Pictures from last weeks trip and a short note...March 26

Ok, so after all the pictures, it’s time for email. :)

I (Mom) asked Elder Lundy these 3 questions…

1.  2 weeks ago when you said you ate frog, did you mean frog legs, or the whole frog?

2.  And what part do you eat on a chicken head? Brains, eyes, combs, what?

3.  How’s it going in your area with your reactivated families?

Answers…

1. Frogs...I ate the whole frog, eggs and all.

2. The chicken head...same deal. The whole thing, bones and all. they get really soft..

3. Reactivating is going well, attendance in sacrament has jumped since we got here. We have a Tatay that works with us a lot, is going to be "returning to full activity" in the church next week, is getting ready to take his wife to the temple, and is asking for a calling. I'd say that is going well. Others are doing just the same thing at our prompting and encouragement.  : )

Well, I have to go.

I love you!!!!

A Trip to the Rice Terraces...

Thanks for the daylight savings time tip. I didn't remember it.

As for Saint Patrick’s Day, I totally missed it. In fact I can't even remember what day it was. Sad, I know. : / but they don't celebrate it here in the Philippines. I’m glad that you guys got to have fun with it though. :)

That’s really cool about the Kit Kat wrapper. (I – Mom, made a new wrapper that was about baptism.) Unfortunately that won't work here. Filipinos go crazy when you bring out the chocolate. It would be immediately thrown on the ground along with the regular wrapper. That’s actually our focus kinda right now with the less active members here. We are supposed to be teaching them the doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The reason being, Elder Neilson of the 70's says, they don't go to church is because they don't understand the doctrine.

That’s crazy weather! (Wisconsin has been in the 70's and low 80's last week.) Almost as hot as it is here! As for 70's here in the Philippines???; I don't think it has touched below 80 degrees F in the past 2 weeks. It’s so flippin hot here! The weight is just dropping off of me. Well, I guess everything combined is doing that to me...

Internet picture of Batad Rice Terraces...
Hopefully next week we will have Elder Lundy's actual pictures.

So the Banaue Rice Terraces, they are so super freaking amazing!!! They are around 2000 years old, built by hand with rocks and animal bones and mud and cement (kind of cement, parts have been redone over time because of failure. Those parts are cement). I not only went to the rice terraces, but I climbed over a mountain to go there, then I got to walk around in the rice terraces!!!!! :), then we climbed over another mountain to get to a waterfall.

Contributed by Elder Molino

It was all really beautiful. And I have never seen so many white people in my life!!! Well, during my mission I guess...lol. Most were Australian or of European descent. Unfortunately, I forgot my card reader, so I can't email pictures this week (we went and emailed as soon as we got back...)

We went there as a zone, so all the Nuevo Vizcaya elders went (no sisters in our zone...very unusual.). The rise for us took about 3 hours, not your projected 1.5, sadly. (Google map said it was an 1.5 hour ride; no where near correct)And yes, it was extremely rough at times. We had to switch jeepneys part way up the mountain because the jeepney we were in couldn't make it up. lol :) we left our apartment at 4 am and didn't get there till almost 8am. I slept in the rack on top of the jeepney on our way up the mountain, until we had to switch jeepneys that is. My bum is EXTREMELY sore right now. I rode on the racks on top of the jeepneys the whole way back and forth. They are not soft in the least. Needless to say, 22 full grown men don't fit very well in a jeepney.

We also had a zone OYM. :) (oym- open your mouth. It means share the gospel and don't be shy) There was a man going to Batad as well. He is from Spain, but spoke a good amount of English, so it was ok. He stayed the whole day with us. It was kinda cool. He is a lone traveler, and the Americans kinda acted like a tour guide while talking about our religion with him.

I just said we went to Batad....we actually passed through Banaue to get to Batad. The terraces in Banaue are actually rather pitiful and sad looking compared to the terraces in Batad. The description I gave of the rice terraces earlier in the email are actually about the Batad Rice Terraces, not Banaue like I said earlier.

The rest of the week went ok. Our work here is still really slow, which is killing me. I just came from an average of 45-50 lessons a week back in Ilagan, and now we are hard pressed to reach 20 a week. It’s ok though. I know the Lord is guiding us. We are making a difference. We have one tatay and one family that are close to becoming active again. Our investigators that had a baptismal date just lost their baptismal date because we haven't been able to have a lesson there in 2 weeks since they are never all there or are busy if they are there. They have a desire still, but they need a lot more time than we originally gave them. We also had one investigator tell us that she didn't want us to come back. I understand it though. I didn't feel the spirit while teaching her. It felt like she was more forced into it, and that was right.

I found my grandma here in Solano though. Her name is Nanay Pancho. She is a hoot and a recent convert to boot at a rough 72 years old! :) She is so nice and every time I share a message with her she always gets teary eyed and smiles and thanks me all over the place because I "said just what she needed to hear." I’m starting to learn a bit about loving and serving my companion and those in my area. It’s starting to make a difference. Elder Biating and I have been having disagreements because of not being able to understand each other very well at times, and other things, but as I keep my mouth closed and just serve him, and do things for him when I’m upset with him, we grow closer. It’s a nice feeling and it’s starting to have an effect on us. He is joining in on that as well now. It’s helping me love the people here more as I serve them too. Through serving them and doing the things that are uncomfortable for me to do for them, pertaining to missionary work, my love for them grows.

That is pretty much all I have right now. I love you Mom. I love you Dad. I love you Amanda. I love you Todd. I love you Caleb and Madeline. I love you Bridget. I love you Diana. I love you Eric. Thank you all. My family is a continually growing testimony of God's love for me. You all give me strength to keep going even when I don't feel like it does any good. I gain strength through the knowledge that if I do what is right now, if I do my best here in this life, I can be with you forever without end.

Love,

Elder Chris Lundy, your son/brother/uncle

March 12 Week of St. Partick's Day

Hey!

The search for the missing is going really well so far. We had 2 families at church this past Sunday, and got 2 more tatays at church, thus completing their families at church. It was nice. As soon as they got to church, the members were all over them. We didn't have to do a thing. It was so nice to see members like that again! I think they were better about that then the members of the Kettle Moraine ward. :) I love this branch!

President Omanito is like a dad to us. (Pres. Omanito is the Branch President) He is so happy to have missionaries. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I ate frogs last week when we went fishing with him! :) They were quite delicious! Better than chicken, truth be told. This week I also ate bbq'd chicken heads! I wasn't forced to either. It was by choice! I’m starting to expand my appetite :) ...I think that’s the right word.

I’m having trouble right now. I had to share a message in English to a husband and wife yesterday. The wife is from Singapore. The husband is from manila. They both know English. The tatay knew Tagalog, but the wife only knew Chinese and English. So it was all on me, since I didn't want to leave the wife out and nobody else I was with could speak fluent English. It was so flippin hard!!! I’ve never taught in English before. I learned how to be a missionary in Tagalog. I really struggle with it in English.

So I was reminded of a great movie by a fellow shipper the other day. I told you guys about it before my mission, but we never got it I think. I can't remember. It’s called "Suits on the Loose." you should definitely watch it. It’s even funnier when you talk about it in Tagalog. lol.

Oh! I almost broadsided a semi while I was walking along the highway yesterday....yup, I wrote that right. I almost walked sideways into a semi. lol. I felt the prompting last second to take a look where I was going to walk just before I stepped into the highway luckily. We were busy talking and I was tired and sick and not paying attention. All is good though. :)

So I’m not sure if I will be able to email next week. It depends on when we get home. We are going to the Binaue Rice Terraces. The "7th wonder of the world" or something like that. If I do get to email, it will probably be short, but I should have pictures.

Living conditions here in Solano are pretty good. We’re still trying to get the apartment cleaned up. The only time we really have to do that is p-days sadly... so we might get everything clean by the end of the cycle. We filled about 8 big grocery bags of trash and have about the same to go plus all the extra supplies left. : P Well, that’s about all I have right now.

                                                   My family in Ilagan - Dacuycuy Family

                                                           I baptized this girl on Saturday.

                                                              Me sitting on top of a jeepney.

                              We were in a hurry to get to a baptism and there wasn't any room inside...

                                              The Pebenito family. The 1st family I taught here.

                                                                                Elder Biating

 

                                                        Us riding on the back of a jeepney.

                            Once again, no room inside and no time to wait for a different one.

                           A fun looking "car" we found in the church parking lot/basketball court.

                                                    Multi-functional is best here after all! ;)

 

                                                               My last AP, Elder Bill Katoa.

                        Elder Jackson, from my apartment in Ilagan, replaced him as AP this cycle.

                                                               Well, I love you guys! :*

                                              Have a great week! :*

LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi :)

I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!!!! The people aren't matigas ng ulo o puso. Not in the least! ...that means they aren't hard headed or hard hearted. Sorry. :) So, Elder Thomas is my zone leader actually. He’s pretty cool. I’ve played football with him before.

The other elders in Solano are Elder Rostedt and Elder Cruz..... Rostedt was in the oldest group in the mtc when I got there. He is one full cycle ahead of me in the mission. He is from Australia and is a musical genius. He can play anything you give him as I understand it... he is teaching me how to play my ukulele :)

Elder Rostedt picture thanks too Elder Ilagan

I put on my jeans this morning and I can fit a fist long ways in-between me and my pants. I’m only 6' and 200 lbs. and I’ve lost a lot of muscle in my arms and chest, and gained A LOT in my legs. (We walk absolutely everywhere in this area. it’s not ethical to take tricey or jeepney anywhere.)

Elder Biating: loves to do stuff on p-days. Fun stuff. lol. I’ll tell you about that later. :)

My area is the valley of a mountain range. I’m completely surrounded by mountains. Half of my area is big city; the other half is bukid...or English equivalent, boondocks. Its rice fields. I love that I have both just a couple steps out my door.

Today was a great day. We woke up at 6, and ran to church for basketball. President Omanito (my branch pres.) showed up to open the gates. He is a very pro-elder/missionary work kinda guy. Our other players never showed up so after a while we went to the Palengke (the Palengke is super awesome here. it has fresh everything, and is super-duper clean, unlike Ilagan) and then he drove us home. After that, Pres, one of his sons (our constant fellow shipper Julius), and very close friend and son of one of our investigators (Alvin, he is a member, his tatay isn't) came with us. We went to our 2nd counselors (bro. Rod) house and went fishing in his fish pond. I almost had the chance to say I went fishing in a fish pond, and didn't catch any fish!!! lol :) I gave it one more try then caught 4 fish and helped bro. Rod's daughter catch a fish. She is mga 5 years old and adorable and absolutely loves me. :) After this I am going shopping and getting what I need to be able to make chicken curry, kare-kare, and homemade ice-cream. :) Great day. :)

The area is going well. This area has amazing potential for missionaries who care. The work now though, is coming along. Few actual lessons, but people are getting to know us and are accepting return appointments for lessons. There are quite a few that could be baptized next cycle. I understand why bro. Doolin, my teacher at the mtc went crazy every time we talked about the area book. The way he went on about it, he got this sort of thing dumped on him many a time. That also explains why he is working at the mtc right now. He is amazing to have been able to pick up the pieces that many times.

Well, I have to go.
Tell everybody else "I LOVE YOU!" for me :)

 I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :* mwah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. Question for Dad: Did you know the book of Mormon talks about the revolutionary war? It made me think of you when I was reading it. Can you find where it is if you don't know? Just a little scripture chase for you. :)

Scripture thought: read 1 Nephi 12:6, then Alma 63:8. Can you figure out how they are related? I recently heard of a story here in the Philippines of how a long time ago, a man dressed all in white appeared to some of the southern Filipino people...it intrigued me and I made this connection along with a greater one. See if you can guess what I found out! :)

Other news: I saw my first Filipino that was actually taller than me on Sunday!!!!!! he is 6' 3'' I stood there and looked up at him, then back down, then back up at his head, then back down to where it should be, then back up again before I got it that I actually had to look up to look him in the eyes! :) lol! :) It was a fun surprise! :)

That’s all that I can think of. I love you all!!! :) Elder Lundy