Hey everyone! So this week has been great! I got a couple emails telling me to work on better details and answering questions so that’s something that I'll try on doing.  Some weeks it’s easier than others but I’ll try my best! I’m happy to report that I had a good week. I just put hard work into action and was happy with my efforts and saw some progression as me as a missionary.  

 

So to answer a couple things right off that bat...

 

There are like no street names in the Philippines. There are, but no one knows them. They just use buildings or businesses as landmarks then work their way around. The street we are on is called Gregoria though.  I’m not sure how big it is but there is a buliding that are a part is connected to thats called Markella then on the other side there is a big house. So maybe you can find something. I’ll try to find a address this week! 

 

4th of july! Sounds like you all had a great celebration. Not going to lie, I missed it a little. It may be my favorite holiday besides Christmas! It’s just a great day of food games and AMERICA! haha. Here in the Philippines it was just another day of work and walking.  We did make spaghetti though cause the apartment next to us has the other set of missionaries in this ward and there is an American, Elder Meek, from Woodruff Utah!  Sounds like a terrible town. 180 people only he said! haha.  But he’s a cool guy! Played sports and what not in high school! 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL THIS WEEK! MARK, SHAUNA, TYCE, AND JETT. July is just full of birthdays in this family! Hope the celebration goes well!! 

 

WHEN do you guys go to LJ!!! Take a nice wave for me! 

 

SO for this week! 

 

Pretty busy actually! Lots of teaching with members present which is good but at times members just say they want to go and I didn’t know they were coming with us so we have like 4-5 members with us. Way too many. Kinda makes me a little frustrated when Elder lets them all come without me knowing. Im good with 2 max. That’s all you need unless it just gets to relaxed in lesson or just too much of a distraction. Definitely something I won’t let happen anymore.  But besides that the work here is going.  THis week we were able to finally contact a potential investigator and it went really good...

 

Jefferson Benson - we were sitting in the house just kinda chatting with him and what not then Elder Dalumpines just whispers to me. Ikaw magtudlo sa iya. (you teach him). i didnt really know what he meant this time cause there’s been time where he’s said that to me and I’ve taught the whole lesson so I started and taught and just went the way I was feeling and just  focesed all on baptism and Gods plan for him. Finally Elder Dalumpines jumps in and talks about the gospel and we just had a good lesson. i was glad i was prepared and listened to the Spirit and led the lesson the way i thought it needed to go and turns our we have a BAPTISMAL DATE WITH HIM!!! It was great cause he said that he desires salvation and said that he would like a chance to have that gift so we just laid it out on the table and i think he really liked our message! it was great! im hoping to really progress with him and make something good! alot of prayer and study will go into this one! 

 

As for our other investigators they havent been at there house or still trying to figure them out. like they come to church but they have no desire to stop smoking or if they want to be baptized that dont have a desire to come to church.  

 

As for Richard we havent been able to find him again. we are going to search for him more this week. Elder Dalumpines said he saw him in town and he just kinda hid his face so maybe hes a little shy of us now or i dont know but hopefully something happens.

 

JR Amato- told us that first visit that he doesnt work and hes always home but whenever we stop by he is never home and his family says hes at work till the next day. so we arent really sure were he is at or if his family is making up accusess. just need to catch him at home again and be able to teach him.  

 

As for me and the work here i feel like im progressing. i feel like as i work hard the Spirit is leading me more and more. sometimes i feel like Elder would rather socialize with the members then work if its like 730. sometimes if we have no more teaching im fine with stopping by a members house and having them feed us but at the same time if we still have places to go id rather go there  and sometimes i feel like he gets a little annoyed or thinks im a kill joy but hey thats not my problem. Im just doing what i need to do. hopefully i can continue to work hard. thats my plan. im just tightning the belt and doing things how i want to do them cause when i do that i feel like im finding my purpose more and more and having more blessings and guidance of the Spirit come to me and the work!!!  

 

Im so glad to be here on the mission. this week has been great. still lots to work on. still lots to improve. still lots to teach but as i continue to push through it and give it my all the weeks move faster and the days get better! I love this gospel and the blessing it brings to me. I was reading in the Bible for personal study yesterday and this morning about when Christ got baptized in the different accounts but i loved how in everyone it mentioned that after he was baptized the voice of God was heard saying this is my beloved Son in whom i am well pleased. i was thinking how much that applies to us.  God is well pleased in each and every single one of us when we do the right things. perfect or not we are all His beloved sons and daughters and He wants the best for us. that's why He’s asked us to follow his Son. the example for all. that's why Christ came here. "not for the righteous but for the sinners" (luke 5:32)  def a good feeling i had reading this and hopefully its clear to all of you! THIS CHURCH IS THE TRUE CHURCH. THIS IS THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. THIS IS THE WAY.  

 

I love you all and miss you but i love this work. who knows about next week but all i can do is continue to do this work. the Lords Work!! How great a calling and privilege!

 

Love,

Elder Sargent!   

 

P.S.- again sorry about my spelling! im just losing it!  

 

 

 

 

 

me and a couple of the ysa in the ward. 2 out of three of them have there mission calls. the girl leaves july 18th to somewhere in the philppines and the guy in the blue shirt was supposed to leave to the provo mtc on the second cause he got assigned to Australia but he doesnt have his visa yet to australia so hes just waiting on that but the church told him hopefully he can leave on the 13 of august  

 

 

 

this is me and sis mayang. a recent convert in our ward as of last September! 

Hey everyone! So I've gotten like 3 mentions that today is my 8 months mark on the mission meaning that im 1/3 done. my time does move. I didn't really even notice this 8 month mark had hit me yet.  I realized it but it was never going through my head like holy cow. I'm at my 8 month mark. Good and scary. Nothing bad.  Good that time is moving and moving fast but at the same time its like ahh shoot. I've let time just pass. Still feel a little lost at times or like I'm at my 3 months mark again just cause of my progression I think can be better but I don't know how to progress. At times I feel like it's just time that I'm waiting on but at the same time when will that time come? But before I know it July will be over and who knows what this month will bring me.  

 

But as for this past week it was okay...

 

I'm still trying to figure out this area. It's different. Our area actually isn't like in the city. We have like 4 areas that we go to that all are like out in the bukkid about a 10-15 min tricycle ride away. So the teaching are still a little hard to have a lot a lot but we are definitely teaching more than Minapasok.  We have a baptism next sat the 13th which I'm looking forward to.  She's a 12 year old part member but she doesn't really have any support from her family cause the people she lives with I don't think are members. 

 

I can't figure out the area yet with our members and our investigators.  I've been trying to figure out who they all area and I'm getting a hold of the Less Actives but the investigators I don't know who they are yet. Whenever we plan to teach a investigator I ask Elder Dalumpines who they are and he just is like oh this is a house that has some investigators that we can teach.  It's almost like they aren't set in stone it's like if they are there they are there and we can teach them but they aren't progressing.  I'm trying to find some new ones that we can just start over and kinda reshape this area and the progression cause I truly believe that if we can get the ward to help this ward is going to be even stronger than it is. and it's a good ward! I like the membership support.  We always have referalls from the members but they never know the address or anything so we can't really contact them.  So maybe just a little bit more clarification on some things can help a lot here.

 

We did find a few new investigators that I'll update you with next week.  One is

 

Richard- about 14 years old. One day we were just taking a rest on a rock and this kid just sat down and started talking to us like we were best friends.  We decided to open our mouths and share a message with him so hopefully this week we can teach him again.

 

JayR Amato- about 22 years old. He was actually blessed in the LDS church cause his parents are members but split when he was still young. He's been interested in learning more about Mormon's and what not but he only believes in the Bible and likes when we have Bible references to our teaching to back up our points cause he wants to change but he wants to make sure that its like a legit plan for him and he feels like the Bible is the book to give him the answers.  So maybe this week we'll teach him more about the BOM and hopefully we have some progression. 

 

Well family.

 

I hope this answers most of your questions with the new area.  Kinda scattered brain but just a lot on my brain to figure everything out.  Lately I've been so tired and I have no idea why. I want to work harder but my body just drags and it's hard to focus at times and even harder to push through it. Pray for me that I'll have strength this week! Know that I love you all.  This work is true and it's hard but I'm chippin away at it trying to find my groove.  It will come. Like I said it's just time at this point and I'm just waiting.  I pray for you often and hope that all is well!

 

 

Love you all!!

 

Elder Sargent!

 

Well I have been transferred and made a Senior Companion. My New Companion is Elder Dalumpines from the Manila Area.  He just finished his 12 weeks training but since he's filipino he doesn't have a follow up so i was just made his senior. My New Area is called Kabankalan. its about 4 hours south of Bacolod.  Its a city so its pretty nice.  All the rooms in the Church have air conditioning which is nice! haha

So here is my week!

So monday and tuesday. so monday and tuesday i was in sagay with Elder Manu. that was a really good experience and that area definitely has some prepared investigators ready to be baptized. good opportunity to me to actually see some progressing areas after being in Minapasok for 6 months.  Tue after district meeting i got the call notifying me that i would be transferred so we had to go all the way back out to minapasok and pack up everything and clean up the house a little.  I thought there would be no more missionaries there but turns out that the the elders that got assigned there were already in the sagay zone and are now the Zone Leaders. So hopefully they can do something there.

Wed- bright and early we headed out to Bacolod to meet up with our new companions.  At the Chapel we meet at i saw a couple elders from my batch and Elder Leng. haha. that was pretty fun. Turns out the Elder Cannon is my District Leader! haha. we are both excited for that! should be a fun experience.

Thursday- thursday was a full day of work.  I was excited cause pure illongo but turns out its like my first week in the Philippines all over again. im not understanding anything. the vocabulary is way different here plus the speak way fast. im picking up maybe like 5%.  its bad. i don't know what else i can do with the language learning. every area in this mission has a different set of vocab and accent i swear. Just when i think i see a light the power goes out. its very difficult to grasp and figure out what else i can do. i know that i still have a long time but you think that 8 months out id understand more then 5 percent in the language i learned. But the work goes on.

Friday- i didn't wake up feeling too good. i thought i could just work it out but turns out that afternoon i ended up returning home and have had a flu the past days. ive spent my hours just resting and loading up on medicine and water.  Today i'm doing fine. my body is just in a little shock maybe cause its just stiff and i still have a runny nose but i think i'm on the mend. (i'd much rather take the flu for 4 days then a kidney stone for 8 hrs!)  

The new area should be good. have some good strong members that are willing to help and actually have teachers in all the classes! My new comp... he's good. he doesn't speak any english.  He's like 5'2 so i got a whole foot on him! haha.  he's kinda quiet around the house but he has good relationships with the members which is good. it should be a good companionship. i just need a little more time to figure out the area and then start finding teaching and baptizing.  (just wish i new the language)

Well family hope you all have a great week this week.  I'm looking forward to this week. We have Zone Conference tomorrow which should be good. i'm looking forward to that. hopefully my sickness doesn't stop my mind from working and i can get everything out of what president tells us.  Should be a good week of learning the language again and teaching and finding and strengthening this area. I've been called to lead this area for a reason so i will do all i can to do that! hopefully i can fulfill my purpose!

Know that i love you all! time moves quick. take advantage of it! do your part and the lord will do his!

Loves,

Elder Sargent

 

Me and my new comp Elder Dalumpines.

 

 

hey family how are you doing??? First Off HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL!!!  this week has been pretty good i guess. not much progress but not much digression either ill explain later.  But yes this week is transfers.  I was thinking this week that this week is transfers which means just 2 more transfers after this and ill be at my my 1 year mark.  crazy to think that way. that in about 18 weeks ill be one year down. its seems long 18 weeks but at the same time transfers just go by really fast. it seems like just 2 weeks ago i figured i would be staying again in minapasok with elder delos santos and no he's already packed and ready to go home. I have no idea what transfers will be except that i will have a new companion. i don't know where ill be or who it will be but i've set some new goals for me. I guess that i don't care who my companion is or what he's like but 'im going to live my mission the way i want it to be. after my training i think i was still a little shy with the members and with the people and just kinda let Elder Delos Santos come in and take Charge but now its going to be me. that's my goal. i realized that 'im definitely a better leader than a follower so tha'ts one thing i'm going to strengthen is my leadership no matter the circumstance.  

So as for this week kinda like a last farewell week for Elder Delos Santos. we spent alot of time at members house and while we still taught i wish we coul'dve taught a little more.  but at the same time a lot of our lessons fell through AGAIN!! 

Sis Maurine - For Sister Maurine she told us that tue was her only night that she could do it so we had a plan to go there tue but when tue night came around we had waay lalaki (no male) so without a male we cant enter in there house. we had plan to watch the restoration movie with her cause we talked about the restoration last time and she seemed to like it so we though that clearing it up with a video would be nice and she just just watch and lesson and take in the spirit. so HOPEFULLY WE HAVE A LALAKI THIS WEEK!!! 

Angelo - Angelo had had a fever for like 1 week so we were'nt able to teach him so we finally texted him again and he didnt respond so we just decided alright we'll just stop by cause maybe he just doesn't have load(money to text)  so we stopped by but he was kinda angry that we stopped by without texting him but we did so he said next time again. 

I don't know about him anymore.  he just come up with excuses now. hopefully i can work with him to find his problem before its to late.

Alota Family - Alota Family i think is a no go know since they moved. They still may visit the old house cause they have a farm area there so it may just be stop by and see if there and if not then continue on with the work.  

So that is pretty my week in a nutshell. for the first half of the week i will be working in Sagay with Elder Manu. he's been here for 6 weeks now in the field. he's the one i  went on splits with in Minapasok.  His trainer and E. Delos Santos are the same batch so they return to there homes this week. then the second half of the week i don't know who or will ill be and i really have no idea what will happen so i'm up for anything i guess! 

I Hope you are all doing good and having a good time. I want you to know that i feel your support here in the mission. Everyone in my zone says that im the the Dear Elder Owner cause i get so many letters!! haha.  I love you all so much and i hope you the Best.

This week should be good. i'm going to hit it hard! that's what i signed up for so that's the plan.

The Church is true! 

Love you all! 

Elder Sargent

 

us eating carabou. i dont know if we have those in America.

killing a chicken!!

dinner sunday night for the farewell of E. Delos Santos at the Stake President house!

 

THIS IS EVIDENCE THAT I DO MY WASH!!! 

 

Hello all again! Weeks just get faster and faster and faster! Like this week June is already half way done! Its crazy how time passes. Everyone says that the first 6 months are the slowest then the next 6 are faster then the last year is just a slide.  I compare it to a water slide. The first 6 months of this mission are like waiting in the line for a water slide. Just slow. Excited but just want to switch lines already cause you don't like wasting the time when there are other slides to ride but then you get to the top finally (latter 6th months part of the year) and are about 3 people behind from sliding. Still nervous cause you don't now what to expect but you can see that this slide has made everyone else down at the bottom want to ride it again but you still have doubts. Then I think you get to the 1 year mark and that's when the line conductor says "alright you can go"  you still are just scared nervous excited and just take that final breath and kinda scoot to the edge of the slide until you drop! that's what I feel like the mission is! So I’m close to the final drop! 

 

Does that seem like a fair comparison??

 

But anyway this week has been pretty good. 

 

Angelo- .... yeah.... hes been giving us excuses every night that he's busy. I’ve been praying for him that he'll have at least one night open were we can finish teaching him the RESTORATION!! The most important part! So hopefully this week na lang!

 

ALOTA FAMILY-  They didn't come to church. We stopped by Thursday the usual time they tell us to come by and only the daughter in law was there. She told us to come back on Sunday same time when everyone should be back or home. So Sunday we went there and only the son and his wife were there. They are actually moving this week like 4 hour walk into the Bukkid so probably wont see them again :(  but we taught them about the plan of salvation and they enjoyed our message. Hopefully sometime they can accept our message. I feel like we planted a seed and now down the road they'll be ready to accept! 

 

Sis Maurine- Sis Maurine is actually from a very small indian country. Starts with an A. I cant pronounce it. She has lived in Bug-ang for 19 years now cause she moved here for work with her sister, met here husband in Manilla and now lives in Bug-ang.  She is fluent in like 7 languages. Cebuano, illongo, english, indian, portugues, and I think one other.  Her English isn't that great but she understands.  I actually tried teaching her in English but my mind would just flip over in illongo. Kinda weird.  She said she wants to get baptized but her family is against mormons.  She said the most Humble Prayer at the end of the lesson.  just thanking the lord for sending us to help her get closer to Him.  I definitely feel like this is an "elect"!  We have a meeting with her tuesday so hopefully everything goes good!!

 

So its kinda back to Square one with finding but its alright cause its fun to find new people and hope that the except us!  This is Elder Delos Santos last week then transfers next week so hopefully he just works hard with me and doesn't become to trunkie! haha but I got faith in him!!

 

Well family that is my update for this week!

 

I sent some good pictures and am taking more! so be happy and cherish my face! haha!

 

Know that i love you and miss you all! not much else to say besides that!

 

The Church is TRUE people. The Book of Mormon is true. remember the words of Jeffery R. Hollands Grandfather:

 

  "No evil man could write such and book and no good man would write such a book, unless he were called of God."

 

I know that is true!

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Sargent! 

 

 

 

after we stopped by a little resturant that has a real american taste. the  pizza and hamburger were great then to top it off i had a chocolate banana shake!! PERPECTO!!! 

 zone pictures

Hello all! 

How are you all doing today this week this new month?? can you believe its already june. I remember thinking in January and February while struggling.... "ahh just get to june or july and you'll be fine.  I think im still not totally fine in all the areas i thought i would but i am definitely in a better place then i was then and im only doing better from now on hopefully! its so crazy how time goes fast doesnt it. like im 7 months out on my mission now. thats a long time. like i was thinking you guys probably tell people how long ive been out like a couple months ago like for example "oh yeah hes been out for three months." that just sounds like baby stage but when you say 7 months its like im experianced now. i dont nkow to me it just seems like ive graduated from baby missionary to like something more. 7 months. dasig gid( very fast).  

So this week has been pretty great! all though we are struggling wtih our investagators we have been tlaking to people like crazy just trying to find the "Elect" here in this area. We have some new investagators that we are excited about that excepted our first message last week pretty well and we are going to return to them this week so if anything good happens ill let you know about it next week! 

So for aour investagatros this past week... 

Little bit of a bummer but lots to work with them this next week.

So for...

Angelo: Angelo has been working all day this week. Hes been preparing the school grounds at the elemntry school casue school starts today. everyday we texted him asking if he was availible and he always told us i wont get back till like 10 at night! so we actually didnt have the chance to teach him this week but hopefully since school started we can find time were he is available.  

Alota Family:  So we had a great lesson with them this week.  we taught them about the WOrd of Wisdom. The father and the son are the only ones that smoke and drink and they admitted they just do it as a hobbie more then anything. so they realized the importance of it and commited to start living it. daily by slowly but surley stopping.  so then we told them that this isnt a commandment of Jospeh SMith but of God and to know that Jospeh Smith is a true Prophet they need to come to church. the really wanted to and were asking what time it would start and what they should wear. we thought they were going to show up but they didnt! ahhh. 

Now that we have good investagators we just need to find ways for them to progress to the best level that they can! 

As for the rest of this week. ive just been working on my understanding of grammer and hopefully that can help me understand better! ive also had two splits this past week. both missionaries were only 3 weeks in the field. one from manilla so pure tagolog and the other form New Zealand. pure english! so it was pretty differnet but fun at the same time. ive learned that if i need to train now i can do it. i can carry a lesson and find people to teach so that was pretty good.

Besides that thats about it here in Minapasok! Looking forward to this week and all that it has for us to do.  I know the church is true and that this work is only going to get better and bigger these next few days weeks months years! im excited and looking forward to it! Im just working hard and letting the lord do the rest! 

KNow that i love you all and miss you all! 

Sorry about my speeling and english. it has never been the best but its hard to type cause in my mind i think half illogo then half english so sometimes i have to sit and think of the word in english or prhase in english.! haha hopefuylly i forget english when i get home! thatd be pretty fun! 

But anyways love you and miss you all! and with that im off! 

Love,

Elder Sargent

 

Hey all! 

I'm so glad that everything is going good for everyone! For this week has been pretty good! pretty fast and I'm looking forward to this one! 

So just a low down on everything! 

So our teaching! we are improving our numbers and finding more investigators. We realized earlier this week some things we needed to work out in our companionship to make it better and have the spirit with us more and more everyday.  We realized that both of us were just waiting for the other person to act or take lead.  For Elder Delos Santos he just wanted to sit back and have me lead so i can learn then for me i just thought he was trunkie and just kinda lost his motive(which there is still a little) haha but we sat down and talked and finally had some communication on what to do to make this the best 4 weeks of his mission. I straight up told him that I'm fine  with leading but at the same time I can't be babysitting. I cant be the only one planning or deciding were to go or who to teach or just what to do! cause that's what i was doing and I wasnt getting any help.  He would always just ask me where are we going. or you plan. or just little things.  But on wed we finally talked it out and have doing   alot better with share of responsibility of 2 people in a companionship. I'm still leading but there is more help on planning or just deciding important things.  

For me I learned a lot. I really learned that if there is no communication in a companionship this work can't be done.  its true. the spirit leaves and wont help one no matter how hard he tries. I felt like after I had support of him the spirit came back into our teaching and we were able to increase our numbers and just have a better week.  Of course we aren't perfect teachers or companionship but everyday we have been trying to progress. i still see some areas that could work out a little more and can work on that this week! 

For investigators this week! 

So first

Alota Family:

So the Alota family. I'm not sure if I've mentioned them but they are all investigators.  There are 4 of them. Nanay and Tatay(Mom and dad) then there son and his wife. Nay and Tay are probably in there 60's and his son Joven and his wife Likem are probably 30ish and have one daughter maybe 3 years old.  so we meet them a couple weeks ago and teach them about once a week. last week we set a baptismal date with them but they didn't so up to church. This week we are going to focus on helping them progress and getting to them to church! 

Angelo Dela Cruz! so far he is our only progressing investigator. This week we plan on getting him a baptismal date. We had a plan last time but we brought our branch president and he just messed up the lesson. He didn't stop talking! haha. so this week na lang! 

pero im not sure about him! I faith with him but whenever we teach him he seems like he's not interested yet he still comes to church and does our commitments! 

So my fun story of the week! We went up to this one barangy with our branch president cause we had a potential investigator who we were going to stop by but she wasn't there so we just thought sige ah. (okay) we'll just teach to the neighbors around.  So probably 90% of this area is Seventh Day and the just like to debate about the Sabbath day. Our first house went really good. she was 7th Day but she was very interested in mormons and our culture and how I knew the language and she just thought it was really cool that we would spend time devoting to the Lord! then the next house! Here is my story! 

So go up to the door yell "Balay" which is their way of knocking here then the open the door invite us in and the debate is off! this lady just is asking questions and opening her bible then I'm just sitting there not understanding really I just know the topic then I was like well I don't want to sit here. How can I prove this lady.  So I think think think. then say....

"sister. may ara ko isa ka pamongkot lang sa imo" (sister i have one question for you)  "sino natuga sang modern day calendar"( who created the modern day calender") her response tawo gani(people) then i just was like exactly that sister. so I mean that Jesus Christ didn't make this calendar. Whose to say there were calendars back in that day that.  In the bible it just says 7th day. So it's not important that the sabbath day is on sat or sunday but that its the first day because after the ressurection of Christ that's when the Aapostles took the sacrament. It really doesn't matter the day we have a Sabbath but as long as you have one a week and rest from you labors as the commandment commands.  She didn't know what to say but was just like that's not the commandment the commandment is Sunday.

So she just wanted to debate.haha.

But thats my week in a nutshell! 

Hope all is well this week for all of you! Language is still a struggle but I try not to look at that anymore and just pray that God will bless me! Don't worry I will learn this language. and if I don't.. I don't know! haha but that's not the important thing. The important thing is that I serve with all my heart might mind and strength. the Lord didn't  send me to master a language but to master the spirit. to serve diligently and obediently and in return I can receive blessing for me and more importantly be a blessing for someone else! I see my time moving faster and faster which kinda scares me but at the same time its good I just have to work harder to keep up with it! 

The Church is True. Its truly a blessing we have a living Prophet.  Think about it! That's all I have to say this week! 

I love you all and miss you all! 

Elder Sargent! 

P.S.- sorry about the spelling! 

Here is a Picture riding on top of a Tubo Truck! or the big truck the use for loading sugar canes! seriously these trucks are large! I'll take a picture this week of a full one! But this is our Branch President Pilicano. this is after going to a little barangy(town) and debating with many 7th day about the Sabbath day! the story ill include in my big letter! haha