Hello everyone,
I hope you all had a great week because mine was super hard... just kidding, but seriously I am super tired. But thats okay because I get to call you tomorrow! I can tell you how excited I am for skype, not that we just tested it out or anything... This week was rad because we had the baptism of Elmer Ewayan but it was a bummer too because our christmas baptism fell through. We caught him smoking so we have to postpone his baptism. But, my companion is doing great, he is getting a lot better at teaching and we get along well. Other than that life is good. We had a zone conference and my mission president gave me a snickers that was straight from america so I was pretty ecstatic about that. The zone conference was really good but super fast, the basically just told us not to stay inside so we don't get all depressed and then we watched the christmas devotional, which was good. We also had exchanges this week and Elder Moody and I went up into the jungle to teach some of my investigators and take some cool pictures for you guys. Hope you enjoy them. This week I have learned a lot. About myself and about the Lord. I am just starting to realize how the Lords ways are not our ways, He knows whats best and we need to align our will with His, not the other way around. Especially when we think we know whats best. We have such a limited understanding and he really is omnipotent and understands all things. We will have a little Christmas eve dinner tomorrow night at one of our recent converts so that should be fun. I am gonna try to get them to go caroling too, Filipinos have a tradition that every christmas they walk around and ask for money. I know... So I have been asked for money more times in the last 2 weeks than I have my whole mission. Christmas morning probably wont be much here because none of those packages have gotten here so we might be a little short but we will just celebrate late. haha I am gonna try and surprise my companion with some pancakes for breakfast and I bought him a few little gifts and wrapped them when he wasn't looking. Tis' the season! But, I am just feeling a little trunky right now and really want to skype so I am gonna have to go work hard tonight. I will call you on Christmas eve at 5 o'clock. This is California time.. I love you all so much and can't wait to see and talk to you. Lets all try to think about others this season and do something good for someone else. Oh yeah, Mom and Dad I need to ask you about an experience that you had early in your marriage that strengthened your testimony of tithing. Can you help me out? Love youMonday, January 6, 2014
December 1, 2013
Hey everyone,
Well words can't describe how PO'ed I am right now because I just wrote you a super long letter and then the computer shop crashed... The Philippines strikes again. I love you guys and Molly looks like the best looking kid in the family. I would write my entire email again but I don't have time sorry. I am ok this week was good and I love and miss you. To answer you questions mom, I can buy garments, pants, and shirts here for super cheap or just have them made. So its all good as long as I have money. Which I think I am ok on right now. Well, I cant wait to see your video that you made for me and I love and miss you so much. You are always in my prayers. Keep it real. Till next week
November 24, 2013
Hello,
I miss you guys! I am super jealous and a little bummed out right now because this is my favorite time of year and I won't be with you guys... again! Oh well next year I am gonna bring down the house. I am super excited for Kristi's baby to come too. I hope I get to see some pictures of little molly soon. Everything here in Bacolod mission is starting to fade back to normal and yeah we did get a lot of tacloban missionaries here but we are not allowed to talk to them about what happened. Some of them are pretty wrecked and had to start all over, all of their clothes and bags and everything are completely brand new. Which I think is kinda sweet.. But I still feel really bad for them. Hopefully hey can adapt quick and get back in the groove of things. Well, this week was pretty similar to last week but right now I am opening a new area called Hibaiyo in my district so I have to roll two sacraments every sunday and try to teach there too during the week which is not easy and it takes a big toll on the investigators in my area. But, the work is going forward and we have some baptisms coming up very soon! We had one yesterday and are excited about the progressing investigators we have. Now they just have to go to church!!! It gets hard to work with Philipinos sometimes, or all of the time but I love them. I hope you guys are having fun and keep doing missionary work. Save me some turkey too....
November 17, 2013
Hey everybody,
Don't know if this letter is gonna get to you because the power keeps going in and out here. This week was good. Just helping out after the storm. All of our service is just by area because the storm wasn't nearly as bad here as it was in Tacloban. Car, trees and houses blown over, only a few people dead so we got really lucky here compared to them. Some of their missionaries are showing up here today and they will probably be put in our zone because its one of two Cebuano zones here. We all had a meeting with President Lopez in Bacolod on Wednesday to talk about the storm and how we could help. We are just supposed to continue teaching and doing service so missionary work is still going on here. We did find a few new investigators this week through our service and got them to church on Sunday. Sorry but I couldn't get a lot of pictures of the damage because President told us not to take our cameras with us to get pictures of the damage. But I will send a couple pictures of the stuff close to my house. I think the couple missionaries have taken pictures and put them on facebook for you to see. As for food and stuff, we are pretty okay. We can still get clean water and I don't know why that mom freaked out because canned foods and rice is all we eat here anyways. We can still get pretty much anything we need here so you guys don't have to worry about us. I just feel super bad for the missionaries and people in Tacloban, they really got wrecked and I am not surprised that a lot of them are going home. Sorry I couldn't get you a letter on Wednesday but we just didn't have time to find a computer shop and email while we were in Bacolod. The place was packed with people. The last package that you sent wasn't there when I was in Bacolod but other missionaries are still getting theirs so I think the mail service is still okay. Most of the Philippines is still okay it's really just Tacloban and western visayas (us) that got hit. But we will all recover and life will keep going. I don't know what will happen with missionary work in Tacloban though because they closed the mission and I think its gonna be a long time before they can reopen it. Anyways, I love you guys so much, keep praying for the people of the Philippines, they need it. Tell Amy "good luck" with her job interview and tell everyone at grandma's how much I love them. And I am super stoked to get your christmas video and pictures. I hope that you are all doing okay and I can't wait to talk to you all on Christmas! Let me know if you want to skype or call because I don't have a skype and I don't know your username or anything. But, I love you guys, and I love missionary work. My trainee and I are killing it and hopefully we will see some baptisms here soon. Love you
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
October 13, 2013
Hey fam,
I just uploaded some more sweet pictures into drop box and I had an awesome week and baptized the Lanojan family. It was a great experience because they have had some serious persecution and there own family has rejected them because they became "mormons". Other churches here really hate mormons. We have been teching an investigator lady and everytime we teach her pastor shows up and argues with us about the book of mormon and D&C. I am really greatful that the Lord has bless me with patience and my mission because I get pretty heated sometimes. We got to watch conference finally yesterday and it was awesome. I sent you a pictures of us sitting in the chapel because it was only missionaries... Philipinos don't always "get it". But, I loved conference and I am so pumped up for the work now. Holland and Monsons talks were definately my favorite but Elder Bednar totally taught me how to call people to repentance when teaching the law of tithing. Other than that this week was pretty normal. We found a snake in our apartment and I met a Born Again american dude in the grocery store who I thought was pretty cool until he totally denied the existence of Joseph Smith. Oh well, love everybody. Zone conference is this week so on wednesday we will head down to Bacolod and it should be pretty crazy because it is the Maskarra festival right now which is like one of the biggest festivals in the Philippines. We will be safe. Thank you for the cash, I will definitely buy the whole fish this time. I love you guys and miss you so much and cant wait to get that package. I miss you and hope you miss me too.\
DUECES
Elder Pulsipher
September 29, 2013
Hey Family, I am sorry but I have been trying to put pictures on for the last few weeks but I just don't know why they wont download. But I finally got some in dropbox today, I just don't know why they are still files... Check it out because I think there are some cool ones. At our baptism on Saturday we found a Halo(big lizard) and caught it. The one we caught though is still a baby. They get like six feet long and live in the trees here. Other than, business as usual here in Vallehermoso. We had three kid get baptized on Saturday and this week their parents will be baptized along with the Cadorna family. But, unfortunately I might not be able to make it because I have to go to Bacolod for a fingerprinting. Something about my passport... Hopefully I can get back in time. Other than that Our area is super big so we are going to start a group in between our area and Gihulngan so that should be exciting. The food is still the same but I am getting pretty good at finding different ways to cook fish though. I really wish there was a better variety of fruit here like in my other areas. Here there are only bananas. And a lot of them... Well, my area is awesome and progressing and I am happy doing the work and learning more than I ever have. I still have to teach in church every Sunday even though they tell us that they have teachers. I gave a pretty sweet lesson on temples on sunday and realized how big of a blessing temples are in this life. I miss the temple so much and I hope that you are still taking advantage of that huge blessing of having a temple so close. Some people have to save up for months to be able to go to the temple here. I love you guys and miss you so much. And I am super excited about that package that you sent! I love this work and know its true. Keep helping the missionaries there, the help of the members is more effective that anything else in missionary work. LOve you. Elder Pulsipher
September 22, 3013
Hey everyone.
This week was another doosy out here on the North Shore. Alright so its not actually that much like Hawaii but I am trying to look for the good in everything. I am glad you got to see the pics of zone conference and got to see how much weight I've gained. I think I am the only american that has put on weight in the Philippines and its ruining me. I dont know why because I only eat dried fish and rice, but I have been pretty stressed lately. Anyways, Zone conference was awesome. Its always good to have some really spiritual meetings and get to see all your friends in the mission. I am trying to upload pics of my area and stuff but my card reader is playing games with me... We did have a baptism on Saturday of a kid named Tini who is super funny. My letter my be super short today because the computer shop keeps blacking out but I love you guys and I am super excited for Christmas. Its still like a few months away but they start celebrating in like August in the Philippines. I will take some more pics of my area and my apartment and try to upload them on dropbox for you guys. I do have running water in this new place which is awesome. First time I have had it in the mission. But I am still washing clothes by hand and forgot what a dishwasher looks like. Gotta love the Philippines. Other than that I am working hard and loving watching the gospel change peoples lives out here. Lets see, I do have one request for a Christmas package if you guys think you can handle it. I saw one missionaries family made a video for him. It was just at one of their family Christmas parties and everyone just said hi but it would be so awesome to see and here you guys again. I love you all so much and you are always in my prayers. I know that the Lord will take care of you and I am not worried at all. I hope yo don"t worry about me either. I miss you guys and cant wait to here from you all next week.
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