hello all again!! how are you all???

 

This week has just been like what the heck happened kinda for me! as in some how total we only taught 10 lessons...like total! haha. we worked for like 7 hours everyday as well. Seriously no one was home except for the kids that don’t work. Everyone else was working. Or they just said they were busy and said to come back later but in the area you can’t go back that same day because the houses are too far away from each other.  So the first part of the week I was just kinda down. Felt like I was just wasting time and not progressing still. Then on Friday I just got done with my self doubting and what not and just started smiling at everyone...talking to everyone and if I didn’t understand them I just shook my head and acted like I knew what they were talking about. I actually think my conversational skills improved alot and a couple members seem closer to me I think! haha. I wish I would have figured that out like 3-4 months ago! haha. But as for this past week yeah I was just very mingaw(poor) We don’t know what happened.

 

But as for our investigators I think this area is just going to need some miracles soon.  I realized yesterday that I’ve been here for 4 months and I haven't had any baptisms. I then realized that I haven’t had one progressing investigator here yet. Baptisms I can handle. You know the time comes for those but at least one investigator that keeps commitments would be nice. I don’t know how to help these people. I feel like I could if I could teach like I can in English but that’s not working too well for me yet so I’m just waiting for some time in the mission to just be a teacher and not a robotic teacher.  Maybe it’s the area, maybe it’s me.  Not sure. But whatever it is I think it’s just going to need some miracles. 

 

But don’t worry! I’m not down. I think I found a groove for me to see progression and actually progress these next few months. I just gotta keep doing my thing.  I’m actually excited for this week cause I’m going to just live with no regrets. If I mess up who cares. I’m American, of course I don’t know this language but hey I’m giving it my best and that’s where the blessings come. Its like P-90X. That’s a hard work out.  You cant jump in on day one without working out before and succeed every repetition with ease. But as you keep doing it and going hard, by day 90 you’re just ripped. Maybe you didn’t see progression while doing the program but others did. Then when you look back you see a bunch! haha. That’s my new program. M-2yrX. M- missionary! It’s worked for others that have worked hard so that’s my program. Work hard. Play hard. Live with no regrets!! 

 

Cant believe it has been 6 months on my mission already! Crazy. 1/4 done! Man time just goes by fast. But it’s good. I like time running fast but I just gotta run with it! I love this place here. The food, the people, the scenery. Sometimes it’s not the best but overall it’s the place to be! haha. I love this gospel..  the scriptures, the prophets, the happiness and the joy that I benefit from having it!  The church is true people. If you don't know it...figure it out. If you do know it..cling to it. That’s all I can say!

 

Looking forward to this next year and a half! I love all of you

 

Love,

 

Elder Sargent!

 

Me and elder pulsipher just trying on some crocs at the crocs store in bacolod! haha

this is me in bacolod last week. we ran into a missionary couple and they happen to be in uncle rays ward up in bountiful. i guess he was their home teacher.

Hey Everyone. sorry my letter is a little late this week but ive been in bacolod all day cause Elder Delos Santos needed a Xray for his depature in June so we have been at the Hospital all morning waiting then lunch and a alittle shopping but i didnt buy anything cause i didnt find anything. i was looking for a nice indoor/outdoor basketball like a spalding or willson but they didnt have anything good. i was also looking for a pull up bar but it was like 2000 pesos and huge so it wasnt worth any of my money! haha. but lunch was good. i wanted to go to Mcdonalds and get a Hamburger but we decided to go to a chicken and unlimited rice place cause it was much cheeper. it was way good though!

So Jealous mom and dad are in La Jolla right now! after my mission in the month of November i plan on going there then maybe hitting up the Christmas Devo in SLC! haha thats my plan for after mission but for right now i just got to take it day by day and progress to become better missionary.

So this week has been pretty good. a lot better then the last and it was pretty good. So just pretty much the same thing over and over. the Investigators we are teaching still aren't progressing when the say they'll do stuff. 

Bro Jomare- amo na gihapon(same as always). we continue to stop by and he continues to enjoy our lessons and ask great questions but he wont come to church. he has a baptismal date now for may 18th but just cause he doesn't keep they commitments I'm not sure if it will happen.

Sis Lovely's kids- there 10 and 8. not much to progress. we are just trying to work with the Parents and get them to church. they said they would both go and we even texted them Saturday night and they still said they'd go but they didn't. we stopped by later that day and they just said yeah we didn't feel like it. we didn't have money. just the same old same old. 

We taught a few first lessons this past week so hopefully i can report more to you all on them next week.  we taught a lot this week to new investigators trying to find some that we think are ready and willing to act on our message so hopefully we can continue to find more and teach more and have some success in this area! haha.

Its not the people that are bad. the people are great. just humble people that are poor but just there life style they aren't willing to give up anything for anything. they would just rather sit around all day and not really do anything. They say they will but in turn they don't. That's the hardest part about this area. Its just the people don't see the importance on acting on things because they never have had to act for anything. they've just grown up that way so i cant blame the people but just the lifestyle and the lifestyle of the area! budlay gid sia(its very hard)! haha!

But the work is going better. its a lot better with Elder Delos Santos then before my first 2 transfers.  Its hard to believe almost 6 months are now done and time will only get faster.  This past week I've seen myself through different eyes. I've been trying to connect with the people a lot better and find simple ways to connect with them and when i do that they seem to open up to me better and listen to me more.  I've seen the Future Elder Sargent and the impact that I can have on these people if I don't ever give up and give it my all to do this work but more importantly  do this work for this people here. I think the mission will only get better now and now is the time to really just go for it and do all I can to learn everything there is. if i wait any longer I fear it will be to late! so that's my plan! and as  do that I can promise my self that this will be the best two years of my life!

I'm thankful for all of your support and love that I feel here across the world! I'm thankful for this gospel and the happiness and the joy it brings to me and for the knowledge I have that it can bring that to other people.  I'm so thankful for my progression that I have had this week and pray that it will only progress more and not decrease! Salamat ko sa tanan mga bugay nga ang ginuo nagahatag sa akon adlaw-adlaw.(im thankful for all the blessings the Lord gives to me daily. I know this work is true and I'm proud to be here in the Bacolod Philippines Mission!

Love you all!

Elder Sargent

P.S-  Sorry waay pictures... waay time to send them! (waay-no/none)

 

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing good. I’m doing okay! This past week was a little rough for me but General Conference definitely turned that around and now I’m  doing great! 

 

So last week was just kinda hard for me. I felt like I was just being tried in every way possible. Just little things were getting under my skin. I was just struggling with the language  just little differences in the culture with me and Elder Delos Santos. Just being way tired and just the members.  I can’t really explain it but I just think I was very stressed with everything... just feeling behind the pace... not really sure if I’m progressing like I should or could but yet I feel like I try everything I can but things don’t come to me even when I pray hard and work hard. I really think this last week was just the Lord’s way of testing me and humbling me even more to really call upon Him and wait for His time.  But hopefully this week goes better and I know my purpose more because I feel like I was able to get a lot of unknowns-questions I had answered at conference. Funny how you pray for one thing but your answer was actually something way different. I still haven’t watched Saturday or Priesthood cause President wouldn’t allow us to go. I was a little mad about that just cause it’s only the Prophet and Apostles speaking to us, but I guess I’ll just wait for the April Liahona to get to me so I can read them. 

 

But besides last week we had an interesting week.  haha

 

This story illustrated here will just explains this area to perfection:

 

So all week we were excited to go teach Sister Lovely again and we did. Her and her husband (Bro. Joel- member:but inactive) have been living in Manilla for the past like 25 years so they were just all speaking Tagolog meanwhile I’m sitting there just lost but just kinda whatever cause it was Tagalog but once we started the lesson Elder Delos Santos asked if we could speak only in Illongo or Cebuano cause I don’t know Tagolog. haha (i dont know illongo or cebuano either!) jokes. just illongo! But the lesson was mostly Cebuano still. But I was able to follow.. didn’t really understand. But as we started the lesson we were just laying out all the ground rules for baptism and then out of nowhere she’s just like I’ve already been baptized. We were like what??? THE LADY HAS ALREADY BEEN BAPTIZED!!! idk know why she didn’t tell us but we were just like are you kiding me! haha. It was kinda funny but we are still going to teach them all again cause they don’t remember anything and they actually have two kids that are above 8 years old we may baptize if the lessons go good!! haha. That just explains this area. Sometimes its just like "do these people think" haha! I think things are only going to get better from this area. People have said that Minapasok is the hardest area in the mission just cause its way bukkid the people are uneducated, unmotivated, and don’t do anything. Maybe Tyler Sumner Can relate to that! haha. what was his first area by the way!

 

But family I guess that’s my story for the week. The other investigators weren’t home the 2-3 times we stopped by this week so that was a little bad but hopefully we can get them this week. 

 

So family! I know that this work is true. I know that this church is true and is run by Jesus Christ! It’s such a good feeling to have that knowledge. I realize happiness comes to those that know.  What a true fact. Like seriously this work is very challenging at times. Especially for the brain. Sometimes I want to quit and just go home but for some reason I’m still always happy. I never knew why but I’ve realized that it’s because again happiness comes to those that know. What I know, I can’t deny.  Because I know these things, I know there is a bigger picture that I can’t see and I know that I just have to endure and give it my best. It’s like in the Book of Mormon and in the Bible... those that believe and have faith are healed through miracles or produce miracles. I know that miracles can’t be produced without Jesus Christ at the center of everything.  I know that and that’s what brings me happiness!

 

I love you all. I miss you all. I love this work and continue to love... its all my life!  Just not right now!

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Sargent!

 

I guess you could call us the Mormon Batallion or just the MPA(thats the rebel army that lives in my area!) no big deal! haha

hey everyone!! how are you all! how was conference?? I don't get to watch it until next week because of the time change but I'm so looking forward to it! I wish I kinda got to watch it live cause I feel behind the ties now although I'm living in the future but its kinda weird! I hope you all enjoyed and ill make sure to take good notes and then report next week.  I only have three more conferences and I'm home. Weird though that I'm about three weeks off from my six month mark. time goes by pretty fast. And Natalie is home in like 5 months. crazy! But family I'm doing good right now.  This week was pretty good. we have a investigator with a baptismal date and maybe another this next week. ill talk about that more later on in the letter but I almost was going to die this week! I had Kidney stones! So crazy story!  

Haha. So earlier this week I thought I had UTI cause when I went to the bathroom I thought I had the burning feeling then on top of that i always had the need to go but couldn't or just dribbled a little.  so I started taking some ibuprofen and loading up on water but I still had the feeling. then about on Thursday after noon I had some pain in the lower back on the right side but only for a few minutes so I didn't think anything of it. Then Friday it was the same thing and just a little worse burning when peeing. But I slept through it and woke up on Saturday feeling fine. Then around 430 that afternoon I started getting excruciating pain in my back and it just killed. I called the mission nurse and she just said take more ibuprofen and drink a lot more water and hopefully that can take some pain away in the back.  But the pain didn't cease at all. It just keep moving around the lower back and finally worked its way to the front right in the abdominal area.  And that's when it just took off.  By that time it was about 630 and we were in the middle of a lesson and I was just breathing hard without breath just sweating and trying not to disrupt the lesson. Luckily the people have no electricity so they couldn't see my face but I'm sure I was just in pain.  After that lesson I seriously was just moaning and semi yelling (kinda like tennis groans and moans.. haha!) walking back into town were we could take a 10 min motor back to our apartment. on the way back on the motor I had to pull over cause I had to throw up and even that didn't help the pain. So I got back on the motor and got back to the apartment threw up two more times.  I called the mission nurse again and they told me they were going to drive two hours to pick me up and get me to the Emergency room cause they knew I had kidneys. She is a Nurse and her husband is a retired Pharmacist so they knew the symptoms.  Finally around 1030 still in pain they picked me up and hopped in the truck and we all went into Sagay to the Emergency room.  They loaded me up on some pain medicine and gave me some anti inflammatory pills for the burning when peeing and told me to drink lots and lots of water. That night and on Sunday we stayed in Sagay at another missionary apartment and camped out there and are still here in Sagay but are returning home today to Minapasok.  The doctor told me if I still had pain on Monday to come back and they'd run an ultra sound to see if I had a stone in there stuck but I'm pretty sure it's passed now.  I don't have any pain and so that's good! I'm going to stay on ibuprofen and water for the next few days but that's my story! Kinda crazy! I'm way tired now though. I think my body is just kinda in a hangover shock stage but I should be good! 

So that's that! oh and also we went out to church in Sagay and I was talking to the members and pretty much understood everything they said to me except a few words and I've decided its just the language they speak in my area is a lot harsher sounding and 80% Cebuano. I think I'll be good with the language but I just gotta keep working harder! haha! 

This week was pretty good though. We have been working with our investigators and we have a new investigator with a baptismal date. Her name is Sis. Lovely. Her husband is a less active and from Manilla and so we stopped by her house and she was there so we just committed her to baptism which she said yes to. hopefully we can progress with her and really get her committed! 

Our other investigators are doing good.

We are dropping Bro Simeon. all he does is debate and ask ridiculous questions like how many spirits we have in our body or where peter the apostle is right now.  haha. 

Bro Jomare. He's doing good. He's very interested in our message but for some reason whenever we teach him there is always a distraction for him. Like I mentioned last week a lady came in and just started debating then this week they had some visitors over that he didn't even know and then in the middle of the lesson they just interrupted us and were trying to get him to stop the lesson so they could get a ride home on his motor so we had to end the lesson short.  

Besides that's about it here in the mission life. I think I'm doing good.  haha I don't really know how to grade myself cause I try to help these people but they don't have any desire to change or progress. its just a hard area. I'm just glad I'm here for my first area cause things can only get better from here.  but I try hard and don't let them get me down! Sorry I don't have any pictures this week. I forgot to grab my plug for transporting pictures cause I was in too much pain to think.  But everything is good. doing good and looking forward to this week! 

Know that I love you and miss you all!  See you in like 580 give or take a few!  haha. something like that! 

Love you all! 

Elder Sargent!