March 22

 March 22

Well from that story i am glad you are alright, its snowing bad again?? I thought it was like 14 degrees. You totally just reminded me of your mom in the part where you said you burst out laughing, hahah, that's pretty good. Just continue to be careful. As for the service, keep it up. That is super awesome, you are being blessed by that. So about you moving then, are you guys gonna stay in Edmonton after dad is done school or you gonna move back to Lethbridge? or do you even know? 

Things here are great. Same old as well, I am pretty much over all culture shocks. I love giving stuff away to other people and seeing them so happy, i gave some stickers to some kids and they were in heaven, they put them all over there faces and ran around.

What else, we are teaching a new Jehovah's witness guy, he is interesting, not sure how interested he is in the gospel vs. just trying to prove Jehovah's are right but we will see, I have some pretty good questions for him next time that I am almost certain will stump him, lol. I talked to that American in my ward named brother Steve, he know soo much, we talked all about doctrine stuff and some other things, dang I am learning a whole ton of stuff at the moment its literally blowing my mind its sooooooo cooool some of the stuff with the gospel and patterns and the plan of salvation and even a little about temples, as much as can be said outside the temple that is. 

District meetings, well they are an hour and a half, and we go to the church, we share Christ like attributes, shining moments, what to do in an emergency, then after stuff like that our district leader teaches and then we practise teach. They really isn’t a whole lot to tell about, our district leader right now I am a little unsure about, me and the sdl's, or sister training leaders are the only Americans and we look at each other confused sometimes, but then after that we go out and eat. Literally anywhere, haha. But that's about it.  There have been some good ones in the past, some funny ones. Our district leader in my last area asked two companionships to share that day and the first one took the whole time and more, haha, and they knew they were too, i was laughing, and the district leader and me kept laughing at each other, shaking our heads. It was great. 

Tonight we have some basketball which i am excited about, it should be good, some real basketball with some investigators and less actives. Umm, p days right now are usually the same, wake up, studies, email, groceries, clean apartment/laundry( the bane of my existence, my raw fingers after washing garments, shirts, and socks and slacks for ever) and then work, and then basketball in the evening after the sun is down. That's about it, I have started eating way less rice, I have lost weight, I am getting in shape again, and I have been doing p90x as well, I even have gotten several people to notice I have lost weight. Its been 2 and a half weeks and people are noticing, lol. Well I can't think much else to say at the moment.

March 8

Dear home, 

My week went great. It is definitely a different transfer than my last. I think I told you about my house. It is pretty tiny. It has one big room, a little room with beds and our little bathroom. It is the nicest I think I have had so far, but also the tiniest. And to top it off, our house is across the street from the salt lake city of the catholic church. It’s this old giant church that looks like the church from hunch back of notre dame, its nuts, I wanna go sneak in and explore the top and stuff. Its sweet...except when the church plays this weird music at all hours of the night starting at like 3 in the morning, pastylan so annoying. 

So elder Gomolo is my new companion. We are actually "batch" which means we go home the same time. He is from the island just south of us called mindanou. That is an island I will never go too, only Philippines are sorta safe there. There are tons of Muslims and rebels there and when they see someone white or a foreigner, they will kidnap them, ransom them, and kill them if they get the money or not. And to top it off, in January (i found this out from my comp) 44 cops were killed in a fight with the rebels. The rebels are against the government because the government here is corrupt, I have even been warned of rebels here in bohol. But I am pretty sure we are safe, so no worries about that, the church is on top of things. But its a little crazy to say the least. 

So what else, the ward is great, the people are great, the area is super hard. It is a super catholic area and we don't get quite as many lessons as we would like too, its a little bit difficult. We try our best though, we have some great investigators though, and some good IBD's as well. There isn't much in this area though, the only thing that is sweet is the best place to get slacks and shirts and anything made in the entire mission is down the street. That's great, I got a couple slacks made up. I want to take advantage of it as well and maybe make some slacks for you guys to send home. White shirts, you name it. I have started working out again, man I am sick of this little tiny belly starting to form, it is almost gone though, and soon it will all be gone. I started eating a bit healthier too, I am trying to eat more like at home, I am seriously limiting my rice intake. Once a meal maybe a day, if I have to have rice that is. It is literally what the people survive off of, I love their food pyramid. It is like tons and tons of carbs, little everything else, hahah. 

I am continuing to be humbled. People here seriously have nothing, I really want to one day pay for some of my new friends here in the mission to come to Canada, and I will, after I become a doctor. I want them to see the world. They don't even know what hail is, never experienced snow, the movies, nice restaurants, and so much other stuff I cant even name, even the animals. Every time someone see that picture you sent of the chipmunk, they are like "what is that??" I say a type of squirrel that doesn't eat garbage and meat but nuts and seeds and lives in the trees, hahah. And the bears, its fun to tell them. 

Hahaha my nickname, at the MTC everyone called me Schnoorlax...or did sometimes when we were in our rooms since they were not really supposed too. It is a cool nickname, or nicknames since i have like 50. Those stories too, pastylan those are funny, gusto ko sa imo sa send more mga istoria gihapon kay funny kaayo sila!! lol, so I think I am finally vistok, or close to fluent, at the language when I teach people. I give the credit to the gift of tongues, cause my normal conversational still needs some work, (lessons = spirit) but I honestly don't feel that far in the language, but everyone is like, you are vistok or close and I look back at my first area and wow, I new like none, haha. Elder Gomolo is fluent in visayan daan, or he grew up with that as his language so i am learning lots from him. 

That is so true about trials, and literally everything in this life. We make whatever we want out of it. We can't always decide what choices or trials come our way or how others choices will affect us, but we decide how to respond and react. Its something I like to say I had figured out a long time ago, or some of it anyway, with regards to stress, school, ect. but by no means was I perfect. Its good to here though, I have taught a few people about agency and choices and the strength we get from the atonement. Two things, first, draw your attention to Nephi when he was tied up by his brothers(this is one of many examples in the scriptures that you can find later, (; ). So nephi understood the enabling power of the atonement, and some other stuff as well, but nephi, if you look, he prayed for the strength to overcome the bands which bound him. Or he prayed for the strength in the situation, not to change the situation. When we pray, a lot of times we pray for our circumstances to change, but lots of times or even most of the time we have those circumstances for a reason. Heavenly father is trying to teach us something, so instead of telling him you want it changed or for praying for it to be different, we can access the enabling power of the atonement and pray for the strength in the situation or to overcome it. I learned this from a talk, I think elder bednar's first talk at BYU to the students, cant remember, try looking it up. So good, but opens your eyes and is literally a slight adjustment. Also, Elder Holland uses this analogy. Imagine a rope going for ever to the left, suspended in air. That represents before our life. Now imagine it going forever to the right. That represents after our life on earth. Now take a tiny thread, rap it around in front of you on the rope, that is our life on earth. It is literally like an instant. 

Well I love you lots, take care everybody(mom, haha) 

Love, 

Elder Schnoor

March 1st

 March 1

So that's great about the stake calling, I am sure it will be awesome, just don't be stressed, I don't know how else to put it, hahah, its easy for me to say but I don't think the calling was given to you so you can stress, just listen to the spirit and know everything will work out just great. But stress is natural and I am going on a rant.

So packages, the office does that and they just take it out of our support, its all good though. Finances are good, I got your nativity set being made, it will be pretty good I hope, and it is made out of tugas, a type of heavy wood only found in the part of the Philippines in the entire world. Should be good. 

Did I tell you that in my first area during one of our typhoons, a little title wave washed up on shore and swept some people and there homes into the ocean in the middle of the night....so sad, i am a bit inland so that's good. 

HAHAHAHAHA i can see you getting mad at Zach, i look at that now when you get mad at people and totally just laugh about it cause i remember the olden days, i sent a letter home by the way with tons of pictures on an sd card. so expect that in a month or so hopefully. 

Well my new place is great, the ward is just awesome and I have been really affected. So, I was thinking, after the mission where am i going to school and who am I going to marry...because I can't think of any girls from America quite as pretty as Filipinos....man mom, they don't where make up and there are some that are drop dead gorgeous!!!! In my ward too, like I don't know if it would happen but I have totally thought about coming back and marrying a Filipino,  that would be almost impossible and so tough but dang mom, dang. Good thing i got missionary work to focus on and keep me busy. hahaha

And oh ya, people don't have homes here, the other day I helped clean up some ones house from the earthquake still which was intense. The cockroaches... the chickens were having a hay day running and eating them. It was pretty cool to see that, but sad about the house. They have a little house with tarp walls.  Well thanks a ton for the update, I love hearing about everyone. Love you too, 

love, 

elder schnoor

a broken home

Feb. 24

This last week was probably one for the better weeks. We were able to baptize another one of our investigators and he has such great potential. He truly was amazing to watch. He was such a miracle. Back in December when I first arrived he was not a very happy camper. He really despised the missionaries. He would get mad at them, not listen, and was just super hard hearted. My first time teaching him....which took a long time to finally get an appointment.....was terrible, he pretended to sleep, didn't listen. I honestly had know idea why elder Albar wanted to teach him. Well, I told elder Albar that he is pretty much in the dropping stages if this is how he is and has been for a while, but elder Albar didn't want to give up on him, so we didn't. We kept with him, and slowly, over time, he changed. He literally has become a new person. He reads, he prays, he attends church, he has even worked with us. I had the blessing to baptize him this last Saturday, and just last night I asked him to say the opening prayer for our lesson and he automatically knelt and got his whole family to kneel as well. It has been a real amazing lesson to me and I honestly think of it as a miracle. He has let the Savior into his life which is amazing. It has been great to see, honestly. 

Well also, before I forget, I am transferring again....to Bohol, this time to the top to Calope. I have a giant catholic church across from my house, haha, but the best part, about 15 minutes away there is a Mcdonalds, one of few here. Well, it has been a tougher transfer but i learnt a lot and hopefully will continue to learn more. I cant believe how fast time is going though. How is your work going? Same with the family, same old i am assuming, hahaha. Elder Smith is doing good. So hmm what else...I have had some weird dreams lately, showing you around a mall in the Philippines and it was snowing outside and the zone leaders were chasing us, hahaha.  Well love you all tons, email again on Monday in Bohol. love you lots, 

love, 

Elder Schnoor

Oh ps. The lizard living in my ceiling was a black and yellow big monitor lizard if you want to look that up on youtube. or a jao or bawahak, lol. Oh I also had a nightmare experience the other day. I was planning and we had our window open. Well something moved out of the corner of my eye...it was a giant spider, just huge on our wall, and it was holding something....guess what........a sack...!!!!!!!! of eggs, so I went a little closer and it took off outside so i grabbed my airsoft gun and went after it. I shot it in a couple of legs, so it could only limp so i picked it up on the end of a broom and this is where is gets bad. Minnie spiders went everywhere. There were hundreds, falling down on webs, climbing towards my fingers, it was terrifying. I threw it outside and poured permethrine, poison on it, and they all died. that about it for that story, at least they were not in my hair...

Feb. 1

FEb 1

Well, another week. How is the birthday girl or should I say "princess" (from the cruise). How was your birthday Ivy girl, I am writing on your birthday I think still, at night though. Well anyway, tell me about it, and about basketball. 

So yesterday...I got your package. And I have no idea why you stressed mom, that was absolutely the best package ever. There was not one thing in it that wasn't awesome, it felt like Christmas morning. The mac and cheese, the chips, the candy, the ring was awesome, thank you so much, it is awesome and fits just right! The letters, the cds and stuff, that is awesome. I am interested to listen to that Joseph smith cd, or cds. Anyway, it made my fast all the harder because I couldn't eat any of it until 9 at night, lol, it was just tooo awesome. But you don't need to send such a big one but I am super grateful. I honestly got excited about every single item! So this last week has been another week. Me and elder Cordova dont get along quite like my last companions, but that is nothing to worry about. I am still loving the mission. I feel like I have gained so much, and I am learning so much too! I feel like my mind is opening to so much. I cant believe it, and I think one of my favourite things is I smile at literally anyone and they return that smile. 

So what else to tell you, um I measured myself on a scale at the mission office, before my mission i weighed 157 ish, now I weigh 182...i am growing, but i am not super fat, I mostly have filled out, I look at the old pictures of me and I was skinny. Not anymore...so much. I plan on doing that p90x in the morning starting at least at my year mark. That will get me back in shape. I refuse to come home fat. 

So how was Ivy's birthday?? And thanks, I got so much of what I have learned from just listening to talks and doctrine stuff, lol, sorta deep, just explained super good! I am glad it sounded good, I meant it. And that does mean a lot from you and dad, I honestly miss you all so much but I am not gone forever. I will be back soon, time is going quick. I honestly can say though I think I have grown a lot too, and I honestly didn't realize how much I loved you guys until I got out here. I miss everyone so much. And just a thought, how is grandma and her plays? And max? And send me more pictures of the family, I like putting them in my scriptures and books and stuff. I got to go pretty quick here, love you all tons, I look forward to email so much every week, I wish I had longer sometimes but oh well. 

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