OCTOBER

This week was hectic. We had a super awesome turnout at church. We had 9 Investigators attend! 5 of them have solid baptism dates, 6 of them are progressing and 2 are completely new investigators which we haven't taught yet.

So we have 3 bap dates given out! So one is Jhessa who is a 15 year old girl (they spell names here weirdly for some reason), Dado who is a 50yr old father of another RC and the last is the Bajen Family (pronounced bahen). So the first 2 have bap dates on the 24th of October and the Bajen family has theirs for the 31st.

So we're like 90% that they'll be baptised :)

Anyway other funny thing this week we taught two lessons we didn't plan for. So we were walking and this old lady kinda came out and said good morning (in english) so me and Bermoy. So we said hey can we give you a card? And she was like yeah sure, come back to my house. Super weird cause all we asked was to give a card hahaha. So we go to her house teach the lesson 1 in 8min and we also left a bom. Anyway yesterday we were walking in the same area and she saw us, the first thing she says was like, "elder's come back to my house, teach me again." super weird again hahaha cause we weren't actually in the area for her hahaha so legit we got 2 lessons from replying to someone saying good morning hahaha. so yeah weird haha.

Week 35, Novaliches, Philippines

Hey Family,

So yesterday we found out about transfers and yeah.. I'm staying hahah which isn't much of a surprise hahaha My comp however is transferring which means I have a new companion, Elder Bermoy. All I know about him is that he's from Cebu which means he speaks Cebuano! yeah I don't know much else but yeah :)

Oh, another thing. So I left a redskin in my bag and it kinda melted and made my entire bag sticky and stuff. So like the redskin had been in there for a month plus it wrecked my bag so much I need to buy a new one. The other thing is that it wrecked my photo album :( So if you could, could you send some pictures through email so i can make a new one?

Also there is a photo attached from a Fhe too.

Anyway, so on Saturday, Sister Fe was baptised!!!!!!!!! :)

Our Rc Jay performed the baptism which was super cool too.

Only problem is that the ward didn't organise the baptism like they said they would :( We got to the chapel at 6:30 for a 7pm start. The font wasn't filled, there was no talks organised and our ward mission leader wasn't even there :( So we were kinda freaked out, so we started to fill the font and organise speakers and some other stuff. Next problem, the baptismal jumpsuit thingy's were still wet from the last baptism :(

Anyway, we managed to get the service underway and as the first speaker was talking, we could hear rushing water outside. We ran outside and saw that the valve for the font wasn't shut! And then we checked the font and it was almost empty! So yeah, we had to restart all over again :( 

Anyway, she got baptised eventually and she had a really good spiritual experience in the end so I guess all went alright hahaha

This Saturday we have another baptism for Rolence who is 11, his mother is a Member who was La when I first came into the ward. So yeah we have that which is cool!

Actually in the Baptism photo, Rolence is the kid wearing the Orange shirt!

Also, Yesterday, I killed 30 cockroaches. Yes 30, I counted them one by one. It started off when I found like 2 when we got home, then as soon as a killed one, another popped out. I went and shut our front door and like 3 more came in. This repeated until we had 30..... We have no clue were they came from, it was super weird and super annoying too but yeah like this happened in like 10min too. Like a mini battle hahaha

Anyway I have anew comp that I'm looking forward to serve with and hopefully all goes well! I hope I don't get lost in our area either, I've only been here 6 weeks hahaha.

Have a great week all!

Love Elder Holzworth

Week 34, Novaliches, Philippines

Hey Family,

So this week was quite uneventful and eventful i guess, I'm not really sure hahaha

anyway, next week we are having a baptism!! Her name is Sister Fe and she is a 35ish year old mother :) She had her baptismal interview yesterday and for sure I thought she would not pass it, so here's the story.

So on Friday, we were teaching her about eternal marriage and obliviously, she has the desire to be sealed with family. We explained that in order for that to happen, her husband would have to be baptised as well and then she gave us the most unexpected answer ever. She was like, "oh we're not married yet". I just looked at my comp and I was like "Please tell me I understood that wrong, I thought they were married." and Ng was like, "I thought they were married" Freak, we did not see that coming.

So the situation with baptism (at least what my district leader told me) is that they have to be living the Law of Chasity for at least 4 weeks before their baptism. So that means if your living together you must be married first before baptism. So we were super nervous because now we were completely unsure about her situation. We knew that her "husband" goes away for work for like months at a time and he was away at this time which meant that for the last couple of weeks she had been living LoC but we still were unsure. Anyway, in the interview, she passed! She's been living the LoC but the only problem is that if she was able to live the LoC after her baptism. So now instead of having a baptism this transfer, were going to have a marriage too! hahaha

Anyway, turns out that the elders who taught lesson 4 (which was not me!! hahaha) didn't teach the full doctrine. I guess some elders get to awkward about the topic and teach too simply. In fact, that's a blessing of speaking another language, even though you know the words you are speaking, they don't have that full impact on you if you were to say it in english. Like it's more offensive if someone calls me ugly in english rather than tagalog. It's the same phrase yet one will kinda hit me harder than the other. So yeah, teaching LoC is a ton less awkward because of that, so that helps I guess.

So yeah, Her baptism is set for next Saturday and we're hoping to to the marriage through the church too at the same time but I guess we'll have to plan things out a bit.

Other than that, I'm still trying to get through all the chocolate from the birthday package, I showed Elder Ng a Tim Tam Slam, he enjoyed it hahaha. 

Also Last week I watched the video's on that Usb, Thanksssssss It was so awesome. It was really good to hear your voices :)

Other than that, this week "The Great September Batch" goes home, which is like half of the learship positions, So it means that next transfer something like 12 missionaries will step up to either DL, ZL or STL. Which is a ton. My batch has like 10 missionaries which is average, theirs had like 24, so like half of the mission goes home in like 8 days hahaha.

Anyway, that was some cool stuff from this week :)

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Holzworth

Week 33, Novaliches, Philippines

Hey Family,

So I'm 19 now! :D

So Saturday was pretty cool hahaha Thanks so much for the presents!! The ties are awesome!! that and I also received the usb with the video's which I'm about to watch after I finish this email!! It's really quite weird waking up and then opening presents followed by an hour of studying the scriptures. hahaha It was like wow so cool, ties and stuff then it was like well, time to study hahaha. Btw the aussie shorts are so sweet hahaha And thanks Jess for the Lee Sin figure!! That guy is legit my favorite champ in League of Ledgends!! 

Funny thing, when I blew up the Ballons, Emma wrote something like "Maligayang bati, I think that says happy birthday in tagalog"... Elder Ng thought it was hilarious. just the whole "I think that says happy birthday" thing. Btw, that is correct, maligayang bati is happy birthday, maligayang pasko is merry chirstmas too!!

So for my actual birthday, as the in the entire day, I didn't do anything extra ordinary but at night time we went to an active family's house for an FHE which was super super fun. The family is hilarious, it's crazy, they were like my substitue family 

Also I attached some photo's of the cake making. I wrote Ng's name on it for some reason, I don't know. I'm just surprised that I got it made!! It tasted soooo goooddddd..... mannnnn...!! Thanks mum!! 

Other than that, today we're at the Mall where I legit saw every missionary. I saw about 8 elders who are either serving or have served in Sapang Palay, which was super insane!! Also I saw Elder Waltz, who I havn't seen for ageesss (like 3 transfers) which was super awesome.

This transfer is coming to a close soon, President called our ZL today and asked if there was room in our ward to fit an extra Elder. And out of the 3 small apartments in this area, we have the biggest (which is still really small, it's just one room). So we might get an extra companion? who knows. hahaha

Anyway, hope you all have an amazing week!!

Love Elder Holzworth 

Week 32, Novaliches, Philippines

Hey Family,

Thanks for the Birthday wishes!!

And also a Happy Birthday to Emma and Dad too!! I hope you both have an amazing day!

This week was cool :) I've attached photos of me and my comp, Elder Ng. This week I got sick from food which was terrible. The funny part is that it was food provided by the mission..... hahaha

Other than that we had mail run again somehow so I received 2 packages from the Green’s which was super awesome. In one of the packages was one of those magnetic drawing boards (the pen has a magnetic tip and the drawing board has all those hexagon shapes.). Anyway, the board would be fun for kids to use and too keep them quiet during lessons but to be honest I use it more in the apartment when I try to explain things to my comp hahaha.

This week we had zone interviews which were fun and very interesting We had a whole bunch of workshops about teaching and finding and I learnt from it. 

This week Elder NG and I are buying singlets for basketball except we're getting something printed on them for companionship unity haha

I'm not sure if you guys will get the reference but I guess you'll have to wait and see next week when we get them printed.

Love Elder Holzworth!

Weel 31, Novaliches, Philippines

Hey Family,

The birthday package did arrive last tuesday which was super unexpected. So thank you! The only problem is that it has food inside it... So On thursday after coming home from work I look at the package and I see a line of ants going into the package. Normally with the other packages that you send I put them in the fridge straight away to keep them safe from ants but the package was a little too big for our tiny fridge. So I had two choices... To leave it until my birthday to open and leave the package vulnerable to ants or 2 weeks, or open it and put all of the food in the fridge. So yeah, unfortunately I had to open it and get rid of all the ants :( But I haven't opened/read anything yet! I wanted to open it the least that I could so all i've done is put all the food in our fridge. Yeah :( Although thanks for the socks, I saw them, and man i really do need them hahaha

On another note, yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting! The funny part is that they told me the night before just as I was going to sleep. so yeah, that was fun. My topic was tithing, which is a little tricky to teach cause no is really rich, but it went pretty well, well at least I think it went well hahaha.

Our area is pretty cool, Elder Ng will probs transfer so I'm trying to learn the area super well in case he does. Our area is pretty cool although the poeple here arn't as nice as my old area so Oym'ing is a little harder. We have a wholse bunch of la's which is great (yay). One thing that's different is that we don't have members to work with us. The reason is, most of them are female, which means that we need a male for them to work with us. So yeah most of our lessons are just us alone. There are 2 foods that apparently I'm going to eat and that's Komodo dragon and Cat. There are 2 members that want to cook it for us 4 missionaries so yeah, I'm not sure if I'm totally down for it but I might give it a shot hahaha. 

Hopefully I don't get sick but we should be goods :) as long as we bless it first hahaha :)

This upcoming week is looking pretty normal with nothing special except zone interviews which were everyone gets a super short 10min interview with president, so it should be pretty fun.

Anyway, hope you all have a super awesome week!

Love Elder Holzworth!

Week 30, Novaliches, Philippines

Hey Family,

So this is like the end of my first week in Nova (new zone ko) and I just realised today that I didn't tell you how to pronounce my comp's name. So in tagalog "Ng" is pronounced "Nung". So Elder Ng (nung) :)

Elder Ng is the man!!  I was told before I was about to transfer that he was on the List to be an AP (Assistant to President) and also before that he was a Zone Leader in Caloocan. He is a super down to earth guy from General Santos City (Philippines). His native language is Visaya, which is pretty much the same as Cebuano. The area I'm in is smaller than Sapang Palay and pretty flat too. The next part is that our area labeled as a dangerous area.... So it means that that Sister missionaries can't serve here, only elder's.... yeah.... there is also a "red area" (do go into this place area) that's kinda near us. It's labeled red because it's dominated by Muslims. So yeah :) fun times :D 

Last night we had an appointment on the other side of our area and as we're walking Elder Ng just stops, I'm like "what?" and he just kinda points at where we're walking and says, "This place might be a bit too dangerous for you..." hahaha so we walked super quick through that area :) so yeah, don't be too worried :) The area's totally fine haha

Good news, so in our ward (Bagong Silang 1st Ward which translates to "New Birth 1st Ward") we have 2 set's of missionaries :) We live in 2 different apartments, so Me and Elder Ng and then Elder Bahr and Elder Aue in the other! So yeah Elder Aue is in the same ward as me (who was my first companion out here in the field)! The next cool part is that Elder Aue's Companion is the District leader which means he'll so companionship exchanges every so other. So that means that me and Aue will be able to go on exchanges together! 

Other that that, Our apartment is a single room, So the Study desk's, Beds and Kitchen are all in the one room then there is the bathroom/shower as well. I'd say our flat is about the size of our under cover area in the backyard. And btw our flat gets super hot. So hot. Man. Like I kid you not, if you don't have a fan on, you're dead. I came out of the shower yesterday sweating..... and we don't even have hot showers! So yeah, our Fridge is like our bestfriend here :) 

Out here the ward is pretty cool, I don't really know them yet as last sunday was stake conference, so this Sunday I'll introduce myself in sacrament meeting. We don't have a lot of members working with us so we're definitely going to try and get something organised soon!!

Other than that, this week I ate some new food :) Dinuguan!! which translates to "Stewed with blood". So basically I ate the dish twice, once yesterday and once in sapang palay last monday. So the first time I ate it, we had the version using pork intestines and blood. It's super weird and somehow tastes kinda starchy? Yesterday when we ate at the members we had I think "pork" I'm not really sure... One rule with food in the Philippines is that If you don't know what it is, it's best not to ask.... Like when I first ate Dinuguan, I asked after I ate it hahaha. but the one I had yesterday was kinda spicy which was nice.

Also on a food note aswell, today at a Super Mall I ate a "Deep Fried Burger" :) The Bun's are deep fried and it tastes so good :D 

Hey, I also want to share something that Elder Adren shared with us on our mission tour. So basically, he got the Assistants (AP's) to teach in 2min the 1st principle of lesson 1, God is our loving Heavenly Father, in a fake investigator situation. Now the Assistants did super well. They taught really simply and everyone thought that they smashed it. Then Elder Arden got a random elder to read the paragraph in PMG. And Everyone realised that they missed like 35% of the Doctrine!!! Last week in my personal study I counted the Doctrinal points in principle 1. And there are 10 points for principle 1. So basically what Elder Arden was getting at was that if we teach the full doctrine to people they will be more likley to return back as this is the fullness of the doctrine that we're teaching, it's desirable to every person on earth. So yeah, it's really crazy at how many points there are in one single principle :) 

But yeah, know that things are going super sweet out here in Nova Zone :D 

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Holzworth