FHE Fun

Another week down in the Philippines! Not too bad of a week this week. Got 23 lessons so another good week that way. Baptisms on the other hand are lacking a little bit but we're doing good with some less actives.

Monday- We had family home evening at a members house. I went there once last cycle. The one with a ton of kids. They have 3 or 4 kids but then all the kids from the houses around always come for family home evening so it makes it a lot of fun! We split into three teams for the game and my team won. You have to really get into the games here because there is always a punishment for the team that loses. Most likely sing in front of everybody and I'm not doing that so I do all I can to win! 

Friday- Went on splits with the zone leaders for the day. Pretty fun experience. I went with Elder Poulter who is from Rigby so we talked a lot about home! Went to new part of their area that they hadn't been to before so it was a lot of finding. Did get a couple lessons in though so that was good! 

Sunday- Church was pretty good. Tatay and Nanay Fernandez made it 3 weeks in a row this week. Another less active family, the Morinas family, came back to church for the first time this week. Funny story...An old man from the furthest part of our area came to church yesterday as well! Like a month ago we were teaching another guy out in the open and he came up and sat in on the conversation. Started to become more of a debate and I was totally lost the whole time with the language. On Saturday we saw him on the road so we just said hello and invited him to church. Couldn't believe it but he actually came! Hopefully we can visit him this week and follow up with him! When we went out to work yesterday, Manny Pacquiao  had a fight that day. Thanks to him, work was tough. It's like a holiday here whenever he fights. I thought that was pretty funny though!

Hope all is well back home! Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke
  

Where Bryan gets his water for bathing, cooking and the wash bins where he washes his clothes.

I Need A New Umbrella

Pretty good week again this week! Language is improving. This week was a pretty good week language wise. Also we got 24 lessons this week so that is a record for me since I've been here! Still didn't have any investigators at church this week but we have some that are continuing to pray and read everyday. They are always busy though so hard to contact.

Tuesday- Had district meeting in the morning. Pretty good. Lesson was on companionship's and my companion teaches it so maybe he is trying to tell me something...haha who knows. At the dinner appointment, Sister Florence was there. She's like my little sis. She needed help with her homework but first she explained to me how hard school was and how they're combining math and science together which makes it super hard. She was making me laugh so hard! Then I couldn't even figure out her homework so she told me I was useless haha. 

 

Wednesday and Thursday were good days of work. Got 10 lessons in those 2 days which almost never happens where we are. 

Friday- Zone leaders invited us to an activity at night at the church which was super fun. It's awesome that everyone here gets really into the games. We played a game I have gotten pretty good at so I did pretty well! 

Saturday- Had a normal day. Rained while we were out at work and my umbrella broke about a month ago and I haven't bought a new one yet so I got soaked. It only rained in the area we were. When we left the area, we went about 100 yards away from the mountain and the road was dry. 

 

Sunday- Church was good. The less active from last week came again this week with his wife again. Two weeks in a row for him which is awesome. He's been less active for over 20 years. The lunch appointment was great. Sunday lunch appointments are the best.

 

Good week overall! Work is good and the language is improving! Love and miss you all! 

Love Elder Haacke

 

 The pictures are of Bambang City where Bryan is serving:

 

 

Frog--YUM!

Can't believe I finished my first transfer period already! Time flew by! I've been in the field for 6 weeks already but when I think about that I think that I should be further along in the language. As I talk to other foreigners though they say I'm doing really good but who knows, maybe they're just saying that. My district stayed pretty much the same from last cycle except for one companionship changed. The other district in my zone changed a lot. The new Sister Training Leader and the new Zone leader are both from Idaho. Sister is from Idaho Falls and Elder Poulter is from Rigby. Pretty awesome! 

So mom, you know how I said I didn't want music when I left? I thought I'd be busy with other things. Well that was a mistake! I went and bought a usb and a speaker so now I can listen to music. Even if it is just efy and Mormon tabernacle choir songs it is super helpful. Elder Brandon has a lot of songs so he took my usb and will put songs on it. 

Work was pretty good this week. Got some more new investigators but had to drop some. Two investigators really started to progress this last week though so that was awesome! One is younger and a little more quiet but is improving then the other is 22 yrs old named Windel. He started to read the Book of Mormon and is loving it. We'll try for a baptism date this week. Also we got one less active back to church this week along with his wife. Just earlier this week we showed up at the house and the wife told us to go away but Tatay invited us in. Then when we visited yesterday, they both listened to the lesson together and Nanay talked more than she ever has before! 

Today all the elders in the zone, except one companionship, got together and played ball at the church this morning. So much fun. Also we had a soccer ball and football so that was fun to throw around for a bit! I was able to eat frog on Tuesday. It actually was super good. It took me a second to actually eat it but after I put the thought behind me and just ate it I realized it was actually really good! Still haven't tried balut yet but I told my comp I will before Christmas! Speaking of Christmas, all I hear now is Christmas songs. Kind of tough since it reminds me so much of home and family. All the missionaries say this is the worse time of year with home sickness haha but as long as I stay busy it isn't too bad.

Pretty good week overall! Hope everything is going well back home! I'd do anything for some of the cold weather you have! Hopefully it can cool down a bit here soon! Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke
 

Bambang Zone

Banaue Rice Terraces

Pretty great week this week! The last week of my first transfer! How crazy is that?! One elder in my district is training this next transfer so I'm excited since I won't be the new guy anymore. We will meet him on Thursday morning at district meeting. Funny to read Sam's emails and compare it to what we did in the MTC. A lot of it is the same. We spent a lot of time in the piano room listening to one Elder practice as we studied. I can't believe it has already been a month since you entered the MTC! Time flies by!

 I don't have my calendar with me so I can't remember what I did each day of the week. We had zone conference on Thursday which was awesome! Learned a lot and met some new missionaries from the Solano zone. Learned a lot of great lessons on our language study, obedience, and how to find people to teach. Also got recognized for my birthday, even though I wasn't even a missionary yet, so I got a cool temple recommend holder. Today was Banaue day (rice terraces)! We went to Jollibee to eat breakfast early this morning at 3:00am then left from the church at 4:00am. Since the whole zone can't fit inside the jeepney some people had to ride on top which was a ton of fun.....for the beginning at least. It was cool looking at the stars as we drove down the road but the top was very uncomfortable. It took around 3 and a half hours to get there. View was awesome but Elder Brandon and I didn't waste any time before we started our hike. We walked so much since it was both of our first times going. Pretty great day! Because of Banaue I don't have very much time to email so it is a short one this week but it was a good week! Love you all!
 Love Elder Haacke
 
About the Banaue Rice Terraces (Below Pictures):
The Banaue Rice Terraces (Filipino: Hagdan-hagdang Palayan ng Banawe) are 2,000-year-old terraces that were carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines by ancestors of the indigenous people. The Rice Terraces are commonly referred to by Filipinos as the "Eighth Wonder of the World".  It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. The terraces are located approximately 5000 ft above sea level. They are fed by an ancient irrigation system from the rainforests above the terraces. It is said that if the steps were put end to end, it would encircle half the globe.  Locals to this day still plant rice and vegetables on the terraces.