2-28-12

Dearest Family!

Well what a week this has been here in the field. Literally about an hour or so after I sent you my letter we were in the store buying some food and my stomach clenched and I had a ton of pain... We didn't know exactly what was happening and so we went home and I spent the next 45 minutes on the toilet with things coming out of both ends... I took some medication that the senior missionaries gave to me to help with the problem but after about four days it hadn't gotten any better... We text the mission president and his wife to see what they thought.  They said to give it till Friday and they would look at me at the missionconference that had been planned for then.  They said if it didn't get better till then they were going to start me on worm pills.  They told me to basically stop eating so that if there was something in there it would die and then naturally come out.  Well you know me and eating- but then add walking usually around 6 miles a day was going to be very draining of my energy with nothing but water in me.  The mission presidents wife said that I probably was going to want to stay in for the next day or two but we had way to many good things planned for me to be sitting around and not working.  So we went out and worked and I stopped to puke every few hundred yards and then just kept moving. If Hell is anything like those days then I REALLY want to make it to heaven then! haha.Well Thursday night after having this sickness for about a week I finally stopped puking and could hold food down.  I still had diarrhea like crazy but I can deal with that!  So if I had some kind of bug or still do I'm not sure where it is but at least I'm back to my some what healthy self again! hahaha good times to be able to laugh about some day.

 Well real quick funny story for the week is me and Elder Garver were walking down the street and saw this really old lady standing in the shade alone.  So we went and talked to her and asked her how she was doing and oh let me tell you!  If you thought grandma was a talker you better think again!!! =P  Holy cow we heard about her husband and his job and all the money that he used to bring home but how now he doesn't get payed much so its hard. Then she told us about her kids and how they had all died off so it was only her and her husband. But two seconds later she was telling us how she had just gone to her sons house for dinner the other day and how great he and his wife were doing and how they had these super cute kids.  Haha- obviously this lady was completely crazy and not all there in the head.  Bless her heart!  Well I didn't want to be mean and not say anything so I asked her what she was doing just standing there all alone.  She pointed across the street to this building that these people were working at and said that every night she stands there and waits until night fall and then goes and breaks into that building so that she can sleep in the bed and be able to have something to cook her food on!  We had no idea what to say to that so I gave her a pass along card and told her that Jesus loves her and that he doesn't want her breaking into buildings and so to come to church.  We got a great laugh out of that and just moved on to our next lesson.  Ha. 

My language has taken some great jumps and I really have been working really hard. I have gotten to the point where I am usually able to talk to the little kidsbecause their language is not very good either and they don't use the big words and complicated sentence rules.  Then I am usually able to understand about 50% of what the adults are saying to me.  I have been working a lot on the words and vocab that we use out side of lessons because that is the stuff that I don'thear as often as I hear the spiritual vocab words.  It has been really hard to work and be sick and all but the Lord has kept me safe and I know that he is going to be there every step of the way holding my hand and making sure that nothing too bad goes on in my body!  

Man the food here is very very interesting.  It is all so spicy that I can't even eat it sometimes!  Me and Elder Garver are going to start to buy our own food so that that way I can buy some more healthy foods to keep my body happy and not have to spend money on the spicy crap that I have been forcing down my throat the past few weeks.  I love this area though and have gotten used to just about everything.  Ha I didn't think I would ever get used to the hole no toilet paper thing but after the past two weeks here I hate toilet paper!  It takes way to long to use and really hurts sometimes!   Gross I know but the hand and water is so much better!!!  Kadon I am so stoked for you that you get to go to Legoland!!!  That is really a fun place and you being the lego king I know will fall in love with it!  Take pictures and send them to me!  Mom don't ever feel bad about asking questions.  I will do my best to answer them but lots of times I forget some of them!  Grandma and grandpa didn't hear from ya this week but please remember how much I love you and miss ya!  I think about you so much here.  Grandpa you should see the watermelons here!  Not huge but man are they good!!!!!  They are about a month or two from being fully in season so they say they are only going to get better!  I ate one 35 pounder in about two days on my own! hahaha  That was after I was feeling better I'm sure that the watermelon was the reason that I got better so quickly!  Dad you should see the golf course that is here!!!!  It was absolutely beautiful!  It is up in the bukid or mountain range and you can see the ocean from one of the holes! I wish that we could go golf it once! It is totally ok to golf here but for 18 holes is about 70 bucks in American money and then another 10 or 15 to rent clubs!  I'll try to get some pictures of it but we aren't in that area very often. Elder Garver golfs too so we always wish that we could try it out.  But obviously we would have to use our own money for it and to spend that would be a big expence.  we will just continue to wish and drool over the course! haha.

So there should be three pictures that are attached to this one.  It won't let me look at them so I think that two of them are houses that we found up in the bukid areas of our mission and just to put that into perspective those were two of the more rich houses up there.  The other one is my favorite!  It is a water buffalo that is standing down in the mud trying to stay cool!  We got him to look up at us right at the time that I took the picture!  Probably my favorite picture that I have taken so far!

 Well tonight I am going to be going on splits with one of the zone leaders so that they can see where I am at and how Elder Garver has been training.  No pressure right?  haha Well I will do my best and try to impress him!  I have really gained a strong testimony on prayer while out here in the Philippines.  It has not been easy to adapt to the culture or to be able to be sick and trying to work but as I would hit my knees multiple times a day asking the lord to strengthen me I knew that he would help.  Also real quick I forgot about my testimony of the priesthood!  I received a call the other night from a lady that we have been teaching lately.  She was crying and said that he daughter had ran away from home and that she didn't know where she was or if she was even safe.  We literally ran to her house and did our best to comfort her.  We asked if she would like a blessing and explained a little bit about it.  She said yes and that she would like me to do it.  I was so scared because I hadn't been prepared for her to ask me. In the blessing I was prompted to tell her that he daughter would return home within the next day or two and that they would be together again and everything would be ok. She seemed a little better as we left that night to go home. We got a text from her about 20 minutes later that he daughter had come home and had apologized and said that she knew she was wrong and that she was so sorry! The priesthood is real and through our faith in God we are able to do all things!!! Love you all and can't wait to hear from you again!

Love always,
Elder Shelley

pictures: Houses in Bogo

              Water buffalo

2-22-12

So a little bit about our mission here in the Bogo area!  Me and Elder Garver have been working our butts off and have done nothing but work work and do more work.  In the week since I last emailed we had 10 members that came back to church and have 6 new investigators that have baptismal dates and if all goes as planned we will have 5 more- to make 11 tomorrow night as we challenge an amazing family!  The dad told me last night that after he prayed he heard the voice of God tell him that what he was doing was right and that he wants to follow Jesus Christ!  He hadn't read the BOM yet so we decided not to challenge them but that's coming tomorrow! We have great things planned for this family and for this area!  We went from having 23 in our branch attend to having 52 in two weeks!!!  We are so excited!  We got word from pres. today that we are leading the mission and he has been telling people about our great work here in the field!  It feels so good to be able to say that we represent Jesus Christ and that he loves us enough to give us his spirit and to trust us to teach his children.  I have been so blessed to be here in the mission!  It is something that has blessed my life and given me such a testimony that no matter what happens out here My testimony would not fail! 

 

Family I love you so much!!!  Thank you for all the emails and love that was sent to me!  Grandpa I love you and hope and pray every day that your back will be healed!  Dad I got grandmas letter and Grandma I will read it tonight! I have to print it off along with dads!  Mom love you so much and that is so great to hear that the temple was full! We get to go once a month to Cebu for the temple! I cant wait.      

I love my work!  I love my mission!  This is the thing that I have waited for for my entire life and now me and Kailei are livin the dream!  We have the chance for two years to do his work and to love his children!  Haha Elder Garver said that his goal for me is to have me be a trainer right after I am trained, which is in like two more months so I told him not to count on it, but that would be way cool! 

My Cebuano is getting much better! Not even close to where it needs to be but Elder Garver said that it's night and day from where it was my first day!  I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you all!  Thank you for your example to me and for the fun times that I get to think about from the many years together! Luis- if you read these emails if I have calculated it right it's Tuesday night there and let me tell you! I would KILL for a wing night!!!!!  The food here is not at all very good!!!!..... Everything is so hot and spicy and I'm not sure what it is that we eat every day!... hahahaha  I do know that we tried bbq one night and we ate intestines of chicken! It wasn't too bad until our second one and me and Elder Garver looked at each other in HORROR!!!! as we realized that they hadn't cleaned that one out and it was full of cooked chicken poop!!!!!! hahahahha oh the things I would do for a bk run or another call of duty and pizza night! hahaha anything would be better then bbq'ed poop! hahahaha

Love you all!  Please keep us in your prayers and know that me and Elder Garver love you and pray for you guys daily!  Please always stay close to Christ!  He is the only one that will never fail you!  The church is true!  I promise!  But satan's power is real too!  I have seen the black magic out here and he has real power!  Stay close to the family and the things that you have been taught before and you will never fail! Love you so so so much and miss you daily! But I'm where I'm supposed to be and love every second of it!


With much love,
Elder Shelley

Pictures: 1: Family that has a baptismal date

              2: Cebu temple

              3: a bridge the missionaries made to get to an area easier

Finally in the Philippines 2-14-12

Hello from the Philippines!!!!!

How is everyone doing?  I'm doing so well!  Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!  They have been felt so much and been a great strength for me.  So I have to hurry because we are asked not to be very long on the computers and me and my comp are striving for exact 100% obedience!  That's the only way that we know we will be blessed.  So real quick the flight to Cebu was great. Quick and I was done.  It took me almost 45 minutes to get through customs though and then another twenty minutes for my bags to finally get here!  Plus the plane was way late getting there so I was about 2 hours getting out to the curb.  I found the guys who picked me up. It was one of the senior office elders and my trainer. They took my bags and said how worried they were that I was lost or that something had happened.  Well we got into the car and started off to the mission home.  Then and there I got my first look at the INSANE traffic of the Philippines!!!! There are no lines, there are no speed limits, there are no rules!!! You just drive!  You can drive on either side, you can drive on the side walks, you can go 200 if you wanted to.  People just honk when they are coming up or when there is a chance that they could hit you and expect you to move!  Ha my eyes must have been like softballs because they were laughing at me and asked what I thought.  I said I didn't know yet but to ask me in a few days. haha  So we pulled into the mission home which is on the temple grounds I may add! and holy cow is the temple amazing!  It is so beautiful and I can not wait until next month when we get to go!  So I met the mission presidents wife and got the health run down from her.  She told me about the health stuff and about the whole lock your heart elder!  She gave me the run down about how crazy the girls here can be about a white guy. She also reminded me that ladies don't try to hide their bodies at all, that they will feed their babies right in front of you and will be showering outside and to just lock on the eyes and don't make a big deal about it.  Then the mission pres. came out and gave me a big hug! We took a picture together and I hope that got to you.  I don't even know if they were going to send it.  But I was super tired at that point and so I probably look dead!  Well my comp was starving and so the office senior went with his wife out to get McDonalds for us all. It's actually pretty good here.  The mission president took me and my comp in and interviewed us and told us what he expects of us.  I have been assigned to the Bogo area on Cebu island. The most northern mission in the field.  It is so bukid! (jungle and mountains)  I love it!!!!!  There hasn't been a day that it hasn't just absolutely poured yet!  So after we left the mission home we went and stayed in the house that the elders stay at while they are there.  That next morning we woke up at 5 and started the 5 hour bus ride up the mountain to our area. haha yes that does mean I only got 4 and a half hours of sleep.  We got to the area, I put our stuff down and I got the lay out of the house.  We are actually staying in the nicest house in the field so its really pretty nice (for the philippines hahaha)  Then we went out to work.

  We had to go to a few meetings because Elder Garver is the 2nd councilor in the branch.  Ha that day I got called to be the executive secretary.  haha if you cant tell by now yes our branch is super small. This Sunday we had a whole 15 people there.  Activity is terrible here and that is actually our main focus- reactivation.  We kinda tract as we go but don't focus on it.  So as I talked to the zl's that day I was filled in on the nick name of our area! haha There are 4 different types of areas here elder they said.  Cel. Areas.  Ter. areas.  Tel. ares.  And outer darkness areas.  They laughed and said well elder what type of area can you guess your area is?  I already knew, Outer darkness.  They said that this was the hardest area for a few reasons- (one) for the member activity (and) for the fact that we dont have many priesthood leaders to work with.  The other main reason is that our area is the muddiest area in the field! haha There is mud everywhere!!!!!  And when it rains the dirt paths are just muddy rivers.  We wear our pants for three or four days just because they are always going to be muddy.  I have mud on my pants up to my shins! haha Its great. Its just so much fun to just shake it off and say ok lets get to work.  Funny story really quick.  So you know how leather stretches when it gets wet and how my shoes are already a little to big for me? So ya when I walk in the mud I have to really work to keep my shoes on my feet.  Well last night we were running through the jungle trying to get out of the rain storm and I stepped and about twenty feet later looked down and realized I didn't have my right shoe on!!! hahahahahahahaha So we had a great laugh and went back and tried to find my shoe which is crazy hard because it is pitch dark out there. There is no such thing as a street light.  So we finally found it about 6 inches down in the mud.  I just looked at Elder Garver and laughed.  I stuck my muddy foot down in the shoe and we started running again.  We made it to the main road and just kept running.  We ran about a mile and a half back to our house and took a picture for you guys!  It does not even come close to show what we went through that night! hahaha.  

Well on the good side here Elder Garver told me that he is so blessed to have me because he has not had very good comps. here in his 6 months in the field.  Two of his three have been sent home and just really didn't want to work and didn't bring the spirit.  Since we entered the area two days ago to really start working we have seen so many blessings come from our obedience and spirit that we carry.  We have found 8 new investigators, got 2 baptismal commitments and have 16 commitments of less active members to come to church!!!!!! The Lord has really blessed us for our hard work! Tonight we have plans to invite a family of 5 to be baptized, so please pray for us and wish us luck!  Joy2x and her mom are the 2 with baptism dates.  ( joy2x is just the way that philippinoes write names like joy joy)  Her and her mom have come to church 2 times in a row and here they have to come 4 out of 5 before they can get baptized so we are really praying for them and trying to keep challenging them to keep their faith.  The mom has a smoking problem, but since our last lesson with her she has thrown away her cigs and has been clean and plans to be for the rest of her life.  I hope you guys can feel the spirit of Christ as you read these things!  The Lord is real and his spirit is real and really does work with those that are worthy and willing to work to use it!  Elder Garver said he has seen more success in the past three days that I have been working here then he has the three months he has been in the area. Now I have not done a thing!  All we have done is invite the spirit to enter into the homes and teach the families for us!  Now my favorite person here in the field so far is a man named Randy Sanches!  He is an RM who has fallen away and is living with his girlfriend and has four super cute kids!  The only reason that they are not married is because his wife has been married before and it is against the law for them to get divorced.  Elder Garver has been working with him to put in papers challenging the marriage to see if it was binding or if there is a way to get it taken back.  Finally yesterday morning he submitted the request and we will be looking for the notice of what we have to do next here in the first of March.  So I ask you guys to please pray for him and his family.  Last night We taught one amazing lesson to him and his wife. They speak English a little so as I was bearing my testimony at the end for some reason I was told to speak English. As I started speaking, the spirit started putting all these words in my head to share.  I shared Rev. 3:21-22 with them and started bearing testimony about how I know that it is hard to repent and that it's not easy to stay on the path. That I struggled before my mission too but that I could testify that the feeling of forgiveness is something that I would never give up for anything.  Then the spirit told me to say something that I really didn't want to say...  I kinda shrunk back in fear but I was given the strength to say it.  I said Randy, I don't know why I am supposed to say this but I have to tell you that by the power of Jesus Christ I promise you that if you continue to be such a great example and you continue to come to church, pray, and read your scriptures I can promise you that here and in the future you are going to be married to your wife and you're going to become an eternal family through the blessings of the temple!  He started crying really hard and I looked him in the eye and said, but Randy, don't you quit!!!!! Don't you stop working hard to become who you are supposed to be.  He looked me in the eyes and said ok elder I won't!  I won't quit!  I closed in the name of Jesus Christ and we had a closing prayer.  He asked me to say it and I blessed his family and his home with the spirit.  As I said that, I literally felt the spirit that was in me leave my body and enter that house!  After as we were walking home I told Elder Garver that I could barely stand I was so weak.  The spirit had givin me so much strength and then left very very quickly into that house that it drained my body!  I told him that I wouldn't have it any other way. He gave me a hug and told me that he was so thankful for my spirit and power.  We stopped right there in the middle of the jungle and rain and started praying together thanking Heavenly Father for giving us the power to be able to say those things.  Guys the power of God is real!!! I promise I have felt it this week and know that I will feel it for a long time coming for the space of my mission!  Me and Elder Garver have set very high goals and want to push the other missionaries to work hard too.  We have the best zone ever!!! They are all so spiritual and they help me so much!  Now all I have to do is be able to speak the language!!! hahah I love you guys. The church is true and the power of the spirit is real!  If you will but live worthy of its companionship you will be blessed and have an amazing life!  Thanks for all you have done for me! I love you!

Love always
Elder Shelley

pictures: 1. What he looked like after the rain storm.

              2. Bogo, Philippines

Philippines Bound!!

Well I was released from the doctor today around 11 oclock! Now tomorrow I have an appointment with my president to talk about what he found out from my mission president and when they can get me out of here.  I'm sure that they will have me call you tomorrow if I get flight plans but if not I should be able to email you at least.  Do not worry though if you don't hear from me. I will be ok and I will keep you informed when it is neccissary! I love you momma!  Tell everyone thank you for the prayers and for the love that they have shown me the last few weeks.  This has truly been a blessing to be able to serve a mission! Remember that I love you!!!

 

Love your son,

Elder Shelley

2-7-12

Hey Family,

Well I am still here so far- but tonight? Who knows. I have an appointment with my doctor today at 10:40 and he said that unless something randomly gets way worse- which it hasn't I should be good to go. After that I'm off to the presidents office to see if he is in today and if he is- we will see when is the soonest that I can get out.  Mom if I get released I will or my president will be calling again. So if your home that will be great, if not we will try on your cell phone. But don't worry if I don't call, because my president may not even be in today. We will just have to see.

So my two new comps are pretty cool. Elder Tofilau is my absolute favorite! He is a Samoan who wears a lava lava every night and sings and is just an amazing guy. He is a super hard worker and is very teachable. When I got put in the district he was one of the ones that struggled the most but because he is so teachable we sat down and set some goals together and he is one of the best at it now.  The other night I was wearing my lava lava that I got from one of the sisters that was in my district and Tofilau came in and said oh you wear lava lavas?  I laughed and said that I loved them. I have two now and showed him the other one too. He loved them and pulled out like 6 of his.  haha they were all so awesome. There was this one that had a bunch of flowers and was really really nice. He asked me what I thought and I said that it was my favorite of the ones that he had. He said he was glad that I said that because he was planning on giving it to me for helping him with the language and being his friend!!! I was so stoked!  He told me that he considered me his best friend and that he hasn'trespected any one more then he respects me (other then his family and elders though of course) How cool is that though?! Think I found the reason why I was supposed to stay? I'd say that I have!  Too bad he isn't going to Cebu... He is going to Takloban. but we have exchanged info and we are going to look each other up when we get home.  Mom just so you know I'm going to give him my armor of God coin. He fell in love with it when he saw it and said that he really wants to try to get one when he gets home.  He is one of the best friends I have though and he gave me that lava lava so I'd like to give him that coin to remember me.  I still have the original at home from Unkey so I'm going to give it to him!

So about the 50th anniversary of the mtc when they said the first presidency was coming- they meant the presidency of the mtc.  But that was still totally fine. The doors opened and in walked Elder Nelson and his wife! A very calming spirit flooded the gym and you could have heard a pin drop.  All of a sudden I'm not even kidding I started tearing up because the spirit hit me so strong and said "look back at the doors!"  I looked back at the doors and in walked Elder HOLLAND!!!!!!!!! my absolute favorite apostle!!!  Ha Elder Tofilau grabbed my arm and was breathing very hard.  He leaned over and said elder do you feel that?  I wish you could have felt the spirit that was in this room as these two men of God walked into the room.  I knew without a doubt in my mind that they were representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ and that I needed to listen because their message was part of the reason that I was supposed to stay back for a week.  President Holland spoke first and spoke about how important our calls as missionaries are and that when people look at missionaries they see perfection.  He said now I know that none of you are perfect nor do I expect you too be but you need to live your lives so that people think that you are perfect.  You need to treat your callings with so much respect and dignity.  It was an amazing talk that I think changed the lives of every one that listened to it.  Elder Nelsons talk was great too. He talked about the history of the mtc and about the history of missionaries in the church.  He talked about the hardships that those missionaries of old had to struggle with.  It was super good to hear because if all of those missionaries could go through all of that then we can go through our struggles. 

So the new investigators that I picked up with my new comps are pretty tough investigators.  One is a Jehovah's Witness and the other is a Baptist. The two hardest investigators for me because I don't know much about those churches.  The other day the teacher that is Jehovah's Witness decided that because I "know the language" (I hope you noticed the quotation marks! haha) brought in one of his Jehovah's Witness priests to hear us teach.  We got to know them both a little more and all of a sudden our investigator stands up and says oh sorry I have to get going, but don't worry you can just teach him!..! hahahahaTofilau says ''oo! shempray!" which basically means ya for sure!  Ha the priest (who was my old teacher Brother Saager) looks over at me with kind of a smirk.  Now I wasn't sure that I heard this right- but if I did the priest asked us if because we were American would we hook up with his daughters and take them back to America!!!... hahahahahaha I started laughing and so did the priest because we both new exactly what had just happened. I said "dili maayo pangutana brother" (which means that was a terrible question brother) and then moved on.  Haha after the lesson me and Brother Saager told him what he had asked and what he had answered him hahaha. I didn't know that a brown skinned Samoan could ever turn as red as this elder did!!! hahahahaha.  It was great!  Totally made the journal entry for the week!

Well family I need to get going so that I can get my laundry finished up and be able to get to the doctor on time.  Well guys my testimony for the week has grown leaps and bounds!  The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God!  I have been lucky enough to be able to bare testimony of it many many times and the spirit bares witness to me every single time that I am holding the most important book in the world!  I have been lucky enough to finish the book cover to cover here in the mtc and as I knelt in humble pray asking God to give me a witness of it's truthfulness it came in a way that I can never deny.  Now I wasn't able to see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear to Joseph Smith in the grove and I wasn't able to see the Lord touch the stones for the brother of Jared but I can tell you right now just as they could that the Book of Mormon has the power to change the lives of anyone that decides to pick it up and to read it truly wanting to know the truth of it.  The answer may not come that day or that week. some times our faith has to be tested. But I testify to you at this moment that if you will show God your faith and you will go to him with a sincere heart like it says in Moroni 10, that God will give you that special witness that the book is true!  I have taught the 2nd lesson of pmg (Preach My Gospel) three times this week which is the plan of salvation lesson.  Wow! Never before have I been given such a witness of the gift of eternal life!  If we truly live our lives in a way that is centered around Christ we are given the chance to be able to live with him and our family for the rest of eternity.  There is a quote that says if we could see the glory of the lowest kingdom we would do everything in our power to get there.  Now just think what it must be like to have eternal life in the highest kingdom!!!  I testify to you today that I will not ever except anything less then the highest kingdom and I beg you all to live your lives in a way that you can inherit that amazing blessing also!  In the words of my mom and dad, I don't want to live in eternity without a single one of you!  I guess that statement never truly meant what it does to me now until I was able to teach these lessons to these amazing investigators and to be able to be a representative of Jesus Christ and invite them to inherit that kingdom with me.  Please! I can't say it enough. Please if you haven't already please start now!  Change. Live your lives in a way that we can all one day be able to be reunited with each other in eternal happiness. I'll tell you now that I'm looking forward to being able to give Grandpa Shelley a hug and say thank you for everything he has done for me.  And to be able to do up my hair and hug Granny and have her tell me again that she likes my hair!  Please guys this is all possible if we will just live our lives in the light of Jesus Christ! I have had to make many changes in my life to be able to feel as good as I do right now. But I testify to you that I would not have it any other way!  I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! How great is my calling!  I have never had a boss that will pick me up when I fall or that will forgive me of the things that I fall short of.  Thank you guys for all of your love and support and I look forward for the day that we are able to be reunited as a family and friends and start that new chapter of life. But I wouldn't trade this part of my life for anything! I love you all please always know that. If there is ever anything I can do for any of you I'm only a short email away! God speed everyone!

With much love,

Elder Mackay Dale Shelley