January 25

So i will say my prayers were answered, I have prayed countless times for ivy's ankle...its healed, not biggy. ;) lol, I will keep praying though, and I will pray for this business of yours. Just have faith and know whatever happens is for your good, to refine you and shape you into more. As for my mission, the words come into my mind often, from Elder Bednar at a talk given in the MTC to missionaries "its not about you, get over yourself" ....its not about me mom, and that's whats keeping me going. And of course you guys, I am learning, truly I am on the Lord's errand, I have been called, called to serve a mission now at this time in this place. There is nothing else that matters. Take a rope that extends forever to the left and to the right when it is tight. It goes forever. To the left is before the earth, and to the right is after the earth. Now take a little piece of string and wrap it around the middle. That is our life on earth. It can get super super hard, it can hurt, it can be sad, hard, whatever, it is worth it because what comes after this life is infinitely better. Its not worth it not to endure and do whats right here on the earth. Its not worth it. This life is but an instant. My spiritual thought...lol. 

So this week was fun. I got to do two service projects. That was fun. The first reminded me of landscaping. We had to tear up some cement and shovel dirt for a few hours, haha, but the other was planting rice. It was actually sort of fun. I enjoyed it...but I only did it three hours, not my entire life. It would be super hard to do. My back broke...lol. Almost though. And it is actually hard! But ya, got to go almost knee deep at times  in mud. I was dirty. But ya. Not a whole lot new happened here either. 

January 18

Pastylan I forgot to say...Happy ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!  Dang you can surprise me with some tickets one day too, that’d be cool, but if you don't I will forgive you. Maybe I will surprise you guys one day. So yes the baptism happened and I was super excited.  It went great, lots of fun and I got to baptise her. Finally I used my temple clothes. It was great to be able to experience, I was so happy for her, it makes me excited to baptise my own kids one day.

Everyone is pretty awesome here, I have really grown to love so many people, it wasn't until I got here that I realised how much I would actually learn to love them. I just want them to grow in the gospel and do what is best.  This mission is not easy, I still think it is the hardest thing I have ever done. Especially at first, when no one speaks English and everything is different and you work hard long days everyday. It is flying though, I am past my six months mark.

The weather is...normal...for here. Rain, couple typhoons, hot sunny days. Same old, same old. I miss cold...i don't remember what it feels like, haha, I will definitely be here in this area until the end of February. Every six weeks is transfer calls. The way it usually works, new missionary come in, learns the area one transfer, then the old missionary transfers and the new one stays and trains the next missionary. Sometimes though you are only in an area for one transfer, or sometimes more if they don't want to transfer either missionary. So we shall see.  Anyway love you lots, talk to you later, and stay safe, and tell those Aunts of mine to slow down having babies and tell their kids to pause growing up until I am back. Love you all tons, 

January 13

Hello Family,

To answer your question, the temple is all in English here, but I have not gone yet. Only certain zones get to go and I have been too far away, I went a ton when I was in Provo. I went 7 times I think, or 6 maybe, I cant remember anymore. So have you watched the bible videos? They are honestly sooooooo goood they rock so much, if you haven't, watch some for FHE  or something.  They are great teaching tools.  If I have learned anything from the prophets and my mission, the light of Christ can penetrate anyone, and it changes there very nature, who they are. It is incredble to see. It really is such a crazy thing. 

Love you all lots, keep going strong!

JANUARY 4

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

DECEMBER 29

My companion is a great guy, and pretty funny at times too. The Christmas part was great. The party was really funny.  After we chatted we went to the party. People slowly showed up all day and then at 4 it actually started. I couldn't believe they spent the entire Christmas day at the church though, as much as I have loved my wards and all, that is quite a lot. Well the party started and it was basically a giant talent show of all the different people in the ward. Everyone either danced and sang, and the best part was the elders quorum. They all got up and did this choreographed dance and they all looked sooo funny doing it, I got a good laugh and I recorded it too.

Lots of people sang too, and lots of them were really bad, but it was great because people just do it anyway and have a great time. That’s another thing here, karaoke is huge, every day you here it. People hook up giant speakers to there tv and sing karaoke all day, and they are not even that good, some are soooo brutal! But no one cares unless you go to a real professional popular place.  This is rare but one guy sang a song bad a month ago ish and he was murdered after. That happened up in manila...they took it super seriously. Well we have a typhoon right now, a small one, but it has been frustrating because there was no power all day, and literally it is not even as bad as a thunderstorm back home. 

That's awesome about Christmas. Speaking of magic tricks, I have got some pretty cool magic tricks mastered now myself. Coin tricks, slight of hand, and card tricks too...and I think I got a little to good at one because I had to explain to one guy it wasn't sorcery, lol.  He asked if it was sorcery and I was like no no no no, definitely not, here I will show you...and I showed him the trick, haha, but it is so awesome.  It makes everybody like me more than just because I am white. And the Filipino's faces, oh boy they are priceless. 

That is a great topic for your talk. Temple is awesome. I have been to the temple i think 8 or 9 times already. I got some talks from Elder Albar who are given by a guy who served a senior mission here. He knew so much, and he taught classes each week to the people here and recorded them, and he has a website and he talks super in depth on everything. Angels, the second coming, literally everything. It is so good, his last name is Strout... I would try and look him up on the Internet. But I bet your talk went awesome, it sounds like it would have been a great talk. And if you were not nervous, then you nailed it. 

Of course I am excited for the baptism, but I haven't thought of it a whole ton, I mostly just think what am I teaching today...but it should be good, I hope she is ready. As for my area, I am starting to really love the people here again, but the area itself i would say I miss Bohol, this area is all jumbled and feels a bit disorganised at the moment. I am trying to work out the bugs. 

NOVEMBER 14, 21,

I am in a new area!  I am in a town called Carmen.  My new companion is great. His English is good to, however he is tough sometimes to understand still. He is a great teacher though.  He is from up by Manila. My new area is still very bukid, it feels very disorganised.  There is not as much stuff here as my last area sadly, but oh well, I will get by. The typhoon was actually very lame, it missed us, so we just got wind, not even that much rain. There are downed trees in some spots but as service goes, there really isn’t much anywhere around me. So ya, that about it. 

We have one investigator named Joel. He is a sweet guy, he is 40s i think. Anyways he aways calls us brud and is always super happy to see us. He has agreed to baptism, but his wife doesn't live at home, she works somewhere else and isn't ever home so he is waiting to decide if they should get baptised for her permission too. I hope so. So another family we visit is a single mom and her daughter. She is 9, and her name is Rhea mae. The mom is a recent convert, and now we have been teaching Rhea Mae so she can be baptised too. She is so sweet, and so shy too. I feel like she is sorta my sister. We were talking with her about school then she totally opened up about being bullied by a girl and boy, and i totally was ready to go beat up that boy, lol, we sorta joked i would go get him, hahaha. She is so shy though, so it was super unexpected. During lessons she is quite hard to get her to answer because she is so shy, and she is still quite young. She is getting more comfortable every time though, and she is scheduled to be baptised on January 10. So that will be good. So those are a couple of our focuses right now. We see them about 3 times a week. 

So did I mention about how i see out into the ocean several times a day, from our apartment. You cross the road, walk 20 steps around some houses and then you are on beach. There are a bunch of resorts around here too, but they are all fenced off so you can’t see into them. Maybe one day i will stay at them. Oh, and i don't know if i have told you this yet but I am called gwapo, or handsome/good looking  every single day all the time. My investigators call me it, workers at stores tell me it in check out, people always stare at me, I am always being told people like me.  It is quite the experience. Whenever I get called joe or americano by guys or little kids, I say, "wala, filipino ko" or no, I'm a filipino. Haha, it is always super crazy mind blowing to so many people i can speak the language, or a bit of it. But ya, its an interesting experience. I was talking with Elder Albar today about how literally everything I know is different here. Climate, people, culture, food, money, literally everything, even the time of day, is different than Canada. 

So beautiful here!

Dear Family,

It is going great here. The people are so awesome, I absolutely love them all. I didn't know how much I could actually love my investigators till now. Its nuts, I want them all to be baptised sooooo bad!!! . 

That is so cool that the Yadernuks visited your ward, I miss our ward. My branch is awesome, I love them all, but we have barely any priesthood and no one can sing and the girl on piano doesn't play a single sharp or flat so it sounds super bad....:'(. But that's alright. Don't worry about the rats, funny story actually. So I got grandmas spider traps yesterday, put them out, well an hour later we here something noisy. We go out of our room and a rat is stuck on one...so i killed it, so the traps work. There was a giant spider on the trap and the rat was trying to eat it, so it is working great. We found another rat hole in the process too.

Yup! Kinda Gross!

I miss the cold so much though! I want snow, lol. 

Ok, so Zach is getting so old!!!! Tell him I am proud of him, and that having the priesthood is super cool. I remember I didn't really understand the priesthood quite like I do now, and it is super cool for him. And I heard Joey is getting baptised too, wow i am missing a lot. I can't believe Joey is that old either! its so weird how much everyone will have grown up by the time I get back. Tyler, dang has he sent his papers? How excited is he? I really want his email!! and Danny's too!!! and their families too! lol

Holy smokes I just sent Sterling a letter. I hope he is doing alright. Lots of missionaries come home from his mission because on health problems where he is. I bet that is super tough, at least Sterling can fully focus on the work. I bet he misses home though. Dang though, only two letters, that's gotta be super hard. I'm excited to call you at Christmas.  That call will be exciting, but it is gonna be only like 30 minutes I think sadly. That's what the white hand book says, so we shall see what happens. I will find out more. 

I have killed two snakes, seen hundreds dead on the road, and seen a black and yellow cobra. Grandmas sticky traps she sent have caught me two rats, which I have killed, plus that big first one I killed. And We keep finding scorpions, so it definitely is an adventure, but i sorta love it, hahah, cause i can handle it and it spices things up. I have more, our room is cozy, lol, Two beds and two desks, and a meter by meter of walking space, lol. and a fan in that space.  

So, I am getting you a small little nativity set that is about 700 pesos, or under 20 dollars here made out of pearl and stuff and it is all natural from here. Also, I can get a Nativity set carved. So would you be interested in that. I am still looking into it, elder Durham's mom wants one really bad so we have been searching and have finally found a guy. So if you do, what price range in dollars and what carved figures would you want? 

How are things with dad and school? How is all the family doing.   I miss Christmas decorations and snow a lot here, its rare to see that stuff, since everyone is poor and there is no snow...I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...haha, well, not sure if i am putting on weight or not right now, but everything fits me still. Anyway I love you all a ton.  Tell everyone if they wont to write me to please do it.  I will make time to write to anyone who wants to write to me.   Anyway love you all a ton, talk to you next week. 

Love

Elder Schnoor

 SCORPION!

Horned Beetle

 I got invited to a Birdthday party at a wealthier home.  The food was really good!

 Beautiful!

November 3 2014

Well thank you. I have had a pretty good p day today, it is 3:30 in the afternoon right now. So today we went to go eat at wok express at the mall, well when I got there my zone leader put a bag on my head and walked me in, then i got a surprise birthday party sorta. The whole zone was there and sang, then a bunch had to leave but my closer friends stayed and we all ate cake too! It was pretty cool. Oh, and that Halloween candy will last way longer. If it doesn't, i don't know who else decided to eat it because I ate a ton of it....sorry bout that, same with milk. Is there lots of food and milk and cheese these days or has Zach helped keep that stuff gone, haha. So actually there is one thing i would love love love. On Lds.org they just got pocket sized of all the standard works, bibles, b of m, p of great price,d&c and you can order it for 15 dollars and you can have it sent to me here in the Philippines in two weeks. So that would be super cool, you need a credit card. Also the book of mormon manual is super great too and you can get stuff rebound here with anything on it. Oh and i will love all you gave me, I honestly don't need much for Christmas or my birthday. 

Hahaha Christmas decorations already?  Decorate and tell me all about it. Everyone here starts celebrating Christmas in September, the malls play Christmas music all the time. but there is no snow and everyone is super poor so decorations are lacking here.  Just do what you can, I’m dying about the shows I am missing it, haha. And I feel tons of love from home, its great. And I can feel the Savior's love too, that's not even a struggle. Just keep writing me. And packages are meh, they are great but the mission is my time to serve the Lord and serve the people here, and that's the focus. Everything else doesn't matter. I have everything I need, and i will let you know. Just remember I love you and I am being watched over because I am serving my Heavenly father. I can honestly say I am happy, but it isn't easy. Its a huge sacrifice and everyday is work, but I am given strength and I know I am doing what I am supposed too. I love  you lots too!!! 

Love 

Elder Schnoor

October 27 2014

The mission is going great. I feel like I am growing so much, it is awesome to be able to be here.  We have lots of investigators. If you were to total up the amount of lessons we should be teaching to each of our progressing investigators and all that, we should be teaching 48 lessons a week. But that is a ton, and with the way it is working now we only get half that because the times when everyone can be taught overlap a lot so we might need to split our area in the future. In other words, me and elder Durham are finding lots and our area is pretty ready to receive the gospel.  Every kid we pass calls us Americano or Joe and always either asks over and over for money or they ask "what is your name?"  They do it to get a laugh mostly. And they follow you in packs everywhere too. 

So a little about one family. We were tracting one day and found this family. They were super nice. They have lots of kids, and so we taught them. The next time we saw them we went to the ladies sisters house and taught even more. Well they have really been progressing, but the problem is she wants her kids to be mormon, she keeps saying it is for the kids. Anyway, she decided to sneak away from her family and come to church without telling her husband. She loved it, but she got home and her husband found out and got mad. So we couldn't see them for a week. Well that passed, and they let us come back. The other day they invited us over to her sisters birthday party. They roasted a giant pig, had crab, chicken, noodles, rice, literally everything that is super good and expensive. Her sister is actually pretty rich for a Filipino. So that was delicious, so good. So they are a big focus for us right now, they are so nice and awesome. 

That is such an awesome conversion story you heard in Stake Conference. I love lots of the stories too, they are great. Lots of missions are all about the seed planting. Luckily the Philippines is considered a harvesting mission. 

It is so weird not having an ounce of snow here, just hot hot hot. I really do miss the snow and cold.  Some of the things i miss the most besides people like you guys is a washing machine and hot shower. Laundry is the biggest pain, it takes so much time having to hand wash everything all the time. I am never free to do anything. So so busy. But I am learning quite a bit.

I love you guys so much. My mission is already going pretty quick. 

Oh one more thing. I walked into a room today, and heard something above my head and to the side. Well I turned, and in the corner was a big black tail with yellow stripes things on it crawling into our ceiling. It was big from what I saw, and loud. WE talked to our landlord, and he said it was definitely poisonous. But it probably left after about an hour because there probably wasn't any food for it. We honestly have had everything known in our house. I have given several blessings now too, two this week, one to elder Durham. I gave a bunch in the MTC to people too.   I am getting better at the language though. I can start to understand people now. And it is crazy how people just seem to pop out out of know where too. Bohemian Rhapsody came on the neighbours radio while we were teaching a guy the other day. Brought up so many memories. But anyway, love you all a lot. Talk to you again next week. 

Love Elder Schnoor

October 22, 2014

Dear home,

So this week is transfer week....so PDay is on Wednesday. It is back to Monday again next week.

Ok, when I was sick. Just a high fever. And the cough was sorta nasty, the only thing was i just haven't had a fever in years so that just made me quite tired. But I am great now.  Elder Durham is fine, he has a nasty cough but that's it, he is hopefully gonna get better soon. Sister tanner prescribed some antibiotics to me when I was sick. It is so funny here, she told us what to get and when to take it, so we went to get it from a pharmacy. The one in the mall wouldn't let us, so we went to a place in my area and they gave it to me without a real prescription. Its more like if I have the money, I can get whatever. So literally anything they have I can buy, hahaha. 

So less than a year ago. Bohol had a very terrible earthquake, it was big and destroyed a lot, 7.2 on the Richter scale. It was huge here, lots of people died too. So right after Elder Anderson of the twelve came and then left a blessing that they would be able to rebuild and get better here. Well, literally 3 weeks after the earthquake, that giant super typhoon, biggest ever recorded in history hit the island over from us, where half of my batch from the MTC went to serve. It was supposed to come here and hit Bohol too, but Bohol for some reason had low pressure and so it pushed the typhoon up over bohol and it hit the top bit of Cebu island and hit up that way, missing Bohol. So that was a crazy miracle. 

I can get a machete home, I think I just need to send it. I almost bought a taser, a huge one, but i decided not to waste the money. 

It freaks me out about Kaden and your guys driving in a bigger city. I hate it, stuff can happen a lot easier now. Be careful, but that's great about you being able to get to places, lol. So I probably wont email next Monday until a few hours later. I email usually around 10:30 am here but we are gonna probably do it afternoon next Monday. Love ya

Love 

Elder Schnoor 

I guess I can write a little more.
I love my new littel cousin. I now have three little babies I can't see. You still haven't sent me any of my new little cousins, and I want more. I like pictures too.  How is the kids and school going?

I am holding up great. Definitely the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, and it is so hard with the language, culture shock, new schedule, and the mental stress, especially about the investigators. We have a bunch, and it is super hard because I immediately learn to love them and I see so much potential in them, but when they don’t progress or something happens. Or they refuse to understand or do something. It is tough stuff, I am drained every day. But I am growing so much, and realizing stuff about me and others. I do love this mission, and it is worth it to bring as many people as I can to the gospel. It is so hot here, I am about as used to it as I can get. The humidity is killer, and the sun. I have been blessed though about that, because I have only gotten a small sunburn once and besides that I have not gotten any, and i don’t use sunscreen really, lol, no time to put it on. I sweat a lot, darn heat. I actually haven't had balute. We don't have it in Balilihan really, so i haven't had a chance. I will eat it though. I can't believe how much rice I eat though. I eat about 2 cups a day, and mostly rice. I eat oatmeal for breakfast, pansit, beans, rice and soup for my other meals. Rice in each meal. And they give us some really good vitamins. one thing I wouldn't mind you sent would be calcium pills though. I don't' get much of that and these next couple years are the last years my body will add that to my bones. 

Love Elder Schnoor

October 12 2014

How has your last week been? So good news, I got rid of the rat. I caught it, then chopped off its head...so it is dead. Quick death. So we will see if there are any more living in our house. We saw a huge centipede the other day. The Filipino's are quite terrified of those. They are super super poisonous. It was half the size of a pen. So this last week went good. We are teaching a family now and they really like us and we are teaching them and they are learning lots. They text our phone all the time...they texted us before we came one time and said "don't ask us if we read the Book of Mormon, because we didn't have time..." haha, they are so funny, but we are praying so hard for them. Its so tough to see people so close to accepting the gospel and then just not.  We are teaching a bunch of families and they are doing great, but as we teach commandments and they have to come to church and all that stuff lots of people won't accept us anymore, or won't progress so they can't be baptized. It is so sad, it reminds me of the story in the bible when that rich man asks the savior what he needs to do to have eternal life and as soon as the Savior said give up his money he was gone... its one of the hardest things. 

 My first transfer here is almost done. I will be here until half way through january, so three transfers. How are the kids doing. How is University life going? General Conference was great. We listened to it yesterday and Saturday. Such good talks, and when they refer to missionaries I feel cool now because that's me. In the priesthood session, the choir was the missionaries from the MTC. I would have been in that if I was still there, I actually saw 3 kids I new singing in it!!! they were so lucky. So I am really learning to live poor right now too. Evertyhing is so cheap here, and because of that we don't get very much money, just what we can survive off of so I have a tight budget. They do have one McDonalds on all of bohol luckily though. The mission is getting easier, and I am becoming closer to other missionaries now too. Oh, not to alarm you, but I did get sick 2 weeks ago. I had a fever three nights in a row that got up to 39 degrees celsius, and then I got a cough. But I got some medicine and its all good now.  There was a pretty big typhoon I heard that hit Japan. We had some nasty rain and wind from that for a week. We always here about Typhoons here, so i will probably experience one. Remember those stories about the typhoon and the missionaries. That was super close to my mission, it is one island over, and so I have heard crazy stories. And those missionaries after came to my mission for a while. And have I told you about the earthquake?  Anyway I hope everything is going good for you guys. Oh and I think if you guys wanted we could talk a bit back and forth sometimes on email. 

Love 

Elder Schnoor

Oh my goodness my place is a palace here in the Philippines, it is actually one of the nicest places around. I already have quite the stories to tell, haha, all in my journal. Ok, so the rats. So We decided to go check upstairs under a dresser. Well, we look under with a flashlight and find our food being stolen. This rat(s) took a bag of itchyban, or pansit, and pulled it to his hole. It wouldn't fit into it, so he ate lots of its but it was half in and half out of his hole. The first time I saw the rat, it was about the size of three tennis balls next to each other. He disappeared so fast. Then the next time was in the middle of the night when it was chewing a whole in our ceiling. Well, we hear it all the time in our ceiling, and this week after finding its hole, we found that it lives in between the floor upstairs and the ceiling to our room. So that's good. We are actually looking for a new house because our house doesn't meet code for a mission house, lol. And we have scorpions now too. We sprayed Premethrin around our walls, come home and found three scorpions, one half dead but still alive. They are small, which means they are poisonous too! So we need to watch out for them, and the cockroaches. And we find about one giant Spider ever week. It is quite the house. And outside on the roads there are always dead snakes and giant toads that are giant squished, so I guess there are snakes. And lots of them in my area. It is towards the centre of Bohol. And another thing too, a couple years ago rebels in the Philippines against the government came and live deep in the bukid, so we have been warned to be careful. They are dangerous, but they live deep in the jungle so that's good. We travel mostly by foot, but our area is super big, and takes forever to walk I think we are going to get an area adjustment so we can afford motors to take us places. We take either buses or jeepnies(really getto jeeps) to Tagbilaran every pday, and those cost money too, but everything here is dirt cheap. 40ish pesos is one dollar so. Anyway there are two big malls on Bohl, and one is called BQ mall and the other island central mall. They sell groceries and knockoffs and lots of stuff here. Down the street there is a place I can get a pair of pants made for 150 pesos. And I can get any shirt made here. The food we get is super cheap. We get pansit because each is about 10 pesos, and noddles. A mango is like 50 pesos, and sadly, we have about 400 pesos a week on food so we get the essentials and then get out. The main food here is rice. Everybody has rice every meal, no matter who you are. It is pretty cheap, depending on the kind. The dirt cheap rice has rocks in it, they dry it on the roads on tarps. So church is 40 minutes via jeepni away in a small chapel, we have about 50 people right now. And we watch general conference in Tagbilaran this Sunday, they have to translate and send it here first. We get to watch it Saturday and Sunday, all sessions. It is crazy about people who are against the church. I am getting some of our investigators to come. One of the hardest things here is money. Everyone is so poor, they can't get to church, and lots of times it is too far to walk. The people here are pretty good, most everyone will listen to us. The culture is too nice to say no, however they just listen, the trick is getting the ones who want to know more. We were riding a motorbike home the other day after the day was done, and the guy ended up setting an appointment with us. The next time we saw them it went pretty good, we gave them a pamphlet of the restoration, and then the time we visited after that they read the entire thing. Elder Durham, who has been here 1 year and 3 months, said that is super rare. We have committed a bunch of people to baptism. We keep in touch with cell phones. Very cheap crappy ones though. We get 600 texts a month, and to get more it is called load. Lots of times though the people don't have load, so they can't check. The appointments here are just sorta set. We can say about 3 and show up way late or early, it is very chill that way. We just need to visit most people whenever. Lots of times we don't set anything up. 

Ok, so this morning I had about 20 minutes in a cafe with fast Internet so i sent some pictures.  So I got to tell you about today. We went across the Island over to a river resort place and did something so cool. You know in the shows and movies when they are travelling on boats down a river with jungle on either side like the Amazon river, that was what we did today. It cost 450 pesos, or about 10 dollars, and we got all you can eat food( I had crab, seaweed, tons of fruits, this giant fish thing, chicken, pork, it was great) while travelling on one of these boats down a river. It was fancy and honestly a crazy amazing thing. Half way through we got off on this floating island and a ton of people, like 70 ish, all were dressed up cool in dresses and sang and danced and played little guitars and danced and we all got to watch, I even joined in and had a great time. Then at the end there was a couple smaller waterfalls. It was so crazy and awesome, I loved it. Way worth it, then on our way back I got a machete with a handle made from a caribou (big fat water buffalo) horn, so that is sweet. I have it with me right now. So Visayan, that is what the language is called up north, by Manila it is called Tagalog. Here in the islands it is called Visayan. Cebuano is a dialect from the islands of Cebu and then the surrounding islands are all different dialects. Here on Bohol it is called Boholano, they switch J's for Y's and have a few other words. Anyway, it is all based off of Visayan. And the pictures, I will try and send more of bugs and kids, I have tons of pictures, although I don't take a ton of pictures proselyting because we are not really supposed to a ton and I don't think about it all the time, I am focusing on the language and there reactions and the lessons. It is pretty cool. So a quick cool story. The other day we talked to a guy in the market. He wanted us to come by the next day and speak to him. So we did, and found his house (the houses here don't have numbers and there are no addresses so it can be a bit tricky) and when we came in, there were like 30 other people all with bibles and a pastor guy. We sat, then proceeded to pray, then they all say a really long catholic type hymn in visayan, and then prayed again, then they all got up and payed tithing in some cans, then prayed again and it closed. The pastor raised his hands when he prayed, it was a weird experience. Anyway, it was sorta dark, and it was our turn. He pretty much bible bashed us, but wouldn't let us talk, and it was a good thing too because everything he used my companion and I could have explained. hahaha. But anyway, he then got out a banner chart thingy and it was a time line of the churches of the world. It showed ours, then tons of others. He then claimed his church, which is called the true church of god, a break off from catholic, is the true church and that it never left the earth. Then he got out another chart with meats and talked about clean and dirty meats, so he still believes in the law of moses too! So that was interesting, then the fed us noodles, chicken and rice and we left. It was crazy. I got p[pictures ;)  lol. That is great about the house, it sounds awesome and super exciting. I am so happy for you guys, it can only get better I hope. Anyway love you lots, Talk to you next week. 

Love you lots!

Elder Schnoor

Chocolate Hills, butterflies and lots of animals

Dear home. The chocolate hills were great! They were so cool, but there really was not a ton with them. You literally go up some long stairs to the top of a hill and stare off and watch them as long as you want, after that you come back down. They were really cool though!

After that we went to the butterfly sanctuary, and it was alright, the zoo is better, but there were some pretty big butterflies so that was cool to see.

Then after that we went to the Tarsier monkey place and saw a bunch of those little monkeys only found in this part of the world on a few islands. They were very cool, and they were actually kinda cute and so little. So that was Pday, sadly not a whole lot to tell.

That is awesome about dad getting that calling. The priests seem pretty awesome and I bet dad will do great. Young mens is definitely fun, so he will enjoy that. Plus Kaden is in there which is great! Are you in Todd and Amy's ward?  Dad will really enjoy his call if he can get close to the boys. I am excited for him from here. 

So I got to tell you about our new house. It is one of the lowest standards in the entire mission. It is very hard for the mission to find homes to rent, and my area is pretty out in the middle of nowhere so our house sorta is crappy. The first day there, I saw a giant cockroach, absolutely giant, take a piece of me with it if it bites me. I killed that guy. Then a giant spider, it looked so creepy, it was pretty big and so fast....and big. It looked like a giant wolf spider. But the worst part of it all is the Rats. We saw a giant rat, and so didn't know where it went. But we guessed it went into this storage room so we locked it off. We could here the rats crying all night to get out, they were starving to death. Then we came home one day and Elder Durham went into the kitchen and this giant rat come running out, past me, hops up each stair and runs and hides somewhere. We don't go upstairs...but worst of all, last night we were in our room and we both woke up to this chewing scratching noise. We turned on a light and a rat was chewing its way through our ceiling into the room. So we have rats living in the ceiling too, which oh my goodness rats. Our house is not my favorite, and I am there at least until half way through January. 

It is pretty crazy here. I know I have said that but I always think it. We have a couple progressing investigators right now. We got 14 new investigators this last week, its seems like a pretty ready area. So I don't know if I told you this one earlier, but we will be teaching a lady, and boom she whips out her ... and starts feeding like nothing changed. I can hardly concentrate when that happens. I honestly just concentrate on eye contact let alone the language and what I am saying. It happens all the time, all the time, anyone anywhere. ugh, but meh. 

So yesterday I ate something so weird and I probably will try to avoid. Rice, noodles and cooked pigs blood....it was so hard to get past the part of the dirty pigs blood being eaten. So nasty, and I am gonna try balute and probably some intestines this week. Our area we have been walking so much lately, it rained the other day and we chose to run through it to get home rather than wait forever. We got soaked to the bone. I was dripping wet!! I tried to catch a baby tooko too, it was a pretty big baby lizard, lol. And I saw a dead black snake squished on the road, so the snakes are here, but that was out towards chocolate hills more. Most of the dangerous stuff is in where the people and we are not. Its because the dangerous stuff is scared of us and if anyone sees anything dangerous, they kill it. The biggest thing I need t worry about are the rats, cockroaches and spiders. I can't believe I have been on my mission for over 2 months already, it is super slow but fast at the same time. The language is slowly coming, it is pretty tough to get, I can say some stuff but they talk so fast and there are so many words to remember.  I think I am learning more than I think I am, but oh well. It'll come.   Anyway I love you all a ton, miss you lots. I'll talk to you again next week. 

Love 

Elder SChnoor

Animals everywhere!

I'm making rice by pounding it so the husks that are around the actual grains of rice fall off and turn to dust.

 An example of a home here.  It makes my home look like a palace!

This is a family we are teaching right now. The little boy doesn't have any legs and has a thumb only on one hand. He is so cute, and laughs so much and his mom loves him a lot. His sister is pretty cute too. 

That is president Brios, Branch president in Cortes Branch 

Huge and Nasty!

Well, I have to be quick right now because we are going on a zone activity today and so I don't have very much time. We are going to the Chocolate Hills and some sanctuaries.  The people here are super awesome, and it is completely like Jamaica here although worse in a lot of places. I can tell you a lot more about it all next week, but lets just say people survive with pretty much nothing here. They survive off rice, super cheap rice. It is super sad to see. I have to wash my laundry in a bucket every week! That is hard and takes time, and is pretty annoying, but I will get better at it as times goes on. My new apartment is in an area called Balilihan. It is sketchy, you walk in and there is a big open room, then a kitchen area and another room.  Then upstairs  there are a couple rooms, pretty small, and the floors are a wood and you can see through parts of it. and everything here is super dirty. I am getting used to it fast, mostly because i have no choice. The washrooms, well.....no toilet paper. There is a little toilet and a bucket, a faucet and drain.  You asked about toilet paper and well, you wipe with water and..... your hand....and soap, but the trick is to poor water while you go, down your back so showers you off, haha, then use soap and rinse...it is sorta gross, but actually way cleaner in a way. And my showers are all bucket showers, so that is hard. I am not going to lie, conditions are horrible here and super hard, its not an easy mission when it comes to living conditions.  And the language is super hard too, people talk so fast here it is super crazy. But I love this mission, and I am happy to serve the Lord and teach people. So more about our new area. Balilihan is huge, and is starting to get more into the center of Bohol, so pretty much tons of bukid(jungle). Our residence is through some trees a ways, and people honestly can be anywhere. Its pretty spread out, lots of walking. And mud and rain. I am so tired at the end of each day. And the animals, there are lots. Lots of everything. I have seen a moth the size of my hand, a nasty spider the size of my hand, tooko's which are giant lizards that if they bite you their jaw locks and you have no choice but to kill them. I have not seen a cobra yet, but I have seen a python skin so there are pythons too. Then the cockroaches too, oh boy they are huge and nasty. And if they bite you it will most definitely get infected. So pretty much there is lots out here that can kill me, everything is dangerous and poisonous. The big spider I saw, if you look up online the spiders int he Philippines, and that picture with the big creepy  spider and the bird all tangled up, thats pretty much what I saw...its intense.

Huge spider with my companion Elder Durham

This is not fun to find in the cupboard!

And the water here is not to be drunk. Our tap water is full of mercury and other metals, plus the bugs that are in it...and we don't have tons of money so I will mostly survive off itchy ban, rice, oatmeal and whatever else I can find. I can't believe how crazy it is here. We get in our jeepny's, or these long jeeps, and they can fit a lot of people. You basically fill every square inch, including on top. We had about 50 in one the other day, it was so so so hot, I sweat all the time.  By the end of the day, I stink soo soo much. Just absolutely smell. I have not had balute or anything to crazy yet, I have been to busy. Yesterday, we went up to Balilihan and to go check out a referral and she ended up being too busy because she is basically and maid for some guys. And they were all drinking and eating cow and goat intestine. It was nasty nasty nasty. They kept offering us some but we said no, a lot. We didn't actually teach them, but we gave them a pamphlet then left. They eat so messy here too, like animals, with there hands and a spoon and fork in each hand. Since we are opening a new area things have been pretty disorganized and crazy. We do a lot of tracting, and the area seems pretty good. Lots of them are all about the born Catholic, die Catholic life, but lots are willing to let us talk. Lots are just to polite to say no, so we teach them and see if they are actually interested or not. It has been a bit discouraging at times, it is super hard, and knowing i still have 22 months to go is pretty overwhelming. I miss home a lot, but things only get better. Especially when I can start getting the language and can actually talk to people, then it will be nice. Elder Durham is a good companion, he is a good guy and knows his stuff so thats nice. I really like our zone leaders and the AP's a lot. They are really cool. Oh did I tell you about where we get to baptize? We get to baptize at the base of one of those crazy beautiful jungle waterfalls. I can't wait, lol. I will be here in this same area until the middle of january. Just wait until I talk some Visayan to you at christmas time. Do you know if that package has arrived in babb I sent, it don't care when you get it, it is just stuff for me when i get home, but I would love to know if it made it there. You should see the driving here. It is ridiculous. You honestly just go for it. People are dodging, speeding, going crazy everywhere. Its nuts, look it up on youtube or something. I can get some cool stuff here too, lots of custom stuff.  Anyway I love you all a ton, keep emailing me and tell all those that I didn't email I am sorry. Love you all a lot, i do miss home a ton. Anyway I will reply as soon as I can again.

Love,

Elder Schnoor

My first area!

Ok, well, my first area. So after the airport into Cebu we got out and were picked up by the AP's and the president and his wife and a few others.  Then went back to the mission home. I think I already told you how nice it was, but it was so nice!!! It  was ridiculous. Seaside resort pretty much. Well, that night we went to the transfer apartment. No more nice house. We stopped at the church to pick up a few belongings, and by this time it is dark. It is pretty dark around 6:00 pm here. When we got to the church, missionaries started popping up, coming out of the dark from all over. We took a bunch of them and we all went on to the transfer house. Dang, it was not nice. It was grubby, old stuff everywhere, lizards, cockroaches, spiders. The bathroom was nasty. It wasn't good, and there were like 15 or so of us staying there.  They had three single mattresses on the ground that we five Provo missionaries (from
Provo MTC) had to fit on and we had a fan to help keep us cool. In the morning I quickly got dressed, bucket showered my hair, then we went back to the church. Missionaries kept showing up and after a bit we all went into the chapel. We had some talks, and some testimonies, then it was time to go. So everyone was getting their calls,a ton were going to Bohol. Well, there are three Canadians here in the mission, me, Elder Durhamm, and another guy named Elder Orr.  Elder Durham has red hair and is taller than me. I get called to be his companion, he will be my trainer. He is from Saint Albert, Edmonton, Sturgeon ward. So that's pretty cool. He stepped down from zone leader to be a trainer and to open an area. We are opening a new area called Balilihan, in the west middle part of bohol. There is
lots of bukid (Cebuano word), or jungle,where we are and so it is gonna be a challenge. We are gonna start a meeting house there too, in our home probably. It is super far for members up here to get to our church because it is so far and to much money for them. So we don't know many people. We went up just yesterday for our first time to meet
a few inactive members and see what there is. We honestly don't know a whole lot, but it is sweet. Lots of jungle and rice fields. And you should see the place we get to baptise. Imagine a gorgeous crazy jungle waterfall.  Well that's where we will baptise people. It is crazy.  So immediately after transfers we got up and loaded our stuff and got it to the boat station, and took a couple hour boat over to Bohol.  Right now we are staying with some other missionaries in their apartment. Our apartment up in Balilihan is being finalised so we can't live their yet. Our apartment is nice, nothing like home, worse
that our old rental. It is interesting. my bed is under a window with only a screen, no glass, and a huge piece of screen was gone, anything could get in if it wants, and there are wholes in it so any spider,
cockroach or anything can come in. I patched up the whole with tape with
plastic though.  

Love (gugma)
Elder Schnoor

So we went out on splits with Elder Wilcox and Elder Magpali, and went to see a ton of people. They are all so sad. It makes me want to cry how poor some of them are. So a year ago there was an Earthquake that was centered in the middle of Bohol. It was so big that the Chocolate Hills broke, or some did. Anyway lots of places were destroyed and Bohol was hit pretty hard. Well, lots of people lost all they had, so literally life in plywood shacks. And some of them are the size of bathrooms. The kids here are sooooooo cute, I love them all. They are all  so awesome, I smile at them lots and every time I do they been back and some get really shy. I have shown lots of them magic tricks I learnt
at the MTC, they all love it and it makes them laugh. Lots of them think I am so weird because I am a foreigner, but its cool. I have sent some pictures. One of the hardest and biggest problems here is getting the people to church. Usually they are too poor to ride a motor or Jeep (local transportation) and it is too far to walk, so they can't. That is part of why we are opening up a new area up north. The jungle is beautiful. Tons of jungle trees, grasses, it is crazy. The biggest thing to worry about here are the spiders and snakes, which are poisonous, and the toko's, which are mini komodo dragon things that
when they bite, they lock there jaw and will never let go, and flush red when scared or angry. And the cockroaches too actually, if they bite you it is almost guaranteed to get infected.  They are huge, and you kill them by flipping them on their backs and dropping alcohol on them, they die pretty quick. It is pretty adventuress here. And to top it all of I can't
speak the language, and everyone has their Filipino accents and are so hard to understand because they speak so stinkin fast so I listen a lot. I had to bare my testimony in church yesterday. Everyone is so nice, and I am slowly getting more and more of the language. 
So the food here. Well rice is basically the bulk of all they eat, and chicken. I will probably survive off rice, itchy ban, noodles, bread and more rice the next couple years. Everything is soooo cheap here, except some of the American brand foods in the stores, those are the same as home. The food is hard to get used to, everything tastes different. And we eat with our hands and then like brother Low showed us! Its kinda cool, but super unsanitary. I have already been a bit
sick. I never realized how many fluids we actually have in our bodies, haha, but it will happen a lot. We cant really refuse what members give us so we eat and drink it, and then if we get sick we get sick, but that's all part of it. My body will get used to the bugs and stuff here, I just can't be stupid. We honestly can't afford to be picky here. We carry alcohol around and use that as hand sanitiser, lol, it kills a lot. 
So the driving here. Dang it is crazy.  No right of way, not stop signs, very few stop lights, and you just go.  You just need to be aggressive and you stop a lot. You honestly just push into wherever you want to go, its nuts, and no one
crashes either, everyone here are terrible and amazing drivers. You just go, and people will stop,and no one gets mad. The Jeeps and motors are what we take around usually. It costs about 8 pesos, but you just hop on and get cozy until you arrive at the place you want to go. 40ish pesos is one dollar at home. 
I love it tons here, but it is honestly the hardest thing I have ever done!!! Not easy, very tiring and hard
work. But that's part of it. What others questions do you have? Tell me
any, my P Days are now Mondays and we will usually email 10:30 ish in
the morning here, I think that is around 11:30 at night where you are
back home. It is so hot by the way, tons of heat. But I got to go. I
love you all a ton, and miss you all a lot too!!!

Love (gugma)
Elder Schnoor

Elder Durham (my companion) and Elder Orr 

My fellow Canadians

Me, Elder Durham, Elder Magpali and Elder Wilcox

at a teaching appointment

Me showing some of the kids a magic trick.  They are all so nice, I honestly love them all so much.  After I show them magic tricks they usually really like me.  We will be travelling sometimes and they will se us and I will smile and wave and they will get super excited and happy.  

We are on a bridge.  It is so beautiful here!