Week 38

Week 38
12-9-13

Look close and you can see the silly string

So this week kind of went a little slow but a lot of funny and good things happened in it. So the first thing that happened is that I got a Christmas package and in it was Silly String. So I was like yes, perfect a lot of missionaries we had a huge meeting together and at the end we usually take a picture with all of us and this is where I pulled the prank. So I set my camera to record so I would get it all on video.  So after the last flash I just stood in the back and just let the the string fly. Everyone was laughing screaming and having a good time so it was good timing for sure. And even funnier, I was wearing a Christmas tie that sings jingle bells and  the kids, they got a good laugh out of it and they think its some type of magic.

Later that day we went out and we went to a house and the way to enter the property is you have to walk across a coconut log bridge( it was raining) and I'n sure you know where this story is going... So like I said it was raining that day since the night before so it was quite wet outside.  We get to the bridge and its a tad flooded. So any way we go we were going to have to walk through some water..so we choose the log, I get half way across and the log rolled on me, I almost used my "skills" to catch myself but I slipped on the other foot as well and I came hurling down into the nasty stinky muddy water. I was about knee deep and yeah I smelt like a straight up pig.  We get to the house and  no one answers bummer! Then on the way back  it happens again. Jokes on me I guess. 

So the cool thing is I talked to our bishop and discussed the area and he gave me some families to find. So on Thursday we were in one of our areas and I had never been out this  way before, and  I remembered that one of the people that the bishop told me about lived out this way. So I made the decision were "going on an adventure" we walked a couple miles to find this guy but we finally did and I'm glad we took a chance. After we talked to him he went to church so that was great and its a huge area so later on we will try and talk to more people in that area. Saturday we went to another area and just started asking people if they knew any of the other names we had. We were able to get the general direction to where to go.. after walking for a while I  asked an older nanay if she recognized this name , she didn't recognize it so we start walking away than she called me over and she said she does know them and she'll take us there . We met the family and they were really receptive so that was  cool. 

 SO the thing im thankful for this week is the power of god. If he wants something to happen it will happen but on his own time.And I'm grateful for the other Elders and Sisters serving especially at this time they are doing  great things and I encourage you all to keep it up. And for those at home embrace the spirit of Christmas and do things that you would want others to do for you. okay my Nagas thank you for the e-mails I Love you all I hope you have a great week.

St Nick Night December 6- stocking filled

 Take it easy.

Elder Llorens

Week 37 Thanksgiving

Week 37 - Thanksgiving
12-2-13

Hello fan club! Well I survived our Thanksgiving meal, I almost went into cardiac arrest from all the fried chicken we made. We bought like 5 kilos of chicken for fried chicken+ 3kilos of potatoes for mashed potatoes and everything  was glorious! AHHH.. but yeah I had like a MSG over load and like I said I almost died, no joke my left arm went numb for a little. Little scary! LOL So my first Thanksgiving away from home  wasn't so bad and  guess what? I went  to the lamest hole in the wall grocery store and they had one more Martenelli's Apple cider just for me! I would like to say I shared but…. I chugged it in like 30 seconds the was the second glorious thing I had. But, you bet I had a killer upset stomach. So the week was pretty normal but  Thanksgiving was a blast a lot of food and  it was super cool to have 6 roommates so we had fun cooking the food and just messing  around. 

Me and Elder Johnson were studs! He is doing really good for his 4th week out in the mission field. We have a  blast going out and getting the"Hey Joe" "where are you going?" This is what the filipino people yell at us. So yeah all the Filipinos like to share there English with us every chance they get so its a good opportunity for us as well. But we have a great time teaching the less actives in our area. the really hard thing for them is they have a good testimony of the gospel, but they are unable to come to church due to the lack of money  Elder Johnson and I understand this, so we try as hard as we can to share a powerful message with them. It's a real bummer, but we try to encourage them as much as possible and just try to explain to them that the light will break brightly soon after their trials and problems are over. They are great people and they always show me how life is suppose to be lived. Its going to be a sad day when Im  heading home on that big plane, too many great memories happened here with these great people, while trying to make the best of it. 

 I got a huge package from the family and friends, Daw so yeah I want to open all your presents everyone but I promised mom I won't but I don't know how long I can keep that promise, hahah just kidding mom. But yeah not a really good one this  letter this week,but hey I'm trying. 

I  am trying to remember that my job is to preach the gospel and help the people come closer to god and I notice it all comes first through me and then each of them. For those that are not of our faith and are reading this I have a powerful testimony that prayer works, that our father in Heaven loves each one of us and has a personal plan for us, even if we don't deserve his love he is always there, willing to listen and help us, but first we need to ask in faith and then the blessings and help from heaven will come to us and give the answer and comfort that we need. I prayed so much before my mission but I don't think I ever really noticed it. But here I have noticed something and that  is that he does listen and does answer but in his own time. Funny thing you can laugh at me for was that it rained like all this week so yup i was walking through all these puddles and ended up ruining all my shoes basically because they all have holes in them, I was walking in water up to my ankles so I guess its my fault. I guess... any ways that's all i got for this week, miss you, love you and I get super excited when I get emails from you. I'll talk to you all soon.

Elder Llorens,,,,,, POGI hhahahahahahahasahajfklasdjflsadfjsda;fkljsdf  no translation (just for you mom!)

Week 36

Week 36

11/25/13

The Gang

Well I got chastised on saying  "this week was another good one".... So i guess I'm not allowed to say that one anymore, thanks Mom! So well astig yung linggo na ito nagkaroon tayo ng transfers. (no translation) Soooo i got a new companion....My new companion from a 1st round pick (out of 10) , of the 2013 November transfers is Elder Johnson from Ogden Utah!

So I guess they trust me a lot to help train new Americans for some reason, the last one I trained got dengue fever they are just gambling on me I guess….its because of my sick understanding of the tagalog language, I'm sure! Any way he's tight he's a white boy standing like 5'' 9 wears glasses and is pretty smart dude... but he's good, he helps me a lot especially during the lessons so it was a worthy draft pick! 

So we were privileged to hang out with one of my other yogis here in the mission Elder Hausia who stands 6'' 3 200 something from San Fransisco and is my Tongan brother; he's freaking funny. We got to hang out with that guy for 2 days Tuesday-Thursday and that was a blast! I had him cook for me we made some spam with eggs Hawaiian style and I nearly had a cholesterol attack. That was super good and he made some other great good for us; yum! I love Elders that can cook.  Elder Johnson and I  finally got out on our own and made the attack on our areas. We did good! We already did some contacting and got some return appointments. Elder Johnson is really eager to go out so he brings a lot to the table and he's really good teaching lessons; all I have to do is help him with Tagalog. So we got some new missionaries in our house; Elder Sornenson from Utah is our new zone leader and me and him are now buds. And  Elder Jocabson, who I served with in Sipocot a long time ago and are together again... small world no joke… 

But it's basically full blast Christmas here now in Naga. Everyone has their little Christmas lights out now. And I'm like what the heck this week is Thanksgiving where is my glorious Turkey, potatoes and pie? We are planning on just having fried chicken... I lose hahaha. But yeah all I have is like a year left so that's the motivation. It is cool looking at all the new missionaries,  they look like babies, (haha) but they are tight. I know how that was and its weird to think I'm somewhat older now in the mission. But its cool helping them out. This morning we played some basketball, long story short I did the sickest steal ever basically a no-look (using the force) and doing math in my head like Sherlock Holmes and stole the ball. In the end after I stole it and scored I looked at my hand and had 2 purple fingers and 2 bleeding finger nails so that's a real bummer. Somethings never change huh? But "buhay pa"… I'm still alive. I have  a fresh missionary haircut because we have interviews with  President Reeder on Wednesday so I look like a fresh dork right now, Ha ha. 

The cool spiritual thing for this week came yesterday when 3 young men  said they wanted to work with us. Obviously I'm not perfect in Tagalog and like everyone I have weakness… (see Ether 12:27: "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I  give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." ). But it was cool to me  that the 3 men were able to come and work with us and of course speak perfect Tagalog, but back it up in Bicolano (another language) there are so many different languages;  that the Gospel will roll forth to all languages, tongues and people.

Even when I was getting my haircut Manny (the Pac-man) Pacquiao was giving the glory to God for the fight and is going to end up giving his winnings to all the people that were affected by the typhoon. But its cool that everyone has a focus and that's God in their lives. And I'm helping them find that and helping them choose the right in their lives. People say they really enjoy what I'm doing here, honestly I'm just doing what Jesus did.  I've made mistakes in my life but that is forgotten as soon as we realize why we are here and what our purpose is. After we realize that we're good, but we have  to maintain that happiness and endure to the end to receive all the blessings.  A challenge for you especially for this week of "Thanksgiving" look for the good in our lives instead of demanding the things we want.  God gives us challenges and trials in our life, but he knows what he's giving us, he just knows we can handle  the burden and he knows it'll bless us later on down the road.

That is my peace for this week. Thanks everyone for your nice emails; love you all and of course I miss you. Feel free to send me a surprise turkey  the address is 39 panganiban naga city 4400 cam sur........................................................................................................................................................

okie dokie mga kaibigan pakidala ninyo and mag packages sa akin na mahal na mahal ko kayong lahat.

astig Peace !!!!!!!!!!!...............

ELDER POGI.......>> Elder Seth Joaquin Llorens

Week 35 - a week of service

Week 35
11/18/13

Beautiful View from Apartment

Well this week was a really good one again! This was my last week with Elder Relf, now he is a real missionary and has graduated and is no longer in his training.  It's pretty good to see that I was able to successfully train, especially an american.  It's good to be tested like that, and to feel the Lord's inspiration and guidance with the language. The  other news is  Elder Relf got transferred and I'm staying. I meet my new companion tomorrow hopefully he's a filipino so I can continue to progress in the language as well as have some fun!

 We were able to teach a new lady and she is really interested in the gospel and wants to learn more. It was good teaching with Elder Relf for the last time and its been a great 3 months.  I know that as his adventure begins on his own that he will be terrific. (of course because I trained him, estig!)

The Crew

So the cool thing this week we were able to make care packages and send them to the victims of the super typhoon in Tacloban. It was fun coming together with the community and helping the people who are in need.  It was fun to hear that if they ever need help again they would personally call us for help. We did the service at the local radio station but that was the biggest  highlight of the week. We also were able to  teach a less active family and really help them out by helping them change their focus  so they can become more united and can strengthen their family. It is hard to explain the life people live over here.  These are humble people who work hard for everything they have. I will never look at life the same, I will never look at what I have been given the same.  I love this opportunity to learn to live in a country that is so different than what I am use to.

Service

Thank you to all for the emails you are great, I love you and good luck to my cousin who's going to the father land Germany for the army  your the man Jase good luck and I'll see you in a while.

Elder Llorens

Week 34

Week 34
11/11/13

So just want to say that I am safe here in the city and that the storm went around us. Thankfully we were prepared and protected. So there are a lot of deaths in Leyte and Tacloban and Capiz, we call theses areas "visaya". These areas were completely demolished. So sad to see people with nothing lose what little they had. My first trainer Elder  Parohinog's family lost there house.  His family is in the area that was hit the worst. He was able to contact some of his family but still has a brother and his brothers family unaccounted for. When the storm was heading towards us we were were told to stay in doors but its hard to sit and do nothing so we  ended up  going out with our supply elders and finance elders to stock new apartments for new missionaries. We felt service was what we needed to do. But when we left there was a black out for the whole Bicol region and when we got back it was still going. We went out to get food but there were no restaurants open... only Starbucks ( yes starbucks!) so i got a peppermint hot chocolate and it was absolutely glorious. That Night I watched a church movie called Ephriams Rescue and it was really good it was about a man called Ephraim Hanks who helps rescue hand carters that are stuck in a trail during the winter.  It was awesome to see the miracles performed while  rescuing them.  

 But yeah I am thankful for the safety here in my mission. I heard that all of the missionaries in the affected areas are going to manila to wait until the calamity passes. I guess there are a lot of riots and it is not safe for us. I Hope every one is praying for the Philippines right now. We need the help now.  We hope that our continued service to the filipino people will soften their hearts and they will be made ready for the gospel. So many needs can be met just by having  faith in the Savior.  This is a terrible time for these people, it is hard to be so close to this kind of suffering. 

 Next week is transfers again so we will see what happens, if I leave or stay this one is a 50/50 gamble I don't know how its going to be. But where ever I go I will be happy doing what the Lord needs me to do. The cool thing is we got a new investigator this week and shes really nice.  We also had an investigator come to church so there is some progress this week. This has been a good transfer with Elder Relf, I feel I really grew. When you become a trainer for a new missionary you become more responsible and you literally feel older I'm pretty sure I have a couple of white hairs because of this stress but its all good. Life is hard here for me,  but I have just decided to take it one step at a time and just smile and own it. 

SO far we have been getting lucky with some good food, we had Gabi leaves with fried little fish last night and it was great. Earlier today got to play some volleyball and of course I dominated.  I also got a really gnarly tan, I basically look black i don't know if that good or bad I'll let you decide. I hope everyone is well at home I constantly think of everyone and how they are doing. I hope life is treating you good. As for me I'm loving it. thanks to all of you for the emails they are encouraging and inspiring. I love you all and hope you all have a great week. 

Elder Llorens 

Typhoon Yolanda struck the Philippines a few hours ago. It is the most powerful typhoon to make landfall, with sustained winds of 100 MPH and significant flooding and sea surge.

Elder Llorens is in Naga, in the central Bicol region known as Camrines Sur. (You can see Naga on this map above the two capital "P"s in "Philippines"). They have been under "warning" since yesterday, and probably received heavy rain and winds.

The Naga Philippines mission president sent this email at 4:30 AM our time:

Dear Loved ones,
The typhoon was south of Naga and had little or no impact on our mission. All missionaries have been inside their apartments and are safe. Thank you for your concern and  prayers.

Love, President and Sister Reeder

Prayers for the Philippine people and those who are there to serve.

Week 33

Week 33
11-3-13

So this week was different we were able to witness Halloween and all souls day Filipino style. We had to have curfew because there were a lot of drunk crazy people, especially in our area becasue  we have the 2 biggest cemeteries in all of Naga.  What they do is go to the cemeteries and  basically have a celebration like 4th of July, Picnics, drinking and hanging out with all of their family and friends. I was able to buy some candy at the mall so we stayed in and  had fun. 

 We were able to finally work this week. Elder Relf is at full health. The work is good we were able to give a baptismal invitation to one of our investigators and she accepted and we are still contining to teach one of our other Investigators and hopefully we can give her a baptismal invitation this week as well. We have been talking to people and trying to get return appointments with them. The work has been hard there have been  days that we were only able to get like 1 Lesson in. But a lot of good has been happening behind the scenes. We're trying to work out making a group in one of our areas so people don't have to travel as far. The members are really nice here, later tonight we have a family home evening and then also on Wednesday. Later on this week we have zone training so we'll be able to see all of the missionaries in our zone. But yeah its fun going out and trying to talk to people. I have never talked to this many people before in my life and the weird thing is its in a different language, kind of cool.  We had a couple of our investigators hide from us so that's a little depressing, but that's life as a missionary. 

Transfer announcements are next week and I will find out if I'm transferred or my companion is. Most likely I'm going to train again. I really want a Filipino comapnion so I can better my language skills and also they are legit cooks, lol.

 I have been working out quite a bit and been trying to diet but its no fun trying to do all this stuff and waking up at like 630 am. You literally feel like you just took a nap and you wake up and its the next day and you basically start it all over again. Earlier today I played some basketball of course and I also ate some pig brain, yeah pig brain there really isn't any taste but  its no double double from In-N-out. I was able to work with some members yesterday and try to get them excited about home teaching. And I forgot about this earlier but when we went to a less actives house the tatay (father) told me to sit on a stool looking thing as soon as I sat on it it almost broke, I used my cat like reflexes to get off before I full broke it, but it definitely did crack. (back to the diet!)  I also caught a fish in the rice fields. I used my cat like reflexes and just grabbed it like Mr. Miagge from karate kid, hmm wrong country but you get my drift. But yeah hopefully this week will be better and we can get some good lessons in.  As always thank you for the emails and love you all.

Ingot kayo

Elder Llorens