Maligayang Pasko from the Philippines!

Merry Christmas from the Philippines!

Maligayang Pasko from the Philippines! :) I hope you all had a great Chistmas! I'm having a wonderful time here in the freezing weather. Its only 71 degrees F, i wish it would warm up a little! :) I love you all so much! Thank you for your support, your love, and your letters and packages. Enjoy this Christmas season and remember the true spirit of Christmas. Remember the best gift that has been given us...the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our brother. With my love and prayers for all of you, Merry Christmas!


-Elder Lundy

Elder Schmidt and Elder Lundy had 2 baptisms on Christmas Eve.

Our Christmas tree!

Pres. and Sister Carlos had stockings for all of us...

Merry Christmas

The week before Christmas 2011

Well, lots has been happening lately.
First off, about our baptisms. They are both special case baptisms now...one was cleared for baptism on Sunday by President Carlos. We have to wait and see about the other one till after Thursday. That’s when pres. will be able to interview him (since  he missed church for the first time in months this past Sunday when he was supposed to be interviewed. :P ) now for the really exciting news. one of them wants me to baptize her!!! :) I’m gunna do it in Tagalog too. :)

Ok, so I haven't gotten any packages yet. The Carlos' brought all of them with them on Sunday when they came. They ought to get here within the next week or two though. I’m not worried.
We have many things going on here. Since one of our zone leaders went home this last week, we only have one zl now. He has no companion. Elder Jackson is working with fellow shippers or us all the time now. So we are working even less in our area now. It’s ok though. I’m learning a lot from him. So maroon kaming tatlong elders sa apartment namin. Oh well. It’s still fun though. We have zone conference on Thursday morning. A Christmas devotional Thursday night. Hopefully 2 baptisms on Saturday. 2 confirmations on Sunday as well as Christmas.We might be going to the mission home for Christmas. Either that or member's houses. We don't know yet. Then we are also going to be going to the mission home for the New Year’s Eve party. I am buying a ukulele (or small Malaysian guitar.) from a guy later tonight. He actually makes them by hand from the wood of a jackfruit tree. It’s all old school and really cool. I weighed myself this morning and I only weigh -----. Don’t worry though. I’m healthy. I’m just eating a ton of rice and vegetables. You know those big cartons of rice we would get from Asian kitchen (1 quart)? I usually eat a full one of those or more every time I eat rice. I don't hate rice anymore. :) lol. It’s a good thing too!

The umbrella is holding up pretty well. It popped the wrongway once and isn't working exactly right, but it’s still working. Big umbrellas are non-existent here, and are really hard to get around with, but my dry body says it’s still worth it. But not for long. It’s getting too annoying to carry one around all the time.

Elder Oyardo and Elder Lundy

It was cool being a senior comp for a day. Elder oyardo and I are a lot closer now too. I included a picture of me and him at the end of our split.
OYM- open your mouth. It means talk to people. Talk to everyone. The number we count for it is the number of people we talk to and talk about the gospel with. These people are people we have never previously contacted within our companionship.
The shirts turned out pretty nice. They are still slightly baggy but they are a lot better now. I’m actually having one of my thinner shirts, that was the size these shirts were all fitted too just now, shrunk down another inch on both sides. It’s going to be my "special event, I want to look good shirt". :)
Everyone, thank you all soo much for the letters!!! I got one from everybody this week! I was soo excited!!! :)
thank you!!!!!!!! I love you all so much! I’m sorry I couldn't write back to everybody this week.

I love you!!!

This is the belt I had made for me.

December 12

Hello! :)

You’re right mom that is exactly when I do my emailing. And you are right again. Things are really busy here with all the Christmas programs and baptisms in the mission.

So many things have happened recently. I taught a couple awesome lessons. :) I went on splits as a senior companion to a Filipino who has only been in the mission for 6 days. I’ve lost more weight so I am having 2 of my shirts fitted for 4 dollars. I've slimmed down and toned up. I'm having 4 inches around the waist of a couple shirts removed.. lol. And I get them back the next day, sooo, tomorrow. lol. :) I got my Kalibaw belt from bro. Pete this past Tuesday! :) It is so cool!!!! I’ll have to include pictures of it next week since I’m not prepared to do so now. We had a record breaking 50 oym's this week. oym's are pretty much the contacts you have when tracting. We busted out 30 of them in 2 days. It was crazy. We normally only get 25 or so a week.

We now have 2 investigators being baptized on the 24th, and confirmed on 25th. The sisters in our district have a couple on that date as well, so I think we are combining. It ought to be really cool! After doing splits with a native Filipino, I feel a lot more confident in my Tagalog. I was able to talk to him all day. There are still a lot of words and phrases I don't understand, but I have basics down and can communicate somewhat effectively. It’s nice. It’s still soooooo much easier to talk in Tagalog when I am teaching though.

Well, I am running really late today and have to go. I’ll send more next week when I don't have to fight my computer to get it to do anything... :/

To everyone:

Who are you now? What kind of person are you turning into because of the choices you are making? Remember, even if you aren't wearing the tag of a missionary, you still represent Christ, whether you are a member of his only true church on this earth, or not. You are all children of our God and should act like it. I love you, God loves you...it’s like Josh Groban says; "You are loved."

December 5, 2011 - A really crazy week

Picture of the week. Thank you Elder Hamblin! Playing Jenga

HI!!!!! :)

This has been a really crazy week. Elder Schmidt had to start his duties as district leader early, since he was replacing out last District leader, Elder Cajumban. Elder Cajumban, who was Elder Hamblin’s last comp, was just made our 3rd AP. (one AP is going home next week. The other in January) Elder Hamblin is training now. He’s doing great. They have 3 baptisms coming up this month! We’re mixing up some ideas about a district wide baptism on the 24th. Possibly 6 people all on Christmas Eve, confirmed on Christmas. It has the opportunity to be really cool. We just have to work it all out.

Thank you so much for the recipes! :) I’ve been a busy cooker this week. I made my pirogues last night and we are having them for dinner tonight! :) I also made small patties from the remaining mashed potato mixture and I coated them in a batter I made and fried them up. It was a lot like a homemade tater tot. We all loved it! I’m surprising everyone here with what I can do. Heck, I’m surprising myself! And it’s all thanks to you! :) I also discovered a new food. It is called Loaded. It is loaded with a ton of yummy goodness that I am sure is not healthy, but it is the best thing I have eaten here so I don't care.

Today was an exhausting day. We went to Angadanan we had to cross 3 zones to get there. The AP’s drove us most of the way. It’s amazing how many elders fit in the flatbed of a small truck.) and played flag football, and rugby. We’re all sore and tired but nobody got seriously injured. So it was a good day.

Thank you so freakin much for the music, mom and Diana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) I had to change what format they were in, but you seriously made everyone here super jealous until I said I would share. :) We really enjoy it.

"Pre-Christmas" in ilagan is a joke. They just start Christmas early. There is no "pre" it was going full tilt the week I got to the Philippines! :) lol

Our less actives are responding well. We are really close to getting the father the priesthood. He has a strong desire. It was just like he was waiting to be invited to change. You can tell he wants this for his family. We taught a lesson about the temple, and it’s their family goal to get there and be sealed. He’s actually given us a few free tricey rides when he was out and found us. He looks for us now. Over all, the work here is really hard. There are really good people here. The work is just finding them, and not getting discouraged when we can't seem to find anyone with a desire to change.

Today is the start of my second cycle as a missionary.

I gotta go teach a couple lessons now. I wish I had a little more time today. :/ oh well.

I love you all very much and you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Tell everyone thank you for the emails. And that I always have time to read them. And I appreciate them sooooooooo very much. I love you all.

Until next week,

With all my love-- Elder Lundy