Let's Go!

Heads up again... I can't send pictures.. I'll just keep taking them and shoe them to everyone is a couple months.

Well this week was busy and crazy but it was good. I think what I learned the most this week is that we can't keep doing the things we have been doing because the Lord expects so much more from us. Like honestly I felt like we had worked so hard this week but was disappointed when we only had one investigator at church. Our Branch is made up of about 250 members with usually 50 that go to church. This area has only been open for about 2 years so everything is fresh and untouched. The branch relies on us pretty heavily because they still do n't really know what they are doing. EXAMPLE: Sunday we got to church and they hadn't started yet and it was already 9 am and then they wanted us to speak in sacrament, and teach both hours of class.. So yeah the main reason we are doing it is so that we can have a good relationships with them. They help out a lot they just need more experience.

It rained SO much this week. I'll try and paint a picture of how the rain works.. So we were going to one of our areas that is kind of far away so we have to ride a little ghetto bus which basically just cruises down the mountain super slowly trying to pic up new passengers and once you get to where you need to get off you say LUGAR LANG and and they stop the bus and you get off. So we got off basically in the middle of no where and then we needed to go through the sugar cane field to get to the houses but when we stepped off the bus it was like we had stepped under a waterfall.. We got pounded! But because we have to do so much more in this area we decided to just work through the rain, we figured even more people would take us in if we were soaking wet! haha

We were able to go to a few Zone Conferences this week and it was nice to not have to train. The trainings were good and it was nice to see a bunch of different missionaries.

We are looking forward to having our first baptism this Saturday and we are pretty excited because it has been a while but we should be good here on out. We are gong to do something crazy this week and try and teach 100 lessons. We just figure that if we do that much we will have to do so many lessons where we just talk to someone on the street and teach them right there meaning we would have so many new investigators. We also challenged about 10 companionships throughout the mission to try and do 75 lessons this week I guess FYI the mission average here for lessons a week is about 30 so it's going to be a big push for them. And us!

 I love you all we are going to go crazy this week!
-Elder Warnick

Kapoy

We had a good week this week and we were able to work a lot in our area. And we had a lot of members work with us so we are getting to know the area pretty well. I am not actually sure why they worked with us haha because they are pretty lazy young adults and it was either super hot or rainy but they still wanted to come we actually had one of their friends work with us and she wasn't even a member but she helped us find.

We were supposed to have a baptism this week but it didn't happen which was basically our fault. It was going to be a 9 year old who lives right next to the church his name is kyle and he has been going to church for a long time but he hasn't been baptized yet. We have been teaching his family as well and last week his dad told us that it would be okay if he got baptized so we were just preparing everything for Saturday and then about Wednesday kyle's dad told us he didn't want him to be baptized so yeah.. we couldn't really do too much so we just told them we would keep visiting.

But we did a ton of finding this week! We were so lucky we found a new family almost everyday! And now that we have been building the relationships with the members they are starting to give us referrals!! And the referrals that we contacted this week are literally right by the church! Which makes it so much easier! BLESSINGS!

I guess I should just say now that I am super sorry about my emails! They aren't going to be super exciting because it is so hard to write about the week! So I will just keep trying to email about all the good stuff that has happened.

I'm super tired but I still feel great about all of this work! 

-Elder Warnick

I Didn't Know

Well it has been a super busy crazy week! I had no idea that this is how it is! haha but on the good side my companion is great! He is really hardworking and he should be because he is going home in about a month!

We had a lot of miracles this week! We were finding a ton of people and had some good success with making good relationships with the members in the Branch which was actually pretty easy because they didn't seem to like the past missionaries and so I think they are happy and surprised that we actually want to work and do something with the area.

So we don't have a car. we don't have to be in the office we just get to be up on the mountain and work! It so much better than anything else! Unless President calls us down for a meeting or we have training but that usually isn't that often. We did have to train the new missionaries this week and their trainers! I trained on the importance of companionship. It was fun and scary but the best part was being able to see the new missionaries. It's so different!

The area is doing good though it is such an amazing area! The members are awesome. We are on the top of the mountain right by a super beautiful resort (that i can't go to) haha and there is just so much potential we just need to keep finding!

Sorry I am sure my emails have been getting worse and worse but I just really don't know what to write anymore and I just feel so busy! I'll do it right next week.

Take care!
Elder Warnick

Happy Mother's Day

Well lot's of changes!

My area is amazing! It is so cool! We are up in the Bukid (mountain) above Bacolod City the best part about going home at night is you can see all of the city lights!

When I first got into the area I was thinking that it was was going to be super hard like my last area super far and high up in the mountains BUT when I got there it is ALL cemented and the houses are pretty decent! There is a lot of potential for the area.

I was only with Elder Lacdao for one week! The fastest companion I have ever had! Luckily I think I learned the area and I know most of our investigators. The truth is I went into the area with the expectation that my companion was super disobedient and that I needed to fix him. BUT what I saw was he was just tired haha he was exhausted and we worked super hard! We were out all day until 9:30 every night! I loved it and we didn't have any problems as a companionship!

So. I was really confused yesterday when the APs called us and told us that Elder Lacdao would be transferring. My first thought was that I would be training. I hadn't trained yet and I did transfer into the area a week early before the real transfer. We said goodbye to members and then we went home. We went to Bacolod this morning and that was when they took me behind the desk and told me that my area was now the Assistants area (AP's). TOTAL SURPRISE. But I am excited to get the area going and my companion is another American who goes home in 6 weeks. It's going to be great!

I will definitely have more to say this next week and hopefully someday in the near future I can send PICTURES! Anyway I am taking them I just haven't been able to send them.

Happy Mothers Day again!

-Elder Warnick

Mother's Day 2016 Skype with Family

Bukid to Bukid

I'm leaving one mountain and going to another! Transferred.

I actually wasn't expecting it. Probably because my whole mission all my transfers have been on the actual transfer day and this one wasn't so it was really unexpected. But after church and work yesterday we made it home and started getting ready to call the District Leaders to get their numbers for the week, but before we were able to the APs called and told me that I was being transferred. And with 3 months left in my mission I would say it's safe to say this is my last area. I am no longer a Zone leader and I am not a District Leader either! I think I might go my whole mission without being a district leader! I am now assigned in the Bacolod South Zone in an area called Minoyan! Which I have only heard good things about so I am pumped because I just want to make these last 3 months awesome! I probably won't be able to send pictures this week but I will take a ton of pictures of the area this week.

So this past week was good it rained every other day and when I say rain it POURED. We got soaked! We didn't have any umbrellas so Elder Cagampang climbed over a fence and cut off two pig leafs from some big plant and we tried to use it but it really didn't help at all. The days that it wasn't pouring rain it was soooo hot! I need to buy a new umbrella. That's the only solution. And through it all there was a bunch of crazy fiestas and everything that comes with fiestas.

I don't really have too much to say for this week because I just really don't know what to think right now. It's always so weird to transfer because there is so much adjustment. I am really excited to be in a Bacolod Zone again though! I'll just start taking requests now of things everyone wants. Souvenirs?? haha

Thanks for all the support and I hope that everyone has an amazing week! I plan on it! :)
-Elder Warnick 

100 days kuno...

Someone told me I only have 100 days left on the mission... really? Probably just s short email this week and the computer isn't letting me send pictures again. I'M SORRY. This computer shop is awesome.. *sounds of screaming rats in the ceiling and walls*

So we held a Emergency Zone meeting this week because we really wanted to tackle some problems that we saw in the zone. Our zone is still improving great but E. Cagampang noticed something that happens every month: Everyone plans their baptisms for the month and our vision of our mission is to have weekly baptism.Yes its hard but with the right planning and finding it is possible. But the problem that we saw was people had baptismal dates for their candidates for the beginning of the month but because they weren't completely prepared they would get pushed to the end of the month or get lost and maybe not even baptized. It's kind of hard to explain because I guess it's only a thing here in my mission but we tackled the problem and helped the other missionaries to understand about proper planning and finding everyday.

The next part of the week was Elder Cagampang's birthday! It's pretty hard to do anything here on birthdays but we still tried to make it fun. We went to 7-11 and got some food and that was basically about it. The sisters gave us some cupcakes so that was awesome.

The work was hard this week though because they have been preparing for fiestas in almost every area of the zone. Which means investigators are making floats, practicing dances and setting up the plazas which basically means less lessons because no one is home. But it was still could because it kind of forced us to find new people! And it is finally getting close to the rainy season it's been pounding rain randomly everyday. I love it. :/

The baptisms on Saturday were awesome. We had 2. One of them was Irian who is the daughter of two of our recent converts and we baptized her daughter Inovelyn last month. Our other baptism was Veronica who we actually OYMed and she just happened to be the sister of the second counselor of the branch he was able to baptize her! It was a great day and everyone was so happy and their testimonies at the baptism were great. The only problem was after the baptism me and Elder Cagampang went home to eat and we got sick like right after we ate. It was only for a day but man we got wiped out.

Hope everyone back home is doing great!

-Elder Warnick

Your Mom is calling you!

I almost didn't even send an email! Sorry! Hopefully this is a good one!

So me and Elder Cagampang kind of did an evaluation of what was lacking in our area/companionship we realized we are obedient but we could do better-being exactly on time for studies and praying more as a companionship. Little things like that, that make a big difference. Like we were able to see small things happening, little blessings.

We had exchanges this week with the APs. It was kind of all of a sudden kind of thing but it was good. Elder Derecho and Elder Cicon are our APs right now and I was looking forward to get to work in the APs area with Elder Derecho because I have never got to work in their area and It's always fun to get to work with former companions. But Elder Cicon wanted to work in our area with me, which was still fun because he is super chill and hes a great AP. WE FOUND SO MANY PEOPLE. A typical question leaders ask when they go on exchanges is "what do you want to learn?" I told him I wanted to get better at OYMing (open your mouth-approaching people and sharing a quick message and asking for a return appointment) and help with focusing on a new part of our area. We just talked to everyone we would just walk past people say hi and see if they would respond and if they would we would stop for a little bit and talk to them. The trick was to make them laugh or even in someway get them to do some kind of little service for you like let us in their house out of the heat or get some water. Because according to the APs people are more likely to progress and be baptized if they serve you (helps them develop christlike attributes) It was super fun. Elder Cicon is super chill, he's like a hipster kid from California! He's half filipino half american-we had a good time.

We finally got a referral! It's just not a very common thing for our area but we got one and it was super close to an area where we usually work. We went to there house and asked for Jerlyn and she came to talk to us she seemed super nice and really willing to talk! BUT as soon as she came over to us her old nanay who was showering at the moment (they shower outside with their clothes on haha don't worry) started yelling at her "your mom is calling you" was what she was saying and NO ONE was calling her.. so we were frustrated because the old nanay didn't want her to talk to us so we just gave her a pamphlet and left. BUT we are going back because yeah we still see some potential AND I had a dream last night that we were at their house teaching the whole family SO it's probably revelation or something. :)

But when we left that house we had someone come up to us and tell us her aunt wants to listen to us so we went over to her and she was speaking English! She is from Sacramento and her husband died a while ago but she is originally from here. She told us to come back so that we could teach her I guess she was taking the lessons back in America! So we will see how that goes!

Yesterday was awesome! We had a lot of people come to church and our 2 candidates for the 23rd got interviewed so they are all good to go. One of them had her husband come with her and he had a stroke a while ago so that was super hard for him to make it to church but he loved it!
We also had another FHE last night way up in the mountains it was fun and we walked all the way home again.

I'm tired but I feel good.
Thanks for everything!
Love.
Elder Warnick

BTW the picture is some native kids running around throwing carabou poop at each other. haha I love this place.

Kids throwing Carabou poop at each other

Stone steps in our area