Trying to finish up the meeting house!

Well, this should be the last of the "meeting house project." Elder Booth was able to help put up the roof:

Next were the walls and it looks like everyone helped with that (after posing for the picture, of course):



Now it looks like a game of basketball is in order...

Subject: Hey Again
Date: May 17, 2009

Hey everybody! I enjoyed talking with everybody on the phone. It was nice. Too bad I won't be able to do that again for a while. Time is going by fast, though. Christmas seems like yesterday when I think about it. Before you know it, I will be able to call whenever I want again. Or at least you can call me since I was never very good at that. Well, even here I'm not very good. Sorry about that. We are just lucky that Chad had that card. I talked to one missionary and he said 100P with this one company was 30 minutes. So I went and bought those kind. Then I tried to use them and found out the owner of our apartment used a different company. I guess that matters here. I had no idea. She had some cards, but I guess with the other company 100P is only like five minutes. Oh well - live and learn I guess.

Well, like I said on the phone, everything is going pretty well here. We have a baptism planned for this Saturday, so you will know if that works out in a couple of months since I really don't know when you will actually get the letter I now have to write. I don't know if they will be as long, either. The whole letter writing thing kind of takes forever. So I will do my best to shop really fast and get home so I can start writing. Everything should be good with the baptism, though. They are really good kids that have the desire. The work is really good here, though. We actually should have some baptisms for the next three weeks. All they really have to do is keep coming to church and they are set. That is still the biggest problem here in the Philippines. There are a crazy amount of inactive people. It really does not take much for them to stop coming. They get offended easily.

Sunday morning did kind of stink, though. We went to try and pick up some kids that we were hoping to baptize the first week of June, and ended up getting into an argument with their grandmother. She is pretty set in her ways and really does not want her grandchildren to get baptized. So that really was not the best start of the day. To make up for it though, when we finally arrived at church I was taken aback when I saw one of our investigators there that we have been teaching for about four months. He just decided to get over being shy and go to church. I really could not stop smiling when I saw that guy. I really hope he keeps coming. He is great. That is about it when it comes to our investigators.

I do have one funny story for you. I don't know if you remember, but a long time ago I told you all about this time we crashed a funeral. Well, I ended up talking to one of the girls who was actually at the funeral. She was very nice and invited us back. So of course we set up a time and went back a couple of days later. When we got there I made the mistake of mentioning the old guy that we talked to last time. She said: "Oh my grandpa is the guy that debated with you last time. Just wait here and I will go and get him for you." So we spent the next thirty minutes having to listen to this old guy yell at us about his "true church". My companion was getting kind of fired up. I was just having a hard time not laughing in his face. I don't know, there is just something about a really old man yelling in my face that is funny. Especially when he spends the little energy he has to stand and do it. Well, he actually started to warm up to us a little bit and decided we should all sing. So he asked us if our church had music. Of course we said yes. He then proceeded to get his guitar. Then after he got his guitar he told us to start to sing. We sang "I am a child of God" while he tried to make up music on the spot. Yea. That was just funny. He was dissapointed when we cut it short wtih just one verse. To be honest so was I. It was funny to watch him try and follow along. He did better than I would have, at least. I don't know if we will ever go back there again. Well you never know. I said we would never go back after the first time.

That is about all I have for funny stories. I hope all of you continue to do well. Keep up your faith and stay strong in the church. I love you all and can't wait to get all of your letters in about a month. Thanks for the support and love you all have shown me.

Elder Booth

Another CSP on the Meeting House...

Back in January, Elder Booth was able to work on a Meeting House in the other area. This, four months later, is a continuation of the work on the Meeting House. It looks like they are making progress!

Here they are starting to frame the roof:

What's next??

Hello Elder Booth!

Watch out! Elder Martanito has a saw!!

A member hammering away...

Another member hammering some nails in:



It looks like the food is starting to cook! Yum!

I guess they have to remove some plants from the area. We definitely
don't have that problem here in Nevada! We have to bring them in!

Elder Eslava and Elder Martanito resting after all of the hard work.
Good job guys!

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

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!