Week 42: Tuesday March 25, 2014

Family,

   WHOA! So transfers were this week, & you will all be very excited about my new assignments! As I have mentioned the last few weeks, 2 new zones are opening up in our mission, the San Carlos & Escalante zones. They were taken from the Bacolod mission, & I think some parts are even in Bacolod. Everyone in the mission of course wants to open up these areas & have the opportunity to serve there. When transfer call came, I was very excited to hear that I will be serving in the San Carlos zone! Me & my companion, Elder Mozar, will be opening the area of Guihulngan. I am so excited for this wonderful privilege. Even more so, because I will be the District Leader in this new area! I had the chance to speak with President Schmutz briefly, & he told me that he has chosen me for this sacred & important responsibility because of how diligent & obedient I am. He told me how proud he is of the progress I have made since I first arrived & that he can see the change that has occurred in me as I have given everything I have to this work. I am so grateful for the trust that he & Heavenly Father have in me. 

   That means that I will be transferring from the old farthest area in the mission, to the new farthest area in the mission! I have actually been up since 2 o'clock this morning because we have a meeting today in Cebu for everyone who is transferring to the new areas. I am currently sitting at an internet hun in Cebu, running on about 4 hours of sleep in the last 2 days or so, so I hope this e-mail makes sense. As you can imagine, the next week or so will be extremely busy, so I unfortunately won't have time to upload photos this week. Look forward to next week though, because I have many! I focused this weeks pictures on the children of the Philippines. I want you all to see my very favorite part of living in this wonderful land, & that comes from the beautiful, happy children! 

   I loved the family pictures that you sent! Daxton's shirt looks just like something I would wear. It's weird to say, but I think he looks just like me too. Since that's the case, you'd better watch out Starr...the girls are going to be all over him! 

   Well, I can't really think of anything else to say right now. I don't have as much time today as you can tell. I am very excited & I ask for your prayers to help me magnify this calling that I have been asked to fulfill. I know that you all pray for me, & I'm grateful. 

   I love you!

-Elder Staheli

Week 41: Tuesday March 18, 2014

Family,

   It's another nice, cool, & rainy day in Bayawan city. I walked out of the apartment today & looked at the palm tress, smelled the rain on the pavement, & felt the cool breeze. I felt, if only for a moment, like I was back home in America. 

   It was nice to hear about everyone's week! I completely forgot that it was St. Patrick's day. I turned & told Elder Glines...he forgot as well. If I would have remembered, maybe I would have worn a green tie to celebrate. Anyway, I loved the pictures from your trip to Arizona! Daxton is getting so big & you & Chad have got the be the best looking couple I've ever seen. You two are so gwapo! I can't wait to go down to Spring Training with you guys when I get back. Me & Tanner can speak Cebuano together! I'm sure he still remembers it. 

   Let's see...As for work this week, it has mostly been contacting. We focused on finding people last week & this week we have tried to go back & contact them. Some have been successful & others not so much. It breaks my heart to say, but I think we are going to drop Jenny. She has great potential & certainly recognizes that there is truth in the gospel, but she just isn't ready to change yet. Her husband works all the time, so we haven't even met him. Hopefully some time in the future, the missionaries will contact her again & she will be ready. Also, I think I told you about Marie Nessa. She is the daughter of a member in the branch here. We taught her about the Book of Mormon & the lesson was awesome! She is so great, but like I said in my last letter, I hesitate to baptize her without her husband, so we will just see how things play out these next few weeks if I am still assigned here (transfer call is on Monday, can you believe it!). 

   I want to tell you about a lesson we had just yesterday. We were contacting a lady that former missionaries had taught & she invited us in. It was just her & we were getting to know each other a little bit. We prayed & right as we were about to start the lesson, I heard a voice from the back room. The voice was quiet & asked who was there. The lady responded that her husband was in the room & that he was unable to walk. I walked back there & found this 60+ year old man laying on a bamboo bed. His hair was long, his body crippled, & his eyes innocent. He proceeded to tell me that he has very bad problems in his stomach & he has a disease in his leg that makes it near impossible for him to walk. We sat down & started to teach him. As we did, tears filled his eyes & he gladly accepted the invitation to be baptized. I am very excited, of course, but I am unsure about what to do because he can't walk. Since he can't walk, he can't come to church & there is no way the he will be able to stand to be baptized. We are going to give him a blessing next time we visit him & hopefully a miracle happens.

   Miracles happen everyday. It is truly incredible to witness them. 

   We have our zone conference tomorrow, so I am excited to go to Dumagete & eat some McDonald's! 

   Love you guys.

-Elder Staheli

Week 40: Tuesday March 11, 2014

Family,

   It sounds like you are all doing well & I'm glad that the funeral service was nice. I appreciate the pictures & e-mails, as always. Me & Elder Glines are looking at them right now talking about how much we miss the red rock. There is nothing like it here. St. George is such a beautiful place to live. Of course I miss it at times, but I live in another part of the world that is equally as beautiful, just in a different way. I'm actually pretty happy because it has been pretty cool this week. In fact, it's overcast & rainy today, so I am completely content.

   I mentioned last week that there are going to be 2 new zones opening in the mission that are being taken from the Bacolod mission. I don't remember what I told you all about it, but they are the San Carlos & Escalante zones. This will give us 14 new branches & 2 districts. That's great news! They are both on Negros, about 2 hours or so from my last area, Bais. They are white-washing the area so 40 missionaries from our mission will be assigned to open the new areas. I am very excited & would be happy to be a missionary to serve there.

   Work has been great this week! We are working with Jenny, who actually goes by Chen-Chen, as I mentioned in previous letters. She is still progressing, but unfortunately she is kind of hard to get a hold of. We aren't able to teach her as much I would like to, but every time we do, the lesson is always great. In the next lesson or two, we are planning on inviting her to be baptized. Hopefully she accepts!

   Last night, we went to a part members home to teach. We were able to teach the mother (a very active member), & two of her daughters, one of which is baptized & active. We taught about baptism & the girl had a lot of questions which is great! Usually the people don't have questions because they are either shy or don't really understand. They are a very smart family. The mother is a teacher & knows English very well, but of course we teach them in Cebuano. The one girl had many questions about the Book of Mormon, prayer, life, etc. It was really great to discuss with her about these things & as we did so, you could see that it was making sense & she was happy that she finally was getting answers to things that she had wondered for so long. At the end of the lesson, we invited her to be baptized...& she accepted! I am very happy. We still have a lot of work to do, though. I also want to teach her husband who is not a member, & I would like them to be baptized together. It's much better if they are baptized together so that they can have a support system. More often than not, if only one of them is baptized they will be in active soon thereafter. We have taught him once & it went well. The problem is that he works a lot & his job is far away so I fear that they will struggle keeping the commitments that they need to in order to be baptized. But of course we are praying very hard for them & I am confident that they will be baptized, even if I am again not there to witness it.

   That's about it! I'm sorry that I am the worst at sending pictures, but as soon as I get my camera charged I will send lots! Love you all!

Elder Staheli

Week 39: Tuesday March 4, 2014

Dear Family,

   I want to start off my letter this week by saying how sorry I am to hear about the passing away of Darin Walker. I have known that he has been struggling with his health the last few years, but this news came as a shock to me, as I'm sure it did to everyone else. I am deeply saddened by his passing away, but I also feel peace knowing that he will not have to continue in pain & suffering. Please let Leslie & the rest of the family that I love them very much & that they are in my prayers at this time.

   I was very happy to read your letters this week, but I was especially excited when I read Casey's! I smiled the whole way through. I am looking forward to hearing what similarities we experience & how you feel about things over here in this wonderful land. I'm glad you made it safely! I want to comment a little bit about some things that you wrote in your e-mail, Casey. First off, it sounds like you are busy & on a very tight schedule. I hope you get some time to explore & see the sights. However, I must say that Manila is very different from the rest of the Philippines. You are right, depending on where you are at, it doesn't feel third-world at all! Especially in Manila, I have heard missionaries say that it feels like they are in California. Also, I think that the biggest mall in the world is in Manila, (maybe I'm wrong) so I was not surprised to hear about all of the malls & American restaurants around you. Cebu is not quite as modernized, (thought it certainly doesn't look third-world) but there are parts that are extremely so. I laughed when you mentioned the geckos. There are geckos here, but there are also little lizards here called tuki's.There are all over & there have been many in every house I have stayed in. I like watching them. They just sit on the wall & wait for a bug to land by them & then they pounce! It's entertaining. They get their name from the sound they make. If you ever hear a lizard making a noise like that, it's a tuki. The larger ones are called tuko because they are bigger & have a deeper voice. Anyway, I am just excited to keep in touch & hopefully meet up these next few months!

   I arrived here in July right when the rainy season was starting. Well, hello summer! If you think it gets hot in St. George, come & experience the Philippines in the summer! This last week has been the hottest that I have had so far, no doubt. We walk from one appointment to another, & I feel almost dizzy & out of it because of how hot it is. It makes coming home at night to an air-con room that much better!

   We didn't have the chance to go back to Jenny yet; she's been out of town. We are going to try & go backtomorrow or some other time this week. We have found & taught some pretty interesting people though this week. My favorite thing to do is tract & find people! It's so interesting to get to know about people. Other than that, not much has happened this week. We have a training meeting tomorrow that I am excited for. Also, with so many new missionaries coming in, we are taking 2 zones from the Bacolod mission & adding them to our. This means that a lot of transfers & white-washing will take place. Also, with so many people leaving these next few transfers, most of the leadership positions are going to be filled with very young missionaries. It's kind of scary since President Schmutz is leaving in June. Our new mission Presidents name is Mcmurry (spelling?). They are from Idaho. Before President Schmutz & his wife were called here, they traveled quite a bit. They have been to India, South America, Europe, etc., so they kind of knew what to expect. I was talking to Elder Glines about it & he said that they were skyping President & his wife, & Sister Mcmurry asked if there were spiders in the Philippines...I hope they know what they are in for!

   I have a lot of pictures to send! I will try to figure out this dropbox thing so hopefully I can send them all to that. It's much faster & you can send many more at a time. I will do that right now while I still have some time. Love you all!

-Elder Staheli