MIXED EMOTIONS, PRAY FOR MY INVESTIGATORS & TWO APOSTLES COMING TO MY MISSION IN NOVEMBER!

Hello there friends and fam!

Many mixed emotions have conflicted and collided with one another in my brain/heart this week. Dread and excitement about going home, finding out I got accepted into BYU-I which was surreal because my whole life college has been a distant concept, love for the people I serve, disappointments when none of them keep their commitments, endearment for the wonderful place in which I serve and clashing emotions of inadequacy and feeling the Spirit all over the place.

Whew.

Elder Dougal's Birthday

Anywhoosies, neither Brother Wakas nor the Uwi family went to church which was difficult. I had very very high hopes for them, but somehow I'll manage to get them back up again by Sunday, mostly likely to have them thrown back down, but hey, that's a mission :P We're doing our best to help the families to keep their commitments. Please pray specifically that they'll find the desire to study the Book of Mormon.

Other fun highlights are that my companion Elder Dougal celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday night and that both Elder Renlund and Elder Anderson are coming to my mission in November! :D

It's been on my bucket list since senior year in high school to shake an apostle's hand. The hope is soon coming to fruition.

Thank you all :) I love you all dearly.

"Keep practicing!" - Brad Wilcox in the greatest talk of all time, "His Grace is Sufficient." Look it up. Find the one on you tube that he delivered to a batch of BYU students.

Elder Mikesell III

My swanky new apartment!

UWI FAMILY ACCEPTED BAPTISMAL INVITATION & MONSTER TYPHOON

Ohhh my! What a week indeed!

First and foremost, about the work: we have two families that we're focusing on hard. The Wakas family I mentioned in my update last week and my new possibly even more beloved family, the Uwi family! Quick update: the Wakas family is made up of two kids and their parents, all of whom are active and church going members except the father, John John, who's been taught by a lot of missionaries in the past and just hasn't committed yet. The Uwi family is also the bomb. Brother Carlos and Amelia Uwi are about 50, and their kids are mostly grown up and gone. Brother Wakas left for a job up in Baguio City, about an hour's bus ride from my area here, and he won't be back for a few more days, but we just had an amazing lesson with the Uwi family on Friday, and I really really really felt the Spirit, to the point where I feel like the questions Brother Uwi was asking were given to him by the Spirit!

"What is the name of the church Christ restored in these days?"

"How do we act on your message? What can we do?"

It was the best. Ever. We extended a baptismal invitation to them in that lesson for November 28th which they accepted! :D I don't want to be overly excited, but they are the first investigators I've had who have accepted a serious "I will commit to prepare myself" IBD since October... of last year! I am overjoyed. They committed to go to church and even asked that we come to pick them up on that Sunday morning because they didn't know exactly where it was (which in Filipino culture means that they really intend to do what they're talking about.) My companion and I were ecstatic!

... and then the typhoon hit! Typhoon hit! I've experience two typhoons and a monsoon in my mission so far, but this one was a monster. We haven't had power for days and lots of poor little Filipino families have had lots of things destroyed. The Uwi family weren't able to get to church and actually the only people that did were us six missionaries in Damorits branch, the branch mission leader who presided and two men from the Elder's quorum. The typhoon has mostly passed by now, but we actually had to bus from Agoo to San Fernando, a much bigger city, in order to email and buy groceries. They eye of the storm and some of the most powerful bands of the storm were reported, this morning, to be directly over the little town of Santiago Ilocos Sur, the little town I just came from. Please pray for those folks, they'll need it.

We're safe and mostly dry. I love everyone back home. Please pray for the Wakas and Uwi families!

"Keep practicing!"

Elder Mikesell III

TRANSFERRED TO DAMORTIS, NEW COMPANION ELDER DOUGAL & I LOVE THE WAKAS FAMILY!

Elder Dougal and Elder Mikesell in new area!

I am doing smashing! I was transferred! I have left the province of Ilocos Sur and am now in the extreme southern tip of the La Union province, brushing right up to the Pangasinan province and the very border of the Baguio mission. While I was in the Ilocos region up north, I was working hard on learning Ilokano, the regional dialect there which they speak better than Tagalog. Here, I've tried to use it, but with mixed success, due to me being this close to the region where the native dialect shifts to Pangasinanse, so cheers to learning the basics of a three languages but being actually good a none, haha. My companion is Elder Dougal, he was one of my district mates from the MTC. He is freakishly weird in all the right ways. He and I will have a wonderful companionship. He is from Washington State, and we will be having a "suicide pact" as missionaries call it when two missionaries are going home at the same time and are also companions.

Geographically, the area I'm in, called Damortis, looks pretty much identical to Santiago where I'm coming from. The vast majority of the Baguio Mission, except Baguio City itself, which is on the top of a big mountain, is all along a very long highway that goes up the coast. From west to east, my whole mission has looked like this: some mountains, then a lot of rice fields, some homes and businesses, a highway, the rest homes and businesses, more rice fields, the beach and then the ocean :P

I love the Wakas family!

I already found "my family" or the one family that I get really attached to in a given area, the Wakas family! Sister Wakas was baptized when she was about fourteen but married a wonderful nonmember, Brother Wakas. he's taken the missionary lessons off and on since about 2011, but he goes back and forth between here and Baguio City for his work as a painter, and many of the previous companionships weren't able to get him baptized because of it. They have two kids, age 7 and 11. Sister and the two kids are at church every week. Please pray for them!

I'm using denial as a coping mechanism and prefer not to think about the fact that I will be flying back home to America in two months! Every week is like whattt the heckkkk, how is this possibleeeee? It's moving very fast. Like light speed. I'm going to miss virtually everything about the Philippines but the heat, being looked at like a zoo animal everywhere I go and everyone telling me how America has no problems and that I'm filthy rich :P  I was recently asked if I dream in Tagalog... I have been told by four of my companions that I speak/yell in Tagalog while I sleep.

I love you all terribly. I'm off to save souls! :D

Elder Mikesell III

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