Sunday 26 October 2014

ISA KA BULAN SA FIELD (ONE MONTH IN THE FIELD)

ONE MONTH! WHAT? I really don't know where the time goes! Everyday goes by way fast! We are always doing so much always busy and I guess that is why it goes by so fast!
Also because so much happens it is really hard right now to think of everything that happened... Let me think...
We taught 55 lessons this week and had 2 baptisms! Sadly we had it worked out so that my companion would baptize one of our investigators and I would baptize another and then the cousin of the last one would baptize him. BUT the girl who I was suppose to baptize drank coffee 2 days before her baptism... So we have to wait. But I really believe that all things happen for a reason and I obviously don't think that it is good that she drank coffee but I don't feel like she was completely ready for her baptism anyway. This week we will be able to focus on her more and hopefully by the end of the week she will be prepared!
But at least we had 2 baptisms this week! Roberto Billiones and Ashley Kilayco these baptisms were really awesome for me because I actually got to see these two progress all the way from the first time we taught them until they got baptized and it is super cool to see how people can progress! The gospel is such a blessing and I am realizing more and more why I came out here! How can we keep the gospel and the blessings of it from anyone!?
2 weeks away from the next transfer! And that is when our district leader and his comp are going to be moving in with me and my comp. This is way good for me because they all speak really good Ilanggo so I think I will be able to pick it up a lot faster after that!
I'm having a real hard time remembering what happened this week... 
The cool thing about my area is that we teach people all over-from the city, to the sugarcane fields, to the beach and clear out to the middle of nowhere! 
We gave 3 blessings this week and it's amazing how much faith some of these investigators have even though 2 of them never keep our commitments or go to church they still believe that through the preisthood that we have they could regain their health because of a blessing that we gave them.
So what's my near death experience this week you might ask? Well we were walking to one of our lessons and all of a sudden I hear this huge WACK! And I look down because right in front of me a huge coconut fell from a tree 75+ feet up and it landed RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! I don't really know how hurt I would have been if it hit me but if I was ONE step ahead of where I was I would have been hit!
Also I saw 3 spiders the size of my hand! Maybe bigger! I managed to kill 2 but the other one climbed INTO our "washing machine" (it's not really a washing machine because it doesn't really get the job done just kind of swishes the clothes gently back and forth) And I did a little exploring at our house and there was this little side house next to ours and I opened it up and the creepiest doll was just sitting there in a chair right when I opened the door! THINGS ARE CRAZY HERE! But I love it!
So yeah I'm still alive and I am looking up a lot more now! ;)
Again thank you for all the support!
-Elder Warnick

Sunday 19 October 2014

The Other Side of Heaven (or something like that)

So it has been a long week! I think that is the first time I have ever said that because usually it seems like the weeks just fly by! But we had a lot of stuff going on this past week!
On Tuesday we had a district meeting and it is always nice to see other missionaries and help eachother out with insights on how we can help our investigators to progress! Afterwards it was Elder Archuleta's birthday so we went to a pizza place called D'CRUNCH and they make 30" pizzas and the 8 of us elders ate 2 of them! It was so much food! After that we went to a birthday party for a guy named TATAY DUDS (tatay means dad) and they fed us even more food so I felt like I was going to explode! This week was all about food for me! After we had that amazing pizza I bought ingredients to make good old pancakes! And I may or may not have had them for 3 breakfasts this week! 
We were teaching so many lessons this week and at the end of the week we had taught 52 member present lessons... and THAT IS INSANE considering that my comp was sick for one day and we didn't even teach that day! We had to get 3 investigators ready for their baptism that is going to be this saturday so lots of lessons and interviews!
I got a haircut and it was one of the weirdest experiences I have ever had but I find myself saying that about everything I do here! They give you a shoulder, arm and head massage with the haircut so it is kind of awkward but I wasn't going to complain! They actually do a pretty good job with haircuts considering it is all done with clippers. FILIPINOS ARE PRECISE! I am convinced there is no human error here! If  you don't believe me you just have to watch their driving! It is insane but I have never seen anyone crash!
Almost all of our investigators came to church this sunday which was super awesome and basically a miracle! We finally got a new phone yesterday after going a week without one! 
Yesterday was Zone Conference and it was my birthday too! We went to Binalbagan and our whole Zone was there! President Lopez gave us some training and told us that for the month of September our mission baptized 590 people! 590!!! It really amazes me how many baptisms we have! Apparently at Zone Conferences President Lopez gives a shout out to everyone who had a birthday since the last zone conference! He gives everyone a toothbrush and says OPEN YOUR MOUTH. Referring to the scripture that states if we open our mouths they will be filled with what to say. Also it is important to OYM to everyone so that we can find people that are searching for the truth!
So the heat is insane and there are so many bugs I can't even believe it! A couple nights ago while walking home in the dark we walked past a stick in the road but something didn't seem right to me so I turned around and pulled out my flashlight and shined it on the "stick" turns out it was a 5-6 foot long snake! I walked literally a foot away from it! Things like that don't even phase me anymore and back in the states I probably would have ran away terrified! I'm constantly relating my mission to THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN. I feel just like him especially how he felt his first couple days there.
So yeah it has been a crazy week and I've almost been in the field a month! TIME GOES BY FAST! I'm doing my best to make every moment count! 
Take care everyone!
Love, Elder Warnick
P.S. I'm losing my English and not gaining my Hiligaynon
P.S.S. I'm covered in mosquito bites
P.S.S. (SPOILER ALERT) The church is true.

Sunday 12 October 2014

CRAZY CRAZY

nother week and it goes by so fast! So some more stuff about my companion-My companion is a native from Isabelle Provinice and he has been out for 15 months! He loves basketball like a ton! He's 5'6" So I stand about a head taller than him. He is super funny and he doesn't really know english too well so it's funny to hear him speak! SO I actually miss the SNOW AND COLDNESS of Utah! But I think I have gotten used to the weather here and sometimes I wake up in the morning shivering! AT 80 DEGREES! It's crazy! I played basketball with a bunch of pinoys last week and I DUNKED it on them (i think their rim was like 9 1/2 feet haha) it was sick! HAHA they always are commenting on how tall I am which is something I NEVER got in Utah! 
It was way hard at first and my mission is the TOP baptizing mission in the WORLD so with that comes a lot of work!  We baptize every single week! Something that has been on my mind is how the mission is the mission and home is home! AND to never let it be an option to go home early because way too many people go home early! The field is such a shock because it is nothing like the MTC you are actually in the real world and even though you are following guidelines and rules it's like having a ton of freedom! Everything is different and a lot more real! I wasn't ready for how real is was going to be and my first week when my comp was taking a shower (out of a bucket) I would just be crying...I always found myself just being super sad and then I realized when we got out of the house and started working it is so true the saying "forget yourself and go to work" but even more real my saying "you forget yourself when you work" it's hard to just forget yourself-make the switch and just be a workhorse but if you really just start working it happens automatically! That is what helped turn things around for me! AND PRAYER, prayer has never been so real in my life and through it I feel so much closer to God and always pray for the gift of tongues because once you're in the field you realize that the language is so different it's because of the SPEED and ACCENT!  AND IT ALL COMES WITH TIME! And lastly something that really helped me was "Why should it be easy for us when it was never easy for HIM" meaning Christ. He never had it easy!
Something that kind of made me mad this week is they don't really care to much about conference here in the Phillies... We watched priesthood session and the saturday session but then only like the first session of sunday... it made me really mad because I missed out on a ton of stuff! I really like Tad R Callister's talk the one about parenting- he spoke to us at the MTC when I was there! I didn't hear Elder Scott's... Or Ballard or Bednar so yeah I missed out on a lot of stuff... so we haven't had any baptisms the last two weeks but we have like 6 on the 25th! So that is pretty exciting! I'm finally getting used to things around here! 
Remember that visit I talked about last week? The one about how when we went into the house there was a casket in there? They keep the caskets in the house for 7-14 days here and Yesterday we went to the funeral service for the Sister who passed away and the car that was holding the casket was driving down the street at about 5 miles an hour and all of the family was walking behind it, and my companion and I were in the crowd too and I have never felt so out of place  in my life! This white guy within a crowd of Filipinos standing a head taller than all of them marching to the cemetery. It was weird for sure but they were all HAPPY! Even though not all of them were members, really believe that they can see their loved ones again and that is SO COOL!
Sorry I don't know why this email is so long this week it's just a lot of stuff has been going on! And I always think throughout the week of what kind of stuff I am going to email home but always end up forgetting.. So I guess I'm just kind of rambling trying to get all my words out! 
LANGUAGE IS STILL HARD. But I have faith I can learn it.
Our cell phone broke the other day and we needed to submit our key indicators to our district leader so we spent the night at their house and that also helped me to realize how nice of a house me and my comp have! I am way blessed! Born and raised in the church and never have had to experience half the stuff people experience here! But I love it and am so happy that I am out serving The Lord! :)
TAKE CARE!
Love,
Elder Warnick

Sunday 5 October 2014

One week down

Well I was really surprised that I made it a full week here! Honestly last week I had my doubts! I don't know what it was, I found myself being really negative and kind of questioning why I was doing all this. BUT then I read some things from my study journal to help pump me up and also while I was riding on a trike it kind of hit me that I was letting myself dwell on all the negative things and wasn't even thinking about the positive! So I started telling myself all the good things that were going on in my life and let me tell you it is super easy to "count your blessings" when you realize how much you have after seeing how little everyone else has.
The "pinoys" (Filipinos) are really interested in a lot of things about me and they all typically ask me the same questions:
-Where are you from?
-How many people are in your family?
-How tall are you? (they are like a foot shorter than me!)
-Do you have a girlfriend?
-What is your Dad's job?
And then they always tell me that they like my eyes and my nose? My nose?? They describe it as being a "tall" nose and how everyone here wants that? Also my eyes are like "cat eyes" and they think I'm wearing contact lenses because everyone's eyes here are brown. It's pretty funny! 
Me and my comp are leading the district with our numbers! We teach on average 10-12 lessons a day! And yesterday we received 9 referrals! It's hard work! 
Yesterday was kind of a weird day, after we had done all our lessons and we were at our last lesson we walked into the house and there was a casket right there! I wasn't expecting that at all but apparently we were visiting the family of someone who had just barely lost their grandma and here in the Philippines they keep the casket in the home for 7-15 days! :/ kind of weird and creepy but it's their culture! 
We have 87 people coming to church and President Lopez wants us to have 100 by the end of the year so that is our goal! We didn't have a baptism this week but we are continuing to teach the family of who we baptized last week. I baptized Sister Ascuzana and my comp baptized her grandson Steven. We are trying to get Steven's parents to be baptized now.
All in all I'm learning a lot everyday and trying my hardest with the language. I keep getting glimpses of that "love" everyone talks about that they have for the people they serve. But I'm not completely there yet. So things are getting better and hopefully I am too!
THANKS SO MUCH for all the support! 
Love, 
Elder Warnick