hmm well the week has had its ups and downs, its hard for me to remember everything thats happened in the week. but i think its been mostly good. and as for the dogs, yes there are tons of pack of dogs roaming the streets. Peeing on everything. there are LOADS of bugs and lizards. i kill a two inch cockroach every other day. lizards are everywhere. they are hard to catch. The dominant religion here is catholic. people here have the attitude, "im going to die where i am" no one wants to change. people are so hard rooted in the catholic church but they only ever go to church once a year. sad huh...
Well i snack on cupcake type things, rice crackers, some wanna be ritz crackers called FITZ ha funny knockoff.
and as far as dinner goes, no one can afford to feed us so not really.
ive seen that on the news, sad, but not really. i didnt know her (whitney houston). or her music. keep me updated on everything.
Lots of love
Christian
Monday, February 27, 2012
day 131 Pictures
Christian in some rice fields.
Elder Morris and Christian on a trike?
Busay Falls in Isabelle
Monday, February 20, 2012
day 124
well this week was sad, boring, boring sad and ugh.. haha nothing really exciting happened. our investigators arent coming to church or our lessons! i wanna punch them in the throat!!! we taught a man called E. this week, he is 54, 5'4" and not afraid to die. Did i mention he isnt afraid to die? he told us like 7 times. ha he is an interesting man. we started teaching him and he acts like your typical stoned person. he was sooo weird. we had to repeat ourselves like 288 times! he is just super slow and stuff. but he promised us he would come to church which was nice to hear. LO and Behold, No E. at church.... hmmm.. also our star baptismal candidate has been hiding from us for some time. people are progressing nicely up until they have to put their faith to the test and come to church.
One good thing of this week is that we got an awesome referral from our 1st councelors daughter! we went and visited her and she was super duper happy that we came! it was sooo nice. she looks really promising.
We had a normal turnout for sacrament yesterday, and we actually had some less actives that we have been working with show up.
we went to ormoc today to go to the doctor cuz elder wood cant hear. he just said that he had some inflammation and prescribed some ear drops.
umm i finally got your package, and let me tell you, IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks sooo much the boms (books of mormon) are great!! all the toys are super fun! and the food is great!!!
so the best part of the week was prolly splitz. i went on splitz in my area with our new zone leader. he is samoan and speaks cebuano, warai warai and some tagalog. he isnt perfect in them all, but he is proficient. he has one normal eye and one craaaazy eye. haha its super funny, he is a real cool kid. we had a good day, and i felt pretty comfortable in my area alone. we had a great family home evening with some less actives. lemme tell ya bout them.... so Bro. C. he has been a member for a super long time but started to fall away when a neighbor church decided to make him a leader. so he is a leader for the Couples for Christ church here. it baffles me cuz he has a testimony of everything of our church but chooses to go to the other cuz he is a leader there. soooooo dumb!!!!!!!!!!!!
my hair. my hair is super. my hair is blonde. everyone and their dog asks me to cut my hair and give it to them so they can sell it. cuz its GOLD! people often ask me if im swedish. ha funny. but oh well.
well until next time. i hope you write tons. i miss you so much.
Love
Christian
From Christian to his aunt and uncle...
Deer Harris famaly,
I hear in the pilipines am doing gud. the wether is hot. the peeple are triing to be gud two.
actually, the work is as hard as ever. the people in my area are super hard headed. there are great things and there are some not so great things... i try to focus on the great things. i am getting home sick sometimes and stuff but its ok. im not going to die or anything. tell Sawyer to keep his hat to himself. dont share it with anyone. lice are gross. everyone here has lice. im being soo careful as to not get em myself. ha. tell landon to keep reading his scriptures.. ha i dont have any great missionary advice hahaha but i miss hunting. its duck season now. and wabitt season. h
well i love you all
'Der smith
One good thing of this week is that we got an awesome referral from our 1st councelors daughter! we went and visited her and she was super duper happy that we came! it was sooo nice. she looks really promising.
We had a normal turnout for sacrament yesterday, and we actually had some less actives that we have been working with show up.
we went to ormoc today to go to the doctor cuz elder wood cant hear. he just said that he had some inflammation and prescribed some ear drops.
umm i finally got your package, and let me tell you, IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks sooo much the boms (books of mormon) are great!! all the toys are super fun! and the food is great!!!
so the best part of the week was prolly splitz. i went on splitz in my area with our new zone leader. he is samoan and speaks cebuano, warai warai and some tagalog. he isnt perfect in them all, but he is proficient. he has one normal eye and one craaaazy eye. haha its super funny, he is a real cool kid. we had a good day, and i felt pretty comfortable in my area alone. we had a great family home evening with some less actives. lemme tell ya bout them.... so Bro. C. he has been a member for a super long time but started to fall away when a neighbor church decided to make him a leader. so he is a leader for the Couples for Christ church here. it baffles me cuz he has a testimony of everything of our church but chooses to go to the other cuz he is a leader there. soooooo dumb!!!!!!!!!!!!
my hair. my hair is super. my hair is blonde. everyone and their dog asks me to cut my hair and give it to them so they can sell it. cuz its GOLD! people often ask me if im swedish. ha funny. but oh well.
well until next time. i hope you write tons. i miss you so much.
Love
Christian
From Christian to his aunt and uncle...
Deer Harris famaly,
I hear in the pilipines am doing gud. the wether is hot. the peeple are triing to be gud two.
actually, the work is as hard as ever. the people in my area are super hard headed. there are great things and there are some not so great things... i try to focus on the great things. i am getting home sick sometimes and stuff but its ok. im not going to die or anything. tell Sawyer to keep his hat to himself. dont share it with anyone. lice are gross. everyone here has lice. im being soo careful as to not get em myself. ha. tell landon to keep reading his scriptures.. ha i dont have any great missionary advice hahaha but i miss hunting. its duck season now. and wabitt season. h
well i love you all
'Der smith
Monday, February 13, 2012
day 117
Hmm... well this week there was an earthquake, a crap load of rain and no people at church. haha. just another week in the Philippines. Well nothing too exciting happened. I feel like the language is progressing nicely im learning lots everyday. i am speaking more and more without thinking about it. its not good yet, but its getting better.
Ok so probably the most exciting thing to happen to us this week. ok so we go over to sister D. house for a lesson with our investigator and while we are waiting, we are talking about the sicknesses we have been occuring in our companionship. Elder wood looks like hes got what i had and im developing lumps in my throat that hurt super bad. (maybe strep) buttt... so she was like,"when i was of the catholic faith, i was called as the medical person. When ever people would get hurt or sick they would come to me. i know all the herbal remedies for everything. (were thinking that she might have used some"herbal" stuff to "take a load off" she might have gotten high, ha) but she continued to tell us this story and then when she was done she asked us if we wanted her to see what was wrong with elder wood. she told us that she needed his full name and she would pray to God and ask him to tell her what was wrong with him. so he told her his full name and she said, "give me your pulse" and she grabbed his wrist right about the pulse spot and said "ok, now dont laugh".... (so im sitting across from them and i am just cracking up left and right while this is going on). so she grabbed his wrist and closed her eyes and commenced to...do her thing... so it was silent for a time and Elder Wood and i exchanged confused looks and then all of a sudden, she FREAKED out, like she was sitting there super still and she just totally spazzed. HOLY COW, i have never tried sooooo hard not to laugh. wow, it was hard. hahaha so she said "i know what is wrong with you."(make sure when you read this you say it with a cardoso accent mixed with a philipino...) so she said i need to touch your chest. that is where to problem is. so she tapped his chest and said, "see i told you i could tell you what was wrong with your body." Prior to her doing her voodoo, Elder Wood told her that he had been suffering from chest pain from his asthma. so it was even more funny. hahahahahahaha we laughed reeeaaalll well from that whole experience.
so on saturday, it was raining super hard all day. it continued to rain till sunday morning. we went outside to go to church and our front yard was flooded. the whole street was flooded. ha it was crazy. we went to the church and waited for people to show up. we had a grand attendance of 30 people. including everybody's kids. it was sooooo quiet! People here are sooo scared of the dang rain!!!!
there have been two earthquakes that elders have felt in our area the last little bit. i havent felt them but elder wood said he did. so ya. the weather is super duper HOT! its now the hot season. They have two seasons here, the wet season, and the hot season. so ya its hot. im pretty much used to the humidity now so its ok. just hot. like utah hot. like 85-95 degrees everyday. plus 100percent humidity. HOT hahaha
next week is my 4 month mark. im 1/6th the way done with my mission!! haah
well thats about it for this week.
Love Christian
Ok so probably the most exciting thing to happen to us this week. ok so we go over to sister D. house for a lesson with our investigator and while we are waiting, we are talking about the sicknesses we have been occuring in our companionship. Elder wood looks like hes got what i had and im developing lumps in my throat that hurt super bad. (maybe strep) buttt... so she was like,"when i was of the catholic faith, i was called as the medical person. When ever people would get hurt or sick they would come to me. i know all the herbal remedies for everything. (were thinking that she might have used some"herbal" stuff to "take a load off" she might have gotten high, ha) but she continued to tell us this story and then when she was done she asked us if we wanted her to see what was wrong with elder wood. she told us that she needed his full name and she would pray to God and ask him to tell her what was wrong with him. so he told her his full name and she said, "give me your pulse" and she grabbed his wrist right about the pulse spot and said "ok, now dont laugh".... (so im sitting across from them and i am just cracking up left and right while this is going on). so she grabbed his wrist and closed her eyes and commenced to...do her thing... so it was silent for a time and Elder Wood and i exchanged confused looks and then all of a sudden, she FREAKED out, like she was sitting there super still and she just totally spazzed. HOLY COW, i have never tried sooooo hard not to laugh. wow, it was hard. hahaha so she said "i know what is wrong with you."(make sure when you read this you say it with a cardoso accent mixed with a philipino...) so she said i need to touch your chest. that is where to problem is. so she tapped his chest and said, "see i told you i could tell you what was wrong with your body." Prior to her doing her voodoo, Elder Wood told her that he had been suffering from chest pain from his asthma. so it was even more funny. hahahahahahaha we laughed reeeaaalll well from that whole experience.
so on saturday, it was raining super hard all day. it continued to rain till sunday morning. we went outside to go to church and our front yard was flooded. the whole street was flooded. ha it was crazy. we went to the church and waited for people to show up. we had a grand attendance of 30 people. including everybody's kids. it was sooooo quiet! People here are sooo scared of the dang rain!!!!
there have been two earthquakes that elders have felt in our area the last little bit. i havent felt them but elder wood said he did. so ya. the weather is super duper HOT! its now the hot season. They have two seasons here, the wet season, and the hot season. so ya its hot. im pretty much used to the humidity now so its ok. just hot. like utah hot. like 85-95 degrees everyday. plus 100percent humidity. HOT hahaha
next week is my 4 month mark. im 1/6th the way done with my mission!! haah
well thats about it for this week.
Love Christian
day 117 Questions and Answers
Tell us what you do for your ward? or is it a branch? Like what do you actually do? Do you lead the music? Do you pass/bless the sacrament?
we have a ward. We bless the sacrament every week. sooo ya
In your last last letter...you mentioned that you wanted me to get you some music...on a "zip drive" dad says that that is super old school and that you really meant a thumb drive? Is that the case? How are you able to listen to the music that we send you? ya we have a speaker system that allows your to plug a usb thing into and play music.
Have you recieve our package yet? When is the next zone mtg.?I have yet to receive the package. Zone meeting is tomorrow sooo im reaaaallly hoping to get it then.
Tell us about your mission president?
well he is pretty quiet, he isnt the best at speaking english and he is.. well i dont know him very well. ..so ya i like him.
When are the next transfers?
next transfers are in a while, this transfer ends on like the 17 or 18th of march. so ya. Elder Wood is expecting to get transferred but im not... sooo ya
we have a ward. We bless the sacrament every week. sooo ya
In your last last letter...you mentioned that you wanted me to get you some music...on a "zip drive" dad says that that is super old school and that you really meant a thumb drive? Is that the case? How are you able to listen to the music that we send you? ya we have a speaker system that allows your to plug a usb thing into and play music.
Have you recieve our package yet? When is the next zone mtg.?I have yet to receive the package. Zone meeting is tomorrow sooo im reaaaallly hoping to get it then.
Tell us about your mission president?
well he is pretty quiet, he isnt the best at speaking english and he is.. well i dont know him very well. ..so ya i like him.
When are the next transfers?
next transfers are in a while, this transfer ends on like the 17 or 18th of march. so ya. Elder Wood is expecting to get transferred but im not... sooo ya
Monday, February 6, 2012
day 110
Well people in America, or where ever you are, I am doing great! This week was very very slow. ok so first lets get aquainted with the area. Ormoc is one of the biggest cities around. consider it SLC, merida is comparable to provo and about the same distance as SL to provo.
so on monday, pday, we went to ormoc to withdraw our support. there are no atms here in merida. so we went there and went to the grocery store and bought groceries and hud. so it was pretty fun. we went to a restoraunt called moon cafe. it is comparable to a decent restaurant in provo. maybe los hermanos. well anyways they have baby back ribs there!!!!!!! so i always order them. they are about 200 pesos, which is around 5 bucks!!! sweeeet. so i ate like a king. ;)
ohhh.. so while we were in ormoc, we were informed that the money had not yet been transferred into our accounts. so we hung out for a bit at the zls place and stuff and they werent able to transfer it at all.
so we are about to run out of money, due to bus fares and what not, so we were going to go back on wednesday. also to drop off an elder for transfers. Elder Morris' comp, our DL got transfered so Elder Morris spent the day with us on wednesday. he slept over and we went to ormoc together.
on thursday to go to the Jubilee expo. it was a celebration of 50 years of the church being in the Pines. it was fun. each missionary was in charge of a booth where he explained an aspect of our church. all sorts of people came. members, non members, investigators ect. after that we ate lunch at Greenwich pizza. IT WAS FETCHING AMAZING!!! REAL PIZZA HAHA so we were also waiting for elder morris' new comp. so it turned out that they didnt leave tacloban city till six. it takes about two hrs to get from tacloban to ormoc. so we left elder morris in ormoc with the zls. so we returned to merida that night. it was all kinda crazy and well..... mostly....crazy.
this week we were punted quite a bit, which isnt out of the ordinary. so we went about our normal day for the rest of the week. on sunday we were expecting an investigator to show up for church. we were in
preisthood and he wasnt there. so we went on for a while and we were super sad. Then like 30 mins later, he walked through the door!! WHOO HOOO. so now we officially have a progressing investigator. Hes
super ready to be baptized too. That sacrament was fast and testimony meeting. so we did sacrament
like normal and started the testimonies as normal. I dont know why but that sacrament was probably the most ive ever felt the spirit in a sacrament meeting. it was so amazing. the people were just normal people bearing normal testimonies but i felt something way out of the ordinary. i loved it. i hope im able to have more amazing experiences like that.
well ya thats about it for this week.
love you mom
Christian
so on monday, pday, we went to ormoc to withdraw our support. there are no atms here in merida. so we went there and went to the grocery store and bought groceries and hud. so it was pretty fun. we went to a restoraunt called moon cafe. it is comparable to a decent restaurant in provo. maybe los hermanos. well anyways they have baby back ribs there!!!!!!! so i always order them. they are about 200 pesos, which is around 5 bucks!!! sweeeet. so i ate like a king. ;)
ohhh.. so while we were in ormoc, we were informed that the money had not yet been transferred into our accounts. so we hung out for a bit at the zls place and stuff and they werent able to transfer it at all.
so we are about to run out of money, due to bus fares and what not, so we were going to go back on wednesday. also to drop off an elder for transfers. Elder Morris' comp, our DL got transfered so Elder Morris spent the day with us on wednesday. he slept over and we went to ormoc together.
on thursday to go to the Jubilee expo. it was a celebration of 50 years of the church being in the Pines. it was fun. each missionary was in charge of a booth where he explained an aspect of our church. all sorts of people came. members, non members, investigators ect. after that we ate lunch at Greenwich pizza. IT WAS FETCHING AMAZING!!! REAL PIZZA HAHA so we were also waiting for elder morris' new comp. so it turned out that they didnt leave tacloban city till six. it takes about two hrs to get from tacloban to ormoc. so we left elder morris in ormoc with the zls. so we returned to merida that night. it was all kinda crazy and well..... mostly....crazy.
this week we were punted quite a bit, which isnt out of the ordinary. so we went about our normal day for the rest of the week. on sunday we were expecting an investigator to show up for church. we were in
preisthood and he wasnt there. so we went on for a while and we were super sad. Then like 30 mins later, he walked through the door!! WHOO HOOO. so now we officially have a progressing investigator. Hes
super ready to be baptized too. That sacrament was fast and testimony meeting. so we did sacrament
like normal and started the testimonies as normal. I dont know why but that sacrament was probably the most ive ever felt the spirit in a sacrament meeting. it was so amazing. the people were just normal people bearing normal testimonies but i felt something way out of the ordinary. i loved it. i hope im able to have more amazing experiences like that.
well ya thats about it for this week.
love you mom
Christian
day 110 Questions and Answers
You mentioned in your letter that your stake conference that the leaders all spoke english? Were there no members there? They don't speak in their native language?
there were tons of members there, but im not sure why they spoke in english. everyone seems to throw a bunch of english in their speeches.
Where was your waterfall activity? Like what city?
the waterfall was in Isabel. Elder Morris' area.
We think Elder Morris is a pretty cool writer. We saw that he mentioned in his letter too about the waterfall activity too that he went out with you guys. Was that our "shoutout"?
no, he said something like "elder smiths mom, i hear you read my blog, i know your son and hes amazing and stuff".
Do you remember how Jensen's mission does transfers? So last week were his transfers...everyone changes pdays to wed. and they let their families know if/when they will be transfered but don't know yet until they go to the mission office on the following day and drive back with their new companion to their new area. Then on the following Monday (their regular pday) they are able to let their family know where they're at. How does it work for you?
well every transfer week, the APs send out a transfer text letting everone know who is transfering. and if you are transfering, you go to tacloban city and recieve a transfer letter with your new area and comp.
Do you think that you'll be with your companion for another transfer? I'm assuming that this week will be transfers for some elders there? Or am I off a week?
Ya im with elder wood for another transfer. fun times
Last time you mentioned in your letter.."it was fiesta in his burunguy" Does that mean that certain cities have parties on certain days? Or all over philippines was fiesta. What sort of holidays do they have?
the certian city will have a party for a day. each barunguy has their own special day for it.
How has your investigator work been going?
REFER TO LETTER ;)
Make sure you tell me when you eat weird food.
well we were at sister daloris' house, and she gave us numka, or jackfruit in english. it tastes like an apple, bell pepper and a banana all together. it was gross. we also ate "beacle" at her house. its like rice pudding. but not as good. if it had cinnemon, it would be better. Also, she chopped down some sugar cane for us. we were confused as to how we should eat it, after all, it was just a pealed stick. she told us to chew the wood and swallow the juice. it was surprisingly simalar to watermelon. she also told us that if we swallowed to wood, we would die. We were careful not to swallow it :) it was fun
Best thing that happened this week? And worst?
best sacrament and investigator, worst, leaving the pizza place in ormoc. ahahaha
Where are you in reading the Book of Mormon?
i finished it a week or so ago and now im in 2nd nephi now.
People always ask about you guys and we always tell them the same thing...I'm going to have to come up with a quick answer besides..."they're good".
Say "buhi pa" means im still living... or im still alive.. like im just livin life. orrr.. ma-o ra' gi-hapon. (same old same old).
there were tons of members there, but im not sure why they spoke in english. everyone seems to throw a bunch of english in their speeches.
Where was your waterfall activity? Like what city?
the waterfall was in Isabel. Elder Morris' area.
We think Elder Morris is a pretty cool writer. We saw that he mentioned in his letter too about the waterfall activity too that he went out with you guys. Was that our "shoutout"?
no, he said something like "elder smiths mom, i hear you read my blog, i know your son and hes amazing and stuff".
Do you remember how Jensen's mission does transfers? So last week were his transfers...everyone changes pdays to wed. and they let their families know if/when they will be transfered but don't know yet until they go to the mission office on the following day and drive back with their new companion to their new area. Then on the following Monday (their regular pday) they are able to let their family know where they're at. How does it work for you?
well every transfer week, the APs send out a transfer text letting everone know who is transfering. and if you are transfering, you go to tacloban city and recieve a transfer letter with your new area and comp.
Do you think that you'll be with your companion for another transfer? I'm assuming that this week will be transfers for some elders there? Or am I off a week?
Ya im with elder wood for another transfer. fun times
Last time you mentioned in your letter.."it was fiesta in his burunguy" Does that mean that certain cities have parties on certain days? Or all over philippines was fiesta. What sort of holidays do they have?
the certian city will have a party for a day. each barunguy has their own special day for it.
How has your investigator work been going?
REFER TO LETTER ;)
Make sure you tell me when you eat weird food.
well we were at sister daloris' house, and she gave us numka, or jackfruit in english. it tastes like an apple, bell pepper and a banana all together. it was gross. we also ate "beacle" at her house. its like rice pudding. but not as good. if it had cinnemon, it would be better. Also, she chopped down some sugar cane for us. we were confused as to how we should eat it, after all, it was just a pealed stick. she told us to chew the wood and swallow the juice. it was surprisingly simalar to watermelon. she also told us that if we swallowed to wood, we would die. We were careful not to swallow it :) it was fun
Best thing that happened this week? And worst?
best sacrament and investigator, worst, leaving the pizza place in ormoc. ahahaha
Where are you in reading the Book of Mormon?
i finished it a week or so ago and now im in 2nd nephi now.
People always ask about you guys and we always tell them the same thing...I'm going to have to come up with a quick answer besides..."they're good".
Say "buhi pa" means im still living... or im still alive.. like im just livin life. orrr.. ma-o ra' gi-hapon. (same old same old).
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