Thou must open thy mouth at all times

Hello, This week has been pretty good. I arrived safely here in Mallig with my companion, Elder Secillano, and we've been able to introduce myself to the various members/people we're teaching, find some more people to teach, and prepare some kids/teenagers for their baptisms this coming Saturday and at the end of November, so it was a pretty busy and pretty good week. And as the title suggests, I've been finding myself becoming more talkative/willing to talk to those we meet over the past several months and especially over the past week or so (who would've thought haha), which I'm very grateful for, and I'm grateful for the grace and strength that God continues to give me (and will continue to give you as you continue to seek Him) to help me bless the lives of others and become who He wants me to become. Tuesday was transfer day, always interesting, busy, and fun haha. We had some breakfast with the Echague Elders, and then Elder Anor and I headed to Alicia to meet the Zone Leaders and the others who were being transferred, where we said our goodbyes, sad haha. I then headed with Elder Monares (who's on the social media team, actually) and Sister Sardon on a bus to Cauayan, which is where we parted ways, and Sister Sardon and I got on a jeep to head to Roxas. It was a little interesting just being with a Sister lol, but it all worked out. The fun part was that neither her nor I nor the zone leaders of my past area had been to the areas that we were going to, and we didn't have phones, so we just had to rely on the couple sentences of direction that our zone leader gave us right before we hopped on the first bus to Cauayan lol, so it was mildly stressful for a little bit, but we were able to find the right vehicles (with enough space for our luggage haha), and get to our destinations safely. At the terminal in Roxas, we met our companions: mine is Elder Secillano, the district leader for our area, and his companion for the last cycle, Elder Ramos, stayed with us in a trio until Thursday, when he travelled to Cauayan to meet his trainee. Our house is pretty small haha, and we share it with another pair of Elders, so it's a party lol. The house is good; it's just one room for us to sleep/study with a small bathroom inside, and there's another room that acts as the kitchen that is outside right next to the actual house. My companion, Elder Secillano, is 23, and is from the same area of the Philippines that my trainee back in Almaguer, Elder Gernale, is from. Funnily enough, as he was talking, I realized that he sounds a lot like Elder Gernale, so it makes sense that they're from the same area in the Philippines haha. He's the district leader for our district, and he's been a missionary for 9 months. His companion, Elder Ramos, who will be with us until Thursday, has been a missionary for almost 5 months, but he's been here in Mallig for the whole time. The other two Elders---Elder Abay (came in with Elder Secillano) and Elder Delos Santos (came in with Elder Ramos)---are assigned in San Pedro, the area right next to ours. After I unpacked some things, we headed out to visit some nearby members and introduce myself. Afterwards, we headed over to a member's house to have dinner with the Elders that are our housemates and a family in their area, including a returned missionary that was reassigned to her home mission here in Cauayan, just like Sister Joyce in Jones, so that was neat. Afterwards, we headed back home, and I tried to do various social media tasks that hadn't been completed yet because of the business over the past few days haha. Wednesday was alright. After some lunch, we headed out to a further area, walking instead of biking because we have two bikes instead of three, so not all of us as a trio can ride lol. Anyways, we tried meeting with some teenagers that they've been teaching in this area, but they were busy with school, so we just met their parents instead (they're all related, and a couple of the parents of those kids are members, so it's just a bunch of part-member families in that area). One of the families/parents we met with were Ryan and Melanie; Ryan is a member and becoming more active, but Melanie isn't a member yet, though she has shown interest in being baptized, and their oldest son, Ryan Jr., is actually being baptized next week. After them, we met with the other kids for that evening: Jerome, Ryan Jr., Eliseo, Joana, Rubina, and Nanay Trinidad, who is Jerome's mom. They are all cousins of each other, but Eliseo and Joana are brother and sister, and the three boys are 14-15 while the two girls are 11. The lesson went well, and Nanay Trinidad is now preparing to be baptized on November 26, which is exciting haha. They then gave us a ride back to the church building (close to our house), and we headed to the Portugal family, a member family nearby, to have dinner with them, which was nice. We then headed home, and I did some social media tasks, of course haha, and helped with some record keeping issues that I have so far found in every area I've been transferred into haha, it's fine, it's all working out. Thursday went well. Early in the morning, Elder Ramos left to Cauayan to meet with his trainee, so he said goodbye, and after some lunch, we headed over to visit a couple members/people who have been taught by missionaries before. We first stopped by a woman at a store (sorry, I forgot her name lol), who talked to us as if she was a member of the Church already haha but I was told that she used to be taught and hasn't in a while because she's been too busy. We then met Renato, a man who was taught nearly 14 years ago and whose wife was baptized, but he wasn't able to get baptized because of some personal issues and lost contact with missionaries ever since. He's a referral from our branch president, and he works at a nearby barbershop, and we were able to share a message with him before some customers came in, which was good. We then headed over to visit Marivic, the mother-in-law of a member in our branch, to share a message with her, and shortly afterwards, her son, Paul, the husband of the member in their family, arrived, so we were able to meet him and share a message with him as well. We then visited a couple nearby houses of less active members before heading to our dinner appointment with the Relief Society president, but there was a ton of people near/at her house to celebrate the anniversary of her brother's passing, so it was loud and somewhat chaotic, so we just had some dinner and talked for a little bit. We then walked home, and I did a bunch of multitasking between trying to do DFTC/social media work, fixing our records, and checking out the new transfers and where everyone is, so it all took longer than expected, but it ended up alright haha. Friday also went pretty well. In the late morning, we headed to Roxas for our district council and for Elder Secillano to do a baptism interview with someone there that the Sisters have been teaching (since he's the district leader), which went well. One of the Sisters, Sister Mandel, is from Oklahoma, she came in with Elder Lewis, and she's actually friends with someone who came in with me to the California San Jose mission haha, so that was pretty neat. After the interview, we then headed to the Roxas chapel for our district council; there's 12 of us total lol, and they are all Sisters except for us and the San Pedro Elders, those who live in our house with us haha. It's quite the change since I haven't had any Sisters in my districts since I left San Jose lol. After that, we had choir practice for our musical number for when we have our conferences with President Bangerter during his mission tour, which went well. Afterwards, we headed back home, waited a little bit for the rain to die down, and started biking for the first time to the northern part of our area. First, we started looking for a member family to visit, and we asked someone nearby if they knew where they lived. They said that they didn't know the family, so I instead just started talking with him instead of continuing on to another house, which eventually led to us sharing a message with him, which was nice. Yes, Elder Enger actually initiated a conversation with someone out of his own free will, look at us, who would've thought haha. His name is Christian, he's 21, and we'll see if it goes anywhere. Anyways, afterwards, we headed to a dinner appointment with a member family, who served up some Korean food, which was good. We then headed over to visit Nanay Maria, an older woman who was recently baptized this past year, before heading home. On the way home, Elder Secillano hunted for spiders to use in his spider fight against Elder Escobar (former AP and one of my companions for my first few days in the Philippines Cauayan Mission who is in the same zone as me) tomorrow when we meet with our whole zone for a choir practice for President Bangerter's mission tour next week, and when we got home, the others showed me their spiders as well lol. Yep, you heard that right, they literally have matchboxes where they keep some spiders to use in spider fights haha, welcome to the Philippines lol Saturday also went well, though it was a little crazy. In the morning, we had our zone choir practice, which went well, though Elder Secillano forgot to bring his spiders, so no spider fight today haha. While there, I met the two other foreigners in my zone besides Sister Mandel: Elder McCabe from Arizona (arrived a few days ago), and Elder Price from New Zealand (came in with Elder Lewis last transfer). When I first met Elder Price, he talked with an American accent, and when he said he was also from Utah after I said that I was from there, I asked which part, to which he just had a blank stare and said "Uh, Utah...USA...Salt Lake, you know?", and then he broke into his New Zealand accent lol, funny guy haha. Anyways, choir practice went well, but it took a lot longer than expected, so it was pretty late in the afternoon when we came home haha. On our way home, I talked to the guy sitting next to me; he and his wife sat next to me and had a cute one-year old, and I was able to talk to them for a little bit, it was good. When we got home, we waited a bit for the rain to die down before we headed over to visit the kids that are planning on getting baptized next Saturday (Ryan, Jerome, Eliseo, Joana, and Rubina) and the mom of Jerome, Trinidad, who we invited on Wednesday to be baptized on November 26. It went well; it was about the Ten Commandments, and I was able to use the finger signs that my trainer taught me to remember the Ten Commandments, which they enjoyed and laughed at. We then headed over to the Relief Society president's again to have some dinner, with the San Pedro Elders, which was pretty tasty. We then headed home, I tried doing some DFTC work, and I ended up talking with Elder Delos Santos for a long time to answer some of his questions about how the Bible/Book of Mormon were compiled and how he could help one of their investigators who had some of those questions, which went well, I hope haha. Sunday was good, a bit busy. In the morning, we had church, and guess what? For the first time in my whole mission, I was the pianist for our church meeting haha. For the whole week, Elder Secillano has been telling the members we've visited how great I am at piano, but I really haven't played piano at all for the past 15 months XD not to mention I can only sight-read consistently one-handed haha. So it was a little rough haha, but it all turned out alright. The kids/teens that are preparing for baptism all came to church, and Paul also came with his wife (a member of the Church) and son, which was nice to see. After church, we ate some lunch and did some planning at our house before heading out to visit the teenagers again to review their baptismal interview questions. We met with them, which went alright, and we met the older siblings of Jerome and shared a message with them as well. We then headed over to the "debut" party (18th birthday party; that's what it's called here in the Philippines haha) of the Elders Quorum president's daughter had some dinner there, which went alright. We then hurried home so that Elder Secillano could do his accounting as district leader, and so that I could do my own work/accounting as DFTC/social media leader haha, such as by having a monthly meeting with the referral secretaries. One of the referral secretaries is now companions with a Sister that was just barely in Almaguer, so I got to ask about it and how it was doing, which was nice. It's now split into 2 areas, Almaguer A and Almaguer B, both of which are covered by Sister missionaries, so it's nice to hear that that area is progressing like that. I hope you are all having a fantastic week. Continue to serve your family, your friends, and those around you, and continue to draw closer to Jesus Christ and your Heavenly Father through daily prayer and scripture study everyday. I know that They truly are there for each one of us and that They know perfectly how to help us in every situation we're in, and I know that as we reach out to Them and strive to become better each day and draw closer to Them, we will receive Their help, strength, and guidance everyday as we become the sons and daughters of God that we're meant to become. No matter where you are---physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally---They will always find you and guide you back towards Them and the blessings They have in store for you. See you next week, Elder Enger 1-2 - The temporary trio 3 - My new district 4 - Biking 5 - Church with the young men preparing for baptism 6 - Travelling from zone choir practice 7-10 - Scenic shots