July 18-24, 2011

This week was another great and busy week. On Monday we spent most of the day cleaning the house cuz on wednesday the Mission President came and did apartment interviews. So the house needed to be clean. ;) We also bought some food at CSI the local grocery store. Which is an awesome place cuz it has a bunch of american food, like pringles, oreos, gatorade and other stuff which I really enjoy buying all the time. =) But there's no beef jerky or fruit snacks. For the district meeting on tuesday, we focused on working with members, how to involve them in the lessons and help them feel comfortable and ready with their role in teaching. Because its so important to have members fellowship the investigators and be there for the teaching. Just having a member friend resolves many of the concerns that investigators have. And im real thankful for the few returned missionaries and members that work us full-time missionaries. Those are really the investigators who progress the fastest and become strong members, like the one investigator of ours who got baptized last month and the investigator who is getting baptized next week. :) We also have a ton of other investigators who are still having trouble attending church and stop their addictions like alcohol and cigarrettes. We are continuing to work with them and help them. The apartment interviews were great, the house was clean, we got some new irons and ironing boards and they said we should use the airconditioning at night, when we sleep. So thats way cool. Also President is really proud of our work and what we are doing in Hundred Islands. According to him, I just need to eat more. But im kinda tired of 18 months of rice, I want some steak and potatoes, and ribs and mexican food! :) On thursday, we had exchanges again, I went to Alaminos with Elder Adriano, and our work was good, eventhough it was far and we went over cool bridges and stuff. We met alot of people who were taught before and they are ok with us coming back and teaching them. This saturday and sunday, we had District Conference, with the Mission President and a member of the area seventy, also all the members in Alaminos District. So I got to see all my friends from Bani! It was sweet! (Except that they all said I have gotten skinnier). We also had 5 investigators who were able to come. So we are excited for our investigators who are showing progression. This moring we just found out that my companion is being transferred! As well as 1 sister in my district and 2 other elders who stay with us in the house. So there will be many changes goin on. Altogether Sister Jackson, Elder Olbes(my comp), Elder Suaybaguio, and Elder Rosales will transfer, and my companion before in Bani, Elder DelaCruz, is done with his mission so we will have another new missionary replacing him. Exciting and a little scary what will happen. I will let you know next week who the new people are. Ingat - Elder Pennock

July 11 - 17, 2011

So, this week I will write in English again so my family can understand. :) This week was great, we were so busy! I forget how many lessons we had that one busy week last month or so. But this week we had a ton as well, 35 total lessons. We are just workin like crazy. We finally contacted a couple of our referrals, and they quickly became new investigators. They however didn't come to church this last week though for whatever reason. But we will go back to them and see whats up. Im still also learning my role as a district leader, and hopefully I will start getting used to giving the workshops in District meeting. haha. Me and my comp are just really enjoying the work. Especially in our new area(Baleyadaan) that we just started working in, all the people are very friendly and welcome to us and want to learn. The only thing is we dont have enough time to get to them all. :) One of them is one great family, the Mejia family, who were once investigators. But they were very busy, because they used to have work in Zambales and the father is in the local government. But they are very friendly and want to be taught again. So we are really excited to start to teach them. There is also this one guy, where when we met him he was reading the bible! We met his wife before and gave her the L1 pamphlet and he finished reading it! So when we met him he asked about the Book of Mormon! so of course we gave him a copy. Hopefully he will continue to be awesome and we will be able to teach him. I also did exchanges twice this week. Once on thursday with Elder Rosales in their area and once with Elder Suaybagiuo in our area. They are really great guys and missionaries and I learned alot when I exchanged with them. I also was surprised how good Elder Suaybaguio is cuz he is still brand new in the mission. There was also alot of members who worked with us this week, which was way cool. Cuz the work was fun and having members work with us really help our investigators. Well i guess thats it for this week. Love you all. _ Elder Pennock

Translation: Oh yeah! its another celebration! 6 months left in the mission. it means im writing in tagalog again! hopefully my tagalog is better than last time when i was a year in the mission. how are you guys? Elder Olbes and I are doin great in our area. We have alot of new investigators that are progressing, and we are excited for them. They are all reading and praying. Also we have a returned missionary, who just came home last thursday. Its awesome because he said he will work with us. He served in Davao, Philippines. Thats also where my companion is from, haha. Its still raining here, we are always soakin wet. One night we rode a tricycle while it was raining, but there was no roof! We just had to use our umbrellas. :) The girls that i told you about before, the ones that were shocked at what we are doing and how hard working we are. There are still good, slowly they are now progressing. We also went back to a few former investigators, like Br. Curpos in Baleyadaan and the Diamante's in Caucay. They're alright as well, they want to listen and learn. There's also the Ramirez family who is in the picture i sent, they are doin good too, slow progression as well. We also had alot of investigators come to church, hopefully more will come next week. Our investigators always say they have no time to read or go to church, but they have enough time to listen when we show up. Hopefully they will really understand what we are teaching them and feel the spirit so they will start to progress even more. Oh yeah, last thursday we had Leadership Training in Santa Cruz with the new mission president, President Querido. The training was awesome, all of the district leaders and zone leaders from 4 zones were there. We learned alot about giving workshops, doing exchanges and interviews. Pres. Querido and his wife are really awesome as well. Last monday, we had a birthday party at our house cuz both Elder Adriano and Elder Olbes had a birthday this week. We ate spaghetti and pizza! It was way cool! Missionary work is great. Theres not really any problems. :) I guess this will be the end of my report. sorry for those who cant understand. =) Goodbye/ take care. I love you all. - Elder Pennock

July 4 - 10, 2011

Oo nga pala! Isa pang selebrasyon! Anim na buwen na lang sa mission! Ibig sabihin tagalog na naman! =) Sana mas maganda na yung tagalog ko ngayon kaysa noong nag-isang taon ako. Kamusta na kayo? Ayos talaga kami ni Elder Olbes sa area namin. Marami na kaming bagong tinituruan na nag-proprogressing at excited talaga kami para sa kanila. Nagbabasa at nananalangin silang lahat. Ganoondin may isa na kaming RM na nakauwi lang nakaraang huwebes. Maganda iyon kasi magwowork daw siya sa amin. Nagmisyon pala siya sa Davao, Philippines. Taga doon yung kompanyon ko, haha. Umuulan pa rin siya dito, ang basa namin lagi. Sumakay kami sa tricycle isang gabi, kaso, walang bubong. Ginamit lang namin yung mga payong namin. :) Yung mga babae na nakwento ko sa inyo noong, na nagulat sa ginagawa namin bilang mga misyonero at sa kasipagan namin. Ayos pa naman sila, paunti-unti nag-proprogress na sila. Binalikan din namin ang mga dating tinituruan, si Br. Curpoz sa Baleyadaan at sina Diamante sa Caucay. Ok naman sila, gusto nilang makinig at magpaturo. Tapos sina Ramirez family dyen sa picture, ok din naman sila, paunti-unti lang. May ilan na investigators kami na nakapagsimba rin, sana mas marami pa sasusunod na linggo. Lagi sinasabi ng mga tinituruan namin na wala silang oras na magbasa o magsimba, pero may oras naman silang makinig pagdating namin doon. Sana maintindihan at mararamdaman nila yung espiritu santo at yung mga itinituro namin, para mas lalo silang makapag-progess. Nakaraarang huebes din pala, may Leadership Training kami sa Santa Cruz kasama ng bagong Mission President namin na si Pres. Querido. Napakaganda talaga yung training namin, lahat nga mga leaders ng apat na zones ay nandoon. Marami kaming natatunan tungkol sa pagbibigay ng workshop, exchanges at saka interviews. Ayos din si Pres. Querido at ang kanyang asawa. Nakaraang lunes, nag-birthday kami sa bahay, kasi birthday siya nina Elder Olbes at Elder Adriano. Kumain kami ng spaghetti at pizza. Masaya talaga! Ayos talaga yung gawaing misyonero. Wala masyadong problema. :) Siguro hanggang dito na lang ang aking report. Sensya na sa mga hindi nakaka-intindi. =) Ingat kayo. Mahal ko kayong lahat. -Elder Pennock

June 27 - July 3, 2011

Magandang araw po! This week was great! The district meeting turned out to be great, I led the workshop on how to extend baptismal goal dates in the first lesson, the Restoration. Then we practiced extending the commitment in different parts of the lesson. And hopefully we (the missionaries) will extend more baptismal dates so the investigators will have that as their goal so they will progress. Also we opened a new area or barangay in our proselyting area, and we now have alot of new investigators there in Baleyadaan. The people there are very receptive to us because we are the first mormon missionaries that they have met. There were some people who invited us into their home before we even said anything. So me and my comp are really excited for this area and the investigators there. Also we are continuing to work with our other investigators, some of which have baptismal goal dates and others still need a little help. But this sunday we had 6 investigators come to church, which was awesome. We also got some referrals from members. And alot of people came to church and bore their testimonies. Maybe the fasting is working, but a bad thing is that i am also quite skinny. :) Also we had a member work with us on sunday after church, and he has a truck. So we drove in his truck to all the appointments! totally sweet! We also were able to play basketball earlier for p-day. which was way fun, but absolutely exhausting, cuz its been forever. But the work is really doin great. Sorry i dont have much to say right now, or any pictures. But I love you and miss you all. - Elder Pennock

June 20-26, 2011

So it rained every day this week, and many areas have been flooded, especially all the rice fields. So we had a ton of fun workin in the rain, being soakin wet. haha. But first on Monday, we had a zone activity where we updated our areabooks, cuz we were were told they need some workin on :) Also for them to be checked again the next day at Special Training. This was the last Special Training of the mission president so its gonna be interesting next month when we have a new mission president. Also president said we will get portable dvd players to use in companion study and planning. That will be cool. We will watch the Preach My Gospel and church videos to help us in the work. More and more high tech. =) Next we will all get cars. ;) I also learned alot this week of how to more help our investigators, one thing I learned came from exchanging with our zone leader. He reminded me about extending baptismal goal dates which I had forgotten about. So from that reminder we now have more investigators with a baptismal goal date and they are really excited. Also while I was thinking why investigators aren't progressing and keeping their commitments, besides the fact that they couldnt come to church cuz its raining, I thought that maybe we need to teach more simply and slowly so that they will understand. Cuz our teaching is good, we use scriptures, examples, and inspired questions and everything, but they're just not keepin the commitments. So thats what we will try this week is teaching more simply. And now since that was the last special training, we now have district meeting every week, which means I need to prepare a workshop everyweek that will help our district improve in their work, their weaknesses and goals and stuff. yikes. But hey, my package came! and all my apartment mates loved it as well, all the ties and food. I also shared some food with our investigators, saying "try this, this came from america". haha Also I sent a few pictures of us and our branch missionary leader workin in the rain. It was really funny. The umbrella that he used was a spare at the house, and it was perfectly fine in the beginning, but then one little thing on it broke, then a few hours later it totally like fell apart. haha. He didnt even do anything, he was just holding it. hahaha. Well the work is great. I love you all. i hope you are all keeping your commitments =) -Elder Pennock

June 13 - 19, 2011

The first week of the transfer! but nothin really changed for us, its still the 6 of us in the apartment and we are still doin great. We just really worked hard this week to help our investigators progress and also to find new people to teach eventhough its raining all the time. We have quite a few new investigators that we are excited to go back to and hope that they will progress, alot of them are young men and preisthood too, which is awesome. Also at this one house where we tracted the people were way cool. They invited us in right away and were amazed by what we are doing(walking in the hot sun, or heavy rain everyday, talking to strangers and not getting any money from it). Also the fact that I was sweating(like always), had a hole in my socks and speaking tagalog. =) haha. They were just astonished that we are doin this for two years, leave our family and schooling,(and girls) to serve the Lord. They were a bunch of newly married girls by the way and their husbands were out working at the time. But it was so cool that they actually noticed and realized these things cuz most people don't even care or notice that kind of stuff. They were very interested and asked us a ton of questions, they also said that we are not like other missionaries of other churches who come in and sit down and go straight to gospel topics and are very stiff and boring. They said we were fun to talk to and very friendly. This was saturday morning by the way, we will try to go back to them this wednesday morning. We left them the Restoration pamphlet to read because alot of their questions will be answered in the message of the restoration. Hopefully they will read it and share to their husbands these things as well. So that was really the highlight for me this week, they even offered to feed us lunch before we left cuz it was approaching 12. :) Hopefully we will continue to find people like that and also to be friendly and confident in talking to people.
In our zone however are quite a few new people, 2 new filipina sisters and 3 new elders. One fairly new missionary Elder Adams from Kentucky who is already good at speaking tagalog be it his 4th month in the philippines, and a new district leader who is training a brand new Elder Palmer from the provo MTC. I havent met them yet but its gonna be cool. Also these are pictures of our house in Alaminos which my mom requested. :) I also took a picture of my comp cooking because he is always cooking for us and me washing dishes cuz I unfortunetely am always washing dishes for us. But it is way fun having 6 in the apartment, a bit crazy but alot of fun. The 4 of them sleep in the living room, while me and my comp sleep in our room on beds. :) Before when I was assigned in Bani with Elder Westwood we used that aircon in our room, and thats where the 4 of us before slept and ate, in the airconditioned room. way back last year with elder muliaina and elder gerbolingo. Which also means i just passed being 1 year in alaminos zone, 10 1/2 months in Bani and now 1 1/2 months in Hundred Islands. but its great, this is the best zone of the mission =) Ito na lang muna ngayon. Ingat kayo. -Elder Pennock