Cool Baptism Amongst Staying Busy

I can't believe it's time for winter again. I miss going to Action Motors this time of year and looking around at all the new gear. I made a list in my journal of what I wanted to do when I get back and going to Action Motor was one thing I wrote down. Can't believe it's already calling for snow in Island Park. I miss it but I have to admit I'm excited for you dad, and whoever is going with you. Haha so you learned we got pulled over by the police.  When we got pulled over I knew I wasn't going to get a ticket. I can get out of anything. A picture was a first priority. We decided to not say anything and when I left for my mission Tyler would post the picture. I am surprised it took him this long to do it. If I would have ended up with a ticket or a written warning then I definitely would have said something but I thought since I didn't it was okay. But hey, Samantha and Marissa knew a while ago so it wasn't just me that kept the secret haha. I don't think there are any other things I need to say now that I've left ;)

This week was pretty good! Weeks are getting faster and faster. We were supposed to go to the Banaue Rice Terraces today but yesterday afternoon the driver ended up in the hospital so it got postponed until next Monday. I didn't complain because I am lucky enough to be able to go my first transfer. Normally people are only able to go once on their mission. They typical p-day is, wake up, do laundry for like an hour and a half, clean the apartment then go do email. After that we have lunch then do some shopping for random cool little things. We then go grocery shopping and if we need anything specific we can do that like a haircut or something.

Monday- Had family home evening again but with a family in the sister’s area. There were 16 kids there so that made the games we played really fun! The kids were actually pretty well behaved and it was awesome to sit and sing a bunch of primary songs with them.

Tuesday- A normal day of work. Work actually went really well on Tuesday. Our scheduled appointments pretty much all didn't happen but we went to some new spots and found a ton of people to talk to and meet. We have already gone back to a couple of them and started teaching them. Hopefully they will continue with the lessons this week.

Wednesday- Busy day of work again. At night we had a funeral for an old lady that died. Funeral was pretty good then the branch president asked me and Elder Zabala to go with him to the hospital to give a blessing to a baby that wasn't doing very well. We got there and people are all in beds down every walkway outside the hospital. It was packed! Got to the baby and I saw how small it was and got kind of nervous. Turned out the blessing had already taken place so we didn't give it another one. I took advantage of the trip by using the scale out in the hallway. President Cacayan, me, and a couple other members went out and were playing with it. I've gained 9 pounds since I left. I think I need to exercise a little bit more.

Thursday- Had a service assignment in the morning. Helped a family move. Then the rest of the day was normal work.

Friday- Good day of work. Got a lot of lessons in so that was good!

Saturday- Had a baptism. Not our baptism but the sisters in our ward. I baptized the mom and Elder Zabala baptized the son. It was really fun and they were really happy. I felt a little bad for them since the water was freezing cold haha but I still think they had a good experience. We got back to the apartment and realized the keys were inside...spent an hour trying to break into our own apartment. I got super dirty since my companion didn't want to climb over the wall in the back. The fence was super sharp and snagged my pants a lot. I got the lock unlocked but the pin on the bottom did not want to move. Finally gave up and spent the night in the zone leader’s apartment. Then it was Sunday so we went to church and my white shirt was like a black shirt. It was soooo dirty but it was all I had! Finally after lunch we got back to the apartment and I thought about using a credit card on the front door. It worked and was super easy. Then we unscrewed the padlock from the door and got in. I don't know why I didn't think of it the night before! I could have saved a ton of time and saved a shirt!

Overall a really good week. Got a lot done and it went really fast. I am excited for this coming week and hope that we can progress with some of the investigators that we met this week. A lot of Filipinos will listen to the first couple of lessons because they don't want to tell you no. Then like after your third visit they say they don't want to change their religion and to not come back. We try our best but most are very dedicated to their religion. 

Hope all is well back home! 

Love Elder Haacke

P.S. I found a gagumba (spider) this week. I was climbing up a platform to get some fruit from a tree and the little boy told me to turn around and that spider was on the wall right behind me. As you could probably imagine I ran pretty quickly. The spider also ran then stopped again so I put my name tag next to it and took a picture. It was a little bit bigger than the palm of my hand. 

For the fam: 

Only one thing: So in my branch, we have like 2 "Brother Know-it -alls" is the only way I can describe it. We get into some heavy debates every Sunday. I enjoyed this last Sunday since I could actually understand most of it. It was about if nonmembers can receive personal revelation or not. I thought of course they can. They receive a confirming witness of the gospel before they decide to be baptized or not but I didn't want to get involved in it. Preach My Gospel compares the gift of the Holy Ghost to a fire station. It says everyone can receive promptings from the Holy Ghost just like everyone can receive help from the fire station. Having the gift of the Holy Ghost is like living right next door to the fire station. So yeah, everyone can receive personal revelation haha I just find the debates to be pretty funny. The thing is, every person in there was saying that they can but the one person was saying they can't haha  We were going like way over the time of church so finally they decided to continue next week haha

Hope all is well at home. Love you all and love reading about your week!