Baby!

This week was fast! Last Monday after we were done with emailing we ate lunch and actually went out and did something fun! I had never done anything on P-days except for PREPARE. But we went bowling! It was so much fun! I didn't realize how long it had been since I had gone but I still won, but sadly my score was only 112.

Our investigator this week that was supposed to get baptized drank coffee.. Coffee seems to be the only thing that ever holds people back! At least with all the investigators that I have worked with! So we moved her date..

Wednesday was kind of a crazy day. I were on our weekly exchange that we do every Wednesday and we have a dinner appointment every Wednesday night with the other elders so we meet up there at the end of the night. Elder Pedroso and Elder Rosario came back that night looking a little shaken up! I guess they went to teach our investigator that always gets possessed and during the lesson she got possessed and ran off. They went after her and gave her a blessing. They were so scared the rest of the night.

Two days later when I went there the exact same thing happened.. BUT I didn't feel anything.(The kids were crying and it was pouring rain but that was the only thing that made is scary) I always thought if I was around someone who was possessed I would have felt the presence of the evil spirit.. but nothing. So we decided to just give her a blessing of comfort and almost right after we said amen she sat up and asked us if we had just got there-as if she had forgotten everything. After the experience we are convinced she isn't possessed but most likely has a mental problem like a multiple personality disorder. But it was still crazy! Possessed or not!

Our little group is progressing though! We had 24 at church so our attendance is going up every week. This week we should have 3 baptisms! And we might be getting a new area added on to our group! All our investigators are progressing and over coming their trials! One story of that is: that same family who last week found out they won the lottery and felt guided as they went to church was trying to overcome their addiction to coffee. The Nanay or mom was so persistent to overcome it because she has such a strong desire to get baptized. She had a pounding headache for the whole week but Sunday when we visited her she was so happy it was all gone! Blessing always come from following the commandments! And then they gave us fried bananas so it was a win win! ;) My new nickname from that family is 'baby'... despite the fact that I am the same age as one of her daughters and older than the other Nanay Cordero's daughters always call me baby because I guess I look so young and nobody believes that I am 19!

We made cool jerseys for our district and got them this week. It looks like the NBA logo in the corner but it says 'LDS' and it is the angel moroni!

So just working hard like always and trying to stay alive! Things are going great! And time is flying by so fast..

Thanks for the prayers and support! This transfer or "saylo" is halfway over so I am gonna work freakin hard this week!

-Elder Warnick

P.S. I finally memorized the first vision in Hiligaynon this week! :)

Plug Your Nose!

Well it seems like the weeks are starting to fly by in my new area, but sadly everyday is basically the same thing..

Our investigator Teresa who we visit every day-she's the one who has been possessed since she was 14 and it randomly happens. Every time we would go to her house this week we were expecting to have to cast out the devil but she was always is fine when we teach her. She told us more about some of her experiences and she told us that the day that she left mid lesson she couldn't look at us because "grabe ang kasanag" or our light was so great. I guess we were just glowing to her! I think that's kind of cool being missionaries people can see our light!

Sadly two of our investigators drank coffee this week and they were begging for us to let them get baptized but they needed to understand that it wasn't our decision they needed to wait two weeks until they could be baptized. They were pretty sad but on Saturday when we baptized the other girl I think they realized more of the importance of baptism and that it's not just a little thing and that we need to be prepared and worthy for it!

We did exchanges again this wee and me and Elder McCleary found this sweet family next to our progressing area-they live right next to the river that we baptize people in! But I haven't got to experience that yet! Maybe this week! Because we have one scheduled for this Saturday and two for the Saturday after that!

Saturday we had our baptism and it was kind of rough.. We had to wait an hour for our candidate to get there because she lives so far away from the chapel. I think we usually baptize in the river by our area but we combined our baptism with the sisters in our ward so we did it at the chapel. I baptized both of them but I didn't know how to say "plug your nose" in Ilanggo but I thought it would be common sense to plug your nose while you're going under water... I kind of forced her hand into her face hoping she would plug her nose and then I dipped her under. She came up fine so it all worked out, but it was pretty embarrassing.

Sunday was the craziest day, we went to our area in the morning for our special sacrament. NOBODY WAS THERE. So we walked around the town, stopping by our investigators houses and inviting them to come to church. Once we had made our way around and got to church there was 20 people there. I blessed the sacrament and was a last minute speaker. Teresa (our possessed inv.) came in the middle of sacrament but she refused to take the sacrament and me and Elder Pedroso could tell that she was different. She was possessed. She was hunched over and wouldn't look up. When I got up to speak after we had confirmed Liziel I started my talk about the holy ghost and then Teresa got up and sprinted out of the meeting house! She was possessed I guess she didn't like hearing about the spirit.

Later in the day we visited the Cordero family. They were a family that went to church for the first time this sunday. They own a store and they always refused to come to church because they needed to keep it open. But I guess they hadn't sold anything all morning and then we came and invited them to come to church so they decided to give it a try because they weren't selling anything. They told us on the way to church they felt as if they were being "guided the whole way" and then while they were at church they said they felt super comfortable and calm which I was super surprised because there was a lot of distractions and children being noisy. And the best part is when they went home after church they found out they won the lottery! They took that as an immediate blessing for going to church and

I guess now they are convinced this is the true church. We are going to give them baptism dates this week!

Well alright lots of words and stories but that was my week!

Palanga Taka!
-Elder Warnick

I got three packages this week and me and McCleary made smores like every night! 

Smores - Yumm!!!!!

Do you know Robert Downey?

Well 6 months down and at first I was kind of feeling sorry for myself, I kept thinking to myself why the heck am I not fluent in this language, why can't I teach and perfectly discern needs of investigators.. but then I realized that I really have only been out for 6 months and that 6 months ago I didn't know a single word in HILIGAYNON.. haha so I actually feel pretty good about where I am and realized even if I can't speak perfectly I still can understand and get my point across.

We had the chance to meet the new mission president this week and his wife. President and Sister Ferrin, they had our zone over to the mission home and we just got to know them and introduce ourselves.

We also had exchanges a couple times and I was with Elder McCleary he has been out a month longer than me so we are both pretty new but it was super fun to work with him and we steet contacted some people and our way of approaching them was walking up to them and asking them if they knew
 "Robert Downey"haha they thought it was a real person and they were asking eachother where the "Downeys"lived haha once they said they didn't know we introduced ourselves and gave them a pamphlet.

This week was kind of crazy! I almost got to cast the devil out of some lady! She left mid lesson and we asked her daughter in law where she went and she told us she was getting possessed. Me and my comp looked at eachother and smiled and offered to help. The daughter in law said no thanks because apparently "she hurts people" when she is possessed like she gets super strength and stuff. The language is really coming and I can understand all these crazy people now! :)

Things are hard but I learn a lot when things are difficult. Only 18 months left to give it my all. It's still a lot of time and I hope I can become a better missionary!
I feel like I am leaving stuff out but that was the highlights of the week!

Love,
Elder Warnick

We crossed a river yesterday and this kid was pulling us across so that's one of the pictures. All courtesy of Elder McCleary's great photo taking skills.

Crossing River - Kid Pulling Us Across

Bring Your Own Rice

Such a long week.. I don't know what it was but it felt like 2 weeks! I guess a lot of that had to do with being in my new area and having the responsibility of being the senior companion.

Here in Silay I expected it to be a lot like my last area because they are right next to each other and it is still city! BUT what I didn't know is that I am assigned to a group way up in the Bukid (mountains) it's different than anything I have had so far on my mission and I have been taking a lot of stress from everything! You can tell from the picture below..

Also we go there everyday it's about 30 minutes away kind of makes days seem really long when you are doing the exact same thing everyday! But the area is nice. Fresh air. Cool temps. And some pretty strong Recent Converts! I have noticed that the language is a little different every where you go throughout the mission. It takes a little bit to adjust to the new area-kind of feels like starting the mission over everytime I transfer.

At church there was this guy who looked like the sandpeople from star wars! He was covered head to toe in clothes. and had a beanie and sunglasses on. He had like three backpacks and was only talking to us american missionaries! I guess he is literally crazy but comes to church every week. He had a bunch of "US NAVY" stuff that he handmade. I think he thinks he is a soldier. He kept saying stuff to me like "The righteous always protect the innocent" He had a paper that said somethime about World War 3 so I don't know what he is planning but he was one Buang gid lalaki (weird guy)

In Priesthood they were planning for some activity and something that I thought was funny was they said "make sure you bring your own rice" haha I'm pretty sure that is something you will only hear, here in the phillies.

My comp is SAGAD which means skilled! He is the "batch" behind me but filipinos are only in the mtc for 12 days so he has been on his mission since October. He is good in teaching in the language. I am always apologizing to him that I can't do more because I feel like I am always lacking it definitely feels like he is the senior comp! He told me not to worry we are both missionaries and we can do it together. I think I have the area memorized now but not all of the peoples names.

I love being in a house with 4 again! It's always fun! And we are a hosting apartment so that means that if anyone comes to Bacolod for meetings and needs a place to stay, missionaries stay at our house. Haven't experienced that yet but maybe someday!

The ward is good. I can understand everyone now besides a few words here and there. But speaking is still coming.

It rained a bunch this week too! Like poured! It was one of the only times on my whole mission that I was cold!

Besides all the stress I am still doing good. Thanks for the support.

-Elder Warnick

The pictures represent my week perfectly: the pic of me just shows how wrecked I was and the other one is one of the burning fields. So yeah take that how you want. They burn the fields before they plant again. And this week was so hard I just thought it represented it perfectly. This week was heck.