June 2, 2013 - Congratulations, Ryan!

Dear Mom, Dad, Ryan, everyone who comes to hear great true experiences and all Newcomers!

First off, congrats to Ryan for graduating seminary!!!  He's just one step closer to the Dominican Republic now!

Well, in celebration of so many of our young members going on missions, I’ve decided to try to write about how the mission field life is like in the Philippines as best I can and about the culture of the Philippines.

So, being in the city is a very hard and tough life.  I've been assigned in the City for the past 8 months and finding new investigators here is pretty tough.  Tracting is difficult because most of the people with a house have giant gates and fences around it so you can't really approach the door. You have to go and knock a few times and say “Tao po!” (anybody home?) and hope someone will come get the gate. For other people that live in the poorer areas (squatters), it's hard for them to go to church because many of them work on Sundays. Getting a job is a very hard thing to do in the City and most people in the city are not from the city.  They only live in their apartments to sleep and eat.  They go to work, some of them with no rest day, and any free time they have they spend back in the province with their family.  So, it's hard to get people to go to church a lot of the time.  Many of the active members in the wards are people who have good enough jobs to keep their families in the city.  Even many of the less active members are really great nice people but have to work on Sundays and that is why they are less active.  If they quit their job, it could be ages before they find anything else that will take them.

 One of the streets we go tracting in my area.  Notice the houses and their gates.

You wonder why it's so hard to get into these houses?  The gates!!!

Therefore the best way to get new investigators is through asking and receiving referrals.

It's been raining a lot this week.  Actually, it's raining right now.  There was a great experience I had when we were trying to find a less active member in our area.  There was thunder and lightning everywhere and so I was hoping that it wouldn't rain cause I left my umbrella so we kept walking and went to the house that had an awning, something that covers partially the garage from rain. When we knocked on the door, it started raining super hard!!!  No one answered the door for a long time so we thought we might have to go to our next appointment on the other side of town in the rain, but Brother Julius came out and invited us in and we taught him.  When we were done, the rain stopped and it didn't rain the rest of the day.  So, it worked out well :)

Hey Mom!  Hey Dad! I'm past time now and I got to go.  Thanks for all of your advice and staying up with me tonight.  I'll email you next week, okay?  I love you!  I'm sorry there is not much kwuento (stories) in this email but it's all I had time to write.  Next time I’ll start on the letter so I can get in everything I want to say.  Haha! Okay I'll talk to you next week okay?  Goodnight!!!

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

Me and my companion with some of the youth.

Fruits from Mindanao.  I don't know what they're called but they were very good!

Another exotic looking fruit.