Week 11: With All the Strength of a Great Typhoon

Typhoon Mangkhut

So we got hit by a typhoon this week.

Don't worry, my area honestly didn't get hit too bad. We had 4 other Elders evacuated to our apartment though, and it was nice to have the company while we were stuck inside all Saturday.

It started on Wednesday, when some members told us that a big typhoon was coming. We were working and there were some angry clouds in the sky. We had to go home a little early, because Filipinos in our area hate the rain, and if it looks like it's going to rain, contacting is pretty much a no-go, but it didn't even rain!

On Thursday, 2 elders got evacuated to our area, which was super fun. I went contacting with one of them, and we found this area with a lot of interested people.

Friday, we got 2 more elders, and we were all working until we had to come home at sunset to avoid the typhoon.

Except here's the thing, the typhoon came early.

We were at a dinner when it started raining really hard, and the zone leaders called us to tell us to get home. We inhaled our rice, and high tailed it back home through the rain.

We got home, went to sleep, and it was still raining pretty hard. I woke up in the middle of the night, because I was sweating. I realized that we had lost power, so my fan wasn't working. sweet.

Saturday, we did nothing but sit and sleep and read. Our house is fine. Our Area is fine. we didn't even get flooded.

4/10, try better next time, Mr. Typhoon.

Love,
Elder Menzie

Week 9: The Search for Week 8

So it's been a while! Quick update: I'm out of the Manila MTC. I'm in the mission field in Aurora. I ate Balut. They didn't give us any snacks on the flight over. President Hiatt is great, and I can already tell I'm going to do great work here.

So like I said, I'm in the field now. I had to take an hour and 45 minute jeepney ride to get to the Zone leaders' apartment, where I spent my first night. Jeepneys are wild. They're these tiny little buses that drive everywhere in the Philippines. They're super cheap and super uncomfortable. If the Jeepney isn't going where you need to go, you take a trike, which is just a sketchy dirtbike with a sketchy sidecar attached to it. I usually end up riding on the back, and my companion is usually in the sidecar. Have I mentioned drivers are fearless here? Because they are. It's crazy. Pray for me.

When I met my trainer, he informed me that we were opening the area after the last elders got pulled out for being not the best missionaries. We get there, and look in the area book to see what investigators they left us, and they left us two families, but they're awesome families, so it's all good. The work goes super fast here. There are so many people here who are looking for the truth, but don't know where to find it. I love the opportunity we have as missionaries to help them find what they're looking for.

This week I finished my Book of Mormon reading that I started when I first got to the MTC. This time, Mormon Chapter 9 really stuck out to me. Throughout the whole chapter, Moroni talks about how miracles are predicated on faith, which makes sense, because it's shown time and time again that those who don't have faith before they receive miracles always end up rejecting the miracles they had seen with their own eyes. I've seen miracles, even in my first week here. So many people have been prepared for this message.

"16. Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?"

I know for sure that I'm only seeing a tiny little frame of God's plan for these people, but it's so beautiful, and I can't wait to see what comes next.

Love,
Elder Menzie

Words of Tagalog:
Pasoy - Disobedient
(Pass-oi)

Elder Leausa and I taking a trike to Aurora

Rice Fields

Us in the apartment

VIDEO: Shaving sa pilipinas