Elder Booth's First Baptisms!!

What an amazing time! Elder Booth's First Baptisms! As you can see from the letter, he's pretty excited about the whole thing. Congratulations! How exciting! Go Elder Booth!!

Date: February 1, 2009 7:07:38 PM PST

Hey everybody. Well, I would have to say this has been a really good week. I guess I will start out with the good stuff, which are the five baptisms my companion and I performed on Sunday. I went on splits on Friday so the district leader could interview them. We found out that one of the boys that was supposed to be baptized was actually only seven. It's kind weird here. They always say they are a year older when they are relatively close to their birthday. All of the interviews went great though. We also found out that they could not do it on Saturday, which was the original day. Since we had one planned for Sunday morning, we just put them all at the same time. It still was not to easy though. Don't get me wrong, it could have been a lot harder. It was a long process getting them in the water.

First on Saturday the father cut off his finger. Well not all the way, just mostly. He just sewed it up himself. He said it hurt pretty badly. My companion does not do well with that sort of stuff. You should have seen his face when he was describing it to us. It was pretty funny. It was alright though - he just said he would deal with it. He is an amazing guy. I could learn a thing or two from him. Then Sunday was pretty hectic. We were supposed to be at the church at six thirty but we both forgot to set our alarms for earlier. So the morning was really crazy when we were running around trying not to be late for our own baptism. Then on the way there, it was raining. So when we were waiting on the corner for jeepney, we got splattered with dirty water so all of my baptismal clothes got black spots all over them. By then I was a bit flustered, to say the least. We finally got there though, and were actually still the fist ones there. Filipino time is nuts. It was amazing though because they all showed up. Even if it was late. We actually even had an investigator come that we invited. It was an amazing experience. Nothing could make me wipe the grin off of my face.

There were five in all getting baptized. The family had four and we had one other. My companion baptized the parents of and the other sister and I got to baptize the two little girls. It was so cool and they were all so happy. I got some good pictures so I will send those back as soon as I get the other memory card. (Oh, and don't worry Michele, you can put whatever you think is cool on the blog - I don't really care). Oh and the family's name is the Taladros. I didn't think I would get to baptize an entire family my first transfer. Oh, and I was looking at it and they were actually my first appointment in the field. The kids are great. They have three girls and one boy. The girls are 13, 11, and 5. The little boy is 7, so we will be getting him ready for next year. The other investigator was our golden one. Her name is Mary Jean Endrada. She is a house help to one of the really strong members in the ward and she was just brought to us to teach. She is really smart and learned everything so fast. To top off our Sunday, we actually had a really less active member come back to church. We were really impressed. She is a return missionary but she stopped coming because she got offended by somebody. That is a pretty big problem here. She came back though so my trainer can now die happy. That has also been nuts. My trainer is leaving tomorrow, so things are a bit crazy around here with them trying to get ready to go. It is just going to be me and the other elder from my batch in our apartment for three days. I really don't know how that is going to go. I am pretty nervous so I hope the lord helps us out.

Nothing really happened too crazy with the culture. Everything is normal to me now. I am sorry. If you really want to know something though, don't be afraid to ask. I love you all and I am sorry if I missed something . Just let me know and I will be sure to include it next week. Oh, and just so everybody knows I can receive pictures and stuff through email. That seemed to be a popular question. Well, I love you all and thanks again for all of your support.

Elder Booth

Here are some of the pictures of the wonderful day:

Elder Booth and Elder Erickson with the Taladros family

Brother Taladros with all of his kids

Brother Taladros with the girls getting baptized

As Elder Booth mentioned, they had to move the Taladros baptism to Sunday. They already had a baptism scheduled for that day, also moved up from the 7th so Elder Erickson could perform it. Her name is Sister Jean and here she is, getting ready for the big event also:

Sister Jean, the Golden Investigator

Sister Jean with Elder Booth and Elder Erickson

Sister Jean with Elder Erickson

Sister Jean with Elder Booth


Sister Jean with her family

What a wonderful experience for all of those involved! A truly amazing day!

My Second CSP

This week Elder Booth's District was able to help out with another Community Service Project. This time, they helped a small branch build a meeting house. It's pretty amazing to think that in one day, they could build a place for others to come and meet together on Sundays. I'm sure it was a pretty humbling experience.

Here is a truck loaded with some building materials. I'm not sure if these materials were for the meeting house being built, or not:


Here are the missionaries building the meeting house:



Look what they found! Cute little snail...

What a beautiful view!

Even though we can barely see him, we know that Elder Booth is looking good!


Here are the District members who helped with the build. You'll recognize Elder Netzley, Elder Hamblin, Elder Booth and Elder Erickson in the front, from left to right. As for the others in the district, I'm not quite sure.



Finally, a letter from Elder Booth dated around the time the pictures were taken.


Date: January 25, 2009 6:57:00 PM PST

If you haven't noticed, I am going to try and make the subject of each weekly letter different. That way I at least know that something is a little different, because if feels like I am writing the exact same thing every single week.

This past week has been a good one. The work here is really starting to progress and I am really excited. Oh, and I am really happy to say that the baptism of the family on Saturday is still right on schedule. The bishop interviewed them on Sunday and found them all worthy to take the plunge. It is going to be so great. We have some good speakers lined up and my companion and I are actually going to do a special musical number. I don't know how I got roped into that one, but oh well. It will be good for me. I will tell you next week how it goes and hopefully take some good pictures. (I haven't been taking too many so that will be a great chance for me to do so).

Our other investigator is still golden. I don't have too much experience yet, but I am pretty sure they don't get any more golden than her. A member just walked up to us and told us to teach her. She is only seventeen but we just found out that her parents are supportive and are willing to sign the permission form. The only set back is she has a date for the seventh and she just found out that my trainer would be going home before then so she is now really sad he can't baptize her. So he is going to try and do it next Sunday, which will be her fourth Sunday at church. Hopefully that works out, or I guess she will just have to settle for me or my follow up trainer. As long as she is baptized, I am happy.

My funny experience for the week is actually pretty interesting. We got an oym about a week ago so we went there to try and follow up with it. When we went up to the house there were two girls sitting there on a motor. So we asked them if Brother Baal was at home. They proceeded to tell us that he had died. Not really believing them, my companion asked if we could see. They said of course and took us inside. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the funerals here are in their house and last about a week and end up turning into a gambling party. Anyway, we followed them inside. Sure enough there was a casket just sitting there in their front room. So we looked inside and I could have sworn there sitting there was our oym. So not really knowing what to do now, we sort of just stood there. They told us to sit down and then started bringing us some food. That is when things got a little awkward. I had no idea what to do so I just sat there quietly. Then they looked at us and said it would be cool if we shared with them. So of course we shared about the plan of salvation. It was a crazy lesson. There was a old guy there that just kept asking us biblical riddles. I really didn't understand too well so I just sat there while they kept bringing me food. It was a little weird trying to eat and be in the conversation at the same time. Considering I didn't understand too well, I did more eating. After we finally got done we found out that Bro Baal was still alive and that was his dad, so that was a relief.

The last funny thing that happened was I prayed at the end and then stood up to leave. Then my companion grabbed me and said the old guy wanted to pray as well. So I sat down and stared at him waiting for him to stop talking and start praying. About half way through the prayer, I realized that everybody had their head down but me. So I put my head down and listened to him yell his prayer. Then when he got done he just said, "ok I'm done now." So that is my funny experience this week.

I think I am getting pretty used to the culture so it is really hard to think of anything really weird to talk about. As for food, I didn't eat anything too bad this week. I did get some really hairy big (pig??) skin, but I wasn't man enough to eat it. The hair really got to me.

Well, I love you all and hope you are keeping our Savior in your thoughts. Just remember it is harder to commit a sin when you are thinking of our brother suffering for it. Thanks again for all of your support and don't worry too much about your Elder in Bacolod.

Elder Booth

Bowling as a Zone!

Elder Booth was able to go to a fun Zone Activity at the end of January. His Zone went bowling for an activity and from the looks of it, you would think you had taken a step into the United States...

Here's what Elder Booth said about it:

"The bowling is a Zone activity. Yea, never thought I would be bowling here (in the Philippines). The place was actually pretty nice. We had a lot of fun."

Here is a picture of the Bowling Alley:

(Not too different from what we have here)

Elder Booth is having a blast!

Check out those moves! Look at that form! Elder ??


Not sure who this is either...

Again, not sure who this is:

Here are some of the Elders from the Zone. They are not the ones Elder Booth lives with, so I'm not sure of their names (I think they're the ones in the pictures above, too)...


Finally, some faces I recognize! Here's Elder Booth with his companion and "roomies."

Elder Booth (left), Elder Erickson (in the back), Elder Netzley (in front),
and Elder Hamblin (right)

Now a picture with the Elders bowling together (I'm not sure if this is the whole Zone or not). You'll recognize the four on the left (same as up above). If I'm not mistaken, that could be Elder Potter on the far right. He was the District Leader with Elder Booth in the MTC.


And a good time was had by all!

My first CSP (Community Service Project)

For Elder Booth's first CSP (Community Service Project), Elder Booth and Elder Erickson helped a family build a fence. Here is Elder Erickson starting the hole for the post:


Here's Elder Booth working on putting a post in:

Elder Erickson is posing by the finished product:


All Done!!

Here's the family Elder Erickson and Elder Booth were helping:



It's such a great feeling to help people!

A little about the Philippines...

There are lots of things in the Philippines that are similar to here in the US, but there are a lot of things that are different. Here are a few of those things:

This is some kind of "dragon" parade going on downtown:


Here is a church real close to Elder Booth's apartment. He said he really likes the way it looks:

These are some pictures of "Jeepneys." That is what Elder Booth rides in to go everywhere. He said: "You just sit and wait on the side of the road and wait for one. You just sit down and pass some money up. They are pretty skilled. They can shift and count out your change all at the same time."



Go Rugrats!
Here is Elder Booth riding one out to the more rural areas. Some of the pictures are of what he sees:



The Elders also ride in "trickes" a lot. It is a motorcylce (or bike, it looks like) with a little car on the side that will usually even have a roof.


These guys are definitely getting their exercise!


Elder Booth also mentions that the mall in the Philippines is really similar to the malls in the US. I'm sure there are more similarities also...

Here's another letter from Elder Booth:

January 11, 2009 8:48:04 PM PST

Hey, how is everybody doing? I don't know if I will send out personal emails to everybody, so I will just try and answer all of your questions in this email. Yes, I did get all of your emails. The internet here is actually just like the internet back home. Most of them are to poor to have their own computer so there are internet cafes everywhere. It's actually pretty funny because there are a bunch of kids at all of them playing all the American games online. I love hearing from everybody, however it gets here. It takes a while to read all of the emails, but I don't know how long it takes for "Dear Elder" to get here. So I don't really know what to tell you about that. I don't mind the emails though. If you do email, just keep it to short updates. Don't be afraid to write either, because receiving mail as a missionary is pretty cool.

The work here in Paglaum is going great. oh, and just so you know, that means hope in Illango. I thought that was pretty cool, myself. The family with a baptismal date is still pushing forward. We made sure they were married this week and were very very relieved to find out they actually were. Ryan, you are very right. That is a huge problem here. Actually. one of our good investigators is having that problem. They were supposed to get their licsence on the fifth, but didn't because of some stupid reason. When we tried to give them a baptismal date, they just said no and that it was too expensive. I think they heard about other missionaries paying for it somewhere else, so they are probably just trying to get us to pay for it. It's alright though. They are coming to church pretty often, so it is just a matter of time before the spirit relates the fact that eternal salvation is more important than 200 pesos (which is only like four dollars). Crazy, huh?

We have been getting a lot of new investigators though. We get punted a lot so it gives us a lot of time to go tracking. I am getting more and more oyms each week. My companion still helps a little bit, but at least I am making the contact and commitment. It is actually really fun. Mainly just because the people are really nice here. It would probably be pretty hard in America. We were only able to get one more progressing investigator because we are not usually able to find people for the follow up visit. We even had one guy run away from us. It was pretty funny. Oh, and my companion got a kick out of me when I chased a guy down to give him a pamphlet after he walked away from us. He said I looked like the elder on "The Best Two Years" in the park.

I am actually fitting in to the culture really well. It is pretty much like Mexico, from what I have seen in Mexico. The food is great. I am starting to fall in love with rice and chicken. I had some chicken adobo last night. It was actually just like the chicken Ulma's grandma fed us a couple of times. They just put it on rice instead of tortillas. Oh, and I had my first chicken foot this week too. It was actually pretty good. I mainly accepted because I just wanted to say that I have eaten one. It was really funny, actually. When they offered, I could just see my comp trying to think of excuses not to accept. He gave me a pretty bad look when I spoke up with a loud "OO," or yes. It was good though, and now I can say I have eaten a chicken foot.

I went on my first splits this week too. I went with the zone leaders to their area. It was amazing. He was a great elder that gave me a lot to strive for. He has only been out for a year and has already trained, been a district leader, and is now a zone leader. I think he trained after six months, which is pretty cool. I don't know if I could do that. I will try and be ready to though, because that would be really cool to train that soon.

Well, nothing else too exciting has happened. I still haven't taken too many pictures. It is really hard because the only time I take my camera anywhere is on P-day and we mainly just go to the mall to buy all of our stuff and then go home to clean and study. Oh, I don't know if I told you about the mall here. Probably. It is really cool. It's like stepping into America for a little while.

Well, I hope I answered all of your questions. If I didn't, just tell me next week. Oh, and thank you for all you do for me. I am truly spoiled. I don't know how I got so lucky to get such a loving family. Thanks and I really do love each and every one of you.

Elder Booth

My first Apartment in the Philippines...

Elder Booth has arrived and is excited about his new living quarters. As he said in his 12/28 letter: "We live in a nice apartment. My companion said it is probably the nicest one he has ever lived in so I guess I am pretty lucky." Here is his new place:

View of the other side:

View out the window:

He is living with his companion (obviously) and with another companionship. His companion is Elder Erickson (from Idaho) and he is the tall one on the left. Elder Netzley is the one in the middle and Elder Hamblin is the one on the right.


Unfortunately, when Elder Booth sent his picture card back, he had formatted it in a way that he couldn't go back and review his pictures to explain what they were. So I'm not quite sure what these pics are about. Pink marker??

Elder Hamblin

Elder Erickson

Elder Booth

Here is his second letter from the Philippines:

Date: January 4, 2009 9:31:18 PM PST

Hey, how is it going back in the states? I don't think I will ever really get used to thinking that I am over 4000 miles away. I try not to think about it because it is just weird. I am still doing great. The people here are amazing. They are not hard to love because they are so loving themselves. It is amazing how humble they are as well. I am learning a lot about the true meaning of that word. That is probably one reason why the lord thought it would be a good idea to send me here. I needed a pretty good lesson on humility. Ryan, you are right though. Most of the houses I have been teaching in are worse than the hospital, but the people are still happy and that, in my opinion is truly amazing. The spirit is felt so strong each time because they really listen to the message.

We have been working hard this last week. The last elders didn't really leave us with much to work with area-book wise and member wise. Actually, they had to be emergency transferred because one of the members threatened to kill one of them. That has been kind of a hurtle to jump over member wise, but we have managed pretty well. Everybody is actually starting to warm up to us pretty well now.

Oh, and I think the high-light of the week would have to be getting a baptismal date for a whole family. Its not until the thirty-first because they were having problems with the word of wisdom. They are doing great though. They haven't had a cigarette for two weeks now. They are so much happier to and it is truly inspirational to see. I really hope they stay faithful. We gave a date to another sister as well. She just has to wait until she can get married, because she is living with her boyfriend right now.

The language is coming along alright, I guess. It is a little frustrating to have to learn another. Maybe it's just because I am prideful and selfish because I just want to become really good in tagalog instead of alright in three different languages. It's hard to figure out what to study sometimes. It's alright though, I am still learning a lot each and every day so I guess that is the biggest thing.

The culture here is amazing. They are so loving and laid back. If Mexico is anything like this, I now know why Chad is late all the time after his mission. I don't think we have started anything on time, when it comes to the ward. We call it Philippino time here. I actually think the only thing hard to get used to culture wise is washing my clothes by hand. You should all be very grateful each and every time you put something in the washing machine. I probably spend at least three hours a week washing my clothes.

The weather here has been really nice. Everybody accept the people who have just arrived have been really cold, so I am kind of excited to see how the hot season is. I'm sure I will get used to it though.

New Years was fun. The president actually approved us watching Disney cartoons. We weren't allowed to leave our apartment after six because it is like a war zone out there at night. So we just stayed inside got a pizza and watched movies all night. It was really fun. I don't think I have ever enjoyed watching Disney as much as I did that night.

I haven't been very good at taking pictures since I have been here, so I will try and get better so i can send you home an sd card and you can see what I am seeing. I might make a video this month if I have time. We will just have to see how it goes. I get mail on Tuesdays, so I am sorry if you wanted me to write about something you sent. It's a lot harder to find time to write letters here, so I will do my best to write everyone a couple of times, but I am sorry if I don't. Oh, and sorry for the horrible English. Being bad before I came, plus the typos, and getting worse and worse as I learn Ilango. So sorry about that. I think it's alright as long as you can understand it.

Well, I love you all and am truly grateful for all of your support. I don't know what I would do without all of you. Thanks and keep on doing the Lord's work there at home. Remember you never stop doing missionary work.

Elder Booth