The Longer Ones

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Ch 54 The Narrow Path

This week was pretty good. it's a high 9/10 if not a 10/10 week. Personally I feel good. It's a great week! I have no complaints we're working hard, Elder Lowery is training me on how to be a district leader in case he leaves next transfer and we're still making sure that the work progresses and that we will continue to have investigators for next transfer. We are planting a lot of seeds.

As a companionship, we're doing pretty good! He kept laughing at me after zone conference though because I had to take out a loan and when Sister Hughes talked about spending money wisely, Elder Lowery whispered this in my ear

"That's straight chastisement from God"

It's true hahaha in my defense I lost 500 pesos and utilities in Valenzuela are ridiculous, but still I should've done better to budget. Anyway some fun stories!!!
.
.
We were looking for this one member and his name was Madueke. He's a part member from South Africa that moved to Marulas ward and is currently less active. I told Elder Lowery about him and he was like,
"Whaaaaaaaatttt I've never met anyone like that! Let's find him!!"
And then started a 3 hour journey lost in the barangays of Marulas.... after much tracting we found his house... with no one home. then we sat down, opened up and had personal inventory.
During the end of our personal inventory we came to the conclusion that,
"minsan.... we are bobos" (sometimes... we are idiots)
.
.
Yesterday we were spread a bit thin, we attended church 5 times. Marulas ward then Bocaue Ward then Meycauayan 2nd Ward then Valenzuela Ward then University Hills Ward. We were spread a bit thin... just a bit hahaha. But as we were counting our investigators in our two wards we realized something... today is the perfect opportunity to break our SMA record of 20 (this means having 20 new investigators attend church by their own free will (we did not force them, they chose to go to grow their faith and investigate whether or not they like the church and wanna be part of the LDS church)). We had 8 in Marulas ward which is a great start. and then Valenzuela ward started. We counted 12 and we realized if 1 more investigator went to church we can beat our personal record.... YAAAASSSS YASSSSS

but as time went on, it was still at 20 and Elder Lowery began to be very disappointed. Then I told him something straight from the heart
"Elder Lowery we got 20 SMA's and you're sad!? you're spoiled! We most likely have more progressing investigators than any other missionary in the next 3 missions"
"Is that girl baptized yet?"
"that's the Beehive President Elder Lowery"
**and then Elder Lowery joking around**
"What about that feller? is he baptized?"
"That's President Costales' son, he's about to go on a mission"
**deep bone sigh**
"I reckon 20 will do"
.
.
.
Last story, we were mapping to rearrange ward boundaries, because one of the wards is about to split and they asked us to help map to have an accurate boundary and to reactivate people. Simple enough. Anyway we were in a different area that we weren't familiar with whatsoever, and suddenly the skyline for the city started to disappear and we found a narrow bridge. It was over a large river and our worker told us,
"Elders I'm pretty sure this is the boundary of your mission, on the other side is Quezon City mission"
"Oh okay..."
Now like every self respecting Elder, of course we would not break the rules! no never!
"Elder Lowery do you wanna take pictures? but not go on the other side?"
"yes!"
we took a few cool pictures (; and after the pictures we felt the spirit disappear and we ran back on the right side of the bridge.

Oh we also proselyted everyday, solved a few problems, reinvigorated people's faith in God, and we're on track to get more baptisms next week. Life is okay




-Elder Villanueva
Urdaneta Philippines Mission
Quezon City North Philippines Mission

Ch 53 BANKAAAAAAA-i

This week was pretty good. it's a high 9/10 if not a 10/10 week. Personally I feel good. It's a great week! I have no complaints we're working hard, Elder Lowery is training me on how to be a district leader in case he leaves next transfer and we're still making sure that the work progresses and that we will continue to have investigators for next transfer. We are planting a lot of seeds.

As a companionship, we're doing pretty good! He kept laughing at me after zone conference though because I had to take out a loan and when Sister Hughes talked about spending money wisely, Elder Lowery whispered this in my ear

"That's straight chastisement from God"

It's true hahaha in my defense I lost 500 pesos and utilities in Valenzuela are ridiculous, but still I should've done better to budget. Anyway some fun stories!!!
.
.
We were looking for this one member and his name was Madueke. He's a part member from South Africa that moved to Marulas ward and is currently less active. I told Elder Lowery about him and he was like,
"Whaaaaaaaatttt I've never met anyone like that! Let's find him!!"
And then started a 3 hour journey lost in the barangays of Marulas.... after much tracting we found his house... with no one home. then we sat down, opened up and had personal inventory.
During the end of our personal inventory we came to the conclusion that,
"minsan.... we are bobos" (sometimes... we are idiots)
.
.
Yesterday we were spread a bit thin, we attended church 5 times. Marulas ward then Bocaue Ward then Meycauayan 2nd Ward then Valenzuela Ward then University Hills Ward. We were spread a bit thin... just a bit hahaha. But as we were counting our investigators in our two wards we realized something... today is the perfect opportunity to break our SMA record of 20 (this means having 20 new investigators attend church by their own free will (we did not force them, they chose to go to grow their faith and investigate whether or not they like the church and wanna be part of the LDS church)). We had 8 in Marulas ward which is a great start. and then Valenzuela ward started. We counted 12 and we realized if 1 more investigator went to church we can beat our personal record.... YAAAASSSS YASSSSS

but as time went on, it was still at 20 and Elder Lowery began to be very disappointed. Then I told him something straight from the heart
"Elder Lowery we got 20 SMA's and you're sad!? you're spoiled! We most likely have more progressing investigators than any other missionary in the next 3 missions"
"Is that girl baptized yet?"
"that's the Beehive President Elder Lowery"
**and then Elder Lowery joking around**
"What about that feller? is he baptized?"
"That's President Costales' son, he's about to go on a mission"
**deep bone sigh**
"I reckon 20 will do"
.
.
.
Last story, we were mapping to rearrange ward boundaries, because one of the wards is about to split and they asked us to help map to have an accurate boundary and to reactivate people. Simple enough. Anyway we were in a different area that we weren't familiar with whatsoever, and suddenly the skyline for the city started to disappear and we found a narrow bridge. It was over a large river and our worker told us,
"Elders I'm pretty sure this is the boundary of your mission, on the other side is Quezon City mission"
"Oh okay..."
Now like every self respecting Elder, of course we would not break the rules! no never!
"Elder Lowery do you wanna take pictures? but not go on the other side?"
"yes!"
we took a few cool pictures (; and after the pictures we felt the spirit disappear and we ran back on the right side of the bridge.

Oh we also proselyted everyday, solved a few problems, reinvigorated people's faith in God, and we're on track to get more baptisms next week. Life is okay






Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Ch 52 Opening up the Bowels of Heaven (it flooded)

Oh yeah. last week, the title was "opening my bowels to repentance" because I'm starting to love spicy food and I ate a kilo of peppers with rice. my bowels repented for 4 hours. (I miss Elder Ouabe's spicy food) but I'm good now. This happened a few weeks ago, I just forgot to mention it.  This week it flooded and flooded and flooded. the worse was up to our  belts or bellybutton but we pressed on. kept teaching. and it worked-ish?

We helped a guy save his truck from drowning so we pushed the dead truck for a kilometer through the 2-3ft floods. It was nice because he said he'll go back to church the next day. Apparently a very less active man who just needed a small push to get back in the right direction. yes I mean that both ways (truck and testimony). (;

We also baptized one of our investigators Melody. She's chill. Sometimes a bit of a headache because she asks a lot of deep questions about the fall of Adam, the resurrection, repentance process and may debate. Which isn't a bad thing at all, but with great patience and love, I believe like Melody, everyone can come to know the truth. We just gotta love em. Because if a missionary (or anyone really) is more interested in winning than loving. Their work will never amount to anything in the world. Harsh words probably.... but I mean it's true. And unfortunately as missionaries we see it happen all the time too... because it's a simple truth that people often forget. If only we forget ourselves and remember Him, we will all come closer to who Heavenly Father wants us to be. Because in every moment, we are given a choice, and in those those few moments where it matters, if we decide to choose to win for ourselves rather than what we know is right, it'll only bring contention. And well to summarize, "contention is not an attribute of Christ, but is of the Devil."

I also went to the temple. Had a very fun time. 10/10 would do again.

Spiritual thought of the week is about missionary work and humility. or any kind of work and humility in general. specifically in 3rd Nephi 13. I'll summarize for time's sake but I highly recommend people to read this because well I'm guilty for needing work on this too. basically, whenever you do work or spiritual work, don't do it to show off, do it because it's what you genuinely want to do. If you do it only to show off, your gain and reward will be that. But if you do it, even in secret. if we pray because we want to, because we genuinely want to come closer to God, then he will bless us everywhere else.



-Elder Villanueva
Philippines Urdaneta Mission
Philippines Quezon City North Mission

Also sleeping with a map because we were mapping and reactivating

the temple and temple pics

oh and monumento in caloocan. it looks weird at night






Ch 51 Opening my bowels to repentance

My little brother hugged Eeyore. He was at Disneyland and hugged Eeyore. I just wanted to mention that because I love Winnie the Pooh. My week has been fantastic to say the least. a few of our splits fell through so we had to focus more on valenzuela more than marulas this week. but it's okay. I'm repairing relationship between Bishop Osma and missionaries and the ward loves us now. like really really likes us now. I can't explain it. throughout the week we mapped, found a few of our unites, and met with our referrals from jiffy. basically with or without splits, we are busy nonetheless. Transfer calls was nice and refreshing because I didn't transfer! YASS! Finally the ward will actually get to know me. I'm so happy. But I wish I get to lead. Maybe next transfer or a few transfers after that. I still have a while in the mission, but sometimes I just wish I get to lead an area, or at least to not be a secretary. It's okay though, pagtsatsagaan ko na lang (I'll work through and keep going). I guess if anything, this is probably Heavenly Father telling me, "you're still in a preparatory state, keep learning and when you're ready, something will come of it."



Elder Lowery is very funny. different from other comps. Elder Lutz as a DL was ummm a bit, he was a bit lazy as a DL but very funny and got along really well with the district. Elder Ouabe was extremely serious as a DL but got the work done. Elder Lowery on the other hand is just funny and hard working. He reminds me so much of Elder Belnap. Has great ideas but says something stupid all the time. a few nights ago he passed out on the floor (I tired him out from mapping because he's not used to it) and Elder montemayor fell asleep on his bed next to where Elder Lowery fell asleep and the two of them were sleep talking together.



"mommy, mommy, help! no help" -E. Montemayor

"shhh hushhh it's okay" -E. Lowery

"Okayyy I love you" - E. Montemayor

"Package? package? mailrun. PACKAGES!!!!!!" -E. Lowery **screaming**



Together we're doing great. I'm using my mapping strategy to find investigators and PM families on wednesday-thursday, friday is unite referrals,tuesday is jiffy referrals, saturday is unites and sunday is results day. so far it's pretty successful model for our time management as missionaries and we had 20 investigators as church this sunday. I just pray it continues.



We'll keep working on it and see how we can improve our processes. But if you have any ideas that could help, we would love to listen to them. Lately though we have been praying that we will be given more knowledge because we know, that we can only learn things that humans are to learn but it is only through Heavenly Father that we can learn divine truths to help our lives. Like Einstein and Newton (who are very religious men), I believe that those truths are only possible because of their diligence and their ability to follow prompting from God.



Our wards. Marulas is getting there. We recently jiffy-ed, finished mapping in the ward, and hoping to find more people there to teach. Maybe switch focus families , or have a few FHE's in specific PM families.



In Valenzuela ward, life is good. Ward is very active, perfect to start unites, but I think it can be more aggressively marketed in the youth instead of Elders Quorum and Relief Society. I'll talk about it with Elder Lowery more. we also brought an Iglesian family to church this week!! it's so cool and I'm proud of them so much. #repenteveryday #relentlesseveryday



some pics

-my dad and bro seeing winnie the pooh and eeyore. DANG IT!!!!

-Elder Montemayor finally catching a fish

-a puzzle of My Neighbor Totoro that I dragged for 5 km to the apartment, with a picture frame





-Elder Villanueva

Urdaneta Philippines Mission

Quezon City North Philippines Mission




Ch 50 Find and Remind

Life is great. food is good. I got sick last week but worked it off. and overall life is great!!!! Personally I'm happy. still working hard. Marulas Ward is basically done with mapping and I'm trying to organize fellowshipping assignments and facebook night with bishop to organize moveouts and to reactivate. They're getting there though and I know with some more work, it'll work out. Valenzuela ward is great and and I'll start mapping it this week while also teaching Less Actives/Part Member. They're doing great, but both wards are preparing for one of us to leave just in case on transfer day. Personally I feel happy if I stay or if I don't, either way the area is better now. Do I have weaknesses? always but always repenting and improving. the mission is going pretty fast.

As a companionship. Elder Lowery is Elder Lowery. Funny accent, great teacher, could be bit more organized. I remind him a few things he forgets about though like baptismal clothes, or appointment with bishop but all is well. I don't really have a complaint. Here's a great companion and we do what we need to and get it done. Sometimes he holds his emotions in his face though and the members notice when he's annoyed but that's an easy fix. ummmm we talk about food places like Zaxby's a lot. we miss southern food... yeah. I'm starting to lead more though and the area is getting better every day.

As kabahays. There is a little bit of contention. But we're working it out.

One important lesson/story I learned in the week. A testimony doesn't die but it can be buried away. Last Sunday I helped a few less active families go back to church in Marulas ward and it all happened because we visited for 5 minutes. we quickly introduced ourselves. And he said we didn't go to church because his house burnt down. Right then and there, I felt prompted to ask about his family. He said they're okay but a bit sad.

"Brother for yo, do you believe the gospel can help your family"
"Yes, yes I think it can."

Right then I bore my testimony on families and Jesus Christ, and he went to church. But I don't think that was because of me at all. He already knew what was right. what he needed to do. and what he needed to tell his family. sometimes they just need to be reminded that. Because when we're offended or make a mistake, if we look at the bigger picture, that's a small blip in Heavenly Father's plan for us. Like a parent waiting for their child to come home, when we get back home. When we go to church, He doesn't care what we did in the past. All that matters is that you're home. That he sees you in His home at church. If we just choose to remember what we already know, that Heavenly Father loves us, and wants us home. If we remember and do that, I know that He'll be well pleased.

Also this week we got 18 investigators at church, 1 baptism, and reactivated 2 families, life is good! and we burnt a few things... notice this is an electric stove.... it's yeah.

-Elder Villanueva
Urdaneta Philippines Mission
Quezon City North Philippines Mission


Ch 49 Villanueva in Valenzuela

This week has been very tiring. From transferring to teaching Unites to the Caloocan blitz to mapping Valenzuela and Marulas wards, we had a very productive/tiring week. I'm in Valenzuela now with Elder Lowery. I've been here for only 4-5 months I think... and I've had 10 areas.... (moral of the story: don't tell the mission president you love to travel).

But so far I love it! I am losing a bit of weight though but we're still working nonetheless. Both wards are very excited to have us and we're doing what we can to find and map and baptize the rest of them. There is one thing I noticed though, for a while I've been transferring every 3 weeks. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, in fairness I think it helps me hasten the work even more. It reminds me that my time here as a missionary is very very short, and I should work in my area everyday like it's my last. Because well it might be. I don't know what Heavenly Father wants of me, but I'm sure that wherever I'm sent to next or if I stay here, I will work like it's going to be the best last day of my life, and find and teach everyone Heavenly Father wants me to.

As a companionship Elder Lowery says a lot of stupid things but he is pretty brilliant. He doesn't say offensive things just dumb things like, "Is commodity a type of bird?" or "don't say linguist, that's an exotic dancer." it makes everyday pretty interesting. I look forward to another funny quote to write in my journal. but in all seriousness, he has a lot of great ideas. Including one called Unites. It's a play on words for Nephites and he seeks to unite an institute type class and jiffy. Basically every saturday we ask members to bring friends for some food or a short game then we teach Lesson 1 or 2.... and if they don't go to church the next day we drop them, if they continue to go and to Unites then we keep teaching them until baptism. and so far it has been very very effective.

In this zone I feel very comfortable. Elder Ewing and Lowery and Montemayor are teaching me a lot, and they're one of the hardest working missionaries I've met. I'm working harder than before and I'm excited to keep on learning and growing to do what Heavenly Father knows is best for us.

Oh also we had a baptism a found a cool burger place, I made fried chicken yesterday which was some dang fine chicken. I trained a ward clerk things, bought mangoes for 12 pesos (worth it), and waded through some belly button deep flood water. Which is the perfect height for us to wade through. I also got sick but proselyted anyway and now we got 4 more investigators!!! life is fantastic! I also stepped on poop but luckily it was not a rusty nail. #blessed

You see it's those small things in life that are great to remember. Those small and happy miracles that if we constantly look for, we'll remember and see how He blesses our lives everyday.

-Elder Villanueva
Urdaneta Philippines Mission
Quezon City North Philippines Mission