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

May 27, 2012

Hey Family,

So this week I didn't keep a list of things to tell you so this is gonna be a short one,

First off, I still want someone to forward the recipe for no-bake cookies to me, that would be awesome!

I showed my companion a picture of Martha and he said "bayaw" to me which means he will be my Brother in law haha and he comes home in December its a match made in heaven.

Elder Oliver and I just so happen to have the same interests so we are always talking about cars, motorcycles, and other stupid stuff like that, but don't worry I am trunky proof

Next week we are going to take a tour of this army base here for a zone activity! I am excited to see how ghetto it is, and I will let you know how it goes.

Isaac and Taniel are parents now! That makes you both old by the way haha Abigail looks beautiful, Its good to know that everything went well, I have been praying for that since the MTC. Just one more to go (Michelle)

Laura, boys are dumb, start looking for men, there is this great talk by D.Todd Christofferson called Let us Be Men and I think that every guy you date should listen to it.

I love all of you and I love Missionary work
Love Elder Proctor

5-21-2012

Hello Family,

 It sure was good to Skype last week, but I think for Christmas I would rather talk to you one at a time haha it was kind of crazy.

So right after we stopped talking on Skype, me and Elder James got a text from the APs and It said that I was going to be transferred! 

So now I am in Ilagan, Elder Galang is my companion and he is 1/4 American (his grandpappy is a GI) we share an apartment with the Zone Leaders, and my companion is a District leader, I guess president Carlos is trying to get me to shape up haha

You are in luck this week because I have kept a list of things that I want to tell you so that I wouldn't forget! 

So here is my list of cool things

Brother Pete, He is this American that lives in Tuguegarao and he loves the missionaries, he also used to be a cook on a NAVY ship so he shows his love to the missionaries by cooking delicious food in mass quantities. He also has really cool fishing stories.

In my new ward there is this member that actually lives in downtown Salt Lake! He just spent his vacation here and now he is bringing his whole family to America. I got to talk to him for a little bit and he told me about all the cool things happening in Utah. 

Now I would like to tell you more about the people, I hope you dont mind that I keep up this list form thing, it helps me write more.

The people are incredibly nice

They are super easy to talk to, a lot of the times I can just go up and ask them their name, age, how big is their family, and then talk about the gospel

They are friendly, they always say hi, and good morning, day, evening.

When they see Americans they Shout out "Hey Joe" or "Americano" sometimes its annoying

When we share the Restoration with them and ask if we can teach them more they usually say "Next time" but it usually means they don't want to. they are just to polite to tell us that they aren't interested 

There is also what I like to call the "Ambitious Drunk." its common for the older men here to come home from work and just get hammered, and then they see us and tell us how they want to change their evil ways and just completely turn around, but then we go and visit them when they are sober and they don't want anything to do with us, but that's agency for ya 

There are also the people that invite us in to teach them just because I am American, haha in my last area we were in this lesson and I was in the middle of bearing my testimony about Joseph Smith and the Lady we were teaching just pulls out a camera and snaps a picture of me haha she said she wanted to tell her friends that an American visits her haha

So now about my new area, out neighbors are members and they have a washing machine and they let us use it! no more raw knuckles for a little while haha, Also our apartment is above a motorcycle dealership! Talk about tender mercies of the Lord haha And Remember how we share the apartment with the ZLs? well good, one of them is Elder Gloria, who was also my trainer! and a super cool kid and the other is Elder Oliver from Filmore Utah and is also a super cool kid...so yeah that's about it (oscar from the office)

So now I want to talk about this analogy that I thought of, although I wouldn't be surprised if it has been used by an apostle before because we tend to think alike hahaha 

So Imagine that we are back in the day where if you wanted travel somewhere you had to take trip on a ship. The place we are coming from in this little analogy is of course the preexistence and our destination is the Celestial kingdom, and so our life here on earth is the journey on the ship from on place to another. As members of the one and only true church we are aboard a unsinkable, Iron clad vessel. Captained by the Savior him self, and our prophet is the navigator. This vessel is also fitted with a rudder, a keel, and sails so that It can make it to our destination. Now as for the people that are not on this ship of ours, we might find them on a ship with no sails, or one missing a rudder, some of their ships have holes in the hull and will eventually sink, we might also find them clinging onto a life raft, or life preserver, and unfortunately we can also find these people swimming relying on their own strength to make to there destination.

Now back to our great unsinkable vessel, everyone on the ship is a member of the crew, and all of us have a job to do(callings) and we must all do our part, in fact that's all that the Captain asks of us. And no matter what our job is, it is important to the whole crew.

As for us missionaries, they are the dive and rescue team! just like Kevin Cosner ahah they dive into the depths to rescue people and bring them on board. 

The greatest thing about this ship is that its destination is sure, no matter what storms come it remains on course, we just need to stay on the ship, and do our best, and when those storms come we need to make sure we don't fall off back into the depths.

I love this gospel and I love this Church, I love the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful to have a knowledge of this gospel. I know it is true, every bit of it! 

I love you all and Thank you again for your love and support.

Elder Proctor

5-7-2012

Hey y'all, 
 

So this week has been great, although this week I forgot to keep a list of things that I should write you so I have once again forgotten the entire week the second I sat at the computer.

 

But as far as Skype goes next week, I will be able to catch you around the time that mom said "Monday at 9:00 am my time, it will be sun 7:00 pm. your time " 

 

So earlier today we went to Banaue (look it up) its the 8th wonder of the world, its is beautiful just see the pictures.

 

Well I love all of you and I cant wait to Skype with you, (hopefully the Internet isn't dumb)

 

Love,

Elder Proctor