Summer Has Hit The Philippines

Another week has flown by once again and we can definitely say Summer has hit the Philippines! Totally take back ever complaining about having to work in the rain. I think I'd take the rain over how hot it was this week. It doesn't look like it will stop either. I think it's here to stay. Now that I think about it, it hasn't been crazy hot since I've been here in Echague but this last week was something else. It takes a lot longer to cool down at night as well. Part of serving in the Philippines I guess! 

So this week was pretty good other than being extremely hot. Don't have a lot of time so I'll quickly update you on who we're teaching.

We were able to teach Cyrene again this week. Taught about the Word of Wisdom. Pretty smooth lesson. She is still struggling gaining a strong testimony of Joseph Smith. Her Book of Mormon reading is improving so that will help her gain that testimony. The next time we go we will focus on the Holy Ghost and how it works. We don't think she is recognizing the spirit when it is there. She wasn't able to come to church this week since her teeth hurt. At least that's what she told us. We're visiting her tomorrow though so we will follow up on that.

Brother Neo was out of town both times we tried to teach him this week. I don't know if I mentioned before what his job is... So he has a personal van and people without cars or vans hire him to drive places that are far away when they have somewhere to go. Most likely in a group. So a lot of the time his schedule is up in the air because if someone calls and wants to go to Manila with their family, he will take it and be gone for 4 or so days. That is the reason we strike out with him a lot of the time. We planned the Wednesday appointment two weeks in advance but it still didn't end up going through. We have been in contact with him over the phone but we really want to have a visit with him. Might end up dropping him soon since we really only teach him about once every 4 or so weeks.

Sister Ghen was back at church this week. We didn't teach her since she will now for sure be taught in Santiago by the sister missionaries assigned there. We are able to teach her in gospel principles class though which was pretty good. She had a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon so that became our topic in class. Hopefully the sisters will be able to contact and teach her this week to help her continue to progress.

 A less active I haven't told you about is Sister Lady Mallab. She has gained the desire to start coming back to church lately. We have a good fellow-shipper that is being a good friend and helping her come back to church. She had actually come to church three times in a row until this last Sunday when she wasn't able to come.

Taught Sister Marilou Ballad as well this week. Elder Arorong and I baptized her and her daughter a couple weeks after I got her. She then disappeared and we didn't know where she went. After finding her a few weeks ago at her new place, we have been visiting her and sharing with her to help her come back. We had a pretty good lesson with her on Saturday about how she felt when she was baptized. She has told us in the past how happy she was and how great the feelings were when she was baptized so we wanted to bring that back to her memory and let her know that you can feel it again by attending church and eventually be able to go to the temple. We just want her to know that there is so much more we need to do after baptism. But she is doing well and we think she will come back as soon as we get her a good friend to fellowship with us.

So something I really enjoyed this week was going around and just teaching about Christ and his Atonement. Most the people are Catholic so they will be celebrating Holy Week this week so we have modified the way we contact and teach to go along with that. It has been really fun teaching about Christ. Kinda like at Christmas time where we do the same thing. It's just so many people have a small amount of knowledge on who is, what he did for us and how important that is to our lives. We have another full week this week to be able to do that so I'm really looking forward to it. Also we can apply some of the things that President and Sister Rahlf share to us tomorrow as they will teach about his last week here on Earth.

I was supposed to be a speaker on Sunday but then when we got to church they already had the speakers. I was actually looking forward to speaking since I most likely only have one more Sunday and I could have used it to say goodbye and bear my testimony to them. I was grateful on the other hand that I ended up not speaking because we had a brown out all day so the microphone didn't work. Also meant all the fans were off in the chapel which made it like an oven in there. Everyone was fanning themselves the whole time with whatever they could find since it was so hot. On the other hand, the kids were pretty quiet for the most part and a lot of people were there. Could have been one of the best Sacrament meetings so far if we had power.

The power read in the Book of Mormon is going really good. Still loving it. I'm in third Nephi right now. Can't believe I got there this fast but I'm loving the pace. Testimony of the Book of Mormon continues to grow everyday when I open it up and read it.

The week in all was pretty good and really enjoyable for the most part. This could be my last full week in Echague. We'll be getting the transfer list next Monday. That was fast. Definitely going to enjoy this week and work hard knowing it could be my last one here. Hope you all have a good week this week and I love you all!

Love Elder Haacke