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