Week 45- Officially 1 down 1 to go

Week 45
1-27-14

okay sooo I am now a hundred percent positive that I have 1 year in the mission field. Pretty crazy, this day last year I was officially set apart as a missionary. And than tomorrow I took my flight to Provo. It's funny because I have been writing in a  journal for the last year and I was reading last night how scared I was and so unsure of myself.  I was also remembering the  last meal I had before I entered the MTC and it was the most delicious thing ever. Went to a place called Texas road house and I had a bacon cheese burger with cheese fries and they had these cheese rolls and it was just glorious. anyways I was getting a little carried away there. Funny, when you are In the MTC for 1 1/2 months how much you want to get out of that there and when you are actually in the field you want to go home hahaha. Yeah I miss the cold weather,  the food and just looking at white people.  I am super grateful with the decision that I made to come here. I know I would just probably be doing very little if I were home going to  school and nothing else really important... maybe just screwing around getting in trouble. Glad I'm hear learning how to serve others. 

But some cool stuff happened this week. We got another investigator and he's got a baptismal date, its actually one of the sons of the people we had been teaching. Some other pretty cool things is I bought one of those Asian looking straw hats they kind of look like a cone hat anyways its legit. This week has been hot ,cold, windy and rainy  but what sucked was Saturday night there was a  brown out all the way til Sunday afternoon, and all the water is hooked up to an electric pump so when there is no electricity you have no water so basically that happened but luckily we got a also have a manual water pump in the backyard so we did some bathing by using the pump hahaha. My greatest laugh this week is when I was going to buy some food we saw on the T.V. Justin Bieber getting arrested. Pretty classic. That was good but we had another dinner appointment again on Friday and it of course is one of our furthest areas and when its after 8 o'clock there's no tricy on the way back so yeah guess what, we walked that baby back, almost 2 hours later I came in and collapsed on my bed. But it was a pretty good day, that was actually yesterday. While  we were waiting for one of our investigators  what I thought I could do is kill some time by taking pictures. And there were like 8 little boys or "aki"s messing around and being kids basically. So what I did is we had a photo competition of who can do the best picture pose. It was pretty dumb but it was funny watching them see how cool a camera was and they were all fighting over who could take a picture and stuff but it was pretty classic.Then again  I got to take my shoes off and get my feet wet and muddy. Than after we walked  through all of these rice fields to one of our appointments. That was a pretty neat experience.

 But yeah I am starting to get a little stressed I got my haircut like a couple of days ago and I got bad news... the barber was asking me if I get stressed and stuff because he told me I had like 2 white hairs in my blind spot in the back of my head. So I am going to have to get some tweezers and hire some heavy guns to get those little son of a guns out. But I was wondering also if I have been out  one year  I must look must be looking older.  So I was looking through some pictures and I still got an ugly mug so I guess I look the same. So that was a little disappointing. In like 4 months its my 20th birthday so thats going to be pretty tight. maybe by than I'll look a little bit older. But what's important is me having a good time here and working hard. Oh and  one more thing went to crap. I lost like all my pictures of everything this week and some from my previous areas so I am a little ticked about that .I specifically picked this computer shop because I knew I could send pictures home,as soon as I was going to send a picture it basically told me there's nothing there on that file.  I almost lost it! Technology ugh! This morning was fun we played some basketball and after we made some adobo chicken basically one of my favorite foods. But I cant make it but the Filipino Elders know how to make it so I basically don't give them an option and I just make them make it for me. Pretty excited this week I get to go on exchanges with my "anak", Elder Relf so we get to be companions again. Beside that my life is the same… Keep the emails about your lives coming Thanks!!!!  anyways gotta go!!!! salamat ulit!!!!

And KAIBIGAN nyo.

POGI Elder Llorens 

Week 44 Rain Rain go away

Week 44
1/19/14

Sorry for no pictures this dumb computer shop can't read my card reader. This has been a very busy week. First off on Wednesday I had a zone confrence with our Mission President and we discussed some things with our zone and then we had a really good devotional. It's been raining like crazy this whole week! So much for the rainy season coming to an end. Right after our zone conference we (all the missionaries) went to  withdraw money  because we were all running low on support for this week  just try to imagine like 20 or 30 missionaries withdrawing money at the same time from  1 of the 3 atm machines in the whole city ....people were looking at us like we just robbed the bank. LOL  While we were waiting we were talking to some other missionaries and we were making fun of one sister missionary because she just bought an umbrella and she opened it and it broke... and guess what happened to mine not more than 3 minutes after she left, yup sira na ang payong ko haha. So that really sucked its like my 3rd umbrella... and so later that day I was able to  interview  a person who wanted to get baptized( this is one of my new responsibilities) and that was such a neat experience being able to be one on one with someone baring their testimony to what the missionaries have taught them. Unfortunately, one of the investigators that I was teaching left for Manila, so that was a bummer but we were able to get his info and give it   to the missionaries in the Manila mission so hopefully they will contact him. On Friday I got to work in the Tigaon area with one of our zone leaders while we were on exchanges temporarily. That was cool being able to go to different area but I like my area the best.  The next day we came back and we got to attend and watch the baptism that one of the  other elders did. The work is moving forward. And then right after we got to go to Goa and watch the Area Presidency speak to us about our goals and what we accomplish is the 2013 year and what we need to do in the year 2014. There have been an a ton of amazing things that have happened in the Philippines even tough there was a huge earthquake and a several hurricanes. I'm so glad to be here and wouldn't change any of it. But it was weird talking to other missionaries saying what our plans are for after the mission. Basically school and work. But its going to be strange when I come home, I will miss it here. But you are probably wanting to hear something funny I don't think its funny. But I have about 31 mosquitoes or spider bites and they are the worse. Down stairs we don't have window screens and only half of the windows upstairs have screens. So yeah I have been waking up pretty early because my feet itch  I think I  might be a little allergic because they freaking hurt like you know what. But its cool I'll live. Later today we have a lesson with a potential investigator so this should be good we are working with one of our current investigators so hopefully that will help move things along.  Thanks for all who e-mailed you are all awesome, they definitely make me happy knowing that everyone is doing good back home. I love you all I'll see you later.

Mahuhuli na ako    < thats bicol but dios mabalos sa indo gabos < bicol also haha (No translation)

Elder pogi Llorens take care all.

Week 43 The spider slayer

Week 43
1/13/14

So in about a 2  weeks I have officially been out a year in the mission field.  Can you believe it? So to start out this week  we did our laundry on Monday then on Tuesday when we were bringing in our pants that were hanging out to dry the fun began..  my companion was about to put his pants in his closet when I saw something moving on them and when he stopped a giant spider came out guns blazing running all  over the place.  This spider was as big as my hand!

So... I got the Permetherine to try and kill it... it stopped for about a minute and absorbed the poison like it was  lemonade. So I was forced to bring in the big guns so I got out my huge knife..."itak" to chop up the son of a gun... I won. So yeah now i am a little paranoid again.

 My back is messed up as well because I sleep on a broken bed frame so to counter balance the weight I put a dirty pillow underneath the matress but needless to say I am in need of a chiropractor and a good massage! So on Thursday we had a little exciting day we got a got a new Elder E. Feiloagia... American Samoan so now there are  3 Polynesians in the house and they still think I am part Maori LOL So they think its 4 but yeah.... they are cool I love my companion he's always doing something funny to make me laugh.

 But all of Thursday we worked with 3 elders so we were just messing around all day when we went to out appointments. But we got a lot done. We also picked up our district basketball jerseys they are legit.

So friday was the longest day of my life I had to go to Naga for a workshop so I woke up at 6 and got on the bus and took the 2 hour bus ride ended up getting motion sick and I had to sit in on a forever long meeting.  After the meeting  I had to bring a new elder to our area so I had to help haul all of his suitcases and I had to sit on the long bus ride again and than when we finally get home the other elders said we had  a dinner appointment so I'm pumped, so we get to the house and the nanay is like I didn't know you guys were coming over... so we walked 2 hours to get home because there is no other transportation. So my back is killing more and now I'm hungry, we have no food and there are no stores open to buy food so that was the worst day. But the teaching this week was amazing we got 3 new investigators this week and 1 baptismal date and we got a couple of less actives to come to church so that was really awesome. So I'm glad that I am now at the one year mark in  my mission because now I can see what I did well and correct the mistakes I made and now its down hill. My  dad basically explained it's like you just got done playing the 1st and 2nd quarter its half time and this is where you draw up a new game plan and get it together. But thank you to all for the emails and packages they are awesome. and I hope everyone is having a good week.

Elder Llorens

Week 42 - New Area

Week 42 

1/5/14

Well now I'm here in Goa Zone which is about a 2 hour, horrible bus ride from Naga. And  I'm also  a District leader so I'm in Charge of 12 other missionaries including myself so yeah pretty cool. My new companion Is Elder Teitawana and he's so cool he's from Kiribati pronounced "Kiribis" so yeah I got another awesome Polynesian Companion.  Our apartment or better call it a  house cuz it is, is awesome.. 2 story and yeah you betcha we got some big spiders again haha!  Being outside of Naga city is so cool the people are super humble.  So in Naga in my other pictures I was facing Mt. Isarog now I'm on the back side of the Mountain and it's so beautiful here it reminds me of Buhi my second area. But  the other Elders in the house are super cool as well, Elder Losaki he's my Tongan friend and Elder Boquil he's my Ilicano friend. But yeah I think its funny that I have had more Polynesian Companions than Filipinos.And  I love the POLYS they teach me important words so I'm pretty much Fluent hahaha they are my good friends and maybe someday I'll go visit them in the Islands.  My district is cool Elder Su'a he's my Samoan Friend. Elder Mariano he's my Mindano friend. Elder Grospe hes another Ililcano friends and Sister Horst she was in  my batch at the MTC and her companion Sister Alibogha and of course Elder Llorando who is leaving home after this transfer (6 weeks) he's also a good friend, we were in the same Zone during our Iriga days. I know it seems weird me telling you where they are all from but isn't it interesting how many different cultures are thrown together?

 But yeah the area is great first day we went out looking for people and forgot that  its not Naga city and after 6:30pm there are no tricy's sooo we had to walk an hour and a half to get home! So yeah my back is killing me. But cool thing is that we gave 4 baptismal invitation this week and we had an Less active come to church and shes has never come before. Npw that I am a district leader I have to give workshops to the other missionaries every week and I have to help solve any issues we are having in our area.  I'm so glad I have a bunch of missionaries that I like!

Our New Years night was soo Crazy everyone had fireworks so every second ...WOOOSHH... so we couldnt go to bed so we stayed up and watched all of the fireworks til they stopped. I also bought myself a hammock. Nothing too special but yeah its amazing. Kanina we all went to Goa and played some basketball and that was tight we had foreigners vs. Filipino's ..... they got beaten... But yeah this has been such a sick week so far the members are so cool too. First night we had some members feed us some good food and we had fun laughing making jokes. But yeah but the best  is hanging out with Elder Teitawana and Elder Losaki at home. We just laugh eat and play volleyball and they teach me bad I mean important  words hahaha.But yeah I am definitely enjoying my time here in San Jose, Goa. Super awesome and I can tell a lot of good is going to happen here. Thank you all for the nice emails its always good to here from you and I hope you all have a good New year.

Elder "POGI" Llorens

Week 41 - Finally Christmas

Week 41
12/29/13

This week was a really great week. I  finally talked to my parents and opened all my presents  from my friends and family. But the highlight was Skyping my family! So first off on Monday we went to a members house and he fed us some good fried Chicken and we ended up playing some games with his family, we played Black Magic for all of you who know how to play. Than for Christmas eve we went to a really nice family that are somewhat wealthy and we had again more good fried chicken  also this Chinese thing here called Lumpia its really good its basically a egg roll and we had some spaghetti as well. We were full!  but not too full for fun... I got some cool fireworks and we shot some off on the top of our roof and basically stayed up having a good time and just talking and messing  around. So the next day it was a little harder to wake up but I did, and I got to open all my presents, finally and they were all great!  I really enjoyed all the food, clothes , pictures  and fun toys everyone sent me.  I had a good time opening them up and showing everyone else. We eventually went out to members houses and than we went to another house to eat food and we had good fried Chicken there as well so yeah it was nice!!!  Do you see a pattern?? Fried Chicken is considered a special meal here! LOL

Then the next day we woke up ad left the house at 7:30 to get at the computer shop because when we asked and they said they opened at 8:00 in the morning, we get there and wait til 9:30 and no luck, so I was a little ticked but it ended up okay I called home and got to talk to everyone in  my family and my Nana but it was weird to see how everyone has changed. But everyone seems to be doing good. I got a lot of email from people so thank you tons. And I got another present for Christmas I ran into one of the members from my first area in Sipocot and she told me that she was here with the one Sister I baptized so I got to see Sister Rexy and its been almost a year and she's still active and she's still roommates with sister Jessa and they moved out of their old apartment and they moved closer to the church so that was such a good experience and plus they got me Spaghetti. It was funny i was talking to sister Jessa during the Skype my mom and dad heard me speak Tagalog and they were like did you understand her and did she understand you? so that was funny, their jaws literally dropped. So then we went out and helped some people with stuff. Next day was our last district meeting so we said our goodbyes took pictures... no silly string this time and we went to the Sm and waited for Mang Inasal with a  ton of people, while I was waiting I bought some Chocolate covered raisins. I shared some with a sister but I didnt tell her that it was raisins and I find out she is allergic... almost killed her... but nothing happened and she spit them out, but it was funny. Than I got some Mexican food. I found this Mexican place here called Mexicali and I'm like perfect ,I am Mexicali, and it was good. I got Pollo Asado. I spent some cash on that meal. Than on Saturday night I found out that I'm  officially transferred out of the city and most likely going back to the jungle boonies and maybe pumping water again. But thats exciting! So all of yesterday we went out  to members homes to say good byes but I'll be able to say more later tonight because we have a late church Christmas party so we are probably going to eat more fried chicken and some other good food. But yeah I have had a blast here in this area and met a lot of great people and I'll never forget it. But  tonight I have to start packing and that's going to suck!  I just got a lot of food and presents and I have to some how make it work, But im excited for tomorrow I get to meet my new Companion and see my new area so should be fun.  Thank you all for who sent me things or wished me a Merry Christmas. I Hope you all have a great week and A happy new Year!!!!!  

One Year Left!!!!

Elder "Pogi" Llorens