White Christmas

So this week if I can say one thing is PUNTED.Punted in english translates to rejected, sadly because it was the week of Christmas there wasn't a lot of people home and there were a lot of Christmas parties so people were always busy...

AND RAIN! There was so much rain this week I was just trying to imagine it as snow but it didn't help haha but once I was soaked I didn't really care anymore and it was definitely nicer than sweating in the heat! 

The highlight of the week of course was Christmas because it was my first one away from home. I realized this Christmas that it doesn't really matter where you are as long as you still have the right intentions and even without the family, friends or gifts I still found myself loving Christmas and realizing how important the birth of Jesus Christ was for the world. It was really cool to be able to teach people about the Christmas story and highlight Christ as the gift! 

Christmas day the streets were cleared and the craziness of the Philippines seemed to be turned down a few notches! It was nice to have a chance to skype home. And later in the day we had a BAPTISM! A Christmas baptism! The sister missionaries in our ward had one too so I had the opportunity of baptizing their baptism candidate Our whole mission strived to have at least one baptism per companionship on Christmas resulting in 205 convert baptisms this past Christmas! So that is what we call a white Christmas in the Philippines.

The ward was really good to us as well. We had a few dinner appointments and a huge one on Christmas eve with the Buslay family who always spoil us! Sister Buslay kept telling me to eat and eat! They say I will "grow with love" I guess they just want me to get fat! 

Also it is really nice to be in a ward that is so involved in missionary work and so many young men and women are so willing to work with us! The fellowshippers in the ward are awesome and really do all they can to make less actives and investigators feel welcome! 

One of the nights while we were walking home we saw a long term investigator who is a "seacat" driver which is a little bike attached to a cart. He is a long term investigator because he has been going to church for the past 4 years but can't quit his addiction to cigarettes so he can't be baptized.. but he saw us on the way home and offered us a ride, halfway there I asked him if I could give it a try and that is what the picture is of! IT WAS HARD WORK. My thighs were burning!  

So the Christmas season here was different but great! Also everything is progressing and we have another baptism set up for this week! Thank you for all the prayers and support! 

With love,

Elder Warnick

Merry Christmas!

Alright so week one down in my new area! I swear I have dislexia or something because last week I said my area was Latisay! Haha IT IS CALLED TALISAY in the Bacolod North Zone and my companion is Elder Alfeche (Al-feh-chee) he is my favorite companion so far and he is from Manila which means he is really good at english! He is also the District Leader here.

Our area is like half city and have shacks and sugarcane fields.

Tuesday we got groceries and stuff at the big nice grocery store because we weren't able to last monday because of transfers. I met Sister Buslay she is a really nice member in our ward that fed us7x since I have been here every other day she fed us and two days she fed us twice! She said I remind her of her son because we are the same age and we have been out the same time and I guess he is tall and skinny too. 

Wednesday we had district meeting and our district is so huge! It is made up of 3 wards and every ward has a set of Elders and Sisters! It was cool to meet new people and even better that half of them were younger in the mission than me! haha After the District meeting we had to go to the mission office to drop off baptism records and there was a HUGE package for me like big enough for 4 USPS flat rate boxes to fit in. I told Sister Mower (the mission nurse) that there was no way that was for me. She insisted that is was and that I should open it. WHen I did there was about a 2 inch layer of toothbrushes and toothpaste! I was so confused and then I saw a pacakge for someome else inside. So I guess what happened was the sender of the package put two of my packages in there and sent a bunch of stuff to the mission as well.

Thursday we went to a really far area and in the attached picture you can see me and my comp were just walking along side the road for like 45 minutes! It was fun but super hot! It started raining like crazy and we were in the jungle but a family let us in and we taught them!

Friday we got to drop off our laundry at a members house! I am so glad that there are members here who want to wash our clothes because mine were starting to get pretty stained up because I am not very good at washing by hand. 

Saturday we traveled to SILAY which is in our district to do a baptism interview and the sisters there needed me to do a baptism for them! So that was fun to get to baptize someone again! 

Sunday was awesome! The ward here is so amazing! The building is huge-two stories and it is actually air conditioned. we had 210 attending and I had to give my testimonty in front of everyone! But I felt like I did alright and everyone was just smiling. We have great support fromt the ward and it feels like home here! 

So things are getting better and better everyday! We have a baptism set up for christmas and the language is getting better everyday!

Salamat para sa tanan kag Halong Kamo! (Thanks for everything and take care!)

-Elder Warnick

TRAINED

SO I finished my training! And there are a lot of big changes! This week was such a good week and it was sooooo long! First off we had early transfers and we had a new elder in our house Elder Rakuro- he is the coolest Elder I have met in the mission he is from Fiji and has 93 baptisms! Every night me and him would talk about life and he would give me advice, he also told crazy stories about casting the devil out of people and death threats that he has received here! So I was pretty sad when I found out that I was being TRANSFERRED! Yep I finished my training, set up 5 baptisms for December and then got transferred! But it is all good and I am way excited for the new experience! I am now assigned to Bacolod North Zone so I am right next to the main city! I think my area is called Latisay? I am not sure! But I am way excited!

Sorry this email is going to be short because today is transfer day! I am really pressed on time! 

I am doing really good though! It feels great to be done with training and to be in a new area! I have heard over and over again that the second area for missionaries is where they really start progressing at doing well with the language! 

I am going to miss Hinigaran! It was my first area and it really was nice! But it was so hard at first! There were a lot of ups and downs but I learned a lot! I also got to see my trainer earlier today! He is a Zone Leader now in the furthest south zone so he was at the office when I went there! 

Sorry I don't really know what else to write in this email excpet that I am doing good and next week I am sure I am going to have tons of experiences from my new area and comp!

The attached pictures are just of my house and bedroom! haha just for remembrance! 

Thank you all! 

Til next week! 

-Elder Warnick

20 months na lang! (20 months left!) haha

So yeah I hit my 4 month mark this month haha and it went by generally fast but it is just pretty hard in the beginning. 

This week we had a lot of teaching like always and it was all over the place. We worked with members and the bishopric this week to find less actives. Tons of finding and contacting referrals/ less actives! It is way hard work but I realized whenever we go visit a less active home there is ALWAYS a potential investigator there! So it all works out! 

ALSO A FREAKING SWEET STORY READY HERE WE GO:

There was a small family. Husband, wife and a newborn baby. We went and visited them two weeks ago-they are former investigators I guess they kind of just got lost in the paperwork or something as missionaries transferred and such. But the wife her name is Bepsie like Pepsi with a B and she told us this experience when we revisited her for our follow up appointment. The day before we visited their family the first time she had been praying and praying because she wanted to find out what the true church was (Joseph Smith situation right?) and I guess she had been praying for a sign and apparently that day was the day that we showed up! When she said that I was super shocked just because that's one of those crazy situations that you always hear from missionaries but I never expected it to happen to me! So freaking sweet!

We had Zone Training this week and it was all focused on CHRISTMAS and if you haven't seen it already this: http://www.mormon.org/christmas we were trained on this big initiative the church is making to spread the gospel-they are going to take over youtube and it's going to be a big focus for us missionaries to share "the gift".

The Tabanyag family told us this week that they finally have the DESIRE for baptism so If that continues than we will have 4 baptisms on Christmas! :) and they are continuing to keep our commitments and come to church! YES!

We were supposed to get hit by a huge super typhoon this weekend and our whole mission was on lockdown friday-saturday BUT there was no rain and no wind! It was actually nicer days than usual but we had to stay inside the whole time! So lots of personal study! It was good though I love reading The Book of Mormon.

Food this week:

We had mangoes finally and they are the juiciest sweetest things ever! Also there are these little tubes of icecream called AGOGO and it is milk, sugar, cream pineapple and coconut! It's so good! And I also had fresh watermelon! FRUIT IS THE BEST.

I think that is everything this week! It was a crazy week but I can feel the prayers and support! Thanks for everything!

-Elder Warnick