also found a family that had been taught by missionaries about 22 years ago and they all still totally respect and like us missionaries! In fact one of them had actually walked up to us and showed us where she lived and told us to come back! Here in Toledo I feel like I haven't had a lot of good luck when it comes to finding but that was definitely a huge miracle for us after all the efforts we had made to find new people to teach.

I also just realized that I probably only have 3 weeks left here in Toledo and despite how hard the work has been here, I really appreciate the opportunities I've had to learn and to grow here. It's been exhausting but it's definitely been worth it. I've just been trying to focus on the positives a lot lately and it really does change your attitude about the work. It's been good.

yup,
Elder Shirley

probably gonna be a short email kay mom didn't write me

Tuesday August 27, 2019

well having a lack of motivation to write because my beloved mother has failed to write me, this'll probably be a short email.

Not a whole lot has really been happening these past couple weeks. There was transfers but ya Elder Jones and I are still together this next transfer so no big changes or anything. We've just been going through trying to find ANYONE who will just let us come back and visit them. We keeping getting the same "oh ya you can come back sometime" followed up with never actually getting to visit them. It's been really kapoy but we just keep trying. I'm not here to force anyone to listen to me and I can't expect everyone to want to listen to me so we just keep going until there is someone who wants to listen. It's been hard, but I mean i guess if it wasn't easy for Christ then there's absolutely no reason it should be easy for me.

Right now there's really just one family that we're really focusing on. They already really believe in everything. They just are really shy about going to church. Because they've never been before. We're really praying though that we can help them to try at least once. They're daughters that have gone to church before are going to be back this weekend so we're hoping that'll reeeeeally help. I just want them to be happy and to receive everything that the gospel has to offer.

I'll maybe add more to this email later but I'm just going to send this for now so that there's at least something.

LOVE YA!
Elder Shirley

(He repented and wrote more ....)

But i think it's really just all in the attitude of the work. I think i've just been going around thinking to much like "oh things should be easier now, the area should be progressing, I should be having so much more success, I'm giving it my all, why shouldn't I be getting all that?"

The more and more i think about it, the more i realize that's an awful attitude to have, especially as a missionary and even more so as a trainer. Missionary work was never meant to be easy. Changing lives is never easy. Even if you know you have something incredible, that could make someone's life so amazing, that could make them so much more happy, that doesn't mean that people are going to automatically recognize that or are going to automatically accept that. 

I think having a little success on my mission kinda made me think that I "deserved" more, but I think if anything it actually makes more required of me. I think I lost track of some of the most important aspects of the mission, that sometimes things'll be hard because they're meant to be hard. Seems a little ironic to have been going around teaching others that god loves them and that trials and problems occur because he's just giving us the chance to make ourselves stronger and then not fully appreciate that for myself. I'm still living my life here as well, I still get to experience trials too. Even if I'm on the Lord's errand there's no exception to that. 

I most likely only have about 1 month left in my area here. I'm going to keep working hard, but I'm not going to work with an attitude of "I deserve" when I know that there's no such thing as deserving anything when you serve. That's the point of service; you sacrifice your time and efforts with no expectation to get anything out of it. I know that right now it seems like all of my efforts have been fruitless, that everything I've done these past couple months have seemed to have no effect on anything, but that's because I can't see the big picture and I don't need to see the big picture because i know god can and that he truly does have a plan for each and every one of us.

The mission is hard, but I'm glad it aint easy. I couldn't have the kind of appreciation I have on life and the gospel if things were easy.

Yup,
Elder Shirley

Tuesday August 13, 2019

(We had a discussion earlier in the day about why some missionaries were on a mission & how it related to their mission experience)

          Ya know I think I would have had a waaaaay different mission if that was the reason I started my mission. I can gladly say that's not at all the reason I went on a mission hahaha. Nah I wouldn't have done nearly as much if that was the only reason I was here. I think that's kinda the difference about the trials of different people's missions. I think no matter what kind of missionary you are, missions are still waay hard. The thing is they're just hard for totally different reasons. Someone who might've chose to serve a mission because all they wanted was to find someone to marry, isn't going to feel the same kinda pressure in finding people to teach and in being obedient and diligent and all that, as someone who chose to serve a mission because they love god. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to belittle anyone who started their mission without a solid reason to serve. I just think that the trials of why missions are hard are totally different depending on your reason for being on the mission. If all you're doing is trying to go through the motions of serving, the only reason a mission would be hard is just because it's long and you can't do all the things you did before. But if you're serving, and you truly do want to serve god and bring others unto Christ it's hard because you become invested of the lives of sooooo many people. You pray for the lives of so many people. You spend hours and days and weeks and months trying to do everything you possibly can to help people just feel a little bit of what's in your heart and then appointments fall through, commitments are not met, and those people, that you spent so much time with, that you invested so much in, just go away. 

           Yesterday I was talking with an elder and he said that he had a really incredible lesson and that him and his companion (who is still in training by the way) were trying to help someone understand the importance of the things that they were trying to express to him. The trainee asked the guy if he had ever tried Chicken Joy (which is just really good fried chicken) and the guy said ya. The trainee then told the guy to express to them what eating chicken joy was like as if they had never tasted it before. And ya the guy struggled and admitted that he couldn't do it. And then the trainee related that to them trying to share the gospel to him. As missionaries we could go on and on and on and on about the gospel. We could show videos, we could read scriptures, we could bare testimony, and invite others to follow these things to the end of time. But until people try it themselves, until people try to read on their own or pray or go to church, they will never fully grasp for themselves why these things are so important. I wish that I could give some great sermon that would inspire people's lives and that they could see and feel why these things are so great and be converted unto Christ and have faith that would never waver. But ya that's not god's plan. God's plan requires us to act. And more specifically it requires us to act on our own. When we choose to do or follow these things, it has to be a choice we make for ourselves. 

            I won't go a whole lot into why I specifically went on a mission now. But I will say that it was 100% my choice to be here. Before I made the decision to come I told myself I wouldn't go because of others. I wouldn't go because "it was the thing I was supposed to do" or because "I wouldn't be able to get married in the temple" or whatever. I had a testimony and a knowledge that these things were true and that more specifically that this was something I personally wanted and needed to do. I've seen a lot of change of hearts on the mission. I know that whatever reason got us on the mission, isn't the thing that keeps us going through the mission (we need way more reasons to stay), but I know that I'm happy here. I'm giving it my all. And despite how hard everything may be, I'll never have any kind of experience like this again that brings so much joy into my life and that inspires me to care so much about people that just a couple months ago that I didn't even know existed.

Word of the week: Paningkamot = to try (effort)

Love ya!
Elder Shirley

LOTS of Photos!!

Rabies Treatments complete!  :)

I imagine it's difficult to play basketball with this guy ...

Dad told him about getting drinks in plastic bags with straws!

Zumba at Friday Fun night!

I think this is the boy that finally came to church after meeting people at Friday Fun night and getting his sister to bring him ...

Catching up on Spencer's blog ...

Tuesday August 6, 2019

Cge I'm writing this while riding a van so this might be a short email because these vans go waaaaay too fast down some windy roads in the mountains. Soooo ya I'm already getting a headache hahaha. But ya this past week we were pretty limited on work kay there was just a ton of rain. I guess there's like 2 or 3 storms around the Philippines right now. Since we're surrounded by other islands we never get anything bad but it was still really heavy rain and some pretty bad wind. So ya that kinda limited our work and we got pretty soaked to say the least. But ya we finally got a couple of the people we are teaching to come to church! Thats the hardest part about our area here kay everyone lives way far away and theyre all very shy. We really focused on getting a specific sister to church because her younger brother was someone we have been teaching. Basically after talking with her and reeeeeally encouraging her to come to church and to bring her brother to church, they both came! And the even better part was that nearly their entire family came and they brought another person we're teaching with them as well! They were all so happy to be there and it really made me so happy to see them there with us. It didnt really take much. I think i maybe talked with that sister for maybe 10 minutes, but just a simple invitation and a lot of encouragement can really go a long way. If Ive learned nothing else while on the mission, it's that we, as missionaries, cannot do this without the help of members. Members are of way more importance to missionary work than I think we sometimes realize. No effort is ever wasted, even if all you do is invite someone in the middle of the night while it's pouring rain, to bring their little brother to church with them, you might see greater things come than you'd even expect. Dont ever underestimate your impact on others.

Elder shirley

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Tuesday July 30, 2019

so this last week was pretty fun. First off we had a baptism! Nina Mardi, she's a 9yr old part member kid that is probably one of the smartest kids I know. she's waaaay excited about the church and everything. I've never had kids argue over who got to pray before I started teaching her. She's awesome. Gihapon our branch joined the another branch's Friday Fun Night and we did Zumba which was way fun. I must say that was not something I ever really expected to ever do, especially on the mission hahahah. It's honestly so great here. It's been a struggle getting people to progress but it's been really helping me grow a lot. I feel like we have a lot of lack of support here but it's really shaped me into doing more and really giving it my all. Elder Jones has been doing really good to so that's been awesome. He's learning and improving waaaaaay faster than I ever was in my training. He's just so ready and willing to learn and he's just always constantly pushing himself to do better. It's kinda hard here in Toledo but I just feel really blessed to be here.

ya kana lang,
Elder Shirley

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Tuesday July 23, 2019

This week was pretty alright. We actually were sick for a couple days kay Elder Jones's body has still been adjusting to the food here and then ya to be short my body just hasn't been feeling very well in general. So ya a little limited on work but we were still able to have a good week. We've been finding some pretty nice people that say we can come back but we've just been having a hard time actually getting the chance to go back and visit with them again. It's been a little annoying because I feel like I've been working really hard and putting in a ton of effort with little reward. I know I still gotta respect other people's choices and everything, but I just wish I could see more success. I hope working with Elder Jones for these next 10 weeks or so will really make stuff start happening. I just want to help the people here and the branch here so much and I just feel like I keep running into the same things stopping me from doing that. I guess it just goes back to trusting in God though and his timing and plan for each one of us. If I keep trusting in him I'm sure something good will come out of it all.

Love ya,
Elder Shirley

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Tuesday July 16, 2019

Ya so this week I really got to start working with Elder Jones. It's been really cool to kinda be on the other side of things. Like everything that's experiencing now, i experienced before. Struggling with the language, adjusting to the food/culture, trying to figure out what the heck is going on, I've done it all and now i get to help him endure it all. Elder jones is actually doing really good right now for being so new to the field. His bisaya is actually pretty good and he's really eager to do the work and everything. I can already tell that he'll be a great missionary. Right now in our area we just recently met some really receptive people that we're really excited to go back to. It's been hard kay all last transfer we were finding a ton of people that were willing to listen but nearly all of them kinda dropped us. but right now we are kinda finding less people but the people we are finding are really good so hopefully things'll turn around. I'm excited to see what'll happen the next 12 weeks. I'm honestly so happy right now doing the work. The mission has been waaaay hard but right now things are really reeeeeally good. I'm happy.

Elder Shirley