Week 57 - Mellow Week

Week 57

4/21/14

Having a little fun

Hello. This was a mellow week for us this week. On Tuesday we had this storm that started on Monday night and went until Tuesday morning. So on Tuesday morning we had a brown out until 10 at night so that was a bummer. not much work that day because everyone disappeared for some reason. So the next day I gave 5 baptismal interviews and I also went on exchanges with Elder Kaumaitotoya from Fiji. That was fun and we saw this huge procession for the Catholic Church that day and we also made some nice Fiji curry chicken my favorite.  The next day we went to this less active who is a barber and we got haircuts and talked to him. After we had a district meeting where I was teaching . Later that day we went out to one of our investigators and we taught a really good lesson to her so hopefully next month she can be baptized. But this week was normal and busy and hot. We got to see a lot of our less actives this week and we had a great turn out with less actives coming to church.  Funny story, on Friday we went to a less actives house and at the same time a huge procession walked by and when we finished visiting,  it was still going just a ton of people and floats, so we had no choice but walk with them, my companion was totally embarrassed but I was like I don't wont to wait any longer and wanted to go home so we walked with them for a couple of steps and took a short cut to our house. It might have looked a little shady but its all good! ALways need to be able to adapt!  We went back and sat in our front yard to watch the different floats about Jesus Christ... no pictures they got lost..... my favorite one though was this one float with Jesus Christ on it and it had a chicken on the float with him. So Easter Sunday was really Mellow I was a little disappointed no Easter egg hunt but thats okay, Church was good we were pretty happy that this one young man came to church that we taught earlier in the week so that made me feel good to see him there. But most of our lessons this week have been about Christ so its been a really great experience for me. Over all an okay week. Tomorrow and this week is going to be hectic as well, were going to Naga city early in the morning so I am going to have motion sickness tomorrow for sure....ehhh. but thanks to all those that shot me an email this week your all awesome and I hope you have a great week.... Pretty excited BYU.

Okay love you all and I'll see you soon!!!

Elder Seth

Week 56

Week 56
4/17/14

Hey hows its going!!!! So this week was pretty solid. On Monday night we went over to a less actives house and ate food there and played games, so we helped build a really great relationship with them, we are going to go back to them tomorrow morning. So we planned on going to our investigators house on Tuesday morning but they weren't there so we decided to go to a less actives house. So while at a less actives house I saw people that I haven't met or recognized before. SO i find out its a mom and some sons that are members. The sons lives in Naga but now is back from school, but the mom lives abroad because she works in Dubai. Anyways we taught them together and it was a good lesson and now we have new people to visit during the week! Hopefully we can bring them back to church. But it was cool to speak to a Filipino that wanted to speak English to me. But later on during the week we taught some of our less actives and investigators. On Wednesday we had zone conference and it was combined with  another zone So I got to see all of my friends and it was nice.... we all sat and hung out together.... its funny how we look forward to things like this once a transfer hahaha. I got to see my old companions and other old roommates so it was fun. After that the next day we walked really far in the nice humid heat to an out lying area and walked all the way back. So I ran out of money this week, but this is probably one of the reasons that I have run out of money/support. It was Elder Feiloagia and Elder Jalocons birthday so those 2 days so we had a party for them. We made some bicol express fish and we treated ourselves to ice cream. It was great until we ran out of money today. The highlight of my week was seeing all my friends again on Saturday and Sunday for General Conference. I was really impressed with the talks this conference and very much enjoyed them all. But the best one I think for me was the a talk given to us by Henry B. Eyring for us to be a good role model. He asked a great question about "who our Hero is". and basically depending on who we surround ourselves with is basically how we will want to be when we grow up. Consciously and subconsciously.But it reminded me how I should be a better role model to those who are younger than me and I can start by doing it here in the Philippines. I hope I can encourage young men here to have a desire to live great lives and to one day go on a mission and to feel/ understand more about our Savior Jesus Christ. But this can apply to anyone not just those of our faith... "Who is your Hero" And "how are you when others are around"?

To add to this week it is really really hot and humid.... its raining right now and I am in a mini computer shop with out any air circulation..... so once again super sweaty....ewww. But yeah it was sort of cool to see what they do for palm Sunday here..... they get palm tress and decorate them and obnoxiously walk in the middle of the street ( my location only).... but they believe it brings good luck and then they put it in their houses.... so thats the cool thing that I saw this week.

But  I just want to say to everyone again who emails me ..... thank you ,you are amazing for taking time out of your day to write a little letter to me. I hope all is well and I hope you all have an great Easter Sunday!

Elder Seth Llorens

Week 55 - Hot, Hot, Hot

Week 55
4/6/14

 Internet connection problems again, no pictures this week. But this was a solid week to be a missionary. We were able to baptize one of our investigators this last Saturday and we had one of our recent  baptize his own son so that was a special moment for the family and also for me. It was a really awesome day and we had a lot of missionaries come to support us as well, so our missionary district rocks.  On Saturday the chapel was not prepared at all for the baptisms  and there was no water in the baptismal font for the baptisms,  so we were hurrying trying to figure it out. So 2 hours later we had 2 great baptisms.Unfortunately I am sick again with a sore throat so this is starting to kill me especially with the hot summer weather. We were also really happy that 2 of our less actives that haven't gone to church in 8 months finally came. One is blind so I can understand why it can be hard for her, but it was great how they showed their faith to come to church even when we changed church times from around lunch to the early morning.  This week has been great for work. But like I said no more rain just super hot and  humid and yup.............. Sweat..... yummay. But its been a fun week, now I am just adjusting to my new companion. Funny thing since our support didn't come in on last Monday on Tuesday we came to Goa to withdraw and saw like 10 other missionaries and just said hi and we all ate lunch so it was fun to see some friends in the mission and I even got to see Elder Teitawana. But the work is good, we were able to get a good referral from different missionaries and we tried to contact the people the first time but they ignored us but the second time they told us to come in and we shared a great message with them about families because this young lady is getting ready to have a baby and actually the young lady is a member but a little less active. Funny thing, I have been wearing my sunglasses this whole week and everyone is wanting me to give them my ray bans and I'm like no.... these are my precious. Guess I could make a killing selling knockoffs! But yeah it so hot it's hard  to think about anything else. Earlier today we played some sweet volleyball. Later today we are going to a family home evening at one of the less actives houses that came to church yesterday. I am excited for this upcoming week I'll be able to see a lot of my friends on Wednesday for zone training and on Saturday and Sunday we get to watch the General Conference at our stake center here in Goa. So this week is going to be fun. But thanks again for all the emails and I should probably go ahead and say happy Easters!!! and Happy birthday Rebecca!! And unfortunately I did no pranks on the 1st, the Filipinos wouldn't get the joke....  thanks again for the emails and the love. hope you all have a good week!

Ingat sa susunod lunes!!!! salamat ulit.

Elder Llorens

Week 54

Week 54

3/30/14

Looks like a dirt road, but it's rice

Rice fields

So this was a great week everyone. First off I got to finally say goodbye to my companion Elder Teitawana and roommate Elder Losaki they were  transferred. Then on Tuesday I was assigned a temporary companion because I am going to train. SoI was companions with Elder Magleby. It was good he's from Utah and we had fun we were both senior companions so we knew how it worked, and the highlight of the day was when we were cooking lunch we made Cincinnati chili and it was the best... getting a little hungry thinking about it. (Thanks Mom!) So on Wednesday we got up early in hopes of saying goodbye to the departing missionaries going home, I have a lot of friends that are leaving but they were already on the van going to the airport by the time we got there. We passed  them when I was on the bus  going to Naga. So I called them and said bye. Got to call my tatay in the mission, Elder Parohinog, I am going to miss that guy so bad he's my favorite Filipino friend probably in the whole world. Salamat To!!!  So with that being said since we were in Naga we got 7/11 ice cream and we got waffles in the mall, while we waited to report at the mission home. SO we finally waited and met the other missionaries there and we swapped recipes hahaha, they wanted to know how to make tortillas hahaha. Then we got our companions. So my new companion and son is Elder Cortes. He from Quezon city, Manila. He's a cool dude and I can tell were going to have fun. 

Elder Cortes, my new son

So while on the way back to our area I started to get motion sick to the max. So as soon as we got home we unpacked and I hit the rack. Next day we started to do planning and went out in the afternoon and started to teach. So that was fun Elder Cortes is still adjusting to missionary life I'm just helping him have fun. So yeah funny thing I started to get a little sick again in the stomach so you can all laugh at this one. So I am just on the bus going to one of our areas and bam it hits me I gotta go use the CR"restroom". so we get off and we were close to a members home so I basically flat out told them  I had to use the CR no polite asking Whew! haha. A little awkward basically once in a while I get a stomach virus because of the food or water. Another accomplishment in cooking is  I made Bicol express, this time a little too much coconut milk haha "sabaw" but yeah it turned out good. but yeah on the cool note for this week we got 2 new investigators this week and hopefully this week on Saturday we will have a Baptism!!!!!!! Its still a 50/50 but I hope it goes through. But yeah I get to stay here for another 3 more months because I am going to train Elder Cortes. I just wanted to say thank you too everyone who helps me and my family out. Thumbs up to you guys! And by the way I  have seen the biggest rat in my life yesterday. guess its hunting time!  Thats it  for this week ,thanks everyone  and keep smiling.

Elder Llorens 

Week 53 - Everything is awesome!

Week 53

03/23/14

This is the family that is teaching me how to cook, and feeds us often

So this week was pretty awesome week.  We really got to work. We had a lot of lessons this week and because of it we were able to get some people to come to church so we were really excited about that. The highlight of the week was having this little party that we the missionaries set up at the church. We invited everyone, a lot of members came and some of our investigators that we are teaching also came. We had a little spiritual message and at the end we played some games it really fun. On a side note, they make this noodle here called pancit bato and while writing this I had to run to the bathroom to do some business so i dont know if they put a worm in it but its literally been killing me for the past 2 days. Hmmm? TMI? Anyways back to my awesome week. So on Tuesday  we found a less active while an investigator blew us off which turned out great because the less active came to our party and she also came to church woo hoo! and we got a investigator who asked if she could be baptized and become a member sooo "wow okay,,,yes!" haha. So we'll add that to one of the things to do for this April. We also taught the another investigators of ours and so far their baptisms are for April 5 so holy cow I'm super happy for all the things that happened this week. This week our lessons taught was our highest. in the district. We were able to teach one lady who hasn't been to church in a while a great lesson,  we focused on families and after that we saw her at the party on Saturday. Progress!

After our party outside the church building

So guess what I killed another giant spider yucks..... i just drowned it in poison... now this might freak you guys out we got attacked this week by mice. Eww!  We had to bring out the big guns, so  we got a pretty heavy piece of metal and then me and Elder Losaki brained them..... thats kind of graphic but yeah, thats our living conditions, sorry. But funny thing  I found out Elder Teiatwanas fear, hahaha I never heard a grown man scream that loud.. I have no room to talk about that thought.... the big spiders suck. 

YUCKS

We have had a lot of dinner and food appointments this week and my stomach has been killing me because of it, but its okay because  its  been super fun.  This week I made some pretty delicious pork steak.... the secret is coconut milk. We also had a birthday party for a member, we bought her some candy for her birthday and that was great because we found out it was the only thing she got. So that made us feel pretty good that we remembered. ahh this was what I wanted to say.... so I am not transferred but I am going to train a new missionary again... woah what the heck I'm a tatay ulit. So yeah I'll tell you how that goes this week. Mamaya (tomorrow) we have another food appointment. Some thing else  that happened this week is  that we found a cat nest in Elder Teitawanas closet... but  the good thing is the mom found a better place for them so we didn't have to move them..... and yes this morning the fire alarm went off I thought it was the fire department telling us that there is flooding but nope I must have been half awake for that one. But yeah that's about it for this week. Shout out time I just want to say happy birthday to Adriana. She says shes wiser now so find her and ask her really hard questions for me. Well thats it for this update I hope everyone has a great week. I love you and I'll update next week. 

Elder Llorens uragon

Week 52

Week 52

t

So this week has been one of the best weeks for me in the mission. I got
to go on exchanges with my good friend and aki ko Elder Relf on
Tuesday and I got to cook Bicol express for us on Tuesday night..look
it up. It is a stew made from long chilies, coconut milk, shrimp paste or stockfish, onion, pork, and garlic.) 


On Wednesday I got to go on exchanges again with Elder Villamore he's one of my Filipino friends in my batch that came to the mission with me and that was a blast got to hang out and actually have a Filipino companion! My last Filipino companion was Elder Parohinog and that was last year this time. Crazy to think that next week he gets to go home and he's finished with his mission. I am going to really miss that guy and all that he taught me. On Thursday I gave a workshop for our district meeting. Then on Friday we did some planning for our
upcoming week and we were just out teaching some people and right before we were about to teach some people a really old small grandma came up to me trying to basically argue with me and stuff... quite funny but a little sad. As soon as I was going to explain our selves and what we were doing she just walked away with her little posse'. Basically at the time we were teaching some of her former members in her congregation and she got a little mad and came after us for it. She just wanted us to leave and never come back. She ended up embarrassing a lot of people because she did that and I had some people come up to me and apologize. I just said sorry you have to deal with that, and that made the situation better. But later that night went we went to a members house and learned how to make pork steak wooo! I can't wait to cook for people when I come home its going to be great.hahaha. Then we had  a little Baguio (storm) that night and it was horrible is walking home in it, but saw lots of frogs. Saturday morning we found a less active and taught them and I got a haircut afterwards. Then we went out going to a far area walking and while
we were walking a dude said he wanted to talk so we were like okie dokie we'll talk.....found out we was drunker than a sailor and we said we  will come back later but he kept telling us he loved us and stuff… a little too much love for me! So we will  head back at a later time and hopefully catch him when he's sober the thing is we talked to him at like 2 in the afternoon…. but we will keep our fingers crossed. Its been raining on and off.  Sunday we just taught the usual people but then went out to a far area and we took a tricy. We were able to teach one less active and then right before we were about to leave we were talking to a man on a bike who before was taught by the Elders but the Elders forgot to go back. He had a few questions about the church and so we were gald to answer them and he is more interested to listen and so we will be going to teach him hopefully Wednesday morning. So because we spent an hour talking and answering his questions no more tricys..night time. So for our walk back home I had to buy a phone load because we were out so we bought some load and talked to the lady's who we bought it from and they were quite impressed with us and how nice we were. and they said they would like to feed us sometime. So there's your lesson for being nice. Than a drunk dude came up to us with another drunk dude and told us that his family is members in Utah and said he loved us as well. So love is good! But the lesson to be learned, always be a good example because there is always someone watching. Okay so that's my peace for the week.. I'm  thankful for everyone that does amazing things for my family and for me. Shout out to  Pj who just came home from his mission and also Josh Chang you guys are cool! hahaha sigeiyen lang para sa ngayon. sana ang darating linggo ngayon ay astig. salamat sa indo ulit. ingat!

Elder Llorens

Week 51

Week 51

3/10/14

So this has been sort of a rough week for me. At the beginning it was really good. We had a lot of lessons and even a baptismal invitation. I went on exchanges with some Elders to help them out.  We accomplished a lot of work ,but it kind of just got a little rough. My companion got a sick ,so our work slowed down the last couple of days. But I am coming to understand more about honor.  I got a really good letter from my father about Senator McCain when he was serving in the military and when he became a prisoner of war. He talked a lot about having an honor code. Basically for officers in the military they are expected to be a good example to others and to always be doing the right thing. I can relate to it as being a missionary. It gets rough at times for sure. Always being a good example, but its more worth it when you are the example and you see others recognizing it. So being a missionary has changed my whole life. I would like to think of myself as a meatball still, but I have to admit that I have matured really fast in just a little over a year. Its hard but its   shaping my whole life. At times I will fall and that's just a part of growing and life. But I was talking to a really good friend the other day and I remembered this quote, " arise and rise again, until lambs become lions" when ever we fall we can't quit, we have to  just keep going on. The days may seem dark and lonesome but then I remember that I have a Savior who watches and protects me and I have a loving Heavenly Father who is always willing to help and forgive me. That's a lot of love, it reminds me of how good and precious life is. No matter how bad and dark life may get, there is always a light that will break the dawn, something to look forward to.  I am grateful again to be here and serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am grateful for all the trials in my life because they will help me pick myself up and to press forward, on  straight path. I have seen so many miracles from being here that its impossible to deny that God lives and Loves us and that's the truth. I know that life is the playing field and I have to make most of what I have and I intend to. I am also grateful for all the family and friends that give me help especially when I don't think I  need it. You are a blessing. Thank you again and I hope you all have a great and amazing week.

Elder Llorens