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