And naa'y Zone Interviews

October 19, 2016

Hello from Dumaguetti. We were told that we have zone interviews today so we went to Dumz this morning. As in... woke at 4, barely made the boat. I'll admit that I threw up on the boat and have just finished my interview with the President. All is well haha.

This last week was actually pretty long. It felt like a whole transfer! Due to Elder Rice being out with Dengue, we had to make some interesting work calls. For half the day I would stay home and watch him and send out the 2 trainees to go and work. Elder Fernandez, my companion is fantastic and can work without me haha! Elder Rice's trainee is only a week in the mission so he is new. Any who, I had a lot of time in the house this last week and you want to know what I did the whole time? TBH slept! Being self motivated isn’t easy - haha. It is a lot easier to get stuff done when you have a plan.

We had ZTM last weekend. I missed it. Elder Rice couldn't make it so I thought it be best to send the two new trainees to the meeting and I would stay here with Elder Rice. So a whole day to do nothing! yeah....

Because we are in Dumz right now we couldn't go on any big adventure today:/ but the Senior Couple was here last night and we worked with them. They took us to a huge resort to eat lunch. I ordered a really expensive pizza that was the size of one of those freezer pizzas you give to your 5 year old. 

(The top pic is me at a resort and this one is ALL of the missionaries on Siquijor island plus the senior couple (the sister is taking the pic)). 

The investigators are still kicken - haha. Juvy and Jesselle are not where we hope they would be. Things are a little difficult with them right now. Mae is doing great! The only problem with her is that she is probably going to the Negros island for school next semester! That’s in 2 weeks... so we may just have to refer her to others to seal the deal with her. And Allyssa is doing great. She came to church last week! We are all still doing great. Our one and only RC just graduated last Monday. We now have no more recent converts in the area:/ 1 year dry ang Siquijor for baptisms.

All is well here. I hope that all of you are doing good back at home! I have about 1 month left on Siquijor before I will transfer. There is a very small chance that I won’t transfer but that’s like nothing so 1 month left! So fast haha!

I read two talks this last week that really inspired me. One is called "Accepting the Lord's Will and Timing" by David A. Bednar (found in Aug. 2016 Liahona). It talks about "Do we have the faith to not be healed from our problems/ sicknesses?" It really focuses on how the Lord's will will prevail and how we need to accept it because it is for our better. I recommend reading that story.

All is really good. Still hangin’ in there! Again, I hope all is well for y’all back at home! Amping!

-Elder Morris

General Conference Was Great!

October 12, 2016

The week was pretty simple as we spent the entire weekend over on the other island, Negros, so that we could watch General Conference. I felt like it was all counsel on enduring to the end. I can see that now that men’s hearts are failing them. All over here we have a lot of people just fall away. As far as member retention goes, it is a little difficult here. 

Our gators are doing great! I think. Allyssa is doing fine; she doesn't commit to baptism cuz she fears her father but we will keep praying and trying! Mae is still doing well. She has come to church two times and if she comes the next two times then she will be baptized here on the 5th! Hooray! Juvy and Jesselle are still trekking along. We are having an important lesson tonight with them which would probably help them decide once and for all (cross your fingers!).

One of the missionaries, Elder Rice, got Dengue. He is training a new missionary and because of this sickness he can't work so we have been switching out on who is working with Elder Rice's new comp. It’s been pretty busy and we aren't getting so high on our numbers of lessons and FTEs, but alas I hope that the sacrifices in the work will bring blessings! 

Not much really happened but I would like to share my favorite part from General Conference. President Thomas S. Monson gave a great talk in priesthood session. He shared a story of a man in WWII who had to evacuate off of a Filipino Island. He caught the last boat leaving the island and barely made it to the last big boat leaving the bay. A rope was thrown to him to climb up onto the big carrier and he had a big radio on his back. As he got 1/3 of the way there (and by now the boat was heading out to open sea) he started to lose his strength and was about to fall and perish in the ocean. He cried out "Father! I have been keeping the Word of Wisdom my whole life! I really need the blessings NOW!" As soon as he said this he felt a great serge of energy fill his body and thus he was able to climb up the rest of the way to the deck of the boat. 

I know that the blessings come when we most need it. We may not see the blessings of keeping the law of chastity of the Word of Wisdom right off the bat but they are ours when we keep them and when we most need them! I've learned from experience that this is true. Keeping these blessings helps you overcome the big problems! 

Any who, I hope you all are safe! My next week email will be short and quick for we have an activity next week. Take care! Love you all! 

-Elder Morris

And Transfers!

October 5, 2016

My sister batch is in their LAST TRANSFER!!! HOLY FAST!!!! I got my transfer call last night and this is the 2nd time in the past year and a half that nothing will be changing for me. It looks like I will be finishing Elder Fernandez's training (he is doing great BTW) and I will be doing 6 months on Siquijor Island (1/4 sa akong mission!). I really need to emphasize just how rare it is to be here and for as long as I will be here!

Last week was long haha! We have been averaging about 16-20 lessons every week since I’ve been on this island but last week we had 31 lessons! A huge amount of teaching haha! We have really been cracking down on about 4 people. We have a sister, Mae Sasi, which should be up for baptism on Nov.5! She came to church a second time with Juvy and his wife Jesselle. And if all is well the three of them could be good for the 5th. Another investigator, si Allyssa, is doing great! It is difficult getting her to church but other than that she is doing great!  We really need your prayers with these gators! Getting answers to their prayers is what is needed!

We have had some fun these past few days. It has been a huge fiesta here on Siquijor. Lechon baboy everywhere! That’s rotisserie pig btw. We had 3 houses we went to that just fed us dayon!! I felt fat after that!  

At one of the houses… oh man I just need to share this story! I felt a little molested by a drunk gay dude... We were walking up a huge hill (about a 2 hour walk) and we heard "Hey... MORMONS!" We looked up to this huge house and like 10 people were yelling at us "Hey come eat!!" Normally we don't but I looked at Elder Fernandez and said "Sigi, kaon ta! Alright, let’s eat!" We went up and apparently they just finished a birthday party but they brought ALL the food back out and fed us! I had never met them before and I didn’t even know their names but we feasted W-.-W. Well while we ate there was this 40 year old gay dude, a bayut as they are called here. (Lesbians are called Tomboys btw). Well he comes up behind me and puts his arms on my shoulders and shrieks cuz I am soaked in sweat! He then tried to take my shirt OFF me!!! He undoes my tie like really fast and I am trying to decline and not insult these people who are feeding me. He then takes my handkerchief and starts touching it into the neck of my shirt... I wasn’t sure what to do cuz I didn't want to insult these people but anyway he then had to go and I said, “Salamat brother!”  And he said, "Dili ko si Brother, Sister ko! DING!" (I'm not brother, I’m a sister DING!) It was a bit awkward!

Everything else seems to be same old same old. I do see a lot of hardened hearts all around, not just on Siquijor but even back in America. Sad to say, but true.

We should be having a great next week. We leave Friday night for Dumaguetti and return Sunday night. We will lose a lot of work here though:/ Oh well, it shall be good.

I love you all back at home, Take care!

-Elder Morris