The end of Caulaug, is near...

Today's e-mail will probably not be as good as the last one, I got a lot of good responses from that last e-mail but it was awesome to see many you inspired by Arman's story. he is the man! He texts us every day asking if he can work, and the thing he wants to do the most is TRACT! haha I believe he is going to be an AP.

Nothing much happened this week, it was pretty simple, and rough. We are still having a hard time finding new investigators, but the good news is that the Ward is really kicking things into gear! But unfortunately I will be gone by the time the fruits start to appear! Hence the title! Transfers are on feb 12 and if not for some abnormal reason I should be transferred. I am actually really sad to leave, but then excite to see more of the Philippines and work with more great people!

So... the bad news is that our baptisms this week fell through...bleh... so there new baptismal goal date will be one Feb 7! They will be ready by then! The are two kids 12 and 15 and they are so awesome I love them so much, between you and me the 15 year old girl always tries to hold my hand I finally got a picture catching her doing it hahah the 12 year old answers like a boss you would think an adult is answering are questions while we are teaching our lessons, he is also the man. Their names are Aubrey (12) Audrey (15). Its a part members family, and we are hopefully going to start teaching their father. I love that family so much, we have gotten so close, sometimes being just me I kind of get a little rowdy in sacrament like the good ol days by doing funny things, and messing with people ha. The bishop called me out in front of everyone in sacrament hahhaha but its all good it was more of a joke then really to chastise me but I still got the message ! I have grown so close to everyone here its crazy! I wish I could be a better missionary for them, but I am who I am,and I have my weaknesses, but I am doing my best to show my love and support for them. I always wonder if I will ever be able to come back to the Philippines, I will go back in 5 years and find Audrey who actually will be a pretty attractive young lady when she is older and say. "you can hold my hand now!" BAWAL!! hahahahaha Ah the the things I think of to keep me entertained sometimes...

but thats pretty much it for the week... sad day I know.. I will try and send pictures of Arman, Audrey, Aubrey and some others. Its been a while since I have sent pictures. So you can put some names to faces! I can't think of anything really funny happening this week, I think last week topped them all! OH WAIT!! I totally thought of one, I hope you are not all so sick of me talking about the girls here but its still so funny to me. okay here it is...

Elder Garcia and I were talking to these girls I knew when I was with Elder Olsen, we tried to teach them. They wanted to be taught but just don't have time because of work, but one day while we were waiting for a ride, we were talking to them, and I remembered that I had a pack of trident gum that my parents sent to me for Christmas I don't know why because we are not allowed to chew gum, but I give it out to kids and tell them its from America and they freak out! anyways... I gave some fo the game to the girls, and they didn't eat it! They put it in little baggies and put them in their purses! As in they wanted as a remembrance of me! hahaha, first off, these girls know who I am they know I am no one special just a mission from America, and I have spoken with them many times, and they still do stuff like that because I am an American. They say its precious!WHAT! cmon its flippin gum just eat it! Sometimes it gets annoying, but still amussing at the same time. I always wonder if I am going to come home attention deprived, like "Why is no one looking at me?" " Am i not beautiful anymore!?" "NO one loves me! I am a ghost!" I am sure it will happen haha but its all good I got to feel like a celebrity for 2 years. I always want to put a gopro camera on my chest and share a video to you all of what it is like to walk in the streets as an american, even after they know who you are! it doesnt always have its perks eaither, The Philipines is like the capital of the gay population, and I am not saying that to be mean or anything like that in anyway but its just so common here and a trend! Bakla's and tomboys is what they are called, and they go all out! Cross dressing, and everything and at first it was beyond creepy! because they will cat call you like crazy, come up to you and get all up in your grill and stuff, and rub your skin, tell you how beautiful you are, and I don't know if I even said this once but I have had one bakla grab my butt! haha but now i just see them as children of god and have fun with them like were are friends. It freaked Elder Olsen out all the time!

Well I will leave it there! I love you all! I will send pictures!

--
Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

Desires/Typhoon Survivor 3/The Pope!

All righty my friends lots to talk about so lets get into it!

 I will talk in order of the Topics!

So first I mentioned a little bit about Desires in my last e-mail. I want to talk about it a little bit more this time because this last week we had the opportunity to have a personal interview with President Mangum, and man he just blows me away every time. In preparation for my interview I made myself a "Mission Vision" basically stating what I desire to accomplish, be, and do for the rest of my mission, I was very carefully in deciding what I need to work on, to do, and to be! Also included in this vision of course is setting goals for myself to achieve this vision that I have for myself. President Mangum was pretty happy that I did this and he talked to me a lot about our desires in life.

Basically put, Our desires come from our hearts, our wishes and wants in life come from our heads. If we truly desire something then it means we are going to put all of our heart, might, mind, and strength into it until we achieve it! Wishing or wanting just causes us to become lazy, frustrated, and even sometimes depressed. Our Desires is what drives us to act, to rise, and to work! It is what changes our natures, and not just our behaviors.

Some of examples that I have seen of this desire will have to be of a young man in my ward right now who is preparing to leave to serve in the Philippines, Bacolod mission on Feb 27. His name is Arman Venus. He is 21 and has a family of 13! half his family is less active, his Mom is unable to support herself or move due to her 10 strokes she has had! His Father works all day everyday to be able to support the family, and also pay those hospital bills, and all of them live in a bamboo build house on stilts about the size of our living room when you walk in my house in Herriman. Talk about desire... this man is willing to leave His family in that kind of situation to serve the Lord, He even quite his job so he can work with us! and even through a Typhoon he still came to church drenched from head to toe because he had no money for a tricycle so he walked. Now if this isn't a testimony builder then I don't know what is, especially for me because I know him personally, I know his family, their trials, and their sorrows. That my friends is coming from his heart, to serve the Lord. Not just because somebody wants him to do it or it is expected because he is converted. So I invite everyone to obtain this kind of desire in their live to serve the Lord, in one way or another, and come closer to him by studying about Him in the Scriptures.

Phew! 1 topic down... 2 more to go!

The Typhoon! I don't know if any of you heard but there was another Typhoon where we were at! It came out of No where! out of the five signals it was a signal 2 almost signal 3! Typhoon Ruby was a signal 3 for us, but this storm was way stronger then Ruby! Sunday morning it started raining like crazy, and the wind start blowing like a beast! But as good missionaries do, we still went to church. Honestly, I hardly expected any members at the church. We were the second there, with the second councilor or the bishopric being the first, then watching the bishop and his family approach the church soaked from head to toe in shorts and t-shirts, with bag of clothes to change into. There was bout 12 of us in attendance that day but it was great to see the faithfulness and desires of these members to follow the lords commandments and receive the promise blessings. After Church, there were no tricycles outside because outside was having a little war! So Elder Garcia and I volunteered to walk out in the rain and try and find some transportation for the members to get home after waiting for a few hours. Yeah we were also soaked from head to toe with floods up to our shins! it was fun and exciting, until we got home to a flooded apartment! ahhh! With no power! So not much work got done that day haha but everything turn out all right and spent a little over 6 hours this morning cleaning our apartment so its all in the past now! haha

As most of you saw on the news the Pope to come to the Philippines, and nothing really crazy happened here in Calauag but I heard of some crazy things going on. He was in Manila which is pretty dang far away from us but still we weren't able to use or phones at certain as the pope was traveling, people talking about him, people watching him on tv, and all sorts of stuff, but nothing out of the normal happened while we were working. One funny thing was that I was talking to a member and he was talking about the Pope and I got him a little mixed up and I thought he said the Pope of was here in Calauag at the Catholic church, and I asked him like 5 times if it was true, and we went to the Catholic Church to go meet the Pope of the entire world, and guess what, there was NOBODY there haha. I misunderstood him haha...

okay my friends I will leave you on a good note with some laughter. This last week Elder Garcia and I were eating at a kiosk that we usually it at, and one day we went there, there was a lot of college girls eating that just got out of school. The all started giggling, waving, and trying to talk to me in english. It was the end of the day, I was tired, and thought I would have some fun haha. So I will admit I was bit flirtatious in words and action haha but the Lord thought that was a "No,No" because eventually we had to leave to go home, and as I was walking away, I fell right through a wooden plank that was covering a sewer drain!!! and my right leg fell into who knows what... and then proceeding the laughter of all the college girls... Lesson learned. haha so now when we have been walking down the streets lately I will have random people laugh at me and tell me I was the one the fell in the sewer.. oh well, we used it to get oyms!

So there you have it folks, I hope your week was as good as mine and I hope you are all staying beautiful! Shiny faces, and bright smiles! Till next time...
.

--
Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

Just Another Week

I am running out of ideas of what to talk about in these e-mails! It was a slow week this last week, Elder Garcia and I are struggling a bit to find new investigators, we have like none! Sometimes its really frustrating because I have been in this area for almost 6 months now, and everyone we have been teaching just is not progressing and we have to end up dropping them, its so sad, but the work must move on.

We decided this last week that we were going to get bold with the Bishop and the Ward Council, so we talked with our ward mission leader first, and then we moved onto Bishop explaining that there will be no baptisms in His ward, if the ward doesn't start a missionary plan and action. If have a really hard time working with members in this area, and because of that there are no referrals, even after we have taught them all multiple times now. We were pretty bold in saying we needed to have meetings, and action, and it worked and we are starting to get things rolling again. Our goal is to have the Ward create a Ward mission plan of how they are going to help others come unto to christ with the help of the Full time missionaries! I think by the time this actually gets going I will be transferred, but at least it will start. I really want to help these people, and help their ward while I have the blessing of serving with them, I have come so close with these members even closer then my last area, maybe because I have been here longer.

We weren't able to get as much done this last week, because I was gone for two of those days. I had a District Leader's training in San Pablo which I was absent in my area for two days because my area is so far away from the mission home. The meeting was awesome! First off I stayed with the Ap's and Office Elders and it so happens that my Trainee Elder Strobelt is in the apartment, and I haven't been able to catch up with him since I left him, so it was really nice to be able to sit down and catch up. The next day we had a nice 7 hour training were President, his wife, Ap's and other missionaries gave workshops on the importance of the District Leader, it was really instructive, and of course spiritually uplifting. President does a really good job at helping us feel like we are the best in the mission haha. He says we are the back bone of the mission, the bishop of the mission, and the hard worker. I feel privileged to be apart of this calling. assignments after assignments. I notice once thing this last week, after I was done with my training, I have been the Senior companion ever since, I have never had a companion with more experience then me or someone to teach me how to do it, I had to learn all from experience, trial and error. I have trained twice, follow up trained twice, two special assignments, 2 new companions, and am now a district leader. Sometimes I would like to wish the President would give me just a really good hard working obedient companion and stick us in the hardest area of the mission, and we will do work. Thats all I want is a hard working obedient companion with mission field experience... but obviously the Lord thinks otherwise haha. It definitely has been a rough run but it has built me through and through. I still sometimes don't understand the purpose of things and I think sometimes we never will, just always be obedient and do your best, and one day you will know!

Many of the Elders say I will become a Zone Leader this next transfer, I am not to sure that will happen considering I just became a district Leader, and the fact there is a lot better missionaries then I am, but I am still trying to improve and be better day by day, until the end! 

In the Meeting that I had President gave a really good workshop about DESIRE. It was really spiritual, and he really just revealed what the word desire actually means and the kind of action that results from our desires. I quoted a lot from a talk that Elder Dallin H Oaks gave about desire, and also shared about that guy whose arm got pinned while he was hiking, and had the desire to live so he cut off his own arm using a pocket knife.. Now that is some desire. I am not ready to come home, now do I think I ever will be. Its going to be hard, but is necessary for the next chapter in my life! I miss you all and I can't wait to see you! Stay fresh!

--
Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

Down Hill Run

This week was a pretty quick one!

first couple of days went by pretty fast as Elder Olsen prepared himself to be transferred! We were all surprised at the fact I wasn't transferred! But I will enjoy another 6 weeks in this area! Which is indeed a blessing. After Elder Olsen left and after 8 hours of waiting, I finally met my companion Elder Garcia! who is another Filipino! He is my 5th filipino companion, and boy are they something haha. He is batch with Elder Olsen so he too just finished his training and I am following up with His training. I will probably only be with him for 6 weeks because the likelyhood of me going another transfer es very slim, but could happen I guess. 

It was a little bit difficult working over the new years week, everybody was busy, and didn't want to be taught but we pushed through!  Actually, on Sunday we visited that really far area again to follow up with those we talked too! Again, it was such a success, the one Father talk to some people of the period of the week, and found us even more people to teach! Also there is a few random teenagers who want to be taught so bad, and were so excited to get a book of mormon! We are really hoping we can get something started over here! We have found over 10 investigators over there, the problem is that we don't know if we can work over there because its so far, and also because its going to be really really hard for the people to come to church because the travel far is so expensive! You have to take a bus from this place to the church, and its about 45min ride, plus whatever time it takes to wait for the bus. We are hoping and praying we can have a way opened for them to come to church! 

I was made District Leader this last week! Which is excited because the last time I was District leader was for 4 weeks, and that was over a year ago! So I am pretty excited, I love being District leader especially the interviews of investigators, it is such a privileged to here the testimonies of those who are about to enter the waters of baptism! Also helping other missionaries to improve and be better. Which isn't going to be hard here because there is only 4 of us in our district! The smallest District ever! If I look back on it, I have been in this area for almost half a year... wow... still can't believe! Im scared! 

We have a few baptisms coming up on the 24th of January which is going to be awesome! Its pretty hard to think sometimes that you work your butt off all day everyday, and don't see any success for almost 6 months! but I know its all the Lords timing and will, and I have no idea what I am doing for him in different ways but I trust I am doing something right haha so that doesn't really bother me anymore I just go and do thats all. I think thats why I have just been a regular missionary this whole time in my mission. Work, and do. Most of my batch has all been zone leaders, and stuff like that but its all good, we are all here for the same purpose. 

I love this work, and I am definitely going to hate it when it has to end... but it will be time for me to move on to the next step in life... MARRAIGE AND BABIES!!! hahah... joke.. but definitely in the plans haha Well I hope you all had a good new years. Lets not make lousy new years resolutions that no one is ever going to keep.Lets make plans, set goals, and monitor those goals then we will get somewhere in life! I love you all and I will see you in 6!

--
Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

Christmas Week

This letter might be a little bit shorter, just because I got to skype this last week! Skyping is the best! One more to go then I will be home! ITS TOOO FASSSTTT ANO BA YAN!!!

Well the really surprising news is that I am NOT TRANSFERRED! WHAT! yeah, everyone thought I was going to be transferred, I have been here 5 months now, and now I will be here for almost 7 haha, I am way excited though because I didn't want to leave, there is going to be so much happening the month of January! We have 4 solid baptisms coming up this week, and two of them are a part member family, which would mean this will be my first completed family in my entire mission! I love that flippin family so dang much its insane, I just want to be with them all the time, and they nearly cried when I told them I thought I was going to be transferred. I really feel the love from the Ward, and the members here. I have gotten so close to all these people here, i figured I was transferred, so I kind of warned everyone that i was going to be transferred, haha. They all start giving me gifts and pictures, letters, and food... haha so I am going to go to church on Sunday and just say JOKE LANG! which means I was just kidding haha. They will all miss Elder Olsen as well, they really like him here. I am so grateful I get to spend another transfer with these wonderful people. 

Christmas was awesome, we visited some families, of course we ate tons of food, and did some work of course. Then we went to a house and had a REAL American dinner. A foreign man from Switz cooked us tenderloin steaks, with mashed potatoes, veggies, and apple pie with ice cream. I will not even attempt to explain how good it tasted... ah... They are so nice, they own a big store, and they just give us free stuff all the time, and I just feel like a boss when I just walk through the back like I own the place, everyone just gives us that look.. haha plus we are friends with all the workers. I am trying to get a lesson in with them but they don't really care about religion.. we will change that.

We had our Christmas Parties with the Zone Leaders, and also as a ward which was really fun. As a district we had a Nacho Bar! played games, and shared spiritual messages! We had lots of fun at the Ward Christmas party, there was a lot of dancing and music, and fetch!! I wanted to dance so bad! but I just can not, its bawal... when I get back, and I can be YSA ah man I am going to be all up on that dance floor lookin like a dweeb! ayos lang... At our District Christmas party we played games from Whose' line is it anyways! haha It was so funny. We were playing the bachelor game, and one of the elders was Squirttle hahahahaha  I almost had an ahzma attack from laughing so hard! it was a good time. The mission is the best! 

Yesterday was actually a really cool day and I will try and keep it short explaining it. Basically we went to a really far area to visit a member who hasn't been visited for how many years now, and it was weird because some guy showed up to church who has a car that lives right next to him, so we were able to get a ride in his car to the super far area, the car ride was so nice... anyways it turns out that this family has been praying for missionaries to come back recently, and boy was the father so excited, he was jumping up and down shouting for joy, and invited all his neighbors to come and see us, and be taught by us! Plus everyone we talked too over there was way receptive! So the members and I have plans to see if we can get something started over there, like a group or a branch. We will see what will happen, but it was a testimony builder. We got 38 oyms in one day, and our mission standard is 50 in one week. it was another testimony builder for me that the Lord prepares people to fulfill his purposes! 

Well I will just leave it there for now, because I said this was going to be short but it still wasn't, I can't do it... haha its impossible! I love you all and wish you all a happy new years!

--
Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

just having fun while we work with the members! 

Potential Completed family!

My shoes after visiting that family!

Our Christmas Dinner!

Here is a picture of that Family that lives in that really far area! The father is the the guy in the cut off blue shirt in the middle. He is the man! 

Concecration Round 2

Hey everyone!

Boy has it been a crazy busy week, by far one of the fastest weeks in my mission, I can't even measure the time of the weeks anymore, seriously a blink of an eye.

We taught a lot of lessons about Christ and why have Christmas in celebration of his birth and ministry. We had a lot of success as well in having some Less actives come back to church last week. That was really exciting, I really hope they will continue to come back, and realize how much the Gospel can bless their lives if they are only willing to sacrifice small things, sometimes big. 

Our Christmas Zone Conference was awesome! We traveled to Lucena Sunday night, and stayed with the Zone Leaders which by the way lives right behind the Chapel where the meeting was held, which was super nice because we didn't have to wake up super early and got a little time to study! I had to sleep on the floor though because there wasn't enough matresses for everyone, and I ended up getting sick from it too because it was a nasty floor. The Christmas Zone Conference was awesome as expected, was full of the Spirit of course as President, and the Ap's delivered a powerful message of the Atonement, and more specifically the repentance side of the Atonement, and lovingly called us all to repentance just like King Benjamin did with his righteous people.  We also had lots of fun and games, with food. The bought a roasted pig for our feast which was the best! there was so much food! Thats how it should be on Christmas right! 

After the Zone Conference we went to the mall to prepare for Christmas! We all know what that means right! MORE FOOD!!! hahaha so we had fun, and enjoyed the compnay of our fellow servants. We didn't get back until 1 in the morning because we just slammed on the worst bus the kept stopping for everything little person to get on... I was not very happy plus the lady's kid in front of us pooped in his diaper and yeah.. we got to smell that for 4 hours... I was pretty irritated but what evs.. nothin you can do but breath in threw your mouth...

Going along with the title of the e-mail, as we have been teaching about Christ and God's gift he has given us through Him, I personally thought what Could I give Christ this Christmas?? I was all ready in His service, and doing what he wants me to do, even thought sometimes I am not the best at doing but I am definitely trying my best each day. I thought of the best thing I could give him, especially with 6 months left in my mission, and this is the gift of consecration. I have tried to do this my entire mission, and i even think at some points i was even acheiving this goal but I really thought about it and I am sick of thinking about what school I am going to go to when I get home, or what career I am going to go into, what job I want to have, cars, entertainment, and who is possibly going to be my wife hahaha I am sick of thinking about all of it, and I am ready to throw on the blinders, and just see track and finish, because its pretty close, and I can run a lot faster in this race. I feel that I now have been trained, I now have experience, I now have the knowledge of how things should be done, and just haven't been the best at applying it all. So now is the time where I am going to take all that and start hitting the pavement. I am not going to come home regretting that I didn't work hard till the end of mission, I will not allow it. A Sister in my batch made an interesting comment while we were having a testimony meeting while we were stuck in the Chapel for 4 days, she said: " At the end of your mission and you go through the temple before you go home, and you are in the Celestrial room then you should ask the Lord if he has accepted your mission, and your efforts as his called servant." That hit me pretty hard, and I have been thinking about it ever since. How heart wrenching would it be to be told that the Lord didn't accept your mission because of your lack of will, obedience, and love. Knowing you had one chance to do it, man that would not be fun, and that ain't going to happen to me. 

Consecration is what I am going to give to the Lord on His special holiday, and I challenge all of you to look within yourselves and give a gift to Christ that He is really going to like, something challenging to help you really feel closer to Him, and I know he will be proud of you in your efforts doing so. I love you all and hope you have a very Merry Christamas! I am grateful I can be in His service at the special time of the year! 

--

Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission

Aftermath

Hey everyone, the weeks just fly by so fast in the mission, I feel like it was yesterday i was in Mindoro on my birthday thing Christmas was in 5 months, and then BAM its here! Its unreal..

So there is not much to report on this week, so I will keep it pretty short. So most of you want to know how the aftermath of the storm here in Calauag. There really wasn't any aftermath at all. The natives say it was just like another storm that had stronger rain and winds, so there was no damage, just a little of flooding. We thought for sure our apartment was going to flood because it was level with the road, and between you and me the Philippines sucks at installing draining systems haha. Luckily we didn't get flooded when we returned home and all is well, we got back to work and checked up on our investigators and members. 

Nothing really interesting happened this week, its was just a simple week. We have our Christmas Zone Conference on Dec 22nd which is going to be lots of fun, the Christmas Zone Conferences are always the best. 

I guess I will share something from my personal study this week. As I was reading the Book of Mormon I pondered about how these many people in the Book of Mormon and how they received such spiritual experiences like seeing angels, prophets, and other signs, and miracles. Then I thought about how can such people who have seen and heard such great things fall away from the Gospel or the church!? How could someone lose so much faith after receiving such a great witness? Then I often thought about missionaries in the mission field who sometimes make wrong mistakes and are sent home or disciplined. How could missionaries do such a thing? After reviewing my own faults, mistakes, and weaknesses, as well as those in the Book of Mormon, that we are all just people, and we are all imperfect people, capable of sin, forgetfulness, anger, and all other un Christ like attributes. We all have weaknesses, some of us many, some of us few, and some that strike us to the very core... and this is something we have to accept in our mortality and try to overcome, through the amazing powers of the Atonement which we all come to know so very close in our journey through life. So what I am saying to all of you is that whether is be a leader, a missionary who comes home early, or someone you love. Don't judge them so quickly, try to understand what they are going through, and also look at yourself first before you start pointing fingers and saying things you do not really know. An apostle once said that if an apostle was to become apostate and do something terrible how many of us would still know the Church is True? How many of us would stay strong in the Faith? and how many of us would fall by the wayside in unbelief? I know this Church is true and I will never forget it! 

Let us all have a little more Christlike love on His special Holiday, and everyday of our lives as His Children in His Church. I love you all and remember to #Sharethegift

christmas.mormon.org 

 

--

Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission