1-30-12

Well Here it goes

This week we have been doing a ton of traveling, oh yeah I forgot to tell you they made my trainer DL so he has been going around doing baptism interviews and I tag along it was pretty fun, we got to ride in a boat! Of course I was humming Whale of a Tale to myself the whole boat ride! haha same old Jared :) I also got a little bit sunburnt and it amazes the local people that I can be white one day and red the next. haha 

As for the weird foods go, last night we had a dinner appointment and I was offered to eat little mga octopus, I however didn't try it because I have a rule to not eat weird food on Sunday so that I wont be sick on p day haha Speaking of p day, earlier we met up with some of our recent converts and went to Callao Cave, it was a pretty cool place, inside the cave was a chapel were some Catholics do whatever it is they do on Sunday haha I thought it was a creepy place to have church. But the really cool thing about this cave trip was that (Ms. M) (recent convert) brought her 2 older sons and (Ms. Y)(rc) brought her son too, and they said that they would like to be taught and baptized! haha sometimes its almost too easy haha so we set up a time when we could teach them. And its also cool because one of the area goals this year, along with helping less actives, is to complete families and then get them to the temple. So that's awesome in a big way haha 

Oh yeah another thing that happened this week was me and Elder Nay, from midvale Utah, went on splits, it was awesome for 2 reasons. First because we got to talk about Utah, Skiing, Wake boarding, Rock Climbing and all sorts of good stuff that Filipinos just dont get haha, and Secondly I got to see that I am getting better with the Language, because I would take lead in all the lessons that we taught and I was able to do so! 

Speaking of language, its crazy in here, in every area there is another language! but luckily most of them understand Tagalog. These are the languages I have heard of so far, ilocano, itawis,ifuegao,and ibanag. I cant believe that there can be so many different languages in such a small area.

So now for some pictures! 

1. This is the boat we were in

2. This is me on the boat, still just as handsome as ever haha 

3. This is that "cave Church" haha 

4. This is yet another handsome devil on a boat...Golly! 

Well I think that's just about all I have to say for today! look at it this way, if I write short letters it gives you more time to read Martha's novels haha  

I love all of you xoxoxo 

Love,
Elder Proctor  

1-16-12

Hey everybody

So this week has been pretty good, let me just tell you right now this is going to be short, I am tired of typing haha 

So the pictures

1. This is (Ms. C) she was baptized yesterday, she was supposed to be baptized on Christmas Eve but we kept on having to push it back because her parents wouldnt sign the permission slip, but we kept on praying and fasting and then boom! Its so amazing to see these kinds of things. I am so glad to be out here its just great! haha 

2. So this is what I look like now haha thats the pilipino food for you haha 

3. These are kids of 2 of our investigators, I thought it would be good for the kids to see what happens when you dont brush your teeth haha 

I love all of you, I really do, but I am just tired of typing haha 

Love Elder Proctor 

1-8-12

Hello Everybody

So this weeks adventure wasnt to exciting, it was my first trip to the barbershop. Lets just say I miss having Laura cut my hair. My barber was named Fred, he looked like he got out of prison yesterday. He had tattoos on his arms and he looked mad haha. So first he sits me in the chair and puts that cape thing on. Then he just started to cut my hair! he didnt ask how I wanted it he just went for it haha. 

The best was when he took the clippers to my hair, Laura and Mom remember what it was like to cut my hair, He made one pass with the clippers and it didnt do anything, he had a look of confusion come over him and then he went back again, he seemed to think that he needed to push the clippers harder to my head. It was painful haha it took forever too, but in the end I had a haircut an all was well. The scariest was the shave that comes free with the haircut, and when I say it comes free I really mean that you dont have a choice. He shaved my face and neck with one of those single blade razors like in the movies! it was nerve racking having a stranger with a razor to my neck but again all was well and now its in the past.

Also these past 2 weeks I have a bit of a cold, and one morning this week I woke up with a monster head ache, it hurt just to have my eyes open, so I asked my comp to give me a priesthood blessing, after the blessing I felt fine, there was no pain. I know that the priesthood is Heavenly Father's power given to man to act in his name. I know that the priesthood was restored to the earth through the prophet Joesph Smith. I am so grateful for it.

I love all of you and I thank you again for your support and love

Love Elder Proctor

1-2-12

Happy new year!

So mom just to answer your question I can get shoes here if I need them, but if you really want to send me a package I would love a copy of "Mormon Doctrine", So any who, is Corban out of the oven yet? I am excited to have 4 new pamanking, Oh mom I have a question for you! did you send a Christmas package to the philippines? if so I havent recieved it yet, and I dont know if you know this yet but you shouldnt use fedex to ship stuff.

So new years eve was quite the adventure haha we were given so much food! First Yolanda gave us a Christmas ham and something else haha I am not sure what it is. Then the bishop invited us over for dinner and he kept feeding us until I thought I would explode! It was good food too so that was a good change of pace haha, when we were done he gave us some fruit for the road, then when we returned to our apartment our land lord came and gave us a ton of food! then some members in our ward came and gave us more food! our fridge is completely stuffed! As I looked at all the food we had, I remembered that there are many people here that have to beg for food, because they have none. I felt like garbage, with my belly and fridge full while I knew that somewhere there were people with alot less. Then I thought of all we have back home in America, I am starting to realize how blessed we all have been to live in such a great country. I love America! haha and I promise that I will never forget that I am American, everywhere I walk people shout "Amerikano" and I just smile and think to myself "You better believe it!"

Another "fun" thing that happened for new years was the fireworks, It was like trying to sleep on a battlefield haha all night long people were lighting them off and they werent just little fire crakers and bottle rockets, they were huge haha it was crazy.

So cool story, one of our Investigators, she is named Marie. She told us this week that she wishes that she heard our message earlier! She said that she wants her daughter to be raised in this gospel and serve a mission! It just goes to show you that the Lord really does prepare the way for us missionaries. I love this work.

So here is something that I have noticed, sometimes we will ask people to pray and they wont want to or they will pray and then after the finish they apologize to us for it not being good enough or long enough. It really shows me that Satan is trying to destroy prayer. It reminded me of something that I saw on the History channel, it was a program that talked about battle strategy, the first thing they do is try to destroy the enemy's communication. So of course Satan is trying to destroy prayer. It is through prayer that we can communicate with our Heavenly Father, without it we are lost, without it we are exactly where Satan wants us to be. However you might remember the promise given to us in D and C 10:5 if we pray we will conquer Satan. It amazes me that something as simple as prayer can be so powerful. After all I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the prayer of a 14 year old boy. I would like to invite all of you that read this to always pray so that you may be able to withstand all the trials that are in your lives.

I love all of you so much, I am so thankful for your constant support,

Love Elder Proctor

12-19-11

Well Hello there

It was so great to hear from you this week :) I am still loving it here! I am wearing out my shoes and the knees of my pants haha I love it here. So do you remember last week when I said that I had not eaten anything that was weird? Well the very next day Elder Gloria and I went to a funeral at a members home and they had some "refreshments" after the service haha as usual I piled my plate full of rice and then scooped the Ulam (topping) onto the rice. It looked like beef chunks with dark brown gravy, and so I scooped it on I took one smell of it and then relized that it was not what i had thought and it smelt and tasted bad, It was to late for me to turn back, and I didnt want to offend the grieving family that supplied the "refreshments" so i gobbled it up as fast as I could, all the members around me kept saying how I was cool for trying the filipino food. 

After I had finished the mystery meal my stomach was not happy with me, if my stomach could have talked it would have simply said "Why?" So as we were walking home I ask my companion to tell me what I had just eaten and he turns to me with a smile and says "pigs blood" mmmmmm  haha Good story right :) 

Its super cool to be teaching real people now, even though I cant speak to them very well. But I am working hard to get this language down, Elder Gloria helps me a ton! I am very grateful for a native companion, except for when it comes to food, all we ever eat is rice haha but thats life in the Philippines though. I think since I am in the Philippines I should replace all f's with ph! This is going to be phun! haha 

So last night we were able to listen to the Christmas Devotional and it was phantastic! I love the Christmas season and I loved hearing the Prophet tell us about how we all need to remember the true meaning of Christmas, and how our savior gave us the best gift of all. His Atonement, that through it we could be saved. What an amazing gift it is for us to have a savior who loves us enough to die for us. Today I was reading in "our search for happiness" and Elder Ballard spoke of some lyrics from a hymn "I Stand all amazed... That for me, a sinner, He bled and died" How wonderful is it that Jesus Christ who was pure and free of sin, took upon himself all the sins and anguish of every soul. I cannot fully express my gratitude for our Loving Heavenly Father sending his son so that we may become free of sin, grief and pain. I am so grateful for the opprotunity that I have to share this message to the people here.  

Anyway, its picture time! Turns out the internet cafe we use for email has a sd card reader! 

1. This is my companion Elder Gloria, I am always singing "Angels We have heard on High" just phor the Chorus haha

2.This is what my shoes looked like after one day! haha 

3. This is Centro, its a city close to where we are its where we get all our junk.

4. These are one of our investigators kids, they are hilarious and they think I am a jungle gym haha 

5. For all you structural engineers, this is how they build in the Philippines haha 

6. This is the view outside our apartment

7. These are our Dogs, I named the dark one Granger and the White one Wishbone haha we feed them our scraps and they watch our house when we are gone haha 

 

Well thats just about all I have for you today, I cant believe another week has passed, its so weird how phast time moves haha 

Of course you know I love all of you and I hope you all enjoy this Christmas Season

Love Elder Proctor

12-12-11

Well Hello there

It was so great to hear from you this week :) I am still loving it here! I am wearing out my shoes and the knees of my pants haha I love it here. So do you remember last week when I said that I had not eaten anything that was weird? Well the very next day Elder Gloria and I went to a funeral at a members home and they had some "refreshments" after the service haha as usual I piled my plate full of rice and then scooped the Ulam (topping) onto the rice. It looked like beef chunks with dark brown gravy, and so I scooped it on I took one smell of it and then relized that it was not what i had thought and it smelt and tasted bad, It was to late for me to turn back, and I didnt want to offend the grieving family that supplied the "refreshments" so i gobbled it up as fast as I could, all the members around me kept saying how I was cool for trying the filipino food. After I had finished the mystery meal my stomach was not happy with me, if my stomach could have talked it would have simply said "Why?" So as we were walking home I ask my companion to tell me what I had just eaten and he turns to me with a smile and says "pigs blood" mmmmmm  haha Good story right :) 

Its super cool to be teaching real people now, even though I cant speak to them very well. But I am working hard to get this language down, Elder Gloria helps me a ton! I am very grateful for a native companion, except for when it comes to food, all we ever eat is rice haha but thats life in the Philippines though. I think since I am in the Philippines I should replace all f's with ph! This is going to be phun! haha 

So last night we were able to listen to the Christmas Devotional and it was phantastic! I love the Christmas season and I loved hearing the Prophet tell us about how we all need to remember the true meaning of Christmas, and how our savior gave us the best gift of all. His Atonement, that through it we could be saved. What an amazing gift it is for us to have a savior who loves us enough to die for us. Today I was reading in "our search for happiness" and Elder Ballard spoke of some lyrics from a hymn "I Stand all amazed... That for me, a sinner, He bled and died" How wonderful is it that Jesus Christ who was pure and free of sin, took upon himself all the sins and anguish of every soul. I cannot fully express my gratitude for our Loving Heavenly Father sending his son so that we may become free of sin, grief and pain. I am so grateful for the opprotunity that I have to share this message to the people here.  

Anyway, its picture time! Turns out the internet cafe we use for email has a sd card reader! 

1. This is my companion Elder Gloria, I am always singing "Angels We have heard on High" just phor the Chorus haha

2.This is what my shoes looked like after one day! haha 

3. This is Centro, its a city close to where we are its where we get all our junk.

4. These are one of our investigators kids, they are hilarious and they think I am a jungle gym haha 

5. For all you structural engineers, this is how they build in the Philippines haha 

6. This is the view outside our apartment

7. These are our Dogs, I named the dark one Granger and the White one Wishbone haha we feed them our scraps and they watch our house when we are gone haha 

Well thats just about all I have for you today, I cant believe another week has passed, its so weird how phast time moves haha 

Of course you know I love all of you and I hope you all enjoy this Christmas Season

Love Elder Proctor