Christmas in Cauayan

From Alayna:  Below is Frasier's email from 12/26.  He has had weird p-days this holiday season.  We got to video talk with him on our Christmas Eve (his Christmas day) - it was AWESOME!  I should have taken more pictures of the people who joined him.  He was at the church and toward the end of the call, the branch started showing up for a Christmas party.  It was so sweet, a couple families came in to say hi, including Sister Abad who got baptized today!  Also, a bunch of little Filipino boys came in and were crawling all over Frasier!  They were sitting on his lap, looking over his shoulder, giving him hugs...it was so sweet!  Made my momma heart very happy because I know he is making such a difference and they love him!  It was snowing on Christmas Eve, so we took the computer outside and showed his companion and the little boys snow.  They were amazed!  They've never seen snow before!

He also was able to send a small package home with a returning sister missionary just before Christmas.  So, Sloane received a handmade dress (Fras said he bought himself a tie that matched), and he sent the boys some hand woven hammocks!  He also sent two bottles of Mogu Mogu (his favorite drink of Lychee fruit with big coconut chunks in it).  We opened the presents and drank the drink on the call.  He is doing great - still working on the language, but that will come!

CHRISTMAS IN CAUAYAN

Christmas is kind of a weird time as a missionary. For me being here in the Philippines the weather is definitely not the same. Which makes it for me not even seem like it is Christmastime. It is also weird because they tell us that we should be working and doing as much as we can on Christmas, so my expectations were that I was going to talk to a hundred people or something. But, it was actually kind of hard to talk to people on Christmas. People were busy or not home. 

There were a lot of good things that happened this Christmas though. First of all, I got to talk to my family and that was awesome! Another rule I'm breaking though...the video calls are supposed to be 30 to 40 minutes and I was probably an hour and a half or more. I don't even know. It didn't matter though cause I could have been talking on the computer all day and still not been talking to my family enough. For me, it is kind of tough to not be able to talk to my family very much at all on a mission, so the Christmas call was very special. I got to see them open the presents I sent them so that was really cool as well.  (Added by Alayna: He did NOT tell us there was a time limit! ha ha)

It was weird after the call because it felt like I was in some virtual world actually talking to them, but then after the call, I'm back in the middle of the Philippines being a missionary, so it is kind of weird. It was like did that really just happen? It doesn't even seem real. 

It was good though because our branch Christmas party was going on right after my video call. So, first of all, I actually got to introduce some of my investigators to my family, and also I was pretty quickly distracted after my call, so I didn't have to much time to worry or cry about how much I miss Brad Anderson. The branch party was fun. We left early, but we got to watch them as they did a bunch of dances and stuff. I sent some videos in a different email. Hopefully they will work. 

(Added by Alayna: Sadly, the videos didn't work, but he was able to send a bunch of pictures from the church, so that was awesome!  It is hard for him to send pictures from the internet cafe.  Here are a couple random pictures including the most recent rat kill!  Heaven help me!)  

I also got to take pictures with the whole branch and with some of the little kids. I love all the people. They are all so happy, loving, and nice. 

The Abad family had their baptismal interview on Sunday. All 4 of them passed (for lack of better word). They are getting baptized on Saturday. I am so excited. They are a really special family and it is going to be a very cool experience to participate in their baptism. As well as the fact that I have been here to see them through their whole conversion process. 

We had a Christmas zone conference on Saturday. That was really awesome! It was a perfect combination of spiritual, inspiring, and really fun. The Hiatts and the senior couples did a performance which was really funny. Then President Hiatt did a solo. We played some games. Watched "The Forgotten Carols" and also got a stocking from the Hiatts, their family, and the senior couples. 

I opened my Christmas package. That was so awesome!!! There were lots of awesome goodies and treats in it. There was too much to say thank you to everyone, but thanks to everyone who put something in there for me. That was really special! That package will keep me going for a while. 

I'm kind of short on time. Mahal kita!

--

Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

Friday, December 15th

(Here is Frasier's email from December 15th.  With the holidays, his p-days are a bit different.  The next time we hear from him will be our Christmas video call!  We cannot wait!!!)

This week has been good. It seems like just yesterday I was sending my last email. It is crazy how fast time flies by. It seems like I am just constantly waking up and then laying back down to go to bed. There isn't too much to report I don't feel like. 

Reynante is doing good! We saw him when we went shopping on Monday and he was doing good. He and his girlfriend were on a date. We are teaching his cousin now and he comes to teach with us almost every time we teach her. Her name is Mary Grace. She is becoming a progressing investigator as well. One time we went to her house and she wasn't there, but her parents made us come in anyway. Her dad just started talking to us about life. The cool thing for me is he listens to classic rock music, so even though I shouldn't be, I was singing along to the music in the back of my mind. Then as we were sitting there Mary Grace's mom brought us over a tray of food. She made us sandwiches and had run to the tindahan and bought us a soda. That is one awesome thing about the Filipinos is that they all want to talk to us and give us food and snacks.  

We also have an investigator who is newer. I can't remember if I told you about her or not. Her name is Judy Ann. She was referred to us by other missionaries because the missionaries met her at church. She went to church because her boyfriend is a member. She started taking lessons from us and from the very beginning she has just been on fire. She already had a Book of Mormon that her boyfriend gave to her and she was already reading it. She stopped drinking coffee weeks ago when her boyfriend told her that it is bawal. Every time we go and teach her she tells us all about what she learned from the assignments we gave her. There have been a few times where she printed off scripture verses from her work printer and shares those scriptures with us. She also came to church the very first week we met her. 

The Abad family is doing awesome as well. We are almost done with all the lessons for them. They are all progressing and all have super strong testimonies. They all read the Book of Mormon every day. The two kids even take their books to school and read it when they have free time. I am so happy for them and excited for their baptism coming up on the 30th. They have their interviews a week from today. Pray that they all pass (even though I'm pretty sure they will).

Other than that work is going as normal. Not too much else to talk about. 

We had zone interviews on Wednesday. It really is just a quick little meeting to get blasted about how your area book is not up to par and that you need to do better at it. The good thing is that Sister Hiatt makes cookies that we get to have at the end of our interviews. 

We caught another Jerry and hurt another Tom last night. It is kind of funny how brutal the assistants are with animals. haha

Just in case any of you were wondering I still can't speak Tagalog. I am trying my hardest but it is definitely coming slowly. The good thing about it, I guess, is that I have a lot of time to think throughout the day because that is mostly all that I can do. I remember lots of things about home.

Love you!

--

Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

Reynante's Baptism

[Hi everyone.  This is Alayna.  The next few weeks are going to be a bit different with the holidays.  Frasier's P-days will be a bit different, plus WE GET TO TALK TO HIM for Christmas!!!  Today, I'm posting our conversation from 12/3 and his email from 12/10.  He sent us a bunch of pictures, which takes a ton of internet time, and we emailed back and forth the past two weeks, so he didn't have as much time to write a long letter.  (These first pictures are of the Thanksgiving leftovers from the mission home.  He was so excited to get them!)
He seems to be doing well and had a really great Saturday this past week!]

12/3/17
Here is Frasier's reply to my email asking him some questions:

I didn't reply to this last week. It is awesome that people are reading my emails and interested in what I am saying. 

Still no Christmas package, but no stress. The office will let me know when they get it. 

At least Utah is going to a bowl game! That was a crappy season, but better than nothing.

Those pictures are crazy. Its crazy it is still that warm there. Maybe snow by Christmastime.

On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 7:35 PM, Alayna Williamson wrote:

Ya, Utah is playing West Virginia in the Heart of Texas Bowl in Dallas on Dec. 26^th

It is crazy warm.  Dad was raking leaves yesterday in shorts!  But, it might snow tonight.  We are all crossing our fingers!

E is driving all over the place!

That's cool about the bowl game. Hopefully it will be a good game! 

How is running going? Are there any races and stuff on the schedule? Anything you're planning on in the future? 

Hopefully it snows! I can guarantee you it is not going to snow here. There was a Mormon message about a bishop that skis. My companion was asking me all sorts of questions about skiing and that. I don't know if he has ever even worn a coat before, let alone seen snow. 

Dad is doing the Boulder Ironman next June.  I’m not signed up for anything right now.

You need to tell your companion to come visit Utah sometime in the winter.  I know that may not be something he could ever afford, but who knows…maybe sometime we could help him come visit.

I felt like there was a race that I was missing. I just got the feeling. That's exciting. 

The sad thing is that I am probably never going to see any of these Filipinos or any or these missionaries again.

I heard there was some girl from Kaysville that just got her call to my mission. Sister Taylor?

Not necessarily, YOU could always go back.  We are very blessed that way.  And, you’re going to be fluent in Tagalog…there may be reasons for you to do business in the Philippines, or help bring people from the Philippines to the US in the future.  You never know…

[Before I post his letter from 12/10, I should tell you that a couple of weeks ago Troy and I got Facebook friend requests from someone in Cauayan Phillipines.  It turned out it was a 17-year-old boy, named Reynante, who Frasier had been teaching.  He has messaged Troy several times and sent pictures.  He told him that he loves Elder Williamson and can tell he is working really hard to learn Tagalog.  He also told Troy last week that "Elder Williamson baptist me next Saturday"!  Here are some pictures Reynante sent.]

[Here is Frasier's letter from 12/10/17 and some additional pictures he sent.  He's doing great and I cannot wait until Christmas!]

This has been a pretty awesome week! I had my first baptism! His name is Brother Reynante. He is a stud! He is 17 and got referred to us through the assistants who were teaching his girlfriend. She got baptized a little while ago and now he is baptized as well. I have been so blessed because I have been with him throughout his whole conversion process. He started out and he was just kind of testing the waters, but now he is all on track. He has referred his cousin to us, and he has even asked if he could come teaching with us a few times. 

He told us a story about how he bore his testimony to a bunch of Saksi's Jehovah's Witnesses) at school. His testimony after his baptism was awesome also. We have this joke as a kabahay where if something good, cool, awesome, etc. happens we give a salute to each other. When Brother Reynante bore his testimony, I looked across the chapel to where Elder Temple was sitting and we gave each other a subtle little salute because his testimony was on point! 

He has told us that he knows President Monson is a true prophet, and he has never actually heard him speak before. I am sure Reynante will be a missionary someday, and he has already shown that he will be a great pillar in the church throughout his life. He just needs to not get lost in the crowd. I think a mission will be very good for him. 

Reynante's nephew had a birthday yesterday. So they invited us all to the party at his house. When Filipinos have parties they cook lots of food. Usually egg rolls, spaghetti (it kind of has like a bbq flavor here), pancit, and then some sort of random Filipino meat. It was really cool. We went there and met his family. They had a bunch of food for us and wouldn't let us leave "even though we were out past curfew".  Elder Temple has a bunch of action figures to give to little kids for Christmas, so we gave Reyanante's nephew a Spiderman and he was so excited!

The Abad family is doing well! They are scheduled to have their baptism on the 30th and they are all on track and ready. Brother Abad has broken down a few times and told us about how he knows our church is true and all this stuff. I don't know exactly what he is saying, but I know he is ready to be baptized. Their family participates in every class on Sundays as well.Thee past 2 weeks they have shown up half an hour early to Sacrament Meeting. All 4 of them in their family have a Book of Mormon and they read it every day. Their two little kids get so excited to see us every time we visit. They are always playing with my hair and trying to play games with me while we are teaching the lesson.

Elder Nolasco and I are having a good time together. We are really getting along. We had a really good talk last week about how we could become friends and enjoy being around each other. The main thing is that we were both afraid to open up to each other because of our different cultures and languages. We promised each other that we would be more open with each other and talk about everything, that way we will enjoy the work more, and get to know each other, and the different cultures better.

--

Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

Kill Jerry, Hurt Tom

Frasier's Email from 11/26/17

I'll just start off by saying this. I hope my emails haven't scared anyone. I feel like they maybe are too negative. Missions are awesome! I feel like it is better to be honest though. I was talking to Elder Temple and he said that before his mission one thing that was more or less holding him back is that he felt like missionaries are just too fake. They aren't real people when they are on their mission. I feel like that is so true and it is better to be honest. Hopefully I haven't been too honest is the thing.

Missions really are awesome. And from everything I have heard, I am still in the not so awesome part of my mission right now. In ways, I wish I could just skip or fast-forward past this part and get to the awesome part of my mission. But, I am learning so many things right now and gaining so many experiences that I know this is all part of the plan to go through what I am right now. I think that is something that we all go through in life. We want to get past the "sucky" parts and go straight to the good parts. That sounds good and all until you actually think about it. The good wouldn't be so good without the bad. An Ironman medal wouldn't really mean very much without the training and the actual race itself. A 4-minute mile wouldn't mean very much if it was easy. College degrees wouldn't mean very much (and you wouldn't know very much) if you didn't have to go to class to earn the degree. That is also part of Ang Plano ng kaligtasan. That is a huge part of life is to have struggles, trials, hard times. That way we can enjoy the good times, and enjoy life after this one. 

(Added by Alayna: Translation of Ang Plano ng kaligtasan is The Plan of Salvation)  

I have a new companion now. His name is Elder Nolasco. It is weird to say this, but apparently, it is a thing to call your trainer your "Dad", or your trainee your "Son". So meet my Step-dad! haha 

He is awesome. We are still working on getting to know each other. It is hard getting used to new people and getting to know them, especially when you aren't expecting it. Our companionship is going to be really good though. He is a hard worker, very patient, and just an all around good missionary. It breaks my heart that I couldn't have made things work out with my other companion. I honestly wish it could have worked out. I feel slightly like I gave up or quit. I have made it a goal now to do all I can to become friends with all of my companions the rest of my mission. If we aren't friends, it is not going to be my fault! 

I still love and respect Elder Idorot, but we just got to the point that our ineffectiveness was outweighing what we were learning from each other. President Hiatt finally decided that it was time to split us. Elder Nolasco has been very patient though. President Hiatt decided to bless me enough to keep me here in the Cauayan area. I should have payed attention more, but it has been very rough finding our way around. I should know more of my way around, but obviously didn't. We have been figuring it out together. 

My stresses for the week have included the fact that I am leading the area now. That is not easy because I don't know the area. I was also stressing because I still can't speak Tagolog, I don't know the doctrine, and I don't know how to teach very well. It was all weighing on me very heavily and I was getting super stressed. We had a Kabahay council a few days ago and disccussed how I can work on my stress. The main thing was just be patient. That is easier said than done, but since we met, things have been a lot better. Stress kind of sucks, but if you can use it the right way, it can make you a lot better person or missionary. The trick is channelling the emotions the right way to use them as motivation. 

I also had a talk with Elder Temple last night. Amongst the things we talked about, one was about having fun or enjoying the mission. I have had a lot of great experiences and fun times, but I feel like I havn't really been enjoying the mission like I should. Elder Temple told me that he went through the exact same thing, and then he went and got his journal to read me something that he wrote way back when. Basically it shouldn't be about me. Think of how many times I have said the word I or been focused on myself. He said that all of my studies, should be focused on how I can learn the doctrine better to teach it to others, or how I can learn the language to speak it to others. He used a lot of references to back up what he was saying. Preach my Gospel and the scriptures are filled with stuff about that subject. 

Another thing that we talked about was motivation. Everyone has a deep down desire/motivation for why they are serving a mission. Why they left their family, why they get up at 6:30 every morning, why they go out and work and sweat every day, etc. If you have a reason or a motivation, that is what is going to keep you going and give you the motivation to do your best. If you don't have a reason, you are first of all not going to try and be any better, and second, you are going to probably be disobedient. Every disobedient missionary doesn't have a reason. I am still praying and searching for my deep down reason, but Elder Temple said his reason was honestly life-changing for him. It is what got him on the mission in the first place. I would encourage anyone going on a mission to find your reason. It will make things a lot easier. 

Here are some good things that have happened this past week: 

I went on splits with Elder Temple on Tuesday. He showed me a lot of the ways and things that I still need to work on. It stresses me out a little bit, but also gives me motivation because I wan't to be the best missionary possible. I just need to channel it the right way. We also had a good time because as we were driving aroung (the assistants have a car) we talked about movies and other teenage boy stuff, so it was nice to shift our focus for just a minute. 

We had two Thanksgiving dinners this past week. As a kabahay we planned and made a Thanksgiving dinner for ourselves, or at least as close as we could get it. We had rice (of course), lechon menok (chiken, looks kindof like a turkey) and pan de sal (rolls). It was pretty good. Not real Thanksgiving dinner, but it was fairly close. The next day we are at home getting ready to cook dinner and then the assistants arrived home. They had a bunch of food with them. President and Sister Hiatt and the Senior couples had an actual Thanksgiving dinner, and then they gave the assisstants a bunch of the left overs (including a whole pumkin pie, and part of an apple pie, along with turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing). It was pretty darn awesome. Elder Temple and I were about ready to cry because of the pie. So happy!

Kill Jerry, Hurt Tom:

We have had multiple mice/rats at our house. Our apartment is really nice, but there are still mice/rats. We have taken the liberty of calling them "Jerry". We bought some of those sticky sheets as mouse traps. As we were setting them up Elder Uy came up with the ingenious plan. Once we catch Jerry we will then move on to phase two. Phase two was that we were going to move this sticky trap outside after the rat was on it. And then it would be out there for Tom. (There is a cat that gets into our garbage that we call Tom.) Elder UY's plan was that Tom would try to eat Jerry, and when he puts his face down to eat Jerry, the sticky pad would get stuck on his face. Then he would be running around with this thing stuck to his face not being able to see. The way Elder Uy acted the plan out was also very funny. Phase 1 worked. We caught the rat. We moved it outside and then started eating dinner. We look outside later and sure enough, the trap was gone. We all hurried and got our shoes on real quick to see if we can find Tom. Sure enough, there is this cat just a little bit down the street who is freaking out and running around with this bright yellow mouse trap stuck to its face. Elder Uy celebrating and the cat running around, and the fact that the plan actually worked made the whole situation so funny! We were laughing so hard that when we would try and talk, we would just laugh harder. It was awesome!

Investigators:

The work has been really good all things considered. The Abad family is really moving along. Brother Abad doesn't want to get baptized until the rest of his family is ready, so now we are starting to shift our focus more towards the rest of his family. His two sons are really awesome. They are so interested that they asked us if they could each have their own Book of Mormon. They have also been to church several times now. The trick is that was are having a little bit of a harder time with Sister Abad. Because she is supporting the family right now she is gone a lot and it is harder to get her to keep commitments. This family is really golden though, so we are working with them a lot. 

(Added by Alayna:  This is the man with the hurt foot/leg.  I'll ask Frasier next week if that is getting any better.)

Brother Reynante is scheduled to have his Baptismal Interview this week and I pray he is ready. He is really progressing. He has already started bearing his testimony to classmates at school, and he isn't even a member! It is pretty awesome to see his growth. I am sure he is going to be a great missionary some day. 

(Added by Alayna: This is the kid who found us on Facebook and then sent us pictures of Frasier!  He messaged Troy and told him that, "Elder Williamson is the kindest elder and he is really trying hard to speak our language!")

It is crazy to think about what is going on at home. Thanksgiving, football, family stuff, and the fact that it is actually getting cold at home. It is so hot here. One of our investigators showed me pictures on his phone from Facebook. He is apparetnly now facebook friends with me and my family. He saved a bunch of pictures to his phone, and was showing me posts from home. It was really cool. I miss home a lot and everything involed with the word "home", but I know I am doing what I should be. 

--

Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

No Title - Excerpts from 11/19

This Email might be a little bit sorter than usual. We were sitting in the internet cafe and then there was a blackout. When the computer technician came and finally got the computers going again, our timers had still been running, so I didn't get to use the full 2 hours we are given. Sucks, but oh well. 

This week has been kind of different. To be honest my companionship is kind of a poisonous relationship. I think us two being together is causing both of us to do things we wouldn't normally do. Whenever we get into a disagreement, which is way too often, my companion just shuts down and acts like he is ignoring me. That gets really annoying, especially with the frequency of how often he does that. I try and talk to him and solve our problems, but then he ignores me.  When he does that it causes me to get angrier...

...He has called me: "You know, you are like Satan" and... (Added by Alayna: other mean things.)

It honestly would be funny those things that he has called me if I wasn't so angry with him. On Friday we got in an argument about scheduling in the morning. He felt like his plan was better, and when I suggested another way he got all offended.  So the rest of Friday we just sat around the apartment because we were too mad at each other to do anything, so we ended up not doing any work. I am really embarrassed about that. I should have been the bigger man and said: "Let's go out and do something", but we didn't even talk to each other the rest of the day. When the assistants got home that night they knew something was up between us, and ended up getting really mad at both of us saying that we should be ashamed for just taking the day off today.

We have a meeting right in the morning with President Hiatt.  Sadly this is not the first meeting we have had about our companionship. He talked to us both individually about what we can do and how we can solve this. He has said that he loves us too much to split us though. 

(Added by Alayna:  This is the hardest email I've ever read! It didn't come in until late because of the power outage, so we didn't get a chance to encourage him or anything.  I also wanted SO BADLY to fix it.  It is so hard to trust the process and leave things in the mission president and the Lord's hands!  I knew how much fire Frasier had when he left and how hard he wanted to work.  So, I can't imagine how frustrating this has been for him.  He left his home, family, friends, language, familiar food, entertainment, running etc. behind and was SO EXCITED!  Then to have such a hard first go at things, was frustrating for EVERYONE (me included)!  But I also know that this experience is what will refine him and make him a more patient, loving, gentle person and a better missionary and man!  Anyway, last week was ROUGH!  We said lots of prayers for Frasier AND his companion.  Frasier didn't want any blog readers to get the wrong impression about him or about his companion.  His companion is a good kid, a convert without family members who are members, and he is figuring out being a member and a missionary too.)

The rest of Saturday we went out teaching and it was normal. 

Sunday Elder Uy was really sick with asthma or something. He went to get some medicine and then came back, but that didn't really help. He was asleep almost all day. But his companion needed to go to church so that they could account for all the investigators that went to church, and so did someone from my companionship. Because I still don't know what I'm doing I got selected as the one to stay home. It was nice though because I just spent all day watching different church videos that we have. The other elders went out teaching, to church, and then teaching some more and I just got to sit home all day. 

All in all, I didn't do a ton of stuff these past few days.  I'm still trying to get the hang of everything and not get too down on myself, as well as deal with my companion. Keep me in your prayers.

I don't know if you can tell by the tone of this email, but I'm a little bit stressed right now. Sorry. Next week will be better.

Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

The Hay is in the Barn

(Added by Alayna:  Letter from 11/13/17)

Another week down. It is crazy how fast time flies by. It seems like I am sitting in this internet shop every other day. That is good and bad. It means that I will be home eventually with how fast time goes by, but it also means that my mission will eventually come to an end. The main reason that stresses me out is that I feel like I haven't done much yet. I can't speak, I don't know how to teach, and as I have come to find out I don't truly know what I am teaching either. Lets just put it this way, If I came home right now I wouldn't really be satisfied. Luckily I've still got 20 months to fix that.

I am lucky because I am in the apartment with the assistants, so I get to meet lots of missionaries because the assistants go on splits with lots of people. In the past week, I got to meet some of the missionaries that were going home. It was cool to meet them and talk with them. They were so excited to go home, but also really sad because they love their mission so much. I'm sure it will be a mix of feelings if I ever actually get to that point. haha. 

I also asked them what they wished they had learned, or what some of their advice was for me being a new missionary. One of them said master chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel, and love my companion (oh the irony). The other one said to look for something good in every day. Even if it is the worst day ever. They said that it feels like they just got to the mission a few days ago, so it is not worth wasting time when you don't have very much to start with.

I also got to meet some elders who were training the new batch of missionaries coming in. Both of them are relatively new missionaries, so I didn't get too much advice from them, but I learned a lot all the same. One of the new trainers has only been on his mission 6 weeks longer than me, and he is already training. The assistants said that they knew that this elder was an all-star missionary from the minute they met him. They said they could tell that he was prepared before he came on his mission.

That ended up with me and Elder Temple (one of the assistants) having a conversation about what it is like to be truly prepared for a mission. It was kind of useless for us because "the hay is already in the barn" -Bowerman. Meaning, we are already on our missions, so we can't do anything now about how we prepared beforehand, but I can give some advice on how others should prepare.

A mission is kind of like an Ironman. You know what is coming, but there is only so much you can do to prepare, and then it is always going to be different than what you expected. Here is what I have come up with so far:  

Anyone preparing for a mission should become at least a little familiar with the Preach My Gospel book. Not an expert, you will have plenty of time to be an expert over your whole mission, but at least become familiar with it. Every chapter and every page and every scripture within it is important. Even the chapters that you don't think matter, those probably matter the most. Some elders say chapter 3 is the most important, some say it is 2, or 4, or 5, or 7, or 8, or...you get the point. Even if you don't learn a language, the language chapter has some really important points in it. You need to know in your heart what you are teaching, and know it is true, and then you can tell it to other people. That goes across the board, no matter what language. 

You need to have a testimony of every single doctrine and every single point. If you don't, you're just telling people words with nothing to back it up. Most of the time the spirit isn't backing you up either. So try to gain a testimony of everything you can. Start broad with the Book of Mormon or the Plan of Salvation. Then, once you get to the MTC start working on the little things.

Another one is set goals. Set one that is important. Lots of people have dreams. Lots of people have really strong desires, but that doesn't mean it is a goal. For it to be a goal, you have to have a dream, and then actually create a plan to accomplish that dream. Without a plan you really have nothing. That goes for life in general just as much as it applies to missionary work. Learn how to make goals and plans for those goals. Along with that though, you have to act on those plans. If you create a plan, but then don't act on the plan you have created. You might as well have nothing. You need a goal, a plan, and then to act.

Another thing is just learn how to study. That will help in life, in school, as well as a mission. Learn what works best for you. Studying the scriptures, and then if you are lucky enough to learn a language, it will help you in learning a language. Not much to say there, but if you can learn how to study, it'll save you a lot of time trying to figure stuff out on your mission.

Last, if you master chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel you won't have any problem with this one, but you need to learn to get along with people. Do everything you can and then a little bit more to love the people you don't like. Just be humble, and love everybody. I think this goes for life just as much as on a mission. You are always going to have people that you don't exactly like, and even the people you do like you still get in confrontations with sometimes. Just figure out what you can do to love everyone. It's definitely not easy, but it makes life a lot better. If you master the characters of Christ you will have a lot of benefits in your life, but if you master the pinakamahalaga characteristic, you will love and get along with everyone. Remember "CHARity is the true CHARacter of CHRist" -Elder Williamson

(Addedby Alayna: pinika mahalaga translation is "most important".)

That's about all I've got for now on preparing for a mission. It would be nice if there was some sort of secret formula or specific something to do to become a prepared missionary, but it's not that easy. You just have to do what you can, know that you're not prepared in the slightest, and figure it out as you go along.

Update on my companionship:

It has definitely not been easy, but I am learning a lot. You can learn a lot of lessons about yourself and just lessons in general when you spend time with someone you don't see eye to eye with. Elder Idorot and I are just so different it makes it hard sometimes. We are still together, so if that tells you anything about how things are going.

We ended up having a meeting with our kabahays (the assistants) because they are more or less sick of not having the spirit in our home. It was a really good discussion. We talked, made goals, and made plans about how to solve the problems between our companionship. Hopefully this time it does the trick! I totally understand where they are coming from though. The house just isn't the same when there is contention. Even though nothing is being said, and we are all laughing or having a good time, it's still just not the same. What I learned from today, as hard as it is to admit, I need to be less prideful. I feel like I have been trying to do my part to make my companionship work, but obviously not enough, and you hardly ever realize when you are being prideful. That's one of the problems with it.

This is how much President Hiatt loves us. Throughout all the times we have met and talked with him or others about our companionship, he will not split us. He cares about both of us too much to let us give up. It's totally understandable also. How could either of us justify any hard companionship or even marriage we will have in the future if we give up on each other right now. Don't get me wrong the thought has crossed my mind a few times about how it would be nicer if I had a different companion, but the blessings and things I am learning right now are so important and I wouldn't get them any other way.

I'm trying to work with Elder Idorot on his work effort. He's not the hardest worker. We do good work throughout the day. It could be better, but it's good. The problem is that he doesn't like to keep going when things get hard, or to do hard things. When he realized our companionship wasn't going to be ideal, he kind of gave up on a few things. He also doesn't want to set high goals or try and be better. He's content with where he's at right now. I actually shared this quote with him: "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice a gift." -Steve Prefontaine 

There are some things I need to work on myself, but I'm trying to help my companion with some things as well. Don't get me wrong though, I still love him and care about him a lot.

Update on the teaching:

Things are going good. We have one investigator who is really awesome. He started investigating because his girlfriend was investigating (now baptized). That was why he started taking the lessons and you could tell that at first. But now he has become really interested. He has come to church every week since General Conference, he reads the Book of Mormon, reads all the assignments we give him, texts us thank you after lessons, and then also asks us when we will be coming back. He also referred his cousin to us and we are now teaching her as well. In the past week, he has asked us about temples and how he can go in one, and he has also asked about missionary work. His baptism is still a little ways away. But I have faith he is going to be baptized next month.

Brother Abad is going good also! We leave him assignments in the Book of Mormon and when we come back he will have them all marked and circled which is awesome. One time we went back to him and he actually had the scripture we left him memorized. He was teaching us more about the scripture than we taught him. It's pretty awesome!

Other than that it's kind of been normal work I guess. "I think that's all I have to say about that" - Forest Gump

There is so much to say though. If I tried to fit it all into one email I think I would break the internet. I'll just have lots of emails for you. And tons of stuff to talk about when I get home.

I'll end with this. Elder Bowen told all us missionaries the parts of a testimony.

1. You know God is our loving Heavenly Father

2. Jesus is the Only Begotten Son

3. Joseph Smith was a true prophet

4. The Book of Mormon is true

5. There is a living prophet on the earth today

Everything else is just stories.

I'll try my best. I still don't have a perfect testimony or a perfect knowledge on many of these things. But if you piece it all together with the things you do know; it all fits.

I know God is our loving Heavenly Father. Sometimes it may not seem like it or it seems like he's not even there, but everything happens for a reason and everything we have is because he loves us more than we will ever know.

I believe Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten. You would have to be perfect to do what He had to do during His life on earth. I don't know how He did most of what He did. But I truly believe in Him.

Joesph Smith is a true prophet. He would not have gone through what he went through if he wasn't doing it for the right reasons. He was called of God to accomplish a job here on earth.  (There is a great Elder Holland talk about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith on that topic.)

I know the Book of Mormon is true. It is hard to see sometimes, but if you piece together all the true things and good feelings that come from Ang Aklat ni Mormon, there is no way it is not true.

There is a true prophet on the earth today. He is guided by God and holds all the keys needed here on earth.

These are all hard to understand until you try and connect all the pieces, draw the lines, and do your best to figure it out. I'm not perfect at knowing that stuff by any means, but you have to start somewhere.

Sorry for no pictures, I need to be better about taking more, and then also about sending them.

(Added by Alayna: Luckily for us, Frasier's investigator found us on Facebook and then sent us some pictures! <3)

I love all of you and miss you more than you know!

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Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

Hey Joe! (Everyone Here Calls White People Joe, No Matter What)

(Frasier's email from 11/5/17)

This week has been really good. My companionship has been great this week. Nothing has necessarily changed about either of us, but I did actual service for my companion this week and I think that changed both of our attitudes just enough to make things work. Before I had been doing little things like cooking him rice and making sure his bed was made, but that didn't really take any effort. True service (at least in this case) is when you do something that is noticeable and meaningful. Like I said, nothing necessarily changed about either of us. That means that there is still stuff we need to work on, but we are on the right track which is good. 

Hopefully my email last week didn't scare anybody. Missions are great, but there are some heavy truths that don't get talked about very much. May buhay ko which is good! (Added by Alayna; Translation: I am alive!) 

Another reason that my email was a little bit heavy last week was because I was kind of stressed out with some things and I think that influenced how I was writing my email. I got a lot of compliments about my email so that is a good thing I guess. 

He is my struggle for the week. Like I've said, I've been thinking about family, friends, and home a lot. I can't imagine any missionary who doesn't think about that stuff at the beginning of their mission. It's good to still love home and where you came from, but our calling as missionaries is to be 100 percent dedicated to the work. I said a prayer earlier this past week to help me get my heart and mind in the right place. I don't know what God's plan is, but it definitely isn't what I was thinking of. That night and most of the nights since, my dreams have all been about family and home. One I was walking down the street here in the Philippines and saw my family, so I ran over and gave them a hug and talked to them. That kind of stunk just because it made me think about home even more. 

I decided to use reverse psychology and look at all the pictures and letters I have from home one night, needless to say, that didn't work. So the last thing I can think of is if all of you back home can just stop thinking about me at all that will be great! (joking)

Here are some of the things that have happened this past week:

On Wednesday we had a "5 weeks" review. I think technically it is supposed to be a 4 weeks review, but because of other meetings and stuff it got pushed back a week. That was cool because my whole batch of missionaries got to be together for a little bit. Most of us haven't seen each other this whole time we have been here. It was cool to all get together and discuss how things are going. I think all of us have been shocked and at one point or another had the thought "what are we doing here?". 

As far as I know, everyone is doing good though. Some can speak better than others, some can teach better than others, some are still the exact same as last time I saw them. As long as we are doing what we are supposed to it will all turn out ok though. In that meeting President Hiatt kind of pounded us a little bit. He is very concerned about "exact obedience" in the mission and because our batch is so big (24) we are kind of the future of the mission. Because of that we sat through that whole meeting more or less getting chastised. 

I have been around President enough to know he loves us, but for some of the Elders and Sisters this is only the second time they have ever met him in person. He used the analogy of a tree being blown in the wind when it is brand new. (I think it is a Gordon B. Hinkley talk.) He said that all of us new missionaries are like the brand new trees where the wind and influences can bend us until we grow enough that we can change our ways. All we need right now if a little string to hold us the right way and we can grow into straight big trees. If anything, I feel like I am a tree in a hurricane right now. I'm not sure what is quite going on, but it is all good. I'm figuring stuff out. 

We contacted a guy one night. He was just sitting on the curb so we started talking to him. He was really nice. He was joking with us and having a good time. He, of course, said that we could come back and visit with him some time (everyone here says that). When we were saying goodbye he got up and bought us a snack from a little tindahan right by where we were at. He bought us a drink and a snack. That was especially cool just because we had never met him before and he was kind enough to buy us stuff. He also said that he was a shoe repairman and offered to repair our shoes. We taught him a few days ago and he seems really interested so we will see what happens. I really see potential in this brother. (A tindahan is just a little store that people build onto their houses that has little snacks and necessities.)

We stopped at a member's house one night to say Hi and get referrals. We were talking to them for just a minute and it was about time for us to start heading back to our appartment to make dinner and go to bed. Before we knew it, the mother of the household had made a buch of food for us. She fried some fish and made some guly for us. She was a cook so it was really good food. They made us eat before we left (which we were more than willing to accept)! 

We have another member that literally almost every time we walk past their house they give us food from their tindahan. Another member gave us a whole bushel of bananas as we were returning to our apartment. All the people here are so nice it is sometimes hard to believe. Hopefully I can take a page out of their book by the time I return home.

The weather has been nice, but at the same time, it has not. It has literally rained every day since last Monday. It usually doesn't rain too hard when we are actually walking outside, but in the mornings and sometimes when we are teaching it is just dumping buckets. The benefit to the rain is that it cools it down enough that you aren't sweating all the time. It is still not cold by any means, but my long sleeve white shirt was at least bearable to wear yesterday at church. 

I got this sweet Book of Mormon that I ordered from the Manilla MTC. This brother hand carves clay covers of whatever you want. I will send pictures next week of it, but it is sweet. It has Jesus coming to the Americas on the front, my name on the spine, and then the Manilla temple on the back. I also ordered it in Tagalog which gives me even more incentive to learn how to speak Tagalog by the end of my time here. 

There isn't too much to report as far as teaching goes. We decided to clean out our teaching pool a little bit. We dropped some people and re-commited some to baptisms and all that good stuff. The closest baptism we have is Dec. 2.  Hopefully that one comes through. It is the brother I was telling you a little bit about in my last email. He reads the Book of Mormon and marks different verses he likes which is good. He reads all the scripture references that are in the pamphlets we give him. 

There are a lot of responsibilities we have as missionaries. First of all, it is crazy to think that missions even work. We were talking about it a few days ago. There are four 21-19 year-olds living in a house by themselves, 2 of which are in a foreign country.  We are in charge of buying our own food and supporting ourselves, we have total freedom of what to do throughout the day (even though we are told what we are supposed to do). Given all of that we somehow still keep on going. I don't know about the other missionaries throughout the world, but I still feel like a kid. I don't feel like I should be doing all of this on my own, but somehow it all works out. 

Along with all the responsibilities topic. We have so much that we are supposed to do that it is pretty much impossible to do everything we are supposed to do. Contacting, teaching, keeping our line in the water, finding all our referrals, exact obedience to all the rules, being on time with the schedule, not worrying about home too much, having our heart in the mission, learning the language, getting along with our companion, properly planning and setting goals, following through with those plans and goals, loving the people, breathing, etc. Its pretty much impossible. 

My greatest goal in the mission is still to become a consecrated missionary and I feel like I am as far from that as ever. Especially seeing and hearing about some of the other people that have been in this mission (past/present). I just have to take it one day at a time and hope for the best. I can only do as much as I can do with the Lord's help. Hopefully, that is enough to sit at the end of my mission and be satisfied with what I have done. 

If anyone has any tips or tricks on how to learn a language that would be greatly appreciated. It is definitely not easy. 

Question of the day: How in the world did English become the dominate world language? It is so hard/weird explaining a lot of the English things to my companion or other elders. Just take a second and think about some of the things you say and what they actually mean if you think about it literally. 

I love you all so much. If feels like time is going by so fast, but also so slow. I still have a long time before I get to see any of you again, but if also is crazy that it has already been 3 months. The only bummer about that is I feel like I haven't done very much, and I still can't speak Tagalog worth anything. 

Love you! Miss you! Ingat po!

--

Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

A Mission Isn't For You

(Here is Frasier's email from 10/29/17)

This email might be a little bit more serious than some of my other ones, but I would just like to preface with the fact that everything is still going good. I'm still alive.

If anybody ever says a mission isn't for them, they are right. If they ever say a mission is for them, they are wrong. A mission is not for you in several ways. First of all, I don't know if anyone would really want to drop everything, have very limited contact with family, work all day long, and have limited money supply. If you would prefer that you have something wrong with you and probably need to get that checked by a professional. It also is not for you because it is for everyone that you are out serving and talking to. You need to lose yourself in the work. Losing yourself means not being able to find yourself because it is hidden by all the other people's lives you are involved with. If you say that a mission is for you, your priorities are mixed up. 

Granted the missionary gets just as many if not more blessings than the people they are serving, but that's not what it is about. A missionary should always be focused on others. Be serving people because you want them to have the blessings of your service, not because God will bless you when you serve. President Hiatt said, "We need to remember who we are working for." Sometimes we lose track of who we are working for. We have a tough employer. He demands a lot from us, but to show our love for Him, we do it. When we want blessings for ourselves, feel lazy, don't do all that we can, get angry, frustrated, impatient, or anything else, we are forgetting who we work for. It is a tough job, but we are all promised a bonus at the end.

This has been kind of a tough week in a lot of ways. First of all, I've heard about a lot of things that are going on at home. Lots of little children soon to be running around. Congrats to all (even though Whitney let me down just a little by having a girl). Missing football is kind of hard honestly. Not being able to be home and comfort family and friends through trials is hard. Finding out Brother Gibbs Smith passed away kinda sucks as well. Much love to the Smiths. Also knowing that life goes on without me is kind of weird. 

I also broke my umbrella, got completely soaked, almost had an ingrown toenail (but I did self-surgery to fix it because heaven forbid I got to a Filipino hospital, and ingrown toenails just suck) and had little money to spend on food, still haven't used toilet paper, I've had to accept the fact that I actually want to have rice for meals, and my relationship with my companion could be better.

Companionship: I knew it would be hard coming to a different country with a different language and a different culture, but it is not what I expected. We struggle to see eye to eye sometimes. Remember that this is from my perspective, and I'm sure his story is different. I have honestly never said anything to intentionally be rude to him. There have been times where I have been serious or straightforward, but they have all been because I want to be the most effective missionaries we can be. He comes from a different background, but he doesn't like how I communicate with him. When I ask questions it bugs him. He has said I ask too many questions. When I try to suggest that there might be a better plan about how to do something, he doesn't understand what I am trying to tell him, and we end up doing what he wanted to do anyway. When we try to review lessons and I suggest that we could have done something better, he takes it in the way of he did something wrong which are not my intentions at all. He also doesn't understand social cues at all. So when I do or say something that I think means something, he doesn't get it or understand at all. That gets a little frustrating. When he gets bugged or frustrated, his "defense mechanism" is to just shut down and not talk to me, or acknowledge that I am there. That doesn't make things any easier. On the scale of fight or flight, he is very far on the flight side, and I am very far on the fight side. 

We have ended up meeting with President Hiatt a couple of times, and I have come to the conclusion that President Hiatt is not going to split us unless someone starts throwing fists, and I don't plan on doing that. Also, I don't really want to split either. I am going to do everything I can to work out our difference. I love and respect him even though we don't see eye to eye. I just want to be the best missionary I can be for these next two years, and I want him to be the best as well. We are yoked together, so we have to find a balance. I am trying everything I can do to be patient, loving, and caring. I always apologize and try to be better. I just hope that someday he can have the same love and respect for me that I have for him.

I realized one instance where we should try and leave a lesson as soon as possible this past week. We went to this referral house. He was outside fixing up his motorcycle, so he went inside to get on a shirt and wash up. He was very kind and seemed like a cool guy. He comes out with his Bible (1st cue we should have got out of there), he starts talking to us and seemed very interested. He asked if we had any training. We told him no, all we do is learn the language and the basics, but we are taught in all the doctrine. As we start trying to teach him he says that he feels like the Bible is correct, true, and he doesn't need anything else (2nd reason we should have left), we start trying to explain the Book of Mormon to him, and he was trying to make us give him hard proof about everything we were saying, but the proof had to come from the bible (3rd cue). Then he started reading us scriptures out of the Bible (4th cue). 

It went from good to bad to worse real quick. He then started going off on us about how he is interested, willing to learn and be corrected, but said that we needed to be willing to do the same if we were to ever come back. He told us that we had none of those qualities and that we caused it to not be a healthy conversation, when in fact it was him that was causing everything to be bad, he was totally being hypocritical to the greatest extent. I finally lost it after being so kind to him for so long. "Do you know what a hypocrite is? If you are going to tell us all these things about a healthy conversation and willing to listen, you have to do the same. You tell us all these things, but it goes both ways. You told us that you believe in the Bible and believe in God, but how do you know that?   You don't have any hard evidence that either is true or real, so how do you expect us to be any different. You will know our message is true if you are humble and willing to listen, but you haven't been, so there is no way you are going to feel our message is true." 

He then started trying to defend himself, we said a prayer, gave him our number if he ever wants us to come back, and then we left. I immediately regretted how I acted. I've repented and realized that I did not represent the person whose name I have on my chest. My companion was not very happy with me though. He thought that that guy was a "Golden Investigator". We got into a disagreement. I told him that I was not going to allow us to go and teach another lesson without solving our problems. We could either go back to the apartment or go to the president's office, it was his choice. He chose president's office. It was all around a bad morning. We got over it pretty quick and the president gave us some scriptures to handle that situation next time.

There was a baptism on Saturday, so we invited a bunch of our progressing investigators to come to it. Sadly none of them did. One was coming but was late because the baptism got moved forward. He missed the baptism, but my companion and I gave him a church tour along with the assistants. We were discerning to him and his wife all the paintings and the purpose of different rooms and whatnot. This brother was actually one of the investigators that we went and taught with President Hiatt and Elder Schmutz a few weeks ago. I texted President Hiatt just to let him know what was going on, and within a few minutes, he and his wife were with us taking the church tour with our investigator. (The mission home is on the same compound as the church.) That was really cool to have them with us. At the end, we went into the sacrament hall and said a prayer, and by the end of the prayer both of the Abads (our investigators) were crying, so I guess that is a good thing. Ha ha 

They also came to all of church the next day with their little kids. The kids went to primary and everything. It was awesome! Especially because Brother Abad's foot is all messed up. He got in an accident and broke his foot a while back and had a cast on it for 5 months. He got the cast of this past week and showed us his foot. All the flesh on his foot is dead and it is just nasty. Sister Hiatt saw it and had to walk away cause she almost threw up. Anyway, he can hardly move or get around, so it makes it even more special that he made the church trip twice!

Everything is going good here. It's not easy but it's good. I miss all of you who might be reading this. Odds are that if you are thinking of me, I've been thinking of you, so shoot me an email or a prayer or something.

Question of the day: Why does the heart of the banana not look anything like a banana?

Ingat po

(Added by Alayna: 1) I didn't even know there was a heart of the banana.  I had to Google it!  And, he's right, it doesn't look like a banana!  2) Ingat Po translation is: Be Safe)

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Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!