June 25, 2012

Well How the Heck are ya?

I am doing great. This week is transfer week.  We will find out tomorrow who is getting transferred, so that's kind of exciting.

I want to tell you about this family we are teaching.  The Dad is the only member and he was less-active but he is coming back now, and he is bringing his 2 sons and his daughter. Our goal is to keep teaching the kids and Mom and then have the Dad baptize them all! We were over at their house yesterday and we were teaching about the Restoration of The Gospel, it was so great.   They were asking good questions and through the spirit we were able to answer them. After the lesson we gave them a copy of The Book of Mormon. The Dad got all excited and said to his kids that they were going to read it together. Then he kept saying, "A family that reads and prays together, STAYS together!" It was so awesome.  I love seeing the gospel give people the help that they need. The great thing about that is that EVERYONE needs the gospel and that it is the answer to all the problems and questions in the world!

I love it.

Now to answer moms questions, to stay cooled off is not that hard we just use electric fans.  When we are out walking in the sun there isn't anything that we can do so we just sweat.  haha The cool thing that I have noticed is that as long as I am in my white shirt and tie, that I don't get sunburned but if we have an activity on p-day, then I get fried! haha

I do email Reeve every now and then.  I don't want you to forward me his letters.

I love all of you and I love being a missionary,

Elder Proctor 

6-18-12

Happy Fathers day!

Sorry I didn't get you anything Dad, kinda far.

This week has been great, mom to answer your question about the language yes I dream in Tagalog, I am doing okay with the language I plan to be learning the language the whole time I am here.

That is so cool that Josh is heading to the MTC he will do great!

This is going to be kind of short, We got an appointment to keep.

I love all of you, I love this work

Love Elder Proctor

 (random picture from Jared's mission president's blog. :))

June 11, 2012

Hello,

Mom first off to answer your questions.. It is hot! always unless its raining, then its freezing, and right now is the rainy season and will be till about October. We don't have bikes, I wish we did though, we could double our teaching appointments, as for food in our apartments its usually just rice and tuna haha full of nutrients.  But earlier today I cooked those no bake cookies and they are delicious.  Thanks again for sending the recipe.

For my birthday I would like this book, i think its called Missionary Inspirational Stories or something like that.

This week has been a good one, we had a combined Zone Conference which was really good, I learned a lot and got to see buddies from my old zones.

Another cool thing about this week is that one of our investigators that has wanted to be baptized for a long time but didn't want to get married to her boyfriend or leave him, has finally started to work out the papers they need to make there marriage official. That is one thing that I really don't get about the Philippines, people will tell you they have a husband or wife but then they tell you they aren't married. 

Anywho, this morning we helped these members plant mango trees this morning, which was super cool because they are a returned less active family, when I first came to this ward the dad was always drinking coffee and beer and the family was always getting in arguments but now the dad has kicked the beer and coffee and they have all talked to the bishop and are having a family prayer every night and they have a goal to go to the temple this October! I love seeing this change for better in people, I just love missionary work.

I was thinking the other night about how I am here in the Philippines, and I said to myself "Hey skitch, how did we get here?" and I thought about my life and the things that led me to serve a mission, and then about our family history and how we got the gospel, then into church history and I realized that I am here because a 14 year old boy sincerely wanted to know the truth! Talk about a marvelous work and a wonder. I love you all, I am so grateful to have a testimony of the restored gospel and to have such an amazing family! 

Love,

Elder Proctor

6-4-12

Hello Family,

So this week has gone by faster then the rest, it just keeps going faster and faster. Some of the challenges that we are facing in this area is that Tagalog is a 2nd or 3rd language here, so we have to keep our Tagalog as simple as possible and we are picking up some Ebanag and more Ilocano. Another thing that all of the people we are teaching (less-active or investigator) are just not keeping their commitments.   They keep telling us that they will do these things but then they don't even try. It drives me a little nuts sometimes but that's okay. They have their agency.

As far as cool stories go, we are teaching this one less active family that are really coming back strong! A couple of weeks ago the dad was drinking everyday but now they are all coming to church.  The dad has stopped drinking and has talked to the Bishop. In all of our lessons with them we focus of Eternal Families and the Temple, those are my favorite things to teach because of the great family I have.

Oh get this I found Root Beer here! Halleluiah!

That's it folks, I love you all so much thanks for all that you do,

Elder Proctor