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
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