Happy Halloween from Laoag

I'm going to be completely honest, this email is going to have nothing to do with Halloween. But, since it is Halloween today, Happy Halloween from the Philippines!

So now let's talk about the mission for this week! Like always, it was pretty great! Challenging, but amazing at the same time! I am writing this email from Laoag, which is 7-8 hours away from my area in Cagayan, because we just had a little reunion from all the missionaries in my batch! Sadly it was super short and it's already over and by the end of this day we get to travel another 7-8 hours back to Sta. Terisita :( but it was fun while it lasted! I got to see a couple of friends I haven't seen in awhile and talk to them about their areas! It's cool to see how different everyone's areas are!

So let's see, what else happened this week. Most of my week has been appointments and no finding! One day we got to find, we took a tric down to a far area in our boundaries. I'm a little mad at myself because I get so scared to talk to people sometimes! I need to open my mouth more! I got a lot of time to think about it after because we usually walk back to our area, which is an hour. 

When I do say things and actually speak to people, the Spirit is great. One of the things I am most grateful for is the language of the Spirit. Without that, I would just be here and wouldn't be able to understand anything they say. Because we have the Spirit, I am able to feel peace and happiness through what we testify and what they say. I still only understand about half, but when the Spirit is there. You can feel it. 

We were teaching a less active family named the Cabudol family. I love them a lot. The mother has 2 daughters (13 and 4) who are great. The 13 year old listens for the most part, but the 4 year old can be wild. Even though she is so wild, I just tried to listen to what the mother was saying. I really just want them to go to church, because when we ask her things about the gospel like prayer and faith, her answers are so spiritual. I love talking to her about them. The Spirit is always there. The problem with them is the day they make money and do jobs is on Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully we will find a solution soon! 

Now here's one of the best experiences I've had on the mission so far. I was on a companion exchange with our zone leader Elder Fainu. He is from Australia so he knows English really well. We went to this one house and decided to teach a person named Jhong Tacuboy. Funny side note, I thought he was 16, but he started talking about his wife and kid. I was super confused so I asked him how old he was, and he told me he was 34! 

His story is right now, he really misses is wife and kid, who are in Manila with his wife's parents. He wants to go to them, but he also wants to stay in Sta. Terisita because his family and father are here and he can't leave them. He wonders why he feels so sad and is so weak. That is when we decided to talk to him about Ether 12:27 which is about faith and trials. 

Elder Fainu started it off, then I gave my testimony to him. I said it in the best Tagalog I could and explained how we all have trials and we all have weaknesses. I related to him about how I am away from my family and I miss them. I also told him how my Tagalog isn't the best right now so I struggle a lot to explain myself. But the gospel of Jesus Christ can help us through. 

After I gave my testimony, he looked to Elder Fainu and said something to him. What I understood was that he understood everything I said. When I asked Elder Fainu about it, he told me he understood everything I said. He said it was like the Spirit hit him in the face.

At the end of our lesson, he explained to us how he is Roman Catholic and would like to add to the truth he already knows. He wants to search more. The Spirit was so strong, and I got so excited. 

Those are the experiences that I love that really make the mission so amazing. I want to continue to have more. If you teach by the Spirit, people will listen. 

Stay true to the gospel and it will bless you! Until next week! Love you all!

-Elder Espiritu 

Typhoon Haima

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late email! It's pretty crazy out here! 

On Monday, we all came together as a zone in Gonzaga. Since there is no electricity, lots of people will use generators. But in Gonzaga, the computer shop didn't have signal so I couldn't email yesterday. A lot of missionaries won't be able to email for quite a while. When I figured that out, I was pretty bummed. Then we came to our area, and luckily for us, there is signal! So with special permission from our zone leaders I get to email on Tuesday instead of yesterday!

Well this was quite an interesting week! For those of you who didn't hear, this past week we had a super typhoon here (typhoon Haima) which was a category 5, said to be stronger than the strongest typhoon in Tacloban which claimed 15,000 lives. 

So, right after our study as we were walking to a recent convert's house we received a phone call from President Andrada. I didn't hear much from the call but as soon as he finished we turned around. I asked where we were going and my companion answered "back to our apartment. President Andrada said to travel back to Laoag." I was pretty surprised. Laoag is about 7-8 hours away from our area.

We packed our things for a couple of days and left. Soon we ran into many other missionaries and took a bus back to Laoag. After talking to everyone, apparently President Andrada pulled all the missionaries out of Cagayan which is 1 of the 3 sections of our mission. He put all the missionaries in a hotel and that is where we stayed for 2 days. All of the missionaries loved it, because there was hot water there and all we did was talk to each other the whole time. I got to see a lot of my old batch from the Provo MTC including my old companion Elder Odermott. We were all completely fine. 

When the typhoon did hit us, it was a signal 3 out of 5. Honestly I slept through the whole storm. It did storm pretty bad after during the day but for the most part it wasn't bad. I was just really worried for all of the members and people back in Sta. Terisita. If the typhoon was said to be as strong as it was, I didn't know who would survive. 

Well after we got an all clear, we made emergency packs filled with rice, cans and water. I got to try Jollibee's for the first time, which is their version of McDonalds here (even though they also have McDonalds here) which was pretty good. It was weird to have spaghetti as fast food but it was good! Anyways after we ate and did some service we were all sent back to our areas. 

I wasn't expecting to see my apartment still standing but a miracle happened. Everyone and most everything was fine. All the people were fine and all my things were fine. There was some damage but nothing extreme. Some Elders lost parts of their roofs but in all everything is okay. I saw videos of what the typhoon looked like though, and there was brown water up to everyone's knees when we were back in Laoag. Luckily all the water drained out and everyone is okay. I am very happy that everyone is fine and for the prayers that were all given for everyone here.

The only thing different for us now is we won't have electricity for a long time. It could be months. We also have to now pump our water but always look on the bright side right? Now, there is no air or light pollution here, and the sky is exceptionally beautiful. These past couple nights I can't stop looking at the sky while we were walking. So things are starting to swing back into normal. It is just a little hotter when no one has electricity but the spirit is still strong when I teach. I am getting better at testifying to the people and I can definitely feel the spirit. 

Despite everything that has happened here, I am still so happy to be able to be serving in Laoag. We may not have lights or running water but if the people here can survive, so can I. It's still pretty hard out here and it might stay like that for a while, but I will continue to find the diamonds in the sand. 

No storm can stop the Lord's work! Till next week, let's see how life goes! 

-Elder Espiritu 

First Full Week in Santa Teresita

Well, 1/12 finished with the mission! It's weird how time can seem so fast but slow at the same time! 

So more about life here: still have quite a lot of time for studies, such as personal, companionship, language and the 12 week program for new missionaries which adds up to 4 hours. It's pretty good. Except sometimes I have a hard time staying awake. I have never been good at personal study. It's definitely something I can work on while on the mission! 

The people here are always so friendly, I just wish I could understand 100% of what they are saying instead of maybe 30-50%! It's okay though, I shouldn't get discouraged, I've only been here for 18 days, I can't expect to be fluent yet! 

Elder Daclag and Elder Taibeti (the other companion in our apartment) say that by 3 months I'll be able to talk to people. Elder Taibeti has been here for 7 and he sounds like he is a native. 3 months seems so far away, and that's why I need to work more on focusing on the work! 

Every day I am stumbling and falling in the language, but that's okay! It happens. It's weird knowing that I am a foreigner here but it can also be fun! 

I'm grateful that the people here are always nice. It's especially nice because right now, my language and grammar is probably very very awful. But they just nod and smile at me, even though I don't really know what I am doing yet. It's nice, even though they all stare at me because I'm white :P.

So I had my first zone training meeting out here and it was pretty good! I learned that my zone is the only zone in the entire mission WITHOUT SISTERS. Apparently are zone is very dangerous for sisters, so they had to take them out. So guess I have to live a couple months without any Sister missionaries.

The zone is really nice! Elder Mortenson and I are the only new missionaries, which you know, it's always fun being new... Luckily they are all pretty cool. 

It's interesting to see what everyones trials are here. But I learned from my companion Elder Daclag (who is from Tacloban Philippines), that his trial was teaching the lessons and a not very nice trainer. I was lucky enough to have loving parents who strongly encouraged me to go to mission prep and listen to all devotionals and seminary activities. 

Everyone has trials, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help you through them.

So a couple of other small trials that just happened this last Saturday and Sunday.

Both Elder Mortenson and I caught the stomach flu. It was not a pleasant experience. I had no energy, I had to use the bathroom frequently throughout the night and day. I was hot and cold at the same time. My stomach hurt and I had a pounding headache. 

We talked to President and Sister Andrada and apparently this happens to all new foreign missionaries. It's just our bodies getting used to the food and stuff here. I sure hope so, because I don't want to experience that again. 

I hated having to lay in bed all day and not be able to proselyte or go visit people. That night, it stormed hard. I woke up basically every hour and always heard heavy rain. My companion woke up also at 2am and what I heard from his mouth was "Sister Janeth, I hope she is okay". She was the member we just baptized a week ago.

It made me think. This apartment may not be a 5 star, but it's a lot compared to what other people have. 

Last Sunday, since we live next to a field,basically every bug known to man decided to make our apartment their living space. You couldn't go 6 inches in any direction without running into some moth, mosquito or other bug. 

I got 7 bites on my back within a minute. Out of everyone in the apartment they seem to like me the most. Even though we have a lot of bad things, some people have little huts or concrete houses and they don't complain. They always love life. So how could I complain? It just made me love the people even more and appreciate what kind of people they are.

So now more about my companion and others I have met here: Elder Daclag is a 23 year old Filipino who knows how to speak 5 Filipino languages. He is a great trainer and is always thinking of how he can help me. He is very nice and considerate. He told me his trainer wasn't very good to him, and he doesn't want it to be like that for me. I am blessed with a good trainer. 

It's hard to tell the ages of people out here. Most of my zone looks pretty young. Even the 3 other Americans do. But so do I. The only one who looks older is my big zone leader from Australia. He is such cool guy.

I got to do a surprise talk in sacrament meeting today last minute. My companion didn't tell us that we talk every third Sunday so that was fun! It wasn't bad. I'm glad all the people are very nice! 

My branch is very nice. Lots of noisy kids and I can still barely understand anyone. But that's okay. I still love them! I can't wait to be an experienced missionary so I can help other new missionaries through their trials! 

These first 3 months will for sure be tough, but I know the Lord will help me! Until next week, palagi mahal yung Panginoon at Tagapaglitas natin ni Jesucristo at ating pagmamahal ama sa langit!

-Elder Espiritu 

P.S. Letters are still VERY MUCH appreciated out here, even though it might take a while for me to receive them. :)