Week ~ 44

Hi world,

Quite the week. Pero before I start I wanna give a S/O to my girl Ciarra Green for getting her mission call to Charlotte, North Carolina mission! I can't believe it! You'll get to see Elder Abbott! You lucky duck :) haha anyways she will be great. 

This week was officially my first week as a new District Leader. Last week I had to go like 4 hours (with traffic) all the way to Makati to go to my new training meeting. That was super good with the AP's and President Ostler. So far so good. It just adds to my plate of all of the other things I have to do. That is okay though. It really isn't too bad though!  Anyway, this week we finally hit the OYM standard of excellence! We talked to 191 people this week and invited them to do something like listen to us or whatever. It was super difficult, but not bad. I did most of them, but it is understandable because I have a foreigner son. It is still fun though.

The news of the week is that we finally had an investigator to church! Sister May Borquiron finally went! I can't remember if I have mentioned her before, but she is an OYM from like the first week that we were put into the area. She is only 16 years old, so whenever we teach her we have to have a member with us. But hey, she finally came! She said it was super fun and just very heartwarming. (That is the awkward Tagalog translation) All in all it was a great experience! The ward really fellow shipped and all that, so that was a great. This week the ZL (Zone Leader)  had a baptism, that was super important for us because the investigators that we have, have an opportunity to attend the baptism and see how it is done in our church. We have an investigator named Sister Maricel, she is a single mom who actually OYMed us a while back and she originally asked us how our church does it. So that was a great opportunity for her. She ended up coming and actually loved it! The only problem that she has is that she has work every Sunday. At least yesterday she did. We talked to her and counseled her to talk with her boss about getting work off every Sunday. Anyways, she texted last night about what happened with her boss and she has work off now! So sana we will see her at church next Sunday! So yeah, the area is really coming together. We recontacted some great former investigators this last week as well. We found a girl named Melh-Jean Recones this week, she was taught by the sister missionaries before in our area. She was supposed to be baptized back in November! She basically knows everything, she just got work on Sundays back then and then the sisters dropped her. The other problem we have with her (and with basically every old investigator) is that she is a girl. So we have to always have a member with us. Which doesn't happen as frequently as we would like it. She is super awesome though. She introduced us to her neighbor as well, Bro. Jade. He is a super cool guy as well. His wife is a member in Cavite. So he is a part-member family. Anyway, we went to visit him and we climbed up into his house and he was reading the Book of Mormon! What a stud. I had never even met the guy, but he is super awesome. He is having a hard time getting baptized cause he is in Las Pinas on the weekdays, but goes to church in Cavite. So that will be a concern or something we will have to resolve. Maybe he can be taught here, but be baptized in Cavite. So that will be something that will take lots of planning. We will see! 

The Lord really is blessing us with lots of new people to teach. We talked to 191 people last week and we had 19 new investigators, so that was a huge blessing! The area is VERY slowly coming together, but it is happening! I love what is happening here. It is fun too, its not just boring and repetitive. You see lots of crazy people but its fun! Like we were walking through this area and two girls were fighting over a cell phone with all these kids watching, anyways, we were literally just walking by and the girls picked up rocks and started throwing them at all of the kids! Including us! Pretty dang funny I was laughing pretty hard. And no I did not get hit haha. We run into so many drunk people but they are pretty funny. We also talked to some people from England and Australia who live in our area so that was some nice old school English. This week we are going back to the MTC for Elder Webster so that will be a full day of work gone. Hopefully we can make it up another day. We are just working really hard and really trying to find people who are prepared to hear the gospel. It is slowly happening. Out of all the people we are talking to at least 1 will be prepared! So yeah, staying positive, that is all. I love you all. And here are some pictures for all of you to see. We took these this morning. Thats my kabahay or my roommates. We have 5 in the bahay now! The other companionship is a trisome now so there are more of us in the bahay. It is kind of like a spiritual party always. So that's super fun. I love you all. Elder Lambert= Out 

PS. The guy in the green OYMed us and he lived in the states most of his life. He is a funny guy who was a running back in high school and owns a huge gym that we might hit up one of these P days. He also kind of dresses like a tool. Which that does include a nice fresh (but also not original/fake) pair of Nike Roches
-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Week ~ 43 ~ Yo

Good morning people of the earth,

This has been a crazy crazy week. We actually only worked like 1.5 days hahah. It was rough. On Tuesday we had interviews with President Ostler. Those were great as always. We just discussed fresh starting the area and having the faith to find those people who have been prepared to receive the gospel. So that was super good. I really enjoy interviews with him, he just loves his missionaries so much. Wednesday was a super interesting day. Last P-day I got a text from the office Elders about going to get a Philippines drivers license. 1 thought crossed my mind. I was either going to become AP or Office Elder. Both of them are going home, so it could have happened. Then I almost wet myself because I don't want to be either of those. (J/K) Then Elder Eteaki called me freaking out because he got the same text. So here's the story. The Philippines has this new law about drivers licenses. In order for a foreigner to get a drivers license, they have to have proof that they will be in the country for more than a year. So yeah. Me and like 8 missionaries went to get them. There were only 4 of us who could actually get one because of visa issues, but mine is already processed so no problems. Anyways, so I am now licensed to drive and I guess it still keeps me in the running for AP and Office Elder... I would be just fine not being called as those haha. Basta, 

Thursday me and Elder Webster went to the the MRC (Missionary Recovery Center) where Elder Webster met with someone. So I had to accompany him and that was fun! We got quite lost on the way but no biggie. I am just a foreigner I have no idea ha ha. So for 3 days we spent a TON of money on fare and stuff and basically didn't work. So that was difficult. Friday was weekly planning so that was a chip on our work. Saturday was a fun day! I don't know how many of you remember last June, my first area did an activity called Flight 2015. It was a representation of the POS and stuff. So last Saturday was Flight 2016! Yes, I am getting that old in the mission. We had to work at it like all day, so that killed our work. I'll just say it, we didn't hardly work at all. It was super frustrating. With the work we had on Saturday, we went to some of our areas just to invite people to church on Sunday. We went to one of our investigators named Mayeth. She is kind of new and we have just started teaching her. When we went to visit, she was quite drunk. :( She spoke some very bastos (inappropriate) things to us. It was kind of funny but we definitely had to leave that. And if anyone wanted to know, she didn't come to church. So that was great. Again we had no investigators at sacrament so yeah... I was a little bit discouraged/frustrated this week just because this is the hardest thing I have ever done. That is just another reason to rely on my Savior. We are doing well and staying positive. I guess I am looking for immediate success. We are fresh starting/shotgunning the area so it is going to be awhile before I see any success. We are doing our best though! Another great thing happened this week. Last night actually. We were at a members house teaching a "LA" (She's super active but she, by mission standards not fully active) basta, we taught her and then this super awesome member comes in and says, "Elders, do you like Dr. Pepper?" My jaw dropped and I couldn't help but basically yell, "YES!" She gave me 4 and apologized and said she would buy me more! So I basically have an unlimited supply of it and I don't have to pay a dime. She also gave us each a bag of Doritos! So basically I am living the high life ;) That was awesome. 

Anyways, not much to report on this week. Well, I guess one more thing. This morning I got a text from President Ostler and I will be the new District Leader here in Las Pinas district. It will be lovely being taught from the Zone Leaders, but I guess I can handle it! We are going to have to keep progressing here and being obedient! Should be fine though. I don't have very many pictures just because there isn't anything much to take pics of... I need to do better at getting pics with my new kabahay! They are a hoot. Me and Elder Eteaki are super close. He actually like suplexed me last night and laid on me, all 330 pounds of him hahaha. I love that guy and all we do is laugh. It is super fun, but we get work done! I love this area and the members are super awesome and all that. Sana we will see some success in the next few weeks. I love you all! 

PS here are some pics of the highlights ;) 

-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Week ~ 42 Tanner put week: sdfsbhdkasldgfa (Which I think means he has NO IDEA what week it is... he's lost track!!

Trail of children following the Elders around!

Hi world. The weeks are flying. I can't believe it. We are officially in our new house!  Anyways, we are officially LIVING IN OUR AREA. I can't believe it. That gives us so much time to work, almost more time than we know what to do with, but we are talking to everyone so that's fun. We also discovered a new area to proselyte in! It is one of those "squatter" areas, so it is just one of the more humble areas. We went there and of course we had another train of children and we blew some minds cause we speak Tagalog so that was a good old time. We probably have 8 return appointments with people in this area, so that should be good. We also have new roommates! Elder E and Elder S are the new crazy guys. Elder E is the guy who has the full ride scholarship to play football at Oregon so yeah, he's super chill and we have A TON in common so we have a good time in the bahay haha. Elder S is an "American" who really is from Europe cause his dad teaches school on American military bases, so those two are like polar opposites except all 4 of us really balance each other out. It is super fun with those guys. We have a WAY bigger house so we can have room to breath and cook and stuff so that is even better! 

Anyways, the work is good here. We have a pretty big teaching pool cause we are talking to so many people and always finding so that's really good for us, coming from no one to teach at the beginning. The problem we are having is that people aren't coming to church. We struggle with that because we tend to proselyte in the areas with not as much money as the other areas. The rich areas all have gates on every house, so they peak out the house and look at us and then just ignore us, so it is kind of not worth it. We are doing well though. We tend to have lots of teaching appointments everyday, the only problem is, is that they are with girls. We do our best to talk to everyone, especially guys cause we can actually teach them whenever, but they tend to not like us as much as the girls. That may or may not be because we are white but the girls just tend to be a lot kinder to us. All in all, we talk to everyone and try to teach everyone ha ha. 

Not much happened this week except that we moved and just taught and stuff... Sometimes we find ourselves not knowing what to do with our time in our area cause the time just got way bigger! I do know that it will start to fill in within the next few weeks. Also, I have some news or a rumor that will happen ha ha. So, our zone consists of 2 districts, Elder G and Elder E are the two district leaders. Elder G's district has 5 companionship's, and Elder E's district has only 3. So rumor has it that President Ostler will be putting in a new companionship and adding another district and splitting the big one. So, the rumor has it that I will be made the new district leader. I heard it from the lips of the zone leaders so yeah. We have interviews with President Ostler this week so I think that he will tell me if it is happening. Transfer day is February 24th so it will happen on transfer day, I am honestly expecting it to happen so we can see if it really does. 

Things are good though. My Tagalog is really improving so that is awesome to see. I wouldn't say I am anywhere close to 100%, but i am like 70% maybe. It is just fun to be able to get my point across most of the time, but it still sometimes is nice to have members work with us to just help us out. Not much to say for this week, I really like what is happening here in the area and living here and being in the area makes things so much easier. My companion is great. He is doing his best to learn the language and stuff. I still do like 80% of the teaching which is completely understandable cause I used to be in his position. We still do well in appointments though. We taught this nanay (mom) this week, Nanay Linda, she actually OYMed (Open Your Mouth)us! She was taught by the sisters in November and actually went to church, the only problem is, is that we always need a member to work with us that is a lalaki 18 pataas. (No clue what that means...)So sometimes that's hard, actually all the time but we move forward! I really love this new area and the members here are awesome and so involved in everything. I also can't believe I am almost 11 months! I feel so old. Several missionaries have called me old this week so yeah that's great. My new kabahays (roommates) are all pretty young. I am the oldest in the mission out of all of us and the oldest in age! Almost 20! So yeah I am old. I am happy though! 

I would also like to give a shout out to my cousin Kathleen Lambert for sending me a package! It is so amazing that you sent me that! I just got it this past week! The food and candy was great. Thank you so so much!  I can't thank everyone enough for their support and love for me, it means the world and that is part of what helps make this work that much better. I love you all and I hope I am making ya'll proud. I am thankful for this opportunity that I have to serve the Lord and bear his name. Ang simbahan ito ay totoo. Also here is our selfie train of random kids. pangit ako dito sa picture ito. 

 

Some of the treats from the package that arrived this past week from Kathleen Lambert!!
Thank you, thank you!! That is so nice!

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Week ~ 41

Hello world! Another one down. The weeks seem to be going by fast, but the days slow. I don't know how I feel about it. All I know is that every single night when I lay down to sleep I am wrecked. We are just working ourselves over here in our area. It feels good but we are just seriously so wiped in our area every night. Both companionship's are, me and Elder W and then Elder G and Elder G are just done for every day when we come home. 

Apparently this is the BFF Share meal!!

We heard some good news though yesterday. Since our apartment is about an hour jeepney ride from our area, we needed a change. We will be moving into the sister's apartment which is in our area! We will no longer be living with Elder G and Elder G. We will be living with Elder E and his companion Elder S. Elder E is that giant Tongan kid from Oregon that has a full ride scholarship to Oregon to play football and then Elder S is an "American" who has lived in basically Iceland and other weird foreign countries his whole life. So he is hardly American, but it should be super fun! I will be the oldest in the house and the "Tagalog" expert, so that will be kind of funny, cause we all know I am far from expert. It should be nice cause then we don't have to travel for 2 hours everyday just to get to and from our area and we will be saving money! Should just be all around better. 

Their Apartment

This week was good though. Last Wednesday we had our follow up trainer meeting with President Ostler and all of the trainers and mga anaks. It was really good. President Ostler is just a beast at everything he does. He just focused on the importance of training and the effects that training has on a missionary. I looked back at my training kind of at this time and even if I didn't like it, I was blessed to be trained by Elder Sacay! Elder Sacay is actually training Elder Webster's MTC companion so that is kind of funny. I saw Elder Sacay for the last time at this training just because he goes home in April, but I know that I will see him again at temple sealing's and all that jazz. 

I did find out some AWESOME news! So one of the sisters that is training and is currently training in the Mandaluyong 2nd ward, which just so happens to be my first area! So of course I got the scoop on all the members and all that. Especially the V family. Then I received some amazing news, they are currently getting ready to start their temple preparation! Even if they aren't able to go to the temple until September, the temple is within their sights. Now that, brought me the most overwhelming joy that I have ever felt. I can't wait for September when I will be able to attend that. Other than that my first area is doing great! Now, for this current area. This last week we had Stake Conference and an Elder from the area Seventy spoke (I totally am spacing his name) but it was really good! We hardly worked Saturday because we attended all of the training meetings and the adult session, so those were really good. We are really focusing on the Philippines area goals for 2016. The Seventy showed this video of this sprinter from like the 1992 summer Olympics or something like that and this sprinter who was highly favored to win the 100 M race tore his hamstring in the middle of the race. During this race and right after he wrecks his leg, the runner's father runs out onto the track and helps him get to the finish line. He of course related it to our literal Father in Heaven and how now matter what kinds of trials we have in this earthly "race" the Father is always there to pick us up and for a shoulder to lean on. It is so true and it is something that I have learned here in my mission. Especially being here fresh starting an area with NOTHING to go off of. It has been a really cool experience and one that I have loved. The Lord is always there for us. Simply simply put. Anyways, the work this week was kind of killed with so many meetings and stuff. We are doing our best to manage time with our travel and stuff but I think that should get better with the new move. 

We have however found some pretty great people for us to teach, we actually found a family who is MARRIED! That is like... unheard of! They are married, they had kids super early in their lives but they are married! So hopefully we can enhance their life with the gospel. We are seeing some great things in our area and members are helping us out and all that. We have like 7 people with baptismal dates and we are just hoping to improve that. Our "most progressing" investigator is Sister Reah. She is the one that is Kelsie's age and is FLYING through the BOM (Book of Mormon). The only problem we have is getting her to church. She says that she is willing to walk with members, so maybe that can happen! She is super awesome though and knows and remembers everything we teach! Hopefully we can make that happen. Other than that, that is kind of what happened here in Manila this week. This next week might be kind of slow just because of moving and all that, they are closing our apartment so that means that we have to SCRUB it. Its going to be lovely. I am SO PUMPED if anyone can tell. We are working hard here and teaching/talking to as many people as we can. It is fun cause we use our "White Power" as leverage on talking to people, so that spices things up a bit aha. But yeah, my picture today is another multi-generational picture of my trainer Elder Sacay, his new anak and my brother aaaand my sons MTC comp Elder Safely, and then my new son Elder Webster! So that was cool :) that is all for this week! I love you all!
-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Week ~ 40

Hello earth people in the western hemisphere,

How are you all? To start off my email, I wanna give a shout out to my younger sister Allie for getting a scholarship and asked to play lacrosse at THEE Westminster College! You are ALMOOOSTTT as good as I was ;) nah jokes. I wanna just say that I am proud of you Al Gal! ;) That is so awesome and I think you should do all that you can to make that happen! I am a little jealous!! 

This week was pretty good here in Las Pinas! We are just finding and talking to people all of the time. Me and Elder W are pretty cool. He and I have a lot in common! My kabahay (roommates) and I can have some pretty hardcore conversations about Avengers (or anything Marvel) Star Wars, Batman, Video games, and just anything awesome or nerdy like that! The topic of choice around the house is about Star Wars, and just all sorts of rumors we know about the new movie, cause ya know NONE OF US HAVE SEEN IT! But its fun to talk about. I really love my roommates and Rizal would have been even a step up if I had roommates. But we have a good time. I will get some pics of our lovely crib/apartment and all of us next week! Currently, as a kabahay we are having a competition to see who can buy the coolest Star Wars items. (A noble goal?? ;)) I am winning, of course. I bought a Darth Vader parang bionicle thing for like 100 pesos. So I study with him everyday. Its pretty cool. But yeah, we work very hard in our areas but still have some nice time to eat good meals and have some good fun. 

Now, to the real reason why I am here. We have been working so so stinking hard, and aren't doing too bad! Sometimes it is honestly hard to tell if people want foreigners in there house (just to say they had 2 Americans in their house) or if they are actually interested. It is kind of frustrating, especially when the lovely girls want to talk to us just because we are American and speak Tagalog. We try to talk to everyone about the gospel even if they have no interest. We get lots of people yelling, "Hey Joe! Where are you going?" (They call all American men "Joe") then I will answer them in my heavy English American accent and then just break out in straight Tagalog. It blows their mind and is pretty funny ha ha. 

We taught brother Carlo and his wife again this week. When we taught them we had some AWESOME members present. One is an RM that just got back from serving in Australia and the other was a RC (recent convert) girl in our ward. It was a KILLER lesson. The spirit was so strong and we taught so simply, and we invited them for baptism. They kind of ignored the question and then set up a return appointment for last Thursday. We were so excited to teach them and we did some great practice teaching and prepared so well for them and then we went back... The worst thing in missionary work happened. They said they don't want to switch religions. They believe that all we need is to have faith in God and just go to church, and that it doesn't matter which church. Its like when we taught apostasy it all went in one ear and right out the other. That is seriously the worst, when you teach a lesson and the spirit testifies to you and you KNOW it testifies to them and they still have their free agency to say no. It is so hard telling people you know how much one single thing in their life can change in a blink of an eye, and they still don't get it. But hey, we still press on! 

We are teaching a girl named Sister Reah. She is a neighbor of a RC in our area. She would come and listen to us and so we started teaching her. She is like 2 months younger than Kelsie and that's just kind of funny to me haha. She is on page 130 of the BOM, if anyone wants to know the actual size of the Tagalog BOM is a little bigger than the English. So she is FLYING through it. She said she was going to come to church yesterday, and I heard the magic words that I have heard countless times in my mission, "Elder wala kong pamasahe." That is the magic words of, "Elder I don't have any fare money to go to church." I just want to throw money at her buuuut, we can't do that. So that's lovely. Hopefully we can figure something out this next week with that.

We have another dude named Brother J, he is just an elderly man who actually understands more than I think I give him credit for! He remembers everything we teach and he committed to church, but once again he didn't come. So we will address that later. We have 2 more people who you could consider, "progressing." One is named Sister M and the other is Sister A. They OYMed us (probs cause we are white) and we decided to introduce the gospel. Turns out they want to make some changes to become more happy in life and stuff, the gospel is the key to that!! So we are teaching them. It is hard to tell honestly if they just have a crush on Elder W or what. So yeah. But they won't have a chance to receive the gospel unless we give them that chance. So we will see how that goes. That is about all that happened this week. 

The other thing is, I got to ride a hoverboard this week. I don't know if you people have seen those on TV or anything. (yes we have!! that is so funny!) But I had a glance at them in Rizal and now I got to ride one! I got the hang of it and it was siiick. So yeah. We are just chugging away. The Tagalog "Master" is still me, (I think so?) but Elder W is getting better! So yeah we are having fun and working hard so yeah. That is my week for this week. I love you all, stay positive, don't die in the snow, and Peace out. 

-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth