February 15, 2011

Family,
It’s good to be able to email and have a little time to let my mind
loose. We have been so busy lately. When we planned last Friday for
the week, I realized that we didn’t have enough time to visit all the
people we wanted to, potential investigators, investigators, recent
converts, and active and inactive members. We planned no tracting
time because we had no empty space! We have so many people to teach!

Well I’ll start off this week’s experiences with a good saying I learned
in high school and am now learning the truth of. "Don’t do stupid
things." The last few days I have done a few of those. For instance,
don’t pet dogs in the Philippines! I got bit on my hand yesterday but
it’s almost healed already. It’s ok, I’ll live, I think, unless the dog
dies in the next 10 days. If it does then I get to get a nice HUGE
shot that sounds painful. Also I learned today that playing
basketball barefoot is not a good idea. I got my toe smashed by
someone who was wearing shoes. I left my shoes in my last area.
And number three, don’t walk too close to monkey cages. They go crazy
and try to pull Americans inside! It almost got Elder Ashdown. But
it made for a good time. We spent some time getting to know it. It
was just a little monkey in a little cage on the side of the street.
They don’t have those in America.

Now for the good experiences. Three weeks ago when I was with Elder
Ashdown, the American the monkey wanted to eat, on exchanges because
our companions were going home. A lady stopped us and said that her
grandson wanted to bless us. Here it is respectful if you take the
hand of someone older than you and put it to your head. I do it to
old ladies. He came up and blessed us and then we were about to walk
away, but I figured, well we might as well talk to her. So we started
asking her questions and prepping for an invitation to hear the gospel.
She said that she had a friend who wanted us to teach them, but they
were shy. They wanted to hear about Christ and how we can be happier
as families. That just happens to be the first two principles of the
first lesson. So of course we gladly accepted. We wrote down her
name and his name. Her name is Emma Yap. The next week we found the
referral and taught him. He is old and didn’t learn a whole lot.
Later we returned to the house of Emma Yap and were able to teach her
and her daughter and grandson. We told her that there are 5 things we
need to do to be successful in this life and return to live with our
Heavenly Father again. She said "Excuse." and got up from her chair.
She grabbed a pen and paper and then sat back down ready to write them
down! I have never heard that before! That was awesome! They are:
Faith, repentance, baptism, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the
end. The spirit was so strong in that lesson and I felt that these
people were so important to the Lord. They were very grateful for
our visit and are excited for us to come back. We were supposed to
return yesterday, but ended up having to get the contract for our new
apartment we are moving into signed, so we didn’t have time.
Hopefully tomorrow. It is so amazing to have the Lord not only place
people in your path, but then have them come talk to you! I love
missionary work so much! It is such a blessing!

Our investigators are:
Kesha and Filip Lana - being baptized this week!
Johnly
Felix
Terry, Glendeth, and Mariss Warnak
Harry Villaver (his parents were baptized last year and he is excited
about the gospel!)
Angel and Joselyn
We have many more that we work with, but those are the ones that are
progressing... well at least have potential.
And a word for all that complaining in America about the Chinese
people in sweat shops who are making our things, if it is anything
like the Philippines, those sweat shops are what is feeding the
people, it really is a blessing. If someone can make 200 to 300 pesos
a day, that is great. There are so many people who have no work. It
may be only $20 a week, but that’s a lot better than nothing. I met
someone yesterday who has 11 kids, the oldest is 17, his wife left
them, and he drives a motorcycle with a sidecar from 8 in the morning
to 11 at night every day and probably makes 300 pesos on a good day.
That’s a hard life. It really helps you be grateful for what you have.

We were at a member’s house the other day. Their family of 9 had 4
eggs and rice for lunch. The only thing of value in their house is a
TV that probably didn’t cost more than $10. So no matter what life
serves you, smile and be glad that you have food and running water and
that your sandals don’t have holes in the heels and that you don’t have
to walk through sticky deep mud to get to your front door. We really
are a blessed people. I also know a great old man who is 65 years old
who still plows fields with a caribaw (like an ox) and a plow in the
heat of the day so he can grow some corn for him and his wife. What a
hard working man!

Well thank you all for your love and support. Eleanor looks very
cute in her bear coat... nice work Dennis! Tell Shane hello for me.
And Eric, that stud, keep up the good work! Dad tells me how proud
he is of you!
Love you all!
Elder Schenk