Family,
I sent some pictures for you. The first one is me after climbing up the mountain in our area going to Yellow Bells. It is a steep stairway that keeps on going forever... hence the sweat. The second one was at the Cebu Zoo and the third on is my anak, my trainee, Elder Galdonez. He is from La Union in Luzon, Philippines. He speaks ilokano but knows tagalog, english and visayan. He is my Jr batch, and came in just after me in the mission, but he got sent home after 8 months. Now 8 months after that he is back, and he is excited to be here! I love him. He makes being a missionary fun. He also loves taking pictures. He whips his camera out about 5 times a day to take pictures.
We are having quite a bit of success here in Capitol. We have 5 people committed for baptism, two with baptismal dates, and a family of 6 that we are about to commit, the parents, Teresita and Ruben Ruiz and their 2 eligible kids ages 9 and 8. Hopefully we can get them baptismal dates tomorrow for the end of February.
Take care. Love,
Elder Schenk
Family,
It's been a while since I have written anything in Visaya so here ya go. Kamusta man mo? Pas pas lagi ang mission. Dili gud ko andam sa paguli. Basin moabut ang panahon nga andam na ko. Malipayon jud ko sa akong bagong area. Hapit moabut acong kauban, mga three hours lang ba! Excited man ko.
Well how you all doing? I have been having a great time in my new area. Capitol has turned out to be my favorite place in all of the Philippines, mostly because of the people. I get my companion tonight actually, in about three hours. He served for eight months or so and then went home and now is coming back to finish his mission. They said I am going to be retraining him, probably so he knows about our new focus. It will be nice to have a steady companion again. It really has been a miracle though that I have been able to work in my area almost every day because someone is able to work with me. We have had so much success here. My favorite success is with Brother Brent Nephi Bontuyan. He has been inactive for a year and a half or so, ever since he dropped out of high school because of medical reasons. He is now 18 years old. We had visited him a few times and he committed to come back to church, but wasn't able to come last week. The bishop came with me to teach a lesson with them on last Tuesday and he asked them (Nephi and his cousin Ashley, 17 year old young man) to work with me since I don't have a companion. So on Wednesday we got them all dressed up in white shirts and slacks and gave them some ties to wear and tromped them off for a day of great missionary work. Ashley thought it was hard work and hasn't been back since, but Nephi worked with me all day Saturday, came to church on Sunday at 6:00 in the morning (because of Sinulog... I’ll explain later) and worked with me for two hours after that and then worked with me again on Tuesday! He is my right hand man, and 3 days ago he was inactive! Now he is only less-active. I like that much better. He said he had prayed for guidance and the next day I showed up and started preaching repentance. So he repented! I like that story. He wants to serve a mission now. We are doing all we can to prepare him.
We have also had success with the Sara Family, Geneline Villarine , Pablo and Gina Vercede, the Ricafort Family and Brian and Sariah Bacus. Brother Bienvenid Estrada needs some extra prayers right now. He is really struggling to pay his tithing because all of his income goes to paying off debts. He has ended up working on Sundays to try to make more money. He needs a lot of help and wisdom, both financially and spiritually. We had a great lesson with him on Sunday.
We have also committed to part member sisters for baptism on March 3, KC and Honeybabes Mata. We also found a new family who wants to be baptized, Ruben Ruiz and his wife Teresita and their 4 young children. Two are above 8 so they can be baptized. We had gotten a ride from Ruben and talked to him about the church. He said he had been taught before and wanted to continue. We committed them for baptism on the first visit. That was a great success. Now we just have to nurture them with the good word of God.
This Sunday was Sunulog, the biggest catholic party of the year and I heard that Cebu has the biggest celebration in the Philippines, and lucky us the parade went right down the main street in my area and past the church. I heard that 3 Million people attended! The street got blocked so cars couldn't get in and people packed in. When the parade was over the streets got filled with so many people walking around that all four lane were full of people. It was crazy! So to avoid that we had the two wards combine and had sacrament meeting at 6:00 in the morning. Because the road was blocked we had to walk about a half mile from any direction to get to church.
Tell Grandma and the youth that I did get their packages. I just forgot to write about it. Thank you so much. I also got some Christmas cards so no worries there. The only package I haven't gotten yet is the one from Diane which she supposedly sent a month ago, maybe she hasn't sent it yet.
Love you all! Take care,
Elder Schenk
Family,
I am officially companionless. Brother Enriquez went home yesterday to spend some time with his family before he leaves for the MTC on Saturday. I loved him so much. In the short 14 days that we were companions he became my favorite. We had so much success together and became really close.
This last week has been really successful. We were able to teach 24 lessons, 19 of which were Recent Convert & Reactivation. That is a huge improvement over last weeks 13 lessons. It was so nice to have a companion and a list of people to teach. I am seeing the first fruits of completing families. In one family in our ward, the Mata family, everyone was baptized besides the two oldest daughters, one who was planning to be baptized with her family but hadn't come to church enough times, and the other just wasn't interested. She had actually told the missionaries once that she just didn't want to get baptized. When we met her yesterday she had no desire to listen and was pretending to be sleeping on the floor and almost wouldn't even talk to us. By the end of the lesson she was sitting up and participating in reading and answering questions and at the very end we committed them both for baptism! That is just one more miracle I have seen in the weeks since I have been here in Capitol. I have been thinking a lot about all of the miracles I am seeing every day here and this afternoon remembered a line in my patriarchal blessing that says that I will see many wonders in preparing the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ and establishing Zion. I realized that each miracle I see in the mission is a fulfillment of that promised blessing. I have been seeing miracles every day in the last weeks. I love being a missionary.
Ask Winston Baring what his father’s name is. I have a very low chance of getting assigned in Lapu Lapu where he lives because I have had four areas in the two surrounding zones. I could refer his father to the missionaries working there too. Also give an address.
The two Americans I am living with are Elder Gertge from Ogden Utah and Elder Parkinson from Rexburg Idaho. We have really been getting into buying ties and trading them. Last week Elder Gertge came home from Pday with 10 new ties from an ukay ukay (second hand clothes imported from other countries). He got them all for about $5! That has been fun. I have given away almost all of my good ties so I have to get some new ones.
I am getting excited to see the North Wing when I get home. It looks really good in the pictures. Nice work Dad.
Love you all, Take care!
Elder Schenk
Family,
It is sure good to hear from you all. Thanks for your letters. It was also really nice talking to you all on Christmas. I've been starting to think more about coming home since this transfer started. It is all coming way too fast and I'll be home before I know it. I'm not ready for that yet. I still feel like I have so much work to do here helping the members and you can be so effective as a missionary because you have been called of God and have His power and authority. In the short two weeks that I have been here I have grown to love the people in the Capitol area. I have had five less-active members commit to come back to church and one already has. Her name is Fe. She also paid tithing which she has only ever done once before. They have been really struggling financially and I told her that the Lord wants to help, she just has to do her part and pay tithing. I am so excited to see the blessings that come into her life. We will see if the others come to church as well. We visit them a lot to make sure they follow through. I love working with the inactive members. It is so much better than working with investigators. They already have a testimony of the gospel but for one reason or another they have gone inactive. Some because of a lack of money and not being able to get to church, others because they have been offended. But in almost every case they want to come back, they are just unsure of how to do it. They are afraid to take the first step and that is where we come in. We bring the spirit back into their home and rekindle their testimony and help them to overcome their fears and realize all of the blessings that are theirs if they will just repent and follow the plan that our Heavenly Father has for them.
My companion is great. He goes on his mission in 11 days so I only have another 7 days with him and then I get a new one. And then three weeks after that I get another companion, but this time an Elder, not just a stake missionary. I have really enjoyed training. It is a lot of fun and it helps me to see the areas of my work where I need to improve. I have to live what I teach. It is a really great growing experience. Brother Enriquez, my companion, is growing a lot too. He is still a little hesitant but when he teaches he does a great job.
Also my ward is fantastic! I have the best bishop I have ever seen or heard of in the Philippines! I was companions with his nephew, Elder Plania, when I was assigned in Consolation. Bishop Tylaran is just so motivated and excited to help. The spirit is so strong in his home. You can just tell by the way you feel around him that he is a great guy. It is a pleasure to work by his side.
We are also so blessed here with meal appointments. We have only visited members here so often we get fed. Since we now have no more tracting in the mission, we only find investigators through the members, usually part member families. We only have one investigator and he is living with a member family. Hopefully he will progress.
I am glad to see that you are making huge progress on the North Wing. It looks good. I am excited to be able to see that when I get home. Sounds like the Lord has been blessing you there with providing you with the tools you need for cheap. The only reason (other than to see my amazing family) I would like to be home is to be able to help you build. I love building and I haven't learned about dry wall or electrical yet. That would be interesting. But it sounds like my younger brother has grown right into my shoes and kicked me right out! He is the new right hand man. Sounds like he is doing good though. We will have to fight for the #1 son position when I get back home.
Thanks also Eric for your great advice on being enthusiastic. I’ll work on teaching my companion that through example.
Sure love you all. Take care,
Elder Schenk
