April 17, 2022 - My name is a swear word

Happy Easter!

If the title caught your attention, then good, the clickbait worked haha. While we were at one of our member's house for dinner, the young daughter tried saying my first name, but she wasn't pronouncing the "r"s properly (sort of like "pah-keh"), so her older sister and Elder Sabala corrected her and told her not to say it like that because it was a bad word. So there you go, I am a swear word  Anyways, this week has been good, we were able to focus on a lot of people that we're trying to prepare for baptism soon, which has been good for us to taje care of and plan for.

On Tuesday, we had district council, which was fun. There were a few birthdays in both districts, so we decided to meet together for birthday potluck for lunch and then split off into separate district councils, which was fun. We then met with Rizalyn and her grandma and few others nearby to talk about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, which went alright. We got home a little late and had a late dinner, and I really don't have much else to say about today, it was just a normal day in the missionary life.

On Wednesday, we had weekly planning in the morning, which went well. Afterwards, we met with Kim Jordan and his friends; Dona; Rizalyn; a couple new members baptized almost a year ago; and John Lloyd and Jorlie, two brothers who were supposed to be baptized this Saturday, but Elder Sabala and I haven't been able to meet with them at all until today lol, so we'll have to push their baptism date back a couple weeks since there's still a bit we have to teach them. We then had dinner at Seth's because it was his dad's birthday before heading home for the night, and for some reason, my bike tire was incredibly flat (I think the rim might've been hitting the ground a few time because there was no air in that thing haha), I barely made it up the hill back to our apartment lol. It was also another rainy day, which are always fun because you have to choose whether you want to wear a jacket or not; on the one hand, you have (some) protection from the rain, but on the other, that additional layer makes you even hotter as you're riding a bike in the Philippines, only cooled off somewhat by the rain haha.

Thursday went well. As we were walking to a bike shop, an older guy called out to us and said he was a member in the ZLs area. He asked for a blessing, and I was able to help Elder Sabala as he gave his first blessing. After that, we got a new tire, and we headed to Seth's place before heading over to the western part of our area. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Rosalinda (our first teaching appointment), we were already an hour behind schedule, and we had a few other teaching appointments planned that day after Rosalinda before our dinner appointment, so it was crunchtime. It all worked out though; our lessons with Rosalinda, Ariane Joy (a girl we invited to be baptized when we taught her last Sunday after General Conference), and Rogelio (the grandpa of one of the youth) went alright, but we couldn't make it to Janssen since he was busy. We then headed to our dinner appointment with the recently released branch mission leader and the ZLs, and then we went with the ZLs again to the birthday party of a member in their ward, which was a fun way to end the night.

Friday was pretty good. I had a social media content missionary zoom meeting, which was good, I guess, I've only been a content missionary for about two or three weeks, so I'm still figuring everything out lol. We then went with the senior couple missionaries in our mission to inspect our two potential apartments with the district president and his wife. While the senior missionaries drove back to Cauayan, Elder Sabala and I had lunch and we talked about which apartment to choose, and we eventually just chose the apartment that is next to the church and several members, including the branch president. Although it is smaller and a little further from the market/convenience stores, and it is surrounded by members who could help us out if we ever did need food or help in emergencies and would potentially be safer than the other one. Anyways, after lunch, we met with Edward, one of Kim Jordan's friends, and one of his relatives who is a convert and served a mission himself and was there to watch him, so that went well. We then met with John Raven, who we're preparing for baptism next Saturday, and then with Janssen, Aldred, and Aldrin. With the latter three, we reviewed everything we had taught so far (since either one twin or the other was gone during our previous lessons), and then we invited Aldred and Aldrin to be baptized on the same day as Janssen, which they accepted. After that, we met with John Lloyd and Jorlie, who were supposed to be baptized tomorrow, but they aren't ready yet since we just barely started meeting with them to finish teaching them the lessons, so we'll have to change their baptism date to sometime in the next couple of weeks. We then had dinner with a member family and the ZLs, and we headed home. Soon after we arrived home, a huge storm came and started dumping rain. It was so bad that there was a small layer of water on the rooftop, and the rain was coming down the stairwell into our apartment (since we leave the doors open until we sleep to provide ventilation, so we quickly tried to push some of the water out of the doorway, put some towels down, closed the door, and headed up to the rooftop room (which thankfully hasn't flooded lol) to hope for the best 

Saturday was a little interesting in the beginning lol. There are renovators working on our apartment to repaint it, and they were sanding the main area, which filled the room with dust. I was luckily able to get ready right before they started, but everyone else had soap, clothes, etc. that was left in the room, which unfortunately set our schedule back a little bit. It is what it is though. After lunch, we tried meeting with Rosalinda, but she wasn't there, so we just met with her daughter (member) and her daughters too (also members). Anyways, we then met with Ariane, before heading over to visit John Lloyd and Jorlie, in which we reinvited the two of them to be baptized on May 14 (since it was originally supposed to be today). They're always pretty engaged/excited to see us, so that's awesome haha. We then got some 7-11 and McDonald's and headed home. Elder Sabala and I also found out this week that we have to approve anyone who is younger than 15 years old with President Craig for baptism, which would be Kim Jordan, Rizalyn, and Ariane. We called President Craig today to ask for permission/approval to baptize them, and he said to push their baptisms each back by a few weeks, so we plan to have Kim Jordan and Rizalyn baptized on May 21 and to have Ariane baptized on May 28 or June 4, and we'll be talking about that with them soon. If that all works out, we should have an average of two people baptized each week in May, so that's exciting haha.

Sunday was alright. We had church (classic Sunday), and afterwards, we got some snacks at the Saduestes (the district president and his family). We then we met two of the newly called Young Women's Presideny and a priest at a few different houses to do some ministering and to get to know some part-member households or less active families. While we did that, we had a lesson with John Raven and a bunch of other kids that came to join, which went well, thanks to the YW President knowing how to capture kids' attentions and work with them haha. Unfortunately, John Raven didn't attend church today, and he hasn't for the past few weeks, so we're planning on moving his baptism date too so that we can make sure he has a habit of coming to church before he is baptized. That means that neither he nor Kim Jordan will be baptized this week, and we may not have any baptisms for the rest of the month, but, like I said above, we should have several in May, so that should be exciting. After John Raven, we had some snacks at member's house about an hour before our dinner appointment with the Saduestes (I don't know why, I just work here lol), and then we tried visiting Janssen, Aldrin, and Aldred, but they forgot about today's appointment and were at a basketball game, so we just headed to the Saduestes a bit early. The dinner was good, and we had a good spiritual thought, but their tricycle was old and falling apart, so they could only take us part of the way home, which meant we were walking a lot more expected haha, and we got home a little bit late. We then sent in our weekly reports and played some cards, and I did some laundry to end the night.

Happy Easter everyone! I'm so grateful for this opportunity we have each year to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection. I know that He lived, suffered, and died for each of us, and I know that He lives again so that we can return back to God, our Father. I've gained this testimony through prayer, scripture study, acting in faith, and sharing my testimonies with others, and if you want that testimony and the hope and peace it brings, then I invite you to do those small and simple things as well because I know that He wants to you know Him so that He can comfort you and bring you back to our Father alongside Him.

See you all next week,

-Elder Enger

P.S. Attached are a few pictures of the moon, some pictures from our rooftop, and our apartment being flooded with rain water (ask my dad for the video if you want to see it lol)