September 7, 2010

We got ourselves two investigators with baptismal dates now! hahahaha. We're so stoked! you have no idea! I told Elder Seupule that this area was going to be like a train. He was getting really depressed that we had no baptisms happening this month. Sometimes his zeal gets him depressed. I told him that a mission is hard. Its not cupcakes and butterflies like the MTC makes it sound like. Especially when you're reopening an area. I said its like a train because when a train starts off it moves slow. But it knows its potential. It knows how powerful and how fast it can go. So it keeps pushing and it takes a while, but slowly it picks up speed and then that thing is moving at full speed and it can't be stopped. Thats how things are going for us now. We're not getting started anymore but we're not quite at full speed. We're at medium speed.

Love you

Brandon

August 31, 2010

Hey you guys!

So its your son here emailing from his FIRST AREA!!! We're on a little P-Day vacation today in the City. We went to the temple because today was our temple P-Day. It was so awesome!!! Its been almost 9 months since I've been in the temple. It was really great. Got to see some buddies also. Today we're hanging out with some of my old ward missionaries. One of them, Romel went with me to the temple. I really love that guy. I called him last week to see if he wanted to come and he was soooo excited.

So here's some answers for mom. The package isn't here yet. But packages come to us more frequently for two reasons. One, we have the senior couple in our zone and they go down to the city all the time. So they always check if we have anything and then bring it to us. And then we go to the city to go to the temple once a month so between all that, packages get to us quickly. Letters come every week through the LBC which is like FedEx here in the Phils.

About the whole thing with Elder Seupule, he has some kinks he needs to work out in the attitude/patience area. He went OFF on me the other day because he thinks that "Greenie" is a derogatory term and shouldn't be used on him. I tried to explain that that's just life and then he said that if it isn't in the scriptures, that I shouldn't say it and neither should anyone else. Yeah...I just figured I'd hold my tongue. He could snap me in half in his thumb knuckle. He's gets aggravated very easily and by anything so I'm VERY careful. But its interesting. I can see how much I've grown because in my first area I was very similar to him. Angry at people, loud laughter, not too serious, fired up to work. Good times. I'm pleased with my progress and just hope I can help him progress like Elder Arbado helped me to progress.

 So I can't remember if I told you this but Sister Reed, the one in charge of packages, told me that Christmas packages take FOREVER. Just letting you know. I'm not being greedy or anything. I just wanna help you guys out so you can plan ahead of time.

The work is going well in the area. Last last week we had a baptism. He was the only investigator that the Elders before us left behind. So now we're at zero investigators but things are filling up quick. We have been tracting hard! I started using a backpack rather than a shoulderbag. It's much more tracting effective.

Something you might find interesting: One of the main focuses of our leadership training was committing to baptism and being bold about it. They told us that we should commit on lesson 1. And we practiced it alot. So on the way home on the bus (its a 3 hour bus ride to Bogo from the city) this guy came and sat next to me with AAAAALLLL these other seats open. I was just getting ready to read a lil Cebuano Book of Mormon action when this guy cramps up my seat! So I figure that I'll just start talking about the church to him and maybe he'll move over a seat (I know, I know--a moment of natural manism). So I start talking about the Restored Gospel and about the Book of Mormon and then I talk about the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. He tells me that he's Catholic and not interested. So then he doesn't move. Plan failed. But after a minute or two he asks what is in my Book of Mormon. It just so happened to be a pamphlet about the Cebu temple that I was going to give to a street contact of mine on a follow up appointment. I pulled it out and shared with him about the temple. I told him about how families can be together forever and that I knew it was possible but only through the temple. Then I shared about baptism and confirmation. We talked for about an hour about the church when he told me that he had never been baptized before. So I asked him if he remembered about the principles and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that I shared with him: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. He did. Then I asked if he had faith. He said yes. I asked if he planned to repent of the mistakes he's made. He said yes. Then I said " Brother, if you do these things, will you be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints through the proper priesthood authority?" He said yes.

Yeah. I committed a guy to baptism. On the bus. hahahahahahaha. I could hardly believe it. It was all because of the training. I never would have done it otherwise.

Alright. We're gonna go bowling. Love you guys!

Brandon

August 25, 2010

Hey mom and dad.

So wow. This week has been pretty crazy. My companion is pretty great. He has a real love of the work. He's a passion-filled guy. He just needs to learn how to bridle his passions. Here's a little story from this week:

Remember. He's Samoan...from Western Samoa.

So we're walking down the street after just getting told by our appointment that she couldn't meet with us. Even though I committed her very carefully to that time. So we're both pretty heated right now. We had walked 40 minutes to that appointment. So we're walking down the street past this little tindahan and I hear someone call out "hey joe". I just mutter "shut up" and keep walking. So I turn to talk to Elder Seupule but he's not there. So I look around and there he is stomping over to this tindahan across the street with his arms spread out like he's gonna kill someone. So he just starts screaming to this group of like 10 people, "WHO SAID JOE! WHO SAID JOE!" So I'm like...great. So I walk over there. And he's still yelling and screaming at everyone. So all I can say is "stop. stop. stop." I've been around polys for long enough in my life to know when to not intervene. You don't touch an angry Samoan. So I'm telling him stop as he pinpoints the guy who said it. He gets a toothpicks distance from this kid's face and yells "WHO IS JOE! IS MY NAME JOE? WHO'S JOE!" and all this stuff. So now everyone is running from all directions to see whats up. And I'm like "oh great". So some little guy tells Elder Seupule that he is a martial arts master and I told myself that if this guy thinks he has what it takes to take on this angry rabid grizzly bear, he can have his day. Eventually Seupule storms off and I had to explain the whole thing to everyone--the group of 30+ people. To end the story, the guy who was the martial arts master said that he understands the problem and invited us to come teach him. We're going next week. The Lord works in......mysterious(?) ways.

So right now I'm staying in the city. We've been doing some really intensive training for the leaders--ZLs, DLs, and trainers. They have finetuned Preach My Gospel and its all about focusing on committments now. Its all about getting people committed to baptism so you know where they are at with it all and then getting them to where they need to be. The training is until 4 in the afternoon and then we help the missionaries in their areas here in the city. Last night we committed a guy to baptism and the Elders didn't think it would ever happen. It was pretty sweet. We just laid it all out there and I said, "look. From what you've told me in the last 20 minutes, you have a strong desire to follow Jesus Christ. So will you follow his example and be baptized by proper authority into his church?" He was like, "Yes, I will". Boom.

Alright. We gotta get back. The ZLs challenged me and a couple other missionaries to some hoops tonight. Its over. Plus email time got sliced in half from now on.

Love you both!

Brandon

August 10, 2010

Hey mom.

So yeah. I'm in Bogo Zone. And I'm the district leader. And I'm training. Did I not tell you that? Yeah. The problem is that my padawan hasn't come yet from the MTC. He's some big Samoan dude. Apparently before his mission he hurt his shoulder playing rugby, it healed, and then in the MTC he hurt it pretty bad playing volleyball (lame! FOUR SQUARE FOREVER!!!) and then had to get surgery on it. So thats his status. We're reopening an area because the guys here got pulled out for having girlfriends. Stupid. I'm staying with the Zone Leaders and helping them while I wait for my comp. He should be here by the end of the week.

So my new apartment is super nice. We have air conditioning in our bedroom! Like a REALLY nice aircon unit. The only problem is that we have this cat around the house that won't leave and the last Elders didn't care. So I'm checking out the stuff in the house and I start going through the drawers to see what goods these guys left behind and a cat is sleeping in the top drawer of my desk! He wakes up, jumps out and runs away! I know right! Apparently these Elders left the sliding glass door open a crack for this cat who comes through and climbs up through a hole under the desk and sleeps in the top drawer. I'm gonna kill the cat. It's my weekly goal. That's what President told us to do with animals. Kill them.

So things about the zone. Its pretty small. Its ten missionaries--two sisters, a senior couple and six elders. I'm still the DL and I gave my first workshop on Monday. They really liked it a lot. They all seem pretty focused. President told me that what he's done is weeded out the bad missionaries and put all his best ones on the outskirts of the mission because he knows that they can do the most good. And I can tell. They are all hard workers. Elder Akina is having trouble with his new companion. They get along but his comp complains alot and doesn't like to walk and all sorts of stuff. I don't know.

So yeah. Not much to talk about this week. It was pretty quick and boring. Not much excitement. Especially since my comp isn't here yet.

Love you mom.

Brandon

August 3, 2010

Hey mom and dad!

So the baptism didn't happen yet. It got postponed to this Saturday because of the District Conference and then we had to postpone it again to next Saturday because we didn't get her interviewed in time. So its going to be next week and thus....

.....I will not be there to see it. I'm getting transferred to Bogo Zone. On Cebu. So now things are kinda like, woah. Did I do everything that I could have in the area? I'm glad that I can say that I did. It was a really hard area and I gave it my all. Its interesting. I was looking at some of the BR pages that people had written me so far in this area and almost all of them had something about my optimism and me facing adversity head on. I was pretty proud. Thats a good quality to have I think. I'm glad that that is one thing that people see in me.

So sounds like everything is good back at home. Gualala was fun, Ben has esopholagitoditisitonadmous, school is back up again, life is good.

So things this week were pretty awesome. I started writing in my journal every night so I can remember everything. Lets see...

So Elder Akina slapped a kid this week. Its an awesome story. It wasn't a hard slap. It was kind of "check yourself before you wreck yourself" slap. This kid called him Joe because he wanted to look cool in front of his friends. So Akina told him to come back and say it right in front of him. So he came back and tried to be tough by saying it again...and Akina slapped him. We saw the kid yesterday. He goes "um......good afternoon!" It was awesome. One less Joe-caller in Calape!

We were running low on Support last week so we skipped a lunch. We showed up at the church that afternoon and people asked if we had eaten lunch. We said no and they asked if it was because of money. We kinda tried to dodge the question but then they asked if we overspend. We said no. And then word exploded in the branch that we had no money and no lunch. hahaha. So the branch came together and prayed for us. We ate a meal of noodles and spaghetti sauce for dinner that was bomb! The crazy thing is that support came TWO DAYS early!!! We were shocked! The prayers on our behalf really do work! It was awesome.

We had our District Conference this last Sunday which was really good. President Hansen came since he's over all of the districts in the mission and he gave some really awesome talks. We were the choir. We sang Our Saviors Love and Children of Our Heavenly Father. The congregation was in tears because we sounded so awful. But I think it was because the Spirit covered up our voices and it sounded alright. haha. The best thing that happened was that Sister Hansen was giving her talk about the scriptures. She starts talking about the iron rod and how its the word of god. She said, "Nephi asked the angel what the iron rod was and the angel responded--HALLELUJAH!!! HALLELUJAH!!!" Somehow the microphone got turned off and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir came on from the back room at the EXACT PERFECT MOMENT!!! It was so awesome.Especially since we all thought that was part of her talk. I turned to Elder Akina and said, "Wow. Quite some preparation on this talk. haha.

Wow. So two more days in Calape. Its going to be hard on me. I have grown very close with most of the members. I have a lot of people here who love us and are really getting excited to help us. We got a LOT of referrals this week. I think the Lord sent me here to learn patience and use my work ethic to prepare this place for someone to harvest. Good luck to them.

So I know you wanted a list of things that I would want for my birthday. To be honest, the list has shortened. I really want money and THAT BOX OF TIES THAT GREG GAVE ME FOREVER AGO!!!! You know the ones that we all thought were ugly? Yeah. Its really awesome. And thats what I want more than anything. If we still dont have them at the house, I want a whole bunch of ugly old man ties. I know you think thats crazy but I do. As many as you can.

I could also go for some IcyHot. haha. And a Costco bag of Sour Patch Kids. And anything else that sounds pretty good. I don't know. The ties are my biggest want/need. I need some good bargaining value. Tie trading is crazy here. I really hope you still have that box. I have prayed every night the last week you still have that box and didn't give it to DI. Could you let me know if you still have it?

Thanks. So much.

July 27, 2010

MAN ALIVE!!! I can't leave you people alone for 8 months without someone getting surgery on their throat from swallowing some chunk of beef or someone having headache pains and having it just ooze out your ears!!! People, people, people. hahaha.

So lets see.....

So about Ben. Thats pretty crazy. But at least we get to figure out what in the world is going on in that throat of his. That problem of his is nuts!!! I have a similar problem. If I eat starches (like bread or RICE) then my throat gets all blocked up and then I have to drink water with it to get the food to go back down. Its kind of a hassle but its also a good excuse to keep a glass of water present if the sud-an (the food that you put on the rice) is gross. It works like a charm. But he said he felt like a pro and said something about Kobe Bryant which makes me think that he may have still been under the influence of anesthesia.

And then there's mom. Holy cow thats an awesome story mom. Out your EARS even! I bet if you had spiritual eyes that would look pretty awesome. Just all his priesthood going in and all your headache coming out. Thats way cool. And then on top of that he has the power of healing! I guess we know who to call now when there's a sakit (sickness).

I had a similar experience this last week. Our potential Branch Mission Leader (which means that the branch president is looking into calling him as the BML) hasn't been coming to church the last couple of weeks. So we decided that we would go down and pay him a little visit and see what was the problem. He had also told us that he would work with us and never showed. So we went over there and talked. Turns out that he's had this infection on his foot for a while. He had it when I got here to Calape but it was more of a nuisance is what he said. But now it was stinging and he couldn't sleep at night. So after talking with him and figuring out what was the matter we found that the infection was getting worse (it didn't take a doctor---but it took two Eagle Scouts...hehe). So we told him that we had a plan. We told him that we would be back. So we ran (actually we walked aaaaaaall the way back to our house) and got some Neosporin from my bag. Then we bought some gauze and medical tape from the pharmacy. Then we went back to his house. We gave him instructions to wash the infection morning and night, put some alcohol on it to kill any extra bacteria from the water on the infection. Then rub some Neosporin on it and then cover it up with a bandage and then wrap it up with a handkerchief. We had already given him a blessing for it a week ago so we left him with that and bounced. I had faith that all he needed now was medicine. The Lord wanted us to do our part before he would do his.

So we go back two days later. And guess what! This infection that was about the size of a walnut was now the size of his pinkie fingernail (yes yes...look at your pinkie fingernail and compare...) BOOOM!!!! Healed! We haven't been back in the past couple of days because he's been gone but apparently he's up and about and doing great! We're really thankful. Turns out in HIS patriarchal blessing he has the gift of Faith to be Healed! Nice huh? The Lord is so cool.

Sp our work is really taking off now. Here's a story about an interesting bump in our road: So there's this religion called Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) and they were founded by this apostate Mormon named Manalo who graduated from BYU and wanted to be an apostle. Joseph F. Smith told him no so he started Iglesia ni Cristo. One of their teachings is that Jesus was just a man and that Manalo is greater than JESUS!!! What the what? So we tracted this girl on a bus and she said the missionaries had taught her before and we were able to come and visit her family. She was totally down with it. So I wrote down her name and asked this family on Sunday if they knew her because they live in the same neighborhood. So they say they know her and guess what? Her family is hardcore Iglesia. And her brother in law is the pastor. And the brother that we talked to in the branch said that they will have three pastors show up on our second visit and try to blow us away with the Bible. We're ready though. We're just gonna act like we're super stoked that they want to share with us too and then move past what they say. I got good at that in Mock Trial. Time to put that to good use. So last night we realized that she's trying to trap us into a Bible Bash with someone who knows doctrine better than her. Last night was the Anniversary for the Iglesia ni Cristos and she invited us to attend. US!!! She was like, "oh, we're just going to discuss the Bible." Yeah, we didn't go. We almost did though. That would have been interesting. So I'll keep you updated with what happens.

Kinda stinks that I'm missing out on Gualala this year. But guess what...I only have one Christmas left! Pretty sweet! Time is just FLYING BY!!! Its crazy! But I still love it like nothing else.

I don't know if you guys know this but me and the boys have been staying in close contact. Adam, Daniel, and Tyelar all write me each week. And even though we're all thousands of miles apart, we've all decided that we're gonna room together at BYU when we get back. Yeah. Distance stops nothing with us! That's the plan. Adam said there might be some kinks he needs to work out with some other cats but as far as we can tell its gonna be good. We just don't want the three of us awesome dudes to get stuck with some square bear kid from like Idaho or something in our apartment. So Adam was naturally our first choice! He's stoked, Daniel was right on board, Tyelar loves it and Adam's words were "Heck to the freaking yes" so he likes it too I gather.

As with Nathaniela and her baptism...its next Saturday because of District Conference.

Oh! I told Ben about this. I don't know what you're planning for my birthday (if anything) but just to let you know for all cases. Being that I am off island now, every package that I get (depending on size I think) comes to me at two times during the transfer--Zone Conference and Zone Interviews. Other than that, its a waiting game. So if you want a package to get to me before my birthday (if thats your plan) I would send it a month in advance or so. I'll probably get it a week or two early but thats better than three weeks late. I can wait to open it. Just write its for my birthday. I figure hey, I could wait until Christmas with your package. haha.

Alright fans! I love you both. Stay sweet. And tell Brian to write me! Ben does every week along with Jenny and the Boys. But Brian is kinda not so consistent. You gotta give to receive!

Love you

Brandon

July 20, 2010

Hey mom.

First lets talk MONEY! So I'm glad you guys liked the story about the Gonzalez family. They really love us and we really love them. We've become really close with all of them. Even one of the little girls has a crush on Elder Akina! haha. But the other money is this: because we're out in the middle of nowhere, in a province where it costs lots of money to get things out here, prices for food are very high. Especially because of the season. Nothing is growing so everything is more expensive. We were talking about it last night. We only buy food and not even that much in between. Drinks every once in a while but no matter how hard we focus and budget, we run out of money earlier than most of the other zones. Because we are the only ones who are in the middle of nowhere with no city around. So thats why we lose money so fast. We try all we can and still are out of money before support comes. What can we do? Thats why I have been pulling money out every other week or so. Because we're in emergency mode and have nothing! I don't know what you want to do about it. Whats your thoughts? Because...the tank is down to about 1500 pesos now and thats gotta last until the end of the month.

I'm kinda bummed that I wont be there for the Treadway Trek. I'm also bummed that I didn't get to see Daniel before he left...alright. Thats a lame thing to miss. I know he just played rockband. haha. The two of us have been planning to open up a laser tag place in Provo. He's really serious and was crunching numbers on it last week. I told him we have a while until then.

I hope that you have fun at Girls Camp. I love teaching big groups of people. I get a rush out of my district meetings. Even more fun is when you get to pick your topics. Last Monday I taught about what makes prayer with faith PRAYER with FAITH! Its really helped Elder Akina and I to focus our prayers. We started separating our nightly personal prayers from actually going to bed. Because we found that sometimes we just say them so we can go to bed. So they're fast and meaningless. So we pray before we brush our teeth. Then after that we have companionship prayer. Which nobody in the mission does outside of planning, companionship study and leaving the house. So that has helped too.

Love you all. Hope you have a good week all not showering!

Brandon


Hey Dad,

Your Ipsen email address has the strangest format ever. Its suuuuuuuuper long across so I have to scroll back and forth to read it. Kinda tough.

So its week 4 now of this transfer. Its killing me how fast things are going. Last night me and Elder Akina were planning and we were just like....."WEEK FOUR???" Yeah. But its alright. Transfer day is coming up quick. I don't know yet whats going to happen. I might still be here and I might be gone. I can't say anything quite yet. But I kinda dont want to transfer. I have a baptism coming up. We've been teaching the daughter of a member. She's nine, so she's a convert baptism. It was going to be on July 31 but then we found out that July 31 is district conference. So now its on August 7--the day after transfers. Hahaha. Its kinda poetic. So we'll see what happens.

So President told me in his email that some major change is happening to every mission in the world. We find out what it is on Saturday morning. I'm pretty stoked to find out what it is. I have some thoughts. I'm thinking an addition to Preach My Gospel or something. He said its major and thats pretty major.

I gotta tell you. Having an American companion is pretty fun. Of course, its all you had in your mission but here its kinda nice once in a while. We both can talk about stories from home and understand where we're coming from. Its pretty cool. His mission has really changed his family's life. His parents were in some kind of divorce where they were separate but still married and they were inactive. Now they're going back to church, moved back together, and now his dad is the teacher for the Elder's quorum. Pretty cool how a mission blesses lives back home.

About BYU. We have a countdown on our calendar at home until kickoff. We're excited here for it. Even though its not for at least another month.

Alright dad. I'm gonna write mom now. Love you. When we get closer to football season I have an assignment for you. Yeah...you have homework.

Brandon