So these pictures are taken during tracting. There is a bunch of bukid(mountain) behind my house and so we get to tract or proselyte in the mountains and get amazing views, and i mean amazing. The camera doesn't even capture even close to how beautiful it is, but it still looks pretty sweet.
We found two people to teach the other day, two families. One house was up this little cliff with stairs carved into the rock to get up top. We taught the people there, and most of them were catholic but one lady was Englesias ni kristo. They were formed in the Philippines a long time ago by a returned Mormon missionary. This missionary wanted to be an apostle so went to Utah and asked to be one and that he should and then of course he was kindly rejected, so he got super mad and started his own church in the Philippines. It does not have a nice feeling about it and the people in it are very hard hearted most of the time and really like to bible bash.
We then kept going and found a father and grandpa with some kids at home. We introduced ourselves and asked to teach them. They let us in, and there house was a room the size or Kaden's old room in Lethbridge. The stairs going up were quite scary too, and that is because there was a tiny wooden later made of sticks and I weigh 170 pounds so i felt like i was gonna break them. Inside wasn't much better, it was a bamboo floor and you could see through the floor to the ground below. I only stepped where i saw extra support through the cracks. They were pretty good, lots of people here just listen mostly, but we will follow them up.
So this is a picture of my Christmas that I made at my desk. It was my own little Christmas tree made out of wrapping paper.
This is an area where a less active lives and the cement bridge was flooding.
Brother Willy
This is brother Willy, he is a ward missionary and recent convert. He is great!
And then this is a goat and a pig we found tracting one day.
So i was thinking, do you remember the Jason Born movies. Well, remember when he is running through houses and over roofs and stuff, that is a lot like it is here. Oh and this last couple weeks the dogs here have broke my heart. All the dogs here are treated like dirt. Literally. They are always super dirty and so dirty and gross that they scratch and are mostly rat dogs. They have patches of hair and scabs all over. It is quite tough to see, and lately i have seen three dead dogs. One, I moved off the road so it wouldn't get destroyed all over the pavement, and then there was lots of rain and a flooded river. It came over a cement bridge super fast and on the other side was like rapids and it trapped wood and coconuts. Well a big dead dog came floating and got stuck in it, it sorta made me sick to see, not the body but the fact that it was dead and trapped being beaten by debris it water. Then this morning actually, we got up to leave to Danao and came outside. Two steps in front of our apartment a dog was dead, and it had guts behind it that exploded out of its backside, it was super sad, its eyes were glazed looking into the distance. It still looked alive almost. Anyway, the animals here break my heart, there are always little puppies everywhere, and they are so dirty and treated terribly. We were walking and then I looked up and saw a little puppy like a week old with it’s cute little eyes looking up at us. It was sitting on the cement, dirty and alone. It broke my heart...but its truly sad.
This is the flood, and where the dog was stuck.
So what else to tell, well I am loving the mission so much. I can honestly say that satan is super clever. He is so frustrating. There are so many people here, less actives and investigators right now that satan seems just how to effect. I have really had my eyes open to the importance of the gospel. So many people don't see the importance of the scriptures, church. It is so frustrating. We can tell when people aren't doing what they should be by how they live there lives. We can tell if someone is not coming to church but then they tell us they are reading and praying and we know they are not. It is so tough too, especially when investigators get anti Mormon doctrine. There will be times when they are such awesome investigators, then all of a sudden the next lesson you can feel the spirit literally leave and the investigator pull out these questions and you feel the tension. It is so hard because lots of times they get thoughts or get told we are just wanting to baptise them, or stuff like that. Of course we want to but its more than that. We really come to love these people and its hard. Members are frustrating sometimes too. I don't remember if I said this but back in Balilihan, but there was members who smoked and did other things they were not supposed too. Well when we were teaching people, they would say there is no point in changing religions and use those members as examples because they were doing stuff too and they were members. I have really began to see the potential in people and its just tough when they turn away. I can only imagine how hard it is for Heavenly Father.
That is our ward right now too
This is a cave we found. And the floods from the rivers turn the ocean partly brown.
So on New Years Eve the mission was able to watch two movies. We got to watch how to train your dragon two, but then after that we were gonna watch Brave but we had no time left because it took a while to get everything started. But it was a real treat, and a great movie. We also got fed on New Years Eve which was nice. I really am shocked I am not sick of rice yet, I try to eat it only once a day, but everyone here eats it every meal. Its crazy, and I gain weight eating it and everyone here loses weight. It is definitely an adventure in every aspect.
Love you all
Branden
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