Soaking Rain

Dad that was an interesting way to start out the weekly letter this week! I ruined it for myself though since I always scroll down to the pictures first so I saw the p.s. at the end so it was the first thing I read. This week went by super fast. As I have been thinking about what to summarize for the week I haven't been able to think of many things to write about. Transfer day was on Wednesday this week but not a whole lot changed in my zone since only two people were transferring. Elder Brandon if you remember from Bambang, came and took Elder Frank's place and a Sister from Bambang also came to my zone so I knew both the missionaries coming in. Something I look forward to every transfer day is meeting new missionaries but that didn't happen this transfer day. Since it was transfer day this week we had district meeting on Thursday instead of Tuesday. I taught about "Our Purpose". Teaching district meetings have gotten way easier for me since the first one. Now I just write down a few notes and just talk from that and have some activities and role plays then the time is up. I thought it would take me forever to get used to teaching district meetings since teaching has never really been my thing but I actually got it down pretty fast. 

So Tuesday for work we went to one of the furthest areas, Maligaya, since we had scheduled a dinner appointment with our branch president there. At about 6, clouds started coming in super fast then pretty much within a blink of an eye it started pouring rain the hardest its rained since I've been here. We ran to Presidents house and just decided we'd have dinner a little earlier since we had no more appointments and it was pouring rain. While at dinner we sat down with President and talked about some less actives that he knows that we can contact. He gave us a couple names to find in the area Marcos but we weren't able to go out there this last week. Well the rain never stopped while we were eating and we had a 40 minute walk ahead of us. Elder Pawin left his umbrella at the house and my umbrella broke in my first cycle in Bambang and I haven't gotten a new one. We were soaked to the core once we finally got home.

Saturday I had my second baptismal interview. This one was a lot better than the last. It also helped that this person was 20 instead of 11 like the last one. During the interview, she knew the questions before I would even ask them! Once we finished I was talking to the Sisters that have been teaching her and they said they went over the interview about 7 times with her so no wonder she knew all the questions haha.

Still didn't progress with any investigators this week and we are still trying to find new ones that will progress further than the first two visits. We did have two less actives at church so that was really nice to see after all the bad luck we have been having the past weeks. One of the talks given in church on Sunday I thought was really good. Pretty much the first time I've really stayed focus on a talk during sacrament meeting since I've been here since normally they just read straight from the Liahona. But the speaker talked about the priesthood and she talked about how she has her own doctor right at home because of the priesthood he holds. She specifically mentioned how she doesn't have to rely on the missionaries to give blessings which is the part I liked. Of course we always will go when we are called but the members here rely way too much on the missionaries. We are always the go to people even though there are elders quorum members as their neighbors and we are like 30 minutes away. 

Overall this was a pretty good week and a little more successful than the past weeks we have been having so we were happy with it. Hope everyone continues to do well at home. Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

Some old pictures:

 Went to KFC on transfer day (last transfer day in March).

 

Decided to have my district meeting outside this week since all the fans didn't work inside the church. That is my district except for Elder Latu who is taking the picture.
 

Elders Iuli, Lavelua, Latu, Frank, and I in the back of the AP's pickup when Iuli came and visited district meeting.

Iffy Week

Before I start, got the Easter package this week. Thanks! I downed the Sixlets! Tried to make them last but it didn't work very well.

 

But another cycle down! Scary fast! Got the transfer list earlier today. There are only two missionaries in my zone leaving. One of them is because he is going home so that was a given. My district will be the exact same for next cycle so I won't be losing or gaining anybody. I really like the Elders and Sisters I have in my zone right now so I'm not disappointed at all. The week this week was another iffy week. Not much luck but we did what we could.

 

Tuesday, we had the last zone lunch after district meeting. Went to Chicboy again. Getting sick of that place...but it's always fun with the entire zone! We knew that Elder Frank was going home so it was the last one with him and we didn't know who else was going to transfer. Lunch was pretty good then we went straight into splits. I was going to have to go to Elder Latu and Elder Cruzit's area later that day for the baptismal interview so I just decided to make splits out of it since I hadn't split with them yet this cycle. I worked with Elder Cruzit and we had a pretty good day! We dropped by one members house that had a referral to give to us and they also told us that Sister Weber (a teacher from the MTC) was coming back to Cauayan Mission the first week of May and going to visit them. They were super excited about that. After a few appointments we went back to where the interview was going to be. I've seen interviews be an hour long and I've seen interviews be like 6 minutes so I wasn't sure how it was going to go. The interview went well which was super nice for my first interview. Lasted about 15 minutes maybe. Always nice to get the first one over with. I think the next ones will be a lot easier now. 

 

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were normal days of work. Didn't go the best either. We got a referral that sounded promising. It was a family that had been waiting to listen to the missionaries for over a month. Would have been nice if we would have gotten the referral a month ago huh? Well we went to go contact them the day we worked in that area and they weren't there. We'll probably go back there tomorrow so hopefully they will be there. The people that we were able to teach this last week wasn't anybody new. Nobody we teach wants to progress. It feels like people will just listen to you because they don't want to say no. It seems like that with less actives and investigators. So normally that would mean find new investigators right? Well we find new investigators then they only want to listen to the first couple because they don't want to say no then they give you an excuse to stop listening. I think almost a month now it has felt like that here in this area. But also it seems like it's almost always like that here. I don't know if I said this before but even the members know. They always ask us how the work is and before they even let us answer they say "There's no progress right? Difficult here in San Pedro. There's always nobody progressing." So it's like the members already know what it's like but they still don't want to help at all. But when it comes to stuff like that you can really just worry about yourself and try and kill the work and get some success. We keep praying for it and hope it comes soon. 

 

Saturday morning we had a service over in the ZL's area. We did more weeding but it wasn't as bad as the last one with the chili plants. Having a service assignment is always fun to switch up the week a little bit. Finished the service around 11 so we thought we'd hit lunch real quick with Elder Frank before he left. Just some of the Elders that we are close with. I heard a lot about Elder Frank when I was in Bambang and I finally got to meet him when I came here to Roxas. I had a good couple cycles with him and it was cool to say bye. 

 

This week went by super fast even though we didn't get the success we wanted with the work. Hope everyone has a great week this week! Love you all!

 

Love Elder Haacke

Love Being A Missionary

Good to hear from everybody again! Seems like everyone is doing good and Sam is absolutely loving the mission! I am too! Even though some weeks are tough (last week) the Lord's work will never stop!

This last week flew by since we had conference for two days. Work was alright this week. No progress again with any investigators that I have talked about in the past so that was unfortunate but it still feels like we had a good week this last week. On Wednesday we went out to a part of the area called Marcos. Elder Corcuera and his companion here before me stopped going to the area because they said it was too far and not worth it. I never went there with Elder Corcuera since he never wanted to but with how the work has been going lately, we decided we should go back out there and try it again. We had no idea where we were going and some farmers we passed on the way just looked at us and said we have a long walk ahead of us. Actually, the walk wasn't that far at all. About a 30 minute walk was all. Kinda weird since the other part of our area that we have always gone to is like a 40 minute walk and Corcuera always told me Marcos was way further. We got to Marcos and just did finding the whole time since we had no people to contact there. It's not a huge area but there are enough houses to make the trip worth it. We made a loop on the way back to the apartment and went by Nanay Dominga Cantor(Inv), Brother JunJun(recently returned LA), and Tatay Cabading(LA) who all were not there. We didn't get many lessons but we contacted a lot that we can follow up with this week.

Thursday and Friday were alright days. Just usual days of work. Still had no luck with the Investigators in the area but we tried our best. I was supposed to have my first baptismal interview Friday night. We went out to Mallig (different elders area in my district) to do the interview. We met up with the Elders and went to the investigators house and she wasn't there. We waited for about 20 minutes and she never showed up so we just told the mom we'll reschedule it for this coming week. 

Saturday and Sunday was awesome. Absolutely loved General Conference! There were a ton of talks centered on the family on Saturday especially. Saturday night after the Priesthood Session, Elder Brandon called and we talked about conference for a little bit. He's still up in Tuguegarao but I think he'll transfer next week. Speaking of that, transfer week is next week. How fast was this cycle! This is the last full week of the cycle then its transfers again! Can't believe it! I don't think I'm going anywhere so I'll probably be the same for another cycle. 

After conference on Sunday since we were in Roxas we just went on splits so we didn't have to go back to San Pedro then come back in the morning. I went with Elder Lavelua and Latu. We had a ton of fun and taught 3 lessons which was awesome for the short time we had. One was a little over an hour but was an awesome lesson to their investigator. Two of my favorite elders in the zone and we got to split together. It was super fun teaching together. Then we had dinner with a family in the Roxas branch at night. They were a sweet family! We could've sat and talked all night! Maybe it is because of splits that my week feels better than it really was. Got to end the week with an awesome splits! 

Being a missionary is such an amazing opportunity. We were talking about it on splits yesterday. Just about how awesome it is to meet all the people we do and build relationships with them and see them change and find a happiness you can't find anywhere else except for in the gospel. I have come to know without a doubt that there is no better work than sharing the gospel of helping people come closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Hope everyone has a great week this week! Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

 Service from last week:

 Another service from last week.

A harvested tobacco field. They hang it up to dry in those tents. First time I've seen a tobacco field is here in Roxas.

The family we had dinner with while on splits.

Second Area Trials

Don't really know where to start so I guess I'll start with the storm. On Wednesday, President texted and said we can go withdraw our support money to be able to prepare for the storm that was going to come on Sunday. Fast forward to Friday (I think) and we were talking about it with some people and they said it was a category three storm. We asked every person we talked to about it since everyone was saying something different. Final conclusion on Saturday night was a category 2 that was going to arrive at 4:00 Sunday morning. Well, woke up Sunday morning, looked up at the sky and there was still some blue! Darker clouds did finally come in and it started raining while we were at church. Rain wasn't even that hard though and there was no more than a breeze of wind. Huge let down. I was looking forward to it all week. Hopefully we can get another one soon. I think "typhoon season" is more in July but I'm not sure.

Another rough week with the work. Haven't gotten very much luck here in San Pedro. I was told many times back in Bambang that a trial was going to come in my second area. I don't know if this is it or not but right now the area is not good at all. Last cycle we returned five less actives right? Three of them haven't came to church for 4 weeks in a row for random reasons like getting a haircut and stuff. Investigator wise it hasn't been going well either. Our main potential investigator, Sister Princess, is moving to Roxas this week so she will be in other Elders' area so we will refer her to them.

Had a service assignment on Wednesday that was pretty fun. Well the part of being with everyone in the zone was fun. It was over in the sisters' area. We went to a families chili field and weeded between the rows of chili plants. It was a lot to do and super hot but we still made it fun.

Friday was a pretty weird day. Holy Friday or Good Friday? Something like that. But there was like nobody outside. There were no people in the fields and the zone leaders told me even the Savemore (like a Walmart in America) in Roxas was closed. When we asked if we could share with some people they told us no since it was Holy Friday. Then when we stopped for some drinks at a little Tindihan, a group of about 30 people walked by carrying a statue with candles lit at the bottom of it. They went over to the community basketball court and started doing some worshipping there. First time I've seen something like that.

Another week of ups and downs for sure. I can't wait for conference next week though. It's always uplifting and inspiring. Can't believe it's already been 6 months from last conference. Time is so fast out in the mission field! Hope everyone had a happy Easter! Love you all.

Love Elder Haacke

Faith

Another week gone by in the Philippines. I don't know if that's how I started my last letter or not but I'm out of ways to start and that's the only thing I came up with. But the week this week definitely had its ups and downs.

Tuesday I taught district meeting again. Taught about the importance of using scriptures as we teach. Quick fast forward here, I was planning this weeks district meeting yesterday and I could not think of anything to teach. Finally settled on something but wasn't sure about it. I decided I would hope President sends something to teach over email today. Well my faith paid off because he did. Guess what the topic is...using the scriptures. So it'll be a good review and be able to read some different scriptures about it. Anyway, after district meeting we split with the zone leaders for the day. I worked with Elder Larson. We had a ton of fun and taught 4 lessons together. It was a good time and learned a lot from each other. I definitely like the area they have. It seems like that a lot though. You always think other people's areas are amazing and just think your own area is difficult. 

We spent the night at the zone leaders apartment since Wednesday morning we woke up early to go to Cauayan. There was a meeting for all the zone and district leaders. Meeting was pretty good. Talked about qualities and traits of a leader. Then had a question and answer question which was good to know what to do in certain situations in baptismal interviews. After the meeting we went to McDonald's with the AP's, or Elder Iuli. Had a good time at lunch and got to catch up a bit with each other. 

Thursday and Friday were normal days but we were absolutely punted two days in a row. They were the two longest days of work ever. I have no idea what we we're doing wrong but nothing went the way we wanted. Upside is I talked to an American guy that lives here. I saw him on my first day here in San Pedro but didn't talk to him. We have gone by his house a few more times but he's never outside. On Friday he was outside and I went and talked to him for a bit. He is from South Carolina. Had a construction company but sold it to his lawyer, who is a member, and moved to the Philippines 3 years ago. He speaks no Tagalog so his wife is his translator he said. We had a nice little conversation but didn't lead anywhere to the gospel since he had to go back to his yard work. Built a quick relationship with him and looking forward to going back sometime.

Saturday our branch elders quorum activity got canceled. Pretty disappointed. We were going to go fishing so I was looking forward to it! Elder Pawin had a little LBM the night before and in the morning so he wasn't feeling that great. We still went out and worked. Had a pretty decent start. One investigator is taking the lessons pretty well so far but we've only taught her 4 times. They are super busy with tobacco harvest right now so it's hard to contact her sometimes but we had a good lesson with her on Saturday. We were also able to teach to Sister Lovely again and the lesson went well. She didn't attend church though again and neither did her family. Tatay has been in a different mood since about the last week of last cycle. They haven't been at church and every time I try and talk to him he just says he's "busy busy". I offer my help to him and he says he's fine then leaves. That's about how the last 4 attempts to talk to him have gone. The family was just returned to church last cycle, Lajo family, but they haven't attended lately. 

Church on Sunday was pretty good. Had 2 investigators at church. One is a new investigator that we met Friday night. Her name is Sister Princess and she's 13 years old. The family she lives with are members but that is the first time I've ever met her. The second was a relative of the same family that missionaries have taught in the past and we try to teach her when she is here but most the time she is in Manila. Elder Pawin and I gave talks in church also. I wasn't sure how my talk was gonna go. I started with apologizing since my Tagalog isn't very good and my branch president from behind me says, "English na lang!" He said it loud enough so like everyone could here it too. That's just how church is here though. I went on with my talk and did it all in Tagalog except a few words. When I finished 10 minutes had gone by so I was very satisfied with myself. 

Overall the week was alright. Didn't get very many lessons so in that sense I couldn't wait for the week to get over. As far as I know we have a full week this week so it should be better with more work getting done. Hope everyone has a good week!

Love Elder Haacke

 Backpack I had made like 5 weeks ago that just got finished. Pretty cool. 

 Basketball this morning. This is at the municipal building.

 Me and Elder Lavelua (my zone leader) on the tricy going to play basketball.

 

Pics of the hanging bridge we went to last cycle the same day as Magot Dam. Just got these pics.

Goats at Church

Another week gone in the Philippines. Normal week this week but still went by really fast! Dad I'm not giving any conference or anything about family history? I just logged onto the website that one day and looked at all the family history stuff. Also I don't need another card. I was able to buy one here. 

 

My first district meeting lesson went pretty well on Tuesday. The AP's came to Roxas so Elder Luli got to sit in on my lesson also. I think I've told you about him right? But I taught about the importance of strong testimonies. I thought I was going to be short on time until I heard the other district singing their closing song so that was a relief. Other than that there isn't much I have done so far other than stuff with the key indicators. Still I'd rather not have to worry about preparing lessons and I'd rather listen to them but it is what it is! 

 

The work was alright this week. We were able to teach Nanay Dominga Cantor and it went really good! The lesson was super long but I thought it was alright since we were answering her questions. She keeps saying that all churches are true and there is no wrong church. We told her that all churches have truth but not the whole truth. We went on by teaching the foundations of the church that Jesus Christ established and then lead to the apostasy and restoration. She understood well and we felt good about how the lesson went. If you remember she was the one that we went by last week and had the Jehovah's missionaries at her house. Well after the lesson we walked out and there were the missionaries at the neighbors house. They sure did stare us down as we walked by. 

I think I've told you about Sister Lovely and Brother Orlando before. If not, Sister Lovely is part of a part member family and Orlando is a relative. Cousin if I remember right. We started teaching them right when I got to San Pedro but it has been a while now since we had been able to share with them. Saturday we were finally able to get time with them and continue. The connection wasn't really there and it kinda felt like we were talking to a brick wall. We decided to break out the card tricks. Something I've picked up on the mission so far. It helped build our relationship with them a ton and they listened 10 times better afterwards. The only bad thing is we used all the magic tricks we had so next time I'm not quite sure what we'll do! We just taught them about the Book of Mormon. We reviewed the restoration a little bit also since it had been a while. They told us they would be at church the next day but that ended up falling through. 

That's pretty much all for investigators that are somewhat progressing. We teach a lot of lesson one each week and then people don't want to continue so that is the struggle we have with investigators. All we can do is keep finding and teaching and doing are best to help them feel the spirit and want to know more. 

 

With the less actives, we were able to find 2 more less actives this week through contacting. I think one of them might have good potential to return. His wife isn't a member so hopefully as he returns it will bring her to church also. We haven't been able to teach them yet but hopefully they'll have time this week. Other less actives has been kinda rough. One had attended church twice in a row but didn't this last Sunday. He just got the chicken pox and he doesn't want us to teach him while he has it. Others we continue to teach but haven't returned back to church yet. Hopefully soon.

 

On Sunday, they had asked us to bless the sacrament so that's where we sat which is right next to the window. During a song, Elder Pawin tapped my shoulder and pointed outside. There were two goats that had come in to the church grounds and were about to go into the church. Well they continued and came into the church also. I guess you know you're in the Philippines when you have goats coming into your sacrament meetings. 

 

Alright week this week overall. Had it's ups and downs as always but we continue to press forward slowly but surely. Hope you all continue to do well back home! Love you all!

 

Love Elder Haacke

 

 

Elder Cruzit, Sister Esquera and I at zone meeting from last week. Those aren't my glasses by the way.

 Tarantula we found at the apartment.

 

Goodbye's with Elder Corcuera. The Gaspar family.

 

The Ramos Family.

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