What a Week!

Family and Friends,

I appreciate all your thoughts, prayers, emails, etc. This week has been great. We had a great district meeting and we helped each other to find new routes to help investigators who lack the progress they need. I also had exchanges with Elder May following our district meeting. It was great! I led my area which was kind of intimidating being that I don't know the area amazingly well and I am still learning the language, BUT it went great. I was able to find the houses of all our lessons and we were able to teach almost all the lessons we planned that day. Elder May and I both learned a lot from each other in regards to teaching techniques, language skills, and missionary life in general. It's always nice to have exchanges and see how other missionaries do their work. I really have enjoyed this week and have become more and more comfortable with the language/teaching/my area. I know it all takes time.. .but sometimes you just wish that time would come quicker! But that's missionary life, so I keep pressing on. 

We have had some powerful lessons this week with both investigators and less active members. Its just super difficult sometimes to bring that change in them that you know can happen... thats the battle. I've learned this week that the Holy Ghost truly is the best teacher. Nothing can happen without it. He is who brings the change in these people's lives. It's the same for us to. That is why it is so important to always strive to have the holy ghost with you... its what leads us to repentance and faith. I had my first experience of committing someone to baptism which was powerful and awesome. I loved it. Its so true that if you just open your mouth the lord will fill it with what needs to be said. Oh we also had the baptism of the little 9 year old boy.. i was able to perform the baptism. what a powerful experience! so onto the funny stuff now...

Sweet heavens. The rat saga ended violently (but also continued.. .that will make sense in a minute). Soooo. we set up a trap on our kitchen counter. As we are about to fall asleep we hear it snap. So we go out and see the rat with its nose/mouth caught in the trap. We were so amped! We decided to just leave it until the next morning (trying to be exactly obedient and go to bed on time). So 6;30 the next morning rolls around and the first words that come out of my mouth after prayers are, "im so glad we have a dead rat in our kitchen"... NOOOOOOOOOPPPPPEE! the demon escaped out of the trap. oh but you better believe there was a puddle of blood next to the trap from the blunt force trauma to his head. This thing literally is satan. So we thought it might die from that... So the next night i am writing in my journal while Elder Wilstead is showering. As i'm writing i feel something run across my foot, look down... yep. Demon rat just staring up at me. I run away like a 7 year old girl screaming and run and jump on the kitchen counter. Elder Wilstead comes out of the shower shampoo in hair and all.. and just yells at me to tell him what is going on. After that.. it turned into a war. Oh and keep it mind for this battle elder wilstead is in just a towel. hahaha. So we equip ourselves with permetherane, butchers knives, rubbing alcohol. the works. It ended up in our bedroom so we decided to go head to head with the beast. We locked ourselves in our room and were trying to figure out how to kill these thing. This demon rat survived about 45 sprays of permetherane in the mouth. im serious when i say this thing is evil and possessed. We then attempted to get it out from under our beds and at one point we were throwing knives at it. It was out of control. After about an hour of war.. Elder Wilstead takes the initiative and just starts attacking it with our dust pan. I mean he is throwing this thing around like a rag doll.. smashing it into the wall and everything. the rat isnt phased.  Finally he gets it into a bucket and we decide to drown it. so we transport the demon into a bucket of water and put a lid on it and leave it over night for it to drown. Wake up. STILL alive. it treaded water for 8 hours. unbelievable. I had had enough. I took a small container and pushed the thing down into the water for 30 seconds. Just call me the early morning murderer. It finally died. So later that night... another rat scoots around our kitchen. i wish i was kidding.. but im not. Sorry that that is most of my email but it was unreal and ridiculous. hahah.  I hate rats with all my heart.

I am grateful for this opportunity. I do want to tell you 2 things that make me trunky as all get out. 1. i miss the days when i didnt sweat at 7 am in my own home... haahahha. 2. i miss carpet like crazy. none here. Things really are amazing here though! i love it tons and seeing the progression in myself and in others is amazing. Love you all.. Rely on the Lord.

Palangga,

Elder Stagg

yes i bought some sweet nike indoor shoes. haha

classic missionary 

yes that rat is huge... so the first two is it in the trap, the 3rd is the next morning. yes that puddle of blood is from its head. and it lived on, no big deal. 

lunch time in the 'pines

thats our barricade,, and yes we are holding knives. and yes i am sweating profusely.

the rats in that bucket... then thats the rat after i drowned it to death. haha 

elder wilstead and i bored waiting for everyone to show up to the baptism.. classic philippines activity. haha

the baptismal service

MJ and his family

this is elder wilstead and i preaching to a carabau (water buffalo) they are freaking huge!!

First Full Week in the Philippines

Family and Friends,

Wow. What a week. I've learned SO much about people.. missionary work.. the gospel.. companionships.. life in general basically. First note.. when you work hard.. you will reap the rewards. That goes for anything in life. Sports, jobs, school, family, scripture study, relationships, etc! Elder Wilstead and I have done our absolute best to be exactly obedient. From being up at exactly 6:30, to doing the 4 hours of studies a day (as a trainee you have 2 hours of companionship study so it adds an hour than what a normal mission study schedule is), to continuing to teach lessons even after we have been punted (thats our phrase for when you just get kicked out when you expected to teach, or when they arent home... it happens quite often unfortunately, and it usually follows with me acting like a football announcer.. "They were right there on 3rd and 1 but somehow fumbled the snap and its now 4th and 27, looks like they will have to punt. Blue 42, blue 42 hut hut... Punt." thats usually how it goes. hahaha. Story of the Philippines for some reason. But yes, obedience brings forth blessing. We had 8 investigators at church on sunday, and a lot of our less-active members who we teach weekly, at church. What a great feeling. We have a baptism this week of a little 9 year old boy. Thats exciting! Plus more in the near future. Our mission vision is to baptize every week and we are trying to make that happen. We have a baptismal commitment extended for every week from now until middle of July. 

Now for some funny stories. Oh my word. I had a handful of experiences this week that were just unreal to say the least. ahah. So first one that was nuts was on Saturday night. It was our last lesson of the night, we were teaching a wonderful family about the restoration. When we were almost wrapping up, the husband came stumbling in... absolutely plastered. And plastered is the understatement of a lifetime. He ended up telling us how Elder Wilstead and I could find a wife in any country, japan and singapore, to be exact. ahaha. and he kept pointing at me and yelling gwapo ka! which is.. you are handsome. it was hilarious. He was yelling about how i was going to get stolen away and kidnapped cause im attractive. it was the most awkward hilarious experience ever. BUT, i learned something in that chaos. I had an unmistakable impression of love for this man. And that our father in heaven loves him as well.. Heavenly Father truly loves everyone and sees them for their FULL potential. We committed him to not drink on monday so that we can teach him. hopefully he remembers! haha. Yesterday was hilarious too, because of time constraints on sundays we only had about 2 hours to proselyte. We walked an hour to a hopeful investigator, only to have him not be home. bummer and a half. Our next appointment was with a couple who are about 80 years old and speak decent english. we actually taught them in English which was super awesome. hahah. BUT, oh my word. It was the weirdest teaching experience ever. It took him about 7 minutes to say one sentence, and then when you were trying to respond he would cut you off. He at one point was telling me a story about how our words are heard by others that took, no joke, 15 minutes to tell. Totally irelevant to anything we were teaching. They had no desire to listen to us and it was gettting quite frustrating. At one point he asked, "does your church believe if Jesus Christ knew how to read and write?" in my head.. i was going nuts. we are sitting here trying to talk about the great apostasy and hes asking if Jesus Christ knew how to read or write. Its lucky i am a missionary and have the Spirit with them, cause if not.. it could have been a mess. The lesson ended with us saying, "All your questions boil down to the question, is Joseph Smith a prophet of God?" we testified and left. I cant do justice to this story over email. It was unbelievable. I learned something big from this experience though, thats really what it comes down to. A strong testimony in Joseph Smith. If you believe that... you know Christ lives, you know this is his true church, you know he leads it today, you know the plan of salvation is real, everything. So that's my challenge to you... if your testimony is struggling.. read the first 20 verses of Joseph Smith History and pray about it. pray sincerely for a witness and you will receive it. 

I learned this week that missionary work is work. I 100% testify of that... but its an amazingly rewarding work. I am grateful for this opportunity to be here, i really am. Something i learned this week is so simple, but so profound. The "seminary answers"; prayer, scripture study, and church attendance... really make or break our belief and testimony. If you feel like something is missing in your life, analyze if you do those 3 things daily (church weekly). You shouldnt be surprised by what you see. The Lord blesses those who do their best. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I testify of that. I also testify that we must use his Atonement EVERY day of our lives. Its the only way to progress and improve. I love you all. Be grateful for what you have.. because some people don't even have enough money for rice. I know that doesn't mean much to you when i say that, but it means so much to me. I love you all. Push along and move forward in the goodness of God.

Palangga,

Elder Stagg

these first 5 are of elder wilstead and mine's adventure to make an emergency bathroom break for him in the sugar cane fields.

this is each of us on the back of a tricycle. tricycles are a common form of transportation. its a motorcycle with a side car basically. they are a circus. haha 

a cool pic of elder wilstead and one of myself.

scenery pics and what not.. the one that doesnt look like much (its kind of hard to see and i will get a better picture eventually is of a carabau (water buffalo) they are ginormous. and people ride them places but they are mostly used for field work.