INVESTIGATORS, HACKING BACK AT JUNGLES, RIDING BIKES AND TRAINING A NEW MISSIONARY

Oh my. Quite a week indeed. First and foremost in terms of importance:

Sister Itak went to church again AND brought their daughter! We now  have 2 out of 5 and we plan on getting higher next week. What's more is that they stayed for all three meetings, which is unusual for new investigators who usually bug out right after Sacrament until they have friends to go with. We've discovered one of the family's main concerns, which is that their daughter (who is studying in San Fernando and thus has been absent in the lessons so far) isn't with them to be baptized, and their concerned about "leaving someone behind" as they put it, so we've worked with them and their schedules so that their daughter will come back on Friday to Sunday and we'll teach them on those days instead! We're very excited.

Other than that, we've been hacking back at jungles, riding our bikes through mountains to get to the jungle hacking just mentioned, attending a baptism from the other elder's area held on Saturday, were invited to a ward member's "debut" which is the Filipino version of a girls quinceanera but is held at age 18, and worked with the Bishop on Sunday! Very very fun stuff.

I apologize for not sending pictures, my SD card got a virus and is currently being fixed.

My companion, Elder Alonzo, will be released Wednesday next week, and if what president has told me actually comes to pass, then I will be getting my trainee that week as well! I'm interested to see the VERY abrupt contrast between working with a missionary at the end of his mission and working with a new missionary who's mission has JUST started.

I love everyone and am out of time!

Keep your fire burning!

Elder Mikesell

ANSWERED PRAYERS, PROGRESSING INVESTIGATORS, BROKEN BIKES, SERVICE PROJECTS, HOMELESS BREAK-INS AND COCONUT ADDICTIONS

I'm addicted to coconuts!

Prayers have been answered this week!

The mother of the Itak family came to church and had a good experience! This is the first time this has happened to me in a very long time on my mission, where a real investigator went to church. Brother Itak was determined to go, but a problem with his kids traveling to a different municipality came up and he wasn't able to. He's committed to go next week. Sister Itak has also been tearing up the Book of Mormon. We're going to invite them to be baptized again on Wednesday.

There's an interesting quote I will paraphrase:

"A mission is months of exhausting and discouraging rejection broken up by scattered moments of pure joy." True story :P

In other news, my bike broke once again, we were once again able to hack at the jungle for a service project, and we had to confront the homeless man who keeps breaking into our house for food yesterday. Fun stuff. We tried to keep it civil because he always carries around a long screw driver which I think he keeps for self defense, but we were able to keep everything reasonable so nothing tragic occured.

I love being a missionary :)

Elder Mikesell III

Feeding the ducks after a service project & looking out over the ocean.

PICTURES!

HANDS AND EYES ARE FULLY OPERATIONAL & INVESTIGATOR UPDATE

I really really apologize for this lame weekly update. I'm trying to figure something out, and it's taking a lot of time.

The hand and eyes are now fully operational.

The Kubo sisters have not yet turned a corner. The two are supported by Sister Zenny's "husband" although they aren't yet legally married. Brother Kubo is just a rice farmer. Their house is tin sheets and bamboo walls and roofs with dirt floors and no running water. The Kubo sisters' stay at the house, cook, clean and take care of the kids.

The Itak family didn't come to church and haven't yet accepted their baptismal invitation, but we have a family home evening planned to happen at their house on Sunday this coming week, so hopefully that will change things. Please pray for them!

I love you all!

Elder Mikesell III

SURGERY, ONE HANDED LIFE, EYE INFECTIONS, KLINGON, MONSOON SEASON... QUITE THE WEEK INDEED!

Elder Mikesell and Elder Mussleman rocking their eye infections...

Quite the week, quite the week indeed :P Someone tell my wonderful earthly father that this will be quite the hefty update indeed.

On Monday, after my emailing, I decided I would have the warts on my hand taken care of which seem to have been multiplying since March. The water that comes through the tap here isn't potable or always safe like it is back home, so Americans are known to get some sort of skin problem during their mission at some point. I went to the Candon City Hospital last Monday thinking I was just going to be picking up some of the liquid freezing agent stuff. Little did I know that it would end up involving 2000 pesos, a doctor and two nurses with a small surgery, anesthesia and stitches :P

I then entered the charming world of one handed people, which made me very grateful for my two-handedness that I have enjoyed thus far and will enjoy again in a week or two. I have also become adequate at many various activities using only my right hand, including but not limited to dressing myself (including tying shoes and my tie), riding a bicycle in mountainous terrain for extended periods of time, cooking, bathing, and so on.

On Wednesday, we assisted in a ward service activity which took me to San Emilio, a nearby municipality about 40 minutes from Santiago, which is FAR but which I found out is technically still in my area, although the members I was with assured me no elder has seen yet. It ended up being so far that their regional dialect actually changes from Ilokano to Itneg, which sounds about as intelligible to me as Klingon.

On Thursday, we noticed an infection in our apartment mates eyes, Elder Musselman, which was like pink eye on steroids. On Friday, we experienced a monsoon! The difference between a typhoon and a monsoon is the first is all about wind and the second is all about rain. Fortunately, our apartment is well situated and we became an island. One we had to stay inside those three days, during which time I contracted the eye thing as well. The rain was so heavy that we had no service on Sunday, which was very odd. Instead, we went around with the Bishopric trying to help members here whose houses were being destroyed in the floods.


The Itak family is progressing, and I feel they will be baptized :) We had planned to teach them, but the appointment itself was for Sunday sooo ended up not happening. I'll keep you updated. Elder Musselman also finished his mission earlier. RIP. Love that lug. Lastly, before my time runs out, I'm not sure if I ever told you all this, but my companion in the MTC had to go home with worthiness problems. He told us he would be coming back in a year, but when January came and left and he was nowhere on the lists I gave up hope. At the hospital earlier, when I was getting my stitches removed, I got a call from a friend of mine in the office who told me he'll be entering the field on Wednesday :)

Life is good :) Sorry if there are clerical errors in this... typing with one hand and all, haha!

Elder Mikesell III

(Don't worry about the clerical errors... Kelly's got your back :P)

MANGO TREE SERVICE, WALKING NAGS AND NECKTIES, AND THE MACHETE FAMILY IS DOING SO GOOD!

Hello fam bam and friends! :) I made the mistake of applying thought to how long I have left on my mission and my soul is filled with great alarm because I have less time than I thought I did, haha! But, there are some really good things happening in my area. I'll divide my thoughts over two sections: shenanigans and the work.


Shenanigans:
Me and my fellows here have become addicted to giving service. I love doing so because sometimes I feel that the less actives we visit see us as walking nags with neckties, but service shows that we really do love and care about them. I've seen service cut through hearts of steel like butter, haha. My favorite service this week was when our Elder's quorum president took us up his mountain, pointed at a grove of mango trees he has there which has been overrun by Tarzan quality jungle and basically said, "I want everything that is not a mango tree gone." After which we attacked the mass with our machetes :P fun stuff.

There have also been tri-zone conferences and the occasional homeless man breaking into our apartment to get bread and water which has happened twice or thrice in the last few months or so :P fun stuff for sure. My machete is usually within reach of my bed, haha.

The Work: Update on some of the fold here.

Please pray for the Kubo sisters. We're on the verge of dropping them as investigators because they've lost the motivation to make or keep any commitments.

The Machete family is doing so good! We'll be extending them a baptismal date this Wednesday, and we taught their oldest son for the first time on Sunday, and I daresay he might be golden. Please pray that the Spirit will soften their hearts at our next appointment.

I love everyone back home, but I'm going to thoroughly enjoy my time here before I get back :)

Elder Mikesell III

WE BOUGHT OUR OWN PERSONAL MACHETES, LOTS OF SERVICE PROJECTS AND "THAT'S NOT THE LANGUAGE THEY TAUGHT ME IN THE MTC!"

Nothing very exciting has happened since the last email update other than service projects that me and my district have been engaged, namely chopping wood with our machetes (because we totally bought our own personal machetes, haha) and moving lots of dirt. So, I'll use this email to give very specific updates on our investigators. These are the groups I need some serious prayers for...

the Itak family: We found this family buying our own machetes for service projects that we encounter very frequently. The father is straight Ilokano (which is the regional dialect here and is very different than the national dialect which I learned in the MTC, which is Tagalog. Kind of like an Elder Calhoun moment, "That's not the language they taught me in the MTC!") Because of the language barriers, we had a very interesting bout of lessons initially... until we found out that his sister is an active member in the ward! We didn't know initially because his sister is married and thus has a different last name, which is the name we know her by. We recruited this sister, and she also needs some prayers. She herself is faithful and is only a convert of about a year, but her children and husband who were baptized at the same time as her are pretty steep into less activity. We're visiting her family as well, but that's a completely different battle. I'll call this sister, Sister Abo. The Itak family is interested but it's a struggle getting an appointment with them. The culture of the Philippines is very different than back home. Very few people here have a western concept of "an appointment" down. The Philippines culture about meetings and schedules is called "chamba chamba" which basically means "you can come over any time you want. If I'm here, I'm here, if I'm not, I'm not." It's very hard to get people to commit to a specific time or day, and sometimes they aren't even there when they do so.

The other group is the Kubo sisters. They need some prayers in the way that they need more desire.

I love you all back home. Keep emailing me!

Elder Mikesell III

PICTURES!

GIANT SLABS OF MEAT, BIKE IMPLODING AND PLENTY OF SPIRITUAL HARD WORK!

Hello fam bam and friends! Twas a funny week for sure :P

Among some of the jovial activities were me and my companion purchasing massive machetes for service projects, getting massages on p-day, playing a prank on our apartment mates by trashing the apartment and hiding to make them think the apartment was robbed, having a barbecue night in which we cooked giant slabs of meat on an open fire on Friday night, and making lemons of lemonade when my bide imploded.

We were in very hilly area when my bike (which since I have arrived has been a tool of the devil and at times refuses to pedal) destroyed itself. The fancy pants mechanism near the chain which switches the gear finally gave out and because caught in the chain itself and was destroyed, which stopped the bike from being able to move. We were pretty far from home and had quite a few appointments to make, so we decided to just snap the whole thing off and take the chain off the hub so the tires could move freely. I kept the chain from getting caught back into the hub by tangling it around my left pedal and I spent the rest of the time either walking the bike uphill, riding it down hill, or standing on the pedal and using it like a scooter when the roads were level enough to do so :P

BUT there's been plenty of hard spiritual work while we've been at it, haha. We need you to pray for these folk. They came to church the first Sunday I was here, but neither of them were able to come yesterday.

The Kubo sisters: Sister Zenny, Sister May are sisters-in-law. Both are very interested but only Sister May has  a baptismal date because Sister Zenny isn't married to her husband yet. Sister May is a single mom with one child. They are of modest means and live quite a distance from the church, so it's a sacrifice to go.

Love you all.

Elder Mikesell III

MY NEW AREA SANTIAGO, MY BRIEF COMPANIONSHIP WITH CLARK KENT, MY NEW COMPANION ELDER ALONZO AND THE PROMISED LAND

Bananas that grow without any effort
in the back of the house!

Hello all!

I am happy to have pleased my mortal father with the 'weight' of my last correspondence, and he unintentionally reminded me of the burden it is on a family to be financing a full-time missionary out in the field, so I figured the least I could do would be to again write out my week in full. (I'm well aware of all the blessings that come to a family because of missionary service, and that my father will insist on me not calling it a burden, but nevertheless his amazing enthusiasm and spirit I know he works himself down to the bone for us kiddos, so I will be happy to update him fully.) My wonderful stepmother also shot me a few questions, the answers to which I will try to weave into my letter. This letter will also be easier because there is MUCH to update you on, for much has changed in the recent past.

Last week, on Wednesday, I got my new companion! His name is Elder Howell. I lack a picture (which is my fault and will be repented of next p-day), but his entire persona can be summarized into two words, his mannerisms, appearance, and attitude and even the general atmosphere of the place he's from: Clark Kent.

I've had Filipino companions for over a year now, so I was VERY excited (even if just for a little while!) not to be companions with someone who I know wouldn't have language barriers with me and wouldn't be offended at some point by my American sarcasm.... or at least that's how it was for about two days until I got emergency transferred!

Due to medical difficulties experienced by an elder in Santiago (about a thirty minute bus ride from Narvacan) I was thrown into my fifth and last area with less than twelve hour's notice! To be brief: I am in love with this area after two days. The ward is strong. It can be felt when you walk into sacrament. The land is beautiful, and there are three investigators progressing to baptism. On my first Sunday, we had six investigators come to church. I almost cried. It feels like I just got to the promised land, haha. My companion's name is Elder Alonzo! He is a pure Filipino!... from New Jersey :P haha! He's basically American, and I can tell we are going to have a great companionship. The picture will be sent next week.

A few pictures of my new area here in Santiago!

In response to your query about investigators from Narvacan:

Brother Boondok went to church for the first time two days after I left the area and twelve weeks after we started teaching him, hahaha, oh the irony.

Brother and Sister Maliwanag/Brother Noe/Brother Bukid: dropped us and are no longer investigating, due to a various blend of being busy and spiritual apathy :P

Brother Gulaw: We went back to his home over six times now, but he wasn't there each time. He lives in a pretty remote area, so it's a bit hard to get to him. We've been trying to contact him through family members, and we ended up meeting his younger brother, who also seems to be interested.

I love you all!
Stay groovy!

Elder Mikesell III

A few pictures of me battling the eternal puddles in my apartment in Narvacan!