Monday 26 October 2015

A Little Slice of America

Thanks for all the Birthday wishes! Still kind of feels like a birthday even though I am here!

I'm sitting here in this hot sweaty computer shop teenagers are gaming and this little kid is just running around making chaos and his mom is next to me on the computer not doing a thing about it haha gotta love it.

So I guess I am not getting skinny anymore! haha Some members said I was "slowly getting fatter" haha we will see how long that lasts because next week is transfers and they might send me to the mountains!

It was birthday week for everyone not just me! There was at least 3 other birthdays this past week! On Monday night we went to a members house who said they would be having a birthday party for their kid we showed up and everyone was gone except the parents! haha they just wanted us to eat! And there was a TON of food! :)

Tuesday we had district meeting of course! And we made a trip to 7-11 afterwards! Which was just what I needed! A little slice of America! Then I was able to grab my package before coming back to Caduha-an. The Relief Society was pretty sweet and they made me a lunch because that whole "surprise birthday" didn't go through! But later that night we made a birthday cake so it was all pretty good!

We had exchanges again this week but I had to go to their area for the interviews.. and it is such a long tricycle ride. Turns out their baptism candidate wasn't even there so we rescheduled for Sunday because it was Stake Conference.

The rain died down this week and it's just back to the heat... BUT it's okay because my umbrella is hanging on.. (they don't last too long)

We blessed a house this week. Since I have been here we have had about 5 families ask us to do that! So the plan was to have a FHE at their house and then bless the house at the same time. Saturday was the plan but we found out Saturday morning that Elder Bowen of the Seventy wanted all the missionaries to be at the Saturday session of Stake Conference. So we ended up doing the Family Home EVENING at noon haha but it all worked out and conference was super good!

The week was good, fast and the zone is doing awesome! I'll be sad to leave IF I leave haha but change is good and new areas are always exciting! BUT still I have no idea if I will be transferring!

Well that basically was everything! Hope that everyone has a awesome Halloween! We will be proselyting in the graveyards on the 1st! :)

I'm out!
Love,
Elder Warnick

Birthday donut
Birthday Cake
Missionary Bus
Birthday Lunch - They Killed a Chicken for Me


Monday 19 October 2015

The Dog Days Are Over

Tomorrow is my 20th birthday and I think it has taken me this long in life to realize that nothing is really about me. If I remember in high school I tried to be a nice kid and I just wanted people to like me but through it all I may have just came off as cocky or stuck up. I have never had anything else in life been able to slap me in the face and put me in my place other than my mission. AND I LOVE IT.

I also want to say sorry/thank my parents for everything they have ever done for me. I was a handful as a kid and it's amazing that I ended up the way I am, I know I wouldn't be here without them! It's hard to see how fast time has gone by but I am excited for the future.

Well okay so here we are this week was windy! I guess we are currently in a typhoon according to most people here. But it's not really hitting here on Negros so we are just getting hit with strong wind and lot's of rain. The power went out like 10 times just yesterday.

We had exchanges this week and it was super fun! I got to stay here in Caduha-an and I was with Elder Benedict he is still kind of new in the mission but he did pretty good with teaching and the language! He's from Layton Utah actually! While we were on exchanges it seemed like all the problems in the zone happened all at once. Maybe it was because I was the only Zone Leader in the area or I don't know but we had some problems with sisters and their ward with rumors and stuff and even worse a companionship that was sick/wanted to go home. Both of them. So I made some calls and did my best, it's not really ever fun having to call the APs about problems in the zone but I got to talk to E. McCracken which is always a good time. Long story short one of the elders got transferred and everything SHOULD be going good.

Our baptism was super good! It was probably the best support I have seen from this ward! The whole room was full and there were multiple families there to support! The Matulok family is who was being baptized they were a referral that me and Elder Slater received about a month ago and they were just golden! The mom and her two daughters got baptized and we are getting super close for the Dad to go to church. There also were two child-of-records from the ward they were twins and so I baptized them too and there names were SO hard Willem Liam and Willen Lian haha doesn't seem too hard but they were twins and they almost had the same name! Let's just say I messed up like 3 times.

Now here is the bad news... the Matulok family never showed up to be confirmed.. I guess their youngest son collapsed Sunday morning and they rushed to the hospital and weren't able to be confirmed. They were pretty sad they weren't able to go to church and we were too! And now they have to wait 2 weeks because we have Stake Conference next week...

The ward is really coming around though! I think a huge part of it is because of Elder Derecho! He is super good with the members and now we have members working with us almost everyday and referrals + dinner appointments! Basically everything a missionary could ask for! We were at a members house eating last night and I was wondering why it suddenly started turning around and the member told me that it was because Elder Slater was too intimidating! hahahaha so yeah problem solved I guess!

So the "surprise" birthday party actually isn't going to happen! The members were too shy to tell me yesterday so they pulled aside E. Derecho and told him that it just wasn't going to work out! haha I thought it was funny they thought they would offend me or something! Anyway no birthday party! It's all good though we are gonna have fun today! We are going bowling and stuff! Whooo!

So the week was good! That's about it!
Love you all!
-Elder Warnick

-The fruit here is so much better than back home! I had like 3 pineapples this week and some investigators gave us like 50 bananas!

Bananas
Baptism with everyone
Don't worry - it was dead when we found it
District meeting - I am the only American and we were locked out of the Church again

Monday 12 October 2015

STRAIGHT

New Transfer, New Companion nothing different for missionary life. And it's all good because the work goes on and get better too.

My new companion is Elder Derecho which translates to STRAIGHT (the members and investigators were having fun with that) AH Derecho lang ha? Elder Derecho waay liko? (Ah just straight, Elder Straight no curve), he's from Quezon Province and he's super cool. He is two transfers ahead of me so he goes home in May. But he is super good at teaching and connecting with people! I already have learned a ton! He's actually 25 but doesn't really seem like it but I think that's just how it works with filipinos! They all look really young.

It's always hard to teach the area to a new companion, especially when the area is super big like ours! But the members have been super awesome this week and helped everything run smoothly and we are getting things going here because everyone wants to feed us now! YES!

We finally got to watch conference this week! Yeah I know we are late! You'll never know what it's like to have to wait a week to hear the good word! But all the talks were awesome and we had a lot of investigators come and watch! 

So we are all out of water again at the house... I don't know why but the electronic pump stopped pumping water again! So we are back to the water pump! AH It's all good it's just a hard adjustment!

I didn't take too many pictures this week just videos and stuff but I actually had a picture of Elder Derecho because he was with us when we went bowling a couple weeks ago. He's the one in the far right! haha

Things are super good in the area though, somehow someone found out that my birthday is coming up and so there is a "surprise" dinner appointment for me except everyone already told me haha

Hope all of you have a good week!
-Elder Warnick

What's your ponderizing scripture this week? Mine is 3 Nephi 12:20

BTW The pineapples here are so good! I ate a whole one by myself yesterday!

My new companion Elder Derecho (far right)