December 27, 2011

Family,
It was really good to be able to talk with you on Monday. Christmas was a great one. I enjoyed it very much.
Since we talked on Monday some new events have happened. I’ll go through them.
First Monday at two o'clock I got my companion. His name is Brother Enriquez. When I forget his name I just think of Eric’s name in Spanish and then add a "z". He is from Talamban here in Cebu City, so he is not too far from home. It is probably about a 40 min jeepney ride if there isn't traffic. He has a mission call to the Philippines Davao Mission, the third largest city in the Philippines coming after Manila and Cebu City. He enters the MTC on January 14 so he will only be my companion for about 2 weeks. After that I guess I get a new one. They are still trying to get it all figured out. One of the best up-sides to having a non-missionary companion is that every lesson has a member present and I don't have to worry about getting a member to as many lessons so we can teach the females. There has to be a non-missionary adult male for us to teach lessons. So that will help the work move right along. Often we cannot teach lessons because there are only females home. Brother Enriquez is going to be a great missionary. We taught a lesson on faith on our first day together and he nailed it! I was so impressed. He is pretty shy though because he is just brand spankin' new and hasn't even been into the MTC yet. Also he lives with three Americans which I am sure is a shocking experience. He is good at English though so that helps. When a missionary first gets into the field they are born and their trainer is their father. I was talking to Elder Stirland about what I am going to call him since he hasn't even been born yet. He is still like a fetus. I don't get my actual son until next transfer. Elder Stirland told me he is like my puppy. In the movie Marley and Me the guy gets a dog to prepare him to be a father. So I don't have a son yet, but I've got a puppy! I guess I'm just being prepared for the real deal.
The second thing was that we got to sing in the multi-stake cantata last night. We got there at 3:30 and learned the song Candle Lite Carol. They didn't have sheet music, only the words so we had to learn it just by singing it over and over and over again. But at 6:30 we sang. Success! It was fun to be able to support my new ward and get to know the members better. I also got to see members from four of my last areas. That was fun.
For the question about the carport, I always like wood better than carpet. Here in the Philippines they don't even have carpet. I have never seen it outside of the temple or a church building. It just doesn't exist here. No vacuums.
Also about the nativity sets, I just met a guy yesterday who can get them made out of oyster shells. It looks really cool. He showed me some samples of animals he had made. It has a Mary, Joseph, Jesus, 3 kings, I think 2 shepherds and 3 animals, a carabao, a pig and a chicken, the animals of the Philippines! It is expensive though. It is P3500 or about $80. They stand about 6" tall. Let me know. I’ll try to find a cool cheap one.
Love you all. Take care,
Elder Schenk

December 25, 2011 Christmas "Phone Call"

Devin is doing great!  We got to skype with him for an hour.  Our connection was good, so we could see him well and hear him just fine.  He is now in downtown Cebu City in the Capitol area, living in an apartment with 2 other Elders.  He was getting his new companion the day we spoke.  There was no need for me to worry about his Christmas celebration in a new place where he didn't know anyone.  The other elders took him along to like 8 meal appointments in 3 days.  He had his best dinner and breakfast the whole time on his mission on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.  He loves being a missionary and being in the Philippines.   We sure enjoyed seeing him!

December 19, 2011

Family,
Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you are all enjoying all of the cold weather there, we are getting none here. White Christmases come in different ways here, baptisms and sealings. I will be skyping this Monday here about 8 in the morning, but I can’t be certain on the time because I am transferring tomorrow! I will be assigned in Cebu City in the Capitol area. I will be training a new missionary so neither me nor my companion will know the area. I find out tomorrow at transfers who it is. They were deciding between putting me in the Branch presidency here in Polambato or having me be a trainer. I also don’t know what time the internet cafes open there, but I’ll shoot for 8 am Monday morning. That should be around 6pm Christmas day for you... I think. I don’t have much time to write because my entire district is waiting for me so that we can get a district picture. Take care, I love you all.
Merry Christmas!
Elder Schenk

December 13, 2011

Family,
Merry Christmas! 11 days na lang!
Wow, carport looks impressive! Nice work dad! That would have been fun to help with, I love framing building.
We are one week away from transfers here in the mission. We will find out next Monday who will be staying and who will be going. I have been in the zone for as long as anyone and will probably be transferring. It’s hard to believe that I only have 4 transfers left! A transfer goes by so fast! I'm not ready to come home yet, I have way to much work to do here in the mission. I also love how much I am learning. The last two transfers as district leader I have learned more than at any other time in my life. I have been given more responsibilities which have taught me and helped me better understand true leadership. I have grown to love these people so much. I have seen so many soften though the touch of the spirit. It has truly strengthened my testimony. Out of my five areas Polambato has been by far my favorite, and also one of the most challenging. I have come to see the love the Lord has for these people and just how important each child is to our Heavenly Father. This gospel is his perfect plan to be able to bless us. I have seen that so many times here in the mission.
I will be skyping Monday morning here after Christmas, that is if I can find an internet cafe open early in the morning. I’ll let you know.
I did receive both Christmas packages. Thank you. My companion and I are going to have a great Christmas!
Our new focus of reactivation and retention is so rewarding. I have found so much joy in helping those who have lost their way come back to the gospel and get back on track for the Celestial Kingdom (2 Nephi 31:19-20). I have seen first hand what the Lord Himself has said, "Repent, and I will receive you" (Alma 5:33). I think that is correct, I translated from Cebuano.
Thank you so much for your love and concern and for the many many prayers in my behalf and in behalf of the people I am working with and for all missionaries. Your faith is helping the cause of countless miracles.
Love,
Elder Schenk

Decembe 6, 2011 Pasko NA!

Family, This week has been probably the favorite of my entire mission! The last four days have been so AMAZING! Here is what happened.

I have never been so pumped and ready to work in my entire mission! On Saturday I went on exchanges with Elder Wangsgaard. We had such a successful day. We taught a family who was offended and has been inactive for about four months. At first they didn't even want us to enter their house and were super closed down. But after we had gotten in and brt'd (Build relationship and trust) them we were able to teach a lesson. During the lesson they opened up their concern to us. We were able to teach to their needs and ask some inspired questions. After, while answering, the sister started to cry. She had felt that she had forgotten the Lord, but that the Lord had not forgotten her. She then committed herself to come to church the next day, which she did with her Melchizedek priesthood holding husband and youth grandson. I have never been so excited to see anyone at church. And they were there early! I am so grateful to have had that experience.

But the joy doesn't end there. Monday we went back and taught them, and after that lesson were able to teach their son and his wife, who are also members. They as well were hesitant to let us teach, but in the end had been deeply touched by the spirit. The brother had said previously that he often works on Sundays and couldn't come to church. On Monday he told us that he could be absent from work on Sundays if he wanted and that that was not a problem. We are planning on them coming to church this week.

After that we taught another family, the Mahusay family. The mother and father have been inactive for 15 years and their son and his cousin are also recently inactive. They ALL committed to come back to church this Sunday, other that the father who has work, but he will come the next week.

And then yesterday with Elder Wong we taught a priesthood holder who was baptized 5 years ago and then went inactive two years later because his wife had gone inactive and he didn't like going to church alone. He committed to help prepare his wife and kids to come back through family prayer and scripture study and he committed to come to church this Sunday.

Can you see now why I am so excited? We have been blessed with so much success and I have felt a joy that is so sweet. I can hardly wait to get to my studies in the morning so that I can dig into the doctrine and feel the spirit, and then I get so excited just to get out the door and save those souls who are dwindling in unbelief. I love this work! It is so much more rewarding reactivating than tracting. If everyone follows through with their commitments the priesthood attendance at church will double this week.

I also got your package today. I am excited to open that. Thanks.

Also I got a letter from Jeff Komar. Please tell him thank you for me. He always reads my blog so you could just put it on there. By the way he said that my blog is super good and that he is making one for Anna and wants lessons from mom.

Take care, love you all!

Elder Schenk

November 29, 2011

Family,
Thank you for your emails. It sounds like you all had a great thanksgiving. I wish I could have joined in the turkey bowl and the skiing, but we had a good thanksgiving here. The Baileys treated us well. There was way too much food as apparently the Filipinos don't understand the concept of the holiday, eating! Some of them ate before they came! At any rate Elder Wangsgaard and I (the two American elders) did a good work. I ate so much that when I tried to stand up, I sat right back down! It hurt too bad to stand. Success!
I experienced my first “Dressed in white, twice!” today. Two of our recent converts went to the temple today to do baptisms for the dead. That will be great for them.
On Sunday we had 8 investigators at church! I don't get it. We are now focusing on the members and then all of the sudden all of the investigators came to church. I love this work!
Well I am officially out of time. I had to write two letters to President Schmutz because the first one didn't send right and got lost. Suffice it to say, I am learning a lot and am grateful that the Lord has entrusted me with the trials I have. There is no other way to be learning these experiences.
Love you all!
Elder Schenk

November 22, 2011

Family,
I have had a fantastic few days! Sunday we had 5 investigators at church and were excited about that, but the branch is so weak that we are worried about their inactivity. That is a major problem here in the Philippines. I went home after church greatly concerned on how I could help my little branch progress and become strong again. I looked at the many baptismal records for the last three years and only 3 melchizedek aged men have been baptized, and two I have never even heard of. One of them has almost been baptized for 2 years and is sealed in the temple and comes to church every week even though they live ridiculously far away and are extremely poor. They live in a 50 year old house that his grandfather built that has no electricity or running water. And yet they come. What great faith. We only have 4 strong melchizedek priesthood holders that are active right now, and none of them have served missions. After church I was overwhelmed with our responsibility here. How could we possibly help? For some time I couldn't sleep because of my concern for the branch. So why were the last few days fantastic? It all started Monday morning at 8:30.
We had zone conference in Mandaue and had to wake up at 3 to get there on time. So running on 4 hours of sleep we hauled ourselves out the door before the crack of dawn and crammed into a V Hire (a mini van that they cram 15 people in 4 rows of seats... Fun!) . At the zone conference President Schmutz introduced the Philippines new plan for missionary work that they had learned at the mission presidents conference last week from the Philippines area presidency. The presidency had been instructed from the twelve. The church is not functioning as it should here, so the responsibility has been given to the missionaries to get it going the way the Lord would have it run. Our new focus is:
1. Keep the recent converts active.
2. Reaching out to the less active members.
3. Completing families (baptize the non-members).
4. Get everyone to the temple.
Our new motto is "Dressed in white... twice"
We will be doing no more tracting. None! We will spend all of our time with the less active and inactive and through them find family members to teach. There are 645,000 members and 114,000 are active. That is only 18%! There are far too many members for the priesthood to handle and it is hurting the church. President Teh said we are "Baptizing them into inactivity." We have a work to do. We have been promised that even though our focus has changed, that if we are diligent, we will have many more baptisms than before. We are no longer just getting investigators to baptism, but are taking all members and investigators to the temple. We will not stop teaching them until they get there. That was the answer to by plea for help! That truly is what we need here! I am excited! The church is indeed run by revelation. Everyone is excited to be working on this new program. It is what we have all been concerned about.
On Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Wangsgaard. He is a great missionary who just returned to the mission after having gone home for back problems. He is so motivated and teaches so powerfully through the spirit. We had such a fantastic spiritual day. I also had 4 baptismal interviews, and originally had 6 planned but wasn't able to get to them all. The work here is moving forward.

The mission is great, but I am a little envious of Dad and Eric for getting to go skiing! There isn't even snow here! Today for thanksgiving we are going over to the Baileys for a thanksgiving lunch. They are doing it all! The turkey, potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie! YUM! This is going to be the best p-day of my mission!
Thank you for sending me General Conference. I love listening to it, and am getting my old ones put on a jump drive today so I can listen to it. Please put them in an mp3 format because the players here don't read the big American file types. I’ll have to get it converted. And much more will fit on.
Well give Katie, Josh and Ellie a hug for me, and Katie, give Mom, Dad and Eric a hug for me. And all of you should give both grandmas a hug for me. Have a great thanksgiving.
Love,
Elder Schenk

November 15, 2011

Mom,
So much happens here in the mission and I feel like I can never express it all in an email. And after emailing my president and reading your emails my cranium gets a little tired. In a few months I’ll be able to tell you the stories in person and you'll get a little dose in a little over a month for Christmas. Let it suffice to say that I miss my family. That is the one thing I really miss here in the Philippines. Everything else I can do without, I’m a pinoy now. (Pinoy- a male Filipino, usually younger and strikingly handsome, sometimes American. Probably comes from the Filipino word "Filipino" where they chop of the first half which really doesn't mean anything and then throw a "y" on the end to make it sound cool.)
We have been struggling a bit to get our branch to progress. It is so small and the leadership doesn't know how to lead, so not much happens. The Baileys are working with us to strengthen the branch.

Here is an excerpt from my letter to President Schmutz. You might find it interesting.
President,
Yesterday I went on exchanges with Elder Surio in his area. What an extraordinary missionary! I have never worked with a missionary who has applied so many principles from Preach My Gospel in his work. He does everything! He is relentless. The investigators can’t get away with anything. He gets those who don't want to listen to listen and then slams them with the spirit so that in their closing pray they pray that we can come back and teach them again! He takes every opportunity to teach and takes every teaching opportunity seriously. He must have sanctified himself because he definitely teaches with the power and authority of God, more so than I have ever seen in a missionary. I am grateful to be able to serve under him. He has edified his calling.
I have seen progress in the district. All of the areas are progressing and have success in the near future. I am especially grateful for the help of the Baileys. They will have a tremendous impact on Bogo and can help my little branch in so many ways. They are the heaven sent help we need. I have also been prompted to look back at the baptismal records in my area and find inactive recent convert males that are melchizedek priesthood age and to focus on reactivating them. The Polambato branch needs priesthood. It will also help us to find part member families.
I feel to ask you for any advice on the matters I have addressed, in particular in strengthening the Polambato branch and the role I can play in helping it become strong.
I love you President. Thank you for all that you do. I am excited to see you at zone conference in a few days.
Love,
Elder Schenk

I had an experience this week we taught 3 sisters. The previous lesson we had taught about the Restoration, and we had planned to teach about the Book of Mormon, but I felt prompted to watch the Restoration dvd. So we did. After we talked about it a little and they said it was helpful to be able to see it visually, that they now understood it better. Then we talked about the feelings we had while watching. Gi-Gi, the eldest, said that she had gotten goosebumps when Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ had shown themselves to Joseph Smith. I told them that what they had felt was the spirit. They now understood what it felt like. Then we read Moroni 10:5, "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." What they had felt was the spirit testify to them that what they had seen was true. We committed them to pray about Joseph Smith again and then wait for the answer. It would come in the same form as how they had felt the spirit right then. Hopefully they will pray with real intent and listen for the spirits answer. Then we can proceed and they can progress. I am grateful to have experiences like this. We had a similar experience with two sisters in Elder Surio's area yesterday. Teaching through the spirit is the only way that people will truly learn.

Well, take care. I love you all. Thanks for the shirt and socks. I'm going to wear them out with pride!
Love,
Elder Schenk

November 8, 2011

Family,
The first thing I have to say is that Drew did a great job looking like a yodeler! Klaro kaayo! Also my younger brother is one handsome devil! You must get it from me.
I had a great birthday. I went to a member’s house in my neighborhood who cooked a ton of food. There were a few other members there so it was fun. Then we loaded up the cake with candles and they sang to me as I blew them out. I’m starting to get old, it was a good size fire! I had them take a video so you will get to see it someday. I am going to send the picture cd I made today. My next sd card is almost full so you should be getting that one soon too.
The Baileys are great to have. They help so much. This is their first week so they are still wondering what exactly they will be doing, but their impact will be tremendous.
For Christmas all I want is a little bit of Christmas music and some chocolate. You could put the music on an sd card because they have players here that read music from them, and my cd player died. Ill transfer the music onto one of my sd cards so I can listen. Don't bother to send another cd player. Also if you could send a gift for my companion. It is always better if they have something to open too. Usually they don't get anything.
The guy we gave bananas to is Gary. After that day we have never been able to find him again. Hopefully the sisters can. He lives in their area. Our area is finally starting to produce fruit. We had three investigators tell us they wanted to be baptized this week! And Tuesday while we were tracting I felt prompted to go to a little group of houses on the side of the road. At the first house a grandma just bluntly said they weren't interested and didn't want to listen. But then we talked to a lady who was washing a pot at the pump well. At first she was hesitant to talk to us, but by the end was excited for us to visit her. We went back yesterday and taught about part of the plan of salvation. I think she is going to be a great investigator. Her name is Emma.
Other people to pray for:
Joy-Joy
Katherine
Sharon
Verga
Jera
Thanks for your love and support.
Love,
Elder Schenk 

Oh one more thing, candy is better if they are individually wrapped. Sometimes the big bags go bad before you can finish them because of the humidity.
Love ya!
Elder Schenk

 

Community Service Project

 

Here are some pictures of a CSP (Community Service Project) we had in my area. We made lugaw, a soupy rice with vegetables, for feeding malnourished children. It took a long time to cook, but all three huge pots of lugaw got eaten. This week I'll send the picture cd I made. I finally bought an envelope big enough to fit a cd.
Love you all!
Elder Schenk

November 1, 2011

Family,
Thanks for your emails. I love hearing about things happening back home like 7" of snow at Mt. Baker. We are just drenched here, either with sweat or rain, sometimes both. I did get my birthday package, 2 weeks ago when Elder Holland came. The candy is gone... dang, but I am excited to open my presents! I plan to go to a member’s house in my neighborhood for dinner on my birthday. I’ll bring the cake there. I am so excited to eat a cheese cake with cherries! That's going to be amazing!
We have a mango tree right outside our house on the other side of a big concrete wall. Every few days a mango or two will fall on our side. They are really ripe and kind of explode. Sometimes the ants get to it before we do, but we try to eat them anyways. We had one for breakfast this morning. From my study room upstairs I can see a mango tree, coconut tree, papayas, corn, kamongay ( a leaf that they put in soup, supposedly the most healthy vegetable in the ENTIRE WORLD!), and just out of sight are endless rows of sugar cane. I am going to miss that when I go home. We just have plums and pears and some rhubarb shrubs. Coconut is amazing!
I love being district leader. The Lord really does qualify who He calls. The increase in revelation has been amazing! I have given 14 baptismal interviews this transfer, and each one I do a little differently. The spirit really does guide. Sometimes I am prompted to teach a doctrine or share a scripture, and other times there is a question that is not mandatory that helps me to better understand their concerns. Our zone had 5 baptisms last month and has a goal for 8 more this transfer! There are only 4 companionships too! Bogo zone is one of the leading zones in the mission. My area hasn't had a baptism for over a month and probably won’t for the next month or so. We are trying hard to find new investigators right now. It is a bit of a struggle, but we are having some success. Last week we had 26 lessons and 20 new investigators. Hopefully we can get some progressing towards baptism.
Yesterday I made a layered dessert for our zone activity today. It has graham crackers, then fruit, then cream and sweet and condensed milk mixed, layered four times. You eat it frozen. Hopefully it is good.
Well I love you all. Take care!
Elder Schenk

October 25, 2011

Family,
I just wrote a long letter to the mission president so this one will be a little shorter.
This has been a great week. I love my new companion, Elder Sureta. He is a good worker and teacher. We should have a lot of success.
Being able to see Jeffery R. Holland, Tad R. Callister, and Elder Teh was a treat. We had a picture of the entire mission in front of the temple and the three of them joined with their wives! When Elder Holland walked up to us he said, "President Schmutz said you are perfect, and you are!" That was cool to hear. Elder Holland's wife is the cousin of President Schmutz so they already knew each other. I got a picture with him! We also got to shake their hands as we walked in. And as he was walking out I got to shake his hand again because I was sitting in the isle. That was neat! It was like an electric shock of the spirit just brightened your soul! Elder Callister is one of my favorite speakers. I have one of his general conference talks on my iPod and he spoke in the last general conference. He also wrote "The infinite Atonement" which I read a few chapters of before my mission. He talked about ten evidences of the apostasy. That was neat. One of them was that the Bible ended. Most of the epistles were from the leaders of the church to correct errors in doctrine in the church. So why did it end. Either there stopped being doctrinal errors in the church in 100 AD (not likely) or the prophet and apostles died. It was a great talk Elder Holland commented that he had never heard such a talk on the apostasy in a missionary meeting before. He also said that Elder Callister wrote one of the best two books on the apostasy. He is a really smart guy. He gave his entire talk full of scriptures from the Bible with no notes. Elder Callister is the grandson of Legrand Richards, he inherited some good traits.
Elder Holland talked about our responsibility as missionaries. At one point they were trying to find what the icon of the church was. What do people think about when they think of the church. They thought of the Salt Lake Temple and how it is well known, but he thinks a better guess would be a pair of missionaries in white shirts and ties. He said that the members of the church think that we are perfect and that we have no right to do anything to diminish that view. We are to be as the Savior is. That is a high calling. It was great to be able to listen to a prophet of the Lord.
Love you all,
Elder Schenk

October 19, 2011

Family, Today we get to hear from Elder Holland! We are all so excited to hear him speak in about 4 hours, and also the entire mission is going to be here! So we get to see ALL of our friends. That has never happened in Cebu Mission history. We are going to get a picture with all of the missionaries and to top it off Elder Holland agreed to be in the picture! How many people have gotten a picture with him before! I am so excited. Yesterday was zone interviews. President Schmutz is such an amazing man. We were all there early and when he got there 20 min early we started. He taught a great workshop for almost an hour and then took us one by one into the interviews. He doesn't let anything rush him, he just takes as much time as it takes. Elder Windmil, who is now an assistant to the president, who just transferred from my zone said that in Negros they had a boat ticket for 3:00 after their interviews, but at 2:00 he still had 16 interviews to go. So President sent the APs to reimburse the boat ticket and buy him and Sister Hansen an airplane ticket for the next day. As soon as they landed the next day they went straight to Bohol for more interviews. While he interviewed me he said that he had been pondering and praying about some of my concerns for my district. Out of the 150+ missionaries he has taken that much time to think and pray about me. That meant so much to me. It is such an honor to serve under him. He loves me so much. After the interview he gave me a hug. He is a big man, a lot like dad, and for a moment I felt like I was hugging my father. That was so special to me. I haven't been able to hug my father in a long time.
We also found out yesterday that my companion, Elder Laboson, is being emergency transferred today. There is a missionary who has really bad asthma and is being released. There are 4 companionships being shuffled around and we get to be one of them. So today I get a new companion, Elder Sureta. He was assigned in San Remejio, the area next to mine, two and a half transfers ago but had tuberculosis and was isolated in his apartment for a few months and really didn't get much time to work in his area. I was surprised to hear about the transfer, but afterwards felt so peaceful and at ease, I have no doubt that it is the will of the Lord.
About your talk on Sunday, Mom, just make up something to say like a mission is the most important thing I have ever done in my life and I am learning so many lessons each day. I never thought it would affect my life in this magnitude. It does so much more that teach you doctrine. It teaches you in a personal way about the plan of salvation and your part in it. I now know where I want to go and why I want to go there, and I know what I have to do now to get there. You learn so much from the people, your companions, and your leaders. You get put in situations where you have to learn, and afterwards you are so grateful for all that the Lord has taught you. And missions are great because you get to meet apostles! You see the difference between people who are just good people and live some gospel principles and the people who embrace each part of this gospel and learn to love to be obedient and keep the commandments, like Captain Moroni (Alma 48:16). Also the doctrine just gets engrained into you. You learn to look at the different principles of the gospel from different angles and learn more fully what they really mean and how through Christ they are all inner-connected. And if you go to the Philippines Cebu Mission (The best mission in the world!) you get to learn Cebuano! Nindot kaayo pitaw! Hopefully you got something from that to share. Good luck.
Eric you crazy sun of a gun! Good work in your tennis. You got way further than I did. Don’t feel too bad, not everyone can be the best. At least you are still good looking.
Love you guys!
Elder Schenk

October 11, 2011

Mom,
We are here in Cebu again today. This is the second of three weeks in a row. Our next p-day is on Thursday, not Wednesday so that all of the missionaries in the entire mission can come to hear Elder Holland, Elder Calister, and Elder Teh speak. I am way excited for that. This will be the first time in the history of the mission that the entire mission will have gathered.
You can boil bananas with or without the skin. If without the skin they put in sugar and make it a soup. if with the skin it just makes it soft and more sweet. Sometimes they boil the unripe ones so you can eat it, but it just tastes like a boiled potato...like starch. They eat just about every fruit here before it is ripe. They like the bitter.
Being district leader is good. I am learning a lot. It has put more stress on me as I am now learning all of my responsibilities, but I am grateful for the challenge.
Earlier Elder Baley, the office couple, told me that he "had a ball last night" looking at my blog. He had been searching on the internet for information on Bogo where he is going to be moving in two weeks to be a regular senior couple missionary, and my blog came up on the search. He said he really enjoyed reading it and that it is one of the better ones he has seen for missionaries. Nice work mom. I got a dvd made up with all of my pictures on it. I just need to drop it off in the mail.
I haven't gotten your letters yet, hopefully soon.
I thought about my plans after the mission and I want to go back to school in the fall. Try to see if you can get my track changed to fall winter. Right now it is the winter spring track. It would be awesome if I could go with Carson.
I’ll try to get a picture of my shoes. They are a little harder to find now. I got them resoled, but now they are a little small. So I gave them to another elder. He gave them to the ward missionary in another area. But I can probably get it in the next few weeks. I don’t want to send a sd card home because I have heard that too many don’t make it to the states.
Well I am out of time, I wrote a long letter to the president about my district and then there was an error, so I need to shoot him an email quick.
Love you,
Elder Schenk

October 5, 2011

Good afternoon family,
Right now I am in Cebu. My companion had a blood test earlier and has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, so we will be sleeping here tonight. He had some health problems a few transfers ago and they are following up on him.
Good news! President Schmutz said you could come to pick me up. These are his words. "About your parents, I think it would be wonderful for them to come and pick you up from your mission. They need to understand that you will still be on your mission when they visit here. You will not be released. You will be given to them as your companions, and you will still dressed in missionary attire, wearing the missionary name tag. You must be very careful that you share a great and HUMBLE example with the Filipino members and people you have worked with. Sometimes Americans pick up their children and think of it more like a play vacation. But if you remain in the areas of your mission, you will still be a missionary in the eyes of the people you introduce to your parents. So don't do anything that would lessen their feelings for you as a missionary. It is confusing if you or your family don't act in the very best way as member missionaries. I will look forward to meeting your parents if they come. It will be an honor to tell them what a good missionary you have been."

I had a good time teaching my first district meeting on Monday. It was so great to be able to receive added revelation for the district and what I needed to teach. It just came so easily. I enjoyed preparing it. I think I will learn a lot from my new responsibility.
We had a great experience yesterday. We had originally planned to visit nanay Ilanan in the morning at 10:00. We had taught her once about a month ago, and thought nothing would ever come of it, so we didn't return. Every once in a while I would feel like that lesson was meant to be and that it will help open a door for something else. Our plans kept getting changed though, and until yesterday we had not gone back. We had planned to visit Gervasio Daitol on Thursday at 10, but Elder Laboson accidentally told him Tuesday. So we went there first yesterday and ended up talking to his wife for about half an hour. Gervasio wasn't there. After that we went to nanay Ilanan. She wasn’t home either, so we talked to her neighbors for a while. She ended up coming home, but was too busy for us to teach her. She did give us a bunch of bananas though that she had just cooked (they boil bananas here. They are good.) So we took the bananas and left to go home, hoping that we would find some other people to talk to. In that area there are almost no people. There are large fields with little bunches of 3 or 4 houses here or there. Usually nobody is home. While walking I was a little confused. I had felt like we had purpose there, but all we had gotten for our effort was a sack of bananas. Maybe the Lord just wanted us to eat more fruit. As we were walking we saw a man clearing some overgrown weeds and grass out of a field. He looked excited to see us and slowly began walking towards the road where we would cross. I was going to ask him for directions (because the path we took went a different direction than I thought it would) and my companion said "Give him a banana." So we walked over to him and began talking. He asked if we were Mormon missionaries. We said we were. He then asked if we taught from our bible. We said, yes, we teach from the Book of Mormon. He then said "Well let’s start. Shall we pray?" We were startled. We asked him some questions to get to know him a little bit and then offered him a banana. It turns out he gets paid 500 pesos (about $10) a month to clear the land and hadn't eaten breakfast and all he had to eat for lunch was a 1 peso water in a plastic bag that someone had given him! We ended up giving him all of the bananas, as they clearly were not intended for us to eat. He had been taught by missionaries in 2007 and was almost baptized but had stopped coming to church and ended up getting dropped. Before the lesson even started we committed him for baptism and by the end of the lesson had given him a date. He has forgotten almost all of the doctrine of the church, but still believed it was true. We ended up teaching him the first lesson and have an appointment to go back Saturday. That was such an amazing experience. Both Elder Laboson and I were flabbergasted at how many things fell into place so that we could find him at that time and had a bag of bananas to give to him. Only the Lord could have done that.

Take care. It was good to hear from you all this week.
Love,
Elder Schenk

September 28, 2011

Dear family,
All is good and well here in Cebu. We knew there was a storm because there has been a lot of rain and wind, but no problems at all other than wet shoes and muddy pants. To answer your questions again, my area is completely flat.  It is the flattest part of the entire island. No walking up and down big hills here, just through sugar cane fields and coconut trees. It really is a beautiful place. The beach isn't really that great in my area, but in the other areas it is like paradise. We just got back from our district activity in a tiny village called Anapog. The branch president there watches a huge nice house on the beach for a rich French man who vacations there for 15 days every January. It has a beautiful beach and a gorgeous house made of bamboo and a grass roof. It is all built out of natural materials, but inside is so nice. We cooked up a super delicious meal of fish, rotisserie chicken, and fresh boko juice (coconut milk with the meat grated and sugar and sweet and condensed milk, the most delicious drink ever!). I am getting better at chopping open the coconuts and getting out the milk. Its harder than it looks, and everyone looks at the big tough Americans funny when we struggle to get one open when the old nanays make it look easy. One of the coolest things about the Philippines is that you could go into the jungle with a machete and live. Everything you need is there, bananas, coconut, mangos, tons of kinds of fruit, and everything you need to make a house, bamboo for the walls and floor, and coconut leaves for the roof. It really is a fascinating place to be. The people here use everything. You can cook a meal without firewood. All you need is coconut shells and dried corn cobs. It is great!
I use the boot/ shoes that I bought almost all of the time here. The sole on my other pair of echos got destroyed in my last area so I dont use them anymore. I trade off the boots and my keens every other day, but the soles are wearing out on the keens too. I'm almost out of rubber. We do a lot of walking here. I only use my shiny rockports for sundays and meetings so that they don't die. My boots aren't going to die anytime soon though. They will last until the end of time.
Our apartment is a two story 2 bedroom 2 bathroom with showers and a nice big downstairs. There is a great wind that whips through the upstairs when you open the windows. That is my favorite part! It really is a nice place.
I haven't gotten your letters yet, but am excited for when they do come! I bought some cds last week and want to mail some pictures home. I just need to find an internet shop that has a cd burner. I don't want to send home the sd card because I have heard of too many that have gotten stolen somewhere between the Philippines and America. I'll see what I can do.
We got the transfer call today. I am not transferring, and neither is my companion, but I have been called as district leader here. I am excited for the opportunity to serve. Things are going well in my area. I anticipate a lot of success in the coming months.
Here is a list of our investigators that need prayers.

Merly Andetligando
Cheryl Daitol - pray that their husbands will let them be baptized.
Verga Daitol

Kathren - pray that her parents will let her be baptized.

Liza
McLyn - pray for them to have a desire to become active members.
McHard
Ward

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and thoughts in my behalf.
Love,
Elder Schenk

September 20, 2011

Family,
First to answer Dads Questions,
1. I would love it if you could come pick me up at the end of my mission and visit some members here. I would love to show you the Philippines first hand. I don't know how long, a few days probably. I'll try to ask my mission president what the policy is.
2. My plan was to return to school in January and work up until then. I could possibly try to change my track so that I could go back in September, so that might be an option.
3. I would love to go on a big trip as a family when I get back, especially somewhere I could go swimming. The John Day River would be a blast.
The Vancouver temple is a lot like the Cebu, but bigger. I think the Cebu is about as small as they get.
Thank you for the spaghetti. It was a little taste of home. Also I loved the cards from Sister Macon's primary class. Please thank her for me. They are fun to look at and read.
The zipper on my camera case just broke, and I am using another bulky one I brought. If you could send another one in my package I would appreciate it. It is a little neoprene stretchy fabric case that just fits my camera inside. It has no pockets or anything. The brand is Case Logic, I think, and I bought it at Walmart.
Thank you for the music. I would like a William Joseph with the orchestra in the background, and some upbeat music I can cook and clean to.
I would like to send the pictures home, but I don't know where I can get them burned onto a cd here. I’ll try to find a way to get them to you soon. Maybe I’ll do that today.

We had some great success this last week with a baptismal service with 5 baptisms! Only three of them were ours though. We combined with San Ramejio Branch. Juvy and Michelle Orque, ages 13 and 11 respectively, and Daniella Litanon, age 9 were all baptized. Juvy and Michelle are great. They are the family we walk to church and back with every Sunday, except for last week. We were planning to walk, but I had a stomach ache and the runs, so I payed for a tricycle to take the 6 of us. They also brought 2 investigators and 3 inactive members to their baptism as well, all of which are their neighbor cousins. That was a great success as well.
We, at the moment, are working to find new investigators to progress to baptism. We have some that we are working with, and a few that said that they are going to come this Sunday, but we will see. Hopefully we can commit another few this week to go along with our 3 committed for October.
We have transfers next Friday and my companion will probably be transferring. I'll let you know what will happen next week.
We have a great opportunity in October! On the 20th Elder Jeffery R. Holland, Tadd R. Callister of the presidency of the seventy, and John U. Teh of the seventy, are coming to Cebu! All of the missionaries get to attend, so I am really excited. We have been asked to prepare ourselves by more fully committing ourselves to be obedient and invite the spirit more fully into our lives. I am so excited to be able to shake his hand! I have seen Elder Holland a few times and heard him say "take care" when we saw him at the MTC, but this will be even better!
Dili ko magdugay, kay dugay na ko. Salamat sa inyong paglinkod ug pagbasa sa akong taas nga gisulat ninyo.
Love,
Elder Schenk

September 13, 2011

Family,
Maayong haopn sa inyo tanan. Maayo gud ang kinabuhi diri sa Polambato. Dako kaayo akong gugma sa tawo diri. I am so grateful to be a missionary. I have learned so much since I have been in Polambato even though it has only been 1 month. I can't believe how fast time is flying by. I only have 5 more transfers left! That's like nothing! Ill probably only have one more area after this. I hope that I am assigned here for a long time. This is one of the happiest times of my life.
We have good success right now in our area. We have 3 baptisms this Saturday and I just found out from President Schmutz that they are going to be building a church in my area! An actual church building and not just a renovated house. They are still in the planning mode, and not everything is approved yet, but it is so exciting that after almost a year of no building that they will get one again. It will probably take a long time to build though and I will be home before it is finished.
In our ward we teach the gospel essentials class for the investigators, recent converts and all of the youth. There is so little leadership here. We also speak every 3rd Sunday, so this week. We are a large part of the ward here. We have continued to walk with our investigators to church. That is really good in building our relationship with them, I just hope that they will have faith to keep coming even if we don't walk with them. Sometimes it is really hot, other times it is raining. They are being blessed so much for their efforts, I love to see that. Lovely, the recent convert older sister, is already done reading 2 Nephi and is in Jacob. Juvy, her 13 year old younger sister is in 1 Nephi 16 and their younger 11 year old sister Michelle is reading as well, though not as far. We are visiting the Anteligando family alot right now. MaryJoy and her younger brother are inactive members that got baptized a year ago. Their mom and 2 aunts are interested and hopefully they will all start coming back to church and the 3 of them will be baptized. My companion is a really good teacher and always makes the lessons fun and interesting. I am learning a lot from my junior companion.
We were able to go to the temple today. That was great! It has been so long since the last time I have been there, 3 months I think. It was closed one week when we were supposed to go, and I transferred right before my old district went and right after my new district did. Needless to say it was so good to be in the house of the Lord today. It was definitely worth the 3 hour bus ride there. We are about to head back right now. We had McDonalds for lunch, it was soo good! Nothing like good ol' filipino-ized American food! I spent about 250 Pesos, or about $6. That’s more than most people in my area make in a day!
Thank you for the package. The food is almost all gone. It was really good. The only request I have for the next one is beef jerky. That spicy jack links was really good. I could go for some more of that.
Sure love you all,
Elder Schenk

September 6, 2011

Good Morning Everyone!
So you know, I will probably be emailing earlier now. We are emailing first thing in the morning here. Don't feel too bad if you missed emailing on time some of the last times, I still know you love me. Maybe you could email the day before so dad doesn't feel guilty.
Today we have a zone activity. We are going to Daan Bantayan, I guess it is really beautiful there. We bought 2 kilos of tilapia (fish), 2 kilos of Filippino pork chop and 4 kilos of mangoes. It is going to be a great BBQ!
Last night we walked from Polambato to Olbo, about 15 min through a jungle of palm trees and banana trees and some underbrush, over a bamboo bridge that the missionaries built about 6 months ago, and through a beautiful field with cows and a ton of frogs. I love that part of my area. It was raining so we got wet. And then coming home we got soaked, it poured. That was fun. I also went through a sugar cane field for the first time yesterday. We took a short cut. The leaves are rough and you have to put your arms up to protect your face. The path was made for little kids, not tall Americans. Sugar cane probably gets to be over 10 feet tall and is more crowded than a corn field. It was fun.
My zone had a ton of success this week. All of the areas are doing great, and from the records from November to now, we broke a bunch of records like investigators with a baptismal date, investigators attending sacrament meeting, and lessons with a member present. In the 4 areas in our zone we have 33 investigators with a baptismal date! That is incredible! I love my area. I have felt such a joy serving here, more-so than the rest of my mission. I love the people so much and love serving them. We walked to and from church with our investigators again on Sunday. We saw them walking while we were waiting for a ride and decided to go with them. I also went on exchanges with the District leader, Elder Swicegood, one of my favorite missionaries, on Tuesday last week, and from what the president told me that he told him, I guess I am a good missionary. That's good to hear.
I am so satisfied with where I am in life. I love my mission so much and am so happy to be here in Polombato. My apartment is amazing. It is one of the nicest, if not the nicest I have seen. It has a granite counter top in the kitchen and is well built. I have had a brand new one before, but it was really low quality and things started breaking after a few weeks. So I am happy here. We live in a gated community like grandma Hart, the nicest homes in my area. It makes me feel bad that we have it so nice when our investigators have nothing. I wish I could help them temporally so bad. I’ll have to settle with teaching them the gospel.
Sure love you all! Take care.
Love,
Elder Schenk

August 30, 2011

Mom,
I am so grateful to be a missionary. I had such a great week. We were able to go to zone conference on Friday with President Schmutz and Elder Teh, the area 70 assigned to the Philippines. I learned so much and came out with new spiritual direction. Elder Teh had asked for all of the missionaries to come fasting, so the spirit was especially strong. The conference was in Mandaue, about two and a half hours away. We were so tired by the time we got back. We went down Thursday evening and slept at the elders apartment in consolation, so I knew everyone there.
Then on Sunday we committed a family for baptism, Liza, the mother, and her 3 kids, McHard, McLyn, and Ward. They are all teenagers. They are amazing investigators who have so many questions and understand the doctrine so well. McHard thinks so deeply about things and then asks us some deep hard questions, most of which we have never even asked ourselves. So that is a new experience. But on the second visit he asked what the urim and thumim were and where the Hill Camorah is. We are really excited for them.
We also have the two younger sisters of Lovely, our recent convert, committed for baptism. They are Juvy and Michelle. There is also another part member, Daniela, committed for baptism. She is only 9 years old, but comes with her aunt and grandma to church. That makes a total of 7 investigators with a baptismal date! We are so grateful for the blessings we are having here.
The branch here in Polambato is struggling though. About half of the active members walk to church, which is a lot to ask. Lovely and her sisters and aunt walk to church, so on Sunday we walked home with them. It took about half an hour to get to our apartment, and they live another 15 minutes away down a dirt trail that is often muddy. The actual Polambato aria is another 30 minute walk further from the church than our house, and one family lives a loooong ways past that, and they walk every Sunday with their 1 year old child. It is so hard to ask of them, as many are malnourished, especially the little kids. We were teaching an inactive member last week that said they could all get a ride to church, but then on Monday they would have no food. They have to choose one or the other. Seeing their trials is strengthening my faith.
We were able to do a csp (community service project) for a member in the San Remegio aria on Monday. I learned how to weave palm leaves to make a roof. That was fun. We also cut down their weeds with machetes and helped them take the kernels off of their corn. They dry their corn until it is hard, then take off the kernels and grind them up. They eat that sometimes instead of rice. You boil it in water and make it into a hard paste, kind of like cream of wheat. That makes your thumbs hurt real bad. We had a lot of blisters. It was a great opportunity to serve. They also have two children who are going to be baptized. One is 8 and the other is 9, Johnly and Rose-ann.

I also included the letter I wrote President Schmutz. Its easier than writing it all again.
Sure love you all!
Elder Schenk


President Schmutz,
I had such a great experience at zone conference. It was a spiritual feast and I learned so much. I am grateful to be in Bogo zone with such inspired leaders and missionaries. Thank you also for your letter, I will study and apply what you have taught. We had a lot of success in our area on Sunday when we committed a family of 4 for baptism. The Lord is really pouring out blessings on us right now.
Yesterday I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Swicegood. He is a great leader and missionary. We both learned so much from the exchange and had immense success. It truly was a faith building experience to literally see both of our prayers being answered all day long. In the morning we tracted and taught two lessons, one a family and extended family of 10, who listened very well. They all have potential. We also committed a family to baptism, the two children first, and the parents later. The parents want to be baptized, but are not married and the wife has pension because her previous husband died. If they get married then the pension stops, and they are very hard for money. But they said that they want to be baptized, and when their income increases enough, they will cut the pension and get married so that they can be baptized. The entire day the spirit was so strong, and the two of us spent the entire day in amazement of the blessings the Lord had given us. By the end I didn't want to sleep, just sit on my bed and bask in the spirit and be grateful for the tremendous success we had had. The Lord is so generous with us. When we give Him the crust, He truly gives us an entire loaf.
I am so grateful to be a missionary President. I know without a doubt that I am where I am supposed to be surrounded by the people the Lord has prepared for me and prepared me for. Thank you for your never-ending support.
Love,
Elder Schenk

August 23, 2011

GOOD MORNING AMERICA!
A lot has happened in the last week, so I'll give you the load down.
Last Wednesday I found out that I was transferring at our last zone basketball game. My district all had new matching jerseys, so that was fun. Thursday I picked up some shells that I got specially made by an investigator there. They were supposed to have the temple on them with "Philippines Cebu Temple" printed underneath. Well they though I wanted my name on there too, so in nice big bold letters they wrote "Elder Schen's" on all of them. So I am getting the name removed and I'll pick them up from Elder Casio when I see him this Friday at zone conference. Friday was transfer day and I woke up sick with a sinus infection. I talked to Sister Schmutz there and she said to pick up some amoxicillin. It was a great meeting. The talks focused on loving your companion and being obedient. Then we had the 4 hour bus ride to Bogo. My companion, Elder Laboson, didn't come because he didn't have an extra 300 pesos to get there and back. I got a blessing that night from my companion and just like sinus infections don't do, it just went away. That was a great blessing. I was still really tired though and not all the way better, so on Saturday we had weekly planning, and I slept quite a bit of the rest of the day. Sunday I met the branch, all 28 of them. We meet in the Bogo church building that is only about 15 min away, but it is too expensive for most members. There used to be a meeting house in Polambato (It is just one street going from the highway to the ocean), and the plan was to renovate another building and got to church there, but somewhere something fell through and nobody knows what is happening, but nobody has started working on the new meeting house. As the result many members went inactive. There used to be 100 who attended. I absolutely love the area. My companion is great. He is quite a joker so we laugh a lot. He is from Manila and has been out almost a year. The Polambato area is bigger than my last area, but there are a lot less people. There is a lot of sugar cane though. It’s everywhere! Sometimes as far as the eye can see in all directions. The people are all really poor. In my last area, if someone died, they would rent big tents and gamble and drink under them for a week, and then have a big feast at the funeral. We went to the funeral of the wife of one of our members on Monday and all they could do was give out 2 peso muffins for a snack with a little bit of juice. Everyone is so poor. I love it though. Yesterday we went to visit a recent convert and had to walk down a muddy path through the woods, and sometimes you had to walk right through the water. My pants were so muddy by the time we got home. It is like going on a hike just to get to their house. It’s fun. The mud here is really sticky. It’s more like clay than mud. The mud builds up until each foot weighs about 10 pounds. It’s fun. I am going to be washing a lot of pants by hand here. But it is worth it because the people are amazing! Everyone is so kind. We have 3 investigators committed for baptism and another 4 who know the church is true and for one reason or another, sometimes social, sometimes financial, they don't want to join the church yet. There is no real town or city center or location where you can say "this is it", there are just some little stores here and there and little places where you can eat. Right by our house is probably the largest place. It is a store full of canned food about the size of our kitchen. But it is enough.
I am so glad to be assigned here. I have so much I can learn. In my last area I was the most obedient missionary in the entire district. We had district meeting here on Monday and I felt like I was one of the most disobedient. It was such a great feeling to be surrounded by so many great spiritual people. I have never seen this much faith in a district before. I am so excited! Both the zone leaders and the district leader are amazing missionaries. It is going to be a great transfer.
So to wrap it all up, I love my life. It is great here. I thought the city was great, but being out of the city is way better!
Love you all,
Elder Schenk

August 16, 2011

Mom,
I've got some news this week. First, we had a great baptism last Saturday, and for the first time I was able to confirm one of my converts a member of the church. That was great! And then second I am transferring to Polambato! It is one of the furthest north cities on Cebu and might be the furthest north area in the mission! It has a lot of mountains in it, so bye-bye city life with all the rich people. I am really excited. I am replacing Elder Newfield, who got here one transfer before me. He is way hard working! That means I am transferring into a good area and won't have to start with nothing! that is always much easier. I have had 4 of the 5 people in my batch serve in Bogo Zone, so I will be following in their shoes. So far I am just staying on Cebu island, but I am excited, and am grateful to still be able to attend the temple, even though I live probably 4 hours from it. Friday is going to be sooo tiring. Probably 5 hours of travel with all of my luggage.
We played basketball today as a zone, and I am pleased to report that I am improving! It was a lot of fun.
I have included part of the letter I wrote to President Schmutz. I thought you would be interested in reading it.

President,

Thank you for your email. I will give your congratulations to Sheila when we see her tonight. Her baptism was a success as her husband came, and then came to church the next day. He has been an inactive member for many years. I was able to confirm her on Sunday and was prompted to bless her with the guidance to lead her family with Kevin, her husband, to the temple. That is what she wants, and what a great blessing that is. Her husbands sister-in-law, who lives right next door, is now interested int he church. She was taught by missionaries long ago, and I taught her one before, and she was not prepared. She had no desire to grow. But now she wants to join the church, but is not married. I can see the blessings start to flow to their family.

We followed up with MJ who we found last week. He is definitely prepared for the gospel. He has such an open mind and is willing to follow the answers he receives from the Lord. I feel like he will be baptized, even just after the two times we have visited with him.

I am also excited about the transfer. I have heard good things about Bogo Zone. And replacing Elder Newfield will be great, he is a hard worker. I think we can have a lot of success there. I feel at ease with that transfer. Thank you.

Love you all,
Elder Schenk

August 9, 2011

Hello Family!

This has been an exciting few weeks. We had 3 baptisms 2 weeks ago, a child of record baptism last Monday, and then this Saturday we have a convert baptism, Sheila, and her 8 year old daughter as well. And then on Sunday they will be confirmed and her 8 week old son will have its naming and blessing in sacrament meeting. And then next week is transfers. We have 2 elders in our zone that are going home, and I think I am going to transfer, probably off island.

On Monday we were going to visit Mhean,. an investigator that we haven't visited in a long time. She lost her motivation to learn. And even though we didn't think she would be home from school yet, we went anyways. She was still at school, but her cousin's boyfriend was there. We talked with him for a bit, and then asked if we could share a message. He was at one point schooling to become a baptist minister, but before he was done got offended and returned to the catholic church. He was born in the catholic church, but doesn't believe it is true. So when we taught about Joseph Smith, he had a lot in common. He really is looking for the truth. He knows a lot of doctrine, but is hungry to find out more. At the end we showed him the Book of Mormon. He said that just the night before he had been looking through Mheans Book of Mormon and didn't think it was any coincidence that we had come the very next day. He said the odds were 1 in 1000 and it wasn't just chance. He said that he would sincerely pray about Joseph Smith, and wanted us to teach his girlfriend as well. That was a great success! He has a lot of potential.

We also had the opportunity to do a service project for a family in the ward last week. Their house burnt down and we helped them pack up all of the burnt stuff into rice sacs. We are going back Saturday to help clean up the rest. That was so sad. They lost everything, and they had a nice house. And to make things worse, her husband left 3 days before fire to work for 6 months out side of the Philippines. But the ward is taking good care of them. They live in the Mormon neighborhood so there is a lot of support.

August 2, 2011

Whew! I had some long emails to read, but it was a good read, so thank you for that. We don’t have a lot of time and just got back from a cool zone activity where we rode a 400 meter zip-line over the ocean and onto an island and back, so I am a little tired and probably won’t write too long, but I’ll try to pack it full of excitement. Thanks for the slideshow. It is sure good to see my family, especially Diane Katie, Eleanor, and grandma. I don’t get to see too many pictures of them. I’m glad you all had a good time and that the boat is working better now with its new water pump and I hope Dad is recovering well from his sore bum from his bike ride and that pifford is recovering from his long runs with Diane and Eric.
We had a great success this weekend, three baptisms! That was a great experience. We hopefully have one more, Shela Tud-Tud on the 13th. She didn’t come to church last week because her husband ended up having to leave and I think her baby might have been sick. If she comes this week she is still good to go, but if not, postponed... And that’s no good because I think I am transferring the following week. In response to dad's question, I would be happy to be assigned anywhere, off of Cebu has some great beaches and different experiences, but you don’t get to go to the temple if you go off island. I’m not so crazy about that. But, "Ill go where you want me to go, Dear Lord..." It is great to be placed where you are needed.
Yesterday I went on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Babia, in his area. We had a ton of success! We had taught 5 lessons before lunch! Alot of times we don’t even get 5 lessons in a day! All in all they ended up with 9 lessons. That’s great! The weekly standard is 20. As I was with him, I got to teach a lot of recent converts and other members. In each of the lessons I felt the guidance of the spirit directing me to the scripture verses that each one specifically needed, and I was able to fit it to their needs, even though I don’t really know them. That was an amazing blessing. I have been working on being more obedient, and the blessings just flow when you do what you are supposed to do. I was so grateful for that.
I am also grateful for my mission president. He is an amazing person and teaches me so much. He wrote me over a page long email today talking about my specific needs. That is amazing. Each word feels like scripture to me. It’s like getting a new patriarchal blessing every week! I am so grateful to be able to serve under him. He is going to help me reach my full potential. I love that man.
Well, it turns out that I did get a little long winded. I got excited.
Take care! I love you all!
Elder Schenk

July 26, 2011

Mom,
It’s great to hear about all of your experiences as a family. I’m glad you all had a good time. Surprisingly I don't miss it too much. I am super excited for it when I get back, but for the time I am content to hear about your stories. I forgot to write last week about you coming to pick me up from the Philippines. I think that would be great! It would be tons of fun to be able to revisit members and converts and such and to be able to help you see a little of what the Philippines really is. It’s something you can’t describe or catch in a picture. It is about the people and the lifestyle. So I would be happy for you to come.
The little monkey that Sister Robison talked about is only found in Bohol, the island just East of Cebu. I haven't seen one, but they are smaller than the palm of your hand. There are tons of t-shirts from Bohol with them on it. There aren't many animals where I live now. It is too close to the city. We do have some cool lizards though. I have seen quite a few in the tree just behind our house. Today we found a great place to buy little souvenirs for cheap. In a mall a little Cebu key chain is about 50 Pesos, but there they were only 10. There are also cheap pearls here in white, pink, and black, so if you want some I could pick them up for you. I hear they are really cheap in Negros too.
It’s good to hear that so many people are going on missions. There is nothing like it that can change your life the way it does. What a great blessing. I can’t wait for you to get your mission call to the Philippines Eric! Then you too will understand the greatness of the Philippines.
WHAT!?! The Richesons are moving? What is the ward going to do? Seminary... the Corn Bust... What are we going to do? Where are me and Eric going to play racquet ball? Well you better help them move. They've been helping our family since Diane was in seminary.
We are very excited about our baptisms this Saturday! I get to baptize Mark and Andrea and Elder Casio is going to baptize Jameson. We also have another baptism on August 13, Shela (Lit-Lit) Tud-Tud. Great name eh'. Lit-Lit Tud- Tud. She is such a great investigator. We committed her to baptism on our second visit after teaching the Book of Mormon. She has been taught before in 2008 and the missionaries just stopped visiting her, probably because they weren't married. But since then they have been married. Her husband is an inactive member and they live right next to his member mother. After teaching her I asked her if she believed the Book of Mormon was true. She said she did. So I asked her if she believed that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. She said she did. Then I asked her if she believed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was true. So I committed her to baptism. She accepted and came to church the next day with her four kids. Her husband Kevin is off on business.
Well I love you family. Take care. Tinuod gud ang simbahan.
Love,
Elder Schenk

July 19, 2011

Hello Family!
Nice work Dad, you snuck that email in just in time. It’s great to hear that things are going well back home, that Mom is getting the house all tuned up and Eric is trimming the bushes well. Keep up with the double shifting work schedule. It’s hard sometimes, but you are saving for your mission and that's what is important. Katie emailed me. Eleanor is getting bigger! I spend so much time around kids here. They are everywhere! I haven't had those experiences at home, Eric can change his own diaper now.
In news, we have three baptisms coming up next week. They have interviews on Friday. Hopefully they do well. I have been hoping for two more baptisms this transfer, before August when I think I am going to transfer, but I don't think we can get them. None of our investigators have been progressing enough. None have come to church yet.
Our new mission president is great! I absolutely love him. He talks to us on a very personal level and often tells you exactly what you need to hear, in fact the 4 times I have talked to him I have received the answer to what I need to do next in becoming a better missionary. He is very different than President Hansen. President Hansen was a genius. He could spend 20 min expounding one verse. You learned so much from him. He taught us like a class, as he was a school teacher. President Schmutz is different. For his workshop we sat in a U around him and Sister Schmutz more like a family. He teaches very simply, but the spirit teaches you what you need to know. He writes long emails and really tries to give each missionary exactly what they need and what the Lord Himself would give. I am grateful to serve under such a man. He is so full of love, the very same principle he is teaching me. Love is so important, and we cannot gain it by ourselves, it must be bestowed upon us by He who is Love (Moroni 7:48). I love that verse. It is powerful.
Take care! I love you all. I’ll send pictures soon, my SD card is almost full.
Elder Schenk

Funny Story
Today we got together as a zone to play basketball. After we ate at Mang Inasal. They have BBQ chicken and pork. Elder Doxy had asked them the last time he was there for an ice water. They said they didn't have ice water, but tap water. So this time he just asked the waiter for a tap water. It took them forever! Everyone else had gotten their drinks first and he was like, "How long does it take to put Ice and water in a cup!" A little later they brought him a cup of water. It looked SUPER cold with steam coming out. He excitedly went to drink it and when he touched it realized it wasn't cold, but scolding hot! He said "What the heck man! I asked for ice water and they say they only have tap water. So I asked for tap water and they give me hot water! What do I have to do to get a cold water!" Then later, after he suffered down his hot water the waiter came around to give us refills. He was so excited for it! The waiter filled up my cup, then Elder Oliver’s cup and then when he got to Elder Doxy he only got a drizzle and then it ran out of water. We laughed so hard. About 5 min later the waiter came back and finally gave him a full cup.

July 12, 2011

Well Howdy there amigos! Those are some mighty fine Australian cowboy hats you got there. What’s interesting being here in the Philippines is when a pair of shorts or a hat or a souvenir says "Hand Made" it’s true. There are people here who spend all day making Adidas shorts and weaving baskets and doing things I would never imagine would be done by hand, but day after day that's what they do. I’m really working with the shell lady trying to get some cool ones. They make designs on them and put cool polishes on them and make them into shell statues and stuff like that. They keep showing me new stuff and I think I might get a whole bunch. I can get it custom made. They turned out to be good investigators too. We have taught them 3 times and the last two lessons we had 7 and 8 investigators! They get all their neighbors to join in the lessons. One of their neighbors, Cristojan, or Chris, is a really good investigator. He always reads and is ready for the lessons. I hope him and some of the others get baptized.
We have 3 baptisms lined up for July 30. Mark and his 9 year old daughter, and 11 year old Jameson who is living with his member cousin. Mark is a really good investigator, and all three of them come to church every week, even though we go to the next town over because our church is being renovated starting last week. They are going to make it 3 stories and put an elevator in it! I haven't even seen a 2 story church in America, and this will be the first 3 story I've seen here. The plot of land the church is on is super small, so that is probably why it is being built taller. Half of the parking right now is under the chapel. We have 3 wards that go to church there. My area is about the size of the country club and our neighborhood. Super small! But there are a ton of people there. I have probably only tracted maybe half of it in 3 months. They would probably have 10 or more houses in the same size of property as our house. They are not too big, lots of poverty in my area. I met a lady on Saturday who is split from her husband, has 4 kids, the oldest is 19 and the youngest is 6, and she works like 12 hour + days 6 days a week and makes P1200 a week, less than $30. It’s such a hard life. I hope we get to teach her. She just has a really busy work schedule from early morning to late in the evening. Sunday is the only day. I think she would accept the gospel very well.
I get to meet President Schmutz this Saturday at Zone Interviews. I am super excited for that. From what I have heard he is a great guy.
I have started eating better food lately. Instead of just opening up a can of tuna or sardines and putting it over rice I have been starting to cook vegetables. My companion has been teaching me. I LOVE VEGETABLES! I made myself a salad last week... Delicious! I am excited to try out Eric’s fried rice and chow mein. They call chow mein pancit here. It isn't nearly as good. Too salty. We will have to have a cook off when I get home. They eat a lot of spicy food here. I like it.
Thanks for your email dad, it is sure good to hear from you. You always seem so happy, along with all of you. Good work. God wants us to be happy. 2 Nephi 2:27.
Love you all,
Elder Schenk

July 5, 2011

Mom,
Thanks for your email. Sounds like you have all had a fun time lately. I miss the fireworks, that would have been fun. But today we had a BBQ with pork chops and Filipino hot dogs. It was super good. We laid out banana leaves on the table and then dumped a bunch of rice down the middle and lined the outside with the meat. It was good! Mmmmm... I’m glad you had a good time in Leavenworth. Brittney told me that they used to go there every year for some festival and they always had some WORLDS SPICIEST SALSA! She used to always get it. We eat a lot of spicy food here.
We found out today that there are no transfers for us. Both Elder Casio and I are staying in Consolation 2 for another transfer. It will be good. I learned a lot from the new mission president in his email today about my responsibility and how I can improve and have more success both with my companion and in the area. He had only been in the mission for 1 day when he wrote that email, but it felt like he already knew me. The spirit is strong with him. I am really excited to serve under him. I think we have zone interviews next week so I will get to know him then.
We have an investigator named Mark who has been to church twice an is living with the Villarete Family. Elder Villarete was a mission president and an area 70, so needless to say that Mark was prepared well. He has been living there about a week. He understood everything we have taught him. He accepted baptism on the first visit, actually in our Gospel principle class on Sunday before we had even visited him and he accepted! We think he and his 9 year old daughter Andrea will be baptized this month. We are excited about that. Also we are teaching Jameson, a 11 year old who is living with his member aunt. We expect him to be baptized this month as well. Success finally! I expect a lot more will come this transfer. I feel an extra burst of enthusiasm that will help me boost up my enthusiasm, excitement and effectiveness in the work.
I have started reading Jesus the Christ this past week. I am only 30 pages in and I have learned so much and felt the spirit so strongly as I read. It is such a good book. It is the only one in the approved missionary library that I have not yet read. I am excited to keep going.
Thank you so much for your prayers in my behalf and for my companion and investigators. They are very much needed. It really is amazing to be in the work of the Lord.
I love you all, thanks for everything.
Love,
Elder Schenk

June 28, 2011

Mom,
It sounds like you have all had a good week. Please thank Brother Bingham for me for his nice email to me. I can’t email him directly. I’m not sure when their independence day is here. I haven’t heard. We are planning to have a bbq for it as a district for the 4th of July. That will be fun. Good luck Eric with your job application at Panda Express. Elder Pasikala from Hawaii thinks that they have the best sweet and sour chicken on earth and talks about them all the time. We'll have to get some when I get home.
We had a nice surprise last Saturday. While Elder Casio was taking a shower upstairs the plastic water spigot broke and water started shooting across the bathroom! He came running downstairs in his towel yelling "Guba ang gripo sa taas! Guba ang gripo sa taas!" So while he tried to find the water shut off valve I was upstairs bailing the water into the toilet so that it didn’t overflow out of the bathroom and down the stairs. We finally got that fixed today. It has been a long 5 days washing and cleaning and showering with a trickle of water. Thanks Mr. Plumber!
Yesterday we had a good experience. We went to the house of a potential investigator in the morning, but he had not woken up yet, so we started talking to his neighbors. One of them was putting shells in small mesh bags for exporting. She had tons of them. There were probably 200 1/4 kilo bags of shells and a garbage can full of shells not yet bagged and a ton more out drying in the sun. They were cool shells, and since I can’t go find them for myself in the ocean I asked if I could buy some. She of course said she couldn’t because they weren’t hers. She was just working. But the owner lived in the house next door. She said her name was Sara. So I went looking for Sara. She invited me in and gave me a whole bunch of really nice samples that they had gotten from the company they buy the shells from. That was nice of her. Then we started talking about the gospel and I asked if we could come back later and teach them. She said her kids would be home that evening, then remembered that that right after lunch they were going to their neighbors house with a bunch of friends. She told us we should come with her and that we could teach them all! So we did! Most of them weren’t that interested, but we taught 6 new people about the Restoration, and maybe something will come of it. It was nice to have someone be so excited for us to share with them. Sara said she would read the pamphlet we gave her every day. I hope she really does. That would be great! We have also been having more success finding people to teach lately. That is nice, there has been quite the drought lately.
Well that’s all for now. Keep helping out your missionaries back in the mainland. Remember, the members are the full-time finders and the missionaries are the full time teachers. That is how success comes in missionary work. It is as much responsibility for us as members to share the gospel as it is for them.
Love you all!
Elder Schenk

June 22, 2011

Mom,
I wrote Eric a lengthy email, so I don't have a lot of time, but I want you to know how much I love my mission. There are so many missionaries who can’t wait to get home, but then I think of how much I have learned in the last year and realize that it couldn’t have come any other way. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I am being prepared for a life I couldn’t have lived if I wasn’t serving here in the Philippines Cebu Mission under President Hansen and President Smutsch (SP?). I have just come over a huge hurtle and I feel like I am almost to the top. I can see the progress I have made and the Lord has just poured blessings down from heaven. We went to the temple today. What a great experience to be away from the world. I am so grateful for what I learned there.
I want to include what President Hansen wrote me last week. It surprised me, but it is one more way that the Lord is trying to prepare me for bigger and better things. He said'
"You continue to grow each week elder Schenk.....Perhaps you will be called as a mission president in the future......it wouldn't surprise me a bit. It is wonderful to see such an outpouring of the Spirit in your zone......May the Lord continue to bless all of your efforts. Pres.Hansen"
I love that man so much! I am so grateful for his love, guidance, and teaching me. He is my hero, just like Dad.
Love you all so much. Take care,
Elder Schenk

 Eric,
I love you so much. Thank you so much for your letter. It is evident that you are already a servant of the Lord. I love how you want to get 2 years of missionary service in before your mission even begins. Serving a mission helps you in ways you would never imagine. I never thought I would receive so much revelation for what will happen after my mission, but I have. Our mission theme/ motto is "Success Through Obedience." I have come to find in the last week that that statement is exactly what it says. I have strived to become more obedient, and after that little sacrifice for the Lord, He truly gave me a loaf. He has blessed me in so many ways. I have been struggling more with the language lately, but the last few days I have seen dramatic changes in my ability to understand and speak. Someone told me yesterday that I have better Visaya than my companion (I was on exchanges and he has been in the mission about 9 months, and speaks tagalog) She said my accent was better than his. That is a huge comment because Filipinos learn the language so much faster. Often they can be almost fluent in 6 weeks, where us Americans are more like 6 months to a year. All that and more will be yours on your mission. You are better than I was, and I am sure you will be better than I am. Thank you for your stalwart example to me and to the family and your friends and the ward and all who know you. I guarantee that more people look up to you than you know. They notice your example. You will never truly know your affect on others.
Well keep preparing and start your mission now. That will make the Lord so happy, for this is His work. "Be Prepared." There is no better way to be. My mission president, President Hansen, said, "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail." What words of wisdom. So prepare now little brother.
Love,
Elder Schenk
PS. You can call me koya. It means older brother.

Dad,
Have a great time on your John Day trip. You will have to tell me all about it. That would be fun, but I am where I need to be. The Lord has a work for me here. I feel like I am just beginning to really understand that. There is more to give than what I have been giving. I love my mission so much. I learn more every day. Love you dad, Happy Fathers Day!
Love,
Elder Schenk