An excerpt from a January Email:

This past week we held interviews with President for half of the zones, here in Iloilo for Iloilo Zone, in Lapaz (just a 15 minute drive or so away) for Iloilo North Zone, and lastly in San Jose, Antique for the Antique Zone. Antique is about a 2 hour drive from Iloilo, and it is the most mountainous area of Panay Island, which meant a good hour of driving through windy canyon-like roads. But the scenery was terrific. As well as being in the mountains, it borders the West part of the Island, right up next to the ocean, which extends out to the horizon. So it was terrific seeing the foresty mountains on the one side, then open sea on the other. The District Center is the most city area, San Jose, where we held the interviews. I do not enjoy interviews in the fact that they are very long, and not extremely entertaining, but it was great to be able to see and talk with lots of the missionaries that I haven't seen in a long time, and to get to know those who I wasn't so familiar with. After the interviews we went on exchanges with the zone leaders in Hamtic, just a few minutes out of the city. The hardest thing about it was the language again. People in Antique speak Karay-a, which has some similarities to Ilongo and to Aklanon, but is a complete language of its own. One of the first ladies we visited asked me "buhay ka run ridia?" (sounds something like: boo-high ka roon rid-ja) and after a few moments of me just looking at her baffled asked Elder Arrieta "oh, he doesn't know how to speak karay-a?" "Just ilongo," Elder answered. I found out later that what she said is equivilent to "dugay ka na di?" (doo-guy ka na dee). So, I know that probably doesn't make much sense, but lets just say that it was a big difference! Luckily a lot of people from there come here to the city because it isn't too far away, so they understand a little bit and can speak a little bit of ilongo. I won't lie, it made me a little jealous that I haven't been assigned in any other areas besides ilongo speaking, because i think it would be a blast to be able to learn another dialect! Once the first one is learned, it is a lot easier to learn a new one, the biggest change is vocabulary, because I can know hear all of the words that people say, I just don't know the meaning of a lot of them. But anyways, I'll be happy with what I have been given!

New Photos

Some new photos of Iloilo

Christmas Phone Call!

We were able to have a Skype session with Sam Christmas evening.  It was Monday morning in the Philippines.  We loved being able to see him as well as talk with him.  We love modern technology!  They were in an internet cafe, and several times little children would come and stand behind him and watch us.  He said they often do that on Mondays when they are doing their weekly emails.  They are darling children!  We could hear him speaking Ilongo to his companion and others in the internet cafe, which was a treat.  Several times he had to search for an English word--and we had to help him out a couple of times!  When he said he gets up at 5 a.m. on Mondays to do his laundry, I knew for sure he has changed!  Sam is loving his mission--every day of it!  A new thing he is doing is a weekly radio broadcast at a member's radio station.  They go over on Sunday evenings and broadcast a discussion about a gospel topic.  Then they let people call in and ask questions and, of course, get referrals.  He did a broadcast about Christ on Christmas.  Another thing he is doing is traveling around to the different areas of the mission and going on splits with the zone leaders.  He is enjoying going back to his former areas, and also going to new places.  Several of the Elders that went out with him from the MTC are zone leaders so he enjoys getting to see them and work with them.  Even though he spends a good deal of time in the mission home, he also gets to go out and proselyte every day they are there.  He is enjoying that, of course.  He says they have shifted to working with less active members because the activity rate is only about 30%.  They have some part member and less active families they are having success with.  Sam says he hates to think about the fact that he has only 6 months left.  He said he can't imagine how different it will be back home--he can't imagine eating a meal without rice, having hot showers, or experiencing cold weather!  He hopes that when this AP assignment is over he will have a month or so to go back to the mountains to work one last time.  He really looks forward to doing that.  The time is going as fast for him as it is for us!  Several people have asked us about the typhoons that have hit the Philippines.  Fortunately, they have not hit in his area, and he says they are in a very protected area where it rains, of course, and occasionally floods a little.  We feel very blessed he has been healthy, safe, and very, very happy!

December in the Philippines

Ah! The busy week is finally over! The stress has lessened.  It is fun to see all the people here doing everything they can to decorate for Christmas as well. They are very creative with their stars etc. This last week we had 2 out of 3 of the Zone Conferences. Even though they were a little stressful, they turned out very good. There were some good messages from the Stake Presidents, and from the area health representatives, and then President gave a good training about us helping all people, investigators and members, to endure to the end and to have an enduring conversion. After the messages, we had our Christmas portion, which consisted of 10 minute presentations from each district, then a gift exchange, and some games. It was good to be able to have a little fun like that. I think at the beginning of the mission, President and Sister wouldn't say that it was an effective way of helping us accomplish our purpose as missionaries, but they have become a little more lax and decided that it is ok every few months (or just once a year) to do something a little fun haha. I love President and Sister, they make the mission amazing. Our last Zone Conference is this Wednesday, and then it shouldn't be too busy until January, when we have a bunch of things coming up, including a new batch of 10 Elders! We're way excited for that, because the last few months more missionaries have been going home then have been coming in, so it has made things a little stressful. Elder Murdoch, who I kinda know, is going to be coming in then.

We had a very successful weekend! On Saturday we visited an area with many less active members and got to know a few of them and shared messages with them. We invited a family to church that hadn't been for a year or so, and a girl that has been on and off for the past few months. Yesterday, the one whole family, and the girl from the other family all showed up! It was just as gratifying to see them at church as it was to see a new investigator there. The one girl even brought a non member friend, who we have an appointment to visit on Wednesday.

We are also teaching a great young couple w/ two little kids who are very interested, they are just having a hard time coming to church. But, they have amazing questions every time we teach, understand things well, and seem to be very sincere about learning more. They are going to be starting their work soon though, which is mixing powders to create explosives for fireworks, which is probably going to make it hard to teach them. But we will keep trying!

I'm trying hard with the journal, but it still could use improvement. I'll make that a goal, again, but this time I'll really work for it.

We were able to watch the Christmas devotional last night, which was very inspiring. Good reminder about the true spirit of Christmas, and that we need to help others here feel that as well. 

The Christmas package arrived! I hope you won't be angry that I opened the presents... I just couldn't wait! Thank you so much for the scrap book, and the shirt, and the chulula sauce, and the tie, and the cheese cake :) Elder Ordeniza was also very grateful for the tie and stocking you provided for him.

I love this time of the year, especially in the mission field. It is a great reminder of the center of all we are doing, which is Jesus Christ.

Elder Pettit's Thanksgiving Duck!

"As for us, we had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner!  The other Elders picked up a duck Sunday night from a member, and she stayed the night in the bathroom. The following morning, we took her outside for some fresh air, and she enjoyed her time playing with the 3 little kids that live upstairs as we prepared the cement-block oven and purchased other necessary ingredients. It was sad to say goodbye, but at length we sent the children upstairs and prepared our friend for dinner. It was a little messy, and a little heart-wrenching after the time we had spent together, but we were pretty hungry. After the eulogy we began plucking it, but soon got tired of that, so just skinned it, took out its innards, and prepared it for the oven! We made it like a tinfoil dinner, and in a matter of an hour or so we had a tasty addition to our meal. It tasted good. Duck tends to be a little tough, but it had a good savor. In short, we had a very full-of-thanks thanksgiving."

New Assignment!

Elder Pettit informed us in his last email that he has been assigned as the new Assistant to the President beginning in December.  He was transferring immediately to begin training for his new assignment.  He will miss his current area and the people there, but he is excited to be working with the missionaries in the Iloilo mission!