AUGUST 11, 2013

Kamusta Pamilya!!!

Lots has happened in the past week! First, I can't believe that I have already been in the Philippines for more than a week! It feels like yesterday that I was talking to you all on the phone in the airport, now I am teaching the Restoration to real people in the Philippines. Wow! Time is already just slipping by.

This last week was an unusual week, as I understand it. We had two trainings: Zone and President's. In Zone training we talked about how to find people to teach through the members. It was good and kinda felt like the MTC again. President's training was great though! We discussed new potential proselyting methods. Each group was given a new method to put to the test. The first two discussed came right from the World Wide Broadcast in June: Church Building Tours and Facebook Proselyting. The assignment my group  got is to start a basketball clinic! Basket ball is HUGE here so we are going to try to use that to our advantage. Our prospective age group is seminary and early institute teenagers. We are hoping this idea will be very successful! We will begin by having a 15-20 minute devotional and then 40-45 minutes of Basketball. It sounds like a great, fun idea to make people more comfortable with the Church.

We were up in Maroka the other day teaching, that's the mountainous region, with Brother Sony.We taught Sister BB, who has taken missionary discussions for quite some time, and guess what!? I extended the Baptismal invitation and she accepted! From what Elder Parry has told me, she lies all the Gospel Principles and reads and prays daily, so she is ready for the next step;  however, she doesn't come to church because it is too far. She would have to walk 30-45 minutes to get off the mountain and then pay for a trike to get to church. For one person that wouldn't bee too bad but she has 7 little children who want to go too, so that walk became harder and the ride more expensive. I know that if she is willing to make the step of attending church and show her faith, God will bless her. Our current problem is showing her how important going to Church is.

Mom, could you send me another pair of shoes? Just a pair of brown proselyting shoes. Mine seem to have caught a moldy illness and want's to keep it no matter how much I clean them up. I'll be fine for a while, I would just appreciate a new pair. I wear a 9-9.5 Wide (size D if specific). Please send the shoes one at a time by air mail to ensure them getting here. All packages should be sent to:

Elder Christopher Carver

Philippines Bacolod Mission

Galo St. Between Lacson and Mabini

Brgy. 22, Bacolod City

6100 Negros Occidental

Philippines.

Thanks! Other than my odd pair of shoes, everything is GREAT here! The fruit is to die for, the people are so nice, the members are incredibly faithful and we are taken good care of. I love it here!I am so glad that I made the decision to serve a full-time mission and dedicate my whole self to the Lord. This work is wonderful! Participate as much as you can back home in missionary work! You will not regret it:)
 The Philippines is BEAUTIFUL! Everything is so green! The food is wonderful, it was back home too, I loved the Filipino food Maxfields and Fairbanks served. I especially love fresh Jackfruit. It is way good and super DELICIOUS!

I am glad to hear that Palangga ta ka is one of your regular phrases now! When you said it on the phone it was near perfect pronunciation too!
 Laundry was hard but it was rather relaxing. It gave me ample time to think and ponder about what I want to accomplish while on my mission.

Nate- Dude..... I heard you went on your high adventure this week! How was that? Remember King's Peak? It was so great! I really miss spending lots of time with you. Talking with Elder Parry made me realize how much we did together. Remember all of the weekends we spent at Debate tournaments just hanging out being best friends? It was great! I am so excited for you to go on your mission and to experience what I have so far! It is a wonderful fantastic thing!

Mom- Your emails are fantastic as usual! They always have so much information in them. I am adjusting great!! The humidity has almost stopped  bothering me but it is still noticeable. I get bit by mosquitoes a lot, but it is okay. It is usually just my legs, but yes that was a nasty bite that I got the night before because I forgot to turn my fan on. I always have a fan on at night to blow the bugs away. That seems to work. The oils only work in the small concentrated range. I put them on my arms and my arms are bite free so I will probably start putting it on my legs too. Foot fungus hasn't appeared yet because I make sure my feet are dry before I put my socks on. The shoes may prove to be a concern in the future though.. I have already seen the Lord's hand in our work! It is prevalent in almost all that we do. I will try to send pictures this time, I have a few. Elder Parry's full name is Samuel Parry and he isn't aware of any blog that is being kept for him. The language is coming fairly quickly. Sister Lara and Sister Person (native Filipinas) both said that my Ilonggo is really good. They are two of the sisters in my district. We taught A again. He gladly accepted the second visit in which we began to introduce the Restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and we will be returning today to teach again. Sounds like Park City was a lot of fun! Glad you got to do that. Thanks for the Pictures too! They were great to see! I don't recognize the basement anymore! Enjoy the Characters of Christ! It is wonderful! Tell Ben Hello for me! I miss him too! Alison is doing great! She has a lot of people to write but she will get back to you eventually! I can't believe that Jed is heading to Peru!! That is so exciting. He is going to love the MTC. I also can't believe that Wesley is getting back! I remember when he left! Thanks for all of your prayers. I pray for you all always. So do the members that we meet with! Just know that there are a lot of prayers headed your direction!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Carver