Two Weeks Gone

Well it's been two weeks since I last sent an email home so I'll try and sum up the last couple weeks. First I gotta wish mom a Happy Birthday for this Thursday! Hope it's a wonderful day for you mom!! 

 

Last week was an alright week. Nothing special happened I guess but it was still an alright week. Friday last week we split with the zone leaders. One of my most favorite things to do since I've been here in Roxas. I'm not a fan of the area I have so when I get the chance to go on splits and work with one of them in their area. The part of their area we went to was really far and straight rice fields. Most of their area is more city like and neighborhoods but they have one part that is straight rice fields and that's where we went. We spent half the day out there then came back to Roxas for the evening. We got 6 lessons together which I really liked since we never get days like that back in my area. But we get the transfer list a week from today so maybe I will transfer! At church last Sunday we had the most members there on time that I have seen since I have been in the area so that was great! Still no investigators at church so I guess nothing new there. Last Tuesday we had zone meeting so I got a week off from teaching a district meeting. In zone meeting we just went over a lot of things that missionaries should be taking a little more seriously like the way we look and stuff. Also we went over qualifications for baptism which was pretty good also. Last p-day we went to Santiago so I could say bye to Elder Poulter since he is leaving in like a week. We said we'll see each other again in about 15 months! That's pretty much it from the week last week. 

 

This last week was another alright week. Had a couple problems with one elder in my district. He's kinda turning on the entire zone and says everybody hates him but nobody has a problem with him so I don't know where he is getting that from. He's not exactly all there though so we just had to be patient with him. He's doing better now but still has a problem with a couple others in the zone. Maybe transfers next week will solve the problem for good. He didn't want to come to Roxas last Tuesday for district meeting so my district meeting was very small. As in me, my companion, the sisters and one zone leader. My district is already small and without them there it got even smaller! But it was good though. We had a nice discussion as a district on things we struggle with then help each other figure out new ways we could do it. We talked about stuff like language study and teaching skills that we all do differently. I liked it since it was more of a discussion than normally. So do you remember our investigator Dominga Cantor from a while ago that I was pretty excited about? Well we haven't been able to contact her forever and this week we finally saw her. We sat down and talked for a little then asked if we could share a message. She told us no because she already knows everything. Pretty good excuse huh?? We'll still follow up with her when we see her but as of now she doesn't want to continue with the lessons. 

 

A few evenings this week it down-poured like no other! It was a perfectly fine day then out of nowhere a storm comes in and rains super hard. Well since both Pawin and I don't carry umbrellas, we got soaked a couple times this week. We were running for cover and when you're in an area of flat rice fields, sometimes cover is further than you would like. Sadly, we are still not able to progress with anybody. I don't know what the problem is. What made it worse was church on Sunday. You know how the week before was the most I had seen? This week was the least I've ever seen. After church, the Elder's Quorum President came up to me and talked to me about it. I told him we will visit some that weren't there that we noticed but he wanted an answer why there was nobody at church. Felt like I should of just asked how his quorum is doing on home teaching but I didn't feel like making the conversation longer than it needed to be cause I didn't know what to tell him. I guess over all I'm hoping I am going to transfer. Not to sound like I'm giving up on the area but I don't really know what else to do. We're still praying that something will turn for the better. Hope you all have a great week this week!

Love Elder Haacke

 

 Picture of me and Elder Cruzit at zone meeting.

  

 Picture of my zone (above and below).

 

Filipino Time

Another month passes by and it's already May! Feels like I was celebrating New Year's was just a week ago. The week was alright this week. Pretty much the same old work wise but still a fun week. Before the week though, I don't think I'll be able to match Sam if she skypes at 6 a.m. but if it is more around 7:30 our time I will be able to get to the net shop most likely. Hopefully it will work so we can all talk! Also hopefully the net shop is all good and will work well. We will finalize it today probably. 

 

So start the week with district meeting on Tuesday. Another lesson down. Still not a fan of teaching but it is a lot easier than it's ever been. I taught about Christlike attributes and the importance of having them since we are representatives of Christ and his church. The sister training leaders came from Cauayan zone and attended since we don't have STL's here in Roxas so it was nice to have another person in district meeting since the district is super small. After district meeting we did the usual lunch at Chicboy then went home. 

 

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were normal working days. We still are only teaching to pretty much the same people as we did last week. Don't have any new investigators that will continue more than a couple lessons. Sometimes it feels like this area is missionaried out. I know that's not possible and there is always more people but that's the way it feels sometimes. We ran into the caravan of Jehovah Witness' missionaries again this week. They go around in groups of like 6-10 so we see their caravan pass by every once in a while. We dropped by one sister's house and she was telling us how she doesn't really like them and she memorized the time they always come by so she can hide haha. Makes us feel a little better since she doesn't hide from us. She is less active but is kind of returning right now. She came 2 weeks ago but wasn't there yesterday. She just had a baby though like a month ago. I think she is kind of coming back because she wants her baby blessed in church which is great so hopefully she will continue after the baby is blessed. Pretty much all the others we were able to share with this week were the same drop-by's as normal. 

 

So Sister Rochelle that I interviewed last week for baptism was baptized this last Saturday. I was asked to baptize her so that was fun for me. That pretty much took the entire day on Saturday. There was a baptism at 2 that we were going to be a part of so we came to Roxas and it ended up getting cancelled. The baptism of sister Rochelle was supposed to start at 4 but didn't end up starting until 6:30. That is Filipino time for you. They say something will start at 8, you show up at 9 and you're still the first ones there. But sister Rochelle was really happy after the baptism so that made it a good evening,even though the water was really cold. Luckily we found a ride back out to San Pedro since it was night time and there aren't any rides at night time. Got home Saturday night, ate dinner and went straight to bed. I don't think I've been that tired in a long time. 

 

Sunday was the day everyone had been waiting for for months...the Pacquiao fight. Church first though. Haha it made me laugh though...church started like 30 minutes late (Filipino time again) so that made some members upset since they don't want to be late for the fight. Then it was testimony meeting right? So the testimonies...about Pacquiao. That probably makes you think they all were but there was just a few that mentioned Pacquiao. So after church, turns out we heard the wrong time for the fight. It was already the 11th round when we heard about it. We went straight to Roxas after church to split with the zone leaders then do choir in the evening. Splits was a ton of fun. I really like working in the zone leaders area because we always are able to teach more lessons in a day than we ever get back in my area. I worked with Elder Lavelua and we also had two fellowshippers with us from their branch. We had a blast on splits and teaching was great! So Elder Lavelua and I were both born in the same area in Bambang. We had the same first area. He is almost exactly a year ahead of me in the mission though so he goes home soon. So do you remember the Chikino family from Bambang? They were like my favorite family there. Anyway, the missionaries in Bambang were at their house and they called Lavelua's phone. Lucky for me I was on splits with Lavelua so we both got to talk to the Chikino family! It was awesome! Finally somewhat old enough in the mission to have people to contact from past areas and stuff. So that was a highlight of the week. Later that night we went to choir and let's just say they could use some help. We'll see how it goes in district conference next week. 

 

Overall it was an alright week this week. Oh, it was insanely hot this week also. Hopefully summer will pass by quickly! Hope you all have a great week! Love you all and family...talk to ya next week!!

 

Love Elder Haacke