Calubian

So the biggest news is that I transferred to Calubian.  It is about the exact opposite of Anibong area in every way.  First off It is on the beach which is super awesome but it is also on the side of a mountain so we are hiking a lot.   Anibong was super flat so it was weird to see mountains everywhere on the way to Calubian.  I speak a language here that they call Calubiano because it is right on the edge of where people speak waray and cebuano so I can basically say anything in the two languages and people understand.  The understanding other people is the hard part but I am remembering a lot of the Cebuano from the MTC so that's good.

I will say it is super nice to actually live in my area.  It was sad to say goodbye to all the people I met in Anibong but I am super happy to be here.  It is a ward but the attendance is only 50-60 so they are talking about going to a branch.  There are over 300 members but so many less actives so we are focusing a lot on reactivation.  The stake president came to the ward on Sunday and he basically said we cannot become a branch and tried to help get a ward mission plan rolling.  The stake president is super awesome and was talking to us a lot about how the work is going and how we can get help from the ward.  Our bishop is kinda not super good so that stinks but we have some super faithful members.  

One funny thing is Calubian literally translates to the place of the coconuts so there are coconut trees everywhere.  It reminds me of that song from Moana about the coconuts and I was singing in my head when I first got here.  The food here is also super good.  We have a really good burger place and bbq and then all the normal filipino stuff.

My companion is Elder Martin.  He is from Arizona and he has been out for 19 months.  He's really cool and we get along well.  The apartment is right on the beach which is pretty cool.

I was trying to send pictures and the computer deleted them all so next week I will try again.  :(

Anyways I am doing great and we are working hard

Amping/Paghinay

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Transfer to Calubian

FB message from Rito Dacome (Wade's neighbor in Burauen):

Hello Mr. and Mrs. Holmstead, it's now almost 3pm here in the Philippines and I just got back from Tacloban.  I dropped off Elder Holmstead at the taxi van terminal on way to his new area in Calubi-an, Leyte.

These are two pictures that was taken today at the taxi van terminal....God Bless

From Rito Dacome:

Elder Holmstead gave this magazine the night he was packing his luggage, and look what I found inside?  A short note that really touches my heart.  He's really a well molded young man.

Few words were written in waray waray which is the dialect here in Burauen.

Basyang

So to start of I have officially experienced my second typhoon of the mission.  Tropical Storm Basyang came through this week so we weren't able to work for 2 days and it pushed our baptisms back to next week so that was a bummer. Mecaela and Rochelle-Anne both passed their interviews so Saturday is there baptism now which is a bummer because transfers are on Wednesday and i'm about 85% certain i'm transferring. (Word of advice don't tell your branch you may be transferring because they will make you share spiritual thoughts and teach priesthood haha)

Aside from that the work went really good in Anibong.  Solomon said a few weeks ago that he wasn't sure about baptism but this week he said he is ready to be baptized so we set a date in March for him.  Pretty exciting.

And same story for Brother Ernesto.  Before this week he had kinda just come to church with his family and not really participated in lessons but he was super ready to participate and even prayed which he had never done before.

Both of these experiences were super big answers to prayers to help them progress.  I was sad that we might have to drop both but now we are planning on baptizing both of them so that was super great.  

We also had our first Anibong FHE which was super fun.  Lots of members came to our branch president's house and I shared a spiritual thought and then we had lots of games.  It was great to be able to spend time with members outside of church and teaching.  and we got fed so that was a big bonus.

Yeah that's about it for the week.  

Thanks for all the prayers for investigators I am seeing the miracles come because of it!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

This was the picture from our last district meeting.

The video is the new cooking show I'm going to start.​

Tolosa Zone Conference February 2018

Elder McKell, ZL farthest left, with his fellow American Zonemates Elders Valentine, Holmstead, Rogers and Mecham

Elder Holmstead and Elder Escalona at Zone Conference February 2018

Tolosa.....Stake!!

First off, I finally got my packages. Glasses and watch and rain coat, they are great and nothing broke.  The glasses are super good and I'm glad because I have been using the spares while we play basketball in the mornings.

Anyways this week was pretty good.  The first experience this week was that me and Elder Valentine from Abuyog had exchanges.  Combined experience in the mission is less than a year.  I had to do all the leading for lessons, planning, and finding.  I did lots of praying for the gift of tongues and we were super blessed.  I was again reminded of the reality of the gift of tongues because I was actually able to speak and understand also everything that was said to us.

Also we had another exchange with me and Elder Valentine in Abuyog because they had 3 baptismal interviews and I met a bunch of new people and was able to communicate with them.  It was amazing.  I nowhere near fluent but at least I am actually able to speak and share with people.  

We also had District Conference this week so the entire district headed to Tanauan for a special conference and even President Argana came and spoke.  He shared a lot about the importance of daily scripture study and paying tithing.  The church is so new in the Philippines so they have really stressing on getting good studies for leaders so that they know their responsibilities.  Also we learned that about 18% of the district is full tithe payers so that was pretty shocking.  The biggest announcement though was that Tolosa District has met the requirements to become a stake so that was super exciting.  

As for our investigators, Rochelle-Anne will be baptized this weekend which is super awesome.  Mekaela has some weird problems with finding her head of the household so we may have to wait until the week after to baptize her.  Solomon came to church along with Rolando and Ernesto so we were very excited to see them there.  We haven't really found any new investigators this week because we have been really busy with our progressing investigators.  

Thats about it for the week.  Crazy to hear the Eagles won the Super Bowl, I was very excited that it is not the Patriots.  Also keep me updated on the Olympics because I love them haha.  Go USA!  Does the Philippines have a winter olympics team?  

Love you, and next week I will send some good videos but I can't this week because the internet sucks in Burauen.

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission 

A Busy Week with a Shocking Revelation

Well this was a crazy week just as expected I will list all the events one by one to make sure not to forget anything.

1. Zone Conference: So we had a big training from many different zone leaders and sister training leaders and we got chastised a little bit for not budgeting very well in the mission and lacking some scheduling on P-Days that was a pretty good time but I have repented and now we budget well and are scheduling our P-Days.  The best part was President Argana gave a big training about how to teach for understanding and not just to cover a lesson.  He had a few different companionships practice teach in front of everyone in Waray-waray if you are from America or english if you are filipino.  Everyone pretty much failed.  It was kinda hilarious!  President then said that he would rate us all at about a 3/10 for teaching skills so some more chastising.  

2.  Zone Interviews: We were back in Tacloban again this week and we had another training about Mission Protocol because a lot of missionaries were telling any problems they had with their companion straight to President so I think he was getting tired of that and wants them to figure it out on their own.  During my Interview President was like Elder Holmstead I need you to keep working hard because someday soon you will be called as a trainer and I need you to help change the mission culture.  He is scaring me saying I might be a trainer so now i'm a little nervous for next cycle.

3.Exchanges: So we had exchanges with the Mayorga elders once again.  I was assigned with Elder Suruiz.  He's a super good missionary and we taught some really good lessons.  We were trying to apply the teaching for understanding that President Argana talked about and we taught this family about Adam and Eve and the fall and they told us that they learned a lot that they had never learned before and were really excited to continue learning about the gospel.  It was a super good lesson and the spirit was strong.  Elder Suruiz told me my waray-waray was really good but I think he was just making me feel good but at least by now I can basically share any of the lessons and kinda make my way around on my own.

As for the shocking revelation Mom you will be especially surprised by this.  I am really enjoying fruits and vegetables.  I realized this for myself this week and I was very surprised.  Either the fruits and vegetables here are just really good or a miracle has occurred to help me enjoy the food but filipino is amazing and I am learning how to cook it so hopefully I can cook up some good food in the future.

Anyways the investigators in our area are doing good they are all doing about the same as last week because we only got to teach them once but they are progressing well.  Also Brother Rolando came to church this week which was super awesome so hopefully he can keep progressing.  

Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Love you,

Elder Holmstead

Cute filipino kid in our area that loves me and Elder Escalona