Last Week In Echague

Well I can officially say it was my last full week in Echague! I will be transferred this Wednesday and most likely end up in what will be my last area! Pretty exciting but also weird to think about. Time goes so fast. But I'm excited to get to a new area and meet new people and experience another companion. Echague has been pretty good and I will miss it but I'm excited to get to the new area. Today was a pretty good day. Sister Merlyn, one of our investigators, got married earlier this morning at the church. That was pretty cool. Guess who gave the opening address? That's right, I did. Why me? I have no idea. The second counselor came up to me yesterday at church and asked me to do it so why not? They had something printed out and told me to just read it straight from the paper. It was English which I think is why he wanted me to read it. I read over the paper and it was full of mistakes. No idea who tried to write it but it wasn't even close to normal English. At dinner Sunday night, Sister Delinila and I went through it and made a ton of corrections and took some stuff out. Even though she's Filipino, she's probably better at English than I am so she helped me edit it. But the wedding was pretty cool since I haven't been to one since I've been here. It was cool to also be a part of the program. Then after the wedding, they all left and went to PagAsa (where they live which is really far) to eat and we left and went to Santiago for pday. Met up with Elder Enuake since he goes home tomorrow back to New Zealand and we had a big feed together at McDonald's. As for the week this week, we were pretty busy. Started out great. President and Sister Rahlf came to Alicia Tuesday morning and taught a specialized training. It was about the last week of Christ's life as well as traits of becoming a better missionary. I really enjoyed the part about Christ's life. I learned a lot of things there that I have already applied to the work. During the whole week I always thought about the things that Christ was doing on that day. Also taught a lot about Christ this week being that it was Holy week and Easter Sunday. I remember this week last year when I was in Roxas and I remember thinking how weird it is. Like what the people do and stuff. But not a whole lot changed from last year and this year. Friday we did splits with the Elders in Paddad. We almost cancelled it since we waited so long for a van or bus and one never came. I told Elder Labrador we would wait 5 more minutes and if nothing came then we would just cancel the splits and do it again another time. Luckily within about 2 more minutes a van came. That was the only van I saw on either side of the road the whole time we were traveling to Paddad. I split in Paddad with Elder Lott and Elder Labrador came back to Echague with Elder Sorronda. Splits went pretty well I guess. It was kinda hard to get people to teach. Granted I wasn't in my own area but I guess it ended up being similar for Elder Labrador and Elder Sorronda. Everything was closed and almost nobody was out on the streets. Even if people were home they just wanted to relax since it was Good Friday. So Friday was a pretty long day but we survived. Spent the night in Paddad then came home Saturday morning. The apartment in Paddad has air conditioning so that was awesome. Definitely miss that from my days in Amulung. So on Thursday, we were supposed to have splits with the other elders from Paddad in our area but the one got "sick" and said he didn't want to have splits anymore. They still came to Echague that day to do a baptismal interview but then went back home. We went to Bishop's house to get the key to the church for the interview and while we were leaving these two Tatay's outside drinking stopped us and started talking about the Bible with us. We didn't have to unlock the church for about half an hour and we didn't have a set appointment at that time so we sat and talked for a while. Ended up being quite the discussion. He just asked a ton of doctrinal questions but we were able to answer all of them pretty easily. We eventually got up to leave and he told us to sit back down and was keeping us from leaving. He said that's not how missionaries work. You don't leave until the person you are teaching has a perfect understanding of what you're teaching. So he made us promise that we would come back after we unlocked the church. He gave us 30 minutes. I didn't want to go back since it was a total waste of time but my companion wanted to go back and prove a point or something. So we ended up going back and it was no question a waste of time. The guy wouldn't even listen. Every time we talked he cut us off. Plus he was drunk. Plus what he was saying wasn't making sense. So ended up wasting like another hour. I guess it was a little interesting to hear his point of view on things even though he was far from the truth which was sad. But the rest of Thursday was pretty good. Contacted a referral that we started teaching in St. Domingo. The Bauit family. They were pretty shy and didn't open up really well but when we went back on Sunday it was way better. They will be a fun family to teach in the future. Sister Ghen was at church again. The Sisters taught her and her mom in Santiago Sunday so that was good they are now in contact with her. In gospel principles on Sunday, we talked about temples. The ward just got back from the temple this week and the newly endowed members bore their testimony on Sunday so Ghen had a lot of questions about it. We had an awesome discussion and talked a lot about family history work along with a little about the Plan of Salvation. Sister Ghen ended up getting pretty emotional when we were talking about what happens to those that aren't baptized here on Earth. Good thing we have family history and baptisms for the dead. She started crying when she thought of her dad that has already passed away and never accepted the gospel. By the end of class, she had gained a testimony of the importance of temple work and the other ordinances that happen in the temple. I'm excited for her as she continues down the path of conversion. So remember the one investigator we had that we ended up having the sisters teach since we didn't know it was really their area? Well she got baptized on Saturday. That was really exciting. She was really happy that it finally happened. She said she has waited a long time for this. We were all really happy for her. Church on Sunday was pretty good. It was fun listening to a lot of people's experience going to the temple. Right after church we went straight to the Bercero's house and ate lunch with them. Then we went to Savemore and met up with Cesar, Mark Jun, and Joy for work that afternoon. It was really fun working with them and we got a couple more pictures before we would probably split up for the last time. Definitely going to miss the SA always working with us. That has been really fun to do every Sunday. Ended Sunday with Dinner at the Layugan's then went home. Overall it was a really good week. I am looking forward to this coming week though. Going to a new area and getting another companion. I'll let you know all about it next week! Hope you all have a great week. Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

 The baptism Saturday (above and below).

 

 Brother Elmer, Sister Ghen and myself at church.

 

 Brother Acosta (left) and Brother Ualat (right), some of the best member missionaries along with Bishop.

 

Elder Kane, Elder Carrington, Elder Enuake and me at McDonald's earlier for lunch.

 Work on Sunday. These kids came out of nowhere while we were taking a pic asking to join in the picture so I told them to hop in!

 

 Walking back to town at night with Mark Jun and Joy.

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
 

Pulling Weeds

Once again another week already gone! Week flew by again and I can't believe I'm already back here writing again. This email might be a little shorter than normal. Normal week this week so I'll just do some updates on are investigators and some less actives.

Start out with Sister Cyrene. I don't know if I've mentioned her before but we were able to get a couple more lessons in with her this last week and she came to church for the second week in a row. She is 16 years old and her step mom is a member. We found her a good friend in the youth, Grace, to help her learn and feel welcome. There is a youth conference the second week of April so we will work on getting her baptized before then so she will be able to attend.

Didn't teach Brother Neo this week. I guess our set appointment with him is the 16th so hopefully that will happen so we can see where he's at with the Book of Mormon.

We were able to teach Sister Merlyn this week. She is busy getting ready for her wedding so that she can be baptized. The wedding is planned for the 28th. She and Bishop have been busy getting all the papers done so that it will happen.

So we thought Sister Ghen was at church in Santiago last week but we got a hold of them this week and turns out they are in Manila. Explains why they weren't at church. They will get back during the week this week. We might actually end up teaching her here instead of the Sisters in Santiago. She hasn't decided for sure yet but hopefully we'll get her here.

Sister Clarissa came to church this week. She wasn't able to attend last week which was too bad since she wanted to have her baby blessed. She talked to Bishop about it yesterday and made plans for the first Sunday in April. It made me really happy to see her at church again. I have been pretty close to her and her family since I am always the one that has taught to them. I have always been on splits with one of the SA when we have gone to their house so I've had the privilege of getting to know her well and help her come back to church. Also it is really cool seeing how happy her sister, Marvilyn, is when Clarissa comes to church. Even though their houses are only like a 10 minute walk away from each other, it's almost like a reunion when they are with each other at church.

As for some things that happened this week, I went to Jones on Thursday and split there with Elder Kane. This is his first area/4th cycle in the mission. He is doing really good with the language for how long he's been in the mission. We had a pretty good day together and got to know each other a little bit more. I enjoyed going to a different area for a day and working there. It's always fun to see other areas and meet new people.

We got up early Friday morning and left right away to come back to Echague and end splits. After about an hour of traveling we got back right in time to go to a csp. We cleaned up a lot that was full of weeds. Not my favorite type of csp's but it was still a lot of fun being with the other missionaries here in Echague. We worked pretty hard to be honest and went pretty fast. We weren't quite done yet but Nanay came and told us to stop since she had to leave and go take Tatay to the hospital for something. She said we can come and finish it another day so there should be another csp in the near future! 

Bishop worked with us on Saturday and we went out to Pag-Asa. Highlight of the day, teaching two pastors of a different church. We taught for like almost an hour. It was interesting to listen to their beliefs. We focused on the Godhead, families, and went into prophets a little bit. It never really turned into debating which was good but it did get close at some points. Nothing had really changed by the end of the lesson. I think they were finished being that the one just got up and left. I did enjoy hearing their beliefs and stuff though.

That pretty much sums up the week this week. Had a couple visitors from the stake at church on Sunday. Really focused on home teaching. Something that needs work here. Just got a new stake president/presidency and they are really pushing it which is good. That could be really helpful to strengthen the ward if there was home teaching.

Anyway, hope you all have a great week this week! Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

 Decided to take a pic of us 4 since we were all wearing blue.

 

 Having our merienda after we finished work.

 

 All of us at the Layugan's for dinner Sunday night.

 

  Power went out at dinner so we had a candle light dinner.

New Goals for the Zone

What a busy and super fast week we just had! I knew it would go by quick because of everything we had planned to do but I really can't even describe how fast it really was!

Week started as usual with district meeting in Alicia Tuesday morning. I attended Elder Ratamula's district meeting. He taught about effective study and how it relates to effective teaching. It was a little quiet at first but we finally got a decent discussion going and had a fun role play at the end. Tomorrow we are planning to talk to the zone about some things that we need to work on. We talked about it on splits with the AP's this last week as well. The zone has been at an all time low on contacting the last couple weeks so we are going to have the district leaders focus on that this week and also talk about it as a zone before we split into districts.

Wednesday we had MLC in Cauayan. I really enjoyed MLC this month. One reason is because we don't have to regurgitate it to the zone. We won't be teaching zone meeting this month. Instead, President and Sister Rahlf will come by all the zones during the month and they will be teaching about the last week of Christ's life since it is Easter this month. That will take the place of zone meeting. But I really did enjoy the lessons taught in MLC. It was basically all about leadership. The AP's started off talking about the attributes of leaders. Expounded on all the verb attributes listed in the white handbook like represent, convey, inspire, encourage, help, teach, discuss, share, and correct. Then Sister Rahlf talked about ministering and administering. I feel like here in the Philippines, or at least in the wards, a lot of ministering happens and not a lot of administering. Everyone is excited to act and help and do things but the planning is a little weak. It is another one of those things where if you really want to have success, you need to do both. President Rahlf taught about the differences of being a "Law of Moses" leader and a "Higher Law" leader. Sometimes we get caught up in making sure everything we do is in line with the way we are told or with guidelines given to us but that's not always the right thing to do when it comes to a certain situation. I don't have my notes and I can't remember the exact examples President used but you can probably think of other examples of being a "Law of Moses" leader and a "Higher Law" leader. That pretty much sums up MLC. Hung out and ate lunch with Elder Teikauea again. Food was good as usual which put the icing on the cake for MLC.

Thursday we got back and had a normal day. Best part of the day was teaching Neo Cuntapay. After like 3 weeks or so we finally taught him again. We shared again about the Book of Mormon which ended up turning into a discussion about a ton of other stuff as soon as he read the Joseph Smith quote in the introduction about it being the most correct book of any book on earth. He said, "If that's true then what about us? We study from the Bible and that's not a true book?" This is a relatively easy question to answer but it didn't seem to click with him when we answered it. After a little longer he went back to his personal belief that as long as you live a good life and pray you will be saved. We set an appointment with him for this week either Wednesday or Thursday. Wednesday hopefully.

Friday we headed back to Cauayan for splits with the AP's. I went with Elder Antenorcruz. We didn't have a lot of appointments to go to so we ended up doing a lot of finding throughout the day. We set a goal to try and gain trust in the people we found within the first few minutes of meeting them. At the end of the day we thought we had done well with that and met some with potential to become progressing investigators. We had a good time together. Laughed a lot and had success. Talked a lot about the zone and ways we can help it improve. Like I said earlier, we are struggling in contacting so we talked about that while we were there. All in all it was a good splits.

Saturday we woke up, got ready, left Cauayan and headed for Paddad. We had to do a baptism interview Saturday morning. Ended up taking way longer than we wanted. We got to the investigators house which is right next to a members house that is pretty well known for being strict I guess. Anyway, before we get to where the investigator lives, the member meets us and just starts explaining to us right away why the interview can't continue. He had gone over and talked to her and started doing his personal interview to see if she was ready. Not needed but I guess he wanted to do it. Anyway, so this member tells us that she prayed for a sign which shows that she doesn't have any faith and can't be baptized. He didn't want the interview to continue but we ended up doing it anyway. Normally only one of us would interview but we decided that we both would interview so that we could better understand what had happened. Long story short, she was confused if she was worthy to be baptized since her and her husband are not married and that she will be judged by members because of that. Her husband was married before but has split with that first wife a long time ago. There is no divorce in the Philippines so he can't be married again to the woman we interviewed. Because of that, the church has made an exception that if they live together for 5 years and are faithful and loyal to each other, they can be baptized even if they aren't legally married. Once we explained it well to her she was comforted and had no more worries about not feeling ready. Turns out that is the main reason she prayed. Also she said she didn't ask for a sign to see something but just to know it's what she should do. She's been faithful in going to church consistently for a long time now as well. We knew she was more than ready to be baptized by the time the interview got over. Which lasted like 45 minutes. Don't really want to explain why. But all is well and her baptism happened later that afternoon. After the interview we came home, ate lunch, then went to Bishops house and we worked with him until the evening. We went out to Pag-Asa. The super far area. We have an investigator out there that is planning on getting married here in a couple of weeks so that she can be baptized. We visited a few other members out there before returning back to Echague. Finally got home later that night and I read a ton in the Book of Mormon to catch up because of the busy last few days we had. I'm back on pace now, even a little ahead in the power reading. Still loving it and loving the pace we are going at. It's fast enough that it's basically like a movie playing in my head as I read it.

Quick update on Sister Ghen. She might now be taught be other missionaries. She is from Santiago but has been going to church here so we started teaching her. She wants her family to hear the gospel as well so she will as of now start being taught in Santiago. She lives in the STL's area but in a really far part of their area that they never go to is what they said. Too bad but we know she'll keep progressing and that she's in good hands with the missionaries there.

Testimony meeting was pretty good on Sunday. It was super loud with a ton of little kids running and yelling. If you really paid attention though, the testimonies were really good and a lot about missionary work.

We had a pretty good week overall. Two trips to Cauayan took some time out of the week but we were still happy with what we got done in the time we had. I hope you all have a great week this week and I love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

 Last day with Elder Baclea-an.

 

The Sisters, Elder Labrador and I at church.

 Saw a peacock while finding in new places on splits with Elder Antenorcruz.

  

 Elder Labrador, Elder Antenorcruz and I in the pickup. Elder Higgins is behind Elder Labrador.

 View from inside the tricy.

 

 Sunset Saturday evening on the way back to town.

 The clouds were cool looking coming back from Pag-Asa. Blue and black.

 

 Me in the tricy. Little blurred since we were moving.

This is how the missionaries here preach sometimes. They just stand up on the bus, hand out envelops for money, pray, share a message, pray again, then go around and collect envelops with money in them. Interesting to hear the things they say. Most the time about who will be saved. Sad to hear how many misunderstandings and wrong interpretations they have. Makes me more and more grateful for the restoration.
 

Funny sign they had in a bus we rode in going to Cauayan on Friday. "Bawal Umutot" means like farting is prohibited. And no it is not fully air conditioned.

Physical and Spiritual Growth

WOW I would have to agree with Dad that this month has flown by! I can't believe it's going to be March tomorrow. That just means I'm gonna hit 5 months left this week! Feels like the 6 month mark was just last week! Anyway, before I start I want to wish Alexa a Happy Birthday! Made sure I wrote it in my planner so I wouldn't forget!:) Hope you had a fun day Alexa. Can't believe you're already 10 years old!!

So I finally got into a daily routine of skipping rope this week. It actually feels really good to get some exercise in. Wakes me up better and gets my body going. The downside is I can feel how out of shape my body is. Can't even think of another time I was this out of shape! But I think it will pay off and I think I'll be able to start to see some results within the next month. I've been trying to eat healthier as well so we'll see how it pays off. Also thought I should update you on my height. Last night I was pretty bored waiting for the KI's to come in so I took out the small measuring tape in the sewing kit, marked my height on the wall and checked to see if I've gotten any taller. Well, long story short the answer to that is nope! Not even a millimeter! So disappointing. Guess I need to work extra extra hard these remaining months to see if I'll be blessed with another inch at least!

We had a pretty relaxed week this week by way of needing to go places for meetings and such. We had district meeting, of course,  but that was pretty much it. District meeting was good. I attended Elder Carrington's district. He taught about the importance of discerning while teaching. He hit the point that while your companion is the one speaking in a lesson, you shouldn't just be listening to him or thinking what you are going to add but you are really the one that needs to be discerning. The stl's also came up from Santiago to attend district meeting so that was fun. Tuesday night we had dinner with the Sandaga family. We laughed a lot again and enjoyed our time there with Nanay. While we were eating, one of the dogs took Sister Delinila's shoes so we couldn't find it when we were going to leave. While we were looking for it, of course since she had no shoe, Sister Delinila was just in bare feet and it was dark out and she ended up stepping right into a massive pile of dog poop. Pretty funny but pretty gross as well. She's really cool though and just laughed about it. I feel like something always happens when we're all together at dinner.

Mark Jun worked with us on Wednesday. He was pretty excited to work with us for a whole day of work since normally he just works on Sundays. Well, turned out to be not the best day. We visited so many people but almost nobody was there. It was a rough day. I think even Mark Jun was starting to get frustrated until Elder Labrador explained to him that the only thing that depends fully on you is finding. Everything else depends also on other people being there. But we literally visited all the backups and then some. Ended up doing some finding which was alright then got a couple lessons to a newly returned less active and a recent convert. Mark Jun is preparing his papers right now and will be a great missionary.

We set some return appointments for Thursday morning with some of the people we weren't able to teach on Wednesday. While we were walking there, one of them texted and said he won't be there so that was disappointing. Then when we got to the other one, she was still sleeping. And by that time it was like 10:00! So getting punted didn't stop over night. Ended up just going by Bishop's house then heading home to do some studies and eat lunch. We did end up talking to Bishop for quite a while. He is really nice and super humble. Time went by faster than we thought when we started talking. But we went back out in the afternoon and eventually returned back to those appointments where we were finally able to teach them. Sister Cyrene is one of them. She's in a part member family and some other members really wanted us to teach her. We've been teaching her for a little while now and she is reading the Book of Mormon pretty well but still hasn't come to church. We taught her again yesterday but she wasn't able to attend church.

Friday we had to go to Paddad to do two baptism interviews. Before we got there, we went to Alicia to ask how the elder there was doing. He had been throwing up blood and had just gotten back from the hospital so we thought we should go by on our way to Paddad to see how he was doing. He is doing okay. Mostly eating apples, eggs, bananas and drinking Gatorade. Sometimes he still throws it back up though. He is scheduled to go back to the hospital to have an operation this week. We got to Paddad around 5 but they didn't end up getting off work until 6 so we waited for them for a while. Interview went really good. They were two boys about 16 years old. Ended up getting back to Echague right in time for dinner with Nanay and Tatay Rivera. We bought a cake earlier that day for Sister Baldomaro and opened it up at dinner to celebrate her one year mark in the mission.

Saturday we had a one day mission with the Elder's Quorum. We have it the last Saturday of every month. That means people should know about it right? Also we just went over it the Sunday before. We got there half an hour late (Filipino time) and there were only three there. Bishop, Elders Quorum President, and Brother Ualat. We waited a while longer but no one else showed up so we broke into two groups and went to work. Elder Labrador and I stayed together and Bishop worked with us. We worked close to the church and we had met most the people we visited before. The two best lessons were to the Quisisem family and to John Garcia. We shared about being the salt of the earth to the Quisisem family and committed them, especially Nanay, to church the next day. Then we had a simple lesson about scripture reading with John. I think it payed off though since they all came to church yesterday except Nanay Quisisem. She doesn't go to church at other churches and she said she still has strong faith in this church but she won't come. We still are yet to really find out what is stopping her from coming.

Clarissa Jaramillo was at church yesterday! I was super happy when I saw her come in. She even beat her sister Marvilyn to church so I got to see Marvilyn's reaction when she saw her sitting down already. Marvilyn was super happy as well. Clarissa plans to bless her baby next week which will make it two weeks in a row. She was also greeted really well by a ton of members.

Sister Jen is doing great. We had an awesome discussion in gospel principles yesterday at church and she is really understanding everything really well. We weren't able to teach her yesterday like we planned since their meeting in Alicia went like 3 hours over but we have an appointment with them tomorrow at 5. If everything goes well we will look to set a baptismal date this week.

Overall it was a pretty good week. Happy Sunday seeing Clarissa at church along with seeing how fast Jen is progressing. This next week is going to be super busy. We have district meeting tomorrow, MLC on Wednesday, and splits with the AP's on Friday. I'll be back here at the computer writing about it before I know it!

One last thing I forgot to mention.... We are doing a power read in the mission. Forgot to tell you about it last week. But I'll have to be honest, I wasn't looking forward to it when we learned about it and the thought came into my head to not even do it and just continue reading where I'm at. Anyway, I did it and I am loving it!! I'm actually ahead of schedule since every time I have spare time I just read! The last two weeks have been great and am learning new things that I haven't caught the other times I've read it. I love highlighting all the things that have to do with Christ. The Book of Mormon is ALL about HIM!

Anyway, that pretty much wraps up this week! Hope you all have a good week this week! Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

Good Week

Another week gone by and I'd say it was a pretty good one! Started out the week great with zone conference on Tuesday. We got up early and Elder Labrador and I had to be the first ones there to make sure everything was open, set up, and the air con was running. Neither one of us have been assigned to Santiago before but I had been to the church there one other time for my first Christmas conference so I was pretty positive I knew where to go. Well long story short I was wrong. We got to Santiago and was looking around to say where we were going to get off the van but I had no clue. Then the van got to the end of his route and so we had no choice but to get off. Everyone knows the Mormon churches here though so we just asked a few people where the church of the Mormons were and they knew right where we needed to go. Zone conference ended up being really good. Like always I guess. We started off talking about goals and the importance of them. One of the main purposes of this zone conference was to introduce the new Standard of Excellence to the mission. We didn't have a part in introducing them since we conducted the meeting but the stl's and the other zone leaders did a great job. Not a whole lot of them changed from last year but we raised the new investigators to 8 per week and added a new category which is 4 investigators at church every Sunday. Before we just had the new investigators then straight to baptisms so there wasn't really a Standard of Excellence to measure the investigators progress from being a new investigator to being baptized. I think this is a great new category and think it could increase in next years Standard of Excellence. Other than that the Standard of Excellence is pretty much the same. We also made a new vision for the mission. We simplified it and shortened it into three sentences:

We are missionaries who obtain power through obedience.

We connect the people we teach to heaven.

We know the God of Israel leads this mission.

Something that is easier to remember but still tells who we are, what we do and what we know. Pretty cool I thought. Anyway, the rest of zone conference was really good. Of course, ate some good food then had an activity. It was another activity to help with contacting. We got in two rows that faced each other then the senior couples would act out a skit. Then, either you or your partner became the missionary and the other was the person in the skit. The missionary then contacts the person using the CASH method taught to us by Elder Schwitzer when he came to the mission.

 

Compliment.

Ask a question.

Smile.

Help them.

It was a really fun activity and the senior couples were pretty funny as they acted out their skits. We eventually returned back to the chapel and President Rahlf taught us more about Joseph of Egypt. I started thinking back when we acted that out in school in China. I still use that play today to help me understand the whole story. The way that President Rahlf used this story was really good. His topic was "Bloom Where You are Planted." As we reviewed the story, there were so many times where Joseph was thrown into a bad situation and could have just given up. Instead, he consistently made the best of whatever situation he was in and then was blessed for it. Something that I could work on but I'm sure everyone could do better at this. He related it to the missionaries since he always hears missionaries complain about where they get assigned and stuff instead of blooming where they are planted. It's something that we have full control over it just depends on us to do it. Overall, really good zone conference like always.

 

So maybe 2 weeks ago I think I told you about the Jaramillo family or the 3 sisters at least. This week we were able to teach Clarissa, the 2nd sister, and committed her to church. This lesson went way better than normal as well. We were able to talk and joke a lot which really made her open up more. She mentioned that her older Sister Marvilyn, the active one, had dropped by earlier that day and they talked about attending church as well. Also, Clarissa wants to have her baby blessed in church this March so we will use that along with the help of Marvilyn to bring her back to the church. This Sunday was a rainy day. Rained all day long starting early in the morning so she said that's why she didn't attend church but when I dropped by with Mark June she was in good spirits and still looking forward to having her baby blessed in a few weeks.

We got a new investigator this week that seems really promising. It is the girlfriend of one of the members. Her name is Jen. I guess Jenevie but we call her Jen. She is 24 and I think he is 25 or maybe 26 so  I think this could even has potential to get to the temple when the time's right. She is a Catholic but is pretty familiar with our church. She had a friend in Solano that always took her to institute a few years ago and she liked what she heard there. Even though all her family is Catholic, they still support her on whatever she feels is right which is really good because that doesn't happen very often. Elder Labrador and I are really excited to continue teaching her with Elmer (her boyfriend) and see the progress we know she can make.

We are starting to lose hope in Brother Neo. We haven't been able to contact him at all. We went to his house this week and just talked to his wife since he was gone. She was surprised when we told her he hadn't replied to our texts. We know he his close with a couple leaders in his church and we feel he might have been told to stop listening to us. We'll give it a couple more weeks and see how it goes.

Those are probably the biggest parts of this week. Like I said earlier, it rained all day Sunday. Got soaked. We were asked to meet a member at 7 to go with them to the hospital to give a blessing to their niece that got dengue. She seems to be on the upside of it but still gave the blessing. Can't stand the hospitals here. This one wasn't any different. There are cats walking up and down the halls and like 7 people in beds in each room. That kinda made it a little awkward giving the blessing but I was fine with it. The girl getting the blessing was more embarrassed with a lot of people being there but we showed her that it was okay. Then on the way back to town on the tricy I got soaked. So that wasn't fun. Then I just sat in wet clothes during dinner. Dinner was super funny. I don't want to tell everything that happened since it won't be the same reading it but we laughed super hard. Most I've laughed in a long time! Love the missionaries we have here in Echague. We've all become really good friends.

Overall very enjoyable week this week. Hope you all have a great week this week and I love you all!

Love,
Elder Haacke

Training Broadcast and Transfers

Another week passed and another transfer day come and gone! Before I get to that though, I mentioned last week that we watched a training broadcast for missionaries that was taught by some of the apostles, members of the Seventy and other church leaders. I went back and reviewed my notes and saw a few things I really liked from the broadcast that I can share with you in my letter this week. 

First thing was something taught by Elder Niel L. Anderson. He told a story about how we need to always be ready to testify about the Savior. He said, "Have the Savior on your lips." If we always have him on our lips we will always be ready to testify of him when the prompting comes. Plus you will most likely receive more of those promptings (or at least recognize them) when you are ready. This is something we can apply our whole life and especially as a missionary.  Elder Anderson then went on talking about repentance and how it relates to the other principles of the gospel. David A. Bednar focused a lot about the spirit and our role in bringing it unto others. Some of the things he said made me remember a few things from my mission so far. He talked about how we as missionaries, having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, bring it into people's homes to those that do not yet have that constant companion. As soon as he said that I thought of our investigator Neo Cuntapay. Many times he has told us the different feeling we bring to his house and himself personally when we are able to teach him. We have taught him about the Holy Ghost and he knows how it works but I think he is still scared to commit to something different then what he is doing now. I also thought of the Chakino family from Bambang. They too loved it when we were there. I remember very well the night Sister Chakino bore her testimony to us and also thanked us for always coming to their house and the spirit we brought and left every time we went. Elder Bednar also talked about how to use the spirit in teaching and how you don't need to know it's revelation to say something. Those were two standout things that I liked. We also learned about teaching less actives, giving commitments and the best ways to find new investigators. Overall a very good conference and learned a lot I need to add/do differently in my teaching. 

Like I mentioned last week, found out on Monday that I wasn't being transferred so I'll be here for 7 more weeks! This cycle is 7 weeks to push us back a week because of the change in the MTC. We've had some crazy cycles recently. 4 weeks then 8 weeks then 6 weeks and now 7 weeks but it should all get back to normal after this 7 week cycle. Tuesday this week was the prepare day and farewell for Sister Villa and Elder Romo. It was also a birthday for Nanay Layugan so they just combined it all and had a little party at the church Tuesday evening. We played some games and ate some pretty good food. By the way, my team dominated at the game I was in. It was a math game and I brought my team the victory. We swept the other team like 4-0. Ended with eating dinner, taking pictures and saying goodbye. Oh also on Tuesday, AP's called us and told us to have those transferring in Alicia zone to just commute on their own instead of us lining up a van. We had already lined up the van so we had to call him again and cancel. Everyone transferring in the zone was angry we didn't have a van but they all still managed to get to Cauayan on time to read the lists. Elder Labrador and I went and helped the sisters in the morning with their bags so they didn't have to carry them by themselves on the bus. Transfer meeting in Cauayan was pretty fun. Got to see some of the other missionaries I haven't seen in a while. I would have to say though there are a ton of missionaries that I don't even know the name of. Anyway, after we read the lists we helped the missionaries get in their vans and then we left. We got some great new additions to the zone which was good because I was pretty close with a lot of them that left. So I don't know if in your missions you would say like you have a daughter and son in the mission and stuff like that. If you are the district leader and you have a brand new sister in your district, then she becomes your 'daughter'. Then of course if you train then that is your son. So in the mission I have one son and two daughters and both my daughters (Sis. Baldomaro and Sis. Argonosa) got transferred to Alicia zone. They are so cool and really funny! And of course hard working! Also my new kabahay is Elder Palas. I was with him in Roxas for 4 cycles then we went to Tuguegarao North together and now we are together again here in Echague. He's pretty funny as well. So I'm pretty happy with the new zone even though I think I will only be here for one cycle longer.

Elder Labrador and I taught zone meeting on Thursday. We introduced the mission wide power read of the Book of Mormon then taught about charity. The zone made a pretty good discussion out of it and also the sister training leaders did a great job teaching their part of it. After the meeting the AP's came by and dropped us off some papers about zone conference this week. Elder Labrador and I are the hosts so I believe that means we are conducting. Our zone conference is tomorrow so we are really looking forward to it.

Friday morning we did a deep clean of the apartment. Mainly because Saturday was our apartment check but also because the apartment needed it. We cleaned out everything and even moved stuff out of rooms so we could sweep and mop it. We cleaned for like 2 hours straight and got rid of a ton of junk. We also reorganized where things are in the apartment which opened up some room in the main room. The apartment was super clean when we were done. Probably cleanest it's been since I've been here at least. It was good though because we passed the inspection Saturday morning. This was my first apartment check with the new housing couple and they check way more than the last ones did. Elder and Sister Shorter usually just came in, shared a message, talked a little, checked a few things and were on their way. Elder and Sister Jones asked way more questions about cleaning and then checked pretty well the entire apartment. Good thing we cleaned so well!

Go back to Friday real quick, we had Aaron's birthday party. I guess they all thought that I was gone so when we showed up they were shocked I was still here. It was a happy shocked not a sad shocked so that was good! We spent a hour with them celebrating his birthday then went to dinner with Nanay and Tatay Rivera.

For the second week in a row we were able to teach Neo. We saw him driving in his car Thursday evening while we were waiting for a tricy on the side of the highway. He honked at us but didn't stop. We got a hold of him over the phone but weren't able to set a time this week to meet up with him. He said he was too busy and would be out of town. I don't like letting people go this long with out being taught especially if they show signs of progression. We'll pray we get to meet up with him this week and share to him.

One of our less actives, Sister Heia, came to church for the third time in a row this week. We had stake conference so it was in Alicia and she was still able to go. She has made a few mistakes in her life but has been doing well on returning to church. Sometimes less actives don't get noticed when they come back to the church. Or at least the part of the missionaries helping them come back isn't seen. I think last week is when this happened... someone came up to us and asked if we were the missionaries helping Sister Heia return to church. We were really happy to be recognized for helping Sister Heia.

Another less active, John Garcia, hasn't been to church the last two weeks either. We were able to visit him though on Sunday night along with his sister and her husband who are also less active. We had a great BRT with them where they talked about their conversion to the church. They were some of the first 10 members of the church here in Echague. It was cool to have them tell us about what it was like back then. It was back around 1988. Just having about 10 of them at church in a house. Pretty cool to see it grow into two wards since that time.

Sunday we had stake conference where we got a new stake presidency put in. Elder Haney from the area presidency was there along with another member of the Seventy. Can't remember his name though. Then President and Sister Rahlf were there as well.The old stake presidency and the new stake presidency all bore their testimonies then we listened to Sister Rahlf then President Rahlf talk. Then the two members of the Seventy. Great meeting. I was thinking we were super lucky to have them here in Alicia stake speaking to us until Elder Haney mentioned Elder Nelson was also in the Philippines but in Naga mission. Just kidding, they still did a great job and we were very lucky to have the privilege to listen to them.

Overall we had a pretty good week this week. Got the new zone all settled in and we are looking forward to zone conference tomorrow! Should be another great week this week! Take care and I love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

Elder Labrador and I with some of the Sisters at stake conference.

 

Aaron's birthday party Friday. All birthday parties in the Philippines (at least that I've heard of or been to) has these karaoke machines that are super loud. You always know when someone has a birthday cause you'll hear it from blocks away.
 

 Elder Labrador, Sister Delinila, Sister Baldomaro and myself at transfer day.