Kitten Killer

Hey!!! whass upp...

So this e-mail will be pretty short, well short for me haha but I got tons of pictures I am going to send so hopefully the computer will let me!

So first of on the news list is that I never really mentioned that we had baptisms coming up! We had 3 baptisms this last week! Whoo! I never really mentioned it because there are just 3 little girls that are from part member families, but as I thought about it, these kids are awesome! They will grow up in the church, possibly serve mission and help support and strengthen the Ward which is exactly what this Ward needs! So I am pretty grateful to have gotten to know them and help them be baptized! They were so excited, it definitely helped me to learn how to teach kids, because I haven't really taught a lot of kids on my mission, you have to speak super slowly and super simple haha. They are all 9 years old. I will try to send pictures of the baptisms!

Okay now for a few quick stories...

First we had our District meeting here in Calauag we usually travel to the District Leader's area to the chapel in his area, but we decided to do it here instead last week, and we were suppose to get the key to the chapel. That morning we went to the members house that has the keys, and they weren't there! So a longer story made short we had District meeting in our Apartment! haha I took pictures, it was hilarious that is definitely the first time that has happened to me, we used an ironing board as a desk haha. Plus its only 4 of us! 2 companionship's! That is also a first, its because we are so far out here in the mission! It takes us about 20 mins on a bus to get to their area, and an 1 and a half to get to the next closest area! its so far!

Okay so this next story for all those who are cat lovers, or even more kitten lovers (mom) stop reading this e-mail.... haha

So it was late at night and we just got done teaching, we are in a very poor area so there is no lights outside, and we have no flashlights so were are literally just walking in the dark, and we can't see anything because there is super bright lights far away pointed towards us! So as we were walking I stepped on something soft, and I heard a squeak! I thought it was a frog because I have done that a few times haha, but then my companion yells out " Dude! you just stepped on  a kitten!" I was like what! and to all your cat lovers, the kitten lived, I didn't kill it haha. it just got up and kept walking out in the middle of no where! thats actually quite normal, there is so many stranded dogs and cats here there is always little puppies and kittens runnin around everywhere. sad story I know but you will get use to it haha ONly in the Philippines!

Thats about it! Hope you guys had a great week! and I will write next time!

Activity at the church

enjoying some buko! Coconut!

District meeting

selfie hour! and I forgot to shave

--
Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

Day by Day, Month by Month, 2 years. Done

Even through trials, adversity, and hardships, making the days go by slower, the weeks still seem just to fly by! Every Sunday I think oh my gosh its Sunday again! tomorrow is P-day! woohoo! I get to clean, wash dishes, clothes, and buy groceries all day!! hahaha sometimes I imagine myself being a Dad! which is the weirdest thing to think about! It helps me get everything done though because it motivates me thinking one day I am gong to have little kids running around screaming, the wife is trying to take care of them, and what do I get to do? wash the dishes, do the laundry, clean the house.... hahah is that weird? I am so flippin excited!

For example, As I was sitting in Sacrament there was the cutest girl sitting in front of me, and I don't care what anyone says but little Filipino kids are the cutest things ever haha, freak I don't even sound like my old self anymore! would anyone catch me saying that before my mission!? the mission truly changes you. anyways... I just wanted one! she was probably three! As I was kind of playing with her during sacrament I just thought to myself, one day I am going to have one of these, maybe many, and I just thought that when that opportunity comes that little kid better be darn sure that I am there for them, and everything will be taken care of for them, and they don't have to worry about anything. Knowing they can trust their dad. haha this is kind of weirding me out! but its true! Its hard to explain, it hit me pretty hard, I even got a little teary eyed thinking about it! it kind of threw a loop cause I never thought I would find myself thinking such things so early in life!

Also, this last week I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Nielson that I mentioned in my last e-mail. That was like that best day I have had in my mission for the last 3 months! We were both just so excited to get some work done! Our focus for the day was to improve on our "Oyms" (Open Your Mouth). An OYM is when you talk with someone about a few principles of the Gospel and invite them to do something about it, or commit them like a return appt. or read the book of mormon stuff like that. Its harder then you think to actually approach people and talk about all that. I mean imagine if your sitting down eating a burger and 2 random dudes walk up to you and start talking about religion I know I would think: " get out of here man! I'm eating a burger!" haha it actually takes skills to get some solid OYMs. We use different tactics, and clues to get ourselves into a conversation. So that is what Elder Nielson and I practiced that day, and it went great! We set a goal for 30! the average companionship will set a goal for 10 a day. We really wanted to exercise some faith. We ended up getting 17 which is still a lot in one day, but almost all of them were really good and resulted in return appts. Ha, one OYM we did was hilarious, I will tell you about it..

One thing that is really popular in the Philippines is "Videoke" its exactly like chareookie for us, I have no idea how to spell that, my spelling went out the window about 3 montsh into the mission haha. anyways... When ever there is a birthday or special event like that, or just even a party. They always have a videoke set! So we were walking down the street, and we heard a videoke going on in a house, and we looked inside to see what was going on, and almost instantly that guy singing stopped and wanted us to sing! Elder Nielson and I do not like singing in front of people but we took one for the team to get the oym, because there was a lot of people there, so we sang... in tagalog... hahah it was hilarious because we actually got into it, and those Filipinos were just loving it, two white guys singing in Tagalog! There was a few people who stopped to watch us and stuff, it was hilarious but we ended up getting some good oyms out of it, friends, and a return appt! So hey it worked! its all about the purpose!

Thats pretty much is folks! other then that nothing much else has changed. Remember everyone, we all have our trials, up and downs, weaknesses, and things we struggle with, but the Lord never gives up on us, so we shouldn't give up on him either! It may take some time, but we just need to be patient with ourselves and work things out line upon line, precept upon precept, thats how the lord works! I have learned that in a very personal way. We can all do it! Dont give up! Stop Trying, and DO!

I love you all!



--
Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

"Arise, Plan, and Succeed!"

Arise out of your beds and read my e-mail! haha

Hey everyone its just that time again where I send that weekly e-mail. Actually when I first got into the mission I didn't think we were going to be able to write home every week, so it was pretty sweet when I found out we could!

The topic I chose today was more about what Elder Bowen shared with us in our Mission Tour. He talked to us about rising on time everyday so that we can have to spirit with us, and also planning with that spirit if we get up on time, and putting the spirit, and plans to action. Its something I have honestly been struggling with lately for multiple reasons but still is no excuse! I thought about what Elder Bowen shared with us about the power that we can have during the day if we are to do these things!  I just got so excited after thinking about it, and I am applying it now in my mission, and it is much more effective.

Something I want to say to those who are planning on serving missions. The Mission is hard, there is no doubt about that and I am not going to lie about it, I wish someone would of told me how hard it was going to be so I would of prepared better. but, the Mission depending how you are, and where you serve will throw you all round the place up to bottom countless times, test you, and even break you. All this can sometimes get a little hard to deal with, and then you have a tendency to be disobedient to ease off the pain because their isn't as much pressure. Remember just like Alma said. Wickedness is never happiness... but through all this stuff that you go through, and of course all the the good times that makes up the bad, will teach you something, something that you never thought of, and it will change you for eternity. I think that has been one of the most exciting parts of my mission is seeing the change and conversion in my own self, and thinking who I would be or where I would be if I hadn't served a mission despite that fact I was ill prepared because of my laziness. There is no Laziness in the Mission, its all about doing. Thats the best part too! No matter what you are weak at, or afraid of or just think you can't do. Know that the Lord has prepared away and all you need to do is "DO". Just get up and do it, sometimes its not always fun, but that what we have been commanded to do, and if we do it with out complaining, we will actually found out in the end we do it because we WANT to. Because we love our Savior, and our Father in Heaven! Thats why we are obedient. A lot of people say the Church is demanding, and it is! but Obedience has never been easy, but its not easy to enter in to the rest of the Lord. If we want to be Rich we got to work for it, study, diligence, and practice. If we want to be a Pro athlete, what do we have to do? Work For It! Just like the Nike logo says, "Just do it." And eternal blessing that we don't even understand will be given to us, thats are problem we don't think of the eternal perspective and we often forget about it as well when we are eying that Ferrari down the road wishing that we had one. It doesn't matter, if you are blessed with the opportunity to have a Ferrari then sweet, don't let it get to your head. But if not don't complain about it, and always wish ou had one its going to get you no where! haha

Anyways.. I have one more thing to those people who are going to serve missions soon. If you have a boyfriend, or girlfriend. Just cut it right now. Coming from someone who has seen what happens when you have a GF/BF on the mission, save yourself the worry, the loss of focus, the fights, arguments, and the depression. your better off with out them. Though they can be a great motivation, just split first, allow each other to go different ways, and if things are meant to be, the they are meant to be. If not then sucks for you, there is someone better out there for you. Trust me when I say this.. and I make this clear. When you serve you mission you will realize thats its the Temple or the Highway. You here that Ladies? With Elder Kikel its either the Temple or the Highway, no questions asked, no special circumstances, no chances. I know i may have not been like that before but now, because of the Gospel. I understand. haha so take your step.

Okay, thats all I have to say about that. You are all probably thinkin "Parker has never even had a girlfriend, he doesn't know jack-dittely-squat!" ohh my beloved friends, but I do know muwahahha.

haha, anyways the point I want to get across my entire message is this basic sentence. Obedience is the Key! and It always will be, because its the first law in  Heaven and is where all our blessings come from! so be obedient! In the Mission or at home it doesn't matter!

By the way everyone When I was at the mall on mission tour September 1 they were all ready playing Christmas Music, and had Christmas decorations! Yes its the "Ber" months here in the Philippines, and that means Christmas has began!

haha... okay I am done for today! Love you all and I wish you a very merry Halloween, thanksgiving, and then Christmas!

P.S. You all need to start sending me pictures when you send me e-mails, I want pictures! I know the first thing you look for in my e-mails is pictures haha, the same with me haha! Love you!

--

Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

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Hot Shower and Puke!

Happy Monday, or what ever day when you read this.

Lets get too it!

Mission tour was great! I guess you can say I have been blessed to be assigned in the far areas, because once again I got to travel and stay in a hotel! With the hot showers! Lucky me!

Those hot showers are such a luxury here I can't even describe it, just imagine yourself taking showers out of a dirty bucket and feels like ice water for months, then taking a nice hot shower... ahhh... so nice! Those are easily 45min showers. Anyways, enough about the showers, I have talked about those plenty of times. The travel is fun, we had a 6 hour bus ride to San Pablo, its a good time and we get to kwento-kwento (Story telling) and we all know thats my favorite. Sometimes they have movies on the buses and as missionaries we call those the tender mercies of the Lord. Ha! as always when we got off the bus we went to San Pablo mall and had a good time eating, and being with the Zone. When we got to the hotel we started doing guy stuff haha, started with a push up contest, then arm wrestling, and then eventually turned into real wrestling haha, I wrestled a huge Tongan and got thrown around like a rag doll. But of course the best day was the next day at mission tour. 

So let me tell how my mission tour started. I didn't lose all my money this time, but I forgot my bag at McDonalds! and I realized it right before Elder Bowen arrived so I went and talked to the AP's and told them I was going to be late. McDonalds wasn't far away so I thought we could get back in time before they started and guess what happened when we got on the road! There was a flippin Parade outside! ha... are you kidding me!? ITs wednesday, and there is a General Authority in the area. When we got back Elder Bowen was shaking hands with the last few missionaries, and we just slipped in line just in time ha, President was laughing and shaking his head at me. Yeah, so that was a good start... Mission Tour was really good, Elder Bowen is awesome I think he was really inspired in what he shared with us. He talked a lot about obedience and because of the lack of obedience in this mission there is also a lack of power in the mission. Ha he chastized us pretty good, but it was exactly what this mission needed. he was also crackin all kinds of one liners which was pretty funny, all in all it was a good conference and there is a lot of stuff that I learned about the Priesthood and the Abrahamic Covenant,.

Okay I got a couple good stories I think you guys will get a laugh at. First off there is a sister I met when I was in my first area... now don't jump ahead of me, I know what you are all thinking... This sister was just super outgoing so of course we got a long pretty quick, but ever since I left my first area, I have never been in the same Zone as her, but I always see her somehow whenever I travel in the mission, or at Zone conferences and stuff like that.  For some weird reason we always get so excited when we see each other and we talk to each other like we have known each other for years. Okay so now we have a little background I will tell you what happened. I saw here at the mission tour and she was talking to an elder, and I approached her to engage in the conversation, and when she saw me she just totally stopped talking to that Elder turned to me and yelled "Elder Kikel, I freakin missed you!" hahahah I thought she was going to hug me or something!  The look on the Elder's face she was talking too was hilarious, I felt bad too for interrupting their conversation. We talked for a few minutes and right before we left, saying our good byes she said, "Okay, I love you Elder Kikel", and just naturally I said, "I love you too, Sister." hahahahaha, then suddenly we both just realized what we just said, and we both were like "Uh...umm... got to go!"  Ha it was so classic, we just started laughing and understood what we meant. Yeah, good times...

All right the next story was when I was on the bus, I was carrying a basketball that I just bought the day before, and there was this kid who kept pukin on the floor of the bus in front of us. and we all know were this is going.... yes... I dropped my brand new basketball in the kids puke and it was there for a couple minutes because I didn't want to pick it up hahaha it was a pretty good laugh as well. 

It was fun, plus I have a new District Leader, Elder Nielson he is from Canada. He is a cool guy, first time we met we just talked about video games for a couple hours hahah ah great, here we go again! Its always nice to with the americans again, and get some support here in Lopez Zone. The Zone isn't doing to bad anymore its actually pretty good now, everyone here from what I know is working hard and having success so thats good, us on the other hand are stuck in the rutt that we need to get out off, I have been here for 1 month now and we have only found a few investigators, and they are not very progressing, but we are still trying to keep our spirits up, and support the ward in their missionary activities. I like this Ward, as always the members are super nice, and loving, and its fun because I can actually understand them now! My tagalog isn't perfect but I am able to understand a lot more after Mindoro. So that work is the same but, we are all learning our own personal experiences here. 

Thats it for today, I hope you enjoyed it! Love you all! 

--
Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

Missionary Tour

Not much to report today.. just been a quite week, and needed improvements!

Mission tour is coming up these next few days and I am so excited! These kind of events are the best, and just lift you off the ground. Elder Bowen has asked us to study about The Abrahamic Covenant, House of Israel, Baptismal Covenant, and the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. As I have studied these topics, I have learned so much Church or Biblical History, and has helped me to understand better the background of a few things in the Book of Mormon and also the bible. They are great topics to study about, and help us to understand our purpose as members of this church, and the blessing we will receive if we are faithful. 

Now that I have been more prepared for the topics that he will discuss I am super excited how he will just evolve the knowledge that I have learned.  It will be a great experience and I will report on it next week. 

So thats pretty much it, but I want to tell a funny story haha. So I have told you about how the girls here and stuff, and ever since that has been happening Elder Calianga wants me to oym them, and try to get them to teach because I am white! and Tall! I  just haven't been able to do it! believe it or not but I am to shy! hahaha... I feel like I am trying to pick up a girl, more then I am trying to share the Gospel, then they just always giggle and stuff like that I don't like haha, but anyways, we mentioned that to one of the members here that is a RM, and he started giving me tips on how to pick up girls, and also how to get better at oyming it was hilarious, he is so good! He is a really cool guy, we asked him to give us an example, an without hesitation he gets up where we were siting and starts talking to this random girl! and got her number! haha, and then they told me to do it, and they just laughed at me cause I couldn't do it haha, It was pretty funny actually. ITs BAWAL for missionaries to be shy right!? ha, so what we decided that on Thursday we are going to go on splits, and me and this member are just going to tract all day so we can try and find some new investigators, and also to help me build some better confidence hahahaha can't wait! These Filipinos are such jokers, I love em! 

anyways thats about it for this week. Ill give a good e-mail next week. Bye!