May 27, 2012
I love being here in the philippines! the people are amazing! The area is amazing! We have been working hard with the members trying to get them reactivated and with our few investigators trying to get them interested in the gospel enough to be comitted to hear our lessons, participate, and feel the desire to get baptized and go to church.
We have some people that we are trying to teach that like to "hide" from us when we come or are so busy they cant take a few minutes to hear something that will benefit their lives. Studying has been going very well and very often in church and district meeting i get a huge headache from trying to listen and improve my knowledge of the language. Its hard but even when we have days like saturday where we only got one lesson in, I feel happy to be here! I feel like this is the place to be, and that our work is not in vain. I feel better in those times when we come home and we tried our best but didnt get much than when i wake up in the morning.
Mornings have been the WORST!!!!! I wake up and the first and only thing i can think about is how much i miss my family. It gets really hard some mornings and I feel like i want to quit and just be with my family. That ultimately has been the hardest part for me. I dont care about eating weird food, walking a ton to only get one lesson, being away from worldly things, doing laundry by hand, getting eaten alive by bugs, sweating out buckets of sweat every 5 minutes, not knowing the language well enough that my head pounds. That doesnt bother me. What has bothered me the most is being away from my family. Nothing prepared me for this. I have been studying and praying for those feelings to subside. And it really only happens in the morning. I havent felt much change day by day.
But as I go I try to tell myself it is only a season. My time and place is here in the philippines. I push forward and get through to the times of the day that we can go out and teach, and it is when we are out with the people that I can push forth and be comforted through the day. I know that I will see my family again. I know that we are sealed as an eternal family in the temple. I know this is where God wants me.
Anyway....
On a brighter note.. I made a funny mistake in a lesson this week. We were talking about the atonement and had just read a great scripture about it. I was thinking of asking "How is the atonement for your life" but my mouth said "how is your atonement?". Its times like these that I am glad we teach mostly less actives. This particular family we are reactivating and we just laughed for a second and I regained myself and was able to come up with the right words.
This week is scheduled to be fun! we have Zone conference on wednesday, apartment check on thursday, and a branch activity on friday.
I love and miss you all! Heres hoping for a good week and better mornings!
Monday, June 11, 2012
In the Philippines ... finally!
May 21, 2012
It's HOT! Lol! I am SO happy to be here in the philippines! we left the MTC at 630pm and arrived in manilla around 1pm tuesday afternoon, missing a day from crossing the date line. We went to the Airport hotel to eat and sleep. There was a KFC right next to the hotel and I was able to have Philippino KFC! We slept for quite awhile and then had to be ready to go again at 4 am. A driver was waiting for us outside and took us to the terminal. Once we got inside the airport there was a guide there for us to help us get our tickets and get our luggage on the plane.
Our plane left the airport at around 7 and we arrived in NAGA around 8. Our mission president was there at the airport to pick us up along with his assistants and the senior missionaries. We went to the mission home where we received instruction about the mission from President Bleisner and were
interviewed by him. We then had lunch! Pork Adobo, rice, and vegetables! It was MAS MASARAP! or very delicious! Local members who live by the mission home cooked it for us along with some chocolate cake! During lunch I mentioned that the people at the MTC had said that Balut was bawal or forbidden in the philippino missions. President Bliesner then rolled his eyes and said "Sometimes I wish that was the case for how many complaints I get from sisters telling me the elders "made" them eat it. Its not bawal in the Naga mission, you can eat it." I was very excited! I havent tried it yet but I'm happy that I can try it here and am excited for the day i can try it.
After lunch we received our assignments. I am assigned to the Pilar area with my Trainer Elder Farnsworth from Arizona. He has been here for 4 transfers now and knows the area very well. We were given further instruction from the Mission president and then sent on our way. A couple companionships had a 3-4 hour bus ride ahead of them. We were lucky to have the AP's drive us. On our way out of the city my companion convinced them to stop at one of the only places you can get fresh milk in Naga and we got some delicious flavored milk! I got Mango and it was very good!
Thursdays are our days for district meeting and our area is an hour and 15 minute jeepney ride away from the meeting house that its held, so the APs dropped us off at the district leader's house and we stayed the night there. The next morning the APs were passing through on their way back to the mission home (they had to drop off supplies quite a ways away from the mission home) and they gave us a ride to the district meeting.
After the district meeting we took a jeepney ride to a nearby Mall (one of 2 in the whole
mission) and we ate lunch there at a restaurant that serves unlimited rice with all their entrees. We then took a jeepney back to the district leaders house and got my luggage and took another jeepney to
our area. The inside was full so we rode on top. It was SO COOL!
Friday and Saturday we went out and visited some less active members and taught them. The Whole philippines is currently very focused on Reactivation so most of our efforts are focused on reactivating members and not so much on finding and teaching new investigators so the lessons go a little different. Its really great to finally be out among the people teaching them. Some of the hardest times of the day can be when we are at home studying. The process of learning the language seems like it looms overhead and theres just so much that you feel inadequate of. But all that goes away when we finish up and are out teaching the people!
Its interesting to see how americanized the philippines is. Many things are written in english and most of the people know some english. In many situations english numbers are used. So in many
situations if you get stuck on a word and say it in english the people for the most part know what your trying to say. My trainer knows the language very well and has been able to help me a lot with learning how to teach in the language.
Sunday was very cool! Our area has a branch of 35-45 active members and they meet at a small meeting house down the street from our apartment. As we were out on friday we met the branch president who asked me to give a talk in sacrament meeting. He gave me a chapter out of Gospel Principles which i mainly just read important sections from the book, said a few things about each section and then bore my testimony. There arent enough active aaronic priesthood holders for the sacrament so me and my companion blessed it. Everything in church is done in Tagalog except for the hymns which were surprisingly sung in english.
Today is my first pday here! This morning we went out and got groceries including refiling our supply of gas for our 2 burner stove. We then did laundry. We are very very very very fortunate to be living right next to some members who have a washing machine! Its not fancy at all but does most of the washing work so all we had to do was scrub our collars and any stains, rinse the clothes, and put them out to dry. Our apartment is very nice as that it has a hose attached to a faucet in the bathroom so showers are very much like taking a shower from the garden hose. I havent missed hot water showers at all. the cold water feels so nice compared to the rest of the day! haha but i would rather be here than in the fridged cold winters of idaho!
In all apartments in the mission there is a nice 3 stage water filter that we get fresh clean water for cooking and drinking from. Each companionship has a very cheap cell phone for communicating with members, other missionaries, and the mission home. The cell phones here are all cheap prepaid style phones with places to load up your phone almost everywhere.
As I said earlier its interesting to see how americanized the philippines is. The homes, huts and buildings all look like they 100 years old but every single one has power, almost all the adults have a
cell phone, all the advertisements and signs for everything is in english, almost everyone wears tshirts with english on it and american characters. I have seen ALOT of advertisement for The Avengers here including at the mall where there is also a movie theatre.
Communicating with me: The best way for me to send things to people is via email. I wrote a letter to a friend as we were traveling here and was able to mail it today. It cost 55 pesos which is kinda much considering email is WAY cheaper. The local internet shop only charges 20 pesos an hour. The best way for others to send things to me is via email or Dearelder.com. Dearelder.com will probably be the best as I will get a printout of them and will have more time to read them than just the alotted time we have on pday to email. All you need to know is the mission: Philipines Naga mission and my name Elder Blake Blakely and it will get to me.
I forgot to bring my camera with us so I wont be able to send pictures this week but I will make sure to remember it next week. I love you all!
It's HOT! Lol! I am SO happy to be here in the philippines! we left the MTC at 630pm and arrived in manilla around 1pm tuesday afternoon, missing a day from crossing the date line. We went to the Airport hotel to eat and sleep. There was a KFC right next to the hotel and I was able to have Philippino KFC! We slept for quite awhile and then had to be ready to go again at 4 am. A driver was waiting for us outside and took us to the terminal. Once we got inside the airport there was a guide there for us to help us get our tickets and get our luggage on the plane.
Our plane left the airport at around 7 and we arrived in NAGA around 8. Our mission president was there at the airport to pick us up along with his assistants and the senior missionaries. We went to the mission home where we received instruction about the mission from President Bleisner and were
interviewed by him. We then had lunch! Pork Adobo, rice, and vegetables! It was MAS MASARAP! or very delicious! Local members who live by the mission home cooked it for us along with some chocolate cake! During lunch I mentioned that the people at the MTC had said that Balut was bawal or forbidden in the philippino missions. President Bliesner then rolled his eyes and said "Sometimes I wish that was the case for how many complaints I get from sisters telling me the elders "made" them eat it. Its not bawal in the Naga mission, you can eat it." I was very excited! I havent tried it yet but I'm happy that I can try it here and am excited for the day i can try it.
After lunch we received our assignments. I am assigned to the Pilar area with my Trainer Elder Farnsworth from Arizona. He has been here for 4 transfers now and knows the area very well. We were given further instruction from the Mission president and then sent on our way. A couple companionships had a 3-4 hour bus ride ahead of them. We were lucky to have the AP's drive us. On our way out of the city my companion convinced them to stop at one of the only places you can get fresh milk in Naga and we got some delicious flavored milk! I got Mango and it was very good!
Thursdays are our days for district meeting and our area is an hour and 15 minute jeepney ride away from the meeting house that its held, so the APs dropped us off at the district leader's house and we stayed the night there. The next morning the APs were passing through on their way back to the mission home (they had to drop off supplies quite a ways away from the mission home) and they gave us a ride to the district meeting.
After the district meeting we took a jeepney ride to a nearby Mall (one of 2 in the whole
mission) and we ate lunch there at a restaurant that serves unlimited rice with all their entrees. We then took a jeepney back to the district leaders house and got my luggage and took another jeepney to
our area. The inside was full so we rode on top. It was SO COOL!
Friday and Saturday we went out and visited some less active members and taught them. The Whole philippines is currently very focused on Reactivation so most of our efforts are focused on reactivating members and not so much on finding and teaching new investigators so the lessons go a little different. Its really great to finally be out among the people teaching them. Some of the hardest times of the day can be when we are at home studying. The process of learning the language seems like it looms overhead and theres just so much that you feel inadequate of. But all that goes away when we finish up and are out teaching the people!
Its interesting to see how americanized the philippines is. Many things are written in english and most of the people know some english. In many situations english numbers are used. So in many
situations if you get stuck on a word and say it in english the people for the most part know what your trying to say. My trainer knows the language very well and has been able to help me a lot with learning how to teach in the language.
Sunday was very cool! Our area has a branch of 35-45 active members and they meet at a small meeting house down the street from our apartment. As we were out on friday we met the branch president who asked me to give a talk in sacrament meeting. He gave me a chapter out of Gospel Principles which i mainly just read important sections from the book, said a few things about each section and then bore my testimony. There arent enough active aaronic priesthood holders for the sacrament so me and my companion blessed it. Everything in church is done in Tagalog except for the hymns which were surprisingly sung in english.
Today is my first pday here! This morning we went out and got groceries including refiling our supply of gas for our 2 burner stove. We then did laundry. We are very very very very fortunate to be living right next to some members who have a washing machine! Its not fancy at all but does most of the washing work so all we had to do was scrub our collars and any stains, rinse the clothes, and put them out to dry. Our apartment is very nice as that it has a hose attached to a faucet in the bathroom so showers are very much like taking a shower from the garden hose. I havent missed hot water showers at all. the cold water feels so nice compared to the rest of the day! haha but i would rather be here than in the fridged cold winters of idaho!
In all apartments in the mission there is a nice 3 stage water filter that we get fresh clean water for cooking and drinking from. Each companionship has a very cheap cell phone for communicating with members, other missionaries, and the mission home. The cell phones here are all cheap prepaid style phones with places to load up your phone almost everywhere.
As I said earlier its interesting to see how americanized the philippines is. The homes, huts and buildings all look like they 100 years old but every single one has power, almost all the adults have a
cell phone, all the advertisements and signs for everything is in english, almost everyone wears tshirts with english on it and american characters. I have seen ALOT of advertisement for The Avengers here including at the mall where there is also a movie theatre.
Communicating with me: The best way for me to send things to people is via email. I wrote a letter to a friend as we were traveling here and was able to mail it today. It cost 55 pesos which is kinda much considering email is WAY cheaper. The local internet shop only charges 20 pesos an hour. The best way for others to send things to me is via email or Dearelder.com. Dearelder.com will probably be the best as I will get a printout of them and will have more time to read them than just the alotted time we have on pday to email. All you need to know is the mission: Philipines Naga mission and my name Elder Blake Blakely and it will get to me.
I forgot to bring my camera with us so I wont be able to send pictures this week but I will make sure to remember it next week. I love you all!
Taiwan
We just arrived in Taiwan after what seemed like an eternity(12 hours) on our flight! (May 14, 2012)
Listening to an apostle
Hey everyone, we got out of our tuesday devotional and I had email time so i wanted to let you know that we were blessed to have Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the 12 come and speak to us for our last Tuesday devotional! (May 8, 2012)
Travel plans
HELLO EVERYBODY!!!!!
We just got our travel plans on Thursday and we depart for the Philippines from the MTC at 6:30pm sunday night!!!!!!!!!! We go from the salt lake airport to San Francisco to Taiwan and then to Manilla! Our flight to taiwan leaves at 9:36. We have a couple hour layover at SF from 10:50 to 1amWe have been given permission to call home while we are at the airport and i was able to buy a phone card from the MTC that i can use to call home and be able to talk with everyone!!! But I need phone numbers so please send me them in a DearElder preferably today!!!
In my travel group I am the travel leader and have in my group my MTC companion and a sister that is going to our mission. It will be the only time that we will be in a companionship with a sister as it is just the three of us in the group. There are a couple other groups in our zone who are also
This week has gone really well with learning the language, learning more about myself, learning from others, and learning how to teach others. One of our two teachers, sister landrum had her last day on saturday. She is going to study abroad in India and couldnt quite make it the rest of the time we are here. Our other teacher, Brother Lopez is still with us till the very end. He is an AWESOME teacher and I really like a lot of the things he has taught us about important ways to bring the spirit to our lessons. Well these computers stink and are freezing up on me a ton so im gonna get off now and try again later today.
(May 8, 2012)
We just got our travel plans on Thursday and we depart for the Philippines from the MTC at 6:30pm sunday night!!!!!!!!!! We go from the salt lake airport to San Francisco to Taiwan and then to Manilla! Our flight to taiwan leaves at 9:36. We have a couple hour layover at SF from 10:50 to 1amWe have been given permission to call home while we are at the airport and i was able to buy a phone card from the MTC that i can use to call home and be able to talk with everyone!!! But I need phone numbers so please send me them in a DearElder preferably today!!!
In my travel group I am the travel leader and have in my group my MTC companion and a sister that is going to our mission. It will be the only time that we will be in a companionship with a sister as it is just the three of us in the group. There are a couple other groups in our zone who are also
This week has gone really well with learning the language, learning more about myself, learning from others, and learning how to teach others. One of our two teachers, sister landrum had her last day on saturday. She is going to study abroad in India and couldnt quite make it the rest of the time we are here. Our other teacher, Brother Lopez is still with us till the very end. He is an AWESOME teacher and I really like a lot of the things he has taught us about important ways to bring the spirit to our lessons. Well these computers stink and are freezing up on me a ton so im gonna get off now and try again later today.
(May 8, 2012)
To write to Elder Dexter Blakely ...
To send me a one-page letter or postcard you can use the Church’s Pouch Mail System:
You only need to use first-class postage to send it to Salt Lake and the church will do the rest. For Letters: Lay the letter blank side down. Fold the letter into thirds like you would place it in an envelope but with the lettering on the inside. Secure it with two pieces of tape an inch in from each end but do not close the ends. In the top left corner write your name and return address. Affix first class postage to the top right corner and address to:
Blake Dexter Blakely
Philippines Naga Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
You can also go to dearelder.com and type up a letter which is printed out every week and sent to the MTC while I’m there and sent by pouch to the mission.
To send larger letters or packages they can be sent to the mission home addressed to:
Elder Blake Dexter Blakely
Philippines Naga Mission
39 Panganiban Dr
Naga City
4400 Camarines Sur
Philippines
You only need to use first-class postage to send it to Salt Lake and the church will do the rest. For Letters: Lay the letter blank side down. Fold the letter into thirds like you would place it in an envelope but with the lettering on the inside. Secure it with two pieces of tape an inch in from each end but do not close the ends. In the top left corner write your name and return address. Affix first class postage to the top right corner and address to:
Blake Dexter Blakely
Philippines Naga Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
You can also go to dearelder.com and type up a letter which is printed out every week and sent to the MTC while I’m there and sent by pouch to the mission.
To send larger letters or packages they can be sent to the mission home addressed to:
Elder Blake Dexter Blakely
Philippines Naga Mission
39 Panganiban Dr
Naga City
4400 Camarines Sur
Philippines
First week at MTC
April 13, 2012
Well, I have officially been here at the mtc for a week and two days and I am having a great time. Sunday we had a special MTC wide sacrament meeting/ Easter Devotional. We were joined by President Packer from the Quorum of the 12 along with his son who is a member of the 70 and another member of the 70. It was really cool to be there and listen from him. One of the biggest things I liked about his talk was that he talked about replacing fear with faith. That if we have enough faith we will never fear. I really liked that and have tried to keep that in mind always.
We later had a nice walk outside to the temple! It was really nice to get out in the bright warm sunshine and walk over and take pictures of the beautiful temple! Before coming here I did not know that the temple was literally across the street from the MTC.
That night we had a Musical devotional from the BYU Mens Choir. It was their last performance of their season. Almost all of the choir is made up of returned missionaries or future missionaries. We then had a choice of a few different movies that we could watch as part of sunday movie night that they do every Sunday. My companion and I watched the Joseph Smith movie. I really like how deep that movie goes into his life and the bringing forth of the restored gospel to the world.
In our classes we were given an investigator to teach. We were told he was a native philippino who came to study at BYU and grew curious about the church. He was learning English but not enough that he could understand it so we had to teach him in Tagalog by companionship. We taught him four lessons introducing him to the gospel of christ, teaching him how to pray, about faith, repentance, and in our second lesson gave him a book of mormon that Ben and Amy gave to me at christmas with my testimony in tagalog in the front cover. A lot of our lessons were reading from the tagalog preach my gospel and reading from our tagalog translation of the scriptures but most importantly we had the spirit with us and really felt that he felt it as well. He accepted it and seemed like he was grasping the church so tightly he wanted to call his family in the Philippines and send the missionaries to them. One of the other companionships taught him about baptism and committed him to baptism on the last lesson. It was later that day that our teacher showed us a video that he had made of him speaking perfect english and saying how thankful he was for us to teach him and that he wanted to share it with his family. We were then given another surprise about an hour later from our teacher saying that he was not a real investigator but actually an employee at the MTC and that he would then start team teaching us! That got some of the elders in my district frustrated that all was for nothing but it gave us all a great experience of teaching in tagalog and we were all inspired to teach important sections that he needed and as a district we grew quite alot for what we all did and taught.
The food here started out in my mind as being good but has gone a little downhill but there are always constant things that are good like they always have good soup for lunch and dinner and they have a wrap bar that is always very good! yesterday I had the best lunch here at the MTC! They had pork gyros! It didnt taste as good as the lamb ones i have had before but they tasted very delicious, I had two along with everything else.
I hope everything is going well for everyone. I received a letter from Sterling this past week that he included a scripture from Job that said Gird up your loins and be a man! I really liked that and that has helped me when i have had troubles. I have also done as mom instructed me to always keep a cheerful song in my heart. Going from class to class I often find myself humming or singing a hymn to keep me going. I love my companion and I love the rest of the elders in my district. We have a strong sense of comradery and get along great!
I was talking with our district leader Elder Fatani from New Zealand yesterday about mail. We have each only received 2 letters the whole time we have been here whereas the other missionaries in our district have received 5-7-10 or more letters. While that may start to be discouraging that we dont get much mail we both agreed that we know that our families and friends are constantly praying for us and that we will feel the blessings from that Always and feel their comfort and support with us always.
I love you all and am very grateful for your love and support!
Well, I have officially been here at the mtc for a week and two days and I am having a great time. Sunday we had a special MTC wide sacrament meeting/ Easter Devotional. We were joined by President Packer from the Quorum of the 12 along with his son who is a member of the 70 and another member of the 70. It was really cool to be there and listen from him. One of the biggest things I liked about his talk was that he talked about replacing fear with faith. That if we have enough faith we will never fear. I really liked that and have tried to keep that in mind always.
We later had a nice walk outside to the temple! It was really nice to get out in the bright warm sunshine and walk over and take pictures of the beautiful temple! Before coming here I did not know that the temple was literally across the street from the MTC.
That night we had a Musical devotional from the BYU Mens Choir. It was their last performance of their season. Almost all of the choir is made up of returned missionaries or future missionaries. We then had a choice of a few different movies that we could watch as part of sunday movie night that they do every Sunday. My companion and I watched the Joseph Smith movie. I really like how deep that movie goes into his life and the bringing forth of the restored gospel to the world.
In our classes we were given an investigator to teach. We were told he was a native philippino who came to study at BYU and grew curious about the church. He was learning English but not enough that he could understand it so we had to teach him in Tagalog by companionship. We taught him four lessons introducing him to the gospel of christ, teaching him how to pray, about faith, repentance, and in our second lesson gave him a book of mormon that Ben and Amy gave to me at christmas with my testimony in tagalog in the front cover. A lot of our lessons were reading from the tagalog preach my gospel and reading from our tagalog translation of the scriptures but most importantly we had the spirit with us and really felt that he felt it as well. He accepted it and seemed like he was grasping the church so tightly he wanted to call his family in the Philippines and send the missionaries to them. One of the other companionships taught him about baptism and committed him to baptism on the last lesson. It was later that day that our teacher showed us a video that he had made of him speaking perfect english and saying how thankful he was for us to teach him and that he wanted to share it with his family. We were then given another surprise about an hour later from our teacher saying that he was not a real investigator but actually an employee at the MTC and that he would then start team teaching us! That got some of the elders in my district frustrated that all was for nothing but it gave us all a great experience of teaching in tagalog and we were all inspired to teach important sections that he needed and as a district we grew quite alot for what we all did and taught.
The food here started out in my mind as being good but has gone a little downhill but there are always constant things that are good like they always have good soup for lunch and dinner and they have a wrap bar that is always very good! yesterday I had the best lunch here at the MTC! They had pork gyros! It didnt taste as good as the lamb ones i have had before but they tasted very delicious, I had two along with everything else.
I hope everything is going well for everyone. I received a letter from Sterling this past week that he included a scripture from Job that said Gird up your loins and be a man! I really liked that and that has helped me when i have had troubles. I have also done as mom instructed me to always keep a cheerful song in my heart. Going from class to class I often find myself humming or singing a hymn to keep me going. I love my companion and I love the rest of the elders in my district. We have a strong sense of comradery and get along great!
I was talking with our district leader Elder Fatani from New Zealand yesterday about mail. We have each only received 2 letters the whole time we have been here whereas the other missionaries in our district have received 5-7-10 or more letters. While that may start to be discouraging that we dont get much mail we both agreed that we know that our families and friends are constantly praying for us and that we will feel the blessings from that Always and feel their comfort and support with us always.
I love you all and am very grateful for your love and support!
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