Aug 23-19

This week was great. It was raining a lot so it wasn't nearly as hot. 4 of our investigators had their baptism interview on Sunday so they will get baptized this next Sunday!
We had a service project on Friday. We cleaned an in-active member's yard/pulled all his weeds. And then he went to church this Sunday.
On Saturday we worked with some Relief Society and visited a few in-actives. That was interesting.
This Sunday was Branch Conference so we had the District Presidency there and everything. It was way good.
That was pretty much it for this week. Sorry for the short report. Love you all. Elder Pennock

Aug. 16th-22nd

Today we just found out that me and E. Westwood are gonna be togather in Bani for another 6 weeks. I hope we don't kill each other. =) We can't believe it though. That's a 4th of my mission. Crazy!
But I think we are gonna start seeing the fruits of our labors. We have a few baptism dates scheduled. Hopefully those will go through and hopefully the branch here will get stronger. The work here is good. Same-o, same-o.
On Thursday we had exchanges. E. Larson the other american worked with me in Bani. We had some branch missionaries work with us too, all young women. It was a lot of fun. At night we had to walk through the rice fields. That was way fun. We all slipped a little bit and got pretty muddy. It was way funny and whenever I laughed I started coughing like crazy. Cuz both me and Westwood are sick. I am starting to get a little better though.
Well that's it for this week. Mahal ko kayo. Elder Pennock

Aug 9-15

This week we had special training for all the missionaries in our area way down in Santa Cruz. It was really good. It was about how to get investigators to pray and the importance of prayer, and also about how important reading the Book of Mormon is for investigators.
So this week we tried doing what they said. :) And we got two of our investigators Rose and Rochel to pray. They really don't like praying, but we retaught prayer, and urged them and waited and they prayed! They were really good prayers too.
Also we are trying to get people to read the Book of Mormon and if they don't read it we are going to read it with them. One investigator Emma, is reading and when we were teaching baptism she brought up were it says in the Book of Mormon where baptizing little children is an abomination. So that was way cool and we taught and expounded more on that.
More of our investigators are progressing and have baptism goal dates and are coming to church. We had 16 investigators attend church this week. It is so awesome! We also had a lot of members attend church. It was like 90 people total!! Last week because it was raining we had like 45. So things are goin pretty good.
On Thursday I went up to Bolinao again for exchanges. This time I was with Elder Larson also from San Diego. So it was two Americans not knowing much tagalog working up there. Now this Thursday we are going to work together again here in Bani.
Friday afternoon, the branch president, Pres. Balad worked with us. We visited a lot of less-actives and got a service project scheduled to build a Roof for one of our less-active members. We are going to replace their tarpaulin roof with like a thatched grass roof. Because the tarpaulin keeps all the heat in. The tarpaulin was given by the church a while ago too. So that's goin to be fun. I think that's all for this week. Elder Pennock

Aug 2-8 "May botas sa butas"

We had Zone Conference on Wed down in Santa Cruz. Learned about the importance of the spirit in our companionships and in conversion, and love for the people. Also the Philippines Area Medical Adviser was there with his wife and they taught about heath (which is kind of way off topic for them). So Zone conference was way awesome. It's good to get reminded of all the stuff you should/need to be doing and that you learned in the MTC.
Also what was really cool this week, we had companion exchanges in our district, so I got to go to a different area, Bolinao and work with E. Berueta for a day. It was really cool cuz that was my first time in my mission to work in a different area than my own. It was a lot less walking and more tricycle rides up there than we do in Bani. It was cool to meet and talk with the members up there in Bolinao that I have only seen at church activities. And what was way cool we had a dinner appointment with a member up there. I haven't had a real dinner appointment since my first area in San Marcelino. So that was sweet and brought back good memories from my first area.
The work here in Bani is doin pretty good. We have more progressing investigators and more that are coming to church. This Sunday we had very little members at church because there was strong rain the whole morning. But fortunately we still had a good amount of investigators attend.
Our branch is really weak. We only have a few active priesthood. That's one reason our branch president is from Bolinao. The strongest members are the youth that our still fairly new converts. They work with us, they attend seminary and institute, and they invite their friends to activities and to listen to the missionaries. I so hope they will continue strong and hopefully get their parents or family members active as well.
To end on a funny note. As you know it is the rainy season right now. And it is pretty much raining every day either morning, afternoon or night. On Saturday we were way out in a neighborhood called Ar-Ar (oh and I can't say the name of this place if all the world depended on it) in the middle of rice fields, cause we have quite a few members out there. And I don't know how or why missionaries even went out there in the first place. But we were there Saturday evening. Then it got late, and we tried to cross the fields and go to our next appointment, but we got lost and turned around some how and ended up way far from our original destination. Like you could say we wanted to go north, but we ended up way east. But at least it wasn't south. =) oh and with that it was really muddy like sobra. We wore boots, but both of us had a hole in each of our boots. "May botas sa butas" I kept singing that while we were walking in the mud cuz it's awesome. "may botas sa butas, may botas sa barko" =) Mahal do kayong lahat.
E. Pennock

Weeks of July 19th thru Aug 1 & the wonder of Rubber Bands!

These weeks have gone by so fast. We have been focusing on our work and our investigators. We have had the best attendance of investigators at church the past 2 weeks. 11 one week and 16 the other week. Way awesome! Which also means some of our investigators are starting to progress. But we still got a ton of work to do, we only got one with a baptism goal date, but she still has yet to come to church. The one family who we have been teaching for quite a while now came to church too, the Huellas Family.
We had apartment interviews this last week. That was cool, our Mission President and his wife came to our house and told us all the things we need to be doing better. =) oh they need congratulate and give us a 'thumbs up' on the stuff we were doin well.
We are doin better with lessons with a member present. Every Sunday some youth go work with us. This Sunday it was funny. We had to walk through some mud. Us and one of the girls went through it no problem even though she was in heals. The other girl borrowed some sandals from a lady there. And the guy who was with us who wore some nice shoes got carried across by some guy. haha
It's goin good here. Last p-day one of the young men in the branch, Joshua, came and helped us do yard work in our backyard and told us of all the good food we got growin back there. Then later some young women came and helped us and taught us how to properly wash our clothes. Then we had a Family Home Evening at a part member family. That went way well. Had a lesson and fun games. So that was a cool, fun day.
It is still raining off and on here. One evening it was pouring, last saturday. And we had to cross this long bridge which is made of tree trunks. It was so slippery I am glad they have a handrail. Also that was like the one time it wasn't really got so E. Westwood asked if I wanted to have hot chocolate when we got home. I said yeah, but we were fasting. I just had cold chocolate later in the week.
One of our investigators, a real old guy, believes Jesus is here in the Philippines in Tarlac, and said he saw him. I just don't know.
It's awesome to see how the kids find stuff to play. A huge thing here is rubber bands. They have a ton of games with those. They play like marbles with them, they shoot them, like a golf game, jump rope, to name a few. Oh also, they play this kinda hacky sack kicking game, with just a wrapper stuck to a peso (coin). So yeah pretty sweet. But I think that is it for this week. E. Pennock