AN UPDATE WITH A LITTLE MORE WEIGHT & IF I CAN DO THE MISSION, I'LL BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING IN LIFE

Hello all! Due to a gentle admonition of my father, I will provide a weekly update with greater weight. I dedicate this update to my wonderful father!

This is the fifth week of this cycle, so I'm for sure about to get a new companion. But, an interesting development took place about a week and a half ago that actually kind of already did :P My apartment is me, my beloved companion from here in the Phillies, Elder Lesa of America Samoa, and Elder Smiler of New Zealand. Elder Smiler, unfortunately, is too tall and good looking for his own good and has attracted the attention of quite a few lady folk in his area. Even more unfortunate, the woman with the greatest measure of obsession with him is over the age of 60 :P After more than one or two calls and texts of this woman professing romantic intentions for Elder Smiler, our mission president thought it best that Elder Smiler not work in his area, hahaha. But, Elder Smiler was only a week away from going home. Rather than order an emergency transfer, I worked with Elder Smiler for the last week and a half of his mission and Elder Lesa has been working with Elder Macalaguim in their area.

It was grand fun, and I think I've started picking up a New Zealander accent. But, don't tell him, he'll get prideful. He and I always debate about how our respective countries are better than the other. I usually focus on our military might and being the birthplace of the restoration and all the prophets. He focuses of New Zealand's Nephite roots and the amazing climate and dairy products to be had there. Elder Smiler's mission ended yesterday when me, Elder Lesa and Elder Macalagium buried him in his "coffin" as we refer to it, or in layman's terms, the bus going to San Fernando for his interview with the mission president, complete with his luggage and tickets for his flight home. I love the big lug.

Other than that, no one is progressing or going to church. I expressed thoughts on the subject in an email to a dear friend of mine. "The missionary is a crazy phenomena for sure. Usually, when I put a lot of effort into something and repeatedly fail at it, I give up. But, here on the mish, I somehow manage to build my hopes up every week that people will come to church and progress toward baptism, only to have said hopes crushed again :P whew. But, whatever. I'll keep going until Christ tells me to stop."

I was told by someone much wiser than I that it's not an option to quit the mish, even though I've been tempted. If I can do the mission, I'll be able to do anything in life because I was able to do the mission. But, if I quit now, there will always be self doubt when challenges come at school or in a marriage about whether or not I can.

I'll keep going, and I'll keep thoroughly enjoying it. :)

Little other news other than the fact that it's monsoons season, and that I'll have a new companion by the time I get back.

Love everyone back home!
Feed your fire!
Elder Mikesell III

ACHILLES HEEL OF FOLKS HERE IS CHURCH ATTENDANCE

Quite a week indeed.

Typhoon season has officially started, and from what I understand, my mission is currently caught between two... which should be fun :P As of now, we have no power or running water, but pfft, who needs those anyways? That's just for city slickers. We weren't able to work yesterday, as our zone leaders instructed us to stay inside. Hopefully I'll have some good typhoon stories to take home.

In other news, as it pertains to my area, very little new happenings to comment on. No progressing investigators. The universal Achilles heel of the folks here is church attendance... That's all :P I'm so sorry. Nothing new or exciting I promise.

Love you all!
Elder Mikesell III

CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN IN NARVACAN, MET A FILIPINO WHO LIVED IN LOS PRADOS AND FOUND AN INVESTIGATOR WITH A BAPTISMAL DATE

Super quick: we climbed a mountain with the Stake President and the priesthood quorums here in Narvacan... It was awesome. I met a Filipino at the top who spoke really good English. Asked where he came from. He said he just got back from the states after having lived there two years. I asked where. He said Nevada. I asked where in Nevada. He said Las Vegas. I asked where in Las Vegas. He said North Las Vegas. I asked him where in North Las Vegas, and he replied in a gated community called Los Prados.

Crazy Hippos :P

On Tuesday, as we went outside we found a bat which had partially (but not completely) died on our doorstep. We named it Bruce. (I hope someone gets that.) We tried to nurse him back to health. Bruce died.

We have an investigator with a baptismal date. We met him only yesterday. I shall call him Brother Gulaw. He was almost baptized about a year ago in Palawan, here in the Phillies. I'm excited.

Those are the highlights.

Love everyone :)

Elder Mikesell III

KARABAW, HUT HANGOUT, HOLDING A GOAT AND MAKE-SHIFT WEIGHT LIFTING STATION

A good week :) Lots of ups and downs, but that's what roller coasters are for! Just a highlight and quite a few pictures due to my forgetfulness these last few weeks. Subjects include the longest horns I've ever seen on a karabaw, a sweet hut hangout, my apartment, me and Elder Smiler trying to hold a goat and it freaking out, and Elder Smiler/Brother Jonathan's accidental twinner day. Health conscious missionaries quickly learn to become resourceful. Attached is our weight lifting bench composed of four broken plastic chairs, two broken jump ropes and an ironing board, our weights are poured concrete and our jump rope, which is a cheap china affair, is reinforced with bike grips and a healthy amount of tape.

BUSINESS AS USUAL HERE IN NARVACAN, ANOTHER 6 WEEKS STRONG WITH ELDER MACALAGUIM

The weekly! Business as usual here in Narvacan :P There was no transfer, and I'll be going another 6 weeks strong with my companion Elder Macalaguim, which I'm a huge fan of! I really like him as my companion. No one came to church... again. But such is life and missionary work! Onward ever onward. The bright side is that we taught the most lessons I've ever taught in this area last week, and we found the most new investigators I've ever found in my whole mission. The whole mission got freaking pumped after Elder Bowen visited us!

Other than that, not much has changed. My apartment mates are the same, and no new progressing investigators of which to speak of. It's freaking hot, and I've decided that I will never live anywhere hot :P to quote a certain correspondence I just sent earlier,

As for the heat of Las Vegas: "I am SO determined to not live in Vegas. Like I'm not even going to date females from Las Vegas, due to the fact that if I end up marrying one, she'll probably have family in Las Vegas which will increase the likelihood of me staying in Vegas, and that's just a no go."

I might give the addition that there could be exceptions to that rule... if she's really cool, but it's not like I'm thinking about THAT or anything :P ha! What? Pfft! That's just ridiculous! Elders thinking about courtship and marriage? That's preposterous. It's not like that's the only thing we talk about or anything. :P I love everyone back home, but I love it here too :) Lucky for me, I get one now and the other later, so I'll just enjoy whatever I'm given at the moment! I'm off to save souls! Pip pip and cheerio!

Elder Mikesell III

P.S. Don't worry about the man on the raft in my pictures. He's not drowning (which is what I assumed at first). It's a kind of fishing they do here. He's wearing goggles in order to see under water.

EVERYONE IS DOING BETTER THAN BEFORE, BROTHER SIMBAHAN, THE VOICE OF GOD, A MAGICAL KEY AND SPARKS OVER BIBLE VERSES

First things first, I'm sorry, but I forgot my camera :P My bad, haha, but this was a good week fore sure! Our companionship, district, zone and mission are really trying to respond to the challenge Elder Bowen gave us when he visited us a few weeks ago, and the enthusiasm is downright contagious. EVERYONE is doing better than before! So much better! Me and my companionship, especially. So many of the problems I thought my area had were just me, a lack of faith, and mental limitations. I'm so grateful for the mighty servant the Lord sent to call us to repentance, haha. Just one experience I'd like to share today:

Brother Simbahan :P

Brother Simahan is a crazy old guy that lives only about 200 yards away from our chapel here in Narvacan. He's a really nice old guy and has faith in Jesus Christ. But he's also kind of crazy. :P To illustrate his... ahem... unique brand of craziness, you need to understand that he's quite a visionary man. He's told us that he heard the voice of God back in the 80's, that he was given a magical key by St. Peter which he used in the past to heal a mute, and that when he reads the bible he sees sparks over the verses. When he sees the spark, he then records the time and date at which he saw it next to the verse, and he believes those sparks are the Holy Ghost communicating to him which verses of the bible are true. Soooo, yeah, that's Brother Simbahan :P

We decided after a rough few lessons that we needed to teach him about the priesthood. Straight up, no dancing around it. He responded soo much better this lesson! He really liked the doctrine of the priesthood and he felt like it made more sense that God's kingdom would be orderly rather than random. I turned to my companion after saying something, but when I turned back to Brother Simbahan, he had his hand outstretched to shake mine with a big goofy grin on his face. When I asked him why, he told me, "Congratulations. I saw the spark in front of your face!" Sooooo because he saw the spark he believes that we were telling him as true and that we're prophets :P Which took some time to explain, haha, but I love the guy!

Things are going good. I love my mission, this people, and this gospel. I may or may not have a new companion by tomorrow, but I'll be sure to keep you updated on that :P

Feed your fire!

Elder Mikesell III

ELDER BOWEN SHOOK THINGS UP, FOUR GROUPS OF INVESTIGATORS AND A SAD LITTLE TEDDY BEAR

It's a good week! We recently had Elder Bowen from the Seventy visit our mission, and he just shook up everything. In our mission, we have a standard of excellence, which is like a goal that we try (and usually fail) at obtaining, as far as how many lessons we teach and how many new investigators we have. Me and my companion usually only get barely above half of the standard, but Elder Bowen came and told us to double the standard because the problem wasn't the standard but our faith. We did and blessings have come! My area and our entire district almost doubled and in some areas tripled what we were doing before! There is real power when we do what God's servants have asked us to do with faith :) We have three or four groups of investigators I have high hopes for.

Brother Boondok: just a sincere humble guy. Reads the Book of Mormon a lot but is also accepting missionary visits from like 4 other churches at the same time.

Brother and Sister Maliwanag: great investigators but are living together and aren't married. There are laws here in the Phillies that make divorce nearly impossible and Sister Maliwanag has a previous marriage.

Brother Noe: actually a catholic lay minister or "acolyte", but he has an open mind. His wife may be a tougher investigator than he is, haha.

Brother Bukid: our one and only progressing investigator! He prays and comes to church all the time. The problems are that he can't read, is verrrry poor (like ya'll Americans DON'T EVEN KNOW how poor folk can be) and he only speaks the native dialect here, Ilokano, which makes lessons interesting.

Please pray for those folk :) I love you all!

Elder Mikesell III

A sad teddy bear inside a tricycle which I thought was way funny.

A typical filipino family home evening.

PICTURES TODAY! COWS, CHURCH SIGNS, MANGOS AND TYPICAL PHILLIES HOME

Pictures today!

1) Cows look like this in Asia.

2) I find wonderful irony in the "inc" at the back of the church's name, haha. There are more churches than dogs in this country.

3&4) This is a reasonable home for anywhere from 2 to 7 people. Count your blessings ya'll :P

5) We discovered this at the chapel. Silly programming jokes, haha.

6&7) Mangos grow like weeds here, like the freaking Garden of Eden.

8) In America, computer virus fake ads tempt us with free iPads. This is the bait to lure in unsuspecting Phillies :P

NEW APARTMENT, APARTMENT MATES & THOROUGHLY ENJOYING MY MISSION LIFE

Holy cow this week! There's a lot to update in this one.

For one, we switched apartments! This new apartment is the giraffes gym shorts. Sooo groovy.  I should have taken pictures, but I suppose I'll get to that next week. :P It's also within 30 seconds walk of a pandesal bakery, a water refilling station, a spot where tricycles wait for passengers, our favorite member's house, the market, and an internet cafe where we can email. (Those are big deals here in the Phillies!) Which makes it downright superb. Also, as opposed to our last apartment, me and my companion have apartment mates! Elder Smiler and Elder Fanene moved in with us from Santa after closing down their apartment in the area!... until Elder Fanene got emergency transferred! :( awwww. I love the big lug. He's the HUGE fellow in the pictures I sent out this week. He's the biggest missionary in the mission, but he's got the biggest heart, too. He was replaced by his cousin Elder Lesa! He's a cool bloke. I don't know him very well, but we already get along together swimmingly.

Other than that, the work is going well, it's finally starting to rain, and missionaries from a different church tried to bible bash us yesterday, but all is well :) I'm actually thoroughly enjoying my mission life. I've noticed some elders count the days like they're in a prison or like a torture camp, but I'm trying to really live it and enjoy it. I've got my whole life to hang out with white people and eat white bread and ketchup and speak English, but the time I have for rice and Filipinos and Tagalog is very limited! (ode to my father who's wonderful advice helped me to rethink my attitude). And earlier today I called my mama bear for Mother's Day! Seeing her, David, Justin, Chase and Kayla did much to brighten my day :) I love my fam bam and look forward to being reunited with them, but for now it's sickle thrusting time!

Feed your fire!
Elder Mikesell III

FRIED CHICKEN, WATER BUFFALO AND WEIRD FRUIT

May 3, 2015

A few snap shots of the week :) The fruit is a weird one that grows here. I don't know the name, and it's hard to place the taste. The picture of the water buffalo and the kids driving it, I would caption as "the coolest childhood chore ever." The food is the 300 pesos worth market fried chicken that we and our apartment mates got on a whim. (300 pesos is a lottt of fried chicken, haha), I'm just having a grand old time!