Elder Dallin Tracy

  Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 12:14 PM

This week has been alright!  We had some ups and downs, but it's all good!  Everything is finally setting down from the holidays and we are returning back to a full work weeks and stuff which is good, cuz we need the time!  So this week at church our numbers were high, but not as big as last week!  But still strong and higher than usual.  The bad thing was and probably the low for the week, was we had 0 investigators at church, so we will have to move their baptismal dates back....:(   Our weakest part of our work is new investigators, so we spent a lot of our week finding and trying to make our teaching pool a little bigger.  We have about 15 people we need to contact next week, so that's good and could really boost the work here in Hamtic!! 

Garbriel- Of course he's not finished cuz he got baptized, the goal now is the temple!  And his wife is a Returned Missionary, and he has a little boy.  So they, of course, want to go to the temple, so we are starting to prepare them (the little boy eating the coconut was their little boy)! He's so cute!! Haha!
Josh- josh? James...James had some great things and some bad things this week.   We met with him 2x this week and they were really good lessons, and he's stopped drinking coffee and is reading the Book of Mormon a lot, he read over 20 chapters in 2 Nephi this week, and is understanding it and getting deep things out of it, which is really great, but....he said last time that he doesn't feel worthy to be baptized, and wants to make sure he is 100% on his decision. So I told him, "For that there is nothing I can say to really help you, but, I can tell you something to do, and that's pray to our Father in Heaven."  So we challenged him to pray, and ask the same question every night until we visit again, and then re-evaluate where he's at.  But then he didn't go to church, so we are forced to move his baptism date back at least 1 week right now.
Rodrick- He's progressing well, but we just have so much more to teach before his date, and his work schedule is super hard.   And so it hard to get him when he's there, and hes going to Aklan next Sunday, and if he doesn't go to church next Sunday, we have to move his date back. So we told him, if he really wants to baptized on the 24th, we are gonna have to meet with him everyday, so we can prepare him 100%, and then he's gonna have to choose church over a trip to Aklan.  So it's all up to him and his choices now!  I really hope he makes the right choices!!
Robert- Still same!!   We just can't talk!!  When we are there, he isn't, and they live far in the mountains, so it's not easy to get there!!
Mary Ann- her parents said NO! to being baptized, but she really wants to be, so the only thing we can do is wait till she turns 18, which is in April, I think.
Anyone new? No one really new.  There is a lot of people we found, but need to contact and really teach them.
Less actives-
The Abong Family is doing great!  They're my favorites and their faith is just getting stronger and they are getting callings and starting to help the branch!!
The Aban Family- Their whole family came to church, even the inactive older sons!!  It was awesome!! ( The crazy girls made weird faces are them)

Even though our investigators are low, we have seen so much success with our less actives and it really is just as rewarding, and it helps out our branch with leadership and attendance!  Our branch looks like its on the up and up!!  Changes are being made and its looking good!!  I just hope they stay with it!  We are close to getting our budget back as a branch, so that will be super nice to do activities for free!! Haha!! 

Congrats on your calling!!  I knew you'd be back in the Young Women soon!! Haha!  But for New Years, I didn't care, I just went to bed early!!  I was so tired!  I'm trying to upload pictures, but is super slow so there might not be all of them!!  Sorry, I have them saved on my sd.  Thank you for the recipe, and ya,Elder Tolentino's tooth is fine!!  No problems now!! Haha!!  But ya, it's gross. 

A lot of the pictures are at Family Home Evening at the Abong's again, with some of the members along with.  And then with the Aban kids, and if the mountain ones got uploaded, I'll explain them in a minute...  

- Mom, can you thank Sue Green??  She is still sending me things, and I really appreciate it!!

Things that happened this week-- 

-Zone training, and it was really good!! I learned some good things and then had lunch after!! Super good!! Haha!!

-Some members gave me a hammock and I hung it in our house!  It's super nice!! Haha!!  I love it!!   Oh, and our house is kinda under construction!!  The tiles broke cuz of the earthquake, so our room is all torn up!!  Haha!!  I tried to upload of picture of it, but I don't know?? 

- So to cross water, or gaps, there are these sketchy bamboo bridges and they're made for Filipinos, but this week I broke one, and almost went swimming, but I jumped and made it!! Haha!!  It was crazy~! 

 THE BEST PART OF MY WEEK 

So, back ground information, we were just waiting for the bus, and this guy came and contacted us.  And his family are all members and his sisters even served missions, but when he was taught, the elder only knew English, so the guy couldn't understand.  But he asked if we could visit him on Sunday.  Well, on Sunday, me and Elder Chapman went on a split, so we set off to find this guy.  His house, he said, was in Casanlang, which is like a 20 minute bus ride in the mountains, and we get there and start asking around, and everyone says "taas" or "sa baw baw," which just means higher, or up!!  Haha!!  And they all said, just close.  So we start walking and we are contacting everyone we see,  and everyone is super nice and was good to introduce the gospel to them,  and they helped us a lot, but then we got to the next like village which is "Bot Bot" which is like a 45 minute hike straight up hill in the mountains.  And we get to "Bot Bot" and they speak Tagalog!!  Now, me and Elder Chapman are really new still, and can barely communicate in Illonog/Krya-a,  so we were lost!! Haha!!  Just walking and walking and we get to a basketball court, and we are about 1 and 1/2 hour walk from the round, like literally the top of the mountain!  And we find his son at the basketball court, so he shows us their house, which is another 30 minute straight jungle climb, and we get there, and he's not even home...:(  but, we taught his family and it was a great lesson and was sweet!  But, when we were done, it was pitch black and we had one flashlight and a 2 hr walk ahead!! Haha!!  And to make it better, all the people were asking if we were scared, and we said "No" and they said, "Well be careful, cuz there's a lot of rebels in the mountains that kidnap Americans!" (we are both Americans...)!!  We thought they were just joking??!! Haha!!  We got home safe, but it turns out they weren't joking.. but it was so cool up!  Even though it was a straight hike on rocks, it was amazing!  I'll try and get the pictures up! 

I'm excited for the packages, but I think that was about it!!

Love and miss ya, 

Elder Tracy