Wednesday, January 29, 2014
1/28/2014 Alaskan Weather!
hey everyone!
We're still getting the edges of storm and the last few weeks have been remarkably and surprisingly like alaskan summer weather! it's crazy, I'm not even sweating much lately!! :) but it's good....just wasn't expecting the weather here in Cebu in January to be like an Alaskan summer with the wind and rain!
Right now I'm working on the Isaiah chapters in Second Nephi, I'm learning a lot! When I was younger they were so hard to get through but now they seem to just open up and if I just focus, I can find out so much! but it's like the ocean, there's always more to explore if you're willing to go in-depth!
Some other imagery I've learned in my studies is how we can progress - sometimes it's like the parable of the sower and we have to remove rocks (obstacles) or worldly cares (weeds) and be humble/pliable (loosening up the earth) and prepare ourselves to recieve the word (seed). It can also be compared to stone cutting, you have to chip away the pieces, looking forward with an eye of faith to the finished product. but it requires the heavenly attribute of patience as we focus and set our determination to perservere no matter what it costs.
anyways, hope all's well there!
-a servant of the Lord,
~Elder Dallin Carlson
1/21/2014 Sinulog is almost over :)
Sinulog is almost over! :)
hi everyone
The weather here with getting the edge of the hurricane was just like an alaskan summer! not super warm, plenty of wind, some rain, and even when it's sunny you don't sweat because of the wind! It was a nice little break from the usual sweltering weather here.
I've been a little sick lately, but I might finally be getting better - it seems no matter where you are, the holiday season leaves most people with some sort of illnesses, and leftover colds and sinus/throat problems. whenever there's a gathering of any sort, you can hear people coughing here and there.
We've used the bikes a couple times, but it's really hard to bring a kuyog, if we want anyone to come they have to ride one of our bikes. But we don't do that much because we have a really good deal worked out with our branch president, who does habal-habal (gives people rides on his motorcycle for money) for his work - we give him part of our support, and in return he gives us rides whenever he's here, and kuyogs (comes with us) almost every day.... so.. the bikes would probably be best used somewhere else where it'll be used ALL the time, maybe somewhere where they don't usually have a kuyog. Biking makes it really hard if we're on the hills/if it's muddy/if we have a kuyog unless we ride a motor.
As far as our work, last week we were able to do splits and therefore teach plenty of people, but we didn't do so much of stopping to talk to people... so that's our focus this week - we've been doing really good with that, and I think the Lord really wants us to do that because we've been punted a lot lately, so I guess it might be to help us go out and talk to people.
it's hard to remember all the names of all the people we talk to, I've definitely been using the Potential investigators section in the back of the planner a lot. and it's always exciting to find former investigators or less actives who want to be taught!!
We haven't been able to visit Johanna in the last week, but she might have been able to get me a sinulog shirt with my name on it! we'll be visiting her tonight and teaching her and her family about baptism.
oh yeah, one cool thing that was able to happen on sunday was a few less actives who came to church for the first time! one of them lived really far so we went out to their place early and walked with them to the branch president's house so she could get a ride from there!
that's about it for this week - until next week! :)
-og sulugoon sa Ginoo,
~si Elder Dallin Carlson
1/14/2014 Sinulog
Sinulog
another great week in Pinamungajan! The biggest progression here in the last week may have been my personal progress, but that's still really good. the story of what's happened for me here in Pinamungajan is pretty much the same as mosiah 18:26 "but for their labor they were to receive the agrace of God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having the bknowledge of God, that they might teach with power and authority from God."
In out work lately, we've lost a few investigators(not as much as the zone leaders here), and so we've been putting a renewed focus on finding - we've been FTEing everywhere and even tracting a little bit, and finding a lot of people - I'll let you know next week about anyone who progresses a lot, we're still working on the follow-up appointments.
We had one investigator who had a baptismal date for febuary, but last Sunday she had just gotten back from taking her husband to the hospital and next week she'll be working for sinulog.
Sinulog is sort of like thanksgiving with the huge parade aspect of it, but it’s to respect their saint, santo niño. And since it’s on a Sunday every year, I'm always a little apprehensive about sinulog because since everyone wants to see it and because there's a lot of job opportunities that pay really well, the branch attendance is going to drop...probably all over cebu, and maybe even on nearby islands.
Me and one of my zone leaders had a really good conversation last night about the prophets and how they were real people and how Lot and Noah probably had friends that weren't bad people but just because of persecution or embarrassment or family members wouldn't listen, and we pondered on how they must have felt. But in bearing testimony and giving our all, we slowly secure our own salvation as we do our part. It all depends on our faithfullness.
love you all!
-a servant of the Lord,
~Elder Dallin Carlson
1/07/2014 Investigations of Investigators
It's been another great week with continued progression! I continue to have increased companionship of the spirit and resultant increased guidance as well as increased power and authority in my teaching. I'm finally learning how to remember that I'm not perfect but continue despite that. The key has been to remember it but not focus on it. And with that I’ve been able to make a lot of progression, which has given me more desire to do better which has helped me learn more which has given me greater desires for righteousness, etc just like Abraham.
One noteworthy thing lately that’s happened is with one of our investigators, Johanna Ondong. She finally knows that this church is true! She came to church, and with the upcoming temple trip, she wants to go see the temple! She knows that she can’t go inside, but she heard that the spirit’s really strong there (even outsdide) and she wants to experience that for herself. I'm so happy for her and the changes she's making in her life - we're hoping to be able to teach her husband and children as well, but in the meantime we'll focus on her and wait for their time to come. It will eventually.
Then there's an investigator family, the Jarana (huh-ran-uh) family - I've been teaching them since the end of November...they wouldn't pray at our first lesson, and when we asked them to pray the second visit they pulled out a piece of paper and read off a prayer they had written according to the pattern we had given them - we tried to explain to them that their prayers were supposed to be from the heart and not recited, and we thought that was the end of it, but they were too used to the recited Catholic prayers. It turns out the had lost their recited prayer for awhile, but time before last they pulled it out again and read off their prayer - later as we planned our next visit I realized if we didn't teach them the right way to pray they'd never be able to pray sincerely with real intent with faith that they'd get an answer, and without which they would not be able to progress. So we taught about praying sincerely, and as we taught I had a scripture come to mind, which was later brought up by our branch president as well - i guess we were on the same spiritual wavelength. at any rate, it was 3 Nephi 13:7-8 about praying with "vain repetitions as the heathen". Earlier they had brought out the prayer, and I had asked for it to show my companion - they never asked for it back, and they understood that they shouldn't use it... while they were reading the scripture and looking at the Book of Mormon I slipped the paper into my bag - it is now in my journal as remembrance of them and how after that thir prayers were more sincere than the prayers of many members.
Hope all's well wi8th you and yours!
-og sulugoon sa Ginoo,
(- a servant of the Lord,)
~Si Elder Dallin Carlson
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12/31/2013 Happy New Years Everyone
Happy New Year's everyone! You're probably wondering about Christmas traditions here - it's a lot the same as back home, just add Catholic masses. But yes, Santa does make it here to the Philippines and everyone knows about him. they hangup stockings too, and they also have Christmas trees. President Schmutz gave us some advice about becoming like Christ this CHRISTmas - as I did that and came closer to him, it became my best Christmas ever! We also taught that to our investigators and members. In my reading the Book of Mormon lately, I came to 2Nephi1 where Lehi tells his sons to"awaken" - it's sort of like right after we wake up, when we're still groggy and stumbling around... we're doing stuff, but not that focused. There's a definite difference betwe4en that and the time that we truly wake up and doing stuff much more effectively - so to apply this I've been striving to drive out any spiritual grogginess in my life and do everything the best I can and not worry too much about the mistakes I make, just only focus on how to fix them. I'll focus on just my progression because if I focus on the areas where I'm lacking, that will just make me frustrated and discouraged. I'll just take the advice of someone else and focus on the things which I can control - onestep at a time, though I may be but a "awkward faltering toddler" (Dieter f. Uchtdorf) in comparison with our Heavenly Father - I want to run, but I must not let that discourage me; one step after another. Anyways, g2g - happy new years again! -Elder Dallin Carlson
12/17/2013 Almost Christmas...
This last weekly planning session my companion and I opened up a little more to each other and it really helped with our relationship especially when he told me that I was a good missionary/example! And right after that I said a very sincere prayer in which I was prompted to say that we were ready to move forward and then I just felt the spirit so strong - stronger than I have in a very long time. which is why i told you at the conference:
I feel like I'm finally turning a corner in my mission! I was letting my self slide back in some things and I was sort of going through the motions but then I had an awakening of conscience and realized it wasn't right, and the more I've progressed spiritually, the more I understand what I should do. One of my more recent realizations is more of a re-realization, something I realized back when I was still in elementary school. I have only one chance to go through this mission and this life, and I need to give my all and not keep anything back. Otherwise, there's chances that are wasted where we could have done more - and here's the part i didn't understand in elementary - we are accountable for all the time/chances while in this life - if we are given five talents, ten will be required.
with turning the figurative corner in my mission, I feel like I'm full of light like President Uchtdorf's talk about light and darkness in general conference. I'm more happy, motivated, and feel my conversion deepening.
The mission talent show went pretty well - with my performance last year, they put me at the end of it, and i was super dehydrated, couldn't play the piano right, but everyone was able to feel the spirit and everyone stood and clapped - i felt like it was horrible but everyone else saw it as really good - mine was the only one where everyone stood and clapped, same as last year. I guess that goes to show in our lives how even though we make mistakes and may stumble, the important part is putting our all out there and reguardless of our imperfections, the result can be astounding.
So in the song of my life, I'm going to stumble on and keep improving, and hopefully someday people will stand and clap for me because I've given my all.
-a servant of the Lord,
~Elder Dallin Carlson
12/10/2013 Another week in Pinamungajan
Hello everyone!
Another week in Pinamungajan, my most bukid area yet - i have to go to Toledo if i want to do any (grocery) shopping!
Anyways I had splits in Aloguinsan with Elder Sanchez and there was a lot of walking! We tried to go to the scheduled appointments but most of them weren’t even there or hiding maybe…. So we went to try and find someone interested in being taught and we were able to have 2 different On The Spot Teachings(OSTs)! They definitely have a lot of potential, just as long as they don’t let anti's in their family get in the way. We just had that happen here in our area, and I’m trying to help my companion get discouraged about it. They said the father was angry about them learning, so they weren’t going to continue. We did all we could and after that all we can do is let them exercise their agency.
But on the brighter side of things we had a returning less-active family whose two daughters got baptized! One was 8 years old and the other was 9 years old, so we had to teach her all the lessons and then my companion got to baptize them a little over a week ago! They were super cute about it all and bore their testimonies on fast Sunday and now we’re working on the new member lessons.
Later today our District/zone of 12 missionaries will be getting together to practice our skit, it looks like it’ll be super fun/funny and creative! We’re going to have two missionaries where one doesn’t have the Christmas spirit and so the other missionary tells him that anything someone sings with the Christmas spirit is going to come true and so they sing different Christmas songs and the other members of the zone come on at each one, acting out those songs coming true.
and I'll be doing something for the mission christmas talent show - I'll be re-wording "it's not easy" or "superman" by five for fighting (since I can play that on the piano) but once i'm done with it it'll apply to the mission! It's gonna be awesome :)
love you all!
~Elder Dallin Carlson
12/03/2013 If a Gingerbread Man spent the holidays in the Philippines with a missionary...
1. he'd spend a tropical snowless Filipino Christmas visiting families with us, the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and help those families learn how to come unto Christ by living his Gospel, and eat dinners at the houses of different Filipinos. "this gingerbread person" would clebrate Christmas mainly by opening a Christmas package from my family.
2. This gingerbread person would learn about "Cebuano", the linguahe here on Cebu Island in the Philippines which has a lot of español mixed in with it since the spanish reigned here for so long. He would also learn how to eat rice with a spoon in it's right hand and scoop towards the fork held in it's left hand. It would also learn to "bless" parents and elderly people by taking their hand and touching the back of it to their forehead as a sign of respect.
3. the gingerbread person would meet a lot of Filipinos in my current area, including my companion, Elder Montaño.
4. it was emailed from 7480 miles away - it had to be emailed because otherwise it would have taken about a month to get here!
5.It was shown to many of the Filipino people we're teaching and a lot of missionaries as well
6. It would probably be dressed in either t-shirt and shorts and sandals (because it's so hot here) or in a traditional Filipino outfit.
7. He would not celebrate Thanksgiving because it is not celebrated here, it is just an american thing, like the 4th of July.
8. He would see the interesting Christmas trees they try to make out of wire and wood and decorations since they don't have the traditional trees here.
11/26/2013 New area
Hello Everyone!
so everything seemed to go pretty good with the transfers, i was able to show the other Elders around Siaton, but then on Monday I got a call....emergency transfer! I had to pack up my bags and go later that day. After a whole day of travel, I spent the night in Cebu City and now I'm in Pinamungajan, Cebu Island. It's pretty close to Toledo, but now we're in a different zone - Pinamungajan Zone! Definitely the smallest Zone in the mission - 12 missionaries! I've had districts bigger than that! But maybe there's going to be some additions to our zone soon. anyways, we're in the same house as the Zone Leaders - it's still under construction. it's interesting to try and study while they're working, but i'm just glad they're working on it because it's like a warehouse right now. Pinamungahan is going through the exact same thing as Siaton - from 2 missionaries to 6! So we're doing a lot of searching and walking and finding people to teach. and I've only been here for a day! It's hard to go between the Negros lingo and Cebu vernacular - back in Negros, they pronounce all their l's like "dalagan" (run) or "ulan" (rain) but here it's "dagan" and "uwan". they also use some different words... but I can get by and understand the gist of things. I'll eventually get used to it.
I've got some kids who just came behind me - i guess they wanted something to do and noticed there was an americano on the computer so they decided to practice their english - ....i just said kamusta and they shied away.
anyways, my last companion (for less than a week) was Elder Haden Haws who moved from Scotland to Utah when he was "just a wee lad".
Now I'm with my 13th companion, Elder Montaño, from Manilla. He's a fast learner, and very kugihan. It's gonna be great! :)
hope all's well there! take care!
~Elder Dallin Carlson
11/19/2013 Transfers again!
Transfers again! 12th companion!
hello everyone!
It's going to be crazy here with transfers - I'm gonna have to help 5 other missionaries learn their way around Siaton! Good thing I know this place like the back of my hand. ... that's funny, i never noticed that on the back of my hand... :)
and now Elder Uata is going to my last area as a follow-up trainer and District Leader while opening an area, and meanwhile i will be getting my 12th companion, and doing my thing as a senior companion in siaton. there have been many times when i wonder why outside of my trainee, I've gotten new companions almost every transfer. I don't know if it's because it's a good training/preparing experience, or anything - the Lord has a lot better knowledge of where i'm supposed to stand and lift or, in other words, why I'm where I am and what I'm supposed to do, so I'll just seek his help in finding out what I'm supposed to do and how to help my new companion, the other companionship of elders newly arrived, and the companionship of sisters arriving in December find their way around Siaton.
We have some investigators with their papers all ready to get married, but they're just trying to get a hold of the Bais branch president in Tanjay district because he's the closest who can get them married, because they don't have money to get married through the Catholic church. but he didn't reply to our text, and they want to get married within the first week of December if possible. we'll see if we can work this out
at any rate, it should be interesting having a district's worth in my area with me being the only one who's been here for awhile....but I just finished printing out pictures of the people we're teaching for our area book, seeing as how it will be split up into three....
at any rate, hope all's well there! love you all!
-a missionary/servant of the Lord,
~Elder Dallin Carlson
11/13/2013 Elder Dallin is safe from the storms
Elder Dallin is safe from the storms
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 21:13:57 +0800
hey everyone!
Another week, and two hurricanes - they didn't even hit around here! But we were super prepared anyways. It always happens that crazy things happen, but it doesn't manage to affect me much - like the time when my bike flipped unintentionally and I only , or when I got knicked by the sideview mirror of a car but didn't get bruised - and here there's been a number of Earthquakes and Hurricanes, but I've been far away from them.
Kent Largo continues to progress - we're into "Laws and Ordinances" now - he's moving to Dumaguete so we'll have to refer him now - we were planning on baptizing him December 7, and i hope that continues after he moves as he is taught by the missionaries
We also have a member preparing for the temple, Sister Jusayan. She said that she became a member before there was a chapel in Siaton, so they did it in the ocean because they live on the beach. Apparently the whole neighborhood joined to see it because they were curious about what happens at Mormon Baptisms. She also mentioned that somewhere around that time, all her neighborhood was trying to preach to her and tell her what was wrong with Mormonism, etc. apparently it got to where they got a whiteboard, and videoke thing (for the mike/speaker) and did it all really loudly right in front of her house - every day- for about a month. But she was patient and showed forth a good example.
It's not that bad here in the Philippines, but every single person who becomes a member has to go against the grain and stand out among the (Catholic) crowd.
There's also a pair of sisters, Mary Jean and Mary Joy, who are siblings of Wilson (another investigator who's the husband of Daisy) who are taking the lessons. As far as recieving the lessons and doctrines, they are doing very well. Before they were coming every week, but lately money has become a problem so they alternate, each of them going every other week. So they're coming consistently....every other week. It's not a surprise that money is a problem - the trip one way is about 25 pesos. so for both of them, it'd be 100 pesos every week. Of course it'd be nice to baptize them, but they are 14 and 16 - but my companion is talking about being able to baptize the 16 year old in December, but I'm not sure about that since they will only be going to church every other week - what if something happens and they don't come anymore? But I'm not sure if coming every other week is enough. I'm going to investigate the matter further and find out where the money is coming from.
hope all is going well there!
-A servant of the Lord,
~Elder Dallin Carlson
11/05/2013 update on the Hurricane in the Philippines
hello everyone!
just got permission to tell family, etc that i'm ok and didn't die in the hurricane that came through the Philippines - joke, it didn't even come anywhere near us! All that happened is some grey clouds, gusts of wind, and some light rain - nothing even happened to any of the tiny shacks that people are living in around here! just letting you know that all's good here - love you all!
Elder Dallin Carlson
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