Celebrations and another Baptism

So family!! Sorry i don't have a lot of time, it's the big report day.  I have tons of stuff to do still....

Christmas was good here.  It was great getting to skype you!!  Luckily I answered most of your questions, so I don't have to tell you too much what happened this week!!  The good thing was we had a baptism again.  I know were just so hard working its awesome!! hahahaha 

Balut...again.  He says it tastes like a hard boiled egg.  Just looks nasty to me!

I loved the pictures you sent.  I would always love to get as many as you can send!! (:  I'm not really homesick at all even with Christmas time.  Right now I'm just sick with a cold which is weird cause its supposed to be hot in the Philippines.  But oh well!  This year, for New Year's again, we have to be in at 6 o'clock.  So that will be fun.  We will probably just play games and relax at the house!!  

Philippine Cultural Event

Not much changed since I talked to you guys.  But our roommate or our kabahay got emergency transferred earlier so that added to the stress. They didn't do anything wrong, but they are using those 2 elders to help others fix their problems.  They are obedient so they have to help some others with disobedience. So that will be fun!!

This week we do have another baptism which is awesome.  This is the 4th week in a row with a baptism.  So the work here is still going really good!  His name is Marco.  He's progressing really well.  So that's awesome!!  I'll send you a lot bigger email next week.  Sorry, I have a lot of reports I have to do at the end of the month!!  But I love you guys and thanks for the Skype call.  It was great getting to see the whole family!! (: I love you guys!!

Elder Hedman

Christmas Eve Skype Call

It was the best Christmas present ever!  Skyping with my missionary!  Things are going well in the Philippines.  He is loving it.  It was nice since all the cousins, aunts/uncles and Grandma and Grandpa Hedman were here for our Christmas celebration.  So he got to see everyone!  It was hilarious when all the cousins came running in!  He didn't recognize some the kids and how much they grew.

Some things I've learned:

He's eaten dog, squid and balut.  Yuck to all three!  But he really loves it.  He was telling us about a dish he wants to try with live fish......and you eat it!  Icky!

I asked if he washes his sheets.  He said he did 2 weeks ago.  Yeah, parenting win!  When I asked the time before that, well, let's just say......gross.

He and his companion laugh all the time he said.  They get along great.  We saw another missionary companionship come in when he was talking with us. At least the cyber cafe was open!

They are in an apartment complex and another missionary companionship.  He loves that there is another group there that they can talk and hang out with during the down time.

He loves his new Mission President and thinks the world of him.  The Mission President has a great sense of humor and enjoys the calling a lot. 

I asked why in the world he was wearing a sweater in the pictures he sent last week.  He said it was cold....about 70 degrees.  What in the world?  Cold.....that sounds like heaven, especially since it's in the 20's here.  Crazy kid!

His calling as a zone leader means a ton of reports to do every week.  He listed them off and I quickly realized, wow.....glad that's not me!  Being a leader means working a lot.  He is doing a great job at it though and we are so proud of him.  

Like I said, best present ever.  Sure miss this kid, but seeing how happy he is and how much he enjoys the work he is doing, makes it all worth it!

Christmas time

So Happy christmas to you all!!! Wooo!  It is still to hot here in the Philippines to be Christmas so it doesn't feel like it at all. But hey whatever!  hahaha People do actually have some christmas lights so it's pretty sweet!!!  It just doesn't feel like it when it's 90 degrees outside.  But oh well it's fun!  So first tell the Van Wagenens (neighbors asking about him) I'm doing okay.  I'm still alive.  But tell them that I miss them! And the other families too!  So first I'll answer your question about Skype.  So I was planning on skyping here on Christmas so it will be Christmas eve for you guys.  I will be doing it here at about 9 o'clock.... so that will be 6 o'clock for you guys. Don't worry it'll be good.  I'm excited to talk to you guys!  So that is what the plan is for skyping.  I hope that would be okay! (:

So this week it was a pretty good week.  Ill start with last p-day.  After emailing, we had a way sweet p-day activity where we had like a water balloon fight.  But we played like a game to it.  It's called game of the generals.   It's like just like chess but more strategy.  But we played in real person and the losers got hit by water balloons.  Of course it just exploded and everyone got attacked with water balloons.  But that was so sick.  I only took like 2 pictures though so sorry... hahaha but that was super fun! (he took 5 pictures above)

So also this week was transfer week.  I don't think I told you guys that.  But ya transfer week!!!  Nothing happened to me and my companion which was good cause this area is freaking amazing.  And we are just the bomb.  We are still the zone leaders, so I was excited that I got to stay with him another transfer.  But I'm actaully his last companion.  He goes home this transfer so its my first "kill" in the mission.  So that's pretty cool. We are getting such good work done.  I'll go into that in a bit.  So some of the people in the zone got transfered which really sucked because we had the coolest zone ever.  We had one of the hardest working also.  We are baptizing so much here in this zone!!  But we will make it work with the new people in the zone!!

So this week we had another baptism.... wohoo!!  It was awesome.  He will hold the melchizedeck priesthood also so that's so awesome.  His name is Marc and his family is so amazing.  They were baptized back in February but he ws the only one who wasn't ready.  So we have been teaching him.  His dad baptized him this last Saturday.  It was completely amazing.  It was so cool even though it took like 5 times to get him baptized. haha  It was awesome!!  So that was a highlight for the week.  Then again on Saturday we have another baptism!!  We are just doing great here.  We have a baptism scheduled every week up until January 17.  So that's like 6 more baptisms I think.  So we are doing work here.  The area is just amazing and the members work awesomly!!!

 

Which leads me into my next part.  We had the branch christmas party.  And it was amazing!  We had so many people there and they used so much money on it.  We had a lechon pig.  I took a picture.  We had tons of food and it was tons.... so it was amazing.  We had like 250 people there so I took some pictures. It was great because it lead us into the greatest Sunday ever.  We hit a new record of 259 members at church this week.  Which might be the most in the whole mission... and we are just a branch!  So we are progressing so well.  The whole year in this branch we have had like 40 baptisms.  I think actually a little more.  So I wouldn't mind staying here for a long time.  But that's basically whats going on here in the mission!!!  This week we have our missionary christmas conference which will be on Tuesday or tomorrow.  So that will be fun.  I'll get to see the other missionaries!!  Other then that not much happening just Christmas!! So Merry Christmas to you all.  Remember the true meaning of Christmas!! Love you all!!

Mahal ko kayong lahat! 

Elder Hedman

Baptism

Dear Family and friends!

Sorry not much time this week, so I'll let you know the things just going on in the mission! 

So we have christmas conference next week.  That should be really fun.  I'm looking forward to that!!  But this last week the work was good.  I went on some exchanges to help some areas out that are just struggling.  So that was fun!! Gotta love helping others....perfect for Christmas!! 

Then we also had a baptism this Saturday.  That was so awesome.  He will be able to get the Melchizedek priesthood also.  That will help build the church here.  It's going really good!!  His name was Jerome.  He's way funny and loves basketball also.  So that was great!!  This week again we have another baptism!!  The Lord is pouring out blessings here this Christmas.  So that's really good!!  This Saturday we have another baptism.  Then the following Saturday again, we will have 2 more!!  So ya I'm excited for that.  1 month and 4 baptisms.  That's pretty sweet!!  The work is going really great.  Just shows hard work and obedience pay off!!  So ya make sure you do that stuff!! (: Haha   Church here was good again.  We had 3 investigators at church and had 209 people at church.  This whole month we have been over 200.  So that's so awesome.  Such a strong branch here.  What a blessing it is!

So as for christmas up coming, I'll call you guys christmas here or Skype I guess I mean.  But so it will be on Christmas Eve for you guys.  So if anyone is there, that would be awesome!! (:  Sounds like Christmas back home is good!!  Remember the true reason of christmas and sorry this letter isn't very long!!  But remember I love you guys.  Mahal ko kayo!! Ingat kayo lagi!!

Elder Hedman

Another Typhoon

Hello friends and family!!!

So I am going to write this email in tagalog because I feel like it, so sa week na ito, maganda talaga ang work na nangyari dito, maraming kaming naturuan at napakaprogressing nila ngayon so sobrang astig iyan, tapos sa lunes pumunta kami sa misyon home, sobrang masaya ang mga bagong announcements sa mission na ito, ang focus ni president ngayon ay yung pagiging masunuring sa mga batas sa misyon upang magkaroon ng mga blessings sa gawain na ito. 

 

(Thank you Uncle Tim for translating this for me! ---  This week, the work here was really great, we were able to teach many people and they are progressing very well now, so that is awesome, then on Monday we went to the mission home, the new announcements for this mission are really good, President's focus right now is on becoming obedient to the mission rules in order to obtain blessings in this work.)

 

Okay, just kidding!  I just wanted to bug you (:  So this week was actually a really good week!!  I first want to start with our church attendance because,wow it was so awesome!  So this week we have really just tried getting everyone we know to come to church.  Because it's christmas time and to remember the real reason why we celebrate christmas.  It was so incredible!!  We broke the record for attendance again I'm pretty sure.  Because we had 239 people at church.  It was so amazing.  This is only a branch and we had 239 people at church.  So basically it's so incredible.  I just don't know how else to describe it because I was just so happy the chapel was so packed.  We were so excited!!  We also had 8 of our investigators come to church.  That was so amazing also because they are so getting ready to get baptized!!  I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but we are really trying to meet our goal of 1650 baptisms for the mission.  We are like 300 short but our faith here is so incredible.  We are going to reach the goal.  It's so amazing.  I'll just let you know now have a baptism coming up this Saturday and then another one next Saturday and then 2 more probably the following Saturday.  So it's going so incredible.  The christmas spirit is so strong over here.  The members are so happy and I just am so glad with the hard work we are having and seeing all the miracles take part! 

So this last Monday, we went to Tarlac.  I got to go to the mission home with all the other zone leaders in the mission and that was cool!  There are 2 more from my batch that are zone leaders, so it was awesome to be able to see them.  We just talked about stuff and how we have grown here in the mission.  So it was so amazing!  We learned a lot but it was a lot of just leadership stuff and how to lead by example so that was awesome!  Talked about getting down and getting back up again and learned some interesting stuff about faith and Peter walking on water.  Just totally analyzed that story!  That was awesome!  But there are a lot of stuff changing here in the mission still.  It's become a little more down to the letter obedience which I think upsets a little people.  But I love it.  The reason we are out here to work and so it's gonna give us more work to do!!  So I'm looking forward to that!!  We had some new changes in our reporting also.  Just with how many lessons we should strive for a week.  So lots of hard work coming forward!!  Oh something that I  thought was absolutely hilarious was something that president showed us at our MLC (Mission Leadership Conference).  He showed us a video of just getting back up even if its hard, and wanted to make us laugh a bit. So he showed us a new clip from Studio C, the show on BYU Channel.  (It's like Saturday Night Live but with less racey topics!)  It's about soccer and some guy getting hit in the face a couple times.  So if your back home, look it up on YouTube.  Because oh my gosh everyone was cracking up laughing.  It was funny but taught a good lesson of just trying to get back up and work through stuff!!  Also got to buy some really good food back in the city, but that means my money is going to go out fast... so that's no good! (:

So today for P day we went to a place called PCC.  It's the Philippine Caribou Center.  Kinda interesting.  Just took a tour of caribous and stuff and learned some weird stuff.  But it was cool because at the end we got to buy some dairy products made with Caribou milk.  I bought a way good chocolate shake that cost me quite a bit, but it was so creamy!!  So that was delicious!  Other then that for p day today, I think we just are going to rest and relax a bit.  So it's going pretty good here!!  If you want to keep some people in your Prayers, please pray for Mark, Marco, and Osang.  They are the 3 candidates we have for baptism this upcoming weeks.  2 will be Melchizedek priesthood holders, which is awesome cause we will just get stronger as a church here! 

 

So that's basically the news that's happening here in the mission!!  We are having a big focus on REAL GROWTH and what that really means.  So we are finding some good leaders and doing some great finding to help get more strong the church.  Ya I don't know how to have correct grammar in my English anymore so I just give up it.   Sounds good to me..... haha (his spelling totally stinks too!)  But thank you for your prayers.  It means so much.  Also the storm that we had here or the typhoon wasn't very strong in my area.  Just some strong winds so nothing really here.  Just a little cold and windy but we are all safe here.  So thank you again for praying for us here!!  It means a lot!! Mahal ko kayong lahat! (I love you all!) Lalo sa pamilya ko!!(Especially my family !!)

Ingat kayo lagi!! (Always careful !!)

Elder Hedman