Fellowshipping

Hello everybody once again. Start off this week's letter with have a happy Thanksgiving this week! I will be thinking of all of you on Thursday, probably eating some nice turkey, potatoes and stuffing. I'll pray we get a dinner appointment on Thursday and that will be good enough for me! Speaking of turkey, I'm working on getting one of my favorite families here to kill one of their turkeys for Christmas. I think it's going to work! Don't know if it will taste the same as back home but I'm still looking forward to it!

Don't really know how to describe this week. I guess every week has it's ups and downs but at least we were able to end it on a good note! We struggled pretty hard this week in our area through out the weekdays. Ended up doing a lot of finding since so many appointments fell through. We are basically back at step one in Maligaya. That area has been difficult since I have been here and when we went there this last week we didn't have any success at all and didn't spend much time there. Two of our areas, Soyung and Gucab, have started to get a lot better this last week. We were able to follow up with some contacts that we had done and we ended up getting some new investigators out of it.

We had a few birthdays this week so that meant a lot of food! Wednesday was Bishop Trivino's wife's birthday then on Thursday was the Bishop's in ward 1 birthday. So yeah that was great, got a lot of food and got to spend time with some more members. Then Friday night we had dinner with the Gaffud family. One of the daughters worked with us a few days before and she invited us to dinner. We had ham! I'm pretty sure I have not had ham since I've been here! It's not the kind of ham you think of back home but it still tasted like ham and was super good. We got to build a good relationship with them since we aren't really close with them. They are such a great family that has been through a lot and is still super faithful to the gospel and the church.

We have also been able to progress some with the ward this week. We had a PEC meeting on Saturday night which usually never happens. Missionaries aren't supposed to be in the PEC meeting but Bishop asked us personally if we could attend so we could add some suggestions and be part in helping the ward grow. We mostly talked about missionary work. We made a list of 15 families or couples that are less active and made assignments to get them contacted and found. Also discussed a few other things about sacrament meeting and such but for the most part just missionary work. The single adults had an activity at the church that night so we ended up getting free dinner as well.

Church on Sunday was alright. There wasn't very many people there at the start but people eventually showed up. Class and such was alright. Nothing new I guess. Then we had another meeting with the auxiliary leaders to discuss missionary work and plan the Christmas party. We left after the missionary part since we weren't needed anymore. Basically talked more about the 15 families we are trying to contact. Work on Sunday was pretty good. Actually it was really good. One lesson was following up a contact so we just taught the first lesson. We had to find his house since we just contacted him on the street. As soon as he came out to open the gate, two of our fellowshippers, Rica and Cezar, turned to me at the same time and told me they were going to kill me. I had no idea why but turns out, they have both argued with this person before. He is a tricy driver and they are pretty pushy to get people to ride in their tricy, but I guess this guy is something else. Anyways, the lesson wasn't as awkward as I thought it was going to be since the past meetings with him and my fellowshippers hadn't been that great. It actually was kinda good cause Rica used the opportunity to explain what happened and said sorry. Another great lesson on Sunday was to a mother and a daughter that was baptized a month before I got here. The mom had since gone to Manila to work but we decided to go by the house anyway. Turns out, they were there! Along with the father of the family. They were happy to see us and we were really happy to see them. I guess she had just gotten back a few days before and isn't planning on returning to Manila. We taught a short lesson using the little flashlights on our phones since there was no lights. Just taught about our loving Heavenly Father and how we can always come unto him. Before we left, without even being invited, the dad promised to come to church next week! So that was awesome!

That's pretty much it for this week. Had a great week and am definitely looking forward to this coming week! Hope you all have a good one!

Love Elder Haacke

 Found a sign for the Patriots! First football related thing I've seen and it was my team!