District Leader

Busy week this week! Another cycle done and another cycle started. Time is flying! Busy week this week with transfer week and zone meeting! Like I said last week, my companion was going to transfer so I knew I was getting a new companion. Something new is that on Tuesday morning around 8:00, President Rahlf called and talked to me for a little bit, then he told me he was calling me as district leader. I knew that was the purpose of the call as soon as I saw who was calling. I wanted to be in leadership positions at the beginning of my mission but since then my desire has completely changed. I wasn't very excited for the call but of course I'm willing to do it and give it my best. 

 

Tuesday we went around to different families in the branch for Elder Corcuera to say bye. We took pictures with a couple families then went back to the apartment for him to finish packing. Wednesday morning, everyone that was transferring from Roxas met at the zone leaders apartment in the morning and piled in a van to go to Cauayan. Transfer day is my favorite since you get to see a lot of missionaries. I got to see 4 other elders from my batch from Provo which was pretty cool. Also got to see Elder Poulter again. I miss being in the same zone as him but at least I got to see him on transfer day. He's only got two more cycles which is crazy! Elder Corcuera's new area is up in Tuguegarao so he get's to enjoy the hottest city in the Philippines as summer arrives this cycle! My companion was coming from Tuguegarao so I had to wait a while in Cauayan for him to get there. That was alright though because we went to the mall in Cauayan and had KFC for lunch. Super good and nice to have something different than the usual Jollibee or Chicboy. My new companion's name is Elder Pawin. He is pretty cool so far. Sometimes it is hard for him to get out of the apartment on time so hopefully we can work on that this week. But other than that he is a good teacher and we still get work done. 

Had zone meeting on Thursday. It was alright. It was about How To Begin Teaching so it was stuff that we had heard before. It is still important though and definitely makes a difference in finding investigators that will progress and those that most likely won't. Did my first accounting with my district and I will do my first lesson tomorrow.

 

Couple experiences we had from the work this week. Friday we definitely lost the battle to the Jehovah's Witnesses. We go to walk up to the appointment that we had and they are sitting down listening to the Jehovah's missionaries. Go to the next appointment, they are sitting down listening to Jehovah's missionaries also! We say, okay we'll just do finding. So there is a guy painting his fence and we go up and start talking to him and he doesn't say too much. Try to start talking about the church and the message that we have. Ask if it is okay that we leave a pamphlet with him and he says no. Guess why...because he is a Jehovah's witness. End up going to an old Nanay's house that is a member and visit her for a while. Then we go try a couple more places then go back to the houses with the other missionaries earlier. This is a little more than 2 hours later and guess what...they are still there! I was pretty disappointed because one of them was Nanay Dominga Cantor that I have been pretty excited about. So we weren't able to visit her this week. 

 

A better experience we had was on Sunday. We worked with Nanay and Tatay Gaspar. They do a lot of missionary work as members and they know a lot more less actives than we do so they came with us and showed us a few more families we could visit. The second to last visit was to Nanay Helen. I had gone to her house on my second day in San Pedro but then we never went back the rest of the cycle so I had kind of forgotten about her. She is a less active. Anyway, in the lesson, she just broke down in tears and started talking about how she's never felt so alone and how much she regrets not praying and coming to church. As the lesson went on she was good and listened really well. She said the closing prayer and she broke down in tears again saying she will return. Didn't have any investigators at church and no less actives are considered returned this week. Praying for some more success this coming week in the work. Hope everyone continues to do good at home! Love you all.

 

Love Elder Haacke