Elder Who?

In this post, we have some pictures of some of the Elders that Elder Booth is serving with. Here is a picture of Elder Lising , Elder Hamblin's companion, playing with a fake snake. He looks like he's not totally convinced that it's fake...

Here is Elder Lucas dodging the light saber:

This is one of Elder Lucas in a remote area that he and Elder Booth were in:

Here is a letter from Elder Booth:

Date: April 19, 2009 11:23:22 PM PDT
Subject: Grabe Damo kabalaka nah jokes long

Hey everybody. It sounds like everybody is still having a great time back in the US of A. It's too bad I could not have been there to see all those races in St. George. That sounded really fun. Plus, the cherry on top is Michele kicking Ryan's trash. No, just kidding. I'm sure there is a very good excuse for that.

Everything here is still really good. I'm getting kind of nervous because transfers are getting closer and closer. I am just worried something crazy will happen like going senior and getting a new language at the same time. That really is not on my list of things to experience right now. I doubt that will happen, though. I guess it will be really nice seeing new things and seeing new people instead of the same old stuff all the time. I do love this area, though. I am going to miss a lot of the members here. I will have to write them through pouch mail.

Nothing all that exciting has happened this week. It was a lot of the same thing, actually. We did have Stake Conference though, which was cool. It was a live studio broadcast. The two main speakers were Holland and Eyering. They are two of my favorites, so I was pretty excited. They had really good talks that were directed just to the Philippines. I think it hit home to a lot of them. The main subject was families, though. Man, I guess they really are important. I guess if the family truly fails in the end, then we will all fail in the end. So keep up the love and unity.

Our investigators are doing great. We did have an incident where the one that is supposed to get baptized on Saturday decided to skip town for a couple of days. I guess his actual family lives in another town. I really didn't think it was a big deal, but my comp was kind of freaking out. The second night he did not show up our nightly planning kind of just consisted of him sitting there trying to think of what could have happened, and me just sitting there playing with a rubber band. I don't know, maybe I should have worried more, but it just seemed like no biggy. He did finally come back though, which made my comp almost jump for joy. Actually, now that I think about it, he might have. So the baptism is still on as scheduled. He is a way cool guy I am really excited for him.

Oh, and we finally had one other come to church. Our investigator to be baptized brought him. I really don't know him though becuase he only knows tagalog and that is not my stong point right now. I try to teach him in it and I look like a fool. Oh well. That is just the name of the game. I just wish that I could remember all the stuff from the MTC. I think I have forgotten everthing I learnded there when it comes to language. However, if I did not learn tagalog in the MTC, then I would not have been able to learn Inlango at all. So the lord really blessed me with that one.

Oh, we did get a golden investigator that has actually worked with us a couple of times. Her friend is a ward missionary that she will come with. She was really shy at first, but we found out that she actually has quite the personality. She is really fun and will be a great addition to the church. I probably won't be here to see it through, so that is kind of sad. Oh well. That is just how it is here. Sometimes you plant, and sometimes you harvest. Either way, it is the Lord's work.

Man, I can't really think of anything too funny happening to me. We did teach at that lady's house that just starts crying sometimes. We taught a bunch of little kids. It was kind of weird when she would be introducing herself and then just bust out in tears. I felt really bad for her because the kids would just start laughing. She did, however, laugh by the end of the lesson, so that was good. I just wish she had some help from her husband to go to church.

Oh and remember Elder Hamblin? He's the elder from Arizona that I live with. I guess he got to dress a dead guy. He told me that was quite the thing to do. I dont know if I really want to experience that one or not. I'm not a huge fan of the whole "dead body" thing. I already have a hard enough time seeing them at the funerals (I think they look weird enough here), let alone go and put some clothes on them. I guess they just had to put his garments on and stuff. Sounds fun.

Oh, we had our zone activity today. We had a sports fest. It was really cool. We played some soccer, bump out, and dodge ball. I did pretty well. I was undefeated in bump out and dodge ball. I even made a goal in soccer, which is good since I am no good at it. Well, sorry this email does not have too many cool stories. I will try to experience cooler things this week. Oh, and I should be telling you about a baptism as well. Well, I love you all. Keep the faith and remember the church was true then, it is true now, and it will be true forever. (Some of my favorite words from Holland).

Love
Elder Booth

Odds and Ends

This batch of pictures is a mix of places and nature in the Philippines. The "odds and ends" pictures where starting to add up, so I combined them in this post, along with Elder Booth's March 8th letter. I will use some of Elder Booth's own words and some of my own explanations. Here goes.

The first pictures are of some (or it could have been one - not sure) beautiful flowers Elder Booth saw. It was on the day that he met with his batch (2/24/09). Here they are:



The next one, in Elder Booth's words: "is a church that is literally out in the middle of nowhere. I thought it was kind of cool. My companion got mad when I took it." (Probably because it is a church). Here it is (taken on February 26th):


These next two, according to Elder Booth, "are the front of a huge cock fighting stadium. That place gets loud during fights." You can see from the picture on the front right of the stadium that he's right (taken March 4th):




These next four are "some monkeys in my area. I had some bananas, so I decided to feed them." They were taken on March 7th:





This last picture is Elder Hamblin and Elder Booth in their respective "team's jersey." Is Elder Booth predicting the winner of the NBA season?? No, probably not. I wonder if he even knows that they won this year. If so, I bet he doesn't care very much...


Here's a letter from Elder Booth:

Date: March 8, 2009 8:46:19 PM PDT
Subject: Hi

Well, hello everybody. This was a good week for us here in Paglaum. Our numbers have been improving from week to week, which is a good thing. I was actually surprised they did, since we spent a lot of time doing interviews with the President and stuff. That seems to take us longer every time I do it. Plus I got to experience being told that I would be going on splits at the office. So I was not prepared at all. Luckily they let me come back and get my stuff. I just had to carry it around the entire time we were proselyting. It was with the zone leaders again. It was pretty fun. The Zone Leader is from Idaho or something. He is kind of a hard guy to get used to. It was funny though. We were a little late for curfew, which just got moved up to nine. We ended up running down the highway for a couple of kilometers. That was really fun with all my stuff. I hope I get to do it again someday. No joke - it was actually cool. All of these people were giving us really funny looks.

All of my investigators are still doing really good. The baptism for this weekend is going on as scheduled. We actually moved it up a day so we could do it with some other elders in our ward that have one that day too. They said they wanted me to do it so I am really really excited for Saturday to come. I cant remember how much I told you about them last time, but they are really cool. One's name is Aubry and the other Arline. They have been coming to church for a while, but I think I already said that last time. I will let you know next week how it went. We are still having some problems getting some people to church. We talked to one about what is stopping her and she said that she does not come because her mom is in the choir of the church next door so she just wants to go to that one. She won't come to our church alone, either so now we have put our focus on the mom. It was actually kind of interesting when we were teaching her. There was no guy in the house so we were teaching outside and her pastor actually walked by. Talk about awkward. I think he was just mad because he knows we are the true church so she might be converted and then he will lose a member of his choir. Ya, that was probably it. The other kids that we are teaching are doing good too. One of them went to church in the other ward. It was the ward of the elders who live with us, so they were able to tell us that he was there. I guess that's ok, as long as he is going. I think he actually goes there because his older brother, who is a member, actually wants a job from the bishop there. So it might be hard to get them to come to the right ward. Well, that is about it for them. There is just a lot of stuff happening that I hope turns out for the best.

I really don't have too many funny stories. I did have to teach the gospel doctrines class all by myself. That might have been funny for you to watch. My companion was not even there as he was outside making phone calls for the baptism on Saturday. I was pretty stressed. I just hope that they got something from the lesson. The language is still just alright. It is hard to learn sometimes just because there is still a lot of English spoken here. Actually, most people can understand it. They learn it in their schools.

I still have not eaten dog. People will joke around about giving me some, but I don't think they realize that I actually do want to try it just to say I did. Oh, and I almost got bit by a dog. I was going to punt, it but my comp would not let me. My goal is to do that before I leave because the dogs here are really annoying. They bark at everything.

Well, I love you all. Everything sounds good at home. I hope you enjoy the pictures and videos that I sent. I have already started some new good ones. Thanks again.

Elder Booth